A La Carte (September 25)

Sales & Deals

Today’s Kindle deals include some good options from Christian Focus. You’ll find some other noteworthy deals besides them.

Recommended Reading

Why Christians Should Delete Social Media. Don’t be afraid to be challenged, even by a proposal as radical as this one. “Social media is bad for you. It’s bad for the world, for politics, for young people. In fact, it’s bad for everybody, at every level, and no platform is exempt: not Facebook, not X, not Instagram or TikTok or Bluesky. Nor is there some edifying version of social media in the offing. (I’m looking at you, Substack Notes.) In the end, they’re all different portals to the same cesspool. Perhaps this paragraph strikes you as extreme. It shouldn’t. In a country as polarized as ours, one of the few truly bipartisan points of agreement is that social media is a deranging presence in our common life.”

What Should You Look for in a Church? Costi Hinn lays out some of what you should value as you look for a new church. “I can’t tell you how many people I’ve met who spent years in a church but were still starving spiritually. They attended churches that were friendly, vibey, full of entertainment, fun, and programs for the kids, but even after years of a generally enjoyable ‘Sunday experience,’ they struggled to explain the gospel, navigate Scripture, regularly go to war against their sin, and confidently live the Christian life. Their homes were happy on the outside, but not thriving on the inside.”

You Can’t Be Self Made: Independence Is an Illusion. “Nothing is more American than thinking of ourselves as people who pulled ourselves up by our bootstraps and made life work. We all admire the ‘self-made’ man or woman, so called. Inspirational films are filled with storylines of people who pushed against the tide, did things their own way, and won out in the end.” Yet Nicholas McDonald thinks it’s important to realize that independence is actually an illusion, and an unhelpful one at that.

Rebuilding Intimacy: An Appeal to Husbands Who Have Been Unfaithful. I wish that articles like this one weren’t necessary, but sadly they are. “Thank you, brother, for your willingness to hear from someone you don’t know about something so deeply personal as rebuilding intimacy with your wife. My desire is to represent many wives who have sought help through our ministry—all of whom have questions about sex after their husband’s sexual betrayal. Porn use, affairs, cross-dressing, gender transition—all these sexual issues in husbands have a profound effect on their wives and on their sexual intimacy as a couple.”

Do We Make Too Much or Too Little of Angels? Trevin Wax gives a good answer to a good question: Do we make too much or too little of angels? “Are evangelicals obsessed with angels and demons? Or do evangelicals not give enough attention to the unseen realm? How you respond to this question will likely be driven, at least in part, by your background and church experiences, and perhaps your faith tradition.”

Michael Scott’s Christian Nationalism. Andrew T. Walker offers a realistic assessment of the current state of Christian Nationalism. “It rests on an over-realized eschatology—it rests on immediate triumph only to deliver frustration and disappointment. It is political idealism at the expense of political realism. It denies the pervasive reality of the antithesis. It downplays the doctrine of sin, believing that those vested with articulating (and imposing) Christian nationalism have finally figured out the proper formula to enact it without repeating the parade of horribles that accompanied Christian establishment through history. It dilutes the doctrine of regeneration by subjecting Christianity to the lowest common denominator, thinning out doctrinal robustness for nominalist pottage.”

Staple of Conversation

Here’s a thought-provoking quote from the works of J.R. Miller:

What is the staple of conversation now among average Christians? Listen for a day, and make careful note of every word you hear. How much of it is worth recording? How many sentences are spiritually helpful, calculated to kindle higher aspirations or start upward impulses? How much of it is utterly empty and idle, mere chaff that feeds no heart-hunger, inspires no energy, kindles no joy, and helps no one to live better? How much of it is careless scandal, unjust and injurious criticism of the absent? How much of it that flatters and pleases is hypocritical and insincere?

Flashback

When You Long to Know the “Why” Behind Your Sorrow. Instead of searching for the reasons for your tragedy, look to the character of God—all the things he has revealed about himself. Where your temptation may be to interpret God through what you know about your tragedy, it is infinitely more important to interpret your tragedy through what you know about God.