Skip to content ↓

Weekend A La Carte (March 18)

weekend

My thanks goes to The Good Book Company for sponsoring the blog this week. I am so grateful for each and every one of the sponsors who help keep this site going.

Logos has a sale on my recommended bundle of commentaries. Also, be sure to keep voting in March Matchups.

Today’s Kindle deals include a good selection of titles.

(Yesterday on the blog: Now What?)

How the Side B Project Failed

Bethel McGrew writes about the Side B project. “The speed of this decline naturally prompts a question: Was there ever anything to salvage? In its current incarnation, are we witnessing a radical moral turn? Or are we witnessing the inevitable end of an inherently flawed project?”

Lessons in Waiting for Water

“It stands to reason that we who live with the comforts of a first-world society should be the spiritual giants of our time. Think of all of the ways God has blessed us with safety and freedom and opportunity. Imagine how much of our lives could be spent falling on our knees in gratefulness, devouring the Word with expectation for what He will do next. Consider how much time we have to study, to worship, to pray, to reflect on the goodness of God when we don’t have to struggle to survive.” But…

The Story Isn’t Finished

Sarah writes very openly here. “Most of my fifteen years of motherhood have been spent sitting outside or inside my precious child’s room, trying to protect him by keeping him (and I) safe as his illness turned him into someone he couldn’t control. Fifteen years of traumatic memories and experiences I must carry mostly alone due to its nature.”

What does it mean to rejoice always, even with all the evil in the world?

Sinclair Ferguson: “To rejoice always doesn’t mean that we rejoice in the evil. It doesn’t mean that we like suffering, although we rejoice even in suffering. The basic explanation is that we rejoice in all circumstances because we have a reason to rejoice—and that reason is our Lord Jesus Christ.”

The Fears and Hopes We Sing in Lullabies

Nadya Williams writes about lullabies from her childhood. “So goes one of the melancholy lullabies I remember from my Russian childhood, and which I have been singing to my own children over the years out of habit, out of love, and out of the sense that at the end of the day, as they fall asleep, songs in a language they do not know still somehow speak more powerfully than spoken words in a language familiar to them.”

Love Letters of Scripture

This article considers the evident love in Scripture”s letters. “I want to have that kind of joy in my life. I want to rejoice in all that the Lord has given me with a humble spirit and a grateful heart. Paul’s letters are loving reminders of the gift of our salvation through belief in Jesus Christ.”

Flashback: It Takes a Church To Raise Your Child

The proverb demands more than allowing others to troubleshoot my children’s poor behaviour. It invites others to provide input into the development of their character.

Humility is the only soil in which true unity can grow. Only when Christ is more precious to us than our own reputations will we give up our petty rivalries and personal agendas. Only when his glory eclipses all else will we live for his cause and no other.

—Michael Reeves

  • A La Carte Thursday 1

    A La Carte (January 22)

    A La Carte: Suffering as spiritual formation / Save the humanities from the slop / Dying to give / Someone is getting played / Using gifts or burning out? / Preparing to pray / and more.

  • Robert wolgemuth

    Robert Wolgemuth Was a Kind Man

    I don’t remember the first time I met Robert Wolgemuth, but I know it was when I was much younger and just beginning to get my bearings as a writer. At the time, I was beginning to consider whether it would be useful to retain a literary agent who would represent me to publishers. I…

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (January 21)

    A La Carte: The great Christian reset / Artists who refuse the hot take / A ministry of small things / The sin that so easily ensnares / The strict dietary laws / and more.

  • A Special Offer On Ten Great Books

    A Special Offer On Ten Great Books

    Reformation Heritage Books is offering Challies readers an exclusive 15% discount on their top ten recent releases. Use code CHALLIES at checkout. This offer is valid until January 27.

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (January 20)

    A La Carte: When protest enters the sanctuary / Why I ditched my scrolling habit / Take sports betting seriously / The world runs on urgency / Sanctification hacks / Kindle deals / and more.

  • Endure

    Why We Can Confidently Persevere in Prayer

    I remember the days when my children were younger and would ask me to give them something—then ask me again, and ask me again. At that age, they had no ability to gain or purchase these things for themselves, so they were entirely dependent upon their parents to grant their requests (which were usually for…