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A La Carte (January 13)

thursday

Grace and peace to you, my friends.

Today’s Kindle deals include two good books I don’t think I’ve ever seen on sale before.

(Yesterday on the blog: Don’t Be Reckless With What Others Count Precious)

The Vertical, Horizontal, and Inward Realities of Sin

“Sin is never done in isolation. In fact, there are vertical, horizontal, and inward effects of it.” David Qaoud explains.

How Paul Measured the Missionary Task

This article makes some good and useful points about the missionary task.

The Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard

“‘Imaginary gardens with real toads in them.’ That’s how one writer has described the parables of Jesus. They are imaginative stories, but they relate to real life. They are imaginary gardens, but they have real toads in them. Often those toads are us.” This is a short but helpful look at one of those parables and an explanation of why establishing context is so important to the task of interpretation.

The Success Of Others

Seth considers all he sees of others through social media and asks, “how does my own life measure up to theirs? Is my life still important if it doesn’t include the same kinds of successes that I see other people achieving and enjoying? If they reach higher and go further than I do, am I just one more loser bringing up the rear in some kind of cosmic reality show competition?”

How Much Can the Most Famous Dead Sea Scroll Prove?

Here’s a look at some of what we learn from the most famous of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

What Are Your gods of 2022?

Sylvia Schroeder considers the old god Dagon and what we can learn from a strange story in 1 Samuel.

Flashback: The Greatest Christians and the Most Visible Gifts

…is it possible we tacitly communicate that some gifts are better than others, that some are more desirable than others, that some are more essential than others? Is it possible we suggest that the greatest Christians are those with the most visible gifts?

The cross and tomb are where we are invited into the kingdom, and where chaos begins to be transformed into peace.

—Alistair Begg

  • The Two Kinds of Content You Consume

    The Two Kinds of Content You Consume

    At some point we all began to refer to articles and video as content. And today we are drowning in it! Here is a simple filter for telling content created to serve you apart from content created to serve its maker.

  • A La Carte (June 8)

    The humbling I needed / There must be blood / How to read the Bible when your heart feels cold / The delightful duty of married sex / Are we forgiven for the sins we can’t remember? / All things without complaining or arguing

  • Works & Wonders June 7

    This week’s Works & Wonders offers: The wonder and the beauty, older and rarer, His Love, Ferrari Luce, The Covenanter Story, and cheese curds.

  • Weekend A La Carte (June 6)

    There’s a playbook for college, there should be one for marriage / Ben Sasse is teaching us how to die—and live—well / The biggest tell that something was written by AI / Why China got rich and India didn’t / AI slop is coming for your playlists / The blood cancer that became solvable /…

  • Davy and Natalie Lloyd

    Strong to the End

    You have probably heard of Davy and Natalie Lloyd, even if the names aren’t immediately familiar. In May 2024, you most likely heard the news about two young American missionaries to Haiti who, along with one of their Haitian colleagues, were brutally murdered by one of the many gangs that dominate the country.

  • A La Carte (June 5)

    Can Jesus really sympathize with my specific struggles? / View your past through the lens of God’s faithfulness / Nine marks of a healthy paragraph / When you have nothing left to give / The treasure chest at the train station / When you’re too weird to lead / Headlines / and more.