Good morning. Grace and peace to you.
Today’s Kindle deals include a big deal (if all goes according to schedule): Several volumes of Crossway’s New Testament Theology series. It’s a great week to get started or to catch up with an excellent series.
The Value in Learning to Struggle
I appreciate what Melissa says here about the value of learning to struggle. “I don’t imagine that a blissfully easy first year would have taught us nearly as much. Our hearts and minds fought some battles in those early months and years, with each other, with ourselves, with grownup life, with the temptation to sin in anger, or to become apathetic in frustration. God seemed to suddenly place us on the fast track to learning how to rely on Him, not just to learn how to be married, but to figure out how to pay the bills, and, maybe most importantly, how to be content with what we have in the moment.”
When ‘Stranger Things’ Stopped Being Strange
Though I didn’t watch “Stranger Things,” I still appreciated Patrick Schreiner’s assessment of how it stopped being strange. “Will’s coming-out scene is framed as a cathartic confession. But in Christianity, confession’s liberating power comes when we name the darkness within us and repent from it—rather than embracing it and asking others to accept it. We expose the monster inside us so it might be conquered through the power of a loving God, and with the help of our friends.”
How We’re Praying More with the PrayMore App
A pastor and software business owner and his team created an app to help you and your small group pray! It’s packed with thoughtful features: a personal prayer journal, easy sharing with your private group, customizable daily reminders, and they are now offering it free forever for your group of up to 15 people! So, why are you waiting? Install it today—God is listening and ready. (Sponsored)
If Our God Is for Us (Video)
I think you’ll enjoy this new song by Jordan Kauflin and Laura Story. “What shall we say, but ‘Hallelujah!’ / For none can take us from His love / He won’t forsake the ones He died to save / Yes, our God is for us.”
On Reading as Stewardship
Zak wants you to understand reading as stewardship and defends his position pretty well. He offers some ways to get started with diligent reading.
Why Does the Lord’s Supper Matter?
Harrison Perkins does a good job of explaining why the Lord’s Supper matters to Christians.
A Sermon You Need to Hear, From You
Here’s a little sermon you may often need to preach to yourself.
Flashback: A Big Problem You Didn’t Know You Had
This is a short book, but one that packs a punch. It is a helpful examination of a particularly deceptive and odious sin and it offers a biblical solution to it. Those who read Envy may just find themselves grappling with a big problem they didn’t know they had.
We may set it down as an unalterable truth, however, that there can be no real failure when one is faithful to God and to duty.
—J.R. Miller
