A La Carte (June 19)

Sales & Deals

Today’s Kindle deals include several good titles from Christian Focus, such as Who He Says I Am: A Study of Our Identity in Christ. Keller’s The Meaning of Marriage is also as low as it’s ever been.

If you’re looking for a great resource for your children or grandchildren, you won’t do a whole lot better than The Biggest Story Bible Storybook. It’s deeply discounted right now at Westminster Books.

Recommended Reading

4 Right Responses to Times of Suffering. Randy Alcorn outlines four correct and God-glorifying responses to our inevitable times of suffering. “Based on what God has given us in Christ, we can be sure He’ll give us all we need to endure evil and suffering. ‘He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?’ (Romans 8:32). When God has given us the greatest gift, the one that cost Him everything, shouldn’t we trust Him to give us the good gifts that cost Him nothing?”

How Should Christians Read (and Apply) the Slaughter of Baal’s Prophets? Scott Hurst writes about a story most of us will remember: the story of Elijah besting and then slaughtering the prophets of Baal. “Before we can pass moral judgment on Elijah’s actions, however, we need to understand what he did and why he did it the way he did. Then we need to read this story on the other side of the cross.”

Embracing Your Physical Limitations as You Get Older. Cole Douglas Claybourn isn’t that old yet, but he’s thinking well about getting even older. “Accepting my own physical limitations feels like an easy way to fight back against a culture that seems to worship youthful appearance and ‘healthy,’ slim bodies. Anti-aging products and surgeries are celebrated and marketed like crazy, and now we have shots and pills that help you lose weight instantly, because the expectation is that even as we age, our bodies and face still need to look like they did in our prime.”

What Do You Do When You Fail? Jeffrey Stivason draws some interesting and hopeful applications from the dispute between Paul and John Mark. “The reality is that failure often leaves a mark on our reputation. People notice. People remember. Sometimes they form judgments that persist long after the event itself has passed. And when that happens we can either give in and live according to our failures or we can determine to be faithful in the face of ridicule and the tendency of others to relegate us to the waste bin determining that our usefulness has been, well, used up.”

Let the Little Children, Regardless of Genes, Come to Jesus. Andrew Walker: “Imagine going to the doctor’s office with your spouse to learn that your unborn child carries genetic traits likely to cause blindness. The doctor tells you about available gene therapies that can ‘edit’ out the genes causing blindness. Would you take advantage of this technology to spare your child from what is now an unnecessary hardship? This is no longer just a hypothetical.” (WORLD uses a metered paywall, which allows you several free articles per month.)

The Return of Enthusiasm in Modern Evangelicalism. This is a really interesting look at enthusiasm in modern Evangelicalism. The word “enthusiasm” needs to be understood correctly and historically: “Not ‘enthusiasm’ in the modern sense of excitement, but Enthusiasm in the historic Reformation sense: seeking God apart from the outward means He Himself has ordained.”

Reviews

I like to share my own book reviews as well as reviews written by others. Here are a couple that may be of interest:

• The Body Keeps the Score. Writing for TGC, Beth Claes writes what is pretty much a review of the ultra-popular The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk. “It has sold more than 3 million copies and spent eight years on the New York Times bestseller list. It’s been read and recommended by mental health professionals, trauma survivors, and many others who found the content helped make sense of their experiences and relationships.”
• Magnifica Humanitas. While I suppose a papal encyclical is not quite a book, it’s not far off. Leonardo De Chirico, a Protestant scholar of Catholicism, takes a close look at Pope Leo’s Magnifica Humanitas. “It is not a written rule, but a recognizable pattern: the first encyclical of a Pope sets the tone of the whole pontificate and Pope Leo XIV’s ‘Magnifica Humanitas’ (MH) – released after one year since his election – does exactly that.”

Flashback

Do You Envy the Wicked? To envy the wicked is to resent God—to fall into the age-old trap of believing that God is withholding something good from me, that I would be happier if he would allow me to enjoy what he forbids, to indulge in what he says is dangerous.