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A La Carte (February 6)

monday

Good morning. Grace and peace to you.

(Yesterday on the blog: A Prayer for Times of Controversy)

What Are Theologians For? The Case of Karl Barth’s Adultery

“‘It’s a shame he was an adulterous and unfaithful husband, but he sure was a great theologian and a gift to the church.’ Is this sentence intelligible? Might it be regarded as capturing the complex reality of indwelling and ongoing sin for theologians, or is it simply oxymoronic?”

The most precious and painful thing I will ever write

It is so encouraging and challenging to read an obituary of a very good life.

‘He Gets Us’ Super Bowl Ads Part of Billion-Dollar Campaign

What’s the “He Gets Us” campaign all about? And who’s funding it? CT explains.

An Open Letter to the Prayerless Church

Paul Miller: “In our prayer seminar, we ask several confidential questions about a participant’s prayer life. After doing hundreds of seminars, we have found that about 85% of Christians in a typical church do not have much of a prayer life. Praying communities are, perhaps, even more rare.”

What is Good (and Bad) about Transparency

“The rise of reality TV and then social media has radically increased transparency. Team Transparency has rallied around #nofilter selfies and sharing even the frustrating and discouraging parts of life. Team Self-Respect has rallied around calls for decency and the need for some last bastion of privacy.”

Scarcity and the Goodness of God

“Once we grab a taste of joy and pleasure we’re tempted to cram ourselves full– whether through TV binges or social media dopamine hits. We’re stuffed, yet completely dissatisfied, because deep down we still wonder when we’ll get it again. Yet those of us who belong to Christ don’t have to live in such a way. We can shift our minds to what’s true: Abundant goodness remains accessible at any time to us through our Lord.”

Flashback: As if God Had Ever Made an Atlantic Wide Enough…

In this short but sweet quote, Theodore Cuyler reflects on what we need most in our times of affliction.

We should not run aimlessly or halfheartedly, as though we signed up just to get a T-shirt, but as runners who look to receive the “well done” from our Lord and Master.

—Alistair Begg

  • 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…

  • A La Carte Friday 2

    A La Carte (January 16)

    A La Carte: Business meetings at the urinal / Ambition and competition / The loneliness crisis / Better than feeling seen / Exhausted and overwhelmed / Kindle deals / and more.

  • A La Carte Thursday 1

    A La Carte (January 15)

    A La Carte: Young people are turning to the Bible / What conservative young men need / Justifying self-gratification / The influence of reading / On boredom / and more.

  • Remember

    It Doesn’t Matter What You Remember

    I have a memory like a … what do you call it? That thing in the kitchen you use to sift the stuff you want from the stuff you don’t. A sieve! That’s it. I have a memory like a sieve. I joke about it at times, and about how I have to outsource remembering…