Book Review: Stand

A Call for the Endurance of the Saints, John Piper and Justin Taylor, General Editors

As I read this book, I remembered listening to the lectures (messages?) from which the essays came, lectures given at the 2007 Desiring God conference by the same name. The purpose of this collection of essays is, like the conference that went before it, to encourage by example and exhortation the kind of faith that perseveres through the difficulties of life.

The first chapter is a piece by Jerry Bridges which lays out four things that will enable the Christian to finish well. These four essentials are

• a daily time of focused communion with God,
• a daily appropriation of the gospel,
• a daily presenting yourself as a living sacrifice, and
• a continual firm belief in the sovereignty and the goodness of God.

Bridges discusses each action, giving us the scriptural basis for it and explaining how practicing it has been helpful in his own Christian walk. He reminds the reader that it is by God’s grace that we are faithful in these things, for

standing over all of them is the grace of God. The same apostle who said, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” also said in another context, “But by the grace of God I am what I am” (1 Cor. 15:10). Paul attributed all of his endurance, all of his faithfulness, to the grace of God. And so as we look at our responsibility, keep in mind that we are enabled to fulfill that responsibility only by the grace of God.

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Being Thankful on November 24

I’m thankful for the full and overflowing basket containing little yellow and blue slips of paper with the names of those who have contributed their thanksgiving during this month. All those little paper pieces taken together represent an abundance of blessings from our Heavenly Father.

• Dawn is thankful for the seasons of life.
• Kim of Hiraeth is thankful for a well organized studio.
• Dorothy is thankful for good neighbors.
• Tulipgirl is thankful for boys who like brie, and that’s not all.
• Liz is thankful for the laughter of teenage boys and more.
• Connie is thankful for family pets.
• Suzanne quotes a passage of scripture that exhorts us to be thankful.

What are you thankful for?

I’m celebrating good gifts from God during the month of November and hoping you’ll be thankful for your good gifts, too. Here’s how you can join in the thanksgiving and even, perhaps, get something material from it. If you’ve posted something you’ve posted something you’ve expected me to include and you don’t see it on the list, please let me know. It’s a lot to keep track of and I do miss things sometimes.

Which is the eighth commandment?

The eighth commandment is, Thou shalt not steal.[1]

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