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A La Carte (October 1)

A La Carte Collection cover image

Good morning from Tasmania! I’m glad to be here in Australia for the Grace & Truth conference and look forward to meeting some of you this weekend.

It is a banner day for Kindle deals in the run-up to next week’s Prime Big Deal Days. Today’s deals include all kinds of academic works like commentaries (e.g. several volumes of the excellent ZECNT series), Moo’s A Theology of Paul and His Letters, Hays’ Grasping God’s Word, Allison’s Historical Theology, and so on. Many of these are usually priced at $50+.

One of My Biggest Fears

J.V. Fesko expresses one of the biggest fears he has as a pastor. He also tells what he does about it.

Ways to Pray for the Lost

We all have unbelievers we pray for, but can sometimes find ourselves praying the same things over and over again. Barbara offers a whole list of different prayers you may want to pray for those you love.

Why We Need to Talk About Body Image in Women’s Discipleship

I want to highlight a pair of articles written by and for women that may be especially helpful. This first one expresses how important it is to talk about body image in women’s discipleship. “As a biblical counselor, I know that depression, anxiety, anger, and addiction come up in many discipling relationships, and they rightfully grab our concern and care. But there’s another important discipleship topic that we tend to overlook: body image. Here’s why we need to be prepared to discuss it.”

Grace for the Birth Story You Didn’t Expect

In the second, Staci offers help to women whose birth story didn’t go the way they expected or desired. “The truth of it is, things in the world don’t work as they should. Your friend’s birth story might be one of empowerment and candlelight, while yours might be one of operating rooms and oxygen masks. You may not even have been conscious when your child entered the world. You may question if you made the right decisions. Or, if it was an emergency situation, if those in control made the right decisions.”

Why I Am Not Bothered By Human-Chimp Similarity

“We’ve all heard the claims. For the past several decades, the ‘99%’ claim has been thrown in our faces, as if it’s proof-positive that evolution is a fact. Even though they have backed down a little, the admittedly high similarity between our two species is still used to claim common ancestry.” Here’s why that’s not a problem for creationists.

Do Not Neglect the Gift You Have

Scott Hubbard compiles three reasons we may be tempted to neglect the gifts God has given us, and then counters each one.

Flashback: Could There Be a Worse Home Than This?

The love of the Spirit is shown in his wondrous patience with us in all our sinfulness, while he lives in us and deals with us in the culturing of our Christian life.

Good shepherds smell like sheep because they live and walk among the sheep and are not sequestered from the flock.

—David Mathis

  • I Regret to Inform You That Heaven Tourism Is Back

    I Regret to Inform You That Heaven Tourism Is Back

    I regret to inform you, dear reader, that heaven tourism is back. The genre possibly never went away entirely, but it did at least disappear from the bestseller lists for several years. Sadly, it has returned in Gabe Poirot’s 18 Days in Heaven.

  • A La Carte (November 6)

    Don’t despise the red flags / Your thoughts are shaping your life / Can’t you just love everyone? / Selfies are not the self: forming embodied youth in a disembodied age / Effective altruists and the spreadsheet gospel / 4 Applications for the order of love—from the home to the ends of the earth /…

  • A La Carte (November 5)

    When you feel guilty about your giving / The missing piece in John Mark Comer’s quiet time / A manifesto for phone-free church / The pull of Rome / 4 Misconceptions about spiritual warfare / Slouching toward Narnia / Kindle deals, and more

  • A Daring Suggestion for Netflix

    A Daring Suggestion for Netflix

    Netflix appears to have fallen on hard times and I have some suggestions that I’d like to think would help it: cut the sex, nudity, and profanity, and gain back the viewers it’s long been alienating.

  • A La Carte (November 4)

    Can I love my enemies while addressing wrongs and protecting myself? / Is missions too costly for kids? / Don’t stock the pantry with temptation / Churches face a shortage of worship leaders / AI brought a mathematician to Ecclesiastes / Discerning between godly and worldly grief / Harvest in fearful times / and more.

  • This Week in Christian Books

    This Week in Christian Books (November 3, 2026)

    Tuesday is the day most publishers release their new books. Here is a look at the Christian books that came our way this week, including Prodigal Culture, Scroll Less Live More, and a graphic novel of Pilgrim’s Progress.