A La Carte (October 22)

Sales & Deals

Today’s Kindle deals include Tim Keller’s extremely helpful Romans For You along with the associated Bible study guide. All of Me and Pressure Points are also worth a look.

Westminster Books has discounted pricing on Kevin DeYoung’s new Church History for Everyone.

Recommended Reading

The Sin of Prayerlessness. Zachary Conover writes about the sin of prayerlessness and the rejection of one of the greatest privileges God gives us. “The longer I am a follower of Christ, the more I realize how far I have to go in understanding the magnitude of this privilege. When I neglect it, my soul becomes restless, and I am in no position to handle the demands, frustrations, and repetitive vanities of everyday life. So often, my joylessness, discontentment, and disappointments can be traced back to a deeper problem: my failure to depend on the sufficiency of God because I have been depending on my own resources.”

Christianity Today Is in Turmoil. The New York Times has an article about the growing turmoil within Christianity Today. “In interviews, a number of employees who have departed since the meeting in 2025 said that the changes at Christianity Today seemed to be about more than stabilizing its finances. Its new leaders, they believe, are abandoning the publication’s longtime commitment to independent journalism, a record that includes investigating accounts of misconduct by high-profile evangelicals.”

Why I Left Christianity Today. On that subject, Bonnie Kristian explains why she left CT. “It should go without saying, but: I did not leave CT because of the editorial team. I have only good things to say of my former colleagues, all of whom are faithful, skillful journalists working hard in strange circumstances. … I did leave CT because of who isn’t on the editorial team. CT has gone through three rounds of layoffs in the last year and a half. The most recent round, announced two days before I gave notice, took six staff writers and point editors from an already too-small team. Two of those writers had been hired just six months prior. One of the editors we’d nominated for a Pulitzer.”

Euthanizing a Toddler Is Not Compassionate. Despite the turmoil at Christianity Today, it continues to publish excellent articles like this one by Kayla Craig, whose daughter shares the condition that caused a Dutch family to euthanize their child. “A couple in the Netherlands euthanized their toddler. I read the headline again, sure I’d missed a keyword. I had not. A child with the same diagnosis (and similar disabilities) as my own daughter, Eliza, had died—not from natural causes or a horrific accident but by choice. Her parents, surely overwhelmed by fear and exhaustion, chose euthanasia to end their child’s life. Since 2024, children in the Netherlands ages 1 to 11 who have medical needs ‘without prospect of improvement’ have been legally permitted to have their lives ‘terminated.’ This little one was the first.”

The Fifteen Foot Skeleton Key. Keith Page compares the changes that come with fall with another kind of change. “Over the past few years, this horror décor has expanded in both scope and size. One lawn in my neighborhood features cardboard gravestones with epitaphs hand-drawn by a six-year-old; another displays a full-sized Mr. Bones year-round (sporting green, gold, and purple beads for Mardi Gras), who is now joined by dozens of other skeletons around the neighborhood. Some of these streets now have more décor for Halloween than they do for Christmas. What does this signify, if anything?”

You Are Always Speaking Under Oath. David Doran Jr. provides an interesting take on speaking truthfully by reminding us we are always speaking under oath. “The Challenger space shuttle exploded in 1986. The next morning, a psychology professor asked his students to write down exactly how they had heard the news. He asked them again two and a half years later. Most got the details wrong about where they were, who they were with, and how they found out! Amazingly, when these students looked at their own handwriting about the events, they had trouble believing the written account was accurate.”

More Videos Worth Watching

Yesterday I shared some relatively brief videos I had watched and enjoyed. Today I’m sharing some longer ones I enjoyed just as much.

Aimee Semple McPherson: Celebrity, Mystery, and the Rise of Pentecostalism. I’ve said often that Aimee Semple McPherson is one of the most interesting figures in church history. Robert Godfrey has a fascination with her and, in this interview, joins Michael Horton and Bob Hiller to discuss her life and impact. He also tells whether he believes she was genuinely saved and offers his take on the most mysterious part of her life.

The World in 1517: The Year Luther Posted the 95 Theses. We all know that 1517 was the year that Luther posted his 95 Theses. But what else was going on around the world in 1517? Ryan Reeves explains in this video.

A Crisis in Family Estrangement. A growing number of families have been fractured over the past few years by adult children who have turned away from their parents. In this episode of Thinking in Public, Al Mohler is joined by Noelle Mering, who wrote the book No Contact: How a Seductive Ideology Broke Families and Friendships and How We Can Repair Them.

Flashback

Young Christian: Give the Lord a Lot to Work With. The Lord is likely to make great use of the knowledge you gain and the godliness you observe as you spend time with older believers. Young Christians should be relentless in finding ways into the lives, homes, and prayers of older saints so they can see how the Christian life is lived, so they can ask honest questions, so they can learn by observation.