It’s a question I’m asked fairly often. “Have you ever blogged a conference and heard a speaker you really disagreed with?” I’ve always been able to say “no.” Until today. Now I want to be careful here. Flip Flippen, a life coach and psychotherapist, did not ever claim to be preaching. He did not bring…
It’s Over. Evolution WinsOr that’s what we’re now supposed to believe. “The search for a direct connection between humans and the rest of the animal kingdom has taken 200 years – but it was presented to the world today at a special news conference in New York. The discovery of the 95%-complete ‘lemur monkey’ –…
Because this conference is held on the campus of Moody Bible Institute, everything happens in a pretty small area. My room is within a two minute walk of the main auditorium and the cafeteria. Only the exhibit hall takes some effort to get to. Last night the conference kicked off with a talk by Michael…
Yesterday afternoon I hopped on a flight to Chicago so I could get to reFocus, Moody Bible Institute’s pastors’ conference. This is going to be a slightly different experience for me, I think. It is bound to be a different than the “average” conference I go to at any rate. It’s a long story as…
March for Life Coverage“Let me get this straight: 5,000 Tamils block a few lanes of Toronto traffic and it’s all over the news. Heck, a mere 50 Tamils demonstrate in front of the American Consulate in Calgary and we hear about it. But when 12,000 people showed up Thursday on Parliament Hill to demonstrate their…
John Piper waited forty years to write a book on marriage. It is only after forty years of marriage that he felt like he would have something valuable to say (or something valuable to add to a very crowded genre of book). “Romance, sex, and childbearing are temporary gifts of God. They are not part…
Taking ChanceThis is a film I thoroughly enjoyed. It has just become available for sale through Amazon. “The made-for-HBO Taking Chance is based on perhaps the single most moving artifact to come out of the Second Gulf War, Lt. Col. Mike Strobl’s [played by Kevin Bacon] first-person narrative of his voluntary mission escorting the body…
Here is another selection from Arthur Bennett’s The Valley of Vision. This old prayer confesses to God a reliance on self, and as it does so, it teaches both the folly of such reliance and the joy of relying fully on God. “When thou art angry towards me for my wrongs I try to pacify…
Until I read this book I would not have considered God’s love as a particularly difficult doctrine. The Trinity is a difficult doctrine to understand, impossible even. The eternal nature of God–that is another difficult or impossible one. But the love of God? I wouldn’t have thought of it as such. But this book convinced…
In the back of my mind I can almost hear that Monty Python guy saying, “And now for something completely different.” This week’s Free Stuff Friday giveaway is definitely a little bit different. The sponsor is 1031 Sermon Jams. 10:31 Sermon Jams was made to bring sermons and music together. They were created to bring…
With books arriving at my door on a near-daily basis, I cannot hope to read and review them all. I’ll admit that quite a few of these books meet an immediately and untimely end in the trash. But many others, even though they are perfectly good, I’m simply unable to read and review. I want…
Clayton’s StoryZ shares a powerful little video that tells the story of Clayton McDonald. The Kingdom, the Power, and the GloryDr. Mohler shares his commencement address and charge to graduates of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, delivered May 15, 2009. “And here, right before our eyes, we see hundreds of ministers of Christ, ready to…
Last night as Aileen and I taught some of the teens at church (as we do every Wednesday evening) we encountered the concepts of guilt and shame. It is a tricky concept this, as it may be positive or negative depending on the context. The Bible makes it clear that, in their innocence, before they…
What’s Next for The Gospel Coalition?CT interviews D.A. Carson on The Gospel Coalition. “Our aim is not to keep the coalition as an end in itself. It’s a coalition of people for the sake of promoting the gospel. And if the gospel is so implanted in enough things that are taking it forward in all…
And just like this we’ve come to the end of this year’s Basics Conference. It always seems to go by so quickly. I think I say this every year, but this really is one of my favorite conferences of the year (and perhaps even my absolute favorite). Many conferences geared to pastors are intense, packing…
This evening, after rather an excellent dinner, we gathered again to hear from John Lennox. In his first talk (yesterday afternoon) he spoke of the use of the mind in engaging the world. In this one he wanted to use Scripture to address the mind; and not only the mind but also the imagination. One…
John Piper’s second (and final) session was taken from John 3 and dealt with the topic of preaching the doctrine of regeneration undiminished. This is just the briefest overview. You know the audio will be available at the Desiring God site before the day is over. Piper’s outline followed this pattern: What happens in the…
The second day of The Basics Conference began with Alistair Begg speaking from 2 Corinthians 5 and focusing on verse 20. He wanted to consider the matter of preaching that confronts people’s stubborn wills; to think about persuasive preaching. To do this, is to place ourselves in good company for the apostolic precept pushes us…
60 Years in an Iron Lung“Martha Mason passed away last week at the age of 71 after spending 60 years living inside an iron lung. Mason was paralyzed from the neck down due to a childhood case of polio and was one of about 30 Americans left who live full time in iron lungs. There…
After a great dinner, and a few worship songs courtesy of Keith and Kristyn Getty, John Piper took to the pulpit to explore the theme of preaching the doctrine of justification from the Scriptures in an undiminished way. For ten years he has been very exercised about this doctrine and he began by offering five…