Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.
Follow to get new release updates and improved recommendations
About Matt Chandler
Customers Also Bought Items By
Are you an author?
Help us improve our Author Pages by updating your bibliography and submitting a new or current image and biography.
Author Updates
-
-
Blog post1. Remembering John Glenn
Last week, John Glenn passed away at the age of 95. Glenn was a pilot in the Marines, a businessman, a senator, an astronaut, and he was married to his high school sweetheart for 73 years. He made history in 1962 by becoming the first American to orbit the earth and again in 1998 by being the oldest person to “touch the stars.”
For most men and women, fame is fleeting and greatness is short-lived. For John Herschel Glenn Jr., it lasted a lifetime. -
Blog post1. Why We Love This Is Us
Writing for The Washington Post, Russell Moore attempts to explain the popularity of NBC’s This Is Us, the highest-performing new show of 2016. Moore writes that we are drawn to the show for far more than its excellent writing and acting. We’re able to connect to it personally, especially as it jumps back and forth in time, showing the main characters as both children and adults, because our pasts are part of who we are.
We wouldn’t be who we a -
Blog postWait.
It’s a word that nobody likes to hear. The word “wait” doesn’t conjure up fuzzy feelings of a dreamy evening next to a toasty fire. If I’m honest, what it really conjures within me is the desire to punch something. And I’m pretty sure I’m not alone in this.
No one likes to wait—not my 3-year-old, who fidgets in his seat before dinner, not my grandfather, who wouldn’t wait for the rest of us to open his gifts at Christmas, and not me on my third trip to the DMV. The conce -
-
Blog post1. Buzz Around Fixer Upper
Season four of Chip and Joanna Gaines’ hit HGTV show Fixer Upper premiered on Tuesday, and that morning, BuzzFeed published this article by Kate Arthur, speculating about the couple’s opinions on same-sex marriage. Yesterday on The Washington Post, Brandon Ambrosino called Arthur’s piece a “non-story,” because her speculations are based entirely on the beliefs of the church the Gaines are part of, not on any statement from either the couple’s representa -
Blog postOn October 3, 1789, George Washington signed and issued a proclamation that Thursday, the 26th of November of that year, would be a day set aside for rendering thanks to “that great and glorious Being” for the newfound government, peace and plenty found in America. The tradition continued, and on October 3, 1863, Abraham Lincoln established Thanksgiving Day to be a permanent national holiday.
For many Americans, Thanksgiving Day is a day of remembrance, when we give thanks for various -
Blog post1. Rescuing Arwa and Brice
CNN producer Hamdi Alkhshali shares this harrowing story of being the one left behind while two of his colleagues were trapped by ISIS. Alkhshali did everything he could to ensure their safe return.
To see my colleagues walking towards me in one piece fills me with indescribable joy.
2. Comedians as Activists
According to these articles in The Atlantic, there is a vanishing line between politics and comedy. Megan Garber focuses -
-
Blog post1. Election Day 2016
The big news this week is, of course, the presidential election. The Atlantic live-blogged throughout the day on Tuesday, from Hillary and Donald casting their votes to the “I Voted” stickers on Susan B. Anthony’s grave to Trump’s first tweet the morning after his victory.
2. “I Voted” Stickers Explained
Vox published this interesting little article about the history and purpose behind those “I Voted” stickers you often get at the polls. Whether or -
Blog postThough our culture would prefer faith stay in the private arena rather than the public one, God calls all Christians to engage their workplaces with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Every vocation presents unique challenges and opportunities to follow this call, and the public school system is no exception. As a part-time tutor married to a math teacher, I’ve seen how teachers, coaches and administrators have unique opportunities to creatively leverage their character and the classroom for the gos
-
Blog post1. Growing Up Poor in America
Nicholas Kristof wants our presidential candidates to talk more about poverty here in America. In this New York Times article, he writes about teenagers living in the “broken class”—inundated with violence, drug addiction and mental illness—who have talent and aspirations but lack any opportunity to improve their situation.
What many Americans don’t understand about poverty is that it’s perhaps less about a lack of money than about not seeing any -
Blog post1. The New Culture of Life
In this article at Slate, Ruth Graham finds that there are many young people who care about ending abortion but aren’t tied to the Republican Party or the Christian right. These pro-life activists are making a case for a new culture of life that is neither a partisan nor religious issue, but one of human rights.
Millennials are both the “pro-life generation” and the least religious generation. The 2013 Pew survey showed that 25 percent of nonreligiou -
Blog postMany of us could schedule a tweet right now for midnight of Election Day that reads, “Well, this is disappointing.” Regardless of who wins, the country loses. For active citizens, there is nothing more maddening and frustrating than the presidential election because many of us believe that the most influential political decision we will make occurs every fourth November.
Indeed, there is an enormous amount of pressure surrounding the upcoming election, and as Christians, we rightly tu -
Blog post1. Hurricane Matthew
There are few countries that have suffered the kind of repeated natural catastrophes in recent years as Haiti, and this New York Times article reveals the heartbreaking devastation left behind last week by Hurricane Matthew.
2. Evangelical Response to Donald Trump
This past weekend, The Washington Post revealed a recording from 2005 of Donald Trump making lewd, demeaning comments about women, and the response has been explosive. The Post also publi -
Blog post1. Evangelicals' Favorite Heresies Revisited by Researchers
Two years ago, LifeWay Research partnered with Ligonier Ministries to conduct a survey of 3,000 adults to measure their agreement with 47 statements about Christian theology. They released an update two weeks ago. Some of the most alarming numbers, and the truths they refute, include:
71% agree with the statement, “Jesus is the first and greatest being created by God.” Truth: Jesus is eternal; He is not created. 56% -
Blog post1. I Used to Be a Human Being
Andrew Sullivan’s article for New York magazine is a moving reflection on being addicted to technology—specifically, our smartphones.
The device went from unknown to indispensable in less than a decade. The handful of spaces where it was once impossible to be connected—the airplane, the subway, the wilderness—are dwindling fast. Even hiker backpacks now come fitted with battery power for smartphones. Perhaps the only “safe space” that still exists -
Blog postIn a state far away, a man who looks like me shoots a man who does not. Many who look like the man who was shot organize a public outcry. I’m grieved but I don’t know what to say or do. No one asks me about it. I move on without fear of being shot myself, without hatred toward the shooter and without frustration over a broken system. I move on in relative silence, ignorant of my ignorance as to what the world is like for the men who do not look like me.
While I am sleeping, 100 people -
Blog post1. Legalese and Religious Liberty
In this article at The Atlantic, Emma Green explores the tension between free religious exercise and minorities’ protection from discrimination.
“The phrases ‘religious liberty’ and ‘religious freedom’ will stand for nothing except hypocrisy so long as they remain code words for discrimination, intolerance, racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia, Christian supremacy, or any form of intolerance,” [Martin Castro, chair of the Commission on Civ -
Blog post1. 15 Years Later
The past weekend marked 15 years since the tragic events of September 11, 2001. Politico posted this oral history of the day with interviews from those who were with President Bush on Air Force One.
I remember literally telling him, “It should be an easy day.” Those were the words. “It should be an easy day.”
2. Making Modern Toughness
What does it mean for someone to be tough? David Brooks writes in The New York Times about modern psychology -
Blog postI’ve been fiddling with this brush for hours.
I’ve washed it four times and still can’t wipe the blood from my mind.
For weeks, things have been happening. The water turned. The locusts came. Then the darkness. For three days the sun disappeared. Life has been turned upside down.
And now this. Sitting here in the dark of night. She’s been so strong. My wife forced her tears back tonight as we ate. She kissed him on the head once and held him close—I thought she would b -
Blog postWe believe that matters of culture should matter to us because all day, every day, we’re being discipled by something or someone. We’ve adopted the name “Culture Matters” for our podcast, where we are able to address some of these matters of culture with more depth, and we will continue to post these weekly roundups of links you can engage with on the web.
1. Where Is God on the Small Screen?
This New York Times article by Margaret Lyons and James Poniewozik is an astute -
Blog postWhen I was a kid, I had a Bible on my nightstand that I would read from time to time. Not knowing where to start, I would begin in Genesis 1 and inevitably, I would get lost somewhere in Exodus, Numbers or—if I was really ambitious—Leviticus. I could not understand how these stories fit with each other or how they fit with the more familiar stories in the New Testament. I really wanted to understand the Bible, but it felt impossible.
I don’t think I am alone. One of the greatest chall -
Blog post1. Exercise Futility
We often think exercise balances out our sedentary lifestyles of sitting at meetings, at our desks and in front of the TV, but this isn’t truly the case. This article from The Atlantic suggests that we may need to advocate reducing sedentary behavior over increasing “exercise.”
Erik Raymond has some tips on how to avoid being so sedentary, if you have a desk job.
An independent problem, in terms of cardiovascular health and diabetes, isn’t th -
Blog post1. Swimming and Jim Crow
Writing for The Washington Post, Kevin Blackistone reveals the deep significance behind Simone Manuel’s history-making gold medal at the Olympics last week.
There is a reason why 70 percent of black teenagers, like those who died in Shreveport, and 60 percent of Hispanic teenagers can’t swim. But it isn’t due to some genetic disorder, as some actually believe. It is because of abject irrational racism and Jim Crow and its vestiges.
2. Faithful -
Blog post1. America’s Lost Boys
First Things contributor Samuel James writes about the generation of American young men who are living with parents, unemployed and delaying marriage. He compares enslavement to video games and enslavement to pornography and calls for “bold and compassionate models of Christian masculinity.”
Chris Martin responded to James’ article, offering intentional discipleship as a possible solution to the problem James points to.
I would argue that a prima -
Blog post1. Games of the XXXI Olympiad
Opening ceremonies for the Olympic Games in Rio are tonight, and then the Games hits the ground running, with several medal events on Saturday. NPR has a dedicated Olympics blog, The Torch, and this article highlights several athletes (mainly Americans) to keep an eye on. On our own blog, Kyle Porter writes about our fascination with the Olympics and our desire for perfection.
But remember that no matter what you see and no matter what world recor -
Blog postIn 1973, Secretariat won horse racing’s Triple Crown by taking the Belmont Stakes in New York by a preposterous 31 lengths. How could a single beast gallop that much faster than all the other beasts? He was called “a tremendous machine” by CBS announcer Chic Anderson on the broadcast.
In an ESPN SportsCentury episode produced 25 years later, it was revealed that Jack Nicklaus, widely regarded as the greatest golfer of all time, was unnerved by Secretariat, the greatest horse of all ti
Titles By Matt Chandler
$16.52
$8.42
$11.99
$9.99
