My gratitude goes to TWR for sponsoring the blog this week. TWR is committed to reaching the world for Christ by mass media and wants to encourage you to bring your skills to the missions world.
There is a pretty good collection of Kindle deals today, including some general market titles.
(Yesterday on the blog: The Way You Walk)

Sarah tells us how important it is to fight for faith when doubts abound. “There’s a pervasive belief that subtly infiltrates my thought life. One that, deep down, still believes God would keep me from harm and rescue me from pain if he truly loved me. And if he’s truly in control, and a good, loving Father, why does he answer other’s prayers, but continue to seem silent to ours?”

This is a beautiful telling of a difficult time.

I appreciate articles like this one for the way they help us more deeply respect the task of Bible translation.

If you’re familiar with discontentment (and which of us isn’t?) you’ll find yourself encouraged and challenged by Justin Poythress’ article. “I’ve prayed about discontentment. I’ve confessed it. I keep a gratitude journal. But it was only this past year that I got a breakthrough as to the real problem. I don’t want to be content. I’m afraid of it.”

I’ve often been inspired by the life and legacy of Selina Hastings. If you’re not familiar with the name, be sure to read this short account of a small part of her life.

If you’re up for some slightly more involved reading on a Saturday, you should read Guy Richards’ thoughts about whether Jesus did miracles as a man by the power of the Spirit.

Hoarding wealth for ourselves gives far less lasting satisfaction than contributing wealth to God’s causes. Where we tend to associate joy with how much we get, higher joy comes from how freely we give.

No matter what good truths you have to teach, no one will thank you if you do not speak kindly.
—C.H. Spurgeon

Those who like to read to little ones will want to check out this sale from Westminster Books on the Big Theology for Little Hearts series.

Overcoming Doctrinal Pride
“There is one specific kind of undiscerned spiritual pride that I think is not often discussed and is especially hard to recognize—the danger of doctrinal righteousness. Sadly, I think it’s a particularly prevalent danger among Reformed, theologically-minded Christians. It’s a danger I have fallen into at times.” You should probably read this one.
Humans Come in Only Two Sexes
“Up until the last few seconds of human history, it was collectively accepted that sex is binary. People are born either male or female. Not so today.” This is so simple, yet so hotly debated. We especially need to assure the younger generations of the simple fact that there are but two sexes.
Gun Control and the Right to Bear Arms
A couple of weeks ago TGC sponsored the blog to tell about their forthcoming “Good Faith Debates.” The first of those debates is now live and it makes for very interesting viewing. It covers gun control. No matter your position on this, it’s likely to be sharpened by hearing a robust defense of the opposite position.
9 Myths about Abortion Rights and Roe v. Wade
Kevin DeYoung dusts off an older article to remind people of some common myths related to abortion and Roe v Wade. (See also: Samuel James’ Receiving Justice with Gratitude.)
A Church of Suspicious Minds
I really appreciate this article from Trevin Wax’s blog. “Suspicion takes a wrong turn when we filter everything and everyone through the lens of distrust, always on a quest to discover an ulterior motive. This is one of postmodernism’s most pernicious effects—a hermeneutic of suspicion that claims every proposal or position is just a power play in disguise. Even deeds that appear altruistic must be tainted somehow by the lust for power.”
Hope has to be learned
“I’m going to let you in on a secret that I’m only getting to grips with myself, it’s simple, but oddly revolutionary: hope is an action. We learn it.” It changes our understanding of hope to see it as an action!
Flashback: What Makes a Sermon Difficult To Listen To
Recently, and largely for my own purposes, I found myself thinking about some of the elements that can make a sermon difficult to listen to. Having jotted them down, I thought I’d share them with you.

It is expedient that you should pass under the cross to inherit the crown. —Thomas Watson

No church can survive solely upon the labors of its pastors. No church can thrive when the expectation is that all ministry must be formal and must originate from the front of the room. No church can remain healthy when it falls to the elders to give and the members to consume. Rather, the work of ministry within a local church is the privilege and responsibility of each of the people who makes that church their own.

One of the most important ministries that any Christian can engage in is also one of the most unheralded. One of the ministries that is key to the functioning of the local church and to advancement in the Christian life is also one of the most overlooked. It is the simplest of all ministries and the least formal, a ministry that each of us is equipped to carry out. It is the ministry of being just a little bit further along.
There is a place in the church and a place in life for expertise and formal training. But there is a much wider place for simple commitment and involvement. The great majority of the help people need as they navigate life’s trials, the great bulk of the counsel people seek as they encounter life’s questions, does not require the input of experts, but merely the attention of someone who knows God and who knows his Word. They do not need someone who has access to the original languages or who exposits Scripture at a post-graduate level. They do not need someone who holds credentials from a Christian counseling organization or who has dedicated a whole lifetime to studying theology. These things are good and have their place, but they are not often truly necessary.
What most people need and long for as they face trials and encounter questions is simply the dedicated attention of someone who is a little bit further along, the listening ear and gentle voice of someone who is a few steps ahead on the path of life, or the path of ministry, or the path of suffering, or the path of parenting. Most are merely seeking someone who will informally mentor them from the perspective of their own successes and failures, their own experiences of good and bad, the godly wisdom they have accumulated along the way.
What’s so wonderful about this ministry is that we can all take it up, for each of us is just a little bit further along than someone else. The father with toddlers is a little bit further along than the father with an infant, the mother who lost a child ten years ago to the one whose child has only just been laid in the grave. The Christian teen has taken a few more steps along the path of life than the child, the Christian senior than the one in her forties. Each of them can prayerfully look back and extend a helping hand, a word of advice, a prayer of intercession, to a person following along behind. Each of them can take up this ministry of blessing and encouragement, of Word and prayer, of time and attention. For they have the one key credential: they are a little bit further along.