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A La Carte (9/18)

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Shopping and False Intimacy – This is a very, very interesting article, and one worthy of some reflection. “All of this has me considering church in 21st century America. I fear we may be loosing a valuable sense of intimacy between pastor and member. In a world where pastors tweet and congregations have Facebook accounts, it’s easy to think an intimate relationship exists when all we really have are some dots of data loosely connected by our own assumptions and personal preferences.”

Short-Term Missions – “Since the summer of 2008 our full-time mission team in Honduras has hosted 50 short-term teams consisting of 500 short-term missionaries. Many people ask, ‘Wouldn’t it just be better if all those people sent you money instead of wasting their resources and your time?’ Our answer is an emphatic no.”

Muslim Protests – The Big Picture covers the worldwide Muslim protests.

Unsafe Hospitals – “Bad doctors. Prescription errors. Surgical slips. Medical mistakes injure or kill hundreds of thousands of Americans every year.” This article looks at the ways that hospitals and health care have become unsafe.

Pleased to Meet You – I don’t ever get tired of reading Carl Trueman. Today he says, “I have to say that I have never been subject to such evident and oppressive neophiliac normaphobia in all my life. The sooner normaphobes are categorised as hate criminals, the better it will be for those of us who belong to the despised minority of the once but clearly no longer normal.”

Within Two Worlds – I’m still not tired of these amazing time lapse videos. “Within Two Worlds depicts an alternate perspective by giving us the illusion of times movement, signifying a beginning and end within a world of constant contradiction. It appears you are traveling in the midst of a dream, half-sleeping, half-waking, and touching the arch connecting heaven and earth.” Whatever. To me it’s all about the beautiful scenery.

Holiness is not freedom from temptation, but power to overcome temptation.

—G. Campbell Morgan

  • When God Plants an Acorn

    When God Plants an Acorn, He Means an Oak

    We stood together on the crest of a hill, a gentle breeze rustling the meadow around our feet. The fields ran gently downward until they met a creek that gurgled happily in its course. A few years prior, an acorn had somehow made its way to the highest point of this hill, carelessly dropped there…

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    A La Carte (April 28)

    A La Carte: Protestantism’s Catholic converts / How healthy is your pursuit of health? / God’s special calling on your life / Considering a Christian university? / Testing the teachings of Catholicism / Kindle deals / and more.

  • New and Notable

    New and Notable Christian Books for April 2025

    It is surprisingly difficult to find a list of Christian books that have been released in any given month—especially if you want that list to be filtered by books released through particular publishers. That’s one of the reasons why I close each month by coming up with my list of New and Notable books. I…

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    Weekend A La Carte (April 26)

    A La Carte: Every pinch of pain has purpose / China closed Christian bookstores / Watch for the thing after the thing / For everything there is a time / Showers of blessing / What Pope Francis can teach us about preaching / and more.

  • What Makes You Beautiful

    What Makes You Beautiful

    I have often thought of a conversation that took place when my girls were little. Abby was perhaps 5 or 6 at the time and Michaela just working her way through the “terrible twos” (which for our kids always happened when they were three or four). A stranger saw me interacting with them one day…