Free Stuff Fridays (Children’s Hunger Fund)
This week’s Free Stuff Friday is sponsored by Children’s Hunger Fund (CHF). They have three book bundles for giveaway, featuring titles that have both influenced CHF’s ministry and will hopefully encourage you and your famil y. Each giveaway package will also include hand-selected items from the Children’s Hunger Fund store. The giveaway will close on Monday, April 24 at noon EST.
Lead: 12 Gospel Principles for Leadership in the Church by Paul David Tripp
The church is experiencing a leadership crisis. What can we do to prevent pastors from leaving the ministry?
For every celebrity pastor exiting the ministry in the spotlight, there are many lesser-known pastors leaving in the shadows. Pastor and best-selling author Paul David Tripp argues that lurking behind every pastoral failure is the lack of a strong leadership community. Tripp draws on his decades of ministry experience to give churches twelve gospel principles necessary to combat this leadership crisis.
Each of these principles, built upon characteristics such as humility, dependency, and accountability, will enable new and experienced leaders alike to focus their attention on the ultimate leadership model: the gospel.
Agape Leadership: Lessons in Spiritual Leadership from the Life of R.C. Chapman by Alexander Strauch and Robert L. Peterson
Today we are desperately in need of examples of true Christian leadership. In the life of Robert Chapman we have such an example. Chapman was a widely respected Christian leader in England during the last century as a pastor, a teacher, and an evangelist. But he was best known for his remarkable life of love.
Chapman became legendary in his own time for his gracious ways, his patience, his kindness, his balanced judgment, his ability to reconcile people in conflict, his absolute fidelity to Scripture, and his loving pastoral care. By the end of his life, Chapman was known worldwide for his love, wisdom and compassion. He became so well known in England that a letter from abroad addressed only to “R.C. Chapman, University of Love, England” was correctly delivered to him.
In Agape Leadership, you will see godly, pastoral leadership in action through these biographical snapshots from Chapman’s life.
The Mo
on Is Always Round by Jonathan Gibson, illustrated by Joe Hox
Even young children want answers to the hard questions about God and suffering. In The Moon Is Always Round, seminary professor and author Jonathan Gibson uses the vivid imagery of the moon to explain to children how God’s goodness is always present, even when it might appear to be obscured by upsetting or difficult circumstances.
In this beautiful, full-color illustrated book, he allows readers to eavesdrop on the conversations he had with his young son in response to his sister’s death. Father and son share a simple liturgy together that reminds them that, just as the moon is always round despite its different phases, so also the goodness of God is always present throughout the different phases of life.
A section in the back of the book offers further biblical help for parents and caregivers in explaining God’s goodness to children. Jonathan Gibson reminds children of all ages that God’s goodness is present in the most difficult of times, even if we can’t always see it.
All you need to do to enter the drawing is drop your name and email address in the form below.
Giveaway Rules
You may enter one time. When you enter, you permit Children’s Hunger Fund to send you marketing emails. The winners will be notified via email. The giveaway closes on Monday, April 24 at noon EST.
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Weekend A La Carte (September 23)
My thanks goes to the Good Book Company for sponsoring the blog this week to tell you about the excellent God’s Big Promises Bible Storybook.
Today’s Kindle deals include mostly classics but at least one newer book as well.
(Yesterday on the blog: Cessationist: The Film)
The Battle for the Body
Is Carl Trueman overstating it? I’m not actually sure. “As the fourth century wrestled with the doctrine of God, the fifth with Christology and the nature of God’s grace, and the Reformation era with sacraments and salvation, so our age wrestles with the question of anthropology. What does it mean to be human? More specifically, what does it mean to be an embodied human? For we now find ourselves not so much in a battle for the Bible but in a battle for the body.”
Apple’s Mother Nature Ad: It’s Protestant Paganism.
Glen Scrivener: “You can imagine the pitch: Mother Nature visits Apple HQ to conduct a performance review. In the writers’ room at Saturday Night Live it would gain instant traction: It’s Gaia in the boardroom as a take-no-prisoners businesswoman.” He’s talking about that new Apple commercial that was universally panned.
Places I Can’t Go
This is a sweet reflection on parenting older kids. “I am grateful that the kids grew up and were able to leave home and fly; they are capable and thriving, and I feel excitement and joy for them in each new adventure. But sometimes, when I say goodbye before a long separation, I have a fleeting but powerful yearning for them to be back under my roof.”
The Element of Physical Attraction in Romantic Relationships
Here’s quite a long and interesting look at the element of physical attraction in romantic relationships—not something I’ve ever seen an article on, to my knowledge.
Can You Focus on the Bible Too Much?
I find bibliolatry one of the laziest charges a person can make against a Christian.
Loving the Truth and Speaking in Love
“The noisy gongs of acerbic and judgmental discernment bloggers, podcasters, vloggers and conference speakers are scattered throughout our social media feeds…and they’re here to stay. The uncharitableness with which such individuals speak online immediately ought to leave a bad taste in the mouth of Christ’s true lambs.” Yes!
Flashback: The Ones Who Sow and the Ones Who Reap
Though some may go unrecognized here, they shall be commended by the one who sees and knows all things. The ones who sow shall rejoice as much as the ones who reap, the ones who supported as much as the ones who accomplished.In God’s plan, waiting is not an interruption or obstruction of the plan; waiting is part of the plan. —Paul David Tripp
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A La Carte (March 2)
May the Lord bless you and keep you today.
Logos users, you’ll want to grab the free R.C. Sproul commentary that’s on offer this month (as well as some of the other discounted resources). I’m sure you’ll also want to have your say in this year’s March Matchups.
There are some “odds and ends” Kindle deals today.
A Word on Gender and Sex
Jonathan Master: “It was once commonly understood that ‘gender’ was a socially constructed extension of the deeper and more stable reality of biological sex. Nowadays, ‘gender’ is treated as something independent of biological sex, and indeed something more fundamental and important than biological sex.”
Putin, the West, and the Myth of Progress
Trevin Wax: “In the befuddled responses to the invasion of Ukraine as well as the soaring rhetoric of Western leaders who believe freedom will prevail, we see on display the eschatology of the Enlightenment: the idea that the world, since the Age of Reason, has been moving along an upward trajectory of human development, both technological and moral, with better and freer days ahead.” (See also: 10 Seminaries from Post-Soviet States Issue a Joint Statement.)
Why People Don’t Leave Social Media
“To leave social media is not akin to uninstalling a game from your phone you find yourself wasting a lot of time on. It is closer to moving out of town and not visiting that set of friends anymore. It feels like loss, especially when the friends probably aren’t the problem, it’s the location you meet them in. Even imposing limits sounds like cutting off your nose to spite your face—it feels like becoming a social pariah for nebulous abstract goods (like hope, and sleep).”
Brighter Days Await God’s People
In times of sorrow and warfare we need to be reminded that brighter days are ahead.
How to Disagree with Your Best Friend
Lara d’Entremont tells about a precious friendship.
Are You Having a Good Day?
“I’ll bet you’ve been asked this question or a question like it in the past week. Have you ever wondered how to answer? It seems a bit superficial for a believer to base their evaluation of a day just on how circumstances have worked out so far, right?”
Flashback: What Tolkien Did So Well, What We Do So Poorly
One of the great strengths of Tolkien’s work is its grounding in history. One of the great weaknesses of the contemporary church is its detachment from its own history. Few of today’s Christians have a clear sense of how the church came to be.Not one of us has any trouble in accepting this doctrine of God’s sovereignty as long as things go to our liking. We are perfectly satisfied to let God have His way as long as He does not cross us. —Theodore Cuyler
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A La Carte (December 12)
Good morning. Grace and peace to you.
Today’s Kindle deals include some good picks from Jen Wilkin.
(Yesterday on the blog: We Do Not Know Until…)
My Anchor Holds
“Waves crashed against the steel hull. Winds whipped around as the frame of the ship lurched back and forth. A rusty chain stretched from the aft side of the vessel and disappeared below the foaming waters. Yet as the rain pelted through the treacherous night—the anchor held.”
It’s a Wonderful Telescope (Video)
This video from the John 10:10 Project combines astronomy, Scripture, and It’s a Wonderful Life.
God Does Not Forget Prayers or Promises
Barbara Harper has a sweet devotional about prayers and promises.
Alistair Begg on Romans 1
Alistair Begg has been preaching through Romans 1 and I am finding it tremendously beneficial. I highly recommend it. You can watch it, listen to it, or read it at the link.
Stay Awake!
“What is the action we are looking for that requires us to steer clear of bedclothes and keep the energy bills high? What are we being charged to do? What is required of us in this text? Such questions deserve our mental energy. So, take a minute to open your Bible to Luke 12:35-40 and ask yourself, “What is the action for which I am to be prepared?” What is the thing I must do?”
Five Truths You Must Consider When You Are Angry
I’d probably suggest you should consider these five truths before you are angry (so you have them available when you’re actually angry).
Flashback: Do Not Be Surprised if the World Hates You
My friend, the more you love and honor God, the more you expose the evil of those who do not. The more you expose the evil of those who dishonor God, the more they’ll hate you. They’ll hate you because of who you love, because of who you resemble. They hated Jesus and they’ll hate those who are like Jesus.Some Christians make the mistake of pitting love against law, as if the two were mutually exclusive. You either have a religion of love or a religion of law. But such an equation is profoundly unbiblical. —Kevin DeYoung
