May the God of love and peace be with you today.

Logos users may want to check out some bundled deals of resources I recommend.
(Yesterday on the blog: Why I Owe Everything To Don Lewis)
Friendship: The Foundation of Paul’s Global Ministry
Caleb Greggsen: “Spurred on by this urgent desperation [to change the world], Christians often look to the book of Acts. They want to find the apostle Paul’s secret sauce. How did he get the gospel to go forward? What can we learn from him? Which methods are we applying incorrectly? Which methods would produce the harvest we pray for? But Paul’s actions in Acts aren’t the first place we should look to learn from his ministry.”
Our Scattered Longings
“Like most girls my age, I struggled with my own body. The number on the tag of my pants seemed like the gateway to true happiness. I scanned the girls in my middle school and high school and concluded If only I looked like her…  The end of that sentence was long. I’d be happier. More comfortable. More adventurous. Confident. Assertive. And obviously no longer single.”
Why Christians Should Avoid Alarmism (And What To Do Instead)
Akos Balogh writes about the ways in which Christians can be prone to alarmism. He also writes about the cost it exacts from us.
10 Truths About the Holy Spirit from Romans 8
Ryan Higginbottom looks at a much-loved chapter of the Bible to see some of what it tells us about the Holy Spirit.
Look Up
This article deals with the way we can be so focused on our little problems that we forget to elevate our gaze.
The Dreaded Answer
“We absolutely hate it. It’s vile and wretched and rarely the answer we want to hear. Yet, unfortunately, we often find it a regular part of life. What is this four-letter response that leads us to wince when we hear it?”
5 Steps for Connecting (or Reconnecting) With A Church
This one may be helpful to people who are between churches. “I hear many people say that they want or need to get plugged into a local church, but they aren’t sure where to start. Maybe you are one of those people.”
Flashback: The Influenced Will Be Like the Influencer
…bit by bit, day by day, sermon by sermon, podcast by podcast, we will come to resemble the people we follow. For good or for ill, we will imitate them until we are like them.

Contrast yourself not with those below you, but with God above. We are too prone to compare our white robes with the stained garments of others, rather than with those robes which were whiter than a fuller could white them. —F.B. Meyer

Grace and peace to you on this fine day.

(Yesterday on the blog: On the Changing of the Dictionaries)
The Same Old Faces
“A new friendship is a wonderful beginning, fresh and exciting and full of potential, like the planting of a new tree. Don’t we all naturally long for relationship? To know and be truly known? To love and be truly loved, in spite of being truly known? Of course we do. But…”
I Can’t Put Them Down Yet
Brianna has a sweet reflection on motherhood and worship.
Grant Me One Muslim Friend
Here’s a prayer you may do well to pray—and a prayer God may well be eager to answer.
This Isn’t What I Asked For!
Sylvia Schroeder: “This past Christmas might have confirmed what we knew all along. Many of the things we want most don’t come wrapped in beautiful packages. While  holidays wind down and stores fill with red hearts, we realize, Christmas couldn’t give what we desired most. And we beg God for more.”
How Guilt and Shame Can Bring Us Closer to God
“When Adam and Eve rejected God’s goodness and authority by eating the forbidden fruit, their eyes were opened and they suddenly recognized that they were naked. This new, hyper-self-conscious reality set in motion a series of actions, each one a strategy to hide the shame that they felt over what they had done.”
Steadfast Hope in Seasons of Suffering
Donna offers some ways to remain steadfast in hope during the most difficult seasons of life.
Flashback: 5 Reasons We Eat Together as a Family
I was in sociology class when the teacher asked this: How many people here eat dinner as a family at least twice a week? Two of us put up hands—me and the only other Christian in the class.

Toil is the price of success. To loiter is to lose all; to falter is to fail. —J.R. Miller

It has been quite a year—a year in which the Worship Round the World project has taken me far and wide. If my statistics are correct, I believe my feet have touched something like 24 different countries this year. I worshipped with local churches in 13 of them and enjoyed times of fellowship with Christians in 7 others. Along with my co-host Tim Keesee, we have filmed 9 episodes so far and they are now in the very early stages of production.

That leaves us with just a couple more to record. Unfortunately India and Canada are in the midst of a spat and India is refusing to give visitor’s visas to Canadians until it is resolved, so we had to cancel our plans to visit the city of Chennai in November. Later this week the team will head to the distant reaches of Alaska to visit a church there, and that will be end of our travel for 2023. A trip to Mexico City in January will mark the final journey and the end of on-location filming.
We believe the project has come together well and that it will lead to both a documentary series and a book that will prove to be a blessing to many. Through them you’ll be able to travel with us to experience Christian worship in settings as diverse as urban Australia and rural Zambia, and as different as the vast and advanced metropolis of Seoul and a tiny Cambodian village that has neither electricity nor running water. You’ll see what it is to worship in the shadow of a volcano in Chile and to serve the Lord in the tropical paradise of Fiji. All that and much more.
While fundraising has gone well and we are immeasurably thankful for all that has been given, I would like to make the need known one more time. We planned the project in 2019 when the world was quite a lot different than it is now and when travel costs were substantially lower. This means we have exceeded our original budget, and this despite being as measured and frugal as reasonable.
Tax-deductible donations can be made at WorshipRoundtheWorld.com and will be processed by Frontline Missions, an organization committed to advancing the gospel in the world’s difficult places. Frontline previously produced Tim Keesee’s Dispatches from the Front series of films and it is also producing this one. (You should also take a look at Tim’s brand new book A Day’s Journey: Stories of Hope and Death-Defying Joy.)
As we press on with filming at the final locations, then recording voiceovers, writing chapters, and producing episodes, we would ask you to pray for us. Pray that we would finish strong and that the entire production would bless the church and honor the Lord.