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A La Carte (10/5)

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Shannon Macfarlane Sproul – Shannon Macfarlane Sproul, daughter of Dr. R.C. Sproul Jr. and granddaughter of Dr. R.C. Sproul, went to be with the Lord on Wednesday. She was fifteen years old. Do keep the Sproul family in your prayers, remembering that it was less than a year ago that R.C. Sproul Jr. lost his wife to cancer.

Love Not Lost – Here is a mom’s sweet and faith-laced reflection on loving and losing children: “I learned so much about God during the agonizing times. Ever-present. Life-giving. Faithful. Sovereign. Patient.”

How God Saved an Atheist – This is a powerful little story from the life of Hudson Taylor.

The Hardest Lesson – Randy Alcorn has a few great lines in this article: “Sometimes we make the foolish assumption that our heavenly Father has no right to insist that we trust him unless he makes his infinite wisdom completely understandable to us. What we call the problem of evil is often the problem of our finite and fallen understanding. It was the hardest lesson I’d ever had to learn.”

Here are three articles on sanctification, each of which seems to nicely complement the others:

  • Working to Behold – “We are not transformed, as we strive and work our way toward perfection. We are not transformed as we focus on our own sinfulness. We are transformed uniquely as we look on Christ: his beauty and his righteousness. Because of his holiness, we long to be holy.”
  • God at Work – “A few days ago I was talking with a man whose son has recently come to faith after many rebellious years. He now wants to make up for lost time in his Christian life and has become discouraged with the slow progress of sanctification. He was asking his father the simple question, ‘Why?’”
  • Surface Repairs – “Let us not excuse ourselves on the basis that no-one will see and no-one will know. Let us not imagine that a veneer of behaviour will remove the rottenness beneath. Let us not hope that no one will look too closely and see what is really there. We must delve deep to expose and address what is rotten, for our own sake and the sake of one another.”

This life was not intended to be the place of our perfection, but the preparation for it.

—Richard Baxter

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    Weekend A La Carte (November 2)

    A La Carte: Coldplay’s prayer in Melbourne / Zombies, Heath Lambert, and gatekeeping biblical counseling / Keep the Feast (a new song) / Stop playing the numbers game / Squandering security / and more.

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    Free Stuff Fridays (Ligonier)

    This week’s Free Stuff Friday is sponsored by Ligonier Ministries, who also sponsored the blog this week.  Yesterday was Reformation Day, when many Protestants celebrate the sixteenth-century recovery of the biblical gospel. It was while Martin Luther was studying the book of Romans that he rediscovered the doctrine of justification by faith alone. So, today…

  • Daily Liturgy Devotional

    Why Not Use a Daily Liturgy for Your Devotions?

    Trends come and go. Certain habits or interests rise for a time, wane, then rise again, often at unexpected moments. One of the recent trends I have found particularly surprising and also particularly interesting is the rise (or re-rise, if you prefer) of liturgy. This may be liturgy within formal worship services of the local…

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    A La Carte (November 1)

    A La Carte: When a Berkeley feminist had three sons / The tragedy of IVF / What if I don’t feel forgiven? / Piper on how not to respond to suffering / What sola scriptura protects us against / Kindle deals / and more.

  • New and Notable Christian Books for October 2024

    New and Notable Christian Books for October 2024

    As October draws to its close, I wanted to ensure you know about at least some of the most notable books it brought our way. I did not see quite the quantity of new books I have seen in some previous months, but there were still some special ones. For each, I’ve provided the publisher’s…

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    A La Carte (October 31)

    A La Carte: What is the Reformation? / More than a list of problems / A surprising story / More than songs of praise / Do elders need to evangelize? / Preach the gospel / and more.