Holy hip-hop or Christian rap has been on my mind lately. While I still feel like a complete poser when a listen to such music, I can’t deny that I quite enjoy it (as my wife would be glad to testify with a roll of her pretty eyes; she isn’t much of a fan). As…
A First Century Manuscript? – Dan Wallace: “On 1 February 2012, I debated Bart Ehrman at UNC Chapel Hill on whether we have the wording of the original New Testament today. … I mentioned that seven New Testament papyri had recently been discovered—six of them probably from the second century and one of them probably…
So how many people go to your church?” That’s a question just about every pastor faces at just about every conference he attends. It usually doesn’t take long for a conversation to progress to that point. For the pastor this can be a moment of great pride or great humility, great freedom or great shame.…
Receiving Criticism – Dane Ortlund: “Seems to me there are two wrong ways to receive criticism and one right way. By ‘criticism’ I have in mind love-sent but hard words from a believing brother or sister that are meant for our good, in the spirit of so many NT passages (neglected by many today, first…
The Prius Fallacy: “a belief that switching to an ostensibly more benign form of consumption turns consumption itself into a boon for the environment.” That’s how David Owen, in his recent Wall Street Journal article, “It’s Too Easy Being Green,” defines the Prius Fallacy. Here’s how he illustrates it in action: A favorite trick of…
Keller on NYC’s Decision to Ban Churches from Schools – “I am grieved that New York City is planning to take the unwise step of removing 68 churches from the spaces that they rent in public schools. It is my conviction that those churches housed in schools are invaluable assets to the neighborhoods that they…
For thousands of years soldiers have known that to defeat your enemy you must know your enemy. If you go into a battle blind, with no knowledge of the army against you, you can expect to be defeated. But the better you know your enemy—the way he moves, the way he attacks, the kinds of…
The Cross and the Crescent – Michael Horton: “Newsweek‘s current cover-story is ‘The Global War on Christians in the Muslim World,’ by Ayann Hirsi Ali, who fled her native Somalia and served in the Dutch Parliament before taking a position at the American Enterprise Institute. As the article points out, widespread anti-Christian violence is exploding…
This is my once-monthly post on the Puritan John Owen. In this series of posts I am sharing some of what John Owen says about putting sin to death, or what he calls mortification. I have been going through John Owen’s book Overcoming Sin and Temptation and trying to distill each chapter to its essence—to…
I have now released the first two infographics in a series I am titling “Visual Theology.” Just as there are many words that can be used to describe any one fact, there are also many ways to display facts. I have been working with a few graphic designers in an attempt to display theological realities…
11 Things Thabiti’s Thinking – Thabiti Anyabwile (can we agree that, like Price and Madonna, we can just refer to him by only his first name?) shares 11 things he’s thinking about the whole Elephant Room controversy. You may also enjoy Carson’s and Keller’s take. I think we’re all growing a little weary of this…
I love this quote from A.W. Pink’s The Sovereignty of God. Employing some wonderful prose, particularly near the end of the quote, he does battle with those who claim to be Christians but who show very little evidence in their lives. He describes the sweeping nature of what Christ accomplishes in giving new life. The…
It’s February 4 today, and though it’s a couple of days later than usual, I’ve got a few awesome desktop wallpapers for you to download. For the next few months at least I’ve decided to change things up a bit. Instead of putting out a public call for wallpapers, I am asking just one designer…
It was several months ago that Bible Study Magazine (a publication from Logos) asked if they could interview me for a future cover story. The March/April issue of the magazine has just been released and, well, there I am. I asked if there was any way that we could offer the magazine to the readers…
This week’s Free Stuff Friday is sponsored by P&R Publishing and it features quite a prize package. Actually, there are 5 prize packages to win, each of which will contain the following: The newest of these books is Bob Kelleman’s Equipping Counselors for Your Church. Here’s what the publisher says about it: Want your ministry…
Massive Sanctification – I appreciated this article from Ed Welch. Sometimes massive sanctification can work itself out in just a small change of words or a small shift in attitude. He works this out in those times a husband is rejected by his wife, but it applies much more widely than that. Learning Worship from…
I’ve been at this blogging thing for quite a long time now—a bit over 9 years. I’ve been at the daily blogging thing for almost as long. This means that I’ve got an extensive backlist of articles from years gone by. I thought it might be fun to pull out some of the articles I…
Do you remember when you used to have a memory? Do you remember when you could actually remember stuff and when you actually needed to remember stuff? You know, stuff like phone numbers or recipes or Bible verses. Those days seem to be nearing an end. An interesting new study from psychology professors at Columbia…
Spare the Rod, Spoil the Student – I enjoyed this as a story that nicely illustrates the maxim of “spare the rod, spoil the child.” (Note: there’s one bad word in there). Personal Libraries of the (Near) Future – A cartoon for you. (HT) Gnosticism, Nicea and Celebrity – Carl Trueman on recent events: “Now…
Last week I shared three articles titled A Picture-Perfect Marriage. That short series looked to Ephesians 5 and the great mystery that is marriage. I showed from that text that marriage is, and always has been, a portrait of Christ and his church. But at the end of it all I was left with a…