News From the Frontlines: August 22nd, 2026
- Joshua Budimlic
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
As always, my chief prayer is that you are blessed, strengthened, and encouraged: not only by my writing, and not even solely by my weekly News From the Frontlines recommendations, but above all by God and His word—by that which the very best of our writing but aches and points.
News From the Frontlines:
Recommended Reading, Listening, & Watching
I was reminded of this Ask Pastor John episode while Elaina and I were out on an errand earlier this week, only to realize partway through that we forgot something and had to return home before heading out again. What may have been God’s sovereign purposes in this seeming inconvenience? To avoid a car accident, perhaps? God only knows. However, what we can say for certain is that, in a world governed by a perfectly sovereign and loving God, there are no such things as mere coincidences—a reality Pastor John Piper draws attention to in this short video.
Speaking of God’s sovereign purposes for our lives, Tim Challies writes: “We often wonder why the Lord has ordained that we must face and endure a specific challenge. Why should I suffer loss when another person seems to experience only gladness? Why should I endure poverty when she enjoys riches? Why should my strength be taken when he remains strong?”
“Knowing our calling, here’s the danger I want to talk to my fellow dads about: the danger of giving up. The danger of stumbling, failing as a father, and refusing to get back up. To feel like you’ve blown it yet again and so you might as well just throw up your hands, admit defeat, and leave the parenting stuff to your wife. Maybe it’s best to just put your head down, earn a living for your family, and let mom raise the kids. She’s better at it anyway, right? Maybe the kids would be better off if you just checked out and handed over the keys of parental shepherding to your wife.”
Few pieces of writing have impacted me more than C.S. Lewis’ famous essay, “The Weight of Glory.” No doubt you will begin to see his influence on me should you take the time to read these dozen or so pages. “The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing. These things—the beauty, the memory of our own past—are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshippers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited.”
And, speaking of that weight of glory being prepared for those in Christ, Randy Alcorn considers a particular dimension of what Heaven might hold in store for the redeemed. “I believe the New Earth will offer us opportunities we wished for but never had. God’s original plan was that human beings would live happy and fulfilling lives on Earth. If our current lives are our only chances at that, God’s plan has been thwarted. Consider the injustice—many honest, faithful people never got to live fulfilling lives, while some dishonest and unfaithful people seemed to fare much better.”
“In the 20th century, the many triumphs of science and technology in understanding our world—and improving our lives—helped lend plausibility to the claim that science is the only or best way to find truth. Many wielded this as a scalpel against superstition, myth, and religious faith. The empirical seemed to triumph over the supernatural. But our need for myth, for stories big enough to explain the world and bind us together, didn’t disappear.”
Two of my favorite films are included on this list—how many have you seen?
Photo by Lance Asper, Unsplash
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