A La Carte (August 14)

Sales & Deals

Today’s Kindle deals include several good books and a Bible I haven’t seen on sale before: The Evidence Study Bible.

Recommended Reading

When Little League Games Become Big League Idols. Youth sports can verge on insanity at times, can’t they? “This vicarious desire for glory and placing our children and their achievements in the role reserved for God damages not only the moral compass of those involved but also the children themselves. We tell ourselves that we are doing it for them. We tell ourselves they have an opportunity that we never had. We tell ourselves they are talented and that we don’t want to waste their potential. But there comes a point when the child ceases to be a child and becomes a vehicle for the parent’s ambitions.”

Selfies in the End Times. John Piper considers the heart behind all those selfies and responds to a reader who wonders if they are evidence that we are in the last days. “Yes, these are the last days, and we should be looking keenly and expectantly and hopefully and joyfully for the coming of our precious, longed-for, all-satisfying Lord Jesus. But no, these are not yet the very last days, but are very much like the last days that began two thousand years ago in the first century.”

Blades of Eternity and the Curse of the Black Saber. In book two of the Blades of Eternity series, Prince Mel and his brave band of allies embark on a dangerous quest to thwart the evil plans of the King of Winter and restore order to the Realm. (Sponsored)

AOC’s Illogical Case for Egg Freezing. Emma Waters considers AOC’s recent video about freezing her eggs. “Women enter adulthood illiterate about their own fertility, especially in a career-first culture. But promoting egg freezing doesn’t combat ignorance or encourage women to pursue a family-first path earlier on. It profits from that ignorance, selling women a workaround that costs $15,000 per egg-retrieval cycle, commits them to later IVF, and succeeds less than 8 percent of the time per frozen egg.” (First Things uses a metered paywall, so hopefully you have a free article remaining.)

Entrusting Your College Student to the Lord. Shea Patrick will soon be taking her son to college, and this has her reflecting on entrusting him to the Lord. “The change is bittersweet. After all, we want our children to grow and mature and develop into young men and women. It is a natural part of life. However, I must admit to mixed feelings and questions during this time of transition. Maybe you find yourself in a similar situation and are asking similar questions to these…”

3 Things Stress Reveals. Michael Kelley: “Circumstances come into our lives and inevitably, stress comes with them. It could be that you feel stress from work, from home, from church. It might be that a particular relationship is stressful because of what it demands of you, that you feel like you might buckle under the weight of some responsibility you’ve been given, or that you simply don’t think your paycheck is going to last long enough to cover the doctor bills. Tighter, tighter, tighter – until you feel like you’re going to explode.”

When Did the Church Begin? When did the church begin? Our usual answer focuses on the early chapters of the book of Acts, but as Anthony Faggiano explains, we should look earlier than that.

A Review Request

It’s a reality of publishing today that authors rely on reviews. If you’ve read any of mine, would you be willing to jump over to Amazon to leave a quick review? It will take only a moment and will help make a difference! Here are a few of my books:

• Seasons of Sorrow
• God’s Great Big Global Church
• Devoted
• Do More Better
• From the Rising of the Sun
• Click here for others

Flashback

Unexpected, Unwanted, and Unwelcome. We can have complete confidence that the One who invited us is waiting to receive us—that he who was welcomed to the side of his Father will most certainly welcome us in the same way.