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A La Carte (June 25)

tuesday

There are a few new Kindle deals for today.

(Yesterday on the blog: This Is Not Your Grandparents’ Church)

What the New Testament Teaches about Divorce and Remarriage

Andy Naselli shared an article on divorce and remarriage he wrote for the Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal. If you’d like to better understand the lay of the land and read a defense of the most common position among Christians, you will benefit from reading it.

The Scars of Heaven

This is a moving reflection. “Could it be that God will wipe the tears from our eyes, but not from our memories, that the renewed experience of the glorified saint will be to recall those sadnesses with the transforming joy which God’s presence and God’s disclosed providence will bring? Surely part of our praise in heaven will not merely be that we are now saved, but that we have been saved, that the very title of being those who have conquered means that our memory of victory will include a transformed awareness of what the whole battle meant.”

‘Nothing Kept Me Up At Night the Way the Gorgon Stare Did’

Here’s another dispatch from dystopia. “When you study drones, you spend a lot of time looking at really impressive, futuristic, and at times troubling technologies. But nothing kept me up at night the way Gorgon Stare did. There was just something so formidable about it.”

Marxism: A False Religion That Cannot Deliver on Its Promises

Bruce Ashford: “In this post, we will focus on the most famous and widespread version of socialism—Marxism—and argue that it is a false religion that cannot deliver on its promises. But before doing so, we must first trace the broad contours of Marx’s life and thought.”

The Heart of the Calvinist-Arminian Divide

John Piper writes about the divide between Calvinism and Arminianism. “There are two very different views of how God’s grace functions in bringing people from spiritual darkness and deadness and unbelief into the light and life and faith, which we call salvation and union with Christ.” He brings a lot of clarity here!

On Suicide: We Are Our Brothers’ Keepers

“The sick have sensed their lack of contribution and the cost they inflict on those around them. And so collectively, the sufferers, their loved ones, and the community at large, have agreed and voted that ending a life prematurely and artificially is somehow giving death dignity. But a truly dignified death is the result of a dignified life.”

This Canadian Town Comes Alive Once a Year

This is a town I would not visit! “Tokyo has its cherry blossoms, the Netherlands has its tulip fields, and Paris offers itself. But the Canadian province of Manitoba has a remarkably distinct springtime attraction too: tens of thousands of amorous snakes writhing around in pits.”

Flashback: 7 Good Reasons To Stop Looking at Porn Right Now

At a time when the Christian church is crying out for more and better leaders, an entire generation of young men and women are infantilizing themselves by their dedication to pornography.

Despite what our culture tells you, real joy is not found in listening to yourself; it’s found in listening intently to God.

—Matt Smethurst

  • The Phrase that Altered My Thinking Forever

    This week the blog is sponsored by P&R Publishing and is written by Ralph Cunnington. Years ago, I stumbled repeatedly on an ancient phrase that altered my thinking forever.  Distinct yet inseparable. The first time I encountered this phrase was while studying the Council of Chalcedon’s description of the two natures of Christ. Soon after,…

  • Always Look for the Light

    Always Look for the Light

    For many years there was a little potted plant on our kitchen window sill, though I’ve long since forgotten the variety. Year after year that plant would put out a shoot and from the shoot would emerge a single flower. And I observed that no matter how I turned the pot, the flower would respond.…

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (March 18)

    A La Carte: God is good and does good—even in our pain / Dear bride and groom / Sin won’t comfort you / Worthy of the gospel / From self-sufficiency to trusting God’s people / The gods fight for our devotion / and more.

  • Confidence

    God Takes Us Into His Confidence

    Here is another Sunday devotional—a brief thought to orient your heart toward the Lord. God takes the initiative in establishing relationship by reaching out to helpless humanity. He reveals himself to the creatures he has made. But what does it mean for him to provide such revelation of himself? John Calvin began his Institutes by…

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    Weekend A La Carte (March 16)

    A La Carte: I believe in the death of Julius Caesar and the resurrection of Jesus Christ / Reasons students and pastors shouldn’t use ChatGPT / A 1.3 gigpixel photo of a supernova / What two raw vegans taught me about sharing Jesus / If we realize we’re undeserving, suddenly the world comes alive /…

  • Ask Pastor John

    Ask Pastor John

    I admit it: I felt a little skeptical about Ask Pastor John. To be fair, I feel skeptical about most books that begin in one medium before making the leap to another. Books based on sermons, for example, can often be pretty disappointing—a powerful sermon at a conference can make a bland chapter in a…