Grace and peace to you on this fine Easter Monday (which is a holiday in these parts).

There is a very long list of Kindle deals available today.
(Yesterday on the blog: Why Should We Try To Add One Stitch To a Finished Garment?)
We Should Talk About Disney
Trevin Wax tells how Disney’s current controversy is different from some other issues that appear similar. “In this case, it’s not about your Whopper with rainbow-colored wrapping, or the propriety of Pepsi taking a position on a particular piece of legislation. In those cases, the product from the organizations remains the same. Consumers may roll their eyes at the leftward virtue signaling or the TV commercials, but the Oreo remains the Oreo.”
An Ordination Prayer
I love a well-prepared prayer like this one, meant for an ordination.
Earlybird Discount Ends April 3OTH For Radius Missiology Conference 
Join Alistair Begg, Kevin DeYoung & others June 29-30, 2022 @ Christ Covenant Church in Matthews, NC.  RMC is a two-day conference with great—speakers, breakout sessions, missiology, and information on current missions. (Sponsored Link)

Roman Road-Construction
I recently came across this video which shows how Roman roads were made. Roman roads were made for traders and soldiers but also allowed missionaries to spread the gospel far and wide.
Our Christian Terminology Is Built on the Old Testament
Here’s an interesting look at something we may take for granted: “how the NT authors regularly draw on the OT to explain the key steps or aspects of personal salvation.”
Totally Torn
“It’s almost a throwaway line in Mark’s gospel, sandwiched between the cataclysmic darkness as Jesus, the eternal Son of God, breathed his last whilst nailed to a wooden cross and the centurion’s amazing declaration, ‘Surely this man was the Son of God.’ Yet, the tearing of the curtain in Jerusalem’s temple wasn’t just incidental, a by-product, or an act of divine vandalism but a sign of the profound significance of each and every event leading to this point.”
Intense, Debilitating Emotions
“I often experience intense emotions that can feel debilitating. How can I grow?” That’s the question at the heart of this video.
Flashback: Spiritual Drafting and the Danger of Christian Complacency
Drafting is a great strategy for racing. Drafting is a lousy strategy for Christian living. Yet I fear that many Christians allow themselves to fall into a form of spiritual drafting. Let me explain

The resurrection of Christ is the Amen of all His promises. —John Boys

I have often thought that people who desire a modern-day gift of prophecy ought to be careful what they wish for. After all, the biblical prophets were often asked to speak words that immediately brought about their own persecution or even death. And even if they did not suffer to quite that degree, they were often asked to speak words that brought sorrow more than hope and alarm more than encouragement. The calling to be a prophet was the calling to speak difficult words and to suffer terrible consequences.

Samuel was just a young lad when God tasked him with being the bearer of bad tidings. God gave Samuel knowledge of events that would soon come to pass and it fell to him to tell old Eli the news—news so bad that “the two ears of everyone who hears it will tingle.” Samuel had to tell Eli that God had said “I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them” (1 Samuel 3:11-13). Eli may have been a good priest and a good mentor, but he was a poor father who had allowed his sons to desecrate the holy things of God.
Samuel dutifully told Eli everything that God had revealed. He hid nothing from him. He told him that God was going to punish his family for their blasphemy, that there was nothing the two evil sons could do to atone for their transgressions. Their sin was so great and their hearts so hard that the punishment of death was both fitting and necessary. God had decreed it, and it would come to pass.
There are any number of ways that Eli could have responded to this announcement. But he responded in the best way possible. “It is the Lord,” he said. “Let him do what seems good to him” (1 Samuel 3:18). Having received the most agonizing news, he responded in faith, he responded in confidence, he responded in submission. He responded in a way that ought to inspire us today.
In our lives it tends to be providence that reveals difficult tidings. Rather than sending prophets to tell us about events in advance, we learn in the moment through the unfolding of the mysteries of God’s will. And we ought to receive the tidings of God through his providence just as humbly as Eli received the tidings of God through his prophet. We ought to receive it with every bit as deep a submission to God’s sovereignty and with every bit as great a confidence in his goodness.
Eli did not lash out at the prophet, at the one God had called to be the bearer of this news. And we must not lash out at providence, for prophets and providence alike simply reveal the will of God.
Eli did not accuse the God who had assigned this most difficult of all providences, for he had deep trust in his character. And we must similarly trust in God’s character and refuse to accuse him of doing wrong or even doing anything less than what best serves his purposes and advances his cause. It is when we trust in his character that we can trust in what he permits and in what he decrees. For his will cannot be separated from his nature, the goodness of his providence from the goodness of his character. We must conclude that if God is good, his will is good, even when we struggle to see it.
Eli did not raise his fist to the heavens, but rather bowed his knee to God. And in just that way, we must not raise a cry of accusation against God, but rather lift a song of praise—even if it is bewildered and broken-hearted praise. We love to praise his name in the light, but by God’s grace we can also praise his name in the darkness. We love to sing songs of rejoicing, but by God’s grace we can also sing songs of lament. For both honor him and bring glory to his name.
Eli’s words, Eli’s actions, Eli’s attitude at the revelation of God’s prophet ought to be ours at the revelation of God’s providence. Though his heart must have been shattered and grieved, Eli loved God and trusted him. Though our hearts may be shattered and grieved, we too must love and trust him. For he is the God who does whatever he pleases, and the God for whom whatever he pleases is good. Of him we must always say, “It is the Lord. Let him do what seems good to him.”

As we go through times of suffering and sorrow, we inevitably come into contact with those who would seek to comfort us. Some offer true help and true hope while others, unfortunately, do not. In this short but sweet quote, Theodore Cuyler reflects on what we need most in our times of affliction.

There are some of us who have known what it is to drink bitter draughts of affliction, and to have the four corners of our house smitten by a terrible sorrow. At such times, how hollow and worthless were many of the stereotyped prescriptions for comfort!
“Time must do its work,” was one of them. As if time could bring back the dead, or cruelly eradicate the beloved image from the memory!
“Travel,” is another of these quack recommendations for a wounded spirit. Just as if God had ever made an Atlantic wide enough to carry us out of the reach of heart-breaking misery!
Wretched comforters are they all. The suffering heart heeds not the voice of such charmers, charm they never so wisely.
Never, never have I been able to gain one ray of genuine consolation until I lifted my eyes unto the hills from whence cometh the Almighty help. As soon as I have begun to taste of God’s exceeding great and precious promises my strength has begun to revive. As soon as His everlasting arm got hold around me the burden grew lighter,—yea, it carried me and the load likewise. God opened to me paths of usefulness which were in the line of His service, and also of blessings to my fellow-men. And so help flowed down to me from the hills like the streams that make music from the precipices to one who climbs the Wenzern Alp.