The Lord be with you and bless you today.

There are some nice new Kindle deals to look at today.
Binding
“It was the most significant spiritual moment of our marriage. And it happened 22 years after we said, ‘I do.’” Melissa explains what it was all about.
The Most Wonderful Time of the Year?
“Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, I think we can all agree that this time of year can bring out the best and the worst, not just in our culture around us, but even within ourselves and our  families.” Here’s some counsel on keeping the right perspective through the season.
You Can’t Reform a Church You Hate
This is good stuff from Trevin Wax. “Those of us who mourn the complicity of the church in manifest evil must differentiate between a kind of deconstruction that tears down a building and celebrates the rubble and the kind that strips away the moldy walls and floors until we find again the foundational truths that are common to Christians everywhere and through time.”
Must You Remain Silent on Abortion Unless You Adopt a Baby?
“The Planned Parenthood employee thought she had me with her question: ‘How many unwanted children have you adopted?’ ‘None,’ I replied. She probably thought, Checkmate, I got him. The pro-life view results in more babies being born. So it follows, according to this lady’s thinking, that if I don’t adopt any of them, I’m disqualified from arguing against abortion. Though this question is rhetorically powerful, it’s not a compelling case against pro-lifers.”
Will the Real Local Pastors Please Stand Up?
Daniel puts out the call to the real local church pastors. “It seems with every passing season another high-profile pastor falls from their ministry position. Sadly, I’ve come to expect it. I should probably grieve more. I should certainly pray more. Nonetheless, I don’t believe hell loses ground by simply adding more popular or hip leaders to the church. What the church really needs are servants who tremble at God’s word. We need shepherds who value others above themselves and live for the renown of Jesus, not their own platforms.”
There You Are
This is a wonderful tribute to a man who sounds like a wonderful grandfather.
Flashback: Mind Your Christmas Imperatives
We celebrate Christmas best when we celebrate it not because we have to, but because we freely choose to…Once we acknowledge there is no special command to be obeyed or grace to be earned, then we can celebrate in true gospel freedom.

No mother’s nightmarish valley is so dark that Jesus cannot bear her burdens the whole way through. —Gloria Furman

As happens each year, Westminster Books has marked down ESVs to 50% off. That includes premium Bibles, Reader’s Bibles, study Bibles, etc.

Logos users will want to be sure to download this month’s free and nearly-free books.
Today’s Kindle deals include a couple of Christmas devotionals.
(Yesterday on the blog: The Joy of Hearing)
Postmodernism’s Revenge
Here’s Kevin DeYoung writing for WORLD opinions. “Looking for blind spots is one thing. Acting as if we are blind is another. We don’t have to let sociological fads and ill-defined ‘isms’ set the agenda when we have the necessary theological categories already. The point is the same: we can know things truly even if we don’t know things exhaustively.”
Losses of a Prayerless Christian
Jim Elliff explains some of what you lose when you do not pray.
As Advent Begins, Here are Ten Vital Truths About the Incarnation of Jesus
“With the Advent season here, it is always edifying to think about the glorious fact that God became a man and was, as the hymnwriter so well puts it, born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth.Here are 10 things we must know about the Incarnation…” Stephen Wellum counts them down (or up, I guess).
Gentleness Is A Christian Virtue
“My greatest concern is not that our culture is angry. My greatest concern is that this sense of meanness has even invaded many corners of the church. Christians on both sides of the political spectrum justify their anger toward others by claiming to be fighting for justice or Christian liberty or the future of our country, or whatever other narrative fits their desire to express their more base emotions.” (See also: Why So Harsh?)
The Latest Evangelical Convert to Rome. What Does Rome Have to Offer?
Leonardo De Chirico reflects on a surprising conversion. “I am not English, nor Anglican, but the story of the conversion of the former Anglican bishop Michael Nazir-Ali to Catholicism struck me. He is not the first evangelical Anglican to become Roman Catholic, and he probably will not be the last…” (On this topic, you may also listen to the new Reformanda Initiative podcast.)
Why We Worship ‘the Word’
Mark Jones: “Bible readers young and old have wondered why John begins his Gospel referring to Jesus as ‘the Word’ that became flesh (John 1:1, 14). The Greek term for ‘word,’ logos, is common enough in Greek. It appears over three hundred times in the New Testament, with different meanings in different contexts. But when understood in relation to Christ, the word has been furiously debated.”
Flashback: The Counter-Cultural Vocation of Homemaking
My wife chose a rare and counter-cultural vocation. She chose a vocation that was once very respectful but is now viewed with some shame.

Churches don’t make the gospel true. It is true even when the household of God behaves badly. But people can see that it is true, and doubters are converted when “the sweetness of the Lord” is upon us. —Ray Ortlund

There is perhaps no book of the Bible that offers as many interpretive challenges as the book of Revelation. I sometimes debate whether the book is actually perfectly clear while we are pathetically thick or whether the book is extremely difficult to understand because God intended it to be. Either way, though the intent and general message of Revelation is clear enough, the details present a challenge worthy of the most eminent theologian.

Speaking of which, Thomas Schreiner has recently taken on that challenge in three forms: a general-level commentary in the ESV Expository Commentary series; a major academic commentary in the Baker Exegetical Commentary series (which is still forthcoming); and The Joy of Hearing, a short book on the theology of Revelation. The latter work represents the debut volume in a new series titled New Testament Theology, co-edited by Schreiner and Brian Rosner. Each volume will examine the big ideas one of the books of the New Testament and do so in a readable and relatively concise format. (The second volume, The Mission of the Triune God: A Theology of Acts, will release in January.)
The Joy of Hearing, then, offers a theology of Revelation, which means it approaches the book thematically rather than chapter-by-chapter and verse-by-verse. Schreiner begins by telling why it is so important that contemporary Christians read the book of Revelation carefully and know it well. And, of course, this means he needs to address what the book is and is not. “The book of Revelation is not a prophecy chart about the future but a call to be a disciple of Jesus. John tells us to be faithful and fruitful, and we should not give in to despair, for in the end, all will be well.”

My contention is that we desperately need the message of Revelation for today’s world. There is a great conflict between good and evil in our world, and the Christian faith is under attack, as it was in the first century. John reminds us in this book that God rules, even in an evil day; that God has not forsaken his people; and that goodness will finally triumph and prevail. In the midst of evil, in a world in which the Christian faith is under attack, we need hope and assurance that evil will not have the last word, and Revelation teaches us that a new world is coming, that a new creation is coming, and that all will be well. God is just and holy and righteous, and those who turn against God and his Christ will suffer judgment. At the same time, we see in the book that the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ are the center of history, or the fulcrum of history. Evil has been defeated because of what Christ has accomplished. The triumph over wickedness was realized not by an act of judgment but through the suffering of the Lion of the tribe of Judah, through the Lamb who was slain. What do believers do as they live in Babylon, as they live in a world in which the governments of the world are like ravenous beasts tearing apart the church? John tells us that we are to stay close to Christ, that we must not compromise with evil, that we must endure to the end, and that we must look to the final reward.

Schreiner then advances to a brief examination of the book’s setting, date, and genre, suggesting that the best evidence is that it was written during the reign of Domitian, which would date it somewhere between AD 81-96.—a time when the churches in Asia Minor were experiencing state-sanctioned persecution. Yet he insists that “no interpretation should be accepted that demands a particular date—an important hermeneutical conclusion that we can draw from the imprecision of the historical situation.” As for the genre, while Revelation is clearly apocalyptic, Schreiner also emphasizes that it was a personal letter. “The epistolary genre in the book reminds us that we should not indulge in what I call ‘newspaper eschatology’ in reading the book. The book was written to readers who occupied a particular social location, and presumably they understood, at least mainly, what was written to them. The hermeneutical significance of this fact is massively important, for it eliminates the popular conception that modern readers interpret Revelation better than the original readers.”
With all this groundwork in place, Schreiner begins the study proper and, through seven chapters, picks up on the major themes of the book:

The deafness of those living on earth
The saints hear and heed
The declaration that God rules on his throne
The good news of the Lion and the Lamb
The testimony of the Holy Spirit
The promise of blessing and the New Creation
Reigning with Christ for one thousand years

Many will want to read this book to know where the author lands on the question of the millennium (and, therefore, which of the three major positions he advocates—postmillennialism, premillennialism, and amillennialism). He treads carefully and writes charitably without advocating one position far ahead of the others. That said, he is clearly most sympathetic toward historic premillennialism and amillennialism while fairly easily setting aside both postmillennialism and dispensationalism.
As he concludes his study, Schreiner says “In a world full of evil, selfishness, materialism, and sexual exploitation, John proclaims a message of hope, although it is an apocalyptic message that is hidden from the world. Thus believers must attune their ears to hear a transcendent message, to hear the words of the Son of Man and the Holy Spirit.” This wonderful little book, which is equally appropriate for pastors, academics, and general readers, will help accomplish just that—it will better equip us all to hear, understand, and apply that transcendent, hope-filled, life-giving, soul-sustaining message.
The Joy of Hearing is available at Amazon or Westminster Books (where it’s currently 50% off).

Buy from Amazon

The beginning of a new month is just the right time to consider that right now, today, at this very moment, God is reigning upon his throne.

There’s a good little list of Kindle deals to work through.
You Can’t Channel Him Because He’s Not Dead
Anne Kennedy: “A dear and wonderful friend sent me an article about the most fantastical religious trend I think I’ve come across to date. In all my wandering around the cyber highways and byways of American religious culture, I have clicked on a lot of surprising beliefs and hashtags, but this one beats them all.”
Ten Reasons Why Nursing Homes Are Great Places to Minister
Here’s a fairly thorough explanation of why nursing homes are a very good place for churches to minister.
As Long as it is Called Today
I am really thankful for this strong call away from procrastination. It turns out I needed to read it…
22 Questions That Reveal Character
“It’s hard to discern a potential leader’s character, even in our native cultures. Unlike physical features, the terrain of character is invisible, demonstrated over time through a person’s life.” Here’s a series of questions that can help, no matter your culture or place.
Holiness Means More Than Killing Sin
This is a helpful article from Sinclair Ferguson about putting sin to death and coming alive to righteousness. (For more of Ferguson’s thoughts on the subject, you can read his excellent book Devoted to God.)
Bask in Your Identity
“Is it selfish and self-centred to spend time reflecting on and enjoying the new identity we receive in Christ? I’ve sometimes heard people suggest it is. To do so, some would claim, is to put ourselves at the centre rather than God. It is to imply that we are more important than him, and that the gospel is about us rather than about God. To focus on ourselves is to come perilously close to the very heart of sin – putting something other than God in God’s place.”
Flashback: Services Shaped Like an Hourglass
We begin our service distracted, narrow our focus to Jesus Christ, then broaden our gaze to living in this world for God’s glory. We do it again the next week, and again the week after that.

At the point when we begin to think of God as being anything other than holy is the moment we are imagining a completely different god altogether. —Jackie Hill Perry

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

This is quite a deal from Westminster Books: the beautiful 6-volume ESV Reader’s Bible at 80% off!
(Yesterday on the blog: I Knew It!)
Crucial Questions with Kristin Kobes Du Mez
Denny Burk had a telling back-and-forth with Kristin Kobes Du Mez and writes about it here. What I found most interesting was his four-step pathway to deconstructing the traditional Christian teaching on homosexuality. “Evangelicals who deconstruct the Bible’s teaching on homosexuality often adopt a new definition of marriage. I have noticed a pretty consistent progression among those who eventually embrace gay marriage. It goes like this…”
The Supreme Court Case that Could Overturn Roe v. Wade
“Abortion is one of the most contentious and perennial topics in American political discourse. But it’s much more than a political concern—the topic of abortion prompts deep moral and theological questions. What do pastors need to know about the Dobbs case so they can educate and prepare their congregations for the national conversation about abortion that will follow?” David Closson and Tessa Longbons answer at TGC. (See also: Did the Early Church Oppose Abortion?)
Spiritual Swashbuckling: Dealing with Demons
Clint Archer is posting several chapters’ worth of content from a now-out-of-print book he contributed to a number of years ago titled Things that Go Bump in the Church. This chapter looks at demons.
The Monday After
“Sometimes, giving thanks is an act of courage. It is a stake driven into the ground of our suffering. It is a declaration that darkness will not win the day; that it will not win in us. Giving thanks is also a powerful act of defiance in a culture steeped in selfishness. Gratitude forces us to face the darkness and disarm the demons of discontentment and complaint.”
What We Pray in the Dark
Glenna Marshall: “It was 1:30 a.m. Pain seared through my lower back, wrapping itself around my S. I. joints and radiating into the deepest part of my hips. I moved from bed to couch and back, rearranging the pillows a dozen times, applying ice and heat wherever I could. There was no relief. None.”
Why Do We Have The Baptismal Process We Do?
I appreciated Stephen Kneale’s look at his church’s extensive baptism process and his defense of taking this so seriously.
Flashback: 5 Ugly Qualities of the Anti-Elder
There are millions of men who are great teachers and great leaders and great C.E.O.’s, but still completely unsuited to leadership in the church. God’s standards are very, very different.

Grace is forgiveness of sin, not approval of it. —Jared Wilson

This week the blog is sponsored by ShareWord Global.

What do most people think of when they hear ‘The Gideons’?
If you were to ask around, the answer would likely have something to do with Bible distribution, with the most common forms being Bibles in hotel nightstands or in the hands of Grade 5 students. But the thing is, the Gideons have never just been about Bible distribution – in hotel nightstands, or otherwise.
If you trace back to the very beginnings of the ministry, you’ll find two traveling salesmen that met and found they shared a passion for the gospel. From that meeting, The Gideons were born as an evangelistic association of traveling salesmen. One method they employed in spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ was the distribution of the Bible, but at its core, their intent was evangelistic.
In other words, the goal was to see souls saved.
Ten years ago, for both ideological and legal reasons, The Gideons International in Canada (“TGIC”) became an independent entity from The Gideons International. In so doing, new avenues of ministry opened all around the world. The kind of ‘this can’t be happening’ gospel opportunities that only God could have orchestrated. Until recently, that international outreach lived under the distinct brand name, ShareWord Global. But this past September, the organization adopted it to represent both the international and domestic ministry – unifying under one name and clarifying its ministry focus to mobilize Biblical evangelism.
No longer will we solely be the people who put Bibles in hotel nightstands, our renewed focus is to come alongside believers across the world, mobilizing our brothers and sisters to be faithful to Jesus’ call to “go and make disciples of all the nations” (Matt 28:19).
And so, we go.
Not just sharing Bibles, but sharing the Word – partnering with the local church to invite people into a relationship with the person of Jesus Christ and leaving them with a copy of Scripture to help them on that journey.
Two of the places that God has called us to do that work are Nicaragua and Cuba. In Nicaragua, government officials requested that ShareWord Global connect with every school-aged child in the country, to share the gospel with them and leave them with a copy of Scripture. Similarly, in Cuba, we’ve been invited into the nation to mobilize the church and ensure a copy of Scripture is placed in every single home in the nation.
This is clearly a work that only God can do, and yet, He has chosen to use us, and we can’t do it alone.
The need is immense, the stakes are eternal, and we cannot do this work without you. Would you consider being part of the ongoing work?
Canada – https://sharewordglobal.com/ca/giveUS – https://sharewordglobal.com/us/
Together, we can tell the world.
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Do you ever wonder what it’s like to enter heaven? Do you ever wonder what you will see first, what you will hear first, what you will feel and experience first? Do you ever wonder what your very first thought will be after you’ve fallen asleep in this world to awaken in the next? I’m sure you do. We all do. We all wonder what’s just beyond the great chasm that separates life from death, earth from heaven, here from there.

I have recently found myself pondering this great question. As I take my morning walk to read the Bible and pray, as I meditate upon God and his grace, my mind begins to wonder and my imagination to picture. Though I admit I can do little more than speculate where God has chosen to remain silent, I do find a theory forming in my mind.
I have a theory that we enter heaven with a cry of victory, that our first thought and first exclamation is one of joy, relief, vindication. We have lived our Christian lives by faith, not sight. We have cast in our lot with a God we cannot see or touch, we have lived by the rule of a book that contradicts every bit of human wisdom, we have made a long pilgrimage toward a City that is hidden from our view. We have comforted ourselves in trial by pondering joys to come, we have consoled ourselves in grief with assurances that we will see our loved ones again, we have eased our fears of death by believing in life beyond the grave. We have chosen to believe God’s promises, we have chosen to follow in his ways, we have chosen to suffer for his name, we have chosen to take him at his word.
But it has not been easy and it has certainly never been without inconsistencies and wavering. We must admit that we often mixed faith with doubt, conviction with unbelief. As we have pondered the future we, like the distressed father who cried out to Jesus, have often had to pray, “I believe; help my unbelief!” Like the disciple who had confidence enough to spring from the boat but not enough to stay above the waves, we have often believed in one moment and hesitated in the next. Yet our faith has never completely evaporated. We have never completely let go of our grip on God—which is to say, God has never loosened his grip on us.
And so, if heaven is, indeed real, and if the gateway that leads from this life really does open into the next, wouldn’t it make sense that we enter with a cry of victory, a shout of triumph, a declaration of vindication? Wouldn’t it make sense that our first thought is one of jubilation, that our first action is one of celebration, that our first sense is one of the truest and best kind of relief? Wouldn’t it make sense that when we have fought the good fight and finished the race and kept the faith, that we cross a kind of finish line and celebrate like an athlete? For in that moment we will know—we will know beyond all speculation, beyond all doubting, beyond all need for faith, that every effort was worth it, that no moment of suffering was in vain, that no sorrow will go uncomforted, that no ache will go unsoothed, that no tear will be left undried.
We will know that though we dropped our anchor into the depths of an ocean whose bottom we could not see, it fastened securely to the rock. We will know that though we walked and limped and stumbled toward a city whose gates were obscured from our view, they opened to receive us. We will know that though we fought our way toward a destination we could see only with the eyes of faith, our faith was well-placed. “I knew it!” we will shout in triumph. “I knew it was real! I knew he was true!” we will cry, as we fall into the arms of the Savior.
Or, as the old hymn-writer said:

When we all get to heaven,what a day of rejoicing that will be!When we all see Jesus,we’ll sing and shout the victory!

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Good morning. Grace and peace to you today.

Logos users will want to check out this long list of deals for today.
(Yesterday on the blog: The Sad, Sad Story You Need To Tell God)
Giving Thanks for Prosperity and Adversity
“There’s been a lot of suffering and fear in the world the past two years, but it hasn’t shaken the faith of most Christians in the United States.” Or so a new study finds.
Take This First Simple Step before You Respond
This is a good reminder about profitable discussions. “If someone said to me, ‘Evolution is a well-proven fact,’ I wouldn’t necessarily disagree. Their statement could be true. It could also be false. Why? Because I don’t yet know what they mean by ‘evolution.’”
Tear your hearts
Susan Lafferty: “Judgment approaches. The Day of the Lord is coming. And God extends the invitation to return to Him. Even now. In this season. Advent. As we wait and watch. Anticipating the coming of the Savior.”
Why We Desperately Need the Message of Revelation
Tom Schreiner has just written an excellent introduction to the book of Revelation titled The Joy of Hearing. In this article he explains why the message of Revelation is so very important.
Your Soul Needs Food Even When It Doesn’t Want It
This is a reminder that we need to be wary of those times when our appetite has waned (whether that’s a physical or spiritual appetite).
The Not-So-Insignificant Danger of Ingratitude
John Beeson: “There is a deadly gas that contaminates the air we breathe. The toxic gas appears unthreatening because everyone appears to breathe it in and breathe it out as harmlessly as oxygen.The poison is ingratitude. And it is everywhere.”
Flashback: The Nick Challies Memorial Scholarship
In the aftermath of my son Nick’s sudden death, a number of friends asked if there was a way they could honor his memory with a gift. That led to the founding of the Nick Challies Memorial Scholarship.

Modern pop music is not composed for us. The latest TV lineup is not scripted for us. We’re not your average teenagers anymore. What are we? We are free. Following Jesus means we don’t have to live the way our culture tells us to. —Jaquelle Crowe

There are times in the Christian life when we realize a distance has grown up between ourselves and God. There may be different sources and causes and it is wise for us to examine ourselves to attempt to determine why. F.B. Meyer once wanted to offer counsel to those who had searched their hearts and understood that it was sin that had caused this rift. Here is what he said:

You have lost the light of God’s face, not because He has arbitrarily withdrawn it, but because your iniquities have come between you and your God; and your sins, like a cloud before the sun, have hid His face from you.
Do not spend time by looking at them as a whole. Deal with them one by one.
The Boer is a formidable foe to the British soldier because he is trained from boyhood to take a definite aim and bring down his mark, whilst our soldiers fire in volleys. In dealing with sin, we should imitate him in the definiteness and accuracy of his aim. Ask God to search you and show you what wicked way is in you. Marshal all your life before Him, as Joshua marshalled Israel, sift it through, tribe by tribe, family by family, household by household, man by man, until at last you find the Achan who has robbed you of the blessed smile of God. Do not say: “Lord, I am a great sinner, I have done what I ought not, I have not done what I ought;” but say, “Lord, I have sinned in this, and this, and that, and the other.”
Call up each rebel sin, by its right name, to receive sentence of death. Your heart is choked with sins; empty it out, as you would empty a box, by handing out first the articles that lie on the surface. When you have removed them, you will see more underneath; hand them out also. When these are removed, you will probably see some more. Never rest till all are gone. Confession is just this process of telling God the unvarnished story—the sad, sad story—of each accursed sin; how it began, how you sinfully permitted it to grow, and how you have loved and followed it to your bitter cost.

May you know and experience the Lord’s blessings this weekend.

(Yesterday on the blog: Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2021 Deal for Christians)
Today’s Kindle deals include some classics for now and perhaps some others in the morning.
What Keeps Couples Apart?
Stephen Witmer: “Despite the beauty and blessedness of true intimacy, I’ve encountered numerous obstacles to it — both in my own marriage, and in years of counseling married couples. One of the most common is busyness.”
The fundamental mark of the Christian
“Are there any qualities or characteristics that are true of Christians only and make them to be different from the rest of mankind? Or are we just like the rest, each embracing their respective club of belonging. I think there is a distinction between a Christian and a non-Christian.”
Worth It
This sweet little video from ADF carries an important message.
Living By the Book
H.B. Charles calls us to live by the book.
Arise, My love, My Beautiful One, and Come Away
Peter Krol: “I am very grateful to the Lord for the rich diversity of literature contained within the Bible. Not only do we have the narratives of Israel’s history and Jesus’ ministry, or the discourses of the law and letters, but we also have the wildly foreign yet lovely verse of the prophets and poets. Let me pull back the curtain for you on my own process for Bible study.”
Exhaustion with Division and Discourse in Today’s Evangelicalism
“In this video, we asked Jonathan Leeman what advice he would give to Christians who feel exhausted by the division and discourse in today’s Evangelicalism.”
Flashback: But Others Have It Worse
Our God is not some distant ruler exercising indifferent authority over the universe but a present helper in our times of trouble — our every time of trouble.

What God commissions, he sees through to the end. He will not forsake us in the work he has given us. —Gloria Furman