The Lord be with you and bless you today, my friends.

(Yesterday on the blog: Seasons of Sorrow: The Pain of Loss and the Comfort of God)
Sexual ethics and colonialism for the modern age
This article considers the strange contradictions between society’s hatred of an old form of colonialism and its love of a new one.
The Miracle In Newgate
“The gentle, kindly face of Elizabeth Fry was chosen by the Bank of England to grace the £5 note between 2002 and 2016, reflecting the high regard in which she continues to be held almost two hundred years after her death. Through her work as a prison reformer the lives of thousands of convicts were transformed. Yet that was just one part of her far-ranging ministry which is still influential today. At the heart of her thinking and practice was the regular reading of the Bible.”
Submit Your Felt Reality to God
“A number of years ago, a counselor friend of mine introduced a simple and accessible concept that he regularly uses in his practice. He calls it ‘felt reality.’” This is a good and useful term!
The Return of the Culture War
“Here’s something you often hear people say as they get older: ‘I remember the last time that was popular.’ Fashions once considered outdated come back in style. Movements arise and subside, and then surge again. A benefit of age is the wisdom and perspective you bring to the current moment. History doesn’t always repeat itself or move in predictable cyclical patterns, but the more you study it and the longer you live, the more you see how the present and the past rhyme.” With that, Trevin Wax reflects on the return of the culture war.
It Rots the Bones
“Many months ago, I received an email from a dear, faithful reader, asking for help. Her life was quickly unraveling, and in the midst of persistent heartache, she had fallen headlong into envy. Jealousy towards a woman in her church, whose life seemed quite perfect. This jealousy was destroying her, from the inside out. Envy is the thief of contentment, isn’t it? It reveals an idol tucked in the heart.” It does, indeed.
Charles Spurgeon’s Battle with Depression
“Charles Spurgeon (1834–1892) preached to approximately 10 million people in his lifetime, often speaking ten times a week. His 3,561 sermons are bound in sixty-three volumes, and in addition he wrote many books. Wonderful as those accomplishments were, they put demands on his life that no doubt contributed to his battles with depression. (Not least of all that he often worked eighteen hours a day!)”
Flashback: The Benefits and Drawbacks of Following a Parenting Method
We, as parents, can and should learn from methods, but be very cautious about following them too rigidly. We must always ensure our confidence in parenting has not subtly shifted from the goodness of God to the performance of methodology.

Happy the man within reach of a library, the shelves of which are well lined with books of holy biography! —F.B. Meyer

Thirty percent of families in the US are led by a single parent. Nearly nineteen million children have just one parent in their home. And while the actual numbers will vary from nation to nation, most of the Western world experiences something similar—large numbers of families that are led by just one parent. Sometimes the cause is divorce, sometimes death, sometimes unplanned pregnancy, and sometimes any number of other factors. But the reality is that more people than ever are raising families alone.

God’s Grace for Every Family

And this makes me wonder: Are our churches a safe and attractive place for such families? Do we welcome them and make them feel accepted? Do we account for them in our ministries, in our programs, in our sermon application? Do we acknowledge that single-parent families not only exist, but form a significant part of the population? Do we truly value them?
It was these questions that compelled me to read Anna Meade Harris’ new book God’s Grace for Every Family: Biblical Encouragement for Single-Parent Families and the Churches That Seek to Love Them Well. Though I do not have experience in being part of a single-parent family, I do serve a church that has included a good number of them. And I have wondered if we have served them well. Her book is meant to provide comfort and counsel to single parents while also informing and training churches to love them well.
Harris became a single parent in 2010 after her husband succumbed to colon cancer. At that time, their boys were nine, twelve, and thirteen years of age. And she was left to finish raising those boys and to press on in life without her spouse, her partner in so many of life’s blessings and challenges.
“In these pages,” she says, “I celebrate what my boys and I learned about the steadfast love of God for single parents and their children and invite the rest of the church to witness his grace made visible in our families. But before I could appreciate God’s grace for myself, I had to discover how limited and needy I truly am.” In other words, she had to come to terms with her own “not-enoughness.” She had to admit her need and inability. This introduces a section of the book that functions like a kind of guided tour of the particular challenges of single parenting. She writes about fear, grief, exhaustion, loneliness, vulnerability, uncertainty, shame, and pride. Though each of these may exist among any of us, they can be especially pronounced in those who are parenting alone.
Later, each of these factors receives a chapter-length treatment. A few stood out to me. Her chapter on fear explains why single parents may bear an extra measure of fear as they not only grapple with some form of loss, but also as they consider raising children without a second, complementary parent. Her chapter on exhaustion helped me understand how a church’s programs are often built around the capabilities of a two-parent home in which responsibilities are divided between a father and mother and in which someone else is often available to care for the children. 
Her chapter on vulnerability helped me better appreciate how single moms are often especially vulnerable in any number of ways and often carry that sense of vulnerability with them throughout life. And her chapter on shame helped me understand how churches can inadvertently increase the sense of shame that so many single parents carry, even when the circumstances that led to being single are in no way their fault. These lessons and so many more have helped me better understand, better appreciate the challenges, and, I trust, better love those who are living them out.
“Single parents want nothing more than to love their children, to provide and protect, to see them heal and thrive, but doing that alone seems virtually impossible. At times, that impossibility threatens to break our hearts.” The hope and confidence in this book is that the challenges of doing all this alone can be met within the church where God’s family can step up, care, love, and provide. The church is meant to be a place where the fatherless can find a father figure and the motherless a mother figure, a place where many brothers will reach out to assist a needy sister and many sisters will reach out to assist a needy brother. It is, in short, a place where God means to bless every family—even, and perhaps especially, those families who are most broken and most in need of his grace.

Logos users, we are getting near the end of March Matchups and the deals keep getting better. Also be sure to vote in the second-to-last round.

God Saved Me from a Polygamist Cult
“When people ask my wife and me how we met, the story of how Christ met us inevitably takes over. It’s unavoidable from the moment I say, ‘Well, we actually met in a polygamous Mormon cult.’ Eyes grow wide, and folks eventually find a few words like, ‘Wait . . . what?’ Their questions lead us into a testimony to boundless grace. It’s a story of doubt, God’s stubborn love, some dead friends, and a book by Tim Keller.”
How the Holy Spirit Helps Us Read Scripture
We know that the Scriptures are inspired, but as Jonathan Pennington explains here, “the Holy Spirit’s role does not stop with the writing of the texts. Good interpretation is also dependent on the ongoing work of the Spirit to in-spire us to understand, receive, and apply what God has spoken.”
Match of the Day Without Commentary – Lessons for the Church
This article considers the way pastors may say too much or too little as they lead a worship service.
Is my depression really part of God’s plan?
Stephen Kneale: “Somebody asked me yesterday whether I thought my getting depression was part of God’s plan. I thought that was a really interesting question and thought I would share my view on that here.”
How we lost our families and movies in one move
Mwansa Mbewe has a bit of a fiery one here to explain how and why Africa is losing its stories.
Why Read If You Forget Most Everything Anyway?
“If you can’t remember most of what you read, why even bother? Aren’t there better ways to use your time?” Trevin answers exactly the way I would (and often have).
Flashback: Drowning in an Ocean of Encouragement
Just as we have been taught to take 10 looks at the cross for every one look at ourselves, perhaps we ought to speak 10 words that will build up—or better yet, a hundred—for every word that might pull down.

We need the all-sufficiency of Jesus applied in rich measure to our deepest points of personal need. —Ray Ortlund