The psalms endure. Throughout the centuries, Christians have read, prayed, and sung this rich collection of poems. But in our current age of distraction, the daily rhythms of modern life revolve more around screens than biblical texts. This book argues that the psalms are poetry for the soul, poetry that shapes us. Beyond highlighting the poetry of the Psalter, the book attends to the theological freight of these poems. As such, we learn to read Scripture more attentively and love God and the world well. The first part of the book explores how we can read the psalms amid the pull of modern distractions. The second part highlights the various features of several psalms, showing what these poems can teach us about living in a more focused, attentive way. This engaging book demonstrates how our thoughts, emotions, and worship of the triune God are sharpened and deepened through the psalms. In an era of dimly lit faces and multitasking, the poetry of Psalms remains ready to train our ears, steady our hearts, and teach us to pray so that we might flourish in Christ. The book includes a foreword by Elizabeth Robar.

From their origination, the psalms have been the prayer book of the people of God. And since Christ's ascension to the right hand of God, the Christian faithful have found in their words promise, comfort, guidance, challenge, confession, absolution, and, of course, Christ. Martin Luther especially focused on the numerous ways the psalmists referred to Christ and the salvation He brings'our mighty Fortress, our Shepherd, our Light.Reading the Psalms with Luther helps a new generation of Christians use the Psalter in a devotional manner. Each psalm opens with a brief introduction from Luther, revealing his understanding of the Christ-centered message of the psalm and its model for Christian prayer. Each psalm is pointed so it may be pray through chanting, just as it has been for centuries. Following the psalm text is a short prayer.Includes the ESV translation of the Psalms; a suggested schedule for reading the Psalter.

In today's high-speed culture, there's a prevailing sense that we are busier than ever before and that the pace of life is too rushed. Most of us can relate to the feeling of having too much to do and not enough time for the people and things we value most. We feel fragmented, overwhelmed by busyness and the tyranny of gadgets. Veteran pastor and teacher Arthur Boers offers a critical look at the isolating effects of modern life that have eroded the centralizing, focusing activities that people used to do together. He suggests ways to make our lives healthier and more rewarding by presenting specific individual and communal practices that help us focus on what really matters. These practices--such as shared meals, gardening, hospitality, walking, prayer, and reading aloud--bring our lives into focus and build community. The book includes questions for discernment and application and a foreword by Eugene H. Peterson.

Most people want to connect with God in a personal manner if possible. Many of those who believe in God have tried before and come up wanting. Even many faithful followers of Christ often feel dry in their personal relationship with God. Why is this true? God has given us his word to be read, studied, meditated on, and prayed over so that it can become a true spiritual feast for our souls. Yet many of us rush past it or speed through it for various reasons. This book is a how-to, step-by-step process to help you slow down and go deep in your personal time alone with the Lord. It will walk with you step-by-step, showing you how to truly meditate on God's word and pray his word back to him in a meaningful way. The goal of this book is to learn to journal on and through God's word in such a way that it will lead to true worship and true joy in God.

What Does God Think about Technology? From smartphones to self-driving cars to space travel, new technologies can inspire us. But the breakneck pace of change can also frighten us. So how do Christians walk by faith through the innovations of Silicon Valley? And how does God relate to our most powerful innovators? To build a biblical theology of technology, journalist and tech optimist Tony Reinke examines nine key texts from Scripture to show how the world's discoveries are divinely orchestrated. Ultimately, what we believe about God determines how we respond to human invention. With the help of several theologians and inventors throughout history, Reinke dispels twelve common myths in the church and offers fourteen ethical convictions to help Christians live by faith in the age of big tech. Biblical, Informed Look at Technology: Written by the author of 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You and Competing Spectacles: Treasuring Christ in the Media Age Gathers Ideas from Industry Experts and Theologians: Interacts with Christian and non-Christian sources on technology and theology including John Calvin, Herman Bavinck, Wendell Berry, and Elon Musk Educational: Discusses the history and philosophy behind major technological innovations

In recent years, cultural commentators have sounded the alarm about the dire state of reading in America. Americans are not reading enough, they say, or reading the right books, in the right way. In this book, Alan Jacobs argues that, contrary to the doomsayers, reading is alive and well in America. There are millions of devoted readers supporting hundreds of enormous bookstores and online booksellers. Oprah's Book Club is hugely influential, and a recent NEA survey reveals an actual uptick in the reading of literary fiction. Jacobs's interactions with his students and the readers of his own books, however, suggest that many readers lack confidence; they wonder whether they are reading well, with proper focus and attentiveness, with due discretion and discernment. Many have absorbed the puritanical message that reading is, first and foremost, good for you--the intellectual equivalent of eating your Brussels sprouts. For such people, indeed for all readers, Jacobs offers some simple, powerful, and much needed advice: read at whim, read what gives you delight, and do so without shame, whether it be Stephen King or the King James Version of the Bible. In contrast to the more methodical approach of Mortimer Adler's classic How to Read a Book (1940), Jacobs offers an insightful, accessible, and playfully irreverent guide for aspiring readers. Each chapter focuses on one aspect of approaching literary fiction, poetry, or nonfiction, and the book explores everything from the invention of silent reading, reading responsively, rereading, and reading on electronic devices. Invitingly written, with equal measures of wit and erudition, The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction will appeal to all readers, whether they be novices looking for direction or old hands seeking to recapture the pleasures of reading they first experienced as children.

Shares uplifting advice about the virtues of forgiveness, offering strategic and biblically based advice on how to achieve peace and personal fulfillment by letting go of past wrongs.