Skip to content ↓

A La Carte (September 29)

wednesday

May the Lord bless and keep you today.

This week at Westminster Books you’ll find a sale on “memorable stories, delightful characters, gospel help” for kids.

Today’s Kindle deals are headlined by an excellent new book on being the bad guys. There is also a large collection of general market books on sale.

I Searched for the Key to Discipleship

“Discipleship isn’t nice, crisp books or carefully planned mission trips. It’s something altogether more intimate, more demanding, and more sacrificial. And once I realized that the people around me were showing me how discipleship works, I started to see it everywhere.”

What Does it Mean to Pray ‘Your Will Be Done’?

Colin Smith: “If you are confused about the will of God you are not alone. One reason for the confusion is that we speak of God’s will in three different ways. Distinguishing between them will help to clear the confusion and enable us to pray ‘Your will be done,’ with greater meaning and understanding.”

Things Revealed

In a somewhat similar vein: “A lot of us spend our time trying to read that book called ‘The Secret Things’ while all the time the book called ‘The Things Revealed’ is sitting right in front of us. God has given it to us and it belongs to us and to our children so we won’t just read it but also obey it.”

River Cliffs and Reformed Theology

I enjoyed reading this tale of river cliffs and Reformed theology. “The two of us walked, single file, through the coffee gardens. We were seventeen years old, barefoot, wearing swim trunks, and with inflated tire inner-tubes slung over our shoulders. The coffee cherries were ripening and we occasionally reached out, plucked one, and popped it in our mouths. The clear jelly between the red skin and the green coffee bean itself was deliciously sweet. Then the slippery bean itself could be pinched between forefinger and thumb, and launched at distant targets with surprising accuracy.”

5 Biblical Principles for Social Media

Rob Brockman: “Did you realize that you are responsible for your online behaviour as much as you are responsible for your in-person behaviour? There is no distinction between the character of your online avatar and your in-person character. If this is the case, then what can we glean from the scriptures on how we are to behave in the online public square?”

Missionaries, We Are Not Professionals

Dave Hare offers “three warning signs that a missionary might be falling into the trap of professionalism.”

How Changing Your View of Heaven Transforms the Way You Live Today

John Beeson asks, “What are the consequences of getting our view of heaven wrong? Especially when we can’t possibly know who is correct. But what if there are consequences to the way we perceive the afterlife? What would those be?”

Flashback: What’s the Purpose of … the Church?

The local church exists to glorify God through worshipping him, edifying his people, and evangelizing the world.

…the place where the Saviour sees meet to place me must ever be the best place for me.

—Robert Murray M’Cheyne

  • A La Carte Thursday 1

    A La Carte (November 27)

    A La Carte: John Piper on false teachings / Everything is television / Is it Satan or God? / The hard way is the easy way / Backward progress / Treat people like adults / and more.

  • New-and-Notablenov

    New and Notable Christian Books for November 2025

    Though the year is coming to its end, it’s not over yet! That means publishers still have some books to release—books we would not wish to overlook before 2025 gives way to 2026. Here are some of the ones I consider especially noteworthy. In each case, I’ve included the editorial description to give you a…

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (November 26)

    A La Carte: The other side of human rights / Biblical literacy / A ramp out of the worry rut / The depressed Christian / Quick no, slow yes / Do you see eternity? / and more.

  • Support

    Would you Consider Supporting My Work?

    I have been blogging at Challies.com on a daily basis for well over 22 years now. That long commitment has allowed me to write thousands of articles and hundreds of book reviews while also sending millions of visitors to other sites through the daily A La Carte feature. While I’ve also written a number of books, through…

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (November 25)

    A La Carte: Are you still gospel-centered? / Christian liberty / Triumph in trouble / Being faithful in little things / How we choose songs / I’m not sabbatarian / and more.

  • Danger

    The Danger of Defensive Sanctification

    There is a certain kind of sober-mindedness that seems to come over Christians as they age. It can flow from many sources, I’m sure, but I think it often arises from a kind of fear—a fear that they may not finish their race without some kind of a major stumble. After living the Christian life…