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A La Carte (April 12)

A La Carte Friday 2

This is just a reminder that a lot of my articles are professionally translated and made available in Spanish. You can find the complete collection at es.challies.com.

The FAQs: Southern Baptists Debate Designation of Women in Ministry

Joe Carter provides one of his helpful FAQs to explain some of what’s going on within the SBC. “The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), the largest Protestant denomination in the United States, is embroiled in a heated intramural debate over the designation of women in ministry.”

Is God Always Pleased With Christians?

That’s a valid question, isn’t it? Is God always pleased with Christians?

2 Weeks Left to Save for #MISSIONARYCON24

Join us on October 16-18 for The Missionary Conference, commemorating the 500th anniversary of William Tyndale’s English Bible translation. Gain a biblical understanding of and involvement in world missions, exploring key questions and challenging the pragmatic mindset that has infiltrated evangelicalism. Hear from John Piper, Brooks Buser, Sinclair Ferguson, and many others. (Sponsored)

Good Growth

“Good growth for a church is slow and steady, the whole body growing together. Sudden influxes of people are like grafting a branch onto a tree. Doable (and as a Gentile I am such a graft onto Israel’s tree: Christ), but difficult and requiring more skill than watching it weather the sun and storms while providing water and pruning.” This principle applies to individuals as well.

Planted and Rooted

Kristin has some sound counsel. “It is profitable to take personal inventory, paying close attention to your life’s surroundings. Are your relationships, systems, and work robust and God-honoring? I am not suggesting that healthy things are easy, but are their roots strong, abiding in Christ and ordered by Scripture? If something seems off, investigate.”

Scotland’s Destiny and the Rewriting of History

This is both sad and strangely fascinating.

Both Worm and Worthy

Trevin Wax: “An overemphasis on human worth will make grace expected: Well, of course God sent his Son to save us. We’re so worthy, after all! Go in that direction and repentance is unnecessary. Why wouldn’t God save you? An overemphasis on human depravity will make grace powerless: I’m nothing more than a worm and will never amount to anything. Go in that direction and repentance is impossible. Why would God care?”

Flashback: Beauty in the Whole and the Parts

In theology we make a study of God—of his works and of his ways…And as we study our God we find there is blessing in the macro and the micro, in the whole and in the parts.

Self-serving needs are not meant to be satisfied; they are meant to be put to death.

—Ed Welch

  • Cultivating Faith in God’s Garden

    God wants us to experience the teeming abundance of a life devoted to generative gospel community, even if the spiritual greenhouse is flawed and imperfect. #Sponsored

  • Pronouns

    Should We Capitalize Divine Pronouns?

    There are certain emails I receive on a routine basis and an especially common one relates to pronouns. Thankfully it’s not asking me to define my own pronouns as is all the rage today, but rather asking me whether Christians ought to capitalize God’s pronouns. By way of explanation, when some Christians use a pronoun…

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    A La Carte (April 7)

    A La Carte: On Netflix and Narnia / The wonder of an eclipse / Answering kids’ hardest questions / Not-so-great expectations / It’s not wrong to want to be perfect / Kindle deals / and more.

  • Breath

    A Sudden Stopping of the Breath

    I recently encountered a poem I enjoyed and wanted to share with you. LeRoy Tate Newland was an American pastor, a missionary to Korea, and a poet. Among his poems is this brief reflection on the death of a Christian (which, appropriately, is titled “A Christian’s Death”). I hope you enjoy it as much as…

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    Weekend A La Carte (April 5)

    A La Carte: The Lioness, the Witch and the Wardrobe / Are people basically good? / Who gets to define a healthy baby? / Go, gently / Films that defined Christian politics / Rethinking our mission field / and more.