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Weekend A La Carte (December 23)

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My gratitude goes to Burke Care for sponsoring the blog this week. Burke Care offers discipleship care with certified biblical counselors.

Today’s Kindle deals include a variety of books both new and old.

(Yesterday on the blog: A Family Update for the Holiday Season)

Meet the Messiah Who Came to Serve

Randy Alcorn wants to be sure you meet the Messiah who came to serve. “We owe Jesus everything. He owes us nothing. But that doesn’t keep God from choosing to serve us, His servants.” What a wonder!

What Do We Actually Know About the Three Wise Men? (Video)

Mark Ward looks carefully at the text to discern what we actually know about those three wise men who appear in the Christmas narrative.

What Now for Those Evangelicals Who Fled to Rome?

Stephen asks a good question here: “Where to now for the young evangelicals who left the Reformed faith for the safety and security of Rome? A Rome whose walls would never be breached, we were led to believe, by the ravages of the post-Christian Sexular Age?” And yet the pope has now said that same-sex relationships are worthy of blessing.

The United Methodist Reckoning

And it’s not just Rome. As Tim Lamer explains, the United Methodist church is also racing a reckoning. “According to estimates, one-fourth of the churches within the United Methodist Church—the nation’s second largest Protestant body—have chosen to disaffiliate because the denomination has failed to be faithful to Christian teaching on sexuality and marriage.” (Note: If you are not a subscriber, WORLD should allow you several free articles per month, so hopefully you can read this one.)

In the Fog, There Are Tidings of Comfort and Joy

Writing for Baptist Press, Jason Duesing reflects on the symbolism of fog in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and relates it to the current state of the world. “In our day, we live in a fog. Current events and the conflict of culture pervade our streets and the airwaves in which we live and move. Yet, often when burdened by this fog and darkness we fail to see it as a reminder to move us to places of comfort. Places with fires and friends. Places that arrive naturally at this time of year.”

Was Spurgeon Really Anti-Christmas?

You might have heard it said at some point that Charles Spurgeon was anti-Christmas. But was that really the case? J.A. Medders investigates.

Flashback: Never Forget Where You Came From

We are prone to forget our poverty, our need, our desperation, our condemnation. We are prone to forget where we came from, prone to forget what God drew us out of. 

The more you think about it, the more staggering it gets. Nothing in fiction is so fantastic as is this truth of the incarnation.

—J.I. Packer

  • Building Churches

    Building Churches Out of Other Churches

    What is your church really made of? Or perhaps better said, who is your church really made of? This is something we all do well to ponder from time to time, for there are good ways and bad ways, better ways and worse ways to fill a church.

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    A La Carte (February 19)

    A La Carte: Don’t let your fears hold back your children / Denominations in an age of online over-exposure / Full-circle prayers / Secret things and revealed things / Building habits / John Mark Comer’s view of God / and more.

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    A La Carte (February 18)

    A La Carte: Very cool birds / The way to combat anxiety / Do not hinder yourself / The sacred mundane / Thriving in women’s ministry leadership / Kindle deals / and more.

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    A La Carte (February 17)

    A La Carte: Wisdom for online dating / Anything can be an idol / The great danger / Unconfessed sin / Sins we love to ignore / Kindle deals / and more.

  • Quality Time

    Quality Time

    People of all faiths pray. Some pray to gods, some to ancestors, some to nature, and some to the universe, but all speak out words, all utter desires, all hope to be heard. But Christians pray differently and Christians pray confidently, for we pray to a Father. We alone “have received the Spirit of adoption…

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    Weekend A La Carte (February 15)

    A La Carte: Resisting temptation / Strange familiarity / The reluctant polemicist / A new Getty hymn / The power of one bitter thought / Better than a holy year / and more.