This week’s Free Stuff Friday is sponsored by The Good Book Company. They are giving away a bundle of books by Alistair Begg and a Luke for You Set to one winner!

This Book Bundle Includes…
The Christian Manifesto by Alistair Begg and The Christian Manifesto Study Guide
What does genuine Christian living look like in the 21st century, and how can we be motivated to live that way?
The answer comes from Jesus’ sermon in Luke 6 (sometimes known as the Sermon on the Plain), which starts, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God,” and goes on to lay out God’s vision statement for the Christian life. It is a manifesto that transcends politics, culture and personality, detailing God’s intentions for his people.
Alistair Begg unpacks this sermon, encouraging Christians to live a radically different life that upends the world’s values and philosophies. It’s a lifestyle that is counterintuitive and countercultural, yet one that God blesses with true meaning and impact.
As we look at the kindness and compassion of Jesus and ask for the Holy Spirit’s help, we’ll grow in both the motivation and the ability to obey Jesus’ teaching and experience the blessing that comes from that.
This compelling book will remind you of God’s grace and what it means to follow him, helping you discover the ultimate blessing that is found in him.
The Study Guide features eight sessions to correspond with each of the eight chapters in The Christian Manifesto.
Luke For You Set by Mike McKinley 
Luke wrote his Gospel to offer his first readers, and his readers today, certainty over the truth of the gospel, and joy that God’s promises have been fulfilled with the coming of his King.
This two-volume set of expository Bible-study guides to Luke’s Gospel pays close attention to the text and has a focus on real-life application. Mike McKinley brings us face to face with Jesus in a compelling way for both experienced and new readers of this Gospel.
Truth for Life – Volume 1 (Gift Edition) by Alistair Begg
This imitation-leather edition of Alistair Begg’s best-selling one-year devotional, Truth For Life – Volume 1, makes a beautiful gift for a Christian brother or sister, encouraging them to start each day with the gospel.
Features of this edition include:

an imitation-leather debossed cover
a ribbon marker
a sleeve

Each daily devotion includes:

reflections from renowned Bible teacher Alistair Begg
prompts for real-life application
relevant Scripture passages
a yearly Bible-reading plan

Reflecting on a short passage each day, Alistair spans the Scriptures to show us the greatness and grace of God, and to thrill our hearts to live as His children. His clear, faithful exposition and thoughtful application mean that this resource will both engage your mind and stir your heart.
Pray Big
So many of us struggle with prayer. Many books have been written on the subject and there’s a reason for that. Prayer comes hard to most of us, in most seasons. And when we do pray, we often don’t know what to say. What is it that my Father loves to hear about? What are the best things I could pray for my family, my church, and myself?
This short book by renowned Bible teacher Alistair Begg combines warmth, clarity, humor, and practicality as he examines Paul’s prayers for his friends in the church in Ephesus.
Paul clearly enjoyed prayer, and was excited about it. He expected his Father in heaven to hear what he said, and to act in other people’s lives accordingly. The truths that underpin and shape his prayers will motivate us to pray and set us an example.
So be inspired by the Apostle Paul to pray bigger and better prayers as we look to our heavenly Father to do more than all we ask or imagine!
Giveaway Rules: You may enter one time. When you enter, you permit The Good Book Company to send you marketing emails which you may unsubscribe from at any time. The winner will be notified via email, and those who do not win will receive an email with the option to download a free e-copy of Extraordinary Hospitality by Carolyn Lacey. The giveaway closes on Friday, October 13th at noon, EST.

It is engraved on many tombstones, inscribed in many cards, expressed in many obituaries: He died too soon. She was taken before her time.

Of all the mysteries in this universe, few are more perplexing than the mystery of God’s sovereignty over life and death. Why do some live to so advanced an age while others barely live at all? Why are some who display such promise taken before they can deploy their gifts? Why does God call some early to heaven who surely could have done so much good on earth? Why God, we ask? Why?
I’m quite sure that June is the best of the year here in Southern Ontario. The spring rains have given way to spring sun. The perennials that laid dormant through the long winter have burst out of the warming ground and the annuals that awaited the final frost have now been planted and begun to thrive. Yet because we have not yet reached the summer’s full heat, the grass is still unwithered and the lawns unscorched. The world is resplendent with every hue of green, every shade of red, yellow, and blue.
No one in this neighborhood gives more attention to her garden than Aileen. Her garden is her studio, her canvas, her gallery. She has designed it purposefully and tends to it carefully.
Some of the flowers in her garden sprang up when there was still snow on the ground. They bloomed quickly and beautifully, a foretaste of warmer days to come. And then they faded and were gone for another year. Some of the flowers waited until there was a long succession of warm afternoons before they began to stir and to push their shoots above the ground. And some of the flowers have yet to be seen as they await even warmer days, perhaps late in the summer or even early in the autumn. When the rest of the plants have already waned, these will provide a final splash of color before the snows return.
Whether these flowers bloom early or late, whether their blossoms last for a few days or for the whole summer, they each have their purpose, for they have each been planted by the hand of an expert gardener. This is true even of the ones that make only the earliest or only the briefest appearance. Their beauty is no less beautiful because of its brevity. Their role is no less important because they are the first to fade. In fact, we treasure those flowers all the more, for we know that our enjoyment will be short-lived.
The most beautiful gardens are the ones that are planned with the greatest skill and tended with the greatest care. And if we should give such attention and commit so much love to something as simple as a garden, shouldn’t we trust God to give even greater attention and even greater care to people crafted by his hand and made in his image? Shouldn’t we trust him to number the length of their days? Shouldn’t we trust him to know whether their purpose is to bloom for days or for decades? Shouldn’t we trust him to know how and when each will best display divine beauty?
The early flowers in our garden are every bit as beautiful as the late flowers, the ones that bloom for a day as wondrous as the ones that bloom for a summer. They are every bit as precious in our eyes, and surely in God’s as well. And so, too, the human beings that appear to die too soon or who seem to be taken before their time. These too can only have been planned to perfection by the mind of God. These, too, can only have fulfilled the purpose he assigned to them. These too, are precious in his sight.

A few days ago I happened upon the page of an especially mega-sized megachurch. The church is about to undergo a leadership transition from an older man to a younger one and a page on the site lays out the process through which this new pastor was chosen. I read with a morbid kind of fascination as it told about personality testing, leadership evaluations, compatibility assessments, and much else. But I couldn’t help but notice that it said not a word about doctrine, beliefs, or the ability to understand and teach the Word of God. It may as well have been a corporation hiring a CEO. In fact, I rather suspect that’s essentially the long and short of it.

Biblical Eldership

There are few responsibilities more necessary and more sobering than the responsibility of choosing elders (or pastors—for our purposes, let’s understand the terms to be synonymous). Yet there are few responsibilities Christians seem more likely to mishandle. Where the Bible makes clear what a man ought to be if he is to serve as an elder, we like to do it our own way, to assess him by our own criteria. And the cost is immeasurable. The church of our day is plagued by unqualified leaders.
Many years ago, Alexander Strauch released a groundbreaking book on the topic: Biblical Eldership. This year he has released a substantial revision that both updates and expands it. Importantly, it now considers recent scholarship and addresses contemporary concerns. In my view, it has made the best book on the subject still better.
Strauch is nothing if not methodical. He moves slowly and deliberately, beginning with the importance of restoring eldership as it was understood and described in the New Testament. He is a staunch advocate of plural eldership—of a group of men who lead the church as equals. After the opening section, he begins an in-depth examination of the biblical data related to eldership. Twelve chapters in he turns to an extended look at the qualifications of character that must be present in those who would serve as elders, whether vocationally or non-vocationally. Because his specific concern is qualified leadership, this section consumes the majority of the book. Toward the end, he turns to the responsibilities of a congregation to love, honor, and obey the elders God has raised up to lead them.
Though I had read the book in the past, I was both blessed and challenged to read it again in its new edition. And I think I did it in the best way by reading it alongside some other men and having regular Zoom calls to discuss, analyze, and apply it. It helped me now as it did in the past. I recommend Biblical Eldership: Restoring the Eldership to Its Rightful Place in the Local Church as near-essential reading for any man who is already an elder or who aspires to be one in the future.