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Weekend A La Carte (December 31)

May you know the Lord’s richest blessings as you send off one year and welcome in another.

For those who, like me, plan to read the Bible in 2023 using the 5-Day Reading Plan, it’s now available for free download.

There are a few new Kindle deals to look at today.

An Anchor for Our Tongues

This is a very interesting look at how we define words and why that sometimes doesn’t get us a whole lot closer to meaning. “Unfortunately, any given language is an imperfect witness to eternal truth. A language is limited in its perspective on reality. It ‘thinks’ in a certain way, and this affects how it describes things. This gives each language a unique perspective and voice, but that uniqueness also implies it’s missing a bunch of things that other languages notice.”

Deepening Your Friendship in Marriage

I appreciate this look at friendship in marriage from TGC India. “We had an arranged marriage, and we were in our twenties. We did not have the benefit of developing an understanding of who we were or what to expect. By God’s grace, it only took us three years to figure out what we were missing in the relationship. We were missing a friendship. No one told us the importance of friendship in marriage. So, we had to start over.”

Psalm 25 and the New Year

“The old British divine Matthew Henry refers to the practice of praying God’s Word back to God as ‘wrestling with God in his own strength.’ For this reason, I love to peruse the Bible for prayers to make my own. And one of my favorite passages to pray is Psalm 25.”

10 Tips for Faithful Student Ministry in the New Year

This list will be helpful for people who are involved in student ministry.

Start the Year Small: Wisdom for Setting New Goals

This article at DG offers “a well-marked yet seldom-traveled pathway to setting wise goals.”

5 Tips to Reinforce Your Bible Study and Prayer Routine

“No church leader wants to admit it, but for many of us it’s true: we still don’t have a sustainable habit for personal Bible study and prayer. Here are five ways forward—true for anyone, church leader or not.”

All our bad does not make us harder to save, and all our good does not make us easier to save. What saves us is Christ, and therefore all we contribute is honesty—admitting we are sinners and casting ourselves on him.

—Dane Ortlund

  • Mothering Against Futility

    The Futility of Motherhood

    Life is made up of so much that gives the appearance of being futile. There are so many tasks and responsibilities that we intellectually know to be important but emotionally feel to be fruitless. And if everyone struggles with this to varying degrees, I have it on good authority that mothers are prone to struggle…

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    A La Carte (January 31)

    A La Carte: Dune and female moral authority / Three lies that separate spouses / Sin makes you stupid / Can a fallen pastor be restored? / Evaluating Trump’s first week of executive actions / A future for the family / Book and Kindle deals / and more.

  • New and Notable Christian Books for January 2025

    As you know, I like to do my best to sort through the new Christian books that are released each month to see what stands out as being not only new, but also particularly notable. I received quite a number of books in January and narrowed the list down to the ones below. I have…

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    A La Carte (January 30)

    A La Carte: Small injustices / Is it necessary to be a church member? / How to make friends at college / My letter about a transgender teacher / Prayerless theologians / Deepening fellowship / Kindle deals / and more.

  • Throw Out the Buoys

    Throw Out the Buoys!

    When I was young, my family owned a cottage on a lake. From a young age, I loved to head out in our little motorboat so I could explore that lake and the others that were connected to it. I could easily make a day out of slipping into little inlets to see where they…

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    A La Carte (January 29)

    A La Carte: Your phone habits / A guide for single women / JFK, conspiracy theories, and the Deep State / So what if you’re bored? / God’s a writer / Hard relationships / Kindle deals / and more.