Today my parents and brothers and sisters and brothers-in-law and nieces and nephews are gathering in a little house in Chattanooga. Forty years ago today, the third of June of 1972, was a double celebration for my parents: my father marked his twenty-third birthday and he married my mother. Both had been born and raised…
The Best Thing – What’s the best thing you can do for your pastor? “Compliment him on his outstanding, almost Charles Spurgeon-like sermon? Give money to the church? Give your time and skills to the church? Not heckle him? Admire him for his manly beard? While those are all wonderful things, they are not the…
Little Miss Red Shoes – A heart-wrenching article from the field. “Little Miss Red Shoes goes to school with her friends. She’s in second grade. She lives with her mother and an aunt. Her father left the family years ago, though she thinks she saw him sometime in the last year. Her mom is HIV…
The Santorum Predicament – I enjoyed Dr. Mohler’s take on The Santorum Predicament. “Rick Santorum is still a long shot for the Republican nomination, but his candidacy and its coverage in the mainstream media tell us a great deal about the fate of conservative candidates and conservative convictions in the public square.” Bethlehem Succession Plan…
An Intrusion Into the Christian Bedroom – This is great and relevant stuff from Ed Welch: “Excuse me for barging in, but it might be time for more people to intrude into the marital bedroom. Though there are some good Christian books on marital sex, most of them repeat two basic mantras…” He isn’t so…
John Piper began his biographical message on the “frank and manly” J. C. Ryle two weeks ago with an explanation of what he called “masculine Christianity.” The theme of the Desiring God pastors conference, which is where he gave the message, was “God, manhood, and ministry,” and Piper’s presentation on the life of Ryle was…
It’s a question several of you have asked me: What happened to the book reviews? For many years I was the one reviewing all the books. Well, not all of them, but I was reviewing a lot of them. For several years I maintained a pace of at least 1 book review each week, and…
I typically give away free stuff on Fridays, but I’ve got a bonus giveaway this week courtesy of Desiring God–50 copies of John Piper’s new book Bloodlines. The only catch is that they can be shipped only to American and Canadian mailing addresses. Here is a description of the book: Genocide. Terrorism. Hate crimes. In…
Wallis vs. Mohler – This ought to be an interesting debate: Jim Wallis vs. Al Mohler on “Is Social Justice an Essential Part of the Mission of the Church?” The Road to a Downgrade – This article offers a short history of the entitlement state. It’s worth a read. Misleading Words – While we’re talking…
The Next Story – I believe this is the last day you can order The Next Story ebook at the heavily discounted price. So don’t dawdle. While we’re on the subject, David Murray has made up a really interesting post with some of his reflections on the book, including questions he’s been asking himself while…
It’s looking like another great day in Orlando. It’s quite a conference Ligonier puts on and I’m enjoying it thoroughly. I’ve also enjoyed meeting quite a number of readers of this blog as well. And I suppose I’ll meet a few more when I do a book signing a bit later in the day. If…
I spent the first half of yesterday traveling and the second half at a conference. Along the way I heard one person say something about an earthquake in Japan. It wasn’t until I got to my hotel that I learned there had been an utterly devastating earthquake in Japan and that it was followed by…
Oops. I mistakenly hit the “publish” button a little prematurely on this one. So you can enjoy A La Carte 2/4 on 2/3. $5 Friday – You asked for it and now you’ve got it. Today only you can buy R.C. Sproul’s commentary on John for just $5 (book or e-book). The retail price on…
We were up at 7 this morning to get our Christmas started with stockings and gifts and a special breakfast and other family traditions. And a few hours later I’m sitting here at my computer, running back through Christmas posts from years past to see what I was doing on Christmas in 2009, 2008, 2007–I…
Last night my wife and I were reminiscing about this web site, about my growing career as a writer (at least I hope it’s growing) and about the church contexts that produced me, that produced this blog. As we spoke I realized that I’ve never really discussed the genesis of this site and, by extension,…
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…
Thanks for all who prayed about my talk at the Eighth Letter Conference. I’ll try to get the audio of that message and post it for you a little later in the week. In general things went well, I thought. It was quite an interesting event and one of the rare ones I get invited…
On Friday evening I’ll be speaking at the 8th Letter Conference here in town. My task is to prepare a letter to the church in North America; this letter is to bring what I think is the message the church needs to hear. It is going to be a wide and diverse audience, I think,…
Summer is over and publishers are now preparing to roll out a whole new season of books. Many publishers wait until the fall to release their best books, hoping that the coming Christmas season will lead to increased sales. In the general publishing world this means that we will see new titles by Tom Clancy,…
Lessons Learned Behind the Microphone – Now that Al Mohler has recorded his final radio show, he takes time to reflect on what he learned through all those years. He also shares what’s ahead. What Is the Gospel? – Greg Gilbert’s book What Is the Gospel? is available free for Kindle and iBooks. This is…