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A La Carte (10/21)

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As we began our evening service last Sunday, we asked the congregation this question and just had them call out answers: “What is something you read about God this week that encouraged or strengthened you?” So how about you? What have you read about God this week that has encouraged or strengthened you?

Heart-Stirring Words – Randy Alcorn shares some heart-stirring words from a daughter of North Korea (and a daughter of God). “On the second night of the Third Lausanne Congress taking place in Cape Town, South Africa, an 18 year-old girl from North Korea shared her story.”

Rowand Taylor, Protestant Martyr – “This month, on October 6, it was 500 years since the birth of the Protestant martyr, Rowland Taylor, in 1510.” Sandy Grant at The Sola Panel tells a little bit about the man’s life and death.

Praying Better in Public and Private – Tim Keller looks back to Thomas Cramner and learns some lessons on how to pray better in both public and private settings.

Money Pollution in the Gulf – Gene Edward Veith dug up an interesting story about all that money BP has pumped into the Gulf region. “The oil company has already paid out $965 million and set aside $20 billion in a separate compensation fund. The money has been welcomed as a lifeline. But it has made the coast feel like an open-air economic experiment: Some hardworking fishermen think it’s in their best interest to be idle, losing market share they will need next year. And those who haven’t been paid are looking for legal and illegal ways to work the system.”

Leading Your Church in Church Planting – J.D. Payne is writing a series about how to lead a church in becoming a planting church. First he discusses how churches grow, then he looks at 7 reasons your church ought to plant, and in the most recent article he offers a list of useful resources.

Apologizing (HT:R59):

Comic

Speech is…only good when it is better than silence.

—Richard Sibbes

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    A Trip to Southern Africa

    I don’t often write trip reports after I travel, except, of course, in the form of books and documentary projects like Epic and From the Rising of the Sun. Yet, I thought I would make a rare exception after returning from my recent journey to Southern Africa (and, strangely, Northern California). While I am accustomed…

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    We often hear these days of “AI slop,” a term that’s used to refer to the massive amounts of poor-quality AI-created material that is churned out and unceremoniously dumped onto the internet. This was once primarily artistless artwork and authorless articles, but has now advanced to much bigger and more substantial forms of content.

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  • Hymns

    Pitch Perfect and Tone Deaf

    God commands us to sing. Yet while some of God’s people are gifted singers, the plain fact is that others are not. In any congregation, it’s likely that some have near-perfect pitch while others are functionally tone-deaf. Those who struggle to sing may be self-conscious, tempted to stay quiet or to do no more than…