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!
