I hope you are enjoying this Visual Theology series of infographics as much as I am. The series has now visited the ordo salutis, the attributes of God, the books of the Bible, Philippians 4:8, the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Trinity, Philippians 2:5-11, the Old Testament tabernacle and the fruit of the Spirit. Today…
A little while ago God did what he sometimes does and rather suddenly made it very clear to me that I had a sin in my life–a prominent sin–that had somehow been hidden to me. It surprised just how prevalent this sin was, how ugly, and how little I knew about it. Once I saw…
Suffering Is a Gift – I found this excellent article both encouraging and challenging. “In the last number of years, especially as a Christian, even though I ‘knew’ in the back of my mind that none of us is guaranteed a long life, I didn’t think much about dying young. But, when I was diagnosed…
Though prayer is instictive, it is also difficult labor. David M’Intyre makes and explains this point in his book The Hidden Life of Prayer: Instinctive as is our dependence upon God, no duty is more earnestly impressed upon us in Scripture than the duty of continual communion with Him. The main reason for this unceasing…
It occurred to me recently that I own several books dedicated to the topics of humility and pride (and, I’m sure, many more that deal with them in passing). I began to wonder how each of the authors define their terms and, with a little bit of research, here is what I came up with.…
This week’s Free Stuff Friday is sponsored by first-time sponsor Discovery House Publishers. Discovery House has published several books that I’ve endorsed and/or reviewed in the past couple of years and they have packaged them up here and made them available for this giveaway. There are five prize packs to win and each one will…
Here are seven ways that you can pray about your prayer life. These are seven items you can add to your prayer list as you consider your own prayer life or another person’s. 1) Pray that your prayers would be the expressions of a humble heart. And when you pray, you must not be like…
The Flight from Conversation – Sherry Turkle writing for the New York Times: “We live in a technological universe in which we are always communicating. And yet we have sacrificed conversation for mere connection.” Ligonier Connect – Ligonier Ministries offers courses you can take online and they’ve just made it even more accessible with new…
I don’t just read, you know. I also listen to music and always love it when a new CD shows up in my post office box or, more commonly, when a new set of MP3s arrives in my inbox. Here are just a few of the albums I have been enjoying in recent days. Open…
Today we continue to read through John Bunyan’s classic work The Pilgrim’s Progress, and we arrive at the eighth stage of his journey. This week Christian and Hopeful journey on and come to the Delectable Mountains. This is a chapter that required me to re-read it (or really to listen to it and then to…
Consistent Complementarianism – Merely being complementarian is not enough. Michael McKinley says “I see a lot of men who assert their headship in their home, but who do not take a consistent approach to the authorities set over them by God (or God himself).” A Beautiful, Dirty Mind – Someone sent me this article, which…
About a month ago I announced the start of a new series of posts in which I will attempt to define theological terms succinctly and simply (as much as this is possible). I began with a definition of the category itself—theology—and am now finally getting around to the second term. Trinity is a word that,…
I have a love-hate relationship with e-books. Among the issues I’ve grappled with most is that of ownership: Which option offers the greater sense or reality of ownership? Is there greater ownership in having a physical copy of a book I can hold in my hand and file on my bookcase, or in having that…
3 Ways to Encourage Your Pastor – R.C. Sproul Jr. offers up three really good ways to encourage your pastor. As I read these, I realized that though I am a pastor, I ought to be more deliberate in encouraging the other pastors at my church! Building Healthy Churches – 9Marks has just released a…
I don’t mean to be a curmudgeon and I don’t mean to be insensitive, truly. Perhaps there are rules that govern these things, and I am violating them, or maybe I am just missing some vital piece of information. I don’t know. But I have been to a wide variety of Christian blogs and news…
The Hunger Games – With tongue in cheek, Wes Bredenhof pens what he calls the definitive Christian review of The Hunger Games. While it may not be definitive, I think he makes some interesting points. Monergism Books – Monergism has a pretty good selection of new and not-so-new books available at a deep discount (50%…
I love writing book reviews and I love reading them. Since I cannot possibly read and review all of the interesting books out there, I’ve decided to put together some occasional round-ups of reviews written by other writers. Here are a few notable links I’ve collected over the past few weeks. William Carey: Obliged to…
When a new technology explodes on the scene, there is always a period of time in which society negotiates the rules that will surround it. When the telephone first gained popularity it took time to learn what would be considered the polite way of answering it. Alexander Graham Bell suggested “Ahoy!” Others tried, “Who’s there?”…
Kony 2012 in Numbers – This post, which also includes an infographic, discusses Kony 2012 as a phenomenon (rather than talking about the ideology of the campaign). Studied from a social media perspective, it’s a complete triumph. Extreme FOMO – “We are living in an era of extreme FOMO, more commonly known as Fear of…
I have probably shared this quote before–a quote drawn from D.A. Carson’s The Cross and Christian Ministry, but I found myself thinking about these words this morning and asking myself this: How many of these things could I do today? Which of these things could I do today and perhaps unwittingly undermine my church from…