The God of peace be with you this morning, my friends. Thanks for reading today’s A La Carte! Yesterday on the blog I shared some thoughts on Preaching for the Viral Video in case you missed it and would like to catch up.

The gospel which we possess was not given to us only to be admired, talked of, and professed, but to be practiced.

—J.C. Ryle

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This sponsored post is provided by Central Africa Baptist University and is written by Phil Hunt. It invites you to become a partner in providing theological education through an African institution that I (Tim) have visited many times. You can do so from the USA or from Canada.

Mohammed was born in Darfur, Sudan, and raised in the Muslim faith, trained from boyhood to become a cleric. But during his university years, someone placed a Bible in his hands with a simple challenge: read it and see what it says for yourself. One day, Mohammed put his faith in Jesus Christ and was radically transformed. He began sharing what little he knew with anyone who would listen — and he couldn’t stop. He wanted to preach the gospel. Eventually, he was put in touch with Central Africa Baptist University, and through our 10/40 Scholarship Program, Mohammed came to Kitwe, Zambia to study and prepare for ministry. He graduated with a degree in Bible with an emphasis in missions and was sent by Faith Baptist Church in Riverside, Kitwe, to plant a church in Port Sudan.

Stories like Mohammed’s are why CABU exists.

Africa’s most persistent need — even in nations that call themselves Christian — is biblical Christianity: a genuine faith in Jesus Christ’s life, death, and resurrection, received by grace alone through faith alone (Romans 3:20–26; Ephesians 2:8–9). This salvation, including the “new birth” Jesus described in John 3, transforms everyone who believes (Titus 3:5).

Yet cheap substitutes flood every corner of this continent, among them the prosperity gospel, syncretism, and nominal Christianity. Africa desperately needs godly men who are passionate about raising up African pastors and missionaries, men who will carry the true gospel where it is needed most.

This unfolds in two key ways. First, through sustained evangelism in remote areas — reaching into villages, slums, towns, and cities with the gospel, making disciples, and planting churches that last. Initial outreach is followed by theological training taken directly into those communities. Second, through formal training in urban centers, where men are immersed in the Word of God and mentored in the life and ministry of the local church.

For twenty years, Central Africa Baptist University has been focused on one thing: preparing Great Commission leaders for the African church. God has multiplied the fruit of that effort. There are now 154 graduates from our accredited programs serving in 13 countries across Africa. Over 3,000 church leaders have been trained through our Theological Education by Extension program. And this year, Central Africa Seminary launched, offering internationally accredited MA and MDiv programs. Here is what one trusted observer sees when he looks at this work:

The fruit is not just in numbers. Emmanuel Mfula came to Christ through the ministry of Edward Mwanisa, a CABU graduate serving in the rural area of Kakolo, Zambia. Emmanuel’s church recognized his gifts, confirmed his calling, and sent him to study at CABU. He graduated last year and has already been sent by his home church to plant a new work in Kamilili, Zambia. Prepared leaders, laboring to establish healthy, reproducing churches — that is the vision, and it is happening.

Would you consider becoming a monthly partner?

A monthly gift of $50 goes a long way toward a scholarship for a pastor in training like Emmanuel. An annual gift of $5,000 covers the full cost for a student like Mohammed — someone coming from an underserved language group with nothing but a transformed life and a call from God. Giving online is secure, simple, and tax-deductible. 

Give in the USA here. Give in Canada, here.

The need is great. The workers are few. But God is faithful — and CABU is a missions partner you can trust for this pivotal moment in Africa’s history.

Email: Dr. Chopo Mwanza or Dr. Philip Hunt to learn more.

I want you to imagine a family sitting around the dinner table and enjoying devotions together. Mom and Dad are at either end with their children along the sides. Each of them has a Bible lying open before them. They have just taken turns reading a couple of verses each, and now dad is asking the children a few questions to help them better understand and apply what they have read: What does this teach us about God? What does it teach us about ourselves? How can we respond?

This seems like an everyday scene that could take place in any Christian home. But then you widen your gaze and notice a few details you overlooked with your first glance. You see a pair of tripods, each with a camera set on top, and because the lights are blinking, you know they are recording. You see a set of ring lights casting their glow over the family, and you notice that the table is pristine, so that every wrinkle has been ironed, every stain has been scrubbed, and every detail has been made picture-perfect. You realize that even though this family is doing their devotions, they are doing it as vloggers before a watching public. And you wonder: are they really doing family devotions or are they creating content? Are the parents discipling or acting? Is this worship or performance?

I don’t know of any families who vlog their family devotions, though it wouldn’t shock me to learn they’re out there. I would be concerned for such a family, not least because I would wonder whether the parents are really discipling their children through family devotions or whether they are simply creating content. I would wonder if what they say is for the benefit of their kids or for the benefit of themselves and their platform. Are they trying to reach the hearts of their children, or are they trying to gain followers? Is their main concern discipleship or virality? I’m not convinced it is possible to serve both their family and their audience in a context as important as this. The form and purpose of vlogging are simply incompatible with the form and purpose of devotions.

Though I don’t know of any families who vlog their devotions, I know of many churches that essentially vlog their worship services. Many churches record their services for the express purpose of creating social-media-friendly content that will be distributed in various lengths, platforms, and formats. To do this effectively, the pastors must prepare their content to fit the medium—vivid illustrations or punchy applications that can fit within the ever-changing limits of whatever the algorithms demand. These snippets must be able to stand alone, separated from the wider context of the sermon. They must be directed to the camera, not the congregation, and must have the kind of setting and background that draws every eye to the preacher. To make a splash in a world flooded with content, they must be carefully rehearsed and perfectly delivered. They must be social-media-first.

To be clear, I think there can be a place for churches to stream their services, as this can be helpful to members who are sick or housebound. It can also be a means for a church to “advertise,” in the sense of allowing those who may be looking for a church to understand what this one is all about. It’s not unusual for people to move to a new city having already chosen a church because they have watched its services online and know they will feel welcome and at home. This is a matter for each church to decide on its own.

But there is a world of difference between casually streaming a service and specifically using a service to create content.¹ There is a world of difference between the stream being peripheral and the stream being central. Just as I am not convinced that it is possible for parents to truly serve their children through family devotions when those devotions are for a vlog, I am not convinced that a pastor can truly serve his church if his sermons are for an online audience. If he is preaching for the viral video, can he really preach to the hearts of his people? If he is preaching for the audience on TikTok, can he really be preaching to the congregation before him? No man can serve two masters without eventually preferring one of them. 

Some things are simply too consequential and too holy to mess with or infringe upon. Parents discipling their children is one, and pastors preaching to their congregation is another. Social media has its way of creeping into every area of our lives and beginning to shape and re-form them. But surely some areas must be kept pure, some must remain untouched and untainted. To see these areas as opportunities to create content or generate virality is to debase and deform them. It’s to rob them of their significance and transform them into something less than God means for them to be. 

1. Some preaching moments may go viral inadvertently, of course. Consider Alistair Begg’s now-famous “the man on the middle cross” moment. It’s clear that it was not created for virality, but to serve the congregation in that moment. Watch it again and see how unpolished it is—people are clustered behind him, he sometimes stammers, pauses, and looks down at his notes, and so on. ↩︎

In my weekly Works & Wonders article, I combine a brief devotional with other interesting and uplifting bits and pieces I gleaned throughout the week. These can be stories, poems, songs, articles, quotes, and just about anything else I found especially enjoyable in the week. I hope you enjoy this week’s collection! It includes:

1. Works without Wonder
2. “We Are Thankful”
3. Captain Rostron’s Night Out
4. Speed Puzzling
5. Held in the Light
6. “Oh! To Be Ready”
7. Piano Sketches

1.

Devotional: Works without Wonder

If we are meant to find great joy and true delight in God, why is it that some religious people appear so joyless? Why are there some who seem to do little more than go through the motions of religion but without any spirit, any zeal, any fervor? Vance Havner points us in the right direction when he writes of work that is without wonder. “Nothing else under the sun can be as dry, flat, tedious and exhausting as religious work without the wonder,” he says. Our service for God will either flow out of an understanding of grace or an assumption of merit. We will either work from the favor of God or for it. And nothing will prove more discouraging than losing the wonder of grace and instead laboring to try to win the favor of God. It is grace—unmerited divine favor—that kindles our joy, and it is grace that keeps the fires burning warm within our hearts. “A true believer looks on religion, not as a burden which he must be forced to endure, but a privilege which is his happiness to enjoy,” says Andrew Gray. It can be enjoyable and bring happiness to our souls only as long as it is marked and motivated by grace.

2.

We Are Thankful

What is the right response to grace? Gratitude! And that’s what this new song from Sovereign Grace Music is all about.

For goodness and for mercy that has surely followed us
And every blessing we could never earn
For all the gifts we cherish that are pictures of Your love
What could we ever offer in return?

(Can’t see it? Click here)

3.

Captain Rostron’s Night Out

I guess a tragedy like the sinking of the Titanic isn’t the kind of material I typically feature in this column. However, I enjoyed this telling of one of the heroes of the night of April 15, 1912: Arthur Rostron. Rostron was captain of the Carpathia, the ship that rescued all 705 of Titanic’s survivors. As far as I know, Rostron was a devout man.

As a boy, Rostron attended a Church of England day school, and he was marked all through his life as a religious man who neither smoked nor drank. “A sailor has his faith,” Rostron remarked, “he lives so close to nature, there are times when he feels in touch with the infinite.”⁷ And as the Carpathia drove through the night, eventually dodging icebergs from the same field of floating ice that claimed the Titanic, Rostron’s Second Officer, James Bisset, noticed his captain standing beside him on Carpathia’s bridge, with “his cap raised a little from his brow, and his lips moving in silent prayer.”⁸ Afterwards, casting his eye over that lethal expanse of bergs, ‘growlers,’ and pack ice, Rostron admitted that he “shuddered, and could only think that some other Hand than mine was on that helm during the night.”

You can read more at The Golden Thread.

4.

Speed Puzzling

I can’t keep up with all the things, so I was surprised to learn that there is such a thing as speed puzzling. I rather enjoyed reading this account of a recent speed puzzling championship.

PhD student in Berkeley. A 12-year-old in Texas. A content creator in Washington. An undergrad at Stanford. A former math teacher turned homeschool mom in Texas. After a three-day competition in Atlanta, Georgia, these people became national champions for a burgeoning hobby: speed jigsaw puzzling.

I have been a lifelong jigsaw puzzle lover. But in recent years, I have observed the quintessential way to slowly pass time transform into a competitive sport. So I traveled to the USA Jigsaw Nationals to test my skill against the best puzzlers in the country.

The competitive aspect of jigsaw puzzling dates back to the 1980s in the US, when Hallmark ran a national competition for several years. In 2022, the volunteer-run USA Jigsaw Puzzle Association (USAJPA) partnered with Ravensburger, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of jigsaw puzzles, to bring back a national championship.

Click here to keep reading. The article is at The Guardian and, as far as I can tell, is not behind a paywall.

5.

Held in the Light

Ray Majoran is an Ontario-based Christian photographer who has a special fascination with the northern lights. He features his own photography and other people’s in his Glimpse of Infinity newsletter, which you may enjoy subscribing to. With every photo, he is sure to give praise to God for the beauty of his creation. Here is one of my favorites from his gallery.

6.

Oh! To Be Ready

I often comb through old anthologies of poems looking for works I have never read before. I recently found one titled “Oh! To Be Ready” that was attributed to an anonymous poet. I appreciate its longing to be ready to hasten home.

Oh! to be ready when death shall come!
Oh! to be ready to hasten home!
No earthward clinging, no lingering gaze,
No strife at parting, no sore amaze,
No chains to sever what earth has twined,
No spell to loosen what love would bind.

No flitting shadows to dim the light
Of the angel-pinions winged for flight,
No cloud-like phantoms to fling a gloom
‘Twixt Heaven’s bright portals and earth’s dark tomb;
But sweetly, gently, to pass away
From the world’s dim twilight into day.

To list the music of angel lyres,
To catch the rapture of seraph tires,
To lean in trust on the risen One,
Until borne away to a fadeless throne.
Oh! to be ready when death shall come!
Oh! to be ready to hasten home!

(The word “tires” is an antiquated form of “attire,” I believe.)

7.

Piano Sketches

If you’d like some mellow instrumental music, whether to sing along to or to just have in the background, you won’t do much better than these Easter Piano Sketches from the Gettys.

(Can’t see it? Click here)

This week, the blog and this giveaway are sponsored by Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals.

Win a copy of The Word and the Way by Rev. Eric Alexander.

There are many books available today that address specific subjects related to how Christians ought to live—books on marriage, raising children, dealing with grief, and more. But The Word and the Way is different. Here, Rev. Eric Alexander offers a comprehensive view on the Christian life, walking the reader through what it means to be united to Jesus Christ by saving faith and the significance of that glorious truth for the whole of life.

Underlying any instructions about how Christians are to live must be the spiritual reality of the new birth, and how the Holy Spirit works in a person’s heart and mind through the Word of God to bring the repentant sinner into a right relationship with God, which begins the lifelong pursuit of being conformed to the image of Christ. The believer is given new affections, interests, and motivations, for the same Spirit of God who brought the individual to saving faith now indwells each Christian in their walk with the Lord. At the heart of it all is God’s love—this is the love that redeems, keeps, sanctifies, and will one day bring His people into the full sight of His glory.

Copies of The Word and the Way are available for sale at ReformedResources.org and Amazon. Readers are invited to enter a special giveaway for a chance to win one of four free copies in paperback or ebook. Don’t miss this opportunity—the drawing ends May 7.

War promises more glory than it can possibly deliver. When the call goes out, young men rush to sign up, eager to prove themselves in battle and ready to display their valor. They are promised their great deeds will be remembered forever, that their glory will never be forgotten. A grateful nation vows that even if they should make the ultimate sacrifice, it will forever hold them in its memory.

Yet every nation has memorials and cemeteries dedicated to that most tragic of all servicemen: the Unknown Soldier. Military cemeteries have entire rows and sections of stark white crosses inscribed simply, “Unknown.” Countless men have signed up or been conscripted with the promise of glory, only to receive anonymity. They were promised they could make a name for themselves, but their names were instead erased. Many of them have now passed out of memory altogether, so that not only are they no longer remembered, but they are no longer grieved. Such is the tragedy and indignity of war.

The world has a way of forgetting its heroes, of promising them more than it can ever make good on. But heaven will forget none of its heroes, none of those who labored diligently for the Lord. Heaven will give to each man and each woman the recognition they deserve for their faithful service to the Lord—recognition they will gladly cede to the one who called them to his service and who kept them faithful to his cause.

There will be many surprises on the day the Lord calls us all to give an account. I am convinced that one of the greatest surprises will be this: that those who have received the least acclaim on earth may receive the most acclaim in heaven. In fact, God’s Word tells us that many of those who are first will be last and many of those who are last will be first. The least names on earth may be the greatest in heaven, while the greatest names on earth may be the least in heaven. 

We tend to lump all human beings together as if all are equally capable, all are equally gifted, and all have equal opportunity. If this is the case, then we are right to give the greatest acclaim to those with the most visible accomplishments. But God says he will distribute rewards relative to what he has entrusted to us. From the one to whom he gave much wealth, much gifting, and much opportunity, he will require more than the one to whom he gave little.

In heaven, the servant who was faithful with one talent may tower high above the servant who was faithful with five, even though the visible results of that faithfulness may be much less. The widow who gave her two copper coins may prove to be more faithful than the entrepreneur who donated billions to Christ’s cause. The person with a profound cognitive disability who was as faithful as she knew how to be may receive more acclaim than the most gifted and most able Christian leader who wrote books, founded institutions, planted churches, and is remembered through the ages. The person who is deemed to be most like Jesus is as likely to be a person none of us have heard of as a person all of us have heard of, for he was extraordinarily faithful with the little entrusted to him.

We honor the man who was seen to be valiant in battle and rightly so. Yet we know that many of the most valorous deeds were undoubtedly done by men whose greatest hour and final sacrifice were witnessed only by the soldiers who fell alongside them. The bravest of men are known only to the One who sees all things. And so too the greatest of Christians, for these are the ones who receive what God has given, whether much or little, and who joyfully, willingly, and faithfully steward it toward the greatest of all goods—becoming like Jesus so they can behave like Jesus and thereby give glory to Jesus.

This article was inspired, in part, by the sermons of De Witt Talmage.

Good morning. I hope you enjoy today’s A La Carte collection. Remember that in Saturday’s edition I focus on longer form articles and think pieces, while in Sunday’s Works & Wonders I offer a brief devotional and a few other uplifting bits and pieces meant to make your weekend just a bit brighter. See you then!

Truly there is need of patience in training a child, but without it nothing can be done. Nothing will compensate for the absence of this tenderness and love.

—J.C. Ryle

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Sometimes I get it right and, admittedly, sometimes I get it wrong. I get access to most books long before they reach store shelves and I try to anticipate the ones that will be most important, most worthy of my time and yours. These are the ones I then read and review. But sometimes I miss.

That was certainly the case with Matthew Bingham’s A Heart Aflame for God. Though it has been more than a year since I received the book, and though I heard many good things about it in the meantime, it was only a couple of weeks ago that I finally began to read it. I was immediately drawn in and immediately disappointed that I had not read it a year prior.

A Heart Aflame for God is a book about spiritual formation, which is to say, a book about the Christian life. “A basic biblical assumption about the Christian life is that it ought to be a growing life. When the Bible describes walking with God, the expectation is that it will never be a static, settled affair but rather a journey characterized by continual development, increase, and forward movement.” Of course, there are many books on this subject, so what makes this one different? “What distinguishes our interest in spiritual formation from other books discussing the same is that here we are working to understand what spiritual formation sounds like when set in a distinctly Reformed-evangelical key.” 

Those who are familiar with the lay of the land when it comes to spiritual formation will probably recognize names like Richard Foster, Dallas Willard, Eugene Peterson, and Ruth Hailey Barton. While all of these people are Protestant, none could be said to be Reformed-evangelical. In fact, many of them draw from practices that owe more to Roman Catholicism or Eastern Orthodoxy. Could this perhaps be proof that the Reformed faith has little to say on the subject? No, not at all. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. “The Reformation heritage that gave birth to evangelicalism already has a rich and biblically faithful tradition of spiritual formation, such that we do not need to create a pastiche of spiritual practices drawn from medieval mystical, Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox authors.” We do not need to look beyond our tradition to learn about spiritual formation, but can instead look within it. As we do so, we will uncover many treasures.

Bingham begins by setting Reformed piety within the context of the five solas—the doctrines that define Protestantism and distinguish it from Catholicism and Orthodoxy. He shows that any Reformed approach to spiritual formation must be Word-centered, such that it depends deeply upon the means God prescribes in Scripture. He then introduces what he calls “The Reformation Triangle.” These are the three activities or practices that form the basis of our spiritual formation: Scripture, prayer, and meditation. Through these interrelated practices, we hear from God, speak to God, and reflect on God. These are the core disciplines through which God forms us into the image of Christ.

Having focused on these three, he widens the scope to other practices that Reformed writers have upheld as especially formative. These include self-examination (which involves both examining ourselves for the presence of sin and examining ourselves to see evidence of God’s providential dealings with us), friendships and other godly relationships, and, perhaps most surprisingly, the natural world. “It might come as a surprise,” he says, “to learn that Christians themselves have also long maintained a strong … sense of connection between spirituality and the natural world.” Our forebears often spoke of the need for Christians to diligently look within the natural world to learn how it reflects God’s glory, teaches God’s truth, and aids in spiritual formation. In a final pair of chapters, he considers the role of the body in spiritual formation and then offers help for difficult times, such as when we have fallen into sin, come into a time of suffering, or found that God has become distant. 

In every section, he draws deeply upon historic Reformed writers, mostly the Puritans, to show that none of these practices is novel and that the Reformed faith does have a deep and established tradition of spiritual formation. Of special note, he engages with modern-day writers who downplay the Reformed practices or who teach alternatives. For example, he explains what James K.A. Smith believes about the human body supplanting the mind in spiritual formation and gently corrects it. He shows how authors like Richard Foster borrow from traditions that are incompatible with Protestantism and how leaders like Tony Jones advocate a personalized approach to spiritual formation that focuses as much on the desires of the individual as on the commands of God. With winsome tenacity, he shows how the Reformed tradition offers better answers and, crucially, answers that are more consistent with Scripture.

A Heart Aflame for God is as good a book as any I have read this year and one I wish I had read last year. It refreshed my understanding of spiritual formation and deepened my confidence that the Reformed tradition has deeply satisfying means for developing, increasing, and moving forward as a Christian.

This week, the blog is sponsored by The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, which invites you to discover the Christ-centered, Spirit-filled preaching of the Reverend Eric Alexander.

Listen to Christ-centered, spirit-filled preaching from the Reverend Eric Alexander. Subscribe to the Hear the Word of God podcast, part of the Alliance Podcast Network.

For more than 50 years, Eric Alexander faithfully served as an ordained minister in the Church of Scotland, including many years as senior pastor of the historic St. George’s-Tron Church in the heart of Glasgow. His ministry extended far beyond Scotland, as he became a beloved speaker at the Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology, the Keswick Convention, and the Urbana Conference of InterVarsity Fellowship.

Widely regarded as one of the finest Bible expositors of the late 20th century, Eric Alexander’s influence continues to shape generations of pastors and teachers. Leaders such as Sinclair Ferguson, Ian Hamilton, and Alistair Begg have all benefited from his faithful, Christ-centered ministry.

As Ian Hamilton reflects:
“Eric’s ministry was an overflow of his life, an extension of who he was. For me, he epitomised everything that a gospel preacher should be.”

Rev. Alexander’s preaching is marked by clarity, depth, and a profound reverence for Scripture. With a masterful command of language, he unfolds God’s Word with precision and warmth—engaging the mind, stirring the heart, and calling listeners to worship, serve, and love the Triune God more deeply. His sermons do not merely inform; they transform, applying biblical truth to every area of life for the glory of God.

Now, you can hear this timeless preaching for yourself.

Subscribe today to Hear the Word of God, part of the Alliance Podcast Network, and be enriched by the faithful exposition of Scripture from one of the church’s most trusted voices. Available at AllianceNet.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

As we were raising our children, I always felt a bit of tension when it came to their future within the local church. I wanted my children to see their need for the church and to embrace its centrality in their lives. I wanted them to value and prioritize it as an essential part of valuing and prioritizing Christ. As they grew older and began to become independent, I longed for them to put their faith in Jesus and make full participation within his church an essential part of their lives. But I didn’t want to nag or cajole them. I wanted them to do this freely and joyfully and to do it as an outworking of their own convictions rather than a means of mollifying mom and dad.

I’m thankful that our children always enjoyed church and never fought against it. I’m more thankful still that each of them came to Christ when they were young teenagers, then pursued baptism and church membership. As soon as they moved away to attend college, they switched their membership to a local church in Louisville. Interestingly, each of them opted to join a different church, but joyfully, all three chose one that faithfully preaches the gospel. 

I recently tried to think back to consider some of the principles we found helpful as we raised children who actually wanted to go to church. Because I am a relentless and unashamed gleaner of the wisdom of others, these were all principles we observed or solicited from other families, then applied to our own. I hope you’ll find them helpful as we did.

Make church a part of your family culture. Every family develops a culture of its own—a collection of habits, patterns, and activities that come to define its unique identity. These can range from vacations (e.g., two weeks at the same holiday spot every summer) to movie nights (e.g., every Saturday night we watch a movie together) to food (e.g., Friday is pizza night). As a family culture develops, parents are wise to make church attendance a part of that culture. It doesn’t need to be explained or defended—this is what you do because this is who you are. It doesn’t need to be considered or debated, because when Sunday comes, you simply go to church. It is a non-negotiable part of your family culture.

Value church enough that it disrupts routine. Some of the hardest times to maintain consistency in church attendance are when children are small and when they depend on an established routine of meals and naps. It can be difficult for parents to disrupt this routine, especially when it means they may pay the price of a cranky infant or grumpy toddler. Many of us have witnessed families drift and even disappear at this stage of life. Yet a good routine should only ever be a faithful servant rather than a demanding master. You may simply need to resign yourself to having a cranky child on Sunday afternoons and a rough start to your week on Monday mornings. But some things, like church, are important enough that they should supersede routine.

Prioritize church over sports, lessons, and activities. Aileen and I have often expressed our gratitude that none of our children were outstandingly athletically gifted. They all enjoyed recreational sports or activities like baseball, soccer, and ballet, but none had skill or interest in advancing through rep or travel leagues. This meant that we never had to count the cost of travel ball, Sunday rehearsals, and other conflicts with church. But even if they had the skill and desire, we had already decided that we would not prioritize sports and activities over the church. I would not wish to be legalistic here and would leave each family to decide how to handle this matter, but as we look back, we think it was important to our family to know that church takes pride of place ahead of sports and activities. If many of us have seen families struggle with fitting church into routine, most likely all of us have seen families downplay church in favor of sports.

Attempt to prioritize church over jobs. While sports and activities are optional for young children, jobs are often a necessity for young adults. All of our children worked at a local grocery store, and they were mostly able to avoid working on Sundays, either by asking to be left off the calendar or by surrendering Sunday shifts to colleagues who were eager for more hours. Sometimes, though, especially before they had seniority, they were faced with the stark choice of working on a Sunday or resigning. In those cases, we decided together that, though Sunday work was not our preference, it may be an acceptable short-term measure until they had gained seniority. For all three, they soon proved themselves to their managers and only missed church on the rarest of occasions. Had their work demanded they work every Sunday, they would have resigned and looked for other jobs. To the best of our ability, we prioritized church over work.

Bring them into the service. I believe there is a place for nursery programs or other activities for younger children that run parallel to the Sunday worship services. In other words, I am not an advocate of Family Integrated Church. The particulars of such programming may vary a great deal based on context and culture, but I see no solid biblical argument that the whole family must be together for the whole service. That said, I think it can be of great practical benefit for the family to generally remain together once children are old enough to sit quietly—or relatively quietly, at least. By first grade, children are expected to know how to sit for extended periods, so that seems like it may be a natural time to wind down childcare so children can remain with their families. We found it a blessing to worship together as a family and to have the children witness our commitment to worship, preaching, the Lord’s Supper, baptism, and so on. When they were young, they often found it boring and had trouble sitting through, but we believe there was a lot of benefit in having them be present to see Christians worship.

Be committed to one church, but visit others. Looking back, Aileen and I are thankful that we were members of just one church through almost the entirety of our children’s childhood. This offered them stability and surrounded them with adults they knew, loved, and trusted—adults who valued church as much as their parents did. However, we are also thankful that we visited many other churches, sometimes while on vacation or visiting family, or sometimes just to have different experiences of worship. We think it was helpful to broaden our children’s view of church so they could see that all kinds of people are Christians and all kinds of people believe in the same prioritization of the local church.

Of course, all of this was supplemented by formally teaching them what the Bible says about coming to Christ in repentance and faith and then joining themselves to the local church. Yet because so much of what children learn is “caught” rather than “taught,” we wanted to raise them in such a way that they saw us put these principles into practice and live them out in our family life. By God’s grace, through these means and others, the Lord blessed them with a love for him and a love for his church.

In my weekly Works & Wonders article, I combine a brief devotional with other interesting and uplifting bits and pieces I gleaned throughout the week. These can be stories, poems, songs, articles, quotes, and just about anything else I found especially enjoyable in the week. I hope you enjoy this week’s collection! It includes:

1. The More You Have, the More You Want
2. God Showed Me My True Identity
3. Secrets of the Bees
4. A Haven in the Kitchen
5. Darkness Is My Closest Friend
6. Jackie and Shadow
7. The Far Side of the Moon

1.

Devotional: The More You Have, The More You Want

The renowned missionary David Brainerd once described a fascinating spiritual realization: “When I really enjoy God, I feel my desires of Him the more insatiable and my thirstings after holiness more unquenchable.” He had discovered that delight causes a kind of cascade effect where the more he had, the more he craved. Though his enjoyment of God satisfied him in one sense, it left him with an even deeper longing in another. John Piper makes a similar observation, going so far as to label our joy in God as a good and noble kind of greed. “Our joy in God is insatiably greedy,” he says. “The more you have, the more you want. The more you see, the more you want to see. The more you feel, the more you want to feel.” Like any other form of greed, it cannot be sated, but always longs for more. And this is just as God intended it, so that the closer we draw to him, the closer we long to be, and the more joy we find in him, the more joy we long to experience. We never fully arrive on this side of heaven and are never fully satisfied, but always long for the fullness of joy that will be ours when we are finally face-to-face with the one we love.

2.

God Showed Me My True Identity

Christianity Today has been sharing testimonies, and recently included Kyla Gillespie’s. Kyla was born female, but spent six years living as a man. It was the love and kindness of Christians that eventually caused her to turn to the Lord and then return to living as a woman. Her story is both tragic and encouraging.

I started drowning my stresses in alcohol when I was 19. Blackouts, partying, gambling, and a trail of failed same-sex relationships followed. Before long, my faith was nearly nonexistent. I chose the life I thought I wanted above my relationship with God. But when alcohol fueled a dangerous downward spiral, I chose to enter a Christian recovery center.

I got sober there, but my battles with same-sex attraction and gender dysphoria continued. To try to win the war raging inside of me, I decided to transition from female to male. Two years later, after hormone therapy, surgeries, and sweeping lifestyle changes, I could finally pass unnoticed in the world as a man.

I changed my name from Kyla to Brycen. I had arrived. With each step of the process, I eagerly awaited the satisfaction and relief that would surely follow. But they never came. Altering my body hadn’t healed the brokenness inside.

Read: Born a Woman, I Spent Six Years Living as a Man. Then God Showed Me My True Identity. (Gift link) Also consider reading her new book TransFormed, which gives her story in much more detail. I reviewed it here.

3.

Secrets of the Bees

I stumbled across the two-part National Geographic series Secrets of the Bees and really enjoyed it. The videography is first-rate and allows the viewer to see and enjoy bees as never before. The filmmaker simply wants to celebrate these little creatures, show them off in all their beauty and endless activity, help us understand their ingenuity, and realize how integral they are to the world around us. It’s on Disney+ in Canada, but it may be available elsewhere in different countries.

Here’s the trailer just to give you a peek:

(Can’t see it? Click here.)

4.

A Haven in the Kitchen

The New York Times recently covered a neat story about people with autism finding their place in restaurant kitchens. It tells of “a new program, Chefs on the Spectrum, meant to train and place people with autism in fine-dining jobs.” This program and others have found that autistic adults sometimes have special talents that make them ideal kitchen workers.

That talent can take several forms. Some cooks on the spectrum are meticulously organized at their stations. Some have an exceptional recall of recipes, and others are especially diligent about safety protocols …

Some students in TACT’s culinary program perform with astonishing consistency. If a restaurant wants meat butchered into a certain cut, Mr. Fierro said, “they’re going to make them exactly the same way every single time.”

A common hallmark of autism is a cultivation of special interests, intense and passionate devotions to particular topics. For cooks on the spectrum, this can mean a penchant for intellectual spelunking into, say, the molecular structure of hydrocolloids, or the behavior of the molds that produce blue cheese and miso.

Read: For People With Autism, Can Restaurant Kitchens Be a Haven? (Gift link)

5.

Psalm 88 (Darkness Is My Closest Friend)

Greg LaFollette recently released a powerful, melodic, and haunting version of Psalm 88.

(Can’t see it? Click here.)

6.

Jackie and Shadow

Jackie and Shadow are probably the world’s most famous bald eagles. They nest near Big Bear Lake in the San Bernardino National Forest in California and are constantly on camera. You can watch them right here or read the latest in the Eagle Log. As of the time I am writing, they have a pair of tiny chicks they are caring for. If you have a spare screen nearby, it’s kind of nice to just leave the video playing so you can check in on them from time to time. Just be sure to check your volume because, for all their virtues, bald eagles do not have a beautiful cry!

7.

The Far Side of the Moon

It was fun to track Artemis II as it pushed the frontiers of human accomplishment by taking human beings farther from Earth than ever before. Not surprisingly, social media was flooded with AI-generated junk claiming to be real. Thankfully, NASA released a definitive collection of the best genuine images on NASA’s Artemis II Lunar Flyby page. The photos, which are free to download, give us new reasons to marvel at the wonders of God in his creation.

This week, the blog and this giveaway are sponsored by Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals.

Matthew Henry’s Method for Prayer, now available in carefully abridged ebook editions from the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, invites modern believers into a deeper, more meaningful communion with God. In an age defined by constant noise, distraction, and spiritual fatigue, the timeless wisdom of Matthew Henry speaks with renewed clarity.

Henry’s work was crafted in a world far removed from smartphones, social media, and the relentless pace of modern life. And yet, man’s spiritual needs have remained the same. Henry’s words concerning prayer, then, are as relevant now as they have ever been.

Method for Prayer is more than a devotional—it is a structured, Scripture-rich guide designed to help believers pray with greater depth, confidence, and intentionality. Drawing extensively from the Bible, Henry organizes prayer into thoughtful categories, equipping readers with language and themes that align their hearts with God’s will. Whether you are new to prayer or seeking to enrich your lifelong practice, this work offers a pathway to more focused, spiritually grounded communication with the Lord.

Featuring ESV, KJV, NIV, and NASB versions, the Method for Prayer ebooks are available now through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other major ebook retailers. Readers are also invited to enter a special giveaway for a chance to win one of four free copies in their preferred translation. Don’t miss this opportunity—the drawing ends April 30.

Every year, as winter turns to spring, I begin to look to our garden. On the first day when the sun shines with warmth, and the temperature rises at least a few degrees above freezing, I go outside and look for them—the little yellow flowers that are always the first to bloom. The crocuses and daffodils show up in April, the tulips in May, and the irises in June. But these are March flowers or, in an especially warm year, even February.

They must be hardy little things, for they bloom at a time of year when the temperature lurches and swings like a drunk—warm and bright one day, but gray and cold the next. There are often still stretches of snow at this time, so they sometimes get buried beneath the drifts. Yet when the sun returns and the snow melts, there they are, still yellow and bright, and still bringing their little bit of cheer. In their own way, they portend the end of winter and the coming of spring. They are a little deposit, a little down payment, a little bit of assurance of better days to come.

There are many impressive plants in this world and many splendid creatures. There are views, scenes, and landscapes that are almost too beautiful to behold. But few things move me more deeply than a Christian who holds joyfully steadfast under severe trial. Few things are more supernatural than a person who knows the Lord’s providence has directed a great loss, yet who continues to love and serve him all the more. True faith is especially vivid and beautiful when it takes the form of unshakable joy.

My travels have introduced me to a great many people who have suffered the loss of a child, a great many who have lost a spouse, and a great many who grapple with physical trials that rarely ebb and never completely heal. What a blessing it is when they acknowledge their pain but also acknowledge God’s goodness, when they prove they are sorrowful yet rejoicing, when they go on trusting in the God who makes no mistakes. Though they are in agony of body or spirit, still they praise the Lord and proclaim his glories. Though they are broken, they rejoice; though they are heartbroken, they worship; though they have been brought low, they lift their voices high.

Such people are like the little yellow flowers that adorn my garden even when the calendar still says “winter.” Just as the least warmth causes those flowers to push their way into the sunlight to spread their cheer, the least evidence of God’s goodness causes these people to rejoice. Just as these flowers live on beneath the banks of snow, the joy of these people lives on beneath the trials and struggles. Just as these flowers foreshadow the coming of spring, the faith of these people foreshadows the coming of that time when every sorrow will be swept away, when faith will give way to sight, and when joy will reign forever. Their joy is nothing less than heaven’s own joy, blooming ahead of its time, and assuring us that before long, the cold of winter will give way to an endless summer.