Quotes Archive
Books and Beefsteaks (05/05/08 - 18 Comments)
Here is a quote from Mortimer Adler, author of the classic How to Read a Book. In this piece he explains the importance of making a book your own. There are two ways in which one can own a book. The first is the property right you establish by paying for it, just as you pay for clothes and furniture. But this act of purchase is only the prelude to possession. Full ownership comes only...
Honoring the Semicolon (04/30/08 - 19 Comments)
I guess it is about time the semicolon got its due. Here’s a little excerpt of a book I ran across recently. It is written by Lewis Thomas (whoever that is or was…): I have grown fond of semicolons in recent years. The semicolon tells you that there is still some question about the preceding full sentence; something needs to be added; it reminds you sometimes of the Greek usage. It is almost always a...
Giving to Those in Need (04/28/08 - 11 Comments)
Over the weekend I read an advanced reading copy of Crazy Love by Francis Chan (a book that is due for publication in May). You may not know the name, but you may well have seen his “Just Stop and Think” movie where he walks along a beach with a surfboard while sharing the gospel. This is Chan’s first book and I really enjoyed reading it. I’ll post a review in the near future, but...
Getting My Share (04/24/08 - 6 Comments)
Lydia Brownback, author and editor extraordinaire, has recently released a couple of books in a new “On-the-Go Devotional” series. Written for women, “On-the-Go Devotionals easily tuck into a purse or gym bag and make great gifts. Each lesson is self-contained, with Scripture and a paragraph or two of teaching that will steer women away from worldly coping techniques, away from themselves and their circumstances, and onto God and their security in Christ.” The first in...
The Practice of Trust (04/23/08 - 6 Comments)
Here is another excerpt from James Spiegel’s Gum, Geckos and God. This brief passage deals with how and why we trust God (or fail to trust God). The other day I was sitting in a faculty meeting, trying not to doze off during some committee reports. As I looked around, I mused over how much each of my colleagues understands about his or her discipline. It occurred to me that if there was a single...
Bibleman, Bibleman, Does Whatever a Bible Can... (04/22/08 - 25 Comments)
I recently read Rapture Ready, a new book by Daniel Radosh. The book is subtitled “Adventures in the Parallel Universe of Christian Pop Culture” which probably tells you most of what you need to know about it. The author, a secular liberal, immerses himself in Christian pop culture and uses this book to write about his experiences. It is at times exasperating, cringe-inducing and just plain embarrassing. Here is a brief excerpt to give you...
The Church Supporting Art (04/03/08 - 20 Comments)
The correlation between this post and the interview I posted earlier is entirely coincidental. This is another brief excerpt from Why We’re Not Emergent and one that I’m posting primarily because it made me laugh. My father, a hard-working landscaper, has often wondered aloud why Christians are so apologetic when it comes to artists. Why do Christians give latitude to artists that they wouldn’t give to anyone who works a simple trade? Well, it seems...
Quote - You Might Be Emergent If... (03/31/08 - 45 Comments)
Have you ever wondered if you are emergent? I know I have! Here is Kevin DeYoung, co-author of Why We’re Not Emergent (By Two Guys Who Should Be) on how you might know if you are emergent… After reading nearly five thousand pages of emerging-church literature, I have no doubt that the emerging church, while loosely defined and far from uniform, can be described and critiqued as a diverse, but recognizable, movement. You might be...
Jerry Bridges Preaches the Gospel to Himself (09/28/07 - 8 Comments)
In his new book Respectable Sins, Jerry Bridges writes about the important discipline of preaching the gospel to yourself every day. Realizing that many people have heard of this discipline but do not know how to practice it, he provides an overview of how he does so. I found it helpful and trust you will too. What could be more important than beginning each day with a fresh understanding of the great work of the...
Atheistic Atonement (09/09/07 - 17 Comments)
Christopher Hitchens weighs in on the atonement and John Calvin. I just finished reading Christopher Hitchens' atheistic screed God is not Great. Demanding the end of all religion and proclaiming that belief in God is harmful to individuals and to society, Hitchens attempts, at least in portions of the book, to mock and even to deconstruct Christian theology. I found his remarks on the atonement to be of particular interest, primarily because the atonement is...
Quote: Our Pat Little Paradigms (08/14/07 - 5 Comments)
Excerpted from Jim Andrew's Polishing God's Monuments. When the Lord's ways do not neatly conform to our pat little paradigms of what seems (to our fallible minds) right and just, and good and faithful, it says something about human nature that usually the first thought that comes to mind is that something is wrong with God. Somehow the last thing that occurs to us is that God is simply too big for our small boxes....
Quote - Dave Harvey on Jane Austen (07/11/07 - 45 Comments)
I am currently reading Dave Harvey's new book, When Sinners Say "I Do". The book is just excellent. I'll provide a review of it shortly, but for now wanted to post a humorous little excerpt I enjoyed: I'm way too masculine to enjoy Jane Austen. Now, I realize that women usually read that as, "I'm not smart enough to get Jane Austen," and I suppose there may be some truth to that. But even if...
About the Bible (06/10/07 - 0 Comments)
Some time ago I was doing some research on the Bible and came across some interesting quotes. I jotted these down and added a few others as I came across them. Each of these really is worth thinking about: "One of the many divine qualities of the Bible is that it does not yield its secrets to the irreverent and the censorious." --J.I. Packer "The Word of God well understood and religiously obeyed is the...
The Nature of News (05/12/07 - 9 Comments)
I continue to make my way, rather slowly, really, through the 20th anniversary edition of Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death. Though written some 22 years ago, it continues to stretch my mind and to help me think about this visual culture we live in. In a chapter dealing with "the peek-a-boo world" he discusses the changing concept and definition of news. Where news was once regarded as functional information, the telegraph (and, after it,...
Quote: John Newton on Doctrine (05/01/07 - 6 Comments)
This quote is drawn from John Newton's A Review of Ecclesiastical History which was published in 1769. His words are as applicable today as they were 238 years ago when they were first penned. Whenever and wherever the doctrines of free grace and justification by faith have prevailed in the Christian Church, and according to the degree of clearness with which they have been enforced, the practical duties of Christianity have flourished in the same...
Quote: Presbyterian Healing Service (04/30/07 - 20 Comments)
This morning I finished reading Daniel Doriani's commentary on James and, in his discussion of the final portion of James 5, found an interesting quote. As I read it, I though of my continuationist (charismatic) friends. It is my experience that these people often typify cessationists like myself as those who do not believe in supernatural or miraculous healings but this is really not the case. The disagreement really arises over whether or not the...
Quote: Are You A Canadian? (04/27/07 - 12 Comments)
Since the subject of this morning's article was my home and native land, I thought I'd post a quote on that theme. In How To Be A Canadian by Will and Ian Ferguson, the brothers suggest the ultimate test of a person's status as a Canadian, as only a Canadian would be able to decipher this paragraph: Last night, I cashed my pogey and went to buy a mickey of C.C. at the beer parlour,...
Quote: Iain Murray on Unity (04/26/07 - 6 Comments)
The following quote comes from Iain Murray's book Evangelicalism Divided (on page 291 if you must know): The ecumenical call [in the mid-20th century] was not for truth and salt; it was supremely for oneness: the greater the unity of 'the Church', it was confidently asserted, the stronger would be the impression made upon the world; and to attain that end churches should be inclusive and tolerant. But it has never been by putting unity...
Quote: Forget His Feeling... (04/23/07 - 10 Comments)
I recently encountered an interesting quote. It is from William Wordsworth's The Prelude, considered to be the masterpiece of this English Poet who lived from April 7, 1770 to April 23, 1850. Though the poem is autobiographical, this portion is largely based on the experience of a well-known Christian. And I have read of one by shipwreck thrown With fellow sufferers whom the waves had spared Upon a region uninhabited, An island of the deep,...
Quote: Whitefield on Making them Pray (04/18/07 - 47 Comments)
As George Whitefield sailed from his native England to Georgia where he was to be a missionary, he ministered to those on board the ship. Here is an excerpt from his journal where he discusses a ministry encounter with a particularly willful child: Had a good instance of the benefit of breaking children's wills betimes. Last night, going between decks (as I do every night) to visit the sick and to examine my people, I...
Astonished At My Own Ignorance (04/05/07 - 3 Comments)
Robert Moffat was a Scottish missionary to South Africa and this quote is drawn from a letter he wrote to his wife Mary. In the mid 1850's he completed the great work of translating the entire Bible into Sechuana and subsequently revised the translation several times. Despite this work he provides an assessment of the limitations imposed by his humanity. It was only yesterday, after laying down the Bible, that I wondered what kind of...
