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A La Carte (December 6)

Today’s Kindle deals include a long list featuring several different publishers. There isn’t a bad book among them. Also, Amazon has cookbooks (for Kindle) on sale today.

In case you missed it over the weekend, I launched The 2017 Christian Reading Challenge. You may find it a means of increasing and diversifying your reading next year.

Jesus, a Broken Car Window and a Girl from Oman

This is a really good bit of writing.

The Pauline Prodigy Quiz

Think you know the Apostle Paul? Try this 10-answer quiz. I did embarrassingly poorly.

The Left’s Doomed Effort to Coerce the Right

It is interesting to read this in Bloomberg. “Those of us who are worried about the parlous state of our country’s politics may, however, remain worried that this faux scandal could ever have led someone to write an article and some outlet to publish it.”

A Novel Idea for Preaching Christmas

H.B. Charles Jr. on what and how to preach on Christmas Day. “Don’t look for something new to say. Dig deep in the word of God to find fresh water from the old wells.”

Women and Sexual Temptation

Kelly Needham on the importance of discussing sexual temptation with women: “When we don’t talk about them, a subtle message is conveyed: Sexual sins are unacceptable among women.”

Themelios

If you’re up for some academic reading, there is a new edition of Themelios available.

This Day in 1829. 187 years ago today on a Sunday morning, William Carey learned that widow-burning had been abolished in India. Carey decided to translate the declaration in Bengali rather than preaching that day, fearing that holding off would cost more lives. *

Mothers in the Church

Jen Wilkin lays down the challenge: “A motherless church is as tragic as a motherless home. Guiding the spiritually young to maturity is not solely the job of the vocational pastor, the elder, or the Sunday school teacher. The church needs mothers to care for the family of God. We must rise to our responsibility, eagerly searching for whom the Lord would have us nurture. There is no barrenness among believing women.”

Bean Puzzle Tombstone

Quirky! “In rural Rushes Cemetery, one headstone stands out from the rest. Rather than the usual RIP, the Bean grave marker is etched with a crossword code.” It took 100 years to crack.

Flashback: Learning to Trust the Instruments

A lesson displayed in a near-disaster.

challies_dec4-10-02

Passionate intensity about the details of religion is worse than useless if it is not accompanied by a holy life.

—D.A. Carson

  • The Tallest Trees

    The Winds Blow Hardest Against the Tallest Trees

    Through the weekend had many questions about Christian leaders who fall. And I expressed that just as the winds blow hardest against the tallest trees, so temptations may press hardest against the leaders who rise the highest. Just as floods press against shallow roots, so seductive desires rise up against those whose fall would bring…

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (April 21)

    A La Carte: Toxic servant leadership / Taking our stress to the Lord / The problem with habits / Is it wrong for Christians to choose cremation? / Why does your church meet in a house? / Big book and Kindle deals / and more.

  • Expectations

    Why We Ask So Little of God

    Most Christians expect little from God, ask little, and therefore receive little, and are content with little. Though the Bible calls us to pray and though it promises that “the prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working,” we can still have very modest expectations of what God will accomplish through…

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    Weekend A La Carte (April 19)

    A La Carte: Why man needs God / Why nails matter / Kids’ picture books / MLK’s famous letter changed a DC church / How to mentor / A tearless eternity / and more.

  • Free Stuff Fridays (TGBC)

    This weeks Free Stuff Friday is sponsored by The Good Book Company. They are giving away a bundle of their best-selling Good Book Guides that are designed to guide your head and your heart through God’s word. Each Good Book Guide includes a concise leader’s guide in the back.  The Bundle includes: Giveaway Rules: You…

  • A Light on the Hill

    A Light on the Hill

    In early 2020, CHBC, along with almost every other church in the world, was forced to contend with the opening days of the COVID-19 pandemic. At that time Caleb Morell was working as Pastor Mark Dever’s personal assistant. Dever tasked him with finding out how the church had responded to the Spanish flu epidemic a…