Blogs

Four Warnings for Your Twenties | Marshall Segal, Desiring God
“The same temptations that were murdering the believers under Moses are waging a spiritual war against believers today: entertainment, sexual immorality, impatience, and contentment.”

Why Mark Dever Thinks You Should Use Alec Motyer’s New “Psalms of the Day: A New Devotional Translation” | TGC
Mark Dever’s foreword to Alec Motyer’s new devotional on the Psalms.

My Son’s Autism Changed Everything—Even Our Church | Sandra Peoples, ChristianityToday.com
“I came to see special needs families as an unreached people group.”

Seeing Christ In All of Scripture | Lane Keister
“This short book clarifies the doctrinal issues surrounding the recent debates at Westminster [Seminary]like no other resource of which I am aware. Get a copy of it.”

Six Biblical Methods For Handling Stress | Elizabeth Moyer, Institute for Faith, Work and Econmics
“Stress takes an undeniable toll on our whole self. Most of all, stress derails our relationship with God, distracting us from his provision, providence, and goodness. These biblical methods are not novel or groundbreaking. Instead, they are steadfast tools that help us re-center our hearts on the Lord.”

The Unappreciated Blessing Of Busyness | David Qaoud, Gospel Relevance
“Is busyness always a bad thing?”

The enormous power of the unconscious brain | Chris Baraniuk, BBC
“A lot of the things we do in everyday life don’t need to involve our conscious mind. In many cases, the more we use it, the less effective we become.”

New Book

One Man and One Woman: Marriage and Same-Sex Relations by Joel R. Beeke and Paul M. Smalley

Kindle Deals

For your non-Kindle book buying, please consider using Reformation Heritage Books in the USA and Reformed Book Services in Canada. Good value prices and shipping.

Demolishing Supposed Bible Contradictions Volume 1 by Ken Ham ($2.99)

Beginning at Moses: A Guide to Finding Christ in the Old Testament by Michael P. V. Barrett ($0.99)

God’s Unfailing Purpose: The Message of Daniel by Michael P. V. Barrett ($0.99)

Video

Prudential Relationship Reconnect in Singapore
If you want proof of how much we need face-to-face contact for healthy relationships, watch this moving video of a social experiment which examined whether simply looking at someone for four quiet, uninterrupted minutes could create a sense of closeness and empathy.

Blogs

Hope for a Hopeless Marriage
“I don’t know what your marriage looks like. Ours looked hopeless, but it wasn’t. We were so far away from Christ that divorce seemed inevitable, but it wasn’t. We are living proof that there is hope and that God can take wreckage and build something lasting and beautiful through Christ.”

6 Great Threats to the Christian Family
“Some of the deadliest enemies of the Christian family come from within rather than from without.”

5 Ways To Protect Your Kids At Church
“There are some things your church can do to protect the kids in your care. ”

8 Great Women Of Science History
“As a public service, enjoy this selection of eight women presented in historical order as pioneers in STEM to inspire a new generation towards interest in these fields.”

Mike Rowe: ‘Free’ College A Myth That Smears Trade Schools
“The real problem with higher education is our culture’s obsession with labeling four-year college as the only respectable way to enter adult society, and the reason Democratic candidates are so keen on college is because it seems to benefit them.”

Europe at the Edge of the Abyss
Lengthy but excellent article on how America can avoid Europe’s fate.

Kindle Books

Harper Collins Atlas of Bible History $1.99.

Gospel-Centered Teaching: Showing Christ in all of Scripture by Trevin Wax $2.99.

A Model of Christian Maturity by Don Carson $1.99.

Preaching to a Post-Everything World by Zach Eswine $2.99.

Video

At Home in the Hebrides
Here’s where I used to live and pastor. Tears.

Here’s a sample of the latest parenting links I’ve posted at KidsBibleReading.com.

Blogs

10 Lessons on Parenting Little Ones | Tim Challies
Tim has shepherded three children past ten years old and shares the lessons he has learned.

Helping the Young Engage The Sermon | Joe Thorn
Here’s an excellent handout for encouraging children to profit from a sermon.

American Girls and Their Social Media Lives | TGC
You probably don’t want to know this, but you should. After 200 interviews with teen girls around the country, this book summarizes the relationship between their social media use and their sexuality.

Books

If you are struggling to get your boys to read, can I recommend Douglas Bond’s books. Our boys have read and re-read them many times. You can see a list of them here. The ones our boys have enjoyed most are:

Duncan’s War

King’s Arrow

Rebel’s Keep

For your non-Kindle book buying, please consider using Reformation Heritage Books in the USA and Reformed Book Services in Canada. Good value prices and shipping.

Video

Sick Children Travel The World Thanks to Virtual Reality
We hear so much negativity about technology, it’s welcome to see it redeemed and used for such worthy aims.

Blogs

What are the Habits of Wealthy People
Skip over the money-making motivation and get to the key insight applicable to all: try to improve 1% each day in a .

Will Phoebe have Down’ s Syndrome in heaven? – Reformation21 Blog
Paul Levy: “In January 2015 our third child Phoebe was born and, as a complete surprise to us, Phoebe has Down’s Syndrome. The last year has been, and continues to be, an enormous roller coaster full of joy and sorrow too.”

Gay Marriage Isn’t About Justice, It’s About Selma Envy
“Why do so many people, Gen Xers and younger, invent a monster of anti-gay bigotry and keep screaming the monster is real despite a mountain of contrary facts standing before them?”

Keep Your Man Parts Out Of My Bathroom
“The North Carolina General Assembly is making a stand against an invasive ordinance the city of Charlotte passed, which would allow transgender people to use any bathroom they choose. That means if a man says he identifies as a woman, he’s free to use the ladies’ restroom, even if he still does it standing up.”

How To Focus Deeply In A Distracted World with Cal Newport
“Deep work” is the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task and it’s one of the most valuable skills in our economy.

New Booklets

How Can I Cultivate Private Prayer? by Joel Beeke.

See also Is the Trinity Practical? by Ryan McGraw.

Kindle Books

For your non-Kindle book buying, please consider using Reformation Heritage Books in the USA and Reformed Book Services in Canada. Good value prices and shipping.

Expository Apologetics by Voddie Bacham $1.99.

Three James Herriot Classics including All Creatures Great and Small. Good writing, enjoyable reading $3.99.

Lies They Teach in School: Exposing the Myths Behind 250 Commonly Believed Fallacies by Herb Reich $1.99.

Video

Pilot Thanks God for the Plane Crash that Changed his Life

What’s the first book you would give to a newly converted Christian?

I’m sure not many of you would reply, “Redemption Accomplished and Applied,” by John Murray.

Yet that’s the first Christian book I read. And I was not a reader! In fact, I never read one full book while I was in High School. I read bits of books now and again for the purposes of scraping through exams here and there, but I just lived to play soccer and make money. My dream job would have been doing both together but my skinny teenage frame put paid to that. I had to settle for just the money.

When I left school, I went to work with a large insurance and investment company in Glasgow, and at times worked 18-hour days in order to climb the ladder as fast as I could. Books were the last thing on my mind.

I was still going to church – partly to please my parents, partly for social reasons – but I had no interest in Christianity or Christian books. I had heard probably over a thousand sermons but had really listened to only a handful. Even if I had listened, I wouldn’t have understood much of it. But most of the time, sermons were an opportunity to re-live my soccer goals and plot my next business venture.

Radical Conversion
When I was sovereignly converted in 1987, I felt conscience-bound to leave my well-paying job with lots of perks (including a company car). Thankfully, someone I knew at church was starting a business at the time and said he could offer me $40 for about 40 hours a week doing color printing and delivery work around Glasgow (yes that’s $1 an hour). I jumped at the chance mainly because I admired the Christian witness of this guy when we had played soccer together and I felt I could learn a lot from him. As it was, his business was so quiet at that time that we spent hours each day just talking Bible, memorizing Scripture, and discussing Reformed theology.

He had a substantial library, was a voracious reader, and was pretty stunned that I had read virtually nothing in my life. That’s when he decided that the first book I should read would be Redemption Accomplished and Applied.

Deep Theology
Talk about being thrown in at the deep end. It’s not a big book, but it sure is dense with theology. I’m told it took Professor Murray about one hour to write each line – so precise and concise was his writing. It took me about an hour to read each line. But each line was a new discovery – partly of what the Bible taught, but mainly of what had happened to me.

Here was a book that explained the objective work of Christ in ways I had never heard nor understood before. But, most of all, it was a book that explained the subjective application of that salvation to my own soul. Up until then, I was like the half-blind man seeing trees as men walking (Mark 8:24), knowing that something sovereignly supernatural had happened to me but really clueless about what that was. Line upon line, this book explained everything so that I not only saw my Savior more clearly but I saw my salvation more clearly too. Amazing, amazing grace.

Strong Meat
Over many weeks, I eventually finished it, probably the first book I had ever read from start to finish, and immediately went back to read it from the beginning again. It was strong meat for someone who was just a babe in Christ, but it was so nourishing and strengthening (even though I had to chew incredibly slowly, and choked upon it now and again).

Since then, I’ve heard Pastor Al Martin recommending it as a book that every Christian should read every year. I understand and second the exhortation, and wish I had done that more consistently. But it’s a book I do return to again and again, and each time Christ and His sovereign salvation shine ever more brightly. Each page, line, and letter breathes “Salvation is of the Lord.” That was my experience, and that, I trust, will be the message of my life every day of my life.

Redemption Accomplished and Applied by John Murray.

For your non-Kindle book buying, please consider using Reformation Heritage Books in the USA and Reformed Book Services in Canada. Good value prices and shipping.

Blogs

Beware of Quicksand: How One Stranger’s Comment Changed My Marriage Forever | Becky Thompson
Salutary!

“Friend, we are fools if we think for a second that marriage isn’t a battlefield. We are fools if we believe that the enemy doesn’t have carefully laid plans in place to destroy our families. But we don’t have to live as though we are naïve to his schemes. Should you be afraid of every encounter with someone who is not your spouse? No way. But should we let ever y outside comment and kindness turn us back toward our spouse? Absolutely. We should remember that the love that we crave from our spouse is often the love that we have to give them.”

American Girls and Their Social Media Lives
Review of an important book of cultural analysis:

“Over the course of two and a half years, Sales traveled the country and interviewed more than 200 girls (aged 13 to 19) about social media and sexuality. These encounters are all documented in American Girls. She divides her book into seven chapters, each covering a year of teenhood and the themes that emerged from her conversations with each age group.”

Helping the Young Engage The Sermon
Please click through and see the excellent handout this church has put together help their children listen to sermons.

Letters to the Editor (Public Schools, Gossip)
Worth reading for the interaction with Tim’s post about public school teachers.

15 Pieces of Writing Advice from C. S. Lewis | Justin Taylor
You might also want to read 14 Proven Writing Tips from Genius Writers.

Six Foolish Things I Used to Believe about the Ministry | One Degree to Another
“So that others can learn from them, here are a few of the foolish things I used to believe about the ministry. (In ten years I will write about the foolish things I believed about the ministry in 2016.)”

Kindle Books

For your non-Kindle book buying, please consider using Reformation Heritage Books in the USA and Reformed Book Services in Canada. Good value prices and shipping.

Loving Jesus More by Phil Ryken $1.99.

Thoughts to Make Your Heart Sing by Sally Lloyd-Jones $1.99. See also by the same author The Jesus Storybook Bible ($1.99) and The Story of God’s Love for You ($1.99).

Songs of a Suffering King by J. V Fesko $2.99.

New Book

Church in Hard Places: How the Local Church Brings Life to the Poor and Needy by Mike McKinley and Mez McConnell (see promotional video below).

Video

How Can We Encourage Socio-Economic Diversity in the Church?

You can also buy Church in Hard Places by Mike McKinley and Mez McConnell.