This week the blog is sponsored by The Gospel Coalition. You’re Not Crazy is a practical guide designed to help weary leaders renew their love for ministry by equipping them to build a gospel-centered culture into every aspect of their churches. They remind us that while we’re quick to assert what the gospel says, we’re often too slow to admit what the gospel should do for our churches: reflect Christ’s beauty through a godly, grace-filled culture. Visit the TGC store to purchase this encouraging guide that will help church leaders like you to build a culture of honesty, honor, Christ-filled preaching, and gentle leadership in your church. 

Like many people, I use an app to keep track of my health. I make notes of my sleep quality, weight, exercise, and (if I’m really being diligent) my caloric intake. I can see all this at a glance and measure the trends from week to week. It’s been useful. I live with Crohn’s disease, and these metrics give me a basic sense of how I’m doing. The trouble is, of course, all those metrics I need to track for Crohn’s could be going well but I could still be seriously unwell. After all, there’s more than one way to be sick.
The same is true of our churches. I’ve had the great privilege of being in theologically careful churches the whole of my Christian life. I don’t take this for granted. At each of these churches, the Bible’s authority drove our ministries and teaching. In each case, the congregations were encouraged to listen to preaching with their Bibles open and to make certain what was taught lined up with what is in the text. Teachers were always open to correction, and I continue to rejoice in the blessing of the many years I sat under their faithful exposition.
But there’s more than one way to be unhealthy. In 1 Timothy 5:8, Paul wrote, “If anyone does not provide for his relatives . . . he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” In that line, Paul makes a declaration I missed for many years. I’d always seen denying the faith as a theological failure, but here we see it’s also possible to deny the faith by what we do (or fail to do). It’s possible for someone who has never strayed theologically to deny the faith practically by failing to embody it.
We humans are culture-creators. How we are with each other always takes on a particular relational dynamic, shared personality, or noticeable tone. It’s true of friendship groups, workplaces, families, and churches. We shape one another in many complex ways, and a resulting culture always emerges. The question is, How fully does a church’s culture align with its doctrine? That’s why Ray Ortlund and I wrote the book You’re Not Crazy: Gospel Sanity for Weary Churches.
We’re longing for the beauty of Christ to shape every aspect of our churches—not only the content of our teaching but also the quality and flavor of our relationships. We believe that the culture of our churches, empowered by the doctrine of our churches, can make the presence of the risen Jesus a felt reality in this generation. Our hope is that this book can be the app that helps you track and improve your church’s cultural health, that it will be a catalyst for faithfulness so that the truth of Christ shapes your creeds and sermons and the beauty of Christ adorns your life together. When this is true, we believe our churches will be a prophetic presence in today’s world.
Find out more about You’re Not Crazy: Gospel Sanity for Weary Churches in the TGC store.

The tree is trimmed and decorated and glowing with lights. The gifts are wrapped and tied with bows and arranged carefully beneath. The stockings are hung by the fire and bulging with trinkets and surprises and sweet delicacies. The table is set and waiting for a great feast to be laid out upon it. Christmas has come again—again with all its joys, with all its pleasures, with all its precious traditions.

But look again, look more carefully, look and see that there are fewer gifts than there were in years past. There is one less stocking than there was before. The table has been set with one less place. When the family gathers to celebrate this year, there will be one member who will not be gathering with the rest, one person who will not be home for Christmas, one person who will be sorely missed.
(Note: I was asked to prepare this devotional for Devotionals Daily, but thought I’d share it here as well.)
This will be the reality for so many families this season, so many families who have had to bid farewell to one of their own. And never do those losses stand out so starkly, never do they cut so deep, never do they cause so much pain as during the holidays, as during times of celebration. For holidays are about gathering with the ones we love, spending time with the ones God has given us, observing the season together.
This will be the reality for my family this Christmas, for just a couple of years ago, the Lord saw fit to call one of us to himself. Nick was seemingly healthy and well, thriving in life and preparing himself for marriage and pastoral ministry, when he very suddenly collapsed and died and was gone. Christmas has never been the same. Christmas never will be the same, never can be the same, for our little fellowship has been shattered, our little family has suffered a grievous loss, our little home circle has been broken.
My mind sometimes drifts back to the evening we learned the news that broke our hearts and changed our lives. My mind sometimes drifts back to the thought that flashed through it in that moment when my entire world was rocked: God knows what it is to have a son and God knows what it is to lose a son. And this thought reminds me today that even though Christmas is the day when the pain of my loss is particularly sharp, it is also the day when my hope is particularly strong. For without Christmas I would be despondent, but because of Christmas I have the greatest of all hopes.
The wonder of the Christian faith, the miracle that we celebrate every Christmas, is that God became man. The Son of God who had existed from all eternity, the God who had been present at the creation of the world, the God who holds together all things by the word of his power, took on flesh and was born as a weak, helpless, crying baby. He grew up surrounded by the chaos and sin of this world, he proclaimed the glorious message God had given him, and at the end of it all, he was crucified and died. The Father witnessed the death of his beloved Son.
But that is not the whole story, of course, for death could not hold him! Death could not keep back the one who lived a sinless life and died an atoning death. He left the tomb and ascended to heaven and now prepares a place for each of us who have loved him and believed in his name and received his forgiveness. 
In order to save us, Christ had to die for us. And in order to die for us, Christ had to live for us. And in order to live for us, Christ had to be born for us. It is at Christmas that we tell the beginning of the story of his incarnation, at Christmas that we celebrate his birth, at Christmas that we mark the dawning of hope. For when Christ was born on Christmas morning, hope was born with him—the hope that our loved ones are not lost forever, but merely separated from us for a time, the hope that though we may grieve for a while, sorrow will at last give way to a joy beyond all we’ve known or even imagined. Our hope and our confidence is rooted and grounded in this day.
I wish Nick could be in our home this year to celebrate Christmas with us. But I know God has called him to a different home, a higher home, what I know to be a better home. And if Nick is experiencing nothing but happiness, as I truly believe he is, why would I spend the day in nothing but sadness? Why should I mourn as he rejoices? And so as we gather to celebrate Christmas, we’ll pause for at least a time to turn our hearts away from this home and instead fix them on the home above, the home where there is a much greater celebration, the home where Nick dwells with his Savior. We will fix our hearts on the time when all our tears will be dried and the time when the circle that has been broken will be fully and finally restored. And then we will return to celebrating the wonder of that baby in a manger, for this is the day when he was born—the day when hope was born.

The God of love and peace be with you today.

(Yesterday on the blog: Most To Jesus I Surrender (or Maybe Just Some))
Love Is
This is a sweet reflection on the nature of love.
Should Students Use AI for Writing Assignments?
“Can AI be used legitimately in the process of writing an academic assignment? My own institution has assembled a task force to determine what we consider legitimate and illegitimate use. In the meantime, here’s my own initial, not-yet-fully-processed take: Using AI for early research is OK. Using AI to write is wrong.” This makes sense to me.
Is Technology Causing Me to Disobey God in my Reading?
And speaking of technology: “Because reading requires serious meditation and intentional reflection, allowing technology to disrupt and distract me detracts from the purposes of reading. But it’s not just the impact on my general reading that has me concerned, but the potential influence it will have on my spiritual reading.”
What are some misconceptions of Calvinism? (Video)
This video addresses a few common misconceptions of Calvinism.
The Key To Understanding The Bible
“All through the Bible, the blessings of faith are for those who trust. The blessings of obedience are for those who obey. The generosity of God is for those who admit their need and come to him. The wisdom of God is for those who listen.”
Words Grow Wiser with Age
This is so good. “We should take care to position ourselves as experts on anything unless we truly are qualified for such a title. Instead, let’s be slow to speak, because wisdom is often found and best communicated with such careful treading, and our words will likely grow better with age.”
Flashback: Showing Mercy in A Feeding Frenzy
Far more people know their financial poverty than their spiritual poverty. Don’t we feel a deep compassion toward those who do not know Jesus and who don’t even know that they need him?

The reason God commands us to love Him with all our heart is not because He is an egomaniac! It is because He knows that anything we love more than Him will betray us. —Matt Papa