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A La Carte (May 9)

thursday

I was not able to track down any particularly interesting Kindle deals for today. We’ll try again on Friday!

(Yesterday on the blog: The Wonderful, Glorious Jesus)

When Contentment Sneaks Up on You

“I haven’t arrived at full contentment yet. I’d say nobody ever will, until we all have our sins completely washed away on that final day. Some mornings I wake up feeling particularly weak, having to rip myself from some fantasy world in my dreams. It takes a huge effort to drag myself to my Bible, open it up, and allow God to reorient my heart.”

The Making of Amazon Prime

“It’s easy to forget now, but Amazon wasn’t always the king of online shopping. In the fall of 2004, Jeff Bezos’s company was still mostly selling just books and DVDs.” This interesting article traces the rise of Amazon Prime.

Saved by Grace But Entertained by Sin

“For the past decade, God has been doing a work in my heart that has revolutionized the way I look at my pursuit of entertainment. Rather than establishing a complex set of standards in the spirit of the Scribes and Pharisees, I have learned to ask some simple yet powerful questions about what it means for me to find pleasure in entertainment.”

A Letter To My Aging Friends

I enjoyed Abby’s attempt here to imagine some of what God might say to our aging friends.

Must We Pay Poor Pastors Poorly?

This comes from 20schemes which knows a thing or two about ministering among the poor. “I observe men sent out to pastor in poor areas of South Africa, this thinking appears to persist – ‘be poor, for the people among whom you work are poor!’ No doubt, such thinking probably stems from a desire to remove barriers for ministry and help the man relate well to the community. But I am with the locals: it’s a strange move.”

12 “Hard Truths” For Graduates to Help Them Not Be Broke

There’s great advice here for younger folk. “Love God and not money. Steward all of your resources (time, talents, and treasure) well, and use them as a way to worship and serve God and to bless others, not just for yourself. Do this, and you will probably not be broke financially, nor will you be ‘broke in spirit.’”

A Censorious Spirit

Here’s one to work on for a social media world. “Sinclair Ferguson once lamented the fact that whenever he overheard others discussing some public theologian or individual at a conference, the statements were almost always prefaced with a negative comment such as, ‘Well, you know, the problem with him is…’ Sadly, those sorts of conversations are far from uncommon among those of us who have been in the church for any length of time.”

Flashback: Just Forget About Marriage for a Minute!

Ephesians 5 tells a husband he must love his wife as Jesus Christ loves his church. So let’s forget about marriage for a minute and reflect simply on how we are loved by our great Savior.

Startle not when I say it,—I fear that many men proudly ask to be humble: they desire to be humble in order that they may be admired for it.

—C.H. Spurgeon

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    A La Carte (July 8)

    A La Carte: 15 ways to discern false teaching / The queering of history / The best part of my day / 6 kinds of hearers of God’s Word / Countering Muslim attacks on the Bible / Kindle deals / and more.

  • The Wonder of the Human Face

    The Wonder of the Human Face

    Then there are the wonders of human ingenuity: the machines, the inventions, the works of art. One lifetime is not nearly enough to explore or appreciate even the smallest fraction of them all.

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    A La Carte (July 7)

    A La Carte: A Christian patriot and his wayward nation / Outprinting the prosperity gospel / The organic church / A stranger in my homeland / Friendship’s faithful wounds / Sharing the gospel with someone who keeps rejecting it / Kindle deals / and more.

  • Pray Until You Feel Like It

    It is wise to set aside a time and place to pray—to build the habit and to then maintain it. But creating the habit may not always create the desire.

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    Weekend A La Carte (July 5)

    A La Carte: Let’s not rush to roles / Before you go to the nations / Children are not adults / Lia Thomas and a dark chapter for women’s athletics / No pit so deep / The first five years / and more.