Truth for Life (Alistair Begg) is featuring Seasons of Sorrow this month. You can purchase it for just $7 or get it free with a donation of any amount. It has never been easier to get a copy to read for yourself or to give away.

Logos users will want to take a look at this back-to-school sale as well as this month’s free and nearly free books. You’ll also find lots of good discounts on books from Baker Publishing.
There’s once again a nice little list of Kindle deals.
When You Hate Your Body: The Standard of Self-Worth
“When I was growing up, there was a code I lived by: if you have beauty, you have everything. Physical beauty represented inner worth. Even as an adult, I sometimes still believe there is a standard, represented by beauty, which determines my worth as a person. And in my disappointment and despair of not reaching that standard, I tend to eat. For me, body image and food are bound together in a vicious cycle. One represents striving and self-loathing. The other represents self-soothing, desperate for comfort.”
The Secret Meaning of YHWH
Mark Ward responds to those who say there’s a secret meaning behind YHWH (or other secret codes in the Bible).
One of The Weirdest Articles I’ve Ever Written
And while dealing with silly ways of interpreting the Bible, Mike Leake explains why we need to be careful with the way we translate words.
Technology-Mediated Ministry: How Far Is Too Far?
“The church has always employed technology for the advancement of our Great Commission task. From the Apostle Paul’s use of letter writing to the technological marvel of the expansive first-century Roman system of roads to the Reformation’s use of Johann Gutenberg’s printing press, the church has always leveraged the prevailing technology of the day for ministry effectiveness.” Here’s a look at the local church and technology-mediated ministry.
Of the Danger of Embracing Culture
“Sometimes Christians are tempted to compromise as they hope for popularity. The feeling is that, if we can just get folks to think we are a helpful part of our community and we do not cause trouble, we will become the place people in town want to be.”
Joy and Enjoyment
“Christians recognize that our joy is in another world. However, that doesn’t mean we can’t experience and enjoy good things in this world. The presence of good things in this life testifies to the reality of a God who exists and is himself the supreme source of joy. We worship God as we delight in the good blessings his gives and as we allow them to direct our affections to Him.”
Flashback: The Utter Devastation of Sin
What we find as we examine sin and its consequences is that sin leaves a trail behind it…Sin isn’t here for a moment and then gone. No, sin is so evil that it leaves its lingering scent behind.

If I am fully known and not rejected by God, how much more ought I to extend grace to my neighbor, whom I know only in part? —Jen Wilkin

The Lord bless and keep you today.

(Yesterday on the blog: What Can God Do With Broken Hearts?)
Turning Toward Light
Andrea Sanborn: “Pessimism is my soul’s default setting. Even when life is filled with blessing, melancholy has always been my temperament’s natural course. As a result, it has been the work of my Christian life to turn away from the darkness and look up, look away, notice beauty and give thanks. ”
Pray for Jennifer
I frequently link to Jennifer Myhre’s blog. (You may know her from her excellent books for kids where she is credited as J.A. Myhre). Her husband recently posted on it that she was in a terrible accident and is in need of prayer.
Kanye the Pious
I found this an interesting look at Kanye, his new album, and his critics. “If you were to read half-a-dozen reviews of Kanye West’s latest album, Donda — and I recommend that you don’t —you would learn chiefly that West is a bad person. He’s a bad person for associating with social undesirables; he’s a bad person for supporting Donald Trump; he’s a bad person for hosting album release parties; he’s a bad person because he’s a navel-gazing egomaniac with suspect spirituality; he’s even a bad person for learning how to value women from his experience of having daughters.”
The Roman Catholic Call to Confusion
Keith Mathison: “What Protestants should understand is that once a person accepts the philosophical principles of skepticism, there is no certainty anywhere, and the choice to convert to Roman Catholicism can no longer possibly be a rational choice. At best it can only be an irrational leap of faith, but that leap has no more rational grounds than any other leap – be it into Mormonism or the cult of Jim Jones. The Kool-Aid is the same.”
A Critical Theorist Worth Reading
I benefitted from reading Carl Trueman’s review of a book by a critical theorist.
God Cares for Every Christian More than You Know
I expect that many of us could use this reminder. “When we think of others in the Christian community, we are to realise that we are like little children. We are all dependant on God for our salvation. Even the most capable and respected among us are forgiven sinners, so we need to view others in the church as our brothers and sisters, our equals in God’s sight.”
Flashback: What’s the Purpose of … Marriage?
The highest purpose of marriage is to display to the world the sacrificial love of Christ for his bride, the church.

…the battle for our Sundays is usually won or lost on the foregoing Saturday night, when time should be set aside for self-examination, confession and prayer for the coming day. —J.I. Packer

I am in Grand Rapids today on day two of recording the audiobook for Seasons of Sorrow. So far it is going quite well, I think, and I hope to be finished by this evening.

(Yesterday on the blog: The Harder Our Earth, the Sweeter Our Heaven)
Pastoral Q & A: Are More Prayers More Effective?
This is a good question: Are prayers more effective when there are more of them?
In Praise of Single Women
“In 1 Corinthians 7, Paul makes a case for Christians remaining single and not marrying. This runs against the grain of not just our wider society but also of much evangelicalism, where finding a life partner is seen as the highest calling in life. However, after years in mission leadership, I can see exactly what Paul is getting at.”
Our Mission: Make More Disciples and Fewer Performers
Randy Alcorn is concerned that the church is better at making performers than making true disciples.
Faithful in Exile
This is an interesting one. “The stories of Daniel and Esther are helpful to us in working out how we should navigate the demands of authority. Daniel and Esther were both in exile (canonically these are two books separated by hundreds of pages in our bibles but chronologically they happen in the same period of history, during the exile), and we Christians are also living in a kind of exile…”
Prayer: Generation to Generation
Donna celebrates a generation to generation kind of prayer.
Do Baptists Come from the Anabaptist Movement? (Video)
So this is a good question: Do Baptists comes from the Anabaptist movement? Robert Godfrey answers briefly here.
Flashback: This Broken, Beautiful World
For us to appreciate the extent of God’s mercy, we must first acknowledge the depths of our own depravity. For us to follow Jesus, we must first bear a heavy cross.

God kills thy comforts from no other design but to kill thy corruptions; wants are ordained to kill wantonness, poverty is appointed to kill pride, reproaches are permitted to destroy ambition. —John Flavel