May the Lord bless and keep you today. This week Westminster Books is offering a discount on a book that will interest pastors, scholars, and serious students of the Bible. Talitha Cumi This is a sweet bit of writing. “With the quiet of the room and the mourning of the parents… With Peter and James and John looking on… With a twelve year old girl lying dead in her bed… With all the wailing outside and the mockery of Jesus…With the words of her death spreading around the small town… Jesus, the precious savior, takes this little girl by the hand and whispers in Aramaic: Talitha cumi.” The Deconversion Stories That Go Unnoticed Here is something to consider the next time you hear of a deconversion story. “I won’t speculate on the reasons for such celebrity deconversions as I am poorly qualified to speak on any of it. What is striking to me though is that for every high-profile professed Christian that turns his back on the faith, there are 100s overseas that make the same stated professions, walk away from the faith….and it goes largely unnoticed.” Sometimes People Just Ain’t That Grateful Stephen Kneale points out that some people just aren’t all that grateful and says, “We can’t live and die on whether people are grateful for what we do.” The Insidious, Fake Intimacy of Algorithms Yikes! “Many of us have deeper relationships with the algorithms than with the people in our churches. This is not surprising. When we spend more time tapping on … Continue reading A La Carte (September 15)