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A La Carte (12/10)

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The Year’s Best Music
CT offers a rather bizarre roundup of the year’s best music (99% of which none of us have ever heard of). Like this: “John Darnielle calls himself a ‘Catholic atheist,’ but he knows his Bible, and writes twelve songs based on specific verses here. This album, sparsely acoustic and beautiful, is neither ‘worship’ nor ‘Christian’ music per se, but it feels sacramental, with its intimate production and songs of beauty, depravity, faith, violence, love, hopelessness, hope, life, and death–kind of like, you know, the Bible.” I enjoy CT’s music reviews, but this list is a mess.


An Amazon Factoid
My buddy Jesse shares an Amazon factoid that I found really fascinating. Amazon could sell all of its product at cost and still make money. He explains how.


Deals @ ChristianAudio
If you’re into audio books you’ll want to check out the deals at ChristianAudio. Among the deals they are offering you a $10 gift certificate for every $25 gift certificate you buy for someone else.


Appalachian Conference on Theology
West Virginian’s take note: Randolph Street Baptist Church is hosting Steven Lawson for a conference on theology and the church.


Top 10 Everything
TIME offers up their top 10 of everything from 2009.


A Statement from Ligon Duncan
Ligon Duncan has issued a statement on The Manhattan Declaration. “The issue boils down to a matter of judgment, not a disagreement in principle, between those Council members who signed and didn’t sign. The non-signers believe that the content of the document and the associations of the primary authors imply an ECT-like confusion about the Gospel. The signers believe that the explicit assertions and emphasis of the documents relate only to areas of principled social-ethical agreement between evangelicals and non-evangelicals. Further, they believe that it is important for individuals from the major quadrants of the historic Christian tradition to speak on these pressing matters in solidarity.”


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    A La Carte (November 21)

    A La Carte: Lessons from Trump’s and Harris’s social media campaigns / What is my spiritual gift? / The messages we receive / 10 mistakes I’ve made in preaching / Big Kindle and book sales / and more.

  • Finn

    I’m a Grandfather!

    Yesterday Abby and Nathan welcomed their first child into the world: Finnegan Safir Nicholas Elfarrah. Because they live just minutes away, Aileen and I were able to be there shortly after his birth to rejoice with them and to meet our first grandchild. We are thrilled beyond measure. And he is cute beyond belief. They…

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    A La Carte (November 20)

    A La Carte: Pray till you pray / Do children need to consent to puberty? / Pleading for Sodom / A thought experiment / 10 mistakes when reading the Bible / Kindle deals / and more.

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    A La Carte (November 19)

    A La Carte: Good night, my son / The longing for justice following sexual assault / Daughter of encouragement / Mistakes I made as a theological student / The dangers of disordered love / Kindle deals / and more.

  • What Grieves the Heart of God

    What Grieves the Heart of God?

    What pleases God? What delights his heart? And what displeases God? What grieves his heart? If asked, I think most of us would assume that if we ever grieve the heart of God it will be through denying the gospel or committing a grave moral scandal. Or if we do so as a local church,…