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A La Carte (August 2)

Today’s Kindle deals are excellent! They include Gospel Assurance and Warnings by Paul Washer; Raised? by Jonathan Dodson & Brad Watson; Proof by Daniel Montgomery & Timothy Paul Jones; Worldly Saints by Michael Wittmer (I highly recommend this one); The Best Kept Secret of Christian Mission by John Dickson; Know the Creeds and Councils by Justin Holcomb; The God I Don’t Understand by Christopher Wright; The MacArthur Study Bible (NKJV). Get them here.

Logos users may want to grab this month’s free book. There are also some monthly deals to be had. I will sort through them later this week and make some recommendations.

What Are America’s Largest Seminaries?

The results are interesting. So too are the comparisons to 20 years ago. (Joe Carter interprets the results.)

10 Things You Should Know About General Revelation

I’m a sucker for Sam Storms’ “10 things” posts. In this one he discusses general revelation. “Because of our focus on the inspiration and inerrancy of God’s written revelation, the Bible (i.e., Special Revelation), we often tend to ignore the other ways in which God has made himself known more generally to all mankind.”

Big Families Lift Burdens

Even with all of 3 children we get stares in our middle-class, two-child town. “Underlying our culture’s distaste for large families is, among other things, the assumption that couples should only bring enough children into our overcrowded world to replace themselves. That is to say, no family really needs to have more than two children.”

Idolatry’s X-Ray

Maybe I’m just sharing this one because I’m hungry. “Cheesecake is not an abomination; cream cheese and graham cracker crumbles are gifts from the Creator (1 Tim. 4:4). God has given us many gifts to enjoy. Sports, laughter, mountains, and music are all gifts from God. Yet, we are able to twist his gifts, contort, and reshape them into an idol, spitting in the face of the Giver.”

Why Are So Many Corpse Flowers Blooming at Once?

The corpse flower is apparently just about the stinkiest plant in the world. The question is, why are so many blooming at once?

This Day in 1947. 69 years ago today, Chinese Protestant leader Liu Tingfang died of tuberculosis. His strong faith and intellectual gifts left a lasting mark on Chinese Christianity. *

What to do When You Are in a Spiritual Dry Spell

You must know these times: “We sing in worship and feel nothing. We read the Bible and stare blankly at the words. We pray and think we are talking to ourselves. The joy is not there, and it seems as if God is a thousand miles away.”

Yes Christian, You Need the Church

You know this, I’m sure, but it’s good to be reminded.

Flashback: An Angry God

God’s wrath is revulsion. It is not mere emotion and is not at all irrational. It is so much more than emotion.

Ryle

A Christian is a walking sermon. We preach far more than a minister does, for we preach all week long.

—J.C. Ryle

  • The Phrase that Altered My Thinking Forever

    This week the blog is sponsored by P&R Publishing and is written by Ralph Cunnington. Years ago, I stumbled repeatedly on an ancient phrase that altered my thinking forever.  Distinct yet inseparable. The first time I encountered this phrase was while studying the Council of Chalcedon’s description of the two natures of Christ. Soon after,…

  • Always Look for the Light

    Always Look for the Light

    For many years there was a little potted plant on our kitchen window sill, though I’ve long since forgotten the variety. Year after year that plant would put out a shoot and from the shoot would emerge a single flower. And I observed that no matter how I turned the pot, the flower would respond.…

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    A La Carte (March 18)

    A La Carte: God is good and does good—even in our pain / Dear bride and groom / Sin won’t comfort you / Worthy of the gospel / From self-sufficiency to trusting God’s people / The gods fight for our devotion / and more.

  • Confidence

    God Takes Us Into His Confidence

    Here is another Sunday devotional—a brief thought to orient your heart toward the Lord. God takes the initiative in establishing relationship by reaching out to helpless humanity. He reveals himself to the creatures he has made. But what does it mean for him to provide such revelation of himself? John Calvin began his Institutes by…

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    Weekend A La Carte (March 16)

    A La Carte: I believe in the death of Julius Caesar and the resurrection of Jesus Christ / Reasons students and pastors shouldn’t use ChatGPT / A 1.3 gigpixel photo of a supernova / What two raw vegans taught me about sharing Jesus / If we realize we’re undeserving, suddenly the world comes alive /…

  • Ask Pastor John

    Ask Pastor John

    I admit it: I felt a little skeptical about Ask Pastor John. To be fair, I feel skeptical about most books that begin in one medium before making the leap to another. Books based on sermons, for example, can often be pretty disappointing—a powerful sermon at a conference can make a bland chapter in a…