September 2004 Archive
On The Worship of God (09/30/04 - 0 Comments)
I am quite often asked why I would care to devote so much time and effort to the defense of a Reformed view of Christianity. A few days ago, for example, I received an email asking if it really matters what we believe on the issue of open theism. After all, either way we are worshipping God and what we happen to believe about Him and His attributes doesn’t change Him. He stays the same...
Book Review - The God of Yes (09/30/04 - 0 Comments)
I'm going to be straight with you: I did not finish this book. Generally I will not review a book until I have read it from cover-to-cover, but in this case I just couldn't do it. I got about two thirds of the way through and had to call it quits. It wasn't that the book was so heretical I just couldn't take it anymore (though there were a few theological problems) and it wasn't...
Recommended Reading (09/29/04 - 0 Comments)
It has been too long since I posted some recommended reading from other blogs and Web sites. I will remedy this today. You are free to understand this post as being an indication that I am busy writing my first week's "lesson" for Cutting It Straight and am also engaged in moving my site to a new server. That and I'm busy. And a bit lazy today. You get the idea. Dead Man Blogging tells...
Weekend Disruptions (09/28/04 - 0 Comments)
It seems I absolutely have to move this site to a new server this weekend. While it may not sound like that big of a deal, let me assure you that it is. Moving the site, the forums, databases and so on without losing any information is quite the daunting task. And what's more, I really don't want to miss a day of posting and break my Cal Ripken-like streak! My trial runs of moving...
Worshipping The Seeker (09/28/04 - 3 Comments)
I believe our churches need to be seeker sensitive. There, I said it! And not just a little bit seeker sensitive either. I believe they should be wholly, entirely given over to the idea of seeker sensitivity, for this is the highest calling of a church. Hear me out. Seeker sensitivity in our day seems to be associated with shallowness in doctrine, in worship and even in Christian disciplines. We see churches packed to the...
What Happens To Children When They Die? (Part 2) (09/27/04 - 14 Comments)
If you read this site on a regular basis, you�ll know I have been doing some research on the topic of what happens to children who die before they can hear or accept the gospel. I first wrote about this here. This is an issue almost every Christian faces at some point during his pilgrimage and one for which there is no easy answer. Surveying the writings of the great Christians of the past or...
Sunday Ramblings (09/26/04 - 0 Comments)
Here, once again, are my weekly ramblings, restored to their rightful day of the week. This is a chance for me to address all the topics I wanted to write about during the week but couldn't make into a whole article. Today the pope denounced the imbalance of wealth that exists between the world's rich and poor. He is well-qualified to speak about such things since he heads the richest organization in the world. The...
Book Review - Putting Amazing Back Into Grace (09/25/04 - 1 Comments)
Putting Amazing Back Into Grace is the first book I have read by Michael Horton. It will certainly not be my last. On the cover of the book J.I. Packer declares the book “a breaktaking workout” and his praise is justified. This book points us back to the Reformation and ultimately to the Bible itself as the source of an amazing grace that much of modern Christianity seems to have lost. He presents timeless truths...
"It Changed My Life!" (09/24/04 - 0 Comments)
If I had a dime for every time I have heard someone tell me “it changed my life!” I’d be a rich man (even if those dimes were Canadian currency). I remember hearing people walking out of the theatre after watching The Passion of the Christ and saying how the movie had changed their life. It’s not unusual to go to Amazon and read book reviews that say something like “I finished this book last...
Book Review - Who's Driving The Purpose Driven Church? (09/24/04 - 2 Comments)
While much has been written about the church growth movement and Purpose Driven principles, I believe that Who’s Driving The Purpose Driven Church is the first book-length treatment dealing specifically with this topic. The title is slightly deceptive, as this book deals particularly with Rick Warren’s best-selling book The Purpose Driven Life which has sold nearly 20 million copies in just two years. The book purports to be a “documentary on the teachings of Rick...
Tough Times (09/23/04 - 0 Comments)
Christianity has been in the news the past few days, and frankly I think most Christians wish it was not. It seems Christianity is best kept a little under the radar, for when it hits the mass media little good can come of it. First we had Jimmy Swaggart and his comments about homosexuals. On his television show he said "I'm trying to find the correct name for it... this utter absolute, asinine, idiotic stupidity...
The League of Reformed Bloggers (09/23/04 - 75 Comments)
This is the "official" announcement launching the "League of Reformed Bloggers." This is a news aggregator and blogroll featuring bloggers who write from the perspective of a Reformed worldview. This is being co-hosted and moderated by yours truly and David at Jollyblogger. Our desire is to provide a place where those who write and read blogs can find biblical, theological, cultural and social issues addressed from the richness of the Reformed theological tradition. If you...
Question For Bloggers (09/22/04 - 0 Comments)
I was cleaning up my hard drive this afternoon and came across a whole bunch of different site design concepts that never actually made it onto the Web. While there was good reason for a lot of them, I could a couple that were actually pretty good. Since I have never used them I figured I'd see if anyone was interested in having one of them. While it needs to be fixed up a little...
Cutting It Straight (09/22/04 - 0 Comments)
A couple of weeks from now I will be starting a Sunday evening study at my house which will be geared towards new Christians. It will be called Cutting It Straight. I anticipate it covering the basics of Christian beliefs and doctrine. Initially I do not intend to do "Bible study" as much as topical studies on a variety of subjects. I'm wondering if anyone has suggestions for where to begin. Where do I begin...
Book Review - Spurgeon (09/22/04 - 1 Comments)
There are more biographies devoted to Charles Spurgeon than to just about any other Christian figure. The first were written before his death (including his own autobiography) and hundreds have been written since. In the two years following his death, new biographies were published at the rate of one per month! One would be justified in asking, then, why we need another one. Arnold Dallimore answers this question in the preface, saying that in his...
40 Days of Community (09/21/04 - 31 Comments)
In the past few days I have noticed a surge of interest in the 40 Days of Community program, the follow-up to the 40 Days of Purpose program some 20,000 churches have already participated in. The initial launch of 40 Days of Community is the Fall of this year, which would explain the increased interest in the program. The next launch is Spring of 2005. While the materials for the 40 Days of Community program...
One In A Sea of Faces (09/20/04 - 0 Comments)
After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in...
Book Review: Safe In The Arms of God (09/20/04 - 2 Comments)
Safe in the Arms of God is described on the cover as “truth from heaven about the death of a child.” In this short, but intense book, John MacArthur answers the question of what happens to children – those unborn, stillborn, or youngsters – when they die. This is a question that has perplexed Christians since the days of the early church. While most Christians have held the view that their children are in heaven,...
Jaci Velasquez & Repentance (09/20/04 - 11 Comments)
This morning I was reading an interview with Jaci Velasquez over at CMCentral. Velasquez is a Christian singer/songwriter who has achieved quite a lot of success in the mainstream market, especially the Latin market. Not too long ago she decided, as so many musicians do, to expand her portfolio and give acting a try. Her movie debut was in a small film entitled "Chasing Papi." I have not seem the movie, and judging by the...
Thoughts on Worship (09/19/04 - 1 Comments)
I wanted to write something about worship today. I started thinking about what I would write while I was sitting in church watching the band practice for a few minutes before the service. I got no ideas from watching them. During the service, though, I began to think about whether people view worship as an "appetizer" or a "dessert." Is worship something we do on Sunday to gear up for a tough week or is...
What Happens To Children When They Die? (09/18/04 - 3 Comments)
For reasons I cannot quite ascertain (though I am hoping they are not prophetic), I have been thinking a lot lately about the issue of whether children who die in infancy are automatically ushered into heaven. In other words, what happens to children when they die? I have heard various answers to this question, and none have been particularly satisfying. I will admit, though, that I have never studied this topic in depth and that...
Michael Coren Returns Home (09/17/04 - 4 Comments)
Michael Coren, if you are not familiar with him, is a newspaper columnist and television call-in show host in Toronto. Though I never looked into his denominational affiliation, I always assumed he was an evangelical based on the topics and guests on his show. When The Passion of the Christ released several months ago, he wrote a wonderful article about it, pointing out that it was nothing but the mass as a movie. He took...
Friday Ramblings (09/17/04 - 0 Comments)
Yesterday afternoon at about 4:30 I posted my review of John Elredge's book Epic at Amazon. The review showed up a couple of hours later, and already has had 9 people vote on whether or not my review was helpful. At this point the voting is 2 for and 5 against. That is pretty typical for reviews that don't gush and "ooh and aw" over books. Wild at Heart, for example, which I only posted...
Book Review - Epic (09/16/04 - 11 Comments)
John Eldredge’s books have become wildly popular among Christians. The Sacred Romance and Wild at Heart have sold millions of copies and have firmly established Eldredge as one of the most-read Christian authors. Wild at Heart has been studied in men’s groups across the world, giving Eldredge a wide reach and his teachings great acceptance. In Epic he changes his emphasis from a Christian audience to an unbelieving audience, as this book is clearly primarily...
Book Review - How Good Is Good Enough? (09/16/04 - 2 Comments)
It takes a brave man to write another book geared towards convincing unbelievers that being good simply isn’t enough to earn God’s favor. There are so many similar books available and most unbelievers have heard the arguments so many times that they simply fall on deaf ears. Andy Stanley, though, wrote How Good Is Good Enough? to cover this topic one more time and he covers it admirably. The book is based around the premise...
How To Study The Bible (09/15/04 - 1 Comments)
As Christians we believe that the Bible is the word of God. We believe it is, as it says of itself, “living and breathing, sharper than a two-edged sword.” We believe that the Bible is the greatest revelation of God – despite the incredible beauty of nature, it pales in comparison to what we find in the Scriptures. Only in the Scriptures do we have the very words of life. It is strange, then, that...
Expository Preaching (09/14/04 - 4 Comments)
There are many different types of preaching. Generally they can be divided into five categories, though you must realize that sometimes a single preacher can utilize multiple styles even in a single message. The five main types are: Anecdotal – Preaching based primarily on the recounting of stories which convey a moral lesson. Biographical – Preaching that provides a biography of a person and draws moral lessons from the person’s life. Topical – Preaching where...
Peter's Disappointment (09/13/04 - 0 Comments)
At the conference I attended this weekend, I heard the powerful testimony of Richard Ganz as he gave his reflections on thirty years of Jewish evangelism. Richard is Jewish, and was at one time not only a practicing Jew, but a very strictly practicing Jew. His testimony caused me to think about some verses from the book of Acts. But first, the relevant parts of Ganz’s testimony which I found here. The next few days...
How Much Greater... (09/12/04 - 0 Comments)
At the conference I attended Friday and Saturday there was a worship leader, but rather an old-school one. We sang only hymns and were accompanied by only organ or in one case, with piano. While most of the hymns were traditional (by which I mean old) there were quite a few that were more modern. It was certainly different from the worship I have grown accustomed to and really hearkened back to my younger days...
Saturday Ramblings (09/11/04 - 0 Comments)
I have returned from my conference and I'm sure you'll be hearing a lot about it over the next couple of days. I took 12+ pages of notes I have to read through and sort out, but I do have a few initial thoughts. James White is a very good communicator. I really enjoyed his seminars and learned a lot from him. His talk on evangelizing to Catholics was especially good and entirely Biblical. He...
Conference Time (09/10/04 - 0 Comments)
I am off to the Sola Scriptura conference entitled "Presenting the Truth in a Truthless Age." The speakers are Rich Ganz, James White and Steve Beck. I am an avid reader of White's blog and know Rich personally, so am looking forward to this one! The conference is geared towards evangelizing different groups - Muslims, Jews and Catholics as well as post moderns in general. I will be there this evening and all day tomorrow....
Catch a Tither By the Tail (09/10/04 - 0 Comments)
Sometimes I read a bit of satire that is so obvious that I know I should have thought of it myself. I'm a clever guy, so why couldn't I have come up with this brilliant idea? Anyways, LarkNews wrote a hilarious article about a Christian reality show where several pastors vye for the attendance of a Christian man worth $100 million. But there is a catch! Only after the show was complete did they find...
Monkey See, Monkey Do (09/10/04 - 0 Comments)
The media was buzzing early this week with news about one of those shockingly obvious studies people like to carry out. In this particular study, 1,792 adolescents aged 12 to 17 were interviewed by psychologists about their television viewing habits and their sexual activity. Lo and behold, kids who watch a large amount of television containing sexual content are twice as likely to engage in sexual intercourse than those who do not. They are also...
Pondering Calvinism (09/09/04 - 1 Comments)
There have been several times over the past few weeks when I have been challenged on my Calvinist theology. People have not been confrontational, but I believe by-and-large have been honestly seeking answers and have asked my opinion on various matters. They generally come from an Arminian background and truly want to discover the truth on matters of God's sovereignty, presdestination and so on. These conversations have given me ample opportunity for reflecting on what...
Gmail Invites (Part III) (09/09/04 - 0 Comments)
Once again I've got some GMail invites available if anyone wants to join the rest of the world in nabbing one of these free accounts. It's an alternative to Hotmail and the other free accounts that gives you a lot of space for storage (500x more than Hotmail). I think most people use them as their "junk mail" accounts to be used when Web sites demand an email address from you. If you're interested, either...
BlogSwap 5 - Entries (09/09/04 - 0 Comments)
BlogSwap 5, after a short delay, is finally upon us. This week's subject was "Devotional" and it seems to have been a tough one as many people chose not to participate, believing they couldn't do justice to a devotional. Others were, of course, just too busy (while others just procrastinated until it was too late)! This week's participants are: http://simplegames.blogspot.com http://everydaymusings.blogspot.com/ www.theirvins.com http://ochuk.gizzar.com/ www.coffeeswirls.com www.challies.com www.matt-hall.net www.whatisthis.com 2bluenewts.com/requiest...
A New Church Experience (09/08/04 - 0 Comments)
For the past three years my church has been meeting in a local high school. Our contract expired one year ago and at that time the school board tried to raise our rent but we somehow talked them out of it and got a one year extension. Our contract was once again up for renewal at the end of August and this time there was no reasoning with the board. So we had to set...
Woman, Thou Art Loosed: The Movie (09/08/04 - 0 Comments)
If you've heard about the movie "Woman, Thou Art Loosed" you probably realized it was only a matter of time before I wrote about it! If you haven't, well, ignorance is bliss. "Woman, Thou Art Loosed" is, of course, the title of the bestselling book by T.D. Jakes that deals with encouraging women who have been hurt or abused. I have not read the book, but my understanding is that it is fairly solid, though...
A Great Savior (09/07/04 - 0 Comments)
This morning I began reading Arnold Dallimore’s biography of Charles Spurgeon. This follows an excellent speech on Spurgeon’s formative younger days by Phil Johnson that I listened to while driving to Atlanta. I realized as I heard the speech that I knew very little about Spurgeon. When I saw the biography on my sister’s shelf I knew I had to read it. Fortunately she is generous and seems to have forgotten the other books I’ve...
Visual Evidence (09/06/04 - 0 Comments)
For the first time ever, I am posting a picture of myself to this site. It's a bit of a scary proposition, really. Not only am I terribly unphotogenic, but I'm also more than just a little bit camera shy. But I figured if I have to post a picture of myself, it may as well be one taken when I look like a million bucks - or 200 bucks anyways. After all, that's about...
