Skip to content ↓

Weekend A La Carte (August 10)

You will find a few Kindle deals to look through today.

(Yesterday on the blog: 10 New and Notable Books for August)

The Church of Chicken

I thoroughly enjoyed this long article on Chick-fil-A. It tells “the inside story of how Chick-fil-A used Christian values and a ‘clone army’ to build a booming business that’s defying the retail apocalypse and taking over America.”

What Does ‘Born of Water and the Spirit’ Mean in John 3:5?

Is there anyone you’d rather have answer this than D.A. Carson?

The Search for Relevance Makes Allegorists of Us All

Here’s a solid article from Iain Duguid on how people on every side of the debate on the nature of Song of Solomon can get it so wrong.

Make Sunday Mornings Uncomfortable

This is so simple but so important. “We may never know what difference a small act of welcome made. But sometimes God lets us see how he has weaved our little acts into his much greater plan.”

Independent Booksellers and the Future of Western Thought

I share these concerns and have others I may write about in the near future. “Away from such frippery, other issues have been working themselves out in my mind, a growing concern about what we might forfeit in sidestepping hard copy, and sidelining independent booksellers. I genuinely believe that there are some huge philosophical and political issues at stake if our culture migrates from the shelf to the cloud, the text to the eBook, and it is these that I want to think out loud about in this post.”

When Free Speech Clashes With Trans Power

“Libraries exist for use by the community, having long since gone beyond books and becoming collective spaces for all people. That includes people who don’t toe a progressive political ideology. In being banned from Pride, the Library’s right to provide access to their public space came into conflict with their desire to express inclusion. Apparently, according to Pride, the only way to be inclusive is to exclude people Pride doesn’t agree with.”

Why Everybody Is Suddenly Allergic to Everything

I wonder if it’s really just this simple. “The evidence so far seems to indicate that grandpa was right — a little dirt is good for you. Eat dirt off the floor, let the dog give you kisses and let your baby inhale some dust. We might be too clean for our own good.”

Flashback: The New/Old Way Our Culture Pressures Us To Conform

Through the cross Jesus Christ took our guilt to give us innocence, he bore our shame to give us honor, he overcame Satan to take away our fear and give us power. The gospel transcends every culture and, in that way, has a powerful message for all of humanity.

Peace of conscience is nothing but the echo of pardoning mercy.

—William Gurnall

  • The Stranger

    The Stranger: A Short Film For You

    Based on a true story and inspired by the truth that character comes before competence, “The Stranger” is an honest, light-hearted and meaningful picture of what it means to truly serve others.

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (July 9)

    A La Carte: The singer who changed the course of my life / Stay on the line / Incompatible thick communities / Lulla-Bible? / The solution is not megachurch / Who were the Anabaptists? / and more.

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (July 8)

    A La Carte: 15 ways to discern false teaching / The queering of history / The best part of my day / 6 kinds of hearers of God’s Word / Countering Muslim attacks on the Bible / Kindle deals / and more.

  • The Wonder of the Human Face

    The Wonder of the Human Face

    Then there are the wonders of human ingenuity: the machines, the inventions, the works of art. One lifetime is not nearly enough to explore or appreciate even the smallest fraction of them all.

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (July 7)

    A La Carte: A Christian patriot and his wayward nation / Outprinting the prosperity gospel / The organic church / A stranger in my homeland / Friendship’s faithful wounds / Sharing the gospel with someone who keeps rejecting it / Kindle deals / and more.

  • Pray Until You Feel Like It

    It is wise to set aside a time and place to pray—to build the habit and to then maintain it. But creating the habit may not always create the desire.