Believers in Judgment (02/05/10 - 12 Comments)
Recently a reader of this wrote me to ask if I had ever written anything dealing with believers and the final judgment. I quickly realized that I had not and thought that today would be a good opportunity to remedy that. So here is a brief look at what believers can expect in the final judgment. There are several principles we need to keep in mind as we begin. There will be a final judgment...
iPad: The Greatest Disappointment in Human History (01/28/10 - 89 Comments)
Yesterday I sat and watched liveblog coverage of the long-awaited announcement from Apple. To no one's great surprise, they unveiled their newest device, the iPad. While everyone knew this tablet device was coming, everyone had wondered exactly what it would be. Apple has high standards when it comes to devices like this one and I, for one, was prepared to be amazed. Alas, I was disappointed. iDisappointed, even. I'm ready to declare that the iPad...
They Were Ready (01/25/10 - 6 Comments)
I figure that I've earned the right to occasionally re-post a past favorite article when circumstances so dictate (hey, it's my site!). I'm doing that today. I wrote this one a couple of years ago and was thinking about it yesterday while sitting on a plane in the pouring rain. ***** At four o’clock in the afternoon of August 2, 2005, I was just a few minutes into a long online training session with a...
Letters to Luke (III) (01/18/10 - 27 Comments)
As you know, I've been participating in a short exchange of letters with Luke Muehlhauser who blogs at Common Sense Atheism. Here is where we've been so far: Luke’s First Letter to Me My Reply to Luke Luke’s Second Letter to Me My Second Reply Luke's Third Letter to Me And here is my third and final letter. ***** Luke, I guess this brings us to the final letter in our brief exchange. I have...
Neil Postman on the Earthquake in Haiti (01/14/10 - 19 Comments)
Yesterday, as an aspect of researching the book I'm working on, I read (re-read, actually) Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves To Death. The timing was interesting, coming as it did just one day after the horrifying earthquake in Haiti. Postman's book deals with media in an age of entertainment and I found many of the lessons he teaches in the book immediately applicable to the situation in Haiti. Let me summarize some of them. Our television...
Letters to Luke (II) (01/04/10 - 29 Comments)
As you know, I've agreed to participate in a brief and public exchange of letters with Luke Muehlhauser who blogs at Common Sense Atheism. Here is where we've been so far: Luke's First Letter to Me My Reply to Luke Luke's Second Letter to Me Here now is my second reply. ***** Dear Luke, Thank you again for your letter of December 22. I apologize that it has taken me some time to reply. The...
Good, Evil and the Ring of Power (12/30/09 - 17 Comments)
If you've read this blog for a while, I guess you know that I'm a fan of The Lord of the Rings. I'm not one of those Tolkien fanboys who is going to react with offense when you get a fact wrong. Rather, I'm a fan of a good story and it's beyond dispute, I think, that in The Lord of the Rings Tolkien has crafted an epic story. I mentioned recently that I've been...
The New Paganism (12/28/09 - 19 Comments)
Today, the second to last day of my vacation, I offer this little reflection on Bruce Waltke’s Old Testament Theology. It is a massive book and more than a little intimidating, but still very much worth the read. After six introductory chapters, Waltke turns to Old Testament theology proper in a chapter entitled “The Gift of the Cosmos” and here, as we might expect, he discusses God’s work as creator. He argues here that it...
Framing the Debate (12/23/09 - 24 Comments)
In The Marketing of Evil, author David Kupelian disusses how so many of the social ills we see in our society have not merely happened, but have been actively marketed and promoted by men and women with specific, unbiblical agendas. One pearl of wisdom which Kupelian repeats throughout his book is that the person who frames the terms of a debate almost always wins that debate. In other words, the person who is allowed to...
The Backstory (12/22/09 - 12 Comments)
I don't often watch the extra features included on DVDs these days, but a while back I must have been bored, because I sat and watched a couple of hours of extras for a series I enjoy. I was interested to learn that the creators of this show, before they began creating episodes, spent a long time crafting the backstories of the main characters. For each of these characters they created a whole history including...
Letters to Luke (I) (12/21/09 - 29 Comments)
Not too long ago I received an email from Luke Muehlhauser who blogs at Common Sense Atheism. He introduced himself as "a former Christian who now writes one of the most popular atheism blogs on the 'net," and asked if I would be interested in a brief exchange of letters. This is not the first time I've been asked if I would be interested in such a thing and always I've said, "no." But this...
God Is With Us (12/12/09 - 0 Comments)
One of the things I enjoy about blogging is that a blog is, in a sense, a living media. It is a reflection of my life, of what I am thinking of at a certain time or in a certain place. Occasionally I go back and read something I wrote years ago and post it again, offering new reflections on it or even just leaving it as-is. Such is the case today as I began...
My Top 9 Books of '09 (12/07/09 - 22 Comments)
Every year, sometime in December, I begin to think about all the books I read that year, trying to determine which ones I liked the best and always wondering just how many I actually read. Every year I'm disappointed to find that I haven't kept very good records so I really do not know how many books passed through my hands (my estimate this year would be between 100 and 150). Fortunately, because I review...
The Manhattan Declaration (11/25/09 - 101 Comments)
Last week saw the release of The Manhattan Declaration, a document crafted by Chuck Colson, Robert George and Timothy George and signed by a long list of Evangelical, Catholic and Orthodox leaders. I have not been able to gauge the interest in the Declaration or whether it has had an immediate impact. But I have seen a bit of buzz about it through the Christian blogosphere. Today I want to address it, even if only...
Great Truths (10/23/09 - 9 Comments)
If you were one of the four million people to read the bestselling book Freakonomics, you will pretty well know what to expect from the long-awaited sequel SuperFreakonomics. It has five chapters, each of which stands on its own and each of which ties varied economic data into some kind of a cohesive whole. It is just as interesting as its predecessor and sticks very closely to the formula that made the first book such...
Outgrowing the Need for Grace (10/21/09 - 13 Comments)
Last night was one of those nights where the kids kept me up for pretty much the whole thing. This morning I tried to do some writing but my brain was still clearly lying in bed. Therefore I am going to post something I wrote a couple of years ago; it is a topic that has been in my mind a good bit lately and I hope you can benefit from it. It's no secret...
New Commentaries & Reference Books (10/15/09 - 7 Comments)
While I write many book reviews, the majority of these reviews cover titles that are written on a popular level. Rarely do I look at reference material or commentaries. Yet I do receive many such books and today I want to mention some of the more notable ones that have come across my desk recently. The Acts of the Apostles by David G. Peterson (The Pillar New Testament Commentary) - With this huge addition to...
Teachers, Watchmen, Gatekeepers (10/14/09 - 6 Comments)
Earlier this year I was asked to prepare a talk on families and technology. I was to speak to a group of adults, mostly parents of teenagers, and address issues related to digital technology. I was pleased with the challenge and was reasonably happy with the final result. As I prepared that talk I began to think about the role of parents in the media consumption of their children. I turned to the Bible and...
Chasing Delight (10/02/09 - 6 Comments)
I went for a walk this morning, and pretty much had the town to myself, it seemed. Few people were out and about at 5:30 in the cold, dark, pre-dawn. This was the first time this year I've had to wear a coat while walking and the first time I've been able to see my breath misting the air around me. Winter is fast approaching. I was thinking, as I walked, about Proverbs 11:1. It...
Two Great Barriers to Faith (10/01/09 - 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 to find the name of this condition and I think it must be "systemic sclerosis." "Dermatology Online Journal" describes it this...
