Black Friday has come and gone but Cyber Monday still offers an opportunity to save some money on online purchases. Here are some of the deals I’ve found: Deals removed because pricing is no longer in effect. If you know of other stores that will be having sales on items that should be of particular…
There is a vast amount of Christian music targeted at children. The problem is that there is a lot of junk as well–stuff like this. My kids are not particularly drawn to music so we have probably overlooked a lot of the great resources out there. Nevertheless, there are a few that we’ve come across…
Have you ever seen someone become a Christian and found yourself wondering how you can best serve him as he grows in his new-found faith? It’s something I’ve wondered often. “Now that he’s a Christian, what can I give him to help him learn the basics?” In those early days a person is best-served by…
I have always enjoyed studying history and, over the years, have read several church history texts. One thing I’ve noticed just about every time is that many of these church histories fail to make real distinctions between true gospel-centered Christianity and a kind of inculturated or tradition-based Christianity. That has always been disappointing to me.…
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…
A couple of days ago I was sorting through the bag of Halloween candy, teaching my children a little lesson about taxation. As I did so, it dawned on me how much of the candy they received is distinctly Canadian; there is a surprising amount that simply is not available south of the border. And…
This morning I let you know about a new book that provides background and commentary for Handel’s Messiah. And now I want to encourage you to take in a performance of Messiah this Christmas season. And just to get you started, I’ve done some of the work, at least for those of you who live…
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.…
I don’t know how I got thinking about this, but the other day I found myself clicking through the blog looking for some of the weirder things I’ve written over the years. I don’t often indulge my strange sense of humor, but every now and again I just can’t resist. From vampires to theo-doping, from…
I receive a lot of books in the mail. If I were to go through them and categorize them, I suspect I’d find that one topic stands apart from the rest–prayer. I’d be surprised if any topic receives as much attention as this one. I suppose this shows that we Christians struggle with prayer–that we…
Last week I spent a day in Grand Rapids and most of that day was taken up with meetings at the head office for Zondervan. As you probably know, Zondervan will be publishing my next couple of books, so we had a series of meetings to discuss, among other things, marketing plans (that’s right–we met…
I love Bible commentaries and must own a couple hundred of them by now. This may be a bit of an irrational love since I am not a preacher and am only rarely asked to preach. Still, while growing a collection has involved some effort and some expense, there have been many occasions when I’ve…
One of the happier musical developments in the Christian world over the past few years has been the resurgence of hymns. Though there are many contemporary worship songs that have excellent content and are ideal for congregational worship, we just can’t afford to lose the hymn. There are two different kinds of contemporary hymn. In…
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…
Moms in Touch is a ministry I’m very, very excited about. And I want you to be excited about it too. In fact, I want to encourage you to read to the end of this post and then to take action. I first encountered Moms in Touch at the 2008 True Woman conference. I did…
Little Black Books is a new series of short volumes written by Scott Petty and published by Matthias Media. This is “a new series of books that get straight to the point on the topics that Christians always have questions about. Not too big, not too fancy, and not at all boring. LBBs are ideal…
Ministering the Master’s Way is a unique little series published by DayOne. It is a series that knows exactly the audience it is trying to reach–the pastor or elder of the local church. Each of the books looks to a different practical aspect of the Christian ministry. Many of the titles deal with very niche…
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…
Over the past few weeks (since I submitted the first draft of my book and got that elephant off my back!) I have been trying to spend a little bit more time with the blog. One of the ways this has manifested itself is with articles that draw attention to outside resources–book series, resources dealing…
What happens when you smash a Bible together with a journal? You get a Journible (get it?). What’s a Journible? Well, essentially it’s a Bible study tool. It’s a book, rather like a journal, with a place to write a Scripture text on the right leaf and a place to write notes and observations on…