As you know, Tuesday is the day I add new reviews to Discerning Reader. This week we have five reviews for you, four of which were written by me. The fifth is written by a new Discerning Reader reviewer, James Anderson. James has a review of Only One Way?, a book edited by Richard Phillips.…
Before I started into the text of The Truth of the Cross I read the three endorsements that came with it, one by Thomas Schreiner, one by Scott Clark and one by Bruce Waltke. It was Waltke’s that caught my eye when he said, “The Truth of the Cross is the best book on the…
Tuesday July 31, 2007 Film: A new movie, “The Ten,” releases this Friday and is an attempt to spoof the Ten Commandments. Prayer: Timmy Brister would like you to join him in praying for Dr. Tom Nettles. “Dr. Nettles developed pneumonia shortly after the Spring semester ended. As he began to get over the pneumonia,…
I was poking around a little bit today and found what I consider to be just a great deal. I’m posting for no other reason than to tell you that this represents what I’m sure you’ll agree is the best $4.03 you’ll ever spend. It’s one of my all-time favorites and a book worth reading…
Theologians sometimes speak of the ordinary means of grace, a term that refers to the preaching of the Word, the sacraments (or ordinances, if you prefer, as most Baptists do) and prayer. These three means are to be the foundation of the church’s activity. They are simple measures and ones that can often be overlooked.…
Church: Trevin Wax discusses the phrase “personal relationship with Jesus” asks whether this phrase helps or hinders evangelism. Culture: Peggy Noonan says that we live in an age of great wealth but of lousy manners. And I would tend to agree. Homosexuality: Dr. Mohler’s most recent commentary is worth reading as he writes about the…
Yesterday I read R.C. Sproul’s new book The Truth of the Cross. It’s just a short book, coming in at just 167 small pages, but as we’d expect from Sproul, does not waste a word. It’s a great little book and one that gave me a lot to think about. I wanted to share just…
I’ve been reading R.C. Sproul’s latest book, The Truth of the Cross. It’s just a small book but you know that if Sproul is writing about the atonement that it will be well worth reading. Just seven pages in he discusses visiting a bookstore in a local mall. He found shelves and counters full of…
The atheistic literary pantheon is currently comprised of three men: Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens. All three men have written bestselling books and all three have published their most recent efforts in the past year. While I have no reason to believe that they have planned their books to coincide thematically or chronologically,…
Aileen and I were blessed, when we first began dating, to be members of a church where there were many elderly couples. They were couples who exemplified so many beautiful qualities. Christians for decades, they shone with the light of Christ and were living proof that, though physical beauty fades with the years, true inner…
Barb needed help. In fact, she had asked our friends, her next door neighbors, to help her clean up her house a bit. She was having trouble with her finances and wanted to sell off some valuable items in her house, but first needed to tidy up a bit. I decided to pitch in. Our…
In 2000, when she was only twenty-three, Wendy Shalit published A Return to Modesty: Discovering the Lost Virtue, a book in which she argued that the sexual revolution may not have been entirely beneficial for women. She decried the lack of modesty this revolution has brought about and, according to TIME defended “compellingly, shame, privacy,…
I’m on vacation this week. Aileen and I are perched in a nice little cottage just over a dune from a beautiful beach. The cottage is great. It has electricity and all kinds of good amenities, but no phone and no access to the internet. There is a television but it is useful only as…
I found Letter to a Christian Nation a difficult book to read. It is, after all, a book whose purpose is to criticize one of the things I hold most dear–the church of Jesus Christ. While certainly deliberate and measured as these things go, it is still something of a rant against religion in general,…
Around here we know John Ensor as the author of a couple of books I’ve reviewed: The Great Work of the Gospel and Doing Things Right in Matters of the Heart. But there’s more to him than his books. Last year he took the position of Executive Director of the Urban Initiative Program of Heartbeat…
Featuring…You? Way back near the end of 2005 I began the feature I called “King for a Week,” where I highlight another person’s blog for a week or two (perhaps the name was not the best choice, but it’s too late to change it now). I’m glad I did this and, though I’ve pretty well…
Friday July 20, 2007 Personal: I am taking some time off next week, so it’s unlikely that I’ll be doing daily updates of A La Carte. Just so you know… Money: Ben Stein wants us to know that it isn’t easy being rich (or as rich as he is, anyways). “This belief, that having a…
Over the past few days I’ve been reading Girls Gone Mild, the new book by Wendy Shalit. Shalit’s first book, A Return to Modesty: Discovering the Lost Virtue was published seven years ago and caused quite a stir. Shalit, an orthodox Jew, made the audacious claim that the sexual revolution may not have been entirely…
Thursday July 19, 2007 Books: The NY Times has an early review of the new Harry Potter. “With each installment, the Potter series has grown increasingly dark, and this volume … is no exception.” “Ms. Rowling has fitted together the jigsaw puzzle pieces of this long undertaking with Dickensian ingenuity and ardor.” Politics: Obama says…
I typically try to avoid posting book reviews two days in a row (especially after posting both reviews at Discerning Reader), but I wanted to be sure I drew sufficient attention to Richard Phillips’ new book Jesus the Evangelist. I have written about the book once before (link) while reflecting on what I learned from…