A La Carte (July 12)
If you’re interested in some new books, Westminster Books has an interesting new resource by Nancy Guthrie that is up to 50% off. Remember also that Mark Vroegop’s excellent new book is on sale as well.
On the Kindle front, you may want to look at the book on prayer or, perhaps if you’re sharing the gospel with Roman Catholics, the book on Mary. (This morning I also added Mike Wittmer’s excellent Urban Legends of Theology.)
It is easy to pick on worship songs that have repetitive words, but I appreciate the distinctions John Piper makes in this Ask Pastor John. “The issue’s not repetition per se but whether there is enough substance, enough rich content of truth about God woven into the repetitions to justify them, to warrant them. That’s the issue. There’s a difference between repetitions that are called forth by the repeated crescendo of new, glorious truth, and repetitions that serve as a kind of mantra without sufficient truth that is simply used to sustain or intensify a mood.”
Jen Wilkin explains why you don’t need to live in fear of the marks in Revelation. “Because I was too afraid to read Revelation, it was years before I learned it holds multiple scenes in which people receive marks, and not all of them are terrifying. Some are extremely reassuring.”
Carl Trueman, having just returned from a long speaking trip through Europe, explains why he’s hopeful and encouraged, despite the political situation in many European nations. “Radical politics, left and right, is too often dehumanizing. It reduces its opponents to a set of beliefs and in so doing dehumanizes its adherents too, leading them to despise those also made in the image of God. Christianity, by way of contrast, offers a cause worth living—and dying—for that places a true humanity at its core, a humanity in communion with God through the work of Jesus Christ.”
Bruce Ware’s answer goes far beyond angels and helps explain what the Bible teaches about free will.
Log College Press shares a really interesting (and tragic) look at the children of Samuel Davies, “the great Presbyterian ‘Apostle of Virginia’ and President of the College of New Jersey (Princeton).”
It is wonderful when teens come to Christ and become eager to serve within the church. Yet for obvious reasons, not every ministry is immediately available to them. This article suggests several meaningful ways that teens can serve right away.
It’s so often the ones who seemed to be at their greatest moment of success who were on the precipice of destruction. Like blind men about to blunder off a cliff, they were oblivious to their impending doom.
If we would learn to serve as Christ did—it would make us think of others around us, not as those from whom we may get some gain, exact some attention or promotion—but as those to whom we may impart some good, render some service.
—J.R. Miller
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Do You Practice?
There is little we are called to in life that is purely intuitive. There is little that truly matters to our lives, yet comes to us innately. To the contrary, almost everything that is important and almost everything that matters requires practice.
What matters most in life is love. We are called to love the Lord with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Our great divine calling is love—and this is a calling that requires practice.
Perhaps you have observed times in your life in which you have become complacent toward others or apathetic toward serving them. Maybe it has been a long time since you opened your home to extend hospitality or opened your schedule to lead discipleship. Maybe it has been a long time since you opened your hand to extend compassion or opened your wallet to extend relief. It is unlikely that such apathy simply started one day and that such complacency swept upon you in a moment. It is far more likely that over time you fell out of practice—out of the practice of love.
I once read of a musician, an especially talented pianist, who spoke of the importance of constant practice. He said that if he skipped his hours of piano practice for only three days, the public would begin to notice the difference. He said as well that if he skipped for only two days, his friends and family members would become aware of it and if he skipped for even one day, he himself would be conscious of it. He knew that only daily practice could keep his skill at the highest level.
And we would do well to learn from him and be cautioned by him. The caution is that others will soon bear the cost of our lack of practice. The musician will fail to honor his audience by his sloppy play and the Christian will fail to honor those he is called to serve. The failure to practice will impact the very ones he is most called to love. We are creatures of habit and do well to construct and maintain habits that will keep us focused on our most important callings. We do well to build habits of love.
We must learn to practice love in the little moments of life, in the small things, in ways that may go unseen and unnoticed.Share
What we must learn, then, is to practice love every day and in every circumstance, to never allow ourselves to ease off, to never neglect an opportunity to be a blessing to others. We must learn to practice love in the little moments of life, in the small things, in ways that may go unseen and unnoticed. For just as the pianist’s skill declines every time he shrugs off a practice, our skill declines every time we shrug off an opportunity to love. Hence, our question should always be, “How can I love right now? How can I serve in this moment? How can I be a blessing in this circumstance?”
God has work for us do in this world, and that work is love—to extend to others the love that God has so graciously extended to each of us. Love is not innate to us and not intuitive. It comes with difficulty, not ease. It comes with labor. It comes with practice. Love is a skill, a skill we must practice constantly and consistently, a skill we must practice for the good of others and the glory of God. -
A La Carte (December 5)
Grace and peace to you today.
Today’s Kindle deals include a number of excellent devotionals from Crossway.
(Yesterday on the blog: Would You Consider Becoming a Patron?)
On Spiritual Dreams
I have read a number of different perspectives on Christians and “spiritual dreams.” This one, which I read over the weekend (and which is from a source I admire), was quite interesting to me.
An Open Letter to the Brothers I Went to Seminary With
I appreciated this open letter from a woman who attended seminary and who reflects on the men who attended with her.
If Christmas is just cultural, celebrate (or don’t) however you want
This is a good reminder that Christians don’t have to celebrate Christmas.
Brightest and Best (Video)
This great rendition of “Brightest and Best” features the Gettys and Ricky Skaggs.
Dealing with Difficult Decembers
“We spend so much time enjoying the nativity and celebrating the miracle of our Saviour’s birth, that we often forget to get excited and expectant once again for our Lord to come back.”
Chipping Away Our Confidence in Christ
Doug Eaton: “In the Christian life, there are times of rest and times of struggle, and what we do when the sun is shining will often determine how well we will fare when the rains fall and the winds blow. It is usually the pleasant times when self-confidence becomes exaggerated that many professing Christians tend to chip away at the rock upon which they stand.”
Flashback: Lost Is Her Treasure But Where Is Her Trust?
Let her not cling to him, Striving to fling from him, Death’s chilly hand, With its firm, frozen hold. Death has not made the choice, ’Tis but the Shepherd’s voice, Calling the little lamb, Back to its fold.It’s pastoral malpractice to prescribe the law to penitent sinners as the source of a God-pleasing life. The law can direct and guide, but it cannot motivate or empower. The only legitimate motivation for the life of faith is not the law, but the gospel. —Harold Senkbeil
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A La Carte (September 3)
There have been some amazing Kindle deals over the past couple of days, so if you weren’t around over the weekend, be sure to scroll down to September 1 and 2. As for today, we’ve got the entire “Blessings of the Faith” series along with several other interesting titles. On the general market side, Malcolm Gladwell’s David and Goliath is a fun and interesting read—just one of many there.
(Yesterday on the blog: I Know It Broke Her Heart)Jacob explains why it’s a bad thing when old men stop planting trees. Or as his dad says, “When old men stop planting trees that they’ll never sit under, we’ve got a real problem.”
Rebekah Matt: “Statistically, my life ought to be a serious mess right about now.” Yet by the grace of God it isn’t.
“If you are rolling your eyes about whether or not we even need this article, you may be losing touch with the current cultural climate and the effects of the internet-age.” I quite agree.
Matthew considers the differences between URL and IRL ministry. “Christians should not attempt to pastor themselves. But that is the temptation that faces them when they use abstract ministry resources (space) to the neglect of the faithful local churches and faithful church leaders that see them and know them (place).”
“In February of this year, I was diagnosed with a rare type of brain cancer. I am, quite literally, one in a million. A seizure brought me to my knees and was the catalyst for the discovery. A brain biopsy and a craniotomy followed in the days and months after. I went from being independent and in the prime of my life, just on the cusp of turning forty, to being dependent, unable to drive, living with family, and staring down the face of a life-altering diagnosis that is presently incurable. “
It was such a joy to read this article. “We met her when she was almost three months old. We adopted her only a matter of weeks ago. On her adoption day, she wore a little pink smocked dress with princesses on it, and as she sat in her stroller surrounded by the three children who had welcomed her into their world and loved her sweetly and sacrifically, we all heard her practicing her new name under her breath, ‘Ivy Joy Edgington.’”
As a Christian reader, my task, my challenge, and my joy, is to read with discernment, to subtract what is opposed to a Christian worldview, and to bind together the pieces through distinctly Christian thinking.
No man shall ever take from me the joy that Christ rose from the dead.
—Charles Spurgeon
