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A La Carte (August 16)

monday

Good morning. May grace and peace be with you today and in the week ahead.

I have listed a few new Kindle deals; besides the ones listed, Zondervan’s entire 37-volume Counterpoints series is marked down.

(Yesterday on the blog: A Parent’s Prayer for Obedience)

Of Minds and Machines : Transhumanism and the Christian

Christopher Brown has written an interesting essay on transhumanism. If you don’t know the term, you probably should.

Rejection That Cuts Deep

“I have come to believe that rejection and separation from your child is one of the most painful experiences to carry.” So says Kath Thomas. Many parents would tearfully agree.

5 Questions about Church Membership

Jonathan Leeman: “Let me start here: the local church is the authority on earth that Jesus has instituted to officially affirm and give shape to my Christian life and yours. Just as Jesus instituted the state, so he instituted the local church. It is an institutional authority because Jesus instituted it with authority.”

Redemptive Regret

Rut Etheridge III: “Maybe you’ve seen a meme that says something like this: ‘Don’t ever regret your past decisions. At one time, they were what you wanted.’ This emboldening counsel is no doubt born of deep pain. It offers emotional and ethical self-defense as we process a personal history of questionable choices. Yet this morality is, in every sense of the phrase, self-righteous. And self-righteousness is never a good means of self-defense.”

Seek Unity, Fear the Lord, and Wash Your Hands

“I’m in no way an expert on the medical aspects of COVID-19. What I do know is our enemy, Satan, loves to take moments of crisis and divide people by steering them toward extremes.” Daniel Seabaugh encourages Christians away from polarizing extremes.

10 Safeguards for Church Nurseries and Children’s Ministry

This is simple, common sense, and crucial stuff.

Why Afghanistan Is Impossible to Conquer (Video)

This video is a couple of weeks old and, hence, already out of date. Still, it helpfully explains why Afghanistan is impossible to conquer.

Flashback: The Power Over Christian Publishing We’ve Given To Amazon

We cannot be shocked when non-Christians are affronted or offended by genuinely Christian ideas. We cannot demand of non-Christians any more than of Christians that they violate conscience to sell materials they consider repugnant.

Do for duty’s sake what you cannot do as a pleasure, and you will find it becomes delightful.

—F.B. Meyer

  • New and Notable

    New and Notable Christian Books for April 2025

    It is surprisingly difficult to find a list of Christian books that have been released in any given month—especially if you want that list to be filtered by books released through particular publishers. That’s one of the reasons why I close each month by coming up with my list of New and Notable books. I…

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    Weekend A La Carte (April 26)

    A La Carte: Every pinch of pain has purpose / China closed Christian bookstores / Watch for the thing after the thing / For everything there is a time / Showers of blessing / What Pope Francis can teach us about preaching / and more.

  • What Makes You Beautiful

    What Makes You Beautiful

    I have often thought of a conversation that took place when my girls were little. Abby was perhaps 5 or 6 at the time and Michaela just working her way through the “terrible twos” (which for our kids always happened when they were three or four). A stranger saw me interacting with them one day…

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    A La Carte (April 25)

    A La Carte: John Piper and ChatGPT / Who’s praying for your wife and kids? / When your dreams include sin / Are you called to ministry? / Our feet shall tread this place again / and more.

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    A La Carte (April 24)

    A La Carte: He cares for us / Will the pope to go heaven? / An easy Christian faith / The good we cannot see / Chickens, elephants, and freedom / When we skip the prophets / Kindle and book deals / and more.