Occasional family and ministry updates
Aileen and I were once members of a church that, after a few years of existence, began to de-emphasize doctrine. Some of the pastors seemed to reach the conclusion that “doctrine divides” and that the church really just needed to focus on evangelism and on “action.” They seemed to determine that a sound theological foundation…
A question I am asked quite often goes something like this: “Do you ever have a day where you just do not want to write anything?” Are there ever days when the absolute last thing I want to do is to sit down and write? I can answer, quite honestly I think, that this happens…
One of the unexpected blessings of writing this blog is that it sets in stone (so to speak—it’s actually more like pixels) things that I’ve believed and things that I’ve felt. I use the blog, in some ways, as a record of spiritual development. I return quite often to articles I’ve written in the past…
Of all the questions that find their way into my inbox, I don’t know that any topic receives more attention than reading. I get a lot of questions from people asking if I’ve read or can recommend certain titles, but also a lot of questions just about reading–how to do it and how to do…
I wanted to draw your attention to a couple of conferences that, though they do not take place until 2008, are coming up rather quickly now. Nashville Conference on the Church & Theology (February 8-10) The Nashville Conference on the Church & Theology is hosted by Community Bible Church. This is how they introduce this…
I wanted to begin today by sharing a few words of wisdom from my daughter who just turned five: “In heaven you can’t die, so you can eat popcorn and hot dogs at the same time and not have to worry about choking.” I just thought you’d all like to have one more thing to…
Next year is an Olympic year and in the summer of 2008, athletes will converge on Beijing to complete in 302 events across 28 different sports. Already we are beginning to hear about qualifying events and national Olympic committees choosing the teams they will send to China to represent their countries. There isn’t an athlete…
I graduated from college in 1995 (Or so. To be honest, I don’t even remember exactly what year it was), having earned a degree in history. That degree did not open up the world of possibilities I had obviously thought it might when I first chose history as my major three years before. With few…
I have an older brother named Andrew who lives in the fine city of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Andrew needs help with something and I’m hoping that someone here–perhaps someone who lives in Chattanooga or who knows people who do, may be able to offer assistance. Now I would not generally create a post such as this…
Last week I had the joy and privilege of watching my cousin get married to the love of her life. The wedding was held in Ottawa, about 5 hours from where we live. Because it was an early morning wedding, we knew we would need to leave at least a day in advance in order…
It strikes me often how life is cyclical; how things I wrestle with and ponder and pray about will come to the forefront of my life and faith a month or a year or two years later. One of the biggest blessings of having a journal (which is often how this site functions for me)…
Reflecting on the sin of envy. It is healthy, I think, to reflect at times upon the evil of my heart. This seems like a terribly negative thing to do, but I believe it is an important discipline of my spiritual life that I seek to discover where evil lurks within my heart. There are…
Chaos reigns. I’m down here just a little ways out of Chattanooga where, in just a few hours, my little sister Grace is going to get married. It is hot. Deathly hot. Even the Atlantans seem to be reeling from it. People have gathered from far and wide. Members of our family have travelled in…
A couple of days ago I wrote a short article called Her Good or Mine. The purpose of the article was simple: to ask whether I really try to help my wife seek after godliness or whether instead I try to help her seek after my own selfish goals. Do I try to help her…
Nine years ago, on this very day, my best friend got married. It was one of the first weddings I had ever been to and I remember it well. It was a beautiful wedding, I thought, exactly the kind I might have planned. It was simple but dignified, homespun but not cheap. The mother of…
Asking myself why I want her to change… I have been thinking about this subject for a while now. I’ve even tried to write about it once or twice with decidedly poor results, causing me to give up and put it aside for another day. I’m going to give it another shot today and hope…
Here’s something a little bit different. I’ve been asked to guest on a radio program for today, so rather than typing out an article today, I’ll simply refer you to the program. It will go out live this afternoon from 1-2 PM EST. If you’re in the area of Greenville, South Carolina, you should be…
Today is Father’s Day and I thought I’d share something I posted here before–an article I wrote for my dad three years ago on this day. Like most boys I idolized my father. When I was a child you would have had a difficult time convincing me that there was anyone smarter, faster or stronger…
As you probably know, I run not only this blog but also Discerning Reader, a site that, until now has focused entirely on book reviews. Just last week I relaunched the site with a whole new design and a bunch of new features. Most notably, we will now add new reviews every week (on Tuesdays)…
I am a Web designer and as such I have to be creative on an on-going basis. Every time a client calls and asks me to design a site I have to be creative and come up with a new design–something that will look attractive, that will be original and will fit the “feel” of…