It was a late night last night and thus a bit of a slow start today. But we successfully pulled off a wedding and had a great time of it. Congratulations to Nathan and Abby!

Today’s Kindle deals include a nice little collection of books on a crucial topic.
(Yesterday on the blog: Two Lives Blending Into One Life)
Why Pro-Lifers Support Laws to Punish Abortionists but Not Mothers
Denny Burk explains why the majority of pro-lifers support laws that would punish abortionists but not mothers. ”One of the perennial points of debate between pro-lifers and abortion advocates is why pro-lifers don’t support laws to punish women who obtain abortions. Some abortion proponents even argue that this is some sort of inconsistency on the part of pro-lifers—as if not prosecuting women who get abortions reveals that we don’t really believe an abortion actually kills a human being.”
The FAQs: Senate Democrats Unveil Their Roadmap for Protecting Abortion
Also on the subject of abortion, Joe Carter explains how the Senate Democrats hope and plan to protect abortion. “Fearing that the Supreme Court will overturn Roe v. Wade sometime this summer, Senate Democrats forced a vote on Wednesday to advance a bill that would enshrine abortion rights into federal law.” Though it failed, it did show their roadmap.
6 Basic Realities about a Man’s Identity
This is great stuff from David Powlison. “Your true identity is who God says you are. You will never discover who you are by looking inside yourself or listening to what others say. The Lord gets the first word because he made you. He gets the daily word because you live before his face. He gets the last word because he will administer your final ‘comprehensive life review.’”
Photos Show Ukraine’s Bible Belt Struck Down But Not Destroyed
This is an interesting dispatch from Ukraine.
Can a Christian Fall Away? How to Hear the Warnings in Hebrews
“I get asked two questions every time I teach Hebrews. You can probably guess both. (1) Who wrote Hebrews? That one’s always first. And (2) what are we supposed to do with Hebrews’ warning passages? Does Hebrews teach that believers can lose their salvation?” The second gets a good treatment here.
Two Stones In My Pocket
“Now I watch my own children. The most secure one is also the friendliest and happiest. The most insecure one can be the most irritable and mean. Feeding my parental fears, I listened to a YouTube psychologist explain that narcissists are deeply insecure. Which rings true.”
Flashback: Fathers (and Mothers), Do Not Provoke Your Children!
Do not provoke with impatience and injustice, but instead shepherd with nurture and tenderness, and do this through discipline and instruction.

I cannot protect my children from my weaknesses. As hard as I may try, at some point my sin will affect their lives. However, the way I deal with my failure can provide an example for them to follow. —Melissa Kruger

Westminster Books has just refreshed its children’s fiction section and is offering some pretty good deals.

Today’s Kindle deals include at least one good book from RHB.
The indelible conscience and a month of “pride”
“In case you haven’t heard, June 1 no longer marks the end of the school year or the unofficial beginning of summer. It’s the start of Pride Month. Initially conceived in 1970 to commemorate the first anniversary of the Stonewall riots, Pride Month has become a government-promoted, corporate-sponsored, 30-day celebration of LGBTQ acceptance and achievements.” Kevin DeYoung reflects on the cultural significance of Pride Month.
Declaring and Clicking in the Word of Faith
“I was one of those people. You know the ones telling you to watch what you say because death and life are in the power of the tongue. It is with certainty and irony I can say my actions drove family members nuts at times. Decreeing and declaring were integral in what was considered prayer time. When faced with a possible negative outcome in life, it was not uncommon to say, ‘I do not receive that’, because receiving the negative would make it a reality. This was seen as a lack of faith. Rather, we were to declare a thing and see it come to pass.”
Truth on Fire (Free ebook!)
The Good Book Company is giving away a free ebook of Truth on Fire by Adam Ramsey. In the book, Adam encourages readers to know God truly and experience him deeply. (Sponsored Link)
Nevertheless
I appreciate this reflection. “I’m not sure I would have ever considered that my sorrow could be associated with my good. That is, unless Jesus told me so. Nor could I work out how Paul could pair sorrow and rejoicing in the same sentence—maybe he understood something about Jesus I’d missed. I don’t feel too bad, though, and neither should you if these matters are confusing to you too, I mean, the other disciples didn’t really get it either.”
Pastor, Jesus Doesn’t Care How Big Your Church Is
Pastors need this reminder from time to time. In this case it’s Jared Wilson delivering it.
Time
Paul Levy: “It strikes me, that as Christians we need to be more aware of our finitude. I suspect more of us struggle with wasting time than we are willing to admit. The internet has it’s obvious problems with pornography and online gambling, but the way that it distracts us and robs us of time without our realising it.”
Benefitting From A ‘Bubble’
Here is something good that came out of a COVID bubble.
Flashback: Friends to Christ, Strangers To His Church
The call to community is a call to familiarity. If we are to love and serve others, we need to know them…We can love others in precise and meaningful ways only to the degree that we know them.

It is the sovereign decree of heaven that nothing can make sinners truly happy but God in Christ… —A.W. Pink

You can’t read the New Testament and fail to understand that the Christian life was never meant to be a life of ease. Each of us will encounter adversity and adversaries, and each of us will have to wage war against our fearsome foes— the world, the flesh, and the devil. Then, each of us will also have to labor to come to know God and to grow in our likeness to God.
For all these reasons, the Christian life demands a disciplined approach. The apostle Paul often compared Christians to athletes who must train diligently to have any hope of victory. “Every athlete exercises self-control in all things,” he said. “They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control” (1 Corinthians 9:25-27).
The only way to win the match or to be victorious in the race is to discipline your whole life toward that podium, toward that gold medal. Similarly, the only way to prevail in the Christian life is to discipline your entire existence toward Christlikeness. Donald Whitney speaks for all of us when he says, “In my own pastoral and personal Christian experience, I can say that I’ve never known a man or woman who came to spiritual maturity except through discipline. Godliness comes through discipline.”