Good morning. Grace and peace to you.
Today’s Kindle deals include a selection from Crossway.
If you missed it over the weekend, Westminster Books is wondering if you know of an aspiring pastor, missionary, counselor, or teacher. If you do, they’ve got a gift they’d like to send them.
(Yesterday on the blog: A Prayer to Our Father)
This Is a Gift You Can Give
Glenna has a beautiful piece about visiting a nursing home with her church to serve its residents.
On Domestication
This is an interesting take on the domestication of animals—and one I find myself agreeing with.
Fiscal Hilarity
Jim Elliff says that “giving is a sign of something. You give according to your own desire, not begrudgingly and mournfully as if you are parting with your vital organs. It is the expression of your love. God likes to keep it on this basis. Attitude is every bit as important as amount—no, much more so. You should want to give.”
Blessed Among All Women
“It would be all too easy for Protestants to overreact against the excessive devotion given to Mary by many and either ignore her completely or treat her like any other woman. That would be a great mistake, for she was, in Elizabeth’s words, ‘blessed among women’. We mustn’t elevate her to a position God never intended her for – which she herself would have been appalled by – but at the same time she has much to teach us.” She does, indeed.
Best Christian Folk & Worship of 2023 Music Review
Tim Briggs provided a roundup of his favorite Christian folk and worship of 2023—what he calls his Jesus-y, Folky, Singer-songwriter-y, Worship-y, High Quality Music Awards. (See also Brett McCracken’s list at TGC.)
Uncomfortable Christmases: Witnessing to Family at the Holidays
Randy Newman offers some counsel on witnessing to family during the holidays. “How might we evangelize our family on what appears to be a minefield? It may prove helpful to begin with some internal preparation before we brainstorm strategies for external interaction. In fact, framing the topic through before, during, and after scenarios might ease the burden of our endeavor.”
Flashback: Singing in the Dark
God reveals himself as the good Father who searches and knows the deepest recesses of my heart. His Son is the very Man of Sorrows who is intimately acquainted with grief and who can sympathize with me in my every weakness.
True happiness does not lie in the obvious and natural choice but in the countercultural and Christian one.
—Alistair Begg
