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Sunday A La Carte

We have come to one of those rare weeks in which I collected so much good material for A La Carte that I couldn’t use it all. Instead, I chose some to add to this Sunday edition.

The Kind Providence of God

Jacob recounts ways in which he has been able to see God’s kind hand of providence. “In 2012, I began praying that the Lord would open a door for the gospel in North Korea. Soon after, I heard of an opportunity to teach nursing school in Pyongyang. Even better, all of the classes were to be taught in English. In 2015, I started a PhD program in order to eventually teach at that school.”

Leave the Throne of Guilt: Three Better Reasons to Pray

Scotty Smith: “Calloused knees. Prayer closet. Answered prayers. Prayer warrior. These four phrases don’t exactly trigger me with spiritual PTSD, but they do represent markers in my journey of moving from prayer-guilt into the grace of praying.”

Keep Doing The Small Things

“What if your greatest spiritual growth does not come through some cataclysmic event. What if the most important spiritual breakthroughs in your life are slow and methodical? Are you going to be OK with that?”

Jesus Is Worth It | HeartCry Films

You’ll enjoy this film from HeartCry. “Paul Snider has labored for ten years as a missionary to the Northern Korowai people in Papua, Indonesia. In the course of these years in the jungle, Paul was struck by a series of nearly fatal diseases, which forced him back to the States to recover. But by the grace of God, Paul determined to press on through his suffering and continue the work.”

Lesson for the Church from the Barnes & Noble Turnaround

“Few analysts expected brick-and-mortar bookstores to survive, much less thrive, in the 2020s. If you were placing bets a few years ago, you’d think digital would be the way to go: Facebook, Netflix, Crypto, or Tesla. But as Ted Gioia points out, digital media is struggling while Barnes & Noble, a 136-year-old book retailer, has begun to grow again.” Trevin Wax draws out some lessons for the church.

If I’m scared of mediocrity, I’ll never do anything

“We obviously don’t want to do stuff that is objectively low-grade and rubbish. But nor do we want to so over-professionalise everything that if we can’t make it absolutely, 100% A-grade, we won’t do anything at all. Does this mean we want, or must, aim for mediocrity? Well, kind of but kind of not.”

I hope there is something here you enjoyed. See you again tomorrow!


  • Men in the Image of Women and Women in the Image of Men

    Men in the Image of Women and Women in the Image of Men

    God made men and God made women. God made men distinct from women and women distinct from men. God made men and women equal in worth and value while also making them distinct in some purpose and function. It’s all obvious stuff, this—obvious matters of differences between the sexes.

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (April 14)

    A La Carte: The healing of that old ache / Grounds for everyday smiles / A “quiet revival” in the UK / When Scripture gets stale / Praying when it feels like God isn’t listening / Kindle deals / and more.

  • A Less Busy Heart

    In the midst of our busy lives, we can sometimes wonder whether we really have the time to pray. Won’t prayer hinder our productivity? Won’t prayer keep us from getting done all the things we need to do?

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    Weekend A La Carte (April 12)

    A La Carte: Designer babies / The dragon and the rooster / Leper Christianity / Theologians against nature / Faithful and small / The missing heart of AI sermons / Douglas Groothuis books / and more.

  • Good News Rock Bottom

    Good News at Rock Bottom

    Life most certainly brings its challenges. Some of these are just little ruts along the way, some are deep and dark valleys, and some are lower still—the kind of rock bottom experiences that are so dreadful we wonder if we will be able to endure them with our faith intact.