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A La Carte (January 3)

thursday

There is another batch of Kindle deals for you to sort through today. Also, by popular request, I believe the clicks will now lead to your regional Amazon (.ca in Canada, .co.uk in the UK, and so on).

CBD has some pretty good deals, including The Songs of Jesus by Tim Keller, the ESV Reader’s Bible 6-volume set in softcover, hardcover and leather, the ESV Children’s Bible, and the ESV Archaeology Bible.

(Yesterday on the blog: Comforting Quotes for Those Who Are Suffering)

Why Twitter Is Even More Toxic Than You Think

I’ve been planning to write about Twitter, and apparently I’m far from the only one. Here’s David French: “Real-world decisions continue to be made in response to temper tantrums by a surprisingly small number of people. Because, after all, those are the only voices heard in the heat of the moment, and they are always more influential than those who remain silent. Twitter takes underlying trends and makes them more extreme. To borrow from Spinal Tap, it turns everything up to eleven, all day, every day.”

52 Ideas for Inviting Someone to Church This Year

We all know it: “The simple act of inviting friends and acquaintances to your church can impact eternity.” So here, from Facts & Trends, are “52 ideas to help you get started. Some are for individuals; others can be adapted for your small group or the entire church.”

You Can Memorize Scripture This Year

Yes, even you. “When you think about memorizing the Bible, do you feel guilty and defeated? It’s one of those activities that you know is good for you but that can be hard to do consistently — like praying or exercising or eating well or managing money wisely. With the New Year here, I want to encourage you: you can memorize Scripture this year. It does not take superhuman skill or fanatic devotion to write God’s word on your mind and heart.”

The Father Was not Angry with the Son at the Cross

Wyatt draws a very important distinction here. “At the cross, the Father was not angry at the Son at the cross. And neither do the Gospels emphasize Jesus’ pain during in his ordeal although he surely suffered physically. What they do emphasize is Jesus’ cry of dereliction (“My God, My God, why have you forsaken me”). The notion that the Father (or God) is angry with the Son misunderstands Trinitarian orthodoxy, Reformed theology, and the clear emphasis of Scripture. Here’s why.”

How Much of the Internet Is Fake?

How much of the internet is fake? An awful lot of it. ” What’s gone from the internet, after all, isn’t ‘truth,’ but trust: the sense that the people and things we encounter are what they represent themselves to be. Years of metrics-driven growth, lucrative manipulative systems, and unregulated platform marketplaces, have created an environment where it makes more sense to be fake online — to be disingenuous and cynical, to lie and cheat, to misrepresent and distort — than it does to be real.”

Belonging Before Believing?

What’s the problem with the notion of belonging before believing? Michael Lawrence answers in this brief video.

Seven China Stories to Watch

WORLD lists and explains seven China stories to keep an eye on this year. Several of them are directly related to Christians and Christianity.

Flashback: The 100 Most Influential Evangelicals in America

Whatever Newsmax’s evangelicalism is, it’s broad enough to encompass the very best and very worst of Christian teachers.

Just as my assurance of salvation rests in the fact that God cannot change, my hope of sanctification rests in the fact that I can.

—Jen Wilkin

  • Marriage

    When Your Spouse Stops Being Your Project

    Many marriages stall at the same point: each spouse convinced the breakthrough will come only when the other finally changes. What if the real breakthrough begins somewhere else?

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    A La Carte (March 25)

    Embracing slow sanctification / Men are lost / Your attention isn’t failing, your environment is / Notes on justice / Ships passing in the night / It is Christ who saves, not Christians / and more.

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (March 24)

    Check your guns at the door / Counseling the victim identity / Christian sexual ethics / Leaders are readers / Missionary meditations from the Middle East / Personal callings / and more.

  • Here We Stand! A Call from Confessing Evangelicals for a Modern Reformation

    Thirty years ago, evangelical leaders gathered in Cambridge, MA, to take a stand for truth. That moment led to the Cambridge Declaration—and sparked a call for a modern Reformation. Now, Here We Stand! returns in a newly revised edition from Alliance Publishing with new insights from leading voices like Carl Trueman, Sean Michael Lucas, and…

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (March 23)

    Equipping your children to navigate a hostile world / What you know about your spouse / The tyranny of Christian experience / From marching to murmuring / The Bible isn’t a smartphone / Love the hard ones / Kindle deals / and more.