Beneath the Sun
You might cry, but this is definitely worth the read.
Most Influential Living Preachers
“In telephone interviews conducted in November 2009, Protestant pastors were asked to ‘name the top three living Christian preachers that most influence you.’ Twenty-one percent of pastors surveyed said Graham - that’s nearly three times the number who named Charles R. Swindoll, prominent pastor, author and host of the radio Bible-teaching ministry Insight for Living.”
Street Preachers Murdered
This story in the Palm Beach Post tells of three men who were murdered while street preaching. (HT:Phil Johnson)
Becoming an Adoption-Friendly Church
An article at WORLD encourages churches to become adoption-friendly. ” While Christians commonly praise adoption, most American churches do not have a single family that adopted a child during the past year. Churches can and should play a crucial role in encouraging members to “look after orphans in their distress” (James 1:27). Here are some specific ideas on how to become an adoption-friendly church: ”
The Gospel Coalition in Ontario
D.A. Carson and Mike Bullmore will be speaking in Hamilton, Ontario on Saturday April 24 as part of a Gospel Coalition regional conference.
Church Works Media
Church Works Media seems to be doing some good work. They say, “Our ‘bread and butter’ is providing doctrinally-rich, Christ-centered hymns and psalms for corporate worship—all free and reproducible.”
Social Networks
The Economist has a special report dealing with social networking sites like Facebook. While generally positive in tone, the article does raise a few concerns.
It’s Not Just a “Guy Problem”
“My life changed forever when I was 21. I’d been curious for years to see what the big deal was about pornography. One afternoon in my empty apartment, I decided to just look around the Internet. After all, I told myself, this is something guys struggle with, so it’s not like I’ll get hooked or anything. The instant that first image popped up, I knew I was addicted. And I was a Christian.” Stories like this are becoming more and more prevalent today.
Christianity Explored
Kevin DeYoung: “If you are looking for an evangelism program to use in your church, I strongly urge you to consider Christianity Explored. Although there are several good programs out there, we decided to go with CE several years ago. We appreciate that the CE videos go through a book of the Bible (Mark) and does not skip over the doctrine of sin. To give you a feel for CE, I thought I would interview Bruce Jeffries, the elder who has spearheaded the program at our church.”
Haiti Three Weeks Later
“Tomorrow [note: this is from February 1] will mark three weeks since the massive January 12th earthquake in Haiti, and tent cities remain full, even as some businesses and factories are beginning to reopen in Port-au-Prince. Now that massive amounts of aid have arrived, distribution problems have cropped up and are being addressed.” Boston.com shares a photo gallery from the devastated nation.
Haiti Food Convoy
While on the subject of Haiti, this article conveys just a bit of the trouble faced doing even the most basic humanitarian work there.
Antidepressants Are Worse Than Placebos
This is an interesting article about antidepressants and their problems. “The placebo effect—that is, a medical benefit you get from an inert pill or other sham treatment—rests on the holy trinity of belief, expectation, and hope. But telling someone with depression who is being helped by antidepressants, or who (like my friend) hopes to be helped, threatens to topple the whole house of cards.”
Piper’s Writing Leave
I’m always interested to hear what John Piper will be doing on his annual writing sabbatical. Here he explains.
Churches Promoting Martial Arts
From the New York Times: “‘Father, we thank you for tonight,” he said. “We pray that we will be a representation of you.’ An hour later, a member of his flock who had bowed his head was now unleashing a torrent of blows on an opponent, and Mr. Renken was offering guidance that was not exactly prayerful.”
Amazing, Extraordinary, Amazing
This is brilliant. Some fun-loving soul took Steve Job’s recent iPad announcement and essentially stripped it down to its adjectives, editing the whole speech down to 3 minutes. The result is oddly hilarious.
Is There a Jihadist in Your Church Nursery?
Russell Moore: “This past Sunday’s New York Times magazine features a story about Omar Hammami, a leader of an Al Qaeda-linked African terrorist group. Like many jihadists, he has a Muslim father, and deep resentment against the United States. Unlike most radical Islamic jihadists, he grew up in an Alabama Baptist church.” (OK, it’s a good article, but I’m mostly honoring the fact that he came up with a great title)
Give Me A Book
James Emery White writes of his love for and dependence upon books. “I tell my own graduate students the same thing - to invest in books. They are our tools. A mechanic has his set of wrenches; a doctor has his stethoscope; a chef has his cookware. Those of us in ministry, or scholarship (and ideally they are joined at the hip), have our books.”
Hijacking the Brain
Dr. Mohler looks at a book I’ve been meaning to read. “But, even as technology has brought new avenues for the transmission of pornography, modern knowledge also brings a new understanding of how pornography works in the male brain. While this research does nothing to reduce the moral culpability of males who consume pornography, it does help to explain how the habit becomes so addictive. As William M. Struthers of Wheaton College explains, ‘Men seem to be wired in such a way that pornography hijacks the proper functioning of their brains and has a long-lasting effect on their thoughts and lives.’”
Tebow and Tolerance
This article from today’s Washington Post is worth the read. “I’ll spit this out quick, before the armies of feminism try to gag me and strap electrodes to my forehead: Tim Tebow is one of the better things to happen to young women in some time. I realize this stance won’t endear me to the ‘Dwindling Organizations of Ladies in Lockstep,’ otherwise known as DOLL, but I’ll try to pick up the shards of my shattered feminist credentials and go on.”
Deal of the Day Month
“Welcome to a full month of ridiculously low prices on Sovereign Grace music and books. We call it our February sale. For the past two years during the month of February, we reduced the prices of all the resources we produce. The response has been overwhelming. So we decided to repeat the lunacy. ”
Chandler on Suffering Well
Associated Press wrote an article about Matt Chandler and his battle with a brain tumor: “Chandler’s lanky 6-foot-5-inch frame rests on a table at Baylor University Medical Center. He wears the same kind of jeans he wears preaching to 6,000 people at The Village Church in suburban Flower Mound, where the 35-year-old pastor is a rising star of evangelical Christianity.”
Four Costs of Becoming a Christian
From the J.C. Ryle Quotes blog: “J.C. Ryle writes in his classic work Holiness that there are four things a person must be ready to give up if they wish to become a Christian. Beginning Monday February 1st, we will ponder Ryle’s short quotes regarding each particular cost.”
Al Mohler’s Study
Al Mohler has provided a video tour of his expansive personal library.
Keeping Faith in the White House
ABC writes about President Obama’s poor track record in going to church since becoming President. While it is easy to criticize him for that, it is interesting to read of the challenges he faces in just heading to church on a Sunday morning. “Security concerns mean costly and complicated measures to ensure the president’s safety on church outings, including screening every member of the congregation for weapons and sweeping the church building and areas around it for threats.”
Fight the Good Fight
I enjoyed this video which tells the story of Peter Kuzmic.
Deal of the Day: Religion Saves (Free!)
This month’s free book at ChristianAudio is Mark Driscoll’s
Religion Saves. It is yours for the download.
iPad’s Identity Crisis
This seems like quite a fair review of the iPad: “The bottom line is this: the iPad has an identity crisis. It’s not quite a serious e-reader, and it’s not quite a serious tablet PC. It’s probably great at handling multimedia, but it’s not nearly portable enough to be considered a portable media player. It’s great for tabletop use, but it can’t multitask, so you’re left with a machine that’s seriously limited in what can do well. It’s also inherently limited by whatever applications are delivered in the App Store…”
Flight 1549’s Icy Days
This is strangely fascinating: “Time-lapse footage of US Airways Flight 1549 submerged in the icy waters of the Hudson River, awaiting the barges and cranes that would eventually lift it up and take it away. ”
Secret Rituals of American Idol Auditions
This article explains what actually happens at American Idol auditions.
How Sermons Work
From David Murray: If you want to increase respect for your pastor and his preaching, ask “How do they do that?” Then read this ebook and find out the answer.
Deal of the Day: Blu-Ray
Today only, Amazon has a great deal on a Blu-Ray player. ” The Sylvania NB530SLX Blu-ray Disc Player is the perfect companion for your HDTV. You can watch blu-ray movies in full 1080p quality and also enjoy your DVDs on this Sylvania player. With such a low price, you can not go wrong.” It’s got an average review of 4.5 stars.
Get Outta My Face!
Rick Horne’s book
Get Outta My Face!—How to Reach Angry, Unmotivated Teens with Biblical Counsel is available today only for just $8 from the link above. I reviewed it
here.
My Dad’s Message to Me on the Day He Died
Ray Ortlund shares his father’s final words for him.
How To Meditate on God’s Word
Stephen Altrogge: “According to our culture, meditation is the relaxation of the mind to the point where little or no thought occurs. But according to scripture, meditation is the increased focus of the mind with much deep thought occurring. The goal of secular meditation is to empty the mind, the goal of godly meditation is to fill the mind with God’s truth. To put it in a succinct definition, godly meditation is the practice of filling the mind with God’s word for the purpose of applying God’s word.” He offers some useful practical tips on meditation.
Can Joel Osteen Help You Pay Your Bills?
From CNN: “Joel Osteen strides into the former Compaq Center. Some 20,000 people are standing and singing. Purple lights softly pulse across the ceiling, and mist floats around two giant screens flashing words to the songs.”
Like an Electric Current
Kevin DeYoung: “‘Mugged by Ultrasound: Why So Many Abortion Workers Have Turned Pro-Life’, by David Daleiden and Jon Shields, is a gut-wrenching, disturbing, graphic account of the emotional trauma abortion wrecks on those who perform them.”
The Doctrine of Scripture
This interview, between Martin Downes and Greg Beale and dealing with the Doctrine of Scripture, is taken from
Risking the Truth: Handling Error in the Church.
The Online Life of Kids
“The fact that children and teenagers now spend a good deal of their lives connected to electronic devices is hardly news. We are now accustomed to the knowledge that teenagers are seldom seen without wires in their years and a cell phone in the hand as they multitask their way through adolescence. Now, however, there is good reason to believe that these young people are far more connected than we have even imagined.”
Mark Driscoll on Haiti
Mark Driscoll took a brief trip to Haiti. USA Today talked to him about some of what he saw when he was there.
Talking to Your Kids About Marriage and Sex
Jay Younts, who writes for Shepherd Press, is beginning a series of blog posts dealing with how and when to talk to your children about sex. Topics will include: “when to talk about sex and what specifics should be covered at what age, what sexual attraction is, and abuses of God’s provision for sexual activity.”
Happy Helms
My sister Maryanne’s blog went quiet a year or two ago. Since then quite a few people wrote me to ask what had happened to it. Well, at long last it is back. You can find it (again) at happyhelms.com.
RHB’s Book Sale
RHB still has lots of overstock and other books to sell. They’re offering them for very good prices so get them while the getting’s good!
The most Abortion-Targeted Neighborhood in America
Here is a video of John Ensor in Los Angeles, laying out Heartbeat International’s life-saving vision for the urban centers of America.
Interview with R.C. Sproul
Alex Chediak interviews R.C. Sproul on his latest book
Surprised by Suffering: The Role of Pain and Death in The Christian Life.
Public Passion vs Private Devotion
Francis Chan: “I wonder if the inconsistency in my walk with God has anything to do with the fact that I can lead a “successful” church in America without being in love with Jesus. I’m sure I could blame American church culture, my position, or a busy schedule for my lack of reverent intimacy. The truth, however, is that my sin and hypocrisy is a result of me.”
From Anne Frank to Stephanie Meyer
This article discusses how hard it is to get published today, especially for those authors who do not have agents. “It wasn’t supposed to be this way. The Web was supposed to be a great democratizer of media. Anyone with a Flip and Final Cut Pro could be a filmmaker; anyone with a blog a memoirist. But rather than empowering unknown artists, the Web is often considered by talent-seeking executives to be an unnavigable morass.”
The Gospel-Centered Marriage
I’d like to commend to you Paul’s sermon from this past Sunday. As my buddy Julian said, “If you are married, ever intend on being married, want to know more about gospel-centred marriage, or know someone who is married, I cannot recommend enough that you listen to this sermon on gospel-centred marriage. You will be convicted and your soul will be blessed and encouraged as you think about how Christ’s glory displayed in the gospel is the reason and power for marriage.”
Sabbaths and Sundays
Bill Mounce offers another good column, this one looking at the Greek words in Acts 20:7. I especially appreciated his third and fourth points of application.
The Pond
It’s a tad over-the-top, but I enjoyed this little video called “The Pond.”
Football Games Have 11 Minutes of Action
“Football fans everywhere are preparing to settle in for the NFL’s biggest and most electric weekend of the season—a four-game playoff marathon that will swallow up at least 12 hours of broadcast time over two days. But here’s something even dedicated students of the game may not fully appreciate: There’s very little actual football in a football game.” (OK, so I’m posting this a few days after the big weekend, but the point still stands).
