May the Lord bless and keep you today.

There are a few more Kindle deals to browse through today.
Will My Son Go to Heaven? Infancy, Disability, and Sovereign Grace
That all those who die in infancy or with a severe cognitive disability go to heaven is by far the majority position among Christians, and in this article John Knight defends that position. (The next most common position is that the Bible simply doesn’t make it clear, so we should put our confidence in the goodness and wisdom of God.)
Things Are Real Even if We Don’t Share Them
“I’ve heard many jokes in the last few years that go something like, ‘If you didn’t post it on social media, did it really happen?’ These jokes are meant to be just that, jokes, but as I spend more time studying social media and our relationship with it, the more I realize that this is not a joke for many who truly experience a sense of derealization if they do not share experiences on social media and receive some kind of attention and feedback in the form of social media engagement.”
Social Media: A Downgrade of Culture
And, on a related note, “If high culture is like a gourmet meal, folk culture like a homecooked dinner, and pop culture is like junk food, what is social media?”
Vibrant Colors
“Decisions, decisions. In uncertain times too. These are grown up burdens common to life: the burying of loved ones, the management of a home, the raising of children–but they can quickly overwhelm us and mask themselves bigger than they really are.” What do we need to do or to consider if we are to thrive in such difficulties?
Farewell, Sweet Easter Lily
This is a sweet but sad one.
The Main Reason Your Ministry Matters
Here’s a word about why your ministry matters—whatever that ministry is.
Flashback: Rule #7: Fellowship with Godly People (8 Rules for Growing in Godliness)
An ember left alone will soon grow cold, but embers set close together will continue to glow, to burn brightly, and even to set others ablaze. Christians resemble embers, for we, too, must be set close together to thrive.

God’s way is sometimes different from man’s way, but it is always the best way. —De Witt Talmage

Euthanasia makes a lot of sense. At least in our culture at this time, it makes intuitive sense that those who are ill without hope for a cure or those who are in pain without likelihood of relief ought to be able to choose to end their own lives. Our culture assumes there are few higher virtues than autonomy and that an individual’s right to self-government should extend even to matters of life and death. Hence we see the rising acceptance and legalization of euthanasia throughout the West, though it comes in the form of several variations and euphemisms—physician-assisted death, physician assisted-suicide, medical assistance in dying (MAiD), and so on.
Christians, of course, have grave concerns with euthanasia. While we sympathize deeply with those who are ill without hope for a cure and those who are in pain without likelihood of relief, we do not believe that humans have the right to take life—even if that life is their own. It is God alone who has the right to number our days, God alone who has jurisdiction over life and death.

How Should We Then Die

Because euthanasia is on the rise—and an especially precipitous rise here in Canada—we need distinctly Christian responses to it. Ewan Goligher has provided an excellent one in How Should We Then Die?: A Christian Response to Physician-Assisted Suicide. Goligher is an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Toronto and a physician who practices critical-care medicine, specializing in mechanical ventilation. He is, in other words, a man who faces issues of death on a daily basis.

Should doctors help patients end their own life? Is it right and good to cause death (to kill) out of mercy for suffering? Over the last decades, Western society has seen a marked rise in interest and support for the idea that doctors should be allowed (even expected) to facilitate suicide or cause death for their patients under certain conditions. This shift in social values, together with an aging population, means that all of us, whether or not we work in healthcare, will be forced to face this question. Every one of us will eventually face illness, suffering, and death at some point, and we will have to decide whether we would consider seeking and obtaining assistance from a doctor to end our life.

His book is written to help Christians think well about this question. In other words, his book is written to help Christians think distinctly Christianly about whether doctors should help patients end their lives.
He begins by explaining why physician-assisted death has become such a prominent issue and one that is so widely accepted. Having done that, he carefully shows how advocates of euthanasia diminish the intrinsic and innate value of human beings by insisting there are situations in which it is better for people to cease to exist than to continue to exist. “When we say that people matter, we are also saying that it is good that they exist. If people have intrinsic value, then it is always good that they exist. And if we insist that they really matter—that they have deep intrinsic, inherent value—then the cessation of their existence (their death) must always be regarded as a terrible tragedy.” He shows that the acceptance of physician-assisted death depends on a completely different understanding of human life and human worth than any the West has known.
He also shows how euthanasia is an act of secular faith. Euthanasia tends to be offered or accepted where there is the belief that remaining alive is a fate worse than death, and that death is nothing but the absence of life. These claims are said to be grounded in science, yet science cannot prove them, for what comes beyond death is beyond science’s jurisdiction. Hence, lives are ended with faith—secular faith—that what comes beyond death is better than what precedes it. Science may insist that humans have no souls, that we are material and nothing more. But it cannot prove this and therefore cannot prove that souls do not remain when bodies die—a possibility that has terrifying consequences for those whose souls are not prepared for what comes next.
As the book heads toward its close, Goligher addresses the despair of being critically ill and provides a Christian response to it, for he says that Christians “must have something better to offer than death.” And what we can offer is meaning—the kind of meaning that says suffering is not purposeless and not hopeless, but rather a means through which God works his inscrutable will. It is through faith in God that we can pass through suffering with endurance and even with joy. It is through faith that we can escape the despair that so often leads to the conviction that it would be better to just end it all.
For those of us who live in the West, and perhaps especially for those of us who live in Canada (which is leading the charge when it comes to euthanasia), it is becoming increasingly common to know people who have opted to end their own lives. It is also increasingly common for pastors to have to counsel their elderly parishioners away from it and for children to have to plead with their elderly parents not to opt for it. It is widespread and becoming more common, it is accepted and becoming more acceptable. As Christians, we need to be prepared and we need to be able to offer a response. How Should We Then Die? does exactly that and does it well. It prepares and equips us for what is sure to prove one of the defining issues of our time.

An election year is upon us and with it all the debate, suspicion, and rancor that is sure to accompany the culmination of another four-year cycle. Though the election is still months away, I’m already dreading the inevitable interpersonal struggles that will come with it and even the strains it may bring to the unity of my local church. What’s crazy is that we don’t even live in the country that will be holding the election. Yet because America is so close, so powerful, and so culturally dominant, its debates inevitably extend above the 49th parallel and across the world.

Love the Ones Who Drive You Crazy

My concern is less for the unity of my nation than the unity of my church. An election like this one, or an election like the one Canada will face in 2025, provide a context in which people can easily begin to distrust and antagonize one another. Of course, there are many other issues that can provoke trouble—pandemic regulations, educational decisions, not to mention age-old issues like the discipline of children or the consumption of alcohol. In so many ways Christians are challenged to maintain a strong unity despite deep differences.
But I wonder if we often think wrongly about the challenges to our unity, and especially our unity within the local church. In Love the Ones Who Drive You Crazy, Jamie Dunlop insists that our differences are not so much a bug within the local church, but a feature, and not so much a problem but an opportunity. “The differences and disagreements that threaten to tear your church apart are filled with potential to proclaim the glory of our good and gracious God.” That’s the burden of his book.
That’s the burden of his book and he defends his position well. Leaning heavily on the words of the Apostle Paul, he shows that God means for the unity we have in Christ despite our differences to be a primary means God uses to display his goodness and glory. This means that

the differences that threaten to tear your church apart are opportunities to demonstrate that being “in accord with Christ Jesus” is all we need to be in “harmony with one another.” That’s how “with one voice” we “glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” If your church is about Jesus and immigration reform, you rob him of glory. If your church is about Jesus and homeschooling, you rob him of glory. Just as God gets greater glory through redemption than through creation alone, the glory he receives in your church’s unity is greater in disagreement and difference than if everyone were in the same place to begin with.

This perspective changes so much about the way we relate to our fellow Christians. It means we must center our church on Christ alone so that instead of pursuing complete conformity, we learn to tolerate differences (in the classical definition of the word “tolerance”). While obviously there are boundaries to our unity—we would not tolerate differences in the core doctrines of the Christian faith—we are to see other differences as opportunities to display the glory of God by loving each other despite them, through them, and even because of them. “Too many of us have never really grappled with the implications of a church centered on Christ alone. We applaud diversity in our churches and pray for more diversity, never contemplating the cost and challenge that comes when God answers our prayer.”
Dunlop unfolds his perspective and his challenge across eight chapters, each of which provides a thematic examination of a different section of Romans. He shows that unity has a unique way of displaying the glory of God; that the kind of love we must extend toward others flows from the mercy God has shown to us; that disunity in the local church tells lies about Jesus; that divine justice empowers us to extend full forgiveness; that people we dislike often act in faith and our worthy of our love and friendship; and so on. “Jesus is creating a stunning picture of his glory in your church, and no matter your flaws and failings, he will succeed,” he insists. “Jesus is creating a stunning picture of his glory through the faith of those you struggle to love, and he will succeed. Jesus is creating a stunning picture of his glory through your faith-filled love, as imperfect as it may be. And he will succeed. This is the hope we have through faith in Christ.”
Whether we are facing a year of political turmoil, a year of pandemic regulations, a year of outright persecution, or even just a very normal year, this book provides crucial instruction and encouragement for every Christian. I would be hard-pressed to find a book that is more likely to benefit you and your church in the year ahead.