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This & That

I have an article nearly written but it seems that real life continues to get in the way of blogging. I have about 10 Web projects underway at the moment, not to mention a family, friends and a church that all seem to want a bit of attention! I will post the article tomorrow and try to do some good writing on the weekend so I can actually put some worthwhile content on this site again! I have a friend who would like to write an occasional guest column, so that should be fun. I am thinking of starting an area for occassional guest writers, especially those without blogs of their own who have something they would like to say to the world (or the few hundred people in the world who choose to drop by here on a daily basis).

Mel Gibson recently said in an interview that he does not believe that there is salvation outside of the Roman Catholic Church. When pressed he had to admit that this even applies to his wife who is non-Catholic. This quote is suddenly appearing in articles all over the place. I wonder how the Protestant world will reach to this since he is definitely a hero to most Christians at the moment. I suspect most people will not care. It will be interesting to see if this is a topic that will come up in his interview on Primetime this Monday.

Jeremy Hoover sent me a link to this article. It is the beginning of a “Scholarly Smackdown” where “a liberal professor and a conservative professor debate the movie, the Bible, theology and more.” It is going to be an ongoing debate. The first session opens with interesting discussions regarding the appropriateness of showing sadistic acts of violence and possibly leading people to think that Jesus’ suffering was what saves us. This promises to be an interesting discussion!


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    When God Plants an Acorn, He Means an Oak

    We stood together on the crest of a hill, a gentle breeze rustling the meadow around our feet. The fields ran gently downward until they met a creek that gurgled happily in its course. A few years prior, an acorn had somehow made its way to the highest point of this hill, carelessly dropped there…

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    A La Carte (April 28)

    A La Carte: Protestantism’s Catholic converts / How healthy is your pursuit of health? / God’s special calling on your life / Considering a Christian university? / Testing the teachings of Catholicism / Kindle deals / and more.

  • New and Notable

    New and Notable Christian Books for April 2025

    It is surprisingly difficult to find a list of Christian books that have been released in any given month—especially if you want that list to be filtered by books released through particular publishers. That’s one of the reasons why I close each month by coming up with my list of New and Notable books. I…

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    Weekend A La Carte (April 26)

    A La Carte: Every pinch of pain has purpose / China closed Christian bookstores / Watch for the thing after the thing / For everything there is a time / Showers of blessing / What Pope Francis can teach us about preaching / and more.

  • What Makes You Beautiful

    What Makes You Beautiful

    I have often thought of a conversation that took place when my girls were little. Abby was perhaps 5 or 6 at the time and Michaela just working her way through the “terrible twos” (which for our kids always happened when they were three or four). A stranger saw me interacting with them one day…