This week’s Free Stuff Fridays is sponsored by Family Christian Stores. This week they’re giving away quite a cool prize–a series of DVDs and books called The Nature of God (click for details). There will be 5 winners and each winner will receive a copy of each of the DVDs and each of the books,…
There has been a lot of talk in the blogosphere about James MacDonald inviting T.D. Jakes to round 2 of The Elephant Room, to be held on January 25, 2012. Controversy has centered around the widespread belief that Jakes does not hold to an orthodox understanding of the Trinity. Rather, some claim, he is a…
A Night of Twists and Collapses – “In a spellbinding frenzy of baseball at its unpredictable, unforgiving best, a labyrinth of twists took place across 4 hours 55 minutes at ballparks in Atlanta, Baltimore, St. Petersburg, Fla., and Houston. Only one game was tidy — the St. Louis Cardinals’ 8-0 victory over the Houston Astros.…
Last night I returned safe and sound from all of my travels. I thoroughly enjoyed the speaking trip, but as always, it was wonderful to return home. I came home not only to my family, but to that new dog I surprised my kids with (am 8-week old Chocolate Lab). I figured I should include…
Today we continue our project of reading through John Stott’s classic work The Cross of Christ. We’ve now moved onto Part III which discusses “The Achievement of the Cross.” Here Stott begins to move from the event itself to the consequences, “from what happened on the cross to what was achieved by it.” The Bible…
Nicene Christianity – Carl Trueman looks at James MacDonald’s claim that T.D. Jakes’ trinitarian theology is essentially orthodox. Preaching Notes – Josh Harris is doing another round of preaching notes blog posts (in which he shares the preaching notes of various pastors). Up first is Steven Lawson. Too Much – A photo gallery from The…
It was a busy day, yesterday, my last full day down here in California. Or out here in California. Or whatever the proper terminology is. I spent most of the morning preparing my chapel talk for today, eventually settling on a message about distraction in the digital age. I was asked to speak as much…
The ‘Religious People’ Boogeyman – This is a fantastic response to some of the discussion surrounding Perry Noble. “‘Pharisee,’ ‘legalist,’ ‘religious person’ is the church version of racist or Nazi. It is the rhetorical nuclear option specifically designed to shut up anyone with questions and paint them among their brothers and sisters as graceless jerks.…
It was an interesting and full yesterday. I’m still out here on the West Coast doing quite a lot of speaking. Yesterday began with preaching at chapel at The Master’s College. I realized as I was sitting there, just before the service began, that this is the first chapel service I’ve ever been to. It…
Unpragmatic Pragmatism – Bob Glenn: “If it works to achieve our ends, then it’s right. The logic goes like this: We want more people to hear the gospel. People will only come to hear the gospel if you dress up like a Transformer or ride a white horse. Therefore, dressing up like Bumblebee or becoming…
Last week I spoke to Bob Kellemen about the difficult subject of spiritual abuse. We worked toward a definition of the term and looked also at what shouldn’t rightly be classified as abuse. I had more questions and Bob was kind enough to answer them (and, in my opinion, to answer well). Here’s the rest…
eBooks and Reading – Here’s an interesting ramification of the move to ebooks: “If the transition to eBooks is complete — and with libraries being among the most significant buyers of books, it now seems inevitable — the flexibility of book ownership will be gone forever. Knowledge, in as much as books represent it, will…
Well, I made it safely from Boston to Los Angeles. One thing I neglected to realize when planning my travel is that arriving in L.A. at 10:30 PM is a lot later than it seems when coming in from the East Coast. So I arrived at 10:30, but of course it was really 1:30 AM…
I’m writing today from West Boylston, Massachusetts (I’ve never managed to spell Massachusetts without using spell checker), at the site of the Psalm 119 Conference. Yesterday I spoke on desiring discernment and a few minutes ago on how to be discerning without being a complete jerk (a.k.a. speaking truth in love). It’s been great to…
This week’s Free Stuff Fridays is sponsored by Baker Books. Baker has just published the Baker Illustrated Bible Handbook and they’d like to give away some copies of it. I received a copy not too long ago and have quite enjoyed it as a reference volume. According to the publisher, Baker has five prizes to…
It’s the first day of fall today and I’m kicking off the new season by setting out on a speaking trip. In just a few minutes I’ll jump aboard a really small plane (motion sickness guaranteed!) here in Toronto’s Pearson International Airport and make my way to Providence, Rhode Island and from there to West…
Rob Bell Moves On – Mars Hill has just announced that Rob Bell will be leaving. “Feeling the call from God to pursue a growing number of strategic opportunities, our founding pastor Rob Bell, has decided to leave Mars Hill in order to devote his full energy to sharing the message of God’s love with…
This morning brings us to our next reading in John Stott’s classic work The Cross of Christ. This week I am simply going to offer up a few amazing quotes from this chapter. I hope that this will give everyone who reads this article something to chew on, whether or not you’ve read the book.…
Kids, Meet World – “Fear is probably the most commonly used parenting model among Christians. While it is wrongheaded, I certainly understand why parents fret over their children. I have children and I don’t want them to rebel against God or reject Him in any way. Therefore, it is no exaggeration to say that I…
A little while ago Stephen Altrogge wrote a small article he titled So You Think You’ve Married the Wrong Person and today I would like to add one thing to the discussion. Stephen’s article addresses an always-pertinent topic. It is a topic that is applicable to married folk who may one day wake up and…