The more I grow in my knowledge of the Lord (by his grace) the more I see the utter centrality of the church, the local church, in his plan for his people. The more I learn of him, the more I see what a jewel the church is–what a blessing, what an honor it is…
World Population Grows (Older) – “On this crowded, hot, trampled planet, one of the most vexing trends is something countless numbers of us see when we look in the mirror: We’re going gray. The United Nations has declared that the human population will hit 7 billion Monday, and an expanding percentage of those people are…
It’s November 1 today, and that means that I’ve got a whole new batch of amazing desktop wallpaper designs for you to download. Thanks to each of this month’s designers for sending along some amazing work (and for a couple of young, future designers as well). A few notes: 320 x 480 is for your…
Harper + Nelson – “The publishing world, and particularly the Christian publishing world, is abuzz because of the announcement today that HarperCollins (the third largest trade publisher in the United States) has purchased Thomas Nelson (which claims to be the seventh largest trade publisher). With Zondervan and HarperOne already under the umbrella of HarperCollins (which…
I typically give away free stuff on Fridays, but I’ve got a bonus giveaway this week courtesy of Desiring God–50 copies of John Piper’s new book Bloodlines. The only catch is that they can be shipped only to American and Canadian mailing addresses. Here is a description of the book: Genocide. Terrorism. Hate crimes. In…
It had not been deliberately planned that Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs would release just days after Jobs died. Not really. Jobs had known for many years that he could not keep his cancer at bay forever and he had specifically asked Isaacson to be his biographer. The book was completed, the publication date…
3 Ways to Make the Reformers Proud – This is a good and clever article from The Cripplegate blog. “Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Melanchthon, Bucer, Farel, and countless others lived and died to leave a legacy of passion and proclamation. They showed that when you love Jesus and his word, you would rather die than keep…
Last week I shared a quote from Edward Donnelly’s book Biblical Teaching on the Doctrines of Heaven and Hell. Today I wanted to share another one that stood out to me as a great encouragement. Read it and be blessed on this Lord’s Day! What is … amazing is that our Lord and Saviour will…
One of the unique features of this blog is the little counter down in the bottom right of the site. It’s a little feature that simply increments by 1 number each day. Today it stands at 2,920. What this means is that it was 2,920 days ago that I decided to make this blog an…
A few days ago I wrote up a blog post welcoming Westminster Books to Canada. A lot of people left comments, which means that Westminster Books has now issued a coupon code for 15% off any order to Canada. The code is valid until November 1, so you will want to get shopping ASAP if…
This week’s Free Stuff Fridays is themed for Reformation Day and sponsored by Ligonier Ministries. They are offering 1 grand prize and then 4 other prizes (that are grand, but not quite as grand). The grand prize winner will take home this amazing package of prizes: There will be 4 other winners and each of…
Guidance – Paul Tautges has been posting a series of articles on the subject of guidance. He goes into subjective and non-subjective means of guidance. If you went through my recent series, you’ll know that my emphasis is a bit different, but I think the series are largely complementary. Church and Technology – “Tyndale University…
Here is another roundup of 30 Minute Reviews. These are noteworthy books that I did not have time or opportunity to read from beginning to end. Instead, I tried to spend at least 30 minutes with each—enough to get a sense of what the book is all about. At the Throne of Grace – At…
Today we draw one week closer to completing John Stott’s The Cross of Christ. After this week’s reading, we’ve got just two remaining before we’ve finished the book and wrapped up another reading project. Thank you for bearing with me last week when I just wasn’t able to get things done on time. Self-Understanding and…
The Rules of Publishing – “Amazon.com has taught readers that they do not need bookstores. Now it is encouraging writers to cast aside their publishers. Amazon will publish 122 books this fall in an array of genres, in both physical and e-book form. It is a striking acceleration of the retailer’s fledging publishing program that…
At long last, WTSBooks is beta testing shipping to Canada! They wanted to launch the service sooner rather than later, and I’ve been told that by early 2012 improvements like a shipping calculator and one-screen checkout will be in place. To give a picture of how WTSBooks stacks up to the competition, I went back…
I had an unusual and unexpected experience on Sunday–one that struck me as rather significant. I have been doing quite a bit of preaching at Grace Fellowship Church and elsewhere and knew that Sunday marked the last time I would have to prepare a fresh sermon until the end of the calendar year. Somehow this…
Pastors Who Write Books – Here is some good advice from Barnabas Piper for pastors who want to write books of the sermon series. “When I receive proposals for books or book ideas from pastors I often get something like this as an accompanying comment: “I am the pastor of a X,000-person church, and based…
Evangelicalism has a strange obsession with the Amish. The Amish are the theme of countless novels and they also appear in cookbooks, books of moralisms, books on the virtues of the simple life, and on and on. They are held up as models of cultural and theological simplicity, people who can point us to better…
The Things He Wanted to Do – John Piper writes about Steve Jobs. “The wisdom Steve Jobs learned, he said, was this: Do a couple things, and do them well. You don’t have time for much. And most of things are not lasting. So do two or three things, and do them amazingly. Not a…