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Weekend A La Carte (December 9)

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My gratitude goes to RHB for sponsoring the blog this week to tell you about a great new devotional resource: Glorifying and Enjoying God.

My site will be transitioning to a new design this weekend, so expect a little bit of downtime. If you are seeing this, you’re on the new site! I’ll have more to say about it tomorrow.

Today’s Kindle deals include a few strong resources for the Christian life.

(Yesterday on the blog: My Picks for the Top Books of 2023)

When Grief Like Sea Billows Roll Through Your Holidays

Daniel has a moving piece at CT that recounts his grief following the loss of his mother.

Looking Upwards Amidst Chronic Illness: What God Teaches in Hardship

“Ongoing seasons of chronic illness can weigh us down and they can pose a real challenge to our faith. It’s a challenge to persevere when so many prayers for healing go unanswered. We can feel disappointed in our bodies as they fail us once again. We can struggle to reconcile our knowledge of God’s goodness with our unabating experience of pain. Yet God uses the furnace of chronic illness to refine our faith and teach us precious truths about him and us and the life of faith.”

8 Practical Ways to Flee From Temptation in the Moment

The strength of this article is in relying on Scripture to provide practical ways to flee temptation.

Are You the Strong or the Weak and Also Godly?

Kevin writes about Paul’s use of the categories of the weak and the strong. And whichever you are in a particular circumstance, his encouragement is to commit to being godly in it.

Drawing Near: Loving Your Adult Children and Grandchildren

“When children move from reliance on their parents toward the independence of adulthood, it can be disorienting. Initially, parents set the guidelines for behavior and schedules in the home, but adult children grow toward autonomy by moving out, pursuing careers, and establishing households — households with a culture of their own.” Brenda Harstine offers counsel on navigating this well.

It’s More Awkward to Reject the Virgin Birth

Here’s why it’s awkward—and why it completely undermines the Christian faith—to reject the virgin birth.

Flashback: The Dark Side of Christian Celebrity

There is a celebrity machine, to be sure, but there is also a celebrity landfill, a celebrity dump, a place we relegate people once we are through with them, once they no longer please us.

Christ grabs his pastors by the heart; he doesn’t twist them by the arm. He wants men with a holy ambition for the office, men with holy dreams about feeding and leading the flock, men willing and eager to stretch themselves to do what the calling requires.

—David Mathis

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