Today I’ve got a collection of links to some longer-form content. There’s lots to choose from, and I’m sure you’ll find something interesting. Check in tomorrow for Works & Wonders, which will feature some fun and fascinating material, along with some new music.
Sales & Deals
Today’s Kindle deals include some newer and older books, as is usually the case on Saturdays.
Reformation Heritage Books has released a new collection of the works of Thomas Watson, and Westminster Books has a great deal on it.
Recommended Reading
Emma Waters features a guest article by Ericka Andersen who explains some of what the IVF industry doesn’t want you to ask.
When my husband and I couldn’t get pregnant, we thought our only option was IVF. The IVF clinic gladly allowed us to believe that. After paperwork, a brief assessment, and a short conversation with a doctor, we were offered a package deal — one that would give us the best chance of having a live baby at the lowest price.
…
Like so many women who walk through the doors of an IVF clinic, I was blinded by my desire for motherhood. I had no understanding of the repercussions of IVF procedures on my body, my future children, and others; I had no idea who would be affected. Most notably, these created human beings with entire lives ahead of them. Secondly, myself, who would spend years anguishing over what I’d helped create. It’s not anguish because they exist (no human being is a mistake), but because of the trauma and brokenness my choices will bring them.
Read: The IVF Industry Doesn’t Want You to Ask Questions.
Matt Boswell dives deep into a reality that some find startling: there is some worship that God will not accept. “Already you may be somewhat uncomfortable. You may be asking, ‘What do you mean ‘worship that God does not accept?’ Doesn’t God receive any worship from anyone who will offer it at any time?’ Well, no.”
He explains and offers some important application.
Perhaps you have drifted into a pattern of spiritual performance, or maybe you’ve been going through the motions of worship without a heart of worship lately. You can sing to the Lord at the top of your lungs, but if you do so without the right heart posture, your voice will not be pleasing to him. You can pray orthodox prayers that articulate the faith, but if your heart doesn’t fly to God on the wings of those words, you will have fallen short of true worship and communion. You may give sacrificially, but if you do so begrudgingly, your gift will not honor the giver of every good and perfect gift (James 1:17). I pray that if you have been playing at these sacred acts, as I have done at times in my life, that the Lord would do a deep work in your spirit.
Read: What Worship Will God Not Accept?
Here’s an interesting premise: Arab armies often fail to win wars. If that’s true, why?
There are a few common theories among experts. For example, many Arab states relied heavily on Soviet doctrine and training. This emphasized preplanned operations and centralized control. When the situation on the battlefield changed unpredictably, officers froze. During the Yom Kippur War of 1973, the Syrians broke through Israeli defenses on the Golan Heights. But instead of pressing their advantage, the Syrian troops paused, in line with their pre-war plan. In the meantime, the Israelis rushed reserves forward and retook the territory.
Another common explanation is politicization. Leaders often feared their own militaries more than those of their opponents. This led to promotions based on loyalty and purges of experienced officers. At one point, Saddam Hussein had as many as sixteen different security services, which devoted an inordinate amount of time to spying on each other.
But there is probably a better explanation.
Read: Why Arab Armies Don’t Win Wars.
Kristin Kobes Du Mez recently released a new book and, not surprisingly given the subject matter (and the title: Live Laugh Love: The Secret History of White Christian Women and the World They Made), it has received some critical reviews. Writing for Mere Orthodoxy, Kirsten Sanders describes it as a conclusion in search of evidence.
In Live, Laugh, Love, Kobes Du Mez teases a thread I too have noticed. Although “White Christian Woman” elides as much as it describes, the ascendance of social media-moderated culture has prioritized a certain version of religious piety. You can see it in the speakers who are platformed and who get major publishing deals. Scaffolded Bible journals and fancy pens, and underwritten by the religious teaching of women like Beth Moore and Ann Voskamp, it can seem like the popular version American religious woman has taken a hard turn toward the gentle and the pretty. You can hardly buy a Bible anymore without being advertised one that lets you color inside, like a preadolescent whiling away a summer afternoon. The aesthetics (colorful, pastel, with curlicue initials and floral graphics) seem to telegraph an accompanying femininity that is delicate, gentle, and largely decorative.
Read: A Conclusion in Search of Evidence.
Sadly, the Blue Jays won’t be playing October baseball this year, and neither do they deserve to after a disappointing and underperforming season. But the Philadelphia Phillies will be, and this article from the Wall Street Journal tells how they have done so, in part at least, by challenging a century of accepted baseball wisdom.
The established formula for constructing a baseball lineup has been dogma for roughly 125 years. A pesky contact hitter with a high average and propensity for reaching base goes first, while the beefy slugger capable of launching moonshots into the bleachers lives in the middle to drive in runners.
Then you have the 2026 Philadelphia Phillies, who have as much reverence for tradition as a tourist with the audacity to ask for Camembert on his cheesesteak.
The Phillies are on the verge of clinching a playoff spot for the fifth consecutive season. They’ve accomplished this by deploying a batting order that is the complete opposite of what teams have been doing since the turn of the 20th century.
Read: The MLB Team Upending Everything You Thought You Knew About Batting Orders.
We’re currently in the midst of an arms race between AI and AI-detectors, and it’s especially prominent and necessary on college campuses. The Atlantic has a story about the professors who are tearing out their hair over AI detectors.
Four years into the ChatGPT era, colleges may be further from solving AI cheating than they were when it launched. Chatbots are becoming capable of completing ever more complex assignments, making their output harder for professors to sniff out. AI-detection software has improved dramatically and is hitting the mainstream, yet academia is deeply conflicted over its use. Last month, an MIT working group issued an influential report on AI in education that recommended against relying on AI detectors, warning that they risk creating an “atmosphere of distrust between instructors and students.”
Caught in the middle are professors, many of whom are skeptical of these tools but at a loss for what else to do. “I think most faculty feel entirely overwhelmed by this,” Marc Watkins, a lecturer at the University of Mississippi who studies AI’s effect on education, told me. “It’s a mess.”
Read: The Pangram Backlash Unfolding on College Campuses.
The Links You Clicked
Here are the links you clicked most this week:
Reader Recommendations
I like to solicit recommendations for things readers are
reading, listening to, watching, eating, or otherwise experiencing. Here’s what you sent along:
Soo is enjoying New Testament studies by Institute for the Christian Life.
Bill is enjoying “Here I Am”, the new album from Franni Cash, formerly of We The Kingdom.
Monty has benefited from two books in the past month: Fearfully and Wonderfully Broken by Sydney Bennett and Union with Christ by Sinclair Ferguson. “Very different books of course but both drive the heart to Christ, Bennett through example in an incredibly tough story and Ferguson through rich theology and teaching.”
Lenora is “enjoying my hobby of growing dahlias to freely give away to encourage joy. Growing dahlias has reminded me how strategic God is with us in our salvation and sanctification.”
Emma has been blessed by reading A.W. Tozer’s classic The Knowledge of the Holy. “The Lord has recently been showing me how much of my anxiety is due to my misunderstanding his character and not fully trusting in his nature and attributes. This little book brought a lot of corrective truth to my soul and refreshed me in the Lord!”
Haley says the Room for Nuance podcast “has some really interesting guests, fascinating long-form conversations, and Sean DeMars does an excellent job of hosting. I have learned a lot about a variety of theological subjects.”
Jennifer is enjoying reading The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions. “Praying through these has opened my heart to new levels of devotion to God.”
Susan says, “they are not ‘Christian’ books but I am currently enjoying the fiction series The Unselected Journals of Emma M Lion. They are solid stories with no bad language or ‘spice’ and lots of humor. There are not even any romantic relationships yet and I am on the 5th book.”
Bryce recommends the website Learn Classical Apologetics. “It is a free beginner course in classical apologetics with lots of practice opportunities in applying apologetics to conversation rather than video lectures.”
John is enjoying “teaching and listening to my 3-year-old daughter pray each night before bed. Simple, sweet words that I trust will grow into a lifelong dependence and love for my heavenly Father.”
Clint has been “leading our church through The Gospel Way Catechism. I teach a short mini-sermon to the children before dismissing them to Sunday School during the sermon, and then in our Wednesday night Bible study we dive deeper into the Scriptures for each catechism.”
Flashback
Never Be Discouraged and Never Be a Discourager. We often experience discouragement when we simply fail to be encouraged by the truths of God, the love of God, and the promises of God. It would do us good to determine, “Never be discouraged.”
Jesus was God and man in one person, that God and man might be happy together again.
—George Whitefield
