Do you remember the purity movement? Or perhaps it’s better to ask this: How could you possibly forget the purity movement? Though in many ways its aims were noble—sexual purity among teens and young adults—its methods were more than a little suspect and, in the long run, often even harmful. It framed sexual purity as a method that would gain a spouse rather than as obedience that would honor God; it led people to believe that those who had lost their virginity (or who had had it taken from them) were second-class citizens; it led those had maintained their virginity to believe they should expect God to reward them with a similarly virginal spouse and, once married, a wonderful sex life. Though these messages may not have been stated explicitly, they were not far under the surface. Not surprisingly, the movement left a trail of harm in its wake—one that the church is still reckoning with.

Dean Inserra witnessed this movement as an evangelical teen and now, years later, reflects on it in Pure: Why the Bible’s Plan for Sexuality Isn’t Outdated, Irrelevant, or Oppressive. This is not an academic examination of the movement but rather a kind of “now what?” analysis. “The purity culture of my youth launched a type of prosperity gospel wearing the disguise of piety. If I remain a virgin until marriage, God will give me a future spouse who did the same. In fact, they don’t deserve me if they failed to do what I did. The aftermath of this anti-gospel thinking is a trail of human brokenness.” With this trail of brokenness as his starting place, Inserra plots a better path toward purity and a better reason to maintain the Bible’s teaching on sexuality.
In the book’s first two chapters he takes a look at the True Love Waits campaign and then the book I Kissed Dating Goodbye. In both cases he commends them for attempting to counter troubling messages, yet critiques them for the problems they introduced. “At True Love Waits rallies, the testimonies were always, without fail, from college students or young adults (usually women) who had previously had sex outside of marriage and now were trying to do better as secondary virgins. The hope was that since God forgave them, maybe a future spouse would, too. Instead of championing the full and sufficient cleansing of Christ’s atoning death, these poor people were often treating themselves as cautionary tales for a younger generation, urging others to not become like them.” Meanwhile, in I Kissed Dating Goodbye though “Harris does write a very helpful and gospel-filled chapter about forgiveness in Christ elsewhere in the book, the unofficial premise remains, ‘Don’t mess things up for your honeymoon.’” Thus neither approach was truly consistent with Scripture since neither approach was directed toward obedience to God.
Though the purity movement is now history, there are still deep issues with Christians and sexuality. In fact, we have recently witnessed a counter swing to a view that treats sexuality too lightly and purity too casually. So what is the church to do? In the book’s next seven chapters, Inserra describes and counters a series of lies that are prominent outside the church and, increasingly, within it: that sex is a normal, expected, and perhaps even healthy part of a dating relationship; that it’s better to marry later in life than earlier; that pornography is normal and good; that cohabitation just makes sense; and so on.
In the final four chapters he turns to the matter of where Christians go from here. He writes about godly singleness and provides guidance for battling and overcoming sexual sin. He offers four lessons he wishes the True Love Waits movement had taught—lessons that would have provided a much more positive and biblical vision for sexuality. “The True Love Waits message of purity culture unintentionally placed a heavy burden upon a generation of young people in two primary ways: first, by misplacing the primary motivation for sexual purity onto a future spouse instead of on God, and second, by insinuating that those who had committed sexual sin had become second-class citizens.” He concludes with some encouragement for the broken, for those who carry shame and regret.
Overall, Pure is a good and helpful book that insightfully analyzes the shortcomings of the purity movement and offers a much better, much more compelling, and much more biblically-grounded vision for singleness, dating, marriage, and sex. It is written with care, with compassion, and with a deep rooting in the gospel of Jesus Christ. I am confident it will be of great benefit to a great many young Christians.

Buy from Amazon

May the Lord be with you and bless you today.

Westminster Books has a handy little Father’s Day Gift Guide for those who want to get a jump on their shopping.
(Yesterday on the blog: New and Notable Christian Books for May 2022)
When MAID goes to Church
“I was recently taken aback to read that medical assistance-in-dying (MAID) was performed in a church in Manitoba. MAID, more properly referred to as physician-assisted suicide or voluntary euthanasia, is the act of deliberately causing the patient’s death upon their considered request.” Many of us were taken aback by this! Ewan Goligher tells why MAID should not enter the church.
Bend Me Toward the Light
“Written into creation is God’s plan for growth. Sunlight is essential, as is water. When our plants die, it’s often because of lack of light or moisture. So, if one of those things is less accessible than it should be, a plant will lean toward what it needs. We humans, on the other hand, will bend toward whatever gives us the most pleasure, physical comfort, and approval, no matter how it affects our health and growth.”
Praying “God, Be With Us”
Is it trite to pray “God, be with us?” “What I once considered ashes in my mouth has now become honey. I thought I could pray better, holier prayers, but now I realize there’s nothing more essential to our well-being. At our deepest, most elemental level, we desperately need God’s presence, because we need God himself. We need God to be with us.”
Mercy in Modesty
“Where and to whom do you show partiality or practice favoritism? James’ audience, those of the Dispersion, showed partiality to those of status, rich people wearing fine clothing with gold jewelry, over those who were embarrassingly poor, so apparent by their shabby, dirty clothing. How are you prone to snobbery at church?” This is well worth asking.
Is God a Therapist?
Here’s a prediction from Carl Trueman: “I would anticipate that within five years we will witness a significant disruption across all major representatives of the Christian faith. The fault lines will run between those who find a way to accommodate to the world’s terms of good citizenship and those whose fidelity to Christ will lead to varying degrees of internal exile within this earthly city.”
A Call to Raise Daughters Wise to Domestic Abuse
“‘If your future husband ever lays a finger on you, you better tell me so I can kill him.’ This is the extent to which many dads address abuse with their daughters. It feels effective because it’s simple, protective, and tough. And it also feels kind of awesome to say.” But it’s not nearly enough, is it?
Flashback: Getting Older Involves a Lot of Dying
Obviously physical mortality will be my final end, just as it has been for everyone else, but I’m seeing there is lots more I’ll need to die to before that.

The law-maker became the law-keeper, but then took our place and condemnation as though he were the law-breaker. —Sinclair Ferguson

May has been another good month for Christian book releases. I sorted through the many options and arrived at this list of new and notables. In each case I’ve provided the editorial description to give you a sense of what it’s all about. I hope there’s something here that’s of interest to you!

A Concise Guide to the Life of Muhammad: Answering Thirty Key Questions Ayman Ibrahim. “What is so unique about Muhammad? What are the reasons for the strong devotion Muslims have for him? Did he really exist? What do Muslims say about him and his teaching? Did he perform miracles? What did he say about loving one’s neighbor and about those who abandon Islam? Did he teach on homosexuality and owning slaves? These are some of the thirty questions answered in this clear and concise guide to Muhammad’s life and religious significance. This companion volume to Ayman Ibrahim’s A Concise Guide to the Quran answers many of the key questions non-Muslims have about Muhammad, reveals the importance of Muhammad for Christian-Muslim and Jewish-Muslim interfaith relations, examines Muslim and non-Muslim primary sources, and engages classic and modern studies on the most important human figure for scores of Muslims.” (Buy it at Amazon or Westminster Books)
Guidebook for Instruction in the Christian Religion by Herman Bavinck. “Guidebook for Instruction in the Christian Religion is an introductory systematic theology by one of the foremost theologians of the past century. Alongside The Sacrifice of Praise, this is Bavinck at his best doing catechetical theology. To this end, Bavinck sets off to explain in a simplified manner the main contents of the Christian religion, even giving it a title that is a tip of the hat to John Calvin’s Institute of the Christian Religion. While Bavinck’s lengthy Reformed Dogmatics is an academic work, Guidebook for Instruction serves a more egalitarian aim. It is a theological guide for the everyday person in the pew. In this one—and much shorter—volume, Bavinck walks Christian readers through all the major topics covered in Reformed Dogmatics with theological depth and insight.” (Buy it at Amazon or Westminster Books)
The Lord’s Prayer: Learning from Jesus on What, Why, and How to Pray by Kevin DeYoung. “Christians know the importance of prayer, but the act of praying can be a real challenge. Some have the desire, but not always the will; others worry they don’t do it well. Books about prayer usually emphasize spiritual discipline, but that can foster more guilt than reassurance. So how can Christians improve their prayer life, embracing the privilege of communicating with God? In The Lord’s Prayer, Kevin DeYoung closely examines Christ’s model for prayer, giving readers a deeper understanding of its content and meaning, and how it works in the lives of God’s people. Walking through the Lord’s Prayer word by word, DeYoung helps believers gain the conviction to develop a stronger prayer life, and a sense of freedom to do so.” (Buy it at Amazon or Westminster Books)
What Is Saving Faith?: Reflections on Receiving Christ as a Treasure by John Piper. “What happens in the heart when it experiences real saving faith? John Piper argues that faith in Christ is not saving unless it includes an “affectional dimension of treasuring Christ.” Nor is God glorified as he ought to be unless he is treasured in being trusted. Saving faith in Jesus Christ welcomes him forever as our supreme and inexhaustible pleasure. What Is Saving Faith? explains that a Savior who is treasured for his all-satisfying worth is more glorified than a Savior who is only trusted for his all-forgiving competence. In this way, saving faith reaches its God-appointed goal: the perfections of Christ glorified by our being satisfied in him forever. (Buy it at Amazon)
Refreshed: Devotions For Your Time Away by John Hindley. “Vacations often give us an opportunity to rest and reflect. However, when our normal routines and habits are suspended, it can be hard to spend time with God. These 30 devotions have been specifically designed to help you to rest in the Lord’s goodness and glory during your time away so that you can return home feeling refreshed spiritually as well as physically. ‘I want to help you find rest, peace, joy, hope, and renewed zeal. We go away to be refreshed. Christ is the one who sets his Spirit in our hearts to cause streams of living water to well up within us and flow from us. Sometimes we rest away from Jesus, but how much better to rest with and in him? He is where our true refreshment is found.’ You can pick and choose which devotions to read depending on the type of vacation you are on (for example, city break or beach) and there are optional family activities and questions linked to each devotion giving other family members an opportunity to reflect alongside you.” (Buy it at Amazon)
Growing Downward: The Path of Christ-exalting Humility by Nick Thompson. “Author Nick Thompson recognizes that pride is our worst enemy. If pride is our chief foe, then humility is our chief friend, even though its company may be painful. But spiritual growth is a descent―we must grow downward. Defining humility as “the downward disposition of a Godward self-perception,” Thompson walks us through the practical implications of this definition, leading us to embrace a God-centered perspective on the self. With winsome illustration and warm pastoral instruction, Growing Downward shows us that the path of humility, though difficult, is the way to true meaning and fulfillment in Jesus Christ.” (Buy it at Amazon)
Pure: Why the Bible’s Plan for Sexuality Isn’t Outdated, Irrelevant, or Oppressive by Dean Inserra. “Few things bring more immediate scrutiny and impassioned angst among young adult Christians today than hearing the words ‘purity culture.’ Serious flaws from purity culture deserve to be scrutinized, especially given its lasting negative effects on some raised in the movement. Many Christians today reject the movement—and all that it stood for—wholesale. However, we can’t ignore the clear sexual ethics of the Bible. Pure dives into the big picture of God’s design for men and women regarding sexuality, and seeks to reclaim one of the clearest teaching in the scriptures: the call to sexual purity. While purity culture gets the truth right, the approach and gospel elements it espouses are often wrong. Let’s not throw the baby out with the bath water, but rather celebrate God’s great design for marriage and the loving boundaries he has put in place for our joy, protection, and flourishing.” (Buy it at Amazon)
The Gates of Hell: An Untold Story of Faith and Perseverance in the Early Soviet Union by Matthew Heise. “Decimated by war, revolution, and famine, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Russia was in critical condition in 1921. In The Gates of Hell, Matthew Heise recounts the bravery and suffering of German–Russian Lutherans during the period between the two great world wars. These stories tell of ordinary Christians who remained faithful to death in the face of state persecution. Christians in Russia had dark days characterized by defeat, but God preserved his church. Against all human odds, the church would outlast the man–made sandcastles of communist utopianism. The Gates of Hell is a wonderful testimony to the enduring power of God’s word, Christ’s church, and the Spirit’s faithfulness.” (Buy it at Amazon)
Retiring Well: Strategies for Finding Balance, Setting Priorities, and Glorifying God by John Dunlop, MD. “Preparation for retirement requires more than just financial planning. For most people, and especially for Christians, it comes with a host of other considerations—when to retire, where to live, and how to spend one’s time. Many find themselves asking, Is there a right way to retire? Drawing from his work with geriatric patients and his own retirement experience, Dr. John Dunlop shares practical strategies for Christians as they approach their retirement years. With Scripture as his guide, he promotes balance between rest and activity—encouraging intimacy with God, service to churches and communities, time with friends and family, and care for one’s health. (Buy it at Amazon or Westminster Books)
Everyday Holiness: Becoming Who You Were Made to Be by Josh Moody. “You don’t have to pick between being boring and being bad. There is a better way: a biblical understanding of holiness. David Brooks’ The Road to Character, and Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life, both in their own way underline our renewed interest in character and responsibility today. In the church too we sense the need for a fresh call to holiness. With moral scandals in the news, it is time is to listen to what the Bible says about becoming more like Jesus. What is holiness? Why should we be holy? What place does grace and the gospel play in the drama of becoming more like Christ? And, most practically, how do we become holy? Dr. Josh Moody leads us with clarity along a path to a simple biblical profundity: holiness is becoming who we are in Christ. Holiness isn’t about a drab or dreary lifestyle. It’s not about faking it, or being inauthentic. Holiness is becoming who you were made to be. There’s a sweetness, a joy, a freedom in pursuing Jesus. We were designed to live like this, so we find our fullest flourishing there.” (Buy it at Amazon or Westminster Books)
Blessed: Experiencing the Promise of the Book of Revelation by Nancy Guthrie. “Over 12 chapters, Blessed covers the full text of the book of Revelation, exploring its call to patient endurance as God’s sovereign plans for judgment and salvation are worked out in the world. In this book, Guthrie shows how Revelation is less about when Jesus will return and more about who we are to be, what we are to do, and what we can expect to endure as we wait for Jesus to return to establish his kingdom in the new creation. With a friendly and engaging tone, Blessed takes the fear, intimidation, and confusion away from studying Revelation, providing a solid and accessible resource that individuals and small groups can use to study this important yet often avoided book. (Buy it at Amazon or Westminster Books)

Grace and peace to you today.

There’s a nice little list of Kindle deals this morning.
(Yesterday on the blog: How Can We Measure Spiritual Progress?)
Living in the Blackened Forest
Brianna Lambert: “Yesterday I met a friend at a park and watched my three children play, while another mom got the worst phone call of her life. I laughed and joked, and felt the sun’s rays as my kids showed off their playground skills, while another mom faced tragedy I can’t comprehend. I watched the drips from their ice cream cones cover my kids’ faces and hands, while another mom walked into an empty room that would stay that way forever.”
He Will Turn Our Grief into Joy
Meanwhile, also on the theme of sorrow, Randy Alcorn points that out “God doesn’t only promise to replace our grief with joy, but to turn it into joy.”
5 Considerations of an Action
“Biblically speaking, we may analyze every action on the basis of at least 5 ethical considerations. They are: motive, intention, the action itself, the impact it has on others, and people’s perception of the given action.” This article tells how to properly consider the morality of an action.
Should I Pray Someone Else’s Prayers?
“So why would I—a low church, Baptist—find prayers written by someone else useful? More specifically, why would I find the written prayer in The Book of Common Prayer called The Litany useful? It’s because praying the Litany on a consistent basis reorients me to the fact that I live each moment of my life by the grace of God alone.”
Wounds in Beauty Glorified
“Why did Jesus’s body bear the visible marks of his death on the cross?” Michell Chase offers a multi-part answer.
Are All Abortions Equally Heinous?
“I was asked to evaluate this hypothetical scenario: ‘Two women had abortions only for the sake of convenience and did not have any health problems. One had it while she was one month pregnant. The other had it while she was eight months pregnant. Are they equally heinous and serious?’” Amy answers in an interesting way.
Flashback: Renew Your Mind
You can be conformed to this world or you can be transformed by the renewing of your mind. The choice lies before you every day.

Christians should live in the world, but not be filled with it. A ship lives in the water; but if the water gets into the ship, she goes to the bottom. So Christians may live in the world; but if the world gets into them, they sink. —D.L. Moody

Every book contract—at least, every book contract I’ve ever seen—includes a word count. When the author finally submits a manuscript, it cannot be a discretionary number of words but must be within the range the publisher has set. This is good and helpful for an author because it makes it simple to set goals and because it helps him progress toward a very measurable outcome. After he signs his contract he needs only to divide the words by the number of weeks before his deadline to keep up steady progress. As he writes, he needs only to look at the bottom of his screen to see how that word count is increasing. It’s easy, it’s clear, it’s objective. If only all progress were so easy to measure.

Each of us begins the Christian life a novice and each of us means to finish it a seasoned veteran. Each of us begins with character that has been shaped by the world and the flesh and each of us longs to finish with character that has been shaped by the Spirit and the Word. Each of us begins with warped desires and means to finish with true desires, with sinful instincts and means to finish with pure instincts. Each of us longs to make consistent progress.
But what may be true of writing a book is not true of living the Christian life. There is no progress indicator on our spiritual lives, no objective measure of our sanctification. A woman laying a floor can stand back and observe that she has laid 50 percent of the planks; a man finishing a basement can observe that 80 percent of the drywall has now been hung. But no Christian can assess his or her life and say “I am halfway there” or “I am three quarters of the way there.” We make progress that is far less visible and far less measurable. This being the case, we must rely on other indicators.
One way to assess our progress is to think back and consider who we once were. Caution is in order, though, as we must avoid the tendency to relish our sinfulness or to make light of our depravity. Sometimes we can almost cast a wistful eye on the past, longing for the days when we were free to follow our lusts. Looking back at our former selves and our former conduct should be painful more than alluring. Yet sometimes we best see who we have become when we contrast it to who we used to be.
Another way to assess our progress is to observe how we have come to respond differently to temptation. We will inevitably see that, while temptations still remain, many of them no longer have as great a hold on us. What used to entrap us every time now barely elicits a response. We will also see that, while sin remains, we fall into it far less often and repent of it far sooner. This is proof of the sanctifying work of God within.
Still another way is to ask those who know us—friends, spouses, children—to describe evidences of God’s grace, to tell us where they have seen God actively helping us put sin to death and come alive to righteousness. Often we are surprised and delighted to know that where we are convinced of so much failure, they may see great success. Sometimes another person’s assessment is more accurate than our own.
Yet always and forever, the best way to assess ourselves is to compare ourselves to Jesus, the one who led a perfect and unblemished life, the one who modeled what a human life can be and should be. Such comparison should both distress and encourage. It should distress us to see how unlike Christ we still are. But it should encourage us to see that we truly have grown in Christlikeness, that as we spend time with him we have become like him. It should encourage us to see that we truly are being conformed to his image, truly are modeling ourselves after his example. This comparison is the best and truest of all.
At this point in writing, this article is exactly 705 words long—progress easily measured by the little counter on my screen. And at this point in life, I myself am somewhere between justification and glorification, somewhere in the long process of sanctification. I may not know exactly how much progress I have made, but by God’s grace I know I am farther along than I once was. And, by God’s grace, I know that by tomorrow I will be farther along than I am right now. For I know and believe the great promise that the one who began his good work within me will bring it progressively and then finally to completion.

It has been a good few days for Christian writing and I’m glad to share a roundup of some of the articles I’ve discovered in my online wanderings.

Over at Westminster Books you’ll find a discount on Kevin DeYoung’s new book.
There is a number of Kindle deals to glance at today.
The Tearing Apart of Convictional Civility
“Something has changed in the air of evangelicalism in recent years. Once-aspirational words like ‘winsome’ and ‘thoughtful’ or descriptors like ‘nuanced’ and ‘kind’ now trigger an attitude of dismissiveness and sneering from many on the right.” Trevin Wax shares some really good thoughts here.
Preaching Is Culturally Determined
Eddie reminds us that the style of our preaching is culturally determined. I love this: “it is one of the anomalies of systematic expository preaching that preachers will take one of Jesus’ wonderful self-explanatory parables and turn them into three tightly argued (alliterative) points.”
By Faith Abel
“Why did God approve of Abel’s offering, but not Cain’s? It’s not a simple question to answer, especially if you limit yourself to the facts of the story as told in Genesis.” Rebecca offers a compelling take on the matter.
The FAQs: Report Reveals Sexual Abuse Cover-Up by Southern Baptist Entity
Joe Carter has one of his FAQs to provide a framework for understanding the report about abuse in the SBC. “On Sunday, a 288-page report commissioned by the Southern Baptist Convention was released that finds allegations of sexual abuse were ignored or covered up for nearly 20 years by senior members of the denomination’s Executive Committee.”
Not Enough Wisdom
I enjoyed this article about a father and his daughter.
Help! I’m Addicted to Pornography
“Friends, porn is crushing us. Sexualization is everywhere. Rather than exalting sex, our culture is reducing sex by reducing everything to sex. Since God created the human body for sex, it is easy for us to succumb to this pull to sexualize everything. And when sex becomes ultimate, it means that sexual acts must be constant if we’re going to enjoy this life. Outside of sex with another person, that leaves us with the convenient habit of pornography.”
Flashback: 5 Warnings to Those Who Merely Pretend To Be Godly
There is in each of us a dangerous temptation toward hypocrisy, to be one thing but to pretend to be another.

If there is anything in the world that will make a man bestial in his habits it is the idea that he was descended from the beast. —De Witt Talmage

The God of love and peace be with you today.

(Yesterday on the blog: My Heart Longs for Justice (Kind of))
The reckoning of the Lord
Here is Al Mohler’s response to the report issues by Guidepost Solutions about abuse in the SBC. “I am writing this essay in one of the most difficult moments ever experienced by my beloved denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention. Considering the historical roots of the SBC, that is quite a statement, but it is true. It is a moment long in coming and it is not over.”
Hearing the Warning of the SBC
Samuel James makes some crucial observations about the report as well. “The consistent, pervasive, unifying, and unavoidable theme of the report is the desire by several SBC leaders to preserve the indemnity and reputation of the denomination above all else.”
More Powerful Than the Hate That Divides
This article was helpful in helping me better understand the recent shooting in Laguna Woods and its background—the antipathy between some Taiwanese people and people from mainland China.
How this Christian is responding to the Federal Election
Australia has just elected a new government and here is one Christian reflecting on what it means and how he will respond. What he says about the Anglican Prayer Book is especially thought-provoking.
3 Ways to Stay Focused While Praying
Doug Eaton offers some help from D.A. Carson.
Introducing Spring 2022 Eikon
CBMW has released a new issue of their journal Eikon. It offers lots of interesting reading!
Flashback: What Jesus Does Not Pray
We can have no confidence we will be preserved from falling into times of persecution, but every confidence we will be kept from falling into the evil hands of the one who, for now, is the prince of this world.

We trust as we love, and we trust where we love; if you love Christ much surely you will trust Him much. —Thomas Brooks

Sometimes I find myself on a reading kick in which I follow a common theme through a number of books. Over the past few weeks I have been fascinated with businesses that have the appearance of being legitimate while they are actually over-hyped at best and fraudulent at worst.

Elizabeth Holmes’ Theranos claimed to have created technology that could run hundreds of tests on a single drop of blood when, in reality, she was lying to her investors and running the great majority of the tests on industry-standard machines. Adam Neumann’s WeWork was claiming to be a groundbreaking technology company when really it was a mere real estate company that was using fast growth to cover up its financial hemorrhaging. Ken Lay’s Enron was using false and fraudulent accounting to deceive its shareholders and give the appearance of profitability.
As I read of the crimes and misdeeds of the founders or leaders of these businesses, as I read of the ways they take advantage of others, as I learn how they enrich themselves at the cost of their investors, my heart begins to long for justice. As I come to the final chapters, I long to read the author’s explanation of how each of the culprits was caught, charged, sentenced, and confined to prison. I long to hear how their mansions were seized, their cars repossessed, their fortunes returned. This rarely all happens, of course, since those with billions of dollars to their names can usually hire the kind of defense teams that can help them get away with the most minimal sentences. Still, I find myself rejoicing at their downfall and satisfied when I see that their reputations have been forever shattered—and rightly so.
Yet I also realize that in these times I need to step back and consider myself. When I honestly assess myself, I have to admit that my longing for justice is not universal. I want justice for other people’s sins, but not for my own. I want their misdeeds to be met with justice but mine to be met with mercy. Is this not the very height of hypocrisy?
There are two ways I can deal with this contradiction. The first is to draw the line of what kind of sin demands punishment so that it falls just beyond my own. Now I can satisfy myself that what those people did merits harsh measures while what I did merits the most gentle. The other is to admit that both kinds of sin are bad, but then to determine that the nature of their sins demands punishment while the nature of mine merits grace.
But the reality, of course, is that if I long for justice for them I must also long for justice for me. The heart that is satisfied with Holmes’ downfall and Neumann’s ouster should also only be satisfied when I, too, face the consequences of my own sin. I can’t have it both ways. I can’t rightly conjure up a world in which I become the standard, the dividing line between justice and mercy. I can’t be satisfied with a world in which some receive justice while others do not.
And yet I don’t need to because I can have confidence that my sins have been met with justice. At the cross Jesus Christ took my sins upon himself and settled their sentence. That’s not to say I will or should escape all temporal consequences for my sins, but it is to say that the ultimate longing for justice has been met. And, therefore, I can long for justice even when it comes to the things I have done, the sins I have committed. In fact, I should long for justice even when it comes to the things I have done, the sins I have committed. And I can be satisfied that there has been and will be justice for me, not just for thee.
(Books I read: The Cult of We; Billion Dollar Loser; Bad Blood; The Smartest Guys in the Room.)

Happy Victoria Day to my fellow Canadians. I hope you enjoy your day off!

Today’s Kindle deals include a list of titles from Crossway.
(Yesterday on the blog: Vultures Are Always the First to Smell Carrion)
After Roe: What’s Our Job Now?
Here’s George Grant in Tabletalk: “Circumstances change. Laws, courts, and administrations come and go. Elections raise up and cast down the mighty. Popular opinion waxes and wanes. But through it all, the callings and responsibilities of Christians in this poor, fallen world remain the same.”
The Sermon That Divided America
It has been 100 years since Fosdick preached his most famous sermon. Obbie Tyler Todd gives the background on it here. “To say that Harry Emerson Fosdick’s sermon ‘Shall the Fundamentalists Win?’ (1922) ignited the fundamentalist-modernist controversy requires a bit of qualification. In truth, the lines had been drawn for at least a decade.”
Harry Emerson Fosdick and the Spirit of American Liberalism
Kevin DeYoung has a good article on it as well. It’s hard to overstate just how important a sermon it was. “On May 21, 1922, Harry Emerson Fosdick took to the pulpit of Old First—the historic First Presbyterian Church (est. 1716) located on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan—to deliver what would be his most famous sermon.”
A Letter to Special Needs Mothers
I expect someone out there could use this encouragement.
My Relationship Status with My Emotions? It’s Complicated.
“Recently I woke up in the night feeling terrible, like I had sinned in some great way. Over the course of my life I’m sure I’ve had this experience dozens of times, maybe hundreds. How do I make sense of that? Where did that emotion, that feeling come from?”
Died: Fred Carter, Little-Known Black Artist Behind Chick Tracts
CT has a fascinating obituary for Fred Carter, the artist behind many of the Chick tracts. “Carter—an African American artist who drew gospel tracts, evangelical comic books, and Black Sunday school curricula—died on May 9 at the age of 83. He was the close collaborator of Jack Chick, pioneer of the popular evangelistic cartoons known as Chick Tracts. According to Christian Comics International, more than half of Chick Tracts were drawn by Carter.”
Flashback: Embrace Your Purpose
God saves you to sanctify you, to restore you to the life he intended for you before you gave yourself to sin.

No one who murmurs under God’s chastening hand, is ever made better by it. —J.R. Miller

Wherever there is Christian community there is bound to be scolds and critics. This is true today and this was true in days past. Here’s a great little excerpt from one of De Witt Talmage’s sermons from the late 1800s in which he expresses his concern about such individuals.

There are in every community and in every church watch-dogs who feel called upon to keep their eyes on others and growl.
They are full of suspicions. They wonder if this man is not dishonest, if that man is not unclean, if there is not something wrong about the other man. They are always the first to hear of anything wrong.
Vultures are always the first to smell carrion. They are self-appointed detectives.
I lay this down as a rule without any exception, that those people who have the most faults themselves are most merciless in their watching of others. From scalp of head to sole of foot they are full of jealousies and hypercriticisms.
They spend their life in hunting for muskrats and mud-turtles instead of hunting for Rocky Mountain eagles, always for something mean instead of something grand.
They look at their neighbors’ imperfections through a microscope, and look at their own imperfections through a telescope upside down.
Twenty faults of their own do not hurt them so much as one fault of somebody else.
Their neighbors’ imperfections are like gnats and they strain them out; their own imperfections are like camels and they swallow them.