This weekend I spoke at a youth retreat in Northern Michigan. I won’t get more specific than that because, well, I can’t. I followed some vans full of teenagers from Flint and stopped where they stopped, about an hour and a half north. We settled in at this rather nice little Christian camp in what…
Meet Thabiti AnyabwileC.J. Mahaney continues his interview series by talking to Thabiti Anyabwile, the most famous preacher in all of Grand Cayman. Scot McKnight on the NeoReformed“I have been using the term “NeoReformed” now for a year or two and a few of my friends have asked me what I mean and why I don’t…
As I read the final page of Finally Alive I realized that I had found a new favorite book by John Piper. Those who have read my reviews of some of his previous titles know that while I greatly enjoy Piper’s ministry and am indebted to him in many ways, I have not always found…
20 Qualities of Good ListenersHere’s a good roundup of qualities that make a person a good listener. For example, “Good listeners recall their own subjectivity and finitude as a listener. They make evaluations with the humility that corresponds to seeing parts, not the whole. They consider the angle and point of view from which they…
Greg Koukl is setting out on a blog tour to support his new book Tactics (you can read my review of it right here). I agreed to participate, asking one question of my own and asking one question on behalf of another person. Here is what we asked and how Greg answered. There are many…
A couple of months ago I began an effort to memorize Scripture with other people who read this site. My initial projection of having thirty people interested in participating was quickly shattered and there are now more than 1100 participating. Those who have been participating from the beginning have now memorized Psalm 8, Psalm 103…
In John Stott’s little book Your Mind Matters I found this quote from Martyn Lloyd-Jones. He was commenting on Matthew 6:30 in his Studies in the Sermon on the Mount and offered a great critique to those who feel that faith and thinking are opposites; that a person who has faith is a person who…
This week Ligonier Ministries is offering 50 (count ’em 50!) prizes. Each of the 50 (!) winners will be given a year-long subscription to Tabletalk Magazine (or a subscription for a friend, neighbor, family member if the winner happens to already be a subscriber). Tabletalk is a tool that helps you grow in your knowledge…
I am about to hit the road for what marks the beginning of a busy spring conference season. This evening I’ll be speaking at a church in Mt. Morris, Michigan and will then travel with the youth to some kind of a retreat center. I’ll be speaking to them five times over the weekend, covering…
Love is in the DetailsRev. Kev. points to an interesting blog at First Things. “In a age where romantic love equals sex and sentimentality, and on the eve of the eve of Valentine’s Day, I found the article’s depiction of marital love to be quite moving, in spite of (or is it because of?) the…
Theology remains something of a bad word in Christian circles. I’d believe that the success of a book like The Shack has proven this to us yet again. Many people seem eager to embrace some form of Christian spirituality but have little desire or love for theology. Theology is linked in people’s minds with frigid,…
Charles Darwin and the Modern MindOn this, the two hundredth anniversary of Darwin’s birth, Dr. Mohler offers “a list of annotated links from my past writings and radio programs — all related to Darwin or Darwinian evolution.” And Baby Makes How Many?Here is an interesting article from the New York Times looking at large families.…
As you may know, I decided to read through both of the Finding God in The Shack books released this month (two books, two authors, one title). Last week I reviewed the first of these (see: Finding God in the Shack (1)) and in a day or two I will review the second. But first,…
Meet John PiperJohn Piper does not do a lot of interviews, but he has made an exception for C.J. Mahaney. You can read a brief interview here. Finally Alive: A ReviewSpeaking of John Piper, ReformedBooks.net (i.e. Monergism.com) has a review of his new book Finally Alive. “Finally Alive cannot fail to have a dramatic impact…
I have a bit of an aversion to books on apologetics. I don’t know exactly why this is, but it may be that many of them seem to teach methods of defending the faith that either manipulate or bludgeon. Somehow grace and apologetics do not seem to go together as they ought. So it was…
87 Hours of Porn Per Year“The average UK teenager spends 87 hours a year viewing online porn, according to new research conducted by OnePoll in the UK.” Realize that the research did not distinguish between girls and boys and you’ll probably have do double that 87 hours for the boys. Allow for the fact that…
A couple of weeks ago I reviewed The Christian Lover by Michael Haykin, a collection of historical love letters sent from one Christian lover to another. Despite feeling like a bit of a voyeur, spying on private communications, I enjoyed reading these letters, and highly recommended the book. But it got me thinking about my…
Women to Pass Men in the Job ForceWith the recession on the brink of becoming the longest in the postwar era, a milestone may be at hand: Women are poised to surpass men on the nation’s payrolls, taking the majority for the first time in American history. Evolution at WikipediaHere’s an interesting little graphic that…
There is some “25-Things” meme making its way around Facebook (and, from there, to the web beyond). I’ve been tagged a whole bunch of times. It has, after all, apparently been completed some five million times. Such memes are not really my thing. Some people take these things way too seriously and offer facts that,…
I really enjoying reading David Wells’ books (the theologian, that is, not the pitcher). His four (or five) volume series that began with No Place for Truth and ended with Above All Earthly Pow’rs (or The Courage To Be Protestant) is a modern day classic. There is lots of great content to mine from them.…