I wanted to let you know that the deal Logos offered after my recent webinar (25% off new or upgraded base packages) has been extended until November 16. Also, they’ve just released their third batch of Weekly Cyber Deals.

You’ll also find some new Kindle deals today if that’s your thing.
(Yesterday on the blog: One Unexpected Key To a Joyful Marriage)
What Does Romans 8:28 Mean?
Romans 8:28 is an especially important and comforting text. It’s important, though, to know what it does and does not mean.
The Gospel According to Envy: How Jealousy Corrupts Ministry
“Envy exists because inequality exists. We live in a world made by a glorious Father who has sprinkled his glory all over creation and imbued human souls with a special portion of this glory. Because of sin, the people he has made are cracked mirrors, walking around in T-shirts and jeans, but we are still made in his image and so possess trace amounts of his glory.”
When A Prisoner Becomes A Preacher: Sample A Free Chapter From ’27 Summers’
As a teenager Ronald Olivier ran wild in the streets of New Orleans, selling drugs, stealing cars, and finally killing someone on what was supposed to be the happiest day of the year–Christmas Day. Facing the consequences of his crime, he remembered what his mother once said. “Baby, if you ever have real trouble, the kind that I can’t get you out of, you can always call on Jesus.” So he did. Sample a free chapter today for a limited time at 27SummersBook.com. (Sponsored Link)
A World Without Babies
This article is not written by or for Christians, but still applies to us. It questions why so many nations are seeing their birthrates plummet and considers what the world may look like unless the trend reverses itself.
How to Prepare a Sermon: From Complexity to Clarity
“Many new preachers put in so much hard work to interpret the text that they are tempted to shortchange the sermon writing stage, leaving their sermons unclear and unfocused. Determining what to say and determining how to say it aren’t the same thing.2 Therefore, once you have put in the hard work to determine what is the main idea of the text, then you must continue the hard work of determining how to say the main idea in a clear and focused manner.”
Footsteps Left
Andrea found herself thinking about footsteps—those left by others and the ones she herself will leave behind.
The Body of Jesus Was Eaten by Dogs?
“When you encounter unbelievers, often you’ll find with a bit of digging that they really have no idea what they’re talking about when it comes to Christianity and the Bible. They read a novel like the Da Vinci Code and suddenly they believe themselves to be experts in the Bible and “the true history” of Christianity. They watch a few YouTube videos from viral skeptics and they’re specialists in everything wrong with the Christian faith.”
Flashback: Does Nick Send Me Signs?
I understand the impulse to look for a sign and I understand the comfort that can come when we believe we have received one…It is natural, then, to hope for some kind of information, to seek some kind of a sign, to know that they are okay.

The difference between believing that God is gracious and tasting that God is gracious is as different as having a rational belief that honey is sweet and having the actual sense of its sweetness. —Jonathan Edwards

This week the blog is sponsored by Clarifying the Bible and Clarifying The Apostle Paul, and is written by Mitch Maher.

Praise God with me! In December 2017 my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. After a double mastectomy and reconstructive surgery in 2018 she is doing wonderful—cancer free! In May 2021 I was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. After chemotherapy, radiation, major surgery (Ivor Lewis Esophagectomy), and a year of immunotherapy, I am doing wonderful—cancer free and about 40 lbs. lighter! Earlier this year, in January 2023 our 14-year-old daughter was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. After chemotherapy and radiation, she is doing wonderful—it appears cancer free! Six years, three cancers. It’s been the hardest six years of my life. But, God is good all the time; all the time, God is good.
Now, on to the Apostle Paul.
Other than Jesus Christ, the Apostle Paul is the most important figure in the New Testament. A force whose enraged persecution of the church, radical salvation in Jesus Christ, and faith-filled missionary journeys dominate the book of Acts, and whose 13 letters seemingly dominate the rest of the New Testament, the Apostle Paul cannot be ignored by those who follow Jesus.
But, making sense of his life, ministry, and letters can be quite difficult for many Bible readers. Years ago I created Clarifying The Bible to help disciples of Jesus understand the basic storyline and structure of the entire Bible. Now I’ve created Clarifying The Apostle Paul with the hopes of doing the same with Paul’s life, ministry, and letters.
This two-hour video presentation begins with Paul’s early life and ministry—his birth in Tarsus, training in Jerusalem, persecution of the church, conversion on the road to Damascus, early evangelistic efforts, ministry in Antioch, a significant meeting in Jerusalem, and more. It then moves to follow Paul’s footsteps on his famous missionary journeys and multiple imprisonments, taking him from Antioch to Asia Minor, around the Aegean Sea, all the way to Rome, and possibly even to Spain. Along the way I set each of the apostle’s 13 magnificent letters into their historical context. The presentation finishes with Paul’s death, and closes with a final charge.
Watch this 8-minute clip about Paul’s final imprisonment and his final letter.

I do my best to present the material in an inspiring and captivating fashion. And in the end, I hope to deliver on my promise to help people see the Apostle Paul with more clarity than ever before. You’ll engage the Scriptures with confidence, and feel much better equipped to help others dive into the Scriptures for themselves.

Purchase the DISCIPLE’S BUNDLE of Clarifying The Apostle Paul for $29. This includes access to watch the Teaching Video, a set of PDF Notes, the Teaching Manuscript, and the PowerPoint Slides. These four tools are all you need to equip yourself and teach others what you’ve learned.
Never experienced Clarifying The Bible? You can purchase the DISCIPLES BUNDLE for $35. This bundle includes access to watch the Teaching Video, a copy of the workbook, the Teaching Manuscript, the PowerPoint Slides, and the Small Group Curriculum. It’s all you need to strengthen your understanding of the Bible and teach others also.
Clarifying The Bible is now in Spanish, both the video and workbook. Tell all your Spanish speaking friends about Aclarando La Biblia.

Many blessings to you and yours this Thanksgiving and Christmas Season!

You probably keep score. I’m sure you don’t mean to. You may not even be conscious of it. But there’s a pretty good chance that you do it. You keep score in your marriage.

You keep score when you tally up the things you do for your spouse and when you tally up the things your spouse fails to do for you. You rarely keep a running total of your own failures or your spouse’s successes. Rather, you maintain records in such a way that you come out ahead. You probably keep the score in your marriage. And I’m sure it makes you unhappy.
Why does it make you unhappy? Because comparison is the thief of joy. Comparison is the thief of joy because it causes you to focus on yourself. Comparison leads inward, to what you desire, to what you long for, to what you are certain you deserve. Yet the path to joy leads outward rather than inward. It leads toward others rather than toward self. There is more joy in loving than in being loved, more satisfaction in doing good to others than in having good done to you. The path to joy in marriage does not lead from your spouse but to your spouse.
Thus, one of the keys to a joyful marriage is to simply stop keeping score—to stop tallying up the good things you’ve done for your husband or wife and the good things he or she has neglected to do for you. Keep no ledger of wrongs and keep no ledger of rights.
That’s a good place to begin, but there’s more to it. Any time you address a sin, weakness, or failure in your life you need to not only put that vice to death but also bring to life the opposite virtue. What is the opposite of this kind of score-keeping? It’s to love freely and lavishly. It’s to love without keeping score, to love even when you feel unloved, to love even when you give much and seem to receive little. It’s to love in such a way that the only hint of competitiveness in your heart is when you ask, “Am I outdoing my spouse in showing honor?”
Of course, there may be times to consider together whether one person is doing all of the household chores while the other is doing none, whether one person is spending a lot of time with the children while the other person is spending little, whether one person is doing all the sexual initiation while the other is consistently being passive, whether one person is wondering if he or she is loved at all. There are times to sit and talk deliberately about desires, wants, concerns, disappointments, and all the rest.
But there is never a time to stop lavishing mercy, grace, and love upon the person God has given you as a husband or wife. There is never a time to withdraw or become resigned, to decide you will only love to the degree you are being loved. There is never a time to stop serving the one God has specially called you to serve.
To that end, why don’t you make it your habit to ask your husband or wife questions like these: How can I serve you today? How can I make your day better? How can I make your evening easier? In what ways can I be a blessing to you today? Is there anything I can get you? Is there anything I can do for you? How can I let you know today that I love you?
And perhaps even better, commit to consistently doing the things you know will serve your spouse, that will make your wife’s day better, that will make your husband’s evening easier. Serve, serve, and serve some more. Act in love even when you don’t feel loved, act with grace even if you don’t feel particularly gracious. Sow extravagant love to the love of your life, and reap the reward of joy. For the path to joy in marriage leads away from you and runs straight to your spouse.

Good morning. Grace and peace to you today.

Today’s Kindle deals include a selection meant specifically for teens and/or their parents. There are several other interesting titles as well.
(Yesterday on the blog: The Beauty of Gender Difference)
Her Present Absence
Karen reflects on the nature of sorrow. “There is no sin in the sorrow we feel in our loved one’s present absence, and there is no wrongdoing or shame in acknowledging its reality. It’s simply a testimony of our enduring love for them, and our certainty that we will soon see them again.”
‘Journey to Bethlehem’ and Christmas Cringe
“Faith-based movies have been enjoying something of a renaissance lately—gaining ground not only in commercial viability but also in artistic credibility. To be sure, the bar has been low. Most of these movies are still not great; they’re just better than what we’ve come to expect. Sadly, the faith-based genre’s latest holiday movie sets the genre back—considerably.”
Aayan Hirsi Ali says she’s now a Christian (but only if that’s okay with the rest of us)
Aayan Hirsi Ali, who famously abandoned Islam in favor of atheism, recently explained how she became a Christian. Stephen McAlpine isn’t pleased with the skepticism of many believers.
The Super Generation (Video)
The John 10:10 Project celebrates one of nature’s wonders. “Every year, millions of Monarch butterflies travel up to 2500 miles to reach a dozen small patches of forest in central Mexico. There, they spend the winter safe from the freezing temperatures in Canada and the midwestern United States. These fragile insects have no idea where they are headed on their migration. Yet, with ingenious navigational systems stored within their eyes, brains and antennae, they locate the same forests and trees that provided sanctuary to their ancestors for generations.”
Church Planting Is Rarely Rapid
Matthew Spandler-Davison has traveled more than just about anyone I know and says, “I have come to believe there are two great threats to gospel work in the world’s poor and unengaged communities today: the prosperity gospel and the encouragement toward rapid multiplication.”
Realistic Expectations From a Life of Ministry
Mathew Santhosh Thomas: “Earlier, I wanted to serve God and ‘do ministry.’ But later God changed the way we thought. Ministry is not about us doing great things for God. It is understanding what God is doing in his world. We simply align our lives with what he is doing, to abide in him and walk with him.”
Flashback: The Happiest Christians and the Happiest Missionaries
Who are the happiest Christians? Who are the happiest missionaries? And what is it that makes them so happy?

Not only is all your affliction momentary, not only is all your affliction light in comparison to eternity and the glory there. But all of it is totally meaningful…Therefore, therefore, do not lose heart. —John Piper

Sometimes we are forced to have conversations that are almost too strange to believe—conversations, for example, in which we insist that there is such a thing as a gender binary. Yet today so many people are convinced that gender is a mere construct of an oppressive culture. Gender, they believe, is a decision we make for ourselves and not one grounded in any biological reality (not to mention any divine design). In his book Does God Care About Gender Identity?, Samuel Ferguson expresses the importance of teaching and displaying the beauty and goodness of gendered bodies. I was particularly struck by one simple application—singing in the local church. When we sing as men and women, there is a special way in which we display God’s design. I’ll allow him to explain.

The beauty of gender difference adorns God’s world. We need to help the next generation see and honor it. As a pastor, I have the joy of seeing couples meet, marry, and have children. The fruit of their union reminds us that only a biological male and biological female can produce life. “People often present the sex binary as oppressive,” writes Rebecca McLaughlin. “But at its very heart, the male-female binary is creative.” In appropriate ways, parents must teach and remind their children that the complementarity of the two-gendered world—the dance of male and female—is the creative source that stands behind each one of us. By God’s design, every human being owes his or her existence to one man and one woman.
Another place the beauty of gender shows up is in church worship. In my church, when songs have parts for men and women, the guys can’t help but sing a little louder when it’s their turn. They send a low rumble through the pews. When the women have their go, it’s as if a bright and gentle joy enfolds the congregation. When all the voices finally sing together, one hears, even feels, the truth and goodness of our gendered world. Surely this will be an enduring display of our maleness and femaleness as we worship the Lamb in heaven (Rev. 5:9; 14:3; 15:3). Christians must point out this beauty to the next generation whenever we experience it. We must celebrate the goodness of God’s design, that we are our bodies, that our gendered bodies are temples for the Holy Spirit, made to glorify God (1 Cor. 6:19–20), and that this is anything but restrictive—it’s beautiful.

My thanks goes to Reformation Heritage Books for sponsoring the blog this week to tell you about one of their excellent resources for family worship.

If you are at the Ligonier Ministries conference in Hamilton, Ontario this weekend, I look forward to seeing you there and to participating in a panel discussion.
(Yesterday on the blog: What If a Criminal Justice System Isn’t Actually Just?)
In the Middle of the Greatest Story
This is a really wonderful piece of writing from Mary Nolte. “Sometimes it’s hard to imagine you’re actually in the right story, like maybe you stumbled into someone else’s story. Have you ever felt that way—that the story you’re living somehow isn’t your story, but you’re watching it happen.”
After ‘Roe’: The Pro-Life Movement’s Next 50 Years
“Tuesday night was another blow to the pro-life movement as Ohio voted overwhelmingly to enshrine the right to abortion into its constitution.” Dan Darling considers the next 50 years of America’s pro-life movement.
Using Your Gifts
Ken Jones explains how Christians are to use their gifts to serve one another, but then adds this: “However, the testimony of Scripture is that throughout redemptive history, God’s people have used their gifts not just for those within the covenant community but for others as well.”
We aren’t called to listen to everybody
I think what Stephen says here is important. While social media gives us the ability to listen to everybody, not everybody is worth listening to. He explains who is worth listening to.
God Knows
Jacob tells why God’s omniscience gives him confidence as he prays.
Only One Life
“We are merely living on borrowed time, talent, and treasure. We are stewards and not owners. There will come a reckoning day when the righteous Judge will hold us accountable for how we have used the resources that He has entrusted to us.”
Flashback: Four Categories to “Act the Miracle”
Identity is at the core of many issues, not the least of which is same-sex attraction. In her book Gay Girl, Good God, Jackie Hill Perry offers four “categories” to guide our thinking about identity as we “act the miracle” of sanctification.

Unless we listen to God’s Word attentively, search it persistently, cry out over it desperately, and dig into it tenaciously, it will not be sweet enough to our ears to deliver us from evil. —Marshall Segal

This week’s Free Stuff Friday is sponsored by Reformation Heritage Books, who also sponsored the blog this week.

The Family Worship Bible Guide aims to provide invaluable help to those who want to do daily, intentional family worship. The guide presents the two or three major practical takeaways from each chapter in the Bible. Click here to try a 7-day sample of the FWBG in the gospel of John. Enter the giveaway below for your opportunity to win one of three copies of the new leather-like edition.
To Enter
Giveaway Rules: You may enter one time. When you enter, you agree to be placed on Reformation Heritage Books’ email list. The winners will be notified by email. The giveaway closes on November 17, 2023.

Most of us probably assume that the criminal justice system in our country is generally sound. We may believe that it needs some tweaks here and there. We may understand that because it exists in a fallen world it will in some ways reflect the sins and weaknesses of the people who control and oversee it. But rarely do we pause to ask questions like this: If we had to design a criminal justice system from scratch and do so in a way that is consistent with Scripture, what might it look like? What principles would we embed within it? And how closely would it resemble the system we currently have?

Matthew Martens has thought deeply about these issues. He thought about them as a lawyer who graduated at the top of his class at the University of North Carolina School of Law, as a law clerk for a federal court of appeals judge, and then for Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist at the Supreme Court. Over the past 20 years, he thought about them while serving first as a federal prosecutor and then as a defense attorney. And then he thought about them as a seminary student who graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary with a master’s degree in biblical studies. He is nothing if not well-qualified. His reflections and analysis of criminal justice in general, and the American criminal justice system in particular, have now been published in Reforming Criminal Justice: A Christian Proposal, a book that is fascinating, concerning, and challenging all at once.
Martens explains that the book had its genesis in a conversation with one of the pastors at his church. This dinner took place shortly after the events in Ferguson, Missouri that followed news of the death of Michael Brown. Knowing that Martens was familiar with America’s criminal justice system, this pastor encouraged him to write a book on the subject. He considered it but, being busy with other matters, set it aside. Several years later, following the death of George Floyd and all the unrest that followed, another pastor encouraged him to write the same book. And this time he agreed.
He begins it this way: “You have heard it said that justice delayed is justice denied. But I tell you that justice denied is love denied. And love denied to either the crime victim or the criminally accused is justice denied. This, I hope to persuade you, is not merely my view but also Christ’s.” He means to show that the Bible speaks to the issue of criminal justice and that “the root of the biblical concept of justice is love.” For justice to be done, love must be extended to both the victim of a crime and to the one who has been accused of it. A system will be just to the degree that it extends love in this way.
Martens believes there are two roadblocks that have prevented Christians from having helpful conversations about criminal justice. The first is that some of the loudest voices on the issue are not well-informed and do not have an accurate knowledge of the way the criminal justice system actually operates. The second is that much of the discussion “occurs without reference to a comprehensive Christian ethic of criminal justice. Rather, much of the current Christian engagement on this issue sounds more like political talking points than a biblical framework.” He means to address both of these and lead Christians into more accurate, profitable, and biblical discussions.
Key to his explanation of criminal justice is that “the criminal justice system is, by definition, state-sponsored violence. Every criminal law, even a just one, is an authorization for the state to use physical force against an image bearer if he or she fails to comply with the law’s mandate.” The Bible does not prohibit such violence but, rather, explicitly sanctions it. An arrest, a jail sentence, or a death penalty are all acts of violence in which the system uses force against a person who has been made in the image of God. God permits this in order to maintain law and order in his world. However, it is critical that such violence be committed justly, which is to say, that it be done in love for both the victim and the accused. Hence, this is a book about love and how a criminal justice system—and especially America’s criminal justice system—can display love, for a truly just system is a system that will be marked by God’s love for accused and victim alike.
The book is comprised of two parts. In the first part, Martens proposes a Christian ethic of criminal justice that can then be used to analyze America’s system or that of any other nation. Here he draws out biblical principles that can apply to any nation at any time in history. He considers how criminal justice is a form of social justice. (For those who recoil at the use of the words social justice, he uses the term in the valid or traditional sense of “the just ordering of society” rather than the modern sense that is ideological and connected to critical theory.) If criminal justice is truly a matter of the just ordering of society, Christians ought to care about it and be as active in countering injustice in this area as in other areas like abortion or sex slavery. After all, “justified people should advocate for more just laws.” What might just laws, and therefore a just criminal justice system, promote and value? His answer is accuracy, due process, accountability, impartiality, and proportionality. Each of these terms receives a chapter-length treatment to show how they are consistent with the character of God and his revelation of himself in the Bible.
In the second section, Martens takes a look at the way America’s criminal justice system has been structured and the way that it functions. He especially considers aspects of it that so many people take for granted. In every case, he considers whether it truly reflects God’s love and justice. He means to ensure that his readers understand how the system actually works and especially how it handles the prosecution of criminal offenses, beginning with indictment and continuing all the way through sentencing. It’s important to understand that his focus is not on policing, for that would be a very different book that would fall outside of his expertise. Rather, his focus is on what happens after the police have apprehended a suspect and turned him or her over to the criminal justice system.
So in this section of the book he considers what the system counts as a crime, then looks at plea bargaining, jury selection, judges, assistance of counsel, exculpatory evidence, witnesses, sentencing, and the death penalty. In every case, he considers how this aspect of the system measures up in accuracy, due process, accountability, impartiality, and proportionality. You may not be shocked to learn that he believes the system often falls far short, and that elements of injustice are deeply embedded and widely accepted within America’s criminal justice system. He makes this case slowly and deliberately but, to my mind, convincingly.
A final chapter asks what Christian individuals can do and how they can act in order to advocate for greater justice and for justice that flows from love for both those who have been victimized and those who have been accused.
I have commented in the past that there is a lot of sameness in Christian publishing. It’s for that reason that I am so often intrigued when I find a book that is completely different from any I have read before. This one most certainly qualifies. In Reforming Criminal Justice, Matthew Martens addresses a subject that concerns few of us but ought to concern all of us. He explains what the Bible says about criminal justice, calls us to analyze the systems our nations have, and encourages us to advocate for ones that are better, which is to say, ones that reflect God’s love and God’s justice. Whoever you are and wherever you live (and, it should be noted, I live in a country other than the one that forms the setting for this book), I expect you will benefit from reading it and that you will be challenged by it.
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