A La Carte (April 14)

The God of love and peace be with you on this fine day.

Thanks for the continued feedback on this slightly revised form of A La Carte. It has been helpful to hear both the positives and the negatives.

Recommended Reading

10 Things You Should Know About Critical Theory. Bradley Green, author of the new book What Is Critical Theory? outlines 10 things you should know about critical theory. It’s a really good list that should help you better grasp a term many use but few understand.

The Iranian Church Persists. Christianity Today offers an encouraging yet sobering account of the church in Iran. “Like many other Iranian Christians, Yahya has paid the cost of being a believer under the Islamic regime. He has been interrogated, detained, abused, and may soon be summoned to serve a long prison sentence for his Christian ministry. And now, like the rest of Iran’s 93 million people, he is a citizen of a nation at war.”

Hiding From God. Melissa Edgington writes about her attempts to overcome a debilitating kind of spiritual perfectionism. “I struggle with spiritual perfectionism. It comes from many years of legalistic tendencies where I struggle to see obedience to God as a joy and an honor and tend to see it instead as an opportunity to try to earn the salvation that He’s freely given. It’s an extremely difficult heart posture to overcome, and I often see it come through in the spiritual disciplines that I try to incorporate in my life.”

Meditation and the Giver of Things. Why should Christians meditate? And how does Christian meditation differ from modern forms of mindfulness? “Christian meditation moves toward many of the same goals—getting outside of yourself, and connecting with and accepting the givenness of the present. The difference lies in that word, ‘givenness.’ Givenness implies a Giver, not just an impersonal universal force. The goal of Christian meditation, therefore, is personal connection with God, not merely disconnecting from the insatiable self. It is not merely emptying your mind, but subsequently filling your mind with God.”

Work Hard for Animal Farm. The new film adaptation of Animal Farm hadn’t even been released before it was condemned as yet another woke abomination. I was glad, then, to read Brad Littlejohn’s review in which he disagrees. He indicates that, while it is not exactly a one-to-one adaptation of Orwell’s masterpiece, it is a useful modern-day interpretation of it. “The film had already been panned by critics at the Wall Street Journal—not ordinary film critics who had actually seen the film, mind you, but an insipid opinion columnist named Andy Kessler, who did not blush to write a full op-ed takedown of the film on the basis of … a two-minute trailer.”

When You Are Offended in Church. It is inevitable that you will, at times, be offended by someone at church. Stephen Kneale outlines the options that are available to you when, in his words, “somebody has been a colossal pillock.” He also outlines an option that is completely untenable. Just imagine how much more peace there would be in churches if we all held to these principles!

Book Releases

New Christian books are almost always released on Tuesdays. Here are some that are available for the first time today.

• The Pursuit of Holy Leisure: Enjoying God in Everyday Places by Cara Ray. “In this … book, Cara Ray explores the ancient concept of otium sanctum―holy leisure―a mindset that transforms your daily quiet time from a checklist into a soul-nourishing encounter with God.”
• The Gospel Coalition’s Disciplines of Devotion series for women adds three new volumes this week: Worship, Evangelism, and Bible Study.
• Our Hope Is In Help: What Keeps Us from Asking for Help and How We Live by Leaning on God’s Word by Pierce Taylor Hibbs. “In a culture obsessed with self-reliance, Pierce Taylor Hibbs reveals a profound truth: our greatest strength lies not in standing alone, but in learning to lean.”

Miscellanea

• Currently: Still at home and still not traveling again until the end of this month, when I head to Kentucky for Michaela’s wedding.
• Reading: The Guns at Last Light by Rick Atkinson. This is the third volume in his Liberation Trilogy, and it is every bit as enjoyable as the first two. He’s not just a good historian but also a great writer who expands my vocabulary every time I read him.
• Enjoying: The Long Surrender by Needtobreathe. I have been listening to NTB since their debut album and continue to appreciate their music, even as it mellows a little through the years.

Flashback

Men in the Image of Women and Women in the Image of Men. Men tend to believe the qualities of masculinity are superior to the qualities of femininity while women tend to believe the qualities of femininity are superior to the qualities of masculinity. Though we know God created us to live in complementarity, we tend to live in opposition.