Good morning. Grace and peace to you.

There is a good collection of Kindle deals to look at today, headlined by a group of books for women published by Crossway.
(Yesterday on the blog: Great God, Is Life Such an Uncertain Thing?)
The last leaf
Andrée Seu Peterson: “The pestilence angel, no respecter of persons vaxxed or unvaxxed, winged her way to the right address, didn’t knock first, and unpacked her assorted wares: fever, congestion, fatigue, joint aches, and head pains. My father, 97, got a double portion.”
The “priestly caste” of America’s artistic elite
Carl Trueman offers another of his reflections on modern culture. “Goldberg is representative of so many progressively minded people in the media class who talk as other people tweet—with no sense of responsibility, no sensitivity to other people, and no real grasp of what constitutes an argument or even the truth.”
He’s Got This
Sandra Jantzi: “The simplicity of my trust in him causes me to pause. I was fortunate to have a father that never left me wondering if he would take care of me. I realize now what a blessing that is.If only I would think of God in that way.”
Why is “Re-Converting” Easier than Repenting?
“Let me tell you a familiar story from my days in evangelical youth ministry.” Samuel James recounts a story that may sound vaguely familiar to many…
Scalable Platforms
“Many missionaries in the 10/40 window live in what’s been called creative-access countries. In these countries there are no missionary or religious visas available to cross-cultural workers, so they need to have ‘platforms,’ whether business or non-profit, in order to maintain legitimate access.” This becomes an interesting reflection on scalability.
We Didn’t Want the Disruption
“We had life just the way we wanted. Sure, there were things in life that could’ve been better. No life is perfect; there are always things needing updated or changed. But for the most part, life was good. We may have given lip service to God but it was never more than that. Maybe we would pray when something bad happened and, well, something had to be our last resort. It just so happened to be the Creator of the universe.”
Flashback: What Do Hitmen and Porn Watchers Have in Common?
Isn’t it the very height of insanity to expect that people who produce and distribute pornography would care even a little about ethics and morality?

I pray that Christ would always fill me with his grace, hold me by his hand and use me ever in his service. —William Spurstowe

In the late 1800s, there were few American preachers who were better-known than De Witt Talmage (who spend most of his ministry at Central Presbyterian Church in Brooklyn, New York). He was known as an orator and was perhaps second only to Henry Ward Beecher when it came to his ability to hold a crowd at rapt attention. Logos recently released a collection of 500 of his sermons and I’ve been enjoying reading my way through them. This excerpt, one of many in which he expresses concern for the souls of his listeners, recently caught my attention:

There are some who gave me a farewell shake of the hand when I went off two months ago who are not here today. Where are they? When in the closing service I opened my hymn-book and found the place, they opened their hymn-book and found the same place. I open my book today; they do not open theirs.
Great God, is life such an uncertain thing? If I bear a little too hard with my right foot on the earth, does it break through into the grave? Is this world which swings at the speed of thousands of miles an hour around about the sun going with tenfold more speed towards the judgment day? Oh, I am overborne with the thought, and in the confusion I cry to one and I cry to the other; “O time! O eternity! O the dead! O the judgment day! O Jesus! O God!”
But catching at the last apostrophe, I feel that I have something to hold on to; for “in God is thy refuge, and underneath thee are the everlasting arms.” And exhausted with my failure to save myself, I throw my whole weight of body, mind, and soul on this Divine promise, as a weary child throws itself into the arms of its mother; as a wounded soldier throws himself on the hospital pillow; as a pursued man throws himself into the refuge: for “in God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.”
I can speak no more for the gladness. Oh for a flood of tears with which to express the joy of this eternal rescue!
Note: If you decide to dabble in Talmage’s sermons, I’d recommend beginning with volume 3 rather than 1 or 2. By my assessment, the collection begins with some of his weakest sermons and only later turns to some of the strongest.

This week Westminster Books hosted the bookstore for the Bethlehem Conference for Pastors. Now they’re offering 50% off some of their favorite books featured at the event.

(Yesterday on the blog: You’re Only Human)
Grave words
Kim Henderson considers tombstones and how they can preach to us even decades or centuries later.
A Call for Theological Humility
Gain Ortlund: “We must engage those with whom we have theological disagreements with humility, asking questions to make sure we understand, remembering that we don’t see things perfectly, and always seeking to grow in understanding where we may have blind spots.”
Love the people the Lord has given you, not the ones you hope to have
“There has been a sad tendency to really look for particular kinds of people who currently aren’t in the room to join the church the Lord has given us, rather than to love the specific people the Lord has already given us.” This is a reminder to love the people the Lord has actually provided.
How Great (Psalm 145)
Here is quite a nice new rendition of Psalm 145.
Cactus Spines and Groaning
John considers the painful groaning that goes on in our world. “Our groaning is not grumbling, but rather lamenting. Our lamenting God invites us to lament with him.”
Why Spiritual Habits Are Good
“We need to have daily routines for hygiene, eating, work, chores, and devotions. My friend Rev. Clint Davis always tells us, ‘two things you have to plan into your day is your exercise and your quiet time. If you don’t plan them into your day, they will not get done.’ I have found this true in my prayer and Bible reading.” Habits matter!
Flashback: Biographies for People Who Have Never Read a Biography
Today I want to offer just a few suggestions and recommendations for people who are approaching biography for the first time, or for the first time in a long while.

It is difficult to see how Christianity can have any positive effect on society if it cannot transform its own homes. —John MacArthur

This week’s Free Stuff Friday is sponsored by Radius International.  They are giving away a conference package that includes: 2 tickets, a Radius pullover, and 2 books.

The winner will receive two free tickets to the Radius Missiology Conference being held June 29-30, 2022, at Christ Covenant Church, Matthews, NC. This event will be live in person or available as a live stream. Kevin DeYoung, Alistair Begg, Ian Hamilton, Wayne Chen, Brooks Buser, Chad Vegas, and others from the Radius world will be live and in-person to teach on the Great Commission in today’s world with free books from 9Marks, Banner of Truth, and others.
The winner will receive a Radius International branded pullover. Size and gender option to be selected by the winner from available stock.
The winners will also receive two books that Radius International highly recommends:

No Shortcut to Success
A Manifesto for Modern Missions
By Matt Rhodes
Avoid “Get-Rich-Quick” Missions Strategies and Invest in Effective, Long-Term Ministry
Trendy new missions strategies are a dime a dozen, promising missionaries monumental results in record time. These strategies report explosive movements of people turning to Christ, but their claims are often dubious and they do little to ensure the health of believers or churches that remain. How can churches and missionaries address the urgent need to reach unreached people without falling for quick fixes?
In No Shortcut to Success, author and missionary Matt Rhodes implores Christians to stop chasing silver-bullet strategies and short-term missions, and instead embrace theologically robust and historically demonstrated methods of evangelism and discipleship—the same ones used by historic figures such as William Carey and Adoniram Judson. These great missionaries didn’t rush evangelism; they spent time studying Scripture, mastering foreign languages, and building long-term relationships. Rhodes explains that modern missionaries’ emphasis on minimal training and quick conversions can result in slipshod evangelism that harms the communities they intend to help. He also warns against underestimating the value of individual skill and effort—under the guise of “getting out of the Lord’s way”—and empowers Christians with practical, biblical steps to proactively engage unreached groups.

Missions By The Book
How Theology and Missions Walk Together
by Chad Vegas and Alex Kocman
Across the church, there is a rift between theology and missions. Bad theology produces bad missions, and bad missions fuels bad theology.
We wrongly think that we must choose between making a global impact and thinking deeply about the things of God. But the relationship between theology and missions is symbiotic—one cannot exist without the other. They walk hand-in-hand.

Enter Here
Again, there is one package to win. And all you need to do to enter the draw is to drop your name and email address in the form below.
Giveaway Rules: You may enter one time. Winners will be notified by email. The giveaway closes on Sunday, Feb 6th, 2022 at midnight.

You know as well as I do that you are a finite being. Yet you know as well as I do that at times you fight against your finitude, you battle against your inevitable limits and boundaries as if they are a problem to be overcome or even a sin to be repented of. Yet what if your limits are not a bug but a feature of your humanity? What if these limitations are God’s gift and, therefore, good and worthy of embrace? These are the kinds of questions Kelly Kapic wants you to consider through his new book You’re Only Human: How Your Limits Reflect God’s Design and Why That’s Good News.

There are times in life when we all run into the reality of our finitude. Whether it’s through weakness or illness, whether it’s through loss or failure, whether it’s through seeing that others are smarter than we are or that others are more capable than we are, we must all at some point face our limitations. We can’t know it all, we can’t do it all, we can’t be it all. Yet “the odd thing is that, even when we run into our inevitable limits, we often hang on to the delusion that if we just work harder, if we simply squeeze tighter, if we become more efficient, we can eventually regain control.” Peace comes only when we embrace finitude as an unavoidable part of being creatures rather than the Creator. This is how we were designed and there is nothing we can do to change it. There’s nothing we should do to even attempt to change it.
There is something deep in the heart of humanity that prompts us to rebel against our finitude, against the reality that we are dependent creatures who cannot exist for a day, or even a moment, apart from God. The very first sin was a rebellion against limits God had imposed on humanity and in some way that was the prototype for every sin that has followed. But what if we were to see that dependency upon God is a gift, not a deficiency? What if we were to go farther and actually embrace our limits and thank God for them, then live at peace with all the things we cannot do and cannot be?
In this book, Kapic says he wants “us to take time to carefully think about our creatureliness. This will reveal limits, dependence, love, reliance on the grace of God, and worship. We will examine the joy of being a creature and the freedom of resting on the promises of the Creator. We will question harmful and unrealistic ideals and begin to appreciate the messiness of our complex lives.” It is only when we come to see the sheer goodness of our limitedness that we can begin to relate properly as finite creatures before an infinite Creator and “worship him as he made us: dignified, purposeful, vulnerable, finite creatures. We do not apologize for our creaturely needs and dependence on others, for we discover this is how God made us, and it is good.”
Kapic does this by considering what God thinks of us in our limitations and considering the humanity of Jesus Christ. He considers the human body and what it says about our limitations and then considers identity in the context of family, culture, and our particular historical setting. With this groundwork in place, he considers humility, time, the process of change, the local church, and living faithfully as believers in Jesus Christ. By the end he has called his readers to see and believe that we were meant to live within our limitations and to live with dependency upon God. “God made us to be limited creatures, able to freely participate in his work, confident in his presence, and grateful for his promises and provision. Let us appreciate the goodness of our finitude as we rest in the love and provision of our infinitely good God. May it be so.” May it be so, indeed.
Kapic makes it clear in this book that it is a passion project, the culmination of many years of reflecting on the subject of finitude. That passion and depth of reflection is obvious from cover to cover and leads to a book that deep in its theology and profound in its teaching. It is at once comforting and challenging. Sinclair Ferguson summarizes it well when he says, “no hastily prepared, cheap-fix antidote, You’re Only Human is the product of years of reflection and concern, the work of a mature Christian theologian and a fine teacher. It is a love gift to the church.” I, like he, am glad to recommend it.

Buy from Amazon

May the Lord be with you and bless you today.

If There Wasn’t a Sermon About It, Does Your Pastor Even Care?
Trevin Wax addresses what is an urgent concern to many pastors. “I thought about ‘Justice Sunday’ recently because of the questions many faithful pastors have these days about when to speak, and on what subjects, and how best to engage in cultural disputes or political questions. Social media has increased the pressure to speak and advocate, as we have faster and easier connection to various opinions on a wide range of issues.”
Bible Gateway Removes The Passion Translation
“A Bible version designed to ‘recapture the emotion of God’s Word’ was removed from Bible Gateway last week. The Passion Translation (TPT) is listed as ‘no longer available’ among the site’s 90 English-language Bible offerings.” This article is about the removal of The Passion Translation which I’d guess few of you read. But past that, it has lots of interesting things to say about Bible translation philosophies.
Join Alistair Begg @ RMC22 Speaking on “Finishing Well.”
June 29-30, 2022, Matthews NC. As a pastor who has sent his church members through Radius, we are encouraged to have Alistair Begg as one of our plenary speakers. We look forward to his session on the challenge and the glory of finishing well in the task of missions. (Sponsored Link)
Great God Above Beheld Below
I’ve been enjoying this new song by Sow and Tether.
Jesus and John Wayne
This review has much to commend it, but I was especially interested in what it has to say about the confluence between history and love. “Schweiger argues that the Christian historian has a duty to love the historical subjects she studies, who are now dead. This love is not sentimental, nor does this love absolve the subjects of their sins. Loving the dead means we tell the truth about them, as far as it is possible given our limitations and the complexities of the past. And we love the dead for their own sakes, rather than for some utilitarian purpose we might have for them.”
The Paradox of Parenting and How To Trust God More
“From the moment our babies leave the safety and protection of the womb, we are literally and figuratively pushing them out. They can’t stay in the nest forever, and this brings us joy and sadness. Isn’t this the paradox of parenting? The more we want to hold on to them, the more time reveals we have to keep letting them go, little by little.”
Pastor, Take a Break Before You Quit
Jared Wilson has lots of good things to say here about pastors and sabbaticals.
Flashback: The Character of the Christian: Hospitable
An open home displays Christian love but it also enables it. Hospitality creates opportunities for relationship, for discipleship, and for evangelism. It creates a natural context for modeling marriage, parenting, and a host of Christian virtues.

Let the past sleep, but let it sleep on the bosom of Christ. Leave the irreparable past in His hands, and step out into the irresistible future with Him. —Oswald Chambers

Good morning! Grace and peace to you.

Westminster Books has a heavy-duty new set of books on sale.
(Yesterday on the blog: The God Who Counts the Cost)
Music And Lyrics
“The world is a symphony: exquisite and detailed and beautiful. But for all of its music, there is one thing that the world cannot supply on its own. The world has music—but it doesn’t have lyrics. That’s where we come in.”
Coming Home (Video)
You’ll enjoy this catchy new song from Drew & Ellie Holcomb.
Redemptive Force
Those who preach may appreciate the terminology of “redemptive force” that Peter Mead uses here.
What About the “Lost” Books of the Bible?
“In modern studies of the NT canon, there is a lot of discussion (maybe even obsession!) with so-called ‘lost’ books of the Bible.” Michael Kruger explains why they may not be quite as lost as we are so often told.
High Schoolers Can Be Church Members, Too
“Student ministries like other age-based ministries tend to help students value Jesus but fail when it comes to helping students value the local church.” This article is meant to address that failure.
Adversity Anniversaries
Aimee Joseph: “It does not surprise me that calendars don’t include ‘Adversity Anniversary’ among their Hair Appointment and Birthday reminder stickers, as there is not much cute or marketable about remembering devastating days.”
Flashback: Should Young Pastors Prefer a Large or Small Church?
Are you willing to minister in obscurity where you can come to know what it is to pastor precious souls, where you can lay a firm foundation of knowledge and skill, where you can finish the preparation that seminary merely began?

If a man is ready and prepared to die, sudden death is in effect no death, but a quick and speedy entrance to eternal life. —William Perkins

We are nothing if not rash—nothing if not prone to making vows that are impulsive, promises we cannot keep. Sometimes we deliver on them only partially and at other times we fail altogether. “It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay,” says the Sage. But too often we do exactly that—we fail utterly to pay what we owe, to come through as we have promised. This is true of our greatest vows and our smallest, our most significant and least consequential.

Jesus once told a tiny parable about being rash and about properly counting the cost before making a commitment. “Which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?” He followed it with another: “What king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?”
He was calling upon his followers—and potential followers—to consider the cost of discipleship, to understand that to follow him would exact a toll in suffering, pain, and persecution. To say “yes” to him was to say “yes” to bearing his cross. And so he wanted them to think, to consider, to understand what they were committing to. He wanted to protect them from hasty declarations of faith, from promises they would not keep.
What is true of our promise to follow God is true of every other promise we make—we must count the cost, for it is a sin to be rash. It is our sin and weakness that causes us to promise and not pay, to vow and then not come through. And this is no small thing, for failure is associated with folly. “When you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you vow.” It is a fool who promises what is beyond his capacity to deliver and a fool who promises and then simply shrugs off his commitment.
Yet there is no rashness in the greatest of all promise-makers. God has made the most promises and the promises that are of the greatest magnitude. He has promised to take away our sin so that we are every bit as pure and holy as his Son; he has promised to be present with us through our deepest trials and most trying circumstances; he has promised to never leave us nor forsake us; he has promised that he is working all things for good; he has promised that at the end of our days we will find that to die is merely to sleep and that to close our eyes here is to open them in heaven; he has promised to destroy the enemy, to cleanse the world, and to raise his people to life eternal.
And we can have complete confidence that the Promise-Maker will prove to be the Promise-Keeper, for before he made the least of these promises, he counted the cost. He promised nothing that was beyond his capacity to deliver, nothing that could be thwarted by time, enemy, or circumstance, nothing that was rash, impossible, or in the least bit doubtful. That is true even when he made promises and declarations as substantive, as total, as these: “I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done. … My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose. … I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it.”
And so we can have every confidence in him. God will no more fulfill half a promise than build half a tower and no more come through on half a vow than fight half a battle. For he has considered his abilities, he has reviewed his resources, he has pondered the impediments, and having done all of that, he has spoken with the greatest care and declared with the highest certainty. He will be true to his every word and he is worthy of our highest confidence.

Inspired in part by F.B. Meyer

The Lord bless you and keep you today.

Wordle and Our Longing for the Limited
Chris Martin reflects on an interesting cultural phenomenon: “The most consequential cultural phenomenon of this, the year of our Lord, 2022 is a once-a-day word game made by a computer coder for his significant other.”
Laughter 101: Why Humor Matters for the Christian Life
“How many philosophers does it take to explain a joke? Quite a few, as it turns out. And not only philosophers. Psychologists, sociologists, and anthropologists have exerted themselves to explain exactly what makes people laugh. Although everybody understands intuitively what humor is, the concept of humor is still elusive, being difficult to define in a way that encompasses all of its facets.”
About Radius International Church-Planting Training
In this short video Brooks Buser, President of Radius International talks about church-planting training for missionary candidates going to unreached language groups. Learn how Radius can be a benefit to your church and mission candidates. (Sponsored Link)
Does the Woman Caught in Adultery Belong in the Bible?
“The story of the Woman Caught in Adultery (John 7:53–8:11) is arguably one of the most beloved Jesus stories in the New Testament … However, the story is missing from some ancient manuscripts of John, as noted already by early church fathers like Jerome and Augustine. For this and other reasons, a majority of modern scholars regard the passage as a later insertion, and some even want to remove it altogether from our Bibles.” Here’s one take on the passage…
Boycott China’s Winter Olympics? Many American Christians Agree
CT covers the issues of boycotting the Olympics because of China’s persecution of Christians, Uyghurs, and others.
I Was Patient Before Having Kids
Erik Raymond: “Recently a friend said, ‘I was much more patient before I had kids.’ Saying this tongue in cheek, he meant that he’s realized that since becoming a dad, he struggles with patience. Now we know that having children doesn’t evaporate the parent’s reservoir of patience they previously enjoyed. Instead, being a parent presents a new set of challenges that reveal a lack of patience that was already there.”
When Pressing “Unfollow” is Not an Option
“How does one navigate the complexities of the modern age? What do we do when an opposing point of view is not encountered on a screen, but rather, face-to-face? What do we do when a coworker disagrees with us on a matter we deem important? How do we interact with an instructor who promotes an idea different from our held beliefs?”
Flashback: God, Protect My Girls
One of my most common prayers for my girls is a prayer for their protection. Here is how I pray for God to protect them.

God is the best friend, but the worst enemy. If he can look men into their grave how far can he throw them? —Thomas Watson

May the God of love and peace be with you today.

Today’s Kindle deals include some books for adults and some of kids.
(Yesterday on the blog: Do You Knock at the Gates of the Grave?)
How and when was the canon of Scripture established, and by whom? (Video)
Stephen Nichols does a great job of describing how the canon of Scripture was established.
It’s February: Check on Your Single Friends
Lisa LaGeorge asks us to remember our single friends in February. “February breaks me a little, and I know I’m not the only one. If feels silly to even think about sometimes. The flowers don’t last, the chocolate is generally sub-par, and all my married friends roll their eyes about how overrated going out to dinner is. But there is still that thing about wanting to be wanted.”
Kevin DeYoung on “What is The Mission of The Church?” @ The Radius Missiology Conference
June 29-30, 2022 @ Christ Covenant Church in Matthews, NC. Kevin DeYoung will look at what is and is not the mission of the church. (Sponsored Link)
Burial is Hopeful
“A planter in a garden, with carefully labelled markers by each tiny seed so that the gardener would remember what eat seed was as it grew. When we bury our bodies we plant a seed in the ground, waiting for it to grow into an oak of righteousness in the new creation. We remind ourselves that what is now is brief, and what comes after is long and joyous. Burial is fundamentally hopeful.”
The Beijing Olympics: Pray for the Persecuted in China
Randy Alcorn sees the Olympics as an opportunity to remind us to pray for the persecuted Christians in China. He also discusses whether Christians should boycott the Olympics because of China’s persecution and other human rights abuses.
Freedom from the Tyranny of “Success”
Aaron Armstrong: “All of us have moments where we don’t respond to God’s blessings to others in the way we would want or expect, whether His blessings to an individual, to an organization, or a church. We start to play comparison games, even if only in our heads. We start to wonder why this person or that church is more successful than us.”
The Difference between the Apple and the Worm
Denny Burk helps us distinguish between the essence of a doctrine and its “accidents.” “As I have observed popular debates about complementarianism over the years, I have noticed how people often confuse what the doctrine is with other associations that have little or nothing to do with the teaching.”
Flashback: Travel Tips from a Journey Round the World
I spent a lot of last year traveling the world to carry out research for my forthcoming church history project–a project that took me to 24 countries across 6 continents. Now that the travel is winding down, I’m beginning to think about a few of the travel lessons I learned along the way. I decided to jot them down and share them in case they prove helpful to you next time you set out on a journey of your own.

Surely God will not wink at their sin who wink at his dishonor. —George Gillespie