May the Lord be with you and bless you.

Spiritual COVID and Losing Your Taste for God
Trevin Wax creates a helpful comparison here. “The loss of taste was the weirdest part of COVID. Mealtimes lost their joy. I ate and felt sustained but didn’t enjoy good food anymore. Every morning, I made myself a cup of tea, but only out of routine since the effort was about as enjoyable as sipping hot water.”
You Need Doctrine and Life to Sail Properly
Mike Leake looks at our emphasis on false doctrine and points out that it is only one of the Bible’s big concerns. “False teaching is something which we are warned about. Doctrine does matter. But what I found is that a majority of warnings aren’t about right belief but about right living.”
A New Study Bible for the Next Generation
Ligonier Ministries has released their Student Edition of the Reformation Study Bible, designed especially with teens and young adults in mind. Its many new features include practical lessons from every book of the Bible, encouraging readers not only to be hearers but also doers of the Word. Today’s your final opportunity to save 5% on the Student Edition when you use code CHALLIES in the Ligonier store. (Sponsored Link)
Why Agree to Use Preferred Names but Not Preferred Pronouns?
I’m interesting to see how different people are adapting to new realities and attempting to face them biblically.
Whose Purpose in Your Suffering Will Prevail?
Randy Alcorn: “Satan intends your suffering for evil; God intends it for good. Whose purpose in your suffering will prevail? Whose purpose are you furthering? Satan attempts to destroy your faith, while God invites you to draw near to Him and draw upon His sovereign grace to sustain you.”
Why Do We Assume Western Theology is Superior?
“The kingdom of God is growing in Africa; are we sufficiently poor in spirit to be inheritors of it, together with our African sisters and brothers?”
Seven Factors for Missionary Homes
“Whenever new personnel come to the field, we end up discussing the pros and cons of the housing that’s been chosen for them.” This is the start to a surprisingly interesting article.
Flashback: The Most Difficult Time to Lead
The most difficult time to lead is when you have forfeited the respect of those who are meant to follow you, when your confidence, and theirs, is shattered. But this is also the most important time to lead. This is where a real man will, and must, lead.

Christ is the true bridegroom of the soul, the true physician of the heart, the real father of all his people. Let us show that we feel this by being unreserved in our communications with him. —J.C. Ryle

This week the blog is sponsored by  RHB Publications and written by Joel R. Beeke.

As a teenager, God used Thomas Goodwin’s writings more than anyone else’s to bring me to liberty in Christ and to grow me in Christ. I wept often as I read his “Christ the Mediator” at the richness and fullness of my Savior and Lord. Already then, I dreamt of one-day publishing Goodwin’s entire Works of 12 volumes in a beautiful hardcover edition. Half a century later, that dream finally became a reality. 
After reading the article below, I believe you will see why Goodwin had such a profound effect on me! We pray by reading Goodwin, you will be drawn closer to our beautiful Redeemer.
This reprinting of The Works of Thomas Goodwin stands as a fitting climax to the past half-century of the rediscovery and republication of the writings of the Puritans. Renowned for intelligent piety at its Puritan best, Thomas Goodwin, ”the Atlas of independency,” stands on a par with John Owen, “the prince of Puritans,” as a theologian and an exegete, and often surpasses him in experimental depth. Slightly easier to read than Owen, Goodwin’s writings demand concentration for maximum benefit. 
Those influenced by Goodwin’s writings include John Cotton, Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, and John Gill. Alexander Whyte confessed: “I have read no other author so much and so often. And I continue to read him to this day as if I had never read him before.” He calls Goodwin’s sermon, “Christ Dwelling in Our Hearts by Faith,” one of the ”two very greatest sermons in the English language.” Whyte aptly concludes:
Goodwin is always an interpreter, and one of a thousand …. All his work, throughout his twelve volumes, is just so much pulpit exposition and pulpit application of the Word of God …. spiritual experience-all the same, he is always so simple, so clear, so direct, so untechnical, so personal, and so pastoral.
In our generation, Puritan scholar J.I. Packer concurs: “Whyte called Goodwin ‘the greatest pulpit exegete of Paul that has ever lived,’ and perhaps justly; Goodwin’s Biblical expositions are quite unique, even among the Puritans, in the degree to which they combine theological breadth with experimental depth. John Owen saw into the mind of Paul as clearly as Goodwin-sometimes, on points of detail, more clearly-but not even Owen ever saw so deep into Paul’s heart.”
Thomas Goodwin was a prolific author and editor. During the 1630s, he coedited with John Ball the works of John Preston and Richard Sibbes. He began to publish some of his own sermons in 1636. Prior to his death, he published at least twelve devotional works, most of which were collections of sermons. The fact that they were reissued forty-seven times indicates the high demand and wide circulation of his publications. 
Most of Goodwin’s major theological writings were the fruit of his riper years and were published posthumously. His unusually large corpus of treatises displays a pastoral and scholarly zeal rivaled by few Puritans. 
The first collection of Goodwin’s works was published in five folio volumes in London from 1681 to 1704 under the editorship of Thankful Owen, Thomas Baron, and Thomas Goodwin, Jr. An abridged version of Goodwin’s works, condensed by J. Rabb, was printed in four volumes (London, 1847-50). The presently reprinted twelve-volume authoritative edition was printed by James Nichol (Edinburgh, 1861-66) as his first choice in what would become known as the well-edited and highly regarded Nichol’s Series of Standard Divines; not surprisingly, it is far superior to the original five folio volumes.
Goodwin’s treatment of his subjects is massive, sometimes liable to exhaust the half-hearted. The pull of his writings is not always felt immediately. His first editors (168l) explained his occasional prolixity in these terms: “He had a genius to dive into the bottom of points, to ‘study them down,’ as he used to express it, not contenting himself with superficial knowledge, without wading into the depths of things.”
One does need patience to read Goodwin at times; along with depth and prolixity, however, he combines a wonderful sense of warmth, unction, and experience. The reader’s patience will be amply rewarded. 
Read Goodwin slowly, meditatively, and prayerfully, and you will reap spiritual dividends far beyond what you can imagine. You will understand as you read why Goodwin has been my favorite Puritan author for most of my life. 

Earlier in the week I posted an article about being willing to suffer wrong in the face of those who wish to do us harm. After sharing it I came across a wonderful quote from F.B. Meyer that is at least parenthetically related. He counsels us on what to do when others attack our character and seek to harm our name. In short: wait on the Lord.

We are very anxious about our character, but if we live close to Christ, men will impute to us all manner of evil. They will impugn our motives, misrepresent our actions, and circulate malicious stories about us. The nearer we live to Christ the more certain it is it will be so, that if they called Him Beelzebub they will call us the same.
My belief is that we should be very careless about these things, and that the only time when we should defend our character should be when aspersions on it may injure the cause of Christ; that as far as we are concerned we should be content to lose our character and be counted the off-scouring of all things.
When these reports are circulating, and these stories being told, and these unkind words being hurled from lip to lip, we should immediately turn to our Master and tell Him we are content to suffer with and for Him. Ask Him to intercede for and to vindicate us, if it is His will we should be vindicated, and if not, to give us grace to suffer patiently and wait.
We are so eager to stand well; we are so sorry if the least thing is said against us; we are so irritated if we are misunderstood and misrepresented; we are so anxious to write the explanatory letter to the paper or the private individual. It is a profound mistake. We should be content to trust God with the aspersion, to leave to Him our vindication, and meanwhile to plod on, doing our work quietly day by day, as in His sight, only being more tender and thoughtful and careful of those who have done us wrong.
That is the true Christian spirit.