Welcome to September! Grace and peace to you today.

As you know, the launch event for Seasons of Sorrow is coming up on Monday. You can still sign up to come. Alternatively, it seems that the event will be recorded and released a few days later to those with a Virtual Pass to the Sing! conference. You can save 35% on any of the virtual passes with code CHALLIES35.
There’s a long list of Kindle deals, most of them geared toward the academics among us.
(Yesterday on the blog: So You’ve Been Told You Should Read Some Old Books…)
Why the (mis)labeling of pregnancy resource centers on Yelp needs to be corrected
“Now, more than ever, technology companies must not bow to the pressure of abortion advocates, government leaders, and the abortion industry in limiting access to life-altering information for women in crisis. Access to accurate information in order to make life-and-death decisions should be at the very core of these businesses’ values.”
How to see Mt. Rainier
This is a good illustration. “One of my favorite things about living in that area was the magnificent views that can be had of the Olympic Mountains to the west, and especially of Mt. Rainier to the south-east which is so enormous and so distant that it looks more like a vision or something painted in the sky than a mountain of solid rock. One of my least favorite things however, was how cloudy and foggy it is there.”
Elegant Orthodoxy: The Thirty-nine Articles of Religion
“The Anglican Church’s Thirty-nine Articles of Religion aren’t comprehensive. They don’t answer every theological or ecclesiastical question a follower of Jesus might have. But there’s an elegance in the Articles’ brevity and simplicity that both roots us in the historic church and is timely today.”
A Jesus Misjudged?
“What is Christ doing in his church? What are the ways that we should interpret the–sometimes dark–providences of God in building, reforming, censuring, or comforting the church? We are not as skilled as we ought to be in judging the work of Jesus in our midst; and that’s always been the case.” I agree with this.
Even after His Death, Jesus Fulfilled the Law
“What if Jesus broke the Law of Moses? Would that impact your faith? Would it change significant points of Christian doctrine? The short answer is a resounding yes.” It’s interesting to consider that Jesus fulfilled the law not only during his life, but also after his death.
Forgive the Unforgivable
God asks us to do some difficult things. “Here’s the unvarnished truth: Those things you think you can’t forgive? Jesus wants you to forgive them. He demands it.”
Flashback: Writing Tips: Tools & Context
I love to write, I write often, and I share my writing publicly. For those reasons I am often asked to share tips. How can I write more? How can I write better?…Today I want to offer a handful of new tips that are a little bit different from the kind I have offered before.

God made us to be light makers, and the spotlight is meant to shine right back on him. —Jen Oshman

I wanted to remind you once again that my book Seasons of Sorrow is now available for pre-order (with a release date of September 13). Also do remember the launch event in Nashville on Labor Day! Information here.

Westminster Books is offering a deep discount on the excellent ESV Scripture Journals. It’s the time to stock up!
You’ll find a few new Kindle deals today.
The Antifragile Christian
“Antifragile is different from resiliency or endurance, in that those characteristics only measure the amount of pressure something can repeatedly take. If that something were antifragile, however, it would actually get stronger because of the difficulty.” Though it’s not a biblical word, it’s still a helpful one.
How Dangerous Hermeneutics Can Inform False Teachers
“One sign of a false prophet is when a religious leader invents novel and fanciful interpretations of Scripture, interpretations completely divorced from the original context. Religious charlatans usually engage in such hermeneutical gymnastics in order to bolster their own power.” Here’s an example from the history of Mormonism.
Maturing Towards Childlikeness
It’s an interesting thought this: that we mature toward childlikeness (even as we mature away from childishness).
There’s a Reason We Call Them “The Lost”
This is a good reminder: There’s a reason we call them “the lost.”
The Remnant is Like a Fuse
“Throughout history, we see the church grow and contract not only in size but also in terms of its faithfulness to Jesus Christ and his word. Today, in North America, the visible church as a whole seems to be in a time of decline. Many churches are shrinking or closing, and many others are giving into the spirit of the age. They are salt that is losing its saltiness. A time of decline is never the time for the faithful follower of Jesus Christ to grow fainthearted.”
When Life Doesn’t Turn Out Like I Think It Should
Sylvia Schroeder has a powerful article about those times when life doesn’t turn out the way we think it should.
Flashback: Gray Hair and a Righteous Life
Am I living the kind of life that will allow that gray hair—that proof that I’ve grown old—to also stand as a symbol that I’ve grown wise, that I’ve lived a righteous life?

Scripture does not tell us to “let go and let God”. The Bible never promises any easy, automatic victory over sin and temptation. —John MacArthur

I recently read an article about the countless billions of dollars that have been saved and stored up outside the mainstream financial system. The author explained that many people have lost their confidence in banks and other institutions and have responded by finding alternative ways to protect their wealth. Some have kept it in the form of cash and hidden great stacks of bills in the walls of their homes or in the backs of their closets. Others have converted it to precious metals and locked it in home safes or buried it in the ground. Others have found still more ways to keep it and protect it.

I blame no one for being suspicious of the financial system and for pursuing alternatives. The purpose of the article was not to criticize these people, but to point out that such wealth is often not doing a great deal of good—it is not being traded, it is not being invested, it is not gaining interest, and if it’s in the form of cash, it’s not even keeping up with inflation. But again, that’s for each individual to decide.
I have little interest in what people do with their wealth, for each of us must do what we believe right with the means God has given us. But I do have a much greater interest in a related matter—what people do with their gifts.
It is clear from Scripture that God bestows upon each of us various gifts. Among them are the spiritual gifts he gives to Christians through which they can bless and serve one another, the gifts that come through our natural talents and inclinations, the gifts that come to us through the circumstances arranged by his providence, and undoubtedly many more. We are responsible for them all—responsible to put them to use for the good of others and the glory of God.
To put them to good use means we need to identify them, to foster them, and to deploy them. And that little article about the way people protect their wealth got me thinking about how many of our gifts and talents we have also “protected” without putting them to use. It forced me to consider how many of God’s gifts we have “buried,” how many we have failed to nurture and develop.
God has given you talents—things you may be unusually good at. Are you using these for his glory?
God has given you spiritual gifts he means for you to use in love and service to other believers. Have you identified the ways in which he may have gifted you?
God has bestowed upon you a greater-than-usual enthusiasm for a certain issue or cause. Are you pursuing it enthusiastically?
God has arranged providence to grant you joys and sorrows and he intends that these work themselves out in ministering to others. Have you accepted them as being from his hand and have you deployed them for his glory?
One of my daily prayers is, “I pray that this day I would use my gifts, talents, time, energy, and enthusiasm for the good of others and for your glory.” But I know that praying that I would use the gifts God has granted me is not the same as examining what other gifts God may have given or fostering development in the ones I’m certain he has. But what I do know is that I am responsible for each and every one of them—responsible be a faithful steward of all that God has entrusted to me.