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...
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...
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...
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...
Random Thoughts on Reading (02/26/09 - 18 Comments)
As you might imagine, I receive a good deal of email from people who read this site. Probably the most common questions I receive (other than those mentioning The Shack) deal with books and reading. I guess I've established a reputation as a bookworm and people often ask just how I find time to read all these books, what books I recommend, and whether I've developed a system to help me retain information. Every now...
Snapshots & Screenshots (02/25/09 - 23 Comments)
I have written a lot of articles through the past 6+ years of blogging. Within all of the "every day" have been a few that I consider favorites--articles that, for one reason or another, stick with me even months or years later. I've often thought about collecting some of those together and allowing this to serve as a kind of introduction to the site. I finally had opportunity to do just that. And so I...
A Portrayal of Calvinism (02/11/09 - 53 Comments)
As you may know, I decided to read through both of the Finding God in The Shack books released this month (two books, two authors, one title). Last week I reviewed the first of these (see: Finding God in the Shack (1)) and in a day or two I will review the second. But first, I wanted to share a few quotes from the book. It is not lost on me that the majority of...
The Christian Lover II: Dispatches from the Digital Age (02/09/09 - 12 Comments)
A couple of weeks ago I reviewed The Christian Lover by Michael Haykin, a collection of historical love letters sent from one Christian lover to another. Despite feeling like a bit of a voyeur, spying on private communications, I enjoyed reading these letters, and highly recommended the book. But it got me thinking about my relationship with my wife and whether she and I will leave behind any such tangible evidence of our love for...
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,...
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,...
Books I'll be Reading in 2009 (12/24/08 - 27 Comments)
A couple of days ago I was a guest on a radio program, discussing my favorite books from 2008. At one point the host asked what books I am looking forward to reading next year. I thought I'd share just a short list here. This is based only on books that have been announced or that I've somehow discovered in my online wanderings. As you probably know, 2009 marks the 500th anniversary of John Calvin's...
We Shall be Changed (12/22/08 - 12 Comments)
On Saturday night, Aileen and I joined some friends to take in a performance of Handel's Messiah. And what a performance it was. It featured the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir. It was, in a word, sublime. Conductor Noel Edison clearly understood the piece (I guess I should say "the oratorio") and wonderfully separated gravitas from joy. As the piece moved from prophecy, to the life of Christ, to his death and...
One in a Sea of Faces (12/15/08 - 36 Comments)
The fifth chapter of John presents us with a pitiful scene. It is the Sabbath day and in Jerusalem, gathered around a pool by the Sheep Gate, is a great multitude of men and women. Some of them are lying on the ground, stricken with sores. Others are paralyzed or have shriveled limbs. Still others are blind or lame. All of these people are waiting by the edge of this little pool, for they believe...
Awakening to Grace (12/12/08 - 15 Comments)
There's always an element of frustration when I read the gospels. I read of these men who traveled with Jesus, who followed him month after month, who drank in nearly every word of his earthly ministry. And yet somehow they just did not get it. Somehow the full reality of who he was and what he would do escaped them. It was only in hindsight, only after all was unmistakably clear, only in the book...
My Top 8 Books of 2008 (12/10/08 - 15 Comments)
I'm not quite sure how many books I read this year, but it is probably in the neighborhood of 80-100. I recently combed through the list, looking for the books I read in 2008 that were also published in 2008. And as I did that, I built a list of my favorites. Now do note that these are my favorite books. This is different than attempting to say in some objective manner that these are...
God's Gag Reflex (12/08/08 - 31 Comments)
Read an outside view on Calvinists or Calvinism, and you are sure to read something about God's wrath. The God of Calvinism is a wrathful, vengeful God, boiling over in anger against any part of creation that has turned against him. He is no God of love, this. Sure, he may have some love for his elect, but to the rest of the world he is this angry, brooding presence eagerly awaiting the day of...
10 Tips to Read More and Read Better (11/24/08 - 17 Comments)
When I turned to the readers of this site and asked for questions I could answer or topics I could address, I noted (without much surprise) that many people were interested in the subject of reading. One person sought a basic "Why, what and how of reading Christian books." Others sought advice on how to read more and how to read better. This is a subject I have written about before but I thought it...
Darwin on the Right (11/20/08 - 52 Comments)
This Sunday I'll be preaching on the topic of Creation in an evening series at my church. Our Sunday evening format allows for only short sermons and I am trying to distill the broad topic of Creation down to the most fundamental points. I have no intention of defending Creation against evolution or of refuting the various views among Christians that conflict with the position of my church's leadership (though I am sure some of...
That Shall Be Known... (11/15/08 - 10 Comments)
Yesterday, while reading a book about the history of the English Bible, I came across the story of John Rogers, a Bible translator who worked first with Tyndale and then independently after Tyndale's death. It's a story I've read before and one that is so powerful. Rogers was eventually arrested, tried, and found guilty of heresies against the Roman Church and against the sacrament. Such heresy carried with it the penalty of death and Rogers...
Inequality of Possessions (11/01/08 - 56 Comments)
The American presidential election is almost upon us (even those of us who do not live in the United States). One of the fundamental issues in this election regards distribution of wealth. Many people have become alarmed at Obama's statements about the redistribution of wealth. I think it is useful to provide a Christian perspective on inequality of wealth. To that end, I am posting the seventh chapter of Wayne Grudem's book Business for the...
