Skip to content ↓

A La Carte (April 27)

I wasn’t able to track down any intriguing Kindle deals today. I’ll try again tomorrow.

(Yesterday on the blog: Christian, Are You Growing in Wisdom and Maturity?)

When Mom called me “Sis”

I quite enjoyed this moving article. “Mom had plenty of her own sisters. She didn’t need me to be one of them. I never fully understood. In fact my aunts were one reason I wanted a sister. Mom told me stories about growing up with girls in her family.”

My Young Friend Wants to Be a Missionary: Here’s the Advice I Gave When He Asked

“What a thrill! What a privilege to plant seeds for missions into this boy’s heart. I prayed for him and about his question for a couple weeks. I wrote his mom an email last night with some ideas. I thought I’d share them here with you, that the Lord may use them in the life of another who may be feeling prompted towards a future on the mission field.

How Do You Control 1.4 Billion People?

China’s new social credit system has to be one of the most significant technological developments in human history. It’s hard to overestimate its potential significance in the lives of 1.4 billion people.

Can a True Christian Have Depression? (Video)

Dr. Jeremy Pierre answers on behalf of Southern Seminary.

The Gospel for Single Moms

Wendy Alsup: “In a nation in which sex and childbirth outside of marriage are the growing norm, churches and Christian leaders rightly want to emphasize the wisdom of the institution of marriage that God designed and ordained as a picture of His relationship with the Church. Yet, many women like me find themselves fully valuing that institution, and still left, nonetheless, without it as they raise their children.”

The Limits of 1 Timothy 2:11-12

Here’s a thoughtful take on the limits of 1 Timothy 2:11-12: “Let a woman learn in silence with all submission. And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence.” (See here for a different approach.)

Passages from the Bible Discovered Behind Qur’an Manuscript

This is rather interesting and also seems kind of symbolic. “The only recorded palimpsest in which a Christian text has been effaced to make way for the Islamic holy text is to go on sale at Christie’s…”

Flashback: Seven Ways To Pray for Your Prayer Life

These are seven items you can add to your prayer list as you consider your own prayer life or another person’s.

Be convinced of the utter insufficiency and inability of anything below Christ Jesus to minister relief to your soul.

—Matthew Mead

  • When God Plants an Acorn

    When God Plants an Acorn, He Means an Oak

    We stood together on the crest of a hill, a gentle breeze rustling the meadow around our feet. The fields ran gently downward until they met a creek that gurgled happily in its course. A few years prior, an acorn had somehow made its way to the highest point of this hill, carelessly dropped there…

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (April 28)

    A La Carte: Protestantism’s Catholic converts / How healthy is your pursuit of health? / God’s special calling on your life / Considering a Christian university? / Testing the teachings of Catholicism / Kindle deals / and more.

  • New and Notable

    New and Notable Christian Books for April 2025

    It is surprisingly difficult to find a list of Christian books that have been released in any given month—especially if you want that list to be filtered by books released through particular publishers. That’s one of the reasons why I close each month by coming up with my list of New and Notable books. I…

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    Weekend A La Carte (April 26)

    A La Carte: Every pinch of pain has purpose / China closed Christian bookstores / Watch for the thing after the thing / For everything there is a time / Showers of blessing / What Pope Francis can teach us about preaching / and more.

  • What Makes You Beautiful

    What Makes You Beautiful

    I have often thought of a conversation that took place when my girls were little. Abby was perhaps 5 or 6 at the time and Michaela just working her way through the “terrible twos” (which for our kids always happened when they were three or four). A stranger saw me interacting with them one day…