A La Carte (December 3)

May the Lord be with you and bless you today.

Today’s Kindle deals include a couple of good books for teens as well as a couple of commentaries and some other solid picks.

Westminster Books has all of their ESV Bibles marked down at least 50%. A few are discounted as deeply as 70%.

(Yesterday on the blog: Modesty Requires Looking Away)

On So-Called ‘Gender Pronoun Hospitality’

You would not be wrong if you surmised that much of what John Piper believes about gender pronouns is revealed by the title of this edition of Ask Pastor John which speaks of “so-called ‘gender pronoun hospitality.’”

Missing My Izzy

Brandon is missing his Izzy—his young daughter who went to be with the Lord a couple of years ago. He writes a moving post in which he wonders what Izzy is doing right now.

Keep This in Mind When There Is “Too Much to Do”

Though this article from D.A. Carson and John Woodbridge is addressed primarily to pastors, there’s wisdom there for all of us.

The Joy of Our Adoption

This is a precious meditation on the joy of our adoption. “At our finalization ceremony, our attorney asked us, ‘Do you understand that if the court grants your petition [to adopt the child], you’ll be responsible for all of his needs as if he had been born to you?’ We answered in the affirmative and marveled at how that one question could carry so much weight.”

Is Christmas a Pagan Tradition?

You’ve heard it said, I’m sure, that Christmas is a pagan tradition. Kevin DeYoung goes digging to address the claim.

The Passion of Jordan Peterson

Bethel McGrew has a long and interesting article on Jordan Peterson. “That was what separated Peterson from other articulate public intellectuals of his generation—people who were successful, but on nothing like this scale. More than merely articulate, more than merely passionate, he was compassionate. He didn’t simply talk to people. He actively loved them, so intensely that it seemed he was at all times attempting to take the burdens of all humanity on his own shoulders. Yes, he was also a polemicist, a political lightning-rod, a man with a knack for making all the most annoying people furious with him all at once. But we had many great polemicists. We had many great gadflies. What we didn’t have was a great humanist.”