The Bookends of the Christian Life (03/31/09 - 8 Comments)
I met Bob Bevington a couple of years ago. He and I both somehow ended up at a youth conference and we began to chat while walking from the venue to a nearby hotel; we were the only adults around so we must have naturally gravitated toward one another. We were surprised to learn that we were both under contract to write a book--I was writing The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment while he was working...
The Cross He Bore - Strengthened to Suffer (03/31/09 - 7 Comments)
This is the third day of our thirteen days spent reading The Cross He Bore by Frederick Leahy. Today's text is from Luke 22:43: "And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him." In this chapter Leahy writes about the angel who comforted Christ and shows that the angel not only brought comfort, but that he strengthened Christ for the greater pain and torment he was about to endure. "The angel's presence served...
To Be Full of God (03/30/09 - 15 Comments)
According to a new "Video Consumer Mapping" study by Ball State University, Americans aged 65 and older spend an average of 420 minutes per day in front of a television screen. 420 minutes per day. Let that sink in for just a moment. That is seven hours; seven full hours. Every day. On average. That means that half of the days it would be more than seven hours. Is that three hours in the morning,...
The Cross He Bore - Prayerful Submission (03/30/09 - 4 Comments)
This is day two of our thirteen-day trek through Frederick Leahy's The Cross He Bore. Today Leahy looks to Jesus' words of submission to the Father. "My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless not as I will, but as you will" (Matt 26:39). Here is a favorite quote: ***** How clearly the true humanity of Christ is seen in Gethsemane, more so than in much of our standard dogmatics!...
The Cross He Bore - Man of Sorrows (03/29/09 - 7 Comments)
Over the next thirteen days, I will be reading one chapter each day of Frederick Leahy's book The Cross He Bore: Meditations on the Sufferings of the Redeemer. I know that many of you will be reading along as well. My plan is simply to post a favorite quote or two, or perhaps a small reflection on the chapter. I will then open it up for discussion if you have something you'd like to add....
The Means of Relating to God (03/28/09 - 14 Comments)
I've been reading a new book by Jerry Bridges and Bob Bevington. It is titled The Bookends of the Christian Life. I read it some time ago when it was in manuscript form (as I was asked to write a blurb for it) but I am reading it again for review purposes, now that I've received a printed copy. I should have a review of the book ready to go for Tuesday. For now, though,...
Free Stuff Fridays (03/27/09 - 2 Comments)
This week's sponsor is Matthias Media. This mission of Matthias Media is "To serve our Lord Jesus Christ, and the growth of his gospel throughout the world, by producing and delivering high-quality, Bible-based resources." And they do produce some great resources. Speaking of which, there are five prizes to win this week. Each of the winners will be sent a package containing: Six Steps to Reading your Bible DVD (Retail $24.99) Six Steps to...
Reading "The Cross He Bore" (03/26/09 - 6 Comments)
Easter is fast approaching and, as you may remember, I thought it would be both fun and worthwhile to read a book together as we prepare to remember the Lord’s death and to celebrate his resurrection. The book that always come to mind this time of year is Frederick Leahy’s The Cross He Bore. This is a series of thirteen meditations on the sufferings of the Redeemer, beginning with Gethsemane and ending in the outer...
Reading the Classics - Real Christianity (IV) (03/26/09 - 9 Comments)
We continue today with our effort to read through William Wilberforce's Real Christianity. As you know, this book seeks to help the reader discern true faith from false beliefs. This week we come to the third chapter, "Inadequate Conceptions of God and of Christian Behavior." Incidentally, if you are interested in hearing a bit about "Reading the Classics" you can listen to the latest Boundless Show podcast. I was a guest on the show to...
My GPS Leads Me Astray (03/25/09 - 18 Comments)
For Christmas Aileen and I each received a little bit of money and found that, when we combined it, we had just enough to buy a GPS for our car. This is something Aileen has wanted for some time now, so we decided to go ahead and buy one (a Garmin Nuvi if you must know). There is something just a little bit comforting about having the GPS stuck to the windshield of the car,...
John Calvin (Christian Biographies for Young Readers) (03/24/09 - 6 Comments)
This is the year of John Calvin. In celebration of the 500th anniversary of his birth, many ministries are holding conferences to discuss his life and impact and many Christian publishers are releasing biographies of the man who did so much to form the Christian faith and the Western world. Reformation Heritage Books has taken a unique route by producing a biography targeted at children from ages 7 to 10. Written by Simonetta Carr and...
The Ears of the Deaf (03/23/09 - 37 Comments)
Last weekend I enjoyed participating in the Ligonier Ministries National Conference, both as a blogger and an observer. It was a joy to gather with almost 5,000 other Christians so we could spend three days focusing on the holiness of God. This marked my third time going to this conference and each one has proven valuable to my knowledge of God and my love for him. This one may well have been my favorite, at...
Longing for Home (03/22/09 - 2 Comments)
We're on our way home. We have not been away for too long, but already we are more than ready to be back in our home, back in our natural context. We're ready to be where we most want to be. Our vacation was great, of course. We got to see some of the United States, we got to see family and friends and Aileen and I got to get away for a couple of...
Ligonier Conference - Robert Godfrey (03/21/09 - 6 Comments)
The Ligonier Ministries National Conference is drawing to a close. We have come to the final day and began with a message from Dr. Robert Godfrey who preached on "The Holiness of God and the Cross." He began by saying that even as Christians we tend to have a trivial view of sin which turns sinners into naughty kids and God into an indulging grandfather. We like to sin, God likes to forgive, so what's...
Ligonier Conference - Thabiti Anyabwile (03/20/09 - 5 Comments)
Late this afternoon we heard from Thabiti Anyabwile on "Cosmic Treason: Sin & the Holiness of God." He began by joking that his name is Swahili and roughly translated means "suffering for Jesus in the Cayman Islands." And then he got down to business. He read Numbers 25 and divided his exposition of this chapter into four sections. He wanted to use this passage to make some observations about sin as cosmic treason. The horrible...
Ligonier Conference - Alistair Begg (03/20/09 - 1 Comments)
This morning Alistair Begg preached on "The Breath of the Almighty: The Holy Spirit" and used as his text John 16:5-15. I jotted down some notes... The nature of this topic, he said, makes it virtually horizonless. Considerations of any doctrine, but particularly this one, that are not grounded within the controls of the Bible itself, may lead to all kinds of flights of fancy. There has been as much confusion within evangelicalism about the...
Free Stuff Fridays (03/20/09 - 6 Comments)
This week's sponsor is christianaudio.com. It seems fitting that, as I blog the Ligonier Ministries National Conference focusing on The Holiness of God that we would give away some copies of the audio version of Sproul's classic book by the same title. The Holiness of God has sold almost 200,000 copies since it was first released in the 1980s. It proved an instant classic on the awesome nature of God. James Montgomery Boice said...
Ligonier Conference - R.C. Sproul (03/19/09 - 9 Comments)
The subject of God's holiness has been a theme at Ligonier Ministries since its infancy and it is good to revisit that theme this year, one year before Sproul's book The Holiness of God reaches its twenty-fifth anniversary. And who better to introduce the subject and kick of the conference proper than Dr. Sproul? He preached tonight from Isaiah 45:1-8. This is one of the strangest portions of divine revelation found anywhere in Scripture. At...
Ligonier Conference - Q&A (03/19/09 - 5 Comments)
The "John Calvin" Mini-Conference wrapped up with a Q&A session featuring the four men who had delivered addresses. It was moderated by John Duncan. This is roughly how it went... Why is Calvin still important 500 years later? Ferguson - because he was really the first great biblical exegete. Other theologians made a mark here and there, but none so great as Calvin. He had a genius for being to capture what the text was...
Ligonier Conference - Sinclair Ferguson (03/19/09 - 2 Comments)
After a rather tasty lunch we gathered again, this time to hear Sinclair Ferguson speak about "The Doctrines of Grace." He began by reading Ephesians 1 and said that no man has had a greater impact on his thinking than John Calvin. When we speak of the doctrines of grace, we tend to think about five particular distinctive and controverted doctrines that we find within the realm of Reformed theology. Calvin's theology and the...
Ligonier Conference - Al Mohler (03/19/09 - 22 Comments)
The 2009 Ligonier Ministries National Conference begins today. Though the conference proper does not kick off until after dinner, the Pre-Conference, "John Calvin--Celebrating a Legacy" began bright and early. This mini-conference features messages from Al Mohler, Steven Lawson, Sinclair Ferguson and Ligon Duncan. They will each speak one time and will also participate in a panel discussion. Al Mohler began with this reflection: the legacy of John Calvin is now represented by a half millennium...
Reading the Classics - Real Christianity (III) (03/19/09 - 8 Comments)
This is a slightly abbreviated version of my usual "Reading the Classics" post. I am in Orlando and about to begin blogging the Ligonier Ministries National Conference. I am going to need to head to the church in just a few minutes. So I will to leave it to the other participants in this effort (that's you!) to add a little bit more detail about the contents of this chapter. For now, here are just...
Picking Cotton (03/18/09 - 10 Comments)
In July of 1984, when Jennifer Thompson was a twenty-three year old college student, a man broke into her apartment while she slept and raped her at knifepoint. She was eventually able to escape from him and later identified her attacker as Ronald Cotton. Though Ronald insisted that he was innocent, he was taken to court and, primarily on the basis of Jennifer's identification of her assailant, sentenced to a life behind prison bars. Eleven...
Book Review - Christ and the Future (03/17/09 - 20 Comments)
Cornelius Venema's The Promise of the Future, published in 2000 by Banner of Truth, has been hailed as the most important major Reformed study in biblical eschatology since Anthony Hoekema's The Bible and the Future (published in 1972). It is not coincidental, I am sure, that Venema is a former student of Hoekema. The Promise of the Future was expanded from a series of articles serialized in The Outlook magazine. Now Christ and the Future...
Toronto Pastors Conference: Building Healthy Churches (03/16/09 - 0 Comments)
I dedicate a fair amount of attention on this blog to conferences. This is the first time I've done so for a conference my church is hosting. We are thrilled to announce that registration for the 2009 edition of the Toronto Pastors Conference is now open! If you are a pastor or a church leader-or just interested in knowing how to serve to build Christ's church-we would love to have you join us on June...
The Disappearance of My Youth (03/16/09 - 19 Comments)
A few years ago I was asked to submit an article to a local magazine--an article dealing with the "-ism" of my choice. I decided to write about ageism, a subject that had been on my mind at the time. I recently saw that the Christian Post is is republishing a series Dr. Mohler wrote around the same time, one he titled "Do Not Cast Me Off in the Time of Old Age." This seemed...
Scripture Memory Wallpaper - Romans 14 (03/15/09 - 6 Comments)
Last week I offered the first of a series of wallpapers to coincide with the Scripture Memorization effort some of us are enjoying. This week we are moving to a new passage of Scripture and hence I wanted to offer you a wallpaper to go along with it. Our new passage is going to be (to no one's great surprise) Romans 14 (and the first seven verses of Romans 15). This will be our last...
Dislike of Dogma (03/14/09 - 16 Comments)
It has been a bit of a theme in my life lately--the timeliness and relevance of words spoken or words written many years ago. Such is this case with this quote from the pen of J.C. Ryle, who wrote about the dislike of dogma that was so powerfully present in his day and age. Here is what Ryle had to say, words that could as easily be written about our day: [Dislike of dogma] is...
Free Stuff Fridays (03/13/09 - 9 Comments)
I'm on my way to Chattanooga, Tennessee today, to spend a bit of time with my family. Next week I'll head to Orlando and bring live updates from the Ligonier Ministries National Conference. But for today we've got some free stuff to give away. This week's sponsor is P&R Publishing. They have just released Keith Mathison's From Age to Age: The Unfolding of Biblical Eschatology. " Using the narrative method of biblical theology, From...
Reading the Classics - Real Christianity (II) (03/12/09 - 12 Comments)
This morning brings us to week two of this round of Reading the Classics Together. We are reading William Wilberforce's Real Christianity. Last week we covered the introductory matter, leaving us this week to read through the first chapter. I am going to provide just a few introductory thoughts and then invite your comments, questions or further discussion. Discussion William Wilberforce's A Practical View of the Prevailing Religious System of Professed Christians, in the Higher...
A Worn Wiper (03/11/09 - 19 Comments)
Every now and again I give myself a writing assignment. Typically I write about whatever is on my mind, but occasionally, as a way of attempting to not always take the easy way out, I give myself an assignment. Yesterday I took my car to the mechanic and knew I had a couple of hours to kill while sitting in the waiting room. So I decided I'd just start writing and see what happened. A...
A Question about Advertising (03/10/09 - 53 Comments)
I want to say a word about advertising on the Internet. And then I want to ask you a question. I know that Tuesday is typically the day I post a book review but, unfortunately, with all the home repair and renovations we've been doing these past couple of weeks, my reading time has not been what it usually is. I hope to have a review later in the week. In the meantime, let's talk...
Christians and Accountability (03/09/09 - 31 Comments)
Today I want to say a word about Christians and accountability groups or accountability partnerships. I am not sure if Christians have always spoken as much of accountability as we do today or if this has been a happy result of organizations such as Promise Keepers. I guess I have not been an adult Christian long enough to know. I am convinced there is great benefit in Christians pursuing accountability relationships, at least in some...
The Wings of Prayer (03/08/09 - 2 Comments)
While Charles Spurgeon has justly gone down in history as "the Prince of Preachers," he was also a man who prayed very powerfully. Tony Capoccia has gone to the trouble of updating just a few of Spurgeon's prayers, removing some of the antiquated language and replacing it with language that is a bit more familiar to us. Though these prayers are clearly geared to corporate prayer, they are valuable even to individuals as we seek...
Scripture Memory Wallpaper - Romans 13 (03/07/09 - 18 Comments)
As you know, I've been enjoying memorizing passages of Scripture with readers of this site. To this point we have finished Psalm 8, Psalm 103 and Romans 12. We are hard at work on Romans 13. I thought it might be valuable to offer wallpapers for your desktop that tied in to the memorization program (though even if you are not participating you may enjoy them). I had a graphics designer come up with...
Free Stuff Fridays (03/06/09 - 6 Comments)
I am a little bit late posting this. Please accept my apologies; I got busy with other things and forgot all about it! Because I am late posting it, I will extend the giveaway until tomorrow at noon. This week's Free Stuff Fridays sponsor is Lewis & Roth. They are offering fifteen prizes, each of which will include four books! It is an Alexander Strauch prize pack. Each of the fifteen winners will receive...
When Technology Outpaces Morality (03/06/09 - 29 Comments)
On Wednesday I posited that endless choice brings us endless discontentment. While marketers may try to assure us that a consumer with more options is a happier consumer, evidence seems to indicate that more options mostly make us increasingly miserable. Speaking personally, I can attest that this is true. I don't want to disparage choice as if being forced to choose is somehow wrong. But plain experience shows that infinite choice does not bring about...
Reading the Classics - Real Christianity (I) (03/05/09 - 20 Comments)
Today, as part of the Reading Classics Together effort, we begin looking at the next classic of the Christian faith--William Wilberforce's Real Christianity. We've gone from C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity to Wilberforce's Real Christianity. It's nothing more than coincidence. If you are interested in reading along with us, there is still plenty of time. Over the next seven weeks we will be reading this classic of the Christian faith, one chapter per week, and posting...
Endless Choice, Endless Discontent (03/04/09 - 34 Comments)
A couple of summers ago we were a day away from leaving for vacation when my cell phone went missing. For a few days we looked for it passively, keeping half an eye out for it as we went about our business in the house. We tried calling it to see if we could hear the ring; I guess the battery was flat. The phone didn't show up. So for one morning we tore the...
Finding God in The Shack (II) (03/03/09 - 55 Comments)
This review is a few weeks overdue. It was almost a month ago that I reviewed Roger Olson's Finding God in The Shack and at that time I had hoped to review Randal Rauser's book of the same title within a week. Life being what it is and how it is, the deadline slipped. Today I am attempting to make amends. And so we come to Finding God in the Shack (II). This book comes...
Mom Shovels the Drive (03/02/09 - 51 Comments)
Mom always shovels the driveway. It's a phenomenon I've noticed time and again. We live in a neighborhood that has a lot of single moms. I suppose the statistics dictate that most neighborhoods have more than their fair share of single moms. But ours seems to have an unusual amount. I think it is related to the housing prices here. We live in (quite literally) the most affordable housing in town. It is one of...
The Richard Wurmbrand Story (03/01/09 - 8 Comments)
The Torchlighters video series is a series of animated DVD's dedicated to "Highlighting the honor, integrity and life-changing experiences of those well-known and little-known Christian men, women and children who in response to God's call, dedicated their lives to a life of whole-hearted commitment and passionate service to Jesus." It is a production of Christian History Institute along with International Films and Voice of the Martyrs. The series recently expanded to six videos with the...
