Today’s Kindle deals include a few titles from Crossway.
Westminster Books has a sale on volumes in the new ESV Expository Commentary series.
(Yesterday on the blog: Have You Committed The Unpardonable Sin?)
Let’s Just Be Honest and Admit We Hate One Another
“Pick your debate. Pick your side. It might be something that actually matters or it could even be trifling nonsense. In our day and age it doesn’t matter much—pick a side, be outraged by something. Can we call this what it is? Hatred.”
We Can’t Take Our Platform to the Grave
I’ve been here: “Once I got it, I started seeing it everywhere. I started seeing the danger that comes with prosperity and platform. I started seeing the danger that comes with comfort and ease. I started seeing how easily my heart is moved by new followers or compliments. I started seeing how dangerous it is for me to feed on these things. And I started seeing it in scripture, too.”
Is Social Justice a Gospel Issue?
Kevin DeYoung brings clarity to a pressing issue. “As in so many controversies, we must be quicker to define our terms than to define our opponents. No doubt, there are real disagreements worth exploring and exposing. But there also may be more agreement than some might initially imagine. Depending on our definitions, social justice and the gospel may be miles apart, or they may be as close as loving God by obeying his commands (John 14:15).”
6 Ways Watching Pornography Affects Your Mental Health
Here’s one worth considering: “What are six ways that pornography affects our mental health? Each of the affects below is a common ‘side effect,’ if you will, of viewing pornography that has a negative influence on mental health. The degree of impact each point has on a given individual will vary from person to person for a variety of reasons.”
False Alarms And The Impending Judgment of God
“I was working in the garage when my wife flung the door open. With tears in her eyes and desperation in her voice, she screamed, ‘James get in here!’ Her sister lives in Hawaii and called to tell her that the whole island had received the following warning message on their phones: ‘BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.’”
Two Relationship Cripplers
How you pray matters. “The language we use in prayer reflects how we think about our relationship with God and, to some degree, how that relationship functions. Specifically, I’m thinking about how we address God in our prayers.”
The Slow Killing of Congregational Singing
“Here’s the irony: we then replaced the choirs with song leaders (or, what we inaccurately call ‘worship leaders’). Over time the number of song leaders grew and grew until they became as big as a choir. Then we gave the song leaders full-volume microphones and electrical instruments, and many became performers. When the music team was large and the microphones were turned up they drowned out the congregation. So, sadly, the very people appointed to help the congregation sing actually smothered congregational singing.”
Flashback: What God Does With Your Sin
Are you distressed by what you’ve done? Do you hear whispers that you have sinned beyond God’s desire or ability to forgive? Let these illustrations comfort you.
Let no man pretend to fear sin that does not fear temptation also! These two are too closely united to be separated. He does not truly hate the fruit who delights in the root.
—John Owen
