The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you today.
I added a few new Kindle deals today and, as always, will keep up the search.
(Yesterday on the blog: Two Ways To Read the Bible)

Here are some useful tips on encouraging the person who leads worship at your church. “One morning, after a worship service, a lady approached me and asked, ‘Do you put ketchup on your ice cream?’ Confused, I shook my head, no. ‘Then don’t put drums on my hymns.’ I thanked her for her vivid (even visceral!) metaphor, but her comment misses a very important truth.”

This article points out that, especially on the mission field, women are often called upon to teach and preach (in settings that do not involve the presence of men). That being the case, shouldn’t they be taught to do so well? “Many complementarian churches are not training even their most gifted women in how to teach and preach the Bible. They are training their women to value good teaching and preaching from the Bible, and to discern good teaching and preaching from the fluff—and these are very good things. Yet it needs to be said that sitting under good preaching and recognizing it is not the same thing as being trained in how to do it.”

Stephanie celebrates the legacy of Enoch who was a kind of Old Testament pattern breaker.

Tilly Dillehay: “How does a woman end up here? Does any woman really decide to become the bad weather in her husband’s life? Or are the habits of contention like other, better habits — like joy, gratitude, and laughter — which develop with time and regular feeding?”

Sometimes smart people can say dumb things. That’s the case in this video in which an atheist tries to make the case that there is no such thing as human rights. Tim Barnett rebuts his view.

David Robertson points out some of the absurdities and contradictions in society today—the ones that say that some races cannot be racist while others cannot not be racist (or something like that).

Just as we can lead people to habits that dishonor God and harm others, we can lead people to habits that glorify God and do good to others.

Take away the soul from the body, and all you have left in a few days is a stinking carcass. Take away the fear of God from any profession of godliness, and all that is left is the stinking carcass of pharisaism, barren religiosity, or calculated hypocrisy.
—Albert N. Martin

What a joy and what a blessing it is to pray for our spiritual leaders—to ask God to bless them, to sanctify them, and to equip them for the ministry he calls them to. This prayer by John Flavel (as found in Tim Chester’s Into His Presence) offers words we can pray on their behalf.

Lord, cleanse our churches, and repair their walls, so they may become gardens of delight for Christ to walk in and take pleasure in. May her ministers be faithful and wise: faithful so they do not deceive others; wise so they do not deceive themselves. May their wisdom prevent deceivers imposing on them, and their faithfulness prevent them imposing on others. May their wisdom enable them to discern wholesome food for the flock and their faithfulness oblige them to distribute it.
May our leaders be pure with spiritual aims and intentions; serving not their own honour and interest, but yours.
May our leaders show sincerity, not appearing outwardly spiritual while being inwardly carnal.
May our leaders be diligent, like men in harvest, like women in labour, like soldiers in battle, watching while others sleep.
May our leaders lack favouritism, as those who will appear before an impartial God. May they take the same care, manifest the same love, show the same diligence to the poorest and weakest souls in their care as they do the rich, the great and the honourable. For all souls are rated the same in your book of life, and our Redeemer paid as much for one as the other.
May their faithfulness fix their eyes on the right end, and may their wisdom direct them to the best means of attaining it. May they lay a good foundation of knowledge in our souls, choosing subjects that will meet our needs, shaping the language in which they address us, using their own affections to move us, being careful of their behaviour. Send them often to their knees to seek your blessing upon their labours, knowing that all their success entirely depends upon you.
Amen.

This was one of those rare weeks in which I collected so many great links that I couldn’t bring myself to toss any of them. For that reason I’m adding a bonus Sunday A La Carte which I think you’ll offers lots of great reading.

God Does Not Despise the Small Things
Ed Welch: “I have often mused, How does anything ever get done? How do I ever get anything done? By taking the next little step in a day of small things, by placing the next stone into place. The Maker of heaven and earth has determined to have us partner with him in his plans, and he is pleased to set a pace for us that seems very human.”
On Permanent Birth Control
John Piper answers a question about permanent forms of birth control and begins in an interesting way: “The older I get, the more skeptical I become of the freedom I think I have from being formed by my own culture. Let me put it in another way. The older I get, the more suspicious I become that I am more a child of my historical and cultural circumstances than I once thought I was.”
A turn for the worse
WORLD magazine has a review of Turning Red that makes for good reading. “With Turning Red, Pixar abandons decades of nuanced storytelling and warms over Disney’s clichéd advice to follow your heart. The studio challenged this messaging 10 years ago with Brave.”
Our Bodies Tell Us What We Are
I invariably benefit from reading Samuel James.
No place is perfect, but we can love what is good about it nonetheless
“Churches, much like places to live, are rarely perfect. Churches, much like places to live, will have things to love about them and things we wish were there that aren’t. Churches, much like places to live, can be properly loved by us despite their not being able to do everything we might like all of the time.”
Galaxies