Happy new year, my friends! What a joy it is to know that today, right now, our God is reigning over all of earth and heaven. His purposes will prevail!

Today’s Kindle deals include some classics.
The New Year Starts: Making Plans?
Today I’ve got several articles about the beginning of a new year, beginning with Jim Elliff’s call for humility.
Plans for a New Year
Then Brian Najapfour calls us to a key text. “What are your plans for 2022? Perhaps you plan to get married, or continue your studies, or look for a different job, or buy a house, or travel abroad. Whatever your plans may be, I hope you will consider what God teaches in Proverbs 19:21…”
A Needed Disappointment for the New Year
And here’s one from Eliza Huie: “We are addicted to self-sufficiency. Without even realizing it we are all junkies for independence. The beginning of the new year is often a time when this becomes even more evident. It’s the time when we are bombarded with encouragement to reflect and resolve. The hope is that in the New Year we will reach a greater level of self-improvement or attain a lasting commitment to live better. The turning of a year seems to put us on a quest to become all that we wish we could be.”
Book Short: Truth for Life
I have been enjoying Alistair Begg’s new devotional Truth for Life and want to commend it to you once more. I believe it will prove a helpful, steady companion for the year ahead.
Ten (More) Questions for a New Year
Donald Whitney has ten (more) questions to consider at the outset of a new year.
Should or Can in 2022?
Finally, please do read and consider this call for graciousness from Ray Ortlund.
Flashback: Comforting Quotes for Those Who Are Suffering
We all go through difficult times in these difficult lives in this broken world, and a book like this one delivers comfort rooted in the Comforter.

When it comes to the issue of “race,” we should look to the Bible, rather than the culture, to guide how we think about it… If we are going to make any progress in these discussions, the Bible must have first and final say on this topic. —Shai Linne

For those called to ministry, Spurgeon College and Midwestern Seminary offer a dual-degree program that allows students to earn their Bachelor of Arts and Master’s degree (MDiv; MA, Biblical Counseling; or MA, Christian Education) in 5 years. Learn more about Accelerate here.

On the last day, we will be held accountable for how we have utilized the resources and gifts our Lord provides us—money, time, talents, relationships, and more. Disciples of Jesus are called by our Lord to leverage our resources and gifts with diligence, wisdom, and risk-taking faith in order to expand His kingdom and showcase His glory. As we do, we are spurred on by the hope of hearing our Master tell us on that last day, “Well done, good and faithful servant… Enter into the joy of your master” (Matt 25:21, ESV).
For those aspiring to church leadership, this call to accountability and stewardship should transform how we train for ministry. Many sensing a call toward church leadership recognize the value of a Bible college or seminary education. While aspiring leaders have many different options for theological education in front of them, there are certain principles that every aspiring leader should seek to live out during their season of theological training and formation. Here are four God-given resources that aspiring church leaders should focus on leveraging during their season of ministry training.
Leverage Your Mind
Speaking to a group of seminarians in 1911, Princeton theologian B. B. Warfield exhorted, “Say what you will, do what you will, the ministry is a ‘learned profession’; and the man without learning, no matter with what other gifts he may be endowed, is unfit for its duties.”[1] Amid all the opportunities and responsibilities that one’s season in Bible college or seminary may bring, it is vital that aspiring leaders remember their special vocation as a student. Bible college and seminary are special seasons to develop the habits, disciplines, instincts, and foundational convictions of a lifelong student of God’s Word. In a seminary setting, your hope is to learn an immense amount about God, His Word, and His people in a short amount of time. This is 3 to 5 years of training meant to equip you for the next 30 to 50 years of service. In that short period of time, you cannot learn everything you will need to know about souls and Scripture. But you can develop the foundational habits of study that will shape you for decades of service to God’s people.
Even as you study (and study… and study some more), it is important that you remember the ultimate goal of your study. Warfield warns against pitting your study against your devotional life: “Why should you turn from God when you turn to your books, or feel that you must [turn] from your books in order to turn to God? If learning and devotion are as antagonistic as that, then the intellectual life is in itself accursed and there can be no question of a religious life for a student, even of theology.” The truth is that what we don’t know about God, we cannot worship Him for. And the goal of theological training is not degrees, it is doxology. As aspiring ministry leaders leverage their minds, they must recognize that they do so not for human applause or any temporal gain, but so that they can know, delight in, and serve the God of their salvation.
Leverage Your Relationships
Aspiring ministry leaders should not only be concerned with what course of study they are committing themselves to, but also what type of community they are committing themselves to. Perhaps the most impactful aspect of residential study in particular is the number of deep relationships that students develop with fellow classmates and faculty members. It behooves those training for ministry to find a school and a program where fellow learners and mentors can become lifelong partners in ministry.
Leverage Your Time
The Apostle Paul exhorts believers in Ephesians 5:16 to make “the best use of the time, because the days are evil.” This is not a law-fueled burden to maximize every waking moment by the standards of modern “productivity” or “efficiency.” Instead, it is a call for believers to prayerfully and prudently use their one non-renewable resource. Aspiring leaders, then, should seek out theological training pathways that avoid redundancy and accelerate the attainment of key competencies in Biblical exegesis, theology, preaching/teaching, counseling, evangelism, and more.
Leverage Your Finances
Jesus’ words in Luke 14:28 are binding for those looking to commit to formal ministry training: “For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost, to see if he has enough to complete it?” Aspiring leaders should look to find affordable programs, and work to avoid large amounts of debt. As you leave your season of training and embark on a lifetime of ministry, financial freedom and well-formed habits of frugality will allow you to serve the church with greater effectiveness and joy.
Accelerate Your Ministry Training
Over the past years, I have had the privilege of watching these principles of stewardship play out in the lives of students as I have led the Accelerate program at Spurgeon College & Midwestern Seminary. Accelerate is a dual-degree program that allows students to earn both their bachelor’s and master’s degrees in just five years. These students—both on-campus in Kansas City and around the globe—have chosen a path of academic and spiritual formation that allows them to leverage their mind, relationships, time, and finances with wisdom and intentionality. Whatever path an aspiring ministry leader might pursue, the calling remains the same for everyone. Leverage everything that’s been given to you for the glory of God and the good of others! And do so with the hope of that last day in mind, when you will hear your Lord welcome you into an eternity of joy in His presence.
[1] B.B. Warfield, The Religious Life of Theological Students

Marriage brings us many joys. But since it exists in this world and not some other, it also brings its share of sorrows. It is like everything else in that way—there are times we marvel at its beauties and times we lament its difficulties. A divine gift that was meant to be only good is now attended with sore struggles and many griefs.
When Aileen and I were about to be married, we were told to ready ourselves to face those three most common sources of marital discord: money, sex, and in-laws. Yet as time has gone by and as our marriage has matured, I have learned there are foes far more insidious than these—foes that creep up on me in quiet moments and lurk around me on hard days, that are on my mind as I pray for my marriage and on my heart as I confess my shortcomings.
The greatest challenges to my marriage haven’t come from without but from within. The greatest discouragements haven’t stemmed from circumstances but from character. The greatest difficulties haven’t arisen from other people but from myself. I have learned that the greatest enemies of my marriage are the unholy trinity of me, myself, and I. When I consider my marriage with honesty and with whatever humility I can muster up, I have to admit that it’s me.
Sure, our relationships with our parents have been challenging from time to time, but not nearly as challenging as the reality that I have grown so much less than I would have thought, would have hoped, and have even intended. Money has often brought opportunities to bicker and disagree, but not nearly as many as my own gracelessness and short-temperedness. And sex—well, every married couple can attest that for all its pleasure and significance, sex also causes many struggles. But aren’t most of those struggles less about satisfaction than about sanctification, less about the longings of our bodies and more about the demands of our idols? All these external challenges simply prod the internal enemies that are always so ready to be provoked.
I wasn’t hopelessly naive going into marriage and never believed it would only ever be easy. But what has taken me aback is that my greatest griefs would come from within, from my own lack of love, my own lack of gratitude, my own lack of sanctification.
It has surprised me that I wouldn’t marvel every day at the incredible honor it is that Aileen was willing to join her life to mine, willing to take on my name, willing to pass through this life with me at her side. It has surprised me that I would so often think so little of the gift that God entrusted to me in one of his precious daughters. It has surprised me that I would so often choose my own comfort ahead of her comfort, that I would so often follow the desires of my heart instead of ceding to the desires of hers. It has surprised me that I would so often contend against her instead of loving her, assume the worst instead of the best, and act in frustration rather than compassion. Neither money, nor sex, nor in-laws have brought near the trouble to my marriage than the enemies who have always been hidden in plain sight.
Neither money, nor sex, nor in-laws have brought near the trouble to my marriage than the enemies who have always been hidden in plain sight.Share
Yet I do not despair. I serve a God who forgives and am married to a woman who does the same. I follow a God who is patient with my shortcomings and I live with a woman who imitates him in that way. I am grateful that both he and she provide opportunity for me to grow, to become who I long to be. I rejoice when I see evidences of God’s sanctifying grace that is molding and shaping me.
And so my counsel to those who are young and considering marriage or those who are just entering into marriage is this: Your marriage will inevitably come under attack. It will face many concerted onslaughts. And while it is good to be aware of the enemies that will approach from outside, you would be remiss to ignore the enemies that already exist on the inside—the enemies that lurk with your own heart, your own mind, your own longings and desires. And I am quite certain the day will come when you will admit: the most vicious enemies of all have been me, myself, and I.