What makes a Christian book Christian? Is it the author? The publisher? The subject matter? The vibe? I suppose that to even ask the question is to admit that no book can actually be Christian any more than a car, a house, or a bag of groceries can be Christian. Sometimes we use adjectives in ways that don’t really make sense, but I suppose we tend to know what we mean by our terms.

Shooting Up is not a Christian book. At least, it is not published by a company that focuses on publishing books by Christians or for Christians. It is not written by an author who professes faith in Jesus Christ, though he used to. Yet in its own way, it is as Christian a book as I’ve read this year. It is as enjoyable a book, too.

Jonathan Tepper grew up the son of missionaries to Madrid, Spain. Elliott and Mary Tepper had been sent by their Presbyterian Church in the States to found a ministry to young intellectuals that may have been somewhat in the vein of the Schaeffers’ L’Abri. When that ministry failed to thrive, they changed their focus to reaching heroin addicts. At that time, and in their impoverished neighborhood of San Blas, heroin was running amok and claiming many victims. AIDS soon appeared and made the situation even worse as sharing needles also meant sharing the virus.

It was in this context that the Teppers’ ministry, Betel, began to see success. It offered rehab programs for addicts, but of course also offered the hope of the gospel. The ministry quickly expanded as more and more people got clean and came to Christ, or came to Christ and got clean. Businesses sprang up, staffed by those who had come off drugs and were in need of honest work. Churches were founded too, of course. People who had gotten clean through the program began to lead portions of that program and even to pastor the churches. In the decades that followed, Betel helped first thousands, then tens of thousands, and then hundreds of thousands of people. It’s quite the story.

Jonathan grew up as a witness to all of this, one of four sons born to Elliott and Mary. Of course, none of these happy results came without struggle and sacrifice, and much of that was borne by the Teppers’ children. Added to the struggles that are common to most missionary kids were the struggles of often being impoverished, and the grief of seeing so many of their friends and church members succumb to a horrific virus. On top of all that, the family suffered an especially grievous blow when one of the sons was killed in a car accident. Though there are ways that the boys enjoyed an idyllic childhood, there are other ways in which it was traumatic.

Tepper writes about all of this as a witness to it. He also writes about the slow erosion of his faith. Born into a Christian home and educated at a Christian school (and, at times, a home school), he was raised in “the discipline and instruction of the Lord” by parents who loved him, cared for him, and in so many ways displayed Christ in their lives. Yet the suffering and sorrow Tepper witnessed made him wonder if God could really be good, just, and kind. By the time the book ends, Betel has grown to be a prominent ministry, and Tepper is leaving it behind to study first at the University of North Carolina and then at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. He never describes a process of deconstruction and never outright disavows or criticizes the Christian faith. Rather, it seems like he simply chose to take a different path in which reading, learning, and a free mind took precedence. 

Yet all the while he seems haunted by the faith of his parents and, perhaps even more so, the transformations he witnessed in so many of the people he knew and loved at Betel. He saw them arrive as broken addicts, but then progress to faithful men and women who had found freedom from addiction and purpose through their relationship with God. They were and still are some of the finest people he could ever have hoped to meet. Though he may not share the faith of his parents or the people they helped, he admires and respects it. “The story of Betel is extraordinary,” he says, “but my parents almost never gave interviews or sought attention. They thought it was unseemly and not Christ-like. My mother and father had reason to be proud of all they accomplished over the decades, but not because of the size of the building or the numbers of addicts in the centers. My parents did not set out to create a large organization, seek political influence, or fight any culture wars. They set out to show compassion to one addict at a time.” And they did.

Shooting Up is, according to the subtitle, “A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Addiction.” It is all that and more, and though the story is not told by a Christian, it’s told by someone who saw Christians behaving Christianly, who admired them for it, and who celebrates what they accomplished. It is a story I’m thankful to have read and one I think you’ll enjoy reading as well.

(Here are a couple of other books that, though not published by Christian publishers, are both true and beautiful: Everything Sad Is Untrue (a true story) by Daniel Nayeri and When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi.)

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!

My Books

I thought I’d occasionally introduce one of my books in case one may be of interest to you. Today:

Epic: An Around-the-World Journey through Christian History was my first travel book, and it goes with my first documentary (which shares a title and is now available for free on YouTube). To create it, I traveled the world looking for historical artifacts through which I could tell the story of the Christian faith. Through it, I introduce readers to 33 carefully selected objects that help them understand the long and complicated history of Christianity in a unique and creative way. I think the project came together really nicely, and I’m still very pleased with it. (Learn more at Amazon)

Life’s uncertainty is a reason to hold tighter to the Savior’s hand.

—Samuel Rutherford

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There are few matters more foundational to pastoral ministry than preaching, and few matters more common to the Christian experience than being preached to. Most pastors will preach thousands of sermons over the span of their ministry, and most congregants will listen to thousands of sermons over the span of their lifetime. This means we should think about preaching often and well!

In this article, I’ve simply collected some random thoughts on the subject and have alternated them so that half are for the ones preaching the sermons and the other half are for the ones listening to them.

In my experience, sermons tend to grow in quality more by subtraction than by addition. Often, one of the best things a preacher can do to improve his sermon is to strip away 20 or 25% of his content as a final step in the preparation process. It’s far better to preach a sermon that is shorter but more focused than one that is long but unfocused. Less is usually more. As Carl Trueman once said, “Many a brilliant thirty-minute sermon was undone by the preacher carrying on to the fifty-minute mark.”

Being obviously attentive as you listen to a sermon can be a great gift to the preacher. The preacher gains more than you may think from your looks of appreciation (or disgust), your attentive eyes (or tired ones), and your quiet amens (or groans). In this way, preaching is an interactive medium in which the congregation serves the pastor even as he serves the congregation.

The appropriate length, style, and format of a sermon can change over time and between contexts. We should expect that sermons preached at an Anglican Church in Sydney, a Baptist Church in Topeka, and a Dutch Reformed church in Cape Town will differ in many ways. De Witt Talmage once cheekily said this: “Jonathan Edwards preached the sermons most adapted to the age in which he lived; but if those sermons were preached now they would divide an audience into two classes—those sound asleep and those wanting to go home.” The challenge of any preacher is to preach the sermons that are suited to his congregation and not some other.

It is good to listen to a sermon with an open Bible, for it falls to the congregation to ensure that every word the preacher speaks is consistent with the Scriptures. Furthermore, the preacher assumes you will have an open Bible so you can follow along with him. This is difficult to do when you did not bring one or will not open it.

The best sermons have some kind of narrative flow to them, a way of logically and sequentially moving from introduction to conclusion. Yet sermons often have stretches in which they fail to progress in any meaningful way, and this is usually because the preacher has lost his focus and launched into an excursus that is redundant or off-topic. One of the best ways to improve a sermon is to look diligently for such portions and remove them. The preacher can simply ask himself, “Does this portion advance my sermon?”

Many people prefer to use a Bible app on a phone or tablet rather than a printed Bible. That is for each person to decide for themselves. However, we must all be wary of being distracted during the sermon by buzzes and notifications—something a printed Bible has never done. Also, we must be wary of using that app to do Bible research during the sermon, perhaps even fact-checking what the pastor has said, searching for alternate perspectives, or following rabbit trails. The listener’s first task is to listen.

A sermon that is too short can fail to adequately address its text, yet a sermon that is too long can undo in its length much of what would have been accomplished in brevity. A preacher has to know when to stop for the sake of his listeners. “The trouble is we preach audiences into a Christian frame, and then we preach them out of it. We forget that every auditor has so much capacity of attention, and when that is exhausted he is restless” (De Witt Talmage).

Every new preacher needs to begin somewhere, and the best place is usually in front of a friendly congregation. His first sermons are not likely to prove to be his best sermons, and neither are they likely to equal the sermons of a more experienced preacher. Do your best to be the kind of person who can listen to a poor sermon, derive as much benefit from it as possible, and encourage the one who delivered it. Do your best to be the kind of church that offers lots of patience, opportunity, and latitude for men to become good preachers through repeated practice.

“Kill your darlings” is a standard piece of advice for writers that applies equally to preachers. When we prepare a sermon, we often create many more words and ideas than we can possibly use. Sometimes the “hard cuts” are the most necessary cuts, even when they are vivid illustrations or clever explanations that, though brilliant, do not quite fit the topic. In the end, there may be as many great ideas edited out as there are in the final sermon.

Be wise and timely when it comes to offering negative feedback on a sermon. Be humble as well, for in preaching, a man bares his heart and soul. Remember that he put 15 or 20 hours into preparation and may know more about the text than you do. At the very least, give him a few hours or a few days before pushing back. Conversely, be prompt and immediate when it comes to offering encouraging feedback.

Humor is a gift and one that can be used well or poorly in preaching. Less is almost always better than more, and shorter is almost always better than longer. People are more likely to remember (and pity) a joke that falls flat than one that lands well, so be sure to count the cost.

It can be good and wise to take notes during a sermon; however, it is never necessary. It is important to understand that God works in us through the sermon as we listen to it, so that what we remember or don’t remember of it afterward is no gauge of its impact on us. To quote Jonathan Edwards: “The main benefit obtained by preaching is by impression made upon the mind at the time, and not by an effect that arises afterwards by a remembrance of what was delivered.” It could be that the most formative sermon you’ve ever heard is one for which you have no memory.

One of the most unnecessary yet still-heated debates is the one about preaching from a manuscript, preaching from notes, or preaching from an outline. Preaching is tremendously important in the New Testament, yet never once does it address this matter, and that ought to tell us that we have a great deal of freedom. The history of preaching tells us that preachers of all kinds have had their ministry blessed by the Lord. So let every man try his hand at each and then choose the one that best matches his ability and capacity. Let no man judge another for the one he has chosen.

There are thousands of books written to guide pastors in the art of crafting a sermon, yet few have been written to guide listeners as they hear those sermons. To that end, Christopher Ash’s Listen Up! A Practical Guide to Listening to Sermons is well worth reading.

New pastors soon learn that even as the words of the sermon come out of their mouth, there is often a second track playing in their mind—a track that is making observations about what is happening in the room, thinking about what is happening later in the day, or sometimes even expressing doubt or mockery. He will need to learn to silence, ignore, or hush that internal voice (often by using a third track through which he pleads God’s help!) so he can focus as much of himself as possible on simply preaching the Word.

Most pastors are well prepared to preach on Sunday morning; many listeners are not well prepared to listen on Sunday morning. Be sure to get the sleep you need to listen well. Be sure to read through the bulletin to understand the flow of the service. If you can, read the text before heading to church so you can begin thinking about it well before the sermon begins. If it is the pastor’s task to prepare the sermon, it is your task to prepare yourself to listen to it.

The preacher must put a lot of thought into what he brings to the congregation versus what he leaves in the study. He needs to decide how much he shows his work and how much he simply shows the results of his work. Word studies are important, but often not useful to the listener. The three or four varying interpretations of a text are crucial for the pastor to work through, but not for the congregation. The grammatical constructions may be fascinating to the preacher, but yet be confusing to the hearers. Most of this work needs to be done in the study, but little of it needs to be spoken to the church.

The Puritans would sometimes speak of “improving upon” a sermon. This did not indicate that they intended to make the sermon better, but that they wanted to take action to make it more effective in its transforming effect within them. This would often involve returning to the text to pray through it, discuss it, examine themselves according to it, or otherwise give it the opportunity to call them away from sin and toward holiness. We would do well to follow their lead and diligently improve upon the sermon. We can do this personally, as a family, or as a small group.

One of the hardest moments a preacher can face is when the congregation either laughs in glee or squirms in awkwardness at something he has said or done, yet he doesn’t know what it is. Usually, the best thing he can do in this moment is to ignore it and press on.

To preach is always to take a risk—the risk of publicly saying something that is false, foolish, or downright humiliating. It is good for a congregation to admit that and to respect and commend those who are willing to accept that risk.

There is a great difference between a Bible study and a sermon, yet many preachers tend to confuse them. Here are some ways to distinguish them: In general, a Bible study is teaching while a sermon is preaching; a Bible study is aimed at the head while a sermon is aimed at the heart; a Bible study is meant to increase knowledge while a sermon is meant to increase holiness; a Bible study is helping people to know what a passage says while preaching is appealing to people to live out what a passage says.

There are many benefits that come to Christians as we hear the preached Word: We grow in knowledge of what is true and what is false; we are renewed so that we are put back on track in ways in which we have slipped or stumbled; we are sanctified so that we put sin to death and come alive to righteousness; we learn both the importance and the method of personal devotions and develop a deeper commitment to it; we learn to be a godly example to others. There is tremendous benefit that comes to us as we simply sit under the ministry of the Word week by week.

Most sermons benefit from having a clear structure, and preachers often rely on “points” to accomplish this. But the word “points” is neither interesting nor informative. Preachers may consider framing their sermons in different ways so that instead of using points, they use headings, steps, scenes, statements, instructions, questions, purposes, and so on. Any of these may be more helpful to the preacher as he frames his sermon and to the congregation as they listen to it.

A good sermon introduction can motivate people to listen, while a poor one can cause them to tune out even before the sermon has properly begun. Preachers would do well to consider H.B. Charles’ instruction on this: “Don’t start every sermon the same way. Be creative. Use different doors to get into the house. Tell a story. Raise a question. State a problem. Use a strong quote. Describe the background of the text. Do an object lesson. Try multimedia. Mix it up. Practice diversity. Change the way you come at them, especially if you preach to the same congregation each week. Practicing variety in the introduction is a simple but effective way to stay fresh in the pulpit.”

We live in a world in which everything is evaluated and rated. We are all critics now! Yet we must be careful not to relate to sermons as if they are just one more form of content that we can upvote or downvote, assign a rating to, or write a review of. Rather, we must listen to preaching as if it is the Word of God that reviews us as it searches our hearts, bares our motives, and calls us to be ever more conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.

A pastor can always be tempted to measure his preaching ministry according to his most recent sermon (similar to the way all of us can measure our devotional life according to our most recent time of personal devotions). But a preaching ministry must be measured over years and decades. As is so often the case in life, we tend to overestimate what can be accomplished through one sermon and underestimate what can be accomplished through a decade of sermons.

The congregation cheapens preaching if they gather to hear the preacher and the preacher cheapens preaching if he preaches to satisfy his listeners. John Stott says this well: “A concert audience does not come to watch the conductor but to listen to the music; a church congregation should not come to watch or hear the preacher, but to listen to God’s Word. The function of the conductor is to draw the music out of the choir or orchestra, in order that the audience may enjoy the music; the function of the preacher is to draw the Word of God out of the Bible, in order that the congregation may receive his Word with joy. The conductor must not come between the music and the audience; the preacher must not come between the Lord and his people. We need the humility to get out of the way.”

Every preacher needs to continually remind himself of the awe and wonder of being able to stand in the pulpit to declare, “This is what God says.” Despite the difficulties and discouragements, preaching is a joyous task and one that is always a high honor. Just about every preacher can testify to the joy of sensing the pleasure of God in preaching. Kent Hughes says, “There is nothing quite like it—the Holy Spirit filling one’s sails, the sense of his pleasure, and the awareness that something is happening among one’s hearers.” This is profoundly humbling and encouraging—a true spiritual thrill and an undeserved honor.

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

Why did Jesus have to die in order to forgive us? There was a debt to be paid—God himself paid it. There was a penalty to be born—God himself bore it. Forgiveness is always a form of costly suffering.

—Timothy Keller

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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.