The Parable of the Talents is one of the best-known and best-loved of all the parables Jesus left us. It tells of a man who is going on a journey and, who, before he sets out, distributes his wealth among his servants for safekeeping. To one he gives five talents, to another two, and to another just one. (A talent, for sake of context, is about 20 years’ of wages for a laborer.) It tells how each of these servants responds to what is entrusted to him: Two of the servants invest the money wisely and double it, while the other simply buries the money and then later returns it as-is. The first two receive their master’s approval while the third receives his condemnation.

This parable leads to many legitimate applications and often challenges us to be faithful with what the Lord has entrusted to us, whether that is the gospel itself, or the gifts, talents, money, responsibilities, or opportunities we have been given. God entrusts us with so much and it falls to us, as his servants, to be faithful with it all. We can expect that as we are faithful, we will know God’s approval and reward. “For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance.”
Hidden in plain sight is a simple observation: the servants are never offered a choice in their stewardship. The master does not come to them to ask, “How much of my wealth do you think you’re capable of handling?” He never checks in to inquire, “How would you feel about being given the full five talents? Do you think you can handle five, or would you prefer to have just two?” He doesn’t have them go through an application process and doesn’t pull out the Enneagram to make sure he is dispensing his wealth according to personality type. Rather, he simply assigns an amount to each of them as he sees fit. He dispenses his wealth and expects that each of them will prove worthy of the responsibility he has given them.
Yet surely the one who receives the five talents feels particularly honored. Surely it is a sign of his master’s trust, his master’s confidence, that he is given so much. Surely the master is not being rash or hasty in giving that one servant two-thirds of his wealth. Surely this one has already proven himself faithful and on that basis is now being given the opportunity to prove himself faithful with even more.
And with that in mind, I wonder if you are carrying a heavy burden right now. You may have been entrusted with weighty responsibilities. You may be bearing deep sorrows and fierce pains. You may be wondering why so much has been given to you, why the path you must walk is so narrow, so rocky, so difficult. You may be wondering why God’s Providence seems to have been applied in so painful a way.
From the Parable of the Talents you must see the hand of God in it all, for he is the one who has entrusted all these things to you. And behind the hand of God, you must see his confidence in you, his trust, his optimism. God is the one who has called you to walk this path, and he is the one who has called you to walk it faithfully. Yet he has not judged you wrong or set you up for failure. He has not been flippant in his decisions or reckless in his wisdom. No, he has found you faithful in small things and has now entrusted to you this very large thing. You have been faithful in little and now you have been set over much.
In that way your master’s confidence is a blessing, a reward all its own. He made no mistake in dispensing five talents to you, and he will never leave you nor forsake you as you bear it for his sake, for his cause, for his glory. Let his trust spur you on to prove yourself faithful, his confidence motivate you to prove yourself worthy—worthy of the weighty responsibility he has placed into your hands.

May the Lord bless and keep you today.

Today’s Kindle deals include quite a number of solid books.
Do Pronouns Matter?
“Do pronouns matter? Yes. It’s not merely a battle over ‘preferred’ pronouns; it’s a battle over reality. What is a pronoun? It’s a word we use to describe the objective nature of reality.” Brett Kunkle explains.
Note Taking in Worship
This article explores the joys and challenges of taking notes in church.
The Secrets of the World’s Most Famous Symphony (Video)
This is a fantastic little video that will help you better appreciate Beethoven’s Symphony  Number Five.
What Colors Do You See?
“What colors do you see? Look around while you walk to the mailbox, or as you drive to the grocery store. What hues do you see sidled next to each other? What tones shape the landscape that you live in?” Brianna Lambert celebrates the depth of the Lord by way of the depth of the colors he created.
Bring Back Foxe’s
Darryl Dash recommends reading Foxe for young and old like. “There’s nothing like reading Foxe’s Book of Martyrs as a teenager. Want an easy life? Foxe’s will cure you of that expectation. Beginning with Stephen, and continuing for some 2,500 pages, you will learn that following Jesus will may include suffering or worse.”
How Continual Creation Changes What We Do, and Why We Do It
“We may not feel like we can justify the significance of our daily work, but there’s something called ‘the doctrine of continual creation’ that provides meaning for what we do—not just in our jobs, but in each of our everyday tasks.”
Reckoning with Tech
This is an interesting little look at the possible connection between the last things and technological things.
Flashback: Young Man, Young Woman: Set An Example
If you are sixteen or eighteen or in your twenties, if you are in high school or college or just moving into marriage and career, I want to speak to you. I want to speak with you.

God does as He wills, and we can do nothing except what He wills. —Jerry Bridges

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

There are a few Kindle deals to take a glance at today.
(Yesterday on the blog: It Has To Be Dark Before We Can See)
Death on a Wednesday: John Shelby Spong and Norm McDonald
Anne Kennedy draws an interesting comparison between two men who recently died. “Verily verily, the contrast between the thoughts and feelings of Norm McDonald during his life and those of John Spong is in itself a fascinating picture of the age.”
Overthinking Imagine Dragons: A Parenting Story
I quite enjoyed Rebekah’s parenting story, and have also found her observation to be true: “It is a truth universally acknowledged that there are in fact two ideal circumstances in which to talk to your teen: At 11:00 at night, usually a school/work night when you are tired but your teen is wide awake, and Sitting side-by-side in the car, preferably when you (and not your teen) are driving so you can stare straight ahead and not make eye contact.”
Discerning the Carnival Mirror of Conflict
Erik Raymond: “Deconstructing relational conflict and misunderstandings over the years, it seems clear that we commonly see ourselves one way while others see us a bit differently. Like a carnival mirror, reflections can be distorted. Knowing this, it’s helpful to be aware of at least four available views during any interaction and one that is important to always keep in mind.”
Unexpected
“Pigs rush en masse down the steep bank. To their demise. Leaving one madman behind. Now clothed. Calm. Coherent. And in his right mind.”
The Rationale for Wrath
Is God wrong to have wrath toward humanity? Jim Elliff shows why wrath is right.
Does Reformed Theology Continue to Reform? (Video)
Joel Kim answers here.
The Snare of Subtweeting
“Over the past decade, a number of words have become part of our common social vocabulary, not least of which is the word subtweet. A subtweet is an indirect response to someone on social media. It is essentially a passive aggressive way of refuting a popular sentiment without wanting to come across as the guy who is always directly critiquing individuals online.”
Flashback: No Hand But His Ever Holds the Shears
Though we may not know why this branch has had to be trimmed or that one removed, we do know the one who wields the blade. We know his faultless wisdom, his perfect vision, his steady hand. We know he makes no mistakes.

There is a vast difference between being old in years and being old in mental and spiritual force. —Theodore Cuyler

This week the blog is sponsored by Reformation Heritage Books, with news of books that point children to Christ.

Is this a familiar scene? You go to a bookstore to buy a Christian children’s book as a gift, and what you find are plenty of titles that provide good moral lessons – but are they spiritual lessons? Are they specifically Christian lessons? Do they point children to Christ and the character and nature of God?
What follows is a transcript of a recent interview with Joel and Mary Beeke – the publishing duo behind books for both family worship and character building in our kids.
Hello, Joel and Mary. Tell us a little about what inspired you to write your new set of books, God and Me?
Joel: My dad originally said to me as a boy that when God saves someone, He puts into their heart the three jewels of faith, hope, and love, so we thought it was really important to do a series of books for young children on these three jewels—some of the basic fruits of salvation. This was important because very few books focus on a child’s need to be saved.
Mary: We want children to understand that – what does it mean to be saved?
Joel and Mary, how did you collaborate on this project? Did one of you take the lead?
Mary: I would say we came up with the ideas together. We brainstormed together for ideas about children’s books. We came up with this as the very first need. I then wrote the stories. Joel edited them and added the theological content, including the section for parents.
What makes God and Me different from other children’s books?
Mary: It pulls in the story at an everyday level—something that commonly happens in a child’s life. It puts that in the context of faith, hope, and love and some of the children’s struggles. Also, the really special thing is that it has two soul-searching questions at the end of each book. It also includes concise explanations that help the parents understand saving faith and then explain it to their children.
We wanted artwork that was a little more realistic. For us, cartoons are not quite as attractive for these important topics. Why treat something true like you would fiction? We went with watercolors that are nicely done. We hope this artwork attracts children to interact on a more personal level.
Joel: The goal is to be very realistic about their souls, their needs. Hopefully, as children read this with their parents, they are talking to them about the “one thing needful—” to be united with Christ by faith, hope, and love.

Okay, Joel and Mary, last question. Why is it important to teach children theology at a young age?
Mary: Because they have to be born again. They have to know God. That is the most critical need; children too must be born again. If they can be taught these basics of the Christian faith at a young age, it will help them to know the Lord and grow in the Lord.
Joel: We are also hoping to help them avoid the two extremes of easy believism and presumptive regeneration. We truly want parents to evangelize their children, their Covenant children. The Covenant does not mean that they are automatically saved; the Covenant does not replace the need to be born again.
Please pray with us that God will bless these books and use them to convert many children and maybe even your child as well as they wrestle with “Do I have faith, hope, and love as a fruit of the Spirit’s work in my soul? Have I been born again?”
Thank you, Joel and Mary.

A skillful poet once imagined Adam’s first evening in the Garden of Eden. He described the scene as Adam began to notice that the sun was sinking toward the horizon, that the shadows were growing long, that the light was getting dim. The first day was becoming the first night and Adam didn’t know what to expect—he had only ever known daylight. The poet imagined that as evening turned to dusk and as dusk faded into twilight, Adam might have assumed that darkness would pull a black veil across all the wonders of creation.

But Adam should not have been concerned. Here is what the poet says:

Yet ’neath a curtain of translucent dew,Bathed in the rays of the great setting Flame,Hesperus [Venus] with the Host of Heaven came,And lo! Creation widened on Man’s view.

When the light faded and the skies went dark, Adam learned that darkness did not actually conceal his view of creation but revealed it all the more because it unveiled the beauty of the night sky. The same sun that had opened Adam’s eyes to the flowers and trees, the birds and fish, had blinded his eyes to the stars and planets, the galaxies and constellations. It had to be dark for Adam to truly see.
Jesus once said something that sounds every bit as counter-intuitive: “Blessed are those who mourn.” He pronounced divine favor upon those whose souls have been saddened, God’s own approval upon those whose hearts have been broken. The path to joy does not avoid sorrow, according to Jesus, but leads directly through it. But not just any sorrow will do. Joy comes to those who experience a particular kind of sorrow—a deep remorse over their depraved hearts and defiled hands.
Such broken-hearted people stand in stark contrast to those who surround them. Each of us will some day be laid to rest in a cemetery, each of our lives encapsulated in the little dash that sits between the date of our birth and the date of our death. And so many are content to spend that brief threescore and ten mocking God and pursuing carnal pleasure, rejoicing in the things he hates and abhorring the things he loves. Nero sparked a fire that would consume his city, then laughed and played as he watched it all burn. And just so, the people of the kingdom of this world have set their lives ablaze and now watch with delight as they are consumed by it. “Eat, drink, and be merry, laugh and pursue every pleasure, for tomorrow we die.”
The blessings of this world are upon the mockers and laughers. “Blessed are those who are happy and who enjoy nothing but pleasure; blessed are those who are unfettered to pursue every desire of their hearts; blessed are those who are most authentically themselves and answer to no one else; blessed are those who laugh from the cradle to the grave.” Such is the benediction of the kingdom of this world.
But the blessing of the kingdom of heaven is upon those who have been deeply saddened. Blessed are those who mourn their sin, for they shall be comforted. Content are those who are aggrieved by their iniquity, for they shall be consoled. Happy are those who are sad that they are evil-doers, for their tears shall be dried. Joyful are those who are downcast over their rebellion, for they shall be raised up. The favor of God is upon those whose eyes are awash with tears, whose lives have been shattered, whose hearts have been broken—broken by their sin and sinfulness.
Just like the sun needed to set and the light needed to fade before Adam could see the glories of the heavens opened up before him, those who want to know spiritual light must first know spiritual darkness. To know the hand of comfort we need to know the pain of sorrow. To know the bright light of God’s blessing we must first know the dark shadow of our own depravity. For it is only when we admit who we truly are that God reveals what he truly loves to do, only when we admit ourselves to be lost that reveals himself as the one who saves.

Inspired by In Green Pastures by J.R. Miller

Good morning. May grace and peace be with you today.

(Yesterday on the blog: Richer Blood Than Ours)
What the Seasons Say
Glenna Marshall: “Sometimes I’ve wondered why God created things the way He did. Why day and night? Why four seasons? Why the divisions in days and years?” I like her answer.
God Is in the Details (Video)
You may enjoy this latest video from the John 10:10 Project.
For Better, for Worse…
“Last week I came across a remarkable story. Jean-Pierre Adams was a French footballer in the 1970s and 80s, and he passed away on the 6th September, aged 73. He was capped 22 times for France, and was part of a formidable defensive duo for the national side. He played over 250 games for Nice, Nimes and Paris Saint-Germain. But what makes this story remarkable is that for the past 39 years he has been in a coma, looked after tirelessly by his wife.”
Signaling Our Consumption
John Beeson: “We no longer just buy things. A choice to purchase your groceries at Whole Foods, to take your family to Chic-Fil-A, to wear Patagonia clothing, or eat Ben & Jerry’s ice cream communicates something to everyone watching. Brands are tripping over themselves to signal the loudest.”
You Need Christ to Put Your Sin to Death
Dane Ortlund writes about putting sin to death. “There is the kind of pain that comes to us without our permission—suffering, anguish, frustration, washing into our lives contrary to what we want or expect. But alongside this kind of pain in which we are passive is another kind of pain in which we are active. I refer to the age-old discipline that theologians call mortification.”
The Frustrating Paradox of Serving with an Amiable Autocrat
I appreciate this term: amiable autocrat. “It’s possible to be a pleasant tyrant. Nice dictators exist, at least in the leadership sense. I refer to these types of leaders in the church as amiable autocrats. Friendly church dictators rule from their positional authority. They order everyone around because their title enables them to do so, and they do it with a smile.”
Flashback: How To Lose Your Zeal for Christ
Are you zealous for Christ? Do you have a genuine zeal to live for him and to advance his cause in the world? Or have you lost the zeal that once marked you?

There is no lesson that husbands and wives need more to learn, than instantly and always to seek forgiveness of each other whenever they are conscious of having in any way caused pain or committed a wrong. —J.R. Miller

De Witt Talmage was considered a great preacher in his day, though it is rare to see him quoted or referenced in modern times. Still, I have benefited a lot by reading his sermons, and perhaps especially one he preached on Isaiah 52:3. He preached it at a time when many were objecting to the notion of atonement and to the necessity of an atonement of blood. Here is a brief, beautiful excerpt. It’s well worth reading it aloud.

Money is good for a great many things, but it can not do anything in this matter of the soul. You can not buy your way through. Dollars and pounds sterling mean nothing at the gate of mercy. If you could buy your salvation, heaven would be a great speculation, an extension of Wall Street. Bad men would go up and buy out the place, and leave us to shift for ourselves. But as money is not a lawful tender, what is?
I will answer: Blood! Whose? Are we to go through the slaughter? Oh, no; it wants richer blood than ours. It wants a king’s blood. It must be poured from royal arteries. It must be a sinless torrent.
But where is the king? I see a great many thrones and a great many occupants, yet none seem to be coming down to the rescue.
But after a while the clock of night in Bethlehem strikes twelve, and the silver pendulum of a star swings across the sky, and I see the King of Heaven rising up, and He descends, and steps down from star to star, and from cloud to cloud, lower and lower, until He touches the sheep-covered hills, and then on to another hill, this last skull-covered, and there, at the sharp stroke of persecution, a rill incarnadine trickles down, and we who could not be redeemed by money are redeemed by precious and imperial blood.

Whatever this weekend brings, may you know the Lord’s sweet blessings through it all.

(Yesterday on the blog: The Death of Porn)
Many Voices, One Song
I appreciate this reflection on the Sing! Conference and, beyond that, singing in general. “I’m writing this post because I don’t want a profound dynamic of this conference to be passed by without mention. It’s a truth we need to hear. Specifically, I want to encourage you as you head to church this Sunday to remember this repeated refrain from the conference this week. Here it is: Singing together about Christ strengthens our unity in Christ.”
God Has Satan on a Leash
“The internet is filled with memes. Some funny, others distasteful. Then there are theological memes. Many are quite accurate; others, however, are downright horrible. You may have one notable, cringeworthy meme. Jesus and Satan are having an arm wrestling match—we’re just not sure who has the upper hand! Eternity hangs in the balance; it’s a jump ball.” But nothing could be farther from the truth.
Be Like Adam?
“Isn’t it true that Adam is most often used as an example of what a husband should not be like?” True. Yet in this article we learn what he did right…
I ‘Just’ Do Ordinary Work
Daniel Doriani speaks to those who say they “just” do a certain job. “In some cases, alas, ‘I just’ can be accurate. The desperate and the greedy may just work for money. Workers who lack ambition may have no direction, so they just do as they are told. People even say ‘I just’ because their work has scant value and they know it.”
The Church Was Always International
“The thing is, we’ve been conditioned to believe that the Christian faith is essentially a Western phenomenon, Church history books tell us about the way that the faith moved from the Middle East, to Europe and then out to the rest of the world through the efforts of Western missionaries. It’s a great story – but it didn’t happen like that.” History is complicated that way.
Speaking Rightly About Our Beloved
“Having accurate theology about Christ is not the same as love for Christ, but if we love him we will always seek to speak rightly about him.”
Flashback: Sex Under Law, Sex Under Grace
Any sex outside of God’s good stipulations is sex under the terrible burden of law.

The most amazing perverseness in man is proven by the fact that he does not remember what God has so arranged that it would seem impossible that it should be forgotten. —William S. Plumer

There was a time, and it was not so very long ago, when the Christian world was tragically under-resourced when it came to books confronting pornography and the men who indulge in it. At that time just about any resource was better than nothing if only it would help men make headway against their addiction.* Today, though, we are extremely well-resourced when it comes to such works and a new book must have something unique to offer if it is going to displace or complement the other ones on the subject. I’m glad to report that Ray Ortlund’s The Death of Porn is just such a book.

The Death of Porn is a series of six letters from Ray Ortlund to younger men, or, if you prefer, from a father to a son. It is written in a way that is both paternal and pastoral, in a way that is both soft and firm, both encouraging and rebuking. “This book is not about you just getting polished up a bit here and there, making yourself more socially presentable. It’s about your heart finally daring to believe in your true royalty. It’s about the ‘real you’ gaining traction for new integrity, especially in honest brotherhood with other men. It’s about you, with other magnificent young men like you, building a new world of nobility, where both men and women can flourish.”
The words “royalty” and “nobility” are key. In his first letter, Ortlund explains the dignity God has given humanity by virtue of our special place in his creation as creatures made in his image. “Your identity—who you really are—is found in the King you represent. You are his royal ambassador to our broken world.” Not only that, but this royalty has been affirmed and restored to us through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
In the second letter, he turns his focus from men to women to show that they, as much as we, are royalty. “God created every woman with high dignity and immeasurable worth. Whether or not any woman herself believes it, this is still true: God created her for majesty. God is why she matters. And no one has the right to degrade her, since God has dignified her. Whoever a woman is in his sight—that’s what she’s really worth.” There are serious implications to this. “I’m asking you to change how you see that woman on the porn site. I’m not asking you to make anything up. I’m only asking you to accept the way God sees her. He is on her side. He is indignant at the ways she is objectified, monetized, and mistreated.”
And it is in this chapter that Ortlund begins to land some heavy blows, to pummel men with the sheer horror of what they do when they indulge in pornography. So here, for example, is his explanation of what a man tacitly says to a woman when he looks at her on that screen.

I don’t care about you. I don’t care about your personal story that got you onto this wretched porn site. I don’t care about what will happen to you when the filming is over—how you’ll drag yourself back to your apartment and get drunk just to stop feeling the pain. I don’t care about what you’ll be facing tomorrow, which will be yet another day of this torment. I don’t want to know what you’re suffering. I don’t even want to know your name. You don’t matter. All that matters here is me. And not the ‘royal me’ God created but the predatory me, the masturbatory me, the urge-of-the-moment me, the selfish me that Satan is robbing of life, even as I rob you of life. So whoever you are there on the screen—I’ll click over to some other victim soon, but you just keep up the show, okay? Keep smiling while you’re abused. Keep it up, while I masturbate and masturbate and masturbate, because nothing about me or you really matters anyway.

He pulls no punches: “If you look at porn, be honest enough to say to God, ‘Today I entertained myself with sexual exploitation,’ or ‘Today I joined in the abuse of a woman,’ or ‘Today I watched her degradation for my pleasure,’ or ‘Today I took my stand against you and with Satan.’”
Yet he does not fail to offer hope, for in his third letter he shows that Jesus, too, is royalty, and that “he is better at saving than we are at sinning.” He is eager to forgive us our sins and to transform our desires and deeds.
The final three letters turn from the characters (men, women, Jesus) to imagining a much better future. This is where he gets very practical in encouraging men to turn from freeing themselves from porn to freeing others, to work together in true brotherhood, and to tackle this issue not just in their own lives but in the church and wider society. His encouragements in the area of confessing sin, prayer, and receiving God’s healing are as good as any I’ve read.
His book is unique in its format, unique in its writing, and unique in its authorship. Ortlund is not a younger man joining with his peers to offer them a soft shoulder, but an older man who is pleading with those who are younger to embrace who they most truly are in Christ. And sometimes slapping them down. He writes with love, with firmness, with the best kind of intensity.
“Here’s what I ask you to remember all along the way,” he says. Your battle against porn isn’t about porn. It isn’t about sex. It isn’t about willpower. Your battle is about hope. It’s about your heart believing that in spite of your many sins—like my many sins—God rejoices to give you a future you can scarcely dream of. You’ll win your fight by believing that God’s love for you is too great to be limited to what you deserve.” Indeed. I hope many men, young and old, take the time to read The Death of Porn and let it transform their lives.
(Note: While the use of pornography is by no means limited to men, they are the audience for this particular work.)

Buy from Amazon

Grace and peace to you today.

There are a few books discounted for Kindle today, and I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen any of these titles on sale before.
Pride (in the Name of Love)
Jared Wilson: “Jesus was perfect, and yet he did not look down on others. I am ridiculously imperfect, but I do look down on others. Jesus was perfectly holy, and yet was not arrogant. I am frustratingly unholy, but I am arrogant a lot. Like, a lot. I am not Jesus. But I do want to be like him.”
The Ends and the Means
Seth Lewis considers how small things can lead to big things. “A quiet phone call. That’s all it would take, and no one would know the difference. Except me. And my wife. And our friend. And God.”
There Is Power in Counting It All Joy
Paul Tautges: “To ‘count it all joy’ does not refer to being happy about the trial itself. Nor does it take away your permission to grieve. James is not saying, ‘No matter how painful your loss is, you need to just put on a happy face. Pretend, if you have to. Don’t let anyone see how much you hurt.’ No! True joy is not a spiritual façade.”
Trojan Horse Christians
“Satan will allow you to avoid all kinds of temptation if you continue to believe the lie that your moral life is the reason you have God’s acceptance. The enemy loves it when we build our monuments and look in amazement upon them. The problem with wooden horses is that they burn. They will not stand on the day of judgment.”
Say It, Even if It’s Been Said Before
This is true and worth considering: “The reality is, content you write today will be written again by someone tomorrow. It has probably already been written by someone before you. There is nothing new under the sun. Being faithful to God and encouraging others is more important than being on the cutting edge of a given topic.”
Why Waiting is Good News
Though we are impatient people, there is value in waiting. “Waiting reminds us that although we have agency, we are not ultimately in control. For those of us who find value in achieving, working hard, and crossing off tasks on our to-do lists, waiting can push us into a tailspin as it unhooks the lynchpin between who we are and what we do.”
Flashback: The Bit of Heaven the Heaven Tourism Books Never Touched
Heaven is the place where there is no trace of sin. In fact, the joys of heaven are dependent on sinlessness.

If we get a discouraged man to take heart again, and to set out bravely to fight his own battles and carry his own burdens we have done him a far greater kindness than if we had fought his battles and carried his burdens for him. —J.R. Miller