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A La Carte (December 11)

A La Carte Collection cover image

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

  • Free Stuff Fridays (Matthias Media)

    This week the blog and the giveaway have been sponsored by Matthias Media. Matthias Media is hosting Evangelize 2024 in Denver, Colorado on October 7-9, 2024. We have partnered with 10ofThose, Calvary Family of Churches and Vinegrowers to help you raise the evangelistic temperature at your church. We want to motivate and equip people to…

  • When Christians Disagree

    When Christians Disagree

    Wouldn’t it be nice if Christians only ever got along? Wouldn’t it be grand if all the discord we see in the world around us was completely foreign to the church? Wouldn’t it be heavenly if believers ever only experienced peace? I suppose it would be heavenly and, therefore, more than we can realistically hope…

  • A La Carte Friday 2

    A La Carte (July 26)

    A La Carte: Therapy and bug men / How to have joy in hard times / Can a single pastor date in his church? / Life from barren ground / Shulamith Firestone was a prophet / Different ways of reading people we disagree with / and more.

  • A La Carte Thursday 1

    A La Carte (July 25)

    A La Carte: What does it mean to die with dignity? / Did Paul endorse slavery? / Forgiveness in marriage / 5 ways to pursue contentment / The immense value of encouragement / and more.

  • Maybe We Make Meditation Too Difficult

    Maybe We Make Meditation Too Difficult

    Of all the Christian disciplines, it is my guess that meditation may be the least practiced—though I suppose fasting might have something to say about that. Most people diligently make time to read the Bible and pray. And yet, while most people have good intentions when it comes to meditation, it so often seems to…

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (July 24)

    A La Carte: A mother to me, too / Never look your age? / Nine reminders for the struggle with body image / A ruler who trusts in Yahweh / No, I will not stop calling the church a family / Criminalizing sexual ethics / Bible journal sale / Kindle deals / and more.