The Lord be with you and bless you on this fine day.

There is once again a nice long list of Kindle deals to browse through, headlined by two apologetics words: Keller’s The Reason for God and Scrivener’s new The Air We Breathe.
Westminster Books has put together a Christmas Gift Guide with all sorts of good deals.
Trusting God Through Terminal Illness
This is quite an article. “I quickly progressed to using a wheelchair and had to give up the job I loved, teaching kids to play music. Within a few months, I was totally dependent on my wife to feed me, get me dressed and take me places. Within a year, I had lost the ability to eat and now I am losing my ability to speak. I use a ventilator to breathe, am fed by a tube in my stomach and spend my days in a specially adapted chair. I am very thankful that I have an eye-tracking device so that I can still use a computer and turn on the TV.”
Eleven Factors For Helpful Short-Term Trips
It’s important to do short-term missions trips well. This article provides helpful guidance.
Exciting New Resources from Visual Theology
Visual Theology is excited to announce several great new resources. They’ve created their annual Advent countdown poster in full color as well as a version you can color each day. And new for this year is a complete coloring book! For 29 days, you’ll follow the Christmas story as told in four distinct aspects of the Gospel. Both for kids and adults, start your Advent countdown today! Subscribe to their newsletter, and you’ll get the first week of coloring pages for free. (Sponsored)
Is Numbers 5 Unjust to Women?
Wendy Alsup: “When we read the Old Testament laws, it can seem like women get a raw deal. It’s hard to see a gracious God behind the laws that deal with rape, incest, and adultery, like the law we find in Numbers 5. But, as we take a closer look, we see that God has abundant mercy for women on display—even in these laws.”
Everybody’s Marriage Impacts Everybody Else’s. That’s How Social Institutions Work.
Derek Rishmawy considers David French’s “flip flop flip” on gay civil marriage and explains why his recent compromise is harmful.
Two Medieval Misconceptions
“When it comes to the period right before the Reformation, I’ve always had certain notions about what the church was like. As I’ve read more, I’ve come to realize that some of those notions are generally true, while others are only occasionally true.”
Flashback: A Simple But Life-Changing Realization
I was devastated when I heard an older friend I admired more than just about anyone else say, “I don’t think it matters where I get my appetite, as long as I eat at home.” Was that really the best I could hope for, that I’d be outwardly faithful to a wife but inwardly I would wander?

God loves us too well to grant every request of our selfish hearts. —H.A. Ironside

Good morning. Grace and peace to you.
Today’s Kindle deals include some choice titles from Crossway.
(Yesterday on the blog: God Takes Us Into His Confidence)

Garrett Kell: “We don’t often question God’s goodness in days of ease. We easily see his benevolence when the sun shines and flowers bloom. But when wintry woes blow in, God’s goodness seems extinct. Dark clouds turn everything to gray. Cold winds of affliction bite and sting us. Our souls become numb in ways that tempt us to give up and withdraw from everyone, including God. The good news is that even when we doubt, our God holds us fast.”

Vanessa Le offers some challenging and encouraging words to newlyweds (and not-so-newlyweds).

Marshall Segal considers that “Satan knows how prone we can be to turn to sin in our suffering — and he preys on that weakness.” He does not fight fair!

The Bible tells us to be “worthy of the gospel.” But what does this mean and is it really possible? Marli Scarborough answers well.

Writing for TGC India, Sravanthi Penmetcha tells how trusting Jesus is the first step to trusting people—the path from self-sufficiency to trusting and relying upon God’s people.

“What are the gods that already have a grip of your devotion? Where would you be most defensive if a loved one were to prod? What do you lean to as an emotional prop? What have you stopped fighting against because you’ve failed too many times?”

When a church takes baptism seriously, this baptism becomes a pillar or monument the Christian can look back on later in life. When times are difficult, when assurance is lacking, when faith is wavering, we can encourage that person to “Look! Look back to your baptism!”

No matter how intense or long-standing the struggle, it is the work of Jesus Christ to set people free from such sin.
—Heath Lambert

Welcome to September! Grace and peace to you today.

As you know, the launch event for Seasons of Sorrow is coming up on Monday. You can still sign up to come. Alternatively, it seems that the event will be recorded and released a few days later to those with a Virtual Pass to the Sing! conference. You can save 35% on any of the virtual passes with code CHALLIES35.
There’s a long list of Kindle deals, most of them geared toward the academics among us.
(Yesterday on the blog: So You’ve Been Told You Should Read Some Old Books…)
Why the (mis)labeling of pregnancy resource centers on Yelp needs to be corrected
“Now, more than ever, technology companies must not bow to the pressure of abortion advocates, government leaders, and the abortion industry in limiting access to life-altering information for women in crisis. Access to accurate information in order to make life-and-death decisions should be at the very core of these businesses’ values.”
How to see Mt. Rainier
This is a good illustration. “One of my favorite things about living in that area was the magnificent views that can be had of the Olympic Mountains to the west, and especially of Mt. Rainier to the south-east which is so enormous and so distant that it looks more like a vision or something painted in the sky than a mountain of solid rock. One of my least favorite things however, was how cloudy and foggy it is there.”
Elegant Orthodoxy: The Thirty-nine Articles of Religion
“The Anglican Church’s Thirty-nine Articles of Religion aren’t comprehensive. They don’t answer every theological or ecclesiastical question a follower of Jesus might have. But there’s an elegance in the Articles’ brevity and simplicity that both roots us in the historic church and is timely today.”
A Jesus Misjudged?
“What is Christ doing in his church? What are the ways that we should interpret the–sometimes dark–providences of God in building, reforming, censuring, or comforting the church? We are not as skilled as we ought to be in judging the work of Jesus in our midst; and that’s always been the case.” I agree with this.
Even after His Death, Jesus Fulfilled the Law
“What if Jesus broke the Law of Moses? Would that impact your faith? Would it change significant points of Christian doctrine? The short answer is a resounding yes.” It’s interesting to consider that Jesus fulfilled the law not only during his life, but also after his death.
Forgive the Unforgivable
God asks us to do some difficult things. “Here’s the unvarnished truth: Those things you think you can’t forgive? Jesus wants you to forgive them. He demands it.”
Flashback: Writing Tips: Tools & Context
I love to write, I write often, and I share my writing publicly. For those reasons I am often asked to share tips. How can I write more? How can I write better?…Today I want to offer a handful of new tips that are a little bit different from the kind I have offered before.

God made us to be light makers, and the spotlight is meant to shine right back on him. —Jen Oshman