Barnabas Piper's Blog

Some Kindle deals worth your mind and money today:

Spurgeon: A Life by Alex DiPrima – $5.00

Miracles by C.S. Lewis – $1.99

God in the Dock by C.S. Lewis – $1.99

The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis – $2.99

Hearing the Message of Ecclesiastes: Questioning Faith in a Baffling World by Christopher J.H. Wright – $2.99

Hearing the Message of Daniel: Sustaining Faith in Today’s World by Christopher J.H. Wright – $2.99

Church History 101: The Highlights of Twenty Centuries by Sinclair Ferguson, Joel Beebe, & Michael Haykin – $3.00

Rethink Your Self: The Power of Looking Up Before Looking In by Trevin Wax – $4.99

Christ in Conflict: Lessons from Jesus and His Controversies by John Stott – $2.99

New Testament for Everyone Complete Eighteen-Volume Set: 20th Anniversary Edition with Study Guide by N.T. Wright – $5.99

Only One Life: Missions Stories from Around the World edited by Paul M. Harvey – $2.99

Belong: Loving Your Church by Reflecting Christ to One Another – $8.99

Hoping for Happiness: Turning Life’s most elusive Feeling into Lasting Reality – $8.99

The Pastor’s Kid: What it’s Like and How to Help – $8.99

Help My Unbelief: Why doubt is not the enemy of faith – $8.99

The Curious Christian: How Discovering Wonder Enriches Every Part of Life – $4.99

These links are Amazon affiliate links.

I say to the Lord , You are my God;

    give ear to the voice of my pleas for mercy, O Lord !  

O Lord , my Lord, the strength of my salvation,

Psalm 140:6-7b

What is it that keeps you saved, that keeps you Christian? Maybe you submitted your life to Christ when you were just a little child, like I did. Maybe you were saved dramatically from a life of rebellion. Or maybe you aren’t even sure when conversion happened, you just know you love and follow Jesus. It doesn’t really matter when or how you were saved; the fact remains that it is miraculous that we stay saved!

Here is the best and most reassuring thing: we stay Christian because God is the strength of our salvation. It is not our strength or our goodness that keeps us close to Jesus–we run out of both. It is God’s immeasurable strength that holds us close. He will not lose hold on us. So when we wake up in the morning we can know he has us. And when we lie down to sleep at night we can rest in his grasp.    

I originally wrote this post for my church, Immanuel Nashville , in our Daily Pulse email. If you want encouragement from God’s word delivered Monday thru Friday to your inbox, I encourage you to subscribe.

He went up to the entrance of the king’s gate, for no one was allowed to enter the king’s gate clothed in sackcloth. – Esther 4:2

Esther 4:2 describes a scene when Mordecai, cousin of Esther, has heard the devastating news that a scheme is in place to wipe out the Israelite people. He goes into mourning and seeks an audience at the palace for help, but he is not allowed into the presence of royalty dressed in sackcloth (think burlap feed sack). He is a man in dire straits and desperate need, but to see the king he must attain a certain status. 

This is strikingly antithetical to our King, the one who sits at the right hand of the Father and rules over all. What is unwelcome in his presence is not mourning or poverty but rather pride and self-sufficiency. Our King invites the poor, the weak, the weary, the downtrodden, and the humiliated to come into his presence and be lifted up. We do not need to achieve a status or pull ourselves together to gain an audience with King Jesus. He has already sought us out in our state of poverty and weakness and has given himself to us. 

I originally wrote this post for my church, Immanuel Nashville , in our Daily Pulse email. If you want encouragement from God’s word delivered Monday thru Friday to your inbox, I encourage you to subscribe.

Some Kindle deals worth your mind and money today:

Reactivity: How the Gospel Transforms Our Actions and Reactions by Paul Tripp – $4.27

How to Reach the West Again: Six Essential Elements of a Missionary Encounter by Tim Keller – $2.99

Preparing for Marriage: Help for Christian Couples by John Piper – $6.99

When the Darkness Will Not Lift: Doing What We Can While We Wait for God–and Joy by John Piper – $6.55

Basic Christianity by John Stott – $5.98

Understanding the Bible by John Stott – $6.99

I Wonder as I Wander: An Autobiography by Langston Hughes – $3.99

Conversations with Myself by Nelson Mandela – $2.99

Dare Not Linger: The Presidential Years by Nelson Mandela – $2.99

Isaac’s Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History by Erik Larson – $2.99

Jack London: A Life by Alex Kershaw – $2.99

Outlaw: Waylon, Willie, Kris, and the Renegades of Nashville by Michael Streissguth – $3.99

Anders Lassen VC, MC, of the SAS by Mike Langley – $2.99

I Am a SEAL Team Six Warrior: Memoirs of an American Soldier by Howard Wasdin & Stephen Templin – $2.99

Eichmann in My Hands: A First-Person Account by the Israeli Agent Who Captured Hitler’s Chief Executioner by Peter Malkin & Harry Stein – $2.99

Belong: Loving Your Church by Reflecting Christ to One Another – $8.99

Hoping for Happiness: Turning Life’s most elusive Feeling into Lasting Reality – $8.99

The Pastor’s Kid: What it’s Like and How to Help – $8.99

Help My Unbelief: Why doubt is not the enemy of faith – $8.99

The Curious Christian: How Discovering Wonder Enriches Every Part of Life – $4.99

These links are Amazon affiliate links.

Each week (give or take one or two here and there) I share three things I like – It could be a book, a movie, a podcast, an album, a photo, an article, a restaurant, a food item, a beverage, or anything else I simply enjoy and think you might too. You can find a whole pile of things, especially books, I like and recommend HERE.

There comes a point in middle aged life where a corner of one’s garage is overtaken by folding camp chairs in dry rotting carrier bags. They are all functional and they are all uncomfortable. They have all the negative properties of a hammock, while lacking its benefits, hung on a rickety aluminum frame designed for people slightly taller or shorter or wider or skinnier than you, but not designed for you. After dragging these chairs to innumerable bonfires and kids’ soccer games and outdoor music concerts I’d had enough. My wife and I decided to invest in these rocking camp chairs. It was like going from the nose bleeds to the sideline–same game but a wildly different experience. They fit, they rock, they don’t tip, they are just as portable. Make no mistake, we still have a pile of old, uncomfortable chairs. But those are now reserved for teenagers.

[image error]Tis the season for stuffy noses, raw throats, raspy voices, and general nasal crud. Which is a bummer. But it also means it is the season for the most delicious cold medicine: the hot toddy. Lemon, honey, and bourbon (or rye, if you prefer) combine with hot water to make a remedy that is practically perfect in every way. It soothes the throat, clears the sinuses, and massages the mind. It even offers a delightful aroma to the room. The recipe is just your baseline for this magnificent concoction; feel free to modify and doctor to your taste buds’ delight. I’m not going to say I enjoy getting a cold, but I can’t deny that I enjoy the side-benefits of one either.

This little book (30ish pages) was originally given as a speech to a symposium of educators. (If that doesn’t grip your imagination, I don’t know what will.) Parts of it are somewhat technical as Sayers expounds a model for education to teach children how to learn. But that premise–teaching kids how to learn–is brilliant and Sayers expounds upon it brilliantly. She is one of the wittiest and most incisive writers I have ever read. She puts her finger directly on cultural shortcomings that stem from unthinking people. As is often the case for such prescient authors, she writes about matters in her day that are equally as relevant and necessary today. This is a wonderful, sharp little book that anyone would benefit from reading.

Some Kindle deals worth your mind and money today:

Write It On Their Hearts: Practical Help for Discipling Your Kids by Chris & Melissa Swain – $3.99

The Unquenchable Flame: Discovering the Heart of the Reformation by Michael Reeves – $4.99

Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the House of Caesar by Tom Holland – $4.99

Persian Fire by Tom Holland – $4.99

On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder – $4.99

Americana: Dispatches from the New Frontier by Hampton Sides – $4.99

The Bastard Brigade: The True Story of the Renegade Scientists and Spies Who Sabotaged the Nazi Atomic Bomb by Sam Kean – $1.99

Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson – $5.99

Tears in the Darkness: The Story of the Bataan Death March and Its Aftermath by Michael & Elizabeth Norman – $2.99

Belong: Loving Your Church by Reflecting Christ to One Another – $8.99

Hoping for Happiness: Turning Life’s most elusive Feeling into Lasting Reality – $8.99

The Pastor’s Kid: What it’s Like and How to Help – $8.99

Help My Unbelief: Why doubt is not the enemy of faith – $8.99

The Curious Christian: How Discovering Wonder Enriches Every Part of Life – $4.99

These links are Amazon affiliate links.

Some Kindle deals worth your mind and money today:

The Lord of Psalm 23: Jesus Our Shepherd, Companion, and Host by David Gibson – $2.99

Romans 1-7 For You: For reading, for feeding, for leading by Tim Keller – $2.99

The Gospel Shaped Leader: Leaning on Jesus to Shepherd His People by Scott Thomas – $3.99

Making Sense of God: Finding God in the Modern World by Tim Keller – $4.99

Present Concerns: Journalistic Essays by C.S. Lewis – $1.99

Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis – $.99

Christian Worldview Handbook edited by David Dockery & Trevin Wax – $4.99

South of Broad: A Novel by Pat Conroy – $2.99

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck – $4.99

Belong: Loving Your Church by Reflecting Christ to One Another – $8.99

Hoping for Happiness: Turning Life’s most elusive Feeling into Lasting Reality – $8.99

The Pastor’s Kid: What it’s Like and How to Help – $8.99

Help My Unbelief: Why doubt is not the enemy of faith – $8.99

The Curious Christian: How Discovering Wonder Enriches Every Part of Life – $4.99

These links are Amazon affiliate links.

Some Kindle deals worth your mind and money today:

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson – $2.99

All Blood Runs Red: The Legendary Life of Eugene Bullard—Boxer, Pilot, Soldier, Spy by Phil Keith

Code Talker: The First and Only Memoir By One of the Original Navajo Code Talkers of WWII by Chester Nez – $2.99

Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic by Tom Holland – $2.99

The Mother Tongue: English and How it Got that Way by Bill Bryson – $1.99

Orion and the Starborn by K.B. Hoyle – $2.99

The Answer Is No: A Short Story by Fredrik Backman – $1.99

The Adventures of Tom Bombadil by J.R.R. Tolkien – $1.99

Lord of the Flies by William Golding – $1.99

Texas Sunrise: Two Novels of the Texas Republic by Elmer Kelton – $2.99

Emperor: The Gates of Rome: A Novel of Julius Caesar by Conn Iggulden – $1.99

Belong: Loving Your Church by Reflecting Christ to One Another – $8.99

Hoping for Happiness: Turning Life’s most elusive Feeling into Lasting Reality – $8.99

The Pastor’s Kid: What it’s Like and How to Help – $8.99

Help My Unbelief: Why doubt is not the enemy of faith – $8.99

The Curious Christian: How Discovering Wonder Enriches Every Part of Life – $4.99

These links are Amazon affiliate links.

Some Kindle deals worth your mind and money today:

Sing!: How Worship Transforms Your Life, Family, and Church by Keith and Kristyn Getty – $4.99

In the Lord I Take Refuge: 150 Daily Devotions through the Psalms by Dane Ortlund – $5.99

Fighting Words Devotional: 100 Days of Speaking Truth into the Darkness by Ellie Holcomb – $4.99

The Psalter Reclaimed: Praying and Praising with the Psalms by Gordon Wenham – $4.99

Doctrine That Dances: Bringing Doctrinal Preaching and Teaching to Life by Robert Smith Jr. – $4.99

When Pain Is Real and God Seems Silent: Finding Hope in the Psalms by Ligon Duncan – $4.99

From Every People and Nation: A Biblical Theology of Race by J. Daniel Hays – $2.99

If God Is Good: Faith in the Midst of Suffering and Evil by Randy Alcorn – $4.99

Surprised by Scripture: Engaging Contemporary Issues by N.T. Wright – $1.99

The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis – $.99

Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton – $2.99

Belong: Loving Your Church by Reflecting Christ to One Another – $8.99

Hoping for Happiness: Turning Life’s most elusive Feeling into Lasting Reality – $8.99

The Pastor’s Kid: What it’s Like and How to Help – $8.99

Help My Unbelief: Why doubt is not the enemy of faith – $8.99

The Curious Christian: How Discovering Wonder Enriches Every Part of Life – $4.99

These links are Amazon affiliate links.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;

    it is high; I cannot attain it. – Psalm 139:6

One of the best and most frustrating things about God is that he knows things that we don’t. He not only knows things we don’t, he knows things we can’t. It is frustrating because we want answers to all our questions. When? How? Why? And many of these answers reside in God’s perfect knowledge that is too wonderful for us. 

But this very thing that frustrates us is also immensely good for us. The psalmist doesn’t say that God is withholding knowledge from us. He isn’t keeping us down or keeping secrets. Rather he is omniscient and perfectly wise. He holds all truths for all time in his mind and directs them for our good in a way we never could.

So when we run into unsolvable questions that leave us asking “when?”, “how?”, and “why?” we can be confident that the answers lie in God’s wonderful knowledge. And we can rest in the surety that he is working for our good and His glory even if his means and his timing are beyond our understanding. 

I originally wrote this post for my church, Immanuel Nashville , in our Daily Pulse email. If you want encouragement from God’s word delivered Monday thru Friday to your inbox, I encourage you to subscribe.