With the Old Breed (01/31/09 - 10 Comments)
Aileen is away for the day and I'm at home with some sick children. So we're sprawled out on the couch and instead of doing my usual reading, I'm kicking back with an old favorite, With the Old Breed by Eugene Sledge. Sledge's memoir is probably the best Second World War memoir I've ever read (and I've read a few). I first encountered it studying military history in university and have read it a few...
My iPology (01/30/09 - 68 Comments)
Some light-hearted fare for a Friday... Among friends, family and perhaps even readers of this site, I have achieved the reputation of being something of an Apple-hater; that is, a hater of all things Mac. MacBooks, iMacs, Mac Pro's--I have often spoken out against all of them. They are overpriced, underpowered, toys for yuppies or for people with thick-rimmed glasses and soul patches--people who just take themselves far too seriously. They're computers for followers, not...
Reading Classics - Mere Christianity (VII) (01/29/09 - 32 Comments)
Today brings us to our final reading in C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity. We've gone through it quite quickly but this has worked well, I think, as the book lends itself to a quick reading. This week we come to the final pages--chapters seven through eleven of Book 4. There was not a whole lot of discussion last week, but the consensus seemed to be that this is not the strongest section in the book. Lewis...
On Being Weak (01/28/09 - 14 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 terrible and 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...
Book Review - Fearless Pilgrim (01/27/09 - 10 Comments)
Faith Cook is beginning to make her mark as a Christian biographer. While she has compiled short biographies of hymn writers and other noteworthy believers, more notably she has completed several lengthy biographies of such subjects as Selina, Countess of Huntingdon; Lady Jane Grey; and William Grimshaw. And now, in her latest book, Fearless Pilgrim, she chronicles the life of John Bunyan. It is interesting that the best-selling biography of Bunyan continues to be Grace...
Prayer as Duty and Delight (01/26/09 - 30 Comments)
At Grace Fellowship Church we've been praying for something big and we've been praying it for quite some time. We want a meeting place of our own. It's not that there is anything inherently wrong with the school we meet in now, but more that we can foresee how our own building would be beneficial to the church and to the community. Oh, and we want the building to be free. We're quite a small...
A Prayer for the Lord's Supper (01/25/09 - 9 Comments)
Today is widely regarded as the best Sunday of the month at Grace Fellowship Church. We gather in the morning for our regular morning service but afterward, instead of going our separate ways, we enjoy a potluck fellowship lunch. Following that, we have a brief second service that culminates in the celebration of the Lord's Supper. I thought this was an appropriate prayer for any of us who are preparing to enjoy Lord's Supper on...
The Unwavering Resolve of Jonathan Edwards (01/24/09 - 8 Comments)
In 2006, Reformation Trust published Steven Lawson's Foundations of Grace, the first volume in a promising series titled "A Long Line of Godly Men." Though the original publication schedule called for a new book every year or two, the second volume, Pillars of Grace has been repeatedly pushed back and is now listed as a November 2009 release. However, while we've been awaiting that title, we've been treated to two volumes in a companion series...
The Christian Lover (01/23/09 - 12 Comments)
Marriage is under attack in our day; there is little doubt about it. We need only look to the divorce rates among professed Christians to see that believers have been far from immune from the spirit of this age. In his new book The Christian Lover: The Sweetness of Love and Marriage in the Letters of Believers, Michael Haykin says that "reading expressions of love from the past can be a helpful way of responding...
Why Are We Striving To Make Abortion Unthinkable? (01/22/09 - 34 Comments)
This is a guest post from John Ensor. ***** Today I join hundreds of thousands in Washington, D.C., in the annual March for Life to publicly lament the death of 50 million preborn children and to pray for the day when abortion becomes unthinkable. In doing so, I acknowledge the resistance, even offense, taken by many by asserting that abortion is the moral issue of our day. I am familiar with the claim that asserts...
Reading Classics - Mere Christianity (VI) (01/22/09 - 11 Comments)
Today we come to our sixth (and second-to-last) reading in C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity. This means as well that we have come to the fourth and final book that makes up Mere Christianity. And I think we are beginning to see why Lewis is known more as an apologist than a theologian. Discussion Book Three, "Christian Behaviour" was, I think, Lewis at his best. I enjoyed each of the twelve chapters and thought Lewis was...
Freedom in Christ (01/21/09 - 26 Comments)
(Continued from yesterday) My friend and I had taken hours out of our weekend to clean Barb's squalid, rundown house. But then, when she got home, she was angry--very angry. Now there was one thing I neglected to say about Barb. Beside her couch/bed was one of those Rubbermaid containers, the kind with several drawers. Each of these drawers contained an assortment of silk Hermes scarves. Each of these scarves, we later learned, had been...
A Slave to Sin (01/20/09 - 20 Comments)
Barb claimed to be a psychiatrist, but my guess is that she was not a very good one. One day she had asked our friends, her next door neighbors, to help clean up her house a little bit. She was having trouble with her finances and wanted to sell off a few valuable possessions. But first she needed to tidy up some. I volunteered to pitch in. Our friends regarded Barb as more of a...
Take Charge of Your Life (01/19/09 - 25 Comments)
There may be some who will get no further than the cover or even the title of Take Charge of Your Life. There on the cover is the smiling face of the author, rather a rarity for a book that is actually worth reading. And that title sounds like it may just be the title of a book by Dr. Phil or Joel Osteen. And yet at the top are these words by John MacArthur:...
What It May Cost (01/18/09 - 13 Comments)
Yesterday I was reading Michael Haykin's new book The Christian Lover (review coming soon) which is a compilation of Christian love letters. Well, all but one. This is a remarkable letter sent from Adoniram Judson to John Hasseltine, the father of Ann, the woman he wished to marry. In this letter he asks John for Ann's hand, but, as he intends to head to Burma to serve as a missionary, he is forthright in his...
Light Fare: Which Pixar Film is Best? (01/17/09 - 46 Comments)
Here is some good, light fare for a Saturday afternoon. A few weeks ago we found, on sale, the complete Pixar collection (not including Wall-E). We have had fun going back in time and watching each of these movies. I still remember going to see Toy Story when it was in the theaters and marveling at the brilliant animation--that kind of computer animation was completely new at the time. And then came A Bug's Life...
Searching for the Spiritual Gifts (01/16/09 - 14 Comments)
In recent days I have received several emails dealing with spiritual gifts. Unfortunately, due to constraints on my time, I've been unable to spend a lot of time answering these. Today I want to spend just a few moments at least sharing some basic biblical teaching on the spiritual gifts. Much of this is drawn from my book The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment where I have an entire chapter dealing with gifts in general and...
Reading Classics - Mere Christianity (V) (01/15/09 - 20 Comments)
We're continuing to make our way through C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity having reached the final chapters of the third book (out of four). We actually have only a couple of weeks left in this book. Compared to some of the ones we've covered in the past, this one has gone by very quickly. But the easy reading is, thankfully, in no way an indication of the value of the content. Discussion This week we covered...
Book Review - The Little Boy Down the Road (01/14/09 - 7 Comments)
I don't often post reviews two days in a row, but today you'll need to bear with me. I was somewhat surprised but rather pleased to find The Little Boy Down the Road in my mailbox one morning. It was the first I had heard of the book. I was drawn to it by its pastoral cover and its simple premise--"Short Stories and Essays on the Beauty of Family Life." As the subtitle says, this...
It's Not Fair! (01/13/09 - 8 Comments)
A couple of months ago I was having one of those mornings. I was in a grumpy mood to begin with and was grumbling as I headed downstairs to find that the children's lunches remained unmade. With just a few minutes before they had to be out the door and on the school bus I set to work on one of my least favorite routine jobs. As I did so I grumbled, "It's just not...
Don't Let Me Lose the Wonder (01/12/09 - 26 Comments)
I kind of feel like I should be screaming in joy and wonder right now. Like I should just scream out "I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M DOING THIS! THIS IS AMAZING! THIS IS AWESOME! CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS?!"Just a few short hours ago I was in my home town of Toronto, on the shores of Lake Ontario. And now I am 1,000 miles to the south, rapidly approaching the Gulf of Mexico. Just moments ago I...
Memorizing Scripture (Transition Week) (01/11/09 - 2 Comments)
Those of us who are participating in the "Memorizing Scripture Together" program have come to the close of our second long passage. Those who have followed along from the beginning should now have stored away in their hearts and minds both Psalm 8 and Psalm 103. To those who have managed to do one or both, congratulations! I told you that you weren't too old... I know there are some who have not quite finished...
Poignant (01/10/09 - 8 Comments)
I'm not sure exactly why it is, but this letter just tears me up. I've come across it a few times now, and every time I hear or read it, it affects me deeply. It's a letter from Lt. Col. John Butler of the 5th Marine Division and was written to his son, John Jr.. It was one of many letters sent from father to son while dad was far away, fighting in a terrible...
The Greatest Hindrance to the Gospel Today (01/09/09 - 31 Comments)
Some time ago I mentioned that I had been asked by a magazine to submit an answer to this question: "What is the greatest hindrance to the gospel today?" Since the magazine has now been published, I can print the answer at my site. So here goes... You know the oft-told story, I am sure. G.K. Chesterton, along with other prominent authors of his day, was asked by The Times to answer this question: "What's...
Reading Classics - Mere Christianity (IV) (01/08/09 - 28 Comments)
This morning, after a lengthy holiday break, we return to C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity in our effort to read together some of the classics of the Christian faith. After two short and preliminary sections (which were actually first published as short books) dealing with "Right and Wrong as a Clue to the Meaning of the Universe" and "What Christians Believe.", we are now in the heart of Lewis' classic. And I think we are beginning...
Horrible Self-Congratulatory Conformist Liberalism (01/07/09 - 107 Comments)
A few days ago somebody posted at Amazon a rather unique review of my book. Though he gave the book only one star out of five, I was far from upset or outraged when I read it. I was more perplexed. In fact, I didn't quite know what to do with the review and thought maybe I'd post it here to see if someone can explain it to me. Because, frankly, I'm confused. The author,...
Book Review - A Short Life of Jonathan Edwards (01/06/09 - 2 Comments)
Ask those who love biography and ask those who admire Jonathan Edwards and you will find the jury split on which biography best tells the life of Edwards. Some will vote for Iain Murray's Jonathan Edwards: A New Biography while others will opt for George Marsden's Jonathan Edwards: A Life. Most will say, rightly, that you cannot go wrong with either one; both are excellent and both are well worth reading. Several years after the...
A Word about Free Will (01/05/09 - 83 Comments)
Today I want to step into dangerous territory and discuss free will. This is a massive topic with implications that stretch to almost every part of the Christian faith. I want to look at just one small part of it. I want to deal with a statement I've heard and read time and again. I came across this most recently when reading C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity. "Free will," he says, "though it makes evil possible,...
A Blog Is Born (01/04/09 - 26 Comments)
Continued from yesterday and the day before. And so it was that I found myself an entrepreneur--the owner of my own company. The story of this little company cannot be separated from the story of this blog. I've told the story of this blog's early days, but will tell it again here. In September of 2002 I decided, rather on the spur of the moment as I recall, to begin my own web site. I...
Effectual Worrying (01/03/09 - 21 Comments)
Continued from yesterday... It was almost seven years ago that I was laid off and started my own company. I began without money and without loans. Since that time we have never lacked for anything important. There have been times where we have had to be frugal to get by, but God has always provided. It is rare, I think, to receive such a dramatic and instantaneous answer to prayer. God had clearly orchestrated that...
An Answer to Prayer (01/02/09 - 24 Comments)
In April of 2002 I was bored. Not just a little bored either, but mind-numbingly, depressingly, discouragingly bored. Having recently been laid off from a job I had held for several years, I was now working at a new job where I was system administrator at a small company in downtown Oakville. Though the pay was good and the office's location was great, the job itself was terribly drab. It was repetitive and boring--there was...
Resolutions (01/01/09 - 14 Comments)
Some years I make new years resolutions; some years I don't bother. This year I haven't sat down and narrowed in on one or two things I'd consider resolutions. Instead I am going to continue on a trajectory I began several months ago--a trajectory leading toward control and simplicity. In a wired, digital world, I've too often felt like technology owns me and drives me instead of the other way around. I've started to try...
