Sales & Deals

Today’s Kindle deals include a lot of great books to start a new month. If all goes according to schedule, the list will include works on apologetics, singing, Karl Marx and D.L. Moody, missionaries who were recently martyred in Haiti, and much more. Enjoy the bounty!

Logos users will want to take a look at this month’s free and nearly-free books. You’ll also find some early Black Friday deals that include some commentaries at up to 80% off. It’s also worth browsing the monthly sales.

Recommended Reading

A Candy Shop Owner, a Customs Officer, and a Beloved Family. I like this illustration. “Anyone traveling to another country knows that customs officers don’t mess around. They might grill you about what you are bringing into the country, who you are visiting, where you are going, and what your intentions are in the country. I’ve been asked all of those questions. I’ve never felt warmly welcomed by a customs officer. Currently our daughter lives in Southern California. We look forward to those sweet times she can come home. When she arrives home for Christmas, will we grill her? ‘What are the purposes of your stay at our home?’ ‘Who do you plan to visit?’ ‘What are you bringing into our home?’ Certainly not! We will throw the door open, wrap her in our arms, and welcome her in. She is family!”

Your Definition of Blessing Is Too Small. “How do we square the Bible’s unblushing promises of blessing for the faithful with its theology of suffering? Put another way, how does Psalm 128 fit with a passage like Psalm 88, where the faithful one seems utterly abandoned to the darkness? One way to answer this question succinctly is to realize that the Bible, first, expands the meaning of blessing in this life, and second, eternalizes it.” These are helpful categories when we consider a difficult topic.

5 Ways Retirees Can Serve the Church. I am not yet a retiree, but when the time comes, this article lists some of the ways I will want to serve my church. “‘Retirement at last! Now I can sleep as late as I want to. Now I get to do nothing all day.’ Such is a popular description of how retirement looks to many people. I know some who would even add, ‘Now I get to play golf every day.’ Obviously, this does not reflect the Christian perspective of someone who understands that his chief end is ‘to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.’ This is not to say that sleeping later and playing golf are anti-Christian. However, there are some significant ways that retirees can still serve the church.”

You Can See Everything: On Masks, Performing, and Holiness. You have probably heard at least something about the new film You Can See Everything. Joseph Whitenton explains that the movie provokes the question of whether you can ever truly know someone, then says “I can’t help but feel a deep sense of dread. Is this really all we can say about our relationships to one another? That it might be impossible to really know someone? To even know ourselves? Are our lives just a string of performances? I can’t help but think about how a social media centered age might further contribute to this feeling of constantly performing, as Bo Burnham, another comedian/prophet has observed.”

The Straightest Path to Happiness. Randy Alcorn: “In God’s world, happiness is found in discovering what’s truly in our self-interest: loving God and our neighbor. This profound, paradigm-shifting concept, understood correctly, makes the false dichotomy obvious in the question, ‘Should I serve others, or should I act in my own best interests?'”

The Danger of ‘No Enemies to the Right’. Writing for The Daily Wire, Andrew Walker tells about the danger of the slogan “no enemies to the right.” “There remains asymmetrical warfare in the Left’s continued aggression toward conservatives. Biblical fidelity also requires impartial judgment — even when it goes against ‘our side.’ Brothers and sisters on the Right need to hear that. When conservatives like us punch right, we’re engaged in a different kind of action than when we punch left. Punching right is self-critique: asking our own house to get into order. Punching left is other-directed critique: asking someone else’s house to get into order. These are very different kinds of things. Therefore, when I hear other conservatives criticize some Christians for only punching right (which is often the case), all I hear them saying is, ‘We’re above self-critique.'”

Reader Recommendations

Once a week, I like to ask what you enjoy and recommend. What books, products, videos, sites, or other 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

Why Anne of Green Gables Is One of My Favorite Novels. I’m drawn to the way Anne makes the world and the people around her so much better by simply being who she is in her strengths, her weaknesses, and her eccentricities. I appreciate her even more now that I’ve got girls of my own. They remind me of her; she reminds me of them.

Sales & Deals

Today’s Kindle deals include a variety of deals spanning a bunch of different eras and genres.

Recommended Reading

Jessica Lee writes about the growing no contact movement in which people sever their relationships with people they find toxic or problematic.

I think of the young women I mentor who are flooded with reels, encouraging them that the best way to deal with the strained relationship with their mom is to put up higher boundaries that limit contact, or to cut off contact altogether. Even if they don’t take these drastic measures, they cannot help being influenced by the ideas, and neither can we. We are steeped in a therapy culture that talks a lot more about self-care than self-sacrifice, and we would be naive if we didn’t acknowledge the formative influence it has on us. And so, when relationships (whether with a parent, sibling, or friend) get hard, as they inevitably will, our first impulse is often toward self-preservation (putting up higher boundaries) and not self-sacrificial presence and faithfulness. 

Read: Going No Contact?: Ruth and Faithful Presence.

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Madeline Livingston has been going through a time of deep sorrow, and from that perspective writes a meditation about grief and glory.

In my grief, I can turn to a Savior who has known human frailty and deep suffering, a Savior who in his most desperate moment prayed, “Let this cup pass from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will” (Matthew 26:39). I can trust in the goodness and provision of a Father who did spare his own Son, but gave him up to rescue us and make us his own (Romans 8:32). I can rest in the compassion of a Maker who collects all my tears in his bottle (Psalm 56:8), a Good Shepherd who carries me safely through the lowest valley and restores my soul (Psalm 23).

As Sorrow and Suffering take me by the hand, they invite me to run to the solid ground of God’s promises made yes and amen through Christ. They urge me on to seek solace in the only place it can truly be found, in a arms of a Father who is my “refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1).

Read: When Sorrow & Suffering Take You by the Hand.

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Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra did a lot of interviews to try to arrive at some best practices for churches that are evangelistically effective. Her article offers a lot of food for thought.

Thirty years ago, evangelical churches leaned on programs like Evangelism Explosion or Continuous Witness Training to deliver evangelistic focus and training, church leader Thom Rainer said. Those structured initiatives fit well in a culture that was more Christian and more institutionalized—it took an average of 20 church members to reach one person for Christ per year.

Today, it takes 50, Rainer said. “Evangelism efficacy, evangelism effectiveness, has definitely diminished.”

That trend is likely to continue. As social media and AI fill our time and increase our social anxiety, even relational evangelism is growing more difficult.

Read: Best Practices from Evangelistically Effective Churches.

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Like Darryl Dash, I’ve been hearing and reading a lot of doom and gloom lately, much of it related to the rise of AI. But also like Darryl, I don’t feel particularly alarmed.

I read quite a few predictions of doom over the weekend, including some from self-professed tech optimists. Supposedly, some infrastructure in the United States is under attack. The idea is that AI is becoming too powerful and will overwhelm whatever safeguards we have in place to protect things like our water systems and electricity.

The proposed solution is to prepare for the disaster by buying generators, solar panels for generators, and stockpiling water and other basic supplies. However, the authors acknowledge that there is little we can do to truly protect ourselves from the danger.

Are the threats real? I do not know. But I do know that Christians do not need to worry for two reasons.

Read: Why Christians Don’t Have to Fear the Collapse.

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Here’s an interesting piece from Carl Trueman, as he considers the label “evangelical” and whether it really has any useful meaning.

The controversial publication, withdrawal, and then republication by Christianity Today of an article suggesting Elisabeth Elliot was bisexual, amid a wave of layoffs and resignations that has stripped the evangelical magazine of half of its staff, have raised numerous legitimate questions about its attitude to journalism, the wisdom of its editorial policy, and its future. I don’t subscribe to it and have rarely read it, so I have no personal interest in the debacle, although the feckless strategy after the controversy broke would seem to confirm the best way to handle media storms: Never apologize, never explain, to paraphrase an adage favored by the late Duke of Edinburgh.

The chaos also raises an important, though rarely asked, question: Does evangelicalism really exist? Certainly it exists as a whipping boy for critics who treat the sins of any one evangelical organization as the sins of all. It also gives others a platform: With no formal leadership, evangelicalism can be claimed by anyone with a social media account. But does it exist as anything more than a label?

Read: Does Evangelicalism Exist? (Also consider Clint Humfrey’s Trueman On Evangelicalism)

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With Reformation Day coming tomorrow, it’s probably a good time to consider some Reformation Day myths. R. Scott Clark covers whether Luther really nailed his theses to the door on October 31, whether the theses were about justification by faith, whether he intended to break with Rome, and so on.

Read: Reformation Day Myths.

Top Content

Here are the links readers clicked the most this week:

• This Is Roman Catholicism
• A Death, a Plagiarism Scandal and a Quest for Revenge: The Bizarre Tale of Otto Z
• I Hate Your Halloween Decorations
• Three Ways to Walk With Those Who Grieve
• Goodbye, ‘Sam’s Club’ Megachurch. Hello, Stained Glass

And here are the articles on my site they read the most:

• Fostering Intimacy in Marriage: Baring Your Soul, Not Just Your Body
• The First 250 Books for Your Church Library
• This Week in Christian Books (October 27, 2026)
• A Christian’s Guide to AI
• Works & Wonders: Ambient Earth, Wildlife Photos, Bird Radio

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:

Andrew recommends Roy McDaniel’s Enacting Atonement: The Narrative Logic of Sacrifice and Sonship in Leviticus. “If Morales’ work on Leviticus connects biblical study with biblical theological categories, McDaniel bridges biblical study with systematics in a very fruitful way.”

John says, “For the past 3 years I have used a Leuchtturm1917 ‘Some Lines A Day’ 5 Year journal to write a brief daily note to my daughter. Over the course of 5 years I reckon this will amount to some 100,000 words, just for her. It serves as a daily summary of our day and a deliberate habit of recording memories and gospel truths for her. I have a journal for each of my daughters and a third soon to begin for baby on the way!”

Peter has “resumed the habit of listening to an audiobook before I go to sleep. I’m almost finished with The Deerslayer, chronologically the first book in James Fenimore Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales, set during the French and Indian War.”

Adele recommends A Praying Life and A Praying Church by Paul Miller. “Both books convict, provoke, and inspire to stop depending on human effort and to start relying on the Holy Spirit.”

Geoff recommends William Inboden’s The Peacemaker: Ronald Reagan, the Cold War, and the World on the Brink. “The book focuses on Reagan’s foreign policy, particularly as it concerns the threat of war and relations with the USSR. However, it is also interesting to see how Reagan’s core beliefs influenced his policy and the compromises that were sometimes required.”

Bill enjoyed Sinclair Ferguson’s new Ligonier teaching series My Joy and Crown: Paul’s Letter to the Philippians.

Karin recommends “Tie-Dye Heart,” a story of God’s grace in foster care and adoption, told from the perspective of a young woman whose parents took in 13 foster children during her growing-up years.

Brad recommends three sites: Gospel-Centered Discipleship, Core Christianity, and Doxology & Theology. (TC: I link to all of these from time to time!)

Lisa says, “One of my most frequent recommendations for Bible study and teaching is BiblePlaces.com for visual resources (geographical photos, maps, and museum items) organized verse by verse through almost the entire Bible. Todd Bolen and the team at BiblePlaces is also partnering with Jason Wolin at BibleSlides.app for more presentation tools for Bible teachers and pastors.”

Jim is almost done reading Arnold Dallimore’s George Whitefield: God’s Anointed Servant in the Great Revival of the Eighteenth Century (the condensed paperback). “Wonderful history. Regardless of one’s end time view, it should cause one to pray for revival.”

Another Jim recommends Tommee Profitt’s Christmas album The Birth of a King. “Do yourself a favor—but maybe wait until at least November!—and give it a listen. Carols like you’ve never heard them, described as cinematic.”

Holly recommends the podcast Room for Nuance. “I like to listen while I am walking because I find them fascinating and because they are so lengthy, I get a good solid walk in!”

Mike recommends the Bible Talk podcast, “which features brilliant hosts having lively conversation about Biblical Theology delivered in a thoroughly enjoyable and accessible manner.”

Nicole says September McCarthy’s Raising Daughters “was a refreshing help to me in my pursuits of fostering deep understanding and connectedness with my daughters. Much of the book is geared toward teenage years and fledglings, and it is shaping my long term view of not just raising young girls right now, but raising future best friends.”

Michele recommends “reading Dust to Dust (Jen Wilkin’s book on aging biblically) in community with a book club, preferably with steaming cups of tea and a solid commitment to progressive sanctification.”

Flashback

We Are All Cultists On the Inside. The inner cultist tries to convince us that life would be better, relationships would be easier, the church would be safer, if only everyone was the same—the same as me. 

Sales & Deals

Today’s Kindle deals include lots of interesting books like an exposition of the London Baptist Confession, some brief biographies of Christians you should know, and Thaddeus Williams’s book on reverence.

Some of my books are 50% off at ChurchSource in their print editions: Visual Theology, A Visual Theology Guide to the Bible, and Pilgrim Prayers.

Recommended Reading

Time Flies—and Death Comes Speedily. The older you get, the more you come to understand that time flies and death comes speedily. “As teenagers, my friends and I were awash with youthful pride, poking fun at weighty things we knew little about—completely ignorant that our life here below is ‘a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.’ The dew was still afresh upon our heads; the road of life unfurling in a great spool before our feet, disappearing into the far-off horizon. We could quote you verses here and there from the Scriptures, all the while being completely unversed in this point: “It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart.” In our minds, we could afford to mock death because we were, at the time, so far removed from it.”

Was Piper Unprepared? A little while ago, John Piper indicated that he may have been unprepared for pastoral ministry when he began it. In this episode of Ask Pastor John, he is asked to explain what he meant by that.

Take Your Faith Deeper with Ligonier’s Grow App. During a time of spiritual decline, God used the Protestant Reformation to bring renewal to His church through the recovery of the biblical gospel. This Reformation Day, explore the truths that fueled renewed devotion to God and His Word in the Grow app from Ligonier. Discover hundreds of Reformation-themed articles, video teaching series, and conference messages to help strengthen your faith and deepen your walk with Christ. Download the Grow app today. (Sponsored)

The Engineering Behind Every Heartbeat. This is a celebration of the engineering of the human heart. “The human heart does not beat like a perfect clock. The time between beats changes as the body breathes, moves, rests, and reacts to the world around it. New research shows that these changes are part of a feedback system linking the heart, brain, and nerves. The heart keeps a steady rhythm while remaining flexible when needed, much like a well-built control system.”

When You Trick-or-Treat, Nod to Martin Luther. Daniel Hyde writes in a local paper to explain to its readers the Protestant contribution to Halloween. “So, by all means, dress up and hand out the candy. When the doorbell rings, remember: The principle that no authority may command conscience protects the civil liberty of the religious and nonreligious alike.”

God’s Left Hand. Bryce Waller: “The most difficult part about politics is what happens after the elections. In Romans 13:1, God calls us to be subject to these governing authorities—to obey the laws they pass, to show them honor and respect, to give them our hard-earned money by paying taxes. Voting is one thing, but submitting my life to a politician, showing respect to that guy, paying taxes to those people—even the people I didn’t choose? That’s not so easy.” These are good things to work out before an election since it will shape your response, whether you are happy with the results or dismayed.

17 Exhortations For Christian Citizens. On a somewhat related note, here are 17 exhortations for Christian citizens. “Bad government and national decline grieve those who love their country and bring a kind of chaos—a hard providence for Christian citizens. Yet even worse forms of chaos stand at the door if enough citizens (including Christians) give in to anger, passion, and impatience. What are pilgrim-voters and stranger-citizens to do as another supposedly cataclysmic ‘most important election of our lifetime’ approaches?”

The Funnies

My friend Chris Martin maintains a Substack called The Funnies, and every Saturday he shares a few fun and silly things he found on the Internet—something I see as a modern equivalent to the comics pages that used to be in every newspaper. I asked him to share a couple with you.

Flashback

From Practice to Perfection. We shouldn’t be surprised or particularly dismayed when others mess up their part or when we mess up ours, for we are all learning and all growing in skill. We apologize, we forgive, we press on.

Sales & Deals

Today’s Kindle deals include books about the Old Testament, Proverbs, faithful presence, the life and influence of Tim Keller, and a whole lot more.

Westminster Books is continuing their Reformation sale by offering discounts on ESV Bibles as well as the tremendous new 500th anniversary edition of Tyndale’s New Testament.

Recommended Reading

How the Mainstream Recruits for the Manosphere. Aaron Renn explains how “asymmetric blame, hectoring lectures, and selectively revived norms are driving young men to the influencers the mainstream condemns.”

How Mental Illness Became an Identity. Myles Werntz has an interesting review of a new book by Fredrik deBoer that explains how mental illness became an identity. “Mental illness in the 21st century is an expanding category—and one increasingly dominated by its most functional and therefore visible members. That displacement—in our collective imagination and public discourse—of the profoundly mentally ill by my college students didn’t happen all at once. And how did it happen? Was it because of the closure of traditional mental hospitals, like those of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest? Was it because of the internet-driven phenomenon of self-diagnosis by very functional influencers? The marginalization of psychiatry as a profession? Or denial, romanticization, and politics?”

It Can Happen Here, Too. “As numerous countries in Europe experience riots, many in America are asking, ‘What on earth is happening on the continent that was, in many ways, the cradle of Western civilization?’ As historic buildings, places of worship, and commercial properties combust before our eyes on the nightly news, how are we to make sense of this?” Carl Trueman warns that what’s happening in Europe could also happen in the United States.

8 Ways to Help Your Kids Love the Church. Shiphrah Lakka offers a series of ways to help your kids learn to love the church. “While discipleship at home is extremely important and something every Christian parent should pursue, it can never replace the church. Reading Scripture together, praying as a family, and teaching our children about God within our homes are vital practices. Yet God’s design for believers extends beyond the walls of our homes. He calls us to belong to a community of believers who worship, serve, and do life together.”

I Hate Your Halloween Decorations. Marc Sims writes about the reality of Halloween today. “The next time I am out, we will really slow down to take in the diorama you set up of black hooded figures encircling a pentagram-alter with a fake infant set in the middle of it, that way he can become familiar with Satanic rituals and child sacrifice. I mean, where else is he going to get this important cultural experience? Apparently, you are under the impression that becoming desensitized to violence and death is an important step for our whole neighborhood to take in—to celebrate, even. Here, frumpy old Marc (boooo!) was worried about why our culture seems ever more eager to relish death and the demonic—but you have shown me that this is really just fun! Save a fake a corpse for me!”

Why Paper Books Endure. Daniel Darling explains his ongoing love for paper books (even while he’s not entirely opposed to electronic ones). “When I began my writing career in the early 2,000s, every single writing conference I attended featured speakers who issued grave warnings. E-books would eventually take over. Paper books would be a thing of the past. Libraries are nice relics of another era. Except that didn’t happen.”

Something Worth Doing

These words by Maltbie Davenport Babcock have often been a challenge to me, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they challenge you as well.

We often think that if we had that man’s means or that man’s ability or that man’s opportunity, we could do something worth doing; but, as we are, there is no possibility of any great thing. Yet God does not want us to fill any other man’s place, or to do any other man’s work. God wants us to improve our own opportunity with the possessions and the powers that He has given us. It is a very great thing for us to do the very best we can do just where and as we are. God asks no one of us to do more than this, nor has any one of us a right to do less.

Flashback

You’re Their Mom or Dad, Not Their Pastor or Evangelist. A parent longs for their child to be saved, yet no one has ever been nagged into the Christian faith. God never identifies nagging as a means of grace or cajoling as a strategy for evangelism.

Sales & Deals

Today’s Kindle deals include lots of good books from New Growth Press and other publishers. Among them you’ll find several good options from Jared Wilson.

Recommended Reading

Goodbye, ‘Sam’s Club’ Megachurch. Hello, Stained Glass. Christianity Today reports on what I consider a welcome trend: church buildings that look like churches instead of warehouses. It begins this way: “Trinity Presbyterian finally has a church building of its own. That building has arches. And carved hammerbeams that tell the story of the Bible.”

3 Reasons Why Christians Should Lay “R.I.P.” to Rest. Nick Batzig thinks it would be best for Christians to lay R.I.P. to rest. “I’ve noticed something of a concerning trend over the past several years. It is the way in which believers speak about culture-impacting individuals at their deaths. Instead of simply expressing appreciation for their life and achievements, it has become commonplace for Christians to use the shorthand ‘R.I.P.’ (rest in peace) on social media when speaking of individuals in whose lives there was no evidence of saving grace at their death. At the risk of sounding ill-tempered, I wish to set out several reasons why I am troubled by this occurrence.”

Go Deeper with Ligonier’s Grow App. Looking to put down roots in God’s Word? The Grow app from Ligonier Ministries gives you clear Bible teaching and guides your daily study for a deeper walk with Christ. Ministry Partners can also access the verse-by-verse notes from the Reformation Study Bible directly in the app and get reliable answers to their theological questions with the Ask Ligonier intelligent assistant. Not a Ligonier Ministry Partner yet? Try these features for 30 days when you download Grow and sign in. (Sponsored)

Beauty Demands to Be Noticed. Michael Jensen is right: beauty demands to be noticed. He tells about people who understand the connection between beauty and transcendence and says, “Clearly, the reductive and polemical explanation of the atheists isn’t proving to be compelling. People can’t square their deeply felt experience of the world with that. To the people I’ve been speaking with, at least, the world simply cannot be reduced to its material components, nor can its coherence be explained by resorting to chance.”

Aslan Sane: The Bowiefication of Narnia. I’ve got a pair of articles to share that comment on the forthcoming Narnia movies, each taking a different perspective. In the first, the writer remembers the old Narnia series from her childhood and bridges from there to what we know of the new one. She’s not impressed with it.

Aslan and the Christians Who Can’t Be Enchanted. In the second, the author rebukes people like me (and the previous author) who have expressed concerns. He reminds us that it’s a movie for kids and that we don’t really know much about it yet. (I’d say he writes with some degree of exaggeration when he accuses me of losing my mind, but I’m glad to consider what he says nonetheless.)

The Day of Pioneer Missions Is Not Over. Writing for Desiring God, my friend Tim Keesee wants us to know that the day of pioneer missions is not over. “Pioneer missionaries are still needed today because there are vast territories and high-rise megacities where the gospel message has yet to reach.”

Videos Worth Watching

Here are several brief videos that are worth your time.

5 Signs Your Church Might Be Too Seeker Sensitive. Adriel Sanchez explains seeker sensitivity and offers signs your church might lean too much in that direction and become seeker driven.

How to Leave a Church Well. Hershael York speaks specifically to pastors to explain how and when to leave a church well.

The Enduring Word. This short film from Crossway celebrates God’s providence through the history of Bible translation.

Flashback

What’s The Point Of Family Devotions? There are many activities families can and will do together. But by establishing family devotions as a shared habit and by calling us to gather for it every weekday morning, we meant to show that time together with the Lord is a priority. 

Sales & Deals

Today’s Kindle deals include O. Palmer Robertson’s two-part Christ of the Consummation, which was commended by, among others, D.A. Carson, Sinclair Ferguson, and Joel Beeke. You’ll also find lots of great deals from Zondervan from books that are related to Protestant theology.

Recommended Reading

Can a Christian Be Demon-Possessed? I know there are many people who are concerned that, even though they are Christians, they may still be possessed by demons. Anthony Faggiano explains why that is not a legitimate fear. “Desire entices us; yielding gives birth to sin; sin grows toward death. Satan can tempt us, but we remain responsible for our desires and decisions. We cannot blame an indwelling demon for what Scripture traces to our sinful hearts. Yet God hasn’t left believers powerless. Through his Holy Spirit, we can begin to put sin to death and walk in obedience.”

7 Keys for Thriving in Lifelong Ministry. I enjoyed reading Joel Beeke’s keys for thriving in pastoral ministry. “Looking back over my ministry over the long term is much more encouraging than looking at it in the short term. A long-term perspective helps me see those who have been saved by the Spirit through my sermons, those marriages that have been strengthened, and even the fruitfulness of elders and deacons who were unsaved when I arrived at my church 40 years ago but have since come to know the Lord personally, vibrantly, and experientially.”

Why Does Everyone Else’s Life Seem Better Than Mine? There are some good insights in Zachary Conover’s article on comparison and envy. “Comparison has a way of making us dissatisfied with things we once received with gratitude. We can be thankful for our homes, our families, our work, and the opportunities God has given us. But then we see someone else’s life. We scroll through reel after reel, and suddenly our own begins to feel inadequate. Their opportunities seem greater. Their accomplishments seem more significant. Their circumstances seem more desirable. Am I the only one who doesn’t have it all together? Why don’t I have what they have? And without realizing it, we begin to measure the goodness of God toward us against what He has given to someone else.”

Put the Destination in the Frame. John Seel has a guest piece on Aaron Renn’s Substack that offers some helpful points on the way we talk about young men. “We are talking about men incorrectly. We frame discussions of men in terms of problems – the ‘crisis of boys and men’ or ‘failure to launch’ – rather than the destination we want men to arrive at. If we want a different outcome, we need to change the frame of our discussions about men to center on the new reality we want to create. We need a frame that naturally leads us to answer the key question: What kind of men do we want our boys to become?”

Welcome to the Valley of Pain. This article from The Atlantic points out, correctly, that the “safe internet” is shrinking and that we need to be more vigilant than ever. “For the next year or two, if not longer, the internet is going to feel a bit touch and go, and more dangerous than we’ve come to expect. ‘It’s going to feel like the sky is falling’ for a while, Prince said. There’s a decades-long backlog of bugs in software written without much review or scrutiny—which was more or less fine so long as there was a very small number of skilled hackers. Over the past two decades, companies, governments, and individuals have been lulled into a false sense of security: Most people don’t think twice about punching credit-card numbers into the website of a local restaurant or gift shop, or forking over a home address and phone number in just about any customer survey. But the internet was always a dangerous place. We’re just waking up from a trance.”

Adoption Is Not a Treatment for Infertility. This headline caught my interest, and I’m glad it did because I found the article quite compelling. Kirsten Upadhye believes it’s best that we don’t speak of adoption as if it’s a treatment for infertility. That’s not to say that adoption is anything less than good and glorious, but simply to point out that it’s unhelpful to regard it as many do when they discuss infertility. Read the article and I think it will challenge your thinking as well. (Also keep an eye out for the forthcoming documentary Frozen Orphans.)

Extra

New Christian books tend to release on Tuesdays. Here are just a few of the books that have become available today. (For a more thorough list, visit This Week in Christian Books.)

The Westminster Confession of Faith, edited by J.V. Fesko. “This essential collection of essays presents an accessible guide to the Westminster Confession of Faith for 21st-century readers.” It includes contributions from Kevin DeYoung, Sinclair Ferguson, Chad Van Dixhoorn, and others.

I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist by Frank Turek & Norman Geisler. This is an updated edition of a popular apologetics book in which the authors argue “that Christianity is not only more reasonable than all other belief systems but is indeed more rational than unbelief itself.”

A History of Ancient Israel by Michael Alan Grisanti & Todd Bolen. This book tells the history of ancient Israel from Abraham to exile “with the biblical record enriched by the latest historical research, archaeological discoveries, and geographical insights.”

Flashback

Thy Will Be Endured. “God, teach me how to serve you in sickness even better than I did in health. God, show me how to honor you in grief with even greater faithfulness than in joy. God, lead me to greater fruitfulness in lack than in abundance.”

Sales & Deals

If all goes well, today’s Kindle deals should include several important books that deal with a Christian understanding of science.

Westminster Books is offering a deal this week on the two-part John Calvin’s Illustrated Institutes, which drives the price as low as 50% off.

Recommended Reading

This Is Roman Catholicism. Here’s a tremendous new project from the Reformanda Initiative—a free documentary series that “offers a firsthand look at often-overlooked yet integral aspects of Roman Catholic theology and practice, challenging idealized perceptions of Rome and encouraging informed, biblical discernment—particularly among those drawn to it. This docuseries is made primarily for Protestant Christians who want to understand what Rome teaches and practices. Featuring: Leonardo De Chirico, Mark Dever, Kevin DeYoung, Albert Mohler, Lauren Montenegro, and Michael Reeves.”

Three Ways to Walk With Those Who Grieve. Kirsten Black outlines three ways that any of us can walk faithfully and compassionately with those who are in a time of deep grief. “Often, we do not know how to step into spaces of loss. There is a beautiful and godly desire to bring comfort, yet when facing the reality of walking with the grieving, we are also confronted with the limits of the comfort we can actually offer. This holy work often brings with it an acute awareness of how easy it is to say the wrong thing and unintentionally add more pain to the one who is already suffering.”

Explore the Reformation in Ligonier’s Grow App. The Protestant Reformation was not a minor theological dispute—it was a recovery of the biblical gospel. With Reformation Day coming this Saturday, you can explore a variety of free Reformation-themed teaching series with R.C. Sproul in the Grow app from Ligonier Ministries. Download the app and study the five solas, the life of Martin Luther, and much more. (Sponsored)

5 Ways Men Can Serve the Church & 5 Ways Women Can Serve the Church. A pair of articles from Ligonier Ministries offers distinct and meaningful ways that both men and women can serve within the local church.

Christian Universalism Is Alive (Just Go to a Funeral). Yes, I have observed as well that funerals are the events where we are most likely to see evidence of Christian universalism. “I’ve been to many funerals and memorial services in my life, and through the years, I’ve encountered religious people who give off the impression that they believe everyone goes to heaven. Culture gives the same impression. Words reveal worldviews. The deceased person may not have received Christ by faith, may not have gone to church, may have even lived an unrepentant and selfish life, and some people still seem to assume they went to a ‘better place’ or went to heaven. Might Christian Universalism be more prevalent than we think?”

Stinginess and the Generosity of God. Randy Alcorn contrasts the stinginess of human beings—and even Christian human beings—with the generosity of God. “A life characterized by greed and stinginess is neither Spirit-filled nor Christlike — nor is it happy. If we know Jesus, we will become more and more like our generous God.”

Unclear Evangelism Leads to Unclear (And False) Conversions. Writing for 9Marks, John Lee explains how unclear evangelism can lead to false conversions. “When we are unclear about the urgency of conversion, the cost of conversion, or the accountability that should accompany conversion, we risk leaving people deceived about their eternal state. Ultimately, our job is simply to proclaim the gospel clearly, trust God to open people’s hearts to the truth, and provide ongoing discipleship to those who respond in repentance and faith.”

Reader Recommendations

Once a week, I like to ask what you enjoy and recommend. What books, products, videos, sites, or other 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

The Influenced Will Be Like the Influencer. We have the sober and sobering responsibility to be careful—so very careful—about who we read, who we watch, who we listen to, who we allow to influence us. For bit by bit, day by day, sermon by sermon, podcast by podcast, we will come to resemble the people we follow. 

Sales & Deals

Today’s Kindle deals include books on sexuality, forgiveness, Habakkuk, Revelation, and more.

Recommended Reading

Not everyone is familiar with the term concupiscence, but most of us are familiar with some of the debates surrounding it. For example, are our unholy desires sinful, or is it only sinful to act out on those desires? This question often arises when we discuss same-sex attraction. Writing for Logos, Mark Jones explores the concept of concupiscence from a Reformed perspective.

In brief, concupiscence (concupiscentia) originates from the Latin verb concupisco, which means ‘to ardently desire.’ There are proper, non-sinful forms of desire, which we would call ‘non-sinful concupiscence.’ For example, Jesus said to his disciples, ‘I have earnestly desired [ἐπεθύμησα] to eat this Passover with you before I suffer’ (Luke 22:15). But because we live in a fallen world, concupiscence typically has in view sinful desire, and usually in reference to sinful sexual desires. Because sin is the privation (lack) of righteousness and proneness to evil, concupiscence involves not just the acts but the desire of the person. Sinful concupiscence can be understood from God’s moral law: ‘You shall not covet’ (Exod 20:17).

Concupiscence: Are Our Unholy Desires Sinful?

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The Guardian tells a strange and twisting tale of a death, a scandal, and a desire for revenge, which it summarizes like this: “After his mother died, Otto became convinced he’d been wronged by the forensic investigators – and that one of them was a fraud. The truth was even stranger.” Here’s how the article begins:

On a balmy, quiet evening in June 2020, Otto’s elderly mother, Doria, was fading in her Munich apartment. As she lay with her eyes closed, her pale face, framed by her white hair, was calm.

Otto, masked, gloved and draped in a sterile apron, dozed in a chair beside her. Otto, who sometimes goes by the name Rainer, and whose last name is only known as “Z” because of Germany’s strict privacy laws, was a doctor who had cared for his mother for years, ever since she had suffered a stroke and moved in with him. He described the course of that night to me. He woke to the sound of her short breath and tried to sit her upright. Her eyes were shut, and her lips pursed. She stopped breathing. Otto reached for his phone to call for help, but then Doria opened her eyes and stared into his. She smiled, drew one last deep breath, shut her eyes again, and lay still.

A Death, a Plagiarism Scandal and a Quest for Revenge: The Bizarre Tale of Otto Z.

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Jonathon Van Maren sees Beatrix Potter as an example of true conservatism, and explains why that’s the case in a really interesting article about the life of someone whose work we are probably all familiar with.

There is a type of academic who can only get noticed by attacking the legacies of greater men and women, and a prime example was cited by Matthew Dennison in The Spectator in his essay “Don’t Cancel Beatrix Potter.” The beloved children’s author has become the target of “specialist in postcolonial literature” Dr. Emily Zobel Marshall, who hilariously claims that Potter failed “to acknowledge her indebtedness to an oral storytelling tradition of enslaved Africans working on American plantations” and that this contributes to “a damaging and recurring appropriation of Black cultural forms that continues today.”

This is frivolous stuff, and Marshall’s claims are a parasitic attempt to gain fifteen minutes of fame by slandering a woman who cannot defend herself. Dennison handily rebuts Marshall, and I’m glad he did—but I can’t help but think that fortunately, some writers are uncancellable. Potter’s books have sold 250 million copies. Her legacy is just fine. Her characters will continue to be household names for countless children, while Dr. Whatserface will have to find a new target if she wants to trigger further discussion of her own work. People who take these accusations seriously should not be taken seriously.

I do, however, think that a study of Potter’s life has something to contribute to current cultural conversations—not in “postcolonial literature studies,” but in the discussions unfolding in traditionalist circles on how to respond to our civilizational moment, in which many things appear to be ending.

The Conservatism of Beatrix Potter.

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Works in Progress is a secular publication that likes to take on big subjects. In this article, Samuel Hughes seems almost surprised to find that some popular mythology is not true: “that a tolerant and affirmative view of human sexuality prevailed in classical Antiquity until it was crushed by puritanical and repressive Christianity.” He’s not alone in finding that Christianity radically changed and improved Roman sexual mores.

It is true that Roman sexual norms were permissive in some ways. In particular, it was entirely permitted for free Roman men to have sex with male and female slaves and prostitutes, including children. No norm of male fidelity existed: male extramarital sex was not merely tolerated in practice but was generally considered completely acceptable as a matter of principle, even if wives found it hurtful. Many men had a general preference for boys or for women, but such preferences were merely personal taste, not a defining identity; most men seem to have been what we would call bisexual. Although only a small minority of Romans owned slaves, the prostitution of slaves was widespread, so coerced sex was ubiquitous. The price of sex in the Roman Empire was about that of a loaf of bread.

Were the Romans Tolerant About Sex?

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You may have read in the news this week that Christianity Today has fallen on hard times, laid off a number of staff, and had others resign. Alan Noble responds to the news with a piece about the need for Christian institutions.

Social media (and even my own Facebook page!) exploded with debates about how to interpret this news about CT. Is it good news because CT is “too woke” anyway? Is it possible to be “centrist” as an evangelical publication in the Year Of Our Lord Twenty Twenty-Six? Shouldn’t CT be more prophetic in calling out injustices and criticizing the current administration? What even is an evangelical today? Do we need journalism anymore when we can all get our news from Twitter and hear about the latest scandals from Substackers? And so on.

I want to argue, in echoing Bonnie’s words in her Substack, that we do need CT. That as an institution, the success and proper functioning of Christianity Today is important for evangelicals. As many of you know, my next book, (tentatively titled) Shoring Up the Ruins is on the topic of mediating institutions. So I’m reading this current news through that lens.

Read: Christianity Today and the Need for Institutions.

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A lot of people are beginning to use AI agents like Muse, Grok Bot, and soon enough, Claude Duet. I haven’t yet explored their capabilities to any significant extent, but from what I understand, they can do impressive things. Yet as this article from The Verge points out, they are data-hungry and may impact not only their users, but also their users’ contacts. At the very least, we should seriously consider our friends’ privacy before giving these agents too much access to our lives.

“These systems are advertised as autonomous helpers, genies, or servants who do what you need before you ask, seamlessly,” Meredith Whittaker, the president of the Signal Foundation, makers of the popular encrypted messaging app, told The Verge. These autonomous actions are applied “not just to the person who installed Muse on their device, but also to everyone that person communicates with, as extrapolated from their most intimate information — emails, messages, contacts, photos, and more.”

With AI agents, tech companies are letting consumers automate their everyday tasks by extending their omnivorous style of mass surveillance to massive amounts of sensitive data. It’s the same Faustian tradeoff Silicon Valley has been offering us for decades: your private data in exchange for a little bit of convenience. And for many people, the idea of having a virtual assistant that does menial tasks like filling out invoices and sending emails is compelling — especially if they don’t realize how much data they’re actually giving away in return.

Friends Don’t Let Friends Feed Their Data to AI Agents.

Top Content

Here are the links readers clicked the most this week:

• Jesus and the Woman Caught in Adultery: The Unexpected, Don’t-Miss Detail
• Why I Left Christianity Today
• This Is Why Your Marriage Conflicts Never Get Resolved
• Church Hurt and the Bride of Christ
• When Journalism Crosses a Moral Line

And here are the articles on my site they read the most:

• The First 250 Books for Your Church Library
• How Can Heaven Be Better than Earth if We Are Married on Earth but Unmarried in Heaven?
• What Is the Most Important Part of a Church Service?
• New Christian Music for Your Playlist (and Your Church)
• Men, Learn To Talk About What Matters Most

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:

Jessy recommends the preaching of Adrian Rogers through Love Worth Finding. “Sound Biblical teaching, Christ centred, where the doctrines of the Christian faith are presented from the Bible that is read. The name of Jesus is lifted high and every sermon is for man to repent and know and worship Christ.”

Grant has “started listening to Crossway’s podcast, Morning and Evening with Charles Spurgeon. They’re three minutes long and have become a great bookend for the start and end of the day.”

Maximiliano recommends Emanuel Elizondo’s novel Un resplandor en las tinieblas, a mystery set in the Spain of the Inquisition. It kept him gripped from beginning to end, pulled him out of a reading slump, renewed his interest in the Reformation and its protagonists, and stirred gratitude to God for the privilege of having his Word in his own language.

Maria is “really enjoying using the For The Church Institute. Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary has made multiple workshops and classes for free for the use of the Church to help grow in multiple areas of theology and biblical studies. I am currently doing the one on counseling which is the only one you have to pay for.”

Cody is enjoying Stephen Lawhead’s King Raven trilogy (Hood, Scarlet, and Tuck), a retelling of Robin Hood. “It’s an older book series (2007 – 2009), but it has been a great read so far. I’m nearing the end of book 2 and can’t remember the last fiction series I enjoyed so much.” (TC: I enjoyed it too.)

Bill is enjoying Create in Me a Clean Heart: Experiencing God’s Abundant Mercy in Psalm 51, a new book by Matt Boswell. (TC: It’s a really good book!)

Beth Ann says The Wingfeather Saga by Andrew Peterson “is full of adventure and can be enjoyed by middle-school-aged kids through adults. These books gave me a wee bit of hope during a season of despair because there were a lot of hopeless situations that the characters were in and yet somehow the stories always ended with hope. These books are suspenseful, witty and beautiful. I highly recommend!”

Erik recommends Using Authority Well by Jonathan Leeman. “This book has already been eye-opening to what good authority is and its proper extent in different contexts.” (TC: I agree!)

Dean feels “enriched listening to Sinclair Ferguson’s Things Unseen podcast. It is a short weekday devotion in which Dr. Ferguson selects different weekly themes and each day shares thoughts and reflections based on the week’s theme. Listening to his accent and soft voice is an additional blessing.”

Ami recommends Faron Thebeau’s article “Criticizing the Church.” “Faron writes well from 20 years pastoral experience and though he knows she has faults, he loves the body of Christ. I’ve read most of his articles on Substack, and they ring with a true love for Jesus, authenticity, and biblical depth.”

Evy recommends Artificial Intimacy by Sherry Turkle.

Sean says, “While much of his theological education has been unofficial, the theological writings of Thomas Balzamo are not to be underestimated. He left the fundamental baptist movement years ago, so some of his articles charitably critique the heart of fundamentalism. He is currently a student at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.”

Will says, “Shovel Knight is a retro-styled video game that is not only fun, but also carries themes of redemption and regeneration, despite it being a secular work.”

Kristine is reading Love Like You Mean It by Bob Lepine. “Written to help marriages-in-trouble like mine, and based on the infamous love passage found in 1 Corinthians 13, the author pointedly and biblically unpacks what love truly is meant to be. Convicting.”

Flashback

How To Cheapen a Marriage. Is my deepest longing for Christ? Can I honestly say that I long for him? Or do I actually long for the benefits that come with him? 

Sales & Deals

Today’s Kindle deals include several books published by Christian Focus, along with several of John MacArthur’s later and lesser-known books (e.g., The War on Children, The Grace of Giving).

Recommended Reading

We have 10,000 Digital Guides; We Need Spiritual Fathers. Zach Hollifield draws a useful comparison between ancient Corinth and today. “You and I live in a digital Corinth, and we too certainly have ‘countless guides in Christ’. Podcasts, social media accounts, YouTube channels, book authors, Xers, Substackers, sermons from celebrity pastors we care for more than the ones coming from the pulpits at our own churches—we have countless guides in Christ. More countless than the Corinthians could have dreamed of.”

You’ll Never Regret That You Did the Right Thing. I often say “you’ll never regret the sins you don’t commit.” A positive way to express that is what Jacob Crouch communicates here: you’ll never regret doing the right thing. “Let me be the voice in your ear for a minute: Do the right thing. You will never regret that you did.”

Take Your Faith Deeper with Ligonier’s Grow App. We have access to more content than ever before, but how much of it is trustworthy? The Grow app from Ligonier Ministries offers carefully curated Bible teaching that has served Christians for decades. In addition to thousands of free resources to read, watch or listen to, Ligonier’s Ministry Partners can also access the notes from the Reformation Study Bible and the Ask Ligonier intelligent assistant tool to get reliable answers to pressing theological questions. Not a Ligonier Ministry Partner yet? Try these features for 30 days when you sign in to the app. (Sponsored)

Reformed Doesn’t Mean Robotic: a Case for Expressive Worship. Thembelani Maqajana writes about coming to Reformed convictions in theology, and then evaluating Reformed worship. “For many Africans, music and movement are naturally connected. Clapping, swaying, raising hands or moving rhythmically communicate joy, thanksgiving, celebration, and participation. We shouldn’t label expressive worship as mere emotionalism. The important question to ask, then, isn’t: ‘are people moving?’; but ‘what is motivating their movement, and is it consistent with biblical worship?'”

The Solitary Grief of Miscarriage. Luke Fong and his wife recently suffered a miscarriage. He writes about the solitary grief of it, but also encourages Christians to break the solitude by letting others into their sorrow. “Grief must be shared, regardless of whether one feels as though one is imposing on another by doing so. One thing my wife and I have learned, or are learning, through this experience, is that we have to trust that those who are our brothers and sisters in Christ do truly love us. We must trust that love can bear burdens, because love draws us out of our sorrow and into the truth that we are known and bound together in Christ.”

The True Voice of Aslan. In the context of the forthcoming Narnia movies, Steven West goes to the source, which is to say, to the works of C.S. Lewis, to discover the true voice of Aslan. “Both the vocal and physical characteristics of Aslan are significant and evocative, and they cannot be changed without fundamentally altering his character and Lewis’s intentional symbolism. Aslan’s voice, mane, and other physical features are not window-dressing details—they are an important part of Aslan’s character and significant for the holistic integrity of Lewis’s presentation.”

Sexual Intimacy in Marriage: Should You Schedule Time for Sex? I think a lot of couples ask this at one time or another: Should we schedule time for sex? I think this article from Harvest USA answers well. “While scheduling time for sexual intimacy may be a useful aid, it is by no means the primary driver behind thriving sexual intimacy in your marriage. You cannot expect that, simply because you have it on the calendar and both of you are committed to keeping this arrangement, it will automatically lead to deep satisfaction for you both.”

The Principal Portion

I have been enjoying J.C. Ryle’s Expository Thoughts on the Gospel of Luke, which I’m both reading and listening to. These words recently jumped out at me.

Grace is the principal portion that we should desire for our children. It is a thousand times better for them than beauty, riches, honors, rank, or high connections. Until they have grace, we never know what they may do. They may make us weary of our life and bring down our grey hairs with sorrow to the grave! When they are converted, and not until then, they are provided for – both for time and eternity. A wise son makes a glad father (Proverbs 10:1). Whatever we seek for our sons and daughters, let us first seek that they may have a place in the covenant and a name in the Book of Life.

Many parents grow weary of waiting, but to such people Ryle offers this encouragement:

We must beware of hastily concluding that our supplications are useless – and especially in the matter of intercessory prayer in behalf of others. It is not for us to prescribe either the time or the manner in which our requests are to be answered. He who knows best the time for people to be born knows also the time for them to be born again.

Flashback

Would It Be Better to Take a Pay Cut Than a Church Cut? Wouldn’t it be better to be underemployed in a sound church than prosperous in a bad one? Wouldn’t it be better to have your kids in a slightly worse school system but in a dramatically better church?