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A La Carte (December 17)

monday

Today’s Kindle deals include a long list of good deals from Crossway and Zondervan with a few others mixed in as well.

(Yesterday on the blog: A Pastoral Prayer from December)

What Happens When an Evangelical Pundit, Armed Only with 58K Twitter Followers and a Reference to the Bebbington Quadrilateral, Takes on a Historian

The title is a good description of what you’ll find in this article. I think this is important because it aptly shows how expertise is so often disregarded today. “On Thursday night a very interesting, revealing, and somewhat disturbing Twitter exchange took place between religion writer Jonathan Merritt and historian Thomas Kidd. Here is what happened…”

Reading The Jesus Storybook Bible in Iceland

This is a good read. “In the world’s most bookish country, evangelicals are taking up the ministry of translation.”

A Conversation with David Powlison

This is an encouraging conversation between Ed Welch and David Powlison. They discuss Powlison’s recent diagnosis of cancer.

What’s the Shortest International Border in the World?

The Canada-US border is the longest in the world. What’s the shortest?

Stop Saying 81 Percent of White Evangelicals Vote for Trump (It Was Probably Less Than Half)

Justin Taylor: “I know I’m fighting a losing battle with this post. It won’t go viral. It probably won’t change many minds. But I’ll give it a shot anyway. No matter how many times people make the claim, it is simply wrong to say that 81 percent of white evangelicals in the United States voted for Donald Trump to become president.”

Who Decides What Words Mean

I found this a fascinating one. “Decades before the rise of social media, polarisation plagued discussions about language. By and large, it still does. Everyone who cares about the topic is officially required to take one of two stances. Either you smugly preen about the mistakes you find abhorrent – this makes you a so-called prescriptivist – or you show off your knowledge of language change, and poke holes in the prescriptivists’ facts – this makes you a descriptivist. Group membership is mandatory, and the two are mutually exclusive.”

Travel Photographer of the Year Awards

There are some stunning photos on display here.

Flashback: One Man’s Honor Is Another Man’s Shame

As Christians we need to think carefully and biblically rather than simply accepting what the culture dictates. It is possible that Western children will have to make efforts to convince their parents they ought to be honored while people from other cultures may need to refuse to conform to some of the expectations placed upon them.

A true and faithful Christian does not make holy living an accidental thing. It is his great concern. As the business of the soldier is to fight, so the business of the Christian is to be like Christ.

—Jonathan Edwards

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    A La Carte (February 10)

    A La Carte: John Piper on aging with joy / Lessons on money / Who we are when we disagree / Don’t be a discouraging Christian / Gender surgeries for minors / Church-loving children / Kindle deals / and more.

  • The Breakthrough Prayer

    The Breakthrough Prayer

    I am certain you have had a time when the Lord has brought you to a sudden, unexpected point of repentance or resolution. Perhaps you’ve been fostering a sin, and while you may have known it was sin, you haven’t been willing to deal with it—to put it to death and come alive to righteousness.…

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    A La Carte (February 9)

    A La Carte: The challenge of Greek Orthodoxy / Overcoming the spouse bottleneck / A movement, not a business / Let it snow / Same-sex attraction / Heaven on earth / Kindle deals / and more.

  • In the Way of Temptation

    In the Way of Temptation

    We do not often speak of duty today, but Christians traditionally spoke of it often. In fact, Christians understood the means of grace as duties, responsibilities of every believer toward God. And while these duties are the means through which God provides us with his grace, they are also the means through which God guards…

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    Weekend A La Carte (February 7)

    A La Carte: Harder is not always holier / Is Claude my friend? / Christians and Nietzsche / Survivalist to convictional leadership / Wild, unorganized, and totally worth it / The songs I once found dreary / and more.

  • Invisible Grief

    Invisible Grief

    There is no path through this life that does not involve at least some measure of grief. This world is so broken that at different times and in different ways, grief affects us all. Some grief flows from what we loved and lost but other grief flows from what has never been and may never…