Monday July 24, 2006

Law: The Harris brothers are discussing Abraham Cherrix, a young man with Hodgkin’s Disease who wants to attempt natrual treatment but is being forced by the courts to undergo chemotherapy.

Theology: BPNews has an article about Dr. Sam Waldron and his contention that the New Perspective on Paul corrupts the heart of the gospel. “The ‘New Perspective’ on the apostle Paul’s teaching about salvation has far more in common with the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church than it does with historic evangelical belief…”

Blog: Leslie Wiggins, who is one of the reviewers at Discerning Reader, has just begun her own blog which she is calling Lux Venit.

Books: Ligonier Ministries has just announced Reformation Trust Publishing, a new publishing imprint which will publish books by R.C. Sproul as well as “the best of today’s contemporary authors and theologians.”

Friday July 21, 2006

Film: I don’t get out to the movies very often, but may make an exception for “World Trade Center.” Cal Thomas has declared it a world class movie, saying “Whatever one thinks of Oliver Stone, the man knows how to make movies. This is one of his best. It deserves an Oscar in so many categories.”

Missions: Ligon Duncan has an interesting post in which he relays information about professions of faith in the missions field. There seems to be great confusion, in many parts of the world, about just how one becomes a believer.

Church: David Wayne (aka Jollyblogger) has realizes it’s time to stop being nice about Rick Warren. “Warren is actually very consistent with his own ministry philosophy - he savvily tailored one message to the calvinists at Modern Reformation and savvily tailored a different message to the folks back home at his church. And in this case he has used his savvy to tailor a Jesus-free message to the Jews.”

Design: I just finished up another blog design. You can see it over at IsaiahSix.org. I am pretty pleased with the result. And, thankfully, so is Greg, proprieter of that particular blog.

Thursday July 20, 2006

Creation: Over at her very pretty “Sprittibee” blog, Sprittibee has taken on the subject of creation and evolution and this has (as we might expect) generated some buzz. (Buzz, get it?). You can check it out here.

Conference: Bob Kauflin has listed his “Top Ten Reasons to Register Now for the WorshipGod06 Conference.” Coming in at number 4 is “Christian blogger extraordinaire Tim Challies will be live-blogging the conference. Although Tim would confess he’s not a charismatic, you wouldn’t want to miss the possibility of seeing Tim raise his hands in a moment of unguarded passion.” No, you wouldn’t.

Video: This (a restaurant that serves live squid) has got to be one of the most nauseating things I’ve seen in a long time.

Blogging: Adrian has done some thinking about what makes a blog influential. He does a good job of avoiding the easily-quantifiable but too-easy measures of influence.

Wednesday July 19, 2006

Church: “Understand the Times” has a lengthy article explaining why Calvary Chapels have decided to pull Purpose Driven materials from Calvary Distribution.

Culture: Derek Thomas at Reformation21 writes about a British clergyman who kissed a young girl on the cheek. “The deed was done in a public setting when the child, who had struggled in a mathematics class, had done well. The 58 year-old clergyman was accused by politically correct social workers of ‘inappropriate touching’ and placed under investigation.”

Theology: The Thirsty Theologian is beginning a series on alcohol. Among the issues he will discuss are: “Is drinking alcoholic beverages a sin? Is abstinence a higher standard? Is moderation acceptable, but abstinence wiser? Are the ‘rules’ different now than they were in ‘Bible times?’ What about the ‘weaker brother?’”

Tuesday July 18, 2006

Church: An article at Yahoo discusses megachurches that build a Republican base. “In a March survey, a quarter of Ohio residents said they were evangelicals — believing that a strict adherence to the Bible and personal commitment to the teachings of Jesus Christ will bring salvation.” Sadly, that is probably what many of these people actually believe!

Blogging: The 2006 Blogathon is going to begin soon. If you’re interested in raising money for the cause of your choice, perhaps this is a way of doing so. It involves 24-hours of blogging at 30 minute intervals.

Music: On September 1, Derek Webb will begin giving away his latest album “Mockingbird” for free. You can learn about his rationale at freederekwebb.com. “On september 1st, we’re launching freederekwebb.com, a place where anyone can go online and not just hear but actually download, keep, and share ‘mockingbird’ completely for free.”

Blogspotting: Adrian Warnock mentioned to me that Ed Stetzer mentioned an article I wrote a while back during the recent Resurgence Conference at Mars Hill Church. It is part of this speech and references this article entitled “An Eight-Part Music Test.”

Monday July 17, 2006

Television: If you’ve never watched that hour-long program about the Duggar family (the Christian family from Arkansas with 16 children), and if you’ve been wanting to do so, it appears that it will be playing tonight at 8 PM on TLC. It’s worth an hour of your time.

Books: Justin Taylor says that Wayne Grudem is getting things done, following the advice of a book by that name. Maybe it’s one that is worth reading. Then again, it’s not like I’m hurting for reading material!

Theology: Mark Dever asks if evangelists should question professions of faith. “Sometimes I get the feeling that people think there’s something wrong with questioning the reality of a profession of faith. It’s legalistic, or judging, or holier than thou. Or something.”

Church: There’s an article at “Christianity Today” describing the way Willow Creek moves people into its small group ministry. “The key is to let the group leader make the decision about whom to invite into the small group. If people like one another, they’ll stick together. But if they don’t, you can have great curriculum and leaders, but the small group won’t work.” Doesn’t strike me as a very charitable method.

Personal: After feeling under the weather for some of the weekend, I’m feeling better for now, at least. But with temperatures soaring today, it may not last. It seems that I am unaccustomed to this ridiculous heat!

Friday July 14, 2006

Interview: “Christianity Today” has an interview with Ronald Boyd-MacMillan in which they discuss Rick Warren’s upcoming trip to North Korea. “You can travel as religious VIP, but it’s a propaganda exercise. I went in as one, and they took me to the Korean Christian Federation, which is this so-called Christian church in Pyongyang, but it’s completely set up for the foreigner’s benefit.”

Relationships: Michael Lawrence, an associate pastor at Capitol Hill Baptist Church, has contributed an excellent article to the “Boundless” webzine. The article is called “Stop Test-Driving Your Girlfriend.”

Video: I caught a couple of amazing videos online yesterday. Check out Taylor Ware (x2), Kevin Johnson and The Millers (x2). Amazing stuff.

Thursday July 13, 2006

Technology: The most recent version of Movabletype (3.31) has just been released. While the versioning would make it appear to be a small release, it actually adds some new and exciting features which will be of interest to many bloggers. Not the least of these features is native support for tagging. You can read about it and download if for free here.

Books: Phil Johnson has a long and interesting post on how he turns John MacArthur sermons into books. “It’s a long and exacting process, much more labor-intensive than simply writing a book from scratch would be. But if I wrote my own book, it would be nowhere as good.”

Sports: Matt Hall has a good reflection on the gross misconduct of Zinedine Zidane at the close of the World Cup. “There is little in American sports lore to compare with what happened on Sunday in a matter of seconds. Zidane, a legend in worldwide football, had just finished what was perhaps his best Cup showing of a prodigious career.”

Wednesday July 12, 2006

Theology: Agape Press discusses the PCUSA proposal regarding renaming the members of the Trinity. One pastor says, “You might as well put in Huey, Dewey, and Louie.”

People: I assume most people who read my blog also read Justin Taylor’s. But hey, if you don’t, be sure to read a couple of anecdotes he collected this week while hanging out with J.I. Packer. Packer also has some tips for prospective writers.

Reviews: I just did my weekly update of Discerning Reader. While several of the new reviews have already been posted on this site, there are also several written by other authors.

Life: Our next door neighbors, who only just recently moved in and we are really beginning to enjoy, are being featured in the near future in a program called Walls of Hope. It appears to be like a smaller, less radical version of “Extreme Makeover Home Edition.” You can read about the family here. “All three boys have been diagnosed with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) and an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) - specifically Aspergers. At the same time as this diagnosis was made, the youngest and oldest sons…were also diagnosed with Tourette’s Syndrome. Testing also confirmed…that [the] boys also suffered from Celiac Disease.”

Tuesday July 11, 2006

Emergent: Gary Gilley continues his series of articles examining the Emerging Church. In this one he tries to figure out what “missional” is all about.

Music: The music of Jamie Soles, who primarily records music for children, is now available online. My kids have a couple of his albums and enjoy them a lot. From his bio: “Jamie Soles is a Christian singer/songwriter from Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada with several albums to his credit. He is married to Valerie, and they have only eight children.”

Charity: Stephanie is participating in a Blogathon to raise money to support African Leadership. I’ve never heard of African Leadership. Does anyone know anything about this organization?

Audio: Covenant Seminary is offering a wide variety of free courses. They provide audio and study guides. There look to be some really good courses available!