The God of love and peace be with you, my friends. I trust my American friends and family enjoyed their holiday yesterday and are either recharged as they get back to work or are setting out on a relaxing vacation.
Sales & Deals
Today’s Kindle deals include a couple of excellent commentaries from the Reformed Expository Commentary series. Aaron Renn’s Life in the Negative World is a good choice as well, as is Tim Keller’s The Songs of Jesus.
Recommended Reading
Should Christians Flip Tables Like Jesus? “Scripture tells us to be like Jesus. Does that mean we should call hypocritical leaders ‘blind fools’ and a ‘brood of vipers’ like Jesus does in Matthew 23? Does imitating Jesus mean we should make a whip of cords, curse a fig tree, and flip a table in a temple? Should we make it our goal to do the same? And if not, why not?” I appreciate what Andrew Noble has to say about the matter. (See also The Righteous Anger of God Incarnate by David Mathis.)
Judson’s Last Ride. This is a beautiful piece of writing—a father’s tribute to his son. “Judson is a senior in high school. He also has profound autism. He’s 18 years old, and while he blessedly has some capacity for speech, I’ve never had what you would call a conversation with him. And I assume (though I can’t really know) that he has no clue that today isn’t just any old school day like he’s had since fourth grade. Today, Judson Hancock Trende will have his last day of class.”
The Christian Theology Handbook. Immerse yourself in The Christian Theology Handbook, an elegant, full-color handbook that includes robust summary content, charts, infographics, doctrinal studies, and more for every major topic in Christian Theology. Constructed with high-quality cloth cover materials and a sewn binding, The Christian Theology Handbook is designed to last a lifetime as a valuable companion resource for study, teaching, and ongoing discipleship. (Sponsored)
What’s Wrong With Boys? R. Scott Clark writes about a spate of tragic situations and explains some of what might be wrong with boys today. “Two of these shooters were members of orthodox, confessionally Reformed congregations. As it happens I know both congregations and their pastors. These are not idiosyncratic congregations, they are not organized around any sort of ideology that might encourage young men to become violent. Both of them are ideal congregations demonstrating the marks of the true church: the pure preaching of the gospel, the pure administration of the sacraments, and the use of church discipline.”
The Single Path. Here’s a helpful explanation of why the Christian faith’s claim to offer the one and only path to salvation is not borne of prejudice and arrogance. “It might be nice to imagine that there are many paths to the one God, but it simply wouldn’t be true. At its heart, Peter’s claim is a claim about effectiveness. He is a witness to the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. He stands to testify to that power. Our human situation knows of only one effective remedy: the name of Jesus Christ. He saves, and no one else does.”
Battle for the Soul. This is a great use of some of Tolkien’s famous words: “‘I wish the Internet was never created,’ I tell Rich and then we commiserate together by sharing worn stories of simpler times—childhoods spent climbing trees and roller-skating and playing ‘Release’ until the streetlights came on as a way to remember life before smart phones and social media and the disconnected ‘connectedness’ of today.”
How Commercial Surrogacy Targets Military Families. This article at First Things was really alarming to read. I had not heard before that the commercial surrogacy industry is very deliberately targeting military families. “Military wives constitute less than 1 percent of the American population, and they make up between 15 and 20 percent of the women paid to gestate other people’s children. Surrogacy agencies have reported this figure consistently since at least 2010, when Glamour magazine published ‘The Most Wanted Surrogates in the World’ and ABC News produced a parallel report on the same phenomenon.”
New Books
New Christian books most often release on Tuesdays. I could find only one that actually releases today, but I added one I overlooked earlier in the month.
- Battling Unbelief by John Piper (second edition). If you haven’t read the first volume of Battling Unbelief or the larger work Future Grace, then this may be just the thing.
- What’s Missing from the Evangelical Gospel by Peter Sammons. This one is probably a bit niche, but it comes with lots of sterling endorsements by trusted theologians.
- Strong to the End by David Lloyd & Alicia Lloyd with Dean Merrill. This tells the story of Davy and Natalie Lloyd, young missionaries killed in Haiti.
Flashback
Four Good Questions To Ask Your Tech. Since we are already in the habit of speaking to our devices, why don’t we ask them some questions about themselves and how they plan to function in our lives. And why don’t we commit ourselves to thinking deeply, not only about what they add to our lives but also what they take away.
The highest form of selfishness is that of the man who is content to go to heaven alone.
—J.C. Ryle
