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  • On Hoarding Wealth and Fostering Gifts

    On Hoarding Wealth and Fostering Gifts

    I recently read an article about the countless billions of dollars that have been saved and stored up outside the mainstream financial system. The author explained that many people have lost their confidence in banks and other institutions and have responded by finding alternative ways to protect their wealth. Some have kept it in the…

  • 7 Beautiful Things

    7 Beautiful Things

    As another week drew to a close, I found myself pondering beauty and wanting to reflect on some of the beautiful things I had encountered in the previous 7 days. Here are the ones that came to mind. 1. “Still” by Steven Curtis Chapman. I have been impacted by Steven Curtis Chapman’s music at different…

  • Two Years Later: What Aileen Is Thankful For

    I have said a lot about Nick over the past two years. I have written a lot of articles and done quite a number of interviews and even published a book. And I have been aware all the while that I can only speak to a small part of our loss, for there were many…

  • If God Is Not Sovereign

    If God Is Not Sovereign…

    Christians speak often of God’s sovereignty. Reformed Christians speak very often of God’s sovereignty. God’s sovereignty refers to his presence in this world, his authority over this world, and his control within this world. God owns and oversees his creation to such a degree that nothing happens apart from his knowledge, apart from his will,…

  • Things for Christian Men to Think About

    Things for Christian Men To Think About

    I have had a few opportunities in the past few weeks to interact with Christian men. Along the way I’ve jotted down a few thoughts that arose from those conversations. I thought I’d share them today. ❖ Pause for a few moments to consider the fact that God is a Father and you are his…

  • How We Worshipped

    How We Worshipped on One Sunday in October

    From time to time I like to share one of our worship services from Grace Fellowship Church. In that vein, here is how we worshiped on one October Sunday morning. This week’s cast of characters included Paul as the service leader and preacher, Allie as the lead worshiper, and Patrick as the elder who prayed…

  • Free Stuff Fridays

    Free Stuff Fridays (Ligonier Ministries)

    This week’s Free Stuff Friday is sponsored by Ligonier Ministries, who also sponsored the blog this week. The Protestant Reformers boldly declared that salvation is by God’s grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, as revealed in Scripture alone, to the glory of God alone. Together, these “alone” statements are called the five solas…

  • Which Man Was More Free

    Which Man Was More Free?

    It is a question an author once asked, a question that intrigued me. Which man was more free: was it the emperor or was it the missionary? Was it Nero or was it Paul? Was it Nero in his palace surrounded by attendants, his table overflowing with delicacies, his eyes overwhelmed with visual delights? Or…

  • Shaken to Bear Fruit

    Shaken to Bear Fruit

    The strange machine along the streets of Madrid seized my attention. Its long arms reached out and wrapped themselves around the trunk of a tree. Its motor vibrated those arms at high speeds so they could shake the tree violently. Its net sat suspended just beneath the lowest branches. As the machine buzzed and roared,…

  • What Jesus Sees Even When Others Do Not

    What Jesus Sees (Even When Others Do Not)

    It’s a detail that is easy to overlook, a detail whose importance may be lost in our many readings and re-readings of the story. But it’s a detail that is full of significance and flush with encouragement if only we will notice it and if only we will meditate upon it. In the first chapter…

  • There Are Different Kinds of Tired

    There Are Different Kinds of Tired

    There are different kinds of tired. There are different kinds of weary. There are different kinds of fatigue that may overwhelm the body and overcome the mind as the sun sets, as the skies grow dark, as day gives way to evening and evening gives way to night. There are different kinds of fatigue because…

  • A Manifesto for Times of Suffering

    A Manifesto for Times of Suffering

    In the relatively early days following Nick’s death, I understood that I would face a number of temptations—the temptation to sink into unremitting despair, the temptation to descend into self-pity, or the temptation to charge God with wrong. I knew also that God was calling me to carry a deep sorrow for a long time…

  • Thankful

    Today … I’m Thankful

    It’s Thanksgiving today here in Canada. Because we like to get this holiday out of the way long before the Christmas season begins, we celebrate it in early October as opposed to late November like our neighbors to the south. But apart from the different date and the different national history, it is otherwise much…

  • Christian When Persecution Comes Embrace It

    Christian, When Persecution Comes: Embrace It

    The Christian faith is counterintuitive in any number of ways, but perhaps none so much as in its perspective on suffering and, particularly, its perspective on suffering persecution. We may see this most clearly in the actions of the apostles who, after being imprisoned and beaten, “left the presence of the council rejoicing that they…

  • So You Think You're Facing Persecution Do You

    So You Think You’re Facing Persecution, Do You?

    Jesus tells us to expect persecution. This is something I attempted to prove in an article a couple of days ago when I showed that at both the beginning and the ending of his ministry he warned that there would be a cost to following him. Yet Jesus knows that not everything that may look…

  • Christian Do You Expect To Face Persecution

    Christian, Do You Expect to Face Persecution?

    There’s an old story that tells of a missionary—a missionary who became convinced the Lord had called him to go to a foreign land. Obviously, he first needed some training, and as part of that, he collected books about the country and he studied them very closely. He began to learn its language and to…

  • 7 Beautiful Things

    7 Beautiful Things

    As another week drew to a close, I found myself pondering beauty and wanting to reflect on some of the beautiful things I had encountered in the previous 7 days. Here are the ones that came to mind. 1. Fall Colors. Autumn in Ontario is almost breathtakingly beautiful during those few weeks when the leaves…

  • Our Understanding of Earth and Our Assumptions of Heaven

    Our Understanding of Earth and Our Assumptions of Heaven

    I think we are all guilty at times of importing our understanding of earth into our assumptions of heaven. We are all guilty of importing our understanding of how things work here to how they will work there. We look at the world we know and extrapolate to the one we don’t. I sometimes fear,…

  • Idolatry is Futility

    Idolatry is Futility

    We are all prone to idolatry. We may consider ourselves far too advanced to bow before an idol of wood or stone, to bend the knee to the image of an animal or man. But none of us is immune from bowing before the idols of our dreams and desires, before the idols of our…

  • A Late Summer Family Update

    A Late Summer Family Update (+ a few more LOTR thoughts)

    We are now two weeks past the launch event for Seasons of Sorrow and one week past the official release date. Overall I think things went well. The Getty Music Sing! Conference, where we held the launch event and where I led a breakout session, was my first conference in more than two years and…