February 2006 Archive
Why Is My Choice of a Bible Translation So Important? (02/28/06 - 35 Comments)
I do believe that this will be the last book I read, at least for the next little while, on the subject of Bible translations. This is not to say that it is a bad book, nor is it to say that it is the final word on the subject. Rather, I have read several books about translating Scripture in the past weeks and am tiring of the topic. Why Is My Choice of a...
The Shepherd's Conference (02/28/06 - 20 Comments)
I have been given the great privilege of liveblogging this year's Shepherd's Conference. The conference, which is geared primarily towards pastors and is sponsored by Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, is composed of both General Sessions and Conference Seminars. The General Sessions "are times when we gather as one great congregation to worship the Lord in music and sit under the teaching of godly men—men who have proven themselves to be passionate teachers...
King for a Week - Coffeeswirls (02/27/06 - 2 Comments)
King for a Week is an honor I bestow on blogs that I feel are making a valuable contribution to my faith and the faith of other believers. Every week I select a blog, link to it from my site, and add that site's most recent headlines to my left sidebar. While this is really not much, I do feel that it allows me to encourage and support other bloggers while making my readers aware...
Female Chauvinist Pigs (02/27/06 - 24 Comments)
Ariel Levy and I could probably not be more different. She is a liberal, feminist, democratic, New Yorker. I am a conservative, biblical, Canadian Christian. Yet Levy and I share a common concern when we look at women in our culture. Not too long ago, Levy began to notice a change in women. "I'd walk down the street and see teens and young women - and the occasional wild fifty-year old - wearing jeans cut...
Evangelism For The Rest of Us (02/26/06 - 7 Comments)
I have long admired those who seem to find sharing their faith to be a simple, shameless task. I am ashamed to admit that I sometimes, and perhaps even most of the time, find it difficult and would even rather do anything but. I am not alone. Like many others, I have been taught different methods of evangelism and have found that they do little to make me more confident in sharing my faith. But...
Book Review - Putting Amazing Back Into Grace (02/25/06 - 12 Comments)
Putting Amazing Back Into Grace was 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...
DVD Review - Making Choices (02/24/06 - 11 Comments)
Though I have no Dutch heritage, I grew up among the Dutch. During my childhood, the vast majority of my friends were the children of Dutch immigrants who made the journey to Canada in the years following the Second World War. I went to Dutch churches and Dutch schools. I even learned to like Dutch food (Dutch soup, chocolate or brown sugar sandwiches, olibolen, and of course, dropjes). The Dutch, like many immigrant populations, have...
Friday Frivolity (02/24/06 - 22 Comments)
I'm always reading statistics. And really I have no choice because our culture seems obsessed with them. I have a question for those of you out there who are more adept than I am with numbers (and, statistically-speaking, I'd guess that this includes over 99% of you). What does it mean when "survey results are considered accurate within 2.9 percentage points, 19 times out of 20." What on earth does that mean? One of the...
A Saturday Afternoon in L.A. (02/23/06 - 61 Comments)
As you may know, I am heading to sunny California next week in order to liveblog The Shepherd's Conference. I am anticipating that it will be a time of great growth for me, as I learn from the teaching of such men as R.C. Sproul, Al Mohler, Ligon Duncan, Steven Lawson and Mark Dever. And of course John MacArthur will be giving a couple of addresses. I consider it a great privilege to be able...
Cindy Klassen: The Toast of Canada (02/23/06 - 7 Comments)
Cindy Klassen is the toast of Canada. Yesterday she won a gold medal in the women's 1,500-meter long-track speed skating event. It was her fourth medal of the games. She had previously won a bronze in the 3,000-meter event, a silver in the team pursuit and a silver in 1,000 meter competition. She still has one event left to compete in: the 5,000-meter which will take place on Saturday. While it is not her strongest...
The Winter Olympics (02/22/06 - 2 Comments)
On Sunday, Paul began his sermon by saying that, while he always intends not to watch the Olympics, somehow he is always drawn to them. I feel much the same way. I have found it somewhat easier this year than usual, since by the evening there is nothing to watch but reruns of events I've already read about on the Internet, but the Olympics still do have a particular and even peculiar appeal. A couple...
Codex (02/21/06 - 4 Comments)
As you may have noticed, I am now offering a small amount of advertising space on this site. It may or may not be coincidence that I began offering advertising at the same time as I bought my first house and began facing mortgage payments for the first time. I am handling all advertising requests personally and attempting to ensure that I only run advertising that might benefit the readers of this site. I have...
The Benefits of Ignorance (Part 2) (02/21/06 - 49 Comments)
Yesterday I wrote about my inflamed duoduwhatzit and the untrained doctor who is going to be removing it for me. This was only a parable, of course, and likely not a very good one at that. Yet it stimulated some good discussion for which I am grateful. I thought I would take the opportunity this morning to clarify my feelings on seminary education. But let me begin somewhere else. People who serve in the military...
The Benefits of Ignorance (02/20/06 - 38 Comments)
I went to the doctor the other day. I was shocked to find out that I have a rare genetic disorder that is going to require immediate attention. Apparently my duoduwhatzit is inflamed and is putting undue and unhealthy pressure on my intestinor majorus and my cardialitozalingdon. Thankfully humans can live fairly comfortably without the duoduwhatzit, so the doctor is suggesting that I have it removed immediately. He tells me that he is one of...
DVD Review - A Journey Home (02/19/06 - 2 Comments)
A Journey Home tells the story of the Waller family. Tired of working 80 hour weeks, and despite being on the fasttrack to a great career with Federal Express, Tommy Waller felt that his life demanded change. And so he moved his family - a family that has grown to eleven children - from the suburbs of a large city to a remote area of Tennessee. It may as well have been the other side...
The Funding Behind The Evangelical Climate Initiative (02/18/06 - 41 Comments)
My friend Justin Taylor sent me an article this morning discussing the Evangelical Climate Initiative. Concerned Women for America has done the legwork and found something quite surprising and disturbing. "A new effort to mobilize evangelical Christians on the problem of global warming received $475,000 from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, one of the top funders of abortion programs in the United States and abroad." Sure enough, a couple of Google searches turn up...
Friday Frivolity (02/17/06 - 21 Comments)
First off, let's do another giveaway. For some reason I keep getting copies of Nancy Pearcey's Total Truth in the mail so let's go ahead and clear out a couple of those. It seems appropriate that in giving away Nancy's book we'd have a contest somehow based on the Pearceys. So how's this? The first person to tell me what instrument Nancy plays AND the instrument her husband Rick plays, will win a copy of...
The Peasall Sisters - Family Harmony DVD (02/17/06 - 5 Comments)
Like countless others, while I enjoyed the film O Brother, Where Art Thou, I was captivated by the music. I was one of the millions who immediately purchased the soundtrack and enjoyed discovering, or rediscovering, that old-school country and bluegrass music. It was there that I first heard of The Peasall Sisters. These three girls, unknown at the time, tried out to be the singing voices of three little girls in the film. Against all...
Submission - Does It Precede The Fall? (02/16/06 - 21 Comments)
I have been challenged recently on the subject of submission and how it relates to the role of women in a marriage relationship. In particular, I have been challenged to understand and then prove that the submission prescribed by Scripture is inherent in God's created order. In other words, the fact that women are to submit to their husbands is not merely the product of the Fall of the human race into sin, but is...
King For A Week - Girl Talk (02/15/06 - 2 Comments)
King for a Week is an honor I bestow on blogs that I feel are making a valuable contribution to my faith and the faith of other believers. Every week I select a blog, link to it from my site, and add that site's most recent headlines to my left sidebar. While this is really not much, I do feel that it allows me to encourage and support other bloggers while making my readers aware...
Feminine Appeal (02/15/06 - 4 Comments)
I do not always choose the books I review. Sometimes I am able to request specific titles from publishers but other times titles arrive unannounced. This provides me with the opportunity to review books that I would not, under most other circumstances, read. Such is the case with Feminine Appeal, written by Carolyn Mahaney. I left the book in my shelf for several weeks before I dared to open it up. I was gratified to...
A Valentine's Day Reflection (02/14/06 - 17 Comments)
"I think the holiday is total crap," says a newly married 27-year-old man from Greenwich, Connecticut. Leslie, 28, a single editor at Glamour magazine in New York agrees. "I really hate it. I think I always hated it, even when I had a boyfriend. I always felt that it was really hokey. I'm not a teddy bears and roses kind of person." "It's damned if you do and damned if you don't," says a 40-year-old...
The Rest of God (02/13/06 - 6 Comments)
I can't think of too many books I've enjoyed reading as much as The Rest of God. I am not even talking about the content but just the book. I know nothing about the author, Mark Buchanan, beyond what he reveals within the book. I haven't Googled his name and did not read the fancy little printout the publisher sent along with the book. What I do know is that this guy can write. Publishers...
Book Review - Knowing Scripture (02/12/06 - 6 Comments)
One of Satan's greatest triumphs must surely be in convincing Christians to abandon the Bible, or at least keeping them from really mining its depths. He tries to convince us that the Bible is outdated, unimportant or less important than many other things. He tries to convince us that it is difficult to understand and that we should rely on others to interpret it for us. R.C. Sproul wrote Knowing Scripture early in his career...
What's Wrong With This Picture? (02/11/06 - 15 Comments)
Feeling a little housebound of late, Aileen and I decided we would head to the mall this morning to do some shopping and have lunch out with the kids. The mall is not my favorite place to be, of course, but sometimes it is a necessary evil. So we did our thing and then headed to the food court. Immediately in front of the entrance to the food court was a table advertising free samples...
Friday Frivolity (02/10/06 - 16 Comments)
I used to watch far too many episodes of The Simpsons. In fact, I'd be willing to entertain arguments that watching any episodes of The Simpsons is too many, but I digress. Several years ago, after my son began to develop some awareness of what was playing on the television screen I decided that it was probably not an appropriate show for young eyes. And so we turned of The Simpsons and haven't really watched...
It's Not Your House! (02/10/06 - 18 Comments)
I may have mentioned that I had said my final words on the subject of inviting ourselves over to other people's homes. If I did say that I apologize, because I have one thing left to say! As you recall, I recently asked whether or not it is rude for a person to invite himself to another person's house. In the subsequent discussion I was quite shocked to hear how many Christians feel that this...
Terrifying Scripture Texts (02/09/06 - 2 Comments)
I wrote last week about a passage of the Bible that I find terrifying. I showed that Satan has a legitimate claim on my life and yours. Thankfully, because of the work of Christ, He also has a claim on our souls and His claim trumps that of Satan! I began to think about other passages that I find terrifying and remembered something I had written exactly a year ago about another passage. Because today...
Living The Cross Centered Life (02/08/06 - 13 Comments)
There may be no greater honor for a minister of the Word than this: his ministry has become nearly synonymous with the cross of Jesus Christ. His ministry has led people to the cross not just once, but time and again as they have come to reflect on the deeper meaning of Jesus' death. They have been led to see that "the cross is the blazing fire at which the flame of our love is...
The Ultimate Scream (02/07/06 - 22 Comments)
There are many who consider Janet Leigh's murder in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho to be the most terrifying scene in the history of film. The setting, the mood, the music and the camera work combine to create a scene of absolute terror. Her screams were impressed upon the memories of many who watched her macabre death on the silver screen. Since 1960, when the film was produced there have been tens of thousands of horror films...
Muslim Outrage and God's Grace (02/06/06 - 19 Comments)
"Freedom Go To Hell," reads the sign. "Europe You Will Pay. Your 9/11 Is On Its Way," and "Be Prepared For The Real Holocaust" read others. Other signs list verbs prescribing the punishment for one who blasphemes the prophet of Islam: behead, slay, butcher, exterminate, massacre, annihilate. All this from the hearts and hands of those who claim to follow the religion of peace. And all of this over a series of cartoons. James White...
Call The Sabbath A Delight (02/05/06 - 245 Comments)
I recently heard someone say "I follow all 9 of the 10 commandments." It is true, isn't it, that we continue to regard each of the other 9 commandments as being integral to the Christian life, but have disregarded the fourth. A few years ago I read an article written by an unbeliever and published in a major newspaper where she questioned how Christians could simply disregard this commandment. Her conclusion was that it was...
Adrian Warnock Interviews...Me! (02/04/06 - 3 Comments)
Adrian Warnock, whom I assume most of you have heard of, recently did an interview of sorts with me. We spent an hour or so on MSN Messenger discussing blogging and the blogosphere. It was an interesting chat, though someone restricted by the medium - instant messaging has much of the spontaneity of a face-to-face discussion, but requires a lot of typing which tends to slow things down. Here are a few excerpts from the...
He Has No Claim On Me... (02/03/06 - 16 Comments)
European history makes for a fascinating study. Understanding the intricacies of nations, borders and rulers could easily be a life-long pursuit. The history of the continent is filled with claims, and counterclaims as one person sought to prove himself the legitimate heir to a kingdom over another. There are many who sought to claim thrones and kingdoms and these claims had to be settled through lengthy and detailed examination. Generations, kingdoms, marriages, and thrones had...
A House or a Home? (02/02/06 - 8 Comments)
As you may know, Aileen and I just bought our first house. While we found the house quite quickly (as these things go), we first toured several towns and walked through fifteen or twenty houses looking for just the right one. As we toured house after house it quickly became apparent which homeowners had invested some extra effort in making their homes attractive to prospective buyers. I'm sure you have experienced what we did. Some...
C.J. Mahaney - He's Irritating and He's Not Humble (02/02/06 - 5 Comments)
C.J. Mahaney is not humble. It must be true because one of his close friends, Mark Dever, said so. Strangely, he said so in his endorsement of one of C.J.'s books. Here is the complete text which I have taken from just inside the cover of Humility: "C.J. Mahaney is not a humble man. At least, that's what he'll tell you. And that's one reason he's so well qualified to write this book. I've read...
Further Thoughts on a Faux Pas (02/01/06 - 15 Comments)
We have had some fun the past couple of days discussing whether or not it is rude for a person to ask himself (or his family) to another person's house. Opinion is divided but it seems that most people are siding with my wife and suggesting that I was rude to ask myself to a friend's house. I continue to disagree. But before I make this conversation serious, I wanted to point to a couple...
