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A La Carte (April 19)

A La Carte Collection cover image

I am heading off this morning for an extended speaking trip that will take me to Chilliwack and Vancouver, British Columbia, then Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas. I am looking forward to meeting some of you along the way!

Westminster Books has a deal on a new book meant to challenge and encourage perfectionists.

Today’s Kindle deals include a few noteworthy titles. Among them is the helpful And So To Bed…

The Gateway Drug to Post-Christian Paganism

Carl Trueman has a thoughtful piece here about several German theologians who ended up coming to support Hitler. Could the early steps that led to a full compromise have lessons for us?

You and I Probably Would Have Been Nazis

Meanwhile, on a somewhat related note, Samuel James says that you and I would probably have been Nazis if we had lived in Germany in the days of Hitler’s rise and rule. “All variables being equal, you and I would likely have been dutiful members of the Nazi Party, had we been ambitious young adults in 1930s Germany. The question is not ‘why,’ but, ‘Why not?’ The overwhelming majority of people who considered themselves reasonable, compassionate, and thoughtful simply accepted their regime as a fact. You and I would have as well.”

“Be Doers of My Preference”

“As a young Christian, I was always right. Its amazing how right I was about everything. I had Bible verses, and you can’t argue with the Bible. I also routinely read my Bible, and, well, let’s be honest, no one around me read their Bible. But don’t worry! Everything I did and said was verbally affirmed to be in humility. So that covered me.” I think most of us felt the same.

Am I Confident or Arrogant?

John Piper considers confidence, arrogance, and humility. Along the way, he offers eight helpful “diagnostic questions to detect the rising of pride in our lives.”

God Can Work Through Anyone and Everything—Even You and Your Sin

There is comfort in knowing and believing this—that God can (and will) work through everything, including your sin and the sin of others.

The Bible Does NOT Say God Is Trans (Video)

Of course it doesn’t! But the takeaway from this video for me is that this is the kind of person who is influencing young people today.

Flashback: Each Gift Has Its Place

And as the gardener suits the plants to his garden, God suits the gifts to his church. He dispenses gifts to each person, each to be used in love and service to others.

A great sermon dropped into an audience of hundreds or thousands will do its work; but if this world is ever to be brought to God, it will be through little sermons preached by private Christians to an audience of one.

—De Witt Talmage

  • Weekend A La Carte (November 7)

    The Hutterites’ guide to technology / Searching for jobs, Gen Z feels like it’s staring into ‘the void’ / The gospel according to Peter (Thiel) / Scientism and the allure of control / Can science explain sparkling rivers? / What led to Christianity Today’s crisis?

  • I Regret to Inform You That Heaven Tourism Is Back

    I Regret to Inform You That Heaven Tourism Is Back

    I regret to inform you, dear reader, that heaven tourism is back. The genre possibly never went away entirely, but it did at least disappear from the bestseller lists for several years. Sadly, it has returned in Gabe Poirot’s 18 Days in Heaven.

  • A La Carte (November 6)

    Don’t despise the red flags / Your thoughts are shaping your life / Can’t you just love everyone? / Selfies are not the self: forming embodied youth in a disembodied age / Effective altruists and the spreadsheet gospel / 4 Applications for the order of love—from the home to the ends of the earth /…

  • A La Carte (November 5)

    When you feel guilty about your giving / The missing piece in John Mark Comer’s quiet time / A manifesto for phone-free church / The pull of Rome / 4 Misconceptions about spiritual warfare / Slouching toward Narnia / Kindle deals, and more

  • A Daring Suggestion for Netflix

    A Daring Suggestion for Netflix

    Netflix appears to have fallen on hard times and I have some suggestions that I’d like to think would help it: cut the sex, nudity, and profanity, and gain back the viewers it’s long been alienating.

  • A La Carte (November 4)

    Can I love my enemies while addressing wrongs and protecting myself? / Is missions too costly for kids? / Don’t stock the pantry with temptation / Churches face a shortage of worship leaders / AI brought a mathematician to Ecclesiastes / Discerning between godly and worldly grief / Harvest in fearful times / and more.