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A La Carte (April 24)

Today’s Kindle deals include a series of titles from Crossway that deal with deep theology.

God Desires To Bless You Infinitely More Than You Can Imagine

There’s an encouraging thought: “He has made an unbreakable, unchangeable promise to never stop doing good to us.”

The Quiet Plague of Painkillers

This one is from Desiring God: “Although heroin accounts for many such deaths, more familiar medications pave a path to heroin. Coincident with rising death rates, sales of prescription opioids such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, and hydromorphone quadrupled between 1999 and 2010.”

When Anger Rears Its Ugly Head

“It happened again, at the end of a very long day with our young children, when my husband called on his way home from work and asked me how I was. I told him. And it wasn’t pretty. And when he got home I told him again. It was loud, it was thoughtless, and our kids witnessed it all.”

If the Arabian Empire Reunited (Video)

I enjoy this kind of what-if video. “The Arabian Empire once extended from the Atlantic Ocean to the border of India. It was the largest empire that the world had ever seen up to that point, so what would things look like if this empire was suddenly re-created today? Watch this video and satisfy your curiosity!”

3 Problems with the Benedict Option

Jesse Johnson points out 3 issues with the Benedict Option: “necessitates a revisionist view of history (which I’ll call a “racial” problem), lacks the gospel (or, the “Catholic problem”), and sacrifices religious freedom (a “Baptist” problem).”

Verses to Meditate on When Considering Missions

Here are some verses that are good to ponder if you are feeling that tug to missions.

African American Preaching

Barry York, who represents a Reformed Presbyterian denomination, considers why African American preachers are often such effective communicators. “Instead of the linear style of preaching common to Reformed churches, African American preaching is usually rich in themes that are woven into their discourse and which are meditated upon for an extended time.”

Flashback: Stuff Christians Say

We don’t all need to run around like young seminarians, thrilled with new words and assuming that everyone else shares that enthusiasm. But neither should we run away from them.

Knowledge is proud that she knows so much; wisdom is humble that she knows no more.

—William Cowper

  • Pastoral Prayer

    The Pastoral Prayer: Examples and Inspirations

    Of all the elements that once made up traditional Protestant worship, there is probably none that has fallen on harder times than prayer. It is not unusual to visit a church today and find that prayer is perfunctory, rare, or absent altogether. If that is true of prayer in general, it is particularly true of…

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (September 11)

    A La Carte: Pro-natalism / Why a good God commanded the destruction of the Canaanites / An encouragement to husbands / Pastoring, productivity, and priorities / I had a horrific childhood / and more.

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (September 10)

    A La Carte: Why we worry when choosing a Bible translation / Why Christian parents should resist school-issued devices / Take your worst to the table / The quickest to anger and the slowest to forgive / A big batch of Kindle deals / and more.

  • What Is God’s Calling For Me?

    This week the blog is sponsored by Reformed Free Publishing Association. Today’s post is written by William Boekestein, author of the  new book, Finding My Vocation: A Guide for Young People Seeking a Calling. William is a pastor and husband. He and his wife have four children: a college student, two high schoolers, and a…

  • Past Through Over Around

    Past Them, Through Them, Over Them, Around Them

    It is inevitable that we face times of difficulty and impossible that we escape them altogether. To be born is to suffer and to live is to endure all manner of trouble and trial. Just as none of us escapes death, none of us escapes all hardships. And when we face such hardships, we invariably…