Curated content for Christians
Shannon Macfarlane Sproul – Shannon Macfarlane Sproul, daughter of Dr. R.C. Sproul Jr. and granddaughter of Dr. R.C. Sproul, went to be with the Lord on Wednesday. She was fifteen years old. Do keep the Sproul family in your prayers, remembering that it was less than a year ago that R.C. Sproul Jr. lost his…
72 Hour Sale – Westminster Books is having a great 72 hour sale (though I believe 24 of those hours have already elapsed). Quite a few new and notable books are deeply discounted. I recommend Sexual Sanity for Men, Delighting in the Trinity, and The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert. W.E.B. DuBois Would Not…
Hospitality and the Great Commission – “You know what the key to evangelism in the 21st-century will be, don’t you?’ He wasn’t talking Global South, but the Western hemisphere — and America in particular. I’m sure he could see on our faces how eager we were for his answer. Wow, the key, we were thinking.…
Polls Make No Sense – You can read the whole article if you like, but even just the first few paragraphs highlight the difficulties and the subjectivity in any political poll. “American politics has gone gaga for poll numbers—while polling pros feel less and less certain about the methodology behind the madness. Some days even…
Who Was Samuel Ryder? – Golf fan or not, you may have been hearing about the Ryder Cup. This blog post asks and answers Who Was Samuel Ryder? “Ryder was also a keen Christian and a member of our church – Spicer Street, St Albans. In fact had it not been for a conversation with…
American Men Don’t Sing – “Alistair Begg recently spoke at Western Seminary. And just before he got into his sermon, he went on a fascinating little digression about the fact that American men don’t sing during worship. It’s not just that we can’t sing, but that we don’t.” Responding to “Fetal Flaw” – “Bob Horning…
Unintended Consequences – From a veteran youth minister (via White Horse Inn): “We look at our youth group now and we feel good. But the youth group of today is the church of tomorrow, and study after study suggests that what we are building for the future is … empty churches.” Desiring God Livestream –…
The Psychology of Resentment – Dane Ortlund looks at the psychology of resentment: “Here is what happens: instead of doing something externally to harm them you do something internally to harm them. You harbor bitterness. This is the psychology of resentment. You exercise emotional punishment toward them internally when actual punishment can’t be exercised externally.…
Real Life – I enjoyed this mom’s thoughts on real life. She says that “a less than perfect home can be more comfortable than a perfect one. … Our homes should reflect our lives and the people that live in them.” Presumptuous or Optimistic Parenting – David covers an important topic here: the difference between…
Delighting in the Trinity – A few weeks back I reviewed Michael Reeves’ Delighting in the Trinity, easily one of my favorite books of the year (here’s the review). At that time it was not available in Kindle and ebook formats. The Kindle edition has just been added to Amazon, so for those who were…
Ten Myths About Premarital Sex – Sean McDowell read Premarital Sex in America by Mark Regnerus and Jeremy Uecker and was pleasantly surprised at some of the insights. In this article he distills the book’s last chapters and the ten myths it debunks there. The Gen Y Nightmare – Frederic Filloux is a very, very…
Destruction from the Almighty – Mike Leake looks at that amazing volcano video and reflects on it a little bit. “The Hebrew word for destruction is shadad whereas the Hebrew word for the Almighty is El Shaddai. When Shaddai become bent on shadad what will happen? How destructive can El Shaddai be?” Life’s Too Short…
Rend Your Hearts – “In Joel’s day (and even still today) a sign of great mourning and grief was to tear your garments. It wasn’t that they’d bust out into Hulk Hogan’s ‘I’m a Real American Hero’ and rip up their camel-haired cloaks to shreds. It was usually a slit from bottom to top that…
Sensationalism and Scholarship – Dr. Mohler on Jesus’s wife: “This is sensationalism masquerading as scholarship. One British newspaper noted that the claims about a married Jesus seemed more worthy of fans of Dan Brown’s fictional work, The Da Vinci Code than ‘real-life Harvard professors.’ If the fragment is authenticated, the existence of this little document…
Praying for Your Pastor – “One of the great encouragements in my ministry is knowing that many at Redeemer regularly and frequently pray for me. There are a number of ways we should be praying for our leaders in the church, but as we approach Sunday I want to encourage you to pray for your…
Shopping and False Intimacy – This is a very, very interesting article, and one worthy of some reflection. “All of this has me considering church in 21st century America. I fear we may be loosing a valuable sense of intimacy between pastor and member. In a world where pastors tweet and congregations have Facebook accounts,…
Too Tough on the Guys Who Are Trying – I appreciate Josh Harris’ mea culpa here. “I got some great feedback from a young man in our church after two of my recent sermons from Matthew 5, both of which touched on aspects of marriage (the messages were “Jesus on Lust” and “Don’t Break Your…
Questions the TDSB Is Not Answering – As his church deals with having to leave the public school they rent, Julian is asking questions that the school board is not answering. Calvary Love – Here’s an artistic take on John Piper’s most recent poem which is titled “Calvary Love.” Read the Text – Paul offers…
$5 Friday – There are a few noteworthy deals in Ligonier’s $5 Friday, including Reclaiming Adoption, Surprised by Suffering (one of my favorite Sproul books and it’s the hardcover edition), and several teaching series. Culture and Homeschool – You may appreciate Tracy Keen’s thoughts on pre-mature children and how they can be formed via exposure…
Guys Are Flaming Out – “According to psychologist Philip Zimbardo, young men in America are doomed–at least they are educationally, relationally, and sexually. As he says at the beginning of his recent TED Talks video, ‘The Demise of Guys,’ Guys are flaming out academically, they’re wiping out relationally with girls, and sexually with women. Other…