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A La Carte (10/5)

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Shannon Macfarlane Sproul – Shannon Macfarlane Sproul, daughter of Dr. R.C. Sproul Jr. and granddaughter of Dr. R.C. Sproul, went to be with the Lord on Wednesday. She was fifteen years old. Do keep the Sproul family in your prayers, remembering that it was less than a year ago that R.C. Sproul Jr. lost his wife to cancer.

Love Not Lost – Here is a mom’s sweet and faith-laced reflection on loving and losing children: “I learned so much about God during the agonizing times. Ever-present. Life-giving. Faithful. Sovereign. Patient.”

How God Saved an Atheist – This is a powerful little story from the life of Hudson Taylor.

The Hardest Lesson – Randy Alcorn has a few great lines in this article: “Sometimes we make the foolish assumption that our heavenly Father has no right to insist that we trust him unless he makes his infinite wisdom completely understandable to us. What we call the problem of evil is often the problem of our finite and fallen understanding. It was the hardest lesson I’d ever had to learn.”

Here are three articles on sanctification, each of which seems to nicely complement the others:

  • Working to Behold – “We are not transformed, as we strive and work our way toward perfection. We are not transformed as we focus on our own sinfulness. We are transformed uniquely as we look on Christ: his beauty and his righteousness. Because of his holiness, we long to be holy.”
  • God at Work – “A few days ago I was talking with a man whose son has recently come to faith after many rebellious years. He now wants to make up for lost time in his Christian life and has become discouraged with the slow progress of sanctification. He was asking his father the simple question, ‘Why?’”
  • Surface Repairs – “Let us not excuse ourselves on the basis that no-one will see and no-one will know. Let us not imagine that a veneer of behaviour will remove the rottenness beneath. Let us not hope that no one will look too closely and see what is really there. We must delve deep to expose and address what is rotten, for our own sake and the sake of one another.”

This life was not intended to be the place of our perfection, but the preparation for it.

—Richard Baxter

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    A La Carte (May 20)

    A La Carte: The foibles and fallibility of Christian leaders / Mental illness / Why didn’t Christ come sooner? / When it’s okay to die / Spiritual formation / and more.

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  • Discernment

    What Does a Discerning Person Do?

    Some Christians seem to be specially gifted when it comes to spiritual discernment. Others take a special interest in discernment and expend the hard effort of growing in the discipline of it. But they may sometimes wonder: What should I do with this discernment?

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    A La Carte (May 19)

    A La Carte: Dangers of theological controversy / No confidence? No problem! / The goodness of gardening friends / Jeff the low stakes prophet / Hurting people / Kindle deals / and more.

  • Prayer

    The Reward They Longed for They Received

    Jesus, who knew what was in the heart of men, warned of the hypocrisy of those whose prayer life is only ever public. “When you pray,” he said, “you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen…

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    Weekend A La Carte (May 17)

    A La Carte: Generalizations are not stereotypes / Hospitality and reaching the dechurched / Essential lessons for pastors / The rise of Islam and the resilience of the church / Gossip and godly church / Fear takes you where grace has not yet gone / and more.