May the Lord be with you and bless you today.

Westminster Books has a deal on an interesting new academic-level book.
Today’s Kindle deals include a few interesting titles.
The Elephant’s Trunk (Video)
This is a really neat video about the elephant’s trunk—a masterpiece of design.
Problems with Preferred Pronouns
“All we’re being asked to do is change one word. It’s a simple request. Just use a different pronoun. It might seem like a no-brainer for a believer to comply. Why cause unnecessary tension by refusing a request to be courteous?” Alan Shlemon gives a list of problems with ceding to preferred pronouns.
What Happened to the God-fearing Leaders?
In Leading from the Foundation Up, David Cook and Shane Parker offer the only book focused on Christian leadership philosophy and practice rooted in reverential awe. (Sponsored Link)
Delighting in the Trinity
“Love for others, then, cannot go very deep in them if they can go for eternity without it. And so, not being essentially loving, such gods are inevitably less than lovely. They may demand our worship, but they cannot win our hearts. They must be served with gritted teeth. How wonderfully different it is with the triune God.”
Not afraid of bad news
Here’s an explanation of how the righteous do not need to be afraid of bad news.
To Confront or Not to Confront? That Is the Question
“In everyday life, there are interactions with loved ones that are difficult. Issues of life that are impacted by personal sin and hardships create tension in relationships and could directly harm others. The question often asked is, ‘Should I confront this issue or overlook it?’ That is a good question, and as we look to the Bible for God’s revelation on the issue, there seems to be visible tension on how to answer it.”
The Inefficient Church
“I’m all for certain kinds of efficiency. I just placed an online order to save a trip to the store. But I’m for the right kind of inefficiency: the inefficiency of caring enough to slow down and treat people like people, to know their names, and to actually care.” But ministry can’t be efficient…
Flashback: The King Is Within Earshot
If you would simply consider how much God loves that other person, you would never speak ill of him. If you would consider the work God has accomplished for that person and in that person, you would only ever speak words that esteem him.

The righteous are those who are willing to disadvantage themselves for the advantage of others, the wicked are those who are willing to advantage themselves at the disadvantage of others. —Bruce Waltke

Grace and peace to you on this fine day.
(Yesterday on the blog: The Soundtrack of Heaven)

I think this is well worth considering. “When we pine for what we consider to be the relatively cut and dry, clear-thinking days in which we grew up, or for certain holiness-minded epochs of church history we read about, we might be revealing that our evaluation of the present is less Scripturally studied than we think, and that our understanding of the past suffers the same lack of Scriptural perspective.”

I appreciate Stephie’s perspective on missions here, and the way she tells of God’s unexpected work.

“One of the reasons Christians run away is because they begin to think they are unique. Not special (though of course that does happen), but often people begin to think they are more broken than other people. Satan whispers, ‘no one will understand,’ and you begin to believe it. I’m writing today to remind you, you are not the only one.”

Dave explains and illustrates the danger that can come when we spend too much time and effort [wrongly] interpreting our circumstances.

The Bible instructs us to pray “that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.” Mitch takes a look at that kind of prayer and what we’re actually asking for.

We all sin and make mistakes. But “what do you do when your sin brings about irreversible consequences? What happens when there are effects from a sinful choice that you have to live with for a time?” These are the questions James answers.

Here we have five responsibilities that come to us by virtue of aging—the responsibilities of maturity, involvement, example, mentoring, and watchfulness. Embracing these responsibilities helps diminish the sorrows that come to all who live in this world.

Christian men and women are to be in the midst of many people as a dew from the Lord.
—Alexander McLaren

Even in our sorest trials we have the highest confidence: all things work for good. Even in our darkest valleys we have the brightest light: all things work for good. Even in our lowest moments, our hardest days, our most difficult circumstances, this precious promise blesses us, sustains us, gives us hope: all things work for good for those who love God and are called according to his purpose.

As Christians we know that God’s sovereign hand draws a line that leads from suffering to meaning, from pain to purpose, from grief to good. There is no affliction that leads nowhere, no sorrow that is ultimately futile, senseless, or pointless. No, in some way they all work together for good, in some way they all bring blessing, in some way they all display the all-surpassing wisdom of a holy God.
But the line that leads from trials to goodness is not necessarily a straight line that extends unswervingly from one to the other. No, it may be jagged, crooked, squiggly, hard to trace—more like woven tapestry than pure geometry, more like spaghetti cooked and in the pot than spaghetti raw and in the box. Neither is it a single line that exists alone, as if one affliction leads to just one good. No, there may be a hundred lines leading from one sorrow and a thousand lines leading to one good. Our deepest grief may flow into a million goods and our greatest triumph may be downstream of a thousand sorrows.
For this reason we must guard ourselves against being too hasty in interpreting God’s providences. A impatient gardener may wish to see a flower bloom and in his haste pry open the bud. But this would serve only to harm the flower, for it must open in its own time, only when the seasons have changed, only when the spring rains have fallen, only when the sun has warmed the earth and sky.
And in much the same way, we must be careful not to mar God’s purposes through impatience. We must guard ourselves against being too quick to draw straight and easy lines from sorrows to goods and from goods back to sorrows. We must guard ourselves against too easily jumping from the “what” to the “why.” We must be careful not to tritely conflate why an event happened with how God may be using it, as if one great good is sufficient to explain one crushing sorrow. We must have confidence in God, for the same faith that saves us is the faith that is meant to sustain us even when we are afflicted, even when we are bewildered. As we trust God with our souls, we must trust him with our sorrows.
God’s mind is so much greater than ours, his hand so much stronger, his purposes so much vaster. In his grace he may allow us to see the beginnings of his purposes here and now, and in those we can truly rejoice. But all the while we know that we will see the full picture only in the day when his plan is complete and his purposes perfectly fulfilled. Until then we live by faith, not sight. Until then we long for the day that his divine hands will open the bud, the day when the flower will bloom, the day when we will be breathless with the beauty of it.