Welcome to the online home of Tim Challies, blogger, author, and book reviewer.
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Few people have had a deeper impact on my way of thinking than John Stott. In his little book Your Mind Matters, he writes about the importance of being Christians who use our minds. But knowledge is not an end in and of itself. Rather, all that knowledge is meant to lead somewhere. Knowledge should lead to worship. The true knowledge of God will result not in our being puffed up with conceit at how knowledgeable we are, but in …
Last week GLH Publishing released a new Kindle edition of Thoughts on Religious Experience by Archibald Alexander. I barely got a page or two into the book before I came across such a helpful section that describes the connection between knowledge and piety–between what we know and how we practice our Christian faith. Here is what Alexander wants you to know. If genuine religious experience is nothing but the impression of divine truth on the mind by the energy of …
You have heard the distinction as often as I have—the distinction between head knowledge and heart knowledge. We learn facts about God, about his character, about his Word, but it is not until those facts reach the heart that they become spiritually beneficial. They say the journey from the head to the heart is the longest journey of all. I’ve never been too comfortable with this distinction between head knowledge and heart knowledge, and recently Andrew Davis helped me sharpen …
I mentioned a short time ago that my parents are committed readers of biography (which makes Christmas and birthday shopping really easy). A couple of years ago I bought them a copy of David McCullough’s Pulitzer Prize-winning life of Harry Truman. My mother was particularly taken with the biography and its subject and I’ve since enjoyed hearing her reflections on Truman. I asked her if she would write some reflections and what follows is the result. I loved reading it and …
Airport Security – “At the Bangkok airport they took my scissors. This was the second time they took my scissors in Bangkok. I should have learned my lesson. They were safety scissors, the kind you’d give to a child, about two-and-a-half inches long with rounded tips.” There’s a lesson in there about airport security. Pride and Prejudice and Porn – Here’s a fantastic article that looks at today’s pornified, hook-up culture and then compares it to a different age. Meet …
This is the most normal of weeks in Canada, yet it’s one of the most special weeks in the United States. I think Canadians are always a little bit surprised at the fuss Americans make about Thanksgiving. For us it’s quite a minor holiday; for Americans it’s one of the biggest days on the calendar. Strange that. It’s the same holiday with many of the same traditions, but with entirely different levels of importance attached. National Geographic’s Photography Contest 2010 …
Earlier today I was looking through some notes I took on David McCullough’s great biography of John Adams. I found there a few quotes from Adams about his love of reading. He was an avid reader who had a very substantial library–far more the exception than the rule in his day. Here is how he spoke of how reading ranked in his life in terms of priority. I want to see my children every day. I want to see my …
5 Books to get Mom for Mother’s Day – Here are five books you may like to consider getting mom (or wife) for Mother’s Day: One (if she likes being challenged–see the other titles in this series as well), two (if she’s a note-taker), three (if she likes biographies), four (if she’s into self-examination) and five (if she’s meant to mentor). And here’s a bonus if she really likes longer biographies. Healing – Ali has a story to tell from …
An Interview with Michael Horton Over at the Ligonier blog Burk Parsons is interviewing Michael Horton (who declares that he does not read any blogs–maybe that is the secret to his productivity). Part two of the interview reveals that Horton was only a teenager when he wrote the first version of Putting Amazing Back Into Grace, a long-time favorite book of mine. The Esse of Reformed Michael Haykin looks at what it means to be Reformed and whether Baptists can …
Al Gore’s Earth Hour “President of the Tennessee Center For Policy Research Drew Johnson takes a Saturday drive by Al Gore’s during the time most environmentalists went dark. … The kicker, though, were the dozen or so floodlights grandly highlighting several trees and illuminating the driveway entrance of Gore’s mansion.” Shaun Groves on Life in the Speck “On your first day on the other side of the grave, do you think you’ll look back on this life and be flooded …