There is snow all around us–several feet of it to the north, a couple of feet to the east, west and south. And barely a flake to be seen here in Oakville. My wife is dismayed; I am thrilled (you can probably guess which one of us is responsible for doing the shoveling around here).…
I hope and trust that you enjoyed your weekend. I’m glad to report that it was a good one for the Challies family. It was quiet and mostly-unremarkable–just the way we like it. Cyber Monday – I have put together a roundup of Cyber Monday deals (and it’s being continually updated). Check the link for…
Well, happy Thanksgiving to all of my American friends. This is one of those days where I feel like I’m the only one out here on the Internet. I trust you all have better ways to be spending your time today. I’m thankful for you and glad that you get to take a day to…
One of the benefits of working with Ligonier Ministries over the past months has been reading, watching or listening to many of R.C. Sproul’s books and teaching series. Having done so, I thought I’d provide a roundup of some of his best DVDs, most of which are teaching series in which he provides lectures on…
Earlier today I posted an article dealing with one of the popular misconceptions people have with knowing the will of God or hearing the voice of God as it pertains to guidance. This is an area in which there is a lot of misunderstanding among Christians. Thankfully there are all kinds of great books written…
You know the way it goes by now: Every Friday I work with a sponsor to give away some great stuff to the readers of this site. And today’s giveaway is a particularly exciting one. It is sponsored by Ligonier Ministries, a name that’s well familiar to just about every reader of this site, I’m…
The Christian world certainly suffers from no shortage of conferences. In fact, there are so many that it can be difficult to determine which, if any, to attend. I took a look ahead to 2011 to find a few that look particularly compelling. And here they are: 4 great conferences coming our way in 2011.…
Today, in this effort to read some of the classic works of the Christian faith, we come to chapter three of R.C. Sproul’s The Holiness of God. Sproul introduces the chapter this way: “Here we are, already in the third chapter of this book, and I still have not defined what it means to be…
I was sitting in Grand Rapids airport on Saturday morning, about to catch a flight to Cleveland (and from Cleveland I’d catch a second flight to Toronto). It struck me as a little bit cruel that at the time there were two flights leaving from my gate–one going to Cleveland (for which I had a…
This is now week 2 of this project in which we are reading together through R.C. Sproul’s The Holiness of God. Before we discuss this week’s chapter, I wanted to make you aware of an interesting interview with Sproul on this very subject. It comes from a 1990 issue of Tabletalk magazine and, if you…
I have a soft spot for series of short books that address issues in a straightforward, condensed way (see Little Black Books and Living in a Fallen World for others). There are times to read a 500-page tome on a subject and there are times when it is great to read something much shorter and…
At long last it is time to read another classic work of the Christian faith, and to read it together. This time around we are reading R.C. Sproul’s book The Holiness of God. Of all the books we’ve read in this Reading Classics program, this is the one that has been written most recently (1985).…
Just one day before Aileen and I head to Fort Worth for the True Woman conference. We’re looking forward to getting away. I suppose I shouldn’t tell anyone down there that I was cheering for the Tampa Bay Rays. Not that it really matters at this point. Now I’ll be cheering for the Rangers over…
One of the joys of reading widely is in finding interesting connections between things that might otherwise seem to be unrelated. Let me explain. I recently read through R.C. Sproul’s book What Is Reformed Theology? Actually, I’ve recently read through almost all of R.C. Sproul’s books and have noted that he has several recurring emphases.…
In the past couple of weeks we’ve seen two new festschrifts (books honoring a respected individual) presented to well-known Reformed leaders–one of them a new Calvinist (perhaps even the new Calvinist) and the other part of the old guard. For the Fame of God’s Name For the Fame of God’s Name is a collection of…
Last week I told you about the next classic work of the Christian faith that I’d like to read along with you. You can see that post here. Today I simply want to remind you about this, to see who else would like to participate (Thanks to the 100+ who already siad they’re interested!) and…
A couple of days ago I mentioned a conference I am speaking at tonight. If you think of it, pray for me today, would you? This is a conference well outside “the usual” crowd I tend to speak before. Many of the other conference speakers are new monastics, people who preach a social gospel, and…
On Friday evening I’ll be speaking at the 8th Letter Conference here in town. My task is to prepare a letter to the church in North America; this letter is to bring what I think is the message the church needs to hear. It is going to be a wide and diverse audience, I think,…
Several years ago I introduced a program called Reading Classics Together. The impetus for this project was the simple realization that, though many Christians want to read through the classics of the faith, few of us have the motivation to actually make it happen. I know this was long the case for me. This program…
It’s Friday today, which means I need to try to not react with surprise that yet another week has drawn to an end. I’m not even going to mention it! This week’s Free Stuff Fridays sponsor is Ligonier Ministries, a sponsor you know well by now. Ligonier is offering one really, really impressive grand prize…