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Weekend A La Carte (9/14)

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Prideful Comparison – “That means the life that you have is a sacred calling. By the grace of God, you are what you are. It also means that the lives others have are sacred callings by the grace of God. And some of those saints have received sacred callings resulting in greater levels of gifting and prominence than yours. And this means that you and I frequently must battle against comparing ourselves with others.”

The Fare Up There – Having done two trans-Atlantic flights in the past week or so, airline food has been on my mind (and, unfortunately, in my stomach). This article explains why it is so difficult to make a meal that is actually worth eating.

What I Wish I’d Known – “Yancey Arrington shares how he learned to stop reading the Bible like Aesop’s Fables, plus what he wishes he had known about God’s sovereignty, discipleship, theology, and preaching.”

Don’t Knock Beauty – I agree with Julian: We can so emphasize inward character qualities that we somehow lessen the importance of beauty. He suggests we work toward a better balance. “If we lose our desire for beauty, it will only serve to diminish our desire for our beautiful God. The balance, I suppose, is learning to long for the beauty that matches his character and reflects his beauty. And then, once we find it, we give praise to the one who gives beauty to all that is beautiful.”

Machines Imitate Life – “A set of mechanical gears that work just like those seen in moving instruments and engines has been discovered in a small garden insect which uses them to kick its hind legs at exactly the same time.” The article hands it all to evolution, of course, so be sure to see God’s hand in it.

Use the Bible to Prove the Bible – “I have heard this many times. It can come from Christians or non-Christians, but it is mainly on the lips of unbelievers. The idea that the Bible itself is inadmissible as a testimony to itself. If I were trying to use the Bible to prove the validity of the Bible, from the perspective of many outsiders, this is circular reasoning. However, this statement is not only wrong, but completely misunderstands its own argument and, ironically, makes the very circular reasoning assumptions that it accuses believers of.”

The best way to do ourselves good is to be doing good to others; the best way to gather is to scatter.

—Thomas Brooks

  • The Anxious Generation

    The Great Rewiring of Childhood

    I know I’m getting old and all that, and I’m aware this means that I’ll be tempted to look unfavorably at people who are younger than myself. I know I’ll be tempted to consider what people were like when I was young and to stand in judgment of what people are like today. Yet even…

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    A La Carte (April 19)

    A La Carte: The gateway drug to post-Christian paganism / You and I probably would have been nazis / Be doers of my preference / God can work through anyone and everything / the Bible does not say God is trans / Kindle deals / and more.

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    A La Carte (April 18)

    A La Carte: Good cop bad cop in the home / What was Paul’s thorn in the flesh? / The sacrifices of virtual church / A neglected discipleship tool / A NT passage that’s older than the NT / Quite … able to communicate / and more.

  • a One-Talent Christian

    It’s Okay To Be a Two-Talent Christian

    It is for good reason that we have both the concept and the word average. To be average is to be typical, to be—when measured against points of comparison—rather unremarkable. It’s a truism that most of us are, in most ways, average. The average one of us is of average ability, has average looks, will…

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    A La Carte (April 17)

    A La Carte: GenZ and the draw to serious faith / Your faith is secondhand / It’s just a distraction / You don’t need a bucket list / The story we keep telling / Before cancer, death was just other people’s reality / and more.

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    A La Carte (April 16)

    A La Carte: Why I went cold turkey on political theology / Courage for those with unfatherly fathers / What to expect when a loved one enters hospice / Five things to know about panic attacks / Lessons learned from a wolf attack / Kindle deals / and more.