The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you today.

Westminster Books has a deal on one of the books I’m most excited about this year.
Another round of Logos’ March Matchups is ready for your vote. Also, there are deals to be had on resources that have already been eliminated.
Cancel Culture Is Not Speaking Truth to Power. It’s Just Speaking Power.
Samuel James: “Cancel culture does not keep people “accountable.” It does punish them. It does trigger bad consequences for them. It can make them go away and not say or do anything online anymore. But this is not accountability; it’s just erasure.”
Blessed at a Distance: some thoughts on the passing of Rev. Edward Donnelly
This is a sweet reflection on the death of a godly man. “The ministry of Ted Donnelly found its global connections before the internet. His endearment to people globally was hard-won through his investment in God’s people personally, but this wasn’t via commodifying his gifts to get personal recognition. His was no meteoric rise via social media influence, but the steady consensus among otherwise disparate gatherings of Christians that he was a man who cared about Christ and for his people.” (See also Tribute to Pastor Edward “Ted” Donnelly)
The Justifications of Polygamists
“Why does it still happen when polygamy is technically illegal in our area and when the culture itself has proverbs that speak to its danger? For something that is so foreign to us in the West (at least for now), it’s helpful to understand the justifications used by other societies for polygamy so that we can more skillfully oppose it with biblical truth.” (See also Polygamy in the Bible Is Not Prescriptive)
Just Do It
Kristin considers God’s good providence in a time of difficulty. “Through this inconvenience, I have been surprised to discover that it is good to be disrupted. For life, as we know it, to be jolted, even in diminutive ways. God wastes absolutely nothing but designs hardships for our good.”
So, You Want to be a Pastor?
Sean DeMars: “My aim in this article is not to scare young men away from ministry, but to give them a clearer vision of what a life of shepherding looks like and to challenge them to count the cost before entering it (Luke 14:28-29). The ministry of the pastor is a ministry of sacrifice, most of which is unforeseen.”
The Old Testament Is Christian Scripture
Here is a good and helpful reminder that the Old Testament, too, is Christian scripture.
Flashback: How to Be a Good Christian With Minimal Effort
You asked for a few practical tips on living the Christian life. It means a lot to me that you’d ask. I completely understand how busy you are and how it’s daunting to add this new thing into an already-packed life…So let me offer a few tips on living your new life as a follower of Christ.

Embracing the truth that God accepts us apart from good works is the precise thing that causes us to excel in good works. —Matt Perman

The God of love and peace be with you today.

(Yesterday on the blog: Most To Jesus I Surrender (or Maybe Just Some))
Love Is
This is a sweet reflection on the nature of love.
Should Students Use AI for Writing Assignments?
“Can AI be used legitimately in the process of writing an academic assignment? My own institution has assembled a task force to determine what we consider legitimate and illegitimate use. In the meantime, here’s my own initial, not-yet-fully-processed take: Using AI for early research is OK. Using AI to write is wrong.” This makes sense to me.
Is Technology Causing Me to Disobey God in my Reading?
And speaking of technology: “Because reading requires serious meditation and intentional reflection, allowing technology to disrupt and distract me detracts from the purposes of reading. But it’s not just the impact on my general reading that has me concerned, but the potential influence it will have on my spiritual reading.”
What are some misconceptions of Calvinism? (Video)
This video addresses a few common misconceptions of Calvinism.
The Key To Understanding The Bible
“All through the Bible, the blessings of faith are for those who trust. The blessings of obedience are for those who obey. The generosity of God is for those who admit their need and come to him. The wisdom of God is for those who listen.”
Words Grow Wiser with Age
This is so good. “We should take care to position ourselves as experts on anything unless we truly are qualified for such a title. Instead, let’s be slow to speak, because wisdom is often found and best communicated with such careful treading, and our words will likely grow better with age.”
Flashback: Showing Mercy in A Feeding Frenzy
Far more people know their financial poverty than their spiritual poverty. Don’t we feel a deep compassion toward those who do not know Jesus and who don’t even know that they need him?

The reason God commands us to love Him with all our heart is not because He is an egomaniac! It is because He knows that anything we love more than Him will betray us. —Matt Papa

My annual journey through Scripture has once again taken me to the early books of the Old Testament and those long passages in which God lays out the laws that are meant to govern his covenant people as they come into their promised land. Among the laws are a whole host that describe the system of sacrifices. So many sacrifices to serve so many purposes!

As I worked my way through chapter after chapter, I noticed one recurring theme: the people are meant to bring to the Lord what is first and what is best. Where they may be tempted to wait until their barns are full and their larders stuffed before offering their sacrifice, God demands the firstfruits. Where they may be tempted to sacrifice the animals that are lame or unsightly and that can otherwise serve no good purpose, God demands what is perfect and unblemished. He makes clear that if his people are to worship him, they must worship him in ways that prove he is their first priority.
And as I read I began to wonder: Do I give God what is first and what is best in my life? I don’t even mean the first of my money or the first of my possessions, because in my context those concepts don’t even really make sense. What is the firstfruits of a paycheck and what is a spotless and unblemished sacrifice in a twenty-first century urban context? What do these things mean when our worship no longer revolves around an intricate system of sacrifices?
Yet the New Testament does demand at least one kind of sacrifice. “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” (Romans 12:1). Where in the Old Testament God’s people were to sacrifice an animal, we are to sacrifice our bodies and, more than that, to sacrifice our very selves. As we come to Christ we are to surrender to him our bodies and souls, our attitudes and actions, our time and talents, our dreams and desires, our … everything.
This is why we sing songs like, “Take My Life, and Let It Be” in which we piously say,

Take my life and let it beconsecrated, Lord, to thee.

And, later:

Take myself, and I will beever, only, all for thee.

Or “All to Jesus I Surrender”:

All to Jesus I surrender,All to Him I freely give;I will ever love and trust Him,In His presence daily live.
I surrender all, I surrender all;All to Thee, my blessed Savior,I surrender all.

But I wonder: Do we really mean it? Are we really “ever, only, all for thee?” Do we really surrender all? Or do we surrender merely some or most? Do we offer him the best of what we have or those bits we know we can do okay without? Do we really fully surrender to him those things that we love most, or do we effectively bring him what is lame and spotted, what is of little consequence and low on our list of priorities? Do we surrender the firstfruits of our lives or the lastfruits?
“I surrender all,” except my money and comfort. “Take my life” but not my position or reputation. “Take my heart it is thine own,” but please don’t take that sin I enjoy so much. “Take all I have Lord,” minus my health and strength, minus my spouse and children. “All to Jesus I surrender,” except those things I value most. We may as well be the Israelites of old entering the temple with the ugliest of our animals, the leftovers of our harvest.
When we come to Christ we must come all the way, which means we do not merely surrender our souls, but ourselves. Our prayer is to be not just “save me” but “use me.” “Use me even if it involves pain. Use me even if it involves loss. Use me even if it means you must break me. I love you, I trust you, and I surrender all.”

May the Lord be with you and bless you today.

Westminster Books has a special on a new book you may want to consider for the kids or grandkids.
The steady stream of Kindle deals continues today.
24 Lessons from 24 Years of Marriage
Jen reflects on 24 years of marriage by offering 24 lessons she has learned along the way.
Pastoring in a Pandemic: Of Grey Hair and Glory
This is an interesting take from Mark Jones. “Moving forward, even today, where the wounds have not fully healed, will only be possible if we can all try to admit we may have made mistakes, acted with self-righteousness at times, and failed to adequately appreciate that certain contexts were fraught with problems we cannot fully understand or appreciate. Love believes all things, and I’d like to believe that while my brothers who defied were acting in love, the same was also true of us who did not defy but did so out of love as well.”
Tuma Kitu Home
Writing from a Kenyan context, Kuza writes about the cultural obligation for children to provide for their parents and family. “Does scripture advise on how to approach this matter of family support? Is it in line with the principles set forth for the saint as an expression of practical love? Yes.”
The Trauma of Criticism
I appreciate this pastoral letter. “The truth is that all of us find criticism difficult. If you are anything like me your initial response to criticism is often pretty ungodly and I find it tempting to climb up on my defensive high horse. Tragically, criticism can be devastating and send us into a spiral of self pity.”
God Cares for the Odd Sparrow
“Sometimes I can read the Bible and miss something totally obvious. For example, have you ever noticed that Jesus tells of God’s care of the sparrows two different ways?”
Never Underestimate the Power of a Handwritten Note
“We live in a day and time where life is lived digitally more than ever before. We communicate primarily through apps, texts, and emails. Businesses increasingly send advertisements, bills, and communications via email than snail mail. Even birthday cards are now sent virtually. This means, a handwritten note is a rare gift.” Yes, rare and a gift.
Flashback: The Uninvited Lodger
God’s righteous anger toward his people is real, but lasts only as long as necessary; his favor toward his people is equally real, and never ends.

…if we fasten ourselves to Christ when life is a sinking ship, then we learn to treasure him as our anchor. We discover that our faithfulness is tethered to his, especially during the troubling seasons of life. —Glenna Marshall

Blessings to you on this fine day.

Today’s Kindle deals include a couple of interesting titles.
March Matchups at Logos is on to round 2, so head over and vote.
(Yesterday on the blog: Revival at Asbury: A Cold Take)
George Whitefield Tried to Kill Me
I expect there’s a good number of pastors (and non-pastors) who would benefit from reading this one.
AI is Here: The Precocious Adolescence of Artificial Intelligence
“AI is here. We knew it was coming, but it feels too soon. Like when your little boy’s voice breaks and you suddenly realize he needs deodorant and a shave.” Clint has quite an interesting reflection on AI and ChatGPT here.
The Blessing of Forgiving Our Parents
“Are you convinced yet that you need to forgive? I’ve had some trouble with these verses in the past—not because I was unwilling to forgive, but because I seemed unable to forgive. Especially when it came to those who had inflicted deep wounds in my childhood.”
The Joy of Being Forgiven
This article seems to nicely complement the previous one.
Where do you get that from the text?
This is so important when it comes to studying the Bible and living the Christian life. “It’s a simple little question, isn’t it? Where do you get that from the text? Simple, but effective. Not only effective, but really quite important.”
Are Christians Obligated to Vote?
John Piper considers whether Christians can, should, or must vote.
Flashback: When the Best Part Is the Door
…the pleasures of this life are nothing more than the the foyer, the atrium, the entranceway to much greater joys beyond.

The astonishing surprise at the heart of the universe is not that there is only one way to get to heaven. The astonishing surprise is that there is any way to get to heaven for miserable sinners such as us. —Dane Ortlund

Today’s post is sponsored by Christian Focus Publications, and written by Brian J. Wright and John R. Brown, authors of the God’s Daring Dozen series.

 “Mommy, Daddy, who were the Minor Prophets?”
“Well, there’s Jonah and ….”
And unfortunately, most parents are stumped at one. The Minor Prophets make up nearly a fifth of the books of Scripture, yet few people are familiar with even their names, much less their content. Now, however, there are books available that introduce both adults and children to these amazing men of God.
Introducing Kids (and Parents) to the Minor Prophets
God’s Daring Dozen is the first children’s picture book series on the Minor Prophets in the history of children’s literature. These books faithfully convey this neglected portion of God’s word in a way that is engaging and understandable for adults and children alike.
This series has several other significant features:

The authors are seminary-trained pastors, who are also parents.
The illustrations are archaeologically informed, from the Assyrian armies to the Babylonian gates.
The figures are realistically presented to emphasize that these men actually lived, and these events actually occurred.
The titles are taglines to make the books’ messages memorable: Obadiah and the Ninevites, Joel and the Locusts, Malachi’s Final Message, etc.
The words intentionally reflect God’s word. For example, the first word in the Hebrew text of Jonah is “And it happened,” so the opening words of Jonah’s Journeysare, “And it happened.” The book of Nahum ends with a question, therefore so does Nahum & the Ninevites.
Prolonged divine speech is preserved in the children’s books when indicated by the prophets, like Nahum and Malachi.
The themes of the biblical books, like the Day of the Lord in Joel, are echoed in their illustrated summaries.
Messianic images and prophesies are highlighted, and New Testament references to them are mentioned.
The books are situated in the context of redemption history and the gospel message.

This level of detail—examining the original language, researching archaeological findings, reviewing commentaries and reference works—is unique for a children’s series, yet the authors are committed to accurately communicating God’s inspired revelation.
Why Do Children (and Parents) Need to Understand These Canonical Works?
The Minor Prophets are inspired revelation to equip us. That’s why Paul wrote, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work (2 Tim 3.16–17).” The Minor Prophets contain God’s warnings to sober us. “Return to Me,” declares the Lord of hosts, “that I may return to you” (Zech 1.3). The Minor Prophets are divine instruction to encourage us. Whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope (Rom 15.4).
Jesus modeled using “all the Prophets” to teach about Himself (Luke 24:27). The early church did likewise (Act 10:43), as did Christian families in the first century (2 Tim 3:15). Will you?
Grab your set God’s Daring Dozen books from your local Christian bookstore, or from the Christian Focus website.

The revival at Asbury has already come to an end. What began as a brief and simple chapel service turned into a weeks-long worship event that drew tens of thousands of participants and elicited tens of millions of opinions. Only now have I gathered my thoughts and bundled them into this “cold take.” I trust you won’t mind that I’ve chosen to share it as a series of short thoughts rather than a single essay.

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Some things may be wrong or misguided, but not particularly dangerous. A small revival (or purported revival if you prefer) at a small college far away does not necessarily demand a great deal of scrutiny by those who have no connection to it. While it is good to have “powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil” (Hebrews 5:14) there is usually little need to put the effort into what does not intersect your life and what is unlikely to cause anyone any great harm. Those biblical calls to discernment ought to be considered alongside the exhortations about meddling in affairs that are not your own.
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Revival is not a clear biblical category like, for example, deacon or baptize. It’s not a word we find in the New Testament, and it does not tell us to try to generate revivals or be on watch for them. It doesn’t even instruct us to pray for them, though that may be a very good thing to do. It’s clear that God sometimes chooses to work in ways that we choose to label revival, but God’s greatest and most consistent work is through the ordinary means of grace within the local church. Because the Bible does not define revival, it may be difficult to know exactly what one is and exactly when one is happening. It may describe a range of circumstances and experiences.
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The New Dictionary of Theology offers a helpful definition of revival: “God’s quickening visitation of his people, touching their hearts and deepening his work of grace in their lives. It is essentially a corporate occurrence, an enlivening of individuals not in isolation but together.” If this is an appropriate definition, then examples abound in Scripture and church history. And if this is an appropriate definition it does not set the bar all that high—where we see God quickening a number of people all at once, touching their hearts and deepening his work of grace, there we may have a revival. A revival does not need to sweep over the globe or impact millions to be genuine.
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When revival breaks out, we need to guard against treating it as something that has an almost mystical or mythical quality to it. God’s plan for the world is centered around the church, so we should be careful not to inadvertently disparage his “Plan A” which is—and always will be—the church. Of course we should also hesitate to treat revival as if it is nothing or to speak ill of what God may be using for his glory.

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It seems to me that news of an outbreak of revival is best met with a guarded optimism. We don’t need to be naive but also don’t need to be incredulous. And if that revival begins in a tradition very different from our own (though of course one that acknowledges the gospel) we should perhaps be especially glad and hopeful, for it is good to be reminded that God is at work in many different places and through many different people. Speaking personally, I would like my first instinct to be “Praise God” rather than “Fat chance!” (Jim Elliff: “How do you respond to a pastor friend who says that the youth in his church have experienced repentance and brokenness and restored relationships in spontaneous youth-led gatherings which are less than perfect. Do you immediately tell him how skeptical you are, or do you rejoice?”)

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A revival that emerges in a Wesleyan school led by Wesleyan faculty within the Wesleyan tradition is likely to manifest itself in ways that are distinctly Wesleyan. It is therefore unlikely to feature Presbyterian worship or Baptist doctrine. And that’s okay. We could perhaps imagine genuine revival breaking out simultaneously at a very good Anglican Church in Australia and a very good Reformed Baptist church in Zambia. I doubt many of us would be shocked or dismayed if they looked quite a bit different from one another even as we rejoiced in them both. I doubt many of us would be shocked or dismayed if we were drawn far more to one of them than the other. We should not demand, then, that a revival arising from a different Christian tradition look just like our church. For reasons that are his own, God sees fit to work through many different theological streams or traditions.

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Jonathan Edwards once made some good and helpful observations about the distinguishing marks of revival, but his observations are not authoritative. He, after all, lived at a particular time and in a certain place and within a distinct context. And, of course, he was a sinful, finite, limited human being like you and me. So yes, when we hear whispers of revival, by all means, we should look up his work on the subject. But even as we appreciate his insights, we should be cautious about demanding that a revival looks exactly like his description or about disparaging one that doesn’t perfectly match it. All of which is simply to say that we should avoid using Edwards as a kind of trump card.

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The internet in general and social media in particular demand the constant creation of content. Many people crave hot takes from their favored content creators and this means that much of the material that gets generated during curious or controversial events is not particularly thoughtful or useful. In fact, much of it is created to generate income, to satisfy existing subscribers, or to draw new ones. Don’t doubt that there’s money to be made and platform to be gained by having opinions on even something as good as revival. Thus it’s important to distinguish between creators who really have something to contribute and those who are merely in it for themselves, usually through relentless negativity. After all, cynicism and controversy are still the easiest ways to gain a following.
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Any revival is likely to encounter not only opposition but competition. There will be people on one side who refuse to acknowledge that it is (or even may be) revival and who try to discern it out of existence. God may not snuff out a smoldering wick, but many of his people will gladly do so. Meanwhile, there will be people on the other side who want to turn it into a complete circus. If one group is determined to make it far less than it is the other is determined to make it far more. Both are essentially just wanting to use it for their own ends. This seems to have been the tension at Asbury and I think we should all respect the school’s administration for being aware of this and for working hard to prevent excesses. I did not envy them their task.
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You don’t need to care about everything. You don’t need to take an interest in everything. You don’t need to have an opinion on everything. You certainly don’t need to voice your opinion on everything. If a situation like that at Asbury doesn’t intersect your life in any way, you can pray for it or you can just never give it another thought—both perfectly valid responses under the circumstances.

Good morning. Grace and peace to you.

Today’s Kindle deals include some excellent books from Crossway.
(Yesterday on the blog: Poetry of Redemption)
The Clay-Pot Conspiracy
Dave Harvey: “One year ago, we lost our youngest daughter to her longstanding battle against addiction. Walking alongside her in this multiyear struggle sank us into parts of this broken world we never dreamed we would inhabit. Dark places with desperate people became familiar terrain. We fought for life. Death won. Now our precious daughter is gone. Each morning I stare into the eyes of her 2-year-old son, now entrusted to us.”
Ed Sheeran, the MCG, and Jesus
I enjoyed this reflection. “Embedded in Melbourne’s memory is the largest crowd ever to gather at the famous Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). Last night Ed Sheeran lit up the G for 105,000 people. What a number! And he’s repeating the feat tonight with another 100,000 fans singing along to the pop star and his acoustic guitar.”
World Nature Photography Awards
Such beauty.
The Problem with Proverbs
“What a unique treasure we have in the book of Proverbs! No other book of the Bible is as intensely practical as Proverbs. No other book presents such tremendous hope in the mundane parts of life. And no other book presents its material in quite the jumbled mess Proverbs appears to be.” It also offers some unique difficulties.
Tips for Getting Out of a Devotional Rut
“We know reading God’s Word and talking with Him in prayer are precious privileges. What can we do when they seem just part of the day’s routine?” Here are some ideas from Barbara.
Get Into God’s Word
And, in a similar vein, here are some tips on getting into God’s Word.
Flashback: When Parents Feel Like We Are Mostly Failing Most of the Time
I’m convinced the great majority of us feel like we are failing most of the time. We’ve got this deep gut feeling that our kids are spending way too much of their childhoods tapping on glowing glass rectangles.

The gospel of Jesus does not just free us from hell someday; it can also free us from sin today. . . . We are not who we used to be, so we do not have to do what we used to do. —Garrett Kell

There have been times in the history of the Christian faith in which poetry played a key role in believers’ devotion to the Lord. There were eras in which the work of Christian poets was respected and even lauded. But that was then and this is now. While we still value poetry in the form of songs, most of us pay scant attention to reading or writing poetry. There could be any number of explanations for this, though I am inclined to blame the decline of formal verse (i.e. defined forms of poetry) and the rise of free verse (i.e. neglecting rhyme and meter), much of which is enough to cause the best of us to give up on poetry altogether.

Yet as we dig through the archives of our faith we can find vast troves of lovely, meaningful, skillful, devotional poems. In Poetry of Redemption:An Illustrated Treasury of Good Friday and Easter Poems, Leland Ryken has compiled some of the best of these poems and themed them around the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. “This book is an anthology of poetic devotionals on the events of Holy Week and their meaning,” he explains in the opening pages. “Although the entries can be read in the days before and during Holy Week, the book is not organized according to a schedule of daily readings tied to the calendar. One can read this anthology anytime, using any timetable, covering as many of the entries at a single reading as one chooses.”
The poems are divided into three categories which he labels psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. By psalms he means passages that have been excerpted from the Bible and are printed in the verse form of biblical poetry. By hymns he means the familiar songs we sing around Easter time. “We need to remind ourselves that every hymn begins its life as a poem, becoming a hymn only when it is paired with music and sung.” And by spiritual songs he means classic literary poems written by some of the masters of the craft. For each entry he has written a devotional a couple of pages in length.
The theme of the poems progresses throughout the book. The first collection considers God’s eternal redemptive plan and is comprised primarily of poems drawn from Scripture. Next are a number related to Christ’s journey toward the cross and here we encounter works by Theodulf of Orléans, William B. Tappan, and George Herbert. Then comes the accomplishment of redemption upon the cross (Jennie Evelyn Hussey, Isaac Watts, Robert Herrick) and appropriate responses to it (Jacob Revius, Christina Rossetti, John Donne). And so it goes through the application of redemption, life with the cross at its center, the resurrection, and life everlasting.
Poetry of Redemption has value as a devotional work that most people will make use of around the Easter season. But I like it most as a collection and explanation of some of the best of Christianity’s poetic treasures. If you have yet to explore Christian poetry or if you would like to explore it anew, this is the perfect resource.
Buy from Amazon