Smiling at Slander

NOTE: If you saw the email for this, you may notice books are missing here. The original bundle sold out, so this bundle was modified to still give that toolkit for clear thinking this Christmas.

A toolkit for clear thinking, seeing the world for its richness, and keeping the Bible as the bedrock of every corner of your life. 

A Justice Primer

Christians should know that social justice internet mobs are a far cry from truly Biblical justice that accords with God’s law. But we don’t. Biblical justice requires multiple witnesses, matching stories, and objective facts considered by an appropriate authority.

A Justice Primer is written by two longtime pastors who have worked inside denominations, sessions, and institutions, and who have seen more than their share of controversy where people do not know what the rules are. A whispered conversation is not authoritative. An anonymous comment on a blog is not authoritative. A party of disgruntled church members who “feel abused” is not authoritative. Instead, the key to true justice is due process conducted by wise men who know how to weigh evidence.

God is justice, and it is because of His justice that Jesus went to the cross. Therefore, we must care about what justice is and how God says to pursue it.

A Primer on Worship and Reformation

You Say You Want a Reformation?

Look Inside the Book or Listen on Canon+

It is no secret that our world desperately needs change. Politicians know this and use it to collect votes. Journalists exploit it to sell newspapers and magazines. Advertisers, to sell everything else. Each of these groups (and countless others) spend their lives working to convince others that they hold the key to a better country, a better life, a better future.

But what exactly is this change we all long for? And how can it ever come about? A Primer on Worship and Reformation proposes that true change begins, not with a process or an idea, but through faithful worship. To witness true global change—true reformation—we must first pray the Lord that we would see worship at the center of life. The truth is that when the Word is faithfully preached, even the gates of hell tremble. When the Psalms are sung, the meek inherit the earth. When the church celebrates at the Lord's Table, those who mourn are comforted.

If we learn these lessons and believe them to be true, we will find that through renewed worship God brings change to every facet of our lives.

The Amazing Doctor Ransom's Bestiary of Adorable Fallacies

The Field Guide for Clear Thinkers

A Serrated Edge

Christians think that making fun of people is never okay. If so, then why did Jesus and the prophets do so much of it?

Look Inside the Book or Listen on Canon+

Satire is a kind of preaching. Satire pervades Scripture. Satire treats the foibles of sinners with a less than perfect tenderness. But if a Christian employs satire today, he is almost immediately called to account for his "insensitive" and "unloving" behavior. But is the Golden Rule really "be nice"? Actually, Scripture shows that the central point of some religious controversies is to give offense. When Christ was confronted with ecclesiastical obstinacy and other forms of arrogance, He showed us a godly pattern for giving offense.

In every controversy godliness and wisdom (or the lack of them) are to be determined by careful appeal to the Scriptures and not the fact of people having taken offense. In this book, veteran satirist Douglas Wilson explains his rationale for why so much of what he says gets people upset and yet he continues to speak as he does, and why you should (sometimes) too for the sake of the Gospel.

Gashmu Saith It: How to Built Christian Communities That Save the World

"When Nehemiah was leading the Jews in their project of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, the enemies of Israel mocked them and said, “It is reported among the heathen, and Gashmu saith it, that thou and the Jews think to rebel: for which cause thou buildest the wall, that thou mayest be their king, according to these words” (Neh. 6:6).

Look Inside the Book or Listen on Canon+

Today we see a culture that is increasingly hostile to Christians, and Christians are increasingly aware that they need to form strong communities to do for them what the culture no longer can. This is a good  thing, but it will only work if like Nehemiah and his men we are committed to resisting the dictates of our culture. If we are at all afraid of looking like the crazy fundamentalists that our culture loves to hate, then our communities will be as easily led by the culture as anybody else.

In this short book, Pastor Douglas Wilson describes some of the most important ways to create and maintain counter-cultural Christian communities. Whether he is talking about the need for kids to get calluses or for love and loyalty within churches, Douglas Wilson brings decades of on-the-ground wisdom and experience to the topic.

A city without walls is not really a city; neither is a city without a church at the center. Get busy. Build the walls, fight sin, love your family and church, and live out the Gospel."