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A La Carte (December 2)

As you’d expect for Cyber Monday, there are lots of Kindle deals available today.

Because I’m in Africa and have spotty internet plus an intense schedule, I’ve not been able to put the time into gathering other Cyber Monday deals. I’ll just refer you to the Black Friday page and suggest that most who had deals on Friday will also have deals on Monday.

Is God Going to Wipe Out the Ocean?

Revelation 21:1 seems to indicate that God will one day eliminate the ocean. This article discusses whether or not this is a correct interpretation of the text.

Is It OK to Confess That Jesus Descended into Hell?

“If your church has ever recited the Apostles’ Creed, you’re probably familiar with that awkward feeling you get when you come to the part that says ‘he descended into hell.’ Numerous questions come to mind.”

Is Surrogacy Just Like Adoption (Video)

There are key differences. “The surrogacy process is complex and confusing. The ideas around surrogacy vs adoption have become a hot issue recently. While there are many surrogacy pros and cons, surrogacy should be explored based on the impact it has on children and not just the benefits to the parents. If someone said to you that surrogacy is like adoption, how would you respond? This video explores the problems with surrogacy and reviews why surrogacy is different from adoption.”

Bring your church family together with quick and easy communication between Sundays. Church Social gives members a secure place online to view a member directory and get organized with a calendar, schedules, and more. Administrators can also track membership records, create reports and share information.

Everyday Christmas

“So another Christmas season is upon us. The Christmas machine seemed to crank up earlier than ever this year – Christmas decorations, movies, trees and ads started bombarding us before the leaves even changed color. It’s all so … much. If you sense some weariness in those words, you’re right. The Christmas industry gets bigger and broader with every passing year, and every year it becomes harder and harder to focus on what the Advent (or ‘coming’) of Jesus really means.”

Sehnsucht

You’ll enjoy reading this one.

Humility, Not Hubris, Leads to Greatness

“When many Christians go to work, they enter an arena of constant striving—for more pay, more power, more Twitter followers. Now that I work in a corporate bureaucracy, this striving is systematized.”

A Day of Stress or a Day of Rest?

“Until a couple of years ago, the terms ‘Sabbath’ and ‘Lord’s Day’ stressed me out. I would either hear them used to make me feel bad about eating lunch at a restaurant on Sundays, supposedly against the instruction of the Puritans who I loved, or used to denounce the legalistic Sabbatarianism of the Puritans. The former was from Reformed acquaintances I didn’t know very well and felt shunned by, the inheritors of Puritan theology. The latter came from Baptist friends who I trusted but now felt pressured by to criticize the Puritans on something I hadn’t studied yet.”

Flashback: The Counter-Cultural Vocation of Homemaking

Even while she has always been personally confident of her choice, she has faced outside criticism. She has felt out-of-place. She has felt judged. But I, her husband, and we, her children, honor and love her.

Christ’s body is not a stage for my performance.

—Michael Horton

  • Educated, Free, Wealthy, and Privileged

    We are an educated people with high standards of literacy. We are a free people who enjoy religious liberty. We are a wealthy people with unlimited access to a nearly infinite quantity of Bibles. We are a privileged people who may not realize how blessed we are.

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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…