Your Child and Porn – “Let’s say a dad came to see you for advice about his teenage son. He tells you his son has been sneaking out of bed late at night looking at porn on the computer. He’s put filters in place but his son seems to be able to get around them.…
I little while ago, while studying Paul’s first letter to Timothy, I came across a great little section of Philip Ryken’s commentary and I thought I’d share it with you. Ryken comments on 1 Timothy 1:17, those verses that inspired a classic hymn of the Christian faith: “To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the…
Earlier in the week I came across a quote by Albert Barnes who was an American theologian during the mid-1800’s. He writes about the Christian’s demeanor or deportment, the way a Christian should carry himself through life. And he says that constant levity is out-of-place in the life of the Christian. I’d be interested in…
In his answer last week as to whether all jobs have the same intrinsic value, Matt Perman made the distinction between economic value and moral value: Not all jobs have the same economic value because, clearly, some jobs pay more than others. But this doesn’t make some jobs more important than others, because all jobs…
This week’s Free Stuff Friday is a little bit different, and I like it that way. It is sponsored by Reformation Heritage Books and William Boekestein who has authored Faithfulness Under Fire: The Story of Guido de Bres and The Quest for Comfort: The Story of the Heidelberg Catechism. Here are the prizes this week:…
The Stalking of the President – Smithsonian has an interesting account of the stalking and assassination of President Garfield (and, perhaps worst of all, the medical treatments he received). Apple’s Education Tools – Apple just unveiled a whole new set of education tools. It looks like interactive learning through tablets and digital textbooks are on…
Note: This is a sponsored post. Learn about sponsored posts. Mission Immanuel — Explore God’s World Mission at California’s 2012 Truth & Life Conference The theme of the 2012 Truth & Life Conference at The Master’s College is The Mission of God. The conference explores the mission of God throughout history and traces the Church’s…
In early 2006 I became the owner of Discerning Reader. Some may remember that before I owned the domain name, it was a bookstore and one that shut down and disappeared under strange and sudden circumstances. A few months after the store closed, the domain went up for auction and I purchased it. In April…
Mrs. Blackburn – After writing about preaching ordinary sermons, I received a link to this article which carries on the theme quite nicely. It is a tribute to a very ordinary Sunday school teacher who left an indelible mark. The Chicken of the Sea – Dr. Mohler has written a wonderful article about the sinking…
It has come as kind of a shock to me, now that I am a pastor and preaching on a regular basis, that the vast majority of the sermons I preach will be rather ordinary. I will study hard and pray hard and work hard, I’ll get started early in the week and give it…
The Big Day – Michael Horton writes about the Superbowl and churches that have a Superbowl party: “Typically, in the reports I scanned, pastors were justifying their decision by appealing to the mission opportunity. Somehow, having the building full with people who want to be there for a game, but not for God’s saving service…
Yesterday I wrote about Satan’s Great Desire which is to bring about disunity in your local church, somehow convincing you that the people in your church are no longer worthy of your love. I ended by giving the encouragement that God has equipped us to build and maintain this kind of unity and that all…
I checked in with Twitter this morning and saw a few mentions of the fact that today is my 3,000th consecutive day of blogging. What’s funny to me is that I had no idea. But that little counter at the bottom right of the page just kept incrementing and I guess a few people noticed.…
Many great Christian resources are available on the topics of sexuality and marriage. In light of so much discussion about sex and marriage in the blogosphere these days, I wanted to highlight a few of the ones I’ve come across that seem to be particularly helpful. People are in different places: some need to learn…
I have been engaged in a study of the second half of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, and, not surprisingly, the themes from that letter have been resonating in my mind over the past few weeks. I have been struck by Paul’s emphasis on the importance of love and unity in the local church. On…
Pastors and Conducting Weddings – Brian Croft: “I am consistently asked about the circumstances surrounding weddings. What makes it permissible or not to conduct a wedding in “this or that” situation? I am very aware that there are strong opinions and lively disagreements about whether an evangelical pastor should marry Christians, non-Christians, and everything in…
In my online wanderings this week I read an interview with theologian John Webster (and I confess, I know nothing about Mr. Webster other than what is in this interview). There was one thing in that interview that jumped out at me, especially since I have been thinking and writing a little bit about vocation…
A Song to the Coming King – David Murray is beginning what should be an interesting series on the Song of Solomon as a song to the coming king of love. “Many Western interpreters have got so lost in analyzing the minute details of every pomegranate and every tree that many have been turned off…
This week’s Free Stuff Friday feast is provided by Christian Focus Publications and comes with an Old Testament flavour. For starters we have 3 biographies on Old Testament men of faith, Joseph, Daniel and Jonah. Joseph: The Hidden Hand of God by Liam Goligher – Any regular attendee at School concerts will have heard countless…
Rogue Ringtone – “The final movement of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony is a slow rumination on mortality, with quiet sections played by strings alone. During the New York Philharmonic’s performance Tuesday night, it was interrupted by an iPhone.” Ouch. The Post-Program Church – This is a good article from 9Marks: “If churches shouldn’t rely wholly on…