{"id":65606,"date":"2023-10-03T23:01:19","date_gmt":"2023-10-04T04:01:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/?p=65606"},"modified":"2023-10-03T23:42:11","modified_gmt":"2023-10-04T04:42:11","slug":"a-la-carte-october-4-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/?p=65606","title":{"rendered":"A La Carte (October 4)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>I&#8217;m glad to say that I think I&#8217;ve turned a bit of a corner in my recovery from whatever I picked up in Zambia. I hope to be back to normal within a few days.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/thinkingpastorally.com\/2023\/10\/03\/a-case-for-christian-optimism\/\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer\">A Case for Christian Optimism<\/a> <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Once the preserve of the middle-aged and elderly, \u2018declinism\u2019 has reached the mainstream in the Western world. The nagging feeling that life is on a downward trend, that things are not what they once were, that our future is less bright than our past, now plagues public discourse and popular media.&#8221; Like Andrew, I feel quite optimistic about the future.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/openthebible.org\/article\/seven-blessings-for-empty-handed-believers\/\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer\">Seven Blessings for Empty-Handed Believers<\/a> <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Empty-handedness is where the blessing of God begins. People who feel they have something to offer God come to him with their hands full, but as long as our hands are full, we are not in a position to receive.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/vaticanfiles.org\/en\/2023\/10\/220\/\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer\">\u201cThe next Pope will be John XXIV.\u201d Will he?<\/a> <\/p>\n<p>Leonardo De Chirico follows some clues to suggest who may eventually replace Pope Francis.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.donna-evans.com\/blog\/advice-to-my-younger-self\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer\">Advice to My Younger Self<\/a> <\/p>\n<p>From her current vantage point in life, Donna tells what advice she would offer to her younger self.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/au.thegospelcoalition.org\/article\/enduring-lessons-from-the-rise-and-fall-of-mars-hill\/\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer\">Enduring Lessons from the Rise and<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019m glad to say that I think I\u2019ve turned a bit of a corner in my recovery from whatever I picked up in Zambia. I hope to be back to normal within a few days. A Case for Christian Optimism \u201cOnce the preserve of the middle-aged and elderly, \u2018declinism\u2019 has reached the mainstream in the Western world. The nagging feeling that life is on a downward trend, that things are not what they once were, that our future is less \u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":65614,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[31],"tags":[306],"class_list":["post-65606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tim-challies","tag-a-la-carte","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/biblicalcounselor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/A20La20Carte20-20concepts202-WED_5-1.jpg?fit=910%2C320&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=65606"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65616,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65606\/revisions\/65616"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/65614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=65606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=65606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=65606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}