Good morning and thanks for reading today’s A La Carte. I am nearly a quarter-century into writing this website, and I still haven’t lost the thrill of it. I know I couldn’t do it without readers like you, so please know how grateful I am for your visit.
Sales & Deals
Today’s Kindle deals include Ed Welch’s must-read When People Are Big and God Is Small. My book Pilgrim Prayers is on the list today as well, and so is The Essential Bible Companion to the Psalms and several other picks.
Recommended Reading
Spend Time With The Gruntled. Jacob Crouch needed to coin a word to explain why we need to be so careful when spending time with those who are disgruntled. “To be disgruntled is to be angry or dissatisfied. To be gruntled on the other hand is to be happy and satisfied. The disgruntled are hard to please. Sometimes the disgruntled don’t want to be pleased no matter how hard you try. The gruntled on the other hand are easy to please. Often they are looking to be pleased, even over the smallest things. The disgruntled are hard to be around. The gruntled are a joy. Often the disgruntled take up a lot of your time, but I want to advocate for spending time with the gruntled.”
Something Greater Than Outrage. Derek Brown considers a recent viral video and points to something that is greater than outrage. “A few days ago, Wesley Kirk Ford, a former employee at Chili’s, took to Tiktok to explain why he had recently been fired from the restaurant. The incident that led to his disemployment was his refusal to call his female co-worker by her ‘chosen’ name, ‘Fish.’ The performance report states that the co-worker’s actual name was Madeline, and Ford was unwilling to yield to this woman’s multiple requests, constantly calling her by her ‘government name.’ He was fired soon after the incident.”
Stitch God’s Word with Abide Embroidery Co. Sarah Mesa, of Abide Embroidery, makes Christian hand-embroidery kits and digital guides, each built around a single verse or hymn: “Christ Will Hold Me Fast,” “Take Heart, I Have Overcome the World,” “His Steadfast Love,” and dozens more. Each kit includes everything you need to complete a finished hoop: the fabric, embroidery floss, hoop, needles, and video tutorials. The goal is to use the art of embroidery to help women meditate on God’s Word. Even if you’ve never stitched before, this might be the perfect analog craft to pick up! Still not sure? We offer a free digital pattern on our website. (Sponsored)
Will We Regain Lost Relational Opportunities in Heaven? Randy Alcorn explains why he believes heaven will allow us to regain lost relational opportunities. “We may not be able to regain opportunities that we passed up due to unfaithfulness, but I believe we’ll regain whatever we passed up in order to faithfully serve God. Jesus said, ‘Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you. . . . Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven’ (Luke 6:21-23).”
A Letter From the Leaders You Are Raising – Five Questions We’re Learning to Ask of You. Daniel Han: “Whether you serve as a pastor, elder, ministry director, discipler, teacher, or faithful lay leader, your influence matters. The way you see, train, correct, encourage, and entrust younger leaders will shape not only their ministry today, but also the way they lead others tomorrow. Paul envisioned this kind of generational formation when he told Timothy to entrust what he had received to faithful people who would teach others also. Many of us may feel these needs before we have the experience or language to articulate them. Here are five questions we are still learning to ask of those serving alongside us and helping to raise us up.”
A Pastor and a Salesman Get Into an Uber. I enjoyed this article at Christianity Today, which tells about people who use Uber for creative and evangelistic projects. “Christians have paired driving with ministry for years. Decades after Jerry Falwell expanded his Baptist church by deploying buses for neighborhood pickups, about 60 Christians in Uruguay formed an alliance of taxi drivers to operate ‘moving pulpits’ in the late 1990s. And Brooklyn streets featured several cab ministers in the 2010s—some who took confessions, and others who played Mozart and kept seats ‘immaculately clean’ to evoke the presence of God.” ( Gift Link)
If Jesus Returns Tonight. A listener asks John Piper how he should be living if Christ returns tonight. “It’s amazing to me — remarkable — how thoroughly the New Testament answers this question. I mean, just thinking about it was good for me. So, let me see if I can pack into this little episode ten transforming ways to live as we eagerly look forward to the coming of Jesus.”
My Books
Every now and again, I like to introduce you to one of my books. Today it is A Visual Theology Guide to the Bible. This was my second book of Visual Theology, and it makes the “deepest truths of the Bible accessible in a way that can be seen, understood, and experienced like never before, combining graphics and text to teach the nature and contents of the Bible in a fresh and exciting way.” I think Josh Byers outdid himself with the graphics for this one, which explains why it has proven one of my most popular books. You can learn more about it or buy it at Amazon.
Flashback
One Spirit, One Faith, Many Opponents. Paul’s call to the Christian “soldiers” in Philippi, and thus to you and me, is to stand firm in one spirit, to stand boldly for one faith, and to stand courageously against many opponents. As we do that, we will fight and win the great spiritual battle we’ve been called to.
God never hurries. There are no deadlines against which he must work. Only to know this is to quiet our spirits and relax our nerves.
—A.W. Tozer
