A couple of years ago I got thinking about the idea of putting God in a box. This is a charge people often level at conservative Christians and Reformed folk in particular. It is not unusual for us to hear that we seem to feel that we have got God figured out, stuffed and mounted…
King for a Week is an honor I bestow on blogs that I feel are making a valuable contribution to my faith and the faith of other believers…or sometimes just because I really like them. It is a way of introducing my readers to blogs that they may also find interesting and edifying. Every two…
I am working on a new feature for Discerning Reader. Every week I’ll troll through a long list of publishers and bestsellers lists to try to find new or upcoming books that look like they will be of particular interest. Since Discerning Reader isn’t quite ready to handle the column yet, I thought I’d post…
This is the fourth and final entry in a series dealing with blogging and the wider societal trends that have contributed to the rise of blogs. This first article is here, the second here and the third here. I am sure that some people reading this series are interested in beginning a blog of their…
This is the third article in a series dealing with blogging. The first article is available here and the second here. In this series I am discussing not only blogging but also some of the wider societal trends that have led to the blog’s popularity. This is a bit of a long article and I…
This is the second article in a series dealing with blogging. The first article is available here. Don’t run away if you are not a blogger and do not have any interest in blogs. I think you’ll find this article helpful in understanding some of the wider societal trends that have led to the rise…
I don’t often post small news items except in A La Carte, but this one seems especially significant. Jerry Falwell died today shortly after being found unconscious in his office at Liberty University. He was 73. It would take some time (and greater expertise than I can offer) to analyze Falwell’s legacy, though surely we…
Stephen Leacock (1869-1944) was a Canadian economist and humorist who wrote several books. He is remembered today only as a humorist. His best work is probably Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town, a hilarious satirical look at small-town Ontario. It is utterly brilliant. When I think of Mother’s Day, I often think of a particular…
Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is all the rage these days. I first bumped into this strange fad when watching Brian Flemming’s documentary The God Who Wasn’t There. At the end of this film, at its very climax, Flemming, while standing at the front of an empty chapel, slowly turns the camera and speaks right…
This was a long and busy week. Tomorrow I’m driving all the way to Cleveland to blog The Basics Conference and to lead a seminar there. So things aren’t going to get less busy until later in the week at best. I often find that the busier the week, the more I appreciate my day…
It is quite rare that I feel the need to revisit an article I’ve posted the day before, but today I’d like to post just a few points of clarification about what I wrote yesterday on the subject of homeschooling. The most important point is this: I do not think homeschooling is always or universally…
I will probably regret writing this article. It is an article about homeschooling and is posted in a place where thousands of people are going to read it and have the ability to comment on it. You do the math! But I feel compelled to post on a subject that I feel is of great…
Last year I spent quite a few months reading and studying the early books of the Old Testament. Though I’ve since turned back to the New Testament in my personal devotions, as a family we’ve been reading through 1 Samuel so I continue to spend time in both portions of the Bible. While I do…
A few days ago TLC showed another of their near-exploitive specials, this one being about obese people. In those fifteen or thirty minutes between being too tired to read but not tired enough to go to bed, I watched with a strange fascination. The show was not about people who are just a little bit…
Today I want to discuss frugality. I raise this issue because I have seen it appear as a topic many people, and women in particular, discuss on their blogs. Now the Bible makes it clear that money issues are often very closely connected to heart issues, and whether a person spends money freely or whether…
King for a Week is an honor I bestow on blogs that I feel are making a valuable contribution to my faith and the faith of other believers. It is a way of introducing my readers to blogs that they may also find interesting and edifying. Every two weeks (or so) I select a blog,…
This brief article is in response to a friend and reader of this site who wanted to know what this RSS thing is all about. If you’ve been reading blogs for any time at all you’ve probably heard about RSS and syndication and Atom and have wondered what they are all about. I aim to…
This is the latest installment in my occasional series I call “It’s a Fact.” This series deals with peculiarities of Canada and its people. Previously I’ve discussed eh?, that little word that is so tiny but so integral to what it means to be Canadian. I’ve also looked at our two national anthems, other Canadian…
It was at least six months ago that someone asked me a question I’ve thought a lot about since then. And yet, despite thinking about it a great deal, I haven’t reached a really satisfactory conclusion. So I thought I would open discussion here and perhaps between the group of us we can reach some…
This is the long-awaited third part of a series I began quite some time ago, a series which I am writing not primarily to rehash the theology of each of the points or to provide an exhaustive apologetic of Calvinism, but to draw some fresh application and to show what these doctrines mean to me…