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A La Carte (October 23)

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Audible (Amazon’s audiobook service) is offering a holiday special where your first three months are just $0.99 per month. In that time you’ll be able to download, listen to, and keep 3 audiobooks of your choice from their massive catalog. Set a reminder on your phone for 3 months from now and then decide if you’d like to keep or cancel the service. (You are eligible for the deal if you have not had an Audible membership in the past 365 days.)

Today’s Kindle deals include You Are Still a Mother which is a beautiful and comforting book for those who are grieving stillbirth or miscarriage. There are other good options as well.

How to Write a Meaningful Card

Douglas Groothuis offers some simple but helpful advice on writing a meaningful card. “Writing cards is a way to re-humanize a de-humanized culture. Too much is too automatic and impersonal. When you pen (and I mean pen) a card, it bears the mark of your handwriting, your choice of ink and pen. A human—you—emerges from the thick lagoon of the pre-set, the template, the standard, the algorithm.”

God Brings Us Bad to Give Us Best

Joni Eareckson Tada explains how God brings us bad in order to give us best. “When God lobs a hand grenade into life and rattles our faith to the core, we wonder how he’ll work the pieces of shrapnel together for our good. What does good mean, anyway?”

Free eBook: The Legacy of Luther

More than 500 years ago, Martin Luther effectively sparked the Protestant Reformation by posting his Ninety-Five Theses. How did an obscure Augustinian monk become the man God would use to set the world ablaze? Today, Ligonier Ministries is offering a free download of the ebook The Legacy of Luther, edited by R.C. Sproul and Stephen Nichols. Add this volume to your digital library and explore Luther’s life, teaching, and enduring influence. (Sponsored)

New Notebook, Same Mission

I enjoyed Ed’s explanation of the difference notebooks have made to his faith. “It’s my way of extracting the most value from each sermon. For me, listening and note-taking go hand in hand. And when I review, highlight and summarize, my understanding and retention skyrocket.”

There but for the Grace of God Go I

“Imagine if Timothy had responded to Paul’s exhortation saying that he may or may not shipwreck his faith, depending on what the grace of God had in store for him. Yet we do speak this way in the wake of church scandals, and appear humble. But the renouncing of personal agency among Christian men regarding sexual sin is no virtue; it is cowardice.”

The Trouble With Competitiveness

Cindy Matson: “I’d rather not write this article. Anyone who knows me knows that competitiveness lodges deep within my bones. I want to come out on top whether playing tic-tac-toe, four-square, taking a test, or parenting my kids. I size up the competition and track the most likely path to victory. Of course, I don’t always win. I lose. A lot. But that doesn’t mean I like it.”

It Was Never Just ‘Thoughts and Prayers’

I enjoyed reading this one. “Whether there is media coverage of natural disasters or not, regardless of the scale, you will find faithful Southern Baptist volunteers hailing from 45,000 churches around the United States donning yellow shirts and mobilizing to the affected area. With the two Hurricanes, Milton and Helene, the SBC has thousands of men and women on the ground in western North Carolina, Georgia, east Tennessee, and Florida.”

Flashback: God Gave Me Three Children (and Three Friends)

I would need to dedicate time to training and discipling them but also to just enjoying them. I would, essentially, need to woo and win my own children, to prove myself a worthy, valuable friend.

Having a gospel zeal means we’re about our Father’s business—sharing the gospel in word and deed, and caring for the least, the last, and the lost.

—J. A. Medders and Doug Logan Jr.

  • Test Everything

    Christian, Do You Test Everything?

    A little while ago, the Bank of Canada became concerned about the amount of counterfeit currency circulating within the country. They began to educate the population with a short and simple mantra: “Touch, tilt, look at, look through.” These are four simple tests that can quickly show a bill to be genuine or counterfeit.

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    A La Carte (May 7)

    A La Carte: The babies money can buy / Deconstruction is sooo 2022 / Tips for leading a Bible study / Arguments against physician-assisted suicide / Your pastor isn’t your therapist / Book and Kindle sales / and more.

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    A La Carte (May 6)

    A La Carte: Jeremy Clarkson got scammed? / Dying for sex / Materially rich and spiritually emaciated / Gain is godliness or godliness is gain? / Reclaiming a rich interior life / and more.

  • When the Bible Seems Confusing, Lean in and Look Close

    When the Bible vexes us, when it befuddles us, when it talks over our heads or down to our sensibilities, guest writer and author of From Eden to Egypt, Alex Duke tells us this is an invitation to lean in and look close. #Sponsored

  • Foremost false teacher

    The World’s Foremost False Teacher

    In the days since Pope Francis died, I have seen a number of Protestants write about his legacy. Some of these writers have expressed great appreciation for him while others have expressed great concern. The reactions to these articles, and especially the critiques, have been interesting to me. Some people have expressed dismay that their…

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    A La Carte (May 5)

    A La Carte: Do you see the Holy Spirit? / Joy in a doom-and-gloom news cycle / Comfort when we least expect it / How to get people to be friends with machines / The internet perpetuates our spiritual dementia / Kindle deals / and more.