The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

ONE Audio books has a free audiobook for you to download—Piper’s The Romantic Rationalist.
There is once again quite an extensive list of Kindle deals for you to take a look at.
The Light Gets Through
This is a sweet one from Melissa. “Their names are Jack and Wanda, and they’ve been married for 70 years. This week I saw a photograph of them that drew me in to a brief moment of their long life together, a photograph that told a story.”
Identity Politics at the King’s Coronation
Carl Trueman: “My old country is now a foreign country to the one in which I grew up. This became strikingly clear to me last week, when it was announced that the king’s coronation celebrations in May would feature an LGBTQ+ choir. To be clear, it is not the make-up of the choir that makes the most striking statement about how Britain has changed from the country I knew.”
The Hidden Super-Stars of Missions
Who are the hidden superstars of missions? This article will tell you—and explain how you can be one.
Words That Lead
“It used to make me feel funny, intuiting this belief that folks have regarding writers, which goes something like this: It must be nice to have so much free time to write articles, posts, and books, rather than working like the rest of humanity.” Kristin carries on with an enjoyable reflection on the task and calling of writing.
Feeding our Longing
“Have you ever felt like there was more to life than this? Known some sense of longing for the future?” Haven’t we all?
Is It Too Difficult For God?
“I raised my head toward heaven and closed my eyes. I expected the red sea to part, Moses with the face of Charlton Heston, complete with flowing robe and raised staff. I prayed for the waters to stand high and for Charity to walk with strong legs on dry ground. I anticipated drama. I had faith to move mountains. I trusted. But, like every day since the illness began, when I opened my eyes, Charity lay in unbearable eerie stillness.”
Flashback: A Few Practical Pointers on Sexual Intimacy
A successful sexual relationship depends upon communication. And yet sex is one of the most difficult things to talk about—at least to talk about productively. A husband and wife need to learn to communicate, to speak often and well, about intimacy.

Walk with God and you will never take the wrong road, even by mistake. You have His infallible wisdom to direct you, His immutable love to comfort you, and His eternal power to defend you. —Charles Spurgeon

It’s probably more than a little cliché to point out that we are a busy people who live in a busy time. And while we tend to think there is something unique to the modern context that pushes us especially hard toward overwork, as I have read the books of previous eras I have come to see that the issue transcends the trappings of the world as it is today. There may be some unique components to today’s context, but the issue is much deeper and much older. I dare say it is universal.

It is little wonder that we have a host of books meant to relieve our busyness, or at least to focus it. Many of these books are tremendously helpful and many of them offer useful guidance. The best of them go beyond technique to diagnose and correct the issue from a spiritual perspective. New to the field is a unique and uniquely challenging book from Ian Carmichael titled Busy: Tackling the Problem of an Overloaded Christian Life.
It bears mentioning from the outset that this is not a book that teaches processes or techniques. It is not meant to introduce a new system of productivity. Rather, it is meant to “avoid magic bullets and instead look with you at what God has to say in the Bible about busyness. By which I don’t mean looking for a verse in the book of Proverbs that says something vaguely connected with productivity and using it as a pretext to say what I wanted to say about productivity anyway. No, I mean going to the Bible in search of answers to some of the most fundamental questions about our life’s meaning and purpose—what God created us to do—and seeing what implications that has for our lives.”
In Carmichael’s framing of the issue, busyness is not necessarily bad and may actually be very good, just depending on how it is defined and understood. He begins with ensuring we understand a central truth of the Christian faith—that we are made in the image of God. An implication is that just as God works, so we were made to work. Hence “the bottom line is this: well-directed busyness is actually a good thing. It reflects the nature of God as a worker, and the truth that ‘whatever you do’ can be done ‘as for the Lord’ (Col 3:23). In other words, busyness is not necessarily the enemy. Busyness is definitely not a dirty word.” But then it’s equally true that we were made to rest—“to draw aside from our work and busyness to rest and remember God, and engage with him as our Creator and rescuer,” something he refers to as “God rest.”
At this point the book takes an unexpected turn as Carmichael introduces the Bible’s great metanarrative which he summarizes as going from Point A (creation) to Point B (new creation). Knowing that we are saved by grace frees us from the need to try to earn our salvation and frees us to obey God in leading others from Point A to Point B—to essentially be busy in this crucial work that God has assigned to us through both evangelism and discipleship. This is work we engage in through the local church and through our private lives—work which needs to play a key role in the decisions we make in life.

The mistake we are tempted to make is in thinking about it as my agenda for my life. That is a wrong way to think about it as Christians, because “it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me”. The life agenda we adopt has to now be thought of as Jesus’ agenda for his life in me. As Christians, we must relinquish any sense of entitlement to the control of our lives or the setting of our own priorities, whilst at the same time thoughtfully setting priorities and making choices about what we do.

What we Need to do is find the right balance of work and rest as we pursue the priorities God has assigned to us.
At the end there are several appendices dealing with matters such as paid employment, the local church, and family life. But there is no app to download, no journal to buy, no technique to master. There is instead much to ponder, much to pray about, and perhaps much to course-correct.
Busy offers a unique take on busyness and one that strikes to the very heart of our God-given purpose. It is a book that blessed and challenged me and, I trust, one that will bless and challenge you as well. I am glad to recommend it.

My thanks goes to Reformation Heritage Books for sponsoring the blog this week. Their book Taming the Fingers is an important one for our times!

Today’s Kindle deals include several newer books and a few older ones as well.
(Yesterday on the blog: Missionary, Explorer, Abolitionist)
How Were the Books of the Bible “Chosen”?
As you may surmise from the quotation marks around the world “chosen,” that this doesn’t exactly describe what happened. “This particular framing of the question has a number of built-in assumptions that need to be recognized.”
Have We Misunderstood Paul on Homosexuality?
Wes Bredenhof shows how Mike Wittmer answers that question is in his excellent new book.
21 Ways God Is Sovereign Over the Environment
“It’s amazing how much time and energy is spent thinking and talking about environmental issues today. Sadly, most of it is done without any reference to God, who controls every aspect of it. Whether rain or snow, cold or heat, wind or stagnant air, the Lord is the one who continues to uphold it by the mighty power of His Son.” Paul Tautges explains.
Credo Magazine
There is a new issue of Credo magazine available to read. It’s free for the taking. “In this issue of Credo, contributors show that natural theology is a practice supported by Scripture and exemplified by the Reformed tradition, a tradition indebted to great thinkers like Augustine and Aquinas. With the Psalmist, readers can say with confidence, ‘The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.’”
Why we do not evangelise
Chopo Mwanza offers some thoughts on why we don’t evangelize.
Standing Strong in Affliction
“I have experienced seasons I thought would be the most uncomplicated or joyful of my life, but instead, they brought afflictions, problems, illness, or conflict. Some of those challenges even threatened my spiritual health and vitality. I did not bear much fruit in those seasons. And many of the issues seemed to come out of nowhere.“
Flashback: The Touch
As his fingers brushed against their bodies, they would be made whole—bones would be knit back together, ligaments would be strengthened, eyes would be opened, ears would be unstopped.

Every exposition of Scripture is an extended personal counseling session in which the Holy Spirit shows us the wonder and power of the gospel and also exposes the secrets of our hearts. —Sinclair Ferguson