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A La Carte (December 11)

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Good morning. Grace and peace to you.

Today’s Kindle deals include a new selection from Crossway. I’ve also created a list of all the best commentary deals that are part of Eerdmans’ month-long sale.

I am aware that subscribers to the daily newsletter may be having trouble opening links if they are using Avast antivirus. I have reported this to the newsletter service and expect they will fix it soon. As a workaround, you can simply visit my site to access the links without security warnings.

(Yesterday on the blog: Welcome to a Whole New Site)

The Desecration of Man

You’ll want to make time for this long, powerful essay by Carl Trueman. “There can be no greater transgression than that against the sacred. In killing God, we grant ourselves the privilege of becoming gods ourselves. There is surely no greater exhilaration than in being God. And there is no more dramatic way of being God than in waging a holy war against the God-given nature of embodied human personhood.”

Help! I Don’t Like Evangelizing

Daniel Hames offers some help to those who don’t like evangelizing (and perhaps feel pretty guilty about it).

Why the HR Mindset Can’t Condemn Genocide

“In a recent congressional hearing, the presidents of Harvard, MIT, and the University of Pennsylvania were asked if calling for the genocide of Jews violated their university’s code of conduct.” You’ve probably heard by now how they replied. Why they replied this way is the subject of Joe Carter’s article.

The Lord Will Keep You From All Evil

The Bible says “The LORD will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.” But it doesn’t always feel that way, does it?

When Your Heart Goes Dark: How to Seize Hope in Suffering

Greg Morse looks to Lamentations to teach us how to seize hope in times of suffering and sorrow.

Walking in God’s Strength

Meanwhile, Doug considers the way God has been known to strengthen people in their weakness. “One of the struggles his health gives him is shortness of breath, yet it has never stopped him from preaching. Several times, he has been sitting in the pew waiting to preach, trying to catch his breath, but the minute he stepped into the pulpit, he had all the strength he needed.”

Flashback: When God Doesn’t Zap Away Our Sin

God does not zap away our sin, but gives us a new hatred for it and a new desire to do the hard work of battling it. He does not sovereignly remove it in a moment, but extends grace so we can battle it for a lifetime.

I lay this down as a rule without any exception, that those people who have the most faults themselves are most merciless in their watching of others.

—De Witt Talmage

  • Southern Africa

    A Trip to Southern Africa

    I don’t often write trip reports after I travel, except, of course, in the form of books and documentary projects like Epic and From the Rising of the Sun. Yet, I thought I would make a rare exception after returning from my recent journey to Southern Africa (and, strangely, Northern California). While I am accustomed…

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    A La Carte (December 10)

    A La Carte: Top 10 theology stories of 2025 / Mama, you don’t have to save Christmas / Giving up all your Sundays to advent / An empty chair at Christmas / Pray for the church in Rwanda / Kindle deals / and more.

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    A La Carte (December 9)

    A La Carte: Reforming generosity / Let the young man come to church / Your wife is beauty / Combating imposter syndrome / Be known, not impressive / Dan McClellan / and more.

  • AI Slop

    The Rise of AI Book Slop

    We often hear these days of “AI slop,” a term that’s used to refer to the massive amounts of poor-quality AI-created material that is churned out and unceremoniously dumped onto the internet. This was once primarily artistless artwork and authorless articles, but has now advanced to much bigger and more substantial forms of content.

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    A La Carte (December 8)

    A La Carte: A plea to older women / Let someone serve you in suffering / Why AI writing can’t compete / Influencers / The hidden danger in online sermons / Discipling young people / Excellent Kindle deals / and more.

  • Hymns

    Pitch Perfect and Tone Deaf

    God commands us to sing. Yet while some of God’s people are gifted singers, the plain fact is that others are not. In any congregation, it’s likely that some have near-perfect pitch while others are functionally tone-deaf. Those who struggle to sing may be self-conscious, tempted to stay quiet or to do no more than…