We have come to the final chapter of the The Seven Sayings of the Saviour on the Cross, the third classic we’ve read together here. It has gone very quickly! If you have not been reading along with us it is obviously too late to start now, but stayed tuned for the next book we’ll…
Thursday June 19, 2008 Mississippi Flood PicturesHere are some amazing pictures from The Boston Globe showing Iowa under the waters of the Mississippi. Spanking to be Banned in Canada?We know it’s only a matter of time. “Bill S-209, which needs House approval to be made into law, proposes to eliminate Section 43 of Canada’s Criminal…
Yesterday we had some fun with the First Three Lines contest. I had anticipated low participation and low accuracy. It turns out that a whole lot of people sent in their answers and fully 34 of them got all of the answers correct. Most of these confessed to having harnessed the power of Google to…
I have often heard it said that no subject in history (with the possible exception of Jesus) has received as much attention in the written word as the Second World War. Even today, more than sixty years after it drew to a close, the war continues to fascinate. We still see a constant stream of…
Wednesday June 18, 2008 Top Five CommentariesKeith Mathison at the Ligonier blog is posting his top five commentary recommendations on a variety of books of the Bible. Taking The Shack to the ShedCT’s “Out of Ur” blog discusses some of the reactions to The Shack. Thinking BiblicallyJohn MacArthur has a good and short article on…
Yesterday, rather on a whim, I went through a few of the books on my shelves and jotted down the first three lines from each of them. Well, in most cases it was the first three lines—in a few I did more or less. And then it occurred to me that it might be fun…
Tuesday June 17, 2008 When You Weren’t LookingBen Stein offers a reflection for Father’s Day. “O, brilliant kids, I was a fool just like you. I was in my mid-40s before I properly thanked my father for his decades of hard work…” The Oak AnniversaryA couple in England has just celebrated their 80th wedding anniversary.…
Though I work primarily as a web designer, and despite receiving training in another area of the computer field (network administration, for those who may be interested), my most significant education was in history. It was history that I studied while in college and it is, in many ways, still my first love. As much…
Monday June 16, 2008 “Amazing Grace,” Amazing PriceAmazon has just put Amazing Grace, the movie about William Wilberforce, on sale. Global Warming and the Price of GasWeather Channel founder John Coleman had some interesting things to say about gas prices. “You may want to give credit where credit is due to Al Gore and his…
Several years ago I wrote a little Father’s Day article for my dad and called it “Working Man Hands.” This year I took the opportunity to lengthen and improve the article and then submitted it to Boundless Magazine. They were pleased to print it at their site. I thought you might enjoy it. It goes…
[Please excuse the back-to-back book reviews—I’m trying to clear out a bit of a backlog!] Though it was weeks ago that I completed reading Why Good People Do Bad Things, it is not until today that I’ve been able to write a review. A book like this presents a challenge to me as a reviewer.…
In November of 2008 The Soloist will debut on the big screen. Starring Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr. and directed by Joe Wright (Atonement and Pride & Prejudice) it has the makings of a hit film. Before it was a film, The Soloist was a series of articles written by Steve Lopez for the…
Friday June 13, 2008 Desiring God National ConferenceRegistration is now open. This year’s topic: The Power of Words and the Wonder of God. Speakers include Driscoll, Ferguson, Kauflin, Tripp… Youth “Must Read” ListsDoctrine Matters is asking your help in putting together a must-read reading list for youth. Space WallpapersIf you still haven’t prettied up your…
We are nearing the end of the The Seven Sayings of the Saviour on the Cross and by next week we will be finished. It seems to have gone by very quickly. You can read more about this effort here: Reading the Classics Together. If you have not been reading along with us it is…
Thursday June 12, 2008 The Great (Debt) SeductionDavid Skeel has some good thoughts on a fascinating article in the New York Times. It deals with the displacement of America’s traditional norms of thrift and frugality in favor of norms that “encourage debt and living for the moment.” Drive Free, Retire RichSome good financial thought from…
The term “planned neglect” is one I first encountered around the time that Hurricane Katrina swept over the Gulf Coast. It came to the fore for a time in the media when locals, dismayed at the way the disaster was handled, charged various levels of government with planned neglect, insisting that the city had not…
Wednesday June 11, 2008 Is Google Making Us Stupid?Here is a fantastic and thought-provoking article from The Atlantic. “What the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation. My mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles.…
“I tried to get a hold of myself. But again in my mind I heard that terrible, terrible scream, the same one that awakens me, bullying its way into my solitary dreams, night after night, the confirmation of guilt. The endless guilt of the survivor. ‘Help me, Marcus! Please help me!’ It was a desperate…
Tuesday June 10, 2008 What I Want for Father’s DayYou know by now that I’m an Amazon deal hunter. I thought this was a particularly good one–a one day sale on a $400 men’s watch that knocks it down to $99 (with free one-day shipping). Rick Warren’s 10 CommandmentsHere are Rick Warren’s 10 Commandments for…
For the past few months our pastor has been using Sunday mornings to lead us through the gospel of John. It has been some time since I’ve been able to sit through an expositional series on one of the gospels and I am enjoying learning ever-more about the life and ministry of Jesus. Yesterday we…