Jenna DiPrima

Follower of Christ. Married to @Alex_DiPrima and mother to three. Co-host of @allthings_pod.

[Jenna DiPrima @JennaDiPrima]

This is what it looks like to embrace death with sadness and with hope as a believer. Praying for continued faith to die well.

[Ben Sasse @BenSasse]

Friends-

This is a tough note to write, but since a bunch of you have started to suspect something, I’ll cut to the chase: Last week I was diagnosed with metastasized, stage-four pancreatic cancer, and am gonna die.

Advanced pancreatic is nasty stuff; it’s a death sentence. But I already had a death sentence before last week too — we all do.

I’m blessed with amazing siblings and half-a-dozen buddies that are genuinely brothers. As one of them put it, “Sure, you’re on the clock, but we’re all on the clock.” Death is a wicked thief, and the bastard pursues us all.

Still, I’ve got less time than I’d prefer. This is hard for someone wired to work and build, but harder still as a husband and a dad. I can’t begin to describe how great my people are. During the past year, as we’d temporarily stepped back from public life and built new family rhythms, Melissa and I have grown even closer — and that on top of three decades of the best friend a man could ever have. Seven months ago, Corrie was commissioned into the Air Force and she’s off at instrument and multi-engine rounds of flight school. Last week, Alex kicked butt graduating from college a semester early even while teaching gen chem, organic, and physics (she’s a freak). This summer, 14-year-old Breck started learning to drive. (Okay, we’ve been driving off-book for six years — but now we’ve got paper to make it street-legal.) I couldn’t be more grateful to constantly get to bear-hug this motley crew of sinners and saints.

There’s not a good time to tell your peeps you’re now marching to the beat of a faster drummer — but the season of advent isn’t the worst. As a Christian, the weeks running up to Christmas are a time to orient our hearts toward the hope of what’s to come.

Not an abstract hope in fanciful human goodness; not hope in vague hallmark-sappy spirituality; not a bootstrapped hope in our own strength (what foolishness is the evaporating-muscle I once prided myself in). Nope — often we lazily say “hope” when what we mean is “optimism.” To be clear, optimism is great, and it’s absolutely necessary, but it’s insufficient. It’s not the kinda thing that holds up when you tell your daughters you’re not going to walk them down the aisle. Nor telling your mom and pops they’re gonna bury their son.

A well-lived life demands more reality — stiffer stuff. That’s why, during advent, even while still walking in darkness, we shout our hope — often properly with a gravelly voice soldiering through tears.

Such is the calling of the pilgrim. Those who know ourselves to need a Physician should dang well look forward to enduring beauty and eventual fulfillment. That is, we hope in a real Deliverer — a rescuing God, born at a real time, in a real place. But the eternal city — with foundations and without cancer — is not yet.

Remembering Isaiah’s prophecies of what’s to come doesn’t dull the pain of current sufferings. But it does put it in eternity’s perspective:
“When we've been there 10,000 years…We've no less days to sing God's praise.”

I’ll have more to say. I’m not going down without a fight. One sub-part of God’s grace is found in the jawdropping advances science has made the past few years in immunotherapy and more. Death and dying aren’t the same — the process of dying is still something to be lived. We’re zealously embracing a lot of gallows humor in our house, and I’ve pledged to do my part to run through the irreverent tape.

But for now, as our family faces the reality of treatments, but more importantly as we celebrate Christmas, we wish you peace: “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned….For to us a son is given” (Isaiah 9).

With great gratitude, and with gravelly-but-hopeful voices,
Ben — and the Sasses

[The Pillar Network @pillarnetwork]

Don't miss out on this year's annual Unite Conference! The theme of this year's event will focus on Multiplying Churches and equipping congregations in raising up future pastors, planters, & missionaries for Great Commission efforts.
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You can still get early bird ticket prices if you register! - https://t.co/uGQxpMa1Gh

[The Pillar Network @pillarnetwork]

Our Pillar Women had a great time this morning at our first ever women's fellowship. It was really encouraging connecting with so many pastors' wives, women's ministry leaders, and seminary students. We'll host this event again at next year's SBC in Orlando. #SBC25

[Clare Morell @ClareMorellEPPC]

💥💥 BOOK RELEASE 💥💥

My book "The Tech Exit" is out TODAY!

Follow the link in my profile to order. Join the movement to free our kids from smartphones. Retweet to spread the word!

[Alex DiPrima @Alex_DiPrima]

"Spurgeon: A Life" turned 6 months old over the weekend! To celebrate I'm giving away 2 copies for FREE here on X. To enter for a chance to win just REPOST this post and TAG a friend. After 48 hours I'll select the winners at random and mail for free!

https://t.co/icw55HTmaW

[Alex DiPrima @Alex_DiPrima]

I’m honored to be recognized in @RevKevDeYoung’s top 10 this year. I eagerly await DeYoung’s list every year so it’s a real treat to see my own book on there!

[Deals Curated by Tim Challies @challiesdeals]

Kindle Deal: Spurgeon, A Life by Alex DiPrima (@Alex_DiPrima). https://t.co/MbFeC3z2OT #ad

[allthingspodcast @allthings_pod]

Join us on Episode 36 as we interview @Alex_DiPrima on his new book: “Spurgeon: A Life.” https://t.co/0HhzRpcueh

[Megan ☼ ♡ ꕤ @MegWritesBooks]

Obsessed with this guy on the US men's gymnastics team who's only job is pommel horse, so he just sits there until he's activated like a sleeper agent, whips off his glasses like Clark Kent and does a pommel horse routine that helps deliver the team its first medal in 16 years.

[allthingspodcast @allthings_pod]

If our philosophy causes us to view our femaleness as a burden there’s something wrong with our philosophy. @JennaDiPrima on Episode 34

[Reformation Heritage Books @RHB_Books]

Now available for pre-order: Spurgeon: A Life by @Alex_DiPrima

Pre-order now to receive the ebook for free immediately!

“In this book, Alex DiPrima has produced what many others have failed to deliver: a one-volume biography of Spurgeon that tells the story with power, insight, and due recognition of his historical significance.”

—R. Albert Mohler Jr., president, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

Alex DiPrima paints a fresh portrait of Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the most well-known gospel minister of the nineteenth century. By providing social, historical, and religious context, DiPrima helps us comprehend the scope of Spurgeon’s ministry in London. Combining academic expertise with popular presentation, this short biography of the famed Prince of Preachers will be the go-to introduction to Spurgeon for years to come.

[allthingspodcast @allthings_pod]

“Love stands at the center of your friendship with the Father.”

[Jenna DiPrima @JennaDiPrima]

@ClareMorellEPPC @NatConTalk @megbasham @emilyjashinsky So great @ClareMorellEPPC!

[allthingspodcast @allthings_pod]

Episode 33 with author Mike McKinley is out now! Join us as we discuss his new book on an immensely important subject- Friendship with God. https://t.co/cfPOJPhHRC

[Jenna DiPrima @JennaDiPrima]

@NITW1 I’m excited to listen. I read the book recently and loved it!

[Dr. John Frame @DrJohnFrame]

I believe the NT teaches that the teaching and ruling offices in the church, that is, the eldership, are limited to men. 🧵

[Jenna DiPrima @JennaDiPrima]

“They are not lost to you, but are laid up so well as that they are offered in heaven, where our Lord’s best jewels lie.” Samuel Rutherford wrote this to a woman in 1637 with the assumption that 1 or 2 of her children may die. How different our experience is with death today.

[Jenna DiPrima @JennaDiPrima]

I loved getting to talk with @JonathanLeeman about authority. You don’t want to miss this interview!

[allthingspodcast @allthings_pod]

Episode 32 is out now! Join us as we interview @JonathanLeeman from @9Marks on his new book on authority. https://t.co/Yye0EmPkBf

[Jenna DiPrima @JennaDiPrima]

Women don’t need ambiguity for the sake of broader cooperation or hurt feelings. Women need a robust confidence in what God says about His church.

[Jenna DiPrima @JennaDiPrima]

Women need doctrinal clarity, not ambiguity. I’ve heard the argument many times over the past year and at #sbc24 that women are discouraged by the conversations surrounding the law amendment.

[Jenna DiPrima @JennaDiPrima]

This week, one prominent pastor said that he fears we will lose a whole generation of female leaders in our churches. But women aren’t truly empowered in churches that are ambiguous on what the Bible says. Women thrive in churches that unapologetically uphold the word of God.