August 2007 Archive
The Gift of Spiritual Discernment (Part 2) (08/31/07 - 6 Comments)
How can I know how the Holy Spirit has gifted me? This is the second part in what I anticipate will be a brief three-part series examining the spiritual gift of discernment. The first part is available here: The Gift of Spiritual Discernment. In this first article we looked at the question of "What is the gift of discernment?" and concluded that "Men and women with the gift of discernment are specially gifted in distinguishing...
Reading Classics Together - Holiness (Introduction) (08/30/07 - 33 Comments)
The Introduction to J.C. Ryle's Holiness This is the first of what I hope will be many opportunities to read the classics together. You can read more about this effort here: Reading the Classics Together. Today we start into an 8-week study of J.C. Ryle's Holiness. Written in 1879, this book has stood the test of time and is considered one of the best works on practical holiness. At just eight chapters, it seemed like...
The Gift of Spiritual Discernment (08/29/07 - 9 Comments)
A brief examination of the gift of spiritual discernment. As you well know if you are a regular reader of this site, I've written a book called The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment and that book was the result of spending almost a year studying the topic of spiritual discernment. As I hunted down all the references I could to discernment and as I studied what the Bible has to say about the topic, I was...
Book Review Updates (08/28/07 - 12 Comments)
Lucado and R.C. and Moore, Oh My! Here is your update on the latest reviews at Discerning Reader. We have uploaded six new reviews for you this week--reviews that come from the pens of four different reviewers and which examine books by some of the Christian world's most popular authors. It's a banner week! Leslie Wiggins, who writes reviews of books that are of particular interest to women, has a courageous review of Get Out...
3:16: The Numbers of Hope by Max Lucado (08/28/07 - 16 Comments)
A Review of Max Lucado's latest book. It's a match made in heaven (or that's what Thomas Nelson Publishers must believe). In 3:16: The Numbers of Hope, one of the world's best-known and best-loved Christian authors takes on the world's best-known and best-loved Bible verse. Max Lucado has authored over 50 book with sales exceeding an incredible 50 million copies in print. His books are regularly on the New York Times list of bestsellers and...
Desiring It Just a Little Bit Less (08/27/07 - 16 Comments)
It strikes me often how life is cyclical; how things I wrestle with and ponder and pray about will come to the forefront of my life and faith a month or a year or two years later. One of the biggest blessings of having a journal (which is often how this site functions for me) is that I can go back and see how I dealt with these things in the past. It is good...
How To Listen to a Sermon (08/26/07 - 5 Comments)
I thought it would be nice to have a guest blogger for the first time in a long while. Today I'm going to post a wonderful little article excerpted from one of George Whitefield's sermons. In this sermon he exposited Luke 8:18 where Jesus said, "Therefore consider carefully how you listen." These pearls of wisdom will help you listen to sermons in a way that will bring great blessing to your soul. Or as Whitefield...
Every Book Needs a Cover (08/25/07 - 26 Comments)
Every book needs a cover and, as luck would have it, my book now has one. Choosing a cover was far more difficult than I would have imagined. Some readers may have noticed a white cover on the Crossway site. It was there for a short time before being replaced. Though I didn't mind the white cover, I ultimately chose against it for two reasons. First, I thought it was too "zen," looking a little...
Pleasing People (08/24/07 - 5 Comments)
A brief review of Lou Priolo's book. Are you an approval junkie? Are you a person who depends too heavily, in spirit, conscience or morale, on the approval of others? How would you even know? These are the questions Lou Priolo tackles in his book Pleasing People. This is a book I read weeks ago and, for some reason, decided not to review. Yet over the weeks I've seen the fruit of reading this book...
The Reformed Expository Commentary Series (08/23/07 - 7 Comments)
An interview with the editors of the Reformed Expository Commentary series. There have been a few times in the past few months that I've mentioned the Reformed Expository Commentary Series. This is a growing series of commentaries written from a distinctly Reformed perspective and targeted at both pastors and laypersons. Having used these commentaries for both research and personal devotions, I am very enthusiastic about them and am anxious to spread the word. To that...
Books Don't Change People--Sentences Do (08/22/07 - 17 Comments)
Teaming with Bob Kauflin to encourage you to dedicate yourself to reading. Yesterday Bob Kauflin wrote about reading (What - Me Read?) in response to a question sent to him by a reader. This young man asked: One facet of your site that is always of interest is your list of books you are currently reading. In addition to your devotional Scripture reading, how much time in a week do you set aside for reading?...
When the Critics Rave, I Weep (08/21/07 - 13 Comments)
Reflecting on the sin of envy. It is healthy, I think, to reflect at times upon the evil of my heart. This seems like a terribly negative thing to do, but I believe it is an important discipline of my spiritual life that I seek to discover where evil lurks within my heart. There are some areas in my heart where, through God’s grace, sin has been routed, pushed back. There are certain temptations that...
Polishing God's Monuments (08/20/07 - 7 Comments)
Delighting in God's sovereignty, even through affliction. I typically post a new book review here every Tuesday morning. But because I was so excited by the book I planned on reviewing this week, I thought I would break with tradition and post this review a day early. Polishing God's Monuments was an unexpected surprise. A book that arrived (as do so many others) without any fanfare, I quickly skimmed the four endorsements and paused only...
Facebook for Oregonians (08/19/07 - 27 Comments)
Just helping a brother figure out Facebook. Josh Harris needs help with Facebook. In fact, he has resorted to begging for friends. It's kind of sad, really. So I thought I would try to help a friend out with this Facebook Survey. Now Facebook is kind of a neat phenomenon. I'm not convinced it has much lasting value but for now it's kind of a fun way of connecting with friends, and especially long-forgotten friends....
Facing Down the Hurricane (08/18/07 - 12 Comments)
The sovereignty of God in the storm. Thabiti Anyabwile, his family and his church are facing down a hurricane. A recent post at his blog is titled What Do You Think About God When Calamity Strikes? and in this post he makes reference to another recent tragedy and two different responses to it. When the 35W bridge in Minneapolis collapsed a few weeks ago, it raised questions of ultimate meaning. When times of tragedy strike...
Book Review - Save Me From Myself (08/17/07 - 20 Comments)
A review of Brian "Head" Welch's Bestselling Autobiography. Claims of celebrity conversions to Christianity are quite common, but so often it seems that the conversions are followed by no lifestyle changes, the most common external proof of a true heart change. So often we hear of the conversions and then see no convincing reason that the person has truly come to know the Lord. Brian "Head" Welch is one of the few celebrities I can...
Reading Classics Together - Holiness (08/16/07 - 67 Comments)
Yesterday I proposed Read the Classics Together--choosing a classic Christian book and reading it in tandem, returning here once a week or so for a bit of discussion. This method, I thought, could provide the accountability many of us need to make our way through some of the classics of the faith. Based on the comments for that post I guess you are in agreement. So let's make it happen! After receiving many suggestions I...
The Unbearable Weight of Hell (08/16/07 - 19 Comments)
Just thinking seriously about hell presses on my soul and presses upon my heart. I find it difficult to think about hell. Though I know that hell is real and that God means for us to know at least something about it, I find it hard to read about it and to ponder it. I'm sure I'm not alone here. Randy Alcorn's book Heaven has over 300,000 copies in print and there are another 200,000...
Reading the Classics Together (08/15/07 - 62 Comments)
If you're like me there are probably quite a few books that you wish you had read and yet, for some reason, you still haven't. There are classics kicking around your desk that you've been meaning to pick up, but to this point you've never actually taken the time to read them. Or perhaps you've read bits and pieces but have never read the whole thing. Maybe it's Holiness by J.C. Ryle or The Freedom...
Trusting the Instruments (08/15/07 - 7 Comments)
Trusting our instruments rather than our sight or instincts. A few months ago I was watching a program called "Mayday," which I believe is actually several other shows all rolled into one and branded for a Canadian audience. It is a show about disasters, and most notably, plane crashes. It sounds morbid, I admit, but I find it interesting (though I'll admit that it has made my children inordinately afraid of flying. They are now...
Quote: Our Pat Little Paradigms (08/14/07 - 5 Comments)
Excerpted from Jim Andrew's Polishing God's Monuments. When the Lord's ways do not neatly conform to our pat little paradigms of what seems (to our fallible minds) right and just, and good and faithful, it says something about human nature that usually the first thought that comes to mind is that something is wrong with God. Somehow the last thing that occurs to us is that God is simply too big for our small boxes....
Book Review - Misquoting Truth (08/14/07 - 5 Comments)
Timothy Paul Jones responds to the fallacies of Bart Ehrman's "Misquoting Jesus." Bart Ehrman's Misquoting Jesus was a surprise bestseller. Released in late 2005, it quickly climbed its way onto the bestseller lists--an interesting feat for a book dealing with textual criticism. Ehrman is a renowned 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...
Virtual Cheating in a Virtual World (08/13/07 - 14 Comments)
Second Life and cheating in a virtual world. Friday's edition of the Wall Street Journal featured an article about Second Life, a popular online digital world. It is inhabited by people like you and me, but people who take on a new identity--a second life. It is, by all accounts, an engaging experience. This is borne out by the millions of people who have signed up for an account (almost 9 million according to the...
A Conference for your Pastor (08/12/07 - 1 Comments)
I wanted to take some space on this blog to make mention of what looks like a really interesting conference. The Expositors' Conference (October 1-2) is hosted by Christ Fellowship Baptist Church (in Mobile, Alabama), the church pastored by Steve Lawson. The conference is targeted squarely at pastors, and especially those who value expository preaching and are attempting to learn how to do it or get better at it. There are only two speakers but...
Wedding Day (08/11/07 - 11 Comments)
Chaos reigns. I'm down here just a little ways out of Chattanooga where, in just a few hours, my little sister Grace is going to get married. It is hot. Deathly hot. Even the Atlantans seem to be reeling from it. People have gathered from far and wide. Members of our family have travelled in from Ottawa, Toronto and even as far afield as Vancouver. Many of us have rented a series of cabins in...
Book Review - Do I Know God? (08/10/07 - 3 Comments)
A review of Tullian Tchividjian's new book. There can be no question more important to a person than this one: "Do I know God?" Those who do know Him have the privilege of being adopted into the family of God and being assured of an eternity in His presence. Those who do not have no such privilege and no such hope. In America the vast majority of people claim to be Christians and claim to...
Seeking Correction (08/09/07 - 17 Comments)
The value of inviting and pursuing correction. A couple of days ago I wrote a short article called Her Good or Mine. The purpose of the article was simple: to ask whether I really try to help my wife seek after godliness or whether instead I try to help her seek after my own selfish goals. Do I try to help her become ever more conformed to the image of Christ or do I selfishly...
TDoSD: Another Endorsement (08/08/07 - 11 Comments)
A couple of nights ago I received a new endorsement for The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment. As I mentioned the first time an endorsement came in, I will continue to share these because, in many ways, I feel that this book was a community effort as readers of the site prayed for me, encouraged me, proofread the book (in a few cases), and generally made it all possible. This third endorsement is courtesy of Dr....
My Best Friend's Wedding (08/08/07 - 24 Comments)
Nine years ago, on this very day, my best friend got married. It was one of the first weddings I had ever been to and I remember it well. It was a beautiful wedding, I thought, exactly the kind I might have planned. It was simple but dignified, homespun but not cheap. The mother of the bride had not only arranged all of the arrangements and bouquets, but had even grown the flowers, having planned...
Book Review - The Dawkins Delusion? (08/07/07 - 7 Comments)
Richard Dawkins's The God Delusion is a mega-seller, having been a long-time fixture on the New York Times list of bestsellers. Easily the world's most prominent atheist at this time, Dawkins is becoming still more popular and gaining a wider and wider voice. Just recently he has introduced his "OUT" campaign which seeks to convince atheists to come out with their beliefs and to stop hiding in shame. He is leading the charge for society...
Book Review Updates (08/07/07 - 1 Comments)
This is your weekly notification of the reviews I've added to Discerning Reader. This week I've written four reviews and Scott Lamb has contributed one as well. The reviews are as follows: From Alister McGrath comes The Dawkins Delusion?, a rather brilliant response to Richard Dawkins's bestselling The God Delusion which I reviewed last week. McGrath is probably one of the Christians best-suited to write a response and he does not disappoint. If you've read...
Her Good or Mine? (08/06/07 - 44 Comments)
Asking myself why I want her to change... I have been thinking about this subject for a while now. I've even tried to write about it once or twice with decidedly poor results, causing me to give up and put it aside for another day. I'm going to give it another shot today and hope it works out better. It was probably a month ago, or sometime around then, that I found myself faced with...
Ten New or Redesigned Features (08/05/07 - 29 Comments)
I wrote about my site yesterday and I'm going to do so again today. Please forgive what must appear to be narcissism. I don't plan on posting about it again for a while after today. But because I added several new features in yesterday's redesign, I wanted to introduce them to you and show you how they can make your life easier and can make all of your wildest dreams come true. That may be...
Site Upgrades and Updates (08/04/07 - 66 Comments)
The site gets its annual design update. The upgrade went fairly well, as these things go. If you are still seeing the old site or are seeing a messy hybrid, trying hitting "Refresh" in your browser a couple of times. That should clear things up. Whenever I change the look of the site I am always asked why (and tend to receive plenty of negative feedback as well!). There are a few reasons for this...
Reformed Expository Commentary (08/03/07 - 9 Comments)
Don't be scared away by the title. After all, commentaries are not only for pastors. So read on! I do not have an extensive collection of commentaries (though, for a guy who has only preached once, I'm doing alright, thanks primarily to my father trimming down his library). But of the volumes I do have, among the ones I've enjoyed the most are titles in the Reformed Expository Commentary series. These are not the...
The Porn Myth (08/03/07 - 14 Comments)
A feminist leader affirms what the Bible has been telling us all along. New York Magazine recently featured an interesting article called "The Porn Myth." Written by feminist Naomi Wolf, it was first printed in a 2003 edition of the magazine but is as timely today as ever. I'll say from the outset that her article is just a little bit graphic at times, but only because Wolf deals with the pervasiveness and power of...
Wrestling with Evolution (08/02/07 - 92 Comments)
Christians are accustomed to treating evolution as an account of the world's origins that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever and something that a person could only believe in the absence of God or in the absence of faith. But this is not quite fair. There are now many Christians--Christians who treasure the Bible and who affirm the truths of the historic Christian faith--who do believe that the evidence for evolution is too compelling to ignore....
Interview - Mark and Stephen Altrogge (08/01/07 - 20 Comments)
Would you like to win a great new CD? If so, get reading! Today I'm featuring an interview with singers and songwriters Mark and Stephen Altrogge. And at the end of it all I'll be giving away three copies of their new CD. Mark Altrogge is Senior Pastor of Sovereign Grace Church of Indiana, PA, a position he has held for over twenty five years. Mark has written numerous worship songs that have been published...
