This week’s Free Stuff Friday is sponsored by Christian Focus Publications. They are offering sets of every book in the Track series to five winners.

If you’re looking for resources that will help young adults to engage with important topics, Track might be what you’re looking for. It is a series of books designed to disciple the next generations in the areas of culture, doctrine, and the Christian life. While the subjects addressed aren’t always simple, they are communicated in a manner that is.
Each written by an experienced author, these books are short, readable, and written with young adults in mind. They take big, important ideas, and apply them to situations that students face on a daily basis. At the end of each chapter, you’ll find a summary of the main point, as well as questions that can be used for group discussion, or private contemplation.
Each giveaway set includes the 15 books currently available in the series:

From the doctrine track:
Track: Apologetics by Stephen J. Nichols
Track: Glorification by Derek W. H. Thomas
Track: Justification by Greg Meyer
Track: Missions by Emilio Garofalo Neto
Track: Sanctification by Ligon Duncan & John Perritt

From the Christian life track:
Track: Anxiety by Edward T. Welch
Track: Dating, Marriage and Sex by David Ayers
Track: Depression by John C. Kwasny
Track: Womanhood by Abigail Dodds

From the culture track:
Track: Gaming by Reagan Rose
Track: Navigating Culture by Walt Mueller
Track: Social Media by Jason Thacker
Track: Technology by John Perritt
Track: The Power of Story by Joe Deegan
Track: Worldview by Sharon James

TO ENTER
Giveaway Rules: You may enter one time. When you enter, you opt-in to receive marketing emails from Christian Focus Publications. The winner will be notified by email. The giveaway closes on Friday, December 16th.

I suppose we all have a few memories that cause us to cringe, memories of things we did or things we said that leave shame flooding our minds and little trickles of sweat running down our foreheads. Embarrassing things. Awkward things. Shameful things. Sinful things. Most of us do our best to push these memories away, to do all we can to get them out of our minds. But what if they can actually provide valuable lessons for our own lives and those of other people?

Pat Nemmers once pondered this, and drawing inspiration from David’s confession forever enshrined in the words of Psalm 51, understood that there could be a lot of value in facing these memories and pondering them. After all, humility is often closely related to humiliation. The result is a book titled Retractions: Cultivating Humility After Humiliation. And it’s a good one. “What is the aim of this book?” he asks? “That you will see both God and yourself: when we see God more clearly, we see ourselves more clearly. Then, and only then, can we make the necessary adjustments going forward in life.” We all face humiliating moments in our lives and surely God means to accomplish something through them. “However, my experience from many years of working with people is that most of us, once we have confessed and forsaken our sin, wish the whole thing (including the memories) would all go away. My plea to you in this book is, ‘Don’t do that!’ Instead of wasting your sin, let the many people near and dear to you learn from your humility to prayerfully avoid your pitfall.”
In this book Nemmers shares a number of life lessons that God has taught him through failures and blunders. And with more than 30 years of ministry behind him, not to mention lots of experience being a husband and father, he has had many of them. He refers to these as “retractions,” which he defines as “an honest, humble look at past (and some current) ways of thinking and acknowledgment of my errors in them. Retraction for any of us entails a willingness to openly admit, confess, and repent of our errors and to keep confessing them—not only for our own benefit but also for the benefit of others. It’s about cultivating humility after being humbled.”
And so he begins at the beginning of his Christian life to show the danger of zeal that is accompanied by ignorance instead of knowledge. He discusses the importance of eating crow and of being who God has made him to be rather than attempting to imitate someone else. As the book advances he shows how he once slipped into the lure of legalism, how he came to understand the freedom of a clear conscience, how he stopped selling his church in favor of telling people about Jesus, and how he learned the importance of publicly confessing public sins. In each case he shares an experience or anecdote and describes what the Lord taught him through it. He writes honestly and forthrightly, yet not exhibitionistically. And it leads to a book that is enjoyable to read and that also provides plenty of helpful instruction. I might go so far as to say it’s one of my favorite books of 2022.
“The purpose of this book is to help you, the reader, see the importance not only of confessing and forsaking your own sin and poor judgments in life but, after having done so, of willingly keeping on confessing them. You don’t need further forgiveness, but others need further instructions and are thereby helped by your stories.” He accomplishes this purpose well and does so in a way that will be helpful to every Christian, though I suspect that if there is a specific audience that would benefit the most, it is young pastors. Still, this is a book, and a practice, that is for all of us. And in that vein I’m glad to recommend it.

Buy from Amazon

Good morning. Grace and peace to you.

Don’t Waste Your Church Scandal
Dave reflects on some church scandals he has witnessed and offers a few observations about churches, their leaders, and responding to scandal.
The FAQs: Supreme Court Hears Oral Arguments in Religious Speech Case
“On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in 303 Creative v. Elenis, an important free speech case that involves a wedding website designer and has important religious liberty implications.” Joe Carter provides one of his always-help FAQs on the case and why it matters.
Not Why But Who
“Life has always been hard, but lately it seems to be so hard for so many. Lost loved ones, lost jobs, lingering health problems, and hunger surround us. Death, war, famine, and pestilence aren’t just comic book characters. The whole world is hurting. When we suffer, we cry out to know why and receive no response. If we knew why, would it really make us feel better? Unlikely.”
Celebrating Christmas with Jesus Himself
“Too many of us celebrate the birth of Jesus while neglecting Christ himself.” I guess that’s worth considering.
Do You Hear the Bells of Christmas?
Katie Polski: “It’s often during the Christmas season that the pain from suffering is felt more acutely. We feel intense longing for the loved one who passed away; the empty chair from a child unable to return home for the holidays feels like it sits center-stage, and the disease we’re battling makes us nostalgic and reflective, causing us to wonder if we will be present with our families next year or not.”
Does Sexual Self-Gratification Glorify God?
This article considers a question I’ve been asked so many times (though not necessarily in these very words): does sexual self-gratification glorify God? “Christians experience constant pressure from prevailing cultural narratives that argue all sexual expression, so long as it doesn’t harm another, is inherently good and that sexual expression is the foundation of one’s personhood.”
Flashback: 3 Marks of Righteous Anger
We must not sin in our anger. Any honest person will need to acknowledge the sheer difficulty in doing this. Anger comes easily; righteous anger does not.

Unless justice is founded upon a transcendent, objective basis of righteousness, it necessarily will be founded on man-made morality, imposed by whoever holds power. —Scott David Allen

Good morning. Grace and peace to you.

There are some interesting new Kindle deals to look at today.
(Yesterday on the blog: Talk About Jesus, Not Celebrities)
Jordan Peterson and His Useful God
Dani Treweek unexpectedly found herself at a Jordan Peterson event and records some interesting reflections on it.
Social Anxiety and the God who Held Mary
Lara d’Entremont: “Over the years, I’ve struggled through intense bouts of social anxiety. These seasons seem to attack me out of nowhere; months will go by where it takes every bit of willpower I possess to leave the house or have guests come to ours. What makes these seasons so hard is looking back and knowing how easy it used to be to leave the house and having no idea when or if that normalcy will ever return.”
Sometimes Efficiency Is Overrated
“Efficiency is great when you need to make thousands of cars or grow acres of food. But sometimes efficiency gets in the way of the greater mission.”
How the Manger Mocks Death
This is wonderful to contemplate. “Christ’s treading over death turned the once feared enemy into an object of jeering. As Christ rose from the dead, so every dying believer, in their resurrection, proclaims his overwhelming victory.”
The Light That Overcomes
“In George Lucas’s Star War universe, the Light and Dark sides of the force vie for power. The forces are equal in power, and the outcome is in jeopardy. There is no guaranteed victor. Good thing we live in God’s universe and not Lucas’s!”
5 Stats for Parents to Know About Teen Digital Media Use
This is no great surprise. “There’s a statistical connection between the things you do with your kids, their level of digital media use, and their mental and emotional health.”
Flashback: The Legend of the Battle-Weary Crusader
Each of us has the joy and the sacred responsibility of displaying the beauty, the glory, of a foreign land here in this broken world.

When Judgment Day comes, we will regret the waste of a single moment not used for the glory of Christ. We will, however, not regret one moment we spent diligently studying God’s Word and hiding it in our heart. We will only wish we’d spent more time doing this. —Andrew Davis

I have said it before: gossip is a “respectable sin” among Reformed Christians. The Christian world, and perhaps especially the Reformed Christian world, is absolutely chockablock with gossip. From the pulpit to the pew, from the conference green room to the conference hallways, gossip is rampant. It is whispered in the name of important information and blogged in the name of discernment—both ways of dressing it up in respectable apparel. But if it isn’t true and it isn’t edifying and it isn’t necessary, it is gossip. Truly, gossip may be the besetting sin of this movement and a major contributor to her current or coming collapse.(1)

I don’t want to make it sound as if I am immune to this sin or that I’ve never participated in it. In fact, recent experiences in my life have shown how quick I am to initiate conversations that soon tip into gossip and how slow I am to redirect conversations initiated by others that also dwell on what is little better than tittle-tattle. I write to myself as much as anyone else.
If you love the Reformed faith, which is to say, if you value Reformed doctrine, then I offer this exhortation: Make it your goal to talk about Jesus, not celebrities. Make it your goal to tell about the perfections of the Savior more than the failures of the famous. Make it your goal to describe what God has done, not what Christian personalities have failed to do.
This is not to say that there are no circumstances in which it is appropriate to discuss current events and even the foibles and failures of those people who rise and fall within this corner of the Christian world. Sometimes such conversations can be good and necessary, provided they are carried out within the bounds of Christian character and that they go no further than the established facts. Paul named names when appropriate and I’m sure he sometimes gathered his protégés around himself to discuss what had gone wrong with Demas or Hymenaeus or Alexander and what they could learn from those who had first followed and then fallen away.
But a moment’s introspection should show that the great majority of our conversations about people are neither helpful nor edifying, neither concerned with truth nor spoken in love. The great majority of our conversations that revolve around those who have stumbled or fallen are speculative at best and slanderous at worst. The great majority of what has come from our lips and what has come to our ears is unnecessary and unprofitable. I am certain this is true of you because it’s true of me and true even of so many of the people we look up to. (Trust me—I’ve been around our heroes and I can attest from personal experience that they are as prone to this as any of us.)
I have often wished I could remove from my mind all the evil things I have heard about others—things that were whispered in my ear at a conference or delivered as a message into my inbox, but things I now associate with those individuals. I have often wished that person hadn’t told me, “I know his wife and she says he has an anger problem,” or “I spent time at her house and you should see the size of it.” I have often wished I could obliterate all those pieces of information that could be true or untrue, accurate or pure fiction. I have often wished I had asked that person to just stop, that I had had the strength of character to resist hearing it. And, of course, I have often wished that I myself had only ever spoken what was true, what was necessary, what was genuinely meant to serve Christ’s cause.
Though this movement was once defined by its doctrine, I fear it is increasingly defined by its celebrities. So now, rather than aligning with truth we align with people. This being the case, to participate in Reformed Christianity is to discuss personalities rather than theology. Need proof? When was the last time you had a conversation about the five points? But on the other hand, when was the last time you spoke about that guy who was accused of that transgression? When was the last time you marveled about the facts of the five solas? But then when was the last time you speculated about that pastor who has fallen under his church’s discipline? This kind of gossip is a blight on our theological tradition and a reason many abandon it. There are many who reject Reformed theology not because of its doctrines but because of its adherents—because of you and me and the way we blather on about people, people, people.
We will be a blessing to the church if instead of spending our time discussing the failures of celebrities we spend it going deeper into those precious truths that undergird it. We will be a blessing to the world around us if instead of obsessing about people we fix our hearts on Christ. So take this as my call to you and to me and to all of us: Let’s stop the gossip. Let’s stop the gossip and instead make it our delight to speak about who our God is and about what our God has done.

It has been a slow couple of days for Kindle deals, but we will hope for better things tomorrow.

Farewell, Charlie Brown Christmas
I enjoyed Denny Burk’s lament that A Charlie Brown Christmas will no longer be shown on network television.
Untangling Theology from Digital Technology
This one is going to take some time for you to read, but it’s worth the effort. “Obviously, it’s impossible to know for certain what the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune will bring to Big Tech. There’s good reason to believe that the current landscape will shift dramatically. Regardless, the volatile state of our technological overlords is reason enough to ask some serious questions about how these apps may have muscled their way into a place in our Christian lives — and damaged our institutions and souls in the process.”
7 Encouragements in the Christian Struggle for Perseverance
“Endurance, with its synonyms (perseverance, long-suffering, or patience) appears throughout the Bible as a Christian virtue. It is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22). Christians have a duty to endure. How, then, do we ready ourselves for it?” Writing for TGC Africa, John Musyimi offers seven suggestions.
Why Our Subjective Feelings Need God’s Objective Truth
Randy Alcorn: “The peace or lack of peace one feels after praying about a decision can be highly subjective, unless it is specifically rooted in objective truths. Some people feel good about doing wrong things and others feel bad about doing right things. I have seen people make unwise and even catastrophic decisions who told me they prayed and felt good about it.”
Any Unchecked Sin Is Ruinous
Justin Huffman reminds us that we all have tendencies toward certain sins and that we need to battle hard against them.
Themelios 47.3
If you’re looking for some academic reading, you may want to read the new issue of Themelios (which is available for free on the web, in PDF format, or in Logos).
Flashback: We Rarely Spend Time Delighting In You
This week I found a prayer meant to stir up delight in God, and to seek forgiveness for when we did not delight in him. Here it is.

To be tempted is in itself no sin: it is the yielding to temptation, and giving it a place in our hearts, which we must fear. —JC Ryle

Blessings to you today.

(Yesterday on the blog: Much Will Be Required)
‘Tis the Season for Topigetical Sermons
“This season brings with it discussions and debates among Reformed believers genuinely concerned about how best to honor the Lord in the midst of what can feel like sensationalistic, materialistic mayhem rooted more deeply in paganism than sentimentality-sated Christians care to acknowledge.”
Reform Your Faith, Don’t Deconstruct It
“I’ve had doubts about my faith. I’m guessing you’ve had them as well. No one is immune to wondering whether their convictions about Christianity are true. It’s a common human experience that is acknowledged in Scripture.” But as Alan Shlemon argues here, that doesn’t mean you should deconstruct your faith.
Does the Holy Spirit tell people things in their thoughts? (Video)
I found it strangely affirming that these three theologians struggle to answer the question and that the even disagree a bit among themselves. It shows that it’s a very complicated question.
Honoring Dishonorable Parents
“The holiday season is one in which happy families get together to eat lovely meals and have laughter-filled conversations followed by games of charades or meaningful talks around a fireplace – or at least that’s how Hallmark portrays the holidays. For many of us, however, the holiday season is one in which we face a very difficult problem.” That makes this the time of year when many people will struggle to be with and honor their parents.
Is It True That “All Is Vanity”? (Ecclesiastes 1)
This article deals with those key words from Ecclesiastes: all is vanity.
When Goodness Doesn’t Make Sense
“If you live long enough, you will suffer. If you counsel long enough, you will hear some stories of unimaginable suffering. Our awareness of the fallenness of the order in which we live should, in theory, prevent our shock when listening to our counselee’s pains. Often, that is not the case. Some stories are just jaw-dropping.”
Flashback: What Matters Is Not the Size of Your Faith
The smallest bit of faith in God is worth infinitely more than the greatest bit of faith in ourselves, or the strongest measure of faith in faith itself. Faith counts for nothing unless its object is Jesus Christ.

The gospel is about being close to God. To do that, Jesus identified with you even to the point of entering into your afflictions. —Ed Welch

Today’s post is sponsored by Christian Focus Publications and written by Brent Corbin, Executive Director of Reformed Youth Ministries.

Convincing young people that reading an actual book is a worthwhile use of their time is a tall task in our day and age. Whether it’s the ever-beckoning allure of technology, schedules that are chocked full of school, sports, and all kinds of other activities, or just a lack of desire, making the time to read an actual book seems like a practice for days gone by.
But here’s the reality we must face: as useful as videos, podcasts and other technologies can be to the Church in 2022, Christianity is a religion of words. Our God is a God of words. He created through words, calls Himself the Living Word, and wrote a book filled with words to communicate to His children. In light of this, RYM continues to encourage pastors and parents everywhere to value the written word, and to seek to train the next generation to be readers of actual books with real words. The forced slowing-down, and unhurried nature of sitting with a book is a discipline worth re-cultivating in the lives of young people. The Track Series, a collaborative effort between RYM and Christian Focus Publishers is a great place to do this very thing.
Written for students, the Track series addresses numerous topics in three primary areas: Doctrine, Culture, and the Christian Life. Track‘s booklets are theologically rich, accessible, and the perfect length to make actually finishing the book a likely and attainable goal. They seek to engage and challenge the student without dumbing things down. Some of the authors in the series include: Ligon Duncan, Derek Thomas, Ed Welch, Abigail Dodds, Reagan Rose, Stephen Nichols, and Walt Mueller. Each of the different writers brings his or her unique perspectives and expertise to the book’s subject matter. 
The goal of the Track series, through its different topics, is to point us to Jesus Christ, the One who forged a track to guide His followers. While we cannot follow this track perfectly, by His grace and Spirit He called us to strive to stay on the path. It is our prayer that this series of books would help guide young people who are seeking to follow Christ’s track in their day to day living.
Visit 10ofthose to purchase your Track books for the perfect Christmas gift or Stocking Stuffer.

You know the old adage, I’m sure: To whom much is given much will be required. Or, to express it in the words of Jesus, “Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.” The point is clear: God holds us responsible for all that we have. Said otherwise, God holds us responsible for all that he bestows upon us.

We tend to think of this principle when we consider all the good gifts we receive. We are to be faithful stewards of our money, acknowledging that those who have an abundance are particularly responsible to give with liberal generosity. We are to be faithful parents to our children, acknowledging that they are God’s children before our own. We are to be faithful pastors, keeping watch over all the flock as those who will have to give an account to the true Shepherd. It’s a principle that acknowledges God’s sovereignty over all the blessings we receive and our responsibility to discharge our duty faithfully.
But while we tend to consider this principle when it comes to the good things we receive, who’s to say that it doesn’t apply every bit as much to the difficult things? After all, just as God’s providence directs the sun it also directs the rain, and just as it directs times of laughter it also directs times of weeping. If prosperity comes from his hand so does poverty and if health can be his plan for us so may be sickness. It is not merely the good that we are responsible for, but also the difficulties. For they, too, are within his will.
And so as we encounter times of pain and illness, times of sorrow and loss, times of poverty and want, we should not merely ask, “How can I endure this?” or “How can I get out from under this?”, though certainly those questions may be appropriate. We should also ask, “How can I steward this? What is my duty in this? What does God meant to accomplish through this?”
What if Joni Eareckson Tada had chosen to live a life of despondency rather than embracing her disability as God’s will and as her particular ministry to God’s people? What if Susannah Spurgeon had pined away in self-pity rather than allowing her bed to become her office, the means through which she would send books to so many needy pastors? What if Amy Carmichael had allowed the poor health that forced her to leave Japan to end her missionary career rather than accepting it instead as God’s will to divert her to her ordained mission? What if Job had given up after the loss of all he held dear, what if David had dropped out after the death of his son, what if Paul had quit the field after being beaten the first time, or even the second or third?
All of these, and so many more, accepted their suffering as stewardship. They accepted it as something precious and meaningful and understood that it had called them to new duty, new obedience, new ways to be useful to God. And we have all benefited. We have learned more from how they endured their times of suffering than their times of joy, from their times of lack than their times of abundance, from their times of illness than their times of health. For while we may have learned what they professed to believe in days of sunshine, we have learned what they really believe in days of rain. And it has been a blessing and inspiration to us all.
Each of these did what we are all called to do—to embrace our sorrows as somehow consistent with God’s will, and to turn that sorrow outward in love for others and service to God. To whom much is given—even much sorrow, much pain, much suffering—, much will be required, for these give us unique opportunities to serve God’s people and showcase his glory.

Grace and peace to you today.

Today’s Kindle deals include a number of excellent devotionals from Crossway.
(Yesterday on the blog: Would You Consider Becoming a Patron?)
On Spiritual Dreams
I have read a number of different perspectives on Christians and “spiritual dreams.” This one, which I read over the weekend (and which is from a source I admire), was quite interesting to me.
An Open Letter to the Brothers I Went to Seminary With
I appreciated this open letter from a woman who attended seminary and who reflects on the men who attended with her.
If Christmas is just cultural, celebrate (or don’t) however you want
This is a good reminder that Christians don’t have to celebrate Christmas.
Brightest and Best (Video)
This great rendition of “Brightest and Best” features the Gettys and Ricky Skaggs.
Dealing with Difficult Decembers
“We spend so much time enjoying the nativity and celebrating the miracle of our Saviour’s birth, that we often forget to get excited and expectant once again for our Lord to come back.”
Chipping Away Our Confidence in Christ
Doug Eaton: “In the Christian life, there are times of rest and times of struggle, and what we do when the sun is shining will often determine how well we will fare when the rains fall and the winds blow. It is usually the pleasant times when self-confidence becomes exaggerated that many professing Christians tend to chip away at the rock upon which they stand.”
Flashback: Lost Is Her Treasure But Where Is Her Trust?
Let her not cling to him, Striving to fling from him, Death’s chilly hand, With its firm, frozen hold. Death has not made the choice, ’Tis but the Shepherd’s voice, Calling the little lamb, Back to its fold.

It’s pastoral malpractice to prescribe the law to penitent sinners as the source of a God-pleasing life. The law can direct and guide, but it cannot motivate or empower. The only legitimate motivation for the life of faith is not the law, but the gospel. —Harold Senkbeil