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A La Carte (June 7)

tuesday

May the God of love and peace be with you today.

It’s Zondervan who is headlining today’s list of Kindle deals.

(Yesterday on the blog: Prayers That God Will Not Answer)

Fantastic Fireflies (Video)

The John 10:10 Project continues its stellar series of videos on the wonders of God’s creation.

God’s Sovereignty, Our Suffering, and Robots

“Christianity faces a tough question regarding the conflict between the Bible’s claim toward God’s sovereignty and our suffering. This question can be asked in a variety of ways—from skeptics’ challenges (‘How can you say there is a God?’) to saints’ laments (‘Why God, why?’). In this article, written more to the saint than to the skeptic, I’d like to address one weak answer to this question and offer three better ones.”

The First Lesson of Prayer

“Prayer is essential to our spiritual lives. That’s probably not a surprise to anyone. But what is a surprise is how many of us think we are terrible at praying.” J.A. Medders addresses this well.

Heap burning coals on his head?

What does the Bible mean when it speaks of heaping burning coals on a person’s head? This article offers a plausible explanation.

The Miseducation of the Pastor

“When it comes to theological education, this means most students enter seminary thinking that what they need above all is to master theological truths, when what they chiefly need is to be mastered by these truths. To say this another way, what seminary students most need to learn is the way of life that emerges among those who have received scriptural truths not merely as facts to be memorized, preached, and defended, but as theological givens, as bricks in a foundation upon which they live and move and have their being.”

20 Scriptures to guide our online speech

Just like the title says, here is Scripture that can help guide our online speech.

Flashback: Accomplishments as High as Heaven, Character as Low as Hell

No one ever resigns. No one ever steps aside. No one ever has such integrity that he counts himself disqualified and removes himself from public ministry. Or very few, anyway.

The price of victory is constant vigilance. Yes, there is grace to cover all our sin; but that grace leads us to mortify it, not to tolerate it. —Sinclair Ferguson


  • 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…