Good morning. May the God of love and peace be with you today as you remember the death of our Savior. You’ll notice that today’s Recommended Reading links follow a kind of narrative flow. It begins with Good Friday, then advances to Saturday, Easter, and the future. I hope you enjoy them all!
Coming up today:
- Good Friday greetings
- The day between loss and glory
- Paul Tripp’s Easter complaint
- A La Quiz
- and more …
Sales & Deals
Today’s Kindle deals include some great picks: Jerry Bridges’ The Fruitful Life, Al Mohler’s Prophet, Priest, and King (which may be on sale for the first time), and Sean DeMars’ Health, Wealth, and the (Real) Gospel. And that’s just the start. There’s also Praying Backwards, one of my favorite prayer books, and more.
Recommended Reading
What Greeting Should We Use on Good Friday? That’s a question I’ve often wondered. Obviously, “Happy Good Friday” doesn’t sound quite right. Kenneth offers one possible option in this article. “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we had a standard greeting to draw upon to greet other Christians on Good Friday the way we do on Resurrection Sunday like: ‘He is risen!’ Response: ‘He is risen indeed!’”
Why We Must Understand Christ’s Suffering. Ashley Gibson explains why, even if it makes us uncomfortable, we need to consider Christ’s suffering before we consider his glory. “We live in a culture that tends to hurry past suffering. Whether it’s uncomfortable stories on the news, loved ones walking through difficulty, or our own seasons of adversity, it’s easy to wish we could fast-forward. Yet suffering is unavoidable, even in the Christian life.”
Walking with God through the Heartache of Divorce. “Divorce brings a whirlwind of emotions—like grief, anger, confusion, and shame. The heart aches even while daily life has to carry on. Compassionately sharing biblical truth alongside insights from her own experience, Vaneetha Risner offers realism and encouragement through the challenges and pain of divorce. This Was Never the Plan offers support for both those walking through a divorce and friends and family who are walking alongside them. Get 30% off with code CHALLIES.”
The Day Between Loss and Glory. Kirsten Black explains why living with loss has caused her to begin focusing more on Saturday than on Good Friday or Easter. “Saturday is a day of tension; of living in the in-between. It is living with the hopeful anticipation that Sunday is coming, married to the grief-stricken pain of the reality of Friday. It’s knowing that Jesus does not lie and has promised a resurrection is coming but also holding the weight of the present sorrow.”
Better Than Video: The Return of the Eyewitness. Here’s an interesting take on the eyewitness testimony of the resurrection compared to the age of AI. “You may be familiar with the common digital refrain: “Pics, or it didn’t happen.” For a long time, we believed that unless there was a digital trail or a lens involved, a claim remained mere hearsay. But now we’ve entered a day where neither pics nor vids convince us that something has taken place.”
The Resurrection’s Centrality. “Is the resurrection of Christ a necessary component of the gospel message? After all, certain biblical texts seem to imply that Paul may have focused more on the cross.” Patrick Schreiner asks and then answers an interesting and important question.
My Complaint About Easter Sunday. Paul Tripp explains his “complaint” about Easter Sunday. “This might sound controversial at first, but it’s not meant to be. It’s more of an exhortation than a critique. Let me state it and then explain it.”
A La Quiz
Did you read this week’s A La Carte links? Test yourself.
- “Do all you can, and then do a little more; and when you can do that, then do a little more than you can.” This axiom was drawn from the works of which preacher? (find out)
- Who wrote these lines about spiritual gifts? “If you are exercising a ministry in the church which is meant to build up the congregation, practice your gift! Don’t think it is somehow less spiritual or authentic if you don’t. It may be an apparently mundane capacity and not at all ‘supernatural’ – but it may be completely and utterly the work of the Holy Spirit.” (find out)
- I linked to one article this week that reflects on a movie. Which movie is it? (find out)
Book Brief
I have long been concerned and dismayed by the precipitous rise of sports betting. Having now read Danny Funt’s Everybody Loses: The Tumultuous Rise of American Sports Gambling, I am extremely concerned and dismayed. He explains how companies like DraftKings and FanDuel springboarded from fantasy sports to gambling and how they have come to extract hundreds of billions of dollars from gamblers, many of whom are young and the great majority of whom lose far more than they win. He shows that these apps are every bit as evil and unethical as the illegal gambling operations of days gone by. With more and more people involved in gambling, this is a book worth reading.
Flashback
Banksy and Beauty from Ashes. In the hands of a skilled artist, something broken can become beautiful, something valueless can become worth a fortune. And there is something remarkable about considering that this is what God does with us.
There would be absolutely no benefit to us if Jesus merely lived and died as a private person. It is only because He lived and died as our representative that His work becomes beneficial to us.
—Jerry Bridges
