A La Carte (February 11)
The God of love and peace be with you.
Today’s Kindle deals include a few picks for pastors and a few for others. As usual, there’s lots to choose from.
(Yesterday on the blog: Dumb Will Do)
If you are living in secret sin, please read what Esther Liu has written here. “From the title, you may assume I will tell you to bring your secret sin into the light, which is true. Yet, I know this invitation may sound trite and unappealing. If it were that easy, you would have done so already—but chances are it is more complicated for you.”
Olivia’s article is long but rewarding. She offers a biographical story of coming to a deeper understanding of God’s love and concern for those who are suffering. “I imagined my tears evaporating up to heaven. I wondered how many trucks full of tear bottles God had to reserve for me. Maybe he had to special order an extra large size or a whole fleet of those massive semis. ‘WIDE LOAD,’ they would say in a bright yellow banner while they drove down the heavenly highway.”
This is another excellent biographical article. Vanessa Doughty tells how the Lord brought her back when she began to stray. “Satan will use anything to entice us away from our devotion to Christ. He can use even good things like family, friends, a career, an education, entertainment, and prosperity as tools to draw us farther from Jesus. For me, he used my desire for knowledge to lure me farther from Christ.”
“Over and over, God commands his people to remember how hard, dark, sad, and ugly things were. And then, to celebrate the incredible contrast of his love, goodness, and might that rescued them from adversity of all kinds. The remembrance we’re called to isn’t a ‘focus on the positive’ outlook that skims past the hard and onto the happy ending. In order to truly understand the depths from which we have been saved, we have to admit how deep those depths were.”
Daniel considers what appears to be a rise in people instituting a no-contact rule in response to difficult relationships.
Those who are experiencing relational conflict (or attempting to help others through it) will benefit from this one by Brad Hambrick.
…what if your limits are not a bug but a feature of your humanity? What if these limitations are God’s gift and, therefore, good and worthy of embrace?
The church is not only where disciples go once a week; it’s where disciples are made.
—Michael Horton
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A La Carte (March 13)
Good morning. Grace and peace to you.
Today’s Kindle deals include a little list of books on parenting from Crossway.
(Yesterday on the blog: A Pastoral Prayer for Love and Unity)
Authenticating the Fourth Gospel
“When I asked Christians why they trust the Bible in contrast to other holy books, most ended up pointing to their own subjective feelings or experiences, rather than to any objective considerations. Some even described faith as a kind of ‘gut-feeling’ or ‘spiritual sixth sense.’” Shane Rosenthal explains why this is insufficient.
The Many Faces of Islam in Africa
David Fugoyo Baime describes some of the many forms Islam takes. “Islam is one of the largest religions in Africa, making up of over 40% of the African population. To ignore Islam is the greatest mistake practicing Christians in Africa can make.”
The Military’s Best Kept Secret
I enjoyed Kevin’s take on the U.S. military’s best-kept secret.
Men and Emotions
Suggesting that men tend to struggle with expressing their emotions, this article asks, “What does Jesus teach us about emotional expression?”
The Basics — Creation
Kim Riddlebarger describes the basic tenets of a distinctly Christian understanding of creation.
See Me
“We all have a need–a craving–to be noticed. And in the noticing, praised. Esteemed. Wanted.Loved. But too often our parents disappoint us. And our friends become our competition.”
Flashback: The Snows, The Deep Snows, the Awful Snows
Though it is certainly not always the case, very often the people who are particularly used by the Lord are the same people who endure suffering. De Witt Talmage makes this point well in a quote from one of his sermons.God is love, but this is quite different from affirming that our culture’s understanding of love must be God. —Kevin DeYoung
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About Today’s Seasons of Sorrow Launch Event
This morning I will be hosting a launch event for my new book Seasons of Sorrow. It will be taking place immediately prior to the Getty Music Sing! Conference at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center in Nashville, Tennessee.
For those who plan to attend, or who still wish to attend, here’s the information you’ll need:
I will be joined by Alistair Begg, Bob Lepine, and the band CityAlight (who will, in turn, be joined by Sandra McCracken). I will open the event, then Alistair, Bob, and I will have a discussion about God’s purposes and God’s comfort in our times of grief, sorrow, and loss. CityAlight and Sandra McCracken will close things out by debuting a new song titled “In the Valley (Bless the Lord).” This song, which is inspired by Seasons of Sorrow, will debut at the conference, then be released to all music platforms on September 13, which is also the book’s official release date. The recorded version of the song is a duet with CityAlight’s vocalist and Sandra McCracken.
The event will begin at 10:30 AM and be held in the Delta Ballroom, which is the “main room” that will host the conference’s plenary sessions. The event will end by 11:30 to allow plenty of time to get some lunch before the conference formally begins.
If you are attending the Sing! conference, you can simply come to the Delta ballroom for 10:30 AM. Please do come, even if you haven’t registered!
If you are not attending the Sing! conference you are also welcome to come; perhaps plan to arrive just a few minutes early since the resort is big, sprawling, and fairly difficult to navigate.
Seasons of Sorrow will be available for purchase at the launch event and in the conference bookstore.
Though the launch event will not be live-streamed, it will be recorded and released to those who are attending the Virtual Conference. (Save 35% on any virtual pass with coupon code CHALLIES35.)I am looking forward to seeing many of you there. I plan to stick around after the event to meet you, so please don’t feel the need to rush off. See you soon!
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A La Carte (September 16)
It has been a blessing to hear from people who have begun using the prayers in Pilgrim Prayers and are telling me, “Now I get it!” If you have benefited from the book, would you consider dropping a quick star-rating or review at Amazon?
Today’s Kindle deals include Al Mohler’s excellent The Gathering Storm, Vaneetha Risner’s Walking Through Fire, several books by John MacArthur, and much more.“Christians can’t seem to stop singing: in catacombs, in cathedrals, everywhere throughout church history. In Saudi Arabia, the underground churches soundproof the walls and windows, sometimes with mattresses, so they can lift their voices in praise without detection. As Jesus said of the rejoicing multitudes, ‘I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out’ (Luke 19:40).”
Kelly Needham: “Idleness is being busy at the wrong things. I see in myself the need to flee not just from idle hands but also an idle mind. As is true of many women, unless I’m sleeping, my mind is quite active. And if I do not give my mind a steady intake of good fuel to burn, I will often be burning whatever fuel I can find. The result? Lots of thoughts about aimless things.”
Cara writes about those times when you need to fight—to fight with a very particular type of weapon.
“The Japanese art of kintsugi beholds an object’s brokenness as beauty instead of flaws that must be hidden. Skilled artisans mend broken pottery using melted gold or silver. They gently press each piece together, then seal them with a lacquer until the precious liquid hardens in the cracks. The result is a beautiful design on a previously common vessel.” What a great analogy for Christians.
Kenneth has an interesting look at David’s sin in ordering a census—one of the stranger episodes in the Old Testament.
“When it comes to evangelism, outreach and mission I think there is a really important question that we often fail to meaningfully ask: is this actually accomplishing anything? More specifically, can we realistically expect this to accomplish anything? I can already hear the howls and responses coming.”
Why is it that pastors and worship leaders are so prone to blurt out trite phrases like these as they open their services? I’d like to offer a few suggestions.
We need fewer aspiring conference speakers and more faithful pastors committed to their local churches.
—Jason Helopoulos
