Do you love to read? Do you want to learn to love to read? Do you enjoy reading books that cross the whole spectrum of topics and genres? Then I’ve coordinated with Visual Theology to create something that may be right up your alley—the 2024 Christian Reading Challenge.
Whether you are a light reader or completely obsessed, this 2024 Christian Reading Challenge is designed to help you read more and broaden the scope of your reading.
How It Works
The 2024 Christian Reading Challenge is composed of 4 lists of books, which you are meant to move through progressively. You will need to determine a reading goal early in the year and set your pace accordingly.

The Light Reader. This plan has 13 books which sets a pace of 1 book every 4 weeks.
The Avid Reader. The Avid plan adds another 13 books which increases the pace to 1 book every 2 weeks.
The Committed Reader. This plan adds a further 26 books, bringing the total to 52, or 1 book every week.
The Obsessed Reader. The Obsessed plan doubles the total to 104 books which sets a demanding pace of 2 books every week.

Begin with the Light plan, which includes suggestions for 13 books. Choose those books and read them in any order, checking them off as you complete them. When you have finished those 13, advance to the Avid plan. Use the criteria there to choose another 13 books and read them in any order. Then it’s time to move to the Committed plan with a further 26 books. When you have completed the Committed plan (that’s 52 books so far!), you are ready to brave the Obsessed plan with its 104 books. Be sure to set your goal at the beginning of the year so you can make sure you’re reading at the right pace.
All you need to do is download the list (or buy a printed version—see below), choose your first few books, and get going. Happy reading in 2024!

Ideas

Take the challenge with your spouse and divide the list in two.
Take the challenge with your family and divide the books between the entire family
Take the challenge with your youth group or small group and divide the books between all of you. Regularly report on your progress with short reviews.
Set your goal and read the books from all of your lists in any order (rather than progressing from Light to Avid to Committed).
Discard all the rules and choose books from any plan in any order. Use the 2024 Christian Reading Challenge as a guide to diversifying your reading.
Use #vtReadingChallenge to connect and to keep track of others on social media.
Have fun with it!

Get the Challenge
The 2024 Christian Reading Challenge is available from Visual Theology and you can download it for free. Alternatively, you can purchase it as a professionally printed poster or an HD file that you can print at home or take to a local printer. Either way, happy reading!

Westminster Books has deeply discounted the excellent Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament series. I’d especially recommend Schreiner on Romans and Revelation, Moo on Galatians, and Beale on Colossians & Philemon.
I added quite a number of excellent Kindle deals yesterday and plan to add some more this morning.
(Yesterday on the blog: My Favorite New Songs of 2023)

This is an important article about what it means to die with dignity. “The conversation around MAiD puts front and center the questions of what makes life worth living and, by implication, in what circumstances a life might no longer be worth living. In the modern Western ethos of entrepreneurial individualism, the cardinal virtues include efficiency and productivity.”

“We often show what is important to us by what we do. It’s easy to say, ‘I want to please the Lord more than anything else,’ but it’s another thing to act like it.” I think we can all attest to our own inconsistencies there.

“A baby who was the High King of Heaven. In a feeding trough. It’s a shocking picture, really, when you think about the humility of Christ. To step down from the literal throne of Heaven itself, take on our humanity, and enter our world as an infant born into poverty among an oppressed people is hands down the most extreme display of humility in all of history. Nothing else comes close.”

This article explains how and why Uzzah was struck down for touching the Ark of the Covenant.

Samuel discusses the role of personal experiences in shaping people’s understanding of the world. “When it comes to empathy, many people who say they ‘believe the victims’ are carrying experiences and knowledge around that is literally impossible to transmit effectively. They dislike Calvinists or complementarians, partially on principle, and then partially because over the years, in dozens of obscure articles, personal conversations, and unspoken observations, they have built up an idea whose origins are mostly inaccessible to anyone else.”

Wes spent a year reading the New Testament in Greek rather than English. His reflections are really interesting and make me wish I had progressed a bit further in Greek!

As we parted ways that day, Aileen and I both knew without the smallest shadow of a doubt: God did this. In fact, Aileen has often said that this was the very moment she really understood that God was caring for us in our loss. And it was not through a miracle, but through providence.

The anguish which love endures for others’ sins is among the saddest of earth’s sorrows.
—J.R. Miller

I have wide-ranging tastes in music and will gladly listen to a host of different genres. Apple Music recently put together an accounting of all I listened to in 2023 and that got me thinking about the songs that resonated most. I eventually narrowed my favorites down to this list of 12—my 12 favorite songs of 2023 (with a few bonuses added in). I’ve included YouTube videos and a Spotify playlist if you’d like to give them a listen yourself. They are in no particular order.

(Note, if you’re reading this through the email newsletter and the formatting is broken, click through and read it on my site.)
“One Day (Far Side of Our Sorrow)” by Folk Hymnal
This sweet song of comfort is from the album “Folk Hymnal” and features Tyson Matthews. “Today we weep / But one day we won’t / So wail and cry those tears today / And grieve, but not without hope / Hallelujah! there’s a far side of our sorrow / Sing hallelujah! There’s a hope beyond the grave.”

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“He Will Keep Us” by Brook Hills Worship
This song, featuring Daniel Renstrom, is just one track in an extremely strong album. “If the Lord had not been on our side / If the Lord was silent when we cried / If He turned His face We’d be swept away / But He will not forsake his own / He will keep us now And forevermore / For His steadfast love Is forever sure / Even if hell may war We will trust the Lord / He will keep us now And forevermore.” I also really appreciate the songs “At the Glorious Cross” and “He’s Alive.”

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“The Lord Is By My Side” by CityAlight
There was obviously going to be a song by CityAlight in this list, but I had to work hard to pick just one. In the end I settled on “The Lord Is By My Side.” “I know my Shepherd gives me peace / the Lord is by my side / for every day he walks with me / the Lord is by my side / the Lord is by my side / Forever by my side / His hope, his strength, his peace is mine / The Lord is by my side.” If it wasn’t this, it would be “He Calls Me Friend,” and if not that, “My God Is All I Need.”

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“Love of Christ” by Carmel Worship
Carmel Worship sticks very close to the Scriptures in their songs, including this one which is based on Ephesians 3:18. “God would you give to us the strength / To comprehend together with all the saints / What is the breadth and length and height and depth / And to know the love of Christ.” I could as easily have chosen “Not Ashamed” which I appreciate every bit as much.

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“Fear Not For I Am With You (Jeremiah 45)” by Rachel Wilhelm
Rachel Wilhelm released an entire album based on the book of Jeremiah. “Fear Not For I Am With You” is apparently based on Jeremiah 45, but I’m pretty sure it’s actually Jeremiah 46:27-28. Its content is largely drawn from the passage and it’s set to an upbeat and catchy melody. “Don’t be discouraged, I am here to save you / Though I seem so far away. / You were created for rest and restoration / Hear me and don’t be afraid.”

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“All My Boast Is In Jesus” by Keith & Kristin Getty, Matt Boswell, and Matt Papa
This song by Getty Music features Keith and Kristyn Getty along with the songwriting duo of Matt Boswell & Matt Papa. “All my boast is in Jesus / All my hope is His love / And I will glory forever / In what the cross has done.”

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“Eternal Christ” by Redeemer Hymnal
“Eternal Christ” from Redeemer Hymnal features the band Sow & Tether and celebrates Christ as our eternal Savior. “Holy, Sovereign, Great / The begotten, the unmade / With mercy and might, He’s just and He’s right / eternal Christ.”

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“Awake My Soul (Psalm 57)” by The Worship Initiative
This song from The Worship Initiative features Shane & Shane and Mac Hays and beautifully adapts Psalm 57. The rest of the album is well worth a listen, as is the recently-released “Christmas with the Worship Initiative.” “You are exalted oh God above the heavens / Come let your glory cover the earth / You have saved me from the roaring lion / Awake my soul to love you / Awake my soul to sing.”

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“Praise The Lord (To God Be The Glory)” by Matthew West
This is a boisterous adaptation of the classic hymn “To God Be the Glory.” “Oh, praise the Lord / Let the earth hear His voice / Oh, praise the Lord / Let the people rejoice / Oh, come to the Father / Through Jesus His son / And give Him the glory / Great things He has done.”

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“Like A Tree (Psalm 1)” by Caroline Cobb
“Like a Tree” is a lovely adaptation of Psalm 1 by Caroline Cobb that doesn’t stray too far from the original psalm. “I wanna be like a tree by the river / Oh, plant me down by the deep, deep water / When the sun gets hot, my leaves won’t whither / Oh, plant me down like a tree by the river / Oh, plant me down by your deep deep water.” I also appreciate her mellow adaptation of Psalm 63 which she titles “Better Than Life.”

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“Sing With All Your Heart” by Mission House
This song rejoices in our unity with God and prays that God would grant us unity with one another. “Rejoice, again, I say rejoice / Sinners, strangers, we’re welcomed in / Lift up your hands, lift up your voice / Sing with all your heart he calls you friend.”

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“It’s Time” by The Rivers
I love the folk-style, vocal-driven treatment of this song. “I know it’s time to / Lay these troubles down / I’ve had enough / the burden is too much / I’ve got this song of / Deliverance in my heart / You lifted me / You set me free.”

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If you’re in the mood for some Christmas music (and who isn’t in mid-December?) you may be interested in tonight’s live-streamed “An Irish Christmas” concert by Keith and Kristyn Getty. It is being broadcast live from the Museum of the Bible.
Logos is having a Christmas sale and offering up to 50% off on a variety of products. They are also offering discounts on some of the Best of 2023—some that were bestsellers and some that were judged especially noteworthy.

Here’s some sweet encouragement from Paul Tautges: “How quickly you heal is not important. What is important is that you live by faith in the promises of God, resulting in more love for God and for others. As you do, often imperceptibly, you are moving forward each day—from grief and pain, toward acceptance and joy—and you are helping others to do the same.”

Brad’s article will take some time to read, but I think it’s worth the effort. He reviews a recent book and explains why it’s so destructive to see the world solely through the lens of power disparity. “Such a book might have begun with the concept of authority, a concept almost entirely absent from contemporary Western life. Both Left and Right, he might have observed, have fallen into the trap of seeing freedom only in relation to power. For the Right, freedom is always freedom from power; for the Left, it is freedom through power. But either way, it always turns out to be a zero-sum game…”

Amy writes movingly about God’s kindness to her and her family. “This useless womb, which caused me nothing but pain, inconvenience, and sorrow – turns out it was actually the impetus for the beauty in my life today. In a strange irony, it was not useless at all.”

This is a lovely piece of writing about God’s love for shepherds.

I appreciate Stephie’s thoughts about connection. “Relationships, at their very best, are beautiful when they are subservient to relationship with, devotion to, and rest found in God. When we are rest, and realize that our deepest longings are met by God, we will have the ability to love people without exploiting them and seeing them as commodities. This allows us to love without needing anything back.”

Esther has a brief new poem that is well worth the read.

When I read Mark 11:25…my first thought is not, “God forgive me for my lack of forgiveness!” or “Okay, so who do I need to forgive?” My first thought is “Yeah, but what about this situation or that situation?” When God goes big, my first tendency is to go small.

I am throwing all my good works overboard, and lashing myself to the plank of free grace; for I hope to swim to glory on it.
—Charles Spurgeon

The God of peace be with you on this fine day.
The daily list of Kindle deals tends to be finalized at around 6:30 AM, so it’s usually a good idea to check in after then.
Westminster Books has a deal on the newly-published set The Practical Works of Richard Baxter. Plus they’ve still got all ESVs at 50% off.
(Yesterday on the blog: As the Outer Is Peeled Away)

Every December Collin Hansen puts together a roundup of his top 10 theology stories of the year. It’s always interesting to read his picks and to decide whether you agree or disagree.

Lara d’Entremont: “Whenever I’m around professionals, I feel shame prickle my neck and cheeks. As they tell me about their journey from college to working their way to this position they’re currently in, I cringe when the silence comes—because we all know the next question. ‘What do you do?’ they ask nonchalantly. I look down at my feet and rub my neck. “Um, uh… I’m just a stay-at-home mom.’”

Michael Kruger addresses five common misconceptions about the Christmas story—stars, inns, mangers, wise men, and so on.

“Songs are shepherding tools. We think of the word preached as a tool of the shepherd, and it is. We think of prayer as a shepherding tool, and it is. We think of baptism and the Lord’s Supper as shepherding tools, and they are. But do we think of the songs as shepherding tools?” Jacob says we should and explains his reasoning.

It’s not often you find a Dutch Reformed pastor writing about dancing, but I’m glad Wes did here. “The return of Christ is when we’ll dance for joy. I mean that quite literally. That’s because the return of Christ brings about the resurrection of the dead. Our bodies will be raised imperishable. In that final state, we’ll have corporeal bodies with which to dance for joy.”

Cheryl explains how encouraging it was to listen carefully to the familiar Christmas songs. “I began to listen more closely to versions of traditional carols played during the Christmas season, paying attention to the words rather than just humming along with the familiar melodies.”

Your goodness unmasks the badness of the unbelievers around you. Your light illumines their darkness…And all of this is true even though you are so far from perfect, even though so much of the old man remains.

Faith is quenching the soul’s thirst at the fountain of God.
—John Piper

Today’s post is sponsored by BJU Seminary and written by Brian Hand, professor of New Testament interpretation. BJU Seminary equips Christian leaders through an educational and ministry experience that is biblically shaped, theologically rich, historically significant, and evangelistically robust.
Melancholia—on a spectrum from simple sadness to profound discouragement, then crossing a moral line into despair—marks nearly every life at some point. Sorrow even appears throughout Scripture, and the biblical evidence seems to run the gamut of mild sorrow (the rich young rule in Matthew 22, whose sorrow was induced by personal sin) through severe despondency (Job and David among others, whose sorrow was induced by circumstance, sickness, or Satan) to depression with despair (Judas), and it does so without ever using modern, scientific designations. 
A biblical-theological examination of melancholy should help us nuance our understanding of human sadness, and it shows us that melancholy is an emotional reflection of a fallen world. Upon such examination, which is detailed in my article in BJU Seminary’s Journal of Biblical Theology & Worldview, I find three avenues of application useful for sufferers and counselors alike. 
First, the Church should strive to exercise great tenderness in handling cases of melancholy, understanding that distress is not always connected with specific personal sins. 
Second, Scripture addresses the full range of melancholic emotions by depicting them as part of normal human experience under the curse. They reveal what we value, love, and believe, how badly we hurt, how dark this world really is, and, therefore, how desperate and vital our faith really is.
Third, while melancholy often “tells the truth” about the Fall, it does not tell “the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.” It is a genuine mirror of reality, but it is also a defective mirror because it shows only part of the picture. It does no good to contradict the melancholic, “It’s not that bad,” while he correctly and accurately replies in his heart, “Oh, yes, it is!” It also does no good to transfix oneself in the misery of one truth while neglecting the hope of other truths. The mirror of our emotions may be both correct and incorrect in different ways simultaneously.
Affirming with the sufferer that life is as dark as he feels it to be, this world is as corrupt as he feels it to be, and the body, mind, and emotions are indeed crumbling can exhibit much needed sympathy. This is not the only truth or all the truth, but it is the truth. It can be constructive, then, to recognize the full depth and righteousness of sadness while guiding the severely discouraged person to reaffirm “the whole truth.” Recognizing that melancholy mirrors the Fall gives the biblical counselor the opportunity to affirm the decay that has touched everything in this world while insisting that the sufferer also see and confess the restoration that Christ has begun and will continue to eternity. We must not minimize the former in the rush to the latter, or we will seem disingenuous to the sufferer.
As counselors, we can help the sufferer remember that the people of God rest on him and voice a reliance on him even when they cannot see or feel him. Often, pain remains. There is no guarantee that God will deliver us from sadness of heart this side of the Fall any more than he guarantees deliverance from disease and death. But though the pain remains, it can become like the pain of childbirth—giving rise to something of value, purposeful, God-designed—for that is his plan in all our suffering (Jas 1:12).
For the people of God, the Fall will come to an end, swept away in a majestic display of divine power, wisdom, and compassion involving the redemption and glorification of our bodies, the creation of the new heavens and new earth, and the end of sorrow forever. Melancholy, the eminent emotional mirror of the Fall, will be forever shattered. We will never again know loss, for God will be with us.
To learn more about helping believers with melancholy, consider joining BJU Seminary January 29–31 for its CoRE Conference on “The Return of Hope: Dealing with Depression in the Church.” Save with the early bird discount until December 15!

There are many different ways to chart the journey through life. We can do it in life stages, like childhood to adulthood to middle age to old age. We can do it in decades, like teens to twenties to thirties and so on. But lately I’ve been pondering the passing of the generations, how when we are young we lose our grandparents, and then when we are a bit older we lose our parents, until finally we come to the stage when our own generation begins to fade—when we have to bid farewell to the people we counted as friends and peers.
In the past few years, I have watched a number of dear friends grapple with terrible and ultimately terminal illnesses. I have watched people I only ever knew to be whole and strong fade until they were broken and weak. I have watched them accept the reality that their time was short and the Lord was calling them home. And through it all, I’m convinced that I’ve seen their faith shine all the brighter. I’ve seen an inner beauty and an inner glory that has become all the more evident as everything outside has been slowly pulled off and peeled away.

I want you to imagine that you are walking toward the Old Testament tabernacle, that you are seeing and experiencing it for the very first time. The twelve tribes of Israel are camped in a great rectangle all around it—millions of people, hundreds of thousands of tents, countless cattle. In the center of it all is a clearing and within that clearing is the tabernacle.
As you approach it, you can see the outer wall which is made up of plainly-colored curtains supported by bronze stands. The people and the priests are coming and going through an entrance that faces east. The outside of the tabernacle is noble and dignified, but hardly impressive.
As you pass through the entrance, you now find yourself in the outer courtyard. Here you see the great bronze altar billowing with smoke. Nearby is a bronze laver where the priests carry out their ceremonial washings. You stand for a few moments and observe the structure of the tabernacle tent, and while you know it is made up of four layers, you can mostly see only the practical outer layer. This courtyard is a place of bronze and silver. It is impressive, but not stunning.
And now you know it is time to pass into the Holy Place. (For the sake of the illustration, we’ll have to suppose you are somehow permitted to do so.) You walk past the great columns of gold that support the veil and inside you see the lampstand, the altar of incense, and the table for the showbread, all of it covered in gold. The walls are made up of vertical wooden frames and horizontal wooden bars, all overlaid with gold. Ahead of you is the veil guarding the entrance to the Most Holy Place. This veil is blue and purple and scarlet and fine twined linen, and woven into it with the most precious thread is the image of the cherubim, the angelic guardians. Looking above, you admire the precious inner covering that contrasts sharply with the practical outer covering you saw from the courtyard. If the courtyard is a place of bronze and silver, this is a place of gold. It evokes awe within.
The best of the beauty is in the hidden places.Share
There is just one more step to take. Parting that great curtain you walk into the Holy of Holies and gasp at the beauty of the Ark of the Covenant with the ornately carved cherubim stretching out their wings over the mercy seat. This room is beautifully ornate, every surface made of either precious gold or exquisite cloth. Best of all, the glory of God is tangible here, visible and undeniable, for this is the place where God lives, where God has chosen to dwell among his people. This is a place of gold and of glory. You can only fall on your face in wonder and worship.
And later, as you ponder what you have seen, you consider this: The best of the beauty is in the hidden places. In fact, the deeper you go into the tabernacle, the more precious the contents. The more you peel away layer after layer of the tabernacle, the greater the beauty and the greater the glory.

And this is exactly what I have observed as my friends have grown ill, as their strength has faded, as their bodies have failed. As more and more layers of strength and health have been peeled away, the beauty and the glory within have shone all the brighter—the glory of God displayed in the beauty of a sanctified life, the beauty of a submitted heart, the beauty of a satisfied soul. I have seen the glory of the Lord as he shines in the place he now chooses to dwell—not in a tabernacle made of gold and cloth, but a tabernacle made of body and soul. And as the body and soul have prepared to part for a time, it has shone all the more, all the brighter. I have seen and I have known: the glory of God is in this place.

Good morning. Grace and peace to you.
Today’s Kindle deals include a new selection from Crossway. I’ve also created a list of all the best commentary deals that are part of Eerdmans’ month-long sale.
I am aware that subscribers to the daily newsletter may be having trouble opening links if they are using Avast antivirus. I have reported this to the newsletter service and expect they will fix it soon. As a workaround, you can simply visit my site to access the links without security warnings.
(Yesterday on the blog: Welcome to a Whole New Site)

You’ll want to make time for this long, powerful essay by Carl Trueman. “There can be no greater transgression than that against the sacred. In killing God, we grant ourselves the privilege of becoming gods ourselves. There is surely no greater exhilaration than in being God. And there is no more dramatic way of being God than in waging a holy war against the God-given nature of embodied human personhood.”

Daniel Hames offers some help to those who don’t like evangelizing (and perhaps feel pretty guilty about it).

“In a recent congressional hearing, the presidents of Harvard, MIT, and the University of Pennsylvania were asked if calling for the genocide of Jews violated their university’s code of conduct.” You’ve probably heard by now how they replied. Why they replied this way is the subject of Joe Carter’s article.

The Bible says “The LORD will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.” But it doesn’t always feel that way, does it?

Greg Morse looks to Lamentations to teach us how to seize hope in times of suffering and sorrow.

Meanwhile, Doug considers the way God has been known to strengthen people in their weakness. “One of the struggles his health gives him is shortness of breath, yet it has never stopped him from preaching. Several times, he has been sitting in the pew waiting to preach, trying to catch his breath, but the minute he stepped into the pulpit, he had all the strength he needed.”

God does not zap away our sin, but gives us a new hatred for it and a new desire to do the hard work of battling it. He does not sovereignly remove it in a moment, but extends grace so we can battle it for a lifetime.

I lay this down as a rule without any exception, that those people who have the most faults themselves are most merciless in their watching of others.
—De Witt Talmage

I have finally launched a long-awaited and much-overdue refresh to the design of this site and the accompanying newsletter. The update includes the look of the site but also goes much deeper into its design and architecture. It’s easily the most significant update in the past 20 years and firms up the site’s foundation as I look ahead to the 20 years to come.
Much of the power of the new site is behind the scenes where it’s making my life easier, delivering faster results, doing a better job of interacting with search engines, and so on. But there are a few more obvious features that may interest you:

The Best Commentaries section has been completely updated with the latest and greatest commentaries. You can now find up-to-date expert recommendations for commentaries on every book of the Bible.
The Book Recommendations section has been updated and several new categories have been added. If you are looking for a book on a particular subject, it’s the place to go.
Those who subscribe to the daily email newsletter will receive it earlier in the day—on time for breakfast if you live in North America and on time for lunch if you live in Europe. They will also observe that its design is much more tightly tied to the site.
The new Explore item on the main menu should provide a much superior search function for those attempting to find archived content.
Articles are now tagged according to Scripture reference.
The audio player function should work better for those who have visual disabilities or those who simply prefer to listen to articles. (Note: This function is fairly pricey, so I will test it for some time and gauge how much it is used before deciding whether or not to keep it permanently.)
The site has both light and dark designs that will vary according to the time of day. You are also free to set your preference with the switch at the top of the screen.
The Kindle Deals page has been revamped to present the books in a better and more informative format.

All that and more! If you happen to spot any bugs or find some part of the new site that you just can’t stand, please let me know through the little “Feedback” form that should appear at the bottom of each page.
I’m especially grateful to Chad Helmer for deploying his considerable skill in designing the site, coding it to the highest of standards, and carefully fixing the thousands of issues that came with importing two decades of old data. I’m also thankful to all of those whose support made possible a project of this magnitude.

My gratitude goes to RHB for sponsoring the blog this week to tell you about a great new devotional resource: Glorifying and Enjoying God.
My site will be transitioning to a new design this weekend, so expect a little bit of downtime. If you are seeing this, you’re on the new site! I’ll have more to say about it tomorrow.
Today’s Kindle deals include a few strong resources for the Christian life.
(Yesterday on the blog: My Picks for the Top Books of 2023)

Daniel has a moving piece at CT that recounts his grief following the loss of his mother.

“Ongoing seasons of chronic illness can weigh us down and they can pose a real challenge to our faith. It’s a challenge to persevere when so many prayers for healing go unanswered. We can feel disappointed in our bodies as they fail us once again. We can struggle to reconcile our knowledge of God’s goodness with our unabating experience of pain. Yet God uses the furnace of chronic illness to refine our faith and teach us precious truths about him and us and the life of faith.”

The strength of this article is in relying on Scripture to provide practical ways to flee temptation.

Kevin writes about Paul’s use of the categories of the weak and the strong. And whichever you are in a particular circumstance, his encouragement is to commit to being godly in it.

“When children move from reliance on their parents toward the independence of adulthood, it can be disorienting. Initially, parents set the guidelines for behavior and schedules in the home, but adult children grow toward autonomy by moving out, pursuing careers, and establishing households — households with a culture of their own.” Brenda Harstine offers counsel on navigating this well.

Here’s why it’s awkward—and why it completely undermines the Christian faith—to reject the virgin birth.

There is a celebrity machine, to be sure, but there is also a celebrity landfill, a celebrity dump, a place we relegate people once we are through with them, once they no longer please us.

Christ grabs his pastors by the heart; he doesn’t twist them by the arm. He wants men with a holy ambition for the office, men with holy dreams about feeding and leading the flock, men willing and eager to stretch themselves to do what the calling requires.
—David Mathis