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A La Carte (August 10)

friday

Yesterday my family made the long drive from Toronto to Louisville, and today we will get my son settled at Boyce College (which, of course, is at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary). We dread saying goodbye to him, but couldn’t be happier for the opportunity he has here. Take good care of him, Louisville!

(Yesterday on the blog: Sex on the Silver Screen: Reader Follow-up)

How the Shared Family Computer Protected us From our Worst Selves

This is a fascinating one. “Long before phone addiction panic gripped the masses and before screen time became a facet of our wellness and digital detoxes, there was one good and wise piece of technology that served our families. Maybe it was in the family room or in the kitchen. It could have been a Mac or PC. Chances are it had a totally mesmerizing screensaver. It was the shared family desktop.”

These Docile Foxes May Hold Some of the Genetic Keys to Domestication

For some reason I found this story rather interesting. It talks about foxes and the keys to understanding domestication.

A Bored Generation?

Derek Thomas: “Ours is the first generation of Christians that has seriously asked the question, how much time can I spend on entertaining myself? In all the reading I have done in the sixteenth and seventeenth century, I have never once come across this question in any serious fashion.”

We are Not In Eden

We all have the deep longing to be elsewhere. “I pride myself in my theology of this broken world and how it impacts everything. I disdain triumphalism. I always want a healthy dose of realism when we talk about anything that seems to imply that somehow we can get Eden or perfection or curse-free living now. I just forget all of that when bugs or unwelcome animals are in the picture.”

4 Reasons You Should Preach through 1 & 2 Chronicles

I have been enjoying this series from 9Marks. “When you preach through this book, you and your church should be more convinced of the clarity of Scripture as the author reminds the reader to turn from sin, put their hope in the promised Messiah, and to seek God with all their heart while waiting for God’s plan to unfold.”

Willow Creek Elders and Pastor Heather Larson Resign over Bill Hybels

Consider this a follow-up to the stories I shared in yesterday’s A La Carte. “Lead pastor Heather Larson announced that she was resigning immediately. The church’s elder board announced that its members would also step down in an orderly fashion by the end of 2018.”

The Roots of Samoans’ Rise to Football Greatness

“This is a sports story that began with a sugar plantation and a Mormon temple. As the Kahuku Sugar Plantation fired up its boilers in 1890 and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) built a temple in nearby La`ie in 1919, the area attracted an array of proletarian wayfarers, including Samoans, Tongans and Mormons from Utah’s Great Basin. Driven by different agendas, plantation managers, and Mormon elders saw sport as a way to shape those they recruited to work and worship. “

Flashback: He (and They) Must Not Be a Novice

Authority comes with humility and humility comes with time.

Authority comes with humility and humility comes with time. Facts come easy, but character comes hard.

To walk into the unknown with a God of unqualified power and unfailing goodness is safer than a known way.

—D.A. Carson

  • Endure

    Why We Can Confidently Persevere in Prayer

    I remember the days when my children were younger and would ask me to give them something—then ask me again, and ask me again. At that age, they had no ability to gain or purchase these things for themselves, so they were entirely dependent upon their parents to grant their requests (which were usually for…

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (January 19)

    A La Carte: Learning to struggle / When “Stranger Things” stopped being strange / “If God Is For Us” / Reading as stewardship / A sermon you need to hear / Excellent Kindle deals / and more.

  • Not a Hindrance But a Prerequisite

    Not a Hindrance But a Prerequisite

    Many Christians feel they are too unholy or too sinful to participate in the Lord’s Supper. They come to the table downcast, convinced that their sin makes them unworthy. They may refuse to participate at all.

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    Weekend A La Carte (January 17)

    A La Carte: Look to and learn from older saints / Don’t overthink your problems / Rebellion / When there is no good church / Teens and popular music / Where the gospel costs everything / and more.

  • Free Stuff Fridays (TGBC)

    Enter to win 1 of 5 copies of Why We’re Feeling Lonely (And What We Can Do About It) and be encouraged by Shelby Abbott’s practical, biblical insights for young adults struggling with loneliness.

  • Gospel way

    Truths That Take on the World

    Christianity has a long history with catechisms—summaries of key doctrines that are arranged in a question-and-answer format. Traditionally, Presbyterians would be taught The Shorter Catechism, Dutch Reformed believers The Heidelberg Catechism, and Baptists one of the Baptist equivalents. Sadly, the use of catechisms began to decline as the years went by, so that it became…