My new book for children will be released around the middle of May. God’s Great Big Global Church, which allows children to visit ten churches around the world and meet children in each of them, is now available for pre-order through Amazon. The publisher is also giving away a copy via Instagram if you’d like to enter to win.
Today’s Kindle deals include several resources meant to guide people as they encounter particular difficulties in life. You’ll also find Aaron Renn’s thought-provoking Life in the Negative World and others besides it.
(Yesterday on the blog: What God Is Doing When He Doesn’t Seem to Be Doing Anything)
A Public Servant Faces a Public Death
I found this article about Ben Sasse particularly encouraging, though sad as well, of course. “Ben Sasse is dying in plain sight. Two days before Christmas he tweeted that he’d been diagnosed with metastatic Stage 4 pancreatic cancer and ‘am gonna die.’ He has spoken to the world about his impending demise like a Christian philosopher of death—frank, unafraid, sometimes folksy, always graceful.”
Should Christians Always Stand With Israel?
With war raging in the Middle East, I think many Christians are wondering how they should think about Israel. Desiring God collected some of what John Piper has said about the issue over the years. “These realities can be complex for us as both Christians and earthly citizens. Our foremost allegiance is to Jesus, even as we have our secondary allegiances to various modern nations. Simple answers may not suffice, especially in times of war.”
Small Investments, Big Returns
J.V. Fesko describes some of the parenting habits that, though they are small investments, can lead to big returns. “If you only want to address the big problems in life, you won’t have made the investment in the small things—you won’t have established a foundation of trust and interest up front. Under such circumstances, you’ll undoubtedly be ill equipped to communicate meaningfully with your kids.”
How Hatred Ate Me Alive
Tessa tells how hatred once ate her alive and how the Lord delivered her from it. “I could have killed a man. Had he entered my presence and had a gun been in my hand, I am convinced I would have pulled the trigger.”
Why Is Life Hard?
Jason Helopoulos: “As Christians, we shouldn’t whitewash difficulty. We call evil evil, and we acknowledge pain and loss for what they are. We do not pretend all is well when it is not. We are not Stoics trying to rise above suffering by sheer resolve. Life in a fallen world is often hard. There is real suffering.”
Poverty Doesn’t (Always) Look Like You Think
This is both interesting and helpful when considering poverty in America and the rest of the developed world. “Why, for so many American Christians I interact with, is the face of poverty almost always the man or woman on the corner? A panhandler isn’t, by a long stretch, an accurate representation of most material poverty in the United States. Poverty often hides in plain sight, and many from middle-class communities can’t always see it. We need our eyes to adjust to a brighter light shining on our neighbors and their situations.”
Flashback: Now What?
It is a question I get asked with fair frequency: What book would you recommend for a new Christian? If someone has just made a profession of faith in Christ, what would you suggest they read?
As the wicked are hurt by the best things, so the godly are bettered by the worst.
—William Jenkyn
