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A La Carte (March 5)

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Good morning! Grace to you today.

Today’s Kindle deals include a few interesting titles.

The Powerlessness of Positive Thinking

“Positive thinking says if you just dig deep enough in yourself, you will find strength to conquer anything. The gospel says when you have no strength left, God will sustain you. Positive thinking looks to goodness in creation to solve immediate problems. The gospel looks to the Creator to solve eternal problems. Positive thinking holds up in everyday struggles, but in the deepest and darkest times offers very little. The gospel, however, shines brighter than ever in the deep darkness.”

Why Do You Want to Go to Heaven?

Jon Bloom: “In one sense, the Bible tells us relatively little about the specifics of heaven. Descriptions of heaven are often analogical or symbolic, framed in archaic images we might find strange. In another sense, however, the Bible speaks of heaven all over the place, and in ways very relevant to us. The Bible, on almost every page, speaks not so much of the mansions and Maseratis that may come, but of the great Satisfaction for which our souls deeply long.”

Render to God

“Something has to change. It’s time to make a shift. Blending into the world around us is no longer an option for the church. The culture rejects the Christian worldview and won’t be appeased by anything short of total ideological surrender, so it’s time for us to get counter-cultural.”

Largest U.S. Evangelical Adoption Agency Waves the Rainbow Flag

Joe Carter explains how and why the largest evangelical adoption agency in the US began to wave the rainbow flag.

Hello? Is Anybody Listening?

You may need this reminder that God is not a distracted parent who is constantly fixated on his iPhone.

Book Banning in an Age of Amazon

Abigail Shrier’s newsletter on Amazon’s decision to ban Ryan T. Anderson’s book on transgenderism is an important one. “In a time marked by so much suppression of speech by Big Tech, the muggings can begin to run together. We are already growing accustomed to cancellation. But of all the violence to free inquiry we’ve witnessed in the last year, the deliberate disappearance of a mainstream conservative book is among the very worst.”

Don’t Despise Transfer Growth

Pastors tend to disparage transfer growth but, as Stephen Kneale shows here, perhaps they shouldn’t. “There is a legitimate discussion to be had about hoarding resources. We should be talking more strategically about where people go, why they go there and how we can get them to move to the areas of greatest need. There are legitimate questions to be asked about whether a church of 500 or 600 people needs more people to transfer in or whether the kingdom is better served by encouraging those people to go to a smaller church in need of help. All of these things are legitimate to ask and there is a right discussion to be had about them. But…”

Flashback: 3 Tips for Responding to Criticism

In his little book True Friendship, Vaughan Roberts offers three tips for responding to criticism, and especially this kind of criticism—the kind that comes in the context of friendship, of iron sharpening iron.

I don’t need to look good so Jesus can look good; I need to be honest about my colossal spiritual need so he can look all-sufficient.

—Sam Allberry

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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.

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    A La Carte (July 10)

    A La Carte: Questions for a maturing marriage / The lesbian seagulls that weren’t / But mommy, why? / A time to be tired / The modern rise of Stoicism / and more.