Skip to content ↓

A La Carte (October 23)

A La Carte Collection cover image

Audible (Amazon’s audiobook service) is offering a holiday special where your first three months are just $0.99 per month. In that time you’ll be able to download, listen to, and keep 3 audiobooks of your choice from their massive catalog. Set a reminder on your phone for 3 months from now and then decide if you’d like to keep or cancel the service. (You are eligible for the deal if you have not had an Audible membership in the past 365 days.)

Today’s Kindle deals include You Are Still a Mother which is a beautiful and comforting book for those who are grieving stillbirth or miscarriage. There are other good options as well.

How to Write a Meaningful Card

Douglas Groothuis offers some simple but helpful advice on writing a meaningful card. “Writing cards is a way to re-humanize a de-humanized culture. Too much is too automatic and impersonal. When you pen (and I mean pen) a card, it bears the mark of your handwriting, your choice of ink and pen. A human—you—emerges from the thick lagoon of the pre-set, the template, the standard, the algorithm.”

God Brings Us Bad to Give Us Best

Joni Eareckson Tada explains how God brings us bad in order to give us best. “When God lobs a hand grenade into life and rattles our faith to the core, we wonder how he’ll work the pieces of shrapnel together for our good. What does good mean, anyway?”

Free eBook: The Legacy of Luther

More than 500 years ago, Martin Luther effectively sparked the Protestant Reformation by posting his Ninety-Five Theses. How did an obscure Augustinian monk become the man God would use to set the world ablaze? Today, Ligonier Ministries is offering a free download of the ebook The Legacy of Luther, edited by R.C. Sproul and Stephen Nichols. Add this volume to your digital library and explore Luther’s life, teaching, and enduring influence. (Sponsored)

New Notebook, Same Mission

I enjoyed Ed’s explanation of the difference notebooks have made to his faith. “It’s my way of extracting the most value from each sermon. For me, listening and note-taking go hand in hand. And when I review, highlight and summarize, my understanding and retention skyrocket.”

There but for the Grace of God Go I

“Imagine if Timothy had responded to Paul’s exhortation saying that he may or may not shipwreck his faith, depending on what the grace of God had in store for him. Yet we do speak this way in the wake of church scandals, and appear humble. But the renouncing of personal agency among Christian men regarding sexual sin is no virtue; it is cowardice.”

The Trouble With Competitiveness

Cindy Matson: “I’d rather not write this article. Anyone who knows me knows that competitiveness lodges deep within my bones. I want to come out on top whether playing tic-tac-toe, four-square, taking a test, or parenting my kids. I size up the competition and track the most likely path to victory. Of course, I don’t always win. I lose. A lot. But that doesn’t mean I like it.”

It Was Never Just ‘Thoughts and Prayers’

I enjoyed reading this one. “Whether there is media coverage of natural disasters or not, regardless of the scale, you will find faithful Southern Baptist volunteers hailing from 45,000 churches around the United States donning yellow shirts and mobilizing to the affected area. With the two Hurricanes, Milton and Helene, the SBC has thousands of men and women on the ground in western North Carolina, Georgia, east Tennessee, and Florida.”

Flashback: God Gave Me Three Children (and Three Friends)

I would need to dedicate time to training and discipling them but also to just enjoying them. I would, essentially, need to woo and win my own children, to prove myself a worthy, valuable friend.

Having a gospel zeal means we’re about our Father’s business—sharing the gospel in word and deed, and caring for the least, the last, and the lost.

—J. A. Medders and Doug Logan Jr.

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    Weekend A La Carte (July 12)

    A La Carte: Where art thou Rob Bell? / The case against in vitro fertilization / Praying and weeping for those suffering in Texas / Greet each other with a holy hug / The example of Jimmy Swaggart / and more.

  • Thriving Marriage

    Thriving Marriage

    I have often wondered about the best time to write a book about marriage. When a couple is young, there is so much about marriage they have not yet experienced. They can still impart wisdom and teach lessons, of course, but there is so much of marriage that remains unknown to them. Yet when a…

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (July 11)

    A La Carte: Falling out of repentance / Tattoos as confession / The Epstein List and secret sins / Teaching generosity / Lessons from a former youth pastor / Bedbugs in the bowels of the city.

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (July 10)

    A La Carte: Questions for a maturing marriage / The lesbian seagulls that weren’t / But mommy, why? / A time to be tired / The modern rise of Stoicism / and more.

  • The Stranger

    The Stranger: A Short Film For You

    Based on a true story and inspired by the truth that character comes before competence, “The Stranger” is an honest, light-hearted and meaningful picture of what it means to truly serve others.

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (July 9)

    A La Carte: The singer who changed the course of my life / Stay on the line / Incompatible thick communities / Lulla-Bible? / The solution is not megachurch / Who were the Anabaptists? / and more.