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    A La Carte (12/6)

    I enjoyed a great weekend with the men of Heritage Baptist Church in Johnson City, Tennessee. I flew out to Tennessee on Friday and spent a couple of days on retreat with these guys, discussing issues related to sex and purity. What a godly group of men they are. And what an awesome thing that…

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    A La Carte (12/2)

    Here are a few links to help get your day started. Those who like free stuff will particularly enjoy this, I suppose… Free from ChristianAudio – This month’s free download from ChristianAudio is Calvin Stapert’s Handel’s Messiah. It’s a good one to listen to before you head to a performance of Messiah this month. Free…

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    A La Carte (12/1)

    I’ve got nothing to say today. Nothing except these links: Job for a Taxi Driver – Carl Trueman cracks me up. This article is a good (and short) one. “Few things make my blood boil more than those who spend their lives doing things they love in pretty comfortable environments, who take so much pride…

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    You Have Seen Him

    You’ll usually find the ninth chapter of John placed under a heading such as “Jesus Heals a Man Born Blind.” You know the story, I’m sure. It is the one where his disciples, as they passed a man who had been blind since birth, ask him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that…

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    A La Carte (11/30)

    And another month draws to a close. I may have said something like this at the beginning of November (or October or September). But somehow it feels like the pace of life is accelerating, like time is just going by at a ridiculous rate. If you have figured out a way of slowing down time,…

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    A La Carte (11/29)

    I hope and trust that you enjoyed your weekend. I’m glad to report that it was a good one for the Challies family. It was quiet and mostly-unremarkable–just the way we like it. Cyber Monday – I have put together a roundup of Cyber Monday deals (and it’s being continually updated). Check the link for…

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    A La Carte (11/25)

    Well, happy Thanksgiving to all of my American friends. This is one of those days where I feel like I’m the only one out here on the Internet. I trust you all have better ways to be spending your time today. I’m thankful for you and glad that you get to take a day to…

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    A La Carte (11/24)

    I’ve got a slightly abbreviated version of A La Carte today (after a long day away from home yesterday). Enjoy! The Human Brain – CNET declares the brain truly awesome. “A typical, healthy one houses some 200 billion nerve cells, which are connected to one another via hundreds of trillions of synapses. Each synapse functions…

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    A La Carte (11/23)

    It’s a sad day today, the day of Aileen’s grandmother’s funeral. For our children this is their first real close-to-home experience with death and loss. And it marks the end of a generation–Aileen’s grandmother was the last of our grandparents. So do pray for us if you think of it. On to today’s links… Amazon…

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    A La Carte (11/22)

    This is the most normal of weeks in Canada, yet it’s one of the most special weeks in the United States. I think Canadians are always a little bit surprised at the fuss Americans make about Thanksgiving. For us it’s quite a minor holiday; for Americans it’s one of the biggest days on the calendar.…

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    A La Carte (11/19)

    The other day I noticed that a box of granola bars, the kind we always buy, mentioned that they now have fewer calories. I thought that was cool. But then I compared the new box to the old and saw how they had lowered the calories–they had simply made the granola bars 10% smaller. I…

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    A La Carte (11/18)

    This airport security situation continues to fascinate me. After I wrote my article yesterday someone asked, “If you were traveling with your family, would you have your children go through the body scanner or would you have the TSA pat them down?” And to be honest, I just don’t know. I hate the very idea…

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    A La Carte (11/17)

    Yesterday Apple made their earth-shaking announcement: the Beatles are now available in iTunes. And the world reacted with a collective yawn. I would imagine most iTunes users have some level of respect for the Beatles, but at the same time, I can’t help but think that the iTunes demographic tends to be far more interested…

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    A La Carte (11/16)

    The headlines this morning declare that Prince William is engaged to be married. It’s amazing to think how far the royalty has fallen since his father got engaged and married–an event that was celebrated the world over, not just because of its paparazzi value, but because people were genuinely interested and genuinely excited. I get…

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    A La Carte (11/15)

    One of my favorite Aussies of all-time has arrived in Toronto for a couple of months. He’s a reader of this site who, a couple of years ago, sent an email saying, “I’m coming to Toronto. Can we meet up when I’m in town?” We met for lunch and hit it off. He ended up…

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    A La Carte (11/12)

    Matt Drudge and others have been writing a lot about the TSA’s new search procedures–procedures that seem designed on driving all of us through the full-body scanners (since, if you opt-out, you’ll be subjected to an invasive full-body pat down). I got patted down like this last time I went through security and it really…

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    A La Carte (11/11)

    Back when I began writing my book my youngest daughter (who is 4) was simply not sleeping well. She would wake us up almost every night, crying that she was scared. Aileen and I were constantly braindead through this time, half-comatose from lack of sleep. And then one day she said, “Daddy, I’m going to…

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    A La Carte (11/10)

    Let me give you a really quick book update. The Next Story is just about complete; the publisher has accepted the bulk of the text, leaving me with just a few short application sections to complete, along with a conclusion. I am hoping to have all that done by this week or next. So we’re…

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    A La Carte (11/9)

    It’s Tuesday, and Tuesdays are a strangely busy day for me. So without further ado, let’s get to today’s A La Carte links: T4G via Hip Hop – I don’t know that anyone could have predicted the Calvinist resurgence we’ve seen in recent years. And even if someone could have predicted it, I don’t know…

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    A La Carte (11/8)

    I used to be a bit obsessed with the NFL. Sundays were a day for church…but also a day to take in 2 or 3 football games. Then one day I got rid of cable (at least in part because it meant I couldn’t watch football). It surprised me how quickly I stopped caring about…