May the Lord be with you and bless you today.

I mentioned earlier in the week that Westminster Books has some excellent biographies for young readers on sale. Today they’ve added a good book on reading the Bible well.
To Stay and Serve: Why We Didn’t Flee Ukraine
Here’s a dispatch from within Ukraine: “In recent weeks, nearly all the missionaries have been told to leave Ukraine. Western nations evacuated their embassies and citizens. Traffic in the capital of Kyiv is disappearing. Where did the people go? Oligarchs, businessmen, and those who can afford it are leaving, saving their families from potential war. Should we do the same?”
Bursting Christian bubbles
“We need to regularly ask God to burst our Christian bubbles.” This article explains how and why.
Did Justin Martyr Know the Gospel of John?
“There has been a long-standing scholarly discussion about how far back we can trace the roots of the fourfold gospel. ” Michael Kruger asks whether we can trace them all the way back to Justin Martyr.
Why be a small group member?
Tony Payne considers why we should consider being part of a small group (assuming that is something our churches offer).
The Trinity and Blaspheming the Holy Spirit
“God does not demand worship because he is insecure and needs affirmation, but simply because it is true. This truth means that any time someone misuses or defames the name of the Lord, blasphemy is the charge. One person could sin against another, and it would not be blasphemy; but to dishonor the Lord is to commit a different kind of sin.”
Closeness Comes Through Fire
Ed Welch considers the connection between suffering and sanctification.
Flashback: When Grumbling Meets Gossip
As Christians, we are responsible to maintain the unity of our local churches, and to do that, we need to protect our relationships with our brothers and sisters.

If you cannot fly towards heaven with the wings of assurance, walk there on the legs of faith. —Andrew Gray

In case you are looking for books for younger readers, Westminster Books has their bestselling kids books of 2023 marked down this week.
I continue to search for Kindle deals and to add them to the collection day by day.

Aaron Armstrong: “Before I was a Christian, I didn’t really know much about the Bible. Which makes sense, since I didn’t read it. But I had a lot of assumptions about it, the same assumptions many non-Christians have about it. I assumed it was endlessly contradictory, outdated, and irrelevant. That nothing it said really mattered to life in the modern world. Most importantly, because I saw the few people I knew whose parents made them go to some kind of class at their church were bored to tears, I assumed the Bible was boring.” But then he read it …

Melissa considers the wedding promises she would have made to her husband had she known then what she knows now. “I promise that I will love you imperfectly. This imperfect love will carry marks of my selfishness, and the way I tend to think of myself when I ought to be thinking of you. I promise that I will hurt you. I will say things too quickly that shouldn’t be said at all.” Yet there is still hope, as she explains so well.

“It’s here. Again. How can four years go by so quickly? Didn’t we just live through a contentious, rancorous, raucous presidential election cycle? Of course, we’ve been hearing about poll numbers for the 2024 election for about a year, but now that the calendar has turned to January, we must brace ourselves for the roller coaster of the next ten months.” Cindy provides a few prayers that may be helpful to you this year.

Ayman Ibrahim explains what Muslims believe about Muhammad, summarizes the historical record, and then suggests a few ways Christians can have productive conversations with their Muslim friends.

Trevin Wax ponders the first day of the week and insists, “the way we orient ourselves in time—how we think of our days—makes a difference in how we conceive of our life and purpose. Our choices in how we order time contain moral instruction.”

Tim of Red Pen Logic briefly addresses the very common argument that, because Jesus said nothing about homosexuality, he was not opposed to it.

There is some information on a book’s cover that many people don’t know how to decipher. Let me tell you how to make sense of the information about authors, co-authors, editors, and contributors.

Anything is good for us that puts us to praying earnestly.
—William Plumer

Happy new year! May 2023 bring you many of God’s richest blessings.

My sincere gratitude goes to the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors for naming Seasons of Sorrow their counseling book of the year.
There’s quite a large bundle of Kindle deals to go through today.
(Yesterday on the blog: All Is Shadow Here Below!)
Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022): His Life and Legacy
Leonardo De Chirico is perhaps the foremost Evangelical scholar of Roman Catholicism, so he’s just the man to reflect on the life, death, and legacy of Pope Benedict XVI.
Signs of Life
“Here’s an encouragement for your new year: yours and my inefficient, unremarkable, non-streamable existences are not problems to be fixed. The things that make us late, or bored, or stressed are often the signs of life. Even our pain and suffering are, in their way, reminders that the valley of the shadow of death is not the only thing that’s real. So are his rod and his staff.”
The Turning of the Calendar
Doug Eaton: “God’s mercies are new every morning, and they are also new every year. However, sometimes, we can expect too much from the turning of the calendar.”
Good News for 2023: It’s Not About You
Chris Hutchison offers up a couple of important lessons from the life of Elijah, one of which is for everyone and the other of which is geared toward parents.
God’s Faithfulness in the Past Assures Our Happy Future
Randy Alcorn: “The human race is homesick for Eden, which only two humans have ever known. We spend our lives chasing peaceful delight, following dead ends or cul-de-sacs in pursuit of home. We know intuitively that we’ve wandered. What we don’t know is how to return. Our lives are largely the story of the often wrong and occasionally right turns we take in our attempts to get home to Happiness with a capital H—God Himself.”
No Longer Slaves to Sin
”In all the CA State Prison chapels where I work, the current passage before us is the sixth chapter of Romans, in which are the words, “sin will have no dominion over you”.  And there, among men who have a keen and intense familiarity with what it means to not be free, we’ve been exploring the fundamental release from bondage inherent in the nature of our salvation, release not only from transgression’s final penalty but from sin’s cruel dominion now.”
Flashback: The Best Way to Begin a New Year
There is no better way to begin a new year than with the knowledge of your freedom and the desire to live for the glory of the one who has extended such grace. Christian, you are free and clear.

God wants us to worship him because we become like what we worship. If we worship God in spirit and truth, we’ll become more spiritual and truthful. —David Murray