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A La Carte (January 13)

thursday

Grace and peace to you, my friends.

Today’s Kindle deals include two good books I don’t think I’ve ever seen on sale before.

(Yesterday on the blog: Don’t Be Reckless With What Others Count Precious)

The Vertical, Horizontal, and Inward Realities of Sin

“Sin is never done in isolation. In fact, there are vertical, horizontal, and inward effects of it.” David Qaoud explains.

How Paul Measured the Missionary Task

This article makes some good and useful points about the missionary task.

The Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard

“‘Imaginary gardens with real toads in them.’ That’s how one writer has described the parables of Jesus. They are imaginative stories, but they relate to real life. They are imaginary gardens, but they have real toads in them. Often those toads are us.” This is a short but helpful look at one of those parables and an explanation of why establishing context is so important to the task of interpretation.

The Success Of Others

Seth considers all he sees of others through social media and asks, “how does my own life measure up to theirs? Is my life still important if it doesn’t include the same kinds of successes that I see other people achieving and enjoying? If they reach higher and go further than I do, am I just one more loser bringing up the rear in some kind of cosmic reality show competition?”

How Much Can the Most Famous Dead Sea Scroll Prove?

Here’s a look at some of what we learn from the most famous of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

What Are Your gods of 2022?

Sylvia Schroeder considers the old god Dagon and what we can learn from a strange story in 1 Samuel.

Flashback: The Greatest Christians and the Most Visible Gifts

…is it possible we tacitly communicate that some gifts are better than others, that some are more desirable than others, that some are more essential than others? Is it possible we suggest that the greatest Christians are those with the most visible gifts?

The cross and tomb are where we are invited into the kingdom, and where chaos begins to be transformed into peace.

—Alistair Begg

  • Works & Wonders June 14

    Works & Wonders: Bowing the knee or shaking the fist, 39 years to translate the Bible, And Can It Be, How to understand a trillIon, Landsat images, and World Cup covers.

  • Weekend A La Carte (June 13)

    Egg freezing is a booming business / Talk to the A.I. me / Is aging becoming optional? / Feminism and the Fall / The lie of living your truth / Moving on from the Christian Nationalism moment / and more.

  • An Ideal Resource For Your Family Devotions

    An Ideal Resource For Your Family Devotions

    There is a lot I miss from the days when our children were young. High on the list is family devotions. Nick once described our family as having a “Spartan-like commitment” to them, though I remember as much failure as success and as many misses as hits. Still, there’s no doubt that over the 26…

  • A La Carte (June 12)

    The curious case of extra resurrections / Are kids too expensive? / Why hot takes are the enemy of conviction / Piper on preaching outrage / A daily rhythm of prayer / Forgetting and pursuing / A La Quiz / The funnies / and more.

  • A La Carte (June 11)

    We lost the baby / The Bible is cessationist (and wondrous!) / Thinking about Eastern Orthodoxy: a primer for evangelicals / Virtue signalling in the church / What is God’s providence? / Restlessness / Kindle deals / and more.

  • Conform

    You Can Conform to Christ Even if You Don’t Conform to Me

    One of the aspects of the Christian faith that I find particularly perplexing is the freedom God gives his people to obey him in different or even opposite ways, so that one person’s obedience is another person’s disobedience. Even as two people take the same action, one might be obeying him and the other disobeying…