Honoring the Semicolon (04/30/08 - 19 Comments)
I guess it is about time the semicolon got its due. Here’s a little excerpt of a book I ran across recently. It is written by Lewis Thomas (whoever that is or was…): I have grown fond of semicolons in recent years. The semicolon tells you that there is still some question about the preceding full sentence; something needs to be added; it reminds you sometimes of the Greek usage. It is almost always a...
April Book Giveaway (04/30/08 - 16 Comments)
The Sponsor This month's sponsor is Reformation Heritage Books. RHB publishes and distributes Puritan and Reformed books. Soli Deo Gloria Publications, which you know as a publisher that has done more than just about any other organization to bring Puritan writings back into print is now under the direction of Reformation Heritage. The Prizes 3rd prize: the Profiles in Reformed Spirituality series Profiles in Reformed Spirituality is a series of books designed to introduce the...
The Light in the Darkness (04/29/08 - 13 Comments)
Mark was determined to die. And in retrospect there was really nothing anyone could have done to stop him. His first attempt came when he was 18 and it left him with scars running the length of his arms. His sister found him sitting calmly in the bathtub, a razor blade lying in the pool of blood. Help arrived in time to save him. When he was released from hospital his parents took him to...
Giving to Those in Need (04/28/08 - 11 Comments)
Over the weekend I read an advanced reading copy of Crazy Love by Francis Chan (a book that is due for publication in May). You may not know the name, but you may well have seen his “Just Stop and Think” movie where he walks along a beach with a surfboard while sharing the gospel. This is Chan’s first book and I really enjoyed reading it. I’ll post a review in the near future, but...
Book Review - Gum, Geckos and God (04/28/08 - 5 Comments)
I don’t think it takes very many years of child raising before every parent realizes that he is in over his head. I am no stranger to this feeling. As I was walking my eight-year-old son to school just last week he turned to me and said, “Dad, why is it that people think killing one another will solve the world’s problems?” My first instinct was that it would be a simple question to answer....
Rain in the Dining Room (04/28/08 - 5 Comments)
I’m not much of a do-it-yourself type. I’m well aware of my limits. You know, I’m pretty comfortable changing light bulbs and painting walls, but beyond that I tend to put a call out to my father-in-law (for low priority jobs) or a paid expert (for high priority jobs). We’ve got a few neighbors who are involved in the trades and I’ve been known to get them to come in to do cabling or minor...
Interview - Justin Reimer (04/27/08 - 2 Comments)
In the past months you may well have heard me mention The Elisha Foundation. This is a foundation I first discovered through my pastor (who is a regular speaker at the Foundation’s annual retreats) and subsequently learned about more when I designed a new website for it. I quickly came to respect what they do and wanted to share with you an interview I conducted with Justin Reimer who founded and still heads up the...
Saturday Miscellania (04/26/08 - 37 Comments)
It’s funny how Saturdays, which used to be the most relaxing day for me, have become so busy. I am coaching Nick’s baseball team this year and we were on the field early this morning for our first practice. This season the kids are staring from the plate to a pitching machine and seeing pitches whistling in at 40 miles per hour. This is a substantial step up from last year’s coach pitch league where...
Book Review - "Do Hard Things" by Alex & Brett Harris (04/25/08 - 11 Comments)
I’ve often reflected on an experience I had when I was studying in college. With a busy semester ahead of me, I decided to take “Death and Dying,” an elective that had the reputation of being an exceptionally easy course (a “bird course” we called it back then). On the first day we arrived in the lecture hall, the professor handed out a reading list and what he assured us were the lecture notes for...
Getting My Share (04/24/08 - 6 Comments)
Lydia Brownback, author and editor extraordinaire, has recently released a couple of books in a new “On-the-Go Devotional” series. Written for women, “On-the-Go Devotionals easily tuck into a purse or gym bag and make great gifts. Each lesson is self-contained, with Scripture and a paragraph or two of teaching that will steer women away from worldly coping techniques, away from themselves and their circumstances, and onto God and their security in Christ.” The first in...
Reading Classics Together - The Seven Sayings (Introduction) (04/24/08 - 24 Comments)
Last year some of the readers of this site began to read Christian classics together with me. The impetus for this project was the simple realization that, though many Christians want to read through the classics of the faith, few of us have the motivation to actually make it happen. This program allows us to read them together, providing both a level of accountability and the added of interest of comparing notes. We spent eight...
The Practice of Trust (04/23/08 - 6 Comments)
Here is another excerpt from James Spiegel’s Gum, Geckos and God. This brief passage deals with how and why we trust God (or fail to trust God). The other day I was sitting in a faculty meeting, trying not to doze off during some committee reports. As I looked around, I mused over how much each of my colleagues understands about his or her discipline. It occurred to me that if there was a single...
The Hardening (04/23/08 - 11 Comments)
Some time ago, no doubt while I was awake in the middle of the night with one of the children, I saw a documentary about some weird disease that causes a patient’s skin to harden. This disease often sets in during childhood and causes the skin to become hard and shiny. I searched around today looking for the name of this condition and I think it must be “systemic sclerosis.” “Dermatology Online Journal” describes it...
Bibleman, Bibleman, Does Whatever a Bible Can... (04/22/08 - 26 Comments)
I recently read Rapture Ready, a new book by Daniel Radosh. The book is subtitled “Adventures in the Parallel Universe of Christian Pop Culture” which probably tells you most of what you need to know about it. The author, a secular liberal, immerses himself in Christian pop culture and uses this book to write about his experiences. It is at times exasperating, cringe-inducing and just plain embarrassing. Here is a brief excerpt to give you...
Book Review - The Courage To Be Protestant (04/22/08 - 17 Comments)
My interest in reading good books came a little bit too late to read David Wells’ four part series of books as they were released (No Place for Truth, God in the Wasteland, Losing Our Virtue and Above All Earthly Pow’rs). I now have the four volumes sitting on my bookshelf and have often thumbed through them wishing I could muster up the motivation to dive into the series. The problem is that I am...
Hearing and Heeding God's Word (04/21/08 - 21 Comments)
Raising children isn’t nearly as easy as my parents made it look. Somehow, when I was a kid, I never really considered that my parents had a tough job to do. Though they had five children, and though we kept them pretty active, I guess it never occurred to me that it was a difficult and demanding task to raise us—not only to keep us fed and clothed, but to train us to be productive...
T4G Roundup (04/20/08 - 6 Comments)
This is my last planned post about Together for the Gospel. I want to use it to provide some final links and information. Then I'm going to move on to other things. Or at least that's the plan for now. T4G Audio & Video Here are links to each of the sermons: Session I Ligon Duncan - Sound Doctrine - Essential to Faithful Pastoral Ministry Download Session II Thabiti Anyabwile - Bearing the Image: Identity,...
Strange Places (04/19/08 - 16 Comments)
Recently I’ve spotted my book in some interesting places. This first picture was one I snapped a short time ago in a bathroom. My book is at least in good company there, sandwiched between titles by Sproul and MacArthur. While I won’t identify the owners of this bathroom, those who know me may be able to read the clues in the monogrammed towels and figure it out. This second photo was snapped by a friend...
T4G - Wrapup (04/18/08 - 13 Comments)
No sooner had the T4G ‘08 conference wrapped up than I jumped in a van with a pack of guys from my church and headed straight home. We made it back to Toronto in pretty good time and with fewer adventures than on the way down. I enjoyed talking to the guys about their impressions of the conference and benefited from debriefing with them. There were lots of laughs and lots of good talks. Though...
T4G - C.J. Mahaney (04/18/08 - 2 Comments)
As with the first Together for the Gospel Conference, the final session of T4G ‘08 went to C.J. Mahaney. He opted to speak from Philippians 1:3 and preached a message that was pastoral in tone—a pastoral message seeking to tend to the souls of pastors. There is no true pastoral ministry apart from proclaiming the gospel and doctrinal precision and in this conference pastors have been challenged by these things. But the ministry also demands...
T4G - The Importance of Books (04/17/08 - 8 Comments)
Here is a quick introduction to the importance of books at Together for the Gospel—and the amusing effects of free books on the pastors assembled....
T4G - Day 3 Photos (04/17/08 - 9 Comments)
Here is another gallery of photographs from the conference. Most of these are from day three of the conference, though a couple are remnants from day two: Worship. C.J. Mahaney preaching… …and preaching some more....
T4G - Discouragement in Ministry (04/17/08 - 9 Comments)
Here is an excerpt from a Together for the Gospel panel discussion with R.C. Sproul. He and the other men discuss the reality that preachers are often dissatisfied with their sermons. It is an illuminating discussion mixed with hilarious quips....
T4G - John Piper (04/17/08 - 4 Comments)
This morning we received the last of the free books. On our seats were copies of Christ & Culture Revisited by D.A. Carson (just printed!), Worship Matters by Bob Kauflin, The Future of Justification by John Piper and one of the smaller editions of the ESV. The first session of the morning featured John Piper who really needs no introduction. He sought to answer this question: How does the supremacy of Christ create radical Christian...
T4G - Book Roundup (04/17/08 - 7 Comments)
One of the most exciting parts of any conference like this one is getting all kinds of free books. I always get in trouble if I do not make note of the books we receive, so to do so I’ll use Amazon’s handy like “carousel” feature. Here is the first batch. I’ll add more later… Amazon.com Widgets Here are the rest of the T4G giveaways along with most of the Band of Blogger book giveaways...
T4G - Ligon Duncan on Sound Doctrine (04/17/08 - 2 Comments)
Here is a brief clip of Ligon Duncan explaining where and how sound doctrine matters…...
T4G - Al Mohler (04/17/08 - 7 Comments)
I received an email earlier today reminding me of a dinner engagement I had forgotten about completely. I agreed to it some time ago and didn’t bring my Outlook calendar with me. It turned out to be a great meal with excellent food and pretty good company too. We returned to the convention center to find a couple of new books: Culture Shift by Al Mohler and the newly published In My Place Condemned He...
T4G - Day 2 Photos (04/16/08 - 3 Comments)
Here are some more photographs from the conference—these ones from day two. Worshiping through song. Worshiping the Lord together. John MacArthur receiving a medallion commemorating 25 years since the release of the first volume of the MacArthur New Testament Commentary series. There are more photos after the jump (i.e. after you click on the link to continue reading). I wanted to be sensitive to those who have slower internet connections…...
T4G - R.C. Sproul (04/16/08 - 15 Comments)
I had a rather long and interesting (but good!) lunch today. A little while ago I read on Thabiti Anyabwile’s blog that he never actually orders at restaurants anymore, but instead asks the server to just get something he or she thinks Thabiti would like. I ate today at an Italian place and really didn’t know what to order. So I just told the server to surprise me (but not with anything containing fish). It...
T4G - A Welcome from Mark Dever (04/16/08 - 0 Comments)
Here is a brief video of Mark Dever welcoming the attendees to Together for the Gospel. He discusses both differences and similarities between the groups attending…...
T4G - Bearing the Image (04/16/08 - 5 Comments)
Here is a brief video from Thabiti Anyabwile’s session where he discussed bearing the image. He spoke of identity, the work of Christ, and the church. Click below to watch and listen…...
T4G - Day 1 Photos (04/16/08 - 9 Comments)
I linked up this morning with the official photographer for the conference. Unfortunately his computer blew up last night and he has been unable to upload photographs. I guess he shouldn’t have relied on a Mac; some people never learn. I did manage, though, to nab one of the memory cards from his camera and I pulled a few photos from it. They are, as you can see, from yesterday evening when C.J. Mahaney introduced...
T4G - Mark Dever (04/16/08 - 7 Comments)
We enjoyed a break of almost an hour and then gathered together again to sing “On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand” and to hear Mark Dever’s session. He discussed the temptation to improve upon the gospel. His talk was built upon five “calls” that are dangerous to the gospel—five ways churches may be tempted to adapt or shrink or expand the gospel message in order to make it more palatable. The First Call -...
T4G - John MacArthur (04/16/08 - 4 Comments)
Day two of Together for the Gospel began early. I assume my experience is typical in that I went too bed too late last night and arose blurry-eyed so I could get some breakfast and make my way to the convention center for 8 AM. Today we will be hearing from John MacArthur, Mark Dever, R.C. Sproul and Al Mohler. We arrived this morning to find on each of our seats copies of The Courage...
T4G - Day One (04/16/08 - 5 Comments)
Here is a little video featuring some of the people attending Together for the Gospel and asking what they are looking forward to at this conference....
T4G - For the Canadians (04/15/08 - 3 Comments)
This is a brief and final reminder to Canadians (or people with an interest in ministry in Canada) who happen to be attending Together for the Gospel. Please remember that we will be meeting together tomorrow evening as soon as the day’s final session wraps up. We’ll meet in room 112 right there in the convention center. We’ll meet for just a few minutes and will focus on networking and building relationships. See you there!...
T4G - Thabiti Anyabwile (04/15/08 - 27 Comments)
After dinner we gathered for the second session and the second panel. Prior to the session we sang “O For a Thousand Tongues” and a new adaptation of “Oh the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus” drawn from “Come Weary Saints,” the most recent project from Sovereign Grace Music. Bob Kauflin has added a chorus which says, “Oh the deep, deep love / All I need and trust / Is the deep, deep love of Jesus.”...
T4G - First Panel Session (04/15/08 - 2 Comments)
Together for the Gospel is a conference that offers many panel sessions. In fact, this year there will be five of them. The first one is the only one that featured only the four leaders of Together for the Gospel. And it began with C.J. explaining why he will be leading the panel discussions this year. The reason is classic C.J.. He is the one, he says, who doesn’t really know anything and who will...
T4G - Welcome & Ligon Duncan (04/15/08 - 6 Comments)
Together for the Gospel ‘08 kicked off at the rather unusual hour of 2:30 PM. Attendance seems to be somewhere in the area of 5500. While registration is open to both men and women, it seems that there is hardly equity. I’d estimate that there are 20 or 30 men here for every woman. As he did at the last conference, Mark Dever opened by giving some prizes to some of the notable guests—the man...
On My Way to T4G (04/14/08 - 17 Comments)
I am on my way to Together for the Gospel. Two vans loaded down with guys from my church (and from a couple of other local churches) are currently heading down the 401 (and then I-75), hoping to arrive on time for dinner in Louisville. As I did at the last conference, I’ll be bringing blog updates your way throughout. I don’t think there is actually a Internet connection in the conference center so I...
Chronicling His Own Failure (04/13/08 - 8 Comments)
Thanks again to everyone who took the time to pray for Michaela and who sent along notes and emails. She was released from hospital yesterday evening and, though she’s still a bit grumpy, she is definitely doing much better. We are very grateful to God! I do believe this is the final excerpt I’ll be sharing from David Wells’ The Courage To Be Protestant (available now at Amazon and everywhere else). As promised, this one...
Book Review - "Mormonism Explained" (04/12/08 - 14 Comments)
Mormonism seems to be on the rise. I read recently that some estimates suggest that by the end of this century there may be close to 300 million Mormons in the world. With the Mormon obsession with proselytizing and with their skill at winning converts, it seems a given that we will hear more and more in years to come about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Once considered little more than...
Friday Miscellania (04/11/08 - 42 Comments)
It has been a tough couple of days. On Wednesday I wrote about the perfect storm of being away from home and returning only to have Michaela (my two year-old daughter) come down with some kind of illness. Well, that illness has progressed and yesterday she was admitted to the hospital. The doctors aren’t quite sure what is wrong with her, though at least they’ve been able to eliminate several awful things. At this point...
Behind Closed Doors (04/10/08 - 34 Comments)
Anonymity and accountability are topics I have returned to several times over the years. They are issues that continues to concern me and challenge me as the internet grows and matures and as my involvement in it increases. A few days ago I posted some other thoughts about accountability (Drawing Out the Infection) and thought this would be a useful follow-up. Admiral Lord Nelson once remarked that “every sailor is a bachelor when beyond Gibraltar.”...
The Perfect Storm (04/09/08 - 19 Comments)
Today was a perfect storm. I spent Monday and Tuesday in Grand Rapids to meet with a client out there and got home yesterday evening. I came home to find Michaela (who is a month away from turning two…can you believe that?) just starting to show some signs of illness. Sure enough she spent the night doing her utmost to keep the rest of us awake while dealing with the inevitable consequences of some kind...
What's In A Name? (04/08/08 - 30 Comments)
Joe Carter recently declared that he would be the last evangelical in America. He was being a little tongue-in-cheek of course, but the point was clear. He thinks the label “evangelical” is a good one and and one worth holding on to. “Naturally, I understand why some of my fellow evangelicals prefer not to be saddled with the label. The negative connotations imbued by both our friends and our enemies have weighted it down with...
Drawing Out the Infection (04/07/08 - 25 Comments)
In my experience there is usually one of the spouses in a marriage that handles the majority of the doctoring and nursing duties. There is one who has the medical knowledge and who knows what to do when a child or spouse is injured or maybe just plain under the weather. There is one who can clean up vomit without having to don a hazmat suit. For my marriage, this person is most definitely Aileen....
King for a Week - Amy's Humble Musings (04/06/08 - 7 Comments)
You know by now that 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…or sometimes just because I really like them. You know as well that I inevitably keep them in place for more than a week. No matter. King for a Week is simply a way of introducing my readers to blogs that they may...
Book Review - "Still Growing" by Kirk Cameron (04/05/08 - 8 Comments)
I missed out on the Growing Pains phenomenon. Because my family had no television while I was growing up, the Seaver family largely passed me by. I caught occasional glimpses of the program but little more than that. It was only recently that I learned the show had propelled Leonardo DiCaprio’s illustrious career. The truth is I know more about Cameron’s post-sitcom career than the years he spent as Mike Seaver, one of television’s best...
Young, Restless, Reformed...and So What? (04/04/08 - 40 Comments)
Scott Lamb is both a friend and a contributor to Discerning Reader. I’m pretty sure he reads even more books than I do and we knew that sooner or later he and I would read the same title at the same time. Sure enough, that happened recently with Collin Hansen’s Young, Restless, Reformed. Because I had written a review of it, Scott decided to focus instead on the story behind the story, so to speak....
The Church Supporting Art (04/03/08 - 20 Comments)
The correlation between this post and the interview I posted earlier is entirely coincidental. This is another brief excerpt from Why We’re Not Emergent and one that I’m posting primarily because it made me laugh. My father, a hard-working landscaper, has often wondered aloud why Christians are so apologetic when it comes to artists. Why do Christians give latitude to artists that they wouldn’t give to anyone who works a simple trade? Well, it seems...
An Interview with Lukas VanDyke (04/03/08 - 10 Comments)
This marks the third interview I’ve completed with artists involved in various disciplines. I first interviewed Max McLean about performance art and then Makoto Fujimura on his abstract art. Today I turn to photography and interview Lukas VanDyke, a photographer I have met at several conferences. Lukas is an exceptional photographer and I enjoyed his responses to these questions. I hope you do too! Tell me a little bit about yourself—who you are and...
Reading the Next Classic Together (Round 3) (04/02/08 - 60 Comments)
Last year some of the readers of this site began to read Christian classics together with me. The impetus for this project was the simple realization that, though many Christians want to read through the classics of the faith, few of us have the motivation to actually make it happen. This program allows us to read them together, providing both a level of accountability and the added of interest of comparing notes. We spent eight...
The Most Hilarious April Fool's Post Ever (04/01/08 - 16 Comments)
I sat down today to write the most hilarious April Fool’s post ever. I had thought about it yesterday and was giggling as I thought about all of the possibilities. But somehow, when I sat down and started typing, it just didn’t work. It was really anything but funny. It was going to be a satirical peek at a segment of evangelicalism. It was ripe with possibilities (or is the proper phrase “rife with possibilities”?)....
Book Review - "Instructing a Child's Heart" by Tedd Tripp (04/01/08 - 7 Comments)
Instructing a Child’s Heart has been a long time coming. It was thirteen years ago that its predecessor, Shepherding a Child’s Heart, was published. It was thirteen years ago that Tedd Tripp published his last book. It was no lost on me that many of the book’s lessons and anecdotes now focus on the author’s grandchildren. Thirteen years is a long time by any measure! Instructing a Child’s Heart is a book that focuses on...
