I can’t deny that was a little apprehensive about this book before I began it, even though I had not read any detailed reviews and had little idea of the content. Just a few days before I began reading I had seem an interview with the author, Donald Miller, in “The Door Magazine” in which…
I was recently asked to work on a rather strange project – a web site dedicated to teaching the Bible through limericks. Yes, limericks – commonly known to be the lowest form of poetry. While I was certainly glad to work on the project and to help the poet bring his ministry to a wider…
This is one of those articles I am going to post even though it goes against my better judgement. Maybe I’m a glutton for punishment, or maybe there is just something I really want to get off my chest. So let’s talk about Protestants and the pope. Uh oh. It has been a few weeks…
Have you ever noticed that when someone says, “Don’t look at that!” you immediately look at it? I remember as a kid I used to delight in finding something gross and rotten and disgusting and showing it off to my friends, seeing who would flinch first as we dug around with sticks inside some rotten…
Several days ago I posted an excerpt from an essay written by D.A. Carson that is published as the introductory chapter of Worship by the Book. Carson suggested that some Christians have come to worship worship instead of worshipping God through worship. He says, “This point is acknowledged in a praise chorus like ‘Let’s forget…
Over the weekend I did a lot of reading. Actually, it was probably an unhealthy amount of reading, if such a thing is possible. Strangely, Aileen’s absence (you may recall that she was at a women’s conference in Niagara Falls) gave me more time than usual to read. On Saturday I helped my son get…
I did not know what to expect from Stealing Sheep. The book was recommended to me and I purchased it sight-unseen. All I knew of its content was the subtitle: “The Church’s Hidden Problems with Transfer Growth.” I assumed this was a book written by an author opposed to the church growth movement who would…
This is something I have wanted to write about for quite some time. Unfortunately I have always put it off because I’ve found that I have not been able to formulate my thoughts on it sufficiently nor have I been able to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion. But I think it is an important topic…
Too often, when Christians discuss worship, they go little further than arguments about styles of music. The “worship wars” that have plagued the modern church are a prime example of this. Many churches have fallen apart and many Christians have been deeply hurt over styles of music. Churches that have sought to be progressive and…
It has been a while since I have taken the opportunity to write a post of ramblings. Of course some might argue that all my posts are ramblings, and I could hardly argue against that. Today is a significant way in the life of the Challies family. You see, five years ago we moved to…
When I read and review a book I attempt to do so as objectively as possible. After all, each book should be taken on its own merits. It is not entirely fair to cast presuppositions gained from previous books onto an author’s later works. It is not unusual for an author to come to better…
In the first article of this brief series we examined Total Depravity, as a prerequisite to evaluating the following statement: “Those who believe in total depravity have more confidence in the possibility of humans having divine knowledge- detailed, down to the footnotes knowledge- than many who don’t call themselves Calvinists.” I indicated that I did…
This evening I began reading Worship by the Book which is edited by D.A. Carson. Just thirty pages in I found a great quote that I thought I would share. Carson is talking about (obviously) worship and expanding on a rather lengthy definition he provides of the term. I should point out that he is…
On Monday I announced “A Quick and Captivating Contest.” This was a short and silly contest to see who could correctly guess the number of movies mentioned in John and Stasi Eldredge’s new book Captivating. Eldredge’s love for movies and his reliance on them as a teaching tool is well-documented and is a critique often…
In what is fast becoming a tradition around here, I thought I would introduce a few new web sites today. These are all sites that I have completed in the past week or so. First up is my portfolio site. For those who do not already know, my company is called Websonix. I am self-employed…
The Passion of Jesus Christ was rushed to press in time to be available for the release of Mel Gibson’s blockbuster The Passion of the Christ. The book sold some two million copies, though many of these were through a promotion that provided the book at cost when purchased in bulk. Many churches gave the…
The bulk of this article was published on this site in November of 2004, but I am going to repost much of it in response to discussion about my article from earlier today entitled, Total Depravity and Divine Knowledge. There has been discussion about whether the act of regeneration – the act whereby those who…
Following the article I posted on Saturday, which you can read here, Michael Spencer posted a link to it on Boars Head Tavern and included the following comment, which I would like to address today: Those who believe in total depravity have more confidence in the possibility of humans having divine knowledge- detailed, down to…
One of the pleasures pains of my new site, Diet of Bookworms(Update: the site is no longer active), is that it is really only useful if it has reviews of the more popular Christian titles. One of the new books I am about to begin reading is Captivating: Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman’s Soul…
Today is the Lord’s Day. Many of us will have the privilege of partaking of the sacraments – either participating in the Lord’s Supper or watching a baptism. Perhaps some will even be baptized today. What a blessed thing it is to enjoy these ordinances given by the Lord. This week I read an helpful…