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Weekend A La Carte (March 23)

weekend

Today’s Kindle deals include some classics that are worth looking at.

(Yesterday on the blog: My Favorite “Minor” Museums)

The Industrial Revolution of Shame

Wow. “We are undergoing an industrial revolution in shame. New technologies have radically expanded our ability to make and distribute a product. The product is our judgment of one another. As in past industrial revolutions, the mass manufacture and use of a product previously available to just a few or in small amounts has given us the power to do harm at a previously unthinkable scale.”

Christian Wisdom Amid the Gurus

Samuel James has some interesting analysis here. “To ignore the dynamics into which these gurus write and speak seems to be a way of ensuring that the chaff never gets peeled from the wheat. For good or ill, Hollis, Peterson, and Ramsey are resonating with millions of people, many of whom are Christian, with messages of taking responsibility for life, letting go of shame and excuses, and believing that a better future is possible. Gurus exist to fill gaps—intellectual gaps, emotional gaps, spiritual gaps, etc. How they fill those gaps matters, but the gaps themselves matter too.”

Single Mothers And Their Triune God

And now from another Samuel. “Mom explained it all to me when I was a boy. She was a single mother, but she wasn’t alone. The man of the house abandoned us. But the God of the house wouldn’t forsake us. Mom was a single mother with multiple divine persons who protected her household. Mom was a single mother with a triune God.”

Why a Cat Always Lands on its Feet (Video)

Just like the description says…

On Saying Goodbye

“While we don’t think too theologically when we say the word, perhaps we should. God be with you is acknowledging that from now on, I’m not with you. Goodbyes are the end of relational presence and being physically together. When we are physically present we are able to watch over each other and care for each other. Verbal and non-verbal communication is instantaneous.”

The Goldilocks Principle and Church Size

Joe Carter points out how unexamined assumptions often drive church planting. “I suspect we could do a better job in thinking about how we think about numbers. For example, before we can understand what it means to say a church has plateaued or declined in attendance, we should be able to answer the question, ‘What size should a church be?’”

Matthew 18 is Not Instructive for Book Reviews, But Much of the New Testament Is

Jen Oshman deals something that happens whenever a Christian critically reviews a book. “‘Did you contact the author privately before you posted the review?’ I’ve received this question several times over the last couple weeks, following my review of Rachel Hollis’s most recent book, Girl, Stop Apologizing. The question invokes the well-known, but oft-misunderstood, church discipline passage in Matthew 18:15-20.”

Flashback: 5 Reasons to Rejoice in Persecution

There are at least two ways that God tests you in times of persecution: He tests the genuineness of your faith, and he tests the maturity of your faith.

Trials are intended to make us think—to wean us from the world—to send us to the Bible—to drive us to our knees.

—J.C. Ryle

  • The Pursuit of Virtue

    God’s character is the essence of virtue. The heart of virtue is to know the Lord and to become like him, as a child resembles her father. That is the goal, privilege, and destiny of the redeemed. #Sponsored

  • When God Plants an Acorn

    When God Plants an Acorn, He Means an Oak

    We stood together on the crest of a hill, a gentle breeze rustling the meadow around our feet. The fields ran gently downward until they met a creek that gurgled happily in its course. A few years prior, an acorn had somehow made its way to the highest point of this hill, carelessly dropped there…

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    A La Carte (April 28)

    A La Carte: Protestantism’s Catholic converts / How healthy is your pursuit of health? / God’s special calling on your life / Considering a Christian university? / Testing the teachings of Catholicism / Kindle deals / and more.

  • New and Notable

    New and Notable Christian Books for April 2025

    It is surprisingly difficult to find a list of Christian books that have been released in any given month—especially if you want that list to be filtered by books released through particular publishers. That’s one of the reasons why I close each month by coming up with my list of New and Notable books. I…

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    Weekend A La Carte (April 26)

    A La Carte: Every pinch of pain has purpose / China closed Christian bookstores / Watch for the thing after the thing / For everything there is a time / Showers of blessing / What Pope Francis can teach us about preaching / and more.