A La Carte (June 5)

Good morning. Grace and peace to you.

As is almost always the case on Mondays, there are some new Kindle deals available.

(Yesterday on the blog: Despise Not a Mother’s Love)

Boring Kingdom Growth

“Describe the kingdom of God. What words do you use? Amazing. Awesome. Wonderful. Exponential. Mighty. Terrific. What analogies would we use? I doubt you’d first think of what Jesus uses in Mark 4.”

Don’t Be Taken in by the Tolerance Trick

Greg Koukl warns against being taken in by the “tolerance trick.” “Real tolerance … is about how we treat people, not ideas. Classic tolerance requires that every person be free to express his ideas without fear of abuse or reprisal, not that all views have equal validity, merit, or truth.”

What 80s Parents Got Right About Pop Culture

Christians rightly have a complicated relationship with pop culture. There’s wisdom to be gleaned from this approach.

Thomas Aquinas, the Evangelical?

Leonardo De Chirico is working on a book on Aquinas and considers the idea some are suggesting today: that Aquinas can be associated with Evangelicalism.

Pray as Slaves

“I confess that sometimes when I pray I can forget my place. Embarrassingly, I come to God to give Him a little advice. I’m not sure He fully understands the situation down on the ground, so I need to let Him know what’s going on and give Him a slight corrective. Because if He knew what I knew, then He’d surely handle things a little differently.”

Unfolding a Letter of Encouragement

“If you look down the corridor of history it’s easy to spot a multitude of Christians who have endured severe consequences for the sake of Jesus Christ — a good reminder that Jesus’ words are fulfilled in every generation of the church: ‘If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you’ (John 15:18).”

Flashback: Unanswered Prayer

Why are there times when God seems not to answer? If a good Father would never give his children a stone in place of bread, why does it seem like God sometimes does this very thing?

We only fully grasp the gospel when we understand, as Paul did, that we are the worst sinner we know. —Tim Keller