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Weekend A La Carte (8/17)

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The Situation in Egypt – Dr. Terence Ascott, CEO and Founder of SAT-7 International, writes about the current situation in Egypt, what is going on there, how it differs from media portrayals, and how Christians can pray about it.

The Temptation of Jesus – Byron Yawn writes about the temptation of Jesus and what it means. “A ‘how to’ on resisting temptation is a secondary application at best if not tertiary. He’s not telling us to do anything. He’s actually doing it for us. There is something much greater under way in this moment. More importantly, do we need to be standing within view of the actual site to realize how misguided our take on it is?”

Same Sex Attraction – Kevin DeYoung: “I’m sure there is much more that should be said–and equally sure that many can say these things better than I can–but as a starting place I believe our churches should make these five commitments to those struggling with same sex attraction in our midst.”

The Dread Pony – Here is an article about yet another fad. I link to it mostly because the author does such a good job of writing about it. “The thinking goes that the smirky ironic detachment of recent decades—​pretending to embrace low-culture totems for laughs​—​has grown stale. Now that the Internet has fragmented the culture into a million pieces, helping every maladjusted shut-in to realize his natural level of eccentricity, the only way for a self-respecting hipster or a Zuckerbergian alpha-nerd (the tribe that now runs the world) to distinguish himself is to enthuse over his enthusiasms without detachment or apology.”

An End of Books – Seth Godin has a fascinating look at what has happened to the book, the bookstore, the library, and other things we love.

Free from CBMW – CBMW has a couple of free books you can download in PDF format: Recovering Biblical Manhood & Womanhood by John Piper and Wayne Grudem and 50 Crucial Questions About Manhood and Womanhood by John Piper and Wayne Grudem

The essence of apostasy is changing sides from that of the crucified to that of the crucifier.

—John Stott

  • When God Plants an Acorn

    When God Plants an Acorn, He Means an Oak

    We stood together on the crest of a hill, a gentle breeze rustling the meadow around our feet. The fields ran gently downward until they met a creek that gurgled happily in its course. A few years prior, an acorn had somehow made its way to the highest point of this hill, carelessly dropped there…

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    A La Carte (April 28)

    A La Carte: Protestantism’s Catholic converts / How healthy is your pursuit of health? / God’s special calling on your life / Considering a Christian university? / Testing the teachings of Catholicism / Kindle deals / and more.

  • New and Notable

    New and Notable Christian Books for April 2025

    It is surprisingly difficult to find a list of Christian books that have been released in any given month—especially if you want that list to be filtered by books released through particular publishers. That’s one of the reasons why I close each month by coming up with my list of New and Notable books. I…

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    Weekend A La Carte (April 26)

    A La Carte: Every pinch of pain has purpose / China closed Christian bookstores / Watch for the thing after the thing / For everything there is a time / Showers of blessing / What Pope Francis can teach us about preaching / and more.

  • What Makes You Beautiful

    What Makes You Beautiful

    I have often thought of a conversation that took place when my girls were little. Abby was perhaps 5 or 6 at the time and Michaela just working her way through the “terrible twos” (which for our kids always happened when they were three or four). A stranger saw me interacting with them one day…