Skip to content ↓

A La Carte (December 26)

A La Carte Thursday 1

I trust you enjoyed your Christmas as much as we did. The Lord is good to give us days to rest and simply enjoy his gifts.

It is a bit of a slow stretch for Kindle deals, but be sure to check in after 6:30 AM and I’ll see what I can find.

The Thief’s Good Works

Jackson Gravitt provides a couple of perspectives on the thief’s good works.

It’s a Wonderful Strife

“Shaping rock, shaping students; I’d be hard-pressed to say which is more difficult. Rock is less resistant to change and fights back far less often, but again, it’s just rock in the end. Students, while tough as granite at times, are well worth the effort – well worth the strife.” Josh reflect on this “wonderful strife.”

Hospitality: The Forgotten Qualification

“When considering the qualifications for elders, ‘able to teach’ is often recognized as the one qualification uniquely required for the office. Certainly, the unique role of elders centers on ‘the ministry of the word.’ But another qualification is often missed or underdeveloped, which is vitally supplemental to the teaching ministry.”

How Should I Spend My Time During the Final Days of the Year?

There’s an important challenge here. “Christians love to debate the final days on Earth, but few Christians discuss the final days of the year. Effective time stewardship is crucial during the last days of December because the way you spend this time will influence how you begin the new year. If done well, you’ll start 2025 with a burst of energy and enthusiasm. But if done poorly, you may start the new year feeling sluggish.”

Give Me Faith

Here’s a new poem that has a good message.

5 Lessons for New Church Planters

Church planters will benefit from these lessons.

Flashback: When I Get to the End of the Way

“By and by I shall see him and praise him, in the city of unending day, and the toils of the road will seem nothing, when I get to the end of the way.”

Legalistic remorse says, “I broke God’s rules,” while real repentance says, “I broke God’s heart.”

—Tim Keller

  • Weekend A La Carte (June 13)

    Egg freezing is a booming business / Talk to the A.I. me / Is aging becoming optional? / Feminism and the Fall / The lie of living your truth / Moving on from the Christian Nationalism moment / and more.

  • An Ideal Resource For Your Family Devotions

    An Ideal Resource For Your Family Devotions

    There is a lot I miss from the days when our children were young. High on the list is family devotions. Nick once described our family as having a “Spartan-like commitment” to them, though I remember as much failure as success and as many misses as hits. Still, there’s no doubt that over the 26…

  • A La Carte (June 12)

    The curious case of extra resurrections / Are kids too expensive? / Why hot takes are the enemy of conviction / Piper on preaching outrage / A daily rhythm of prayer / Forgetting and pursuing / A La Quiz / The funnies / and more.

  • A La Carte (June 11)

    We lost the baby / The Bible is cessationist (and wondrous!) / Thinking about Eastern Orthodoxy: a primer for evangelicals / Virtue signalling in the church / What is God’s providence? / Restlessness / Kindle deals / and more.

  • Conform

    You Can Conform to Christ Even if You Don’t Conform to Me

    One of the aspects of the Christian faith that I find particularly perplexing is the freedom God gives his people to obey him in different or even opposite ways, so that one person’s obedience is another person’s disobedience. Even as two people take the same action, one might be obeying him and the other disobeying…

  • A La Carte (June 10)

    Does prayer make a difference? / Portrait of an abortionist / Pushing back against the black tax / Bring your whole self to work / Blessed are the weak / When service isn’t a transaction / A pastoral analogy / Bill C-9 will soon be law in Canada / and more.