This week Free Stuff Friday is sponsored by BJU Seminary. They are giving away a bundle of books, authored by their faculty, that provide biblical counsel on fighting sin and growing in Christ. BJU Seminary equips Christian leaders through an educational and ministry experience that is biblically shaped, theologically rich, historically significant, and evangelistically robust.

Anger, Anxiety and Fear: A Biblical Perspective by Stuart Scott
Our responsibility as Christians is to depend on God as we work toward becoming more like Jesus every day. Often, there are life-dominating sins that greatly hinder us from becoming more like Him. As the challenges of living in an uncertain world increase, the sins of anger, anxiety and fear come up more frequently in our daily lives. We need to be on guard against these sins and know how to deal with temptation when it comes.
Killing Sin Habits: Conquering Sin with Radical Faith by Stuart Scott with Zondra Scott
The word “mortified” often implies shame or embarrassment. When it relates to the mortification of sin, it means much more than that. Certainly we should be ashamed or embarrassed by our sin, but Scripture teaches that we are to actively subdue our sin; and more radically, kill our sin habits.
In this small volume, the authors compare our chronic fall into sin with the descending hours on a clock, demonstrating a repetitive and perfect pattern for sin. Both practical and challenging, this book demonstrates how God through the work of the Holy Spirit and radical faith can help you conquer sin in your life.
Changed into His Image: God’s Plan for Transforming Your Life by Jim Berg
Changed into His Image addresses Christian sanctification. It directs individual believers to recognize the true condition of the world and their own flesh, to turn from this reality to accept a deep relationship with Jesus Christ, and to respond to God’s promptings in life. Both disciple makers and new and old believers alike will benefit from this roadmap to spiritual growth, especially with careful contemplation of sections dedicated to individual use and to disciple making. Combine this study with Essential Virtues for a comprehensive look at Christian growth and maturity.
Essential Virtues: Marks of the Christ-Centered Life by Jim Berg
Essential Virtues draws from the principles of 2 Peter 1 to explore the marks of the Christian life. Peter lists the virtues of a Christlike believer: knowledge, self-control, endurance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love. As we understand the meaning and importance of these core virtues, we can learn to cultivate these qualities while avoiding worldliness, rebellion, and spiritual apathy. Berg’s clear application encourages personal Bible study that will result in true biblical maturity. Essential Virtues includes study-guide questions for personal reflection.
Enter Here

Every word of the Bible matters. “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” The entire word of God is “living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow.” Its every part discerns “the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” Every chapter and every verse serves a God-given purpose.

That’s not to say, though, that every chapter and every verse is equally important when it comes to knowing God, understanding his will, and living for his glory. Some sections carry special significance. Some sections are so important that the rest of the Bible cannot be understood apart from them. One of these is the third chapter of Genesis, for it stands between the perfect world of Genesis 2 and the utterly shattered world of Genesis 4. It explains what went so tragically wrong.
Genesis 3 is the subject of Mitchell Chase’s book Short of Glory: A Biblical and Theological Exploration of the Fall. ”All of us are born outside Eden,” he explains, “so Genesis 1–3 is a special set of chapters. God makes the world, and specifically a garden, for his people. And there, in the sacred space of Eden, God’s image bearers defy his word and succumb to the tempter. When God exiles them, we are exiled in them too.” This is the great tragedy. Yet all is not lost, for “in that same chapter where God announces judgment, he gives a promise of hope that a deliverer will come one day and defeat the serpent. The rest of the biblical story grows out of the ground of Genesis 3. When we meditate on the content of this chapter, many biblical themes and connections become clear. The events in Genesis 3 become a lens through which to read and understand the progressive revelation of God’s redemptive epic.”
He wants the reader to think of Genesis 3 as containing a number of seeds that grow into fuller form later in the Bible. “There are temptation and shame and coverings. There are a tree of wisdom and one of life. There are messianic hope, the reality of death in the dust, and exile from sacred space. There are blame shifting, hiding, and a response of faith.” It’s as we spend time carefully studying Genesis 3 that we come to understand so much of the Bible’s storyline, so much of its imagery, and so much of its promise. And further, we come to live better, for “if we situate the fall in Scripture’s storyline effectively, an exploration of Genesis 3 will result in greater joy in the good news about Jesus. By tuning our ears to creation’s groanings, our hope will be stirred along the way.”
This is the task Chase takes on in Short of Glory and he does it well. He explores a number of the themes that are introduced in Genesis 3 and that then carry on through the rest of the Bible. He begins with sacred space, “the kind of theme that locks the metanarrative together. Sacred space is given, lost, promised, and at last received again. As readers cross the threshold into Genesis 3, they come to a sacred place that God gave his people. God had made the heavens and the earth, and part of his work on earth included a garden in a place called Eden (2:8).” In this chapter we see that sacred space violated and lost, but also the promise that it will be recovered. We eventually see the shadow of that recovery in the tabernacle and temple and long to see its full recovery in heaven.
From here he turns to the two trees, to the God who walks and talks with his people, to the ancient serpent who leads them astray, and to the idea of taking and eating. And so it goes through several other themes, each of them introduced in Genesis 3 and each of them carrying into the rest of the Bible. In each case, he doesn’t merely explain these themes, but also applies them to the Christian life. And so this is not just a book of abstract theology, but a book that calls us to better Christian living.
Short of Glory is a relatively small book, but it is one that deals with one of the most important passages in the entire Bible. It explains it, applies it, and calls Christians to live according to it. For those reasons and many more, I highly recommend reading both the chapter itself and this excellent explanation of it.
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The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you today.

Westminster Books is offering a sale on a great series that answers big questions for teens.
This month ONE Audiobooks is offering free access to Paul Washer’s The Preeminent Christ.
Today’s Kindle deals include a few books that may be of interest.
Shepherding Children through Exposure to Pornography
This sadly necessary article at CCEF will help you shepherd children through exposure to pornography.
Membership at Metropolitan Tabernacle: Church Polity with Charles Spurgeon
This is such an interesting article. “Throughout Charles Spurgeon’s decades of ministry, more than 14,000 people sought to join the church he pastored. Rather than rushing them into membership, however, Spurgeon and the other pastors at the Metropolitan Tabernacle patiently shepherded applicants through a five-part process.”
Five Ways to Get God Wrong
“There are about a million ways to get God wrong, and the path to getting him right is extremely narrow. That makes theology—the way we organize our thoughts about God—important, urgent, and even dangerous. If we get God wrong, we will never understand our place and purpose in this world, let alone in the world to come.”
Your Rights as a Christian in a Public School in 2023
“As the school year begins, many parents, students, teachers, and coaches have questions about what they’re legally allowed to do in relation to their Christian faith.” Joe Carter offers “information related to grades K–12, taken from various resources that provide a broad overview of what is and isn’t allowed in public schools” (in the United States).
Efficiency in Churches
Here’s a look at some of the metaphors we use for life and ministry and how they may not be very helpful to us.
God is Near: Certain Comfort for Moms
“In my role as the Director of Children’s Ministries at my church, I’m privy to the thoughts of many mothers. As moms think about ‘back to school,’ one emotion keeps bubbling to the surface over and over. I hear it in their voices, in the questions they ask, and the conversations they have. It’s not a pretty emotion. It’s one that can sometimes paralyze us.  Fear.”
Flashback: Who Gave You The Right?
Each of us has every right to make other people’s steps lighter, to add cheer to their hearts, to add rest to their souls. But none of us has any right to unnecessarily discourage them, to burden them, to add to their sorrow.

“There is no such thing in the New Testament as a believer whose perseverance is so guaranteed that he can afford to ignore the warning notes which are sounded so frequently.” —Sinclair Ferguson

Truth for Life (Alistair Begg) is featuring Seasons of Sorrow this month. You can purchase it for just $7 or get it free with a donation of any amount. It has never been easier to get a copy to read for yourself or to give away.

Logos users will want to take a look at this back-to-school sale as well as this month’s free and nearly free books. You’ll also find lots of good discounts on books from Baker Publishing.
There’s once again a nice little list of Kindle deals.
When You Hate Your Body: The Standard of Self-Worth
“When I was growing up, there was a code I lived by: if you have beauty, you have everything. Physical beauty represented inner worth. Even as an adult, I sometimes still believe there is a standard, represented by beauty, which determines my worth as a person. And in my disappointment and despair of not reaching that standard, I tend to eat. For me, body image and food are bound together in a vicious cycle. One represents striving and self-loathing. The other represents self-soothing, desperate for comfort.”
The Secret Meaning of YHWH
Mark Ward responds to those who say there’s a secret meaning behind YHWH (or other secret codes in the Bible).
One of The Weirdest Articles I’ve Ever Written
And while dealing with silly ways of interpreting the Bible, Mike Leake explains why we need to be careful with the way we translate words.
Technology-Mediated Ministry: How Far Is Too Far?
“The church has always employed technology for the advancement of our Great Commission task. From the Apostle Paul’s use of letter writing to the technological marvel of the expansive first-century Roman system of roads to the Reformation’s use of Johann Gutenberg’s printing press, the church has always leveraged the prevailing technology of the day for ministry effectiveness.” Here’s a look at the local church and technology-mediated ministry.
Of the Danger of Embracing Culture
“Sometimes Christians are tempted to compromise as they hope for popularity. The feeling is that, if we can just get folks to think we are a helpful part of our community and we do not cause trouble, we will become the place people in town want to be.”
Joy and Enjoyment
“Christians recognize that our joy is in another world. However, that doesn’t mean we can’t experience and enjoy good things in this world. The presence of good things in this life testifies to the reality of a God who exists and is himself the supreme source of joy. We worship God as we delight in the good blessings his gives and as we allow them to direct our affections to Him.”
Flashback: The Utter Devastation of Sin
What we find as we examine sin and its consequences is that sin leaves a trail behind it…Sin isn’t here for a moment and then gone. No, sin is so evil that it leaves its lingering scent behind.

If I am fully known and not rejected by God, how much more ought I to extend grace to my neighbor, whom I know only in part? —Jen Wilkin

Many years ago I visited a store that featured a display of freshwater planted aquariums, and I immediately became enamored with them. I was entranced by the lushness of the plants that can grow underwater and by the symbiotic relationship of the aquatic flora and fauna. I had to have one. Eventually, I found a good-sized used tank that was reasonably priced. I installed all the hardware, put down the substrate, filled it with properly-treated water, and added the first plants and fish. It took some time, but soon enough the plants began to grow and to spread. In a matter of weeks, the aquarium was nothing short of stunning.

But it didn’t take me long to realize that the same conditions that cause the plants to thrive also cause algae to thrive. The same water temperatures, pH levels, and lights that cause the plants to grow also cause algae and other unwanted organisms to grow. And from that moment forward, I was engaged in a never-ending battle to foster the former and eradicate the latter. It was a battle I eventually became weary of fighting and after a couple of years I emptied the aquarium, sold it off, and found a new hobby.
I recently found myself pondering that aquarium and the battle between good growth and bad growth. I was considering the local church as the place where Christians are meant to grow. The church is the “aquarium” in which every good Christian quality can grow and thrive. It is in the church that we learn to embrace and display the heavenly virtues of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. It is in the local church that we experience the kind of contagious zeal that causes us to imitate the best qualities we see in others (and that causes others to imitate the best qualities they see in us). All of this and so much more develops and increases in God’s church.
All of this develops and increases in God’s church because of the church’s relational and communal nature. We live life together, we bare our hearts, souls, and lives, we see one another at our best and worst, and in so many ways become like one another. That’s just how God intends it.
And yet the same context that can promote such wonderful virtues can also foster such terrible vices. Because we live out our Christian faith in such proximity to one another and because we are natural imitators, we are likely to imitate poor qualities as well as good ones. So if love can spread in the local church, so can suspicion. If faithfulness can spread in the local church, so can distrust. If zeal, then also apathy, if submission then also rebellion.
What grows in an aquarium? Plants and weeds, because the conditions that foster one fosters the other. What grows in the local church? Virtues and vices, because much of the context that fosters one can as easily foster the opposite. The challenge, then, is clear, and it is a challenge that goes to each one of us: To bless the church by putting on all those precious Christian graces and to bless the church by putting off all those unChristian vices. It’s in this way that we will serve the church, guard the church, and keep it pure.

May the Lord be with you and bless you today.

Today’s Kindle deals include a pretty significant list of titles worth a look.
The Hidden Glory of the Unengaged
This article encourages us to look for and celebrate the hidden glory of those who have not yet been engaged with the gospel. “We live in an age when the Church of Christ continues to advance steadily, bringing gospel light to even the hardest-to-reach people groups on the planet – although thousands of these groups still await the coming of their very first ambassador. These groups are the unengaged, the people for whom there is not yet even a single team committed to church planting among them.”
You Don’t Have to Choose between the Head and the Heart
Greg Koukl: “The head or the heart? The mind or the emotions? The will or the affections? Often, we’re tempted to think of these as opposite ends of the spectrum—we can either be filled with information or be ‘filled with the Spirit’ (understood here in an emotional sense)—and apologetics types are stuck on the wrong side.”
Has Jesus Offended You?
Forrest McPhail considers the offensive nature of the message of the Christian faith.
What Makes a Person Valuable?
What is it that makes a person valuable? And how does this differ from the messaging of the society around us?
Partnering Together: A Practical Guide
This article at 9Marks considers how churches can and should relate to one another. “I fear many denominations have lost sight of the forest for the trees—they’ve so emphatically focused on cooperation for mission that they’ve neglected other important and biblical aspects that define how independent churches relate to each other.”
Your Husband Will Be Perfect: How to Love a Flawed Man
“If the gospel can accomplish these feats, it can surely transform ordinary men into husbands who love their wives as Christ loved the church, and it can surely transform ordinary women into wives who respect and submit to their husbands’ leadership. But this transformation is not automatic, and it does not happen overnight.”
Flashback: A Picture of Perfect Rest
The rest God promises and the rest we enjoy comes amid the battle, not outside of it, during the race, not only after we have resigned. It is a rest that comes amid the turmoil, that flows when circumstances are dire, that rises up when hearts sink low.

Walk with God and you cannot mistake the road; you have infallible wisdom to direct you, permanent love to comfort you, and eternal power to defend you. —Charles Spurgeon

Good morning from home sweet home. I enjoyed my trip to Australia, Thailand, and South Korea and am excited to eventually share the results in Worship Round the World. But in the meantime, I’m glad to be back where I belong.

(Yesterday on the blog: Give Me a Faith Like His!)
Ambassadors for Marriage
Rebekah explains why Christians ought to be the foremost ambassadors for marriage. And it often comes down to the way we speak about our own marriages.
When the Darkness of Suffering Seems too Thick to Cross
“The sun may slant golden beams across our floor, but in the midst of suffering, all feels like night to us. We wander around as those caught in a fog, stumbling through an unrelenting darkness. We want the light, we want to trust that the light will return, but it feels as if it will never brighten our faces again. Our hearts feel heavy, our head is muddled, and aches and pain we can’t explain keep pestering us. This is suffering.”
The Requisite of Discipleship
Justin Honaker tells of a successful discipleship program.
What It Feels Like
Wes shares candidly about his battle with clinical depression.
Can I Still Have Joy in Seasons of Doubt?
Is it possible to experience joy even in seasons of doubt? John Piper takes on this question.
River of life
Susan reflects poetically on words of life and the river of life.
Flashback: Cast Your Burden Upon the Lord
When we are heavily burdened we are to take one specific action: cast. We are to throw or hurl or toss our burdens upon the Lord. We are to bring them to his attention and to plead with him for his help.

God’s salvation does not come in response to a changed life. A changed life comes in response to the salvation, offered as a free gift. —Tim Keller

Today’s post is sponsored by BJU Seminary and written by Stuart Scott, professor of biblical counseling and ACBC Fellow. BJU Seminary equips Christian leaders through an educational and ministry experience that is biblically shaped, theologically rich, historically significant, and evangelistically robust.

Ever since Adam ate of the tree in the garden, every man and woman has inherited a nature of sin. Running its course, sin leads to hopeless slavery. However, if we are believers, sin no longer holds us hopelessly captive because God has justified us, has broken that slavery, and is progressively sanctifying us. But we can still become temporarily and routinely entangled in sin—a sign that something is very wrong or missing in our Christian walk.
Scripture is clear that sin habits are incongruous with a redeemed lifestyle: “we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh—for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die” (Rom. 8:12–13a). In other words, a person who continues a life of sin without any real desire or efforts to change has no legitimate claim of redemption.
Consequently, God calls us to mortify the sin in our lives: “but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (Rom. 8:13b). As we pursue holiness and rest on Christ’s finished work on the cross, by grace we aggressively strive against sin in our lives.  Pursuing holiness Christ’s way will weaken a sin habit, until its power and predominance is subdued and practically destroyed.
But mortifying our sin is not accomplished by our own efforts to break sinful habits. To mortify sin, we must aggressively strive toward a growing walk of faith with Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
So, the call to mortify our sin is really a call to vivify our faith in Christ and His gospel, first of all and ongoing. To vivify something, we endue it with life and effectuate it. Vivifying is not just about doing something; it is about possessing or personally embracing something from the inside out—for the glory it brings to God and the eternal life it expresses in us.
To vivify our faith in Christ, we must vivify true worship of Christ alone. Turning from competing pursuits and truly seeing Christ and His radical love for what it is will breed radical love, trust, and obedience (with delight) in us.
This vivifying of our faith in Christ includes vivifying faith in the gospel truths of Christ, daily. Turning to the power of Christ in us, His forgiveness, our hope of heaven, and all God’s promises will greatly impact our thinking and our actions. We must especially vivify or exercise our faith in the moments of trial and battle. Specifically in times of temptation, choosing to put faith in what we need to will empower us to resist sin and then grow our faith even more.
Vivifying faith effectually vivifies a walk in the Spirit. As we turn and submit to the truth of God and depend on the Spirit who dwells in us, through prayer, God and His Word can influence us. God’s Word, active faith, and the indwelling Spirit combined, in tandem with other saints, assures a walk in the Spirit.
With the vivification of our faith, we must then focus not on our habit of sin, but on Christ’s specific, righteous alternatives to our sin. Aggressively pursuing the Christlike characteristic corresponding to sin with real faith and dependence effectively works to mortify sin habits.
Replacing our sin habits with the help of the Holy Spirit is necessarily an intensive practice. It involves addressing personal hindrances such as laziness, apathy, and misplaced priorities. It involves personal, periodic examination with confession, and it involves any needed radical amputation of facilitators—all in response to Christ’s radical love.
This vivifying of our faith in the practical putting off sin and putting on righteousness is an ongoing Christian endeavor with Christ. Everything about our Christian walk and mortifying sin is inextricably linked to exercising our faith in a worthy and sacrificial Savior.
A fuller treatment of the cycle of sin habits, and of hope to mortify them, can be found in the book Killing Sin Habits: Conquering Sin with Radical Faith, written by Stuart Scott with Zondra Scott.

You can only imagine what Joseph’s family thought. You can only imagine what the townsfolk thought. You can only imagine what the religious leaders thought. You can only imagine the laughter and the mocking, the rumors and the gossip, the scolding and the censure. And maybe we should imagine it.

“Does he really expect us to believe that he wasn’t the one who got Mary pregnant?” “I’ve heard lots of excuses in my time, but never ‘I was overshadowed by the Holy Spirit.’” “I heard that it wasn’t her first time, either.” “I heard she got attacked when she was out drawing water.”
The fact is, those people would be no more likely to believe her explanation than we would be if someone fed it to us today. And those people would have been no less eager to propose some more likely explanations. Those people weren’t so different from us, though they may have lived at a very different time and in a very different context.
We can hardly blame Joseph for wanting to walk away—to walk away from the mocking, from the gossip, from the shame. We can hardly blame him for resolving to divorce her. We can hardly blame him for wanting to extricate himself from betrothal to a woman who was clearly no virgin. He, after all, was a just man and an innocent one. So at least he planned to do it quietly.
It took nothing less than divine intervention to get him to stay. “An angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit’” (Matthew 1:20). When Joseph awoke he remembered the dream, he accepted it as God’s own revelation, and he received it as God’s own instruction. He set aside all thought of divorce, he took Mary as his wife, and he raised her son as his own.
Imagine Mary’s joy, Mary’s relief, Mary’s sense of comfort and well-being when Joseph told her he loved her, he believed her, and he accepted her. Imagine Mary’s gratitude when Joseph stood beside her and said “My wife,” when he took that baby in his arms and said, “My son.” Imagine how his obedience impacted Mary, how his faith blessed his wife, how his love made all the difference.
We can be certain the gossip did not end the day Joseph declared, “I believe her.” We can be certain people were no more convinced by his dream than her visitation. The gossip did not turn to acceptance simply because he added his testimony to hers. Rather, I suspect it increased all the more. “I can’t believe he’s so naive.” “I guess he can’t come up with a better explanation than a dream.” “If this isn’t proof that he’s the one who got her pregnant I don’t know what is!”
But Joseph was a man of faith, a man who chose to believe God’s word and obey God’s direction, a man whose decision to accept Mary was also a decision to share her shame. But he knew that God had spoken, he knew what God had spoken, and nothing would dissuade him, nothing would compel him to reject what God had made abundantly clear.
And as I listened to this familiar passage during my morning devotions, a passage I’ve heard hundreds or even thousands of times, I found myself praying, “God, thank you for Joseph. And please give me the faith of Joseph. Give me the faith to listen attentively to your Word, give me the faith to believe it even when it cuts hard against my presuppositions, give me the faith to apply it even when it’s especially difficult. Let me be like Joseph. Give me a faith like his.”