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A La Carte (November 18)

A La Carte Collection cover image

Good morning. Grace and peace to you.

Today’s Kindle deals include some excellent books on how Christians are to read, preach, and/or interpret the Bible. There’s something there for everyone!

When God Does Not Need Our Service

“Have you ever felt that you are not serving God to your full capacity? Perhaps you’re marking time at a job that does not use your full potential. Perhaps you just lost a relationship and thus your vision for the future. Perhaps you have an unforeseen illness that saps your vitality. Perhaps your life has devolved into the mundane aspects of caring for an infant or the elderly as your sleep is disrupted and your vision blurs, and your main goal for each day devolves into how you can arrange a nap.”

How to Forgive and Move On

I’m sure this—trying to figure out how to forgive and move on—is a situation we have all experienced at one time or another. “We might find help from a few prayerful, deliberate steps: Steady your heart before God. Consider whether to overlook or address. Then resolve to wipe the record clean.”

Today: A Devotional for Depression

This may prove an encouraging devotional for those who are struggling with depression.

Can a Speeding Ticket Change Your Heart?

“Coercion has no ability to change internal beliefs. It only has the ability to enforce an external behavior on the threat of force (punishment). This is exactly the same issue with the concept of laws. Laws cannot change internal belief at all. They can only enforce external behaviors. They also function to reveal the state of the person through the rules they prescribe.”

Is it I, Lord?

Andrew Dealy: “Awkward conversations have adorned the dinner table ever since Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. That being said, I am hard-pressed to think of a more awkward moment at a meal than this.”

This is Your Story

I was recently a guest on the radio program Haven Today. We talked about church history and my Epic journey around the world. The program continued with clips over 5 days so we made some good progress!

Flashback: Confronting the Problem of Spiritual Abuse in the Church

While there are other books written for the victims of spiritual abuse, this one is written for the ones who may purposely or inadvertently find themselves perpetrating it.

It is one thing to profess God, another thing to resemble Him.

—Thomas Watson

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    Egg freezing is a booming business / Talk to the A.I. me / Is aging becoming optional? / Feminism and the Fall / The lie of living your truth / Moving on from the Christian Nationalism moment / and more.

  • An Ideal Resource For Your Family Devotions

    An Ideal Resource For Your Family Devotions

    There is a lot I miss from the days when our children were young. High on the list is family devotions. Nick once described our family as having a “Spartan-like commitment” to them, though I remember as much failure as success and as many misses as hits. Still, there’s no doubt that over the 26…

  • A La Carte (June 12)

    The curious case of extra resurrections / Are kids too expensive? / Why hot takes are the enemy of conviction / Piper on preaching outrage / A daily rhythm of prayer / Forgetting and pursuing / A La Quiz / The funnies / and more.

  • A La Carte (June 11)

    We lost the baby / The Bible is cessationist (and wondrous!) / Thinking about Eastern Orthodoxy: a primer for evangelicals / Virtue signalling in the church / What is God’s providence? / Restlessness / Kindle deals / and more.

  • Conform

    You Can Conform to Christ Even if You Don’t Conform to Me

    One of the aspects of the Christian faith that I find particularly perplexing is the freedom God gives his people to obey him in different or even opposite ways, so that one person’s obedience is another person’s disobedience. Even as two people take the same action, one might be obeying him and the other disobeying…

  • A La Carte (June 10)

    Does prayer make a difference? / Portrait of an abortionist / Pushing back against the black tax / Bring your whole self to work / Blessed are the weak / When service isn’t a transaction / A pastoral analogy / Bill C-9 will soon be law in Canada / and more.