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Weekend A La Carte (August 3)

A La Carte Collection cover image

My gratitude goes to Ligonier Ministries for sponsoring the blog this week. They wanted to be sure you know about some of their new products, including the excellent Field Guide on Gender and Sexuality. Canadians will want to know that Ligonier is now partnering with Reformed Book Services to distribute their resources on this side of the border.

Today’s Kindle deals include a few interesting options. Also, I noticed there are a couple of good ones that are going to go live tomorrow and be available for just 24 hours, so maybe check in sometime on Sunday if that’s of interest.

(Yesterday on the blog: Is the Bible Actually Trustworthy?)

We Stopped Catechising

T.M. Suffield considers what the church may have lost when it (largely) stopped catechizing. Importantly, he is referring not only to children, but to adults as well.

Your Pain Has an End Date

Vaneetha Rendall Risner comforts us that our pain has an end date.

The Sexual Revolution’s Great Lie: You’ll Always Be Young

Jonathon Van Maren lays out the Sexual Revolution’s great lie. “The Sexual Revolution has always depended on a concurrent rise in technology to make its false promises appear attainable. First it was the Pill, which produced staggeringly high abortion rates and a pandemic of sexually transmitted diseases; now, it is reproductive technology that promises young women they can delay trying to have children until they are on the verge of menopause after decades on birth control.”

Five Things You May Not Know About Shem

When you consider the extremely long lifespans of the first centuries of human existence, you realize how much some of the Bible’s key characters must have overlapped with one another. You also realize how many generations of their descendants they would have seen. This article covers that and more.

An Odd Detail That Points to Christ’s Cosmic Reign

“Good stories often include odd details. But what first strikes the reader as odd or random may later turn out to be interesting and insightful.” Benjamin Gladd provides an example of one of these from the book of Mark.

Broken Cisterns

“We have been given God the Spirit to indwell us, to empower us for the Christian life, but far too often we attempt to walk around in our own strength. We are unprayerful, unthankful, and unconcerned about God’s direction in His Word…”

Flashback: Who Gave You The Right?

The sanctified instinct of the Christian heart should not be to discourage but to encourage, not to further demoralize other people but to give them strength, to give them heart, to give them courage. 

Though you hoard up wealth, gold is nothing but dust to a dying man.

—C.H. Spurgeon

  • Quiet Time

    The Quiet Time Kickstart

    We are all people of habits. To some degree, we are always battling to establish good habits while battling to supplant bad ones. This is true of us in many different areas of life and most certainly true in our spiritual lives. In fact, some have argued that when we describe the way we relate…

  • A La Carte Thursday 1

    A La Carte (January 16)

    A La Carte: Why don’t we read the Bible more? / Did David rape Bathsheba? / To (almost) die is gain / Learn to pray the Bible / When you’re close to burnout / Called to freedom / and more.

  • How To Obtain a Plenary Indulgence in 2025

    How To Obtain a Plenary Indulgence in 2025

    I think we can sometimes fool ourselves into believing that the Reformation caused the Roman Catholic Church to abandon some, most, or all of the doctrine that was so concerning to the Reformers. We can sometimes believe that the Catholicism of today is materially different from that of the 16th century or that it has…

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    A La Carte (January 15)

    A La Carte: iPhones, idolatry, and evil spirits / At my mother’s deathbed / Nothing to do but pray / Bible study tips for beginners / Jesus did condemn homosexuality / Please don’t sing “Imagine” at funerals / Kindle and book deals.

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (January 14)

    A La Carte: Narcissus in public / A famous poet, KFC, and peace with my past / Does empowerment come from boudoir photoshoots? / Surrendering them to God / Sermon prep / Your plans for this year / and more.

  • 10 Reasons to Teach the Bible’s Big Truths to Children

    📖 Why teach children the big truths of the Bible? Moses commanded Israel to gather everyone—men, women, and little ones—to hear God’s law. Why? So they could “hear and learn to fear the Lord.” (Deut. 31:12-13) Children need the deep, rich truths of Scripture to know God, embrace the Gospel, and build a faith that…