Barnabas Piper's Blog

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.

As July goes softly into that good night, we can see that the end of summer is nigh (especially for those southern states which insist on starting school a mere week into August). For baseball fans this means the trade deadline looms and for even fewer baseball fans it portends a potential playoff run. But despite that baseball is America’s sport, we all know that football is America’s SPORT. And for this reason, the end of July is particularly thrilling as it brings with it the beginning of NFL training camp. It is the time of year when wonks and amnesiacs are filled with hope and anticipation about the possibilities of a sixth round pick bursting into the starting lineup and last year’s bust becoming this year-s pro-bowler. If your team was good last year they will be better this year. If last year left you saying, “well, there’s always next year” now is next year. Video highlights will go viral of players making spectacular catches against air or leaving a blocking dummy grasping for air. In all, this late summer air is indeed rarified as we begin the countown to the football season.

We moved into our house just over four years ago. At the time, it simply had a concrete slab patio which was entirely useful as a place to put a grill and a blackstone. But it was largely useless as a place to enjoy being outside. Between bugs, heat, and precipitation there were about 5 days per year we could actually enjoy sitting out there. But last year we were able to have a screened in porch built over that same concrete patio. It is neither large nor luxurious, but it has been a game changer for our enjoyment of outside. The screen keeps the bugs away, the roof keeps the rain off, and the ceiling fan mitigates all but the most extreme heat. It is basically like we added another living room to our house, a whole area to relax and read and converse and hang out. I knew I would appreciate it before we built it, but I never could have guessed how much it actually expanded and increased our enjoyment of home.

This video of acclaimed mathematician and apologist John Lennox is profoundly moving to me. It is the realest hop of us all, but to see the anticipation and eagerness in the face of man who is finishing his race well is powerful and encouraging.

 

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Running to Win: 365 Days of Timeless Wisdom and Biblical Insight for Growing Christians by Erwin Lutzer – $3.99

Walking in Faith: 365 Days with John Calvin edited by Joel Beeke – $2.99

Streams in the Desert by Lettie Cowman – $3.99

Transforming Grace by Jerry Bridges – $3.99

Good News for Parents: How God Can Restore Our Joy and Relieve Our Burdens by Adam Griffin – $3.99

Parenting with Words of Grace: Building Relationships with Your Children One Conversation at a Time by William Smith – $3.99

Chosen by God by R.C. Sproul – $3.99

A Christian’s Pocket Guide to Loving the Old Testament by Alec Motyer – $2.99

A Christian’s Pocket Guide to How We Got the Bible by Greg Lanier – $5.99

Hoping for Happiness: Turning Life’s most elusive Feeling into Lasting Reality by Barnabas Piper – $2.99

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

A Prophet with Honor: The Billy Graham Story by William Martin – $2.99

Standing Next to History: An Agent’s Life Inside the Secret Service by Joseph Petro – $2.99

Music at Midnight: The Life and Poetry of George Herbert by John Drury – $2.99

Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson – $3.99

Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10 by Marcus Luttrell – $1.99

The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams by Stacy Schiff – $1.99

Four Seasons in Rome: On Twins, Insomnia, and the Biggest Funeral in the History of the World by Anthony Doerr – $1.99

Bossypants by Tina Fey – $1.99

His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, a Life by Jonathan Alter – $2.99

It’s a Long Story: My Life by WIllie Nelson – $1.99

I’m Your Huckleberry: A Memoir by Val Kilmer – $1.99

The Bourbon King: The Life and Crimes of George Remus, Prohibition’s Evil Genius by Bob Batchelor – $2.99

Hannah Arendt: A Life in Dark Times by Anne Heller – $3.99

Aaron Copland: The Life and Work of an Uncommon Man by Howard Pollack – $2.99

Kentucky Traveler: My Life in Music by Ricky Skaggs – $2.99

Billion Dollar Painter: The Triumph and Tragedy of Thomas Kinkade, Painter of Light by G. Eric Kuskey – $3.99

Beatrix Potter’s Gardening Life: The Plants and Places That Inspired the Classic Children’s Tales by Marta Mcdowell – $3.99

Orwell: The Life by D.J. Taylor – $2.99

Life After Divorce: Gospel Hope and Guidance for the Road Ahead – $12.99

(Releasing in March, 2027)

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

All links are Amazon Affiliate links.

Hoping for Happiness: Turning Life’s most elusive Feeling into Lasting Reality by Barnabas Piper – $2.99

The Happy Christian: Ten Ways to Be a Joyful Believer in a Gloomy World by David Murray – $6.99

Being the Bad Guys: How to Live for Jesus in a World That Says You Shouldn’t by Stephen McAlpine – $3.99

Futureproof: How to Live for Jesus in a Culture That Keeps on Changing by Stephen McAlpine – $4.99

5 Things to Pray for Your Spouse: Prayers That Change and Strengthen Your Marriage by Michael & Melissa Kruger – $3.99

5 Things to Pray for Your Kids: Prayers That Change Things for the Next Generation by Melissa Kruger – $3.99

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

Byzantium: From Monk to Warrior and Spy—One Man’s Epic Quest to Command His Destiny by Stephen R. Lawhead – $2.99

The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen: 84 1/2 Years Old by Hendrik Groen – $1.99

The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson – $1.99

A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway – $2.99

A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World: A Novel by C.A. Fletcher – $1.99

The Oceans and the Stars: A Sea Story, A War Story, A Love Story (A Novel) by Mark Helprin – $2.99

The Road: A Graphic Novel Adaptation by Cormac McCarthy – $2.99

The American Story: Conversations with Master Historians by David M. Rubenstein – $2.99

Pax: War and Peace in Rome’s Golden Age by Tom Holland – $1.99

1453: The Holy War for Constantinople and the Clash of Islam and the West by Roger Crowley – $1.99

131 Christians Everyone Should Know by Christian History Magazine – $4.99

Rust: A Memoir of Steel and Grit by Eliese Goldbach – $2.99

1776 by David McCullough – $3.99

Dreams of El Dorado: A History of the American West by H.W. Brands – $1.99

Billion Dollar Whale: The Man Who Fooled Wall Street, Hollywood, and the World by Bradley Hope & Tom Wright – $1.99

The Brothers Vonnegut: Science and Fiction in the House of Magic by Ginger Strand – $2.99

The Last Voyage of the Karluk: A Survivor’s Memoir of Arctic Disaster by William Laird McKinlay – $3.99

Life After Divorce: Gospel Hope and Guidance for the Road Ahead – $12.99

(Releasing in March, 2027)

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

All links are Amazon Affiliate links.

The Life We’re Looking For: Reclaiming Relationship in a Technological World by Andy Crouch – $4.99

God’s Grace for Every Family: Biblical Encouragement for Single-Parent Families and the Churches that Seek to Love them Well by Anna Meade Harris – $1.99

The Meaning of Marriage: A Couple’s Devotional: A Year of Daily Devotions by Tim & Kathy Keller – $5.99

Tying the Knot: A Premarital Guide to a Strong and Lasting Marriage by Rob Green – $2.99

Generous Justice: How God’s Grace Makes Us Just by Timothy Keller – $2.99

Grace Based Recovery: A Safe Place to Heal and Grow by Jonathan Daugherty – $2.99

Face Time: Your Identity in a Selfie World by Kristen Hatton – $2.99

Caring for One Another: 8 Ways to Cultivate Meaningful Relationships by Edward T. Welch – $5.98

Telling a Better Story: How to Talk About God in a Skeptical Age by Joshua Chatraw – $1.99

The Joy of Fearing God by Jerry Bridges – $4.99

Gospel Conversations: How to Care Like Christ by Robert Kelleman – $1.99

Made in America: An Informal History of the English Language in the United States by Bill Bryson – $2.99

Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker – $1.99

Watergate: A New History by Garrett Graff – $2.99

The Plantagenets: The Warrior Kings and Queens Who Made England by Dan Jones – $2.99

Elizabeth & Margaret: The Intimate World of the Windsor Sisters by Andrew Morton – $1.99

Stay the Rising Sun: The True Story of USS Lexington, Her Valiant Crew, and Changing the Course of WWII by Phil Keith – $4.99

Broken Arrow: How the U.S. Navy Lost a Nuclear Bomb by Jim Winchester – $2.99

House to House: An Epic Memoir of War by David Bellavia – $1.99

Sharon Tate and the Manson Murders by Greg King – $1.99

Madman in the Woods: Life Next Door to the Unabomber by Jamie Gehring – $2.99

The Last Outlaws: The Desperate Final Days of the Dalton Gang by Tom Clavin – $2.99

Lindbergh: The Crime by Noel Behn – $1.99

Life After Divorce: Gospel Hope and Guidance for the Road Ahead – $12.99

(Releasing in March, 2027)

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

All links are Amazon Affiliate links.

Isaiah 33:2
O LORD, be gracious to us; we wait for you.
Be our arm every morning,
our salvation in the time of trouble.

We often need a helping hand, some assistance to boost our efforts. A helping hand is supplemental; it enhances what we are able to do. Maybe it pushes from falling just short to success. And that is often how we ask God for help–to supplement our efforts, push us over the top.

But that is not what the Bible depicts. “Be our arm every morning” is a request for the whole power of God to work on our behalf. It is a tacit admission that I have nothing to offer and need his might to accomplish anything. And this is the best place to pray from–total admission of complete need. Dependence is our place of strength because it is when God acts most obviously.

We don’t need God’s helping hand. We need His strong right arm, his whole power. He invites us to ask for it and promises to deliver.

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.

Parenting with Words of Grace: Building Relationships with Your Children One Conversation at a Time by William Smith – $3.99

Good News for Parents: How God Can Restore Our Joy and Relieve Our Burdens by Adam Griffin – $3.99

Disciplines of a Godly Family by Kent & Barbara Hughes – $4.99

The Sacredness of Secular Work: 4 Ways Your Job Matters for Eternity (Even When You’re Not Sharing the Gospel) by Jordan Raynor – $1.99

A.S.K.: Real World Questions / Real Word Answers by David Robertson – $2.99

Counsel For Mourners by John Flavel – $2.99

The Dominion of Sin and Grace by John Owen – $1.99

They Stole Him Out of Jail: Willie Earle, South Carolina’s Last Lynching Victim by William Gravely – $1.99

John Lewis: A Life by David Greenberg – $2.99

Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution by Diane McWhorter – $1.99

MLK: An American Legacy: Bearing the Cross, Protest at Selma, and The FBI and Martin Luther King, Jr. by David J. Garrow – $3.99

White American Youth: My Descent into America’s Most Violent Hate Movement — and How I Got Out by Christian Picciolini – $2.99

The Man Who Broke Into Auschwitz: A True Story of World War II by Denis Avey – $2.99

The Boy: A Holocaust Story by Dan Porat – $2.99

The Survivors: A Story of War, Inheritance, and Healing by Adam Frankel – $2.99

Life After Divorce: Gospel Hope and Guidance for the Road Ahead – $12.99

(Releasing in March, 2027)

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

All 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.

We’ve been preaching through the Psalms this summer at our church, and I have used several commentaries. And frankly, I find many of them remarkably unhelpful in preparing to preach. It’s not that the scholarship is poor but that the emphases are more on matters that matter relatively little from the pulpit. To preach a Psalm one needs to connect the message to the hearer through fulfillment in Christ whether it is a Psalm of lament, of wisdom, of praise, of ascent, or a royal Psalm. The commentary I found that combined more technical and linguisitic scholarship with interpretation and explanation of the message was this set by Christopher Ash. It is clear and instructive in its interpretations. It guide the reader to Christ in appropriate, biblically consistent ways from each Psalm. And it offers clear instruction on the broader scholarly understanding of the book of Psalms as a whole too. It is so good that ict could be valuable as a devotional resource or a preaching aid.

Bill Bryson is the best sort of funny–smart observations communicated wittily. He is one of those writers who sees life keenly, but from unusual angles. He notices the oddities of normal interactions and seemingly boring people. He pinpoints quirky differences in cultures and expressions. And then he relays all this to the reader with a narrative clarity and humorous edge that is often laugh-out-loud funny. It’s hard to make readers laugh with the written word, but Bryson does it regularly. And in the process the reader finds himself learning things about places and people and cultures. My favorite book of his is A Walk in the Woods, a memoir of hiking the Appalachian Trail. He has also written memoirs about moving to England, moving back from England, traveling to Australia, and growing up in the 1950s and 1960s in Iowa. Any of them is worth a read, and all of them are a delight.

I’ve shared here before about our wonderful neighbor who is a masterful gardener and among the most hospitable people I’ve known. One of the many blessings she has shared with our family is the overflow of her fecund garden, most especially fresh tomatoes. When one buys tomatoes from the grocery store one is purchasing a mere shadow, a suggestion of what God intended tomatoes to be. When one eats tomatoes fresh off the plant, as my toddler makes a point of doing with or without permission, they are practically decadent. They are enough to make me actually excited about salads, or just to eat straight with a dash of salt.

Rediscover Church: Why the Body of Christ Is Essential by Collin Hansen & Jonathan Leeman – $3.74

Friend-ish: Reclaiming Real Friendship in a Culture of Confusion by Kelly Needham – $1.99

Seven Snares of the Enemy: Breaking Free From the Devil’s Grip by Erwin Lutzer – $3.89

Teaching Leviticus: From Text to Message by G. Geoffrey Harper – $2.99

Gospelbound: Living with Resolute Hope in an Anxious Age by Collin Hansen & Sarah Zylstra – $5.99

Hope in Times of Fear: The Resurrection and the Meaning of Easter by Timothy Keller – $6.99

How Church Could (Literally) Save Your Life by Rebecca McLaughlin – $6.55

Thunderhead by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child – $1.99

Plum Island by Nelson DeMille – $1.99

The Mosquito Coast by Paul Theroux – $2.99

MEG: A Novel of Deep Terror by Steve Alten – $2.99

The White Boy Shuffle: A Novel by Paul Beatty – $1.99

Savage Country: A Novel by Robert Olmsted – $3.99

Far Bright Star by Robert Olmsted – $2.99

Jim the Boy: A Novel by Tony Earley – $2.99

The Bounty Hunters by Elmore Leonard – $4.99

The Law at Randado by Elmore Leonard – $4.99

Escape from Five Shadows by Elmore Leonard – $4.99

Gunsights by Elmore Leonard – $5.99

Life After Divorce: Gospel Hope and Guidance for the Road Ahead – $12.99

(Releasing in March, 2027)

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

All links are Amazon Affiliate links.

Worship by the Book edited by D.A. Carson

Living in the Light: Money, Sex and Power by John Piper – $4.99

Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ by John Piper – $6.99

Shaped by God: Thinking and Feeling in Tune with the Psalms by John Piper – $4.99

The Secret of the Abiding Presence by Andrew Murray – $2.99

Humble Calvinism: And if I Know the Five Points, But Have Not Love … by Jeff Medders – $4.99

Enjoy Your Prayer Life by Michael Reeves – $4.99

Before You Open Your Bible: Nine Heart Postures For Approaching God’s Word by Matt Smethurst – $2.99

The Dignity Revolution: Reclaiming God’s Rich Vision for Humanity by Daniel Darling – $4.99

The Mental Floss History of the United States: The (Almost) Complete and (Entirely) Entertaining Story of America by Eric Sass – $2.99

Strange Crime: Oddball Crimes, Capers, Plots, Laws, and More – $2.99

Frozen in Time: The Fate of the Franklin Expedition by Owen Beattie & John Geiger – $3.99

The Last Battle: When U.S. and German Soldiers Joined Forces in the Waning Hours of World War II in Europe by Stephen Harding – $2.99

The Vanquished: Why the First World War Failed to End by Robert Gerwarth – $3.99

Hotel Florida: Truth, Love, and Death in the Spanish Civil War by Amanda Vaill – $3.99

Life After Divorce: Gospel Hope and Guidance for the Road Ahead – $12.99

(Releasing in March, 2027)

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

All links are Amazon Affiliate links.

When People Are Big and God Is Small: Overcoming Peer Pressure, Codependency, and the Fear of Man by Edward Welch – $2.99

1 Peter: Life as an Outsider, Study Guide with Leader’s Notes by Robert Thune – $2.99

Exalting Jesus in 1 Peter by Daniel Akin – $4.99

Pilgrim Prayers: Devotional Poems That Awaken Your Heart to the Goodness, Greatness, and Glory of God by Tim Challies – $1.99

The Essential Bible Companion: Key Insights for Reading God’s Word by John Walton, Mark Strauss, & Ted Cooper – $5.99

The Essential Bible Companion to the Psalms: Key Insights for Reading God’s Word by Brian Webster & David Beach – $2.99

15 New Testament Words of Life: A New Testament Theology for Real Life by Nijay Gupta – $4.99

Gospel: Recovering the Power that Made Christianity Revolutionary by J.D. Greear – $4.99

Remember and Rehearse: An Invitation to Participate in God’s Story by J.T. English – $4.99

A Treatise on Good Works by Martin Luther – $1.99

Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart: How to Know for Sure You Are Saved by J.D. Greear – $4.99

Titus For You: For reading, for feeding, for leading by Tim Chester – $2.99

The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis – $2.99

God’s Big Picture Bible Storybook: 140 Connecting Bible Stories of God’s Faithful Promises by N.T. Wright – $2.99

Demon Copperhead: A Novel by Barbara Kingsolver – $2.99

Tom Lake: A Novel by Ann Patchett – $2.99

Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds – $1.99

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo – $2.99

All the Pretty Horses: Border Trilogy 1 by Cormac McCarthy – $1.99

The Short Novels of John Steinbeck – $5.99

Mythos: Greek Myths Reimagined by Stephen Fry – $3.99

Heroes: The Greek Myths Reimagined by Stephen Fry – $3.99

Troy: The Greek Myths Reimagined by Stephen Fry – $3.99

Odyssey: The Greek Myths Reimagined by Stephen Fry – $3.99

Life After Divorce: Gospel Hope and Guidance for the Road Ahead – $12.99

(Releasing in March, 2027)

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

All links are Amazon Affiliate links.