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Weekend A La Carte (October 12)

I’ve been blessed to spend the past few days in Hawaii to speak at the Pacific Church Leadership Conference. What a joy it has been to spend time with brothers and sisters from all across the region (and with Alistair Begg who is decidedly not from the region).

Today’s Kindle deals include a couple of classics and a few newer works.

(Yesterday on the blog: To the Young Man Who Has Been Asked To Preach for the First Time)

7 Reasons Tom Schreiner (Tentatively) Holds to Amillennialism

Justin Taylor tells why Tom Schreiner holds to an amillennial view of the end times, even if it is with some hesitation. “It would be hard to find a more gracious and humble commentator than Tom Schreiner. This is especially true when it comes to the controversy of what Revelation 20 teaches on the millennium.”

How Should We Describe David’s Sin With Bathsheba?

Here’s a very level-headed view on a hot topic this week: Whether David’s sin with Bathsheba amounted to rape.

Mapping America’s Fall Foliage

Here’s a great little map showing America’s fall foliage. (Being in Hawaii this week, I haven’t seen a bit of it!)

Ethiopia’s Evangelical Prime Minister Wins Nobel Peace Prize

Christianity Today reports. “Less than two years since taking office, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has helped Ethiopia achieve the kind of peace and reconciliation once deemed impossible, including resolving a border conflict with its East African neighbor Eritrea.”

A Better Tone

Joel Belz: “Not since the Civil War, some thoughtful observers are saying, has our nation been so divided. Never so polarized. Never with so many of its citizens set so bitterly against each other.” Whether that’s true or not, it’s clear that there is a lot of division at the moment.

Beto O’Rourke’s Plan to Destroy Churches

“On Thursday, during a CNN town hall devoted to LGBTQ issues, Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke was asked, ‘Do you think religious institutions like colleges, churches, charities—should they lose their tax-exempt status if they oppose same-sex marriage?’ ‘Yes,’ O’Rourke said without hesitation, drawing applause from the Los Angeles audience.”

Why We Need Bible-Oriented—Not Entertainment-Oriented—Preachers

“Earnestness is the demeanor that corresponds to the weight of the subject matter of preaching. The opposite of earnest is not joyful but trivial, flippant, frivolous, chipper.” John Piper explains.

Flashback: 7 Things Your Church Needs From You

Commit to get to know people not like you. There is no reason you shouldn’t be able to say that some of your best and closest relationships are with people who are very different from you.

The knowledge of God, and the remembrance of his all-seeing presence, are the most powerful means against hypocrisy.

—Richard Baxter

  • Pastoral Prayer

    The Pastoral Prayer: Examples and Inspirations

    Of all the elements that once made up traditional Protestant worship, there is probably none that has fallen on harder times than prayer. It is not unusual to visit a church today and find that prayer is perfunctory, rare, or absent altogether. If that is true of prayer in general, it is particularly true of…

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (September 11)

    A La Carte: Pro-natalism / Why a good God commanded the destruction of the Canaanites / An encouragement to husbands / Pastoring, productivity, and priorities / I had a horrific childhood / and more.

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (September 10)

    A La Carte: Why we worry when choosing a Bible translation / Why Christian parents should resist school-issued devices / Take your worst to the table / The quickest to anger and the slowest to forgive / A big batch of Kindle deals / and more.

  • What Is God’s Calling For Me?

    This week the blog is sponsored by Reformed Free Publishing Association. Today’s post is written by William Boekestein, author of the  new book, Finding My Vocation: A Guide for Young People Seeking a Calling. William is a pastor and husband. He and his wife have four children: a college student, two high schoolers, and a…

  • Past Through Over Around

    Past Them, Through Them, Over Them, Around Them

    It is inevitable that we face times of difficulty and impossible that we escape them altogether. To be born is to suffer and to live is to endure all manner of trouble and trial. Just as none of us escapes death, none of us escapes all hardships. And when we face such hardships, we invariably…