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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This video is a couple of weeks old and, hence, already out of date.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

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    Weekend A La Carte (April 25)

    This weekend’s A La Carte covers Thomas Kinkade’s hidden legacy, Gen Z and real experiences, John Mark Comer in The Atlantic, Carl Trueman on the trans war, eugenics and AI, LLM sycophancy, and more.

  • Shooting Up

    Shooting Up

    Jonathan Tepper grew up watching his missionary parents transform the lives of heroin addicts in Madrid. Though he has wandered from the faith, his memoir may be the most Christian book you read this year.

  • A La Carte Friday 2

    A La Carte (April 24)

    You’re lazy / Six major views of baptism / John Piper and fur babies / You don’t need a therapist / Stop keeping score / Death and resurrection / A La Quiz / Kindle deals / and more.

  • A La Carte Thursday 1

    A La Carte (April 23)

    The risk of persecution / The West’s strange genius / Our best years are ahead / Hope in the face of death / Keep the Christian calendar / The grief I did not know / Book reviews / Gen Alpha / and more.

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (April 22)

    Aspire to be lay elders / A mundane life is a courageous life / Aim high, repent often / The problem with deaconism / What are you angry about today? / An original poem / Kindle deals / and more.