A La Carte (December 20)

There isn’t much to report for Kindle deals, though don’t skip yesterday’s list since it was pretty amazing.

Logos users: Base packages are on sale until the end of the year. There’s a flash sale on some solid Zondervan products. And there’s just a lot of other stuff on sale.

(Yesterday on the blog: 10 Ideas and 10 Tips for Family Devotions in 2019)

Since God Is Father, We Have Fathers

Wyatt Graham establishes the proper order. “When we hear God called Father, we think of biological fathers. If we had a good father, we may perceive God as someone good like dad was. But if we had a bad father, then calling God Father may sour our understanding of God. And while fathers on earth are analogies of the Father in heaven, we should affirm that human fathers do not define God as Father. Actually, fathers receive their name from God who was already the Father before he created the world.”

Reading Scripture Rightly

There’s some wise counsel here that pertains to our Bible study. “In some odd cases, the meaning of the first statement is turned on its head and all the potency is excised from the text by our propensity to blend all seemingly contrary thoughts together. As we read, we say, ‘Christ does not really mean we are to give up our possessions because in this place He says that some believers are wealthy.’ So as we read we are denying the statement before we let it say anything to us. And, without intending to do so, we are telling ourselves and perhaps others that it would have been better if Jesus would have said something much more benign.”

Does an Eternal Hell Call Into Question God’s Love? (Video)

I really appreciated this answer to the question.

2018: A Christian Music Review

Every year Jeremy Howard makes up an extensive list of the best Christian music of the year. You may enjoy listening to some of his top picks.

Salvation by Way of Everything You Would Rather Avoid

Stephen Kneale explores God’s unexpected ways of bringing his people to himself. “So how can it be that a Catholic caused my friend to find the Biblical Jesus? That was the means God used to set my friend on a search for the Biblical Jesus. And in their search for the Biblical Jesus, they happened to walk into a Biblically faithful church who taught them about him. My friend didn’t come to imbibe the demi-gospel of Catholicism because of that Catholic priest; they came to accept the Biblical gospel because they went searching for Christ as a result of the kindness of that particular priest. God can use whatever means he wills to bring about his purposes.”