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A La Carte (August 18)

thursday

Grace and peace to you today.

(Yesterday on the blog: When Pastors Need To Be Extra Cautious)

Never Shop on an Empty Soul

This is a good exhortation. “The next time we find ourselves looking to buy something to relieve the boredom of our lives, remember, we are the ones being consumed. In a consumer culture, even the consumers become a commodity. Never forget, they are preying on your emptiness.”

GAFCON leading the way

Murray Campbell has an interesting article about the Anglican Church in Australia. “GAFCON is responding to what is a tireless intrusion onto Christian Churches by certain bishops and leaders who are trying to change the Gospel beyond recognition. They are not playing the same game as Christians Churches, but something quite different.” (See also this article by TGC Australia.)

When Bots Write Your Love Story

I don’t subscribe to a lot of Substack newsletters, but I do subscribe to Samuel James’. This article is a great example of why. (You may want to consider at least picking up a free 7-day trial subscription to check it out.)

Is New Testament Greek the Most Precise Language Known to Mankind?

“There is an idea which floats around in pulpits and Bible studies, and it goes something like this: ‘Greek is a perfectly precise language which clearly conveys its meaning, and this is the reason why God used Greek for the New Testament.’ I do not pretend to know the mind of God regarding why the New Testament is in Greek. But there are some substantial problems in the assertion that Greek is ‘perfectly precise.’”

The Way You Look

“My grandmother used to have this phrase to describe a particular kind of family resemblance. She’d say something like, ‘He looks out of his eyes the way his dad did when he was a kid’ or ‘The way you look out of your eyes makes me think of your mama.’” Glenna Marshall explains and applies.

What were the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age?

“Archaeologists are fond of dividing up time into different ‘ages’. This can be quite confusing to the uninitiated, for several reasons.” This article at Creation.com explains what the ages mean and when they happened.

Flashback: We Are Never Without Beauty

We are never without beauty in this world—never without displays of splendor. We are never without beauty because God’s divine fingerprints are impressed on all he has made.

In the sight of God the most menial task is as sacred as that of the highest order, and when well done as greatly meets his approval.

—Charles Ebert Orr

  • Works & Wonders June 14

    Works & Wonders: Bowing the knee or shaking the fist, 39 years to translate the Bible, And Can It Be, How to understand a trillIon, Landsat images, and World Cup covers.

  • Weekend A La Carte (June 13)

    Egg freezing is a booming business / Talk to the A.I. me / Is aging becoming optional? / Feminism and the Fall / The lie of living your truth / Moving on from the Christian Nationalism moment / and more.

  • An Ideal Resource For Your Family Devotions

    An Ideal Resource For Your Family Devotions

    There is a lot I miss from the days when our children were young. High on the list is family devotions. Nick once described our family as having a “Spartan-like commitment” to them, though I remember as much failure as success and as many misses as hits. Still, there’s no doubt that over the 26…

  • A La Carte (June 12)

    The curious case of extra resurrections / Are kids too expensive? / Why hot takes are the enemy of conviction / Piper on preaching outrage / A daily rhythm of prayer / Forgetting and pursuing / A La Quiz / The funnies / and more.

  • A La Carte (June 11)

    We lost the baby / The Bible is cessationist (and wondrous!) / Thinking about Eastern Orthodoxy: a primer for evangelicals / Virtue signalling in the church / What is God’s providence? / Restlessness / Kindle deals / and more.

  • Conform

    You Can Conform to Christ Even if You Don’t Conform to Me

    One of the aspects of the Christian faith that I find particularly perplexing is the freedom God gives his people to obey him in different or even opposite ways, so that one person’s obedience is another person’s disobedience. Even as two people take the same action, one might be obeying him and the other disobeying…