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A La Carte (September 16)

monday

Today’s Kindle deals include a few books from Crossway which share the theme of sanctification.

(Yesterday on the blog: How We Worshipped One Sunday in September)

This Saying is Trustworthy and Deserving of Full Acceptance

I think Anne Kennedy makes a really important point in this article: That the people Christians tend to see as the outsider or the marginalized are often actually the people who will earn us (rather than cost us) social credit. “Scripture, though it lacks charm and generates little curiosity for the modern reader, has much to say on the subject of the Sinner. It is the person who rejects God, who offends him through disobedience, idolatry, contempt, and misplaced rage.”

For Still Our Ancient Foe…

Nick Batzig: “In many theologically informed congregations where holiness, wrath, righteousness, justice, sin, grace, mercy, and forgiveness are unashamedly proclaimed, there is sometimes a noticeable lack of teaching about the reality of spiritual warfare in the believer’s life.”

How Long?

“How long will this be allowed? How many people must be taken from us by the consuming darkness of depression, or the horrific violence of terrorism? How many wives left without husbands, children left without parents, parents left without children, sisters left without brothers, friends left without friends, churches found without pastors, homes now feeling emptier than empty, schools with a hush fallen over them, cities with blood on their streets, desperate human voices crying out together, ‘How long?’”

How Does Oral Bible Storying Work?

What an interesting article on something few of us have ever seen.

Should Pastors Attend Church While on Holiday?

Of course they should! How is this even a question? “I got to know a lot more Pastors after I was ordained. One of the things I learned was that a significant number of Pastors did not go to church when they were on holiday. At first it struck me as odd. And then it struck me as wrong.”

Carl Trueman, the Osteens & the Quest for Evangelical Identity

Jason Allen: “For many of us ridiculing the Osteens has almost become a sport. In conservative evangelical circles it’s a guaranteed applause line, like calling for lower taxes at the Republican National Convention. However, the most helpful response is not just to give the Osteen’s a well-deserved rebuke. The more rigorous—and fruitful—response is to strengthen our confessional and testimonial identity as much as possible so that evangelical theology and Osteen principles become clearly distinguishable categories, with distinct identities and different constituents.”

Brothers, Shall We Weep?

Just as there was once a weeping prophet, maybe we need some weeping pastors…

Flashback: 3 Godly Ambitions for the Christian

Hard work has evangelistic value in showing unbelievers our refusal to lazily meddle and it has congregational value in that it frees us from being dependent upon others. Better still, it frees us to help those who need our help.

Christian hospitality is the reward of the gospel. It’s a foretaste in this life of a shared inheritance in the next. It’s a seat at the table now, the shadow of a future feast where we’ll recline at table in the kingdom.

—Elliot Clark

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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.

  • The Stranger

    The Stranger: A Short Film For You

    Based on a true story and inspired by the truth that character comes before competence, “The Stranger” is an honest, light-hearted and meaningful picture of what it means to truly serve others.

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    A La Carte (July 9)

    A La Carte: The singer who changed the course of my life / Stay on the line / Incompatible thick communities / Lulla-Bible? / The solution is not megachurch / Who were the Anabaptists? / and more.