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A La Carte (September 18)

A La Carte Collection cover image

May the Lord be with you and bless you today.

If you’re looking for something good and relatively brief to read, Westminster Books has Dane Ortlund’s The Heart of Jesus discounted in single copies or cases.

Today is a huge day for Kindle deals, and that’s because Zondervan Academic is having a massive one-day sale with tons of their books discounted. There are also a few excellent options from New Growth Press and B&H (which I have put at the very top of the list).

What if No One Prayed for You?

I have often wondered the same question Melissa asks here: what if no one prayed for you? “As a kid who was raised by Christian parents, I have enjoyed the comfort of knowing that people were praying for me my entire life–not just my godly parents, but others in our church. … There’s something so sweet about knowing someone’s storming heaven on my behalf. It’s humbling and brings peace, especially when I’m struggling.”

How to Pray When You Feel Like You Can’t

Also on the subject of prayer, here’s some guidance on praying even when you feel like you can’t.

Is That Person Male or Female?

Alan Shlemon: “Is there a scientific and effective way to discern whether someone is male or female? The answer is yes. There have been established methods for a long time. It’s only with the recent rise of transgender ideology that there has been any substantial pushback to these methods. Here are three ways to determine whether someone is male or female.”

“If One Member Suffers…”

Brad tells how the body of Christ can bear one another’s burdens in a technological age.

10 Ideas for Better Conversations

Ed Welch offers some ideas for better conversations. “The problem is that if asked, most of us would have no plan for how to improve our conversation skills. We have goals for our weight and physical exercise but not for what occupies more time than anything else in our day. If you don’t have ideas on how you can improve your conversation skills, you won’t.”

God Is Good to Forbid Sin

He is, indeed.

Flashback: Not a Matter of Pitch or Tone

Those who struggle to sing may be self-conscious, tempted to stay quiet or to do no more than mumble along. Should they? Not at all, for singing is a matter of the heart before it is a matter of pitch or tone.

Me-ology is the junk food diet we’ve been serving up in our spiritual lives. The healthy alternative we need to immediately start ingesting is theology.

—Jen Oshman

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  • An Ideal Resource For Your Family Devotions

    An Ideal Resource For Your Family Devotions

    There is a lot I miss from the days when our children were young. High on the list is family devotions. Nick once described our family as having a “Spartan-like commitment” to them, though I remember as much failure as success and as many misses as hits. Still, there’s no doubt that over the 26…

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    The curious case of extra resurrections / Are kids too expensive? / Why hot takes are the enemy of conviction / Piper on preaching outrage / A daily rhythm of prayer / Forgetting and pursuing / A La Quiz / The funnies / and more.

  • A La Carte (June 11)

    We lost the baby / The Bible is cessationist (and wondrous!) / Thinking about Eastern Orthodoxy: a primer for evangelicals / Virtue signalling in the church / What is God’s providence? / Restlessness / Kindle deals / and more.

  • Conform

    You Can Conform to Christ Even if You Don’t Conform to Me

    One of the aspects of the Christian faith that I find particularly perplexing is the freedom God gives his people to obey him in different or even opposite ways, so that one person’s obedience is another person’s disobedience. Even as two people take the same action, one might be obeying him and the other disobeying…

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    Does prayer make a difference? / Portrait of an abortionist / Pushing back against the black tax / Bring your whole self to work / Blessed are the weak / When service isn’t a transaction / A pastoral analogy / Bill C-9 will soon be law in Canada / and more.