Good morning. Grace and peace to you today.

9 Things You Should Know About Events and Discoveries in 2021
This is a fun little roundup. “We live in an era of 24-hour news in which we’re constantly bombarded by information from websites, social media, and television. Yet despite this deluge, there are many fascinating news items you are likely to have missed. Here are nine such events and discoveries from 2021 that you may not have heard about.”
What People are Saying about 2022
“Have you noticed what people are saying about 2022? Me neither.” Is that better or worse than what people were saying this time last year?
What Was Paul’s Thorn in the Flesh?
Here’s an explanation of that mysterious thorn in the flesh that was so agonizing to Paul.
Are You Feeling In-Between? 
“The last week of December always feels a little like an in-between to me. It’s between holidays, months and years. Akin to adolescent years, somewhere between child and teenager, life has a lot of uncomfortable in-betweens…”
More Now Than Ever
This is the final part of a series meant to encourage Christians by reflecting on positive cultural trends.
Flashback: Strength = Good, Weakness = Bad
Jesus was weak. Paul rejoiced in his own weakness. And yet we are still afraid and ashamed to be weak. We would rather feign strength than admit weakness.

The eye is made both for seeing and weeping. Sin must first be seen, before it can be wept for. —Thomas Watson

May the Lord bless and keep you today.

Westminster Books has a lot of great deals in their year-end clearance sale.
Logos users, remember to grab the free and nearly free books of the month before it’s over.
Biblical Archaeology’s Top 10 Discoveries of 2021
CT has a roundup of the year’s top discoveries in biblical archaeology.
Between a Hamster and a Hard Place
Dan DeWitt turns an unfortunate Christmas gift into a lesson about the holiday season. “This is life though, isn’t it? We have Christmas. We celebrate. We enjoy the moment. And then real life rushes at us without as much as a warning.”
4 Questions for Your Bible Reading in 2022
Glenna Marshall offers four common but important questions to ask of your Bible reading. They are designed to help you read with greater intentionality.
4 Things Believers with Bipolar Disorder Want You to Know
Lieryn Barnett: “It’s difficult to know how to help or respond when you learn someone in your church family is suffering from bipolar, but a good place to start is striving to understand the struggle. Here are four things to know as you walk beside your brother or sister.”
Resolve to Grow in Godliness in 2022
There is some good counsel here, courtesy Jerry Bridges, about resolving to grow in godliness.
Photographer’s Solar Photo Reveals the Twisted ‘Surface’ of the Sun
PetaPixel has a fascinating new photo of the sun taken by an astrophotographer.
Flashback: How Should Christians Use Guns?

Revisiting an old debate and some of the positions that were advanced…

Every Christian is either a missionary or an imposter. —Charles Spurgeon

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

A Tale of Two Dogs
You’ll benefit from reading this analogy about two dogs.
In the Darkest Night: Draw Near, Hold Fast, Consider Others
Leah Farish: “In the darkest season of my life, I was lifted decisively out of the pit by a passage in the book of Hebrews. The three simple commands embedded in it made all the difference.”
Quebec’s radical rejection of Catholicism behind support for Bill 21
You may, or may not, have heard of Quebec’s Bill 21 which bans wearing any religious symbols (e.g. crosses, hijabs, etc) by public sector employees. This interesting article explains how Quebec went from extremely Catholic to so very secular.
The Crosses at the Cradle
This is some very skillful writing. It begins this way: “On the northern shore of Lake Issyk-Kul live a fisherman and his family. They are here mostly alone, away from the village and the other houses, owning a sizable stretch of land that juts out into the water as a peninsula. The weeds grow high in their yard, and the dog they own is chained up and barking. But their garden is well kept, and they’ve added a new patio for evening meals that includes a vivid mountain view.”
Old Paths for a New Year
Jeremy Writebol has a suggestion for your quiet time in 2022. “Every year I feel the question bearing down on me as the month of December comes to a close. With the conclusion of one year and the beginning of another, I often spend a good deal of time hunting—not out in the woods, sitting in a tree stand, rifle in hand, deer hunting. No, I’m assessing every innovation that has sprung up in the last year or so to improve what is often referred to these days as ‘The Quiet Time.’ ”
Flashback: The Half-Trained Dog
God does not call us to bruise our sin, or injure it, or slap it around a little. God calls us to put our sin to death, and that is a hard business.

The godly are more thankful for the least favours than worldly men for the greatest. —Richard Sibbes

I will be on a holiday blogging schedule this week, which means there will be only A La Carte posts. Normalcy will resume next week!

Today’s Kindle deals are headlined by some titles from Crossway.
(Yesterday on the blog: When I Get to the End of the Way)
What if I Don’t Want to Rejoice?
“Humans are natural rejoicers. Not only do we love rejoicing but we do so all the more with others. And yet, there are many times we simply do not want to rejoice. Though the Bible tells us to ‘rejoice in the Lord always,’ we find ourselves doing the exact opposite. How are we supposed to rejoice when life gets rough?”
Canada’s conversion therapy ban commits six secular sins
This is an interesting look at Canada’s Bill C-4 and the sins it commits. “Canada’s Bill C-4 bans ‘conversion therapy.’ But the bill is bad. How bad is the bill? It’s so bad that it, for lack of a better word, sins. It sins against democracy, freedom, truth, reason, and other goods. (Consider these secular sins that may or may not include sins against God.) Bill C-4 sins so badly that, if there were a fiery pit for bad bills, it should be thrown into it.”
The Evil of Earthly-Mindedness
“If one characteristic could describe the Puritan movement as a whole—apart from their personal piety—I believe it would be the Puritans’ ability to penetrate both heart and mind. Their knack for bringing conviction to the stubborn, hope to the hopeless, and relief to the weary and heavy-laden ought to serve as the gold standard for any who aspire to the ministry of the Word. Oh, that gospel minsters in the modern day would speak to the heart as the Puritans did in theirs!”
Love Undeserved & Unsought
This is a deeply personal article from Andrew Kerr.
Top Ten YouTubes of 2021
Here is one that is just for fun. Every year Denny Burk rounds up this top-ten YouTubes of the year that was.
There are no real unprecedented times
I’d tend to agree that we are a little bit too free to describe our times and circumstances as “unprecedented.”
Flashback: The Beautiful Ordinary
… all across the world, thousands of ordinary pastors will preach ordinary sermons to ordinary people, and through these sermons they will communicate the most powerful, extraordinary news of all.

The beginnings of mercy are encouragements to us to pray for the completing of it. —Matthew Henry

Some of my favorite poems are those that pick up on one particularly important line and then repeat it throughout, thus consistently building upon a theme. This is the case with an old poem titled “When I Get to the End of the Way.” The poet looks forward to the end of her journey through life–to the end of her way. In one collection I’ve seen it attributed to H. Cole, in another to simply B. P. C., and in another Margaret Baker Culp. Either way, I hope you find it encouraging.

My life is a wearisome journey,I’m sick with the dust and the heat,The rays of the sun beat upon me,The briars are wounding my feet.But the city to which I am journeying,Will more than my trials repay,All the toils of the road will seem nothing,When I get to the end of the way.
There are so many hills to climb upward,I often am longing for rest,But He who appoints me my pathway,Knows just what is needful and best.I know in his word he has promised,That my strength shall be as my day,And the toils of the road will seem nothing,When I get to the end of the way.
He loves me too well to forsake me,Or give me one trial too much,All his people have been dearly purchased,And Satan can never claim such.By and by I shall see him and praise him,In the city of unending day,And the toils of the road will seem nothing,When I get to the end of the way.
When the last feeble step has been taken,And the gates of the city appear,When the beautiful songs of the angels,Float out on my listening ear.When all that now seems so mysterious,Shall be plain and as clear as the day,Then the toils of the road will seem nothing,As I get to the end of the way.
Though now I am footsore and weary,I shall rest when I’m safely at home,I know I’ll receive a glad welcome,For the Savior himself has said Come.So when I am weary in body,And sinking in spirit I say,All the toils of the road will seem nothing,When I get to the end of the way.

It is set to be a quiet Christmas in the Challies home. Like so many other families, we had plans for today that have been interrupted by illness. And so we will spend the day—and, I’m sure, enjoy the day—with just the four of us. And as we begin, this prayer is on my lips:

On this Christmas Day, my Father, I come to you with a glad heart. Help me to observe the day fitly, with loving remembrance of the lowly birth in Bethlehem and the sorrows of him who came to bring redemption, and with grateful thanks to you for your great mercy.
May this be a true Christmas in my heart. Take away all unbelief, all bitter thought and feeling, all resentment and unforgiveness, all unholy desire and give me love—love that is patient and kind, that is not provoked, that thinks no evil, that seeks not its own. Save me from all selfishness. While I gratefully receive the Christmas blessings and enjoy them, may my heart be opened toward all the world in sympathy and kindly interest. Make my life a song, and may I go everywhere with joy on my face and on my lips.
I pray for all those to whom Christmas brings gladness, that their joy may be enriched by thoughts of your divine love. I pray for the multitudes of little children everywhere, to whom the day means so much, who have been waiting for it so long in eager expectancy, and who will be happy with their gifts and with the love that blesses them.
I pray also for those to whom the day brings little of joy—the very poor, the lonely and solitary; those far away from their homes, whose hearts will not be warmed by human love; prisoners in their prisons; sailors on the sea; and those who know not you. I pray for the sick in their homes and in the hospitals, that in their suffering they may be comforted by the remembrance of your divine compassion. I pray for the bereft and sorrowing, to whom Christmas brings painful memories, making more real their sense of loss. May they find comfort in the thought of Christ’s unfailing love.
May this glad Christmas leave my life richer and tenderer. May your divine love henceforth be more real to me. May I be sure of your divine care and guidance. May my heart be warmer toward my fellows, tenderer in its sympathy with human need and sorrow, and may I live a gentler, more kindly life, because of this day’s revealing of your wondrous love. Grant these favors through Jesus Christ. Amen.
(Drawn from J.R. Miller)

I was once told of a man who, over the course of his life, had risen from poverty to riches. He had grown up in the most difficult of circumstances, in a setting in which his parents could barely provide for even his most basic needs. But as he came into adulthood, he proved to be a man of unusual talent and founded a business that eventually thrived and made him exceptionally wealthy.

And while this man was willing to enjoy the fruit of his wealth, he wanted to make sure he would never forget his roots. So for that reason he would make an annual pilgrimage from his great mansion in the city to a little house in the village he grew up in. He would stay there for a time to remember what it was like to live without servants, to fetch water from a well, to shiver through long winter nights. And having completed his little pilgrimage, he would return home thankful, not taking his wealth for granted.
This man understood a universal temptation—the temptation to forget our blessings and to forget the God who has so graciously dispensed them to us. And this is exactly why Christmas is so needful and so precious, for at Christmas we pause to deliberately remember. We pause for a day to remember the greatest of all blessings—the advent of Jesus Christ.
In celebrating Christmas we remember—we mark, we recall, we memorialize—the miracle of God becoming man. We remember that the God who made this world was willing to enter into this world, that the God who was immortal was willing to take on mortality, that the God who had existed eternally and omnipresently was willing to be born at a particular moment in time and in a particular point in space. Remaining what he was, he became what he was not so that by becoming what we are, he could make us what he is. Because of his obedience we are counted obedient; because of his death and resurrection we are counted dead to sin and alive to righteousness. By the Son we become sons. We are given the greatest of all gifts, we receive the greatest of all mercies.
Yet we are prone to forget all of this. We are prone to forget our poverty, our need, our desperation, our condemnation. We are prone to forget where we came from, prone to forget what God drew us out of. And so we circle a date on the calendar to ensure we never forget and always remember the coming of the One who was the son of God and the son of Mary, the coming of the God-man through whom we have salvation. We remember so our minds will not grow hazy and we remember so our hearts will not grow cold. We remember to recount the facts and we remember to rekindle our worship.
And so as Christmas Eve gives way to Christmas Day, as we enjoy the sweet rituals of giving and receiving, gathering and feasting, let’s be sure we take time to remember and rejoice—to remember our poverty and to rejoice in our riches. For it was on this day so many years ago that God opened up the storehouses of his mercies and began pour them out in wondrous abundance upon the likes of you and me.

May the Lord be with you and bless you on this Christmas Eve.

Know the Ideal Church. Commit to a Real Church.
Here are some practical steps for applying the doctrine of the church to real life.
A Real Christmas
“As a mother, I wanted to shield my children from the harder parts of the Christmas story in order to create memories untainted by ugly truths. So we focused on singing angels, wondering shepherds and a miraculous star. The familiar story reminds us all that one day goodness and beauty broke into history to show us the way home.”
The Good News Story
The Gospel is the air we breathe and need to breathe again and again. Whether you are just starting your journey of faith or have been traveling the road for years, discover how it all ties together in The Good News Story. Explore the Bible cover-to-cover to behold the grace, wonder, beauty, goodness, joy, and love of God in the person and work of Jesus! Watch and download this multi-video series and illustrated study guide for free at thegoodnewsstory.com. (Sponsored Link)
The 2021 Word of the Year – “Allyship”
“Dictionary.com has an annual tradition of naming a ‘word of the year,’ and this year’s winner is the term allyship.” Denny Burk explains why this is significant.
Stop Being Fearful; Start Being Joyful
“In the midst of the busyness of this season, it’s hard to find time to consider Christ. Isn’t it? Probably most of us have thought at one time or another that this time of year is so busy that we almost dread it. We’ve taken this special time of the year when we could consider Christ and we’ve made it so busy, so crazy, so frantic, that we don’t consider Him.”
There Will Be No Burden-Bearing if There Is No Burden-Sharing
Glenna Marshall explains something important in this article. “A friend from church called to check on me that Saturday. She knew I’d been having a particularly rough time, and when I expressed how poorly I was doing and how embarrassed I was to miss a service project when I look completely normal to anyone watching, my friend gently rebuked me…”
2022 Reading Challenge for Kids and Teens
Redeemed Reader has announced their annual reading challenge for kids and teens.
Flashback: Why We Know So Little About Jesus’ Birth
We know so little about Jesus’ birth. While it has been the subject of billions of dramatizations and endless speculations, the historian Luke gives it all of one sentence

The Christian’s armor will rust except it be furbished with the oil of prayer. —William Gurnall

Good morning. Grace and peace to you.

(Yesterday on the blog: The Way I’ll Be Reading the Bible in 2022)
Can You Feel the Incarnation?
“I don’t know about you but I cannot grasp that grace of the incarnation.” Chap Bettis offers a neat illustration of it here.
When a Good God Seems Far From Good
“Have you ever stood before a spiritual fork in the road? One where you know the ‘godly answer’ to your painful circumstances, but there seems to be an impenetrable wall that stands between your head and your heart? It’s the tension between knowing something to be true but struggling to believe it when the evidence seems stacked against it.”
Founding Myths and the Second Great Awakening
This is a really interesting (and extensive) article on the history of the church in America.
The Lost Art of Humility
“This is our great problem: we think too highly of ourselves, or too frequently about ourselves. We wonder what other people think of us, and in this era we are desperately aware of cultivating image. But a thin verbal veneer of humility is more fleeting than the sound waves which carried it.”
Just Call Me Old-Fashioned
Here’s a celebration of an old-fashioned kind of Christianity.
On Not Fighting Like Gauls
This article tells why you shouldn’t fight like the Gauls did.
Flashback: The Essential: Incarnation
This is what Christians mean when we speak of the Incarnation: the joining together of God and man in “one divine, mysterious person,” the Lord Jesus Christ.

God is pleased to do great things for souls, when friends and relations are moved to pray for them. —J.C. Ryle

Speaking broadly, there are two approaches to daily Bible-reading: reading for intimacy or reading for familiarity. Intimacy with the Bible comes by slow, meditative reading that focuses on small portions—deep study of books, chapters, and verses. Familiarity with the Bible comes through faster reading of larger portions—the entire sweep of the biblical narrative. Both are perfectly good approaches to the Bible and Christians thrive on a healthy mixture of the two. There is great benefit in knowing the Bible as a whole (familiarity) and in knowing the most important parts in detail (intimacy). (On this note, see my article “Intimacy or Familiarity.”)

My favorite daily Bible-reading plan is the 5 Day Bible Reading Program. I have successfully used it for many years and intend to use it again in 2022. I gladly commend it to you.
It has several features I especially appreciate:

It is a familiarity plan that covers the entire text of the Bible over the course of the year. Those who follow it will read every word of the Bible in the year ahead.
It is a pseudo-chronological plan that covers the text of the Bible in the order the events happened (with the exception of Job which comes at the end). Thus, for example, the Psalms come at appropriate moments in the life of David, the books of Kings and Chronicles are read in harmony, and so on. This helps set the events in their historical context. Yet even though it’s chronological, it’s only pseudo-chronological. There are Old Testament and New Testament readings each day and the gospels are interspersed through the year. I find this an ideal compromise over a strictly chronological program in which you read the entire OT before touching the NT.
It is a 5-day plan. A benefit of a 5-day plan (as opposed to a 7-day plan) is that there is less chance of falling far behind. At 5 days per week it is far more doable than at 7 days—there is always a chance to catch up. Also, it allows a day or two of reading something different for those who, for example, like to read and ponder the sermon text on a Sunday morning or for those who don’t do personal devotions on Sunday.
It is a free plan. It’s free for the taking! They’ve got a nice little print-out you can download, print, fold in half, and put inside your Bible. It’s got boxes to tick as you complete each day and each week. Or you can use the ReadingPlan app to organize the plan even while reading through Logos, the ESV app, or a printed Bible. Though it is free, they have launched a Patreon account for those who would like early access, access to more features, or who would just like to offer a bit of support.

The 5 Day Bible Reading Program is a free download and will be available on December 26 (with Patrons able to get it before then). I echo their hope for the program: “God’s blessings rest with those who will read, understand, and live by His Word. May this guide help you to that noble end. ‘Thy word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path’ (Psalms 119:105).”
(Parenthetical Note: If you prefer an “intimacy” plan, I recommend the Reading the Bible with John Stott guides and/or the God’s Word for You series. Both are excellent.)