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A La Carte (January 27)

Today’s Kindle deals include The Faith of Christopher Hitchens, an interesting and excellent book. There are also a number of titles related to abortion.

Logos has put together a list of their most popular products for 2016. Quite a lot of them are for sale, so it’s worth giving the list a look.

The Awkward 17th-Century Dating Practice

If you’ve ever read about Jonathan Edwards, you’ve read about the bizarre practice of bundling. Atlas Obscura has just written a great article on a dumb practice.

A Plea for Pastoral Prayer

“Pastoral prayer—the part of the worship service where a pastor stands before the congregation and leads them in prayer as part of the worship service—seems to have fallen on hard times.” Indeed. It’s increasingly rare to find any substantial prayer in a church service.

2016: The Year in Language

Google has done a neat job in putting together a display of 2016’s top rising words. “These 10 words led the pack: Triggered, Shook, Juju, Broccoli, Woke, Holosexual, Shill, Gaslighting, Bigly, and SJW.”

Make America Unified Again

Bruce Ashford highlights 3 social divisions that America will need to overcome to become a unified nation.

Only 1 in 7 Senior Pastors Is Under 40

Here’s an interesting and important report from Christianity Today. “As clergy live longer and stay in ministry longer, the average age of Protestant senior pastors has risen to 54—a decade older than 25 years before, when the average age was 44.” There’s lots more to chew on in the report.

This Day in 1839. 178 years ago today famed English authority on hymns, John Julian, was born. His undoubted masterpiece is the monumental “Dictionary of Hymnology” which was published in 1892. *

The Surprising Ingenuity Behind “Goodnight Moon”

Here’s the sad, surprisingly story behind that book you probably memorized when your children were tiny. I think I can still recite most of it.

The Early Symptoms of Spiritual Danger

This is an important pastoral word from Sinclair Ferguson. Is it possible that you are showing some of the early symptoms of spiritual danger?

Pray With Your Spouse 31 Day Challenge

Couples may be interested in participating in Mike Leake’s 31-day challenge to pray with your spouse.

Flashback: 13 Ways You Waste Your Money

Money has many ways of disappearing. Here are a few of them.

Sin is not superficial to us, a mere flesh wound. It is a deep distortion, a twisted hostility toward God and his reign over us.

—Sinclair Ferguson

  • 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.

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    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…

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    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.

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    Weekend A La Carte (January 25)

    A La Carte: The digital allure of being attended to / He Is Making All Things Right (a new song) / To the parents of the wild ones / Five things you can control / Parenting and pornography / and more.