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A La Carte (December 27)

monday

I will be on a holiday blogging schedule this week, which means there will be only A La Carte posts. Normalcy will resume next week!

Today’s Kindle deals are headlined by some titles from Crossway.

(Yesterday on the blog: When I Get to the End of the Way)

What if I Don’t Want to Rejoice?

“Humans are natural rejoicers. Not only do we love rejoicing but we do so all the more with others. And yet, there are many times we simply do not want to rejoice. Though the Bible tells us to ‘rejoice in the Lord always,’ we find ourselves doing the exact opposite. How are we supposed to rejoice when life gets rough?”

Canada’s conversion therapy ban commits six secular sins

This is an interesting look at Canada’s Bill C-4 and the sins it commits. “Canada’s Bill C-4 bans ‘conversion therapy.’ But the bill is bad. How bad is the bill? It’s so bad that it, for lack of a better word, sins. It sins against democracy, freedom, truth, reason, and other goods. (Consider these secular sins that may or may not include sins against God.) Bill C-4 sins so badly that, if there were a fiery pit for bad bills, it should be thrown into it.”

The Evil of Earthly-Mindedness

“If one characteristic could describe the Puritan movement as a whole—apart from their personal piety—I believe it would be the Puritans’ ability to penetrate both heart and mind. Their knack for bringing conviction to the stubborn, hope to the hopeless, and relief to the weary and heavy-laden ought to serve as the gold standard for any who aspire to the ministry of the Word. Oh, that gospel minsters in the modern day would speak to the heart as the Puritans did in theirs!”

Love Undeserved & Unsought

This is a deeply personal article from Andrew Kerr.

Top Ten YouTubes of 2021

Here is one that is just for fun. Every year Denny Burk rounds up this top-ten YouTubes of the year that was.

There are no real unprecedented times

I’d tend to agree that we are a little bit too free to describe our times and circumstances as “unprecedented.”

Flashback: The Beautiful Ordinary

… all across the world, thousands of ordinary pastors will preach ordinary sermons to ordinary people, and through these sermons they will communicate the most powerful, extraordinary news of all.

The beginnings of mercy are encouragements to us to pray for the completing of it.

—Matthew Henry

  • Works & Wonders June 14

    Works & Wonders: Bowing the knee or shaking the fist, 39 years to translate the Bible, And Can It Be, How to understand a trillIon, Landsat images, and World Cup covers.

  • Weekend A La Carte (June 13)

    Egg freezing is a booming business / Talk to the A.I. me / Is aging becoming optional? / Feminism and the Fall / The lie of living your truth / Moving on from the Christian Nationalism moment / and more.

  • An Ideal Resource For Your Family Devotions

    An Ideal Resource For Your Family Devotions

    There is a lot I miss from the days when our children were young. High on the list is family devotions. Nick once described our family as having a “Spartan-like commitment” to them, though I remember as much failure as success and as many misses as hits. Still, there’s no doubt that over the 26…

  • A La Carte (June 12)

    The curious case of extra resurrections / Are kids too expensive? / Why hot takes are the enemy of conviction / Piper on preaching outrage / A daily rhythm of prayer / Forgetting and pursuing / A La Quiz / The funnies / and more.

  • A La Carte (June 11)

    We lost the baby / The Bible is cessationist (and wondrous!) / Thinking about Eastern Orthodoxy: a primer for evangelicals / Virtue signalling in the church / What is God’s providence? / Restlessness / Kindle deals / and more.

  • Conform

    You Can Conform to Christ Even if You Don’t Conform to Me

    One of the aspects of the Christian faith that I find particularly perplexing is the freedom God gives his people to obey him in different or even opposite ways, so that one person’s obedience is another person’s disobedience. Even as two people take the same action, one might be obeying him and the other disobeying…