I was able to track down a couple of Kindle deals.
On a personal note, I’ve just touched down in London after an all-night flight from Toronto. I’m touring a museum today during my long layover, then spending tonight on another plane as I make my way to Zambia. This is the next leg in my EPIC church history project.
(Yesterday on the blog: Spiritual Gifts: What they Are and Why they Matter)
Mummy Will Be Worried About Me
Here’s a story of life in a broken world, and grace in the most difficult circumstances.
The Bucket List You and I Need to Write
Jennifer Oshman writes, “It seems silly to say out loud—but I want to share Christ with the same tenacity and insistence I have in getting my house clean before guests come over. I want to be as burdened for my hurting friends and and family as I am for tidying my kitchen. I want to pursue the things that have eternal significance more than the things that will pass away.”
What Is My Calling? (And Is That Even a Good Question?)
“Graduation season is upon us. And that means in addition to much pomp and circumstance, many young people are thinking about what’s next. They are asking the question (and probably will for years to come): what is my calling?” It’s a great (and not-so-great) question to ask.
Leave Ryker and Questin and Anbre Alone
I found this rather interesting. “By now, most people have heard the jokes about Utah, the Mormons who live there, and their penchant for inventing strange baby names out of thin air. Several years ago, there was a viral YouTube video paying homage to the genre of the weird Utah baby name, sending up everyone from Aunestee to Kynzlee. And Wednesday night, Allison Czarnecki entertained the Twitterverse by tweeting out all the bizarre names in her kid’s Utah junior high yearbook.” Turns out there’s a reason for all those unusual names.
Is There a First-Century Fragment of Mark’s Gospel? Apparently Not
“It turns out that the scholarly skepticism over a first-century Mark has proven to be warranted. By now, most readers will have heard that this mysterious manuscript has finally been published in the latest edition of the Oxyrhynchus Papyri. Edited by scholars Dirk Obbink and Daniela Colomo, P.Oxy. 5345 is an early fragment of Mark 1:7-9, 16-18, and is dated not to the first century but to the late second or early third century. So, how did a supposed first-century fragment suddenly become a second/third century fragment? The answer is not all that clear.”
What About Authors Using Pen Names?
Randy Alcorn writes, “Over the years I’ve been asked my opinion about authors using pen names. My concern would be in two areas: intent and effect. If the intent is to deceive, to disguise the fact that the writer is producing three books a year (making some people leery of their quality), or to disguise the fact this is a non-fiction author venturing into fiction, or whatever, then I have problems with it.”
Hmn. (A Consideration)
I enjoyed this poem and, in fact, am enjoying adding poetry to A La Carte from time to time. In many ways poetry has become a lost art. We ought to recover it.
Flashback: Unanswered Prayer
Why are there times when God seems not to answer? If a good Father would never give his children a stone in place of bread, why does it seem like God sometimes does this very thing?
The Bible isn’t an assistant to your old way of life. It’s the doorway to your new life in Christ.
—Trevin Wax
