Grace and peace to you today.

Today’s Kindle deals include a number of good books.
(Yesterday on the blog: Showing Mercy in A Feeding Frenzy)
My Head And The Headlines
“Reading the news these days is like watching a train wreck in slow motion—except it’s not a train, it’s the whole world. And like a train wreck, as horrifying as it is to watch, it’s also hard to look away.” Seth reflects on what we may lose with a relentless focus on the headlines.
A Christian Approach to PTSD and Trauma
Bruce Ashford: “We live in a fallen world in which we are sometimes exposed to terrifying events. Through experiencing or witnessing those events, we can experience severe psychological trauma. However, we can be comforted in knowing that the God who experienced a traumatic crucifixion on our behalf is with us in the midst of our trauma, and that he has given medical personnel the ability to treat the brain-based distortions that result from traumatic experiences.”
Should the Sick Be Anointed with Oil?
Robert Plummer takes a look at the passage in James that speaks of prayer and anointing with oil.
Does My Son Know You?
Jonathan Tjarks, a writer for the sports site The Ringer, has written a very moving article about his battle with cancer.
An Update on My Precious Wife Nanci
Also, we ought to pray for Randy and Nanci Alcorn since Nanci is now in hospice care. “We met with the hospice director Monday morning and then a hospice social worker. Nanci is officially now in hospice care, so that means her death is expected within six months. It could be a lot less than that or it could be more, of course no one knows.”
How Can I Expect My Children to Honor Me Since I Am a Sinner Too?
“I was recently asked this question at a conference. Have you ever wondered the same thing? Certainly, as parents, we blow it. Can we still ask our children to honor us?” Chap Bettis answers.
Flashback: Keep Your Good Deeds Secret (From Even Yourself)
A million dollars printed on an oversized check and paraded before the press is of much less value in the eyes of God than a hundred dollars given in secret. A rich gift is no gift at all if its purpose is to enhance the reputation of the giver.

The moment you are willing to obey, He gives you strength to obey. —Theodore Cuyler

Until the land was expropriated to make way for new developments, Oakville was home to an exceptional tropical fish store. At its center was a massive circular aquarium filled with sharks and other predatory fish, and once each week the employees would host a feeding frenzy that was open to the public. One of them would climb a ladder to the top of the tank and begin to toss pieces of meat to the creatures lurking below. No sooner did the flesh hit the surface and the blood begin to seep into the water, than the sharks went mad, thrashing, circling, fighting over the bits. Rarely did a piece make it all the way to the bottom before two, three, or four sharks were battling over it, shredding it, gobbling it down.

They could almost have been us—people who so often delight to tear one another apart, to focus on flaws more than virtues, to be critical rather than encouraging, harsh rather than tender, vindictive rather than merciful.
I recently found myself studying the Parable of the Good Samaritan and marveling at its example of mercy. Because that particular example is bound to a certain setting and context, I spent some time pondering the ways in which it is applicable to today—the ways in which in teaches people like you and me to show divine mercy rather than human ruthlessness. Let me offer a few.
We can show mercy toward people’s suffering. This is the most obvious category and the one that Jesus spoke of in his parable. As we see people in need—people who are destitute or downcast or sorrowing or suffering—it is right and good to feel compassion and to then act in love toward them. Like the priest, Levite, and Samaritan, we will just be going through life and in God’s providence he will provide opportunities where we see people who have some kind of want or some kind of need. And in those moments we ought to feel compassion for them and then be eager to extend mercy, perhaps in the form of comfort or a meal or a helping hand or money. There is infinite need in this world and, therefore, an infinite number of ways we can show mercy to those who suffer.
We can show mercy toward people’s souls. As we encounter people who don’t know Jesus, we can extend mercy by tending to their spiritual needs, which usually means alerting them to their spiritual need. 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? Don’t we have concern for them? Then we need to tell them about Jesus! We need to tell them about the perilous state of their souls! The duty of evangelism flows out of pity for those who do not know the God who is so merciful toward sinners.
We can show mercy toward people’s reputations. Solomon says “A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches,” but we sometimes find such delight in destroying a person’s name and lowering their reputation all the way to the gutter. Compassion calls us to feel the harm that is being done to them by having their reputation destroyed. We can show mercy by speaking well of people instead of speaking ill; we can show mercy by refusing to pass along gossip; we can show mercy by choosing to look for evidences of grace in a person rather than evidences of sinfulness; we can show mercy by refusing to share information that is unproven or just plain unnecessary. We can be merciful where others are being brutal and have compassion upon others by protecting and enhancing their good name. (For more on this see here.)
We can show mercy toward people’s weaknesses. God calls us to share the world, to share our homes, and to share our churches with people who are weak. Even setting aside their sinfulness, they are still beset by weaknesses. And we ought to be gentle and patient and merciful in those weaknesses. Wives should be merciful with their husband’s annoying habits; husbands should be merciful with their wife’s irritating foibles; Christians should patiently bear with church members who differ with them on matters of conscience or who have little knowledge of how to honor God or little understanding of the freedom the gospel offers us. Compassion calls us to feel love for them rather than apathy or frustration or hatred. It calls us to bear with them rather than rebuke them. It calls us to joyfully show mercy to them.
We can have mercy toward people’s sins. We will inevitably see people behave in sinful ways and sometimes even see them sin against us. And while our first thought is usually outrage and vindication, perhaps our first thought ought to be pity—to feel compassion for them in their sin, compassion that they are sinners. Sometimes mercy is overlooking an offense, simply setting it aside as if it never happened. The Bible says “it’s the glory of a man to overlook an offense”—to just leave it between that person and the Lord. Sometimes mercy is confronting an offense and in love helping people escape sinful habits and patterns that will lead them to destruction. Sometimes a situation truly does call for the full measure of justice. But I hope that our first instinct is toward mercy—to be merciful toward our fellow sinners.
So, my friend, be merciful toward those who are suffering, merciful toward those whose souls are in peril, merciful toward reputations, merciful toward the weak, and merciful toward sinners. This will sometimes call us to do what comes unnaturally and with difficulty, but we can have full confidence that we actually can do it for this reason: God asks us to do no more than he has already done—to extend mercy to those who are in desperate need.

Good day! May the Lord bless you and keep you today.

There are lots of good books in today’s list of Kindle deals.
Good Habits from Painful Beginnings
This article considers the way that good habits often have their genesis in painful beginnings. “How often does God allow something negative or painful in our lives so that we begin something new—a new habit that is for our own good?”
Pastors Aren’t the Brand
“We’re told these days how important it is to develop a personal brand.” Yet as Darryl tells us here, neither the pastor nor the church should be a brand.
Is your church website accomplishing the right things?
It’s the first impression people have of your community. It can be a powerful tool for communication with your congregation. Is it doing what it needs to do? The team behind WhiteHorseInn.org, ElisabethElliot.org, and even Challies.com, also makes sites for local churches! In March only, mention ‘CHALLIES‘ to receive 30% off your first year of service with MereChurch. (Sponsored Link)
This American High
“Thirty-five years ago, I loved foolish bits of sticky paper. Thirty-five years from now, what will be my lament? Today I cling to my home, my security, my liberty – the very things I view as blessings from God – but will I have used them to serve and save eternal souls? Or will these ‘blessings’ have distracted me from what is most important?”
Are You Standing in God’s Way?
Can we stand in God’s way? “You may dismiss this question on its face. After all, how could anyone resist omnipotence? Who could thwart his plans and purposes? In an absolute sense, I agree. We can no more resist God than an ant can resist a boulder rolling to land upon its sandy domicile.”
The Goal Is to Make the Metaverse our “Primary” Reality
As we begin to hear more and more about the metaverse, it’s good to remind ourselves of the total and sweeping goals of those who are designing and advocating it.
50 for the 50th
RYM is collecting top-ten lists of Christian books and sharing them here.
Flashback: The Celebrity Pastor We’ve Never Known
The holiest moments of pastoring are the ones that are seen by the fewest people. And in the end, I’m convinced these are the ones that mean the most. Most people will forget most of your sermons, but they’ll remember that when they called, you came.

The keeping up of appearances is an exhausting way to live. —Dane Ortlund

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

Today’s Kindle deals include a few odds and ends, you might say!
(Yesterday on the blog: When the Best Part Is the Door)
Held By Tender Hands
This is a wonderful piece of writing by Chris Thomas.
Joe Rogan and the Search for Transcendence
“To some he is a dangerous purveyor of misinformation who platforms discredited and dangerous fringe thinkers (and to be fair, he certainly talks to some strange folks); to others he is a voice of sanity and one of the few remaining spaces where free speech is defended. But one thing is for sure: his audience is massive, easily eclipsing other podcasts and cable news shows. And the lion’s share of that audience seems to be young men – millions of them.”
Is your church website accomplishing the right things?
It’s the first impression people have of your community. It can be a powerful tool for communication with your congregation. Is it doing what it needs to do? The team behind WhiteHorseInn.org, ElisabethElliot.org, and even Challies.com, also makes sites for local churches! In March only, mention ‘CHALLIES‘ to receive 30% off your first year of service with MereChurch. (Sponsored Link)
Ministries Evacuate as Russians Reach Irpin, the Evangelical Hub of Ukraine
This story from CT tells of Christians and ministries on or behind the front lines.
Conscience Binding, Media Ecology, and Theological Controversy
“There is something innate in the fallen hearts of men that gives them an insatiable desire to seek to bind the consciences of others on just about every given matter.” Ain’t that the truth!
Christ is An Unconquerable Savior
“Because Jesus is God we can know that he is able to save. But we are encouraged not just that Christ is able to save, but in knowing that he has actually exercised his ability to save us.” Jared Wilson explains.
We Don’t Know What to Do
“It’s perfectly fine to just speak to our Father from our hearts. We don’t have to use certain words like an incantation in order for Him to hear us. But prayers in the Bible help give our prayers more guidance and depth.” (See also: Personalizing Paul’s Prayers)
Flashback: The Uninvited Lodger
Sorrow will give way to joy and mourning will give way to dancing just as surely as night gives way to day. We will join our voices with David’s to say, “O LORD my God, I will give thanks to you forever!”

The scorpion carries his poison in his tail; the slanderer in his tongue. —Thomas Watson

If you have ever visited Wittenberg, Germany and have taken the time to tour its famous Castle Church, you may have made the same observation I did: The best part of the building is its doors. Castle Church is, of course, the spot where Martin Luther chose to post his Ninety-Five Theses. Centuries later, King Frederick William IV chose to commemorate the event by commissioning a beautiful set of bronze doors inscribed with Luther’s words. And, though they’ve been refurbished in the years between, they hang there still as the city’s foremost landmark.

Any tour of the cathedral begins with the doors. Once the tourists have gazed at them for a time, snapped the requisite photographs, and heard how Luther inadvertently sparked what we now know as the Protestant Reformation, the tour leads inside. And the inside is rather uninteresting by comparison. There are a few sculptures high up on the columns and a number of graves embedded in the floor, including Luther’s. But in most ways it is just another of Europe’s innumerable cathedrals without much to distinguish it from all the others.
I don’t know about you, but I consider it a disappointment when the doors to a building are the best part of the building. Likewise, it’s a disappointment when the opening scene of a film goes unsurpassed by any that follow over the next two hours, and a disappointment when the opening strains of an oratorio are the composer’s best. Handel was no fool when he made the “Hallelujah” chorus Messiah’s forty-fourth movement rather than its first.
This life can be pretty good at times. By God’s grace, we experience many pleasures and many joys. This world is full of delights and we honor God when we acknowledge them, experience them, and express gratitude for them. “Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun,” says Solomon metaphorically. “So if a person lives many years, let him rejoice in them all” (Ecclesiastes 11:7–8a). We honor God when we marvel at a sunrise, when we savor a cup of coffee, when we raise our hands in worship, when we fall into bed with the husband or wife of our youth.
But even as we acknowledge all this, we must also acknowledge that this world is not Wittenberg and the Christian gospel is not Castle Church. The doors are not the best part. Rather, the pleasures of this life are nothing more than the the foyer, the atrium, the entranceway to much greater joys beyond. After all, no joy here is untouched by at least some measure of sorrow and no pleasure here is unattended by at least some element of pain. None of our pleasures are pure and unadulterated, but all are in some way clouded, all in some way alloyed. Every pleasure that fulfills some longing simply exposes another.
There is freedom in understanding and admitting this, for it means we can enjoy our pleasures as they are instead of being disappointed that they are not all we might wish them to be. We can enjoy them even though they are incomplete, even though they inevitably leave us ultimately unsatisfied. We can enjoy them as pleasures that gesture us toward greater pleasures to come. And we can understand that, when compared to the glory that will someday be ours, they are but the plain and unadorned doors that open into a splendid palace that is far beyond all we have ever imagined.

Good morning. Grace and peace to you.

Logos users will want to check in and make their next selections in March Matchups.
(Yesterday on the blog: Do You Ever Wonder Whether You’re A Christian at All?)
Is Congregational Singing Dead?
This article says that “the practice of congregational singing in church is threatened by a sea change in how people relate to music outside of church. All is not lost, however: the church, if it commits to the weirdness of congregational singing, might work to rebuild a culture of communal music-making within and outside the church, use that culture to invite people into the church, and – most importantly – continue to offer psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to Almighty God.”
On the Fence
“The midst of a car accident is not the best time to consider whether or not Jesus is who He says He is. Although it’s better than never considering the Jesus question, it’s still not the optimal time.” And yet…
The Disproportional Response
This is well worth thinking about. “Our churches seem to be becoming indistinguishable from our surrounding culture when it comes to how we respond to hurt.”
What Eats our Treasures? Vermin or Rust?
I hadn’t realized that in Matthew 6:19 a mistranslation crept in through Tyndale.
Shane
Stephen McAlpine reflects on the life and death of a hero (who is probably unknown to most of us). “Shane and Kylie. Every weekend in Australia in the 80s and early 90s there was bound to be one wedding between a couple with those names. They’re ingrained into our consciousness. She because she was a moderately gifted actor and singer who found a cultural moment and clung to it. He because he changed the nature of a sport by his brilliance, self-belief and vision.”
What Is a Healthy Way to Leave a Church?
If you need to leave a church, please be sure to do it in a healthy way!
Flashback: Spare the Rod, Spoil the Parent
A child who does not respect the authority of his parents will never respect the authority of his Creator. If we fail to discipline our children to obey us, we fail to discipline them to submit to God.

God remembers a prayer seventy-five years old as well as though it were a minute old. —De Witt Talmage

Have you ever had one of those moments where you’ve read how the Bible describes the habits, character, or disposition of a Christian and wondered, “Am I even a Christian?” I expect we all have from time-to-time. Alistair Begg considers the question in this little devotional on Luke 6:27 that is drawn from his book Truth for Life.

When you read the Bible and it describes Christianity, and then you look at yourself, do you ever wonder whether you’re a Christian at all? I know I do.
Neither our assurance as believers nor God’s love for us hinges on our ability to live out certain Christian principles; rather, both depend on what Christ has achieved for us on the cross. Even so, the Bible teaches us to look for evidences of our salvation in the present. If we truly are the Father’s children, we are bound to display a love for others that resembles Jesus’ love for us.
Jesus calls for us to love people in a way that is not related to their attractiveness, merit, or lovability. We know that this is exactly how God loves us—His love is not based on us cleaning up our act, deserving his attention, or demonstrating that we’re predisposed towards or useful to Him. None of these things contribute to God’s love for us. No—“God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8, emphasis added).
The greatest measure of our faith, then, is love—love that reflects the love that we have received in such abundance. We engage in agape love—unconditional, sacrificial love—because it is an expression of the character of God and all He’s done for us. We don’t exercise this kind of love for our enemies because we are blind to who they really are but because we have gazed at God’s love for us. Jesus says that when we see others as they are—in all of their ugliness and spitefulness, all of their cursing, all of their hatred, and all of their unwillingness to pay us what they owe us—we are to be realistic about all of it, and then love them. Seeing all of that enmity, says Jesus, I want you to love your enemies.
By nature, we are incapable of displaying such love. But consider the kind of difference we would make to our culture if we were prepared to live out, in both everyday and extraordinary ways, a Christlike love which seeks to do what’s best for those who have acted in enmity towards us. That would be revolutionary—without any question at all.

WTS has deals on a selection of March’s new and noteworthy books.

There are some new Kindle deals to browse through today.
(Yesterday on the blog: The Real Cost of Social Media)
Are You Getting in the Way of God’s Work?
Todd Stryd: “We all know that God uses his people to bless others. I’m sure you’ve been there—that perfectly timed conversation where all the words were right and were said at the right time, and the runway was cleared for the good news to land and do its work. A glorious thing to behold and an honor to be a part of. At the same time, I’m sure you can remember when the exact opposite was true…”
The Culture War Comes Home
“The culture war arrived in my hometown a few weeks ago with the approval of a new fairness ordinance by the Lincoln City Council. The ordinance is designed to provide protections against harassment and discrimination for LGBT+ people in Lincoln. But how it goes about doing that is worth considering.” This leads to some interesting observations.
8 Ways to Spot False Teachers
“Just as the true prophets of Israel had to deal with the prophets of foreign gods and false prophets from among the people of the land, the apostles confronted false teaching from within the church and from without. The New Testament Epistles offer several characteristics of false teachers and those susceptible to their teachings.”
Is Attending a Wedding an Endorsement?
Many of us have been invited to weddings and, for various reasons, had to ask a question like this: Is attending a wedding an endorsement? This article answers the question well.
God’s Preferred Pronouns
“God is not a he. That’s what gender theorists claim. God’s pronouns are they/them, we’re told. After all, God is an ungendered spiritual being. He’s three persons in one: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That’s a plurality of persons. Furthermore, ‘Elohim’—the ancient Hebrew word for God—is in plural form. Doesn’t all this evidence signal a reason to change how we refer to God? Should we abandon he/him and adopt they/them?”
What It’s Like to Feel Secure in God’s Love
This is a sweet example of what it’s like for us to feel secure in God’s love.
Flashback: When Parents Feel Like We Are Mostly Failing Most of the Time
Most of us hesitate to properly manage our children’s use of their devices at least in part because we don’t care to manage our own. There’s nothing intrinsic to being a parent that gives you the right to watch endless amounts of YouTube while capping your kids at a half hour.

Extraordinary afflictions are not always the punishment of extraordinary sins, but sometimes the trial of extraordinary grace. —Matthew Henry

Like it or not, we live in a world dominated by social media. While many older forms of media continue to exist and to exert their influence, all have in some way had to bow before the ascendancy of new media. It is pervasive, it is ubiquitous, it is addictive, and it is changing everything.

Yet because social media rose with lightning speed and so quickly became nearly omnipresent, we may already have lost sight of the influence it has over us. David Foster Wallace once famously told of two young fish who were swimmingly merrily along when they met an older one. That older fish nodded at them and asked, “How’s the water?” As they swam away, one turned to the other to ask “What’s water?” And in much the same way, social media has become so integral and essential a part of our lives that we may have stopped noticing it. Yet it is so dominant, so powerful, so manipulative, that we need to notice it and to ask how it is changing us, how it is forming us, how it may even be owning us.
Chris Martin’s new book Terms of Service: The Real Cost of Social Media is meant to help us see that the proverbial water we swim in these days is toxic and that it has been made toxic by social media. The goal of the book “is to help you recognize that social media is changing the way you think, feel, and live. Like water to a fish, social media has come to pervade the lives of everyone.” Indeed, it has become very nearly inescapable and unavoidable. Thus his call is not to delete all of our accounts and to try to exist without them. Rather, “I simply want you to recognize that social media is changing how you think and feel about life and largely in negative ways.” Having come to such a recognition, you may wish to delete your accounts or you may wish to simply reorient your relationship with them. Either way, understanding the way social media works will lead to some kind of application in your life.
The book is divided into three parts. The first sets the context by tracing the history of social media (or “the social internet”—Martin’s preferred term), by explaining how it works, and by showing how it came to take so prominent a place in our lives. The second part offers five ways that the social internet shapes us: it causes us to believe that attention assigns value, it causes us to trade our privacy for expression, it causes us to pursue affirmation instead of truth, it causes us to demonize people we dislike, and it causes us to destroy people we demonize. The third part offers a way forward that includes disciplines that exist outside of our phones and computers: studying history, admiring creation, valuing silence, pursuing humility, establishing accountability, and building friendships. It’s a powerful combination that pulls back the curtain on the companies, apps, and algorithms that play so integral a role in our lives. It nicely balances information with calls to action so that we can apply what we’ve learned to live better lives.
I’ll close with the words of the brief endorsement I wrote after reading an early manuscript of this work: Chris Martin has established himself as one of the foremost Christian thinkers when it comes to digital technologies in general, and the social internet in particular. In this book, he demonstrates why it is so important for Christians to think well about these world-changing, heart-shaping, soul-forming technologies. I highly recommend Terms of Service to anyone who wants to better understand how we can take back what they’ve so eagerly taken from us.

Buy from Amazon

Happy Friday! May the Lord be with you and bless you today.

(Yesterday on the blog: Books To Read As You Prepare for Easter)
When Evil Is Called Good
Carl Trueman analyzes three recent news stories. “Taken together, these three news stories point to the comprehensive destabilizing of society at which the revolution aims. The family must be dismantled; biology must fall to gender ideology; dissenters must be discredited and vilified.”
Fearing Fear Itself
“This past month, as the world has watched and prayed while the Russian army has invaded the sovereign nation of Ukraine, images of young mothers and children having to flee to safety, or hunker down in bomb shelters have flooded our media, imaginations, and our hearts. The courage and tenacity of the Ukrainian people have been inspiring. But fear is a powerful and all-consuming weapon. Not just overseas and in far away lands, but even in our own first-world lives of comfort and affluence we can be easily overwhelmed by fear and worry.”
Preaching Series: Six Strengths
Peter Mead: “Some churches always preach sermons in a series. Some churches never do. Here are six strengths of well-planned series…”
Pain From the Church Heals in the Church
“This is the beauty of the body of Christ: we do not have to pretend we are put-together people. Believers endure the trials of this life together, which means we also have a front-row seat to spiritual growth gifted through them.”
Progressive Christians Love THIS Fallacy
I expect you’ve heard someone rely on this fallacy before.
Died: Gary North, Who Saw Austrian Economics in the Bible and Disaster on the Horizon
Christianity Today has an interesting obituary for Gary North who recently died. “Gary North, a leading Christian Reconstructionist who argued for the biblical basis of free market economics and urged people to prepare for societal collapse, has died at 80.”
Flashback: Four Good Reasons to Read Good Books
Reading is a pleasure worth learning to love and pursue, even if it requires some effort at first. However, whether it is pleasure or pain, commit yourself to read to know, read to grow, read to lead and read to love.

Christian friendships are among the sweetest gifts God gives his people. —Sam Emadi