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Weekend A La Carte (February 24)

weekend

Today’s Kindle deals include just one book (though it’s a good one, at least). It has been rather a slow week for deals, hasn’t it?

(Yesterday on the blog: How To Pray for your Brothers and Sisters in Korea)

Is Jordan Peterson the Hero We’ve Been Looking For?

Reformed Perspective weighs in.

Is Church Membership Exclusive?

“It bears saying that the church should, indeed, welcome everybody. There shouldn’t be anyone who is unwelcome at church meetings. Nobody should be stopped from coming under the sound of the gospel. In the sense that everyone is welcome to hear the Bible taught and the gospel proclaimed, all are certainly welcome.” However…

That Pesky Biological Reality

“Reality has a way of making itself known. So the evidence mounts up that the most progressive societies are also those in which occupation is most closely linked to sex; and two men are not actually capable of becoming parents without hiring a womb; and biological sex is determinative for all manner of things.”

Why We Should Use the Language of Brokenness

“It’s an opinion that pops up in my social media feeds every now and again from well-meaning believers critical of the therapeutic influence on Christian preaching and teaching. ‘Stop saying people are broken. They’re sinful. That’s the problem.’ Or some variation of the same. At a speaking engagement recently a fellow in a Q&A time asked for my thoughts on the language of ‘brokenness’ in preaching. Is it okay to say people are broken? Or that the world suffers from brokenness? It’s obviously on people’s minds.”

The Long Drive Home

“She was the kind of girl who always said the wrong thing. She tried to claw her way into the popular crowd, in her de-clawed, shy kitten sort of way. It was high school in the early nineties, and we were all just doing the best we could with the very little that we knew about being teenagers. It felt like none of us really had a clue as to what kind of reaction we would get when we opened our mouths to speak, and we continually tested out all of the different ways to be, a petri dish of social experimentation in small town America.”

Isaiah’s Signature

These kinds of discoveries are always interesting. Of course, it takes time to verify them, and so on. Still…

The Delicate Art of Cobweb Paintings

I find things like this fascinating: “Who could have thought that the delicate, fine, silky threads of a spider’s cobweb could be woven into a canvas strong enough to withstand the abrasive strokes of an artist’s brush? But the hundred or so paintings that survive today in museums and in the hands of private collectors bear testimony to this incredibly ingenious, painstaking and time-consuming craft that the Austrian monks of the Tyrolean Alps practiced in the 16th century.”

Flashback: When I Glory in My Shame

When I look for what makes me feel good about myself, I inevitably find my idols. The thing that validates me is the thing I worship, the thing that momentarily takes the place of God in my life.

God’s thoughts of you are many, let not yours be few in return.

—Charles Spurgeon

  • The Phrase that Altered My Thinking Forever

    This week the blog is sponsored by P&R Publishing and is written by Ralph Cunnington. Years ago, I stumbled repeatedly on an ancient phrase that altered my thinking forever.  Distinct yet inseparable. The first time I encountered this phrase was while studying the Council of Chalcedon’s description of the two natures of Christ. Soon after,…

  • Always Look for the Light

    Always Look for the Light

    For many years there was a little potted plant on our kitchen window sill, though I’ve long since forgotten the variety. Year after year that plant would put out a shoot and from the shoot would emerge a single flower. And I observed that no matter how I turned the pot, the flower would respond.…

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (March 18)

    A La Carte: God is good and does good—even in our pain / Dear bride and groom / Sin won’t comfort you / Worthy of the gospel / From self-sufficiency to trusting God’s people / The gods fight for our devotion / and more.

  • Confidence

    God Takes Us Into His Confidence

    Here is another Sunday devotional—a brief thought to orient your heart toward the Lord. God takes the initiative in establishing relationship by reaching out to helpless humanity. He reveals himself to the creatures he has made. But what does it mean for him to provide such revelation of himself? John Calvin began his Institutes by…

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    Weekend A La Carte (March 16)

    A La Carte: I believe in the death of Julius Caesar and the resurrection of Jesus Christ / Reasons students and pastors shouldn’t use ChatGPT / A 1.3 gigpixel photo of a supernova / What two raw vegans taught me about sharing Jesus / If we realize we’re undeserving, suddenly the world comes alive /…

  • Ask Pastor John

    Ask Pastor John

    I admit it: I felt a little skeptical about Ask Pastor John. To be fair, I feel skeptical about most books that begin in one medium before making the leap to another. Books based on sermons, for example, can often be pretty disappointing—a powerful sermon at a conference can make a bland chapter in a…