Westminster Books has deals on a book meant to help you understand theology and one another that is meant to keep pastors from wavering.

(Yesterday on the blog: Tearing Us Apart)
A chat with Carl Trueman
I enjoyed WORLD magazine’s chat with Carl Trueman. Is he really learning the banjo?
How Ordinary Worship Is both Reverent and Relevant
This article lays out two errors in the way churches worship and says “on the surface, these two approaches to worship look very different, yet the reason for gravitating to either is usually the same. Fundamentally, what the searcher is longing for is something extraordinary, an escape from the suffocating ordinariness of their everyday lives. Only once they find that missing piece will they be able to experience the vital and vibrant Christianity that has evaded them thus far.”
5 New Stats You Should Know About Teens and Social Media
“How often does your teen use social media? What social media platforms are most popular among the students in your student ministry? Probably a lot, and probably YouTube and TikTok, according to a new survey from Pew Research Center.” This matters—perhaps especially to those of us who are raising teens.
Can the Devil Make Us Sin?
“How much of an impact does the devil have on our society today? How do we know whether something is an act of Satan or just our sinful nature?”
Look Until You See
Cass explains how she’s been learning to “exercise her wonder muscles.”
The Bible tells us the rest of the story about who we are
David looks to Francis Schaeffer to help us understand how the Bibles makes sense of the world.
Flashback: A Bunch of Good Reasons To Saturate Your Worship Services in the Bible
Just like removing too many elements of a pizza will call into doubt whether something still qualifies as pizza at all, removing too many elements of worship should call into doubt whether something still qualifies as a worship service.

If we as Christians are going to address sin, especially in other believers, it’s important that we address it specifically and with biblical categories. —Shai Linne

May the Lord be with you and bless you today. 
I continue to marvel at the amazing Kindle deals that are so consistently available to us. What a blessing to be able to build a substantial library at just a couple of dollars a book!
(Yesterday on the blog: 2024 Christian Reading Challenge)

Casey McCall raises a valid concern about beginning evangelism with the question “If you died tonight, where would you spend eternity?” “The promise of eternal life is a powerful motivator for faith and a precious promise of hope and comfort for God’s people. However, I fear that the church has so emphasized ‘going to heaven when you die’ that we sometimes give the impression that’s all faith is good for.”

This is a helpful article about the internal and external call to vocational ministry. A legitimate call is best understood as involving both of them.

Karen Harmening: “‘When will they stop talking about it?’ A question that is perhaps thought more often than spoken regarding grieving parents who continue to talk about their children and their sorrow. I’ve only heard it asked a couple of times, but have thought of it countless times since, and this month in particular.” She explains why she can’t and won’t stop talking about it.

Barnabas considers Christ’s first and second advent and the dramatic differences between them.

Here are six reasons that the virgin birth was necessary.

Justin considers relationship online and offline. “As Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) improve and gain prominence, proximity will seem less important. It’s not. God made us with physical bodies to live in a physical world. Technology brings us closer, but digital connection is like frozen pizza, it tastes like the real thing but can never replace it.”

Though we crave rest and need it so very badly, too often it simply will not come. But always we can rest on this sweet promise: God gives his beloved sleep.

Christ went more readily to the cross than we do to the throne of grace.
—Thomas Watson

There may not be times in your marriage when you stop loving your wife, but there may be times in your marriage when you stop liking her—or when you stop acting like it, anyway. There may be times when you are easily irritated with her or times when you just can’t get along. There may be times when you feel sorry for yourself and think you deserve better than the way she’s treating you. There may be times when a kind of despondency enters into the way you think of her and the way you behave toward her.

I’d like to offer a bit of counsel for such times: When you find you don’t like your wife, make it your aim to love your wife.
Your temptation in these difficult times will be to assume that your despondent feelings are the result of something she is failing to do—a way she is neglecting to love you, serve you, or honor you. That could be the case and she may well bear a portion of the responsibility. But what you may fail to consider is that your despondent feelings are actually the result of something you are failing to do. It’s always easier to look outside than in, to look to the other than to the self.
The thing about love is that it is more likely to grow cold when you fail to give it than when you fail to receive it. The one sure way to fall out of love with your wife is to stop loving her—to stop doing deeds of love and speaking words of love and otherwise displaying a heart of love. Love is like a muscle that atrophies with disuse and that strengthens with exercise.
So when you aren’t getting along with your wife, serve your wife. When you find you are irritated with your wife, find ways to bless your wife. When you don’t really care to be around your wife, surround your wife with love and good deeds. Make it your habit to ask her, “How can I make your day better today?” or “What can I do to serve you today?” or “How can I help you today?” Make it your goal to make her day better, to make her life easier, to make her load lighter. In short, love her like Christ loves the church and serve her like Christ serves the church.
“Okay, okay,” I hear you say. “that’s all well and good, but she…” Stop right there. It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter what she has done or failed to do. What matters is what you intend to do. She may not reciprocate and she may not make you feel any more loved, but that’s a whole different matter because you aren’t loving her to be loved in return—you’re loving her because it’s the right thing to do, because it’s what God tells you to do, because it makes God proud. You’re loving her before God because that’s how you’ve been loved by God.
So whether you feel loved or unloved, whether your heart is warm toward your wife or cold, whether you’re finding yourself drawn toward her or pulled away, love her, serve her, bless her. And you will find that as you serve her, your love will grow. As you act in love, you will feel more love. As you work for her good, your heart will become ever more inclined toward her. Because that’s how love works.