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

This week the blog is sponsored by Zondervan Academic, and is adapted from the preface to Christian Beliefs by Wayne Grudem.

Knowing and understanding basic Christian beliefs is important for every Christian. People who don’t know what the Bible teaches will have no ability to distinguish truth from error, and they will be like “children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine” (Eph. 4:14). But Christians who have a solid foundation will be maturer, will not be easily led astray, will have better judgment, and will “have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil” (Heb. 5:14).
This new revised edition of Christian Beliefs will help Christians from every walk of life learn these basic teachings so they can live faithfully and fruitfully. This book is a summary of twenty basic beliefs that every Christian should know. It is a condensed version of my book Bible Doctrine, and that itself is a condensed version of my Systematic Theology. Christian Beliefs takes the most essential sections from those earlier books, condensing long discussions into a key sentence or two, and revising the wording to make it understandable even for people who are brand-new to the Christian faith.
Christian Beliefs has a strong focus on the Bible as the source for what Christians believe. Instead of just citing references to Bible verses, we have frequently quoted actual verses from the Bible, because God’s very words are “living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb. 4:12). The words of the Bible nourish us spiritually. Paul says that the Word of God is “able to build you up” (Acts 20:32), and Jesus says, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4).
The two comments I hear most frequently from people who have read Systematic Theology or Bible Doctrine are “Thank you for writing a theology book that I can understand” and “This book is helping my Christian life.” We have attempted to preserve those two qualities—clarity and application to life—in Christian Beliefs as well.
I hope this shorter book will be useful for new Christians, for new members’ classes in churches, for home and college, Bible study groups, and even for Sunday school classes for children from about age thirteen on up. It should also be helpful for non-Christians looking for a brief summary of basic Christian teachings.
The Christian Beliefs Study Guide is also now available for use alongside the main book to help readers reflect on and deeply internalize the core teachings of Christianity.
Go here to find out more about Christian Beliefs.

The young boy had a privileged upbringing and spent his childhood on a fine estate that boasted a large and carefully-tended garden with bright flowers, cobbled paths, high walls, trimmed lawns. He spent hours of every day playing in this garden, exploring it, and delighting in its many wonders.

But there was one part where he never ventured to go. At the very end of the garden stood a grove of trees that grew tall and full and cast dark shade upon the pathway beneath. As he squinted his eyes from a safe distance, he could see that the path winding through the grove led to a gate set in the distant wall. And though he wondered what lay beneath the trees and beyond the gateway, he dared not approach, for when he was small, a gardener had told him an idle tale of ogres that lived among the trees and giants that lived in the land beyond the walls.
Finally a day came when his older brother heard of his fear. Playing in the garden one day, the older led the younger to the very edge of the grove. Leaving the young boy frozen there, stricken with terror, his brother took up a happy song and walked down the path without fear, without worry, without hesitation. Reaching the gate, he opened it deftly and passed through, his voice still audible and still joyful.
And then, having shown his brother that there was nothing to fear, he returned. He entered back from beyond the wall, he retraced his steps along the pathway, until the two brothers once again stood side-by-side. He assured him he had seen no ogres among the trees and no giants beyond the gate. In fact, the gate had opened into a garden even more splendid than the one in which they stood. And now the young boy knew there was nothing to dread, no reason to be anxious. His fears had been allayed and his heart calmed, replaced by the knowledge of his brother’s safe journey. Yet even then, “Let me know when you are ready,” said his brother assuredly, “and in that day I will take your hand and we will walk the pathway and pass through the gate together.”
And just so, our elder brother Jesus knows we live in fear of death and are prone to doubt that joys lie beyond the gateways of this life. He knows we fear what we cannot see and cannot yet experience. He knows our anxiety, he knows our weakness, he knows our frailty. And so he has gone before us. He has made the journey and returned to assure us that all will be well and to tell us that we need do no more than follow in his footsteps. For as the sacred Word tells us, by his death he has broken the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and has freed those who all their lives have been held in slavery by their fear of death (Hebrews 2:14–15). By defeating death, he has liberated us from the fear of death.

Inspired by The Way Into the Holiest by F.B. Meyer

Grace and peace to you on this fine Monday.

How Do We Process the Scariest Passage in All of Scripture?
Justin Dillehay: “It’s frightening to think about going to hell. It’s even more frightening to find out too late that you’re going to hell when you thought you were going to heaven. And still more frightening to think that not just a few, but ‘many’ will have this experience.”
Why Does God Hide Himself from Christians?
I really appreciate John Piper’s answer to this question. “Let me repeat the very, very crucial central statement that he made. He said this: ‘So God never forsakes his people, but he sometimes withdraws from them the sweetness of communion with him. He hides his face, as the psalmist says in about a dozen places.’ His question is, Why would God do that to his own children?”
How “Conversion Therapy” Bans Are Akin to Apostasy Laws
Joe Carter explains how conversion therapy bans, which are cropping up in a number of jurisdictions, are akin to Islamic apostasy laws.
Rejoicing in Suffering
Guy Richard considers rejoicing in suffering. “In some way, by his own admission, Paul’s sufferings were ‘for your sake.’ In other words, they accomplished something in the lives of the Christians to whom Paul was writing. Looking back on his suffering, Paul was able to see that, and, for this reason, he rejoiced. But what exactly did Paul see?”
7 Things the Prophets Might Say To Us
Peter Mead considers the Old Testament prophets and asks, “I wonder what they would say if they travelled through time and visited our churches today? What would they say to us preachers? Here are seven quick thoughts to ponder, feel free to add more.”
Why Does the Book of Acts End So Abruptly?
The book of Acts ends very abruptly. Why?
Flashback: Why You Shouldn’t Stop Blogging (or Why You Should Consider Starting)
Here are some of the benefits you may experience if you maintain your own blog (instead of only ever submitting material to the major ministry blogs).

God has promised to supply what we need, when we need it. He hasn’t equipped us for hypotheticals. —Betsy Childs Howard

Among the works of the old preacher J.R. Miller is a wonderful collection of family prayers. The one I’ve copied below is a favorite and one that would be worth praying today as you prepare to worship the Lord.

As we begin this holy Sunday, our Father, may You give us indeed a Sunday blessing. On this day which reminds us of our Savior’s rising from the grave, may we rise anew to a holier, truer, and heavenlier life. May we walk in the sunshine of Your own love. As we wait upon You, may You renew our strength so that we may be able to run without being weary, and to walk without being faint, on the week-days which lie before us.
We ask that You will bless us in our private and public worship on this holy Sunday. May Your blessing rest upon all worshiping assemblies of Your people. May this be a day of spiritual renewal in all the churches. Bless all Sunday schools. May Your grace fill the heart of every teacher; and may every child that receives instruction, be blessed through Your holy Word. Bless all of Your missionaries, and fill them with Your Holy Spirit, to fit them for worthy service.
We pray that You will bless us in our worship today. Help us to leave behind every worldly thought and care, as we enter Your sanctuary. As we wait before You, may we receive instruction from Your word and inspiration from Your Spirit, so that we may be strong for battle and for duty. Help us today in our ministering to others. May we be enabled in our own home to give to each other the blessing of love and peace. Help us to carry comfort to some sorrowing one, cheer to one who is discouraged, and sympathy to one who is in distress.
We give ourselves to You for a Sunday of blessing, love, and peace. May our home receive new divine influences from above. May this be a shining day in the story of our lives. And we will give the praise and the honor to You forever. Amen.

Good morning!

Today’s Kindle deals include a couple of newer books and some older ones as well.
(Yesterday on the blog: Read This First)
Loved With Everlasting Love
How often do you get to read an article by someone who is celebrating a century of God’s faithfulness? “In November 2020, I celebrated a hundred years of the Lord’s faithfulness to me. I can hardly believe I have reached such a milestone as I don’t feel any sense of aging in my spirit, even if my body is weaker than before.”
Yes, You Need to Talk to the Manager
“At the risk of leaning too far into generational stereotypes, which are indeed lazy and perpetuate slipshod thinking, I’m going to observe yet another difference between people of my age and of my parents’ age.” It’s an interesting observation, and one that helps explain the times.
The Grace of Pastoral Finesse
This is a good and helpful term: pastoral finesse. “Most of the challenging situations with which pastors are confronted demand what I like to call pastoral finesse, namely, approaching a challenging situation with a combination of intentionality, love, boldness, wisdom, and patience.”
Keep preaching & expect different results
And speaking of pastors, here’s a needed reminder. “The Bible doesn’t tell us to preach when the Word is in season and to try something different while it isn’t. We are to preach in season and out of season. In fact, we only know what season it is by preaching! We don’t put a finger in the air and check the weather, we preach the Word and the results tell us what season it might be.”
Is Deconstruction the Same as Deconversion?
Michael Kruger distinguishes between two kinds of deconstruction within Christianity: total deconstruction and reforming deconstruction.
Nothing Bitter, Only Sweet
Brittany Lee Allen reflects on changes in life and anticipation of heaven. “We’re excited about no longer experiencing sin, no longer walking through suffering, but what if there are things we’ll miss? Will we look back longingly at our life before eternity?”
Flashback: Big Sins Little Sins
We can, should, and must be grateful for each deliverance, for each person who finds victory over pornography. It is right and good to celebrate with them. But then we must roll up our sleeves together, knowing there are more battles to come in this great and terrible war.

Prayerlessness is practical atheism, demonstrating a lack of belief in God. —Michael Reeves

Every generation of Christians faces the very same challenge: To learn the Bible for themselves and to teach it to those who follow in their footsteps. This task cannot be willed, it cannot be inherited, it cannot be passed down. Rather, each generation must accept afresh the challenge to honor, to know, and to obey the Word of God.

Gary Millar’s Read This First is, according to the subtitle, “A Simple Guide to Getting the Most from the Bible.” It is, in that way, a wonderful place to begin for those who wish to accept their God-given responsibility (or alternatively, a wonderful resource to distribute to help others with theirs).
Millar says, “This book aims to help people who would like to read the Bible but don’t really know where to start or how to go about it. You may be a Christian who enjoys being part of a church or a Bible-study group, but you end up feeling lost and confused whenever you attempt to read the Bible for yourself. You may have even tried to embark on a Bible-reading regime but … it didn’t take long before you gave up with a sense of defeat: you just don’t get it. That’s why I’ve written this book: to guide you through it. My hope is that you’ll read this first and go back to the Bible with the skills and confidence to truly enjoy it.”
There is a second audience in his mind: “You may be pretty new to Christianity. You have always thought that the Bible seems interesting enough for you to take a look, but you’ve been put off by the small print, strange ‘religious’ language, its distance from your culture, or even just its size. You may have been been encouraged to read the Bible by a friend, or heard a snippet of what it says at a wedding or funeral, or come across a quotation somewhere. It’s often said that the Bible is one of the best-selling books of all time. That alone seems like a good reason to dip into it.”
For either of those audiences, or even more experienced Bible-readers who are just looking for a bit of a refresh, Read This First offers a simple, helpful guide to reading the Bible well. It begins with an explanation of why everyone should consider reading the Bible, then begins to teach how to read it: to pay attention to the “vibe” of any passage, to discern meaning, to account for context, and to read it both as a book that was written in a different time and to a different audience and as a book that was written for we who live here and now.
Though Read This First is short and simple, that is exactly its purpose and its exactly its charm. It is just the kind of book each of us would have benefitted to read at the start of our journey to better understand God’s Word and just the kind of resource each of us loves to distribute to others. It will do exactly what it promises: help those who have a desire to read the Bible to actually read the Bible—and to read it right. I’m very glad to recommend it.

Buy from Amazon

May the Lord be with you and extend his richest blessings to you today.

The Strange Fate of Hamilton and Harry Potter
Carl Trueman: “Years ago, when teaching at seminary, I used to tell the students that moral relevance in the modern world was a cruel and fickle mistress. However much Christians accommodated themselves to her demands, sooner or later she would want more. Christian morality and the morality of the world simply could not be reconciled in the long term. Apparently, this no longer applies simply to Christians and other moral traditionalists. It also applies to the artistic class.”
That One Common Ache
“What beauty might erupt, if this year we chose instead to press into our own narrative, divinely written by God our Maker? Palms held loosely open, (Your will, God, not mine) humbly and graciously accepting his path, trusting him implicitly by way of adoration and bowed obedience?” Kristin asks you to consider it.
3 Reasons to Use Better Bible Study Resources than Strong’s
This article explains how and why James Strong’s 1890 Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible is too often misunderstood and, therefore, misused.
Faith of our Fathers (and Mothers)
Chris Hutchison helpfully “reminds us that our faith in Jesus is not a brand-new thing but is rather a continuation of what God had been doing with Israel for centuries.”
Nature Can Teach
If you’re not familiar with the term “natural law,” this article by Steven Wedgeworth will get you all caught up.
Should Christian Parents Use Prenatal Genetic Testing?
Joe Carter looks at some new analysis about prenatal genetic testing and considers whether Christians should use it.
Flashback: A Master at His Craft
The writer begins with an idea, information he means to convey to others, and he labors to shape the raw material of words into a finished work that expresses that information with nuance, with freshness, with force. The degree to which he succeeds is the degree to which he is satisfied with the result.

No matter how ordinary your elders appear, they are, in reality, Christ’s perfectly chosen gift to you. When you receive the ministry of your elders, you receive the ministry of Christ himself. —Megan Hill

Grace and peace to you today.

Westminster Books is offering 50% off their top sellers from 2021.
There are a couple of new Kindle deals today.
(Yesterday on the blog: The Squiggly Line of God’s Providence)
Greedy for Gain
“There’s something ugly, something character revealing, about the politician who squeezes absolutely every inch out of their entitlements. Those who make sure that every dollar of those things that they can technically claim is used up, and who spend the time to do so.” And, as Stephen McAlpine points out, it’s not just politicians…
I Must Die
“Death is an enemy, no doubt. It’s seeks to undo everything God intended. Yet, the work of dying to self is a sanctifying work, a work that removes, slowly overtime, what is unlovely in our character and replaces it with true life, light, and love.”
Being Somebody
“At my house growing up, I was somebody. When my mom asked if somebody would bring in firewood, or let the dog out, or fetch the groceries, I knew she was talking to me. As the youngest child, I ended up being the last somebody in the house besides my parents, so I got to be somebody a lot.” Seth bridges from this to an encouragement to press on in the work the Lord has called you to.
Distinguish Details
This is a brief, helpful discussion of the distinction between studying details in sermon preparation and actually telling everyone about details in sermon delivery.
No Creaky Wallet Love
Glenna Marshall: “I used to think that love was something God doled out with miserly resistance. I pictured Jack Arnold, the disgruntled dad of the 1988 television series, ‘The Wonder Years,’ slowly opening his wallet, which creaked with stinginess as he forked out a couple of dollars for Kevin’s allowance. Kevin held his breath, eyes fixed on his dad’s tight-lipped grimace. A raise in allowance hinged upon his ability to either please his father or catch him in a good mood. If his dad was in a bad mood, that wallet would snap shut faster than you could say ‘please.’”
Five 2022 Resolutions for your Consideration
It may be a week late for New Years resolutions, but Chopa Mwanza still has a few you may wish to consider.
Flashback: How Is God Present in Our Pain?
In our pain we know God is not absent, but in our pain we also wonder whether God is present. Or perhaps more correctly we wonder how God is present.

A true Christian does not cloak or excuse his unbelief, but honestly acknowledges it before God. —A.W. Pink

Even in our sorest trials we have the highest confidence: all things work for good. Even in our darkest valleys we have the brightest light: all things work for good. Even in our lowest moments, our hardest days, our most difficult circumstances, this precious promise blesses us, sustains us, gives us hope: all things work for good for those who love God and are called according to his purpose.

As Christians we know that God’s sovereign hand draws a line that leads from suffering to meaning, from pain to purpose, from grief to good. There is no affliction that leads nowhere, no sorrow that is ultimately futile, senseless, or pointless. No, in some way they all work together for good, in some way they all bring blessing, in some way they all display the all-surpassing wisdom of a holy God.
But the line that leads from trials to goodness is not necessarily a straight line that extends unswervingly from one to the other. No, it may be jagged, crooked, squiggly, hard to trace—more like woven tapestry than pure geometry, more like spaghetti cooked and in the pot than spaghetti raw and in the box. Neither is it a single line that exists alone, as if one affliction leads to just one good. No, there may be a hundred lines leading from one sorrow and a thousand lines leading to one good. Our deepest grief may flow into a million goods and our greatest triumph may be downstream of a thousand sorrows.
For this reason we must guard ourselves against being too hasty in interpreting God’s providences. A impatient gardener may wish to see a flower bloom and in his haste pry open the bud. But this would serve only to harm the flower, for it must open in its own time, only when the seasons have changed, only when the spring rains have fallen, only when the sun has warmed the earth and sky.
And in much the same way, we must be careful not to mar God’s purposes through impatience. We must guard ourselves against being too quick to draw straight and easy lines from sorrows to goods and from goods back to sorrows. We must guard ourselves against too easily jumping from the “what” to the “why.” We must be careful not to tritely conflate why an event happened with how God may be using it, as if one great good is sufficient to explain one crushing sorrow. We must have confidence in God, for the same faith that saves us is the faith that is meant to sustain us even when we are afflicted, even when we are bewildered. As we trust God with our souls, we must trust him with our sorrows.
God’s mind is so much greater than ours, his hand so much stronger, his purposes so much vaster. In his grace he may allow us to see the beginnings of his purposes here and now, and in those we can truly rejoice. But all the while we know that we will see the full picture only in the day when his plan is complete and his purposes perfectly fulfilled. Until then we live by faith, not sight. Until then we long for the day that his divine hands will open the bud, the day when the flower will bloom, the day when we will be breathless with the beauty of it.