I’m wondering if I have any readers in Croatia. If I do, and especially if you’re in or near Split, would you mind getting in touch?
Since Eerdmans is offering 80% off the Kindle editions of all of their books, I spent a long time yesterday scouring their rather extensive catalog. I came up with a long list of books that may be of interest.
Westminster Books has some favorite ESV Bible editions discounted up to 63%.

“Our heads may love the psalms from 20,000 feet—the passionate pleading, the glory in God’s grandeur, the praise of his perfect providence. It’s a captivating landscape of raw emotion and spiritual vitality. But our hearts sing plenty of antipsalms.” Pierce explains and provides an example here.

Sarah Walton: “I have been increasingly convicted by my attitude of entitlement and discontentment. Entitlement to health, success, financial relief, and God’s favor in ways that make sense to me. And yet, the truth is, he doesn’t owe me anything. He’s already given me more than I deserve and increasingly, I believe that God is pouring out his favor on me – and most likely you – as he strips away the lesser things that we measure his goodness by and sows in us a deeper, more settled faith that praises him in the darkness and rejoices in what he will do, even when that hope is yet to be realized.”

This is a brief reminder that the things you have don’t actually belong to you and, therefore, must be treated accordingly.

“If we’re to love our enemies, surely we’re to love ‘those’ people at church. Even the ones who drive us crazy. So how can we do that?” Jamie Dunlop offers a few ways.

This is such a sweet celebration of grandparents and grandparenting.

“When we read of ‘people walking in darkness’ or a ‘land of darkness’ it’s not hard to relate. That’s our reality. We feel the burden of the world’s evil daily—injustice, political upheaval, heinous crimes, greed, spite, dishonesty, exploitation, outrage, slander. And that’s all just in the morning’s headlines and a scroll through social media.”

Each of us who is in Christ is tending a little garden in which heavenly seeds have been planted and begun to thrive—seeds of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. 

The coming of Christ is not only a magnificent spectacle; it is a personal welcome. And the welcome is supremely to himself.
—John Piper

Christians speak often of God’s sovereignty. Reformed Christians speak very often of God’s sovereignty. God’s sovereignty refers to his presence in this world, his authority over this world, and his control within this world. God owns and oversees his creation to such a degree that nothing happens apart from his knowledge, apart from his will, apart from his wisdom. There is nothing we are given that does not in some way pass through his hands.

As we speak of God’s sovereignty we have to ensure that we do not speak of it only theoretically, that we do not relegate it purely to the realm of the intellectual, for it is no mere abstract doctrine but one that is sweet and precious and ought to be close to the heart of every Christian. This is a doctrine that gives us hope in every sorrow, that lends meaning to every pain, that gives confidence in every circumstance.
Perhaps it is good to consider some of what would be true if God is not sovereign.
If God is not sovereign we cannot be confident in our salvation. We cannot trust that his gospel is the only true gospel, that his salvation is effective, that his way is the right way. For if he is not sovereign, the will of another being may supersede his, the plan of another may outrival his, the word of another may take precedence over his. Unless God is sovereign, our very salvation is in doubt.
If God is not sovereign we cannot be confident that there is meaning in our suffering. We have no assurance that the difficulties we endure are actually consistent with his will and that he is actually bringing good from bad, light from darkness, laughter from tears. Unless God is sovereign we have no reason for hope as we look to the future and no reason for trust that God will prove that all we’ve endured is but a light and momentary affliction when compared to the great weight of glory to come.
If God is not sovereign we cannot be confident in evangelism. We will be prone to take credit when others believe the message and prone to take blame when others fail to believe it. We will be prone even to take credit for our own salvation, for if God is not sovereign, than perhaps we are.
If God is not sovereign we cannot be confident that we will remain in the faith. We have no assurance that we will not be swayed by another teaching, that we will not be drawn away by another faith. We have no assurance that God will be proven true when he says, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Unless God is sovereign, another powerful being may compel us to reject the faith and be lost forever.
If God is not sovereign we cannot be confident that Christ will return. Though God has promised that Christ will be revealed from heaven and the mighty angels with him, what if another being with greater authority can shut down God’s plan or deny God’s desire? Unless God is sovereign we look to the future with uncertainty rather than confidence, with hope that is shaky and trepidatious rather than firmly fixed.
But if God is sovereign, we can be confident in our salvation, confident that there is meaning in our suffering, confident that our evangelism will be effective, confident that we will remain in the faith, confident that Christ will return, confident in all God is, in all he does, in all he says, in all he has promised. Our faith is rightly fixed in the God who, in the majestic words of the Heidelberg Catechism, “upholds, as with his hand, heaven and earth and all creatures, and so rules them that leaf and blade, rain and drought, fruitful and lean years, food and drink, health and sickness, prosperity and poverty—all things, in fact, come to us not by chance but from his fatherly hand.”

My thanks goes to Children’s Hunger Fund for sponsoring the blog this week. Be sure to read about A Believer’s Response to Poverty. Sponsors are essential to keeping this blog running, so I’m grateful to each and every one. I screen them carefully so encourage you to always give them a good look.

Today’s Kindle deals include newer and older books.
(Yesterday on the blog: Friendship With God)
Not Forever, Yet Still Meaningful
“Make sure they know their commitment doesn’t have to be forever to be meaningful.” This is a helpful tip for any number of circumstances.
Psychology’s Culpability in the Transgender Movement
Jesse Johnson: “I’m writing this because I want to make sure pastors and parents see the massive worldview shift that is taking place in the schools and so-called sciences. The transgender movement has become the gravitational center of our culture. It is fed by the Bible of psychology, and it targets our kids. We should at least be familiar with the book that is being used to justify the massive surge in the transgender movement.”
Please Bear with Me
This is a strong call for love and unity in the local church.
The World is Still Spinning
“The world is still spinning, Love. These are the words that jogged through my mind recently, as I was playing with our 19-month-old grandson. We were in his backyard, and he was mowing the grass with his noisy plastic lawnmower.”
No Further
Cassie Watson: “At dawn, I’m on the beach. It’s deserted—just me, a pelican, and the churning waves. And my churning mind.”
Polity Matters
“Are the rules of the church arbitrary? Do we follow the rules as a part of our commitment to Jesus or are they just something we get from the world? This is a significant question because many think that the church’s rules are more advisory than regulatory. They miss the connection to the scriptures and the work of the church.  Here are some reasons why the rules are important and to be followed.”
Flashback: Bring Her Out and Let Her Be Burned
From a great distance and with the scantest information we can judge another person’s least transgression. Yet we can rack our own hearts and minds and often barely come up with a single way we are anything less than perfect.

Regimens and strategies leave us guilt-ridden when we fail, but prayer that flows out of our relationship with God reminds us of his grace toward us even when we fail. —John Onwuchekwa