Great Thanksgiving Weekend Kindle Deals for Christians

From Tim Challies:

Andrew, Brother – God’s Smuggler ($2.51)

Anonymous – Embracing Obscurity ($0.99)

Baucham, Voddie – Joseph and the Gospel of Many Colors ($1.99)

Begg, Alistair & Ferguson, Sinclair – Name Above All Names ($3.99)

Blomberg, Craig – Jesus and the Gospels ($4.64)

Bounds, E.M.- The Complete Works on Prayer ($2.99)

Carson, D.A.- Worship By the Book ($2.99)

Chandler, Matt – Creature of the Word ($3.71)

Chapell, Bryan – Praying Backwards ($1.99)

Chester, Tim & Timmis, Steve – Everyday Church ($1.99)

Coffee, Joe – Red Like Blood ($1.99)

Crotts, John – Craftsmen ($3.99)

Crouch, Andy – Culture Making ($0.99)

Courtney, Vicki – 5 Conversations You Must Have With Your Daughter ($2.99)

Darling, Daniel – Real ($2.99)

Dever, Mark – The Church ($4.64)

DeYoung, Kevin – Crazy Busy ($1.99)

Eswine, Zack – Preaching to a Post-Everything World ($3.99)

Furman, Gloria – Glimpses of Grace ($2.99)

Ganz, Nancy – Herein Is Love: Genesis ($1.99)

Ganz, Nancy – Herein Is Love: Exodus ($1.99)

Ganz, Nancy – Herein Is Love: Leviticus ($1.99)

Ganz, Nancy – Herein Is Love: Numbers ($1.99)

Ganz, Nancy – Herein Is Love: Deuteronomy ($1.99)

Gladwell, Malcolm* – The Tipping Point ($3.99)

Gladwell, Macolm* – Blink ($3.99)

Gladwell, Macolm* – Outliers ($3.99)

Gladwell, Macolm* – What the Dog Saw ($3.99)

Glenn, R.W.- Crucifying Morality ($4.99)

Greear, J.D.- Gospel ($3.71)

Greear, J.D.- Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart ($3.71)

Harvey, Dave – When Sinners Say ‘I Do’ ($1.99)

Hedges, Brian – Christ Formed in You ($3.99)

Horne, Rick – Get Offa My Case ($1.99)

Lane, Timothy – How People Change ($2.99)

Mahaney, Carolyn – Feminine Appeal ($1.99)

McKnight, Scot – The Sermon on the Mount ($4.71)

Machowski, Marty – Long Story Short ($3.82)

Mae, Sarah & Clarkson, Sally – Desperate ($1.99)

Meyer, Jason – Preaching: A Biblical Theology ($1.99)

Pearcey, Nancy – Saving Leonardo ($3.99)

Plowman, Ginger – Don’t Make Me Count to Three ($1.99)

Rainer, Thom – Simple Church ($2.99)

Rainer, Thom & Stetzer, Ed – Transformational Church ($3.99)

Reeves, Michael – Delighting in the Trinity ($2.99)

Rigney, Joe – Live Like a Narnian ($2.99)

Ripken, Nik – The Insanity of God ($0.99)

Selvaggio, Anthony – A Proverbs Driven Life ($1.99)

Sproul, R.C.- Not a Chance ($3.99)

Steward, Tracey – Payne Stewart ($0.99)

Tripp, Paul – Broken-Down House ($1.99)

Tripp, Paul – Lost in the Middle ($1.99)

Tripp, Tedd – Shepherding a Child’s Heart ($1.99)

Tripp, Tedd – Instructing a Child’s Heart ($1.99)

Various – Four Views on the Historical Adam Preorder ($4.27)

Various – Five Views on Biblical Inerrancy Preorder ($3.79)

Various – Four Views on the Apostle Paul ($2.99)

Various – Four Views on the Spectrum of Evangelicalism ($2.99)

Various – Three Views on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament ($2.99)

Various – Five Views on Apologetics ($2.99)

Various – Four Views on Moving Beyond the Bible to Theology ($2.99)

Various – Two Views on Women in Ministry ($2.99)

Various – Three Views on Creation and Evolution ($2.99)

Various – Five Views on Law and Gospel ($2.99)

Younts, Jay – Everyday Talk ($1.99)

Younts, Ruth – Get Wisdom ($1.99)

Zollos, Steve – Time for the Talk ($1.99)

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Pastoral reading

Justin Taylor:

I thought it might be helpful to ask some pastors and theologians what they would recommend as sermons or essays that have had a special impact on them, or that they would seriously urge students and pastors to consider reading.

I’m thankful for all of the responses. I’ve tried to add as many links as possible to free versions online:

Click here for “A List of Important Sermons and Articles That Are Worth Reading”

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Afraid to live, not afraid to die

Two professors from Baptist Bible College in PA reflect on their health situations. One suffers with an incurable condition of recurring and intense pain.  The other has stage 4 cancer.  Two moving articles entitled by men whose world has crashed down on them.

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How can you give thanks in all circumstances?

Jon Bloom writes a helpful piece on trying to live out “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 Thessalonians 5:18).

Here’s his conclusion:

So right now you have trouble. That’s okay. Jesus said that you would (John 16:33). And Jesus really understands (Hebrews 4:15).

In fact, the trouble that you endure has a purpose: in it you are displaying the reality of Jesus to the world in a unique way. The kingdom of God is most clearly shown on earth when Christians gratefully suffer present trouble because they see a future weight of glory coming that makes everything this world throws at them as “light and momentary afflictions” in comparison (2 Corinthians 4:17).

So how can you give thanks in all circumstances? There’s only one way: Jesus’s way. Look to the joy set before you. Look to the joy! If the future joy Jesus promises is real and you believe him, there is no circumstance that can steal your thanksgiving.

Read the rest of How Can We Give Thanks in All Circumstances?

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Ten Times To Hold Your Tongue

From Lina Abujamra:

1. When you have no idea what to say

Proverbs 17:28: “Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent.”

2. When you’re wrongly accused

1 Peter 2:23: “When he was reviled, he did not revile in return.” 

Isaiah 53:7: “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth.”

3. When you’re mad

Proverbs 25:28: “Like a city whose walls are broken through is a person who lacks self-control.”

4. When you’re confused about life

Lamentations 3:25–28: “The Lord is good for those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord . . . Let him sit alone in silence when it is laid on him; let him put his mouth to the dust—there may yet be hope.”

5. When you wouldn’t want someone else to find out you said it

Luke 12:3: “Therefore whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops.”

6. When you don’t really mean it

Proverbs 3:28: “Do not say to your neighbor ‘Go, and come again, tomorrow I will give it,’ when you have it with you.”

7. When you can’t stop yearning for the good old days

Ecclesiastes 7:10: “Say not, why were the former days better than these? For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.”

8. When you have a lot to do and you don’t like it

Philippians 2:14: “Do all things without grumbling or complaining.”

9. When the timing is wrong

Proverbs 25:11: “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in setting of silver.”

10. When you don’t have anything to say that gives grace

Ephesians 4:29: “Let no corrupt talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear it.”

Got any other tips on when to refrain from talking? Share them in the comments section!

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Inside an abortion clinic

Owen Strachan:

You should watch this video. It’s about 4 minutes long. If you have a conscience, and if you care about children, it may make you weep, sweat, and audibly cry out. You’ll hear two voices–Landau’s and another counselor’s–that are soothing, gentle, and assured, in the way that medical experts often are. But there’s a difference in these tones. They speak words of death. Landau is the same doctor who said that killing a baby is like getting “a flu shot.”

Watch the video  and read Owen’s plea to be more involved in pro-life ministries at What a Late-term Abortionist Tells You: “It’ll Be Inserted Through the Head”

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Consider Your End and the One Who Walks with You

The goal of Christ’s redemption was that we might know God, love him, serve him, enjoy him, and glorify him forever. This is, indeed, our chief end. It was for this end that Christ came, was incarnate, died in our place, and was raised for our justification. It was that we might know God. Once, we were part of that world which “did not know God” (1 Cor. 1:21). But now we “have come to know God” (Gal. 4:9). We “know him who is from the beginning” (1 John 2:13) because we know “the love of Christ,” and the aim of redemption is that we “may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Eph. 3:19). And this knowledge of God, this experience of his goodness, is what our experience in life has sometimes diminished. That is why it must constantly be renewed.

This is our goal in life, that we might be God-centered in our thoughts and God-fearing in our hearts, as J. I. Packer put it. We are to be God-honoring in all that we do. And how is that going to happen if we never consider, or consider only fleetingly, or irregularly, the end toward which we travel, and the one who also walks with us through life on the way to this end?

~David Wells~  HT:  The Cross Quoter

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Don’t let your fear keep you from looking to Christ

“Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other! (Isaiah 45:22)

But thou sayest sin will not let thee look. I tell thee, sin will be removed the moment thou dost look. ‘But I dare not; He will condemn me; I fear to look.’ He will condemn thee more, if thou dost not look. Fear, then, and look; but do not let thy fearing keep thee from looking. ‘But He will cast me out.’ Try Him. ’ But I cannot see Him.’ I tell you, it is not seeing, but looking. ‘But my eyes are so fixed on the earth, so earthly, so worldly.’ Ah! but, poor soul, He giveth power to look and live. He saith — ‘Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.’”— Charles Spurgeon, “Sovereignty and Salvation”

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Free to say we’ve sinned

“When you hide your sin, pretending to be a perfect Christian, you’re actually telling the world that God is a liar. Did Jesus, or did Jesus not, need to suffer and die for your present sins? When you feign perfection, you’re saying you didn’t need Him to do this for you.”–Stand to Reason Blog

Read more  about one of the most freeing verses in the Bible at Free To Say We’ve Sinned

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Do you know the desiring God?

Christianity is not so much about you desiring God as it is about God desiring you. I wonder if you believe that. . . .

The truth is that we will not desire God if we don’t believe that really God desires us. If God is a powerful person who in reality cares little or nothing about us, we may have a fear-based respect for him, but we will not love him. We will certainly not be satisfied in him. We will keep our distance from him and find our true satisfaction elsewhere.

This is, in fact, why many of us feel distant from God. We think he’s distant from us, but really we are keeping our distance from him. We don’t desire God because we believe things about him that are wrong. And because of that we have grown cynical, disillusioned, and have serial spiritual adulterous affairs with idols in our lives.

And if this describes you, you’re listening to what your perception says about God and not what God says about God. And what you need right now is to come to terms with the truth that “Jesus Christ desires to be with you a thousand times more than you desire to be with him.” He wants you! You need to know that the Christian God is a desiring God.

Read more about this desiring God in God Desires You Far More Than You Desire Him

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