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Weekend A La Carte (December 17)

May you enjoy the Lord’s rich blessings as you serve and worship him this weekend.

My gratitude goes to Burke Care for sponsoring the blog this week to invite you to schedule a session with their certified biblical counselors.

Today’s Kindle deals include some newer books and some older ones.

(Yesterday on the blog: My Top Books of 2022)

Was Jesus Really Born of a Virgin?

“For many people, the question of whether or not a virgin can give birth is in the same category as questions about whether or not pigs can fly or time can be reversed or the sun can be stopped from shining. But in each of these circumstances, we must remember that all it takes for these ‘supernatural’ events to be possible is for a ‘supernatural’ God to exist.” Guy Richard explains.

2023 Reading Challenge

Visual Theology has its annual reading challenge ready to go.

Annual Reading Challenge for Kids and Teens

And while we’re on the subject of reading challenges, Redeemer Reader also has theirs ready to go. It is designed for kids.

Silent Nights

“One December evening, while home alone eating dinner, I suddenly became aware of how quiet the house was. I hadn’t been by myself much for 25 years because I had four kids, a husband, and a dog to fill my home with noise and activity. But my kids were grown, my youngest was away at college, my husband was on a business trip, and our dog had recently passed away. And although I had experienced quiet moments before, this silence seemed different – louder and longer. It had a new quality I hadn’t sensed before – a permanence. It rattled me a little bit.”

The Church’s Ministries

If you’d like to do some good reading over the weekend, the new issue of the 9Marks Journal is available and it covers “The Church’s Ministries.”

Bell Curve of Life

This article reflects on those well-known words of Job: “Naked I was born from my mother’s womb and naked I will return.”

The longer you wait to confess, the more likely it becomes that you never will… Sin is a cancer—it must be rooted out as quickly as possible before it spreads.

—Garrett Kell

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    Your Breath Stinks

    Have you ever had one of those experiences when you’re speaking to somebody and begin to notice that their breath is bad? And not just bad, but really bad—so awful that you find yourself discreetly trying to step back to get out of the line of fire. Even as you do your best to remain…

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    In his letter to the church at Rome, the apostle Paul expresses his sorrow about some people who were zealously religious yet tragically misguided. “I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God,” he says, “but not according to knowledge” (Romans 10:2).

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    To Be a Woman

    I sometimes wonder what future generations will make of the modern West here in the early decades of the 21st century. I sometimes wonder what they will think of us when they discover that one of the defining questions of our age is also one of the most straightforward: What is a woman? Yet an…