Skip to content ↓

A La Carte (December 27)

Westminster Books continues to run their great deals on ESV Bibles as well as some great books. You’ve also got just a couple of days left to get your Christmas deals from Logos. Meanwhile, today’s Kindle deals include a few books for the scholars and one or two for the rest of us.

Church Planters Are Farmers, Not Rock Stars

This is important to remember at a time when church planters are lauded. “Farmers are anything but rock stars. They get up early and work. They sow, plow, toil, and protect. In all of it, they beg God for rain. That’s a good description of ministry. Ministry is glorious, but it’s not glamorous. Like farming, most of our work goes unseen; it demands attention and endurance. And at the end of the day, we’re desperate for God to give the growth”

How Amazon Delivers Packages in Less Than an Hour

Nobody does logistics quite like Amazon. “At first, walking into Amazon’s new midtown Manhattan building feels just like entering any slick corporate office in the neighborhood. But pass the glowing marble-lined lobby and take the elevator to the fifth floor, and you suddenly find yourself surrounded by a bustling warehouse.”

Advocate for Disabled Workers is 2017 CNN Hero of the Year

Amy Wright won CNN’s hero of the year for her advocacy for those with disabilities, especially Down Syndrome. “My employees are not broken; 200 million people across the world living with an intellectual or developmental disability are not broken,” Wright said Sunday night, when accepting her top 10 CNN Hero award. “What is broken is the lens through which we view people with disabilities.” (Also, wasn’t CNN opposed to John Kasich signing the bill in Ohio preventing people from aborting children with Down Syndrome?)

Heaven-bound: What will it be like?

Jon Dykstra writes about heaven. “We’ve all been told there’s no such thing as a stupid question. And we all know that just isn’t so. That may be why in our desire to avoid the embarrassment of asking that big dumb one, many seemingly silly, but actually good, even important, questions go unasked. And I think that’s particularly true when it comes to the topic of heaven.”

Mormons Are Baptizing Holocaust Victims and the Grandparents of Public Figures

What a strange religion it is. “Mormons are posthumously baptizing Holocaust victims as well as grandparents of public figures like Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and Steven Spielberg, despite church rules intended to restrict the ceremonies to a member’s ancestors, according to a researcher who has spent two decades monitoring the church’s massive genealogical database.”

Religious Freedom and the Church in China

Here are three things you should know about religious freedom and the church in China.

Did Aviation Anxiety End the Era of Kid-Friendly Airports?

“The thought of traveling by air during the busy holidays can conjure feelings of anxiety, bitterness, and even dread. For many parents with young children, the idea of wrangling little ones through a phalanx of security checkpoints and a byzantine network of terminals can be almost too much to bear. Never mind the seemingly endless layovers, complicated transfers, and agonizing waits at gates while youngsters go bonkers as boredom settles in.” Yet flying and airports used to be fun.

Flashback: Looking For a Few F.A.T. Men

Faithful, available and teachable. Of all the pastor’s responsibilities, few are more important than pursuing this kind of man and entrusting the gospel to him.

Spiritual growth depends on two things: first a willingness to live according to the Word of God; second, a willingness to take whatever consequences emerge as a result.

—Sinclair Ferguson

  • Spurgeon

    Must You Read at Least One Spurgeon Biography?

    I am not aware of a verse in the Bible that says every Christian must read at least one biography of Charles Spurgeon. Or every Calvinist, at least. But I also wouldn’t be completely shocked if it’s there somewhere and I’ve just missed it. And that’s because his life and ministry were powerfully unique in…

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (January 21)

    A La Carte: What “love your enemies” does not mean / John Piper on reading providence / Talking to your Roman Catholic friends / What happens at prayer meeting? / Against executive pastors / Kindle deals / and more.

  • The Christian Standard Commentary: A Modern Commentary Steeped in Ancient Tradition

    The Christian Standard Commentary will encourage and equip God’s people to understand the text and live according to Scripture for Christ’s glory. The unique ancient-modern approach to the biblical text found in the CSC is a valuable resource for building up Christ’s church while encouraging God’s people to fulfill the Great Commission. As a commentary…

  • Finnegan

    Why I Haven’t Written A Whole Lot about My Grandson

    It has been two months since little Finnegan was born—two months since I became a grandfather for the first time. It only just occurred to me that I have said very little about this new reality, this new stage of life, this new member of our family.

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (January 20)

    A La Carte: Is it good that you exist? / Should we trust churches? / In defense of childhood / Take your anxiety to church / How do I leave my abortion in the past? / Kindle deals / and more.

  • Prayer Recipe

    Prayer Is Not Like a Good Recipe

    Prayer is not like a good recipe: simply follow a set of mechanical directions and everything turns out right in the end. So what is it then? And how can we do it well?