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A La Carte (July 29)

Today’s Kindle deals include 3 books I highly recommend: The Gospel by Ray Ortlund; Core Christianity by Michael Horton; and Church History 101 by Sinclair Ferguson, Joel Beeke, and Michael Haykin. You can find the deals right here.

On the print book side, Westminster Books has a great sale on the venerable NICNT commentary series. You can build yourself a commentary collection in a hurry with these volumes. (For specific commentary recommendations, you can visit my Best Commentaries page.

Godly Compassion for Hurting People

John MacArthur describes “a wonderful, practical, real-life illustration of God’s compassion.”

The Word of God and the Academy

Tim Grant: “I have noticed that those from the academy give the impression that the Bible belongs to them—that they have a special claim on it and that they have a special claim to understand it, due to their great learning, general smartness, or a PhD they completed at some point in the past. They are, at this point, deeply mistaken.”

The Camera Adds 10 Pounds

You’ve heard it said before that the camera adds 10 pounds. This quite gif shows how that’s the case. It’s all about the lens!

Touched by Biblical Beauty

George Guthrie: “The world may be ‘death impregnated,’ as one of my mentors used to say, and most of us know the bite of suffering in one form or another, but it also is brim-full of beauty because it everywhere bears the mark of his thumbprint, his “It was very good” (Gen. 1:31). The common graces of tastes, sights, touch, sounds, enduring friendship, love, joy, community. And much, much beauty has been squeezed into the world through the funnel of God’s good Word, the Bible.”

This Day in 1775. 241 years ago today, the U.S. Army Chaplaincy was founded, making it the second oldest branch of that service after the Infantry. *

The Attractional Church’s Growing Irrelevance

Jared Wilson does what he does so well: “I find it incredibly interesting, sort of amusing, and more than a bit sad that the attractional church—what we used to call the “seeker church”—hasn’t seemed to grow up at all. Yes, it’s grown big. But growing big and growing up aren’t the same thing.”

The Rearview Mirror

“We see Providence in the rearview mirror. In my experience, it is usually far less clear looking over the dashboard. It’s when we look back that we can see how God was working all things together for his glory and our good.”

Trumped

Despite the title, this is not really an article about Trump. It is, in fact, about the church and a role the church ought to play.

Flashback: Why We Fail at Family Devotions

Here are some common reasons that we fail in our good desire to have family devotions.

Carson

If we harbor bitterness and resentment, praying is little more than wasted time and effort.

—D.A. Carson

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    Weekend A La Carte (May 24)

    A La Carte: When the music stops / Not every meal is a steak dinner / I don’t know where the streams are / The wonder of forgiveness / Authentic preaching in the age of AI / and more.

  • You Me and G3

    You, Me, and G3

    I have fond memories of the early years of the G3 Conference. When G3 held its debut event in 2013, I was one of the invited speakers and it quickly became a tradition. For eight years I fell into the comfortable pattern of making an annual trip to Atlanta. I would almost always speak in…

  • A La Carte Friday 2

    A La Carte (May 23)

    A La Carte: Pornography and the threat of men / When there’s no time to pray / When ball becomes Baal / Six answers to the problem of evil / 7 secular sermons / and more.

  • A La Carte Thursday 1

    A La Carte (May 22)

    A La Carte: Kevin DeYoung reviews John Mark Comer / Kay Arthur (1933-2025) / Overcoming fear in the waiting room / Be drunk with love? / Church grandpas and grandmas / Do you see God? / and more.

  • AI

    AI Makes Me Doubt Everything

    Most technological innovations take place slowly and then all at once. We first begin to hear about them as distant possibilities, then receive the first hints that they are drawing near, and then one day we realize they are all around us.