I am so glad that the holiday season is finally upon us. And as much as I enjoy all the feasts and festivities, what I’m most looking forward to is days of rest and times with family. We anticipate that the next couple of weeks will be fairly low-key, and that’s okay by us.
2023 has been a unique year for me as I completed the great majority of the travel for Worship Round the World. I visited 25 countries, worshipped with a local church in 13 of them, spent time with Christians in a further 7, and recorded hundreds of hours of video. My travel app tells me I flew about 160,000 miles and spent just over 14 days in the air. My body tells me I may have overdone it a little. But I can’t even begin to describe what a blessing it was to meet so many wonderful people and worship with so many beautiful churches. The book and documentary are now both well underway and I look forward to sharing it all with you in due time.
Next year should be significantly quieter, though I do intend to do a little more speaking at conferences. I’ll be at events in Calgary, Vancouver, Los Angeles, and Dallas, among others. I’ll also be speaking briefly in Brazil and Albania, and making a two-week trip through Italy, Austria, and Romania. Okay, so maybe next year won’t be that much quieter. Either way, I’d love to meet you at one of those events!
But for most of 2024, I’ll be focusing on the blog—on writing articles just as I’ve done for the past 20+ years. Blogging is still what I love the best.
As for the family:
Michaela is home for the holidays and it is a delight to have her around again. While Aileen and I enjoyed our first stretch of empty-nesting, there’s something to be said for having a little more life and activity in the home! Michaela is taking one course remotely during the break while also working whatever hours she can get from a nearby grocery store.
Nathan and Abby will be making their way up in early January to spend some time here. And, as importantly, they will be doing Nathan’s immigration paperwork (i.e. getting landed). They should both be graduating from Boyce College in May and plan to move this way shortly thereafter. Their first challenge will be to find a place to live in the crazy Toronto-area rental market. We are praying they find just the right work and living situations.
Ryn is living and working in Louisville. We don’t anticipate seeing her over the holidays, but will get some time with her when we visit Louisville in the spring and when we enjoy a family vacation together in the summer.
Aileen continues to work part-time as an administrative assistant for a neighbor who is in real estate. She also gives a lot of her time to overseeing the Early Years Ministry at our church, which includes the bustling nursery and preschool programs.
As we head into the holidays, I plan to maintain a slightly lighter-than-usual blogging schedule, but will still have something for you every day. In the meantime, may God bless and keep you and those who are dear to you through this season of celebration.

Today’s Kindle deals include a few interesting books.

(Yesterday on the blog: 40 More Random Pieces of Advice for the Christian Life)
Fathers, Lead the Way
Here’s a reflection for fathers in the lead-up to Father’s Day.
Let Your Sins Be Strong
“We all tend to minimize our sinfulness. We look at the wrongs we have done and do everything we can to try and justify our actions. Doing this, however, fails to take full ownership of our sins.”
A Christian Perspective on the Meaning of Life
It’s a question we all need to ask at some point, an issue we all need to consider: What are we here for?
What tree does the fruit grow on?
“Western Europe (and North America) is moving further and further from its moorings in a Christian view of life. Some are glad to see the back of what they might term ‘superstitious nonsense’. Others are deeply troubled that the religious foundations with which they grew up are being shaken.”
How Do I Forgive?
Sometimes forgiveness isn’t quite as easy as we think it will be…
9Marks Journal
For those interested in some slightly more academic reading, there is a new issue of the 9Marks Journal available to read for free.
Flashback: Consecutive Exposition Is Not the Only Way
His approach was not to simply pluck a text from the Bible, but to take a text from God through the Bible. He would not labor to exposit his text until he had labored to discover his text.

No one thing either deforms or weakens the Church more than division. —John Brinsley

Good morning! Grace and peace to you.

(Yesterday on the blog: Keys To Knowing God’s Will for Your Life)
Still
Chris Thomas: “Stillness can be elusive; a mirage of anticipation that beckons yet fails to deliver. I’ve searched for it, grasped at it, despaired at it, and been surprised by it. Sometimes I’ve forgotten it. But then, like an old friend unseen for a decade or more, stillness creeps up on me in some hidden place and embraces me as though it had been only yesterday that we had said goodbye. Such is the way of stillness.”
The Relentlessness of God’s Grace
“I’m amazed — stunned, actually — at the relentlessness of God’s grace.” Darryl Dash explains why.
The ten minutes after church ends
This is a good challenge. “There’s nothing wrong with being a creature of habit, but many of us have the same routine at the end of a church service as we do at the conclusion of a sporting event or any other public gathering. We gather our belongings, utter some niceties, and shuffle toward the exits. That’s a problem. More specifically, it’s a bad habit.”
What Does it Mean to Examine Yourself Before Taking Communion?
David Kaywood explains how to examine yourself before taking communion. “It’s widely known among Christians that communion should be taken seriously. But sometimes I wonder if God’s people feel an unhealthy amount of angst when coming to the Lord’s table.”
What does it mean to ‘not associate with’ an unrepentant person?
Meanwhile, Stephen Kneale considers the unrepentant person Jesus speaks of and asks, “What does Jesus mean by this? How are we supposed to treat such an unrepentant person like a tax collector or Gentile?”
A Happy Beginning
Seth Lewis reflects on an anniversary and says, “in real life, a wedding is not the end of the story. It’s the beginning of a new chapter, one that could easily be longer and more complex than anything that came before it.”
Flashback: Post the Strongest Soldiers at the Weakest Gate
When we know where the enemy is likely to attack, when we know where our defenses are weakest, we can prepare ourselves for the inevitable onslaught.

My security as a Christian does not reside in the strength of my faith but in the indestructibility of my Savior. —Sinclair Ferguson