It never ceases to amaze me how precious truths can become dearer still when interpreted through the poet’s pen. Here is a wonderful bit of verse from John Greenleaf Whittier as he masterfully speaks of God’s comfort in our sorrows and losses.

To weary hearts, to mourning homes,God’s meekest Angel gently comes;No power has he to banish pain,Or give us back our lost again;And yet in tenderest love, our dearAnd Heavenly Father sends him here.
There’s quiet in that Angel’s glance,There’s rest in his still countenance!He mocks no grief with idle cheer,Nor wounds with words the mourner’s ear;But ills and woes he may not cureHe kindly trains us to endure.
Angel of Patience! sent to calmOur feverish brows with cooling palm;To lay the storms of hope and fear,And reconcile life’s smile and tear;The throbs of wounded pride to still,And make our own our Father’s will.
O thou who mournest on thy way,With longings for the close of day;He walks with thee, that Angel kind,And gently whispers, “Be resignedBear up, bear on, the end shall tellThe dear Lord ordereth all things well!”

Good morning and good day to you!

Today’s Kindle deals include some classics.
(Yesterday on the blog: I Still Do: A Marriage Course for the Middle Years)
The Power of Questions
I enjoyed this look at the rhetorical power of questions—and the different kinds we can pose.
Everywhere spoken against
Janie B. Cheaney considers Anne Rice’s strange legacy. “It seemed improbable for a wildly popular author of paranormal and erotic fiction to fall in love with Jesus. But spiritual pilgrimage characterized most of her life, from Catholicism to mysticism to atheism to agnosticism and back home to the church of her childhood. And beyond. For, after publicly dedicating her craft to Christ and producing three novels about His life, she took one more step.” The step she took, of course, was walking away from the church.
Who in the world am I preaching to?
This is an excellent article by Andrew Roycroft. “The clarity of my speech will matter, the integrity of my exegesis will count for a lot, the fervency of my prayers is crucial, but self-consciously thinking through who I am addressing can easily slip from the list of priorities. In this post I want to suggest that this is a key mistake, and one which can act as barrier to effective communication from the pulpit.”
Safe To Be Me
“‘Safe To Be Me’ is the name of a conference the UK government are organising in 2022 to promote LGBT rights around the world. I think the conference title is ingenuous. In just four words, it unites two big, popular ideas: safeguarding and identity politics, and rolls them into a moral agenda.” Yet, as this writer shows, “But Jesus Christ is the only person qualified to organise that conference, because Jesus Christ is the only human who can actually say: ‘it’s safe to be me’.”
Love Your Neighbour! How?
“The default view of many, it seems, is that loving your neighbour means expressing kindness in the way our culture and the media has defined kindness for us.  The basic idea is that Christians should be leading the way in expressing kindness as it has been defined.  But how is the world’s track record at defining what is right or wrong?”
Song of Songs: The Intoxication of True Love in its Time
You may want to bookmark this outline and overview of Song of Songs.
Flashback: Aging Gracefully
Every day, we are all building the house we will live in when old age comes. Some of us are building a beautiful palace. Some are building a dark prison. What are you building?

Most of us are prepared to love others only up to the point where it begins to actually cost us. —Jared C. Wilson

This week’s Free Stuff Fridays is sponsored by Zondervan Academic, who also sponsored the blog this week. They are giving away FIVE sets of Wayne Grudem’s Christian Beliefs, Revised Edition, and Christian Beliefs Study Guide.

Here is more about the books:
Christian Beliefs, Revised Edition
Not every Christian needs to go to seminary, but there are certain teachings of the Bible that every Christian should know. Whether you’re a relatively new believer in Jesus or a mature Christian looking for a better understanding of the basics of the faith, Christian Beliefs are for you.
This readable guide to twenty basic Christian beliefs condenses Wayne Grudem’s award-winning book Systematic Theology, prized by pastors and teachers everywhere. He and his son, pastor Elliot Grudem, have boiled down the essentials of theology for everyday Christians and made them both clear and applicable to life. Each brief chapter concludes with questions for personal review or group discussion.
In this revised and updated edition of Christian Beliefs, you will learn about:

The Bible and its authority for our lives
The characteristics of God
The importance of prayer
Angels and the reality of spiritual warfare
What it means that we are created in the image of God
What God has done for us in Christ
The purpose of the church
What will happen when Christ returns
The biblical understanding of heaven
And much more

Christian Beliefs is the ideal book for every Christian who wants a solid foundation for understanding the most basic and essential teachings of the Bible.
 Christian Beliefs Study Guide
Whether you’re a relatively new believer in Jesus or a mature Christian looking for a better understanding of basics of the faith, the Christian Beliefs Study Guide can help you reflect on and deeply internalize the core teachings of Christianity
Chapter by chapter, this STUDY GUIDE will lead you to examine and reflect on Christian Beliefs, revised edition, by providing:

Summary: A short summary of the chapter to help remind readers what they read.
Key terms: Definitions of important terminology introduced in the chapter.
Key quotes: Selection of one or two key quotes from the chapter.
Central Scripture Passage: An important biblical passage related to the chapter for reflection or memorization.
Content Questions: Questions that reflect on the theological content of the chapter.
Practical Application Questions: Questions that help tie the theological content of the chapter to real-life situations.
For Further Reading: Lists where to find more information on theological topics in Systematic Theology, second edition, by Wayne Grudem so readers know where to go for a deeper dive into specific subjects they want to know more about.

Go here to find out more about Christian Beliefs.

Enter Here
Again, there are five packages to win. And all you need to do to enter the draw is to drop your name and email address in the form below.
Giveaway Rules: You may enter one time. As soon as the winners have been chosen, all names and addresses will be immediately and permanently erased. Winners will be notified by email. The giveaway closes Saturday at noon. If you are viewing this through email, click to visit my site and enter there.

It has been my observation that churches tend to invest a fair bit of effort in preparing couples to begin a healthy marriage, but perhaps a little less in helping couples sustain a healthy marriage. We offer pre-marriage seminars designed to deliberately help a couple better understand the challenges that will come their way in the years ahead, but don’t offer as many seminars deliberately designed to help couples through the middle and later years of marriage and, thus, through issues like sorrow, loss, declining sexuality, empty-nesting, unmet expectations, unresolved conflict, and so on.

I wanted to address this in my church (and in my own marriage, for that), so decided to lead a marriage seminar that would appeal specifically to couples who have been married for at least a decade and perhaps even several. I built it around Dave Harvey’s I Still Do: Growing Closer and Stronger through Life’s Defining Moments—a book that is meant to foster a marriage that is lasting and durable. With Dave doing the heavy lifting, I put a good deal of effort into creating questions that would prompt conversation and prayer between the couples and also lead to helpful group discussions.
Because I expect others may benefit from such a course, I thought I’d share the material and make it freely available for you to download for your own purposes, whether that’s to lead a course with others or just go through the material with your spouse. You are free to download it, use it, edit it, and so on. You need give no credit to me.
I would recommend having an experienced and credible individual or couple lead the course and would also recommend keeping the group size relatively small as a means of fostering openness and vulnerability in times of corporate discussion. The six sessions are structured in such a way that each couple will read two chapters together, answer a number of questions, then meet with the group for further learning and discussion. Group meetings should be scheduled for about 90 minutes. For each session there is a Question sheet which is sent to the couples in advance and a Discussion sheet which is for the leader to use at the seminar. Those who wish to extend the course to 12 weeks can easily split each session in half. Each couple will need to have a copy of I Still Do (Amazon, Westminster Books) and the leader should purchase a copy of the Study Guide (Amazon, Westminster Books) since a few of the questions are drawn from it.
Here are all the files in a variety of formats:

Introduction, Information, and Expectations: PDF, Pages, Word
Session 1 (Questions: PDF, Pages, Word | Discussion: PDF, Pages, Word)
Session 2 (Questions: PDF, Pages, Word | Discussion: PDF, Pages, Word)
Session 3 (Questions: PDF, Pages, Word | Discussion: PDF, Pages, Word)
Session 4 (Questions: PDF, Pages, Word | Discussion: PDF, Pages, Word)
Session 5 (Questions: PDF, Pages, Word | Discussion: PDF, Pages, Word)
Session 6 (Questions: PDF, Pages, Word | Discussion: PDF, Pages, Word)
Or: Download everything in one zip file

May the Lord be with you and bless you today.

The Reformed Expository Commentary series has finally published their volume for Romans and Westminster Books has it heavily discounted. The series is ideal for pastors or general readers.
What to Do When Your Resolutions Start Dissolving
Reagan Rose: “We’re officially two weeks into 2022. And two weeks also happens to be the average life span of a new year’s resolution. So, even if you’re finding your big plans for ‘new year, new me’ are already floundering, I’d like to offer you a few notes of encouragement.”
The Case for Not Treating NFTs as a Scam
I don’t really understand NFTs and am not convinced they are the future. But maybe you’ll be mocking me for that statement a few years from now. Either way, CT has a case for not treating them as a scam.
Unoffendable
“I will never know what might have happened if our neighbor hadn’t intervened. My heart was flailing, as I stood wide-eyed, attempting to fill the frame of our front door. It was my hope to shield my children’s view of this woman, a futile plan, given this creature who was now screaming at me, a Jezebel in the flesh, eyes blazing and nostrils flaring.” So begins Kristin’s account of her journey to becoming unoffendable.
Is It Ethical to Transplant a Pig Heart into a Human?
“In a medical first, surgeons transplanted a genetically modified pig heart into a human patient. Is such animal-to-human transplantation ethical?” Joe Carter takes a look at a story right out of the headlines.
Finding God’s Grace Sufficient in a Messy Relationship
Cara tells how she found God’s grace sufficient even in a tremendously messy and painful relationship.
The Grace of Warning
“What a gift of God’s grace to be alerted to what is coming, whether it’s a tornado, a flood, or God’s final judgement. Just as a loving parent warns their child not to touch the stove because they could be severely injured, so does our heavenly father warn His children of the consequences of sinful rebellion and disobedience.”
Flashback: God Hates Hypocrisy
At heart, hypocrisy is theatrical religion, religion as a means of personal enrichment or enhanced reputation. It is an abomination to the God who sees and knows the heart.

Prayer gives us permission to leave circumstances undone. We can entrust them to the God who watches over them and never blinks. —John Onwuchekwa

Grace and peace to you, my friends.

Today’s Kindle deals include two good books I don’t think I’ve ever seen on sale before.
(Yesterday on the blog: Don’t Be Reckless With What Others Count Precious)
The Vertical, Horizontal, and Inward Realities of Sin
“Sin is never done in isolation. In fact, there are vertical, horizontal, and inward effects of it.” David Qaoud explains.
How Paul Measured the Missionary Task
This article makes some good and useful points about the missionary task.
The Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard
“‘Imaginary gardens with real toads in them.’ That’s how one writer has described the parables of Jesus. They are imaginative stories, but they relate to real life. They are imaginary gardens, but they have real toads in them. Often those toads are us.” This is a short but helpful look at one of those parables and an explanation of why establishing context is so important to the task of interpretation.
The Success Of Others
Seth considers all he sees of others through social media and asks, “how does my own life measure up to theirs? Is my life still important if it doesn’t include the same kinds of successes that I see other people achieving and enjoying? If they reach higher and go further than I do, am I just one more loser bringing up the rear in some kind of cosmic reality show competition?”
How Much Can the Most Famous Dead Sea Scroll Prove?
Here’s a look at some of what we learn from the most famous of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
What Are Your gods of 2022? 
Sylvia Schroeder considers the old god Dagon and what we can learn from a strange story in 1 Samuel.
Flashback: The Greatest Christians and the Most Visible Gifts
…is it possible we tacitly communicate that some gifts are better than others, that some are more desirable than others, that some are more essential than others? Is it possible we suggest that the greatest Christians are those with the most visible gifts?

The cross and tomb are where we are invited into the kingdom, and where chaos begins to be transformed into peace. —Alistair Begg

There are few blessings richer than having a good name, and few honors greater than having an upright reputation. “A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches,” says Solomon, and “a good reputation is more valuable than costly perfume.”1 That being the case, it falls to us to tend to names carefully, to respect what others hold most dear. We might justify carelessness with another man’s trifles and trinkets, but most certainly not with his good name.

Yet none of us can deny that we have often been reckless with what others count precious. None of us can deny that we have often besmirched a name rather than honored it, diminished it rather than strengthened it. We have found greater joy in being harsh than kind, in tearing down than building up. We have begun rumors, we have spread gossip, we have fostered false impressions, we have believed untruths, we have failed to love our neighbor as ourself.
Sometimes we have been motivated by envy, for when we draw a comparison to someone else and feel our own lack, it is far easier to tear down the other person than to raise up ourselves. Sometimes we have been motivated by jealousy, for when we see the possessions or accomplishments of another, our hearts may conspire against them. Sometimes we have been motivated by sheer greed, thinking that there is praise enough for only one, so that plaudits given them somehow diminish us.
And so we slander them by fabricating what is false and malicious; we defame them by letting information stand when we know it to be false; we malign them by spreading rumors to others; we lie about them when we pass along information that is uncorroborated or exaggerated; we gossip against them when we tell third parties what they have no business knowing; we are ungracious to them when we focus more on their flaws than their virtues, more on their weaknesses than their manifold strengths.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy,” says Jesus, and we prove we have been recipients of mercy when we dispense it in turn to our fellow man. And while that mercy comes in many forms—hearts that care, hands that help, words that strengthen—it also finds expression in protecting another person’s name.
We act in mercy when we act in their good—to stop gossip rather than pass it on, to overlook offenses rather than make them known, to set aside unconfirmed information rather than believe it, to boast of God’s victories in a life rather than the world’s, the flesh’s, or the devil’s. This is true whether they are friends or family members, obscure or famous, Christians or unbelievers, for we get no free passes when it comes to lying, exaggerating, gossiping, and other such transgressions. Is it no less a sin to gossip about a hated politician than a beloved parent, a wayward celebrity than a treasured friend, for all are created in the image of God, all have dignity and worth, all are to be objects of our love, all fall under the sacred banner of “neighbor.”
Jesus says that the one who has been forgiven much will love much and in just that way, the one who has been shown much mercy will be eager to extend it to others. We who believe in Jesus Christ have been granted mercy beyond measure and, therefore, ought to be joyfully merciful in return—merciful even, and perhaps especially, to protect the precious blessing that is a good and upright name.

1Proverbs 22:1 NIV; Ecclesiastes 7:1 NLTInspired, in part, by Thomas Watson’s commentary on the Sermon on the Mount.

The Lord bless and keep you today.

Today’s Kindle deals include some good picks from Crossway.
Westminster Books has a new kids’ edition of Pilgrim’s Progress discounted.
The False Philosophy of Cancel Culture
This article from STR makes some interesting observations about cancel culture. “Cancel culture is based on the assumption that power—not truth—is the only way to drive cultural change. Change the group in power, and change the culture. On this view, everything is a power play. Ultimately, group power plays result in the loss of individual freedom and liberty—canceling, in other words.”
Satan’s Agenda for the Christian
Chopo Mwanza wants to ensure Christians don’t fall into two opposite traps when it comes to Satan’s influence in a life.
Why Should Your Local Church Be Geographically Proximate?
I appreciate much of what Stephen David says about attending a church that is close to home. “We’ve encouraged some believers from a distant section of Hyderabad to travel a long distance for the purpose of gathering with us as a church. They were clearly desperate to attend a Biblical church. Simultaneously, we trained a brother as a church planter and sent him out to plant a church in their locality.”
Secularism Proves Christianity’s Influence
Glen Scrivener considers whether Christianity’s influence has begun to wane in Western society. “It’s worth remembering that tides go out, but they also come in. There have been many ‘long, withdrawing roars’ in church history and equally many extraordinary surges. Tides don’t go out forever. But there’s another way to develop the ‘sea of faith’ analogy: the power of the water is in evidence no matter its current level.”
SBJT 25/2
If you’re interested in some theological reading, there’s a new issue of the Southern Baptist Journal of Theology free for the taking. The theme for this issue is angels.
Ten Words for a Broken Society
Bruce Ashford continues his series on the Ten Commandments by considering the fifth and its implications for children and, by implication, citizens. (Though on this note he may fall into the all-too-common trap of spending more time discussing what the commandment doesn’t mean than what it actually does.)
Flashback: Be a Parent Worthy of Honor
How can we who are parents live lives that are worthy of honor? How can we make it easy for our children to honor us now and in the future?

If men were able in the slightest degree to try to move in God’s direction, there would be no need for God to save them. —Martin Luther

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

(Yesterday on the blog: All Will Be Well)
Discipled by Algorithms
I think it’s increasingly important that we acknowledge the centrality of algorithms in modern life. “We live in a personally curated and expertly crafted world of information, driven by algorithms that often wield significant influence over our lives and our outlook on the social and ethical issues of our day. The world you see online is often very different than what I might see, which in turn makes it difficult to address many of the root problems of our day.”
Four Ways the Church Can Welcome Kids with Special Needs
This article offers four simple ways a church can welcome kids with special needs (and make their families feel comfortable being there).
The Forgotten Gift of Evening Worship
There are lots of good reasons to consider evening worship services, with the strongest reason probably being their long history in the Protestant tradition. “In this season of fresh starts and resolutions, here are some biblical, historical, and practical reasons you should cherish the gift of evening worship.”
Sovereign
Susan Lafferty: “In the weight of urgent prayer, a passage of Scripture whispers in my thoughts. Rising gently. Firmly. Pressing through the questions and concerns. A hymn of praise. Penned by Paul. About the Sovereign One.”
For Those Disheartened in Serving
Amber Thiessen has an article for those who may be growing disheartened in their serving.
If You Want to Be Content, Stop Looking Back
Lydia Brownback: “‘Why? Why? Why?’ The seemingly endless questions of a three-year-old test our patience at times. But even in those moments we rejoice because those whys reveal a budding interest in how the world works. And asking why about the world isn’t just for kids—it’s for all people at every age, because curiosity about creation points to the Creator.”
Flashback: Would It Be Okay For Me To Be Angry With God?
It felt like a test—a test of my faith, a test of my convictions, a test of my love for God. Soon, very soon, after I learned that my son had died, I received a message from an old acquaintance.

When we have sorrow or suffering, our question should not be, “What have I done that God is punishing me for?” but, “What is the mission of this messenger of God to me?” —J.R. Miller