Good morning, my friends. The God of peace be with you as you serve him today.
I have had a couple of people ask about the little banner directly above this. It is simply meant to provide a sense of how many blogs, Substacks, YouTube channels, and other sources of information I try to keep tabs on to bring you this collection every day. I update it once per week.
Sales & Deals
Today’s Kindle deals include Bryan Chapell’s helpful book on eschatology (Are We Living in the Last Days?) and Dave Harvey’s excellent book on the middle years of marriage (I Still Do). Then there’s also great pricing on 32 volumes of the reader-friendly Christ-Centered Exposition commentary series.
Recommended Reading
Take That Risk for Jesus. Scott Hubbard puts out the call to Christians to be willing to take risks for Jesus. “You feel prodded, moved. The impulse begins to feel like a matter of obedience. You come right to the cusp of action. But then you look around and see no one else you know following Jesus like that. And so you don’t either.”
Have You Eliminated Submission from Your Life? Casey McCall asks some important questions here: “Who do you submit to? Do you have anyone in your life who has the authority to deny you something you want?” He goes on to say, “I’ll show my cards. I do not believe it’s wise for any human being, at any life stage, to live completely free from life-on-life submission to authority. Whether it’s a pastor, spouse, friend, or mentor, we all need at least one person in our lives who has the authority to deny us our desires.” I very much agree.
What Happened When I Evaluated My Tech Usage. It would undoubtedly be wise for each of us to evaluate our tech usage from time to time, as Jane Story prompts us to do in this article. (And lest we think this is only for younger people, I was interested to see a recent story from the Wall Street Journal that suggests retirees are no better than their children or grandchildren. “Let’s have a show of hands: How many retirees have ended a day looking up from the phone, wondering where the time went and feeling the mental equivalent of having finished off a family-size bag of potato chips? Yeah, that’s what I thought. ” See: Where Does Our Free Time Go in Retirement? It’s not a gift link, so you may need an account to read it.)
Not Everything Needs to Be Useful. “The most common case I see others make for the proliferation of AI—in Christian circles and otherwise—is how integrating artificial intelligence into our lives and work will ‘lead to levels of productivity and utility that mankind has never seen in its history.’ And I just don’t think that’s necessarily a good thing.” Chris Martin explains why he is all for AI, but not in every circumstance. (Also, speaking of AI, Christianity Today recently shared its AI policy. I found it helpful.)
10 Intercessory Prayer Points to Guide Our Prayers. Here is a handy list of intercessory prayer points, with small sample prayers for each.
Before you Decree and Declare. It is good to intercede, but, as you can read at Kuza, not to decree and declare, as if we have the right to command God.
Book Reviews
I love to read and review books, but I can’t possibly read or review them all! Here are some reviews by other writers.
- Make Your Home in This Luminous Dark by James K.A. Smith, reviewed by Michael McEwen. “My primary critique concerns the book’s vision for the future of Christianity—specifically, its cultural embodiment. Citing Karl Rahner, Smith writes, ‘The Christian of the future will be a mystic, or will not exist at all’. Aside from brief references to contemplative practices—such as meditating on the mysteries of God—the reader isn’t given a clear explanation of why or how this ‘mystical mode’ meaningfully shapes the church’s future or why it should be considered the mode for the future.”
- Spirit-Filled Singing: Bearing Fruit as We Worship Together by Ryanne Molinari, reviewed by Zak Mellgren. “Worship leaders and teams will benefit the most and are clearly Ryanne’s target audience, but considering her reflections on the Spirit’s work in musical worship will help any Christian grow in appreciation for congregational singing.”
- The Art of Disagreeing by Gavin Ortlund, reviewed by Brittany Shields. “The world would be a better place if everyone read this book. And not because it would magically make everyone agree with each other— it’s not trying to do that.”
Flashback
The Night Is Far Gone. “Are you committing your time, your talents, your energy, your enthusiasm, your creativity, your everything to loving others? Can you say that you are fully awake to this urgent, now-or-never task of loving your neighbor as yourself?”
If Jesus is dead and buried somewhere, Christianity is a dangerous delusion. But if Jesus is actually alive, he’s so much more than a motivational story.
—Mike Hood
