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A La Carte (July 12)

A La Carte Collection cover image

If you’re interested in some new books, Westminster Books has an interesting new resource by Nancy Guthrie that is up to 50% off. Remember also that Mark Vroegop’s excellent new book is on sale as well.

On the Kindle front, you may want to look at the book on prayer or, perhaps if you’re sharing the gospel with Roman Catholics, the book on Mary. (This morning I also added Mike Wittmer’s excellent Urban Legends of Theology.)

On Repetitive Worship Songs

It is easy to pick on worship songs that have repetitive words, but I appreciate the distinctions John Piper makes in this Ask Pastor John. “The issue’s not repetition per se but whether there is enough substance, enough rich content of truth about God woven into the repetitions to justify them, to warrant them. That’s the issue. There’s a difference between repetitions that are called forth by the repeated crescendo of new, glorious truth, and repetitions that serve as a kind of mantra without sufficient truth that is simply used to sustain or intensify a mood.”

Don’t Fear the Marks in Revelation

Jen Wilkin explains why you don’t need to live in fear of the marks in Revelation. “Because I was too afraid to read Revelation, it was years before I learned it holds multiple scenes in which people receive marks, and not all of them are terrifying. Some are extremely reassuring.”

Hope Beyond Politics in Europe

Carl Trueman, having just returned from a long speaking trip through Europe, explains why he’s hopeful and encouraged, despite the political situation in many European nations. “Radical politics, left and right, is too often dehumanizing. It reduces its opponents to a set of beliefs and in so doing dehumanizes its adherents too, leading them to despise those also made in the image of God. Christianity, by way of contrast, offers a cause worth living—and dying—for that places a true humanity at its core, a humanity in communion with God through the work of Jesus Christ.”

Do Angels Have Free Will? (Video)

Bruce Ware’s answer goes far beyond angels and helps explain what the Bible teaches about free will.

John Rodgers Davies: A “Wond’rous Miniature of Man”

Log College Press shares a really interesting (and tragic) look at the children of Samuel Davies, “the great Presbyterian ‘Apostle of Virginia’ and President of the College of New Jersey (Princeton).”

How Teens Can Contribute Right Away

It is wonderful when teens come to Christ and become eager to serve within the church. Yet for obvious reasons, not every ministry is immediately available to them. This article suggests several meaningful ways that teens can serve right away.

Flashback: Are You in the Dangerous Time In Between?

It’s so often the ones who seemed to be at their greatest moment of success who were on the precipice of destruction. Like blind men about to blunder off a cliff, they were oblivious to their impending doom. 

If we would learn to serve as Christ did—it would make us think of others around us, not as those from whom we may get some gain, exact some attention or promotion—but as those to whom we may impart some good, render some service.

—J.R. Miller

  • 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…

  • A La Carte (June 10)

    Does prayer make a difference? / Portrait of an abortionist / Pushing back against the black tax / Bring your whole self to work / Blessed are the weak / When service isn’t a transaction / A pastoral analogy / Bill C-9 will soon be law in Canada / and more.

  • A La Carte (June 9)

    Thawed embryos, reproductive rights, and the grey marshlands of ethical ennui / 14 World Cup stars who follow Jesus / The God of small churches / How a critical theorist influenced the sexualization of everything / When culture trumps strategy / Fasting and feasting / Kindle deals / and more.

  • Six Counsels for a Sending Church

    Sacrificial obedience to the One who sends is what it will take to reach every language. Join us October 14 to 16 in Dallas–Fort Worth for The Lord Who Sends as we reflect on God’s word and the lives of missionaries who followed the Great Commission.

  • The Two Kinds of Content You Consume

    The Two Kinds of Content You Consume

    At some point we all began to refer to articles and video as content. And today we are drowning in it! Here is a simple filter for telling content created to serve you apart from content created to serve its maker.