I noticed yesterday that the Grace and Truth Study Bible (edited by Al Mohler with notes by many professors at SBTS) is on sale in both print and Kindle editions—at up to 70% off. It is available in multiple cover styles in both NIV and NASB. Click here to see all the options.

Today’s Kindle deals include more excellent books. At the top of the list is probably the commentary on Mark. Also consider Dever’s The Church and Wax’s Rethink Your Self. On the general market side, Nicholas Carr’s Superbloom is brand new and already heavily discounted.

TGC has a helpful article about John Mark Comer and what he teaches, especially about a Rule of Life. “From my vantage point as a Gen Z Christian, it seems Comer is the most influential figure for evangelicals my age. Of course, this comes with much praise … and criticism …. But whatever we think of Comer, we should try to understand why he’s so popular.”

David Prince draws a helpful lesson from the career of Madison Keys. “She felt like winning a Grand Slam was the only way to validate her career. Keys entered the match under the shadow of everyone’s expectations since she was eleven years old. By her admission, after the loss, she was riddled with self-doubts. Will I ever do it? If I never do it, will my career be a failure?”

Stephen reminds us that sheep and wolf are not the only two categories the Bible offers us for people who are (or were) in a church. “We have to be careful that we don’t assume everyone who evidently shows themselves not to be sheep must, therefore, be a wolf. The Bible speaks of another category of person who will exist in the church too…”

This article asks whether witchcraft, and especially the kind practiced in African Traditional Religion, is real.

“Proverbs are often merely observational. If you literally avoid all conflict, you turn into a resentful doormat. But there are many times you’d be better off to say nothing at all. There’s two reasons for that.”

This article describes the sweetness of repentance and also helpfully distinguishes between two different forms of it. “Many of us may recoil at the thought of repentance. Indeed, it can at times feel supremely painful. Nonetheless, God is supremely good, kind, and merciful to demand of us repentance; it is the very healing of our souls. He is holy, holy, holy, utterly good and righteous, and as such He alone knows the true destruction that comes about because of sin.”

We knock to ensure we are waiting, to ensure we are ready, to ensure we will go to be with the Lord we love.

God does not plan salvation and leave it up to us, hoping we will believe and persevere to the end. No, God’s grace gives us every assurance that what he planned he will accomplish in us. He is that sovereign.
—Matthew Barrett

May the Lord be with you and bless you today.

The highlight of today’s Kindle deals is probably Stephen McAlpine’s Futureproof. Also well worth a look are The Surprising Genius of Jesus and Truth on Fire (and others as well, of course—I wouldn’t include them if they weren’t good!).

(Yesterday on the blog: Lots of Single Christians but Few Weddings)

There are lots of good thoughts here for those who may be considering leaving one church for another close by. “I live in a large city in the United States, and local church options are plentiful. This means that, when a problem arises in your current church, or you disagree with the direction of the church, or you just feel like a change, it’s possible to attend elsewhere. Is this okay?”

I really enjoyed this article about the master of the nets.

How do we stop drifting from the gospel? How do we even know we’re drifting? In Lest We Drift, Jared C. Wilson discusses the potentials and problems with evangelical departures from gospel-centrality. You’ll learn how to recognize signs of drift and how to navigate the top five dangers prevalent in the church today.  (Sponsored)

Tim Barnett challenges a clip floating around the internet that attempts to make Christians look stupid.

Jared Compton considers those who have finished their race and suggests that “In their post-race interview, they’d want you to know that the race is possible. What else are we to make of the fact that they made it? But they’d also want you to know how. If we asked them that, I suspect they’d smile, perhaps pause to wipe some sweat off their face, and then begin talking about heaven. Here’s what they might say.”

There is more than one way to deny the faith, says Stephen Kneale. In fact, broadly speaking, there are two.

“Can you imagine a house designed by the inventor of physics? Can you think of the spires thrown up by the God who dreamed up mountain peaks, or the public squares laid out by the One who came up with the idea of meadows?” It is good to imagine the home God has prepared for those who love him.

There are many strategies for coping with anxiety and each can be effective in its own way. But I am partial to one I came across in a dusty old book from a different era. Anxiety, after all, has plagued every generation of Christians.

It was Satan who first corrupted God’s word by addition, then by subtraction, and then finally by direct contradiction.
—Michael Horton

I find it one of the great mysteries of the modern church. It does not exist in every context and every congregation, but as I’ve traveled and inquired, I’ve become convinced it exists in a great many of them. Here is the mystery: A lot of churches have many single men and many single women who wish to be married, but are not marrying one another. There are lots of single Christians but not a lot of weddings.

Greg Morse recently wrote an article for Desiring God titled Go Get Her: To Men Delaying Marriage which spurred me to think and write about this subject. Morse’s article is an urgent call to young men to stop delaying and instead begin pursuing a wife. But as much as I generally appreciate what Morse says, there is another side to the issue that I consider equally important: From what I have observed, young women may not be a whole lot more eager to marry than young men—at least, to marry the young men who are available to them. Hence, both young men and young women in our churches apparently want to be married, but in many cases, they don’t seem to want to be married to one another. If you speak to the men they are likely to place responsibility on the women (“They won’t accept our advances”) while the women are likely to place responsibility on the men (“Suitable men won’t ask us out”). So even if the young men do heed Morse’s call, I’m not convinced it will ultimately prove effective.

I have tried to understand this phenomenon, so have spoken to young adults, pastors, and parents about an impasse that, if not universal, does seem to be common. I have learned there are a few possible factors in play. In the first draft of this article, I wrote about each of these at length, but then decided it may better to cover them just briefly.

Before I do so, let me acknowledge that, as has always been the case, there are some people who simply have not been able to find a suitable spouse despite their desires and their efforts—people who have experienced the hard providence that God, in his wisdom, has not provided what they long for. Not all singleness is related to what I am about to list.

With that in mind, here are some potential factors that may make marriage especially challenging today.

The ubiquity of pornography has made men and women fear one another and fear the possibility of either marrying a porn addict or having to deal with a recovering one.

Many women, especially in urban settings, have attained greater educational or vocational success than the men around them and it is a general rule (though certainly not a universal one) that when this happens men can consider women above them and women can consider men beneath them.

Many women are well-established in the workforce and do not need a husband to provide for them in ways that may have been true in years past.

Christians can fall into the “soulmate myth” that there is just one person out there for them to marry and that a marriage can only be successful when they are certain they have found that one individual.

Fertility technologies allow women to delay childbearing, and therefore delay marriage, into their thirties or even forties. While Christians may not advocate the use of such technologies, the ethos of delaying marriage and family has seeped deeply into society and from there into the church.

Christians have heard messages about marriage being difficult and they may not see how the potential benefits and pleasures of marriage outweigh the drawbacks and difficulties.

Churches can make dating weird by attaching too much weight to the earliest stages of a relationship, thus causing people to shy away from relationships at all instead of risking a breakup that will become a source of gossip.

I’m sure there are many other factors, but these are ones I have both heard and observed.

Teaching

I have kept what I consider the most significant factor for the end because I believe it merits the greatest consideration. And often you find that the simplest explanation is the most likely.

I believe the church has not done a great job of teaching whether marriage is to be desired more than singleness or singleness is to be desired more than marriage. Or to say it another way, the church has not faithfully taught whether men and women generally should marry or whether they should prefer to remain single. Note the word should, which implies some level of moral obligation before the Lord.

In previous generations it may have been taken for granted that men and women would naturally pair up and marry off and, indeed, circumstances made marriage a near-necessity. Churches did not need to teach whether people should marry or should stay single because they generally married out of need. But not so today.

Aside from all that I’ve listed above there is this: As people grow up immersed in modern Western culture—as they learn in its schools, swipe through its socials, and watch its media—they gain cultural assumptions and expectations, many of which counter what Christians have long taken for granted. An older generation considers marriage normal and singleness odd; a new generation considers singleness normal and marriage odd. That may be a slight overstatement of the issue, but probably only slight.

An older generation considers marriage normal and singleness odd; a new generation considers singleness normal and marriage odd.Share

Thus churches need to teach. They need to teach whether God generally wants his people to get married, if he generally wants his people to remain single, or if he has no opinion on the matter. They need to teach whether it is still generally true that “it is not good for the man to be alone” and that mankind is to “be fruitful and multiply.” They need to teach whether in this New Testament era God now prefers for his people to remain single. They need to teach so people can know!

I am convinced that few young Christians today could confidently answer questions like these:

Does God still mean for humanity to be fruitful and multiply?

Is it God’s general will for most people most of the time that they pursue marriage?

Is singleness superior to marriage? Is marriage superior to singleness?

Is a life of chosen and deliberate singleness—not the kind that involves being utterly sold out to a life of mission and service, but the kind that involves living a more standard workaday Western life—pleasing to God to the same degree as being married?

Is marriage a kind of consolation plan for those who are emotionally unable to handle being single or sexually unable to handle being chaste?

And perhaps even a question as simple as this: What is marriage and why does it matter?

I don’t mean to tip my cards toward the answers I might offer, but simply to state that these are foundational questions for which I think few young believers today could confidently provide compelling, biblical answers.

Conclusion

I believe it would be fitting and helpful for churches to lead the way in teaching and preaching on these matters. This would then help young Christians better understand God’s will regarding marriage and singleness and help them align their expectations with his. It would spur them to confidently pursue marriage or singleness to God’s glory. And maybe in one way or another, it would bring clarity to the mystery that has perplexed both me and others.

The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you on this fine day.

Westminster Books is having a Winter Clearance Sale. That means they have 700+ books on sale at up to 70% off. These are all books they love but simply have too many of.

Today’s Kindle deals include titles for those who doubt, those who are going through a time of grief, and those who just wanted to read a good book. On the general market side, today only the first volume of Edmund Morris’ magisterial biography of Theodore Roosevelt is on sale.

It is good to be encouraged by what appears to be a societal vibe shift, yet we also need to be sure we are thinking about it properly. “Hell will be populated by conservatives and progressives, each gnashing their teeth at God for his refusal to align with their vibe. No amount of ‘wowing’ at Wes Huff will save Joe Rogan. He has to repent and believe the gospel. It would be terrible if what we experienced in the era before the negative world kicked in, were to repeat itself.”

John Beeson offers thanks to some of those precious church members who are known for being gracious.

Trevin Wax foresees a time when “gentle parenting” crashes. When it does, he thinks there will be a special opportunity for the gospel. “The church will have a major opportunity in the years ahead, as young people come of age having been raised under the philosophy of gentle parenting—with its emphasis on safeness, social niceties, and emotional self-expression, and its erasing of sin, evil, judgment, and redemption.”

“A critical spirit goes deeper than tiny distractions, and not only does it drag others down, but it is a heavy burden for us to carry. These threads of self-protection, fear, and control form a cord of three strands that leave us bound in habitual unhappiness.” Been there, done that, sadly.

John Sartelle has a strong article here about maturity. “She was thirteen years old, but she was wearing a tight-fitting dress more appropriate for a woman of thirty. The color of her handbag matched her high heels. She was not a child playing dressup. She was a teen trying to appear older, saying, ‘Look at me; I am a beautiful and seductive nineteen-year-old.’ That scene took place fifty years ago, but I recall that sad image whenever I see anyone with a false understanding of what it means to be mature.”

Lauren Whitman offers help to women who may be struggling with postpartum depression and anxiety.

 Though our eyes fill with tears when we sink to the valleys, don’t they also fill with tears when we soar to the heights? Maybe then, just maybe, such tears will still fill our eyes when we stand before that throne, when we gain a sight of that Lamb, when we join our voices to sing of that salvation. 

To follow Jesus is to pay the cost of discipleship, and then to die to ourselves, to our own interests, our own agendas and reputations. It is to pick up our crosses and count the cost of losing all that contradicts his will and his way…
—Os Guinness

Today’s Kindle deals include all kinds of good books. We’re being spoiled so far this month! Pastors will benefit from The Shepherd Leader; academics will enjoy Divine Impassibility; general readers will enjoy books on Catholicism, discipleship, and freedom from lust.

(Yesterday on the blog: The Continental Divide of Doctrine)

This is quite the long and interesting article! It explains a new kind of idealism the author calls Gay Space Fascism. “A potent mixture of technophilic transhumanism, social traditionalism (within limits), and Nietzschean vitalism, the rise of Gay Space Fascism can ultimately be traced back to one man: Peter Thiel.”

A few years ago the church needed to be reminded that depression and anxiety are not necessarily caused by sin. Casey McCall believes that today the pendulum has swung so far that we need to be reminded that depression and anxiety actually may be caused by sin.

“In 2024, Oxford’s Word of the Year was ‘brain rot’—a term that perfectly captures the endless scrolling and shallow consumption that have dulled our ability to think critically. And while it might be tempting to accept the common ‘kids these days’ generational snobbery and resign ourselves to a future as helpless, anxious, doomscrolling victims, I want to encourage us to see this as an opportunity.”

Rachel uses chopping onions (without causing tears) as a helpful metaphor.

John Piper answers what is actually quite a common question: Should Christians read fiction that involves magic and sorcery such as Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter?

This article holds up the priority of humility in leadership. “How many church leaders wake up every morning and plead with the Lord to save their ministry from themselves? Probably not many. We tend to underestimate the pervasive, pernicious, and powerful presence of pride in our hearts and to undernourish the grace of humility. As a result our self-confidence grows.”

A friend of mine recently went to be with the Lord after enduring a long battle with leukemia. In his final weeks, as his strength slowly faded away, he told his family that he wished he could write a book titled What To Do While You Wait To Die. 

The fear of God is the death of every other fear; like a mighty lion, it chases all other fears before it.
—C.H. Spurgeon

This week the blog is sponsored by P&R Publishing.

You may have a burden for the lost and a desire to learn to defend your faith but can’t see yourself becoming a philosopher or scientist to do so. I have good news. You don’t have to!

Being a good evangelist or apologist does not require you to obtain an academic degree or read obscure texts. Jesus never commanded his disciples to go to Athens to learn at the feet of philosophers in order to reach the world. While knowing a little about philosophy, science, and other fields of study may help, extensive knowledge in these areas is not necessary. Ordinary Christians can become skilled and effective evangelists. 

Whatever your background, you can learn to defend the faith, share the gospel, shake the unbelief of non-Christians, present the Christian worldview, and lead people to saving faith in Jesus Christ.

“Marvelously clear, practical, and emboldening. Excellent guidance for anyone who seeks to be more faithful and effective in gospel advance.” —Fred G. Zaspel

Being a good evangelist or apologist does not require you to obtain an academic degree or read obscure texts.Share

That is what this book is all about: equipping you with the confidence and skills you need to fulfill the Great Commission (Matt. 28:19–20), give an answer to those who question you (1 Peter 3:15–16), and declare the mystery of Christ (Col. 4:3–4). If you simply want to reach your unbelieving neighbors, friends, coworkers, family members, and classmates, this book is for you!

Use coupon code EBC25 at checkout.

Buy Every Believer Confident (50% OFF) from P&R. 

A journey into the Rocky Mountains of Western Canada brought me to Vermilion Pass, a single point that divides two national parks and two provinces. It also divides two watersheds, for it stands upon the continental divide. To one side of this spot all waters flow west and eventually find their way to the vast Pacific; to the other side, all waters flow east and eventually empty into the cold Atlantic. To both sides are countless springs, countless snowmelts, countless glaciers, each one the headwaters of a creek, stream, or river that eventually joins with others and makes its way steadily toward one of these two great oceans.

In the decades that I’ve been a Christian, I’ve been told of many doctrines, many convictions, and many movements that represent the theological equivalent of a continental divide. Flowing to the one side of this issue are the faithful and to the other side the unfaithful. To the one side is the standing church and to the other side the falling church. To the one side is the godly remnant holding firm and to the other the great host of compromisers who are crumbling away. The implication is that if we don’t get a certain issue exactly right, we have set ourselves on the side of evil and will eventually be swept into the ocean of iniquity. Not only that, but we need to quickly separate ourselves from those who are moving in the opposite direction.

I face such divides with an increasing sense of skepticism. Though many claim that this issue or that issue is so important that it must be the basis of division, that it marks the point of disfellowship, I have my doubts. That’s not to say that nothing is true and nothing is false. It’s not to say that we ought to live in a kind of theological relativism or be content with a mushy middle. But it is to say that many people have a vested interest in making such claims. It is the claimants as much as the claims that warrant skepticism.

Bullies abound. Hyperbole sells. Exaggeration earns attention. Alarmism is a well-proven tactic. While nobody is interested in buying a book or attending a conference that deals with the third-most-pressing issue of our times, many will invest time and money in one that deals with the issue that will define the era. No conference Q&A has ever asked about issues that are perfectly settled and agreed on by all Christians, but many focus on issues that mark disagreement and division. A discernment blog is likely to rise through the ranks much faster than an encouragement blog. Many a podcaster or YouTuber has forged a career by claiming this issue, then that one, then the other, is the one that must divide the few from the many, the true from the false. Though some of them may be right some of the time, most of them are wrong most of the time.

Bullies abound. Hyperbole sells. Exaggeration earns attention. Alarmism is a well-proven tactic.Share

Every now and again a new issue does arise that demands careful examination and deep thought. Some issues are so pressing that it is right for Christians to gather to discuss them and come to an agreement on what is true and what is false. But most of the true “continental divide” issues have long since been settled. Thus we do well to ground ourselves in the long history of the Christian church and her creeds and confessions. Most of what needs to divide us has already been determined long ago and agreed upon by centuries of believers. Most of the rest demands patience, time, and persuasion more than haste, censure, and separation.

Meanwhile, the great issue of this day and every day is whether God’s people will be holy and united, whether we will speak true with love and love according to truth. It is whether we will be led by the Spirit working through the Word or whether we will be led by people of poor character working through new media. There are many people who will create new divisions or widen existing divisions in the name of Christ but for the good of themselves, the enriching of their pockets, or the widening of their influence. Too many of the church’s agendas are set by people who are following the devil’s agenda—his agenda of chaos, division, and separation.

Satan’s great genius has always been to place his agents within the church. While we keep a wary eye on the world and the culture, they are often ravaging the believers behind our backs. Paul’s warning to the Ephesians elders should sober us all and amplify our vigilance: “From among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them” (Acts 20:30). I plead with you for the sake of your spiritual well-being, for the sake of the unity of Christ’s church, and for the sake of giving the best of our attention to the Commission Christ has given us, to expect that the worst of our enemies will come from within. It’s very possible they will be wearing the guise of angels of light … or the guise of experts on discernment (2 Corinthians 11:14).

Good morning. Grace and peace to you.

Logos users, be sure to look at this month’s free book (a free commentary, actually). There are some other good deals to be had as well. You also have access to a coupon code (SAVEMORE) that will get you escalating discounts based on how much you spend.

Today’s Kindle deals include several excellent books written specifically for women and a whole lot else. If you didn’t check in over the weekend, it would be worth scrolling down to February 1 to see all the deals from Saturday.

What are some of the subtle strategies Satan might use against churches today? “Today, a journey into our imaginations. Let’s apply some of the devil’s strategies to today’s leaders. Your aim as a faithful demon? To destroy the spiritual health of a local church. How would you go about this?”

Christian parents will find help here. “We want our kids to thrive and flourish. Of course, God’s revealed will need to measure this, not us or the surrounding culture. Ultimately our desire is for our kids to love God with all they are—heart, soul, mind, and strength—and love others as they love themselves.”

This article about sports betting is written primarily for overseas workers, but it may prove useful to everyone else as well.

Leonardo De Chirico writes about the movie Conclave which I expect you’ve heard of by now.

I really enjoyed this look at nine things we wouldn’t know without Colossians 4.

“Why should we concern ourselves with global missions when there is so much pressing ministry to do at home? This question, recently thrust into the public eye, has drawn both criticism and praise. But it is not a new question.”

However you go about it, learn to communicate, to speak candidly, honestly, and lovingly, about the intimacy you share.

Biblical orthodoxy without compassion is surely the ugliest thing in the world.
—Francis Schaeffer

It is no great feat to convince another person of a lie. Because other people cannot see our inner selves, they are easily deceived. But as we pray to God, we pray to one who knows our innermost thoughts, our innermost desires, our innermost longings. We pray to one who knows us far better than we know ourselves.

God weighs the heart (Proverbs 21:2), he knows the heart (1 Samuel 16:7), he searches the heart Jeremiah 17:10), he observes the secrets of the heart (Psalm 44:21), and he even discerns the thoughts and intentions of the heart (Hebrews 4:12). Nothing is hidden from his sight. Rather, “all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account” Hebrews 4:13).

That being the case, we ought to pray with honesty. We ought to put aside any thoughts of deceiving God or being less than honest with God. There is no benefit to mouthing words that do not reflect our hearts. But there is great benefit in honestly telling God our every struggle, our every temptation, our every desire, and asking him to extend to us his grace and his mercy.

So when you pray, pray with honesty. God knows it all anyway!

Good morning! My gratitude goes to the D3 Youth Conference for sponsoring the blog this week. D3 believes in challenging students with the truth of the Bible, encouraging them to ask questions, and equipping them with resources and community to live out those truths. Be sure to consider their upcoming conference and camps!

There are lots of new Kindle deals today since it’s the beginning of a new month.

(Yesterday on the blog: The Futility of Motherhood)

Jake Meador offers some thoughts on the new rise of the right-wing exvangelical. “If left exvangelicals sought to keep Jesus but dispense with the church, right exvangelicals are following a similar trajectory, but from the other side of the political spectrum. This causes the right exvangelical to end up mirroring the left exvangelical, as it were: Start with right-wing politics circa 2025 and then come to Christianity after you’ve already committed to the political vision of the American right.”

“Although we often like to equate God’s goodness with protection from storms coming into our lives, God shows us that his goodness is actually the provision to strengthen and grow us up in him to withstand the storms of life and make us into God-glorifying oaks of righteousness.”

Katie Hulse: “Such a vast amount of coincidences required to permit life exceeds the bounds of credibility. Instead, it speaks of design. The evidence we have suggests that advanced physical life doesn’t exist elsewhere in the universe—unless, of course, it’s the result of purposeful design.”

This article from David Mathis is for young men who aspire to preach but doubt their own abilities. It should offer a challenge and some confidence.

I’m glad to see this celebration of the associate pastor. “Those of us who serve as associate pastors occupy a unique and strategically vital position in church leadership—one that requires strength and humility, wisdom and submission. The art of being ‘second’ isn’t merely about accepting a subordinate role; it’s about embracing a divine calling that, when executed well, multiplies the effectiveness of our churches’ leadership teams.”

Yes, Christians do care a lot about submission to authority, don’t they? Jonathan Leeman explains why this is such an important issue.

In their research, they listened to countless stories of deconstruction, read the books and Twitter threads, watched a host of TikTok videos, and even met with some of its foremost proponents. They made certain that they understood the issue before they addressed it.

Men’s ideas of the wrath to come may be judged of by the earnestness with which they exhort others to fly from it.
—J.C. Ryle