Tim Challies Review of Growing Up Christian

Blogger, author, and book reviewer Tim Challies reviewed Growing Up Christian on October 13.

He says, "Growing up Christian is not as easy a task as one might think. There are dangers and temptations unique to growing up within a Christian family and within the church and sadly these difficulties are often downplayed or misunderstood by those who have been converted later in life. Growing Up Christian seeks examine these issues, which, as a person who grew up in a Christian home (ie a “church kid”), are near and dear to my heart. The book is targetted primarily at church kids, though their parents would do well to read the book with them. The author, Karl Graustein, is a church kid himself and is now a principal at a Christian school, so is intimately aware of the issues at stake..."

Read the rest on Tim Challies' website.

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Discipline Is Good

Hebrews 12:10-11 says, “Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.”

Discipline is good. God disciplines us to accomplish good in our lives, to help us become more like him. Discipline is like a guardrail, preventing us from plunging off the road and into deeper dangers.

Yet discipline feels so bad. It stings, it hurts, it humbles. It certainly doesn’t feel pleasant when you are going through it. That's because pain and discomfort are essential to effective discipline as God--often through human means--nudges us back on the right road.

In the end, if we respond to discipline we can expect wonderful blessings – a harvest of righteousness and peace. The condition is listening, applying, and changing in response to discipline. The outcome is a glorious harvest of holiness in our lives.

Lord, help us to embrace discipline. Although it is painful, help us to be trained by it. Remind us of the harvest we will see some day in the near future.

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Mark Buchanan - Pastor & Author

Have you read any of Mark Buchanan’s books? It was a great joy to discover the works of this pastor and author in the spring of 2004. He has a passion for Christ, a pastor’s heart, and a gift of writing. I highly recommend all three of his books to you: Your God Is Too Safe, Things Unseen, and Holy Wild.

Read, enjoy, and fall more deeply in love with your God!

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He has done it!

Today I read Psalm 109:27 and thought immediately of all that God has done in the book project -- “Let them know that this is your hand; you, O Lord, have done it!”

It is clear that God has laid a message on my heart for teens that have grown up in Christian homes. He then opened doors at P&R to get the work in print. And for the past year He has empowered me as I have been writing.

What a joy it is to serve a faithful God!

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