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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 Thursday 1

    A La Carte (August 29)

    A La Carte: How to identify a false teacher / The rise of cultural Christianity / 19 Christian Para Athletes / Turn off social media until the election / Examining our assumptions about disability / Kindle deals / and more.

  • Church Livestream

    Is It Time To Stop Streaming Your Service?

    It always surprises me how quickly an idea can go from introduction to expectation, from mere inquiry to accepted standard. And once an idea has become mainstream in that way, it is difficult to revisit and evaluate it.

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (August 28)

    A La Carte: What canoeing can teach us about marriage / What are spiritual gifts and how do I discover mine? / How a troll becomes a troll / The biggest Evangelical divide / When Bible reading doesn’t produce a neat and tidy takeaway / and more.

  • New and Notable

    New and Notable Christian Books for August 2024

    We live at a great time to be readers! Christian publishers labor diligently to provide us with good books on every conceivable topic. Once a month I like to sort through all the new releases and put together a list of some of the new and notables. Here are my picks for August, 2024.

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (August 27)

    A La Carte: Keith Green, Bill Hybels, steeples, and bells / Did negligence kill my baby? / Rethinking nostalgic postpartum advice / Yes, all things / We can’t be friends / Kindle deals / and more.

  • Nothing Can Separate Us from God

    This week the blog is sponsored by Zondervan Reflective. This excerpt from The NIV Application Commentary on the Bible: One-Volume Edition explains the original meaning of Paul’s words in Romans 8:31-39 and shows how his message can apply to our lives today. We begin with words from the Apostle Paul: 31 What, then, shall we…