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A La Carte (August 1)

A La Carte Collection cover image

The first day of a new month is an ideal time to ponder this: Right now, at this very moment, God is reigning from his throne. All will be well.

A new month brings a whole new batch of Kindle deals. I’ve added some already and should have a more complete list by 6:30 AM EST or so.

(Yesterday on the blog: What a New Day and New Month Will Bring)

Review: “Shepherds for Sale,” by Megan Basham

Megan Basham’s new book intends to show that many Evangelical leaders have sold out to a leftist agenda. Samuel James offers this thorough review which accounts for the book’s strengths and weaknesses. “Somewhere in the process of development, this book had something that would have been genuinely persuasive and effective. There’s a version of it that would have focused on evangelical consequences rather than evangelical motivations, and would have provided a perch for truth-conscious Christians, regardless of what presidential candidate they like, to reflect on lessons learned in a truly incredible decade.”

Cultivating Christlike Compassion on Social Media

This is a helpful call to cultivate Christlike compassion on social media. “It isn’t just my reputation on the line; I am a representative of something bigger than myself. The Lord has used this concept to point me toward an even greater reality: whenever I am on social media, regardless of what account I am logged into, I am a representative of Christ.”

What to Say to Dave About Regular Bible Reading

In this case, Dave stands in for that person you know who is struggling to read the Bible regularly. “Few of us have it fully sorted, and so we don’t feel qualified to tell others what they should be doing. I certainly don’t feel like I can speak from anything other than the wisdom that comes from regular failure. But failure is a good teacher, even if I’m not a good student, so here are five tips I might give to Dave.”

Who Wrote the Gospels? (Video)

Timothy Paul Jones explains how we can have confidence in the authorship of the gospels. This matters because it is a routine point of attack for skeptics.

Watch Your Heart in an Election Year

Casey McCall: “Truth and righteousness become elastic concepts that bend at the discretion of whoever stands behind the podium. When it comes to doing what’s right, it’s damned, if you do it; justified endlessly, if we do it. When it comes to truth-telling, the rules change based on who’s doing the talking. This all occurs within a financially lucrative media ecosystem that has mastered the art of keeping everyone perpetually outraged by focusing our attention on what’s wrong with them.”

Small Is Underrated

Small is often underrated. That’s true of churches, pastorates, disciplines, and much else.

Flashback: Cast Your Burden Upon the Lord

When we are heavily burdened we are to take one specific action: cast. We are to throw or hurl or toss our burdens upon the Lord. We are to bring them to his attention and to plead with him for his help. And so we close our eyes and pray or we lift our eyes and cry out for his help, his assistance, his deliverance.

Some men pray to be made holy, but they wish to keep some little pet sin in the backyard.

—C.H. Spurgeon

  • Duty

    For Our Good, Not For Our Bondage

    Matthew Henry once said that when we are out of the way of duty, we are in the way of temptation. Yet Jerry Bridges warns that the spiritual disciplines are privileges to be used, not duties to be performed. So are they duties or are they not?

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    Weekend A La Carte (February 14)

    A La Carte: Satan wants you alone this Sunday / The discipline of unlearning / Asking a pastor to step down / Holy humor / Intentional thankfulness / and more.

  • Science and God

    Do You Have to Choose Between Science and God?

    Whatever else young people know today, they know that science and God are opposed to one another. At least, they think they know this, because it has been taught to them in a hundred formal and informal settings, from the classroom to the television. They have been taught that they must choose between science and…

  • A La Carte Friday 2

    A La Carte (February 13)

    A La Carte: You don’t have a LGBTQ neighbor / Satan doesn’t use rubber bullets / John Piper on criticizing God / Tales that celebrate traditional families / The little things matter / and more.

  • 12 General Market Books I Have Enjoyed Recently

    While I am committed to reading and reviewing Christian books, I also enjoy reading a steady diet of books published for the general market. I suppose my interests lean toward history, but I do read other books as well. Here are a few of the titles I’ve enjoyed over the past couple of months.