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A La Carte (June 22)

Westminster Books is offering a solid discount on a very good collection of commentaries. You can’t go wrong with any of the ones they’ve highlighted.

Teens Who Choose Life in Unplanned Pregnancies Need Support and Respect, Not Shame

Here is a wise and winsome response to an article that was all over the news a couple of weeks ago. “Maddi’s story has served to become part of a bigger conversation about how Christians can both encourage and uphold standards of chastity and purity, while still showing respect and care for unborn children and their moms, in a way that’s truly consistent with a prolife ethic.”

A Christian Witness Older Than Canada

Fans of history and Christian history will enjoy this account of Maskepetoon, a Cree chieftain who became a believer. “He was baptized as a Christian two years before Confederation, following over two decades of reflection on the bible and the gospel of Jesus Christ. His example of Christian witness came during a time of brutal warfare between the Cree Nation and the Blackfoot Confederacy in Alberta and Saskatchewan during the 1800s.”

Mary Slessor’s Courageous Compassion

And those same history buffs will want to read about the heroic ministry of Mary Slessor. “Mary Slessor (1848-1915), a Scottish Presbyterian, served as a missionary to Calabar (southern Nigeria), West Africa, for thirty-eight years. At that time Calabar was considered one of the deadliest and most degraded countries in all of Africa.”

4 Misconceptions of the Missionary Call

“People tend to think that missionaries go because they somehow like to live in miserable places. This is just not true. Missionaries like comforts just as much as the next guy. But, the reality is that the unreached are generally unreached for a reason: they are usually the ones with the snakes, with the bugs, with the humidity. Even in Cameroon, when we were looking for a place to work, we were told that the languages by the beach were already taken.”

Gwyneth Paltrow Didn’t Invent the American Naturopathy Trend

Gwyneth Paltrow has been making a name for herself with her line of naturopathic products. She’s far from the first to enrich herself with dubious claims and outright quackery.

The New Spurgeon.org

It’s a joy to see the Internet’s best Spurgeon resource get better and prettier all at once.

What Is a Worldview?

James Anderson provides a useful primer on worldview. “What is a worldview? As the word itself suggests, a worldview is an overall view of the world. It’s not a physical view of the world, but rather a philosophical view, an all-encompassing perspective on everything that exists and matters to us.”

Flashback: Who Will You Serve and Surprise This Week?

Dutiful is good, but not good enough. Living well involves duty to be sure, but it also involves delight. Living well is made up of those things I must do, but also those things I get to do.

We waste time when we do not pray.

—Iain Murray

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    A La Carte (July 15)

    A La Carte: Sharing our struggles / The danger of inaction / “You don’t love your daughter” / A godly sense of humor / Three excuses for not reading your Bible / A closer look at Noah’s ark / and more.

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    A La Carte (July 14)

    A La Carte: Distorted doctrine destroys lives / Making sense of bad things / Be the Jonathan / A bridegroom of blood / Administrative sludge / Musical elements / Kindle deals / and more.

  • Prayer

    Spread Too Thin

    With so much to do, we can easily begin to wonder whether prayer is an appropriate use of scarce time. Wouldn’t it be better to give my attention to something that would let me cross something off my to-do list?

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    Weekend A La Carte (July 12)

    A La Carte: Where art thou Rob Bell? / The case against in vitro fertilization / Praying and weeping for those suffering in Texas / Greet each other with a holy hug / The example of Jimmy Swaggart / and more.

  • Thriving Marriage

    Thriving Marriage

    I have often wondered about the best time to write a book about marriage. When a couple is young, there is so much about marriage they have not yet experienced. They can still impart wisdom and teach lessons, of course, but there is so much of marriage that remains unknown to them. Yet when a…

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    A La Carte (July 11)

    A La Carte: Falling out of repentance / Tattoos as confession / The Epstein List and secret sins / Teaching generosity / Lessons from a former youth pastor / Bedbugs in the bowels of the city.