May the Lord be with you and bless you today.

On sale at Westminster Books this week is an excellent new daily devotional from Alistair Begg.
Brothers Indeed
I very much enjoyed this dispatch from afar.
The Middle Years
Melissa often makes me laugh. “The middle years, where any guess about my age is likely to be wrong one way or the other, depending on ridiculous things like how much water I’ve been drinking or how much I spent on my current anti-aging moisturizer.”
The Grief of Finite Joy
“Somehow my oldest child is a freshman in high school. As I’ve experienced those where-did-the-time-go emotions that come with such minor milestones, I’ve started to feel a deep, preemptive loss.”
Public Health After Christendom
This is quite an interesting look at how public health is likely to change in a post-Christian era. “It is my contention that public health should be recognized for what it has become, not what it set out to be.”
How to Spot a Personality Cult
Mark Hampton: “In the modern West the church has an issue with its public image. With the rise of digital media and heightened technophilia, the image we often present to the world is not Christ but ourselves. We build up mini-celebrities in Jesus’s name, calling for the world to follow along. At times, whether Jesus is actually glorified can become negligible.”
Should I Choose a Church for Its Pastor?
Mark Dever says  that “if you are looking for a good church, the role of the preacher of God’s Word is the most important thing to consider. I don’t care how friendly you think the church members are. I don’t care how good you think the music is. Those things can change. But the congregation’s commitment to the centrality of the Word coming from the front, from the preacher, the one specially gifted by God and called to that ministry, is the most important thing you can look for in a church.”
Flashback: Four Categories to “Act the Miracle”
So much of the Christian life comes down to the matter of identity. At heart, who are we? Who or what has the right to define us? What is our deepest identity?

Spiritual work is taxing work, and men are loath to do it. Praying, true praying, costs an outlay of serious attention and of time, which flesh and blood do not relish. —E.M. Bounds

The great general had led his troops to a hard-fought but resounding triumph on the field of battle. With the enemy army now vanquished and scattered, he rallied his regiments to press on toward the capital where they would secure the final victory. And though the men marched briskly, he urged them to still greater speed. In their haste, they began to toss aside whatever was superfluous, whatever was redundant, whatever was unnecessary. Soon the road was littered with all that would burden them and slow their progress, for they knew that with their conquest would come honor, home, and rest.

We have left behind one year and entered into another. And with our cries of “happy new year,” with our cheers and hugs, each of us took one more step toward our final victory. We are one hour, one day, one month, one year closer to the end of our days, the end of our march. And the nearer we approach our destination, the more we long to arrive, the more we long to be in that place of triumph, that place of ease.
In the great march that is the Christian life, the passing of the years ought to be marked by what has been laid aside, by what has been taken off and tossed away. As we progress toward our destination, our pathway ought to be strewn with the sins, weights, transgressions, and burdens that slowed our steps, that thwarted our advance. Tossed in the ditch beside the roadway should be the fear of man that tempted us to honor man instead of God. Trodden underfoot should be the lust that tempted us to forsake purity in favor of adultery. Left in the dust should be the love of money that almost swayed our hearts to store up treasures on earth rather than in heaven.
In this way, as the years pass by, our steps become lighter rather than heavier, easier rather than harder. Though the way is narrow, though the way is sometimes rough, though the path forward is sometimes hard to discern, still our march grows more steady, our step more confident, for we have unburdened ourselves of so much of what would hinder us and impede our progress.
And so, as we consider the path that leads through 2022, as we consider the city that lies just beyond the distant horizon, may we resolve to make our step light in the year ahead, may we resolve to make our way as easy as possible, and not by cheating or by shortcuts, but by stripping ourselves of every sin, every weight, every hindrance. May we resolve to divest ourselves even of needless extravagances that might get in the way of our momentum. And may we tread our way with a heart that is free, a step that is light, and a heart that is set on what is true and lasting and eternal. May we walk and jog and run and sprint to our triumph, to our home, to our rest. May we do it all for the great joy that is set before us.

Inspired in part by the works of F.B. Meyer

My gratitude goes to the kind soul who, in the middle of the night, braved the -22 weather to deliver a Voddie Baucham tract to our home and the others in the neighborhood! It’s genuinely much appreciated.

(Yesterday on the blog: When the Battlefield Goes Quiet)
Toward a Better Discussion about Abuse
I appreciate Kevin DeYoung’s attempt here to nudge Christians toward a better discussion about abuse. “Depending on a whole host of factors—one’s personality, position, experience, or context—we tend to see the present dangers leading in different directions. For some, the most pressing concern is obviously that abuse is perpetrated, minimized, and covered up in the church. For others, there is another concern, that abuse is becoming a totalizing category and that even the accusation of abuse takes down everyone and everything in its path.”
Did Bathsheba Sin with David?
John Piper answers an important question about David and Bathsheba. “I think there are pointers that David exerted a kind of pressure on her to warrant the accusation of rape … I see two indications that David threw his weight around — threw his power, his influence, his position — in such a way as to force her, apart from and against her commitment to her husband, to have sex with him.”
What Grace Does God Give the Humble?
“Someone told me recently that God has been humbling him through some circumstances of his life, and I told him that’s a good place to be because God gives grace to the humble. So he asked, ‘What does that mean? What does grace look like for the humble?’” That’s a valid question.
White Savior
I have been benefitting from this series by Dave and Stacey Hare on “why are the laborers few?” In this one they address the fear of being labeled a “white savior.”
Don’t Date That Guy
Melissa pleads with young women not to go down a dangerous road. “How does it happen that so many Christian women marry men who aren’t believers? In some cases, they were both lost at the time that they dated and married. But, so often it’s a different story…”
How big was the Tonga eruption?
This is a wonderful illustration of the sheer size of the recent volcanic eruption in Tonga.
Flashback: When the Mormons Come Calling
They offer salvation by works, but God offers salvation by grace. This is the difference between heaven and hell.

The greatest sorrow and burden you can lay on the Father, the greatest unkindness you can do to him, is not to believe that he loves you. —R.J.K. Law