Like many other people, I was a little disturbed by the introduction to this week’s broadcast of Monday Night Football. If you happened to miss it, it featured the Eagle’s always-controversial receiver Terrell Owens and Nicollette Sheridan from the show Desperate Housewives. Sheridan was clad initially in a towel, but in an effort to persuade…
The November issue of Christianity Decay Today featured an article entitled The Emergent Mystique which examines the so-called emergent church. The subheading says ‘The ’emerging church’ movement has generated a lot of excitement but only a handful of congregations. Is it the wave of the future or a passing fancy?’ The emergent church, knowing elsewhere…
This morning I decided that today I was going to write about man’s sinful condition, or as we says as Calvinists, man’s total depravity. Doing my rounds of other blogs this morning I noticed that Jollyblogger had written about this topic yesterday, so I thought I would take a slightly different approach and write about…
Many people wondered what Derek Webb was thinking when he abandoned his position as co-leader of Caedmon’s Call, a band that was routinely playing before crowds of 2000 people, to strike out on his own. After all, why would he abandon security and a regular paycheck to do his own thing? On this album he…
When I hear the word “labyrinth” I immediately think of that awful movie from the 80’s starring David Bowie. If you grew up in the 80’s I’m sure you remember it – the one that launched that career of Jennifer Connelly and brought so much pleasure to so many young girls (it seems the girls…
I rarely get sick, but this morning I woke up at the way-too-early hour of 3:00 to find myself aching, coughing and oozing. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised since this is prime Canadian cold season and each of the people who live under this roof have already had a visit from the bug. I…
Today I spent some time thinking about being a witness for God. Witness has a couple of meanings, and both of them are applicable to the Christian life. The first meaning is “One who can give a firsthand account of something seen, heard, or experienced: a witness to the accident.” According to this definition, a…
Of the 600+ articles I have written over the past couple of years, I don’t think a single one has been about Eschatology (which refers to the doctrine of the last days). There are a couple of reasons for that. First, it is a subject that some people love to discuss and consider absolutely essential…
By now we all know that Yassar Arafat is dead, and as Christians we know that he has gone to meet his Maker. There is no reason to doubt that he has already been consigned to an eternity of facing the wrath of God which burns against sin. How do we, as Christians, react to…
The BlogExplosion experiment continues. It certainly has brought a lot (and I do mean a LOT) of traffic to this site. While a lot of the people who came by took the time to respond to the first poll I posted here, fewer have responded to the second. If I had to guess I would…
The story of Lazarus, found in John 11, is one of the most moving stories we find in the Bible and surely portrays one of the most significant acts of our Lord. There is so much depth in this short story – so much we can meditate upon. It seems each time I read it…
This morning I was reading a book by a very well-known Christian pastor and author (and no, his initials were not R.W.) which discusses Christian leadership. In one section he speaks about a friend of his who has dedicated his retirement years to helping his local church, volunteering on a continual basis and delighting in…
New poll for November 12! First off, allow me to extend my condolences that you did not receive any mystery credits on that last click. Instead you ended up here, for which I am profoundly apologetic. But while we have a few seconds together (it seems unlikely this will be more than a 30-second visit),…
When it comes to evangelism, it seems that Calvinists have quite a poor reputation in the church today. Most of the largest and seemingly most successful mission organizations were founded by Arminians and continue to be based around Arminian theology. Arminian churches seem to grow much faster than churches based on Calvinist principles. It seems…
Though I am not a preacher, I decided to read Rediscovering Expository Preaching in an attempt to discover exactly what expository preaching is and compare it to the type of teaching practiced in most modern churches. That this book was written by John MacArthur and the faculty of Master’s seminary is a strong endorsement of…
Two good friends of mine have begun planting a church in the Greater Toronto Area, in the city of Brampton. For about a year now they have been doing Bible studies, holding preview services on a monthly basis and trying to just meet members of the community. They have had their share of ups and…
Every Christian should agree on the necessity of reaching out to the world with the Good News of Jesus Christ. Through history some Christians and some groups of Christians have placed more emphasis on this than others, but nearly all have agreed on its importance. In the English language we have two terms that are…
Conservative Christians have long lamented Billy Graham’s ecumenicism. Since the early days of his ministry, Graham has worked hand-in-hand with Catholic Churches and has often expressed his belief that Catholics who are faithful to Roman Catholic teachings are saved. While I certainly believe that Catholics can be saved, those who believe the Church’s doctrine on…
A reader forwarded the following article to my attention this morning and it grabbed my attention. Now of course those who read this site consistently will immediately assume I mean it to preach against The Purpose Driven Life but I think it speaks far beyond that one issue. Just recently my pastor told me that…
Another Sunday…another set of ramblings. I do look forward to being able to jot down a bunch of completely disconnected thoughts every week. While it’s nice to write a good article that carries a theme, it’s also nice just to be able to touch on the things that couldn’t quite make an article-length piece either.…