The Heaviest Obligation (06/30/08 - 11 Comments)
A.W. Tozer has been in the news lately (or in the blogosphere at any rate) following the release of A Passion for God, a biography of the man written by Lyle Dorsett. Dorsett dealt honestly with some shortcomings in Tozer’s character and I, like many readers, was surprised (and perhaps even shocked) by some of what I learned. Yet even as I’ve thought about these things, I’ve found that my high respect for Tozer remains....
Memoirs - A Best Friend (1983) (06/29/08 - 4 Comments)
Several times a day a train rumbles along the tracks that cross our street—Eureka Street—just a few houses up from our home at number thirty-eight. It is a passenger train, one made up of a long string of double-decker cars. In the morning it shuttles commuters from Markham and Unionville into downtown Toronto and in the evening it brings them home again. In the morning it drives with the engine at the front; in the...
Book Review - Heaven Without Her (06/28/08 - 5 Comments)
I came very close to tossing this book away. With so many books coming my way these days, I need to move assess them quickly, determining which are worth a closer look and which are not. I cannot read them all. In this case, I saw the cover, I saw the title, I skimmed the back and thought “not likely.” But then I noticed that the author had included a little note inside. There she...
Memoirs - Speech Day (1989) (06/27/08 - 6 Comments)
Over the past few weeks I’ve been writing down some memories. It has been a fun process of just thinking about the past and recording some significant events and moments. While I’ll probably post them mostly on weekends, I thought it would be fun to post this one today. I see this as a testament to God’s grace in my life that so much as changed. It is the worst day of my life. Today...
Reading Classics Together - The Next Classic (Round 4) (06/26/08 - 101 Comments)
To this point the “Reading Classics Together” effort has gone very well, at least by my assessment. We’ve read J.C. Ryle’s Holiness, John Owen’s Overcoming Sin and Temptation and A.W. Pink’s The Seven Sayings of the Saviour on the Cross. We’ve had hundreds of people participate by reading the books together and discussing them each week. All along we’ve been reading some of the classics of the Christian faith—books many of us wish to read...
Book Contest: J.I. Packer Edition (06/25/08 - 17 Comments)
Since last week’s little contests went over well, I thought I’d try another one. The style is similar—here we have a list of 21 quotes. Each of these quotes are endorsements for a book and each is written by J.I. Packer (quite the prolific reader and endorser!). As I am flying to Vancouver for a meeting tomorrow, it seemed to me that Packer would be an appropriate subject. Your task is to send me a...
Book Review - Francis Schaeffer: An Authentic Life (06/24/08 - 3 Comments)
I think it is safe to say that, of all theologians contemporary or ancient, few have had as profound an affect on my life as Francis Schaeffer. Though I’ve read little of what he wrote, though he died when I was only a young child, and though I have never heard even one of his sermons, I know that my faith has been shaped by him. He was, after all, a major influence on my...
Betraying God in Worship (06/23/08 - 21 Comments)
Only on rare occasions can I bring myself to buy greeting cards. When it is Aileen’s birthday or when it is our anniversary, I either tell her how I feel (not something I’m particularly good at most of the time) or I buy a blank card and fill it with my own words. Or occasionally, to my shame, I forgo to card altogether. For some reason it just seems fake, disingenuous, to give her a...
Book Review - The Snake Charmer (06/22/08 - 2 Comments)
The Snake Charmer is one of two books I plucked from Dr. Al Mohler’s suggested reading list for dads. It is a book that is rather unlike any I’ve read before. It is a biographical account of the life of Joe Slowinski, one of the world’s great herpetologists. Slowinski dedicated his life to studying snakes and, in particular, poisonous snakes. In 2001, Slowinski led an expedition of biologists and botanists as they traveled through the...
The Church Bulletin Project (06/21/08 - 22 Comments)
A short time ago I was trying to help a friend redesign the bulletin for our church. In need of inspiration, I took to the web and began looking for examples of bulletins. I was rather surprised to see that there was really not a whole lot available out there. The majority of sample bulletins I dug up were the Christian equivalent of Microsoft Word’s clip art collections—covered with awful art that someone thought would...
A Rainey/Mutz Update (06/20/08 - 9 Comments)
Earlier today Dennis Rainey sent the following email to some of his friends. I share this because it is just such a wonderful testament to God's grace in the lives of these people. Only Christians can have such hope even in the face of devastating adversity. On Thursday, Miss Molly made her way to her new home in heaven around 6:15 pm. Her last day with us began with a pretty average sunrise, but the...
Proverbs 31 2K1 (06/20/08 - 32 Comments)
"An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels." So begins what is undoubtedly the most famous (or most notorious) chapter of Proverbs. Written by King Lemuel, this chapter, the thirty-first, includes a poem praising the excellent wife. It has provided fodder for shelves of books and for countless sermons. You know it well, I am sure. Though the verses are most often preached and applied to women, within the context...
Pray for the Mutz and Rainey Families (Updated) (06/19/08 - 20 Comments)
You may well know of Dennis Rainey of FamilyLife (he is executive director and co-founder of FamilyLife and the daily host of the radio program Family Life Today). He has authored or co-authored several books. Rainey's daughter Rebecca recently gave birth to Molly Ann, her first child. Molly was unexpectedly born with a life-threatening medical condition. The following are a few emails explaining the situation and asking for prayer. As the father of young children,...
Contest Wrap-Up (06/19/08 - 7 Comments)
Two days, two contests. Both were a lot of fun, I think, and I hope to do a few more in the same vein. I started doing a bit of research yesterday on one that I’m sure is going to be unique and hopefully a little more difficult than the last ones. Book Cover Contest I thought I was being tricky yesterday with the “Book Cover” contest, but it seems that many people had little...
Reading Classics Together - The Seven Sayings (Chapter 7) (06/19/08 - 5 Comments)
We have come to the final chapter of the The Seven Sayings of the Saviour on the Cross, the third classic we’ve read together here. It has gone very quickly! If you have not been reading along with us it is obviously too late to start now, but stayed tuned for the next book we’ll read together (I will announce it here in a couple of weeks). Summary The seventh chapter looks at the final...
Book Covers: A New Contest (06/18/08 - 9 Comments)
Yesterday we had some fun with the First Three Lines contest. I had anticipated low participation and low accuracy. It turns out that a whole lot of people sent in their answers and fully 34 of them got all of the answers correct. Most of these confessed to having harnessed the power of Google to do so. I knew that Google would come into play but hadn’t thought that all fifteen quotes were available out...
Book Review - Escape from the Deep (06/18/08 - 1 Comments)
I have often heard it said that no subject in history (with the possible exception of Jesus) has received as much attention in the written word as the Second World War. Even today, more than sixty years after it drew to a close, the war continues to fascinate. We still see a constant stream of books, movies and video games drawing upon that worldwide conflict. This makes good sense, I suppose. With countless millions involved...
The First Three Lines: A Contest (06/17/08 - 24 Comments)
Yesterday, rather on a whim, I went through a few of the books on my shelves and jotted down the first three lines from each of them. Well, in most cases it was the first three lines—in a few I did more or less. And then it occurred to me that it might be fun to make a contest out of this. Most of these books are either classics or bestsellers. Most are the kind...
Seven Reasons To Study the Church's Past (06/16/08 - 15 Comments)
Though I work primarily as a web designer, and despite receiving training in another area of the computer field (network administration, for those who may be interested), my most significant education was in history. It was history that I studied while in college and it is, in many ways, still my first love. As much as I love reading Christian living and spiritual growth books, I’m always eager to dive into my next history book....
Working Man Hands (06/15/08 - 7 Comments)
Several years ago I wrote a little Father’s Day article for my dad and called it “Working Man Hands.” This year I took the opportunity to lengthen and improve the article and then submitted it to Boundless Magazine. They were pleased to print it at their site. I thought you might enjoy it. It goes like this: Like most little boys, I idolized my father as a child. You would have had a difficult time...
Book Review - Why Good People Do Bad Things (06/14/08 - 12 Comments)
[Please excuse the back-to-back book reviews—I’m trying to clear out a bit of a backlog!] Though it was weeks ago that I completed reading Why Good People Do Bad Things, it is not until today that I’ve been able to write a review. A book like this presents a challenge to me as a reviewer. After all, my worldview, my entire way of thinking, seems fundamentally opposed to that of the author. Because her assumptions...
Book Review - The Soloist (06/13/08 - 1 Comments)
In November of 2008 The Soloist will debut on the big screen. Starring Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr. and directed by Joe Wright (Atonement and Pride & Prejudice) it has the makings of a hit film. Before it was a film, The Soloist was a series of articles written by Steve Lopez for the Los Angeles Times. And between the two it is also a bestselling book. It tells of the unlikely meeting and...
Reading Classics Together - The Seven Sayings (Chapter 6) (06/12/08 - 5 Comments)
We are nearing the end of the The Seven Sayings of the Saviour on the Cross and by next week we will be finished. It seems to have gone by very quickly. You can read more about this effort here: Reading the Classics Together. If you have not been reading along with us it is probably a bit too late to start now, but stayed tuned for the next book we’ll read together (I will...
The Priority of Practicing (06/11/08 - 8 Comments)
The term “planned neglect” is one I first encountered around the time that Hurricane Katrina swept over the Gulf Coast. It came to the fore for a time in the media when locals, dismayed at the way the disaster was handled, charged various levels of government with planned neglect, insisting that the city had not been merely killed but had been murdered. Neglect, planned by the government, had led to the death of the city....
Book Review - Lone Survivor (06/10/08 - 8 Comments)
“I tried to get a hold of myself. But again in my mind I heard that terrible, terrible scream, the same one that awakens me, bullying its way into my solitary dreams, night after night, the confirmation of guilt. The endless guilt of the survivor. ‘Help me, Marcus! Please help me!’ It was a desperate appeal in the mountains of a foreign land. It was a scream cried out in the echoing high canyons of...
You Have Seen Him (06/09/08 - 7 Comments)
For the past few months our pastor has been using Sunday mornings to lead us through the gospel of John. It has been some time since I’ve been able to sit through an expositional series on one of the gospels and I am enjoying learning ever-more about the life and ministry of Jesus. Yesterday we came to John 9, the chapter which is often under a heading such as “Jesus Heals a Man Born Blind.”...
A Few Notable (But Unreviewed) Books (06/08/08 - 1 Comments)
Today I wanted to draw your attention to a few notable books…but books I have not had opportunity to read or review in full. Reformation Heroes Reformation Heroes: A Simple, Illustrated Overview of People Who Assisted in the Great Work of the Reformation. This is a beautiful, hardcover, coffee table book that provides an overview of many of the heroes of the Reformation. It is written by Joel Beeke and Diana Kleyn and targeted at...
What Father's Day Is Really About (06/07/08 - 6 Comments)
A couple of months ago my son got his first job—a paper route. Three times a week he loads a stack of Oakville Beaver’s in a wagon and drags it around the neighborhood. The Saturday and Wednesday papers are typically pretty small. Fridays, though, are when all the fliers are released upon the local population. There are typically six or seven of them—the regulars: Best Buy, local grocery stores and maybe Staples and a sports...
Book Review - A Passion for God (06/06/08 - 33 Comments)
A.W. Tozer is a man whose ministry has fascinated me. A man who held closely to biblical, Protestant theology, he was also a man who loved the old Catholic mystics. He had little formal education, yet had the ability to hold the most educated of men and women at rapt attention. He had a single-minded devotion to Christ and the highest respect for the Scriptures. Reading A Passion for God has only increased my fascination...
Reading Classics Together - The Seven Sayings (Chapter 5) (06/05/08 - 9 Comments)
This morning those of us who are reading some Christian classics together are going to be looking at the fifth chapter of A.W. Pink’s The Seven Sayings of the Saviour on the Cross. You can read more about this effort here: Reading the Classics Together. Before we begin, do allow me to apologize for not posting about the chapter last week. When I go to conferences my intentions are always good, but somehow I can...
9 Things I Learned About God from "Planet Earth" (06/04/08 - 10 Comments)
Planet Earth is widely regarded as the greatest nature or wildlife series ever produced. Says David Attenborough in the opening moments, “A hundred years ago, there were one and a half billion people on Earth. Now, over six billion crowd our fragile planet. But even so, there are still places barely touched by humanity. This series will take you to the last wildernesses and show you the planet and its wildlife as you have never...
Book Review - Boys Adrift (06/03/08 - 14 Comments)
Something strange is going on with boys today. My memories of boyhood revolve around the great outdoors—running through fields with hockey stick guns, climbing trees, playing any and every sport, getting sunburns, heatstroke, ticks, sprained ankles and all the other bumps and bruises guaranteed to come to an active, rambunctious boy. Though today I live in a neighborhood filled with boys, rarely do I see them out and about; rarely do I see them engaging...
Encrimsoned (06/03/08 - 6 Comments)
Crimson is a word, a color, that figures prominently in the Christian faith. The Bible teaches that each of us is born into this world encrimsoned, covered with the blood required of those who sin against God. And without further blood, further encrimsoning, there can be no remission of this sin. Blood cries for blood and that Scripture is clear that every person will die encrimsoned in either their own blood or the blood of...
Oppositional-defiant Disorder (06/02/08 - 18 Comments)
What follows are three quotes from Leonard Sax’s book Boys Adrift. I am going to post a full review of the book soon, but for now suffice it to say that if you have boys or you are a boy (or a young man), you need to read this book! “Forty years ago, even thirty years ago, there was no shame in a young man choosing a career in the trades. Beginning in the early...
God Is With Us (06/02/08 - 11 Comments)
For the past few weeks I’ve been transfixed by a word. That may sound a little bit strange but it is exactly what’s happened. It keeps coming to mind and I keep pondering it, trying to gain a sense of its meaning. Though the word appears just three times in Scripture, twice in Isaiah’s prophecy about the coming of Christ and once in Matthew in the fulfillment of that prophecy, it’s a word we have...
Book Review - 23 Minutes in Hell (06/01/08 - 16 Comments)
I suppose it was inevitable that, with a bestselling book describing an author’s “90 Minutes in Heaven,” one would soon follow detailing a journey to hell. Sure enough, Bill Wiese follows Don Piper’s 90 Minutes in Heaven with his own 23 Minutes in Hell. And interestingly, if you visit Amazon.com you’ll see that you can get a deal if you buy both of these books together. Clearly they are being read and appreciated by the...
