Today is Reformation Day, the day we celebrate the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. October 31 stands as the day that Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the castle church in Wittenberg. Luther, when he did this, surely had no apprehension of just how significant an event this would be. And…
Tuesday October 31, 2006 Books: BookMooch is a “community for exchanging used books.” It looks like a good way of swapping books you don’t read for those you’d like to read. Humor: The Sacred Sandwich has released the latest edition. They have also unveiled their new motto: “While the World Zigs, We Zag.” Be sure…
Yesterday morning my pastor preached on Romans 12-13 under the heading of “Cross-Centered Authenticity.” Though I missed much of the first half of the sermon walking the halls with a fussy baby, I returned in time to hear the end of the first (and longest) point and the final four points. I am glad I…
Monday October 30, 2006 Reformation Day: If you are a blogger, don’t forget about the Reformation Day Symposium. Entries are due by tomorrow. Get details here. Music: The wonderfully eclectic Sufjan Stevens has a series of Christmas albums coming out and they are available for pre-order beginning tomorrow from this site. “Having an inherent aversion…
Some time ago, my pastor posted on his blog asking if anyone could identify the author of a song called “Teach Me To Love What You Say.” We sang the song in church this morning and I noted that it is still marked with “Author and copyright information unknown.” So I guess he never tracked…
The Torchlighters video series is a series of animated DVD’s dedicated to “Highlighting the honor, integrity and life-changing experiences of those well-known and little-known Christian men, women and children who in response to God’s call, dedicated their lives to a life of whole-hearted commitment and passionate service to Jesus.” It is a production of Christian…
The thesis of this book is made abundantly clear on the cover. A young man, jamming on an (unplugged) electric guitar, towers over a Bible which lies face-down, trampled and forgotten underfoot. Can We Rock the Gospel? According to the John Blanchard and Dan Lucarini, no, we cannot. “The authors make no secret of the…
Friday October 27, 2006 Music: If you’re into rap music, you may like to know that Voice’s latest album “The Crucible” has been released. It may have been out for ages but I only just noticed. You can hear samples here and buy it (CD or download) here. Halloween: A writer at the Boundless blog…
It’s no secret around here that I love the book of Proverbs and consider it my “home page” in the Bible. I work through it at least once every year and always benefit from doing so. And while I love Proverbs and envy the wisdom of Solomon, the man who wrote the bulk of the…
Thursday October 26, 2006 Technology: Following on the heels of Internet Explorer 7.0, comes Firefox 2.0. I am waiting to download it until I can see if my browser extensions will work with it. For those interested, you can get it here. Books: Matt Perry is requesting help in supplying books to Trinidadian pastors. “You…
In the last few days, a good number of bloggers have chosen to discuss the always-difficult topic of the Christian response to Halloween. Because I jumped the gun a little and posted about this topic earlier this week, I thought I would, in my best imitation of Phil Johnson, and using Google’s Blog Search feature,…
As I read books, I tend to jot down interesting or important quotes. I realized that I had collected a few of these recently and thought it would be interesting to share them with you. So here are four quotes from four books that caught my attention. The first quote is from God’s Bestseller, a…
Wednesday October 25, 2006 Humor: Phil Johnson shares a humorous story about getting in trouble after a Starbucks craving. Law: In a rather disgusting abuse of the law, an American judge has chosen to punish a pervert by banishing him to Canada. The “Toronto Sun” reports. Halloween: Lots of people are discussing Halloween, including Darrin…
God’s Bestseller is the second biography of Tyndale I have read this year and one of only a few produced in recent decades. Written by Brian Moynahan, the subtitle provides a glimpse of the author’s emphases: “William Tyndale, Thomas More, and the Writing of the English Bible–A Story of Martyrdom and Betrayal.” Less-scholarly than David…
Tuesday October 24, 2006 Islam: FoxNews has a spooky article dealing with a huge increase of crimes committed against police officers and firemen in France. There is “increasingly violent conflict between police and gangs in tough, largely immigrant French neighborhoods that were the scene of a three-week paroxysm of rioting last year.” Music: “Christianity Today”…
Halloween is fast approaching, and I am beginning to see articles on this always-popular topic in the blogosphere. I wrote about this for the first time last year and thought I would follow that article with a similar one, but one that is hopefully a little more developed as I’ve had another year to think…
Monday October 23, 2006 Conference: The Fifth Annual Evangelical Forum Meeting (Virginia Beach, VA), is coming up on November 8, 2006. Speakers include Tom Nettles and Andrew Davis. Details are available here. Quote: Mark Dever shares a convicting quote from David Wells about the centrality of the Word in the weekly congregational setting. Conference: Tom…
King for a Week is an honor I bestow on blogs that I feel are making a valuable contribution to my faith and the faith of other believers. Every week (in theory) I select a blog, link to it from my site, and add that site’s most recent headlines to my left sidebar. While this…
I was talking with my father this morning, and the conversation turned to John Eldredge. I told dad about Eldredge’s newest book (it has, after all, recently hit store shelves and I had just copied my rather negative review to Amazon.), The Way of the Wild Heart and how Eldredge seems to be heading to…
I want to take an opportunity to thank those of you who have been praying for me on Fridays as I attempt to write The Discipline of Discernment. I look to Fridays with equal excitement and dread–excitement to be working on the book and dread that I will end the day downtrodden and feeling like…