Crossway has begun a multi-year project to publish the complete works of John Owen. If you want to get the series, it may be best to keep up rather than wait until they are all published. To that end, Westminster Books is offering the initial volumes at a good discount.

In Defense of Libraries
I’m an advocate of e-books, but hopefully that doesn’t mean I can’t also be an advocate of libraries. (Are you allowed to read e-books in a library?) This is a great article written in defense of libraries.
The Goal of Scripture Memorization is Not Recitation
“In my experience as a child growing up in a small Baptist church, I was taught to memorize verses in order to recite them at competitions with other churches. Bible Drill was the program that taught me to memorize, but without an understanding of what I was memorizing, I left the practice of Scripture memory somewhere around the fourth grade. If the goal of memorizing Scripture was to recite it for others, I wasn’t interested.”
5 Questions to Ask Before You Post on Social Media
In Taming the Fingers, Pastor Jeff Johnson offers five practical questions that can help us cultivate heavenly wisdom in our use of social media:  Am I controlled?  Am I calm?  Am I careful? Am I compassionate?  Am I conscientious? (Sponsored Link)
Can I Share a Little Secret About Speaking at Conferences?
Rory Shiner shares a secret about speaking at conferences. He’s absolutely right in what he says, too.
Stop Calling Them Names
If you’re prone to use name-calling with theological opponents, Sam Emadi wants you to consider some passages that address our unhealthy culture in evangelicalism of pejorative labeling.
How Are We Being Saved Right Now?
We know that we have been saved, but in what sense are we being saved right now? John Piper addresses a common question here.
The Local Church We All Need
Lara d’Entremont: “About three or four years ago, my family changed our stance on baptism. As we studied Scripture, listened to those who knew more than us, and read many books on the subject, we stepped away from the view of believer’s baptism and embraced Presbyterian infant baptism. This change came slowly and with much humility, especially to us two adults who had scoffed at the doctrine for years. Yet with this change came complications, the major one being that the closest Presbyterian church was a three hour drive away.” She explains how her own local church was made especially and unexpectedly precious in this time.
Flashback: Scepters, Crowns, Thrones
If there are scepters in God’s invisible kingdom, they are not grasped in clenched fists but joyfully surrendered to the true king. If there are crowns in God’s invisible kingdom, they are worn only so they can be removed to be thrown at his feet.

Sanctification is about becoming in practice what we are in reality. Sanctification is really the process of us catching up with our justification. —Matt Papa

In January of 2023, Tim Keesee and I set out on a journey—a journey that has since taken us around the world. Together we have visited twenty-odd countries spread across all six inhabited continents. But before we embarked on that journey, Tim had found himself a traveler on a very different journey—a journey through cancer. And that is the subject of his new book A Day’s Journey.

Yet this is not just a memoir of diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis. As he tells his own story, Tim reflects on the importance of days, the passing of time, the companions he encountered, and the friends and family members who helped shoulder his load. The most prominent section, though, is the one devoted to telling other people’s stories.
In this section, “Along the Way,” he describes a day spent with people who taught him about courage, hope, joy, wonder, and compassion—people who gave him a deeper understanding of the precious gospel of Jesus Christ. Some have suffered through illnesses, some through difficult circumstances, and some through fierce persecution. Some are just people he admires and looks up to. But all add to the story, all contribute their own knowledge and wisdom. Joni Eareckson Tada makes an appearance here, as do Rosaria Butterfield, Caroline Cobb, and a few whose stories are just as important, though their names are lesser-known.
Together, it makes for a compelling and helpful book. And since it is told by as skilled a writer as Tim, it is also a beautiful book—one that uses the riches of the English language to make it all the better to read.
Those who are enduring a long trial will find A Day’s Journey comforting. Those who are not—but who know they will in the future (since this is, after all, a world in which we all endure trials)—will find it challenging. All who read it will benefit from it and find that it leads their hearts to worship the Lord who accompanies us on every journey, the most difficult as well as the most joyful.
Buy from Amazon

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