This week the blog is sponsored by The Good Book Company, which publishes biblical, relevant, and accessible resources like those recommended below. The Christian life is sometimes pictured as running a race. Hebrews 12:1, for example, exhorts us: “Let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run…
If we were not in a time of pandemic, I’d be heading south today to spend Easter weekend with my family! The thought of it makes me wonder how much longer it will be before anything like normal travel resumes. Today’s Kindle deals are rather diverse, crossing a number of different genres and authors (Stott,…
I was recently reading through the new, updated version of Kent Hughes’ Disciplines of a Godly Man and was struck anew by the Bible’s call that we strive and labor for godliness. While his intended audience is primarily men, the message is equally applicable to women. The statement from Paul to Timothy regarding spiritual discipline…
The longer I live—the longer I live out this life as a Christian—the more I see my desperate need of the Lord’s Day. Though it once seemed like the kind of day I could take or leave, I’ve since come to rely on it and to see God’s goodness in giving it. It’s a day…
Today’s Kindle deals include lots of good books with the highlight being all kinds of great stuff by J.R.R. Tolkien. There’s lots of good books from Christian Focus on sale at Westminster Books. (Yesterday on the blog: The 2019 Christian Reading Challenge) A Different Kind of Profanity “In contemporary American culture grumbling is often ingrained…
It is time to attempt answers to another collection of questions from my Ask Me Anything feature. This week’s questions concern the Proverbs 31 woman, sex that doesn’t go all the way, abstinence during times of separation, the great cloud of witnesses, and pursuing your vocation. Looking over Proverbs 31, something came to mind. You…
There are many places in the Bible where God presents a stark contrast between two options, then urges the reader to make his choice. He gave his law to ancient Israel, then said, “I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life” (Deuteronomy 30:19). In the Sermon on the Mount,…
The Bible uses a number of metaphors to describe the Christian life, and among the most prominent is that of runners in a race (e.g., 1 Corinthians 9:24, Hebrews 12:1). The “race” is a vivid image meant to remind us that Christians face competition, need endurance, and require diligence. Life is not a leisurely stroll,…
One of the pleasures of diverse reading is finding unexpected connections between unrelated books. I found one of these recently as I was reading Shoe Dog by Phil Knight (a book about the founding and growth of Nike) and Devoted to God by Sinclair Ferguson (a book about the Christian’s growth in holiness)—two books I…
On August 3, 2016, Emirates airlines flight 521 crashed at Dubai International Airport. The pilots had just set down the plane when they received a warning that they had landed too late—they would run out of runway before the plane could come to a safe stop. They initiated the go-around procedure which would allow them…
I’m no fan of most forms of racing. Cars, horses, drones, people—none of them do much for me. I find bicycle racing especially drab, except for those Olympic sprint events that suddenly grab my attention every four years. I do not know a whole lot about racing (which may well be why I don’t enjoy…
Of all the books I read I often feel that the biographies are most helpful to my Christian walk. I developed an early love of the genre from my mother who taught me the importance of reading about and understanding the lives of the great saints of the past, that we might be able to…