If you could go back in time and insert yourself into any point in history, even if only to be a proverbial fly on the wall, what would you choose? What moment would you wish to observe, or what event would you wish to witness? Would you want to watch God create the world? Would you want to see Elijah perform miracles, David compose psalms, shepherds hear tidings of great joy? As for me, I would have to think long and hard, but in the end I might just choose to observe Jesus and his disciples in the upper room.

It was in the upper room that Jesus celebrated his final Passover, that he washed the feet of his disciples, that he predicted his betrayal, that he gave his new commandment, that he foretold Peter’s denial, that he declared himself the way, the truth, and the life, that he promised the coming of the Holy Spirit, that he prayed a long intercessory prayer for his disciples and for his followers through the ages. Each of these was a sacred moment, each packed with the utmost significance. And each took place in one little room and in one short period of time.
Jesus’ time in the upper room has become known as his Farewell Discourse and it is the subject of Sinclair Ferguson’s new book Lessons from the Upper Room. The book’s subtitle, “The Heart of the Savior,” is significant, for it is in this address that Jesus so wonderfully and clearly reveals his heart. He reveals himself as having a heart that longs to obey his Father and a heart that longs to serve the ones who are loved by his Father. He reveals himself as a Savior who is humble and kind, submitted and steadfast.
While Lessons from the Upper Room is an exposition of John 13-17, it is by no means a dry or academic work. To the contrary, it is devotional and applicable. It did, after all, begin as a series of lessons for laypersons—a teaching series distributed through Ligonier Ministries. Ferguson says he intends it to function somewhat like the “audio description” function on a television—a function that provides a running commentary on what is happening on the screen for the benefit of those who are visually impaired. “I hope there will be moments in reading these pages when readers will feel—as I have in writing them—that they are ‘there’ in the upper room itself, meeting with Christ, watching Him, and listening to Him teach and pray.”
And, indeed, this is exactly the case. Ferguson is a skilled expositor and one who is clearly captivated with his subject matter. He loves the Farewell Discourse and the Savior it so wonderfully reveals. He draws the reader into the events unfolding and the words being spoken, and is always careful not to leap too quickly from the upper room into our own living rooms, from past events to present application. That application comes, but always on the basis of sound interpretation. It’s a powerful package.
Ferguson uses the metaphor of a television’s “audio description” function to describe his book, but I might use the metaphor of a tour guide. Over the course of my life and through my many travels, I have taken a host of tours of locations of special interest and special importance. In Lessons from the Upper Room, he serves as a kind of tour guide who describes what has happened in this room, what it meant at the time, and what it continues to mean today. He offers a guided tour of one of the most significant evenings in human history and tells how and why it matters to you and to me and to the course of events in this world. It’s my strong recommendation that you take the tour.

Buy from Amazon

Grace and peace to you on this fine today.

Westminster Books has just put the excellent NSBT series on sale for those who need to catch up with some of the newer volumes!
How a Divisive Nigerian Pastor Built a Global Following
This fascinating article from The Guardian takes a look at the Nigerian prosperity preacher TB Joshua. “It’s hard to disentangle the facts of Joshua’s life from his self-mythologising. The official Scoan narrative is repeated in many online articles: his birth was foretold by a prophet, he spent 15 months in his mother’s womb, he received a divine revelation in 1987 while fasting for 40 days and 40 nights in an area of swampland that would later be called Prayer Mountain.”
Judging the Sins of Our Fathers
Carl Trueman: “None of this is to say that the slaveholding of Edwards or Jefferson or Washington is not important when we consider their lives and their legacies. Nor is it to neutralize the issue by moral equivalence. There are some very hard questions to ask about our forefathers. But they cannot be asked in isolation from consideration of our own complicity in the exploitation and evils of today’s globalized economy.”
J. I. Packer on “Impressions”
Justin Taylor shares some of J.I. Packer’s wisdom when it comes to spiritual impressions and divine guidance.
Little Golden Worries
Melissa explains that worries are, “in many ways, my most prized possessions. I’m an expert at conjuring them. They are almost always my closest thoughts, and they sit like little golden statues all along the shelves that line my heart and mind. Gold because they last, because they are alluring, always drawing my eye.”
Judge Not
Andrée Seu Peterson warns against hasty judging of other people. “Christians are to live a different way, not as judge and jury of our neighbors, but as believing all things and hoping all things (1 Corinthians 13:7) regarding their potential to change and grow. For the Lord is not finished with my neighbor, or father, any more than He is with me.”
How Do You Know If Your Church Is Legalistic?
Michael Kruger has a good one on legalism. “If you asked the average Christian to define legalism, the answers may not come so quickly. What exactly counts as legalism?  How do we know it when we see it?  The confusion is exacerbated by the fact that the term can be used in different ways.  People can use the same word but infuse it with very different meanings.”
The Logistics of Evacuating Afghanistan (Video)
This is an interesting video on the incredible logistics involved in evacuating Afghanistan.
Flashback: Six Reasons Why Adultery Is Very Serious
Adultery is a serious matter. At least, it is a serious matter in the mind and heart of the God who created sex and marriage and who put wise boundaries on them both. But why?

There can be no better evidence of the Spirit of Christ in us than to love the image of Christ in others. —Matthew Mead

Good morning. May the Lord bless and keep you today.

Westminster Books has a collection of new and especially noteworthy books on sale.
(Yesterday on the blog: My New Book Is Out: Knowing and Enjoying God)
How To Make Sense Of The Conflict In Nigeria
Oyewole Akande provides a helpful guide to the ongoing conflict in Nigeria. “The security situation in Nigeria is complicated to understand, even for those of us living in Nigeria. There are at least five separate but overlapping armed conflicts going on simultaneously in our country. Below I will give a brief overview of each. I’ll also provide a few links for those who wish to do further reading and reflection.”
ABBA: Band of the Boomers
Mary Harrington explains why ABBA kind of stands in for so many in the Boomer generation. “It’s not clear whether the band will perform as themselves at their ‘Voyage’ events. But why should they? They’ve arguably just come closer than Ray Kurzweil has managed yet to achieving boomer apotheosis: eternally perky, fresh, un-dying versions of their youthful selves, able to continue indefinitely doing what those younger selves did, without ever getting tired, ill or divorced.”
No Purpose For Old Folks
I enjoyed this little story and the point it makes.
A Song for All My Days
Cindy Matson: “As the just Lawmaker, God makes no arbitrary rules. Though some of the Laws in the Old Testament may appear foolish to our modern ears (Why can’t we have two types of fabric in one piece of clothing?), each flowed from an upright Lawmaker who made each ordinance in perfect harmony with His character. Even the most abstruse and baffling laws to us are perfectly righteous and just.”
The World Needs Your Story
“‘All dreams deserve to be seen, and all stories deserve to be shared,’ said the Netflix ad. ‘The world needs your story. Show them!’ But that wasn’t the real point—it was an ad, after all—so it ended with ‘Discover the world’s stories.’ On Netflix, of course. But Netflix isn’t showing my story among ‘the world’s stories…’”
Jesus’ Ministry to a Lipreader
“Why did Mark, the gospel writer, use the Aramaic word ‘Ephphatha’ in Mark 7:34? Just sounding out the word is an exercise in oral calisthenics.” Here’s an interesting explanation.
It Is a Terrible Thing for a Sheep to Go Astray
“In Lancefield in Victoria last year, some people found a lost sheep. This sheep had once belonged to someone, but she had obviously been living by herself for several years.” It reminds us why Jesus drew the comparison between sheep and people!
Flashback: What’s the Point? (Alternative Ways to Frame Your Sermon)
I believe there are often better ways of framing a sermon than falling back on “point one,” “point two,” and “point three.”

Is there any reason that a righteous God ought to be loving toward a creature who hates Him and rebels constantly against His divine authority and holiness? —R.C. Sproul

If you have frequented this site over the years, you have undoubtedly seen some SquareQuotes—the quotes combined with graphics that I release on a daily basis. A couple of years ago Jules Koblun and I had the idea of combining some fresh SquareQuotes with short devotionals. While she got busy with the designing, I got busy with the writing. Before long we had created Knowing and Enjoying God, the first in what we anticipate will be a number of books in the “Words from the Wise” series.

Knowing and Enjoying God is a series of 101 quotes from Christian authors, with each quote accompanied by a beautiful graphic and a short devotional. The book’s theme is the means of grace (or, if you prefer, spiritual disciplines). We cover the themes of prayer, Bible reading, meditation, worship, ordinances, gratitude, stewardship, and more. All of the quote graphics are original, by which I mean that I have not shared them through social media in the past.
My hope for the book is that it will both edify and encourage–that it will teach readers about the privilege it is to know God and that it will encourage readers to pursue him all the more. I hope it will be a valuable resource for those who may need a short burst of encouragement to strengthen and equip them in the Christian life. I hope it will be as valuable to seasoned believers as to very new ones. And I hope it will also prove suitable as a book to hand an unbeliever to perhaps help them see the beauty of Jesus Christ and the joy that comes to those of us who know him as a friend knows a friend.
The book is available from all the usual retailers in both hardcover and e-book formats, including Amazon and Westminster Books.
Here are a few early reviews:

I hope you will give it a look!
(Long-term readers may be interested to know how this book fits into the timeline of my life. I completed writing it and doing a first round of edits just prior to Nick’s death; final editing took place a couple of months after.)

The Lord bless and keep you today.

(Yesterday on the blog: What Can God Do With Broken Hearts?)
Turning Toward Light
Andrea Sanborn: “Pessimism is my soul’s default setting. Even when life is filled with blessing, melancholy has always been my temperament’s natural course. As a result, it has been the work of my Christian life to turn away from the darkness and look up, look away, notice beauty and give thanks. ”
Pray for Jennifer
I frequently link to Jennifer Myhre’s blog. (You may know her from her excellent books for kids where she is credited as J.A. Myhre). Her husband recently posted on it that she was in a terrible accident and is in need of prayer.
Kanye the Pious
I found this an interesting look at Kanye, his new album, and his critics. “If you were to read half-a-dozen reviews of Kanye West’s latest album, Donda — and I recommend that you don’t —you would learn chiefly that West is a bad person. He’s a bad person for associating with social undesirables; he’s a bad person for supporting Donald Trump; he’s a bad person for hosting album release parties; he’s a bad person because he’s a navel-gazing egomaniac with suspect spirituality; he’s even a bad person for learning how to value women from his experience of having daughters.”
The Roman Catholic Call to Confusion
Keith Mathison: “What Protestants should understand is that once a person accepts the philosophical principles of skepticism, there is no certainty anywhere, and the choice to convert to Roman Catholicism can no longer possibly be a rational choice. At best it can only be an irrational leap of faith, but that leap has no more rational grounds than any other leap – be it into Mormonism or the cult of Jim Jones. The Kool-Aid is the same.”
A Critical Theorist Worth Reading
I benefitted from reading Carl Trueman’s review of a book by a critical theorist.
God Cares for Every Christian More than You Know
I expect that many of us could use this reminder. “When we think of others in the Christian community, we are to realise that we are like little children. We are all dependant on God for our salvation. Even the most capable and respected among us are forgiven sinners, so we need to view others in the church as our brothers and sisters, our equals in God’s sight.”
Flashback: What’s the Purpose of … Marriage?
The highest purpose of marriage is to display to the world the sacrificial love of Christ for his bride, the church.

…the battle for our Sundays is usually won or lost on the foregoing Saturday night, when time should be set aside for self-examination, confession and prayer for the coming day. —J.I. Packer

God has a special place in his heart for the weak, the weary, the downtrodden, the broken. “Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden,” he says, and “bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.” His special blessing is upon those who are poor in spirit, who are meek and mournful, who are reviled and persecuted. The faith that honors him is the faith of a child, and his power is made perfect in weakness more than in strength. He deliberately chooses what is foolish in the world to shame the wise and what is weak in the world to shame the strong. Where we tend to dispose of what has been broken, God treasures it. Where the human instinct is toward those who are confident, assertive, and self-sufficient, the divine eye is drawn to those who are humble, who are contrite in spirit, and who tremble at God’s Word. Where the world looks to those who are whole and strong, God looks to those who are weak and broken, for his specialty is bringing much from little, beauty from ashes, strength from weakness.

God does much with broken things. It was with broken leaves of sweet spices that the priests mixed the incense for the tabernacle, with broken clay jars that Gideon won his great victory over the armies of Midian, with the broken jawbone of a donkey that Samson triumphed over 1,000 Philistines, and with broken loaves and fishes that Jesus fed a crowd of 5,000. It was toward bodies broken by disease that the Lord displayed his miraculous power, and with a broken alabaster flask that Mary anointed him for his burial. It was through the breaking of bread that Jesus prophesied his suffering and death, for his body had to be broken for God to save the souls of his people. It was God’s will that the eternal Son would take on mortal flesh and his head be broken by sharp thorns, his back by brutal whips, his hands and feet by cruel nails, his side by a savage spear. His broken body was laid dead in a tomb, but through the shattering of rocks and tearing of a curtain God declared he had accepted the sacrifice. There would be no redemption, no salvation, without the broken body of the great Savior.
The history of the Christian church continues to display that God delights to use broken things. It was on broken pieces of a ship that Paul and his companions escaped to land and with a body broken by a “thorn” that Paul was saved from conceit. It was through persecution breaking a man from his congregation that the church was given Pilgrim’s Progress, through a shipwreck breaking parents from their children that worshippers were gifted with “It Is Well,” and through spears breaking men on an Ecuadorian beach that a generation of missionaries was rallied to the cause. It was through the ravaging of Helen Roseveare’s body, the paralyzing of Joni Eareckson Tada’s, the blinding of Fanny Crosby’s, the imprisoning of Marie Durand’s, the crippling of Amy Carmichael’s, the slaughtering of Betty Stam’s that countless Christians have received strength to sustain them through sorrow and suffering. The bones of Wycliffe were crushed to powder and thrown into the river Swift, but his translation lived on. The neck of Tyndale was crushed at the stake, but God answered his final prayer and soon even the lowly plowboy was reading God’s Word. The bodies of Ridley, Latimer, and Cranmer were broken and burned, but the flames that consumed them lit a fire for the gospel that has never been quenched.
And so it seems that God often prefers to use what has been broken over what has only ever been whole. He breaks our wills so we will turn away from ourselves and come to him in repentance and faith. He breaks our plans to redirect our ways and ensure that his much greater plan will go on not just around us, but through us. He breaks our bodies to display that his power is made perfect in weakness. And yes, he breaks our hearts. He breaks our hearts by loss to prove to us that the gospel truly is gain. He breaks our hearts by grief so he can increase our longing for the place where every tear will be dried. He breaks our hearts by disappointment to prove that this world can never truly satisfy. He breaks our hearts by bereavement to pry our fingers off a world that could otherwise allure and entrap us with its charms. No wonder, then, that so few of us make our way through life without some great trial, some great adversity, some circumstance in which we cry out “I am undone. I am broken.”
What can God do with broken hearts? Perhaps the better question is what can God do with unbroken hearts?, for God delights to use what has been broken. He delights to display his power through what is weak, to display his strength through what is small, to display his glory through what has been shattered. His breaking is never pointless, for he is neither arbitrary nor cruel. His breaking is never purposeless, for he is too wise to ever be wrong and too kind to ever be heartless. He breaks us to shape us. He breaks us to mold us. He breaks us to use us. It is through the breaking that he makes us suitable for his purposes. It is through the breaking that he makes us a blessing. It is through the breaking that he makes us whole.

Inspired by The Classic Works of J.R. Miller.

May the God of love and peace be with you today.

It’s back-to-school day (at least in this part of the world). Speaking of which, Logos is having a back-to-school sale that has some good deals. (Also be sure to look at their Zondervan sale.)
What Are Friends For?
“We have lost the gift and glory of friendship. This is due to a number of factors. We’ve traded talking for texting. We’ve abandoned fellowship for Facebook. Social media has, in reality, become anything but. The season of COVID-19 has pushed many people further away from each other, and we’ve lost our grip on the gracious blessing of friends. Men, in particular it seems, have lost the gift of friendship.”
Crazy Grace
Jared Wilson has some encouragement for pastors. “Pastor, every Sunday, over and over again, without fail, stubborn and convicted, you take to that pulpit and pin all your hopes on the gospel in your preached text. You aren’t trusting your rhetoric, your well-turned phrases, your homespun stories, your hokey jokes. You aren’t trusting your emotional appeals, your special pleadings, your creative context, your fog and lasers or your eighteen verses of ‘Just As I Am.’ You leave all the good news out on the field, praying the seed will find purchase in softer soil than the week before.”
The House of Mourning
Lisa LaGeorge reflects on death. “‘Death is a robber,’ my pastor said this morning. It is indeed. In the last week, more friends have been stolen. A wife was left behind, a daughter, parents, a son. And we again mourn the brokenness of the world.”
We Can’t Store Blessings for Later
“A friend once told me she wished she could get fat on the blessings God was giving her so they would carry her through the lean times. Although this picture of fullness is lovely—and it’s a delight to rejoice with our friends in seasons of blessing—the metaphor made me pause. In my experience, yesterday’s blessings can’t sustain the weak and weary soul in seasons of sharp grief and unrelenting pain. And, thankfully, God doesn’t expect them to.”
Rethinking Attractional Youth Ministry
“Reformed and gospel-centered youth workers often talk against ‘attractional ministry,’ but I’m not always sure we actually know what we’re talking about. For many, attractional ministry is simply ministry. It’s just what you were trained to do because it’s what you’ve experienced.” There are some valuable insights here.
Untainted Eyes
Chris Thomas laments his inability to look at the world through untainted eyes. “Grown up eyes fail to see the things that matter most. Not because they are completely unable to, but because they have been scarred and clouded by years of unbridled skepticism. We have forgotten how to embrace with wonder the glorious truths of God. We have relegated much of the divine to the realm of fantasy.”
Flashback: Let the Wife See She Respects Her Husband
Let me assure you that your husband feels the weight of this leadership, that he feels inadequate to the task, that he regrets his mistakes, and that he craves your participation and affirmation. Encourage him to take on his leadership role and encourage him as he fulfills it.

As soon as a repentant person appears in the doorway of God’s throne room, the golden scepter of His royal forgiveness is stretched out for him to touch. —F.B. Meyer

Today’s post is written by Bill Mounce and is sponsored by Zondervan. Bill is the author of Why I Trust the Bible and Basics of Biblical Greek.

The Bible makes some astonishing claims about itself. The apostle Paul tells his friend Timothy that every word of the Bible comes from the mouth of God (2 Tim 3:16). The Bible says God personally wrote the Ten Commandments with His own finger (Exod 31:18; Deut 9:10). Almost five hundred times, the prophets preface their prophecies with the claim “says the Lord.” Jesus says, “I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken” (John 12:49). Under normal circumstances, if someone says they speak for God, I doubt many of us would pay attention. But this is exactly what the Bible says about itself. Do you believe it?
We can no longer assume that people trust their Bible and believe what it says about itself. Western culture has shifted away from its Judeo-Christian heritage, and the popular media has launched such an attack on the believability of Scripture that many churchgoers have serious questions about the Bible. Questions like:

Did Jesus actually live?
Did the biblical writers get it right, or did they slant, massage, or even create the Bible we have today?
The Gospels were written long after Jesus lived; how can you trust them?
How can you believe a Bible that’s full of internal contradictions with itself and external contradictions with science and history?
Why should we believe the right books are in the Bible? Many books were left out, like the Gospel of Thomas.
Why trust the Bible when there are so many contradictory translations?

Wherever I travel in the world, whether I am speaking at conferences or universities or churches, there is one burning question. Can I trust the Bible? Why should I trust the Bible? Gone are the days of the veneer of a Christian culture where trust was assumed. Gone are the days when the Bible was given the benefit of the doubt. We live in a culture that aggressively attacks the Bible and those who were raised to trust it. University freshman are being challenged in every class. Parents often do not know what to do or how to help.
Some people feel it’s wrong to ask these fundamental questions; but if you never seriously ask them, you’ll never be convinced that the Bible is true and trustworthy. So I invite you to ask the hard questions, read the controversies and solutions, and decide for yourself whether you trust your Bible. Does it contain the very words of God?
I wrote the book, Why I Trust the Bible because people need to know the challenges of the day and the solutions to the questions raised. As is true of all systems of belief that deal with the ultimate questions of reality—Christianity, Islam, Materialism, Atheism—we all must have faith. I can’t prove the Bible is trustworthy, but I don’t have to put my brain on the shelf in order to believe in its trustworthiness. There are good answers to the hard questions being asked today, and none of the questions need to drive anyone to despair.
After forty-nine years of consistent and serious study of the New Testament, I am more convinced than ever that the Bible contains the very words of God and is wholly trustworthy.
This post is adapted from the Preface of Bill Mounce’s book Why I Trust the Bible. Order the book or find out more info.

Bill Mounce (PhD, Aberdeen University) lives as a writer in Washougal, Washington. He is the President of BiblicalTraining.org, a non-profit organization offering world-class educational resources for discipleship in the local church. See www.BillMounce.com for more information. Formerly he was a preaching pastor, and prior to that a professor of New Testament and director of the Greek Program at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He is the author of the bestselling Greek textbook, Basics of Biblical Greek, and many other resources. He was the New Testament chair of the English Standard Version translation of the Bible and is serving on the NIV translation committee.
What people are saying about Why I Trust the Bible:
“Bill Mounce has produced a remarkably clear, comprehensive, and level-headed resource that carefully and graciously explains each type of objection that has been lodged against the Bible, and then answers each objection with convincing facts and arguments. I expect that all who read it will gain deeper confidence in the trustworthiness of the Bible.”—WAYNE GRUDEM, Phoenix Seminary
“Ordinary believers wonder whether the Bible is really true, whether we can truly trust the Scriptures. Why I Trust the Bible represents a learned and accessible response to such questions. Many, I believe, will be assured in their faith by reading this important book.”—THOMAS R. SCHREINER, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
“We live in a time when truth is subject to a person’s preferences and what is called ‘truth’ is really just formulated montage of misinformation. We need accessible and accurate information for people from all walks of life. In Why I Trust the Bible, Bill Mounce invites Christ-followers and doubters to consider the reasonable and sound answers he provides to today’s tough questions.—ERIC MASON, Epiphany Fellowship
“This excellent volume is a treasure trove of explanations of difficult texts and answers to skeptics’ questions about the Bible. With each chapter, I found my confidence in the integrity of the biblical text reaffirmed and strengthened. Bill Mounce is uniquely qualified to respond to the many arguments against the authority and trustworthiness of the Bible, and I highly commend this book to anyone who is struggling to believe that Scripture is genuinely God-breathed.”—SAM STORMS, Bridgeway Church
Go here to order Why I Trust the Bible or find out more info.

Because it’s Labor Day, I’ll be posting only A La Carte today, and an article tomorrow.

Today’s Kindle deals include some good resources from Crossway.
(Yesterday on the blog: I’m Not All That Awesome)
Five Things to Say to Help a Depressed Christian
I don’t usually go for “five things” articles on serious topics, but in this case found these five things quite helpful. “Depression is suffering. It is deep pain that somebody lives with day-to-day. And sometimes, it’s even debilitating. It is complex and doesn’t go away overnight, and some people will live with it their entire life.”
Is Faith a Work?
“The Bible teaches we’re justified by faith alone and not by our works. But since this faith is ours, doesn’t that mean faith is a work?” Stephen Nichols answers.
Is Covid 19 Evolving? (Video)
I really enjoy Dr. Robert Carter’s videos at Biblical Genetics. In this new one he addresses whether or not COVID-19 is evolving.
I Despised Her to My Shame
“As we reflect on what is happening in Afghanistan right now, let us not only remember those precious few who already believe on Christ now facing violent persecution. Let us remember that Gospel seed has been spread there. Let us remember that many of God’s people worldwide have prayed for Afghanistan’s people. We must remember those that earnestly prayed and spoke while they could. May we pray for the many refugees who have fled, that they would readily seek and find Christ where they settle.”
Welcome to McChurch
“The days of being buried in the church where you were baptized and married are long gone for most. Ours is the age of the McChurch.” John Beeson explains.
God’s Great Gospel Question
“A lot of Christians think that Genesis 3:15 is the first foreshadowing of the gospel. I don’t think that’s quite right. Silence is judgment; speech is grace. The fact that God opened his holy mouth after creatures had rebelled against him is the first glimmer of gospel hope. That’s why it makes so much sense for the consummation of the gospel, Jesus Christ, to be referred to as ‘the Word.’ It’s speech that saves.”
Flashback: Parent Love and Grandparent Love
Let me offer two ways I believe grandparents can take on a role of spiritual influence in the lives of their grandchildren.

The true goal of life is not to be great, or to do great things, but to be just what God meant us to be. —J.R. Miller