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It’s been a long time since I’ve mentioned my wife Nanci’s health issues, and her battle with cancer. I share about it now because some of you have health issues, and most of you have spouses, children, parents, other family and/or friends who are facing them and all kinds of other challenges. I hope this will encourage you and give you some perspective.

Last year John Piper wrote an article titled “No Maverick Cells in Me: My Deepest Hope During Cancer.” Nanci and I first read this while she was undergoing cancer treatments, and it really encouraged us. It’s an apt reminder for us again, as we are in another season of waiting and uncertainty related to Nanci’s latest test results.

It’s common to blame the world’s suffering and unhappiness on lack of education, opportunity, or resources. If only we knew more or had more, we’d surely be better. No. Our most basic problem is just . . . sin.

Some people expect the New Earth to be a return to Eden, with no technology or the accomplishments of civilization. But that doesn’t fit the biblical picture of the great city, the New Jerusalem. Nor is it logical. Would we expect on the New Earth a literal reinvention of the wheel?

In light of Amazon pulling some books from its website earlier this year, in the following article Tim Challies writes about “The Power Over Christian Publishing We’ve Given to Amazon.”

Although moms are the primary focus for this article, the principles Susan Narjala shares apply to all of us. On our own, we are weak. We are not enough. But we serve a Savior who is more than enough and promises to be our strength. This is very good news!

If I could share just one message in light of the high-profile Christians who have recently made public announcements renouncing their faith, it would be this: you should lose your faith…if it is in anyone other than Jesus. 

I love these perspectives from Anglican bishop J. C. Ryle (1816–1900) on preparing for death by living well. With every passing year, each of us have more precious family and friends who have gone to be with Christ. As we look forward to the day when we too will see Jesus face to face, may we lean into and serve Him like never before. 

Time and again it was said of the people of Israel, “But in their distress they turned to the Lord, the God of Israel, and sought him, and he was found by them” (2 Chronicles 15:4). It was in Jonah’s darkest hour, in his most stressful circumstances that he said this: “In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me” (Jonah 2:2).

I’m glad more pastors and teachers are speaking out against prosperity theology. One such voice is Costi Hinn, the nephew of faith healer Benny Hinn. Costi is right to point out that we should be careful to speak the truth boldly with grace, wisdom, and humility, and with the end goal of pointing people to the saving power of the true gospel.

While I doubt anyone this side of Heaven will ever manage to fully “explain” how God’s sovereignty and human choice fully fit together, I believe Scripture provides us with many examples of how the two work symbiotically.

In his book Basic Christianity, John Stott—one of my favorite writers of all time—points out that Jesus’ claims and self-advancing words are part of what set Him apart from any other religious teacher.

Human history is the story of our desperate search for true and lasting happiness. Even those people who appear to “have it all” long for something more, and sadly, they often give up hope of ever finding contentment and joy.

If your closest friends don’t follow Jesus, you’ll have all kinds of daily reasons not to follow Him. If they do follow Jesus, positive peer pressure will hold you accountable to the life of discipleship.