{"id":120665,"date":"2025-05-05T23:01:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T04:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/?p=120665"},"modified":"2025-05-05T23:09:01","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T04:09:01","slug":"a-la-carte-may-6-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/?p=120665","title":{"rendered":"A La Carte (May 6)"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1080\" height=\"686\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/biblicalcounselor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/cover-a-la-carte-tue-b-1.jpg?resize=1080%2C686&#038;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"A La Carte Collection cover image\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/cover-a-la-carte-tue-b-1.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/cover-a-la-carte-tue-b-480x305-1.jpg 480w, https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/cover-a-la-carte-tue-b-960x610-1.jpg 960w, https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/cover-a-la-carte-tue-b-240x152-1.jpg 240w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" \/><\/figure>\n<p data-beyondwords-marker=\"615e14b4-6ed4-4e29-ab3a-7686d0f479f5\" class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Today&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.challies.com\/kindle-deals-for-christians\/\">Kindle deals<\/a> include Gregg Allison&#8217;s &amp; Chris Castaldo&#8217;s timely <em>The Unfinished Reformation<\/em> and Tim Keller&#8217;s <em>Center Church<\/em>. <em>You Are a Theologian<\/em> by Jen Wilkin and J.T. English is also a good one to consider.<\/p>\n<p data-beyondwords-marker=\"96e356d8-677f-4ecf-aad5-9e3b583a197c\" class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>(Yesterday on the blog: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.challies.com\/articles\/the-worlds-most-prominent-false-teacher\/\">The World\u2019s Foremost False Teacher<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"jeremy-clarkson-got-scammed\" data-beyondwords-marker=\"84dbf3fb-9704-46c2-81d3-3521cefef22c\" class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/murraycampbell.net\/2025\/05\/05\/jeremy-clarkson-got-scammed\/\">Jeremy Clarkson Got Scammed?<\/a><\/h2>\n<p data-beyondwords-marker=\"134fecd8-3c7f-4545-a5b4-e3e7cd38ed58\" class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;If the whole Jesus episode is a scam, it\u2019s not a very clever one.\u00a0 Think about it; if you\u2019re required to die a gruesome death in order for your scam to succeed, then you won\u2019t get to see your success. And that makes you either really stupid or certifiable. Unless of course, you rose from the dead, in which case the entire scam theory is dismantled.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"the-power-of-wonder-video\" data-beyondwords-marker=\"af50f384-903f-42b1-a440-d17e6e451495\" class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/youtube.com\/watch?v=LKyonvhyM8M&amp;si=XgepYm-yN5D4dYN5\">The Power of Wonder (Video)<\/a><\/h2>\n<p data-beyondwords-marker=\"854fce86-09c7-4204-90f6-65679e354603\" class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I always enjoy a new video from the John 10:10 Project and this one is no exception.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"dying-for-sex-or-living-with-resurrection-hope\" data-beyondwords-marker=\"f039307b-cd36-4d0c-a84d-6fc38391da3f\" class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.john-stevens.com\/2025\/05\/dying-for-sex-or-living-with.html\">\u2018Dying for Sex\u2019 or Living With Resurrection Hope?<\/a><\/h2>\n<p data-beyondwords-marker=\"27bd3af7-94a0-4eda-a7b8-f0cb3c6a1ae8\" class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">John writes about those who pursue all the wrong pleasures because they live without the hope of the resurrection. <\/p>\n<h2 id=\"gain-is-godliness-or-godliness-is-gain\" data-beyondwords-marker=\"154e8662-59e5-49c9-896d-a043d0f81197\" class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/justinhuffman.org\/2025\/05\/02\/gain-is-godliness-or-godliness-is-gain\/\">Gain Is Godliness, or Godliness Is Gain?<\/a><\/h2>\n<p data-beyondwords-marker=\"c1774aa5-b97a-4c38-8e04-95176758d342\" class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;What do you need right now? What would make you genuinely, blissfully, permanently happy if you just had it right now? Ultimately, the answers to that question fall into one of just two categories: either &#8216;gain is godliness&#8217; or &#8216;godliness is gain.&#8217;&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"reclaiming-interiority\" data-beyondwords-marker=\"e9ed3b80-738a-4584-8bef-fef5eac311f6\" class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/newsletter.oalannoble.com\/p\/reclaiming-interiority\">Reclaiming Interiority<\/a><\/h2>\n<p data-beyondwords-marker=\"bf5da223-bc38-46df-912c-9d658c6071a1\" class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Alan Noble calls upon Christians to take steps to reclaim a rich interior life. &#8220;A key to having a rich inner life is cultivating it with rich thoughts. So the first thing to ask yourself is, what am I feeding my mind?&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"materially-rich-and-spiritually-emaciated-on-progress\" data-beyondwords-marker=\"53ab1c96-e008-49b2-a1ff-d3a259f0ad9b\" class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/mereorthodoxy.com\/progress-character-technology\">Materially Rich and Spiritually Emaciated: On &#8216;Progress&#8217;<\/a><\/h2>\n<p data-beyondwords-marker=\"ed39e7e4-188c-48ab-ad4e-d46641bc75d5\" class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kevin Brown ponders what our society deems evidence of progress. &#8220;Just as sociologist Emile Durkheim defined religion not by what it is but by what it does\u2014a similar approach to defining progress would suggest it amounts to escalating economic prosperity, technological innovation that increasingly expands into broader domains of human life, and the fulfillment of our individuated preferences, i.e., satisfaction of our wants and needs. But is this what we aspire toward? Is this account of prosperity aligned with human flourishing?&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"flashback-what-makes-a-sermon-difficult-to-listen-to\" data-beyondwords-marker=\"7a00128c-3354-4421-bb3e-f73843e5eb89\" class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.challies.com\/articles\/things-that-make-sermons-difficult-to-listen-to\/\">Flashback: What Makes a Sermon Difficult To Listen To<\/a><\/h2>\n<p data-beyondwords-marker=\"2c913115-7640-4452-9798-4a91f5f47f36\" class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Recently, and largely for my own purposes, I found myself thinking about some of the elements that can make a sermon difficult to listen to. Having jotted them down, I thought I\u2019d share them with you.<\/p>\n<div data-beyondwords-marker=\"a9d7c5f1-ccac-4b6f-b054-73aea32feb8d\" class=\"wp-block-group challies-squarequote box has-contrast-background-color has-background is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-group-is-layout-2 wp-block-group-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure data-beyondwords-marker=\"86dacffe-2309-40f9-8e94-5a2696091931\" class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large max-width-normal flex-basis-normal squarequote-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.challies.com\/media\/2025\/04\/2-3-scaled.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"960\" height=\"960\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/biblicalcounselor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/2-3-960x960-2.jpg?resize=960%2C960&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-115085\" srcset=\"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/2-3-960x960-2.jpg 960w, https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/2-3-480x480-1.jpg 480w, https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/2-3-240x240-1.jpg 240w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<div data-beyondwords-marker=\"9ce76fbe-9c8b-470d-b06e-64de70151cae\" class=\"wp-block-group max-width-narrow flex-basis-narrow is-vertical is-content-justification-center is-nowrap is-layout-flex wp-container-core-group-is-layout-1 wp-block-group-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure data-beyondwords-marker=\"ed69cd8b-5771-4b91-ba28-e6a06421b327\" class=\"wp-block-image size-thumbnail squarequote-logo is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.squarequotes.church\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/biblicalcounselor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/squarequotes-logo-240x175-4.png?w=1080&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"SquareQuotes\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n<blockquote data-beyondwords-marker=\"1248f22f-595c-43d3-b1f2-9842a03d58c1\" class=\"wp-block-quote has-text-align-center is-style-plain squarequote-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow is-style-plain--1\">\n<p data-beyondwords-marker=\"42849c12-7c54-47f7-bf2c-6c8ee50a6906\" class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A Christian is a walking sermon. We preach far more than a minister does, for we preach all week long.<\/p>\n<p><cite>\u2014J.C. Ryle<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div data-beyondwords-marker=\"efd8c7d5-54e2-4b34-bb2c-88000aae2b1b\" class=\"wp-block-buttons squarequote-actions is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-1 wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div data-beyondwords-marker=\"3ec9c45a-578e-4193-a2c7-539db8b9f60c\" class=\"wp-block-button is-style-outline do-download has-icon-download is-style-outline--2\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.challies.com\/media\/2025\/04\/2-3.jpg\" download=\"\" class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\">Download<\/a><\/div>\n<div data-beyondwords-marker=\"28c53c2c-4369-49a9-9ff7-46dc79d44b02\" class=\"wp-block-button is-style-outline do-share has-icon-share is-style-outline--3\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.challies.com\/media\/2025\/04\/2-3.jpg\" class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\">Share<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"sponsor\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.challies.com\/sponsors\/zondervan-reflective-7\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/biblicalcounselor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/FEtE_Challies-Sponsored-Ad-Image-3.png?resize=960%2C540&#038;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/FEtE_Challies-Sponsored-Ad-Image-3.png 960w, https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/FEtE_Challies-Sponsored-Ad-Image-480x270-2.png 480w, https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/FEtE_Challies-Sponsored-Ad-Image-240x135-2.png 240w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><\/aside>\n<aside class=\"related\">\n<h2>See Also<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.challies.com\/a-la-carte\/a-la-carte-december-12-2024\/\">A La Carte (December 12)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.challies.com\/a-la-carte\/a-la-carte-december-2-2024\/\">A La Carte (December 2)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.challies.com\/a-la-carte\/weekend-a-la-carte-november-23-2024\/\">Weekend A La Carte (November 23)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/aside>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A La Carte: Jeremy Clarkson got scammed? \/ Dying for sex \/ Materially rich and spiritually emaciated \/ Gain is godliness or godliness is gain? \/ Reclaiming a rich interior life \/ and more.See AlsoA La Carte (December 12)A La Carte (December 2)Weekend A La Carte (November 23)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[31],"tags":[306],"class_list":["post-120665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tim-challies","tag-a-la-carte","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=120665"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120665\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":120680,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120665\/revisions\/120680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=120665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=120665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=120665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}