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J. I. Packer on Calling: ‘We Glorify God by Doing Honest Work’

By Leland Ryken, excerpted from J. I. Packer: An Evangelical Life.

The idea of calling or vocation is important to [J. I.] Packer. 

It could hardly be otherwise for a latter-day Puritan, inasmuch as no subject occupied the Puritans more than the idea of vocation. Having written extensively on Puritan attitudes toward work myself, I will take the prerogative of summarizing what they said so voluminously about vocation: (1) God calls people to their tasks in the world; (2) the goals toward which work must be directed are the glory of God and service to humanity; (3) all honest work is a calling as pleasing to God as the work of a minister preaching in the pulpit; and (4) all work offered to God is a form of worship. (more…)

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5 Christian Audiobooks to Redeem Your Morning Commute

Whether it’s traffic, laundry, making dinner, or pulling weeds, we do tasks every day that require little attention.

Why not give your brain something to do with a good Christian audiobook, sermon, or lecture?

Here are five recommendations for books and courses you can download right now—fresh with the launch of Faithlife Audio. For a limited time, you can take 20% off your entire first order. [Read more…]

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Celebrate C.S. Lewis with a Free Book and Two New Pre-Pubs

It’s little wonder that so many people love C.S. Lewis. He crafted his words like no one else, and his writings influenced much of Christian thought today. A number well-known believers—such as J.I. Packer, Chuck Colson, and Francis Collins—have pointed to Lewis’ Mere Christianity as an influence in their own conversions.

“Jack” (as he was known to friends and family) declared himself to be an atheist when he was 15 years old. However, influenced in part by the writings of George MacDonald and in part by his friend and colleague J.R.R. Tolkien, he converted to Christianity in his early 30s, and he went on to become one of the world’s best-known Christian apologists. He authored more than 30 books and hundreds of essays which are still being read and discussed today.

In celebration of C.S. Lewis, here are some great resources from Logos and Vyrso. You can read them from your Faithlife Study Bible app!

Two Pre-Pubs on C.S. Lewis

Perhaps more important than the books Lewis wrote are the conversations he started. He didn’t just present his beliefs; he provided us with his own unique way of thinking. Modern theologians have taken Lewis’ writings, studied and dissected them, and applied his thoughts in new ways to life and theology. Such is the case with these two products Logos currently has in Pre-Publication:

In C.S. Lewis vs the New Atheists, Peter S. Williams uses Lewis’ arguments to show that there is nothing especially “new” about the new atheism. He places Lewis in conversation with modern atheists like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens. Pre-order the Select Works of Peter S. Williams today to see how Lewis’ own journey from atheism to Christian belief illuminates and undercuts the objections of the new atheists.

How did Lewis understand topics like the church and salvation, sufferance and atonement, substitution and election, deliverance and salvation, and Christ’s work on the cross? What can the life and death of Lewis and his wife tell us about the triune God of love? P.H. Brazier explores these questions and more in C.S. Lewis—On the Christ of a Religious Economy: II. Knowing Salvation.

Free book on C.S. Lewis!alive-to-wonder-celebrating-the-influence-of-c-s-lewis

Popular pastor and author John Piper is also a big fan of C.S. Lewis. Alive to Wonder: Celebrating the Influence of C.S. Lewis is a collection of extended excerpts from Piper’s corpus where Lewis’s fingerprints are most vividly seen, including a significant introduction from Piper specially written for this project. Pick it up free from Vyrso!

Further reading on C.S. Lewis

We have many more resources on C.S. Lewis available for you. From Vyrso, you can pick up C.S. Lewis Remembered, with contributions from his personal friends, family, colleagues, and students. You’ll also find a number of biographies, including Alister McGrath’s recent C.S. Lewis—A Life, George Sayer’s Jack: A Life of C.S. Lewis, and Sam Wellman’s C.S. Lewis: Creator of Narnia.

And from Logos, you can grab Andrew Wheeler’s C.S. Lewis: Clarity and Confusion, a collection of essays in C.S. Lewis and Friends, and an issue of Tabletalk magazine on C.S. Lewis for under $2.

Celebrate C.S. Lewis and learn from his wisdom by adding these resources to your library!