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Weekend A La Carte (July 13)

Today’s Kindle deals include a couple of classics worthy of a place in your collection.

(Yesterday on the blog: When My Children Grow Strong and I Grow Weak)

The Christian CBD Changes Its Name

This is an understandable name change! “For more than 40 years, Christian Book Distributors—a direct-mail cataloger and online retailer—has gone by the letters CBD. But the company announced last month it would drop the abbreviation and the word distributors from its name in response to the now-common use of CBD to refer to cannabidiol. The letters will no longer appear beneath its logo, an open book with flipping pages.”

Newsletter Code Words

This is meant to let you in on the “code words” missionaries use in their newsletters. “For example: It’s been a year of transitions and adjustments. Is actually a neat and tidy way of saying: I’ve spent the last 12 months living out of a suitcase and making a ton of mistakes everywhere I go.”

We Spent Our Best Years Overseas. And They Were Hard.

Speaking of missionaries, Jen Oshman reflects on her family’s years overseas. “The church—both those who go and those who send—must acknowledge the hardships that cross-cultural workers face. And we must stand ready to help those who go as they walk through various valleys.”

Don’t Play With Sin

This is a good exhortation based on a great analogy.

5 Things I Learned as a Pastor’s Kid

“Two seemingly omnipresent misconceptions: Kids will be fine if they’re in church regularly, but requiring them to come with you will foment rebellion. Both ideas are intuitive to different kinds of people in evangelical churches, but both are wrong.”

Cultural Awareness in Christian Ministry

Culture matters when understanding and interpreting the Bible and culture matters when sharing the gospel and carrying out ministry.

Without Apology

Here’s a sweet one from a loving mom.

Flashback: The Five Key Factors in Every Christian’s Sanctification

Rather than resisting, enter into the current of God’s sanctifying work and see the Lord’s power reveal itself in all the ways God, truth, people, and struggle change you as you respond in continual obedience and continual repentance.

The more we are able to reveal ourselves to our life partners and still be loved, the more we are able to understand what a relationship with God is all about.

—R.C. Sproul

  • 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…