A La Carte (July 3)

Today’s Kindle deals include a good dose of C.S. Lewis and some other good books besides.

We are only a couple of weeks out from An EPIC Evening in Edinburgh. Come join me for questions & answers, some giveaways, and, of course, fellowship! I’ll look forward to seeing you there!

(Yesterday on the blog: When Failure Saves and Success Destroys)

When Ground Floor Projects Are Pushed One Floor Up

“The reason there has been so much heat in our ethical debates of late is that our secular, sexular culture has moved all of its non-transcendent ground floor projects one floor up to the second floor, a floor given over to transcendence.”

My State Turned My Life Upside Down Because of My Religious Beliefs

Barronelle Stutzman: “This isn’t just about my freedom. It is about everyone’s freedom. If the government can require us to create art and participate in sacred events, or take all we own and destroy us for declining to submit to its demands, then we aren’t really free. Wherever you stand on the issue of same-sex marriage, we should all fear a government that can crush one side or the other.”

Keeping the Faith in a Faithless Age

Al Mohler: “For centuries, the Christian church has been the center of Western civilization. Western culture, government, law, and society were based on explicitly Christian principles. Concern for the individual, a commitment to human rights, and respect for the good, the beautiful, and the true—all of these grew out of Christian convictions and the influence of revealed religion. All of these, we now hasten to add, are under serious attack. The very notion of right and wrong is now discarded by large sectors of American society. Where it is not discarded, it is often debased. Taking a page out of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, modern secularists simply declare wrong, right, and right, wrong.”

Teen Tommy John Surgeries, Youth Sports Injuries Reach Epidemic Proportions

I suppose this aptly shows our society’s idolatry of sports. “When Tommy John underwent the revolutionary surgical procedure on his left elbow in 1974 that would become his namesake, it was a desperate measure to save a valuable pitcher’s major league career. More than 40 years later, it has become commonplace for an injury that has reached epidemic proportions at all levels of baseball. The son of the former pitcher finds it alarming that the surgery synonymous with his father’s name is most often performed on players in their teens.”

Who Needs Palliative Care When We Have Euthanasia?

This seems like an inevitable aspect of the growth of euthanasia. “‘Palliative care’ refers to medical treatments that ease pain and suffering, particularly for the terminally ill. But in jurisdictions that have legalized euthanasia, palliative care is becoming less and less available. This, in turn, causes more patients to turn to physician-assisted suicide. So observes Wesley J. Smith, who cites a physician in the Netherlands: ‘One doctor once infamously said he didn’t need palliative care when he had euthanasia.’”

Pastor, Preach Hypocritical Sermons

“Not a single one of us can go their whole lives without preaching a hypocritical sermon or writing a hypocritical lesson. At some point, we are going to have to address issues that we ourselves have difficulty understanding and adhering to. We will inevitably call people to be obedient to a standard that we ourselves fall short of, and we will give advice and instruction to our churches that we need a healthy dose of ourselves. But this shouldn’t cause us to shy away from preaching the Word of God in all its fullness. When confronted with the opportunity to preach a hypocritical sermon, there are three things we shouldn’t do.”

Do You Really Know What Your Kid’s Doing on That Device?

Parents! “Many teens themselves say it’s surprisingly common for kids to live online lives that are all but invisible to most parents — for better or worse. Parents are clearly outmatched. Exposed to tablets and smartphones at an increasingly early age, kids are correspondingly savvier about using them and easily share tips with friends. Parents, by contrast, are both overwhelmed and often naive about what kids can do with sophisticated devices”

Flashback: Act Your Age!

While immaturity may offer the illusion of ease and comfort, it over-promises and under-delivers. It actually keeps you from doing what God means for you to do and being who God means for you to be.