May the Lord be with you and bless you today.

Westminster Books is offering a deal on a resource on pastoral theology. Kevin DeYoung says it’s “inspiring, challenging, comprehensive, opinionated, practical, and spiritual in the deepest sense of the word.”

Today’s Kindle deals include some top-notch titles for those who are grieving, those who are nearing the end of life, or those who are just looking for a good novel.

(Yesterday on the blog: Nick Would Be 25 Years Old Today)

I find it helpful to catch up with popular authors from time to time. I have often expressed concerns with John Eldredge’s books and this article from Caleb Wait does nothing to diminish those concerns.

Kevin DeYoung: “Don’t get me wrong, we need some Christians (though, undoubtedly, not as many as we have now) to participate in the maelstrom of cultural commentary, just like we need Christians in every non-sinful area of human activity. Political punditry is a legitimate calling. It’s just not the pastor’s calling. The man who comments constantly on the things ‘everyone is talking about’ is almost assuredly not talking about the things the Bible is most interested in talking about.”

It’s helpful to be reminded of the complexities of Bible translation since it helps us better appreciate Scripture and some of the decisions that have to be made in translating it. This article from Peter Gurry explains some of the complexities involved.

“Compassion is a Christian virtue. No one felt compassion like Jesus did. On many occasions, he was “moved with compassion,” meaning that he felt within himself that combination of sorrow, pity, and love. But Jesus’ compassion was not sentimentality. He never merely affirmed the sufferer’s feelings. His compassion was organically connected to truth, love, and justice.”

Jennifer McPhail explains how Western missionaries serving the Eastern Hemisphere face several key challenges.

Bobby Jamieson explains the modern-day (and especially American) obsession with “workism.” “Who does the religion of workism benefit? If you have no dependents or heirs, then, by definition, not them. Your workism may benefit your boss. It might especially benefit your boss’s boss’s boss and the shareholders. But does it benefit your neighbor? Does it benefit you?”

Because Christians are not trained in sound doctrine, they wholeheartedly embrace error, often finding it more satisfying than God’s revealed truth.

I can no longer condemn or hate a brother for whom I pray, no matter how much trouble he causes me.
—Dietrich Bonhoeffer

I don’t why we place more emphasis on some birthdays than others. Why is 16 more significant than 17? Why are multiples of 5 more significant than multiples of 4 or 6? I don’t who decides these things or on what basis, but I suppose 25 is significant because it marks a quarter of a century. Though it is an uneven number it somehow feels like a round number—a particularly meaningful one.

Today is Nick’s 25th birthday. Or is it better to say that it would be his 25th birthday? I’m not sure. Either way, though a quarter of a century has passed and so many memories have been lost to time, there is still so much I remember about March 5, 2000—the excitement of knowing the day had come at last, the helplessness of watching Aileen in labor, the awe of witnessing childbirth, the joy of meeting my firstborn. It is a day that remains set apart in my mind and memory, set apart in our family lore.

For 20 years we celebrated March 5 and for five years we have mourned it. For 20 years it was a day that evoked gratitude for a wonderful gift and for 5 years it has been a day that evokes grief for a tremendous loss. Of course, gratitude and grief are not opposite to one another and do not cancel each other out. It is possible to be grateful and grieved. And that is how I feel today—still grateful for Nick’s life even as I grieve his death.

It’s rare for me to read my books after they’ve been published, but I do find myself picking up Seasons of Sorrow from time to time. Seasons was written as blog articles and journal entries long before I imagined it being collected, collated, and bound into a book. In that way, it is an urgent and in-the-moment series of reflections on loss. I find myself increasingly glad that I wrote it as I did, for so much is different now. I have become a seasoned sufferer instead of an unseasoned one. I have learned to live with sorrow instead of being crushed by it. I could never go back and capture the poignancy, urgency, bewilderment, and brokenheartedness of those early days. I would necessarily make it seem easier than it was, to transpose my five-years-later settledness onto those days when I was so severely tested. The book captures moments in time that I’d never be able to re-capture today.

Aileen and I often consider that bound to missing Nick is missing our old lives. The loss of our son and the loss of our innocence are inseparably bound together. Our old lives were good. We had many pleasures and few griefs, many joys and few sorrows. But now grief is always close at hand, always just beneath the surface, always able and willing to swell up at the smallest provocation. Yet joys and pleasures are also always close at hand and we are determined that we will not neglect these joys nor allow sorrow to overwhelm them. If we are responsible to steward our griefs surely also our joys, and to entrust them all to the Lord. We are grateful that each March 5 without Nick is just a bit easier than the one before.

The reality I struggle to admit to myself these days is that Nick is beginning to fade into the past. Photos of the two of us look a little less familiar than they once did, almost like they are snapshots of someone else’s life rather than mine. It’s not that he has become a stranger but just that he’s so much less familiar than he once was. I don’t think I could prove it, but I’m pretty sure a day has now gone by when I didn’t think of him even once. I still miss him dreadfully. I still long to see him. But he exists in my past, not in my present.

Yet my confidence has not wavered that he exists in my future as well, that after a few more birthdays have passed, or perhaps many more birthdays have passed, we will be reunited. And nothing has dimmed my anticipation of that day. Nothing has diminished my longing for the joy he and I will experience when we can finally throw our arms around one another and rejoice in God’s salvation. Nothing has dimmed my confidence that Christ has risen and, therefore, Nick and I will rise as well—rise to be with Christ and rise to enjoy him together.

Finally, here are a few glimpses of March 5 in years past:

Logos users will want to vote in the second round of March Matchups as we work toward some great deals.

Today’s Kindle deals include a helpful resource on James, a guided reading of Chesterton’s Orthodoxy, a book for teens, and more.

The relationship between Canada and the U.S. has taken a strange turn in the past few weeks. Darryl wants to make sure it doesn’t affect relationships among citizens of a higher kingdom.

“While our culture presents cutting off your parents as a viable option for self-care, it isn’t the only option. What does the Bible say about challenging relationships with parents? What does it look like to apply biblical wisdom and gospel hope to our relationship with our first caretakers? Here are three biblical principles to consider before you cut off your parents.”

Cindy offers counsel on praying to the Lord for unmet desires. “Like you, I’ve done a fair bit of praying while waiting. Here are a few things God taught me to pray in those seasons of longing.”

My friend James helps pastors know how to preach from their brokenness. “Life is hard, and ministry adds another layer of difficulty. From the outside, we face a real adversary actively opposing every step of progress we make. On the inside, our own souls cry out for comfort as we minister to others in need. How can we preach when we ourselves are broken? Is it even possible? Why would God allow our service to be made more difficult by soul-wrenching trials?”

There is wisdom here for those responsible for recruiting and caring for church volunteers. “When volunteers experience a genuine community where they are discipled, loved, and cared for in your ministry, you’ll naturally attract more people to join your team. You may never feel like you have ‘enough’ volunteers, but you will experience the joy of having committed, quality volunteers who are deeply invested in your mission.”

Here’s a long and interesting article about Christian Nationalism. “Baptists have traditionally affirmed that a healthy republic requires Christian faith and a virtuous populace while also resisting top-down efforts to Christianize America. Rejecting calls for a renewed Christendom hardly indicates compromise with secularism. I would argue, to the contrary, that many of the renewed Christian Nationalist visions need to be rejected specifically because they aren’t supernatural enough. Such calls effectually seek to Christianize culture apart from the Baptist insistence on spiritual regeneration.”

In Jesus’s most famous parable, neither the older nor younger brother was outside the need or the reach of the Father’s love. Your best and worst child equally need Jesus.

Our children’s resolve is only as strong as the God they believe in, and if the God they believe in is presented to them as nothing more than a small deity, their loyalty will follow suit.
—Sam Luce & Hunter Williams

The God of love and peace be with you today.

Today’s Kindle deals include The Unfinished Reformation, Seeing the Unseen, and other excellent choices.

(Yesterday on the blog: What Makes Heaven Happy)

“In the social media era, too many people view themselves as de facto journalists, where even friendships and memberships are little more than ‘sources’ we can leverage for our own personal brand. I’ve seen too many people become distrustful too quickly of friends and teachers that have a proven track record of faithfulness. Why? Because the digital ecosystem is constantly pressing on them.” I appreciate what Samuel says here about tribalism in the modern world.

What does the Bible say about women pastors? Guy Waters gives an overview.

This is a sweet article by a mother-in-law to her daughter-in-law. That can be such a precious relationship (though it can also be such a tough one)!

“Every day that we wake up, there are two paths before us. These two paths go by various names. We could call them the paths of wisdom and folly. Or the paths of blessing and curse. Or the paths of good and evil. Or the paths of God-exaltation and self-exaltation.” This is what the Bible refers to as life and death.

For those who came to Christ early in life, it can be difficult to feel like they were ever an enemy of God. John Piper addresses this issue and does so well. “The basic issue we face is this: Are we going to learn our true condition before Christ and outside Christ from our memory and our experience, or are we going to learn it from the word of God? Are we going to feel it because it’s in the word of God and the Spirit applies it to us? Or are we going to try to dredge up some memory that may not exist at all and try to feel that? I don’t think that’s going to work — and even if it did work, it would be inadequate.”

“In the hustle and bustle of our daily lives, it can become easy to lose sight of why we do the things we do. I think that, in order to regain a proper Biblical perspective in the midst of the mundane, we must first narrow our focus before broadening it again. That is, before setting our sights to the plethora of issues abroad, let us take stock of our own hearts, homes, families, and church community. There is a real sense in which our pursuit of ‘God and country’ must begin at ‘hearth and home.’”

God’s plan all along has been to use ordinary leaders to accomplish extraordinary things. His plan has been to use people of average ability to accomplish matters of eternal significance.

Legalism is simply separating the law of God from the person of God.
—Sinclair Ferguson

This week the blog is Sponsored by Strider, a Christian-owned online marketing agency. Ryan Freeman has been helping to grow local businesses and non-profits for over 30 years. Book a free consultation with Ryan to learn if Strider is a fit for your goals.

In the 90s, clients wondered if a website was really necessary. Business email? You must be crazy! Ten years later, e-commerce was lunacy and social media was just going to be a fad. You can imagine (or maybe you remember!) the introduction of mobile phones, texting, and then smartphones!

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the new shiny object, and once again I’m seeing a very natural hesitation when it comes to change. Many people feel AI is too complicated to be of use, or they fear that AI might produce generic, low-quality, or inauthentic content. However, when implemented thoughtfully, AI can help to streamline repetitive tasks and enhance creative work without compromising authenticity. Here’s how you can harness AI to boost your business’s efficiency while maintaining genuine engagement.

Dos and Don’ts: Maximizing AI’s Potential

1. Crafting Effective Prompts

Don’t: Use vague prompts like “Write me an article about widgets.” This will give you generic content that fails to resonate with your audience and sounds like a robot wrote it..

Do: Provide detailed instructions to your AI tools. For example:

Audience: Specify who you’re addressing (e.g., small business owners).

Tone: Define the desired tone (e.g., authoritative yet friendly). Bonus: Point to previous articles you’ve written so that the AI can learn your style.

Purpose: Clarify the objective of the content (e.g., to inform, persuade, or entertain).

This approach ensures the AI generates content that aligns with your business’s voice and goals.

Here’s an example of a quick but useful starter prompt for a blog post.

You are a marketing copywriter with deep experience in the dental medical care industry.

Help me to write a blog post promoting the importance of regular dental checkups for children. The audience is parents with children under 16 years old. Use a friendly tone and authoritative tone to show you have knowledge and experience while being relatable and empathetic. Use headings and bullet points so it’s easy to read.

Give citations for any data or facts that you use.

Suggest some ideas for graphics.

2. Managing Online Reviews

Don’t: Ignore customer reviews or respond with generic, copy-pasted replies. That’s a great way to broadcast that you don’t care about your customers.

Do: Utilize AI to draft personalized responses to each review. AI can analyze the review’s sentiment and content, assisting you in crafting thoughtful replies that address specific customer feedback. Edit the draft to add your final touches before you publish. This personalized approach demonstrates that you value customer input and are committed to continuous improvement.

3. Creating Unique Visual Content

Don’t: Rely solely on common stock images that other businesses also use. This can make your brand appear generic and uninspired.

Do: Leverage AI to generate custom photos, illustrations, and graphics. AI-driven design tools can create visuals tailored to your brand’s identity, setting you apart from competitors and enhancing your visual storytelling.

Here’s the first prompt I used to create the featured image for this post. Because of the conversational nature of ChatGPT, I was able to guide it through many revisions.

4. Enhancing Social Media Engagement

Don’t: Post sporadically or wait for free moments to come up with content, leading to an inconsistent and less engaging social media presence.

Do: Use AI to assist in crafting engaging posts, generating unique images, and scheduling content for consistency. This proactive approach keeps your social media channels vibrant and relevant.

5. Improving Customer Service

Don’t: Implement live chat features on your website without proper monitoring and staffing, resulting in delayed replies or missed messages.

Do: Add an AI website agent trained on your specific business information to handle customer inquiries in real-time. AI-powered chatbots can conversationally answer frequently asked questions, provide product information, and capture lead details efficiently. Additionally, consider using an AI receptionist to manage overflow calls, ensuring no customer query goes unattended.

We Can Help

Integrating AI into your business doesn’t mean sacrificing authenticity. With the right strategies, AI can enhance efficiency, personalize customer interactions, and drive growth. If you’re thinking about trying AI and online marketing to attract and convert more customers, contact me for a chat. The Strider team is here to help you navigate the evolving digital landscape and achieve sustainable profitability – whether you’re a one-person entrepreneur or a growing team of 40+

PS: To write this article, I created a bulletpoint outline, gave ChatGPT a prompt about the purpose and audience for the post, and then edited the text. 

If you spend any time on social media or any time socializing at a Christian conference, if you refresh your feed on YouTube or listen while people chat after church on a Sunday morning, you may soon learn what makes people happy. People love to talk about other people! And more often than not, they love to talk negatively about other people—discussing their foibles and failures, their quirks and shortcomings.

It is for this reason that the Bible so often warns us against idleness, gossip, being busybodies, getting involved in affairs that are not our own, and so on. It is curses that more naturally spill from our lips than blessings and tittle-tattle that more naturally comes out of our mouths than encouragement. So often, a bad report of another person delights our ears more than a good report and a tale of failure than a tale of success. Many of us, most of us, or perhaps all of us need to wage a lifelong battle to simply display even moderately good character in this area, to have the inner strength to resist gossiping and the outer conviction to stop others when they begin to gossip to us.

What makes Christians happy? Sadly, it’s often gossip, uninformed opinions, unfounded rumors, and bad reports.

But what makes heaven happy? We can be certain that there are no gossips in heaven, no people who dash around the city to share news of another man’s downfall or another woman’s demise. We can be certain there is no one there who would feel joy if they received reports of another person’s sin or satisfaction if they heard of another person’s fall.

We can be certain that there are no gossips in heaven, no people who dash around the city to share news of another man’s downfall or another woman’s demise.Share

Yet heaven is abuzz with news of other people! What makes heaven happy and happiest of all is the news of another soul saved. As Jesus said, “There is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:10). In the day you put your faith in Christ, the angels broke out in song! When you shared the gospel with a friend and she believed, heaven rejoiced! Any time a sinner looks away from himself and looks instead to Jesus, heaven celebrates.

Shouldn’t we imitate heaven? Shouldn’t we behave now like we will behave then, to refuse to find the least satisfaction in sin and instead rejoice in God’s great work of salvation (and, of course, its sibling, sanctification)? Surely the church would be purified and our faith would be strengthened if only we would determine to find joy in what makes heaven joyful.

So if we talk about other people, let’s talk about their virtues. If we discuss the accomplishments of other people, let’s discuss what they’ve done for Christ. If we gossip about other people, let’s “gossip grace.” Let’s be as happy as heaven.

Good morning. Grace and peace to you.

Today’s Kindle deals include a list of books on sanctification. You’ll find titles by MacArthur, Piper, DeYoung, and Ortlund. Also be sure to scroll down to March 1 to see what’s new from over the weekend.

Logos users, March Matchups is here! Be sure to cast your votes as we all work toward some great discounts. You can already save on previous winners (ZECNT, NICOT, WCB). You should also check out this month’s free book.

“Where Protestant apologetics is more focused on winning the secular world to Christ, Roman Catholic apologetics often has a different audience in mind: their ‘separated brethren.’ Targeting Protestants is explicitly encouraged.”

“The Apostle Peter plays a central role in the Gospel books and Acts until Acts 12. From that point on, Peter takes a backseat role in the story of the New Testament. So what happened to Peter at the end of his story?” Wyatt explains a bit about Peter’s later life.

“There’s a lie we all want to believe — even against all available evidence. It trades on our God-given capacity for hope. It tempts even those with impeccable theology. It lures us in and then leaves us in the lurch. It goes like this: ‘Life will get easier if I just make it past this current challenge.’”

“Time magazine once featured an article delivering a stunning conclusion. In an extensive cover piece on the nature of the mind, researchers acknowledged that consciousness was an enigmatic, elusive thing that resisted materialistic classification. Nevertheless, though they couldn’t determine what consciousness was, they were certain about what consciousness was not.” Greg Koukl has a long article on the human soul.

Paul Tripp: “Somehow, someway, at some point, suffering will come knocking on your door. It may start as a quiet, even gentle, knock that gets louder over time, and you know that you will eventually have to open the door. Other times, it may kick the door down suddenly and violently. Perhaps Mr. Hardship will enter like the unwelcome he is but only stay for a little while before leaving. Other times, Mr. Hardship might barge in and take residence in every room of your life indefinitely.”

M. R. Conrad writes about the inevitability of broken heroes.

I recently read (and highly recommend!) J.R. Miller’s short work A Gentle Heart, and in that book I came across this convicting passage which reminds us of the source and model of our gentleness.

It wasn’t enough for Jesus to experience death; he had to defeat it so that it couldn’t come for us. If Jesus hadn’t defeated it, Satan would still be threatening us with never-ending death.
—Jeff Dodge

One of the most poignant of Jesus’s parables tells the story of a persistent widow. Having faced injustice at the hand of an adversary, this woman appealed to the local judge. She asked him to use his power and authority to right the wrong that had been done to her. But to her sorrow, she learned this was an unjust judge who did not care to help her. Still, she returned to him again and again, she made appeal after appeal, until she wore him out. Eventually, if only to preserve his own sanity, the judge relented and responded to her pleas.

Jesus wanted his hearers to make a comparison from the lesser to the greater. If even an unjust and uncaring judge will eventually grant the pleas of someone he dislikes, how much more will a just and caring Father grant the pleas of the child he loves? Luke explains the moral of the story: We “ought always to pray and not lose heart” (Luke 18:1).

It is for this reason that J.C. Ryle once said, “We must wrestle earnestly in prayer, like men contending with a deadly enemy for life.” Yet though we wrestle as if we are contending with a deadly enemy, still we have the tremendous blessing of knowing we are actually making our petitions to a loving God.

I’m grateful to The Good Book Company for sponsoring the blog this week. They wanted to tell you about a new book that is meant to help you disagree with others while maintaining your friendship with them—rather an important and timely subject.

I don’t have many Kindle deals to share with you yet, but I’m certain there will be plenty in the morning once I’ve scoured the monthly deals.

I had never heard of romantasy until the other day when someone mentioned the Empyrean novels to me. Kathryn Butler explains what you may need to know about the genre.

Jacob calls on young people to own their faith. “If God has gifted you with a healthy church and parents that love Christ, be so thankful! See your own faith as connected to theirs, but not dependent. They labored hard so that you would leave and be a beacon for Christ on your own. They desire to see you making godly choices. They want you to make the decision to wake up early and seek God’s face. The time for hand-holding is over. Your parents won’t stand before the judgement seat of Christ for you.”

John Piper offers some tips for reading Romans, drawing upon his decades of experience in doing so.

“Isn’t that how temptation is? The more you give in, the more temptation grows. Scratch the itch; the itch intensifies. Watch porn; the desire to watch porn grows. Lie about something; the more you find yourself caught in lies. Once you give into rage, the harder it is to turn away from it. This is how it is for any temptation.”

Here is some brief instruction on properly confessing our sins.

“As a general rule, I try not to yell at my children. But there are rare circumstances when I find myself with no other option…”

One of the great strengths of Tolkien’s work is its grounding in history. One of the great weaknesses of the contemporary church is its detachment from its own history. Few of today’s Christians have a clear sense of how the church came to be. 

Evil is not a principle in creation itself but is the willful distortion of good gifts into an arsenal deployed against God’s reign.
—Michael Horton

Somewhere deep inside, each one of us longs for more. We want more money, more authority, more followers, more of whatever it is that we find especially desirable or especially validating. “Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied,” says the Sage, “and never satisfied are the eyes of man” (Proverbs 27:20). We live within a vicious…