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A La Carte (October 20)

tuesday

Today is release day for Jared Wilson’s new novel Echo Island. It’s technically for young adults, but this not-so-young-adult enjoyed it plenty.

Today’s Kindle deals include a number of solid picks.

(Yesterday on the blog: Why We Need a Better Definition of “Conspiracy Theory”)

Is It Hypocrisy to Ask Locals to Be Self-Supporting?

I wonder if you’ve thought about this tension in foreign missions: Missionaries raise support to go overseas, then help locals begin self-supporting ministries. This article explains why it needs to be this way.

Intellectual Disabilities And The Church

This is a helpful article about being a church that welcomes people with intellectual disabilities, and not merely to the fringes of the congregation.

Redeem TV: A new viewer supported Christian streaming platform

Redeem TV is a viewer-supported, ad-free, fee- free streaming service. Our goal is to provide edifying and redemptive visual media content for all ages with library of over 1,500 quality dramas, documentaries, animated features, children’s favorites, episodic series, and small group studies, with new titles added every week. (Sponsored Link)

The Wisdom in Restraining Our Lips

“Patience is a virtue I am continually chipping away at. In a similar way to these ordinary tasks, I’m learning to be slow and patient with my words as well. And I find these two pictures of patience from my husband to be a helpful reminder of what that patience looks like.”

Help! I’m Struggling with the Doctrine of Predestination

Most of us have struggled with the doctrine of predestination at one time or another. This article means to resolve some of the tensions. “Christians might reason, We can’t understand such deep theological questions. Let’s just stick to what the Bible says. Christians need to stop arguing about theology and tell the world about Jesus. Such reasoning leads people to fear predestination and to avoid studying what God’s word says about it.”

Watching What I Invest In Evaporate

“As much as I don’t like it, it turns out that most of what I pour my time and energy into is fleeting, at least on the surface. Laundry? Sure it’s done, only to be done again. A great lesson plan leads to mixed feelings of pride, joy, fun, and a bit of a let down (now I need to start on the next one). Whether you are a foodie or live on peanut butter toast, food and dishes are on going. I’ll hit publish on this post and as I do an internal happy dance, I’ll also be thinking about future posts.”

When A Word First Appeared

Merriam-Webster has a neat “time travel” feature that lets you see which words or terms made their English-language debut through the years. I learned that I was born in the year that gave us bicycle shorts, body piercing, Ebola virus, and pooper-scooper. It wasn’t much of a year that way, was it?

Flashback: Gospel Weariness

Gospel weariness elevates our perspective from our feet to the horizon, from the trials of this world to the hope of the world to come. It stirs within us a holy longing to be done with this life and to enter into the life to come.

It would be well if all who call themselves Christians, should learn that it is not their business to believe and teach what they may think true or right, but what God in his Holy Word has seen fit to reveal.

—Charles Hodge

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    A La Carte (July 3)

    A La Carte: Silly summers / Broken bodies and anxious souls / Caring for disabled church members / How to survive prosperity / Meeting with the grieving / What makes a sermon work / Logos and Kindle deals.

  • Is It Fair of God

    Is It Fair of God?

    It’s a question every Christian is asked to consider at one time or another: Is God fair to punish those who have never heard of Jesus Christ? There are many ways to consider the issue and many ways to answer.

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    A La Carte (July 2)

    A La Carte: Encouraging your congregation to sing / Six ways to improve your prayer meeting / Will I ever love a church again? / God’s love is sufficient to help you fight porn / God’s discipline / and more.

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    A La Carte (July 1)

    A La Carte: The Queen of Sheba tries AI / Did we sin our marriage away? / When to stop treatment / Essential practices when comforting the grieving / Jesus doesn’t use fake plants / Kindle deals.

  • Satan Can Stage a Quiet Revival Too

    Satan Can Stage a Quiet Revival Too

    We are hearing encouraging reports of a kind of quiet revival that is spreading throughout the West. There appears to be a small but noticeable interest in the Christian faith by groups that, until recently, had eschewed it