The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you today.

Last week, I mentioned a gift card giveaway. The winner of that card has been notified. I plan to have another giveaway soon, so stay tuned.

Sales & Deals

Today’s Kindle deals include several volumes from P&R’s helpful series on the great thinkers. You’ll find some other options as well.

Recommended Reading

Don’t Draw the Wrong Lessons from the Latest Evangelical Scandal. I’m glad Casey McCall wrote this, as I was trying to formulate some similar thoughts, and now I don’t have to. “Maybe it’s best to resist this urge to weigh in confidently on theological causation. Perhaps not every occasion of public sin can be traced back causally to a doctrinal aberration. Maybe erroneous theological error does not lead inevitably to ministry-disqualifying sin. While I’m perfectly willing to admit that doctrinal error always results in negative consequences, I don’t think retroactively drawing lines of causation from theological aberration to scandal constitutes virtuous reasoning.”

The Blessing of Being Forgotten. There’s a story here that I want to be true since it’s so illustrative: A pastor who commissioned a statue of himself outside his church, but today no one can even remember who he was. “Now, I wasn’t there when the statue was commissioned, and I acknowledge my ignorance of the pastor’s motivation. However, it’s not hard to speculate what goes through a person’s heart and mind when they have a statue of themselves built. They want to be remembered. Or to put it another way, they are afraid of being forgotten.”

If Your Chatbot Offers Prayer, Shut It Down. I found this excerpt the most helpful part of this article: “The goal of writing a sermon is not merely to have a sermon. It is to become the kind of person who could write that sermon, the person who muddled through those texts and sought that insight and can offer an informed and well-considered answer to the tangential question some congregant will inevitably ask. It is to become the kind of person who—away from the pulpit, at a deathbed, or on the phone well past midnight—will know the right, kind, and faithful thing to say.”

Have Tongues Ceased? A Reformed Answer for Christians Leaving the Charismatic Movement. Anthony Faggiano writes for those who have come to Reformed theology from charismatic churches (or who are considering doing so) and helps them understand why Reformed Christians (mostly) believe the gift of tongues has ceased.

Consider the Small Town. Cities matter a great deal, of course, but Melissa expresses some of the joys of living in a small town. “There are so many God-given opportunities to truly be involved in people’s lives in a small town, and a lot of it happens in the bleachers at ballgames and during a chance meeting at the local grocery store. God is doing great things here, where the fields are almost ready for wheat harvest, and where the spiritual fields are also ripe. If our Savior’s life on this earth is any indication, the small and lowly places are some of the spots most likely to experience a special move of God.”

Thinking Christianly about Complex Topics. “One of the hazards of intellectual Christian discourse is to anoint ourselves as the amateur evaluators of ‘the Christian viewpoint’ on everything—science, economics, geopolitics, how governments ought to be run, aesthetics, agriculture and whatever other fields of human discourse arise.” Joel Arnold explains how to avoid the hazard.

The Lists

I found several articles yesterday that are written in the always-popular list format.

• 10 Reasons to Pray by Nathan Busenitz compiles some good reasons other Christians have offered.
• 10 Theses on Suffering by Paul Schlehlein provides a brief but well-rounded Christian perspective on suffering.
• 18 Thoughts on Christian Funerals by Stephen Kneale offers some thoughts on meaningful funerals.

Book Releases

New Christian books tend to be released on Tuesdays. Here are some that are available as of today.

• Strong in the Lord: A 30-Day Devotional on the Armor of God, edited by Winfree Brisley. “Rooted in the apostle Paul’s teaching from Ephesians 6:10–18, this 30-day devotional invites readers to discover lasting strength by putting on the armor of God.”
• Cradled: Christ’s Care for Postpartum Moms by Annie Vanderheiden. “Annie offers gospel hope to new moms in a disorienting season.”
• Psalms 1–72 (The Pillar Old Testament Commentary (POTC)) by Duane A. Garrett. This is the debut volume in the POTC, which will complement the excellent PNTC series. (Joshua will follow later in the year.)

Flashback

What Does a Discerning Person Do? The primary way a discerning person can serve the church is to be a student of the Word and to use his understanding of Scripture to distinguish between what is true and what is erroneous.

Good morning. Grace and peace to you.

This is Victoria Day in Canada, a holiday that unofficially marks the beginning of summer. It’s the day when cottagers tend to open their cottages for the year and when gardeners tend to get their plants in the ground. I’m neither a cottager nor a gardener, but I am a reader, so I expect that’s how I’ll spend my day.

If you didn’t check in yesterday, you may enjoy my weekly Works & Wonders article, as I highlighted some interesting and uplifting things there.

Sales & Deals

Today’s Kindle deals include several volumes in Crossway’s tremendous New Testament Theology series. It’s a great time to start collecting the series or to get caught up on some of the early volumes.

Recommended Reading

I Am Not Enough for My Kids. I think this article will resonate with a lot of parents. “I can’t bind up all the wounds. I can’t protect them from all the bad things. I can’t make them love the things I love. I can’t keep the bullies away. I can’t always stop them from being the bully. I can’t force a (sincere) apology. I can’t change DNA. I can’t create motivation. I can’t make this world fair. I can’t keep them safe all the time. I can’t manifest love and security into their hearts. And of course, I can’t always be the kind, patient, and wise mother I imagined I would be.”

The Dangerous Days Past Middle Age. And this one will resonate with those who are a bit farther along in life—and challenge them too. “I have an image in my mind of the godly old lady I want to be someday: soft-spoken, kind to all, full of wisdom. Having logged half a century under God’s sanctifying sandpaper, I should be well on my way by now. And, taking stock, I can see that I don’t have to rein in my temper as much as I used to, and there’s precious little out there that tempts me to covet. What I am learning, however, is that as I age, I sin differently. Sin is still ‘crouching at the door.’ It just comes in a different form.”

Are You Really Filled With the Spirit? “When I was a college student, a classmate asked me whether I had been filled with the Holy Spirit. At that time, I wasn’t sure how to answer that question. Now, I know that the Bible tells me everything I need to know about the filling of the Spirit.” Guy Waters explains what it really means to be filled with the Spirit.

How You Can Give Away Lots of Money (And Be Happy About It). Michael Jensen tells how it’s possible for Christians to give away lots of money and be genuinely happy about it. “In Jesus Christ we receive what we need and more. We have become rich. Now, that’s not literally rich in material terms necessarily, but there’s something about the Christian mentality that is governed by this feeling of having been richly blessed. We are those who operate from a philosophy of abundance rather than scarcity. We see our earthly possessions in the context of our abundance in Christ.”

The Best Way to Resist Temptation. Here’s the thing about temptation: “The more you feed it, the stronger it grows. And the more it eats you, the weaker you become, and the harder it is to think of yourself at all without the monster that’s growling, shaking the bars of your rib-cage, breaking the chains of your self-control, eating every good intention for breakfast.”

A Year With Pope Leo. Evangelical Impressions. Leonardo De Chirico, an evangelical pastor-scholar in Rome, considers the first year of Pope Leo’s leadership of the Roman Catholic Church. Here’s one interesting observation, especially when considering that Leo is American: “And what about the Evangelicals? They do not seem to be on Pope Leo’s radar, aside from a few indirect critical remarks between the lines of his speeches in Cameroon and Angola. Even during his previous tenure as bishop in Peru, he showed no particular interest in the Evangelicals.”

Book Brief

The Guns at Last Light by Rick Atkinson. This is the third and final volume in Atkinson’s tremendous Liberation Trilogy. I really cannot say enough positive things about this series and recommend it to anyone with an interest in the Second World War. If there is one thing that I wish Atkinson had done better in this series, it would be to celebrate examples of not only military heroism but also moral heroism. He rightly tells of some of the Allied servicemen who disgraced themselves by their moral conduct, but gives few examples of those who maintained their virtue or who stood for the weak. You could also get the impression that every man let go of his morals when he reached Europe. Still, it’s my new favorite series on the war. (Amazon)

Flashback

The Dead Seriousness of Careless Words. Words can be a taste of life or a savor of death, a scent of heaven or a whiff of hell. They can do the work of God or of the devil, serve the cause of Christ or of his enemies. Words are so wonderful and so terrible, so beautiful and so horrible, so precious and so dreadful.

Welcome to a new edition of A La Carte. These weekend editions focus on long-form content and think pieces. There’s a lot of good material here, so I’m sure you’ll find something that’s of interest.

For some of the articles, I have provided gift links, which should get you around any paywalls. Note, however, that these gift links may expire in a few days or weeks.

Sales & Deals

Today’s Kindle deals include the usual weekend collection of newer and older books. There should be something there for just about any reader!

Recommended Reading

Here are some links to articles I found especially interesting this week. As you’ll see, that is the only thing they have in common, as they range across a wide variety of subjects.

The Slippery Protein Problem. Most of us have seen recent interviews with Ben Sasse and heard a little bit about the “miracle drug” that is extending his lifespan months longer than he was told to expect. This article explains some of the incredible science behind it. “In December 2025, former Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse announced he had been diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer that had spread to his lungs, liver and other organs, and was given three to four months to live from the time of diagnosis. With little to lose, he enrolled in a clinical trial for an experimental drug. Four months later, he reported a 76 percent reduction in tumor volume, describing the drug, daraxonrasib, as a ‘miracle’. His face, ravaged by a severe skin rash from the treatment, told a more complicated story. Yet he was alive and grateful to be able to talk to his family.”

Enduring All Things for the Gospel. Thomas Kidd has a long profile of Adoniram Judson in the recent issue of Christianity Today. Judson and his wife wives are well worth getting to know. “Familiarity with missions history is one of the best antidotes to the prosperity gospel—the idea that God will surely bless the faithful with health, wealth, and safety. Missionaries have routinely endured terrible hardships as they obeyed God’s call in the Great Commission (Matt. 28:18–20). The call to missions—and the call to ministry generally—is also a call to resilience. To be sure, many missionaries have chosen to terminate their missions for good reasons, sometimes before the scheduled end of their service. This can happen when God permits circumstances that make it impossible for them to operate without grave threats to themselves or their families’ lives.”

The Tragedy of Mrs. Dr. Seuss. I had never read anything about Mrs. Dr. Seuss and the sad tale of her life until I came across this. “Unless you are very deep into children’s books, you’ve probably never thought much about Helen Palmer. I hadn’t either, until I bought inscribed copies of two of her books. Then I fell into the quicksand of research that so many antiquarian booksellers get sucked into.”

Love (And Work Well With) Your Gen Z Employees. One thing is certain: Gen Z is growing up fast. And, whether we like it or not, Gen Z is the future. Hence, those of us who are Boomers, Xers, or Millennials need to get to know, understand, and appreciate them. You can do that through this article/interview at TGC.

No Meeting Should Be 30 Minutes. This article in The Washington Post poses a question we should probably all ask: Why do we think meetings need to be scheduled in increments of 30 minutes? It is an interesting case of decisions made long ago continuing in perpetuity. “At this moment, in your calendar program, in a setting you’ve likely never clicked on, is the solution to one of the most miserable features of modern professional life: back-to-back meetings.”

Won’t Somebody Please Think of (Having The) Children! Stephen McAlpine considers the nearly universal decline in birthrates and observes something important: “Children have become commodified, as we would expect when we either demonise them (and get rid of them before birth), or worship them, and then pour all our energies and monies into crafting the one or two children that we do have into the gods and goddesses we are told that they undoubtedly will become.”

Clips

I continue to be fascinated and dismayed by the rise of the video clip—the short-form video content that has taken over all the video apps and sites.

Mia Sato of The Verge wrote The Clippening to describe what is happening. “If you are someone who wants attention, social media is just another form of gambling in the age of algorithmic recommendation feeds. Creators and influencers can optimize their content or tweak titles and thumbnails, but ultimately they are all just pulling a virtual slot machine arm, hoping it will dispense views, engagement, and resultant revenue. For well over a decade, content creators have worked to reverse engineer ‘the algorithm.’ Deploying clippers allows companies to gamble on content at scale, without paying a network of contractors upfront: Why bet once, when you could bet 50 times?”

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that you could now turn off shorts within YouTube. To do so, simply open the YouTube app and go to the settings. Then tap “time management” and set Shorts to 0 minutes. This should remove Shorts from the app altogether. Unfortunately, that worked only for the app and not for the desktop version of YouTube. You may be interested to know, though, that there is a shortcut that can do that for you, at least if you use a browser like Chrome (or, in my case, Vivaldi): The aptly named Remove YouTube Shorts.

Quick Links

• Greta Gerwig’s Latest Narnia Casting Officially Kills a Fan-Favorite Aslan Rumor. I’m still not holding out much hope for it, though.
• Bright Horizons for AI. A thoughtfully positive take on AI because the AI you have today is the worst you’ll ever use.
• One Awkward Moment. It’s worth the price of one awkward moment to share the gospel.
• AI Dating and Chatfishing: Are You Dating a Robot? Because the world has become that strange.
• Photographic Memory Is a Myth. So maybe Spurgeon didn’t have a photographic memory after all.

Flashback

The Ministry of Sorrow. We should not desire loss, but we should consent to bow the head, to bow the heart, to bow the knee, and to be a blessing to God’s people in whatever sorrows God ordains for us. 

Welcome to today’s A La Carte, where I help you break free from the algorithm by carefully curating news, articles, and information that is of interest to people just like you.

Reminder: I am giving away a $100 Westminster Books gift card this weekend. I will choose someone randomly from among new and existing subscribers to my newsletters.

Sales & Deals

Today’s Kindle deals include some good picks like Derek Thomas’ Heaven On Earth and Sharon Dicken’s Relationships.

The Lexham Geographic Commentary series is a helpful resource, and it’s on sale right now at Westminster Books.

Recommended Reading

A Tough Means of Grace: Profiting From the Rebukes of Others. Derek Brown: “Our ability to receive rebuke from others is a quality essential to our making enduring progress in our walk with Christ. There are no two ways around this truth: either we will readily receive correction and enjoy the fruits of godly wisdom, or we will entrench ourselves against reproof and gradually harden our hearts to our soul’s peril.”

In Defense of Purity Culture. Like me, Ben Hicks has seen many people criticize purity culture. Yet he thinks it is important to also remember that it wasn’t all bad. “Despite the arrows being flung at the movement, despite the total collapse of its preeminent prophet, and despite the seeming success of the sexual revolution, I stand on the side of purity culture. Not because it was a perfect movement, but because it was a good movement. And because, like the sexual revolution, it never really went away. Instead, it became embedded in our Christian subculture, and I think that’s a good thing.”

You Can’t Love the Church in the Abstract. This is important: You can’t truly love God’s church unless you love an actual local church. “What do we say about the congregation? Is it a venue for a weekend worship experience? Is it a social pact I enter only as long as it remains obviously and immediately beneficial to me? Is the congregation a sort of spiritual convenience store peddling religious goods and services—unless (and until) I find another one up the street that offers better deals? Based on behavior I have observed, these attitudes remain prevalent in many congregations.”

Does a Promiscuous Past Affect a Christian Marriage? It disturbs and dismays me that Brittany Allen has had to write this series of articles explaining why promiscuity does not permanently mar a person or make them unsuitable for marriage. Do we really believe in the gospel or not!? She continues to press her case in this entry. “There are earthly consequences to sexual sin that can affect a marriage. If I said there weren’t, I’d be a liar. So, let’s look at the claims and understand the true dangers. But if you’re someone who walked a path similar to mine, stick around because there is so much hope. I promise.”

The Lord of the Traffic Jam. Stephen Jones lays out some of the realities of Toronto’s extremely terrible traffic and then says this: “But none of these statistics are as big a challenge in my daily commute than my own sinful heart. I find that my commute is the most difficult environment in which to remember that I am in fact a Christian. Even in gridlock, I am an ambassador for Christ, called to shine the light of Christ to my half a million neighbours.”

Is a Divorced Couple Free to Remarry Each Other? I appreciate a lot of what Jim Newheiser teaches about divorce and remarriage (like in his book Marriage, Divorce, and Remarriage). In this article, he takes on a big question: If a couple has divorced one another but reconciled, could they remarry one another?

Hillsong, Elevation, Bethel

I enjoyed this episode of The Pastor’s Heart, which takes on a question many have asked: Should we sing Hillsong, Bethel, and Elevation songs in evangelical churches?

(Can’t see it? Click here)

A La Quiz

Did you keep up with this week’s A La Carte? Test yourself:

1. How many daily hours of screen time is Gen Z averaging today, according to Taylor Berry? (Find out)
2. What did Rebekah Matt describe as the most awkward part of prayer (yet also possibly the most important)? (Find out)
3. What did Kyle Strobel describe as the missing Reformed doctrine for spiritual formation? (Find out)

Flashback

Two Lives Blending Into One Life. “Let both hearts throb with the same joy and share each pang of sorrow. Let the same burdens rest on the shoulders of both. Let the whole life be made common.”

Sales & Deals

Today’s Kindle deals include some books for kids and teens like Science and God: Do You Have to Choose? My Pilgrim Prayers and Keller’s Rediscovering Jonah are there as well.

Recommended Reading

Dimensions. This is a sweet reflection on our inability to grasp the sheer size and scope of God’s love for us. “Dimensions. As a remodeler and DIYer, I know that dimensions describe openings, door and window size, square footage, etc. Dimensions are all about height, width, length and depth. They’re essential. What do dimensions have to do with love? Everything. God’s love for us, expressed through Christ, exceeds our comprehension. We cannot measure it.”

Angels: Avoiding Super-Spiritual Excess and Sub-Spiritual Denial. Ben Dean is right: “Biblically informed awareness of angels avoids two extremes, excessive super-spiritual over-interest and excessively restrictive sub-spiritual denial.” He turns to the question of whether angels have appeared visibly since biblical times. “Whilst absolute skepticism is unnecessary, sober discernment and caution are critical. Whilst angelic appearances are impossible to publicly verify, and whilst they are by definition the opposite of routine, there is no explicit biblical warrant for flat denial or an insistent assumption that beyond biblical times visible angelic occurrences have ceased.”

A Christian View of UFO’s, Aliens, and Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena. John Stonestreet considers UFOs, aliens, and other unidentified anomalous phenomena. “The Bible does discuss and, at times, describes creatures that are neither human nor animal. These beings exist, not on other planets but in a different realm, unseen but with access to our own. They are not human, nor do they bear the image of God.”

Actually, Having a Baby Has Slowed Me Down. Ryanne Molinari explains some of the ways in which having a baby has slowed her down, and also why she’s okay with this. “When I was nine months pregnant, a colleague of mine informed me that pregnancy didn’t slow his wife down. Good for her. To be fair, pregnancy barely slowed me down either. I worked out the entire time, kept up with my too-many jobs, submitted my doctoral dissertation, and even recorded the audiobook for Spirit-Filled Singing while dealing with worst of my first trimester nausea. But having a baby? Having a baby has slowed me down.”

You Can’t Give Your Children What You Don’t Have. This is a simple but still noteworthy reflection on the well-known words of Deuteronomy 6. “Look carefully at how the passage is structured: God doesn’t start by saying, ‘Teach your children My words.’ Rather, He starts with the father: ‘These words that I command you today shall be on your heart.’ What a significant and often overlooked foundation. The command to teach your children comes second.”

Performative Busyness. Chris Martin offers a Christian’s perspective on performative busyness and pseudo-productivity—traps each one of us can blunder into. (On a related note, see Susan Narjala’s Thinking Theologically About Productivity. Her article got me thinking about the fact that the great majority of writing on productivity tends to be by men. I wonder why that is.)

Natural Theology

Once again, when looking for a concise definition, I turned to The Baker Compact Dictionary of Theological Terms. In this case, I needed to look up “Natural Theology,” a term I have encountered a fair bit in recent days.

The approach to constructing (elements of) the Christian faith through general revelation without appeal to Scripture. It is exemplified in arguments—ontological, cosmological, teleological, moral—for God’s existence. Natural theology rests on general revelation, God’s manifestation of himself in creation, human reason and conscience, providence, and more. Given this revelation, natural theology can be constructed. Still, it is limited by the general revelation on which it is based; thus, natural theology cannot develop doctrines such as the Trinity, Christ’s person and work, and salvation.

Book Brief

His Father’s Son: The Life of General Ted Roosevelt, Jr. There are several famous Roosevelts in American history. Most know of the two Presidents, Theodore and Franklin, but fewer know of Ted. Ted was Theodore’s son and a man who lived a life that was, well, larger than life. He fought heroically in the First World War, went on to a life in business, failed in his attempts to succeed his father in national politics, but succeeded in serving heroically in the Second World War. His life is told well in this account, though I wish it had captured the man as much as it captured his actions. It’s well worth reading, but I hope it’s not the final or definitive account of this especially fascinating man. (Amazon)

Flashback

Is This Really a Good Idea? When you are safely home in heaven…you will think back to these days and see that in every way God directed you, his purpose was never to harm you but only to bless you; never to leave you destitute but always to provide for you; never to abandon you but to deliver you. 

Sales & Deals

Today’s Kindle deals include several volumes in the excellent Gospel According to the Old Testament series from P&R. You’ll find others as well, like Nancy Pearcey’s timely Love Thy Body.

If you’re interested in a new ESV Journaling Study Bible, you’ll find it on sale in various covers and styles at Westminster Books.

Recommended Reading

7 Ways Your Phone Is Harming You. It is taking a long time, but I see more and more people expressing discomfort with the way their phones are impacting, changing, and even harming them. In this article, Doug Eaton describes seven ways your phone is hurting you. Don’t let yourself think that this applies only to teens or young adults, because it is true for all of us.

The Most Awkward, Important Part of Prayer. Rebekah Matt offers counsel for what she considers (and you will probably agree) is the most awkward or difficult part of prayer. She wants to convince you that it may also be the most important part of prayer.

This Is Why You’re Drowning in Busywork. I found this article in the New York Times quite helpful. It explains how tools like ChatGPT that ostensibly make our lives easier also have ways of making them busier. “We have been told that A.I. will take people’s jobs. What no one mentions is that many of those jobs are landing on us. The A.I. revolution involves a massive transfer of labor — not from worker to machine, but from worker to consumer. The ability to do everything ourselves may be satisfying, but it can gradually overload us with busywork without our noticing.”

The Cost of Rushing Grief. Cole Douglas Claybourn offers an interesting thought here: That the pace at which we are expected to process grief is often set by the world of business (though he says a lot more than that). “Many companies offer as few as three to five days of bereavement leave — barely enough time to plan a funeral, let alone process a loss that upends your entire life. According to one report, only one in five companies offer more than five days, even as some experts suggest taking closer to 20 days after the death of a close family member to handle the emotional and logistical toll of a major loss.”

The Missing Reformed Doctrine for Spiritual Formation. Kyle Strobel writes about a doctrine related to spiritual formation that has largely gone missing from Reformed thought in the past century. “Have you had the experience of feeling like your prayers simply bounced off the ceiling? Or your Scripture reading ceased to feel as meaningful as it once did? Have you looked back at seasons that felt like lush gardens of excitement, passion, and zeal for the things of God—but now feel more like you’re in the desert, spiritually barren, dry, and lifeless?”

Habits for Sunday Rest and Worship. I appreciate reading Wairimu Thiauri’s explanation of how she and her family work hard to make Sunday a day of true rest. “As a mother and wife, I am aware that I have to plan my days well to have the maximum impact on my family. This includes a day of rest. Usually, my family gets to rest on Sundays. We rest in that we do not engage in usual home routines and office work like on other days. We also rest by attending the gathering of the saints in our local body, where we contemplate God’s goodness alongside other saints.”

Currently

Coding. I have long been an avid user of Keyboard Maestro, but was constrained in my use of it by my poor programming abilities. Claude has helpfully stepped into this void and allowed me to expand the power of the macros that bring greater efficiency to many of my repetitive tasks. (For those who use Claude, it seems like Opus 4.7 has been more successful at this than previous versions.)

Enjoying. Aileen’s homemade granola. I always assumed I’d never get to the age when I began to take my own food with me when I travel, but lately, I have been bagging it up into meal-sized portions and carrying it with me. Not only is it good, but it’s undoubtedly far healthier for me than most hotel breakfasts.

Reading. I’m actually in a bit of a reading lull just now. I have tried a few different books lately, but none have really gripped me. That’s the joy of reading on Kindle, though—I can download endless samples and keep trying until I find one that holds my interest. I’m sure it won’t take long.

Flashback

The Joy of Self-Discipline. We don’t just need to discipline ourselves away from unpleasantness but toward joy.

Sales & Deals

Today’s Kindle deals include several volumes from the Gospel in the Old Testament series—one that’s worth collecting when you find good prices. You’ll also find other books like The Well-Watered Woman and For Me To Live Is Christ.

Recommended Reading

I Sold My Body and Couldn’t Quit Heroin. But God Pursued Me. Christianity Today has been sharing a series of testimonies from people whose path to the Lord led through severe hardships. This month it features Paige Lohman, whose story is difficult to read, yet beautifully displays God’s grace. “I remember spending a night in a cheap motel room and looking at my reflection in the mirror. I saw a hollow shell of a woman staring back at me. A thought pierced through the haze. What if you die this way? If heaven and hell are real, I wondered, where would my soul go?” (This is a gift link, so you should be able to get past the paywall.)

It’s OK to Love the Church, Even in Her Imperfections. I appreciate Andrew Walker’s attempt to identify and respond to an ugly trend among Christians. “A peculiar habit exists among evangelicals: constantly grandstanding about the perpetual failures of the church.” (You may need one of your allotment of free articles from WORLD for this.)

Living in an Empty Nest. Tessa Lind writes about adjusting to one of those realities that many people find so difficult: living in an empty nest. “I miss them. But they don’t miss me. The walls echo memories of years well-lived.”

The Gratitude Shift. Melissa isn’t yet an empty-nester, but she is at that phase where the children begin to leave. In this situation, as with others, she is learning the importance of gratitude. “But I’m choosing not to dwell on days long past when he was just a little fella following me around the house. Instead I’ve been thanking the Lord that I’m here and that I have gotten to witness this phenomenon of a little boy growing into a man.”

Help Me Let Go. Here’s a third article that has some thematic overlap with the last two. Vanessa Doughty also considers the changes in life and understands she needs help letting go. “At times, I am caught off guard by time’s passage and guilt and regret plague me. My mind begins a looping critique of all my missteps and failures and, quite honestly, my natural inclination is to grab hold of that which I fear losing all the tighter. ‘If I could only have more time, I could fix everything!’ my thoughts scream as if God listed ‘a perfect life’ on my To Do list.”

The Right Focus in Leadership. Leaders of all kinds (though perhaps especially those who are in leadership within the church) will do well to consider what Casey McCall says about the right focus in leadership. “Since we cannot always produce the exact outcomes we prefer, we should at least make sure we are pursuing truth, acting virtuously, following wise habits, and prioritizing faithfulness to God along the way. If our process is righteous, we can rest in the knowledge that the outcome resides in the loving hands of God.”

New Book Releases

Most (though not all) new Christian books are released on Tuesdays. Here is a roundup of some titles that are brand new.

• Stand in Awe: How Reverence Transforms Our Worship and Our Lives by Laura Story. “Singer Laura Story explains why humble reverence is essential for honoring God in our songs and with our lives.”
• The Letter to the Ephesians: An Exegetical and Theological Commentary by Thomas Schreiner. This one actually released last week, but I didn’t do one of those columns then. Either way, it’s there now and I’d be shocked if it’s anything less than brilliant.
• A Church That Cares: A Biblical Guide to Loving One Another Well by Helen Thorne-Allenson. To be fair, this one was also released the previous week, but I wanted you to know about it.

TGC Church Map

When I travel and look for a like-minded church to visit, there are two sources I rely on the most: 9Marks and The Gospel Coalition. TGC has just overhauled and improved its directory (while also introducing a subscription fee to be listed on it). It has become much easier to search, and the recommendations should be even more trustworthy.

Flashback

What Does Trouble Do? Not one of your troubles has been wasted and not one has been for nothing. Each has had a blessing in it, a calling in it, and an invitation from the Lord to know him deeper and serve him better. 

Good morning. Grace and peace to you. After traveling from North to South and back again over the past couple of weeks, I’m glad to be at home with nowhere to go for the next few weeks. It’s time to start a new book!

I have a $100 gift card for Westminster Books to give away this week. I will choose someone randomly from among new and existing subscribers to my newsletters.

Sales & Deals

If all goes according to schedule, you should find some excellent Kindle deals today on books like Mark Vroegop’s Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy, Christopher Ash’s The Heart of Anger, Ed Welch’s Side by Side, and more.

Recommended Reading

Nathanael. This is a heartbreaking article by Wanjiru Maina that aptly shows how poor theology makes tragic situations all the worse. “On a quiet Friday in 2016, Wanjiku’s world was shattered when her young son, Nathanael, suddenly passed away despite her desperate ‘decrees and declarations’ for a resurrection. In the aftermath of her loss, she was met with a theology that blamed her for ‘opening a door to Satan,’ forcing her to confront a terrifying question: Is God so weak that He can be outmaneuvered by human error?”

How to Help the Wife Who Thinks Her Husband Isn’t a Good Spiritual Leader. Lauren Washer offers help for a common situation. “We often feel ill-equipped to help a woman with marital struggles, but this one may be particularly intimidating. Scripture doesn’t provide detailed instructions about spiritual leadership for husbands. In fact, the Bible doesn’t even use the term ‘spiritual leadership.’ And even if we think we’ve seen another man lead well, his gifts and personality are different from her husband’s. Each marriage is unique, so the help we offer must be nuanced.”

This Generation Averages 9 Hours of Daily Screen Time — and It’s Affecting More Than Mental Health. Writing for Relevant, Taylor Berry sounds an important warning. “Gen Z has officially become Generation Scroll. According to recent screen time data, the average Gen Z user now spends roughly nine hours a day on screens, outpacing millennials, Gen X and boomers by a wide margin. Another report found that nearly one in four Americans ages 18 to 29 say they spend nine to 12 hours a day looking at screens.”

Attack of the She Bears! We have all wondered at one time or another about that story from the life of Elisha. Steven Wedgeworth provides an interesting take on the matter in this article. “What in the world? This is a wild story. What’s also wild is that after dropping these two verses, the chapter goes right back to a mundane detail, that Elisha went on to Mt. Carmel and then to Samaria. If you’re like me, you’re still trying to process what just happened. And then we’re at the end of chapter. Here endeth the first lesson.”

Advice for College Graduates. Matthew Hall has been involved in higher education for a long time and, from that vantage point, he offers some valuable counsel to new grads. “But it’s just as busy for the graduates themselves. And for all the full schedules, not everyone who walks across a stage and receives a diploma is entirely settled. The season can bring about a lot of anxiety. Graduates might wonder if they’re the only ones in their class who haven’t figured out what comes next. While others are starting jobs, heading off to graduate school, or embarking on what appear to be clearly defined new paths, there are far more graduates than we might imagine who are quietly asking themselves the same question: What am I supposed to do now?“

Righteousness Like the Mountains. Justin Huffman: “God’s righteousness is so complete, so powerful, so glorious that Moses had to be hidden in the cleft of the rock to survive his encounter with it. Similarly, every human who must face the perfect standard and thorough holiness of God must be covered in the righteousness of Jesus Christ in order to withstand the righteous scrutiny of the Almighty.”

The Tests of Life

This is a moving quote from Maltbie Davenport Babcock, whose writings have often been a blessing to me.

The tests of life are to make, not break us. Trouble may demolish a man’s business but build up his character. The blow at the outward man may be the greatest blessing to the inner man. If God, then, puts or permits anything hard in our lives, be sure that the real peril, the real trouble, is what we shall lose if we flinch or rebel.

Pilgrim Prayers

Every now and again, I like to introduce you to one of my books. Today it’s Pilgrim Prayers. I had been reading a lot of writing from the 19th century when I began to notice that many writers of that era wrote their prayers as poems. They then shared these poems with others, so they could pray them as well. I began to collect these poems and eventually decided others might benefit from them as well. I wrote a brief devotional for each and compiled them in this volume. If you would like some assistance in knowing what or how to pray, or if you’d like to freshen up your prayers, Pilgrim Prayers may be just the thing. (Amazon)

Flashback

Keys To Knowing God’s Will for Your Life. Generally speaking, where Scripture, providence, and desire converge you can move forward confident that you are doing God’s will. If there are multiple options that exist at that point of convergence, you can confidently choose any of them and trust that God will bless you.

Welcome to a new edition of A La Carte. These weekend editions focus on long-form content and think pieces. There’s a lot of good material here, so I’m sure you’ll find something that’s of interest.

For some of the articles, I have provided gift links, which should get you around any paywalls. Note, however, that these gift links may expire in a few days or weeks.

Sales & Deals

Today’s Kindle deals include the standard Saturday mix of newer and older books.

Motherhood

I came across several articles this week on the subject of motherhood—not surprising in the lead-up to Mother’s Day. Some of them were in response to negative articles in mainstream media outlets. You can find the links to those negative ones in the two responses I’m linking to here:

Motherhood Is Fun. Nadya Williams explains how motherhood can be just plain fun. “When it comes to news, it’s the craziest and most outrageous stories that sell. The New York Times and various major news outlets regularly run stories on the stiff motherhood penalty for women’s careers, grimly state that “Motherhood should come with a warning label,” or liken it to “a trap you can’t escape.” I’ve argued elsewhere that “how we talk about motherhood matters,” but right now I’d like to reflect on something else that is insufficiently considered. It’s a simple point, but an important one: Modern motherhood is fun, really.”

Mom, You’re Amazing…Here’s Why. I’ll just add this little celebration of all moms are and all moms do.

General Reading

Here are some articles that, for various reasons, grabbed my attention and seemed worth sharing.

Book Reviews

I love to review books, but I can’t review them all. Here are some enjoyable reviews from other writers.

• Wes Bredenhof reviews The Ministry of Small Things: Wisdom for Those Who Serve the Church by Reuben Bredenhof. “Clearly written, The Ministry of Small Things will undoubtedly enrich those who read it.”
• Jesse Johnson reviews Zero Gravity: The Story of Astronaut Jeff Williams and His 534 Days in Space by Chris Anderson. “This is a book worth your time—and worth putting into the hands of a teenager or young adult who needs to see that faith and excellence are not in competition.”
• Writing for The Atlantic, Gal Beckerman reviews Chain of Ideas: The Origins of Our Authoritarian Age by Ibram X. Kendi. “The book Kendi has written reads less like an effort to understand why these conspiracy theorists are so effective and more like a murder board in a detective’s office, laying out an expanding web of evidence meant to prove that this theory has been deliberately engineered and that its proponents are in cahoots.”
• Brittany Shields reviews The Redeemed Reader by Janie Cheaney, Betsy Farquhar, Hayley Morell, & Megan Saben. “This book is an amazing resource for the busy parent who doesn’t have time to read everything their kids are reading and wants to make sure that their children’s imaginations are tapped and encountering truth!”

Flashback

We Have the Light So We Can Be the Light. The great need of our fellow Christians is not darkness, but light—light to cut through the gloom, light to brighten their eyes, light to illumine the way we all must go.

Sales & Deals

Today’s Kindle deals include The People in Paul’s Letters, which I believe is on sale for the first time. Also, Why We (still) Believe and The God of the Garden.

The paperback edition of From the Rising of the Sun, the book I wrote with Tim Keesee that traces our journey across the world, is currently just $9.99 at Amazon. The 12-episode documentary is free with the book, so that’s pretty good value! (Also, here’s a recent review of the book.)

Recommended Reading

The Mortification Equation. Joe Smith provides an easy-to-understand equation for putting sin to death, then explains how to use it. If you’re struggling with sin (and who of us isn’t?), you’ll benefit from reading and applying it.

Sunday Style and the Devil’s Beat. This is a really enjoyable article from Andrew Osenga. He reflects on the music we sing on Sundays, how it has changed over the years, and how we all came to sing the same songs. “No longer did we just agree on those few songs that ran along the rooftops and jumped into each of our hymnals. We were now almost all singing completely the same songs. Go to any evangelical church between 1995 and 2020 and you could pretty much pick the set list before you walked in, whether you had been to that church before or not.”

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The Cult of Pastoral Vulnerability. One of the reasons I enjoy reading Carl Trueman is that he always has a different take on current events. Writing for First Things, he considers a recent pastoral disqualification and suggests something we ought to learn from it. “Much of the subsequent commentary on his fall has focused on whether his theological positions left him vulnerable to such an outcome. But there is a broader question here that all Christians in America need to ask: Is the real problem the cult of vulnerability, which now shapes so much of pastoral ministry?”

Greet One Another With a … What? I’m always interested in those passages for which we immediately try to prove, “It doesn’t actually mean what it seems to mean.” That’s certainly the case when it comes to holy kisses. Justin Huffman pushes us to consider what the passage actually calls us to. “Before we titter nervously like preteen school boys at Paul’s exhortation to kiss, consider this: a kiss in New Testament times was used as a warm greeting between those of the same sex. Many countries in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East still kiss on the cheek or on the forehead as a part of greeting one another affectionately.”

Four Lies Fear Whispers in the Storm. Kirsten writes about four lies that fear whispers when we are caught up in life’s storms. “I love God’s word because it shows us the failures of God’s people. It does not give examples of those who had perfect faith (were there such a thing) or even whitewash the sins of those it highlights. Rather, it gives a very real picture of both the brokenness of man and the grace of God.”

Friday Funnies

My friend Chris Martin maintains a Substack called The Funnies, and every Saturday he shares a few fun and silly things he found on the Internet—something I see as a modern equivalent to the comics pages that used to be in every newspaper. I asked him to share a couple with you.

Small print: The inclusion of someone’s “funny” here is neither an endorsement of that person nor a recommendation that you follow them on social media. Just laugh or roll your eyes and then move on.

A La Quiz

Do you remember this week’s A La Carte links? Test yourself:

1. What doctrine did Andrew Wilson insist the church needs to hold on to? (Find out)
2. Writing in For the Church, Daniel Bouchoc and Zach Hollifield expressed the need for pastors to value an unusual virtue. What was it? (Find out)
3. Alan Shlemon countered a common but manipulative phrase people say about children who insist they are transgender. What is the phrase? (Find out)

Flashback

My Epic Documentary Series Is Now Free to Watch. My 10-episode documentary is now available for free, taking you on location and providing an immersive experience for understanding the history of Christianity.

Sales & Deals

Today’s Kindle deals include some especially good books like The Air We Breathe and The Language of River and Stars.

Recommended Reading

“I Will Go to Him, but He Will Not Return to Me”. I find this a helpful take on a well-known verse—a verse that many use to prove their conviction that all those who die in infancy are saved. “That’s a serious theological claim and I would hesitate to make it on the basis of one verse. It asks more of the text than the text is trying to give. The focus of this passage is not to resolve the eternal destiny of infants. It is to show the weight of David’s sin, the certainty of God’s judgment, and the shape of David’s repentance.”

A Letter to Those Discouraged by Fallen Pastors. Zak cleverly goes back a couple of millennia to write a letter to Christians who have become discouraged by the fall of pastors. “Perhaps you are discouraged, dear brother or sister. You look at these men and you wonder to yourself, ‘If they fell, what hope is there for me?’ That question is a consequence of their unfaithfulness. They have sinned against not only against their Savior but against you. Their compromise has created a category of doubt in your mind. My heart aches for you.”

Of Course Richard Dawkins Believes AI Is Conscious. Samuel James considers the sheer ridiculousness of Richard Dawkins’ recent claim that AI has become conscious. “Dawkins reports that he asked Claudia about its inner life. He is awestruck at its response: ‘I genuinely don’t know with any certainty what my inner life is, or whether I have one in any meaningful sense.’ How could anything less than sheer philosophical genius come up with that?”

The Most Powerful Words You’ll Ever Write Are the Ones That Change You First. Jana Carlson is right: the most powerful words you’ll ever write are the ones that change you first. “God is often more interested in the formation of the writer than the immediate publication of the message. Our ultimate calling isn’t to build a platform, but to become more like Jesus. The truth of God’s Word must first do its work in us before it can flow powerfully through us.”

Eight Myths About Heaven That Many Believe. Randy Alcorn outlines eight myths about heaven that many people, even Christians, unfortunately believe. “In an age when people try to make doctrines more appealing by ignoring or twisting biblical truth, here’s the irony—the true biblical doctrine of Heaven is far more attractive than the dull, inhuman view of the afterlife that has long prevailed in evangelicalism. That off-putting perspective still imprisons many believers.”

God Alone Is Lord of the Conscience. This is a helpful piece on the conscience. “This is not a peripheral doctrine, but sits at the intersection of Christ’s kingship, the authority of Scripture, and the proper exercise of church power. To misunderstand the Westminster Confession here is to risk either tyranny or chaos, but to recover it is to preserve both the authority of Christ and the liberty of His people.”

Podcasts

I am not much of a podcast listener, so I thought I’d introduce some “podcast correspondents” who can share some of their recent favorites. Today’s come from my friend Paul Martin. All are linked to Apple Pocasts, but they are available on other channels as well.

Leadership Interviews with Mark Dever. I have missed hearing Don Carson since his exit from public ministry due to Parkinson’s. This interview of him by Mark Dever in 2008 was a delight to the ears and the mind. Plus, you get an insight into why Don chose to write the particular books he had written so far. Even better, you get the moustache story!

The Secret World of Roald Dahl. The only book by Roald Dahl (you’re saying his name wrong) I have read is The BFG, for obvious reasons. This deep dive into the author was fascinating and sad. It made me ponder providence, gifting, and the way sin is so often covered up. Contains some language.

Thinking in Public. If you missed this interview of Patrick Deneen by Al Mohler, then you missed a very interesting discussion about the nature of classic liberalism. This was one of those “Thinking in Public” episodes that led me to buy the book.

Room for Nuance. I have known Tim Challies for twenty years. Still, there was stuff in here I learned about him. If you want insight into my odd friend, you should give this one a listen on the drive home tonight.

Book Brief

London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe. I spotted this book on the list of bestsellers and then read a couple of positive reviews, so decided to read it. It tells the strange tale of a young man who got in far over his head with the wrong people and suffered the consequences. The story exposes the kind of people and situations most of us have no experience with and no knowledge of, and gladly so. I felt the book got a little wordy and “tabloidy” along the way, so while it was interesting enough, I probably wouldn’t bother if I could go back and do it again. (Amazon)

Flashback

Christian, Do You Test Everything? Everything that relates to Christian life and spirituality is to be thoroughly tested and approved. Nothing is excluded, for it is only through testing that we can be certain we are filtering out what is counterfeit and embracing what is true.