The God of love and peace be with you today.
Today’s Kindle deals include Ed Welch’s excellent Addictions: A Banquet in the Grave. You’ll find other good books along with it, like Hunter & Wellum’s Christ from Beginning to End.
The Goodness of Caring for Other People’s Children
Yes, it is very good to care for and care about other people’s children. “We do not have enough encouragement to care for other people’s children and invest in them, even if we have no children or even if we have children of our own. Encouraging people to invest in their own families should not slow us down from encouraging people to invest in young people, full stop.”
Can AI Preach My Sermon?
We know intuitively that AI should not and must not preach a pastor’s sermon (or prepare it), but it’s important to consider why that is. “God changes hearts through His Word. And He has entrusted that proclamation to us. Do not let AI replace you, pastor. You are the appointed messenger of God’s Word to your people.”
Bring Your Church to the 2026 Missionary National Conference
The Lord Who Sends exists to shape your church according to God’s Word, preparing you for the sacrificial work of sending missionaries to the unreached. It features John Piper, Kevin DeYoung, Mark Dever, Michael Reeves, and others. Register your group by February 28 to save. (Sponsored)
Resisting the Lure of Catholicism and Orthodoxy
“Why are students drawn to Rome or Constantinople? Of course, the answer is slightly different for every student. But, generally speaking, my students are attracted to the (alleged) monolith, both in culture and history, of the Catholic church in contrast with the fragmentation of American Protestantism. They like the history, structure, aesthetics, and ‘vibe’ of Catholic mass or Orthodox Divine Hours. They are attracted to the robust sacramentalism of transubstantiation, against evangelical memorialism or even anti-sacramentalism. They find the idea of ‘communing on Christ’ to be beautiful.”
Grace in the Exhaustion
Sabrina Howell finds grace amid the exhaustion of motherhood. “Lately, I’ve been tired in a way that sleep doesn’t fix. Not the kind of tired that disappears after a good night or a quiet morning, but the kind that settles into your bones and shows up again the next day. The kind that makes small things feel heavier than they should. Motherhood has felt like that for me in this season: beautiful, meaningful, and also deeply demanding.”
Take the High Places Down
John writes about the difficult work of bringing down idols. “It’s not particularly difficult to preach a text that calls people to God while leaving their idols untouched. It’s far easier to condemn the false worship out there than to confront the altars in our own congregation or our own hearts.”
Deal With Sin in the Church for the Sinners’ Good
This is a helpful reminder that for the good of sinners, we need to deal with sin in the church. “Church discipline is never nice, but it is necessary. But as churches we will only ever resolve to do this if we see sin biblically. If we see our responsibility as the people of God as God does. And if we see discipline as an act of love to awaken the complacent sinner to the peril they are in.”
Flashback: To Speak Words that Bring Life
A friend stepped into my office for just a couple of moments and we spoke about a ministry that concerns us both. I guess she detected something, because a few minutes later she reappeared. All she said was this: “Tim, do not grow weary in doing good.” And then she was gone.
The inconsistent conduct of parents themselves, is a frequent and powerful obstacle to success in religious education.
—John Angell James
