If you picked up a copy of The Grumbler’s Guide to Giving Thanks: Reclaiming the Gifts of A Lost Spiritual Discipline, there’s now a Discussion Guide available. Reading, discussing, and responding to books is always better when done with others than on your own.
You can download the Discussion Guide here.
Continue reading Group Discussion Guide for The Grumbler’s Guide to Giving ThanksMy book, The Grumbler’s Guide to Giving Thanks: Reclaiming the Gifts of a Lost Spiritual Discipline, releases today. It’s exciting to see the work become a reality, and I pray that God will use it to stir up gratitude in the hearts of his people.
Maybe you think you’re not really a grumbler, so a book on gratitude isn’t for you. Here’s a Grumbler’s Quiz (excerpted from the book) to help you know if it’s for you or not.
Continue reading Gratitude & Thanksgiving Book, Grumbler’s Quiz, and Discussion GuideI”m excited to announce the release of my new book, The Grumbler’s Guide to Giving Thanks: Reclaiming the Gifts of a Lost Spiritual Discipline. My aim is to help the reader see how pervasive thanksgiving is in the Bible and how practical it is for the Christian life. It’s an everyday rhythm. On a daily basis, our heart gravitates toward either grumbling or gratitude. Each brings with it a host of friends. Grumbling invites pride, fear, anxiety, discontentment, and idolatry. Gratitude is accompanied by joy, worship, contentment, trust, and intimacy with God. Choose to give thanks rather than grumble.
As we give thanks, we not only enjoy God’s gifts to us and care for us, but we better know Him. Thanksgiving, then, is meant to lead us from gifts to the Giver. Even in trials, we practice “gritty gratitude” to trust God and thank Him for how He’s at work.
Below are three of the endorsements for the book.
Continue reading Endorsements for The Grumbler’s Guide to Giving Thanks“Let’s admit that we are not enough, and turn to the God who is.” Jen Oshman
Quotes from a book are a bit like tasting samples at the ice-cream shop. They can draw you in and give a feel for what a full cone (or book) offers. But books are always more than a few quotes. Books include longer stories and illustrations to provide context to those quotes, and suggested applications to live them out. Books build and sustain arguments and ideas that can become part of how you live faithfully in the world, even if you never have a quote ready.
Continue reading 10 Quotes from Enough About Me by Jen Oshman
2020 has given us plenty of challenges: the pandemic, quarantine and isolation, church closures and re-openings, racial tensions, riots, debates over masks and pretty much everything else tied to COVID-19, politics in an election year, and questions about government intrusion on the Church. Mix in that trying to figure out what families should do for school, and how that affects our jobs and income, as well as churches scrambling to do their best to gather together and care for those struggling with all that’s going on, and there’s plenty to leave us discouraged.
One temptation is to immerse ourself in the news–on TV, online, or through social-media–to stay up to speed and feel informed. The intense debates only fuel this as so many people read articles to defend their cause. It’s no wonder people feel stressed, anxious, and angry. To make matters worse, some statistics indicate Christians are spending even less time in the Bible than they did before the pandemic. We’re filling our minds with bad news and stressful news, meanwhile we’re neglecting to fill our minds and hearts with The Good News.
Continue reading Dwelling on The Good News in A Year of Bad News: An August Reading Plan
“Much in cultural engagement hangs on wisdom and virtue rather than a list of rules or universal plan that we might extract from the Bible.” Joshua D. Chatraw & Karen Swallow Prior, Cultural Engagement
“Of all its benefits, one of the drawbacks of the digital age is how easily we mistake information for knowledge….The goal of discernment is not to simply avoid evil in this life, it is to learn what is good so that we might embrace and enjoy it.” Hannah Anderson, All That’s Good
We have more information than ever, and yet it seems we’re less discerning than ever. Maybe those two go hand-in-hand, as the amount of information and the mediums we receive that information from (primarily online and through social-media) don’t prioritize wisdom.
In an age of fake news, alternative opinions, echo chambers, tribalism, information overload, cancel culture, and hot takes, taking the time to diligently study issues, consider various views, compare it with biblical teaching, and reflect on the nuances and complexities of those issues before arriving at an opinion–and sharing it–seems to rarely happen. It’s much easier to simply read one article that says what I like (or even just read the headline) and quickly share it with everyone. It feels good. But does it cultivate discernment and diligence? Does it over-simply issues or honestly reflect nuance? Wisdom is in short supply, but let’s do what we can to try and reclaim it.
Every year there are a couple of Christian books published that fall into the “must buy” category. Dane Ortlund’s Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers is one of those books. We mature by marveling at Jesus (Col. 1:28). That means a good book must partially be judged by how much it compels us with the glory and goodness of Jesus. That’s what Ortlund’s book is all about. While it certainly unpacks the person and work of Christ, what’s unique is it’s angle of showing us the heart of Christ. How does he view and treat us as sinners and sufferers? We all want that question answered. If we’re bold enough to say it, we even wonder how he feels about us.
Continue reading 10 Quotes from *Gentle and Lowly* by Dane Ortlund
Here are a few of the book I’m reading this month (and still slowly working through a few from a couple months ago). What are you reading?
You can now purchase a copy of my new book Finding Satisfaction in Christ: A Devotional Study of Colossians in paperback or kindle formats. I wrote this over the course of a few years. What began as a small group study on Colossians in the home of our friends Dan and Emily later turned into a Group Discussion Guide for College Park Church that blossomed into a full-length book slowly written off-and-on over the course of a few years. As any writer or teacher struggles with, I hope my personal joy and benefit of studying Colossians leads to your joy and encouragement as you read through Colossians with me. Here’s a bit about the book.
Below is a list I’ve compiled of Bible verses that might be encouraging during this season, as well as some additional resources. I’d like to add other good resources, so let me know in the comments if you’ve found other helpful things.
Continue reading Bible Verses and other Recommended Resources
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