A La Carte (May 25)

Today’s Kindle deals includes what I guess you could consider a few odds and ends.

(Yesterday on the blog: How To Love Your Wife As Christ Loved the Church)

Did Jesus Demand We Kill His Enemies?

“In the gospel of Luke, Jesus says, ‘But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them—bring them here and kill them in front of me.’ Whoa, that doesn’t sound like the meek and mild-mannered Jesus we know. Did He wake up on the wrong side of the bed? What’s going on?”

The Dignity of Being a Sinner

Strangely enough, there is great dignity attached to the label “sinner.” Here’s why.

The Amazing Psychology of Japanese Train Stations

“It is a scene that plays out each weekday morning across Tokyo. Suit-clad office workers, gaggles of schoolchildren, and other travelers gamely wend their way through the city’s sprawling rail stations. To the casual observer, it is chaos; commuters packed shoulder-to-shoulder amid the constant clatter of arriving and departing trains. But a closer look reveals something more beneath the surface: A station may be packed, yet commuters move smoothly along concourses and platforms. Platforms are a whirl of noisy activity, yet trains maintain remarkable on-time performance. Indeed, the staggering punctuality of the Japanese rail system occasionally becomes the focus of international headlines—as on May 11, when West Japan Railways issued a florid apology after one of its commuter trains left the station 25 seconds early.”

9 Things You Should Know About Wicca and Modern Witchcraft

“A growing number of young women—driven by feminist politics and the #MeToo movement—are being drawn to a new brand of witchcraft, according to a report by NBC News. Here are nine things you should know about Wicca and modern witchcraft.”

For $200K, Would You Rather Buy a Box in Manhattan or a Mansion in San Antonio?

Here is an interesting visual on how much house you can buy for $200K all across the US.

A Concern with Chan’s Home Church Planting Model: A Gentle Call for Correction

This is a humble critique of Francis Chan’s home church planting model (or, rather, the way some refer to it as church at its purest).

Maybe Women are Some of the Worst Offenders

“Certain men have sewn devastating colors into the fabric of womanhood. They have ripped through the threads of what God created us to be, and they have decided that we have less purpose and less value and less soul, maybe. They have decided that there is no real beauty, only empty bodies that exist to be crushed by the will of a man. Yet, in the middle of all of the outcry in the past couple of years, in the midst of all of the words that needed to be said and all of the realities that are coming out that are still showing us how very deep and abiding this men and women problem really is, we have missed one of the most devastating realities of our time. One of the main reasons that women are viewed as objects, as heartless, soulless, and mindless bodies to use and abuse is this: women speak of other women as if it is true.”

Flashback: Ordinary Christian Work

We please God—we thrill God—when we live as ordinary people in ordinary lives who use our ordinary circumstances to proclaim and live out an extraordinary gospel.