A La Carte (September 22)

Thanks for reading A La Carte! I consider it a privilege to be able to put this together day by day, and I’m grateful to all who read it. I hope there’s something in today’s edition that proves interesting and helpful.

Yesterday on the blog: A Pair of Important Lessons from the Demise of G3

Sales & Deals

Today’s Kindle deals include some commentaries and a popular Paul Washer book. On the general market side, Freya India’s GIRLS® is on sale for the first time. It’s worth reading.

Recommended Reading

John Piper’s Six Traits of a Forgettable Sermon. John Piper answers a question from a concerned preacher. “The feedback I get on my sermons is consistent: I sound too technical and I am not engaging enough. My conviction is to stay very close to the text so Scripture can speak with authority. But how do I receive this counsel humbly, becoming more engaging, while remaining rigorously faithful to the Bible? And what are common preaching traits that you would say lack audience engagement?”

On Women Who Think They Regret Motherhood. Melissa Edgington: “I spent some time this week delving into the world of the regretful moms. It became a strange trend on TikTok apparently: moms expressing all of the reasons they shouldn’t have had children. As I watched and read comments from sorrowful moms, I found myself becoming completely overwhelmed by sadness, too. We were all children once, helpless, annoying, needy, sickly, disobedient, messy, and a constant issue for our mothers. But a mother’s love has been revered throughout the history of humankind as one of the purest forms of affection.”

Four Questions Every Counselor Must Be Able to Answer Regarding Suffering. Here, from the Biblical Counseling Coalition, are four questions related to suffering that a counselor needs to be able to answer. “For the biblical counselor, these questions matter. As we seek to serve those who suffer, we listen as they describe what has happened, what they fear may happen, and what they believe their circumstances mean. We want to listen carefully and compassionately. At the same time, we must help them understand their suffering in light of what God says is true.”

6 Ways a Christian Husband Cherishes His Wife. The statistics tell me that people who read A La Carte love articles that are structured as lists, so here’s one for you from Beautiful Christian Life.

Two Ways to Worry About AI. Andrew Noble describes some of the ways that people worry about AI and then attempts to speak to those fears. “There is plenty that AI might do. We simply do not know. It may bring about an end to much of this world, but it cannot bring an end to the church. It may cause tragedy in this life, but it won’t change our eternal home. Christians are not to fear the things that can kill the body but cannot touch the soul (Matt. 10:28). If you have faith in Jesus Christ, he gives you eternal blessings. No one can snatch you out of his hand (John 10:28). God’s got you. Don’t worry. Rest in him.”

Where Will 35,385 People Pray? Michael Jensen writes about the government’s plan to build a new neighborhood, but spots something that is conspicuous by its absence. “What caught my attention wasn’t that the report was hostile to religion. Far from it. It was something weirder than that. Religion was almost entirely invisible. Perhaps the authors meant to cover it under the designation ‘cultural spaces’, but that catch-all term is so vague as to be meaningless.”

New Books

It’s Tuesday which means we’ve got some new books releasing.

Persuasive Preaching by David R. Helm & Jeremy Meeks. “This companion book to 9Marks’ Expositional Preaching shows you how to deliver sermons with persuasive power. David Helm and Jeremy Meeks offer practical, Scripture-based tips to build compelling arguments, simplify your sermons so they’re easy to follow, contextualize your message to reach more people, and cultivate a godly ethos in your ministry.”

Why We Worship: Experiencing Heaven on Earth at Church by Adriel Sanchez. “Why We Worship reenchants our spiritual imagination, helping us rediscover the beauty of worship in Scripture and draw upon the richness of Christian liturgy through the ages. Sanchez delves into the biblical underpinnings and historical development of the core parts of a worship service, casting a vision for corporate worship’s vital role in healthy Christian spirituality and discipleship.”

Greater Sins, Greater Grace by Jeff Moore. “Are all sins equal? With pastoral clarity and rigorous scholarship, Moore demonstrates from Scripture that while all sin brings guilt before God, the Bible itself distinguishes degrees of sin—and magnifies the depth of divine grace that meets even the gravest offenses.”

God’s Presence with Us and in Us by Miguel G. Echevarría. “Miguel Echevarría explores how the divine personal Spirit has one of the most prominent roles in the Bible. The Holy Spirit is both with God’s people and also in them, guiding and bringing about God’s mission of new creation. From Genesis to Revelation, the Holy Spirit is at work in God’s people and in the world.”

Flashback

God Has Found You Faithful. God is the one who has called you to walk this path, and he is the one who has called you to walk it faithfully… He has found you faithful in small things and has now entrusted to you this very large thing. You have been faithful in little and now you have been set over much.