Bonus January Giveaway: Final Results (01/29/05 - 0 Comments)
Thanks to all who participated in the giveaway of Amazing Grace: The History and Theology of Calvinism. Participation once again exceeded all expectations.
Unfortunately, there can be only two winners in this giveaway. Before I announce their names, I would like to let you know that Monergismbooks.com, which sponsored this giveaway, has offered a great discount to all contest participants who purchase Amazing Grace: The History and Theology of Calvinism. Anyone ordering the DVD set will receive free shipping (domestic or international) as well as another great bonus that you will find edifying. You'll have to visit the site to read about it! The deal will not last long, so don't dawdle!
1st Annual Evangelical Blog Awards (Help Wanted) (01/28/05 - 0 Comments)
I generally don't go for all these blog awards, but because I consider myself a responsible member of the blogosphere and enjoy the Evangelical Underground, I will play along. Evangelical Underground is hosting the 1st Annual Evangelical Blog Awards. My site has been nominated thus far in the category of "Best Designed Evangelical Blog." In order to maintain my place in that category, I require nominations. After all nominations are in place, the top 5 in each category will eligible to receive votes for the awards. Therefore, I am supposed to get my readers to send their nominations to ensure I am eligible for the award. Got all that? Great. So here is how you do it:
Send an email to eblogawards@gmail.com and nomimate this blog. You could send an email with a subject of Nomination and this in the body:
Spam-Proof Your Email Address (01/24/05 - 0 Comments)
Spam is annoying. Really annoying. What is especially annoying is when you post your email address on your web site and those spammers send their bots to automatically glean your site and scrape all those addresses into their ever-growing databases. We all hate it. What I see more and more often these days is people posting little work-arounds like "myname att challies dott com". That is not terribly effective. Plus, ideally, we'd like people to be able to just click on the link and have Outlook or another mail program open up. I think I have found a solution. Or, to give credit where credit is due, I think my friend Dave has found a solution. A simple little JavaScript seems to keep those programs from automatically finding your address. Here is how I do it:
The "Twixters" (01/24/05 - 0 Comments)
Al Mohler's column for today is entitled "The Generation That Won't Grow Up" and deals with what TIME Magazine, in their latest issue, is calling the "twixers." He quotes Lev Grossman, the author of the article, as saying, "In the past, people moved from childhood to adolescence and from adolescence to adulthood, but today there is a new, intermediate phase along the way. The years from 18 until 25 and even beyond have become a distinct and separate life stage, a strange transitional never-never land between adolescence and adulthood in which people stall for a few extra years, putting off the iron cage of adult responsibility that constantly threatens to crash down on them. They're betwixt and between." "Twixters," then, refers to those people betwixt and between being teenagers and adults.
This is a phenomenon I have long been aware of, but had never formulated quite so thoroughly. Mohler has been aware of this for several years too. He writes, "For several years, I have been warning audiences that America now faces a generation of young people unwilling to grow up, assume adult responsibility, marry, and start raising families." When I think of these people, I think of the show Friends which showed five friends who refused to grow up.
Top 40 Radio Examined (01/23/05 - 0 Comments)
I grew up in a comfortable little Christian subculture. I have gone to church just about every Sunday since I was born, I attended Christian schools all the way through high school and have sat through countless Catechism and Sunday school classes. I can't count the number of times I had to sit through sermons and presentations about the evils of popular music. I remember being exhorted not to listen to Twisted Sister and Van Halen and so many other big bands of the 70's and 80's. I always shrugged-off these presentations. From the time I was a teenager I preferred Christian rock to mainstream, so listening to most of them was hardly an issue anyways. I often noticed that the bands we were warned about had been in the limelight years before and really were not at all relevant to my life.
This morning at church I noticed an invitation to attend a Media Awareness Seminar at a nearby church. They provided a link to the organization which provides these seminars and I decided to visit their web site. There is an interested section on that site where they break down the top 40 countdown from a certain popular radio station. The list is current as of May 18, 2004
"Warnie" Award (01/23/05 - 0 Comments)
Adrian Warnock, of Adrian Warnock's UK Evangelical Blog has just announced the recipients of his second "Warnie" awards and I am glad to say that one of those recipients is me. Adrian is the brain behind The Blogdom of God and is a man with his finger on the pulse of Christian blogging. Writing about himself in the third person, Adrian wrote the following: "When asked the reasons for his choice Adrian said "The 21st Century Reformation does a fantastic job of looking at how the church should look in 2005, and I have found absolutely no evidence that he is a neo-liberal. Tim is a man every writer should either dread, bribe or at least send a free book to. He is a tough but fair book reviewer who also finds time to write fantastic blog posts like his one on information overload earlier today. These two guys really ought to be read much more than they are currently."
Adrian asked if I would make an acceptance speech so here goes:
James White on Apologetics (01/21/05 - 0 Comments)
Apologetics is an underappreciated art. Or is it science? Whatever it is, people do not appreciate it as they ought. I suppose it is because apologists seem always to be on the attack, though the reality is generally that they are on the defensive, defending the faith against the inroads of the evil one. A little while back I wrote an article entitled Apologetics 101 where I began with these words: "In recent days I have had a few people take the time to challenge me about their perception that this Web site, and the content of it, are largely negative in tone. As one might expect, I take offense to such comments and would largely disagree with them. I do certainly broach topics that are controversial and may generate difficult discussions, but I do not do so from a desire to be negative or simply go have a good argument." Yesterday James White, one of the foremost Reformed apologists, wrote about this topic as well. You can read the article here...but I am going to quote it in whole:
Bonus January Giveaway: Amazing Grace DVD Set (01/17/05 - 0 Comments)
As promised, I bring to you today the bonus January giveaway. Each month, for as many months as I can convince authors to sign and send their books to me, I will be giving away two copies of a Christian book autographed by the author. Yesterday I was able to give away two copies of Total Truth by Nancy Pearcey. I had intended to do only one per month and to give away only autographed books, but am pleased to be able to offer something different just this once. This giveaway is sponsored by Monergism Books.
There are two equal prizes for this bonus giveaway; each is one copy of Amazing Grace: The History & Theology of Calvinism. Rich in graphics, dramatic vignettes, and biblical analogies, Amazing Grace — The History and Theology of Calvinism features many of the finest reformed thinkers and pastors of our time: Dr. R.C. Sproul, Dr. D. James Kennedy, Dr. George Grant, Dr. Stephen Mansfield, Dr. Thomas Ascol, Dr. Thomas Nettles, Dr. Roger Schultz, Pastor Walt Chantry, Dr. Joe Morecraft, Dr. Ken Talbot, Pastor Walter Bowie and Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.
Tozer Speaks Out (01/17/05 - 0 Comments)
Yesterday afternoon I wrote about discernment and the importance of walking with the wise. If a Christian wants to gain discernment, he must seek wisdom, and to find wisdom he must walk with the wise. Steven Curtis Chapman wrote a song called "Walk with the Wise" which contained these words: "I've learned to look for answers in those born before my time / As I listen to them tell me what they've learned in their lives / I talk to friends with understanding much deeper than my own / And gain wisdom beyond measure I could never find alone."
With that in mind, I would invite you to read a column recently written by Steve Camp. To be truthful, he did not write the column as much as he compiled it from the writings of A.W. Tozer. Tozer, as you may know, died in 1963 after a lifetime of ministry in Chicago, Toronto and around the world. He was known as a 20th century prophet and that title has become more meaningful in the years after his death. The mark of one who truly understands the Word of God is that his words remain true long after his death. Tozer's words ring as true today as they did fifty years ago.
January Book Giveaway: Final Results (01/16/05 - 0 Comments)
Thanks to all those who participated in the Total Truth giveaway. The giveaway closed at midnight last night and the winners have now been selected. Each of the two winners will receive an autographed, hardcover copy of the book.
So without any further ado, I would like to announce the winners. They are:
Bob Rouse & Geoff Clarke.
Congratulations to both of you!
For those who did not win this time and are still interested in this book (which I highly recommend), I would encourage you to read about it at totaltruthbook.com where you can find endorsements, reviews and sample chapters.
Church Web Sites - Luxury or Necessity? (01/15/05 - 0 Comments)
Last week Ellison Research released a report on the use of internet technologies amongst churches. The results were consistent with the findings and predictions of the Barna Research Group three years earlier. The research found that while 90 percent of Protestant pastors use the internet for church related business, only about half of them pastor churches that have a web site of their own. The study also found that large churches were much more likely to have a web site than smaller ones. You can read the results of the study here.
This study was of interest to me because I own a web design company and have done extensive work for church and ministry sites. Generally my work for churches has involved overhauling existing sites that were terribly outdated and ineffective. I have had many small churches contact me to inquire about having me build a web site, but very few of these tiny ones have been willing to pay for a site, even when I drop my prices as low as I can go. I do try to do as much charity work as I can, but I do need some jobs to pay the bills, so have had to leave many of them without a site. Clearly budget is a concern for smaller churches. Many people do not know that hosting for web sites is now affordable as annual fees of $100 or less are becoming increasingly common. This is less than most churches spend on either Yellow Pages or newspaper advertising.
Reading List Overload (01/14/05 - 0 Comments)
I am a firm believer that just as one cannot have too many good friends, so one can never have too many good books. Having said that, I must admit that I have far more books than friends, and even then my book collection is quite small. I was speaking with someone this week who has had the opportunity to browse through the personal library of Al Mohler who apparently has a collection of some 50,000 volumes. Charles Spurgeon had a great library, but it pales in comparison at "merely" 12,000 volumes. Of course he lived in a day where there were fewer books and they cost more. He also had the advantage of a photographic memory and many years after reading a book could pull entire quotes from most of them at a moment's notice.
Warren Wiersbe once wrote "My books are my tools, and I use them. I cannot afford to be a book collector; neither the budget nore the diminishing shelf space permits such a luxury. I enjoy my library. Each book is a friend that converses with and teaches me. Better to have fewer of the best books than to clutter your shelves with volumes that cannot serve you well.
The Way To Go (01/11/05 - 0 Comments)
Death is inevitable. When my time comes, I can hardly think of a better way to go than Rev. Jack Arnold, pastor of Covenant Presbyterian Church outside Orlando, Florida. He was in the pulpit preaching and died in mid-sentence of a sermon after saying "And when I go to heaven..." And just like that, he fell down dead. Several members of the congregation who had medical training attempted to revive him, but it seems he had died instantly. He was 69 years old.
Immediately prior to collapsing he had quoted John Wesley who said, "Until my work on this earth is done, I am immortal. But when my work for Christ is done ... I go to be with Jesus." Clearly his work on this earth was complete and the Lord decided that it was time to call him home. As his associate pastor said, "It was traumatic, but how wonderful it was he died in his own church among the people he loved the most."
I would consider it the highest honor to be in the midst of proclaiming the Word of God when my time comes.
Columbia House To Sell Pornography (01/10/05 - 0 Comments)
Columbia House, that company we have all subscribed to at least once which sent us 12 CDs or cassettes for nothing but the exorbinant cost of shipping and handling (as long as we bought six more in the next two years), has decided to expand its product base to include pornography. While the business will be handled by a subsidiary and under a different name, (Hush), it is fully owned by Columbia House and is in partnership with Playboy. The company promises that they will not offer Hush products to their current client base. Instead, Playboy will handle the marketing, sending information to their direct mailing list which numbers in the millions.
If there was any doubt as to the pervastion of pornography in our society, this should further silence those doubts. Pornography has become mainstream. Already a multi-billion dollar industry, pornography is expanding at a startling rate.
Awarded! (01/07/05 - 0 Comments)
This week I received the joyous news that this very site has received two design awards, one prestigious (in my view) and the other nearly unheard of.
We'll start with the nearly unheard of award - The Canadian Web Award. Apparently the Canadian Web Awards are is awarded to Canadian sites that are unique, user-friendly, informative and that provide consumer benefit to Canadian visitors. It seems they have not yet created a banner I can display on my site. I won the "Very Good" award which is the middle of their three awards. I appreciate the award, but it clearly is not based on design as some of the other winners have, and do not consider this boasting on my part, outdated designs (and I'm being polite here). So I am glad to have the award but just don't feel it is all that meaningful.
The other award is one I am far more excited about. It is a Plastic Pilot award. It may sound like a silly name, but I have long found that they do award only very well-designed sites. The vast majority of their awards tend to go to sites that are Flash-based, so I was both surprised and gratified to see that my purely-HTML site snuck through. As a winner I get to display the Plastic Pilot logo which I will do with gratitude and pride. For the geeky Web designer in me, this award is akin to a singer winning a Grammy. I am thrilled! "I'd just like to thank all the little people that made this possible..."
January Book Giveaway: Total Truth by Nancy Pearcey (01/05/05 - 0 Comments)As promised, I bring to you today the January book giveaway. Each month, for as many months as I can convince authors to sign and send their books to me, I will be giving away two copies of a Christian book autographed by the author.
This month I am proud to offer two copies of Total Truth by Nancy Pearcey. Nancy is best known for her previous book How Now Shall We Live co-authored with novelist Harold Fickett and Chuck Colson. She has also previously written The Soul of Science. In 1991 she became the founding editor of “BreakPoint,” a daily syndicated radio commentary program, and continued as the program’s executive editor for nearly nine years, heading up a team of writers. Under her leadership, the program grew into an influential organ for teaching a Christian worldview perspective on current events, with an estimated weekly audience of five million. She was also policy director and senior fellow of the Wilberforce Forum, and coauthored a monthly column in Christianity Today for five years. You can read more about Nancy and Total Truth here.
Here is a description of what you will find in Total Truth:
John MacArthur's "Hard To Believe" And Lordship Salvation (01/04/05 - 0 Comments)
In August of last year I read and reviewed John MacArthur's book Hard To Believe. While I found the book challenging, well-researched and worthy of recommendation, there was one section I found particularly troubling. I quote here from my review:
"On page 93 MacArthur writes, "Salvation isn't the result of an intellectual exercise. It comes from a life lived in obedience and service to Christ as revealed in the Scripture; it's the fruit of actions, not intentions. There's no room for passive spectators: words without actions are empty and futile... The life we live, not the words we speak, determines our eternal destiny." While I agree that faith and actions can not be separated, to say "salvation...comes from a life lived in obedience and service to Christ" is dangerous ground."
Clearly there was something strange going on. At the time I wrote to Phil Johnson and Grace To You asking what had happened and if this accurately reflects MacArthur's theology.
2005: A Fresh Start (01/04/05 - 0 Comments)
For a few days now I've been mentioning that I will provide some information about what is in the works for this site in 2005. I will put it off no longer and will give you an idea of what you can expect.
Giveaways. You bet. At this very moment there packages of various sizes and weights headed my way from all over the continent. They contain books that I will be giving away at a rate of (hopefully) two per month. I have several well-known Christian authors who have agreed to participate. All of them will first be signing their books before sending them along, so you have a chance not only to get a free book, but to get a free book signed by the author. I am currently deliberating which book to give away first. Once I have decided I will begin the draw, so check back soon for details. I am quite excited about these giveaways as I will be able to share with others some of the books that have meant a lot to me.
Content. This year I hope to write a greater number of more involved articles...
Be Thou My Television (01/02/05 - 0 Comments)
Neil Postman, despite the fact that I have never read his books and (as far as I know) that he made no Christian profession, has had a profound affect on my beliefs. He is best-known for his book Amusing Ourselves To Death where he discusses our culture’s obsession with amusement, and especially, the medium of television. He claims that television is inextricably linked with entertainment and is dangerous outside of that context. He argues that television has such resonance that our ability to take the world seriously has diminished. Postman believes a new ‘worldview’; a new ethos or approach to life has been brought about by the assimilation of television into the culture of the masses. Because of the extent of television’s infiltration into our culture he is unable to precisely measure or even prove this, but it seems equally difficult to disprove.
Several books I have read that have formed my thinking have relied on Postman’s research and analysis. I think in particular of Ashamed of the Gospel by John MacArthur and Whatever Happened to the Gospel of Grace by James Boice. In both of these books the authors argue that amusement has pervaded our culture. Amuse is a word drawn from Greek that literally means not (a-) thinking (muse).
Happy New Year (01/01/05 - 0 Comments)
I spent some time looking for a Scripture passage to post this morning - something that would make for an appropriate reflection as we head into a new year. As I was reading through some other sites I found that another blogger had posted the text of Psalm 90, a prayer of Moses, the man of God. It may perhaps be a strange choice to begin a new year and some would even consider it a depressing Psalm that speaks of the brevity of life and the inevitability of death. Yet primarily it speaks of the power of God, that He is the same yesterday, today and forever. He is the same now as He was in 2004. He is the same now as He was five years ago when we all sat staring at our television screens, wondering if the power would go out and it would be the end of the world as we knew it. He is the same now as He was two thousand years ago when His Son was on the earth and He is the same now as He was the day He brought forth the world by His word.
Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.
Before the mountains were brought forth,
or ever you had formed the earth and the world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
You return man to dust
and say, "Return, O children of man!"
For a thousand years in your sight
are but as yesterday when it is past,
or as a watch in the night.
You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream,
like grass that is renewed in the morning:
in the morning it flourishes and is renewed;
in the evening it fades and withers.
For we are brought to an end by your anger;
by your wrath we are dismayed.
You have set our iniquities before you,
our secret sins in the light of your presence.
For all our days pass away under your wrath;
we bring our years to an end like a sigh.
The years of our life are seventy,
or even by reason of strength eighty;
yet their span is but toil and trouble;
they are soon gone, and we fly away.
Who considers the power of your anger,
and your wrath according to the fear of you?
So teach us to number our days
that we may get a heart of wisdom.
Return, O LORD! How long?
Have pity on your servants!
Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love,
that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,
and for as many years as we have seen evil.
Let your work be shown to your servants,
and your glorious power to their children.
Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us,
and establish the work of our hands upon us;
yes, establish the work of our hands!
