Last night Aileen and I left our children in the care of my in-laws and we travelled across Toronto, braving rush-hour traffic through the heart of the city, to see Petra play their final Toronto show. They have played Toronto five times and I saw them four of those times. In fact, I was the…
Just a couple of days ago World Magazine reported that the Duggar family of Arkansas has celebrated the birth of their sixteenth child, Johannah Faith. The Duggars have become somewhat famous for their procreative abilities and it seems that they make an appearance in the national newspapers each time a new child is born. Jim…
It was just about two years ago that I came to a rather disappointing realization. After much reflection and soul-searching I came to realize that much of what I believed as a Christian was mere cliché. I wrote about this last year and said “I believe it is important that we investigate words we frequently…
I cut my teeth on this site by discussing controversial topics. Of course when I began I really had little idea that these topics were controversial. I just began to write about The Purpose Driven Life, The Passion of the Christ and authors like John Eldredge without realizing that anyone other than myself really cared…
Yesterday, listening to the radio, I heard the song “Be My Escape” by RelientK. While I have heard the song many times in the past, there was one particular line that caught my attention this time around. The song is quite biblical as these things go and is something of a cry for redemption. I’ll…
No system of religion exalts women higher than biblical Christianity. That is quite a claim, I realize, but one I feel can be easily proven by examining Scripture. A few days ago a person sent a question to the Reformed Baptist mailing list. He recounted that he is teaching eighth graders and one young lady…
The concept of repentance seems to be in full-fledged retreat in today’s church. Evangelical Christians love to stress decisions, worship, faith and growth, but seem to leave out one rather critical aspect of the Christian faith. We need not look far to find people who confess Christ, yet continue to live in ways that would…
Last night was a rough night. My daughter woke up at 11:30, terrified about something. My wife eventually surrendered and brought her into bed with us. When my daughter climbs into our bed I always end up with her pointy end (her toes) jabbing into me, so I soon gave up and went to sleep…
I grew up in a Christian culture in which very little evangelism took place. How little? Well, the first adult I ever witnessed getting baptized was my wife (she was my girlfriend at the time) and that was when we were nineteen or so. I believe it was also the first time our church had…
You all remember, I’m sure, the story of Ashley Smith and Brian Nichols. Nichols, of course, is the man who overpowered a deputy escorting him to a rape trial, assaulted her and then killed a judge, court reporter, and a deputy in and outside the Fulton County courthouse. Later that night he fatally shot a…
One of my long-time favorite shows on television is The Antiques Roadshow. It is a show that has been a staple on PBS for many years and on British television for longer than that. Recently they have even begun a Canadian version which I have not yet had opportunity to watch. The show affords people…
John Calvin is a man loved and respected by some, despised and reviled by others. Those who dislike Calvin and his theology are likely to protest on many grounds, but the most common are his view of predestination and an understanding of Calvin as something of a dictator over the town of Geneva. It is…
This is the sixth article in a series about Mark Driscoll’s book The Radical Reformission. You can find the first article here, the second here, the third here, the fourth here and the fifth here. We are reaching the end of the book; all that remains is today’s chapter and then the conclusion. This chapter…
“Following the success of The Purpose Driven Life and other phenomena that displayed the value of PyroMarketing, Stielstra decided the time was right to publish a book explaining his philosophy of marketing. Without claiming credit for its success, he sought to explain the success of the book through the principles of his marketing philosophy. HarperCollins…
Care to share advice? I am thinking of cosolidating my various RSS feeds (there are currently three per blog) and only publicizing a single RSS feed (through Feedburner) for each of the blogs. Is there anything I need to know about Feedburner before I do this?
This is the fourth article in a series about Mark Driscoll’s book The Radical Reformission. You can find the first article here, the second here, the third here and the fourth here. Today we arrive at a chapter cryptically entitled “the sin of light beer.” As usual the subtitle is more helpful: “how syncretism and…
I’ve often wondered how I missed out on C.J. Mahaney’s books for so long. While I’ve now read several of them, I did not read the first until earlier this year. And now I’m hooked. I love Mahaney’s style of writing in which he blends sound, biblical teaching with humility and just the right amount…
A couple of weeks ago Six Apart released the latest version of Movabletype, the software that lies at the heart of this site and hundreds of thousands of other blogs. The new version, 3.2, offers so many new features that it could almost have been called version 4.0. Here are a few of my favorite…
My favorite class in high school was Latin. Strange choice, is it not? The reason I so loved the class was that the teacher, Dr. Helder, formed the lessons in such a way that he made a dead language come alive. He showed us how Latin is alive and well in many areas of our…
This is the fourth article in a series about Mark Driscoll’s book The Radical Reformission. You can find the first article here and the second here and the third here. We are progressing through the book and have arrived at a chapter in which Driscoll begins to apply his understanding of culture and reformission. This…