Skip to content ↓

A La Carte (December 17)

monday

Today’s Kindle deals include a long list of good deals from Crossway and Zondervan with a few others mixed in as well.

(Yesterday on the blog: A Pastoral Prayer from December)

What Happens When an Evangelical Pundit, Armed Only with 58K Twitter Followers and a Reference to the Bebbington Quadrilateral, Takes on a Historian

The title is a good description of what you’ll find in this article. I think this is important because it aptly shows how expertise is so often disregarded today. “On Thursday night a very interesting, revealing, and somewhat disturbing Twitter exchange took place between religion writer Jonathan Merritt and historian Thomas Kidd. Here is what happened…”

Reading The Jesus Storybook Bible in Iceland

This is a good read. “In the world’s most bookish country, evangelicals are taking up the ministry of translation.”

A Conversation with David Powlison

This is an encouraging conversation between Ed Welch and David Powlison. They discuss Powlison’s recent diagnosis of cancer.

What’s the Shortest International Border in the World?

The Canada-US border is the longest in the world. What’s the shortest?

Stop Saying 81 Percent of White Evangelicals Vote for Trump (It Was Probably Less Than Half)

Justin Taylor: “I know I’m fighting a losing battle with this post. It won’t go viral. It probably won’t change many minds. But I’ll give it a shot anyway. No matter how many times people make the claim, it is simply wrong to say that 81 percent of white evangelicals in the United States voted for Donald Trump to become president.”

Who Decides What Words Mean

I found this a fascinating one. “Decades before the rise of social media, polarisation plagued discussions about language. By and large, it still does. Everyone who cares about the topic is officially required to take one of two stances. Either you smugly preen about the mistakes you find abhorrent – this makes you a so-called prescriptivist – or you show off your knowledge of language change, and poke holes in the prescriptivists’ facts – this makes you a descriptivist. Group membership is mandatory, and the two are mutually exclusive.”

Travel Photographer of the Year Awards

There are some stunning photos on display here.

Flashback: One Man’s Honor Is Another Man’s Shame

As Christians we need to think carefully and biblically rather than simply accepting what the culture dictates. It is possible that Western children will have to make efforts to convince their parents they ought to be honored while people from other cultures may need to refuse to conform to some of the expectations placed upon them.

A true and faithful Christian does not make holy living an accidental thing. It is his great concern. As the business of the soldier is to fight, so the business of the Christian is to be like Christ.

—Jonathan Edwards

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (March 2)

    Paul Tripp’s definition of parenting / Caring for divorced people in your church / Why Catholicism needs relics / Iran after the Ayatollah / The crescent moon / Kindle deals / and more.

  • Water Glass

    The Deepest Thirst of All

    The God who created us formed us in such a way that we are not meant to exist apart from him. To live apart from God is the spiritual equivalent of trying to live without food and water. It will lead only to weakness, pain, and death.

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    Weekend A La Carte (February 28)

    A La Carte: How marriage actually refers to Christ and the church / Does it matter if stories are true? / To cover or overlook? / Should Christians feel guilty for being patriotic / Sinful desires / and more.

  • New and Notable Christian Books for February 2026

    New and Notable Christian Books for February 2026

    Not a single month goes by without Christian publishers providing us with great new resources. Thankfully, most of those new books end up in my mailbox. That allows me to sort through them and distil them down to a list like this one: A list of new and notables.

  • A La Carte Friday 2

    A La Carte (February 27)

    A La Carte: Time / More than a book / If you knew him, you would ask / The multitasking myth / Beware AI-generated Christian content / It’s sad that you believe that / and more.