Christians are often portrayed as downcast and dour, as people who are trapped in a system of beliefs that robs them of joy and life. And with a bit of honest self-examination, we can probably think of times when we have fit the cliché.

Yet any fault in this is ours, for as Charles Spurgeon says so well, true faith is meant to be inseparable from deep delight, “as interwoven as root and flower, as indivisible as truth and certainty.” God’s desire for us is not to live in captivity to a set of rules or to go through religious motions in order to impress him or others.

Rather, God’s desire is that his love for us, and ours for him, would generate a deep and lasting joy that would make worship a pleasure more than an obligation and make obedience a delight more than a duty. For in coming to know God, we have come to know the most delightful Being there is—the one from whom all true delights flow in an endless fountain. To know God is to find in him great joy and lasting satisfaction.

Welcome to this Weekend edition of A La Carte. I am attempting to focus these weekend editions on thinkpieces and longer-form articles. I’m sure you’ll find something here that interests you.

My gratitude goes to P&R for sponsoring the blog this week. They wanted to be certain you know about their excellent new devotional studies for women.

Today’s Kindle deals include a variety of good books, some of which are newer and some of which are older. In either case, we are spoiled to have access to so many great deals.

(Yesterday on the blog: Sex, Self-Forgetfulness, and the Joy of Serving Your Spouse)

The West’s Strange Genius

Michael Jensen argues that “the most distinct and important contribution of the West is the tradition of moral self-critique, which was deeply shaped by Christianity. The West is not defined by moral superiority but by the capacity to recognise its own sins.” He defends this position briefly but compellingly.

Healing the Ways Women Hurt Each Other

“There’s something about groups of women that can be incredibly empowering, but on the other side, deeply destructive. I’ve experienced both. Some groups are healthy and life-giving; others are toxic and draining. And for women, I think this issue begins young. The stereotype of the “mean girl” didn’t appear out of nowhere—cultural pressures and psychological factors shape how girls, and later women, relate to one another. Exploring all of that would take a collaborative effort far bigger than one woman can unpack alone.” Randi Singleton applies this to women’s ministry in the local church.

Articles about AI

There has been a tremendous amount of writing about AI in recent weeks. This makes sense, of course, as it becomes increasingly clear that AI will be a world-changing technology. Here are a few that I found especially interesting.

I’ll lead with Aaron Renn’s interview with Dean Ball, AI Skeptics Are About to Be Left Behind. You can either listen to it or read a transcript. Essentially, they insist that AI is such a powerful technology that we simply need to familiarize ourselves with it and begin to use it, lest we be left behind. Renn followed up a few days later with a simple explanation of how he has begun to use AI.

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal explained that last week was The Week the Dreaded AI Jobs Wipeout Got Real. This was based on the company Block laying off a substantial portion of their workforce, at least ostensibly because their jobs will be replaced by AI. (Some are claiming that it’s more likely the company was simply bloated and that AI provided a ready excuse to thin the ranks.)

Brad Littlejohn has been writing lots on the subject lately, including this look at Agency in an Age of Agents. “To the typical citizen, the techno-optimist narrative of AI is scarcely distinguishable from the ‘doomer’ narrative it seeks to combat, one in which all-powerful agents that promised to work for us instead turn on us, defy our control, and take over society. After all, isn’t that what has already happened?”

Brad also wrote The World After Reading, which is an alarming look at what we may lose as AI begins to do our reading for us. “As reading comprehension declined and reading became vastly more effortful, we gravitated still more to the comfort of the screen, further rewiring our neural circuits until, for most of us, reading a novel had been transformed from a delight to a chore to an impossibility. Having thus deprived ourselves of the capacity to read, our technologists eagerly hurried forward with a patent medicine to cure their own disease: AI. Don’t worry if you can’t read anymore! The bot will do that for you.”

Ian Harber covered AI this week, and technology in general, in Life with the Machines. He expressed some of his disagreements with Paul Kingsnorth’s much-lauded Against The Machine and considered the space between avoiding new technologies and embracing them all.

What About the Children? The Disaster & Consequences of Obergefell (Audio/Video)

I enjoyed this discussion between Albert Mohler and Katy Faust as they consider the victims of Obergefell.

8 Things Caregivers Should Know About Dementia

The statistics about dementia are such that most of us will need to deal with it at some point, perhaps when we ourselves are struck with it or perhaps as we care for loved ones. This article by Gaye Clark offers eight brief pointers on better understanding dementia and better responding to it. “It’s important to remember dementia is a physical disease that causes psychological symptoms. Dementia patients can’t always control their behavior. But for the more than 11 million U.S. adults caring for someone with dementia, it can be hard to remember that when a parent lashes out, empties every kitchen cabinet, or wanders outside at 3:00 a.m. It can be hard for me to remember, and I’ve spent my career in the medical field.”

Parenting Children to Love Christ (Video)

Finally, I appreciated Hershael York giving attention to the matter of parenting children to love Christ. While he speaks first for pastors, there’s something for every parent to gain from it.

Flashback: How To Ruin a Perfectly Good Friendship

Freedom comes when we stop being morbidly introspective about the relationship and simply enjoy it as a good and wonderful gift of grace.

Grumbling is the most serious sin, a capital crime, a primal offense against the God whose universe this is.

—David Powlison

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This week, the giveaway and the blog have been sponsored by P &R Publishing.

Designed as five-week studies for personal use or group study, books in the Rooted in Wisdom series help women to understand and navigate common experiences and stages of life. Each book equips the reader to practice true wisdom by biblically assessing her own unique circumstances before acting in the light of practical theological principles.

• Praise for Wisdom for Fighting Sin

“As Christians, we will fight our sin until the day we see our Savior face-to-face. Sometimes the battle feels futile and overwhelming. But this book reminds us again and again that our war with sin isn’t one God has left us to wage on our own. Amy DiMarcangelo gives us practical encouragement for fighting sin while also turning our gaze to Jesus Christ, who has dressed us in robes of his righteousness.”

—Glenna Marshall, Author, The Promise Is His Presence, Everyday Faithfulness, Memorizing Scripture, and Known & Loved

• Praise for Wisdom for Parenting

“There is no manual for a Christian mom; our experiences are wide and varied. Rather than giving one-size-fits-all advice, Sharonda helps mothers connect their identity to Christ, face sin head-on, find true hope in suffering, and release control to the One who has proven trustworthy.”

—Elizabeth Santelmann, Founder, Sunshine in My Nest Podcast

These devotionals are designed to be interactive and include personal and group discussion questions to prompt further reflection and application.

ENTER GIVEAWAY HERE

P&R is giving away five sets of Wisdom for Parenting by Sharonda Cooper and Wisdom for Fighting Sin by Amy DiMarcangelo. All you need to do to enter the draw is to fill in your name and email address in the form below, which will add you to P&R’s mailing list.

Giveaway Rules: You may enter one time. Winners will be notified by email on March 16, 2026.

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I often think there is a kind of paradoxical quality to sex within marriage. It’s paradoxical in that few things have greater ability to bring blessing (through its right use) or to bring cursing (through its misuse). Not only that, but few things bring greater joy to a marriage, and also, in so many cases, more consistent difficulty. It is sex that forges the deepest kind of union between a husband and wife, and it is struggles with sex that often wrench them apart. Sex is marvelous, sex is complicated, and sex is something that perplexes nearly all of us.

Doug Hanna hopes to bring some clarity in his new book, Sex and Self-Forgetfulness. As you may surmise from the title, he believes the key to a proper understanding of sex is self-forgetfulness—the desire to serve another instead of serving ourselves. Those who are self-forgetful find that the best life and the true life is one that involves laying down our lives for others and forgetting ourselves so that we can serve them. 

With that in mind, “the simple goal of this book,” he says, “is to apply Jesus’s vision for the Christian life to sex within marriage. What would it look like to pursue sex from a posture of serving others (namely, our spouses), rather than meeting our own needs? How would our approach to sex change if we really believed Jesus’s teaching about serving others and applied it to our marriage bed? In the counterintuitive way of our crucified King, sexual satisfaction is found by serving your spouse, not by insisting on your own way. Let me say it again because this is the main point of this whole book: Sexual satisfaction is found by serving your spouse, not by insisting on your own way. The way to find real joy in bed is laying your life down, thinking less about yourself and more about your spouse. Self-forgetfulness.”

That is the crucial and narrow focus of the book. It is not the kind of book that unpacks an exhaustive theology of sex or the kind of book that focuses on tips and techniques, though both have their place. Rather, the purpose of this book is “to help you better understand God’s design for sex and your marriage, in order to help you approach sex in the right way. Romans 12:2 calls this process renewing your mind: We fill our minds with the truth of God’s word to drown out the lies of the world so that we might see real transformation.” When it comes to the sexual relationship between a husband and a wife, self-forgetfulness means our first concern is the pleasure of our spouse, not ourselves, and that we are committed to making our spouse feel safe and valued. We understand the entire sexual encounter as important and meaningful, and aren’t just trying to get to the “good part.” We are radically committed to sexual holiness and purity because we are far more committed to God’s glory than to our own pleasure.

Hanna pursues his theme through a series of 30 short chapters. The first set of them helps teach God’s design for sex, while the second set responds to the tragic reality of sexual brokenness and all the ways it impacts and interrupts sex within marriage. The heart of the book is the third set, which focuses on pursuing sexual satisfaction. You can probably get a sense of the author’s progression through a survey of some of the chapter titles: Sex is not the goal; lust or love?; the secret to a satisfying sex life; laying down your rights; self-forgetful sex is a lifestyle; how to be served; love your spouse (not someone else’s); learning how to pleasure your spouse; sex is for sinners.

Perhaps the most recurring theme, apart from the need for self-forgetfulness, is the need for open and honest communication. He expresses this often, dedicates one full chapter and several partial chapters to it, and offers a list of 52 conversation starters that spouses can use to discuss sex. I appreciate this focus since, in my own life and ministry, I have learned how difficult it can be for spouses to discuss sex without shame, embarrassment, defensiveness, and anger. Yet almost nothing is more important, and few practices reap greater benefit than simply speaking about these things.

What Hanna does through his book is help the reader understand that sex is not meant to be merely an occasional or repeated activity within marriage, but a part of a lifestyle of living in a self-forgetful way. Sex is not the reward for living this way; it is the natural and appropriate outcome. Knowing that one of the dangers of any marriage book is one spouse reading it on their own and then having different ideas or expectations than the other, he encourages husbands and wives to read it together, something I would also recommend. Sex and Self-Forgetfulness is hardly the first book for Christians that covers sexuality, yet it does cover it in some unique ways and from a unique angle. (Here’s one, for example, that both Hanna and I recommend.) I believe many couples will find it challenging, encouraging, and helpful.

Here’s one final reminder that I will be giving away a $150 gift card for Westminster Books this weekend. To enter, you simply need to be signed up for my newsletter (which is the contents of this site sent to your email on a regular basis). You can one-click subscribe at any time.

Today’s Kindle deals include several books that, to my knowledge, have never been on sale before.

What Happened to Our Pastor?

This is a tremendous article from Dan Doriani as he considers a sobering matter. “In recent years, the church has suffered numerous reports of catastrophic moral failure by some of its most talented and visible leaders. But it isn’t only famous, highly regarded pastors who falter. It happens to all sorts of pastors from churches large, small, and mid-sized. They hail from every nation and every branch of Christendom. Their sins violate all sorts of biblical standards …Why are so many pastors failing in these ways? Is moral failure among pastors really as much of an epidemic as it seems? How can we have confidence in our leaders amidst all the bad news?”

Why Youth Ministry Needs Seasoned Saints

Katharine Rose: “In many churches across the U.S., youth ministry has become synonymous with energy, relevance, and staying current. We look for leaders who understand youth culture, social media trends, and the ever-shifting language of the next generation. While these qualities are important, an unintended consequence has quietly taken root: We often overlook the older generations sitting faithfully in our pews. These men and women’s lives are rich with spiritual depth, hard-won wisdom, and a steady faith formed over decades.”

God’s Faithful Sovereignty When Things Don’t Go as Planned

I enjoyed reading of Hannah Hagarty’s confidence in God’s faithful sovereignty when things don’t go according to our plans. “My husband and I have two failed adoptions, chronic illness, and an unexpected mission field exodus to our names. Things not going as planned? I may be an unwilling expert on the subject. But it turns out, being an expert on disappointment can mean possessing a deep appreciation for the goodness of God’s sovereignty.” (Also on this subject, read or listen to Everything Happens for a Reason, John Piper’s new episode of Ask Pastor John on Romans 8:28.)

The Things We Missed

This article strikes some of the same notes as Hagarty’s, and does so no less poignantly. “We’ve all missed opportunities, missed out on what others got, missed the way things used to be, missed the things that never were. It can become overwhelming when we think about all the things we missed. We wonder why. We question God’s care. We question our own worth. We can grow bitter and angry and let our hearts grow hard.”

Preach the Sermons That Algorithms Don’t Reward

Benjamin Vrbicek addresses a common temptation for churches. “In our cultural moment, so many once-faithful churches and denominations have gone the way of the peddler, untethering from orthodoxy and moving beyond the fruit of the Spirit to get more people in the building. ‘If we change what God says about sex,’ some say, ‘we’d have a whole new demographic to reach,’ while others might say, ‘If we preach angry hot takes and political rants, we’d have a whole new demographic to reach.'”

‘If Staying Brings Scars’: A Pastor Reflects on Remaining in Beirut

Pastor Marwan Aboul-Zelof explains his decision to remain in Beirut even as it comes under attack. “About a week after the United States and Israel entered direct conflict with Iran, Lebanon was pulled into regional conflict. After a couple of days of missile strikes in Beirut, Israel issued two mass evacuation orders in Lebanon. Hundreds of thousands of Lebanese were told to flee their homes if they wanted to save their lives. Mass panic ensued.”

Flashback: We Who Have Few Talents and Sparse Gifts

…the God who used spit and dust to cure a man of his blindness can most certainly make use of you. And I assure you that if you had great talents, you would simply compare yourself to those who have more still.

Do whatever you have to do to be ready to preach the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ! View sermon preparation as spiritual warfare.

—H.B. Charles Jr.

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Good morning. May the Lord be with you and bless you today.

Today’s Kindle deals include several options you may want to consider if you have children or younger readers around. There are, of course, also some options for grown-up readers.

If it’s time for your church or organization to stock up on Bibles, be sure to check out the sale at Westminster Books on church Bibles.

(Yesterday on the blog: Three Marks of a Good Christian Book)

The Grief Ambush

Kirsten writes about an experience that is likely to be familiar to anyone who has experienced a great loss. “There are times when you feel as if you are pressing on in life. While the sorrow is present, it walks with you in such a way that it becomes easy to ignore, or at least fold into the daily habits of life in such a way that it’s quiet; almost silent. But then the grief ambush comes. Out of seemingly nowhere, the sadness comes roaring back and you’re caught off guard by the intensity of the pain.”

Forgotten, and That’s Good

Darryl learned recently that he has been forgotten. He explains why he chose to take that as a good thing.

The Foibles and Fallibility of Christian Leaders

“Blessed are the true Christian leaders who understand their need for help from God and express that to God. Christian leaders are formative works of God in character, skills, knowledge, faith, love and even enthusiasm, who have been given responsibility nonetheless for which they often feel entirely inadequate except for Christ’s help.”

Welcome Back, Church Planting

Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra explains why church planting, once such a prominent trend, went into a kind of hiatus for a time. More encouragingly, she explains how it is returning in new and more mature forms.

3 Poor Reasons to Read the Bible

There are lots of good reasons to read the Bible, but there are also some not very good ones. Ryan Higginbottom offers three examples of the latter.

Weakness Is NOT the Enemy

Cindy explains why, despite what we so naturally tend to believe, weakness is not actually the enemy we make it out to be. “Paul had learned the hard way that weakness was not the enemy. In fact, weakness brings a kind of power that no CrossFit gym, P90X workout, or marathon training could ever duplicate. Paul didn’t get specific about what this perfected power looks like or all that it accomplishes. Yet as we compare Scripture with Scripture, we begin to see its beautiful effects in the life of a believer.”

Flashback: When The Path That I Fear Is the Way He Has Set

Few things are more intimidating than being led where we have not gone before and where our hearts may fear to go.

God examines with trials, the devil examines with temptations, the world examines with persecutions.

—Henry Smith

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What makes a good book good? And what makes a Christian book Christian? What are some ways to identify a book that is worth reading versus a book that may be just okay or a book that, even though it may be marketed as Christian, is really not Christian at all?

Questions like these can be difficult for all of us, but perhaps especially for those who are new to reading or new to the Christian faith. Since I began this website, I have reviewed well over 1,000 books and read many more than that, so this has been an important consideration for me for a long time now. With that in mind, here is what I have come to see as three defining marks of a good Christian book.

Truth

A good book is truthful. By “truthful,” I certainly mean that it does not tell lies, but there is more to it than that. I mean that if the book makes claims about what is true or false, and especially what is true or false about God, humanity, and the gospel, those claims are grounded in Scripture or otherwise consistent with Scripture. The author makes it clear that he is not fabricating his own version of reality or holding himself up as the arbiter of truth. Rather, he is submitting himself to God, the one who is truth.

We must go a step further, for a good book is also truthful in its application. When it comes to applying truth to life and inspiring moral action, the author is careful that he does not bind or loose consciences beyond what God permits. He is neither antinomian (downplaying or outright rejecting God’s clear commands when it comes to moral and ethical behavior) nor legalistic (amplifying or adding to those commands). Rather, he ensures that after he has accurately taught the truths of Scripture, he applies them in such a way that he does not permit what God forbids, nor forbid what God permits. A truthful book is one whose author loves the truth—or better said, loves the one who is Truth—and who never ventures beyond what God makes plain.

Love

The next mark of a good Christian book is love. This speaks to the author’s intent in writing her book, to her heart as she communicates to the reader, and to her character as she writes about other people. “Let all that you do be done in love,” writes Paul (1 Corinthians 16:14), and writing a book most certainly falls within the bounds of that “all.” A book is meant to be an expression of love for God and for those who have been created in his image. An author should not write primarily for herself, but for the Lord, and should not write primarily to bless herself, but to be a blessing to others. Thus, a book ought to flow from love and express love.

Some books may need to address difficult matters, and some may even need to name names or rebuke fellow believers. Yet even these books must still be marked by love. They must affirm the dignity and humanity of the people who are being spoken of, and must say only what is absolutely necessary and verifiably true. They must be written out of a desire to build up rather than tear down, and to repair rather than destroy. Just as an author ought to submit herself to the one who is Truth, she also ought to imitate the one who is Love.

As Christians, we must never separate truth from love and must never emphasize one out of proportion to the other. A good Christian book holds the two together, treating them as fast friends rather than irreconcilable enemies. George Downame spoke of the need for both “verity and charity,” saying that it is not sufficient to speak truthfully unless that truth is paired with love, nor to speak lovingly unless that love is paired with truth, for “truth without charity is malicious, and charity without truth is a liar.” According to his equation, a bad Christian book is marked by lying and malice, while a good Christian book is marked by love and truth.

Beauty

A book cannot be good unless it is marked by love and truth. Yet there is more to the world than love and truth, and there is more to our God-given ability to communicate than merely stating the facts truthfully and expressing those facts in a loving way. There is also beauty. Beauty may not be necessary for distinguishing an objectively good book from an objectively bad one, but it is certainly a factor when distinguishing a good book from an excellent one. Just as we note the difference between a portrait painted by a hobbyist and a master, or the difference between a cake baked by an amateur and a professional, we ought to note the difference between a book that uses language functionally and one that uses it beautifully. Language is a tool of expression that can, when used to its fullest capacity, make beauty even more beautiful and truth even more compelling. The best Christian books, and the best books of any genre, are those that are written with the most skill and, therefore, the most beauty.

The Best Christian Books

The best Christian books are those that combine truth, love, and beauty, and do so in equal measure. Yet such books are rare. Some books are written beautifully and perhaps out of a desire to love others, yet they are destructive because they teach what is false. Some books may be truthful and well-written, but reflect no love for brothers and sisters in the Lord. In the corner of Christian publishing I’m most familiar with, we tend to place a high premium on truth and love, but a relatively low premium on beauty. My continued hope for Christian publishing is that, over time, we will increase our focus on beauty without diminishing our focus on truth and love. In this way, we will be serving the church with truthful resources that are loving and beautiful—resources that are shining examples of the best a book can be.

As I wrap up, let me offer my recommendation of 10 books that I have found to wonderfully combine truth, love, and beauty:

• Andrea Burke, A Bit of Earth
• Andrew Wilson, God of All Things
• Kevin Burrell, Considering Sparrows (releasing soon)
• Tim Keesee, Dispatches from the Front and A Company of Heroes. (He and I also collaborated on From the Rising of the Sun; he did the majority of the writing while I focused on the documentary.)
• Collin Hansen, Where Is God in a World with So Much Evil?
• Seth Lewis, Dream Small and The Language of Rivers and Stars
• Andy Le Peau, Write Better
• Jackie Hill Perry, Gay Girl, Good God

Reminder: I am giving away a $150 gift card for Westminster Books at the end of this week. It will be given at random to someone who subscribes to my newsletter.

Today’s Kindle deals include Dave Harvey’s The Clay Pot Conspiracy, which is discounted for the first time. You’ll also find Jim Newheiser’s book about the need for boundaries and The Christian Counselor’s Medical Desk Reference.

Logos users, we’re down to the final choices and deepest discounts for March Matchups. There is still time to have your say when it comes to the winner.

The Last Reformed Blogger

If I’m honest, it feels a bit awkward to share this, but it seemed right to do so nevertheless. The Gospel Coalition asked if they could write a longform profile of me, focusing on the early days of the New Calvinism. You can read it at the link.

The Forgotten Spiritual Discipline: Introspection

“Mike McKinley encourages pastors and all Christians to remember the spiritual discipline of introspection, since even those closest to us cannot see the condition of our heart. McKinley highlights three aspects of the Puritan approach to introspection: first, it must be guided by Scripture; second, it should look for graces as well as sins; and third, it should be an integral aspect of preaching God’s Word.”

How Hollywood Ruined Men for Dating

Guest writing for Aaron Renn, Joseph Holmes explains how modern Hollywood movies ruined dating for men—or at least contributed to the difficulty of it. “If men are cowards today about dating, I think we overlook one major reason why: Hollywood. As a male culture critic, I can attest to the fact that Hollywood has consistently lied to men about romance. And when those lies fall apart, it leads to disillusionment and confusion. Part of fixing dating is understanding how men got lied to and telling a better story to those men.”

Just One Childhood

Melissa reminds parents that their children will have just one childhood and that it falls to them to value that fact. “In the middle of the mess of life, we are stewarding human beings’ childhoods, and that matters so much more than we sometimes remember when we’re tired and feeling cranky and wishing for this or that. God has called us to something holy here, in our kids’ littleness.”

Uncertain Terms: A Guide to Modern Roman Catholic Missions

Writing from Rome, Reid Karr explains how the Roman Catholic Church views missions and why Evangelicals need to continue to reach out to their Catholic neighbors. “Evangelicals share an almost identical vocabulary with Roman Catholics and so the temptation is to assume that those words carry with them the same, or similar enough, theological meaning. Evangelicals must put in the work to understand what is meant by certain terms, such as sin, salvation, Christ, cross, and mission. The words may be the same, but the theological meaning that undergirds them are vastly different, and lead to very different gospels.”

Not That Neighbor

I enjoyed Sandra Jantzi’s account of the way the Lord called her to love her neighbors—neighbors who were especially difficult to love, yet also especially needful of it.

Flashback: Never Read a Bible Verse (and Never Listen To a Sermon Clip)

If we want to properly understand any given verse of the Bible, we need to set it within its wider context. After all, words spoken to a single prophet in ancient Israel have a very different context than words spoken to an entire congregation in New Testament Rome.

No man ever perished and went to hell from the foot of the cross. If you can do nothing else, lie down at the foot of the cross.

—J.C. Ryle

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If you’re interested in some theological reading, you may want to take a look at Westminster Books’ sale on the series Short Studies in Systematic Theology.

Today’s Kindle deals include a few excellent options from P&R, all of which were published in the past year. Managing Your Households Well is especially helpful, and many will also enjoy Wisdom for Fighting Sin.

(Yesterday on the blog: Grief Can Pull Spouses Apart (but God Can Hold Them Together))

We Are All Dwight Schrute Now: The Rise of the Facebook Deputy

Justin D. Detmers writes about the kinds of conflict we so often see online. “Like you, I’ve been watching friends and acquaintances go after one another online with the same recycled takes on the latest predictable—or conveniently manufactured—controversy. … The cynic in me asks: Who appointed you? Who authorized you—doomscroller, catechized by cable news—to determine when immigration becomes immoral, how election security is assessed, which historical narratives deserve canonization, or which media outlets are to be labeled heretical? What, exactly, qualifies someone for this level of cultural adjudication?”

Three Reminders for Christian Parents

Christian parents are likely to find these reminders helpful as they consider how to help their children come to know and love the Lord and his church. “Cultivating a love for the church does not come from formulas or quick fixes. It comes from parents who genuinely love Christ and his people and who trust God to work in their children’s hearts. Just as that little girl absorbed love for the church as she listened and drew, our children are quietly taking in what we treasure. Our steady delight in the people of God becomes, over time, the picture they carry with them.”

Happy Wife, Happy Life?

Cindy Pickett considers the common phrase, “happy wife, happy life” and insists, “This phrase isn’t biblical, and if we’re not careful, accepting it as a principled excuse for passivity can disrupt God’s design for marriage.”

What to Do When Scripture Feels Dry (YouTube)

Greg Koukl and Amy Hall speak to those who may love apologetics but who don’t have nearly so much love for reading the Bible.

A Good Tired

Daniel Darling: “Can hard work become idolatrous? Yes. For men, often the work can be a sort of fig leaf to hide from familial responsibility. Work, when it’s in the center of our giftedness, can be so intoxicating that it can be hard to break away from. We can work ourselves to the point where we are not stewarding our bodies. All these things are warning signs that our vocation has supplanted the giver of work as the object of our worship. And yet, I want to say to myself and to anyone reading not to be ashamed of long days, of some nights, and of a life spent at the plow.”

Getting Organized for the Glory of God

Justin Huffman says rightly that, when it comes to our obligations as Christians, “Good intentions, or a merely mental assent to a biblical obligation, will not do. There must be a purposeful plan, a careful stewardship of the time and energy and money and people that God has placed in your life in order to accomplish the crucial purposes for which God has entrusted them to you.”

Flashback: How to Be a Good Christian With Minimal Effort

God knows you’re at a really expensive time of life right now—kids playing sports, getting braces, and going off to college—so do your best for now and commit to giving more in the future. That’s just wise financial planning.

The absence of sound doctrine and the presence of false doctrine will always lead to sinful behavior.

— John MacArthur

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This week, the blog is sponsored by P & R Publishing.

God’s Word is relevant for every sphere of our lives, but how do we get from knowing the Bible to applying its wisdom to our unique situations? How do we connect memory verses to each day’s specific challenges? Spend 25 days in personal reflection or grab some friends with similar struggles and invite them to dive deep into Scripture with you using a study from the Rooted in Wisdom series. Together, you’ll discover that God’s Word provides wise guidance that is sufficient and fitting for every situation you face.

Series features:

• daily personal reflection questions
• weekly group discussion questions
• 25 wisdom principles
• space for notes

Sharonda Cooper quote from her book, Wisdom for Parenting: “This is not your typical parenting book. You won’t find any how-to guides or strategic plans for raising successful children. Rather, this book considers the ways God changes mothers through the seasons of parenting and invites us to pursue and steward biblical wisdom in every circumstance. Each daily reading explores a brief passage of Scripture and closes with a theological principle derived from the text. The principles, which apply to all stages of mothering, will encourage you to better understand God’s ways and trust his goodness.”

Amy DiMarcangelo quote from her book, Wisdom for Fighting Sin

“If you feel perplexed by your sin and wonder, “Why am I like this? How long will I struggle with these temptations? Who will deliver me?” there is hope for you. True wisdom for fighting sin isn’t found in ten-step strategies or a stricter set of rules—it’s found in your Savior. He has set you free from sin’s reign, and he will empower you to follow him. Over five weeks, we will seek Christ as our wisdom in this war against sin.”

Buy Wisdom for Parenting and Wisdom for Fighting Sin for 50% OFF from P&R. Use coupon code ROOTED at checkout.

Few pains are deeper than the pain of losing a child. Yet, the pain can be made all the worse when the loss of a child leads to the loss of a marriage. While there appears to be no factual basis for the common statistic that 75–90% of marriages fail after the death of a child, it is obvious that a great loss can still put enormous strain on a relationship. It is likely that most of us have seen a marriage falter or even fail under the weight of such a heavy blow.

In the early days of my family’s grief, Aileen and I were gently cautioned that if we did not faithfully tend to our marriage, we might learn too late that grief had driven us far apart. We were told that we would almost certainly experience grief in different ways, and that much of the challenge to our relationship would arise from these differences.

While I’m grateful that our marriage survived intact and was even strengthened, we found that these cautions proved true: we grieved in different ways and, even more challengingly, according to different timelines. Since that time, I have heard many others express the same fact: Spouses often grieve differently, and these differences add to the already-grueling challenge of losing a child.

Looking back, I think there were three big questions that lurked behind our grief: Why did this happen? What do I do with it? And when will things be normal again? Two of these questions exposed the differences between us and offered the opportunity to either grow closer or to pull apart.

Why Did This Happen?

After Nick’s sudden, unexpected, and unexplained death, we couldn’t help but wonder the big “why” questions. Why did this happen? Why did God let this happen? Why did God decree that this would happen at this time and in this way? Though we couldn’t help but ask such questions, we knew we would never be able to answer them with confidence or authority. We were convinced that speculation would only be unhelpful. The question of purpose is one that belongs to God, the one to whom all the secret things belong (Deuteronomy 29:29). God withheld the “why” and called us to simply trust him. We were content to do this, though we hope that in eternity he will make it plain so that we may praise him all the more for what we are certain was an act of great wisdom and love.

What Do I Do With It?

This is the question of how we would respond to our grief, how we would process it, and what form it would take. It was the question of what the early months or years would be like and how we would respond to our sorrow in what we hoped would be a distinctly Christian manner.

There is a universal challenge when it comes to grief, and it’s that each of us believes the way we grieve is the right way or the best way. This being the case, we are all prone to believe that another person’s grief is normal or healthy only to the degree that it is similar to our own. The one whose grief involves engaging a counselor may be tempted to think the one who feels no need for counseling is living in denial. The one whose grief involves scouring books may be concerned that the one who cannot bring herself to read may be thinking poorly or not thinking at all. The one who runs straight to Scripture may look down on the one who has trouble relating to God for a time.

Although Aileen and I are complementary, we are very different people, and not surprisingly, we grieved in different ways. While I wrote, she could not bear to express herself so thoroughly. While I chose to stare our loss straight in the face for a time, she could bear only fleeting glances. We thought in different ways, prayed in different ways, and leaned on others in different ways.

We came to see that the way we grieved was related to our personalities, and that we could not judge one another for grieving in a way that, to us, seemed strange or unhelpful. We had to grant one another the grace to grieve in different ways, neither forcing the other to conform to our manner, nor conforming ourselves to the other’s. Though there may be many wrong ways to grieve, there is no single correct way. Just as there may be a variety of love languages that are shaped by personality, there also seems to be a variety of grief languages.

When Will Things Be Normal Again?

The grief of losing a child can be so overwhelming that it can be difficult to believe life will ever go back to any semblance of normalcy. Yet eventually, there arises a growing sense of frustration that sorrow is still so present, that it is still impacting every moment and every decision, and that it continues to cloud every joy. The life of grief is not enjoyable, so we begin to ask: Though I know things won’t ever go back to normal, when will I find a new normal?

If the manner of grieving seems to depend in large part on personality, the timeline of grieving often seems to have a deeper dependence on gender. The same friend who cautioned about the challenge to our marriage told me that, in all likelihood, I, as a man and a father, would find my new normal in roughly six months. That is when I would begin to feel like I could press on in life again, like I had accepted my loss and could once again have hopes, dreams, and plans for the future. It is when my mind would begin to feel clear and when the darkest cloud of grief would have lifted. But then he said that for Aileen, as a woman and a mother, the timeline might be closer to two years. God has made men and women, fathers and mothers, different in this way, he told me.

And here’s the most important thing: the deepest relational struggles would probably come during that time in which I had come to a new kind of normal, but Aileen hadn’t. It would be that stretch—that period between roughly six months and two years—when we would both need to be especially patient, loving, and understanding, for she might think I had moved on too fast, and I might conclude she was wallowing in her grief.

Time proved him prescient. It was, indeed, after about six months that I felt like I had passed through the deepest depths and begun to see the light beyond. That’s not to say that I was no longer grieving or that I had become ambivalent about my loss—far from it! I still grieved deeply and wept often. But I had found my bearings, received my purpose, and was pressing on. If you were to ask Aileen, she would agree that her timeline was more like two years, and possibly slightly longer. It was only after a couple of years that she was feeling more like her old self or, perhaps better said, like her new self.

As we have spoken to other mothers and fathers in the aftermath of their own losses, we have found this to be a common, though not universal, pattern. We attribute it to the God-designed differences between men as fathers and women as mothers, not only in their emotional makeup but also in the roles they have in the lives of their children—if nothing else, that the mother was the one who carried that child in her body, nursed him at her breast, and was the first to nurture and comfort him in his needs. At the risk of speaking too broadly, perhaps many women simply have a greater capacity to feel and, therefore, a greater capacity to hurt.

Grieving Differently

We learned in our sorrow, as every couple must, that spouses will often grieve in very different ways. We learned that these differences are better accepted than rejected, and better appreciated than resented. We learned that God, in his wisdom, has made us different. And we learned that he provides the grace and wisdom to endure the greatest hardships.

To protect our marriages and to foster strength in even the darkest of valleys, we need to grant one another the right to grieve in different ways and according to longer or shorter timelines. We need to bear with one another in love, trusting that the God who led us into this valley will lead us both out, even if he does so along slightly different paths and according to slightly different schedules.

Good morning. Grace and peace to you.

I am giving away a $150 gift card to Westminster Books on Saturday, March 15. The winner will be randomly chosen from anyone who is subscribed to my newsletter by that day. All exiting subscribers are already included.

Today’s Kindle deals include some really good choices from Crossway, all of which are related to missions, whether that involves going or sending. Some of them are on sale for the first time.

Life in the Margins

Zak offers a helpful little reflection: just as the little bits of money that are left over at the end of the month can add up to a substantial amount, the same is true of time. “Sometimes in evangelical culture we can be tempted to think that the one shot we have to really connect with the Lord daily is in our ‘quiet time’ (or devotions or whatever you want to call it).⁠ That time is crucial, of course, but what we often fail to realize is that the little moments, the walk-by-the-way moments, add up.”

How Is It Fair for God to Send People Who Never Heard About Jesus to Hell? (Video)

Todd Friel has been visiting campuses to answer students’ toughest questions. He does a really good job with several of them in this video.

5 Reasons Christians Might Suffer and How to Respond to It

There may be many different reasons that God calls Christians to suffer in this life. Eric Ortlund outlines five of them in this article. “There is, of course, an aspect of pain that is undifferentiated—one hurts and suffers and must trust and keep going, and there is not always much more to say. But the Bible does show that suffering meets us in different forms, that we should respond to it in overlapping but sometimes distinct ways, and that God makes promises specific to each.”

The Birds and the Bees, Babies and Me

Karen Swallow Prior writes movingly about being involuntarily childless. “Being in the minority is, by its very nature, hard. Procreation reflects the natural order and is the pattern fulfilled by most creatures and most people. It is the way of the birds and the bees. But not me.” (You will probably need a free account at Christianity Today to read the article.)

What to Learn From the Decline of Young Earth Creationism

A recent study showed that very few people, and even very few evangelicals, hold to young-earth creationism. I don’t fully agree with everything Marc Sims says here, and I am certainly no theistic evolutionist, but I do think he raises some thought-provoking points. I’d say he is a bit too harsh on Ken Ham, as well. Still, there is much to glean from it, and especially thinking about how you come to your position. “I want to argue that the decline in young-earth creationism is a symptom of external cultural pressures (without), but also due to missteps on the part of young-earth advocates (within). If you are happy with the decline of the creationist perspective, the first point is for you. If you are galled by the ascendancy of Intelligent Design, the second point is for you.”

Canada’s Soaring Assisted Suicide Rates

Stephen McAlpine writes about the horrifying reality of Canada’s soaring rates for assisted suicide. “It would seem that the wider Western culture is starting to have reservations too about assisted suicide, and the almost gleeful rampage it is making across our societies. And not simply reservations about the number, but the speed at which this thing has ramped up, and also – alarmingly – the speed at which such deaths are carried out once they are signed off.” (See also Staring Death in the Eye by John Beeson)

Flashback: Showing Mercy in A Feeding Frenzy

…be merciful toward those who are suffering, merciful toward those whose souls are in peril, merciful toward reputations, merciful toward the weak, and merciful toward sinners.

What the destruction of the sun in the natural heavens would be to our physical earth, the destruction of Christianity would be to the moral world. The sun turned into darkness!

—De Witt Talmage

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What is it that we, as Christians, long for? What is it that we crave? What is it that will quiet our restless hearts? We want forgiveness, for we know our rebellion. We want joy, for we know our misery. We want justice, for we lament that the righteous suffer while the evil flourish. We want heaven, for we know we deserve hell.

There are many longings, many hungers and thirsts, that can drive us to the open arms of the Father. Yet behind them all there is a deeper longing, a brighter treasure, a higher good—God himself. The old Puritan William Strong says it well. “God only is the saint’s treasure and chief good; he lays up treasure in heaven and this treasure is God.”

The Bible tells us of a treasure hidden in a field and a man who gave up all he had to buy that field and acquire its treasure (Matthew 13:44). And that treasure is truly God. The greatest longings of our souls cannot be satisfied by forgiveness or joy or justice or heaven or anything else. They can be satisfied only by God, who is himself our treasure, our reward, our joy, our delight, the one without whom we have nothing, and the one with whom we have everything we could ever need.

Twice a year, for every year of my life, the debate has raged: Should we maintain daylight saving time or finally get rid of it? I’m in favor of abolishing it, but until then, let’s not forget to “spring forward” tonight so we don’t get ridiculed for showing up late to church tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I am featuring some longer pieces today that should give you lots to think about this weekend. I hope you enjoy them!

Today’s Kindle deals include a biography of C.S. Lewis, a helpful book by Christine Hoover, Michael Horton’s Core Christianity, and more.

(Yesterday on the blog: What a Good Marriage Sounds Like to Your Children)

In Ukraine, a Community of ‘Simple Believers’ Shuns the Modern World

I enjoyed reading about this community in Ukraine whose members seem similar to the Amish of North America (though they come from completely different roots—in this case, 1970s-era Ukrainian Pentecostalism). I do wish the writers had told us more about what they believe instead of focusing almost entirely on how they live, since from what I have observed, communities like this often seem to abandon the gospel in favor of legalism. Nevertheless, it is an interesting profile. “They call themselves simple believers — viruiuchi prostaky, in Ukrainian — or just believers. They strive to live by biblical law and remain apart from the modern world. Its members’ houses have no electricity, and instead of cars they use horses and wagons.” (I provided a gift link, so you should be able to access it without a subscription.)

Four Ways to Radically Rethink Your Workweek

Obviously, many people have no ability to radically rethink their workweek and must be available in particular places at particular times. I’m thankful that nurses, bus drivers, and store clerks aren’t rethinking their workweek! Yet for many, work from home or self-employment has allowed them to reconsider some modern-day assumptions like a 5-day and 40-hour workweek, a 9-5 workday, and more. This article at the Wall Street Journal (the gift link should unlock it for you) offers a few different suggestions, like meeting-free Mondays or a split workday. As it happens, I tend to do a split workday where I start work early, turn my attention to other things in the afternoon, and return to work in the evenings—something that is more feasible now that we are empty-nesters.

The State of the Church in Iran

I’m sure many of us are wondering how we should think about the church in Iran. Here are a few resources that may be helpful:

• The State of the Church in Iran from byFaith (a PCA publication) “invited Presbyterian and Reformed ministry leaders with ties to Iran to share any reports they have received about the situation on the ground and how the PCA can pray for Iran and Iranian Christians.”
• Afshin Ziafat, an Iranian-American pastor, recorded a video for TGC to explain the situation and say Iranian Christians Need Your Prayers More Than Ever.
• At Desiring God, David Mathis asks What Will War Bring to Iran? and provides a prayer.

For years, we have heard that the church may be growing faster in Iran than anywhere else on earth. Perhaps we will soon find out if that has, indeed, been the case.

New Music

Are you interested in some new music? I’ve got a couple of new options for you:

• Like No Other by The Worship Initiative is a live album recorded at the recent CROSS Con. Clicking the link will allow you to choose from among many different music services.
• All I Have Is Christ by Jordan Kauflin features the best of Jordan Kauflin’s music recorded in a live setting. It includes, of course, “All I Have Is Christ” and “Christ Our Hope in Life and Death.” This link will take you to a YouTube playlist, though you can find the album wherever else you listen to good music.

AI Doesn’t Reduce Work—It Intensifies It

This article from Harvard Business Review made the rounds this week and shared some surprising study results—that AI tools are actually intensifying many people’s work. “In an eight-month study of how generative AI changed work habits at a U.S.-based technology company with about 200 employees, we found that employees worked at a faster pace, took on a broader scope of tasks, and extended work into more hours of the day, often without being asked to do so.” One of the interesting takeaways is that AI is allowing people to take on tasks they never would have been able to do in the past (such as product managers who are now writing code). This has been my experience too: AI makes tasks that would have been mystifying in the past accessible in the present, which just seems to provide new tasks to do. (Also on the subject of AI, here’s one on The Ethics and Limits of AI in Sermon Preparation.)

Why 1 Timothy 2 Is a Universal Normative Guide

Finally, Steven Wedgeworth explains why, contrary to what so many people claim, 1 Timothy 2 is a universal normative guide. “In the debates over women’s ordination, a historically decisive passage in the New Testament is 1 Timothy 2:11-15. It is so direct that critics call it a ‘clobber passage.’ And indeed, some critics argue that it says much more than even very conservative traditionalist churches are willing to admit today. As such, they say it should be viewed as cultural or historical, limited to the conditions of the late-antique Mediterranean world.”

Flashback: Most To Jesus I Surrender (or Maybe Just Some)

Do we really fully surrender to him those things that we love most, or do we effectively bring him what is lame and spotted, what is of little consequence and low on our list of priorities? Do we surrender the firstfruits of our lives or the lastfruits?

Grace often grows strongest where conviction of sin has pierced deepest.

—Sinclair Ferguson

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This week, the blog and this giveaway are sponsored by Coram Deo Pastors Conference.

They are looking forward to once again filling the sanctuary with 1800 pastors and church leaders at Christ Covenant Church in Matthews, North Carolina, on March 17-19, 2026. The aim remains the same: they want to strengthen pastors and church leaders (and their wives, if that would benefit some couples). Their prayer—and they really have people praying—is that everyone who attends the conference will leave feeling encouraged, edified, inspired, equipped, and recharged for faithfulness in ministry.
They continue to believe there is much to be gained by hosting the conference at a local church (even if that means their space is limited). They still have a great bookstore, exhibitors, sponsors, and the “feel” of a conference. But they also hope for the “feel” of the church. The music will once again be led by Nathan Clark George, the pastor of worship at Christ Covenant, as he collaborates with other musicians from inside and outside our church.

Enter to win 2 registrations (FOR YOU AND/OR YOUR PASTOR) to join 1800 pastors and attendees from March 17-19, 2026, in Matthews, NC, for the Coram Deo Pastors Conference.

ENTER TO WIN

Hear from John Piper, H.B. Charles Jr., Kevin DeYoung and others.

Sing, fellowship and be encouraged in your ministry.

Winners will be announced on March 6th.

You will probably never read a book about marriage with your children. I suppose it’s possible that some families may sit around the living room on a long winter evening to read The Meaning of Marriage aloud together, but it seems unlikely. It’s also unlikely that your children will attend marriage seminars when they are young or that they will hear more than the smallest handful of sermons on the subject. The greater likelihood is that in their most formative years, the only book on marriage they will read is the ‘book’ of their parents’ marriage.

You often hear it said that children are sponges who learn by absorption as much as by formal instruction. Most of what they believe to be normal about the world, and most of the ways they learn to interact within it, are absorbed from their environment. When it comes to marriage, this means that your marriage is their textbook. Your relationship with your spouse is their instruction manual. What is normal within your relationship is what they will believe to be normal within any relationship. You are the model they are likely to imitate when it comes time for them to marry.

Do you and your spouse shout at one another? Your children will believe it’s normal for a husband and wife to raise their voices in anger. Do you and your spouse punish one another with long silences? Your children will believe it’s normal to give one another the silent treatment. Do you and your spouse vent about one another to your kids? Your children will believe it’s normal for spouses to involve others—even their own children—in their quarrels.

But perhaps you and your spouse are committed to working out your disagreements in measured tones, with quiet voices, and at private moments. Your children will believe it’s normal to be self-controlled even when offended. Perhaps you and your spouse have decided you will set aside your disputes until there is an opportune time to discuss them properly. Your children will believe it’s normal to go on loving one another, even in the face of disputes. Perhaps you and your spouse have decided that you will always do your best to talk through your struggles privately and never vent them to anyone else. Your children will believe it’s normal to maintain dignity and privacy between spouses.

The question every parent needs to ask is this: What does my marriage sound like to my children? What is my marriage teaching, even when it is offering no formal instruction? What truths or errors is my marriage speaking, even when it seems that no one is listening? If my children and their future spouses are to imitate my marriage and apply every lesson they are learning from it, will they have a good marriage or a troubled one, a marriage that comes close to the biblical ideal or one that is tragically distant from it?

What does a good marriage sound like? It sounds like a husband and wife who are committed to being Christlike in their words, in their deeds, and even in their attitudes. It sounds like a husband and wife who understand that their marriage refers to Christ and the church, and so they diligently commit themselves to making it the most accurate reference possible. It sounds like “I’m sorry,” “Please forgive me,” and “I forgive you.” It sounds like a husband faithfully serving his wife and a wife freely following her husband, with both of them discovering, celebrating, and fostering one another’s gifts. It sounds like a husband and wife equally laboring to maintain all the beauty, the dignity, and the wonder of the relationship of Christ to his church and his church to Christ.

This is the marriage your children need to “hear” as you instruct them, not necessarily through formal tutoring or through reading Married for God Together (though you and your spouse may benefit from reading it), but as your marriage “speaks” in hundreds of ways through thousands of days. A marriage lived for the glory of God is the best marriage book of them all.

The God of love and peace be with you today, my friends.

Today’s Kindle deals include, among other options, Christina Fox’s challenging book Idols of a Mother’s Heart and Mez McConnell’s heartbreaking memoir The Creaking on the Stairs.

If you’re looking for something good to read, Westminster Books has a sale on P&R’s spring catalog, which features lots of good options—commentaries, children’s books, and more.

The Christian Alone

Michael Jensen considers the need for solitude, but also how Christians can be unrealistic or legalistic in it. “We struggle to find a command in Scripture for Christians to seek solitude. Much spiritual writing that encourages solitude as a vital component of the Christian life flirts with a terrible legalism. It also promotes the establishment of a spiritual elite, who have the time and the resources and the immense self-discipline for a largely solitary existence. … However, the very shape of the Christian life encourages us to seek an inwardness that solitude certainly helps.”

When Dieting Becomes Worship (And How to Keep It in Its Place)

Though she writes specifically for women, Staci’s article is relevant to all of us. “We know gluttony is wrong. We know vanity is wrong. What we don’t always know is how to tell when our good desire to be healthy and strong has become something ultimate.”

What is Coram Deo?

Coram Deo is a Latin phrase meaning “before the face of God.” It is often associated with John Calvin and other Reformers who summoned the Christian to live all of life in God’s presence. The Coram Deo Pastors Conference was created to remind pastors of our great God, to recharge preachers to teach with clarity and conviction, and to reinvigorate the weary soul for a life of ministry faithfulness before the face of God. (Sponsored)

“Let the Little Children Come”: A Brief Case for Welcoming Children into Corporate Worship

Zack DiPrima makes the case for welcoming children into corporate worship, and does so well. “While including younger children may initially have its challenges, the opportunities it provides for evangelizing and discipling the next generation far outweigh any potential costs. The church’s gathering shapes children as they are exposed to God’s Word and the gathered worship of his people.” (I think it is crucial to point out that DiPrima is not advocating for family-integrated church, which is much broader in its aims.)

We Want to Believe

“Over a century ago, long before people believed that sharks were swimming in the subways of New York during Hurricane Sandy or Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) joined the immigration debate on the Senate floor using an AI-altered photo that included an ICE agent without a head, young Francis Griffiths and her cousin took pictures of fairies dancing in the forest. What began as the imagination of little girls turned into an international sensation known as the Cottingley Fairies incident of 1920.” This column at Breakpoint draws a contemporary application from a strange historical phenomenon.

What Every Christian Should Know

Kyle Borg lists just some of the things every Christian ought to know. “Knowing Bible trivia isn’t the same thing as knowing the Bible. A person can remember scattered facts but still struggle to know what the Bible is, how it fits together, or what its message is. The Scripture isn’t given to us so we can win a game. It’s given so that we can read, meditate, understand, and be trained in righteousness and holiness.
With that in mind, there are certain things every Christian should know about the Bible—not obscure details or academic debates, but foundational truths that shape how we read, study, and receive God’s Word.”

When Depravity Becomes Entertainment

Hopefully you still have some of this month’s allotment of free articles remaining at WORLD so you can read this article, especially if you’re into true crime. “True crime podcasts, docuseries, and dramatizations are everywhere. They dominate streaming platforms, climb podcast charts, and fill long commutes and late nights. According to industry reports, true crime is now one of the most popular podcast genres in the world, with tens of millions of regular listeners. Streaming platforms have leaned into the demand, producing an endless supply of serialized stories about real murders, real victims, and real evil. The appetite seems insatiable.”

Flashback: When Parents Feel Like We Are Mostly Failing Most of the Time

Most of us hesitate to properly manage our children’s use of their devices at least in part because we don’t care to manage our own. There’s nothing intrinsic to being a parent that gives you the right to watch endless amounts of YouTube while capping your kids at a half hour. 

What answer that can be given to many an irritating word, and even to a just provocation, is as effective as dignified silence? What eloquence there is sometimes in lips sealed tight by self-control, by patient fortitude, by the serene sense of right!

—Theodore Cuyler

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The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you. 

Today’s Kindle deals include the brand new More of Jesus, which is ideal reading for this time of year. There is also one that addresses the burden of the to-do list and one to help children prepare for Easter.

(Yesterday on the blog: What Did You Give Up When You Became a Christian?)

Learning to Be a “Friendtor”

I think some people will find a good deal of freedom in learning that it may be better to be “friendtor” than a mentor. “By virtue of my ‘advancing years’ (ahem) and because I’m seen as a leader at our church (primarily because my husband is an elder there), I’ve sometimes been labelled a ‘mentor.’ As I slipped into my 40s, younger women began to ask me to mentor them. I readily agreed. I wanted to help and guide them. Then reality struck. I had no idea how to be a mentor.”

The Photo They Don’t Want You to See

Jonathon Van Maren tells about the photo they (in this case, various authorities in Australia) don’t want anyone to see. “In a sane, moral society, this photograph—despite being slightly blurred and clearly taken on a cell phone—would be for the abortion wars what the photo of the young girl Kim Phúc, fleeing naked and in terror after a 1972 napalm attack, was for Vietnam. Both highlight the suffering of children; both expose the horrific cost behind our polite public defenses of our public policy. These photos stir the conscience. But we are not a sane or moral society.”

10 Reasons Evangelicals Are Cringe

Aaron Renn recently wrote about Evangelicalism’s cringe problem, and now Matthew Loftus responds to say, “Renn is fundamentally correct about the reality of evangelical cringeiness and the matching problem of evangelical elites. The high tolerance for cringe leads to evangelicals accepting mediocrity, which then hinders our ability to produce elites. But Renn is wrong about why this is.” You may not agree with all of the points he makes, but I think you will agree with a good number of them.

What is Coram Deo?

Coram Deo is a Latin phrase meaning “before the face of God.” It is often associated with John Calvin and other Reformers who summoned the Christian to live all of life in God’s presence. The Coram Deo Pastors Conference was created to remind pastors of our great God, to recharge preachers to teach with clarity and conviction, and to reinvigorate the weary soul for a life of ministry faithfulness before the face of God. (Sponsored)

Raising Kids Overseas: The Challenges, the Joys, and a Warning

Brad Buser addresses one of the primary impediments that keeps Christians from becoming missionaries: raising their children overseas, often in very difficult conditions. “We had to have an unshakeable conviction that nothing will touch our kids outside of His good, sovereign, wise and loving will. We had dedicated all of our kids to the Lord years ago but seeing them fly off for the boarding school in a little Cessna 185 held in the air by one spinning propeller for a 2.5 hour flight over nothing but jungle…well, we rededicated them every time they were in the air.”

Evaluating the Bible Project’s Theology of Sin and Atonement

I have heard quite a few people express concerns about the Bible Project and especially its view of the atonement. I am thankful that Mike McGarry chose to address the matter in this charitable but concerning article. “The Bible Project is one of the most popular Christian channels on YouTube, and for good reason. Their videos are excellently produced, captivating, and informative. Personally, I’ve used their videos many times. And yet, I want to graciously offer a call for youth pastors to practice discernment, rather than accepting and recommending the Bible Project’s content wholesale.”

What Does the Bible Say About Angels?

What are angels, and what does the Bible tell us about them? Robb Brunansky answers both thoroughly and helpfully at the Cripplegate.

Flashback: 10 Lessons on Parenting Big(ger) Kids

Give your children the privilege and the benefit of access to people who are old and wise and godly and not their parents. As mom and dad you’ve got a huge influence on your children, but sometimes it’s wise and helpful to joyfully hand off influence to others.

There is no commentary that opens up the Bible so much as sickness and sorrow.

—J.C. Ryle

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One of the great sins of the modern church is soft-selling the Christian life. Where Jesus promises that following him will lead to difficulties and trials, many Christians pitch the faith to others as if it promises only ease. Where Jesus insists that following him may cost much of what we hold dear, many Christians act as if it will only cost those things we would gladly leave behind anyway. Considering it bad salesmanship to speak the truth, they freely speak a lie. It does not take long before the person who has professed faith learns that Jesus was right all along: following him may cost everything. Many decide that such a cost is too high.

What did you give up to become a Christian? What did you enjoy that you left behind for the sake of following Christ? For some it may be habits that gave you pleasure in former days, but which Jesus now forbids. For some it may be vices you indulged in, but which the Lord has called you to abandon. For some it may be lovers, for some it may be desires, and for still others, relationships with family members. But whatever it is, this much is true: none who have ever come to Christ have done so without surrendering someone or something.

You have given up a lot to follow Christ. You have given up many passions and activities that were genuinely pleasurable, though now you see they were also immoral. You have given up a good portion of your money and therefore surrendered some of your lifestyle. You have given up opportunities to enrich yourself financially, vocationally, or relationally. You have given up the idols you used to live for and the identities that used to define you. You have given it all up for the sake of the cause, for the sake of Christ.

You have probably observed that the world around you pities you for what you have given up. Skeptics see you exchange self-indulgence for self-denial and excess for abstention. They think you are ridiculous. Unbelievers see you exchange sleeping around for faithfulness and pornography for purity. They feel sorry for you. Doubters see you relate differently to time and to money and to every other gift and they roll their eyes and shake their heads, for they consider it a waste to use such resources for God’s purposes instead of your own. In so many ways, the world fixates on what you give up.

The word the Old Testament uses to describe consecration—the setting apart of the priests—has the sense of “filling the hands.” The priest was to receive the priesthood as a gift and his consecration was complete only when his hands had been filled with the sacrifices he would soon offer to God. When you consecrated your life to the Lord, the world saw you empty your hands of much of what it counts dear, and it pitied you for this. But it did not see that you have only emptied your hands of what you now count as little so they can be filled with what God counts as much. It did not see that you are releasing mere wood, hay, and stubble so you can take hold of the lasting treasures of God’s grace. It did not see that you are merely releasing what you cannot keep in order to gain what you cannot lose.¹

You have exchanged what is fleeting for what is lasting and what brings death for what brings life. You have traded what makes you more like the enemy of your soul for what makes you more like your soul’s dearest friend and what causes your soul to shrivel for what sparks it to life. You have come to believe, to see, and to know that you are most fully alive when you live within the will of the one who created you rather than outside of it. Take heart, for the time will come when your faith will become sight and, in that day, you will be fully vindicated, for all will know and all will agree that you made the best of all bargains.

1. To slightly paraphrase Jim Elliot ↩︎

May the Lord be with you and bless you on this fine day.

Logos users: March Matchups is back, and you’ll want to have your say on which products get the deepest discounts. Be sure to also look at the free and nearly-free books that are highlighted this month.

Today’s Kindle deals include some options I think you’ll enjoy, like J. Warner Wallace’s The Truth in True Crime and Gavin Ortlund’s What It Means To Be Protestant. There is also an Easter devotional you may enjoy reading with your family.

The Death of a Saint

I thoroughly enjoyed this sweet tribute to an ordinary saint. “I have studied the Bible with many people over the last 26 years, but very few have done so with the eagerness, sincerity, and love that Vivian showed. She was a great lady because of her love: for her family, for her neighbors, but above all, for her Lord and Savior. I am not weeping for her this morning, I am weeping for myself. Some people think I spent the last eight years ministering to Vivian, but the truth is that she spent the last eight years ministering to me.”

James Talarico’s Gospel

James Talarico has been able to share his perspective about the Christian faith on some of the world’s largest platforms. Here’s an analysis. “It is never a good idea to redefine what God has defined. This includes, but is not limited to, life, marriage, and sex. And it is never a good idea to separate that which God has joined together. This includes Christian doctrine from Christian ethics. To claim the ‘ethics’ of Jesus while discarding the doctrine of the Word is like trying to keep the beauty of a flower while severing it from its roots; it may mimic the appearance of life for a season, but you have severed the bloom from the only source that could sustain it.”

What is Coram Deo?

Coram Deo is a Latin phrase meaning “before the face of God.” It is often associated with John Calvin and other Reformers who summoned the Christian to live all of life in God’s presence. The Coram Deo Pastors Conference was created to remind pastors of our great God, to recharge preachers to teach with clarity and conviction, and to reinvigorate the weary soul for a life of ministry faithfulness before the face of God. (Sponsored)

You Can Always Come Back to Church

Glenna tells about returning to the gym after a long absence and uses it as a helpful illustration of why you can (and should) return to church if you have been away for some time.

I Prepare Sermons 4 Weeks in Advance

Joseph explains why he recently began to prepare his sermons several weeks in advance. Here’s how it began: “I decided to try it while reading Paul David Tripp’s book Dangerous Calling. He writes in one section about the seriousness of the pastor’s calling to preach and warned against preaching without meditation and personal application. He strongly advised preparing further out.”

Ground Rules for Gospel Greatness

Dave Harvey grapples with the human desire for greatness. “What are the ground rules for gospel greatness? If we don’t answer that, we’ll keep swinging between two familiar ditches—despair and denial.” (For some reason, I felt that Justin Huffman’s article would be nicely complementary: Christians Should Long For Giftedness.)

Hell and the Character of God

Chris Bolt offers a long refutation of conditional immortality or annihilationism, which Kirk Cameron recently defended. “Kirk Cameron’s incredulity regarding the duration and severity of eternal punishment while briefly addressing some of the purportedly robust arguments for conditional immortality. In short, my opposition to conditional immortality, or annihilationism, stems from biblical exegesis, a rejection of feelings-based theologizing, the simple character of God, and the nature of Christ’s atonement.”

Flashback: We Who Are So Ordinary

Through what the world counts as subpar and unimpressive, he is building a kingdom that will by far outshine even the greatest kingdom ever devised by men.

God says, I made you in my image to live for my glory. Culture says, Be self-made in whatever image you like and live for your own glory. This is a counterfeit calling, and it’s killing us. The Psalms train us in a conversation of language, from talking about God to talking to God.

—Jen Oshman

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