Good morning. The Lord be with you and bless you today.
I added some new Kindle deals yesterday and hope to dig up some more this morning.
(Yesterday on the blog: A Difference-Making Ministry for Any Christian)

This article shows how the existence of hell, and the Bible’s warnings about it, are meant to motivate holiness.

Keith Mathison reminds us of a lesser-known benefit of the Lord’s Supper. “When we come together for the Lord’s Supper, it should remind us of the oneness of the body and spur us to compassion that we might do what we can to share the burdens of our brothers and sisters in Christ.”

Coram Deo is a Latin phrase meaning “before the face of God.” The phrase is often associated with John Calvin and other Reformers who summoned the Christian to live all of life in God’s presence (Ps. 56:13). More specifically, pastors have been charged in the presence of God to preach the word (2 Tim. 4:1-2). This conference (which features Kevin DeYoung, John Piper, H.B. Charles Jr., and others) aims to remind pastors of our great God, to recharge the preacher for teaching with clarity and conviction, and to reinvigorate the weary soul for a life of ministry faithfulness before the face of God. (Sponsored Link)

“We don’t like the ten plagues in Exodus, they feel like exactly the sort of thing we secretly wish wasn’t in the Old Testament because they afflict our innate sense of fairness and our unexpressed desire for God to be kind to everyone—even those who hate and afflict his people.”

“We must entrust our friends to God, even when it’s not how we pictured it. This is yet another way we love our friends in knowledge and discernment—in recognizing our lack of wisdom, sovereignty, knowledge, and even love for our friends compared to our Heavenly Father.”

Writing for TGC Africa, Thomas Endjala tells how the prosperity gospel distorts the true gospel. “No one wants to suffer. In my culture, and in most African cultures, suffering is seen as a sign of bad luck; or proof that you did something wrong.”

Susan encourages her readers to focus on someday and to know that it is not all that far away.

Ephesians 6 is a powerful call to be aware of the enemy and his army; it teaches that there is an enemy who devotes his entire existence to the destruction of God’s work and God’s people. Every Christian is engaged in battle against him.

God is not worshipped where He is not treasured and enjoyed.
—John Piper

The United States has produced more than its fair share of fascinating figures. Over the course of its storied history, it has produced a host of figures who have shaped the nation, the continent, and the world. Many of these have been its presidents and politicians, though others have been its inventors, its business leaders, or those who have in other ways shaped public morality. While each of these people has a public side, they also have a private side. And sometimes people who make a great impact publicly can live with great immorality privately.
In the late 1990s, the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal compelled Marvin Olasky to begin thinking about the effect private activities have on the lives of public leaders. In the context of that scandal, the White House insisted that Clinton’s private immorality had no bearing on his public role. The voting public seemed to agree that the two could remain neatly compartmentalized. “Many journalists at the time agreed with Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen that a president ‘conventionally immoral in his personal life’ can still be a wonderful ‘person in his public life.’ Can be, sure, because life is complicated. But how likely is that?”

Moral Vision

Olasky examined the issue in his 1998 book The American Leadership Tradition. But time showed that perhaps he over-corrected—that while many conventional journalists oversimplified by taking the “no effect” line, he oversimplified in the other direction. Not only that, but in his own judgment he was censorious and lacked nuance. In Moral Vision: Leadership from George Washingon to Joe Biden (which is a substantially revised and expanded edition of his former work) he takes up the issue again and does so through a series of short biographies of noteworthy Americans. “George Washington pledged in his 1789 inaugural address that ‘the foundation for national policy will be laid in the sure and immutable principles of private morality.’ I’ve tried to look at how we have followed through on that—or have not.”
He begins at the beginning, of course, with George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Both were great men in many ways, yet both had significant moral flaws: Washington was a slave owner; Jefferson was not only a slave owner but was also committed to sexual immorality. Olasky is not iconoclastic toward them, as if their statues ought to be torn down and their names erased from the history books. Yet, on the other hand, he does not wish to pretend that their public lives would remain entirely unaffected by their moral flaws.
As he moves to Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay, he grapples with the private and public lives of men who were responsible for the notorious Trail of Tears and the brutal subjugation of an entire people. Then he moves to Madame Restell who did so much to promote abortion among New Yorkers in the mid-1850s. He looks at the faith of Abraham Lincoln and whether it was consistent or inconsistent with his decision to wage total war against the South.
Grover Cleveland and John D. Rockefeller follow Lincoln, then Booker T. Washington and Ida B. Wells. As he reaches the modern era, he looks at both Roosevelts, Wilson, Truman, and Kennedy. In the postmodern era he pairs up Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich, then Donald Trump and Joe Biden. It is safe to say that he is no fan of either one of the latter two.
As Olasky comes to the end of the book, he reflects on assessing character and some of the “tells” that may distinguish people of good character from those of poor character. He believes that fidelity in marriage is an important one, though not the only one. He highlights others as well—following through on promises, a concern for other people, honesty, and self-discipline. He even buzzes through the Ten Commandments to see which of them, when violated, has troubled the American people and which has not. In the end, he hopes that the book causes voters to consider not only a candidate’s positions or promises but also his character.

If this book has one practical benefit, I hope it will make groups reluctant to hand out voter guides that merely list candidate votes on particular issues, as if that should be the sole determinant in casting a ballot. This does a disservice to those looking for guidance. If I have done a disservice to readers by being less emphatic on some questions than I was in the first edition, so be it. I’m more aware of the complications of history and biography than I was twenty-five years ago, but I still believe in the centrality of moral vision, which is the sum of character, experience, and faith.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Moral Vision. Olasky is a talented writer whose work reminds me a great deal of David McCullough—about as high a compliment as I know to give. I appreciated each one of the brief biographies and was challenged by the constant focus on moral strengths and weaknesses. Some will agree and some will disagree with his conclusions, but I think all will benefit from considering them.

Black Friday is behind us and that brings us to Cyber Monday, another opportunity to track down some good deals. I spent a good bit of time hunting around for deals and wanted to share them here.

Amazon
As you’d expect, Amazon has a massive selection of deals that span just about every possible category. Use the filters in the left sidebar to focus on the ones that are interesting to you. The one everyone’s talking about is $50 off the new AirPods Pro; AirTags are also on sale—in case you’re going to be doing some travel coming up; this charger at $25 off is a good value. Also, the all-new Kindle, Paperwhite, and Oasis (which I find the best of them all) are all deeply discounted. Then there’s a nice selection of board games as well.
Westminster Books
Westminster Books has ESV Bibles deeply discounted. That includes:

It looks like (at least as of this moment) their excellent Black Friday deals remain available as well.
Christian Book Distributors
CBD has lots of good deals in their Cyber Monday sale. They include:

Logos
Logos has a selection of Cyber Monday deals. Among them you’ll find:

ESV Expository Commentary series (11 vols.) – 50% Off
Teach the Text Commentary Series (21 vols.) – 68% Off
Prophets, 8 vols. (NIV Application Commentary | NIVAC) – 50% Off
New Studies in Biblical Theology Series Collection | NSBT (53 vols.)
Studies in Historical and Systematic Theology (SHST) (25 vols.) – 50% Off
Bible Survey Video Series: John – 50% Off
Select Commentary Mini-Bundles – 50% Off

And much more. Additionally, they are offering an additional 10% off the sale products for anyone who has already purchased or upgraded to Logos 10, or purchases/upgrades.
10ofThose
10ofThose has discounts on a wide variety of books with some reaching as high as 76%.
Accordance
Accordance is offering 25% off everything. Just enter coupon code 25-all at checkout to SAVE 25% off all items in your cart. You can use the code as often as you like.
Banner of Truth
Banner of Truth has a good number of books and other items discounted up to 50%. You can view the PDF flyer here.
Crossway
Crossway is offering 60% off Men’s and Women’s Study Bibles.
Getty Music
Getty Music has deals on physical and downloadable products as well as tickets for their upcoming Christmas concerts.
Ligonier
Ligonier is having a 3-day sale that offers significant discounts on a lot of books, commentaries, and teaching series.
Missional Wear
Missional Wear has select products at up to 50% off, plus all items marked as in-stock and shipping now at 15% off using code CHALLIES15. That includes shirt deals, stocking stuffers, drinkware, etc.
Truth for Life
Truth for Life has deals on book bundles, Alistair Begg devotionals, and an ESV that is marked down from $199 to $35.