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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

  • Quiet Time

    The Quiet Time Kickstart

    We are all people of habits. To some degree, we are always battling to establish good habits while battling to supplant bad ones. This is true of us in many different areas of life and most certainly true in our spiritual lives. In fact, some have argued that when we describe the way we relate…

  • A La Carte Thursday 1

    A La Carte (January 16)

    A La Carte: Why don’t we read the Bible more? / Did David rape Bathsheba? / To (almost) die is gain / Learn to pray the Bible / When you’re close to burnout / Called to freedom / and more.

  • How To Obtain a Plenary Indulgence in 2025

    How To Obtain a Plenary Indulgence in 2025

    I think we can sometimes fool ourselves into believing that the Reformation caused the Roman Catholic Church to abandon some, most, or all of the doctrine that was so concerning to the Reformers. We can sometimes believe that the Catholicism of today is materially different from that of the 16th century or that it has…

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (January 15)

    A La Carte: iPhones, idolatry, and evil spirits / At my mother’s deathbed / Nothing to do but pray / Bible study tips for beginners / Jesus did condemn homosexuality / Please don’t sing “Imagine” at funerals / Kindle and book deals.

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (January 14)

    A La Carte: Narcissus in public / A famous poet, KFC, and peace with my past / Does empowerment come from boudoir photoshoots? / Surrendering them to God / Sermon prep / Your plans for this year / and more.

  • 10 Reasons to Teach the Bible’s Big Truths to Children

    📖 Why teach children the big truths of the Bible? Moses commanded Israel to gather everyone—men, women, and little ones—to hear God’s law. Why? So they could “hear and learn to fear the Lord.” (Deut. 31:12-13) Children need the deep, rich truths of Scripture to know God, embrace the Gospel, and build a faith that…