A few days ago I received an email from a reader of this site, a woman who was responding to some of the articles I’ve written on the subject of pornography. She shared a poem, a bit of free verse she had written in the midst of her husband’s addiction. I wish I could say it was the only email I’ve received from such a woman. Sadly it’s not; not by a long shot. That same day I received another email from another woman looking for resources for dealing with the wife’s response to a husband’s sin (rather a gap in the available literature right now, I think).
Anyway, I thought I would share this poem. It’s a little bit graphic, but only so far as it needs to be. I think it’s particularly heartbreaking in drawing out the clear connection between pornography and violence. And it’s just a realistic look at how so many men are damaging and destroying their wives and families. It’s reality.
So here it is, “I Looked For Love in Your Eyes.”
I saved my best for you. Other girls may have given themselves away, But I believed in the dream. A husband, a wife, united as one forever.
Nervous, first time, needing assurance of your love, I looked for it in your eyes Mere inches from mine. But what I saw made my soul run and hide.
Gone was the tenderness I’d come to know I saw a stranger, cold and hard Distant, evil, revolting. I looked for love in your eyes And my soul wept.
Who am I that you cannot make love to me? Why do I feel as if I’m not even here? I don’t matter. I’m a prop in a filthy play. Not an object of tender devotion.
Where are you?
Years pass But the hardness in your eyes does not. You think I’m cold But how can I warm to eyes that are making hate to someone else Instead of making love to me?
I know where you are. I’ve seen the pictures. I know now what it takes to turn you on. Women…people like me Tortured, humiliated, hated, used Discarded. Images burned into your brain. How could you think they would not show in your eyes?
Did you ever imagine, The first time you picked up a dirty picture That you were dooming all intimacy between us Shipwrecking your marriage Breaking the heart of a wife you wouldn’t meet for many years?
If it stopped here, I could bear it. But you brought the evil into our home And our little boys found it. Six and eight years old. I heard them laughing, I found them ogling.
Hands bound, mouth gagged. Fisheye photo, contorting reality Distorting the woman into exaggerated breasts. The haunted eyes, windows of a tormented soul Warped by the lens into the background, Because souls don’t matter, only bodies do To men who consume them.
Little boys My little boys Laughing and ogling the sexual torture Of a woman, a woman like me. Someone like me.
An image burned into their brains.
Will their wives’ souls have to run and hide like mine does? When does it end?
I can tell you this. It has not ended in your soul. It has eaten you up. It is cancer. Do you think you can feed on a diet of hatred And come out of your locked room to love?
You say the words, but love has no meaning in your mouth When hatred rules in your heart. Your cruelty has eaten up every vestige of the man I thought I was marrying. Did you ever dream it would so consume you That your wife and children would live in fear of your rage?
That is what you have become Feeding your soul on poison.
I’ve never used porn. But it has devastated my marriage, my family, my world.
One of the most common questions I get is this one: How many people participate in Free Stuff Fridays. That’s closely guarded information, as it happens, but put it this way: if you play consistently over the long haul you are bound to win sooner or later. With at least 5 winners a week and 52 draws per year, that means at least 260 people a year win something. Sooner or later the random draw will go your way! Maybe in the new year I’ll see if I can convince the sponsors to come up with a greater number of prizes…
This week’s edition of Free Stuff Fridays is sponsored by CBD Reformed. They are givine away 5 prizes, each of which will contain the following 3 great books:
Ministries of Mercy by Timothy Keller - Retail price $12.99
The Cross-Centered Life by C.J. Mahaney - Retail price $9.99
The God Who Is There by D.A. Carson - Retail price - $16.99
That’s 3 great books by 3 really good authors.
Additionally, CBD Reformed is offering a 4-day sale (December 17 - 20) on the following three products. Anyone is free to take advantage of these deals:
There are 5 prizes to win, so get your name in ASAP.
Giveaway Rules: You may only enter the draw once. Simply fill out your name and email address to enter the draw. As soon as the winners have been chosen, all names and addresses will be immediately and permanently erased. Winners will be notified by email. The giveaway closes Saturday at noon.
I’ve got nothing to say today, so we’ll just get straight to those links…
$5 Friday - Ligonier is having their weekly $5 Friday event today, and R.C. Sproul’s commentary on John is one of the items that you can buy, today only, for just $5.
Put the Seat Down - Over at Discerning Reader, Mark Tubbs offers a recommendation for a good book: “Almost everything you wish you had known about serving your wife as a biblical man before you got married, in less than 125 pages.”
Facebook Photos - A couple of days ago Steve Cornell offered up social media suggestions for pastors. Today he follows up with an interesting post dealing with Facebook photos.
Rallying to restore God - It was interesting to see Nancy Pearcey’s name appear in the Economist as “America’s pre-eminent evangelical Protestant female intellectual.”
Bob Feller - I enjoyed reading this article on the life of baseball great Bob Feller.
2010 in Photos - Boston.com wraps up their look at 2010 through photos.
People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated. —D.A. Carson
So we’ve got just one week left in our reading of R.C. Sproul’s The Holiness of God. Next week we’ll wrap up—rather good timing, I think, since the holidays are just about upon us.
Summary
This week’s chapter was titled “Looking Beyond Shadows.” In the first part of the chapter, Dr. Sproul writes about the ways in which man refuses to acknowledge God as God. God has revealed himself clearly to each and every individual in the world, but left to ourselves we despise that revelation and suppress it.
The real person of God is really known through the real revelation that takes place in the real realm of nature. But the problem is that in the case of God, we distort our knowledge of Him with an image that we create ourselves. This is the essence of idolatry; replacing the reality with a counterfeit. We distort the truth of God and reshape our understanding of Him according to our own preferences, leaving us with a God who is anything but holy.
Paul does not bring a universal indictment against humanity for the failure to know God. That is not our problem. It is not that we fail to know that God is and who God is; it is that we refuse to believe what we know to be true. Here we face a problem that is not an intellectual problem. It is a moral problem. It is the problem of dishonesty. All idolatry is rooted in this fundamental dishonesty.
God’s holiness is not an arcane secret that may be discovered only by some spiritually elite group of people. Rather God’s holiness is on display daily for everyone to see. Again it is not merely that it is available to be seen for those who earnestly search for it. Rather Paul’s point is that God’s holiness is seen, and it is seen clearly.
…The knowledge of God that is given through creation is not a knowledge we warmly receive and embrace. Instead it is our nature to abhor this knowledge of God’s holiness. It is characteristic of the reprobate mind not to want to retain God in our knowledge. We prefer to change the holy into something less than holy. It is this rejection of God’s majesty that leaves us with minds that are darkened. It results in a massive foolishness that has disastrous consequences for our lives. Once we refuse to honor God as God, our whole view of life and the world becomes distorted.
Amazon Free Shipping - You’ve got just 1 day left to order stuff from Amazon, get their free shipping, and still have it show up before Christmas. This is the time of year when Amazon is shipping 10 million items per day. Which is utterly amazing.
Love Is Here - Another great little article from 6YearMed. Another reason I could never do what she does.
Reflections on Roger Nicole - Mark Dever offers up some great reflections on the life of his friend Roger Nicole. He offers up the kinds of personal reflections that are a true testament to the man’s character. Incidentally, if you want to learn more about Nicole, David Bailey has written quite a good biography of him that’s well worth the read.
Angry Birds - The New York Times has an article about the gaming phenomenon Angry Birds—a $0.99 game that has racked up $8 million in revenue. “People around the world rack up 200 million minutes of game play each day. (Put another way, that is 16 human-years of bird-throwing every hour.)”
TIME’s Person of the Year - You’ve probably heard by now that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is TIME’s person of the year. This article does a good job of explaining just a bit of the impact his creation has had. “All social media involve a mixture of narcissism and voyeurism. Most of us display a combination of the two, which is why social media are flourishing faster and penetrating deeper than any other social development in memory. Social media play into the parts of human character that don’t change, even while changing the nature of what once seemed immutable.”
One of the great promises of heaven, a promise that I long to see fulfilled, is that what gets old and tired in this world will always remain new and fresh and exciting in the world to come. Niagara Falls will send chills down my spine every time I see it; the Grand Canyon will cause me to gasp in delight, not just once but for all of eternity; the night sky will move me to praise you for your greatness each and every time I look up. Nothing will get tiring, nothing will get old, nothing will be just the same time after time after time.
What is it that causes us to grow weary of things that are good and even things that are so very good? How could we build up such hardness, such spiritual resistance to your greatest gifts?
You called Adam to name each of the animals, and paraded them in front of him one by one. He saw two of this animal, two of that, two of another, and through it all realized that there was no helper fit for him. He could not have been lonely, living there in that perfect world. And yet he realized that he was incomplete. You caused him to fall into a deep sleep and there, when he awoke, standing before him, was the perfect complement to him, the perfect mate. In wonder he exclaimed, “This at last is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.” He praised you for your marvelous provision.
But then Adam sinned. He allowed his wife to lead him astray, he fell for the deception of the devil. And when you called to him he turned on that woman, he turned on that gift and said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” He turned on that gift, hated it, and in that moment hated the one who gave it.
Your Son called Peter to be one of his disciples. Jesus simply said, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” And Peter followed. For several years he followed, walking in the steps of the man who claimed to be the Messiah. He followed him all the way to Jerusalem, even proclaiming, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
But then danger came. Suddenly that Savior did not seem so mighty. And when the people said to Peter, “You were with Jesus of Nazareth,” he cursed and swore “I do not know the man!” He turned on that gift, hated it, and in that moment hated the one who gave it.
Why are we like this? Why do we marvel at something for a time and then grow weary of it, grow complacent toward it and even come to despise it? How do good gifts become old and tired gifts?
Father, I learned recently that you have seen fit to take your Word to some of your children, to some of my brothers and sisters who live almost a world away from me. Until recently the Kimyal Tribe in Papua, Indonesia have had only a portion of the New Testament available in their language. They loved that Word, they memorized it, they fed upon it. But like Adam after he named the animals and saw no helper fit for him, they knew that what they had was incomplete. But now, Lord, now you have given them the entire New Testament, all four gospels in which they can read about the life of your Son, Acts which allows them to study the earliest days of the earliest church, all those epistles in which your apostles tell us how we are to live in this world for your glory, those pastoral letters that will encourage the men in church leadership to hold fast the precious deposit that has been given them, and Revelation which beautifully describes that which is to come.
Their joy is remarkable. They overflow with it. They weep with the emotion of holding in their hands your precious Word. They throw a feast in an attempt to give back of the firstfruits. They dance and celebrate and act like this is the greatest thing that has ever happened to any of them. And that may just be the case. They have been waiting for two thousand years to hear from you. And now at last, in your perfect timing, you are speaking to them in their own language. And oh, how they rejoice.
I weep to see them celebrate. I weep with joy for them. I am grateful to you on their behalf, grateful to the ones whose long labor of love translated that Bible. But I also weep with shame and sorrow for me. How can my heart have grown so cold to your Word when these people, your children in the Kimyal tribe, are just now receiving those words for the first time? How could I grow so hardened to the gift you’ve given me? I sit in an office surrounded by Bibles—I can count 7 without even turning my head and I know there are many more downstairs and a whole box in the basement. And I say, “I’m tired. I don’t feel like it. It all feels the same. It just doesn’t seem exciting today.” My dancing has turned into mourning, my celebrating into complaining.
Father, I need you to renew my love for your Word. I need you to keep my heart from growing cold toward your greatest gifts. I need you to keep me from looking to my wife and seeing only those things I think she isn’t, only those things she doesn’t do; I need you to keep me from denying you, perhaps not in my words but too often in my actions, in the orientation of my heart. And I need you to keep me from being complacent toward your Word, from assuming that I know enough about it, from regarding it as a chore rather than an honor, a responsibility rather than a delight. Stir my heart as you’ve stirred the hearts of so many of your people when they read your Words for the very first time. And let even this remind me of the greater joy that is to come on that great day when you wipe away my tears of sorrow, when you take away every ugly complacency.
As they say in the Kimyal language:
Al weig buna’ ag bulamlange ab Domba Me ab se, sig aga meibna’ ab, gibna’ ab, bebnag ab, migib ab, unum-unum se ulamla.
“To him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.”
To the Father, to the Son, to the Holy Spirit be glory for ever and ever. Amen!
Note: Here is the pastor’s prayer upon receiving the New Testament:
The month that you had set, the day that you had set, has come to pass today. Oh my Father, my Father, the Promise that you gave Simeon that he would see Jesus Christ and hold Him in his arms before he died. I also have been waiting under that same promise, O God. You looked at all the different languages and chose which ones will be put into Your Word. You thought that we should see Your Word in our language. Today, the day you had chosen for this to be fulfilled, has come to pass. You have placed it here in our land. And for all this, O God, I give You praise.
Yesterday my wife, who was feeling lousy, had me take my daughter, who was feeling lousier, to the doctor. The doctor asked me things like, “Is she allergic to any medications?” To which I answered, “Um…I dunno.” “Has she had a sore throat?” “Um…I dunno. I’m only here because Aileen’s sick.” “Didn’t an antibiotic we gave her last time give her a rash?” “Um…I have no memory of that. Doesn’t it say in your fancy little folder over there?” I must be the worst dad ever.
5 Great Books - Over at Ligonier Ministries I asked a bunch of people to compile a list of 5 great books they read in 2010. You may want to look over the list and pluck one or two for your own reading pleasure.
Nativity Scenes & the 2nd Commandment - Mark Lauterbach writes about the 2nd Commandment and Romans 14. “Read Romans 14 carefully — stew in it, soak in it — it is remarkable. In it, God answers ten thousand secondary questions. Paul was wise — he knew that when we start into the answering of all those questions and application and start developing a list of appendices to the Law, we are on a path of diversion from the purposes of God and the freedom of the Gospel.”
Lee Does the Unthinkable - Cliff Lee turned down more money than most of us will ever make in order to pitch in Philly. And that has the makings of a great off-season story. Yahoo reports.
2010 in Photos - Boston.com has begun a 3-part photographic retrospective of the year that was. As always, the photo selections are top notch.
Pastoral Narcissism - This is an honest article about pastors and their tendency toward narcissism. You know you’re having a bad day when you walk into a room only to find your wife Googling narcissism to see if it applies to you.
Quiet Headphones - The owner of the web site Quiet Headphones is a reader of this site and wants to offer 10% off to anyone who buys headphones from him in the next 10 days. Just use the code challies and you’ll get the discount.
How To Become a Famous Blogger - It’s just this easy:
And a quote to end this edition of A La Carte:
The more familiar acquaintance we have with God the more do we partake of him. He that passes by the fire may have some gleams of heat, but he that stands by it has his colour changed. It is not possible that a man should have any long conference with God and be no whit affected. If we are strangers to God it is no wonder that our faces become earthy. - William Bramwell
A few months ago I bought Pieces of a Real Heart the most recent album from the band Sanctus Real. I have listened to Sanctus Real since their debut album, but felt like there was a whole new depth of honesty and depth of theology in this new record. There were songs about failing as a leader in the home, about the meaning and beauty of forgiveness, about the questions that God seems unwilling to answer.
I recently had the opportunity to interview Matt Hammitt, who sings, plays guitars and writes most of the songs. I asked him him about life, family, music and ministry.
Q: Tell me a couple of the ways you and Sanctus Real have seen God’s grace evident in the past few months. How has he been blessing you and what has he been teaching you?
There are some things that I hadn’t expected to count as blessings this year that have taken me by surprise. My son, Bowen, was born last September with a rare heart defect, and has required a lot of special care. This experience has been our family's greatest struggle, as well as the greatest blessing that God has delivered into our hands. "Grace" was once a word that could pass through my lips without much thought. I no longer use it lightly.
As for the band, four (out of five) of us have families that are growing. I believe we’d all consider our children to be our greatest blessings during this season of our lives. They’ve taught us innumerable lessons about grace, leadership, and tenderness, all of which have positively impacted our relationships with one another.
Q: In your song “Forgiven” you write “In this life, I know what I’ve been / But here in Your arms, I know what I am / I’m forgiven / And I don’t have to carry the weight of who I’ve been / ‘Cause I’m forgiven” Who and what have you been, Matt, what makes you cry and struggle and feel like you can’t fit in?
My struggles have never been as much with what I’ve considered to be the greater sins on the list, but with the very thing that causes me to make lists according to my own standards. Pride, disguising itself as insecurity, has been a major issue in my life. It has caused me to feel isolated and has hindered me from freely giving and receiving love. Thanks to the work of God in my life over the last year, justification by faith has become more than a good doctrine to me. It’s become my present reality. My life and ministry are much more fruitful these days.
Q: When the “Past is playing with my head” and “the Devil just won’t let me forget” how does the knowledge that I am “a treasure in the arms of Christ” make a difference?
I’m a people pleaser, so it’s a daily temptation to wrap my thoughts around getting others to think more of me. This goes hand in hand with the pride and insecurity I mentioned earlier. Over the past several months, I’ve been consumed with seeking the Lord, as well as studying the Bible and theology. Wrapping my heart and mind around the truth has been pure joy. I’ve been a Christian for a long time, but I’m finding a far greater sense of my freedom, worth, and identity in Christ.
Q: In “These Things Take Time” you wrestle with the kinds of questions that most people, whether Christian or not, find themselves asking at one time or another—why do good people die? Why are we so drawn to sin and darkness? Why is it easier to doubt than to believe? In my experience such questions can drive people from God or closer to God. It seems that this song is a declaration of submission. How did you come to that place of letting God be God and realizing that “these things take time?”
When I wrote the lyrics that song (and others on our latest album) I was definitely beginning to submit to, and find great joy in, the sovereignty of God over all things. A month after the album released, when Bowen was diagnosed with a potentially fatal heart defect, I began to dig much deeper into the harder questions about life and faith than I ever had before. Writing the lyrics to Pieces of a Real Heart and the events surrounding its release mark the beginning of a personal, spiritual reformation.
Q: The song “Lead Me” seems to come from a very private place in your own life and in your family life. Why did you determine to write and record a song about this?
My wife, Sarah, and I once heard that the gap between reality and expectations is disappointment. There was a time when we were living in disappointment with our marriage. Now, we can see that our conflict was the result of our greatest expectations being placed on each other as opposed to God. I wasn’t investing enough emotionally or spiritually into my family because my own well was dry. I wasn’t walking as closely with the Lord as I believed I was at the time.
I wrote the majority of the song "Lead Me" on the day that Sarah appealed to me to be a better leader. The cry of her heart also became mine. Her courage to lovingly challenge me as her leader not only led to a song that is encouraging men and marriages around the world, but also has led to the most satisfying season of our nine year marriage to date.
I need help with a strategy here. My children are constantly creating great works of art and giving them to me as gifts. Were I to add them up, their number would be greater than the stars in the sky, I’m sure. What’s a good strategy for dealing with this art? I can’t possibly keep all of it. So which works do I throw away? How badly will this emotionally scar my children? And how much will I regret throwing even those ones away if one of my kids ends up being a great artist some day?
The Four Holy Gospels - Crossway has a preview of The Four Holy Gospels, a unique take on the gospels that will be released next year. I’m not sure that I really get it, but I like it.
Reeder - If you have an iPad, you probably (hopefully) use Reeder to handle your Google Reader account. There’s now a beta of the OS X version of this app. And it’s really good, providing a much better reading experience for Google Reader. It’s Mac-only, of course.
Polemics with James White - Midwest Center for Theological Studies is offering a Polemics course with Dr. James White who will be speaking on New Atheism, Islam, Roman Catholicism, and Mormonism. There is special pricing for those who take the course via the Internet—just $10 for the whole thing.
7 Lessons from Wikileaks - I’m one who believes in the medium as the message (at least to an extent). So think Wikileaks is a big deal in a way that goes beyond just the content of the data that was released. This blogger agrees and pens a good article on some lessons we can learn.
Continuous Imperfect - In this short article Mounce goes from Greek stuff I don’t understand to a valuable lesson that I do understand—no matter your field, you need to regularly return to the basics.
Loving Aslan More Than Jesus - “If after watching The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (which released in US theaters this weekend), you find yourself or your kids feeling drawn to Aslan with alarming emotion, don’t assume it’s just the result of some cinematic spell.”
Best Books of 2010 - The New York Times has a list of their top choices in fiction and non-fiction. I read a lot of books this year, and wouldn’t you know it, I haven’t read a single one of their choices (though 3 of the non-fiction choices are ones I’ve got on my wishlist).
More Best Books - Barnes & Noble has also published a list of the year’s best books and I’ve read 5 or 6 of those ones. I quite agree that all the ones they’ve listed are deserving of the recognition.
The Twelve Doctrines of Christmas - Clever!
You will not get leave to steal quietly to heaven in Christ’s company without a conflict and a cross. —Samuel Rutherford.
I probably should have posted this a week ago, but time kind of got away from me. That happens sometimes. Nevertheless, I think this is still a valuable little article. I wanted to draw your attention to 10 unique gifts you might offer someone for Christmas this year—things that may not be on your radar but would still make a good and thoughtful gift for a loved one.
Here they are, in no particular order:
Tabletalk - Ligonier Ministries’ Tabletalk magazine makes a great gift. Every month it features articles by well-known authors, daily Bible studies, a Bible reading guide, and more. And in 2010 it is even going to have a monthly article from John Piper. It costs $23 within the US, $37 internationally.
Reformation Art - How about some art work for the church history enthusiast in your life? Reformation Art reproduces fine art photographic prints of the key figures and events of the Protestant Reformation, and the Presbyterian and Reformed tradition. They have all kinds of great prints available, all of which are produced in high quality and suitable for framing.
Historic Bibles - Or how about historic Bibles? A whole Bible would be out of reach for most of us, but a single page can be framed and make a nice gift. Historic Bibles offers Bible leaves and illuminated manuscripts in English, Latin, Greek, and German. Prices begin at $39. You can visit Geneva Bible Pages to buy leaves from just the Geneva Bible.
Spurgeon Pages - Sticking to a theme here, how about pages from an original sermon manuscript from C.H. Spurgeon? With your order you get one sermon manuscript page amended by Spurgeon, one Certificate of Validation and Authenticity from Spurgeon's College, one printed page with sermon title, text, portion of sermon printed out and one picture of Spurgeon that is suitable for framing.
Visual Verses - I saw Visual Verses at the True Woman conference in Texas a couple of months ago. I’m not convinced that the pictures on the web site really do them justice. Essentially they are passages of Scripture written out but with certain words highlighted or darkened in order to create a picture. Personally I think they are really funky and certainly they are unique!
Hopeink - I somehow came across this Etsy seller a little while ago and thought that her work was really good. Hunt around Etsy and you can find all sorts of other sellers who create interesting and originals pieces of art.
Kindle - OK, so it may not be that unique since it’s the most-gifted item at Amazon, but it’s certain a gift that most people will love. And it sure seems that e-readers are hitting the tipping point where they are no longer mere novelties but a significant part of the future of reading. This article from the New York Times is typical. “Publishers and booksellers are expecting that instead of giving your mother a new Nicholas Sparks novel or your father a David Baldacci thriller in the hardcovers that traditionally fly off the shelves and into wrapping paper at this time of year, you might elect to convert them to e-reading.” With prices falling fast (down to $189 for the 3G version and $139 for the WiFi version) there’s never been a better time to jump into the market.
Microfinance - For the person who would rather give than get, you might consider a microfinancing gift certificate—a way that your loved one can help sponsor a business in a developing country. Kiva and World Vision both offer you this ability. “Make this a Merry Christmas for your loved ones with a gift that lets them change the world. A Micro Loan Gift Card lets your family and friends choose a hard-working entrepreneur to help by funding their small business loan-to buy a sewing machine, a bicycle, training, or whatever will put their families on the pathway to success. ”
Now pardon me while I offer a couple that involve some level of self-interest but, I think, are no less worthy of being on this list (especially if you’re talking about “unique” gifts):
Cruciform Press Subscription - One of the unique things we offer at Cruciform Press (the publishing company I’ve co-founded) is subscriptions. Because our books are all one price and come out on a regular schedule, we can offer subscriptions to print books or e-books and we offer them at great prices. Just like subscribing to a magazine, you’ll receive a new book each month in either printed or e-book format.
Friends of the Blog - I’ve begun offering Friends of the Blog gift subscriptions, and a lot of people have already taken me up on the offer. For just $39 (or $34 if you’re already a Friend of the Blog) you can give your friend a subscription that will come with 5 books of their choice, 10 downloadable albums, a subscription to Christianity Today, and more.
I am a follower of Jesus Christ, a husband to Aileen and a father to three young children. I worship and serve as a pastor at Grace Fellowship Church in Toronto, Ontario, and am a co-founder of Cruciform Press.
Tim Challiestweeted, "A La Carte Recap: Free Sproul books, Pope Francis and devotion to Mary, free song, adoption story, one for parents. http://t.co/omSopNjZap"
Tim Challiestweeted, "@howardbriank My pleasure. I’ve found it a very helpful post."
Tim Challiestweeted, "True greatness, true leadership, is found in giving yourself in service to others, not in coaxing or inducing others to serve you. (Sanders)"
Tim Challiestweeted, "@AdamCarterCBC - Thank you for your coverage of Tim Bosma's memorial service. It's much appreciated."
This week’s edition of Free Stuff Fridays is sponsored by 
Q: In “These Things Take Time” you wrestle with the kinds of questions that most people, whether Christian or not, find themselves asking at one time or another—why do good people die? Why are we so drawn to sin and darkness? Why is it easier to doubt than to believe? In my experience such questions can drive people from God or closer to God. It seems that this song is a declaration of submission. How did you come to that place of letting God be God and realizing that “these things take time?”
Microfinance - For the person who would rather give than get, you might consider a microfinancing gift certificate—a way that your loved one can help sponsor a business in a developing country. 
I am a follower of Jesus Christ, a husband to Aileen and a father to three young children. I worship and serve as a pastor at Grace Fellowship Church in Toronto, Ontario, and am a co-founder of Cruciform Press.
Releasing on April 1, The Next
Published in 2008, this book
This is a guide that calls men,
This review of the bestselling
New to the site? You can get
This is a guide written
