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There are some classics on offer in today’s Kindle deals.
(Yesterday on the blog: Grace for Sinners to Love Like Saints)
Like & Subscribe for a Chance at Eternal Life
This is a deep and fascinating reflection on living in a social media world.
Seven Principles for Cultivating a Christian Posture toward the World
Kevin DeYoung: “Tim Keller recently tweeted about abortion and politics, then James Wood wrote a piece for First Things respectfully critiquing Keller’s approach to politics and cultural engagement, which prompted David French to defend Keller and critique Wood. By now, someone has probably offered an article criticizing them all. Rather than responding to the specific arguments in particular, I’d like to zoom out and ask a broader question: What should the Christian’s posture be to a hostile world?”
This Treasure
Kristin is writing about treasure and sin.
Why You Should Name and Feel Even Negative Emotions
“What if there’s goodness in every emotion—even in the ones we don’t like so much?” Lara d’Entremont asks the question for Core Christianity.
Baking Cookies While the World Burns
What should we do as the world burns around us? Bake cookies, for one…
The Important Role of the Tormented Soul in Missions
“As we are about to return to the States, I find myself returning with a great heaviness of soul. Why is this? It is because of the sickness? The hunger? The dangers that were faced on the field? The tireless work? No, none of the above. Like the quote above says, it is because of all the brokenness I have witnessed these last few years that remain…broken.”
Flashback: When Sin Looks Delicious
Do you ever have those days where you just want to sin? Sin looks delicious while righteousness looks distasteful. Sin looks satisfying and holiness looks frustrating…What do you do on a day like that?

Afflictions are but as a dark entry into our Father’s house. —Thomas Brooks

May the God of love and peace be with you today.

(Yesterday on the blog: Helpful Things You Can Say to Grieving Parents)
Do We Really Want Everything That Technology Can Give Us?
Gene Veith asks, “Do we want technology that overrides our agency as human beings? That babysits us? That keeps us in line? My sense is that we want technology that extends what we can do. Not technology that imposes itself upon us, or that creates conditions that we have to submit to, or that goes against the grain of our humanness.”
WHAT-A-WING!
Here’s a neat new video from the John 10:10 Project.
Eikon Fall 2021
CBMW has released a new edition of their journal Eikon. There are lots of good articles and reviews to read.
Does Mathematics = Western Imperialism?
Here, from Nancy Pearcy, is one of those articles from Eikon. She looks at the charge that math is a form of Western imperialism.
Practicing
Just on time for Thanksgiving, Susan Lafferty reflects on gratitude. (See also Thankfulness Is God’s Will for You by Jonathan Landry Cruse.)
It’s Too Loud in Here
“Is it just my elderly thirtysomething ears, or is popular music significantly louder than it used to be? Even coffee shop music seems able to drown our my thinking nowadays, much less the thunderous synth beats that assault me while shopping or eating. Movie soundtracks feel turned up to 100. And it’s not just music. People seem louder than before.” Quite right!
Flashback: A Simple But Life-Changing Realization
You may not see your sin so completely and utterly vanquished that it never raises its ugly head again. But you can see massive, unbelievable success against that sin.

When you do relationships through the love of God, you learn over and over again that love has a lot less to do with feelings and a lot more to do with forgiveness. —Jared C. Wilson

There is something deep inside a man’s heart that longs to be heroic. I don’t know what little girls dream of, but I do know that little boys dream of carrying those girls out of a burning schoolhouse so they can be admired as strong and brave. Teenaged boys dream of fighting in a war not so much to blaze away at the enemy as to perform an act of heroism that will mark them as tough and noble and worthy of honor. Though older men may no longer be prone to such fantasies, they, too, are drawn to heroism and are convinced that they would be equal to the challenge, that they would stand where others fall, that they would run forward when others run back.
The reality, though, is that few men will ever commit the kind of acts they have so often pictured in their dreams. Few men will ever find themselves facing grave peril and impossible odds to emerge victorious and heroic. Few men will ever live the kind of lives that will even afford them the opportunity. Yet many men choose to sit idly by, wishing they would encounter the field of battle or the place of challenge so they could finally prove themselves.
To such men I have two things to say. First, I urge patience and second, I urge action.
Patience
First, I urge patience. If you wait and allow life to unfold, you will eventually come to an opportunity to prove your character. At some point, a great challenge, a great sorrow, or a grievous loss will come to you and you will need to decide how to respond.
I know many heroes who have never dashed into a burning building or tackled an armed man. One man’s heroism was shown when his child became terribly and mysteriously ill and he led his family prayerfully and faithfully as together they passed through their darkest valley. Do we not regard it as heroic to lead through the darkness when the enemy lurks on every side? This man led his most precious people through their most difficult hour. That’s heroism.
Sometimes the truest hero is the one who learns to braid a little girl’s hair.Share
For another man, it was shown when his wife fell ill and he was more attentive to her than any doctor or any nurse. He fed her, he bathed her, he clothed her, he loved her. It was shown again when his wife finally succumbed to that illness and he had to take on all the roles she had left behind. Sometimes the truest hero is the one who learns to braid a little girl’s hair.
For still another man it was shown when he himself fell ill and he determined he would live out his final days as a trailblazer. He would set an example before his wife, children, and friends of how to live out the final days well, of how to approach death bravely and victoriously. And in so doing, he left behind an inspirational legacy that has caused them to honor him all the more. He is a hero to each one of them.
So first I urge you to be patient, for the time will come when you will be called to display heroism of that kind.
Action
Second, I urge you to take action now. I urge you to behave heroically in front of the people who most need you to help them and bless them. Rather than waiting and pining for an opportunity to display your heroism on a world stage, be willing and eager to display it on a small stage. Be heroic before your wife. Be heroic before your children. Be heroic before the few people God has called you to serve.
Your wife doesn’t care if you never have a medal to pin to your chest or a plaque to fix to your wall. But she does care deeply about how you live before her today. She cares deeply about whether you are living before her in a way that expresses love and care, whether you are leading her as a servant, whether you are growing in godliness and grace, and whether you are becoming more and more like Jesus Christ.
Your children don’t care if your name is never present in the headlines, but they do care whether you are present in their lives. It concerns them a great deal whether you are active or uninvolved, whether you treat them as a joy or a burden, a mere responsibility or a tremendous privilege. Any dad can be a hero to his children when he relates to them as God calls him to—with love and joy, with tenderness and servant-heartedness. Why care whether you are loved and lauded by others when you are loved and respected by them?
If you come to the end of your days and your wife says that you loved her well and that you led your little family with grace, you have the highest commendation you can receive on this side of the grave. If your children honor you as a faithful father, if they acknowledge that you blazed the way through the darkest of valleys, you have been as heroic as any man is called to be. There may be no crowds to cheer you, but I’m sure the hosts of heaven stand and applaud. There may be no medal for bravery, but I’m certain there will be reward in heaven. For you have been heroic in the most important field of life.