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A La Carte (January 10)

A La Carte Friday 2

Westminster Books is offering sale prices on the kind of small books you are meant to buy to give away.

You’ll find a few new Kindle deals to look over today from several different publishers. Some of them are academic works I’ve never seen on sale before. We are spoiled!

Dawkins’s Gender Dilemma

Carl Trueman explains how Richard Dawkins has a gender dilemma. “As Dawkins has admirably stated elsewhere, sex is biological. I am myself grateful for his clarity and courage on this point. It does not matter how sincerely someone believes that he is a woman trapped in the wrong body—every cell of that body indicates the opposite. One need not be a theist of any variety to understand and acknowledge that. And yet, there is an issue here.”

The Worst of All Possible Worlds

This is a thoughtful piece about malaise from Samuel James. “We in the contemporary Western world are citizens of malaise. We are more likely than any generation prior to throw off religious or moral restraints, yet we are less likely than any generation prior to actually enjoy the fruit of that freedom.”

Pursuing Both/And in Gospel Ministry

Authentic gospel ministry requires ministry leaders to be both/and people: tough and tender, patient and urgent, courageous and submissive. Rather than lean one way or the other, or striving for perfect balance, followers of Jesus pursue both/and. Find out more in Gary Millar’s Both/And Ministry. Get 25% off with code CHALLIES. (Sponsored)

Last of the Middlebrow Protestants

I know little about Jimmy Carter so enjoyed this piece about him and the last of the middlebrow Protestants. “Carter seemed to be a genuinely decent and gracious man for all his flaws; one of the few recent presidential politicians to consider what it means to authentically live one’s faith. He did so in a manner many of his fellow Baptists wouldn’t approve of and it is clear his life mission wasn’t fully lived out with success—there but for the grace of God go I. Who among us is ready to stand before his creator knowing the weight of our failures?”

Dear Pastor, Value Character Over Performance

Paul Tripp tries to get to the bottom of a question that inevitably follows the downfall of a pastor. “Why didn’t the surrounding leadership community see it and address it before it got to this horrible place?”

Is Heaven a Real Place Right Now?

I appreciate the way John Piper answers this question by encouraging a focus less on the spatial dimension of heaven and more on its relational dimension.

Mission Possible

“Instead of viewing life’s intentions as a series of missions to accomplish, I’ve come to view them as a set of sustainable priorities. Priorities allow for a lifelong focus, recognising that some tasks will never be fully completed but are worth our time and effort nonetheless.”

Flashback: All Will Be Well

Jesus knows we live in fear of death and are prone to doubt that joys lie beyond the gateways of this life. He knows we fear what we cannot see and cannot yet experience…And so he has gone before us. 

The union of the believer with Christ is all-encompassing; nothing of the believer’s created being is so low as to fall outside the range of Christ’s reclaiming grace.

—Raymond C. Ortlund Jr.


  • 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…