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A La Carte (August 12)

A La Carte Collection cover image

Logos users, there are a few good deals worth looking at on this page. If you sort by savings, you can find some books and courses (like Bock on Luke and Acts) that are up to 90% off. It’s also worth a look at the Logos Ultimate Sale.

Today’s Kindle deals include The Opt-Out Family which helps parents develop a strategy for their children’s devices. You’ll also find a deep discount on C.S. Lewis’ Space Trilogy so you can finally read that. There’s a lot more as well!

(Yesterday on the blog: What I Use (and Don’t Use) To Make this Site)

A Biblical Message for Aging Parents

Kevin Schaal offers lots of good things for aging parents to discuss with their children. A small investment of time and effort here can be tremendously beneficial later on!

A Brief History of the ‘Worship Leader’ (Video)

We probably take it for granted that a church will have a worship leader, but as this video explains, it’s actually quite a recent development.

A Conference for Pastoral Couples

Hosted by Focus on the Family, the Focused Pastor Couples Conference is a space created just for pastors and their spouses—a place to step away from the demands of ministry and be reminded that you’re not alone. This 3-day event is all about rest, encouragement, and equipping couples to serve together with joy and unity. (Sponsored)

How Attractive Women Abuse Their Beauty

John Piper: “If God has given you the gift of physical beauty, and that beauty is not in the service of godliness, then it may as well have been given to a pig. In other words, the beauty is being wasted on you like a gold ring is wasted on a pig. The way not to waste physical beauty is to realize that it is meant as a pointer to moral and spiritual beauty.”

What if They’re All Just as Sure as We Are?

“Is Jesus’ claim credible when everyone else believes what they believe with equal sincerity? What are we to do, for example, when the Bible says that Jesus is God and the Koran says that he is only a prophet?” In other words, what if people who hold to other faiths are just as sure of what they believe as we are?

Put Up Walls So You Can Welcome

“If someone isn’t in some sense an outsider, I can’t welcome them into my space. Why not? Because if they’re already an insider there’s nothing to welcome them into.” This has important implications for churches.

Wisdom for New College Students

Morgan Kendrick offers wisdom to new college students. “With the excitement also comes anxiety. The unknowns can feel as scary as they do intriguing. There are too many names and faces to remember, and you are already longing for your friends from home. New beginnings require a kind of death. You have to part ways with your old life as you seek to establish a new one.”

Flashback: Unqualified and Unwilling

Not every man can or should be an elder, but every man can and should aspire to have the character of an elder, for this is simply the character of Christ. If you are already willing, then strive to become qualified.

If you add anything to Christ, you lose Christ. Salvation is in Christ alone by grace alone through faith alone.

—John Stott

  • 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…

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    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.

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    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…