Good morning. Grace and peace to you.

Today’s Kindle deals include several volumes of the excellent ESV Expository Commentary series.
(Yesterday on the blog: The Music Is Simply a Mockery)
Goodbye Local Church?
“The truth is that there is now a marketplace of churches. This marketplace stretches across denominations and church ‘brands’. People are quite willing to switch and travel long distances. Churches are in competition for members.” This really changes everything about our relationship to the local church.
Going to Church Is Hard but Worth It
“Sundays never fail to be tough. The plan is always to have the house clean and organized on Saturday, to do family devotionals, to set out and iron clothes for the morning, to go to bed early, and have a big happy breakfast together Sunday morning. Things never go according to plan.”
Can We Trust Luke’s History of the Early Jesus Movement?
Some have charged that Luke is not a trustworthy historian. Shane Rosenthal disagrees and explains why.
Not Brave
Julie Lowe: “I don’t know about you, but I am not brave. I dread criticism and judgment. I’d rather work behind the scenes than live in the spotlight and be open to the critique of others. The world is hostile and people can be harsh. Let someone who likes the attention rise up and be the focus. Have you ever uttered these sentiments? If so, you are not alone.”
Seeing Through Tears
Brianna expresses her faith in the Lord, even through tears.
12 Axioms for Young Missionaries
Just like the title says, here are some axioms that may prove helpful to those who are new to missions.
Flashback: Leave and Cleave Like a Strawberry
…as I think of the families I’ve known where the generations function best..they appropriately emphasize the discontinuity between the old family and the new, but appropriately emphasize the obligation each generation owes the other. They are independent, but not too distant. They are connected, but not suffocating. They’ve got room to grow but also room to spread their leaves.

I have come to believe that, as followers of Jesus, one of the worthiest endeavors we can undertake is to take the Great Commandment seriously and learn to be in relationship with our literal neighbors. —Jay Pathak & Dave Runyon

I once heard of a ship that was crossing the Atlantic from Europe to South America, and as it neared the end of its crossing, it escaped a close call that would have sent it to the depths and would have taken the lives of many of its passengers.
After departing Dover, the ship had cruised for many days without incident and without mishap. In fact, the crossing had been so smooth and so unremarkable that the crew began to grow lax in their duties. As the ship drew close to the South American coast, the man on lookout nodded off, and as he slept his ship began to approach a particularly rocky and ruinous spot.
But as it happened, there was a cricket aboard that ship. Until that point in the journey, no one had noticed its presence, but as the ship drew close to land, the cricket somehow smelled it or sensed it, and set up a shrill call. The lookout awoke, understood that land was quickly approaching, and stopped the vessel before it blundered into the rocks and was lost.
In this case, something as insignificant as the chirping of a cricket saved many lives. And I sometimes wonder what you and I may accomplish with what seems to be the simplest and least significant of sounds. I wonder what heaven will someday reveal—what we will hear in the soundtrack of heaven.
Maybe the scratching of a pen on a notecard will prove to be the means God used to encourage one of his downcast people and strengthen them for another day of love and service.
Maybe the tapping of a keyboard that sounds the writing of an article or email will be shown to have introduced a skeptic to the gospel and won a sinner to salvation.
Maybe the clank of a spoon stirring a pot will eventually be seen to have been used to feed one of God’s “angels unaware”—to have displayed a distinctly Christian commitment to love and hospitality.
God is the master of transforming the ordinary to the extraordinary, the mundane to the miraculous.Share
Maybe it’s the click of knitting needles as they create a sweater to clothe one who is cold, the crunch of footsteps in the snow as they approach a home for a time of prayer, the sound of a sob as one Christian weeps with another, sharing a heavy burden and so fulfilling the law of Christ. Maybe it’s even the sound of a bell ringing from a church steeple and calling people to turn to Christ that day, that hour, that minute.
God is the master of transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary, the mundane into the miraculous. God is the master of accepting little and multiplying it to much. God is the master of taking our little contributions and making them the great means through which he blesses his people and brings glory to his name. And I am convinced we will one day learn that the soundtrack of heaven is made up of the simplest of sounds that God has joined together into the most stirring of symphonies.

Buried deep in an old, mostly-forgotten anthology of poetry, I found this little gem from Newman Hall—a poem that expresses in rhyme and meter the longing of many a Christian heart. May it give you words to pray for “those who do not pray, who waste away salvation’s day.”

We pray for those who do not pray!Who waste away salvation’s day;For those we love who love not Thee—Our grief, their danger, pitying see.
Those for whom many tears are shedAnd blessings breathed upon their head,The children of thy people saveFrom godless life and hopeless grave.
Hear fathers, mothers, as they prayFor sons, for daughters, far away—Brother for brother, friend for friend—Hear all our prayers that upward blend.
We pray for those who long have heardBut still neglect Thy gracious Word;Soften the hearts obdurate madeBy calls unheeded; vows delayed.
Release the drunkard from his chain,Bare those beguiled by pleasure vain,Set free the slaves of lust, and bringBack to their home the wandering.
The hopeless cheer; guide those who doubt;Restore the lost; cast no one out;For all that are far off we pray,Since we were once far off as they.