May 2006 Archive
A Great Deal (05/31/06 - 22 Comments)
Christian Books Distributors is offering an incredible pre-order price on a classic series of books: Philip Schaff's History of the Christian Church, an 8-volume set examining the history of the church from the time of Christ all the way until after the time of the Reformation. The series usually sells for approximately $250, but for a limited time CBD is selling it for $49.99. I am assuming that they are being straight with us when...
Wednesday Ramblings (05/31/06 - 34 Comments)
Michaela is four weeks old today. Last night was the first time since her birth that I experienced the combination of a bad sleep followed by an early awakening. She and I sat in the way-too-hot living room (we're in the midst of an early heat wave) for a few hours this morning as she tried to sleep and I tried to find something worth watching since my eyes were far too heavy to read...
Book Review - Art for God's Sake (05/30/06 - 17 Comments)
I am the worst artist in the world. I'm sure there are some who would contest that claim, but if you were to ask me to draw something (anything!) I think you'd quickly agree that I am about as bad as a person can get. It is strange that I am such a terribly poor artist as I come from a long line of very capable artists. Yet somehow, when the various family genes were...
Book Review - With One Voice (05/30/06 - 4 Comments)
Some experts estimate that in Western nations as much as 50 percent of the adult population is now single. That is a statistic with tremendous significance for our nations, culture and churches. It is surely a statistic that is without historical precedent. Of course the decline of marriage coincides with increased sexual activity, showing that people like to enjoy many of the benefits and securities of marriage, but without the commitment. The Christian response to...
Is Emergent the New Christian Left? (05/29/06 - 61 Comments)
Tony Jones, one of the more prominent leaders within the Emergent church movement has recently posted a pair of articles at the "Out of Ur" blog responding to the charge that Emergent is the new Christian left. "[I]s Emergent a new camp for Christian liberalism? In this post Tony Jones, the national coordinator for Emergent, responds to critics by championing Emergent's conversational purpose and celebrating the group's diversity." There are three things that struck me...
Abraham Lincoln: The Man and His Faith (05/28/06 - 24 Comments)
Perhaps no other character in history other than Jesus has been written about as much as Abraham Lincoln. There are literally hundreds of books that trace his life, from its humble beginnings in the backwoods of Kentucky to its conclusion at the hands of an assassin. Abraham Lincoln: The Man and His Faith does not attempt to provide an exhaustive biography of his life. Rather, it traces the growth of Lincoln as a Christian. It...
DVD Review - Man With A Mission (05/27/06 - 3 Comments)
William Tyndale is one of my heroes and his portrait hangs over my desk. He is a man who lived his life in service to God and left a legacy which we simply cannot underestimate. Tyndale was, of course, the first man to make and print a translation of the Scriptures from the Greek into English. His translation formed much of the basis for the eventual King James translation and in that way is still...
Discernment Filter: Forgive Yourself (05/26/06 - 28 Comments)
Spiritual discernment is a subject that has been much on my mind in recent weeks. I have been thinking a great deal about how I can become more discerning and how I can serve others in helping them understand the value of discernment as well as the practice of discernment. To that end I have been attempting to formulate a "discernment filter." I have been attempting to formulate a small set of rules through which...
Dumb Dog (05/25/06 - 52 Comments)
As I began writing this little post, my RSS reader pinged and up came the headline: "A Dog Story With A Happy Ending." This comes courtesy of Rebecca, it seems. The timing is somewhat ironic, since the dog story I'm writing today has quite an unhappy ending. Almost eight years ago, shortly after we got married, Aileen and I decided to get a dog. I was working late nights and we were living in Brantford....
Preparation for Communion (05/24/06 - 23 Comments)
Some time ago I became convicted, by the Spirit I trust, that I did not regard the celebration of the Lord's Supper with sufficient significance or gravity. I felt that I did not sufficiently sanctify this celebration through lack of preparation and lack of focus when actually taking the bread and the wine. Over the past four days I have been making my way through Gospel Worship by Jeremiah Burroughs, a Puritan who lived and...
Transformation (05/23/06 - 26 Comments)
With the volume of books I read and review, I've found it valuable to be intentional about reading. Before I begin a book, I generally skim the endorsements, chapter titles and, if possible, the chapter divisions. I also usually skim the endnotes and bibliography, for these elements of the book often speak volumes about the book's content. They can help me understand the book even before I begin the first chapter. Of course a potential...
The Gauntlet Has Been Thrown (05/23/06 - 9 Comments)
Mark Heinrich has thrown down the gauntlet. It has hit the ground with a resounding pfffft and with all the force of feather colliding with the earth. My world has been shaken. The impact of this gauntlet was such that Marc not only posted a challenge on his blog, but felt obligated to email me when I did not respond within what he felt was a sufficient timeframe. My initial reaction was simply to send...
Confessions of a Reformisson Rev. - Further Thoughts (05/22/06 - 45 Comments)
My review of Confessions of a Reformisson Rev. by Mark Driscoll raised a furor. I was shocked by just how quickly the comments began to add up. They quickly bounced up to over 170 before David, who helps me moderate the comments area, decided that they had served their purpose and needed to be shut down (and I fully support the decision). Many blogs picked up the discussion as well. Because of the amount of...
Reverend Edwin H. Alden (05/22/06 - 15 Comments)
Today is a holiday in Canada and apparently we are supposed to celebrate the birthday of Queen Victoria. Most Canadians celebrate the day by imbibing near-lethal quantities of alcohol. Actually, this is how Canadians celebrate most holidays. Since I hope to spend most of this day with the family (not drinking, of course!), I did some writing over the weekend, preparing a short biography of a man of God from days past. I hope you...
DVD Review - A Distant Thunder (05/21/06 - 3 Comments)
Partial birth abortion, also known by the nicer-sounding "Dilation and Extraction" is one of the most disgusting, nauseating so-called medical procedures in the world. While it may sound inocuous, the details of the procedure are enough to turn the stomach. It is the closest thing to legalized murder I could imagine. A Distant Thunder, a half-hour long supernatural thriller, is an attempt to draw attention to this procedure, which is generating increasing controversy as more...
Book Review - An Army of Davids (05/20/06 - 2 Comments)
When I was younger, I had a friend who seemed to live somewhere in a grey area between reality and fantasy. He was able to deal with reality for periods, but would always slip back into strange little fantasies where he was a ninja or an elf warrior or something else equally strange. He and I would go to the park to practice golfing, but inevitably the golf club in his hand would become a...
Confessions of a Reformission Rev. (05/19/06 - 169 Comments)
Mark Driscoll is one of those guys I just cannot figure out. Despite being only thirty-six years old, he pastors a church of over 3,000 people, is President of a major church-planting network and is considered one of the fifty most influential pastors in America. I am not the only one confused by Driscoll who is varyingly described as emerging, missional, Reformed, sarcastic and vulgar (all of which are true of him). He is immortalized...
Obligation To Assume: Church Discipline (05/18/06 - 24 Comments)
The article I wrote yesterday has caused a bit of a ruckus. I intended to answer some of the criticisms this morning, but then I had to try to keep Michaela from crying for two hours, and once I handed her off to Aileen, the phone rang a few times and before I knew it, the morning was getting away from me (it's mostly Steve Camp's fault--he and I just have too much to talk...
The Obligation To Assume (05/17/06 - 32 Comments)
On Monday, Joe Carter, he of Evangelical Outpost fame, posted on his web site discussing an article Andrew Sullivan had published in Time Magazine entitled "My Problem with Christianism." There is one aspect of Carter's article I would like to discuss today: the preamble. This is how Joe began: "While I believe that he can be as intolerant as Fred Phelps, I consider Andrew Sullivan to be a brother in Christ. Our differences of opinion--and...
A Perfect Love (05/16/06 - 14 Comments)
How many times have you heard a person claim that he has "accepted Jesus as his personal Lord and Savior?" Have you ever asked him what it means that Jesus is his Lord? Have you ever asked him how Jesus is his Savior? What makes Him his Savior? And what does it mean that He is his personal Lord and Savior? How many times have you heard a person open a prayer with the words...
Make The Bible Come Alive (05/15/06 - 34 Comments)
Every now and then I take my van to WalMart for an oil change. I generally try to make these appointments for as early in the morning as possible, for early in the morning, I very nearly have the place to myself. A little while ago I brought the car in and then spent the next hour wandering from one end of the store to the other, just marvelling at the incredible variety of products...
This Little Church Went To Market (05/14/06 - 13 Comments)
Though I have never met him, Gary Gilley has had a signficant impact on my life. He was one of two people who was most influential in my decision to begin blogging and to use this site to review books. His many book reviews were very helpful to me and made me realize that if he could review books and post them on the web, I could too. I was honored when he agreed to...
Paul: Apostle of Grace (05/13/06 - 1 Comments)
Paul: Apostle of Grace is a DVD presentation that invites the viewer to "experience Paul's message in its original setting." Hosted by Ron Kelly of Plain Truth Ministries, the film traces the travels and ministry of Paul from the time of his first missionary journey to the end of his first imprisonment in Rome. This period covers, of course, the events that Luke recounts in Acts and the period during which Paul wrote the various...
Friday Ramblings (05/12/06 - 32 Comments)
Alex Chediak - Alex Chediak has a pretty new web site (AlexChediak.com). I should know because I made it. Alex, who authored (edited?) 5 Paths To The Love Of Your Life (my review) is anticipating the imminent release of his second book, this one co-authored with his wife. It is titled With One Voice and should be available within a week or two. Why not root around Alex's site and, if you feel so moved,...
Accountability Through Visibility (05/12/06 - 24 Comments)
Immediately prior to the Together for the Gospel Conference, I had the opportunity to be part of a panel discussing issues pertaining to blogging. In the days following I mentioned on my blog that, due to the brevity of the occasion, I did not have the chance to address some of the "soapbox" issues pertaining to blogging in general and Christian blogging in particular. A couple of people have since asked me if I would...
Love That Lasts (05/11/06 - 9 Comments)
"A potter begins by centering his clay on the wheel. When the wheel starts turning, he can't just grab the clay. He must carefully but firmly keep the clay in the center of the wheel. He has to work it gently but deliberately, applying just enough pressure to shape it while constantly adding moisture. If he lets the clay get cold, it becomes stiff, resistant, and unworkable. If he neglects the clay and fails to...
Is The Bible Intolerant? (05/10/06 - 17 Comments)
The Bible has long been the world's best-selling book. While it does not appear on the bestseller lists, year after year, generation after generation, it continues to sell more copies than any other book. While the Bible continues to sell, it does not appear that many more people are reading it now than in previous generations. Rather, knowledge of the Bible is reaching what is surely the lowest point since the years following the Reformation...
DVD Review - Marks of a Cult (05/09/06 - 69 Comments)
Marks of a Cult is the latest in a series of DVDs produced by The Apologetics Group and hosted by Eric Holmberg. Previous titles have included Amazing Grace: The History & Theology of Calvinism and Hells Bells 2: The Power and Spirit of Popular Music, both of which I have reviewed in the past (and both of which are well worth viewing). This latest presentation seeks to answer some of the following questions: Why are...
Opportunities to Minister (05/08/06 - 12 Comments)
It seems that life is filled, at almost every turn, with trials and difficulties. Some of these times of trail are light while others are terribly weighty. Strangely, some of these trials are caused by times of great joy while others are caused by great pain. The birth of a child can prove to be almost as great a trial, despite being brought about by such joy, as the loss of a job or another...
King For A Week - Worship Matters (05/07/06 - 4 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 (or so) 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...
With Reverence And Awe (05/07/06 - 7 Comments)
Reformed Christians are increasingly divided over how they ought to worship God. For many Reformed believers, this is an issue of great urgency. D.G. Hart and John R. Muether wrote With Reverence And Awe (Returning to the Basics of Reformed Worship) to address this topic. They call the book a primer on worship, "a brief overview of how Reformed theology informs the way we think about, put together, and participate in the worship service. Our...
Thank You (05/06/06 - 3 Comments)
I've heard it said that when a person loses a loved one who is particularly close to him--a wife or a child perhaps--he struggles with the fact that, while his life has been thrown into disarray, the world around him just keeps on moving. His world has been rocked and he may feel like his life is over, yet everyone else he knows continues to go to work and school and baseball practice. There is...
Friday Ramblings (05/05/06 - 59 Comments)
The day after the birth of a child is clearly not the time to be doing serious writing. Thus today I will only ramble, posting a compendium of things that have been on my mind this week. While I managed to get a fair amount of sleep yesterday (never have I been so thankful for a spare bedroom), Aileen did not and had to hand me Michaela long before I was ready to crawl out...
Michaela Joy Challies (05/04/06 - 87 Comments)
I'm in love. Last night, on her thirtieth birthday, my wife gave herself (and me!) quite a gift: our daughter, Michaela (in case you don't know, the name is pronounced "mih-KAY-lah") Joy Challies. I'm crazy about her already. Actually, I'm crazy about both of them. Michaela was an unexpected gift, actually. In her two previous pregnancies, Aileen has given birth ten days and seven days past her due date, so we were not anticipating Michaela's...
Baby's On The Way (05/03/06 - 15 Comments)
Aileen had a midwife appointment this afternoon and after much humming and hawing, the midwife decided to send Aileen to the hospital for a consult with the O.B. The O.B., after much similar humming and hawing, thought it would be best to induce Aileen tonight and get that baby out. There are no serious medical concerns, but they just thought this was the best course of action since, at 38.5 weeks, the baby is considered...
Misquoting Jesus (05/03/06 - 33 Comments)
Bart Ehrman is a highly-regarded New Testament scholar and chairs the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has both an M.Div. and Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary where he studied under Bruce Metzger. Much of Ehrman's career has been dedicated to proving a rather unorthodox thesis: that history has been incorrect in suggesting that it was heretics such as Marcion who were responsible for tampering with the...
The People Who Shape Our World (05/02/06 - 41 Comments)
The recent edition of Time Magazine features "The People Who Shape Our World." Time has created a list of 100 men and women whose power, talent or moral example, they feel, is transforming our world. It is important to note, before we take a peek at this list, that it is not really the world which these people shape. Rather, it is people within the world that are shaped and transformed by these people. A...
T4G - Recap and Reflections (05/01/06 - 23 Comments)
As you well know, I spent much of last week in Louisville, Kentucky as I attended the Together for the Gospel Conference. While I posted many articles dealing with the content of the conference, I have written little in the way of reflection and description. And so I thought I would remedy that this morning, now that I have had a couple of days to gather my thoughts. I set out with Paul, with whom...
