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…
Many of the best days of my childhood were spent exploring, wandering through small forests that have long since been felled in the name of suburban expansion, wading down long, shallow creeks, following abandoned railroad lines, discovering old and derelict buildings, wondering who may have walked that way before, what may have happened, what might…
Why Christians Should Read Camus – This promises to be an interesting new series from Leland Ryken. “Every week he’ll lend us his decades of learning to help us understand why these works have come to be regarded as timeless treasures. Have you ever thought, I’ve heard that book is great, but I’m intimidated to…
Kerry Allen is a keeper of all things Spurgeon, including a Twitter feed that shares Spurgeon quotes and Spurgeon.us, a web site that contains a massive database of Spurgeon material. He recently shared with me an interesting quote from Spurgeon. It comes from the sermon “Further Afield,” preached on September 23, 1888. Here Spurgeon describes…
Fixing the TSA – “Air travel would be safer if we allowed knives, lighters and liquids and focused on disrupting new terror plots. A former head of the Transportation Security Administration, Kip Hawley, on embracing risk.” Represent! – “What an awesome thought – Christ represents us in heaven! The perfect, spotless, Lamb of God pleads…
This week’s Free Stuff Friday is sponsored by Indelible Grace Music. For years now Indelible Grace has been at the forefront of the new hymns movement, setting old hymns to new music. Since I first heard their music (via my sister, as it happens) I’ve been a big fan. Today they are offering five prize…
I had tried reading Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead at least three or four times, but without success, which is to say, without completing it. I would read twenty pages, or even eighty, and eventually put the book aside and forget to return to it. Gilead is wonderfully written, so it is not that I was trying…
TBN Again – “A $50 million jet. Chauffeurs. Mansions in California and Florida. Clandestine affairs. Crimes and cover-up. Even a $100,000 motor home for the pet dog. These are just a few of the allegations directed against the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) and its directors in a pair of lawsuits filed in February by former…
It’s the question I always get from the people who wanted to attend Together for the Gospel but weren’t able to: What books did they give away? Well, I’m glad you asked. Here is the list: Several of these were special editions created specifically for T4G (including, for example, the books from Piper and Carson).…
Today we continue reading John Bunyan’s classic work The Pilgrim’s Progress, and we arrive at the sixth stage of his journey. Last week Christian dialogued with Faithful, discussing the role of the law. The two men also encountered Shame. Discussion The sixth stage of Christian’s journey is one of martydom as Christian’s friend Faithful loses…
That’s Not Fair – “Sometime over the past few decades a mindset of ‘fair’ has developed, calling for everyone to finish in the exact same place and receive the exact same reward. Fair has become equity in the finish instead of equity in the process.” MLJ Trust – Here’s some amazing news. The Martyn Lloyd-Jones…
You may have noticed that over the past few weeks I have been reviewing books that come from a little bit off the beaten path, so to speak. I have been reading, enjoying and reviewing books that have come our way from lesser-known Christian publishers. It turns out there are some fresh, excellent titles coming…
In April of 2010 I announced a program called Friends of the Blog. With the costs of maintaining this blog on the rise, Friends of the Blog allowed readers to support the site while receiving tangible benefits. The program worked out very well and for that reason I renewed it for 2011 and again for…
T4G Talks – The Together for the Gospel sessions are being added to this page a few hours after they’re delivered. Overnight Success – This post is quite heartening. “The basic difference between successful people and the rest of us is that they’ve learned to fail well. They humbly embrace their mistakes, use them as…
If books dealing with death are to be a regular part of my reading diet, so too are books on missions. I don’t mean missional living or the mere theory of mission work, but books describing real work on the real mission field. In Reckless Abandon, David Sitton of To Every Tribe Ministries has given…
I’ve made it no secret that I enjoy Christian rap music (and I’m not above poking fun at myself, as I did with The Middle-Aged White Guy’s Guide to Christian Rap). Near the forefront of the Christian rap or holy hip-hop movement is Trip Lee. His new album, The Good Life, releases today and last…
An Increase in Reading – “A fifth of American adults have read an electronic version of a book in the last year, a trend that is fueling a renewed love of reading, according to a new survey. The portion of e-book readers among all American adults has increased to 21 percent from 17 percent between…
The Visual Theology series of infographics 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 and, most recently, the tabernacle. I have opened a Visual Theology store where you can purchase any of these as prints. And just…
How many times have you come across this quote attributed to Mahatma Gandhi? “I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” I must have read it a hundred times in books, magazines, articles, tweets. It is used by believers and unbelievers to point to the hypocrisy…
Missing Missing – R.C. Sproul Jr. has a poignant reflection as he remembers his wife. “She doesn’t sit beside me when I’m alone in the car anymore. She doesn’t look over my shoulder when I am typing and crying alone anymore. Somehow the more time passes, the farther she is gone, not because I am…