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A La Carte (April 29)

A La Carte Collection cover image

Eric’s Greatest Race is available today! This is the first book I’ve written for kids instead of adults. You can learn all about it right here.

Today’s Kindle deals include one that offers biblical answers to questions about race and racism and another about the grit of a God-fearing woman. There’s lots more as well.

(Yesterday on the blog: When God Plants an Acorn, He Means an Oak)

Has the Decline of U.S. Christianity Finally Stopped?

Joe Carter: “While media narratives often frame American religion as being in terminal decline, the data tells a more nuanced story. For church leaders, these findings point toward both significant challenges and also genuine reasons for hope, providing us with direction rather than just confirming our fears.”

Holding Space for Joy and Sorrow

Shobana Vetrivel considers the way joy and sorrow intermingle in our lives. “At the end of last year, I attended a wedding and a funeral on the same day. It was an experience of excruciating sorrow to witness the sudden passing of someone who was immensely loved and whose life, affection, and witness shaped my life in many ways. It was also a thrilling joy to celebrate the wedding of a couple I am deeply fond of, whose love for one another and deep friendship shone on their faces.”

A Farm with a Difference

See how Caring For Life, a Christian ministry, uses its ‘farm with a big difference’ to help broken and abused men and women find peace and fulfill their God-given mandate to work and use their gifts. Read how lives are being transformed through their many projects. (Sponsored)

‘No One Ever Hated His Own Body’ — Really?

What could Paul have meant when he wrote, “No one ever hated his own body?” After all, some people have a deep loathing of their body.

The Generous Life

“Two of the key idols of our age are self-fulfillment and monetary gain, and the second is often a pit stop on the way to the first. Monetary gain can serve as the key to unlock the door to the promised land of self-fulfillment, so both are pursued simultaneously at the cost of a life centered on God’s glory and others’ good. In contrast to the generous life, which sacrifices self-fulfillment for God’s glory and others’ good, the selfish, idolatrous life pours itself out in an effort to fill itself up.”

Wisdom Principles for Christian Parenting

Marny Köstenberger describes three important principles related to parenting.

The Article You Don’t Want to Read

Even though you may not want to, perhaps you should.

Flashback: The Great Man and the Local Church

It is good to thank God for those few men and few women who have been granted high podiums and wide ministries…But they are not the story of what God is accomplishing in this world. The true story happens when the church gathers as God’s local community here and there, near and far, week by week.

The single greatest support of truth in your preaching is the power of an exemplary life.

—John MacArthur

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (April 29)

    A La Carte: Has the decline of U.S. Christianity finally stopped? / Holding space for joy and sorrow / No one ever hated his own body / Wisdom principles for Christian parenting / The article you don’t want to read / A new book / Kindle deals / and more.

  • The Pursuit of Virtue

    God’s character is the essence of virtue. The heart of virtue is to know the Lord and to become like him, as a child resembles her father. That is the goal, privilege, and destiny of the redeemed. #Sponsored

  • 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…

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    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…

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    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.