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Weekend A La Carte (December 9)

A La Carte Collection cover image

My gratitude goes to RHB for sponsoring the blog this week to tell you about a great new devotional resource: Glorifying and Enjoying God.

My site will be transitioning to a new design this weekend, so expect a little bit of downtime. If you are seeing this, you’re on the new site! I’ll have more to say about it tomorrow.

Today’s Kindle deals include a few strong resources for the Christian life.

(Yesterday on the blog: My Picks for the Top Books of 2023)

When Grief Like Sea Billows Roll Through Your Holidays

Daniel has a moving piece at CT that recounts his grief following the loss of his mother.

Looking Upwards Amidst Chronic Illness: What God Teaches in Hardship

“Ongoing seasons of chronic illness can weigh us down and they can pose a real challenge to our faith. It’s a challenge to persevere when so many prayers for healing go unanswered. We can feel disappointed in our bodies as they fail us once again. We can struggle to reconcile our knowledge of God’s goodness with our unabating experience of pain. Yet God uses the furnace of chronic illness to refine our faith and teach us precious truths about him and us and the life of faith.”

8 Practical Ways to Flee From Temptation in the Moment

The strength of this article is in relying on Scripture to provide practical ways to flee temptation.

Are You the Strong or the Weak and Also Godly?

Kevin writes about Paul’s use of the categories of the weak and the strong. And whichever you are in a particular circumstance, his encouragement is to commit to being godly in it.

Drawing Near: Loving Your Adult Children and Grandchildren

“When children move from reliance on their parents toward the independence of adulthood, it can be disorienting. Initially, parents set the guidelines for behavior and schedules in the home, but adult children grow toward autonomy by moving out, pursuing careers, and establishing households — households with a culture of their own.” Brenda Harstine offers counsel on navigating this well.

It’s More Awkward to Reject the Virgin Birth

Here’s why it’s awkward—and why it completely undermines the Christian faith—to reject the virgin birth.

Flashback: The Dark Side of Christian Celebrity

There is a celebrity machine, to be sure, but there is also a celebrity landfill, a celebrity dump, a place we relegate people once we are through with them, once they no longer please us.

Christ grabs his pastors by the heart; he doesn’t twist them by the arm. He wants men with a holy ambition for the office, men with holy dreams about feeding and leading the flock, men willing and eager to stretch themselves to do what the calling requires.

—David Mathis

  • What Does Trouble Do

    What Does Trouble Do?

    To live is to experience trouble. There is no path through this life that does not lead through at least some kind of difficulty, sorrow, or trial—and often through a cornucopia of them. This being the case, we rightly wonder: What does trouble do? Though we may not see an answer in the immediate circumstances…

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (May 12)

    A La Carte: When prayer starts with panic / Tell the truth about children / When Christ is en vogue, Christians beware / Keeping learning after college / A word on diligence / Kindle deals / and more.

  • God overrules

    God Must Sometimes Overrule Us

    When we pray to God and bring our petitions before him, and then say in earnest “thy will be done,” how should we expect God to respond? Is asking God to overrule our will with his own admitting that he may actually bring us harm?

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    Weekend A La Carte (May 10)

    A La Carte: Pope Le XIV / A gift continually unfolding / Hopefully broken / This Mother’s Day / Support the caregivers in your church / One of the hardest things you’ll ever do / and more.

  • Proud of Her

    Proud of Her on Mother’s Day

    I can’t even tell you how brave she has been, how resilient, and how determined. The Lord alone knows all the ways she has had to exercise her faith and submit her will to his. But she has. She has, and it has been a blessing and an honor to behold. We come again to…