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

It must be difficult to live out the gospel of self-esteem, the “gospel” that insists I’m nothing short of awesome. It is, however, delightful to live out the gospel of Jesus Christ that insists that I’m not all that awesome and don’t need to be. Here’s a short quote from Adam Ramsey that explains.

The gospel means that I’m not all that awesome. But I am loved. And that’s awesome. The gospel frees me to be honest about the ways I fall short instead of being crushed by them, because it reminds me that Jesus was crushed for me. The gospel means I don’t have to hide, because the good news of what the holy and all-knowing Savior on the cross is true for me too. The gospel means I don’t need to impress, because Christ has eternally secured for me the smile of my Maker. If that’s true, then let’s burn those useless fig leaves of our self-justifying excuses and lean wholly into the justification of God. As my friend Alex Early has written, “Jesus is not in love with some future version of you or what you used to be. He loves you right where you are, sitting in that chair.”
Do you hate your sin? Do you find yourself turning to Jesus again and again with cries of confession and desires for change? Then take heart, beloved struggler. You are undoubtedly a child of God. The fact that you are fighting sin is the evidence of spiritual life. Dead things don’t fight, only living things do. So press onward into the light of holiness.
God will not despise our honesty; he meets us in it with renewing tenderness; he rushes to us there and smothers our confessions with kisses of acceptance. We often think that honesty makes us poorer. But judging from the Father’s reaction to his prodigal son’s return, we could not be more wrong. He dignifies our repentance with the family ring, reminding us of our true identity. Honesty means exchanging the pig food of our sins for the banquet of God’s grace; the tattered clothes of our foolish decisions for the clean suit of Christ’s sinlessness; the cold loneliness of the mud, for the warm embrace of the Father. It is the way back home.
Drawn from Truth on Fire.

May you know the Lord’s sweet blessings as you serve and worship him this weekend.

Logos has lots of great material from Zondervan on sale, including the excellent ZECNT/ZECOT series.
I’m very grateful to AGTV for sponsoring the blog this week with news of their excellent and expanding programming.
(Yesterday on the blog: When Prayer Is a Struggle)
After Mars Hill And John Wayne
This is a good reminder of simple truths. “Evangelicals over the last decade have done a poor job of sticking to the centre of the road with respect to marital sexuality. The abuses and excesses being detailed in exposés like ‘Jesus And John Wayne’ and ‘The Rise And Fall Of Mars Hill’ have launched a (predictable) overreaction among some, leaving many confused as to what the Bible does, in fact, say about proper, kind, and loving sexual conduct within marriage.”
God Scares Me to Death
“God is sovereign. He does as he pleases. This comforts some people—and terrifies others.” I understand this fear very well.
Is “Beloved” Still a Word? (Video)
I don’t completely agree with Bill Mounce here, but I do think he raises some interesting points about words that have begun to get a bit antiquated in English (and without a suitable replacement).
Cathedral Feels
I enjoyed and benefitted from this one. “Cathedrals were designed to invoke a sense of awe and wonder. Cathedrals are intended to move within the worshiper, an internal sense of smallness in contrast to the grandeur of God. Surely, in your travels, some of you have experienced just this.”
The Endless Life Cycle of Book Cover Trends
To be clear, I don’t recommend the books in this article. But I do recommend it as an interesting look at where book covers come from. “What you see on a cover is the product of intermingling cultural and economic forces.”
When Furrows Fight Back
Aimee Joseph: “We are wired for work. Contrary to popular belief, it is not a result of the fall. Challenges in work and struggles with identity around work were most assuredly a consequence of man’s rebellion against God’s created and careful order; however, work itself honors God and is a needed part of human flourishing.”
Flashback: Thank God For Your Job (Doesn’t Matter What Your Job Is!)
If God blesses your labors to give you enough or even more than enough to meet your needs, you ought to give him praise and thanks.

Whatever circumstances our pasts may hold, we can rise above them into a future shaped by God’s grace. —Erwin Lutzer

I expect every Christian would agree that there are times when prayer is a struggle. Though we experience blessed seasons when prayer is the easiest and most natural thing in the world, we also experience seasons when prayer is difficult and when it feels awkward or even ineffective. And for this reason we all sometimes need a little refresher, a little reminder, a little spark.

Kevin Halloron’s When Prayer Is a Struggle is meant to console Christians who are struggling to pray, to diagnose their troubles, and to provide practical counsel that can motivate them once more. A book that is appropriately simple and relatively short, it serves as a very relevant and very applicable guide to prayer.
Halloron frames the book around nine common reasons Christians may struggle to pray: I forget why prayer matters is the first, while I don’t know what to pray comes second. Behind them are I feel too guilty to pray, I’m not sure God hears me, and I have mixed motives. Then he moves to I can’t focus, I’m so unorganized, and I’m too stressed. Last is perhaps the most familiar of all: I’m too busy.
For each chapter, he explains the nature of that particular struggle, then lays out a head-heart-hands approach to tackling it. He shows which gospel truths speak to that struggle, diagnoses the particular heart issues that keep us from prayer, then suggests how to move forward in despite such struggles. Knowing that it is easier to read a book on prayer than to actually pray, he prompts the reader to learn by doing, to set aside the book and actually put the principles into practice.
Because at times we all struggle to pray, we would at times all benefit from this book. It is biblical, practical, and draws from many trusted sources. Halloran says, “My driving motivation for writing this book has been the belief that a life of faithful, fruitful, and joyful prayer is within the grasp of every Christian. God has helped me in spectacular ways, and I know that He will help you, too.” And, indeed, I believe that through this book, God will do that very thing—help you fight through your struggles and learn to enjoy prayer as one of his most precious gifts.

Buy from Amazon

Grace and peace to you today, my friends.

Today’s Kindle deals include a number of good picks for readers.
Do Hurricanes Just Happen?
Jim Elliff says that “God is at work doing His perfect will, even during hurricane season. These spinning engines of destruction originate from Him as Ruler (first cause), through nature (second cause), all for His purposes.”
Stormfront
Kristin, meanwhile, is also thinking about storms. “As our grandson sleeps in his father’s arms, I see it so clearly. The sweet baby, limp and relaxed, trusts his father wholeheartedly. He is rocked, comforted, and held in unconditional love, wanting for nothing. If we are to be like Jesus, we, too, will sleep peacefully in the middle of life’s storms.”
The Metaverse
Gene Veith, on the other hand, is thinking about the looming Metaverse. “This is another chapter in our rebellion against creation, replacing what God has made with what we have made. To be sure, the Metaverse is a realm of illusion, not tangible entities that actually exist, a Gnostic phantasm that disappears if anyone tries to touch it.”
AGTV Continues to Grow 10 Months After Launching
AGTV is a kind of Netflix for Christian teaching. The network hosts over 800 hours of carefully curated content. Much of it is available for free. There is now a long list of premium content and exclusive films and series for AGTV subscribers. (Sponsors)
The Lord of The Lockdowns
From an Australian lockdown, Jon Coombs says, “As I plug away at doing the things I need to do, whether it’s family life or church life, I keep reminding myself that the Lord is the Lord of the lockdown.”
Does the Bible Limit Gender to Just Male and Female?
“There’s a trendy new idea that denies God created only two genders (male and female). What’s the proof? Frogs. That’s right. Proponents of this view claim frogs are evidence that the gender binary of the Bible is a myth. If you’re puzzled by this, that’s understandable.” I am, indeed.
Learning from the Hours
“Have you ever noticed that in Genesis chapter one, the days are the wrong way around?” T.M. Suffield explains why this is and why it may even be better to think about days and hours like that.
Flashback: Why Marriage Is Better Than Cohabitation
…marriage offers a number of important benefits that are absent from cohabitation—benefits that extend to couples, to their children, to their families, and to society as a whole.

Prayer must carry on our work as much as preaching; he preacheth not heartily to his people that will not pray for them. —Richard Baxter

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

There are a few new Kindle deals to look at, and possibly a few more in the morning.
Logos users will want to check out this month’s free and nearly-free books. They might also be interested in this new series edited by D.A. Carson.
(Yesterday on the blog: Moments With My Father (and My Son))
What Does It Mean for the Saints to Judge Angels?
“What makes the passage so surprising is Paul seems to assume his readers are already aware of their role in the final judgment. He twice asks the rhetorical question, ‘Do you not know?’ And yet, if it weren’t for this very passage, how many Christians today would know? What exactly does it mean that we will judge the world and the angels? What else does the Bible have to say about this? And what does this mean for us practically today?”
7 Characteristics of Good Bible Teachers
Doug Eaton: “Teaching scripture is a spiritual gift, but it is also a skill. This means that not everyone is called to be a teacher; it also means just because someone is gifted does not mean they do not need to improve their skills. Several things come into play that impacts the quality of teaching.”
Kinda Like God Who Sees All We Do 
Sylvia Schroeder draws a similarity between an aspect of life and the God who sees all we do.
Preaching Variants
“In the realm of the theological sciences, no subject is as difficult to navigate as that of Old and New Testament textual criticism.” That being the case, Nick Batzig offers some counsel on understanding and preaching them well.
Being The Bad Guy
“At our house, I’ve always been the bad guy,” says Seth Lewis.
Giving in Retirement
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a discussion of this topic before. “In this article, I’ll pose some questions you can answer for yourself to help you make important decisions about giving based on your situation and convictions.”
Flashback: When Unanimity is the Enemy of Unity
I have often wondered if we demand unanimity where unity would be not only sufficient but also superior. I have often wondered if unanimity is the enemy of Christian unity. Allow me to explain.

If thou wouldst thus leave thy heart with God on the Saturday night, thou shouldst find it with Him in the Lord’s Day morning. —George Swinnock