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A La Carte (June 25)

thursday

Lately I’ve been catching up with episodes of the Reformanda Initiative podcast. It’s a fascinating analysis and discussion of Roman Catholic theology and practice from an Evangelical perspective. Highly recommended!

There is just one Kindle deal today, but it’s a relatively new book by Alistair Begg and I don’t think I’ve ever seen it on sale before.

(Yesterday on the blog: A Gasp of Pain, A Sigh of Relief)

What John Stott Learned about Theology from Bird-Watching

I love these kinds of anecdotes. “John Stott is well known as an evangelist, preacher and writer, and a major influence of contemporary evangelicalism. But he was also a passionate bird-watcher. As a child, he collected butterflies. But, in the midst of a sibling squabble, a cushion landed on his collection. It was destroyed. So Stott turned to birds. The church council at All Souls wisely insisted that whenever he traveled overseas he take some time out to go bird-watching. He was known for his ability to wait patiently, sometimes lying flat to the ground, while looking at birds.”

Why Is ‘Mayday’ the International Distress Call?

Why do pilots call out “mayday” when they are in distress? This article answers.

Be an Intentional Encourager

In the last little while I’ve seen a number of articles and books about encouragement. That’s a good development!

Waiting on the Lord Is Not a Waste

“Why is waiting so difficult? Because it feels as if we’re not doing anything. And that’s the point. You’re not doing anything, but God is. However, waiting is one of the greatest applications of the Christian faith. You are putting your trust in God, placing your hope in him, and expressing confidence that he is in control. Waiting puts us in an uncomfortable place where we’re out of control of our lives. This is ‘active patience’? That season is when God will shape and define us the most.”

It’s the End of the World as We Know It

Keith Mathison: “Most of us don’t have a lot of control over the kind of things that are happening in the larger world around us, but what we have to remind ourselves as Christians is that God does have control, complete control. Not only is He in control, but all of what is happening is also part of His plan. God is sovereign. God is not wringing His hands right now crying, ‘What am I going to do?’ He is sovereign and He knows what He is doing. We don’t have to know the reasons for it. We simply have to know that he is good and trust Him. In short, we need to know the biblical doctrine of God. We need to know theology, and we need to trust our Father.”

Who Really Killed Emmanuel and Juliana Bileya

Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra writes about the tragic murder of Emmanuel and Juliana Bileya in Nigeria.

Christian, You Are Able Not to Sin

What an amazing ability God has given us! We are able not to sin.

Flashback: Writers Write

It’s the most obvious advice in the world, I know. But it’s advice every writer needs to hear and take to heart. Writers write.

While we are looking at God we do not see ourselves—blessed riddance.

—A.W. Tozer

  • Happy Lies

    Happy Lies

    I’m quite certain you have heard of the New Age movement. Though its popularity seems to have crested and begun to wane some time ago, it continues to wield a good bit of influence. But I wonder if you’ve heard of another similarly-named but quite different movement called New Thought.

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (January 28)

    A La Carte: Parenting is hard / The wildness of orthodoxy / Rubbing shoulders throughout eternity / Glorifying ourselves / The middle of somewhere / Is Roman Catholic baptism valid? / Excellent Kindle deals / and more.

  • Who Am I?

    It is not simply that we as a culture have lost our knowledge of God, but that in so doing we have also lost sight of ourselves. “Who am I?” is the question of the age.

  • Church cemetery

    If I Could Change Anything about the Modern Church

    I have often been asked what I consider the greatest weakness of today’s church or what I would change about today’s church if I could. Such questions make for good discussion at a conference Q&A session but they are also pretty much impossible to answer in a compelling way. It’s not like any of us…

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (January 27)

    A La Carte: To men delaying marriage / A mother unknown / Steve Lawson update / Three essential values for effective teamwork / God is good even when he doesn’t do what we want / Kindle deals.

  • Closet

    How To Learn To Pray

    Christians are well-resourced with tremendous books that teach the theology and the practice of prayer. Many churches and ministries offer powerful classes that teach why we must pray and how we must pray. We are truly blessed.