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A La Carte (January 28)

thursday

Good morning, and may the God of love and peace be with you today.

Today’s Kindle deals include a number of selections from Crossway with a few others besides.

(Yesterday on the blog: When We Failed to Count the Cost)

The False Gospel of Assuming the Worst of Others

“One reason conversations about hard topics like social justice tend to generate more heat than light, both within and beyond the church, is a phenomenon we may call ‘the Newman Effect.’” Thaddeus Williams explains the phenomenon and its importance.

Prayer Worrier

“I am, by nature, something of a worrier. In fact, I am the grandson of a worrier, who had a very worried son, who has passed that tendency on to me and which I have nobly engendered in my boy. Four generations of Kneale worry and counting. Telling us to just stop worrying doesn’t really help. It is sometimes impossible – particularly last thing at night – to turn the worries off.”

How To Survive Three Days In The Wild

If this ever comes in handy, I expect you to send me a thank you note.

Returning To Your First Love

Jim Elliff reflects on Revelation’s warning about losing our first love. “Are you and those who are with you dangerously close to experiencing this judgment? Is the Light of God’s presence dim, almost imperceptible? Do you have form without power and activity without fruit? If so, Christ says you must…”

Be Reasonable for the Sake of the Gospel

Melissa says that “hyperbole seems to be the rhetorical strategy of the day in Christian circles.” She warns that “these weird and wild comments do nothing for the spread of the gospel. They are usually indignant, entitled, arrogant, and overly opinionated, and they paint a completely insufficient picture of God’s grace.”

The Radical Incoherence of Biden’s Transgender Policy

Joe Carter points out the radical incoherence of Joe Biden’s transgender policy. “President Biden seems to think that his new policy is a mere reversion to the 2016 status quo, when President Obama allowed transgender people to serve under certain restrictive conditions. What he fails to understand is that the issue of transgenderism has evolved considerably over the past five years. Biden has adopted a policy that is not only radically incoherent but that will have profound effects on both the military and the American people.” (See also Rod Dreher’s The Tyranny Of Tech & Trans.)

An Open Letter to a Sinner

Are you a sinner? I rather suspect you are. Hence you may benefit from this open letter, written for people like you (and me).

Flashback: How Evangelism Is Kind of Like Fishing

Sharing the gospel is about more than just learning and reciting a generic gospel presentation. It’s about knowing people and loving people—about loving them enough to get to know them.

We can’t separate our home life from our Christian life without missing something that is critical to our fellowship with God and our usefulness to His mission in the world.

—Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth

  • Quiet Time

    The Quiet Time Kickstart

    We are all people of habits. To some degree, we are always battling to establish good habits while battling to supplant bad ones. This is true of us in many different areas of life and most certainly true in our spiritual lives. In fact, some have argued that when we describe the way we relate…

  • A La Carte Thursday 1

    A La Carte (January 16)

    A La Carte: Why don’t we read the Bible more? / Did David rape Bathsheba? / To (almost) die is gain / Learn to pray the Bible / When you’re close to burnout / Called to freedom / and more.

  • How To Obtain a Plenary Indulgence in 2025

    How To Obtain a Plenary Indulgence in 2025

    I think we can sometimes fool ourselves into believing that the Reformation caused the Roman Catholic Church to abandon some, most, or all of the doctrine that was so concerning to the Reformers. We can sometimes believe that the Catholicism of today is materially different from that of the 16th century or that it has…

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (January 15)

    A La Carte: iPhones, idolatry, and evil spirits / At my mother’s deathbed / Nothing to do but pray / Bible study tips for beginners / Jesus did condemn homosexuality / Please don’t sing “Imagine” at funerals / Kindle and book deals.

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (January 14)

    A La Carte: Narcissus in public / A famous poet, KFC, and peace with my past / Does empowerment come from boudoir photoshoots? / Surrendering them to God / Sermon prep / Your plans for this year / and more.

  • 10 Reasons to Teach the Bible’s Big Truths to Children

    📖 Why teach children the big truths of the Bible? Moses commanded Israel to gather everyone—men, women, and little ones—to hear God’s law. Why? So they could “hear and learn to fear the Lord.” (Deut. 31:12-13) Children need the deep, rich truths of Scripture to know God, embrace the Gospel, and build a faith that…