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A La Carte (2/17)

A La Carte Collection cover image

Yesterday I got to see the final cut of the commercial they’ve made for my book. I’ll try to debut it here at the blog early next week. I think you’ll enjoy it…

God at the Grammys – WSJ had an interesting article last week about popstars and their beliefs. “Believing that God wants you to be famous actually improves your chances of being famous. Of course, from the standpoint of traditional theology, even in the Calvinistic world of predestination, God is much more concerned with the fate of an individual’s soul than his or her secular success, and one’s destiny is unknowable. So what’s helping these stars is not so much religion as belief—specifically, the belief that God favors their own personal, temporal success over that of almost everyone else.”

Ask R.C. Sproul Live – Tonight at 8:00 PM R.C. Sproul will be live online answering questions from you and me. You can ask questions by Twitter or Facebook.

11 Theses on Birth Control – Douglas Wilson has some great things to say about birth control in this blog post. For example: “There are no promised covenantal blessings for the self-absorbed proprietors of stud farms.”

Couch Surfing – Here’s an interesting application of social media. CouchSurfing.com “aims to connect travelers, or ‘surfers,’ with hosts willing to offer a free place to stay, has some similarities to Facebook in that it includes user profiles, photos and friend requests.” Of course the service begins with a faulty premise: “We believe that people are fundamentally good, and our service is designed around that premise…”

How Much Information? – Here’s an attempt to figure out how much information the world contains. “If a single star is a bit of information, that’s a galaxy of information for every person in the world. That’s 315 times the number of grains of sand in the world. But it’s still less than one percent of the information that is stored in all the DNA molecules of a human being.”

Teg Haggard on Restoration – Matthew Paul Turner has a few reflections on a recent interview with Ted Haggard.

When I have any money I get rid of it as quickly as possible, lest it find a way into my heart.

—John Wesley

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    Weekend A La Carte (August 30)

    A La Carte: My mom, her drug addiction, God’s grace / God’s intervention and suffering / Common descent or common design / Why the work we do matters / How short, O Lord? / Totems diminish human worth / and more.

  • New-and-Notable August

    10 New and Notable Christian Books for August 2025

    August is usually a fairly quiet month for new book releases, sitting as it does between the busy spring and fall seasons. However, there were still quite a few excellent books published this month and I’m glad to share some of them with you. In each case, I’ve shared the editorial description so you can…

  • A La Carte Friday 2

    A La Carte (August 29)

    A La Carte: New CityAlight song / The worry Rolodex / Change inexorable / John Piper on glorifying God in 1,000 decisions a day / The false hope of rebranding yourself / The quiet work of God / and more.

  • A La Carte Thursday 1

    A La Carte (August 28)

    A La Carte: Marriage partners in heaven / You won’t believe who spoke at John MacArthur’s memorial service / Pastors should preach less / When your pastor preaches a bad sermon / Flawed youth ministry / Kindle deals.

  • Friendships

    Some Unexpected Blessings of Christian Friendship

    While I was sitting at John MacArthur’s memorial service and hearing his friends tell of their love for him (and his for them), I began to ponder some of the unexpected blessings that have come with both having friends and being a friend. Here are just three that came to mind…