As we head into the weekend, I wanted to remind you what’s coming up. Tomorrow I’ll feature some think pieces and long-form content in Weekend A La Carte. On Sunday I’ll share some interesting, uplifting, and encouraging bits and pieces that are meant to help you start the new week well.
Sales & Deals
Today’s Kindle deals include John Piper’s Five Points, Sproul’s If There’s a God Why Are There Atheists?, and more.
10ofThose is having a “super sale” until Sunday. They are offering up to 70% off on some great books like DeYoung’s Daily Doctrine, Leeman’s Authority, Miller’s A Praying Life, and so on.
Recommended Reading
View Your Past Through the Lens of God’s Faithfulness. Michael Kelley is onto something important here. “What if instead of looking backward wondering about God’s faithfulness, we looked backward assuming His faithfulness? That is to say, what if we believed the Bible when it tells us that God is faithful? When we change our lenses to that starting point, we already know God has been faithful; we are just looking for the evidence of that faithfulness.”
Nine Marks of a Healthy Paragraph: Practical Suggestions for Improving a Pastor’s Writing. Anyone who writes will be helped by the suggestions Matt Smethurst makes in this article. “Let me offer nine marks of a healthy paragraph—shorthand for words people will want to read. Writing is an art form, which means taste and judgment are involved. So these are not laws. They’re simply lessons I’ve picked up through editing, practice, and making plenty of mistakes along the way.”
The Treasure Chest at the Train Station. Seth Lewis makes a really helpful comparison in this one. “One morning as my wife and I were waiting for a train at our local station, I cast my eyes over the familiar utilitarian scene with its phone-holding inhabitants and I noticed something I had never paid attention to before. On the far side of the tracks there was an unassuming yellow-plastic treasure chest. I could see a padlock on it, but the latch was in front of the lock, ready to open.”
Can Jesus Really Sympathize With My Specific Struggles? I think a lot of us have wondered this in the past: Can Jesus actually sympathize with my specific struggles? “Jesus was an unmarried Jewish male who left earth in his early thirties. This means, among other things, that he was never elderly, never had kids, and never experienced life as a woman. You can see how all this might seem to put distance between him and some of us.”
When You’re Too Weird to Lead. “I’ve noticed that there are moments in church life when a man can feel the importance of a task before him and at the same time, think himself inadequate. I know those moments well, because I experience them often.” Many of us feel the same.
When You Have Nothing Left to Give. Wes Bredenhof responds faithfully to some hard medical news. “I’m not sure if I’ll preach again. I don’t know if I have anything more to give in terms of ministry. So what do I have left? If there’s nothing else, I can still take AJ’s advice and give thanks. I can give thanks for the gospel that has reconciled me to God, the gospel I’ve been privileged to preach for over 25 years. I can give thanks for the abilities and possibilities God has given me to serve his people both here in Australia and in Canada.”
Headlines
A (Kind of) New Seminary. Here’s an unexpected piece of news: Biola University is acquiring Phoenix Seminary and rebranding it Talbot Seminary Phoenix. When the consolidation is complete, it will be the second biggest seminary in the United States that is not tied to a denomination. (Phoenix Seminary has probably been best known to this point for being the academic home to Wayne Grudem.)
Bethel Church Announces Reforms. Bethel Church is an evil institution that has fostered both false doctrine and ugly immorality. It has recently announced major reforms, including cutting ties with several former leaders and strengthening accountability. Sadly, it does not seem that they intend to reform their aberrant doctrine. (For more on Bethel, read Anne Kennedy’s article at CRI.)
A La Quiz
- Katie Laitkep wrote about a crucial but overlooked aspect of God’s providence. What was it? (Find out)
- Matthew Loftus expressed his concern about a kind of therapy many men are pursuing today. What is the therapy? (Find out)
- Michael Krahn called upon pastors to be less concerned about professionalism and more concerned about another word that starts with “p.” What was it? (Find out)
Flashback
Husbands in Flirtation. “Every true-hearted husband should seek to be worthy of the wife he has already won. For her sake, he should reach out after the noblest achievements and strive to attain the loftiest heights of character.”
Unless we are born of the Spirit of God, unless God sheds His holy love in our hearts, unless He stoops in His grace to change our hearts, we will not love Him.
—R.C. Sproul
