The God of peace be with you, my friends.
Logos users, there’s a second batch of free and nearly-free books this month. It’s also worth taking a look at the monthly deals and the Christmas sale.
Today’s Kindle deals include Ed Welch’s Running Scared (which is the kind of book that may change your life). You’ll also find a book on biblical self-care, a book for parents to help their kids with tech, and much more.
Marketing as Stewardship
I had not put much thought into a distinctly Christian perspective on marketing, so enjoyed reading this article. “There’s a quiet engine humming just beneath your attention. It shapes how you think and, in time, how you live. Can you hear it? Entire business models run on it, and they profit not only from your money but from your focus. This engine is called marketing, and it rarely rests.”
Freedom in Devotions
Meredith offers a well-timed reminder that the Bible says very little when it comes to personal devotions. This gives us great freedom in our habits and patterns! “The goal is God. The way we get to him is by faith in Christ through the power of the Spirit using the Word and prayer. Remember that because of grace, you are free to use whatever other tools you desire, but beware that the tools are just that – tools. They have no power in and of themselves.”
Blades of Eternity and the Keeper of Peace
A search for the Keeper of Peace becomes a frantic race to control the fate of the Realm. Four kingdoms collide in this faith-filled fantasy novel for middle-grade readers. (Sponsored)
The Good Gift of Intercultural Humor
“Strange things are afoot in Western culture these days. The pendulum seems to be swinging hard away from some of the self-censoring and self-righteous political correctness and back into territory where joking about our cultural differences is not so taboo anymore, even for majority-culture White folk. I welcome the healthy parts of this, even as I know that some will take it too far…” Likewise!
When People Leave Your Church
Joshua Lim and Peter Yi offer counsel on those times when you learn that members are moving on from your church (and often not for the best of reasons). “Sometimes there are tears, sometimes laughter. Sometimes it happens in coffee shops, sometimes in the church lobby. Sometimes the conversation is long, and sometimes the conversation never even happens. But regardless of the form it takes, people leaving the church is not a question of if, but when.”
Keeping Sovereign Grace in Gospel Partnerships
John Piper discusses whether Calvinistic theology is really a good basis for gospel partnerships.
Why Can’t I Throw Away This Stick?
“Sentimentality, nostalgia, is not necessarily wrong. I’m glad that I remember fun times with my kids as they were growing up. But I think there can be some problems with being too nostalgic. It can drift into sin.”
Flashback: Purposeful and Persistent Parenting
John and Cindy Raquet parent as weirdly as any of us, but their weirdnesses generally overlap with my own, and it’s for that reason that I so enjoyed reading their book Purposeful and Persistent Parenting.
The concept of substitution lies at the heart of both sin and salvation. For the essence of sin is man substituting himself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man.
—John Stott
