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A La Carte (November 28)

wednesday

Here’s a reminder that I’ve now got a Daily Podcast that shares some of the content of the blog in audio format. I’ve been encouraged by the early returns! It’s now (finally) available via iTunes, etc. You can learn more here.

(Yesterday on the blog: EPIC: Philippines)

He Gives and Takes Away

This expression of grief is sad, yet hopeful. “God does not throw His children into raging waters to drown them but pre-equips them with life preservers and other tools necessary for survival, enabling them to come out stronger on the other side. When I look back on the many years leading up to Mark’s death, I can see how God had prepared us ahead of time.”

Plundering the Egyptians: Fundraising for Missions

“Though some people object stringently to accepting cash from unbelievers or using fund-raising activities where unbelievers will contribute (e.g. car washes), others observe that these events create awareness in the community of a vibrant, missions-minded work of God in their midst. The events can be used as a platform to share the gospel, invite people to church, explain the purpose of the missions trip, and all the while building team unity and raise funds for the work.”

Lift Her Chin With Love

Husbands will benefit from reading this one. “As Christian men, we not only lament this tragedy; we challenge it. We rebuke a society which gives worth to women not based on the imago Dei but the imago Victoria Secret. We resolve, with God’s help, to be men after his own heart, detoxed from the drug of pornography and women-debasing lust. And we do what the husband does in the Song of Solomon: delight in the very place she fears is undelightable.”

Seven Lessons for Evangelical Scholars in the Secular Academy

Michael Kruger: “These seven lessons provide both warnings and encouragements for evangelical scholars today. They are a warning about the lure of the academy and the dangers of always trying to come up with something new. And they are an encouragement that fidelity and faithfulness to Scripture are more important than academic respect and the accolades of one’s colleagues.”

How Should a Church Handle Accusations against an Elder?

Accusations are sure to come. Here’s how to handle them. “An elder’s office does not put him above correction. Yet the congregation must show such respect to those appointed to lead, so that only with much humility, verification, and care will they reprove an elder. Members and elders will faithfully serve one another with this kind of accountability.”

How Apologetics Can Address the Six Reasons Why Young People Leave the Church

“Apologetics isn’t esoteric or abstruse; it’s practical. Apologetics helps to provide real responses to the reasons young people are leaving the faith.”

Incomprehensible Evangelicals and the Death of John Allen Chau

So many people are thinking about John Chau and how we ought to think about him. “The core convictions of evangelicals, including the need for salvation through Christ and the mandate to share one’s faith, are becoming increasingly incomprehensible to a post-Christian American culture. No better illustration of that incomprehensibility came in the media reaction to the tragic death of John Allen Chau while he was trying to reach the isolated hunter-gatherer society of North Sentinel Island, far off the coast of India.”

Flashback: But Others Have It Worse

A loving father does not demand agonizing misery before he will express heartfelt sympathy, but sympathizes with every pain and wipes away every tear.

If the gospel is old news to you, it will be dull news to everyone else.

—Kevin DeYoung

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