Good morning. Grace and peace to you. If you didn’t check in over the weekend, you may want to glance at yesterday’s Works & Wonders, especially if you want to hear a couple of new worship songs that you may enjoy.
Sales & Deals
If all goes according to schedule, today’s Kindle deals will include some excellent choices like Ortlund’s Deeper: Real Change for Real Sinners, Chester’s You Can Change, DeYoung’s The Hole in Our Holiness, and more.
Recommended Reading
The Kind of Mom I’ve Become. This is powerful writing from Shelby Ray. “Just over twelve hours later, my body weary from labor, our daughter, who had been okay throughout the whole labor, was born, and she was suddenly not okay. This was the nightmare I had hoped and prayed against, unfolding in slow motion. I looked upon her in that NICU bed, rather than on my chest where I had hoped she would be, and I prayed: ‘Help her, Lord. Help her, Lord. Help her, Lord. But even if you don’t, I’ll worship you.‘”
Young Christians, You Need Older Christians in Your Life! I’d co-sign this if I could. “If you are younger, realise that you need the influence of the older people in your church. If you want to learn how to navigate issues like starting work, dating, handling money, or becoming more independent, people the same age as you won’t be the best place to turn. Ask those who have been through this before. The older people in your church are a great resource for all kinds of issues you will face in life, as well as in their understanding of Scripture and living a life serving King Jesus.”
6 Observations about ‘Online’ Church. A time of illness has forced Murray Campbell to settle for online church, and he offers a series of helpful observations about his experience. “I have now watched a number of services online, across 5-6 different churches, where friends of mine are pastoring. Doing the very thing I don’t like to do (watch online) has given me time to think. What do I think about live streaming services? Well, here are 6 reflections on watching church services online. Two of these thoughts are potential goods that can come about and four are cautions and/or negatives connected with live streaming church.”
Algorithms Are a Mechanical Providence. Andrew Roycroft offers a thoughtful reflection on the algorithm-driven life and the ways it changes our understanding of providence (or coincidence). “Subtly and tragically, however, this experience is being evacuated of its power and pleasure by the ‘advances’ we are making in technology and our welcome of it into our lives. Algorithms are a form of mechanical providence, the rigging of our reality so that confluence and coalescence become commonplace and coldly removed from human wonder.”
God’s People Don’t Become Angels at Death. It is so important that we think rightly about what happens to God’s people after they die. Randy Alcorn says this: “I’m often asked if people, particularly children, become angels when they die. The answer is no. Death is a relocation of the same person from one place to another. The place changes, but the person remains the same. The same person who becomes absent from his or her body becomes present with the Lord. The person who departs is the one who goes to be with Christ.”
Women Are Celebrating Lindsay Clancy. Why? Missy Roepnack: “For the past few weeks, we have watched women line up on social media and at the courthouse, not just in support of Lindsay, but in celebration of her. Women have identified with her, filming videos of themselves acting out their own rage towards their children and tagging them with #IamLindsay. How much of an influence this social behavior has had on Corie Walsh we do not yet know. But we do know that this sort of identifying is doing some influencing, and the innocent are suffering harm. Our identity matters.”
Reader Recommendations
Once a week, I like to ask what you enjoy and 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. Go here to read last week’s recommendations.)
Flashback
God Didn’t Write a Book. Now, as the printed book begins to fade, many are worried that the Bible will fade with it. But it won’t because the Bible is not essentially a book. It is essentially God’s recorded words to humanity, and those words transcend any single medium.
I care not who is President if God is King.
—De Witt Talmage
