Good morning. Grace and peace to you.
Sales & Deals
Today’s Kindle deals include books like Marriage and the Mystery of the Gospel by Ray Ortlund, Married for God by Christopher Ash, and other excellent choices. Tim Keesee’s A Day’s Journey is on sale as well, possibly for the first time.
Recommended Reading
How to Wait for Cultural Reckoning. Joe Carter: “After decades of steady liberalization, society appears to be having second thoughts about some aspects of America’s (im)moral revolution.” He describes some of these, then says, “The shift is encouraging until you realize what caused it. Those of us who have spent years (or even decades) arguing against immorality would love to take credit for changing people’s minds. The reality, though, is they changed because the consequences arrived.”
Pillaging of the Digital Commons. Alan Noble describes the ways that the big tech companies have pillaged the digital commons. “We didn’t know what we were doing on Facebook in 2007 when we publicly posted pictures of our dogs, our children, and our vacations and shared opinions about movies and music and politics. But we were actually training an AI model. We didn’t know because nobody told us. I’m sure that technically there was some line in the user agreement (which we were pressured to rapidly scroll through) which gave Meta permission to use our content for whatever they wanted to for any reason ever, but that’s the pathetic exchange we’ve all been making for decades now on the Internet.”
The Marxist Who Understood Sex Better than the UMC. Carl Trueman: “Years before ‘swinging’ meant anything beyond big band music, thinkers such as Sigmund Freud and J. D. Unwin pointed out that sexual codes are at the heart of culture. Dismantle them, and you dismantle the essence of those human relationships that define a civilization. The sexual revolution did just that, turning a lifelong human bond connected to procreation into mere recreation. It thereby turned sexual partners into instruments of worth only insofar as they meet one’s sexual needs. Sex today is not about self-giving; it is about selfish taking. And the fruit of this ‘liberation’ has been the unprecedented objectification of women, pornography being only the most obvious example.” (First Things uses a metered paywall that provides a number of free articles per month. Hopefully you’ve got one left.)
Invite As Many As You Find. Jacob Crouch celebrates the gospel. “How free should we be with the gospel? How broad is the call of salvation? Who should be evangelized? There is a wedding feast coming, and there will be guests. And who will those guests be? It won’t be those who self-righteously decline the offer (Matt 22:3). It won’t be those who try to come in without being clothed in the righteousness of Jesus (Matt 22:11). So who then should we invite? Jesus clarifies this for us: ‘invite… as many as you find.’ As many as you find. What a sweet word.”
Chosen by Grace – Why Predestination Should Give You Confidence, Not Fear. Alistair Chalmers explains why predestination should generate confidence rather than fear. He makes a key point: The most natural response to hearing that God saves people should not be “why doesn’t he save all” but “why does he save any?”
Intrusive Thoughts & Gospel Hope. Chris Hutchison writes about the difficult subject of intrusive thoughts. “Intrusive thoughts are a silent struggle for a growing number of people I talk with. Not that I think that more and more people are struggling with intrusive thoughts; I’m just hearing it from more people who, after knowing me for a long enough period of time, are willing to open up about it.”
Your Recommendations
Once a week, I like to ask what you recommend. What books, products, videos, sites, or experiences do you recommend to others who read this blog/newsletter? Let me know, and I’ll share a collection on Saturday. (If you’re reading this via email, you’ll need to visit my site to fill out the form.)
Flashback
Guard Your Health. When you neglect your body, you will often find your soul heavy and your mind dark. But when you care for it, you tend to find your soul cheerful and your mind enlightened.
Conviction is worthless unless it is converted into conduct.
—Thomas Carlyle
