Today’s Kindle deals include a pair of really helpful books by Deepak Reju and Jonathan Holmes. There’s a good number of other options as well. In other book news, I’ve expanded the list of pre-Black Friday print book deals.

I noticed that Amazon has lots of board games on sale. You can browse a full list here, but to save some time I’ve grabbed a few highlights: Ticket to Ride, Ticket to Ride Europe, Ticket To Ride Legacy, CATAN, Azul, Scattergories, Taboo, Clue, 7 Wonders, Pandemic, Everdell, Trekking the National Parks, and so on.

Logos users will want to look at the various Cyber Week deals. They include Zondervan Academic New Testament Collections: Gospels and Acts at 60% off, the Puritan Ultimate Collection at 80% off, Theological Commentary Collection at 65% off, and much more. Also, grab your free ebook. There will be lots more deals as the week continues.

Joshua Budimlic: “That’s the dirty little secret about grief: it doesn’t just go away, it lingers. With each passing year it takes on a different form to be sure, but it still clings to our souls. As we journey through this world, our grief grows with us. However, as the years ebb and the Lord continues His work in our hearts, there is a sweetness to grief that begins to take hold.”

Though this article is written from a Presbyterian perspective, I appreciate much of what it says about the proper relationship between baptism and the Lord’s Supper. “This baptismal prerequisite for partaking of the Lord’s Supper is thoroughly biblical and for that reason has been the consistent practice of the church since its earliest days.”

Donna shares her prayers that God would raise up some Daniels for our generation. “Tucked away in the book of 1 Chronicles is a little verse that is forming the content of my post-election prayers for our newly elected leaders. The men of Issachar, one of the twelve tribes in ancient Israel around 1000 BC, are described as ‘men who understood the times and knew what Israel should do.’” (1 Chronicles 12:32)

Vanessa Doughty shares honestly about some of her struggles and successes. “I am an over-achiever. An A+ kind of girl. I will work myself to exhaustion on a task I’ve promised to finish—and finish well. I am also slow to ask for help because I am prideful. For many years I’ve labored under the tyrant of pride. Self-sufficiency its siren call.”

Sam Crabtree offers counsel on raising grateful kids. “If our kids are born thankless, how can we raise kids to recognize with heartfelt gratitude that they are served by an endless conveyor belt of divinely supplied benefits including life, breath, and everything? How can we help them see that God is working all things together for the good of those who love him?”

“Take your children to funerals, and teach them how to mourn. You might be surprised by what they teach you in return. Children often know something is wrong at a funeral, since they haven’t yet learned to forget. But we can explain why we cry and who receives our tears—a Lord who wept at death (John 11:35) yet trampled the grave in resurrection. As we mourn, we’re comforted (Matt. 5:4), and as we grieve, we’re called to hope (1 Thess. 4:13–14). What might feel like a cascade of loss can be a glimpse of the death Christ conquered and of why eternal life is good news.”

If you are at all like me, you probably find it easy to pray those prayers of petition (“Please give me…”) but far more difficult to pray those prayers of gratitude (“Thank you for…”). Here is some valuable assistance from The Valley of Vision.

Make no mistake: to be at peace with your sin is to be at war with God.
—Kevin DeYoung

Good morning. Grace and peace to you.
Today’s Kindle deals include several titles by Nancy Guthrie (along with some others).
(Yesterday on the blog: God Graciously Condescends)

This is a thoroughly enjoyable reflection on the way we names collectives, whether of birds or people. “Given enough time, virtually every hobby develops its own bizarre vocabulary — wacky insider terms that sound absolutely alien to normal people. To say that someone ‘hit four sixes in an 18-ball 39’ sounds like a ludicrous math problem, unless you’re wise to the jargon of cricket. Instructing someone to ‘raise pressure foot and pivot’ could result in bodily injury, unless that someone is a quilter. It’s true that every generation has its lingo, but so does every worthwhile hobby.”

Guilty as charged. “We are quick to think that the reason we experience conflict is because someone else is the problem. You fight with your boss because he’s a jerk. You fight with your wife because she’s unreasonable. You fight with your neighbor because she’s obnoxious.”

This is a lesson we would do well to heed.

“Talking with a fellow pastor I know and trust, I recently asked a question. ‘What’s one quality you believe is indispensable for an effective pastor?’ After a moment’s thought, the answer came: patience.” That is well worth considering.

Bethel McGrew writes about some of the lesser-known detransition stories. “When transgenderism was a budding fad, some people looked into their crystal balls and shrewdly predicted that a reckoning was coming. It wouldn’t be immediate, of course. It would take time for young people to realize they’d been screwed over. And it would take courage. Lots and lots of courage.”

“Names and labels get … complicated when it comes to religious, social, and theological movements, especially when the name of the movement—as in the case of evangelicals—has a very important word embedded in it: evangel, the gospel.”

We must be willing to have others consider us fools or fanatics, to have our words twisted and even our purest actions misrepresented. We cannot expect or even hope that we will gain the favor of God and the favor of men.

Here is the history of the grass—sown, grown, blown, mown, gone; and the history of man is not much more.
—Charles Spurgeon

It is amazing what struggles people will endure when they do so for a purpose they believe in. It is amazing what struggles people will deliberately bring upon themselves when they believe such struggles are the means to a desirable end. Athletes endure endless hours of training, excruciating times of preparation, and the pain of pushing themselves to the very edge of their endurance. And they do it all for the glory of a trophy, medal, or personal best. Students endure long hours, late nights, and difficult exams when they believe that their studies will eventually lead to a comfortable and fulfilling career. Women endure the struggles of pregnancy, the pains of labor, and the midnight feedings all for the joy of being a mother to a child.

But what of the trials we do not choose for ourselves, the trials that are thrust upon us without our desire and without our consent? What of the trials that do not lead to achieving a goal or attaining a sense of fulfillment? What of the trials that arise from without instead of within, from the mysteries of God’s providence rather than the longing of our hearts?
In such times, it is a tremendous blessing for Christians to consider why God has created us and why God has called us to live in this world. The chief end of man, the Catechism says sublimely, is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. This is the chief and meta purpose, the purpose that encompasses all we are, all we do, and all we experience. It is the purpose that suffuses every lesser circumstance as well—including our times of suffering.
So what is the chief end of suffering, we might ask? The chief end of suffering is to glorify God and enjoy him. The chief end of trials is to glorify God and enjoy him. The chief end of affliction is to glorify God and enjoy him. The purpose of our lives is the purpose of our times of struggle, loss, grief, illness, and bereavement.
God may be accomplishing many things through our times of difficulty. He may be shifting our gaze from earth to heaven and causing us to have a greater longing for his presence. He may be refining our hearts and increasing our faith. He may be using our trials to bless and encourage others or to set an example they can follow. He may be making use of our suffering to show the world around us that our love for him is deep, real, and lasting and that we will love him in the darkness as much as we claim in the light.
But in all of it, we can be certain that there is a higher purpose and a higher calling: to glorify God and enjoy him. Those who reject God have no higher purpose and no higher calling, for they will not glorify God and they will not enjoy him. But we can commit ourselves to glorifying him—praising him, worshiping him, proclaiming our confidence in him—even when our bodies, minds, and hearts are broken. And we can commit ourselves to enjoying him—loving him, maintaining a relationship with him, and finding pleasure in his promises—even when so much of what we love has been taken from us.
We can, we must, glorify him and enjoy him, for this gives purpose to our lives and this gives purpose to our sorrows. There is no circumstance that is ultimately purposeless for there is no circumstance outside our mandate to glorify our God and to enjoy him both now and forevermore.