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A La Carte (June 7)

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The God of love and peace be with you today.

In today’s Kindle deals you’ll find Al Mohler’s The Prayer that Turns the World Upside Down.

Westminster Books has the tremendous Focus on the Bible series of commentaries on sale. They are ideal for sermon preparation or personal study. The volumes by Dale Ralph Davis are typically considered especially strong. You’ll find discounts on individual volumes with deeper discounts on sets.

Feminism as a Critical Social Theory: Implications for Christians

This article will take a measure of time and concentration but will prove rewarding, I think. “With cultural conversations increasingly centered on the radical proposals of critical race theory and queer theory, discussions of gender and feminism seem almost obsolete. However, a deeper analysis reveals that contemporary feminism is a critical social theory which shares the same basic framework as its more extreme ideological cousins.”

Lessons From a Job Season

Travis shares some of what the Lord taught him through an extended Job season. “I yearned for answers that did not always come and prayed for relief that often seemed long delayed. But there were also plenty of ways in which I saw God’s hand clearly at work, and I want to share just a few of them.”

Was the Woman at the Well Married to Any of the Five Men?

Denny Burk suggests that we may not have properly translated a well-known passage. “There is one detail in Jesus’ interaction with the woman at the well that caught my attention this time because I think it may be rendered incorrectly in most English translations.”

Holy Haggling: Learn to Pray Like Abraham

I’ve often thought about the way Abraham haggled with God. “At first glance, Abraham’s conversation with God in Genesis 18 may seem like one of the oddest stories in Scripture. Abraham haggling with God over the destruction of Sodom—and God negotiating the terms of judgment with a mere man? It’s a story I’d never have been bold enough to make up.”

The Other D-Day: Operation Forager

Kim Riddelbarger writes and records lots of interesting material. Yesterday, on the 80th anniversary of D-Day, he took a pause from writing theology to share an account of another consequential invasion.

The Problem With Livestreams

Patrick Miller writes about the problem (or one of the problems, at least) with livestreams. “A digital ministry, if you’re going to have one, can’t be skeuomorphic. It must be native to the digital platform. And the minute you go native, you must reflect on the nature of how that medium changes the message and the content itself—lest the medium become your message.”

Flashback: Your Loved Ones Love You Still

Though torn from this world and separated from their bodies for a time, they are not torn from who they were.

…the only way to be productive is to realize we don’t actually have to be productive (our goal is to please God, not appease God).

—Matt Perman

  • Gospel way

    Truths That Take on the World

    Christianity has a long history with catechisms—summaries of key doctrines that are arranged in a question-and-answer format. Traditionally, Presbyterians would be taught The Shorter Catechism, Dutch Reformed believers The Heidelberg Catechism, and Baptists one of the Baptist equivalents. Sadly, the use of catechisms began to decline as the years went by, so that it became…

  • A La Carte Friday 2

    A La Carte (January 16)

    A La Carte: Business meetings at the urinal / Ambition and competition / The loneliness crisis / Better than feeling seen / Exhausted and overwhelmed / Kindle deals / and more.

  • A La Carte Thursday 1

    A La Carte (January 15)

    A La Carte: Young people are turning to the Bible / What conservative young men need / Justifying self-gratification / The influence of reading / On boredom / and more.

  • Remember

    It Doesn’t Matter What You Remember

    I have a memory like a … what do you call it? That thing in the kitchen you use to sift the stuff you want from the stuff you don’t. A sieve! That’s it. I have a memory like a sieve. I joke about it at times, and about how I have to outsource remembering…

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (January 14)

    A La Carte: Always being right / Sex advice for newlyweds / Making Christianity look good / Soul care / Stop straining for shortcuts / When writing feels like a chair / Rare Kindle deals / and more.

  • Post Woke

    Are We Post Woke?

    It is too early to tell, I think, whether the “wokeness” craze has already peaked and even begun to slip into decline, or whether it’s just pausing to gather energy for another surge. What seems clear for the moment, though, is that it has lost at least some of its initial momentum, probably because it…