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A La Carte (August 1)

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The first day of a new month is an ideal time to ponder this: Right now, at this very moment, God is reigning from his throne. All will be well.

A new month brings a whole new batch of Kindle deals. I’ve added some already and should have a more complete list by 6:30 AM EST or so.

(Yesterday on the blog: What a New Day and New Month Will Bring)

Review: “Shepherds for Sale,” by Megan Basham

Megan Basham’s new book intends to show that many Evangelical leaders have sold out to a leftist agenda. Samuel James offers this thorough review which accounts for the book’s strengths and weaknesses. “Somewhere in the process of development, this book had something that would have been genuinely persuasive and effective. There’s a version of it that would have focused on evangelical consequences rather than evangelical motivations, and would have provided a perch for truth-conscious Christians, regardless of what presidential candidate they like, to reflect on lessons learned in a truly incredible decade.”

Cultivating Christlike Compassion on Social Media

This is a helpful call to cultivate Christlike compassion on social media. “It isn’t just my reputation on the line; I am a representative of something bigger than myself. The Lord has used this concept to point me toward an even greater reality: whenever I am on social media, regardless of what account I am logged into, I am a representative of Christ.”

What to Say to Dave About Regular Bible Reading

In this case, Dave stands in for that person you know who is struggling to read the Bible regularly. “Few of us have it fully sorted, and so we don’t feel qualified to tell others what they should be doing. I certainly don’t feel like I can speak from anything other than the wisdom that comes from regular failure. But failure is a good teacher, even if I’m not a good student, so here are five tips I might give to Dave.”

Who Wrote the Gospels? (Video)

Timothy Paul Jones explains how we can have confidence in the authorship of the gospels. This matters because it is a routine point of attack for skeptics.

Watch Your Heart in an Election Year

Casey McCall: “Truth and righteousness become elastic concepts that bend at the discretion of whoever stands behind the podium. When it comes to doing what’s right, it’s damned, if you do it; justified endlessly, if we do it. When it comes to truth-telling, the rules change based on who’s doing the talking. This all occurs within a financially lucrative media ecosystem that has mastered the art of keeping everyone perpetually outraged by focusing our attention on what’s wrong with them.”

Small Is Underrated

Small is often underrated. That’s true of churches, pastorates, disciplines, and much else.

Flashback: Cast Your Burden Upon the Lord

When we are heavily burdened we are to take one specific action: cast. We are to throw or hurl or toss our burdens upon the Lord. We are to bring them to his attention and to plead with him for his help. And so we close our eyes and pray or we lift our eyes and cry out for his help, his assistance, his deliverance.

Some men pray to be made holy, but they wish to keep some little pet sin in the backyard.

—C.H. Spurgeon

  • Not a Complimentary Gospel

    It Is Not a Complimentary Gospel

    I think we have all felt the temptation to modify the gospel, to preach a gospel that is inaccurate or incomplete. I think we have all felt the desire to avoid the reproach that may come upon us when we preach the whole gospel and true gospel—the gospel that is so very bad before it…

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    A La Carte (November 6)

    A La Carte: A warning about having children / Leave church a little tired / Making virtues out of what isn’t virtuous / Is Exodus a myth? / A theology of leisure / Kindle deals / and more.

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    A La Carte (November 5)

    A La Carte: Why women use pornography / I want God’s wrath on my enemy / Looking at photos with my mum / 10 things you should know about your conscience / I love being a pastor / and more.

  • A Beautiful 40-day Illustrated Devotional of Classic Literature

    This week the blog is sponsored by P&R Publishing. In the newest release by Leland Ryken, A Treasury of Nature, he joins great works of poetry, hymnody, prose, and art with accessible literary analysis. As Ryken says in the Introduction to his book: “The overall goal of this anthology is to enable nature to be…

  • Four Years After Our Hardest Day

    Four Years After Our Hardest Day

    Yesterday marked four years since Nick went to heaven. I find myself calling him “Nicky” more often now—a name I hadn’t used for him since he was a child. I wonder if it reflects that in some ways he is becoming dearer to my heart and younger to my mind. After all, I keep aging…

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    A La Carte (November 4)

    A La Carte: A reassured heart / Alistair Begg with biblical wisdom for voting / Unveiling the true nature of grumbling / Kevin DeYoung on double predestination / Kindle deals / and more.