Archive

Full Post List

Jul 18, 2023: Finished reading: A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L’Engle 📚 @hobbsandbean told me that this would be my favorite of the series, but I also …

Dec 15, 2021: I like guitar, I like Classical Gas, I liked this edition.

Jul 6, 2020: What He's Prepared In Revelation 9:15 John writes about four angels who “had been prepared for the hour, the day, the month, and the year.” It’s not …

Oct 15, 2019: Counting Waves In our Omnibus class for adults we discussed On the Incarnation by Athanasius last Thursday night. It is a 1600 year-old book about God taking on …

Oct 14, 2019: The Blessing of Being Lied About Let’s be honest (as we always should be anyway). As Christians good works are often hard, sometimes harder than others. What’s even harder than …

Oct 12, 2019: Here’s a good question for considering how to bless others: Is what I’m doing making it easier for them to give thanks to the Lord?

Oct 8, 2019: 5 of 5 stars to Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear

Oct 8, 2019: Not the Sanctimonious Sisterhood of Bossy Pants Love, good works, fellowship, and eschatology go together. They are like ingredients in a pot, and each of us has a spoon. Let us consider how to …

Oct 7, 2019: Walking among the Lampstands In John’s vision of the Lord, he saw one like the son of man in the midst of the lampstands (Revelation 1:13). When John wrote the words of …

Oct 3, 2019: In A Centennial Reader, James Bratt introduces Abraham Kuyper’s inaugural address for the Free University of Amsterdam, and why opening this …

Oct 1, 2019: On reading doctrinal books rather than devotional books for sake of deepening devotion: ❝For my own part I tend to find the doctrinal books often …

Oct 1, 2019: Keeping the Adjective There are only two uses of the adjective form of “Lord” (κυριακῇ) in the New Testament. One is in Revelation 1:10 regarding the …

Sep 30, 2019: Perhaps my favorite Preface of all time is that by C.S. Lewis for On the Incarnation by Athanasius. Here’s an example, on why we should read old …

Sep 30, 2019: A Bellyaching Bucket I’ve mentioned it a few times recently, but I keep thinking about it, I keep having opportunities to try it, and I keep thinking that it could …

Sep 28, 2019: ☛ The Evangelical Reconcilers This is an interesting take on three approaches that Christians take to culture, in particular, to Western society. I …

Sep 25, 2019: The kind of preacher to aspire to be, as Augustine confessed to the Lord about Ambrose: ❝His gifted tongue never tired of dispensing the richness of …

Sep 24, 2019: No Greater Harbor If a harbor would be home to many ships, its shore must be broad. If a man would be host to many for a meal, he must not only have a large table, he …

Sep 23, 2019: Because sin darkens the minds of unbelivers (Ephesians 4:18), does that mean that they can’t discover any true things in science? ❝No, the real …

Sep 23, 2019: Don't Forget That In a recent sermon I made the case that the worst sin in the modern world is the sin of living as if God is irrelevant. Another name for this is …

Sep 19, 2019: Loving our kids and teaching them to respect life has consequences. “If you pray for Roe to be overturned, and for the issue to be returned to …

Sep 18, 2019: 5 of 5 stars to The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Sep 18, 2019: 2 of 5 stars to The Abolition of Sanity: C.S. Lewis on the Consequences of Modernism by Steve Turley

Sep 18, 2019: 3 of 5 stars to Beauty Matters: Creating a High Aesthetic in School Culture by Steve Turley

Sep 18, 2019: 3 of 5 stars to Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business by Gino Wickman

Sep 18, 2019: 3 of 5 stars to The Right Side of History: How Reason and Moral Purpose Made the West Great by Ben Shapiro

Sep 16, 2019: False Comforts and Fear of Comforts In his book The Religious Affections Jonathan Edwards explained how the defining feature of real religion is love for God. He defines affections, …

Sep 16, 2019: #KeepTheFeast There is a patronizing way to say, “Just read your Bible,” and there is also a pastoral way to say it. As one of the shepherds of the …

Sep 11, 2019: ❝The skill of writing is to create a context in which other people can think.” —Edwin Schlossberg

Sep 10, 2019: As of today I decided to switch from the M’Cheyene Bible reading plan to the #keepthefeast plan. Day one was Psalm 119, and this reading by 88 voices …

Sep 10, 2019: Worthy is the Lamb Thirty times in the book of Revelation the apostle John refers to Jesus as the Lamb. Far more than any other NT author, John apparently loved that …

Sep 9, 2019: Repent of Defeatist Faith When it comes to the future, are you more optimistic or pessimistic? We need more qualifications before answering that. When it comes to the future of …

Sep 5, 2019: An Eye for Learning I gave the following talk at our ECS Convocation yesterday afternoon. Or, Paying Attention to Curriculum and Character There is an ancient Egyptian …

Sep 3, 2019: Conquering Worldliness The apostle John makes an interesting, and optimistic, argument in 1 John 5. He says: For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And …

Aug 19, 2019: The Apocalypse In a few weeks I plan to start teaching verse by verse through another book of the Bible: the book of Revelation. There are good reasons to study The …

Jul 30, 2019: Making Eye Contact with the Judge Presumptuous sins are sins of undue liberty, of going beyond the bounds. They are willful, understood, and so directly culpable. It’s still breaking …

Jul 29, 2019: Give Me Understanding We live in the Information Age. We have data and statistics and algorithms and pages and podcasts. More information will be posted on the internet …

Jul 25, 2019: A Kuyperian-Sized Blind Spot The Effeminacy of Silence is a mettlesome post by Douglas Wilson. It’s sad, and it’s a needed kick in the man pants. I don’t have any complaints about …

Jul 18, 2019: Praise Among the Nations When we think about world missions and reaching the unreached people with the gospel, when we think about being salt and light to our city, when we …

Jul 18, 2019: 5 of 5 stars to The Warden and the Wolf King by Andrew Peterson

Jul 17, 2019: Partial Fide There are at least four different expectations when it comes to good works. A man could expect that his good works will please the wrong god. Or, a …

Jul 12, 2019: Cutting the Cords Things were desperate for David in Psalm 18. His situation was deathly. The cords of death encompassed me; The torrents of destruction assailed me;the …

Jul 8, 2019: Garrulous Talk Because men sin, men hide. We are bent to find hiding places because being exposed often hurts. We prefer not to remember, and prefer others not to …

Jul 2, 2019: Wisdom and Wonder 5 of 5 stars to Wisdom and Wonder by Abraham Kuyper 2019: This was my second read through the book, and it is as good as I remember. The church is …

Jul 2, 2019: The Idea Was More Than Ideas The Lord’s Supper is a great place to get perspective. The Table has two elements on it: bread and wine. The bread was baked and brought by …

Jul 1, 2019: Witnessing Songs We take worship in song seriously. Singing is not the only act of worship, but the bones of praise move best with the muscles of melody held in by the …

Jun 29, 2019: Range 4 of 5 stars to Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein Epstein challenges the modern idol of early specialization in …

Jun 29, 2019: Keep Going 4 of 5 stars to Keep Going by Austin Kleon This was probably my least favorite of the three (along with Steal Like an Artist and Show Your Work!, but …

Jun 27, 2019: Thanks in Advance The timing of the Lord’s thanks stands out at the Lord’s Table. According to Paul, Jesus gave thanks before He broke the bread and “in the …

Jun 24, 2019: Ruining the Taste It’s been three weeks of the #samepagesummer so far, but whether you’re following that Bible reading plan or not, we won’t receive the food of …

Jun 19, 2019: The Lord Builds One thing to look for when reading Scripture is the order of the author’s points. For example, Peter said to put away sin for sake of hungering for …

Jun 18, 2019: The Dad Hat Fathers have an exhaustive, and exhausting, set of responsibilities. The Dad hat is just one of a godly man’s hats, but it is a hat he never …

Jun 12, 2019: Never the Same Person Twice The Christian life is a growing life. At the same time, we are always growing in the same fields. We develop our knowledge and application of one …

Jun 11, 2019: Formerly Known as Selfish Fathead Growing in grace leads to unexpected challenges. As disciples we want to grow more and more into the image of Christ. As a church we want the whole …

Jun 11, 2019: The Monster in the Hollows 5 of 5 stars to The Monster in the Hollows by Andrew Peterson It was very hard to discipline myself to only read one or two chapters a day. Perhaps …

Jun 11, 2019: Julius Caesar 4 of 5 stars to Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare 2019: Adding a star. There are some great gems in here, even though I’m still not convinced …

Jun 11, 2019: Art and the Bible 4 of 5 stars to Art and the Bible by Francis Schaeffer 2019: Still good, though I’d like to read more about Schaeffer’s thoughts on art …

Jun 10, 2019: The Road Called Aestas I read the following story for our school’s end of year assembly. It would probably be helpful to read The U.H.’s Hot Tips for Completely Wasting Your …

Jun 6, 2019: Now We Belong It used to be that the carcasses of the animals whose blood was used in sacrifices on the Day of Atonement were taken outside the camp to be burned …

Jun 5, 2019: All Are Yours I gave the following remarks at our school’s graduation ceremony on June 2, 2019. Good evening to our school board, faculty, families, friends, …

Jun 5, 2019: Justifiable Blessings One of the reasons that we include confession of sin in our weekly liturgy is not just that we recognize that we are sinful, but we receive …

Jun 4, 2019: The Grail Last summer my oldest daughter began spending vast amounts of her time rewriting/repurposing Monty Python and the Holy Grail with the hopes of …

May 31, 2019: #SamePageSummer I’ve been using the M’Cheyne Bible reading plan for 2019, but am excited to add the #SamePageSummer readings through the New Testament for …

May 31, 2019: Proclaiming the Lord’s Love Until He Comes Whether you eat or drink, or whatsoever you do, let all of it be done in love. This is a conflation of 1 Corinthians 10:31 and 16:14. I’m not …

May 28, 2019: I Like Job, but I Don’t Want to Be Like Job Most of us appreciate the story of Job. God regularly uses his story to bless us, to sustain our happiness, or at least our hopefulness, when things …

May 27, 2019: 4 of 5 stars to The Two Cultures by C.P. Snow

May 27, 2019: 5 of 5 stars to A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix by Edwin Friedman

May 27, 2019: 3 of 5 stars to Call the Sabbath a Delight by Walter Chantry

May 27, 2019: 4 of 5 stars to Show Your Work by Austin Kleon

May 22, 2019: Not a Crumb of a Cardboard Cracker How would you persuade someone that the church’s eating and drinking at the Lord’s Supper should be more happy than heavy? We believe that …

May 20, 2019: Where It Wafts Sometimes Christians are able to take obedience and make it ugly; it’s one of our specialties. In 1 Corinthians 16:5-8 Paul wrote about his …

May 15, 2019: All Sanctimoniousness and Powerlessness I’ve wanted to share this video and connect it with the quotes below it for some time. Since the interview came out at the beginning of …

May 14, 2019: To Be Clear about Hell A few things happened over the last year or so that have caused the elders to propose an addition to our What We Believe statement of faith. We have …

May 13, 2019: The Future in a Snap ECS is a classical Christian school which means, among other things, that we are concerned about the classics. In our curriculum we read and reference …

May 13, 2019: Steal Like an Artist 4 of 5 stars to Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative by Austin Kleon This is a small book, easy and enjoyable to read, …

May 8, 2019: North! or Be Eaten 5 of 5 stars to North! or Be Eaten by Andrew Peterson Book #2 in the Wingfeather Saga was no let down, though it’s not quite as light a story as …

May 8, 2019: Roaring Lambs 4 of 5 stars to Roaring Lambs: A Gentle Plan to Radically Change Your World by Robert Briner A friend recommended this book to me a few months ago and …

May 8, 2019: Digital Minimalism 2 of 5 stars to Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport There used to be a short answer to the problem posed by Newport that he takes almost three hundred …

May 7, 2019: What a Perishable Seed Can Do It’s not a new observation, but it seems appropriate after such an extended amount of attention on the resurrection (in 1 Corinthians 15) to …

May 6, 2019: Is It a Sin to Be Weak? If the Bible commands us to be steadfast, as it does in 1 Corinthians 15:58, then is it a sin to be unsteady? If God desires us to be immovable, same …

May 2, 2019: So Let’s Do Something About That A few months ago a friend of mine recommended to me Roaring Lambs: A Gentle Plan to Radically Change Your World. I’m about to finish it, and will give …

May 1, 2019: Men and Marriage 4 of 5 stars to Men and Marriage by George Gilder Men and Marriage is both perfectly obvious and eerily prophetic, especially since it was published …

Apr 30, 2019: Taunts of the Assembly I tell you this, brothers, it is not a mystery: we are all going to die. Actually, we shall not all sleep, as Paul put it (1 Corinthians 15:51). He …

Apr 29, 2019: A Small Snail Named Apollyon In an initial draft of The Pilgrim’s Progress John Bunyan wrote about Christian’s encounter with a small snail named Apollyon. It was an epic …

Apr 23, 2019: So Hard Its Undoing On the night He was betrayed, “Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, ‘Take, eat; this …

Apr 22, 2019: Not As I Will Jesus is risen from the dead just as He said. His resurrection is the first of its kind and all of us who believe in Him will be raised when He …

Apr 19, 2019: Not Another Humanistic Empathy Theater I sent an email yesterday that represented a lot of thoughts and prayers. I actually began the email on that note, while clarifying that the prayers …

Apr 18, 2019: After the Fact On the Sunday before Jesus was raised from the dead He came into Jerusalem with His disciples. The day is usually called Palm Sunday due to the palm …

Apr 17, 2019: The Dungeon of Chronic Grievances We’ve been considering how to Make Easter Great Again. There are certainly things we can add into our preparation for and celebration of …

Apr 11, 2019: The Screwtape Letters 5 of 5 stars to The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis This is some next level temptation insight. I don’t like demons, but I do like snark, so …

Apr 10, 2019: Foolproof Resurrection Why go through religious rituals like baptism or the Lord’s Supper? Why risk comfort and convenience for Christ? Why pursue righteousness when …

Apr 8, 2019: Polluted Garments on the Easter Table We pick up with our series of exhortations with a view to Make Easter Great Again. As I mentioned last week, the only concentrated preparation for …

Apr 4, 2019: All the Prepositions All is a word that is easily taken for granted. All of us, probably, misunderstand it depending on the context. Paul told the Corinthians that at the …

Apr 2, 2019: Make Easter Great Again This probably should be a sermon not an exhortation, though I am at least going to roll it into another mini series with the theme: Make Easter Great …

Mar 28, 2019: The Aeneid 3 of 5 stars to The Aeneid by Virgil 2018 - Read the whole epic thing this time around for our Tenebras class. The gods do not agree, Turnus is mad, …

Mar 28, 2019: The Adventure Aslan Sends Or, The Last Lesson to Fortify Children with Chests Here are my notes for the talk I gave at the recent Raggant Fiction Festival. The video of my talk …

Mar 26, 2019: We Are Not Pretending When kids pretend they talk and behave like something is real when it isn’t. Kids aren’t the only ones who pretend, but they are usually …

Mar 25, 2019: More Than You Know This will be the final lesson in Confession 201. First we learned that we should confess before being confronted. Second we learned that we should not …

Mar 19, 2019: The Witness Proclamation Program Numerous times during Jesus’ earthly ministry He did something miraculous for someone and then told them not to say anything about it. One leper …

Mar 18, 2019: Get Out of the Puddle Last week I gave lesson one in Confession 201. It’s the next level up of confession, though you can get into this class without prerequisites. …

Mar 13, 2019: No fiction writer could have imagined the following exchange I recently heard, and I’m thinking about making it my bio: “Why do you want to keep a …

Mar 13, 2019: No fiction writer could have imagined the following exchange I recently heard, and I’m thinking about making it my bio: “Why do you want to keep a …

Mar 13, 2019: Worldview Guide for the Aeneid 3 of 5 stars to Worldview Guide for the Aeneid by Louis Markos Great introduction to the Aeneid especially if you know nothing about it, written from …

Mar 12, 2019: Desire for Communion as Disciples It is exciting to welcome five new communicants to the Lord’s Table this morning. These young men were baptized based on their profession of …

Mar 11, 2019: Confession 201 Almost six years ago I did a series of exhortations called Confession 101. There are multiple basic truths about confession that most Christians …

Mar 9, 2019: On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness 5 of 5 stars to On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness by Andrew Peterson I’m sure there was a day when I would not have enjoyed this book at …

Mar 9, 2019: The Theban Trilogy 3 of 5 stars to Oedipus the King / Oedipus at Colonus / Antigone by Sophocles Sometimes in Greek tragedy you lose, and sometimes you lose big. …

Mar 9, 2019: The Last Battle 5 of 5 stars to The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis 2019: I had to do it, I’m now giving 5 of 5 stars. I reread it because I’m talking about it …

Mar 9, 2019: The Bacchae and Other Plays 3 of 5 stars to The Bacchae and Other Plays by Euripides 2015: We only read The Bacchae (not the “and Other Plays”) but I quite enjoyed …

Mar 9, 2019: You Who? Why You Matter and How to Deal with It 5 of 5 stars to You Who? Why You Matter and How to Deal with It by Rachel Jankovic How could I not give 5 of 5 stars to a book dedicated to my wife?! …

Mar 9, 2019: It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Work 3 of 5 stars to It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson I liked 37signals from the start. I’ve …

Mar 9, 2019: The Last Days of Socrates 2 of 5 stars to The Last Days of Socrates by Plato. I didn’t get to finish reading this in Omnibus I, but I was leading the discussion for …

Mar 8, 2019: Fiction Up and Fiction In I mentioned in my previous post that our next Raggant Fiction Festival is coming up in a couple weeks, March 23rd to be precise. This year’s …

Mar 7, 2019: Why I Hate Fiction Or, Why I’ve Repented from Hating Fiction What follows are never before published notes from my talk at the very first Raggant Fiction Festival …

Mar 6, 2019: Comfort from the Dead-raiser We’re going to be talking about resurrection in church for the next couple months leading up to Resurrection Sunday, and, for that matter, we’re …

Mar 4, 2019: How Easily We Forget It can be discouraging to realize that most new content is only old content. Very rarely does someone have a brand new idea, a completely new story …

Feb 28, 2019: “The emphasis on LABOR [in 1 Corinthians 15:10] reminds us that difficulty and cost in Christian work, far from suggesting an absence of GOD’S GRACE, …

Feb 26, 2019: When Receivers Are Received Call it “internal grammar.” Describe it as consistent, or use an expression such as turn about is fair play, or what goes around comes …

Feb 25, 2019: They Don’t Need a Sticker Many men are decent at fixing things around the house [full disclosure: I am not one of them]. Some, of course, are not only inclined to building and …

Feb 23, 2019: Sunday Well Spent Last August while in the UK I saw this sign on a sandwich board on the sidewalk outside a restaurant. First, Scoff & Banter is a perfect name. …

Feb 21, 2019: Good Things from Three Persons The most explicitly Trinitarian benediction in the Bible comes in the final verse of 2 Corinthians. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of …

Feb 19, 2019: The Evolution Is Worse Than He Knows Thank you to Mr. Powell for his recent article exposing the evolution of confusion about gender identity on Marysville School District campuses. …

Feb 18, 2019: Remove the Rust Yesterday our church held a seminar about fellowship. When we have fellowship it means we have a close association with those who share mutual …

Feb 14, 2019: An Ambitious Mission “The pastor’s task is to guide the believer into a full and complete awareness of these infinite riches that have been bestowed on him by sheer …

Feb 5, 2019: What Other Table? Whether we recognize it or not, whether it is obvious to others that we recognize it or not, God is really among us. In our liturgy we acknowledge the …

Feb 4, 2019: Not The Stages of Outrages You’ve probably seen the comic of a man sitting at a desk in front of a computer and his wife asks him when he’s coming to bed. He says he …

Feb 1, 2019: "Bless Me, what do they teach them at these schools?" Or, (Students + The Trivium) × Teachers The following notes are for a talk I gave at our school’s Information Night. Our school board recently …

Jan 29, 2019: No Lesser Bread One of the things Paul valued about clarity was how it brings “upbuilding and encouragement and consolation” (1 Corinthians 14:3). When …

Jan 28, 2019: Blessing-ficiaries I can’t remember if I’ve asked this question before during an exhortation to confession. We’re now over 400 times of corporate …

Jan 24, 2019: bahookie Added to my commonplace book today:  BAHOOKIE n. Scottish informal, “a person’s buttocks” also, “an ass“ Example usage: “try …

Jan 24, 2019: The Punchline I do not really like hockey. I do not really like podcasts. (I also really do not like a couple of the words used in this episode.) But FOR REAL …

Jan 23, 2019: Fellowship: A Mess Worth Making Our church has another seminar scheduled a few Sundays from now. This will be our fifth seminar, the first two were about parenting and the last two …

Jan 22, 2019: Open Communion, Closed Membership We love celebrating weekly communion at our church, and it is having multiple desired effects. It proclaims the Lord’s death (1 Corinthians …

Jan 21, 2019: Our Father Who Judges When we come to our time of confession as part of our worship we come to confess our sins to our Father. God is holy, God is righteous, God is just, …

Jan 18, 2019: On Carrying My Own (Digital) Man-purse I am not a perfect minimalist, but I am drawn to it in certain contexts like iPad writers are to Starbucks. In my time as a more severe dualist I …

Jan 17, 2019: NoDiscontentDecember Postmortem It’s been a couple weeks since the official end of our family’s finishing hashtag of 2018. I posted about it a few times, and here is an …

Jan 16, 2019: The Telos of Jealousy The Headmaster at our school recently wrote about Raising…and Being the Cool Kids. Here are a couple key paragraphs: All of Paul’s ministry had a …

Jan 16, 2019: Spiritual Gifts: What They Are and Why They Matter 3 of 5 stars to Spiritual Gifts: What They Are and Why They Matter by Thomas R. Schreiner Good. Brief. Mostly Cessationist. I’d gladly …

Jan 16, 2019: Breaking the Vicious Cycle 3 of 5 stars to by Breaking the Vicious Cycle: Intestinal Health Through Diet by Elaine Gottschall I LOVE ALL THE CARBS IN THE WHOLE WORLD I also have …

Jan 15, 2019: All a Pitter-pattering Is love more science or more story? Is love an historical fact or a philosophical idea? Is love a Platonic ideal, an abstract quality existing Up …

Jan 14, 2019: Perpetual Shortfall There are a couple sure-fire ways to get almost any Christian to feel guilty. One way is to ask a believer about his prayer life. A recurring response …

Jan 12, 2019: There are some quality pics of Abraham Kuyper on the interwebs. This one is hard to find online, and I’m sharing it as my new favorite thing: A …

Jan 10, 2019: Deadness Also Smells Like Death As is usually the case, there are ranges on a spectrum when it comes to the question of whether believers should speak and live in such a way that …

Jan 9, 2019: Losing as a weapon First, this ought to be a great encouragement to the church: “Losing does not disturb us; it does not unsettle our faith. This is something the Church …

Jan 8, 2019: Communion That Smells As we spread “the fragrance of the knowledge of [Christ] everywhere,” God says that we are an aroma “among those who are being saved …

Jan 7, 2019: Calvinist Knees How does a Calvinist confess his sins? That’s not the start of a joke. We are a Calvinistic church, meaning that we believe that God is God, God rules …

Jan 3, 2019: He Is Neither Here Nor There I’m late to linking but the point remains piquant: the principles underneath today’s public education are rotten and Christians need to …

Jan 1, 2019: Gaining Weight I pray that we all gain weight this year. In a day and age like ours, in a country like ours, the exceptions are the few who need to put on more …

Dec 31, 2018: Buried and Barricaded If you were in the center of a redwood tree I imagine that you would not be affected by much. If you were standing beside a redwood tree I imagine …

Dec 25, 2018: O Come Again, Emmanuel Maybe some of you have family that you haven’t seen for a while coming to your house for Christmas, or maybe you are headed to see them. If …

Dec 24, 2018: When We Have Problems The Lord’s response to Paul’s request to have his thorn removed is archetypal. He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for …

Dec 18, 2018: Born with Flesh The apostle John wrote that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, …

Dec 17, 2018: Deserving a Different Christmas During this advent season we focus our thoughts on the first coming of the Messiah, about the Father sending His Son from heaven to earth. The …

Dec 13, 2018: Intermittent Feasting I know people, they talk to me. I read things; learning is an ongoing process. One subject that has been brought to my attention from half a dozen …

Dec 10, 2018: When You Can See More Cracks in Contentment I thought it would be good to check in on #NoDiscontentDecember. Well, what I mean is I thought it would be good to give you a report about how our …

Dec 4, 2018: Discipline Equals Freedom Field Manual 3 of 5 stars to Discipline Equals Freedom Field Manual by Jocko Willink GOOD. GET SOME. GET AFTER IT.

Dec 4, 2018: Finished with Discipline The analogy of the church as a body does so many good things, but there are numerous other ways to think about our relationships. We are also a …

Dec 3, 2018: No Discontent December If you could have only one thing for Christmas, and you knew you would get what you asked for, what would it be? If you could commit yourself to do …

Nov 30, 2018: A Spoonful of Flour One note does not make a song. One chord, made of three notes struck at the same time, still does not make a song. One ingredient does not make bread. …

Nov 28, 2018: Finish 3 of 5 stars to Finish: Give Yourself the Gift of Done by Jon Acuff I enjoy Acuff’s humor (the snark and the 80’s references), and I …

Nov 27, 2018: Motivation Above What makes a church a church? How is a church formed? There’s a choice. A church could be seen as a group of people who choose to come together, or a …

Nov 20, 2018: The Magician's Nephew 5 of 5 stars to The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis 2018: It is so goosebump inducing to read this as the sixth book, as it was in publication …

Nov 20, 2018: The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment 5 of 5 stars to The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment by Jeremiah Burroughs I started reading this with my 5th-6th grade Bible class last school …

Nov 20, 2018: Thankful for the Body When we combine this season of thanksgiving with the communion we share at the Lord’s Supper with the diversity of Spirit-gifted members in the body, …

Nov 19, 2018: Make It Perfect There are two ways to make your Thanksgiving holiday family time together perfect this week. One way to make it perfect is to have your family not …

Nov 15, 2018: The Odyssey 4 of 5 stars to The Odyssey by Homer Read this again in 2018 with the Omnibus Tenebras group. I’m doubling my previous star rating, and adding …

Nov 15, 2018: Me First: The Deaths We Should Die for Our Students More than a month ago I got to address a group of teachers at the first ACCS Regional Schools Training Day held at Providence Classical Christian …

Nov 13, 2018: Royal Blood David wrote a song about how “the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein” (Psalm 24:1). …

Nov 13, 2018: The Biggest Display at the Ministry Fair We’re headed into an extended look at spiritual gifts over the next few months in the Sunday morning sermons. There are a variety of ways, as …

Nov 6, 2018: Comparatively Uppity On earth, the Lord’s Table may be the pinnacle of places where people do not get what they deserve. If we first examine ourselves, rather than …

Nov 5, 2018: Eye Opening It is the work of God to open eyes. The apostle John told the story of a man born blind in John 9:1-41. Initially the disciples assumed that the …

Oct 30, 2018: The Supper Is a Sermon Or, You Are Always Preaching Preachers are often asked how long it takes them to prepare a sermon. The question wants to know how many hours the …

Oct 29, 2018: The Vocabulary of Repentance We owe some of our most cherished vocabulary to the Reformers. This is Reformation Sunday, the Sunday closest to October 31st when Martin Luther …

Oct 24, 2018: More Melody Than Misery It is more than possible that at least some of the Corinthians had participated in the worship of Dionysius, also known to the Romans as Bacchus. …

Oct 23, 2018: The Horse and His Boy Upping my star count from 4 (in 2010) to 5 of 5 (in 2018) for The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis. Good stuff about Aslan’s protective, and sometimes …

Oct 23, 2018: Because Others Refused The reason we confess our sins as part of our church’s worship on Sunday mornings is because of unconfessed sin. I don’t mean that we are …

Oct 16, 2018: The Nature of Bread and Wine We know from Psalm 19 that the heavens declare the glory of God so that all men should see His handiwork. We know from Romans 1 that creation reveals …

Oct 15, 2018: Bolognology Men lie. Christians of all people should know this, or at least stop believing what everyone says. Men lie. They’re lying if they say they aren’t. By …

Oct 13, 2018: Every Single Thing is Now Different This is a challenging article by David Bahnsen, Every Single Thing is Now Different: The Kavanaugh moment is not done. It is just beginning. I’m …

Oct 13, 2018: Head Covering: A Forgotten Christian Practice for Modern Times 5 of 5 stars to Head Covering: A Forgotten Christian Practice for Modern Times by Jeremy Gardiner I’m preaching through 1 Corinthians 11 and saw …

Oct 11, 2018: Worldview Guide for The Iliad 4 of 5 stars to Worldview Guide for The Iliad by Louis Markos I attended a couple talks by Louis Markos at the 2017 ACCS National Convention and …

Oct 11, 2018: The Iliad 4 of 5 stars to The Iliad by Homer Impressive. Tedious. Creative. Exhausting. Poetic. Painful. Polytheistic. Godless. Read again with the Omnibus …

Oct 11, 2018: Likeness Sharers In creational terms, man is the glory of God and woman is the glory of man (1 Corinthians 11:7). That is God’s sovereign Word, we receive it, …

Oct 10, 2018: Sin into a Proper Noun Sometimes things stick out that make you see from a different angle. It might be a typo. For example, when I type the name Chris, I often need to …

Sep 27, 2018: Him Who Is Weary I read a mass of complaints about social media, <irony>many of which come on social media</irony>. I have been on Facebook for over a year …

Sep 26, 2018: All the Pains It Cost On Rilian’s return home and how the Narnians recognized him, and Jill’s joyful perspective on their previous difficulties: Pale though he …

Sep 26, 2018: The Silver Chair 5 of 5 stars to The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis 2018: I am really enjoying rereading the series, and this time through The Silver Chair I saw all sorts …

Sep 26, 2018: The Codes of Hammurabi and Moses 2 of 5 stars to The Codes of Hammurabi and Moses A lot of death required by these laws. I guess liberally executed capital punishment is a more likely …

Sep 26, 2018: The Epic of Gilgamesh 2 of 5 stars to The Epic of Gilgamesh Weird story about a whiny demigod who wishes for immortality. Crazy that Abram probably knew this story, and …

Sep 25, 2018: Everything Intended When we make a sacrifice, we are giving up something in the present for sake of something else in the future, something we believe to be worth more …

Sep 24, 2018: Liberating Glory The command in 1 Corinthians 10:31 is well known. It is short, catchy, and always applicable. “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, …

Sep 18, 2018: Too Thankful for the Right Things Names matter. Part of our image-bearing identity is to name things, and the names we give not only categorize and help us communicate, they also shape …

Sep 17, 2018: All His Commandments Every week we worship God by confessing our sins. We know that man’s nature is sinful because God reveals it: all have sinned and fallen short of His …

Sep 13, 2018: Ante Lux, Tenebras Auditing Omnibus for the last six years has done more to shape my worldview than almost all of the formal education I’ve received. If I could …

Sep 12, 2018: New Adventures in Letters Or, Off to Sail in Aslan’s Country These are my notes for our school’s convocation last week. As the end of every school year draws …

Sep 11, 2018: Substantive Sharing There have been frequent arguments in church history about what exactly happens at the Lord’s Table. Most of these arguments have come from …

Sep 10, 2018: What You Tolerate In a book about leadership I read this principle: “When it comes to standards, as a leader, it’s not what you preach, it’s what you tolerate” (Extreme …

Sep 5, 2018: Lyrics and Harmony One of the ways we know if we’ve been born again is our attitude toward those who sit around the Lord’s Table with us. Everyone who …

Sep 4, 2018: How Grain Gets Memorialized When some Greeks came to see Jesus, Jesus said it was the hour of His glory. Then Jesus explained the truth of buried seed bearing abundant fruit. …

Sep 3, 2018: Wise in His Own Worship Perhaps one of the most response-provoking visits of our trip to the United Kingdom was an unscheduled stop for Sunday morning worship at a church in …

Aug 20, 2018: Scholarship 4 of 5 stars to Scholarship: Two Convocation Addresses On University Life by Abraham Kuyper Good reminders of our great, and highly privileged, …

Aug 20, 2018: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader 5 of 5 stars to The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis 2018 - Now my favorite book in the series. 2009 - 3 of 5 stars. This was my first time on …

Aug 14, 2018: The Mask Is Off When Jesus turned the water into wine at the wedding in Cana, what did that miracle do? It seems that there are at least two things. First, it enabled …

Aug 13, 2018: Bow Down Although I probably could get an exhortation to confession from every page in Jeremiah Burroughs’ The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, I …

Aug 9, 2018: One Friend at a Time “I can only handle one friend at a time.” I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say that. Not all friendships are equal, not …

Aug 9, 2018: 12 Rules for Life 4 of 5 stars to 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos by Jordan Peterson This book contains a lot of pointed, profitable counsel for people to take …

Aug 8, 2018: The Leader's Bookshelf I listened to this Art of Manliness podcast on The Leader’s Bookshelf. The host was interviewing Admiral James Stavridis, former NATO Supreme …

Aug 7, 2018: We Were Tohu va Bohu In the beginning was the Word, the Logos. In the beginning the Logos created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was tohu va bohu, “without …

Aug 6, 2018: Appears to Meet the Specs God frequently reveals the priorities He has for us, and it is very common for us to make alterations. He says what He wants, we give Him something …

Aug 2, 2018: The Last of the Lost Boys 4 of 5 stars to Outlaws of Time #3: The Last of the Lost Boys by N.D. Wilson Finished this with the kids. Inventive time-traveling, though I …

Aug 2, 2018: Moby-Dick 4 of 5 stars to Moby-Dick: or, The Whale by Herman Melville It took a while to finish, but I enjoyed it. The beginning chapters were Wodehouse-ian, …

Aug 1, 2018: What God Does Two kinds of pleasing worship to God: “in active obedience we worship God by doing what pleases God, but by passive obedience we do as well worship …

Jul 31, 2018: Cognitive Productivity with macOS 4 of 5 stars to Cognitive Productivity with macOS: 7 Principles for Getting Smarter with Knowledge by Luc Beaudoin We must process a lot of …

Jul 31, 2018: What Good Is That If you walk into your house and your wife is cooking something new for dinner dinner that smells delicious and she offers you a bite of whatever …

Jul 30, 2018: Full Attention The theme of our recent youth retreat was self-control, and that’s also been a theme for my recent study and sermons in 1 Corinthians 9-10. …

Jul 24, 2018: The Most Honorable Lineage Near the end of Prince Caspian, Aslan feasted the Narnians (yes, feasted can be a transitive verb with a direct object), and declared Caspian, …

Jul 23, 2018: There Is Always Someone All sin is personal. I don’t mean only that a person sins, but that sin is always an attitude or an action against a person. Righteousness has …

Jul 21, 2018: Prince Caspian 5 of 5 stars to Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis I apparently didn’t write a review the first time I read this in July of 2009 (reading it to the …

Jul 21, 2018: Weaponized Inspiration Generation Thanks to this I saw this about weaponized inspiration generation. My treadmill is his bike ride, and it is the place where the majority of my ideas …

Jul 20, 2018: The Seven Laws of Teaching 5 of 5 stars to The Seven Laws of Teaching by John Milton Gregory. Absolutely fantastic. Makes me feel guilty in all the right ways every time I read …

Jul 18, 2018: Citizen Soldiers 4 of 5 stars to Citizen Soldiers: The U.S. Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany by Stephen Ambrose This is the only …

Jul 18, 2018: Joy for the World 4 of 5 stars to Joy for the World: How Christianity Lost Its Cultural Influence and Can Begin Rebuilding It by Greg Forster 2017 - I don’t share …

Jul 18, 2018: On Writing 3 of 5 stars to On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King This book is often near the top of the favorites list by some writers I like. I …

Jul 18, 2018: Relentless 3 of 5 stars to Relentless: From Good to Great to Unstoppable by Tim Grover I grew up watching Michael Jordan, and this was an interesting perspective …

Jul 18, 2018: Stomping Out the Rock Juice God gave manna to His people every morning as with the dew on the ground and Paul called it “spiritual food” (1 Corinthians 10:3) because …

Jul 17, 2018: No Mercenaries of Thanks Ministry In 1 Chronicles 16 King David chose and expressly named men to give thanks to the Lord. This is an interesting vocation at least, and a position which …

Jul 12, 2018: A Scholar in Self-Denial "Just as no one can be a scholar unless he learn his ABC, so you must learn the lesson of self-denial or you can never become a scholar in Christ's …

Jul 10, 2018: A Feast of Self-Control Most meal plans that emphasize self-control do not include necessary feasting. You may be allowed a cheat day, or you may take one anyway, but the …

Jul 9, 2018: Chosen and Expressly Named I’m struck by a couple small descriptions in the account of when King David brought the ark back to Jerusalem. David offered sacrifices and …

Jul 3, 2018: It’s the Law There are only two places in the Bible that refer to the “law of Christ.” The first is in 1 Corinthians 9:21 (ἔννομος Χριστοῦ) as Paul …

Jul 2, 2018: Interconnecting Gears On more than one occasion the apostle Paul wrote about the triad of faith, hope, and love. These three don’t just belong together, like complementary …

Jun 30, 2018: Reasons to Study Latin This is a great video produced by Classical Conversations on reasons to study Latin.

Jun 28, 2018: Dead at the Cross Rhetoric is deeper than what is said, more than well spoken words, more than clear or persuasive speech. Rhetoric most often involves language, but it …

Jun 28, 2018: Reset 5 of 5 stars to Reset by David Murray I give 5 stars when I really like a book (as is the Goodreads standard) but also when I would immediately start …

Jun 28, 2018: Why Ministers Must Be Men 4 of 5 stars to Why Ministers Must Be Men by Douglas Wilson Brief observations on the relevant Bible texts along with the implications of what …

Jun 28, 2018: Death by Living 5 of 5 stars to Death by Living by N.D. Wilson Provokes your eyes to see. And to cry. My eyes were busy with both blessings. (2013) Finished again in …

Jun 28, 2018: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe 5 of 5 stars to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis Read in 2018 with the ECS board. This must have been my third, maybe fourth, time …

Jun 28, 2018: Do Your Duties "And the truth is, I know nothing more effective for quieting a Christian soul and getting contentment than this, setting your heart to work in the …

Jun 25, 2018: Belly Worship We’ve been talking about food and gods in 1 Corinthians 8 in our current sermon series, about the connection between eating and worship. In …

Jun 23, 2018: Anticipate and Finish I want to add a couple thoughts to my previous post about men taking responsibility. The sort of seeing “all as his” that I mean can be …

Jun 21, 2018: His and Hers One of the most difficult things to communicate to a guy/husband/father is that all of it is his. He has responsibility for everything, even if he …

Jun 20, 2018: Self-Esteem Propaganda There are (at least) two ways to feel superior to other people: know that you know more/better than others, or, not actually know better but be …

Jun 19, 2018: Twenty "A silent lover is one who doesn't know his job." (Robert Capon, The Supper of the Lamb) Today is our twentieth wedding anniversary! Praise the Lord, …

Jun 19, 2018: The Father’s Generosity When Paul affirmed the truth of the knowledge about God to the Corinthians he summarized: “for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are …

Jun 19, 2018: “The Lord knows how to order things better than I. The Lord sees further than I do; I only see things at present but the Lord sees a great while from …

Jun 16, 2018: It's Good to Be Dad Dad’s don’t get a lot of respect in pop culture. They get a national holiday like mothers, but most of the advertised gifts suggest that …

Jun 15, 2018: Kuyperian Plumbing with Thanks It’s becoming more and more popular to criticize and give warnings about technology. I’ve read 1984, Brave New World, and have owned an …

Jun 14, 2018: Today on the Treadmill About five years ago I started reading Kindle books on my iPad while running on my treadmill. I know some people think that sounds like hell, or at …

Jun 13, 2018: The Art of a Calm Heart My Bible class started to read through The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment the last Quarter of the year. We didn’t quite make it halfway, but I …

Jun 12, 2018: Not by Self-Promotion In a fallen world it is possible to mess just about anything up, including the good things. That said, there are some things that can help us mess up …

Jun 11, 2018: Truth-Tubes Ignorance of God makes idolators or weak worshippers. Knowledge of God, like knowledge of one’s spouse, increases and intensifies love and …

Jun 9, 2018: The Weight of Irritability The author of Hebrews urged his readers to run the race of faith by first laying “aside every weight, and the sin which clings so closely” (Hebrews …

Jun 8, 2018: Unfinished Stories Here is a story I wrote for the final assembly. It references a bunch of books our students read this year, so your appreciation may vary. In the year …

Jun 7, 2018: Quite Some Ride Today we passed another milestone. A small group of us finished the sixth and final year of the Omnibus curriculum. My wife says she knew about …

Jun 6, 2018: The Enthusiasm Industry I was listening to a podcast episode recently, I can’t remember which one even though I don’t actually listen to a bunch, and the hosts referred to …

Jun 5, 2018: The Government of Stability We’ve been reading Brave New World in Omnibus the last couple weeks, and eww, and ouch, and it’s provoked some thoughts for our communion mediation. …

Jun 4, 2018: Empire of Bones 5 of 5 starts to Empire of Bones by N.D. Wilson 2018: What Lewis’ That Hideous Strength is to The Abolition of Man, so N.D.’s Empire of …

Jun 4, 2018: The Vanishing American Adult 5 of 5 stars to The Vanishing American Adult: Our Coming-of-Age Crisis—and How to Rebuild a Culture of Self-Reliance by Ben Sasse Reread this again …

Jun 4, 2018: Brave New World 3 of 5 stars to Brave New World by Aldous Huxley Huxley portrays how brutishly selfish mankind is, and it is shameful. As Lewis would later say, we …

Jun 4, 2018: As Thin as the Wifi Signal The fruit of the Spirit are one. That is, Galatians 5:22 says “fruit” (singular) while seven pieces are listed. The first few are more …

Jun 4, 2018: Blessed New World Here is the charge I gave to our graduates at yesterday’s commencement. Good evening to our candidates for graduation, to their parents and …

Jun 1, 2018: Board Lit I love our school board. While so many books and articles about productivity lament the bane of meetings, I always look forward to our time together. …

May 31, 2018: Do Justice I am not a social justice warrior. I may not even know exactly what it means. I believe that many injustices are being done in the name of justice. I …

May 30, 2018: More Than Two Colors Why do those who acknowledge subtlety compromise? And why are those who have little capacity for nuance wrong? This is a false dichotomy. Not everyone …

May 29, 2018: Aiming Senior Arrows One trend that has bugged me for more than a decade is parents, and pastors, encouraging their kids to move away. This is not the same as encouraging …

May 29, 2018: Where He Starts We know that God’s ways are not our ways and that His thoughts are above and beyond our thoughts. We know, mostly because He told us, that we …

May 28, 2018: The Bottom Line Money has become a god for many men. You can tell by how they praise it, love it, sacrifice for it. Money chokes out the seed of the gospel (Matthew …

May 26, 2018: What of a Man's Profit I’m re-reading Joy for the World with the guys who come to our church’s men’s meeting, and we recently finished chapter 7 about work …

May 25, 2018: The Code of the Coders [caption id=“attachment_8797” align=“alignright” width=“300”]Or, A Glitch in the System[/caption]There is no …

May 24, 2018: The Disconnect of Discontent Because we are learning to be content in whatever condition we’re in, we are also making great progress out of the condition we’re in. The …

May 24, 2018: No Lifehacks for Obedience I have read a variety of books about productivity and getting things done and how to figure out what’s best next. I kind of like the genre. I have …

May 24, 2018: Resubscribed Phil Johnson announced today that he is stoking the coals in the Pyromaniacs fire pit. I really appreciate Phil. He is one of my favorite people in …

May 23, 2018: Et Liberi, Et Libri Do my kids keep me from being productive? They could, perhaps, and I used to lean more toward that irritation. I prefer quiet for reading and writing, …

May 22, 2018: More Bad Ideas If you like to create things—and why wouldn’t you as an image-bearer of your Creator—then listen to this podcast by Seth Godin: No such thing (as …

May 16, 2018: 4 of 5 stars to I Have a Dream and Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King Jr. Brief, not perfect, nor written by a perfect man, but …

May 15, 2018: Proverbial Nose Bleeds How many ways can you have a bad day? I’m not sure, but I know for sure how to make one worse. Maybe the “bad” is due to your body. …

May 14, 2018: Uncomfortable Blessings [caption id=“attachment_8779” align=“alignright” width=“300”]Photo thanks to Leila Bowers[/caption] When I give a …

May 13, 2018: Affections in Maternal Tones Paul did not have questions about his gender, but he did speak of his affections in maternal tones a couple times. He told the Thessalonians, …

May 8, 2018: So Not Okay God hates divorce. God also hates division in the body. He loves unity. Jesus prayed that His people would be one, that they would be one even as He …

May 7, 2018: Knots and Nooses Give a sinner a knife and he will find knots to cut. He doesn’t want things tied together, he wants things loose. Give a man a rope and he will …

May 5, 2018: That Is Really Tired “Weariness pervaded every sense, including common sense.” —Norman Borlaug, Our Daily Bread

May 3, 2018: A liberal arts education equips a man to know how to spend his day off.

May 2, 2018: 1 of 5 stars to The Stranger by Albert Camus Blech. Nihilism into absurdism is not fun, and Camus clearly knew enough about the gospel to be awfully …

May 1, 2018: Bitter Would Be a Start When it comes to the ideal marital state, the point is contentment and satisfaction that matches your condition. Are you single and satisfied? Are you …

Apr 30, 2018: 5 of 5 stars to Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder by Nassim Taleb "You want to be the fire and wish for the wind."

Apr 30, 2018: 5 of 5 stars to Leepike Ridge by N. D. Wilson

Apr 30, 2018: I aim to post something at least once a week against abortion or for adoption. It’s not because I have a platform. It’s not because …

Apr 30, 2018: A Candle Under Your Hoodie There is a somewhat famous statement in Christian circles that “it is better to marry than to burn.” That’s a poetic way to talk about …

Apr 28, 2018: Great distinction between generals and shepherds: “Rupert Greeves was no general. Generals spend men. Generals expect sacrifice from those who stand …

Apr 24, 2018: The Valley of the Shadow of Freaking Out The natural man is surprisingly dumb when it comes to economics. He makes virtually no end of bad deals. Consider the following, purely fictional, …

Apr 23, 2018: Believing Believers When Jesus came down the mountain after His transfiguration He met a father who had brought his convulsing son to Jesus for healing. The disciples who …

Apr 19, 2018: Look for a Second On the first day of the week we worship because Christ rose from the dead; the first day changes all the other days for good. Likewise, His …

Apr 18, 2018: Blessed Forever Since the Sunday of New Year’s Eve I have focused our exhortations to confession around the idea of being blessed. We’ve seen 13 #blesseds so …

Apr 16, 2018: The Obedience of Cancer Doug Wilson on The Obedience of Cancer: "this cancer is right where it is because it is being obedient--and we don’t want to be less obedient than …

Mar 28, 2018: Drinking the Purchase Price We know that we were bought with a price (1 Corinthians 6:20). There have been many people that were born into the world who knew guilt but who never …

Mar 26, 2018: Choices as Saints On the night before Jesus’ crucifixion, when He knew that His hour had come to die, He described the blessed life to His disciples. Actually, …

Mar 21, 2018: Limbs and Organs We are limbs and organs of Christ’s body. Each one is a individual unit of the complex and complete unit. We are in Him, He is in us. We are one …

Mar 19, 2018: Cosmic and Concentrated Blessing runs in two directions at the beginning of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. We bless God, which is to say that we glorify Him in praise, …

Mar 14, 2018: A Table of Reckoning When Jesus told His disciples to eat and drink in “remembrance of Me,” He wanted them to think especially of Him in body to death. His …

Mar 13, 2018: Sex Is for Fruit “Blessed the man that fears Jehovah and that walketh in His ways.” Yes, and amen to the one-hundred and twenty-eighth Psalm. And what form …

Mar 6, 2018: Has Beens There is only one kind of sinner who isn’t welcome at the Lord’s Table. Sexual immorality, idolatry, adultery, effeminacy, homosexuality, …

Mar 5, 2018: Two Blesseds When Jesus talks about those who are blessed He really messes up our categories. His sermon starts out that way, with the poor in spirit as heirs of …

Mar 3, 2018: A Gaping Void On the subject of social media, except not really, because it was published in 1835: “If an American were to be reduced to minding only his own …

Feb 28, 2018: Take Him to Dinner A couple weeks ago I referred to the discipline not just of not being allowed to come to the communion table, but to the discipline of coming week by …

Feb 27, 2018: Most Likely to Be an Arbiter I don’t plan to make this an exhaustive series of exhortations covering all the blesseds in the Bible, but part of the method of staying on the …

Feb 14, 2018: Discipline of a Different Style When a man refuses to repent from his sin the church disciplines him which includes no longer allowing him to participate in communion. When a man is …

Feb 12, 2018: Left Without Discipline We are still in a series of exhortations to confession focused on being blessed. Recognizing our blessings from God and giving Him thanks for those …

Feb 9, 2018: We Eat What We Are Because of how the gospel connects indicatives to imperatives, we can not only say: you are what you eat, but also you eat what you are. When we eat …

Feb 8, 2018: The Limits of Pretending Friends First in the field of blesseds according to Jesus is being "poor in spirit." It is a unique way to start a sermon, and certainly not an easy …

Feb 7, 2018: Better Than Unbreakable I recently read a brilliant illustration. Imagine you wanted to send a priceless wine glass to a friend through the mail. You would find a reinforced …

Feb 7, 2018: Fixed in Mind The argument for church discipline in 1 Corinthians 5 assumes at least a couple things. First, from the sinful man's perspective, he still wanted …

Jan 30, 2018: In the Orchard of Blessings In this series of exhortations focused on God’s blessings, it would have been more awkward not to reference the beginning of the Sermon on the …

Jan 24, 2018: He Invites Us In What sort of God looks to make His people happy? This is not a characteristic of the gods of men. The idols men have created, whether in Greek …

Jan 17, 2018: Body and Soul Where is it most important for you to know that God is at peace with you? Maybe that seems like an odd question, but is it more important for you to …

Jan 15, 2018: The Very First Blessing We continue our series of exhortations to confession based on the idea of blessing. Receiving our blessings well is part of our worship as well as …

Jan 10, 2018: Making a Mess In his “Treatise on the Holy Supper of our Lord and Only Savior Jesus Christ” John Calvin observed: The devil, knowing that our Lord left …

Jan 8, 2018: Forgiveness Equals Freedom Of all the things that Christians have, what would make an unbeliever most jealous? Of course those who are outside of Christ, those who don’t …

Jan 2, 2018: Hanging up a New Calendar If you plan to start a new Bible reading plan this year (or if you “cheated” and began at the end of December), you are more than likely …

Jan 1, 2018: Really Blessed For a few months I have been in a #blessed mood. In a sermon near the end of the summer I recommended The Blessed Option as a way to think about our …

Dec 27, 2017: Still Bringing People Together Birth brings people together. One of the seasonal favorite songs, “The First Noel,” celebrates the good news about the birth of the King of Israel …

Dec 26, 2017: Keeping the Incarnation on the Front Burner For the past three weeks I’ve been reminding us that God came in the flesh. We need reminding about certain things, and the Christmas season is a …

Dec 19, 2017: The Gluten of Your Family
 One of the reasons God gives us fathers is so that we can learn what is good, including what is good to eat. It’s not that God expects every father to …

Dec 18, 2017: A Season to Be Made More Sturdy We believe that by the power of the Holy Spirit God’s Son became incarnate from the virgin Mary. We believe that He is now recognized in two natures, …

Dec 13, 2017: The Goat that Went Away A scapegoat is a powerful symbol. In the Bible it comes from Leviticus 16. On the day of atonement the Lord told Aaron to take “two goats and set them …

Dec 12, 2017: The Spirit of AntiChristmas Christmas is seven days closer than it was last Lord’s Day. I don’t really care if your shopping is done, or close, or not. I do care if your soul, …

Dec 8, 2017: Sing It for Yourself You might need this today. In the spirit of colossians3:16ing, here’s Psalm 94:19 (NASB): When my anxious thoughts multiply within me,
Your …

Dec 7, 2017: To Judge or Not To Judge In chapter 4 of 1 Corinthians Paul told the believers that he didn’t judge himself (4:3). In chapter 11 he told them to “examine” themselves, and that …

Dec 6, 2017: Twenty-Four Whole Days One of the most important jobs of a pastor is to tell the flock things that they already know. He must remind them of God’s truths regularly. A …

Dec 5, 2017: The Lesser of All Things It is quite a thing for Paul to say that “all things” are ours (1 Corinthians 3:21, 22). It is quite a thing for the psalmist to say, “When my anxious …

Dec 4, 2017: More Hope for Fools It’s one thing to live with zero desire to be respected and it’s another thing to live dishonorably and demand to be respected. Some people are hard …

Nov 23, 2017: Thanksgiving and Pumpkin Whoopie Pies I have more things to be thankful for than I realize. But I know I am #blessed, and it can’t hurt to count some of them. I am thankful for my …

Nov 21, 2017: Without the Stickers This is a week to kick up your #blessed game a couple turkey legs. All lawful feasts are Christian feasts. That’s because unbelievers always feast for …

Nov 20, 2017: Against Raising Our Kids to Be Pornographers and Prostitutes When I first started to think that God was calling me to be a pastor I was still in high school. And I did not want to be a youth pastor. One reason …

Nov 16, 2017: Hold It Together I had a particularly good time reading my Bible and praying this morning, and saw some really interesting things in Hebrews 12. In particular, the …

Nov 15, 2017: We Love His Handouts November is National Adoption Month and last Sunday was Orphan Sunday. Adoption has been national news the last couple weeks, though, because the …

Nov 14, 2017: “A pastor who feels competent in himself to produce eternal fruit—which is the only kind that matters—knows neither God nor himself. A pastor …

Nov 13, 2017: Give Me a Break We are a people who love breaks. We love lunch break, coffee break, Christmas break, summer break. We want others to give us a break. Maybe the most …

Nov 10, 2017: Meat to Live Out I noticed some discussion online this past week about frequency of observing communion. One of the arguments pastors make against doing communion …

Nov 9, 2017: Your Neighbor’s Slop It is a universal law that all men seek their own advantage. It is obvious by reflecting on one’s own motives, it is obvious by looking at one’s …

Nov 8, 2017: A Spirit of Fermentation One of the most most cutting conflicts among the Reformers concerned the nature of the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. 500 years later it seems …

Nov 7, 2017: The “Institutes” Twice a Year Wisdom is as wisdom gets along with other people. It’s more often phrased, “wisdom is as wisdom does,” but the right sort of wisdom does right in …

Nov 3, 2017: My view at L2L tonight

Oct 25, 2017: Proverbs 24:11 and “The Patient Within” #defundpp

Oct 25, 2017: Spiritual Adulting Is Hard You know what is really hard? Spiritual adulting. “Adulting” as a verb is relatively new. It was on the Oxford shortlist for “word of the year” in …

Oct 25, 2017: This is good: “The approach of today’s attractional church is like the Trojan Rabbit of Monty Python‘s Arthurian nincompoops–smuggled inside …

Oct 24, 2017: Great brief biography of John Calvin. We liked Calvin so much we named our son after him.

Oct 19, 2017: Contradicting the Celebrating God is in the business of reconciliation. Paul said that God “reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, in Christ …

Oct 18, 2017: It Feels Like Conflict What is life in the Spirit like? Paul told the Corinthian Christians that they were a demonstration of the Spirit’s power (1 Corinthians 2:4). They …

Oct 17, 2017: Davids and Daniels Not many Christians are wise, or influential, or popular by worldly standards. God can and does save people in those categories, but He calls us all …

Oct 10, 2017: A Moral Pebble in Your Shoe Rather than appreciate collateral blessings, our unbelieving culture would rather maneuver Christians off the hill of blessing altogether. More than …

Oct 5, 2017: Who Wants the Cross? We do not use a crucifix as one of our symbols. A crucifix is a cross that has Jesus still hanging on it. This is the wrong image. He is not still …

Oct 4, 2017: Kneeling on Sundays Of all things, kneeling on Sundays is in the news these days. Interesting, isn’t it? Our society still finds a story in symbols and liturgy. This does …

Sep 27, 2017: Not Just Speech Patterns I used to get very nervous when I heard others talk about “incarnating the gospel” and spent many energy dollars arguing against using that language. …

Sep 25, 2017: Bearing Their Gravitas Which do you think is the greater problem in the church, placing too much value on preachers or too little? Good arguments could be made on both …

Sep 19, 2017: Perspective Fail Our pursuit of righteousness is not only a personal pursuit. Paul urged his disciple, Timothy: Flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, …

Sep 18, 2017: Remembering How We Are Supposed to Die Jesus told His disciples a number of things on the night He was betrayed including: “all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love …

Sep 12, 2017: The Debt Immense Because of the way God created the world many things of value can be shared, but with totally different results. A shared reward is divided, a shared …

Sep 11, 2017: First, We Eat The whole idea of living in such a way as to provoke an entire people group to jealousy is a lot of work. It’s good work, and it’s God’s plan, but …

Sep 8, 2017: Willing to Dig Here are my notes from the ECS convocation a couple days ago. Once upon a time in a land not so very far away, a small group of people lived where it …

Sep 4, 2017: Jealous of a Complainer How do you know that God is willing and working in you for His good pleasure? As you are working out your salvation with fear and trembling what is …

Aug 26, 2017: The Place of the Sulk When we think about our salvation by grace and the fruits of grace that would provoke others to jealousy, even elect Israel (Romans 11:11), we do not …

Aug 25, 2017: Shape and Cadence In perhaps the most well-known passage about salvation by grace through faith, one word is used three times. It isn’t grace, it isn’t faith, it isn’t …

Aug 24, 2017: Differences Are Assumed It’s proverbial that everyone puts their pants on the same way: one leg at a time. And, not everyone wears the same size, type, or color of pants. …

Aug 23, 2017: Broccoli for Dinner The sage preacher once said, “Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do …

Aug 9, 2017: A Long Session in the Same Direction The sign of the old covenant was circumcision. There were other signs and symbols given by God to Israel to designate them as His own, but …

Aug 7, 2017: Bleeding Forgivness Why does God forgive anyone? We come near the beginning of our worship service to confess our sins and seek His cleansing and forgiveness. God says …

Aug 2, 2017: Even More Personal In Luke’s account of Jesus instituting the Lord’s Supper, he chases the eating and drinking with two surprising things. The first thing that Luke …

Aug 1, 2017: What Is Earthly There is a way that we must hate the things of earth so that we can also love the things of earth in a different way. In order to change the world we …

Jul 28, 2017: By Faith We Do Stuff Our fellowship around the communion table is in faith. What we have in common is Christ, and how we hold onto Him is also the same: by faith. Because …

Jul 27, 2017: Wings to a Bird One word Christians don’t seem to use as much as they once did is the word “godliness.” It’s a biblical word, one used frequently in the pastoral …

Jul 19, 2017: Brains and Bread If you were God and wanted a way for people to remember the most important event in human history, what program would you use? More than a watershed …

Jul 17, 2017: Serious Bible Studiers The disciples on the road to Emmaus listened as Jesus interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself, and their hearts …

Jul 15, 2017: Life in the Body The Christian life is a life in the body. Paul told the Roman church to present their bodies as living sacrifices as part of their spiritual worship …

Jul 15, 2017: Freedom from Confusion Is a Gift Those who believe in the sovereignty of God ought to be the most kind instead of belligerent, and the most patient instead of panicked, in discussions …

Jul 7, 2017: Get You Out of Bed Truths After a paragraph of imperatives and illustrations about the generational work Timothy was called to (1 Timothy 3:1-7), Paul added another imperative, …

Jul 3, 2017: Spiritual Shapeshifters Whatever your preferred system of eschatology, there is no doubt according to Paul’s definition that we are living in the “last days.” He told Timothy …

Jun 19, 2017: Divine Smack Talk Even though He offers them no redemption, God is, perhaps surprisingly to us, interested in teaching the angels. For much of the Old Testament, …

Jun 14, 2017: Pots Throwing Pieces I bit the bait and clicked an inflammatory link a while back that permanently burned my brain. A straightforward tweet asked: What is the most …

Jun 12, 2017: Boy, Was I Bored I read the following short story at our school’s year-end assembly last Friday. It was inspired by three things: The start of summer break This quote …

Jun 6, 2017: No More Intended Evil The sovereignty of God and the suffering of men is not an academic exercise. Theodicy—a good God’s control over man’s evil (and nature’s destructive …

Jun 5, 2017: Calvinist Excuses If God is sovereign, should we confess our sin? In other words, if God planned that we were going to sin, then isn’t our sin His responsibility? If He …

Jun 5, 2017: The gospel in three words: God saves sinners. Read more in this fantastic essay by J.I. Packer - johnowen.org/media/pac…

Jun 2, 2017: The Patriarch’s Prophetic Blessing Jacob blessed his sons on his deathbed with a vision of the future he could only see by faith. He prophesied that a ruler would come from Judah’s line …

May 30, 2017: The Damp Bounty Paper Towel One way we know that we’re growing up is by how much we can absorb. I don’t mean absorbing information, though the more mature we are the more we will …

May 30, 2017: Locating Trust In Psalm 20 David has us sing, Some trust in chariots and some in horsesbut we trust in the name of the LORD our GOD. (verse 7) The verse before (6) …

May 22, 2017: On Not Wandering Like a Verbal Amoeba God made limits for increased glory. The size of the canvas frames the image and shows off how much the artist can fit in a small space (for example, …

May 20, 2017: Getting qualified and motivated to declutter a messy marriage. Key principe/practice: repentance ht: @luggit www.christkirk.com/sermon/ma…

May 8, 2017: The Great Gravity of Glad Sacrifices I gave the address at our school’s Fundraising Feast last Friday night. Here are the notes for my talk. Oxford defines gravity as “the force …

May 8, 2017: By God’s grace there is great gravity around glad sacrifice.

May 8, 2017: Old and New Humility “[T]he old humility made a man doubtful about his efforts, which might make him work harder. But the new humility makes a man doubtful about his …

May 1, 2017: Stamped with New Value Bread and wine are good. They have their own, built-in sustaining properties. They are also available to enjoy at your own home around your own table, …

Apr 30, 2017: A Bucket Worth of Behavior Repentance is both a change of thinking and a change in action. It is both abstract and concrete. Because of the internal part, which is both …

Apr 19, 2017: Easter Had to Be Effective It appears that Americans will have spent more money for Easter this year than they did for Valentine’s Day (ht: Al Mohler). When it comes to the …

Apr 18, 2017: Beholding Him Better Based on how the calendar works this year, Easter Sunday and Tax Day in the United States fell within two days of each other. Jesus often used …

Apr 12, 2017: Accounting for Participation The Lord’s Table is a table of community accountability. By God’s grace, we have only removed a few persons from communion at our church …

Apr 11, 2017: On Not Sponsoring Stupidity The book of Proverbs is full of wisdom, wisdom for those who need to get wisdom, and wisdom for those who need to give it. Solomon helps the one who …

Apr 4, 2017: Totus Pravus It is sort of funny to think about the high moral standards of the Egyptians who refused to eat with the Hebrews. In Genesis 43 it is described as a …

Apr 3, 2017: On Not Being a YAC I’ve heard it said that if you want to memorize another person’s name, try to say it three times the first time you meet them. That exercise certainly …

Apr 2, 2017: All Sorts of Quests How do we know that we don’t have to live with tortured consciences? We couldn’t know it without the Bible. Men have attempted all sorts of quests to …

Mar 31, 2017: A Longer Prayer This will be the last exhortation to confession based on the Lord’s Prayer, and my goal is to wrap up this series with an extra-biblical bow. I grew …

Mar 30, 2017: Greatness Under Cover However proud Joseph became when he dreamed that his family would bow down before him, he had no idea how truly great he would be and how completely …

Mar 29, 2017: Their Website Address The final two petitions in the Lord’s prayer are closer in concern than any other two petitions. “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it …

Mar 14, 2017: Not in Me Pharaoh paid a great compliment to Joseph before seeing any of Joseph’s work for himself. “I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream you …

Mar 13, 2017: After the Final Amen Of all the petitions that Jesus taught His disciples to pray, the only one He clarified after the final amen, so to speak, was the request for …

Mar 11, 2017: Exsultamus! Perhaps one reason why some young people in the church grow up and walk away from the faith is because they have not celebrated communion enough or …

Mar 10, 2017: The "Oh, no!" Conjunction In the middle of the next petition in the Lord’s Prayer is a small word labeled by some Greek grammarians as the “Oh no!” conjunction. Actually the …

Mar 8, 2017: Familiarity Breeds Since I’m a pastor and since I am responsible for much of the Lord’s Day liturgy at our assembly’s worship, I’m often asked …

Mar 8, 2017: Right Out of the Oven Halfway into Matthew’s rendering of the Lord’s Prayer Jesus provides the most temporal of all the requests: “Give us this day our daily bread.” Bread …

Feb 28, 2017: Last Number of Times If you read my blog you probably already know through some other channel that my sister went to be with the Lord on February 17. The funeral home …

Feb 15, 2017: The Cup in Our Hands There is no way that Pharaoh’s cupbearer was unable to remember what Joseph had done. Nothing could have been worse than losing his royal position as …

Feb 13, 2017: A Lot of Calvinistic Sun in the Sky The third request of Jesus’ prayer takes a lot of faith. He taught us to ask our divine Father to set apart His name from every other name. Next we …

Feb 10, 2017: In Remembrance of Where Christ Is We are in a constant spiritual war and our enemies—sin, the world, and the devil—are relentless. The Lord has not left us without weapons. Paul told …

Feb 9, 2017: Current Visibility When Jesus taught His disciples to pray He started the pattern with requests that calibrate our perspective. The first thing we ask our Father in …

Feb 7, 2017: The Nuts and Bolts of Education These are my notes for a talk I gave last week at our school Information Night. One of the best things about the daily nuts and bolts at our school is …

Feb 4, 2017: More Suitable for Church People How can Jesus stand to have Tamar (see Genesis 39) in His genealogy? From the standpoint of the eternal councils, did the Son ever want to suggest an …

Jan 30, 2017: Not to Make Us Stars If we avoid pretentious hypocrisy and superstitious verbosity as Jesus warned His disciples, how should we pray? “Pray then like this: ‘Our Father in …

Jan 27, 2017: A Way of Life Our new President has been tweeting for a while, and a few years ago he posted something for the world that continues to be born out in his behavior. …

Jan 23, 2017: Verbal Forklifts Not Required Jesus instructed the disciples about two things regarding prayer before He provided the pattern in Matthew 6. He first told them not to parade their …

Jan 18, 2017: Won to His Side The people of Israel often had outside enemies. The genealogy of Esau in Genesis 36 records the increasing numbers and strength of the non-elect line. …

Jan 16, 2017: Open Up the Spigot Jesus warned about two ways of praying wrongly before providing a pattern of prayer for His disciples. I skipped these preparatory points in order to …

Jan 13, 2017: Four Chariots Wide These sermon notes on self-control are better than a heap of Babylonian bricks. Wilson aims his admonition at the angry, but certainly there is …

Jan 12, 2017: A Principal Ornament Our elders are continuing to read The Supper of the Lamb and, in the chapter we talked about at our last meeting, Capon described how “a husband’s …

Jan 10, 2017: Pater Noster We started a series of exhortations about the Lord’s Prayer last week. Jesus assumes that men pray; even hypocrites and idolators pray. When we pray …

Jan 6, 2017: Flammable Under Certain Conditions On June 5th last year our school had its first graduation. It’s taken me until now to post my notes. Hahaha! Good evening to our (almost) …

Jan 5, 2017: Outright Dependence Prayer is an indispensable way that that we express our dependence on God during corporate worship but not the only way. We also demonstrate …

Jan 3, 2017: Those Who Don't Pray In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus addressed common ways that people often practice their righteousness before men: almsgiving, praying, and fasting. …

Dec 26, 2016: What was He doing here? Someone has said before that many babies have been born a king, but only one king was born a baby. Jesus came to inaugurate His kingdom coming to …

Dec 25, 2016: Songs Working Overtime Advent is a season of anticipation. I’ve given four exhortations to confession for sake of our preparation the previous four Sundays, and, now that …

Dec 21, 2016: The Suburbs of Fellowship We have a natural tendency to think about relationships in spacial terms. Some are close, some are far. It makes sense when we think about Aunt Jane …

Dec 20, 2016: A Time to Give, Apparently We are less than a week away from Christmas day, and we’ve been trying to make sure we’re ready. It’s not best to do all your gift-buying at the last …

Dec 13, 2016: Then He Was Washed Dishonorable conduct always comes at a high cost. It could cost reputation, relationships, alimony, jail time, lost endorsements or contracts, jobs, …

Dec 12, 2016: We Need the Wait Training Counting today Christmas is only thirteen worshipping days away. For the previous two weeks I’ve given a couple exhortations for sake of keeping our …

Dec 6, 2016: Outside Our Comfort-Circles Hospitality matters because God is generous. In Genesis 18 Abraham showed grand hospitality to three strangers. He didn’t know it at the beginning, …

Dec 6, 2016: Like Esau? There is an unexpected allusion to the reunion of Jacob and Esau in the Gospels. It is another reunion story with an uncertain outcome at the start, …

Dec 5, 2016: Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Christmas As we continue to move closer to Christmas I said that I would give a series of exhortations to help with our focus. Last week I urged us to be …

Nov 29, 2016: A Noble Trick I highly recommend Eve in Exile and the Restoration of Femininity by Rebekah Merkle. Here is a taste of the book where she describes the glory of a …

Nov 29, 2016: Made Limp in order to Lean We will probably not wrestle God in flesh (like Israel did in Genesis 32). We will, all of us, be touched by God in a way that changes how we walk, …

Nov 28, 2016: Why God Sometimes Conceals His Remedies From John Calvin’s commentary on Genesis 32: [T]he Lord willed that the mind of his servant (Jacob) should be oppressed by this anxiety for a …

Nov 28, 2016: Not to High-Five Our Righteousness Christmas comes in less than four weeks and, since we’ve finished the Thanksgiving leftovers, it is time to turn toward the next set of festivities. …

Nov 22, 2016: Thanks Not Required (at least in the way we might think) I’ve observed before that the reason we give thanks around the Lord’s Table is because the Lord Himself did. “On the night when he was betrayed [he] …

Nov 21, 2016: Lapping the Pace Car Most people agree that being thankful is good. Most people also agree that cardiovascular exercise for twenty or more minutes, three to five times …

Oct 26, 2016: No Other Bride for Christ While studying Genesis 29 I was encouraged by the thought that God is nothing like Laban. We will not wake up one morning in heaven (if we sleep at …

Oct 25, 2016: The Goodness of God’s Discipline None of us have endured the sort of hostility that Christ endured, not even one. He is an example par excellence that we “may not grow weary or …

Oct 12, 2016: Fiction as a Political Weapon The second Raggant Fiction Festival is less than two weeks away. This year’s theme is: Fiction as a Political Weapon I get to lead off the day …

Sep 28, 2016: 288 Ways to Judgment In The City of God Augustine took time to interact with another philosopher who calculated that there were 288 different ways to get meaningful, …

Sep 27, 2016: The Taste of Truth Eve was deceived by the deceiver of the world. Sin in the heart deceives the sinner. Riches deceive from what is truly valuable. God is never …

Sep 19, 2016: The Problems with Blessings Those Christians who are gospel-centered are in great shape to see blessings in context. Good things do not ever exist in a vacuum. The closest it’s …

Sep 19, 2016: It’s a Lie I’ve heard it said that our talk talks and our walk talks but our walk talks a whole lot louder than our talk talks. In other words, we’re known not …

Sep 16, 2016: Big Brother Jesus is a much better big brother than Esau. Both were willing to give something up, but one gave up to his shame, the other to His glory. Esau …

Sep 13, 2016: A Profanity Problem In a paragraph of instruction about how we ought to treat one another, the author of Hebrews named names. In particular, he named the name of one man …

Aug 11, 2016: Combing Hair at Thermopylae On the first day Evangel Classical School met for classes I read the following quote from C. S. Lewis during my convocation address. If we let …

Aug 10, 2016: A Tomb in Canaan God purposes to get praise for His glory by working out His will in stages. He made a promise to Abraham about possessing land while calling Abraham …

Aug 9, 2016: Internal Adornment That Shows Moses does not paint a flattering picture of Sarah, Abraham’s wife, in Genesis. Twice she resents and punishes others in her household. Twice she …

Aug 9, 2016: The Top of the Faith Chart When we co-opt the apostle John’s language and talk about faith as victory that overcomes the world, we do so without smirking or crossing our fingers …

Aug 3, 2016: Close to Home God will test our faith. The apostle Peter wrote that various trials cause heaviness: so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than …

Jul 14, 2016: Well, is it or not? I’ve been meaning to post this for a while, at least for myself to reference in the future. It’s from Wayne Grudem’s book, Politics …

Jul 13, 2016: The Red-Blooded Trivium I gave the following talk at the end of February for the Information Night at Evangel Classical School. If you’d prefer to watch the talk …

Jul 12, 2016: This Election Is a Disaster (so far) I already tweeted a link to this, but “Two Kinds of Voting, Two Kinds of Disruption, and Two Kinds of Unrighteousness” should be read in …

Jul 12, 2016: It's not just okay This book claims it’s not just okay to enjoy the things of earth, but it is our duty to do so. —Jim Martin about The Things of Earth by Joe …

Jul 12, 2016: Strong "Ewww" Reflexes Maybe the only threat more grave to our souls than unrighteousness is self-righteousness. Both make us enemies of God, the former by honest rebellion …

Jul 11, 2016: The Life Behind One of Jesus’ primary teachings is about losing and keeping. Anyone who tries to keep his life will lose it, but anyone who loses his life because of …

Jun 30, 2016: The Forgotten Planet Here’s a short story I told the students for the ECS year-end assembly. On the day before the very first summer break, the planets talked about …

Jun 24, 2016: The Age of Pick and Choose Here’s another guest post by my oldest daughter, Maggie. In the age of Pick and Choose personality, gender, race, and status, Tommy had no idea …

Apr 23, 2016: Spoonfuls of Judgment Even as a woman who survived exclusively on mail-order cookie dough and who never got dressed before dinner, she still managed to aggressively judge …

Mar 19, 2016: No Undiscovered Lurking-places On God’s call to Abram (Genesis 12:1) to leave and seek what he could not see: [I]t is not to be supposed, that God takes a cruel pleasure in …

Feb 18, 2016: Breaking the Divide When Jesus instituted the Supper He was in the middle of the Passover Feast. Jesus was a Jew, His disciples were all Hebrews, and so they were …

Feb 16, 2016: No Stand Ins The first of the Ten Commandments prohibits the worship of false gods. The second prohibits false worship of the true God. You shall not make for …

Feb 11, 2016: Why My Night Was Like a Storybook I spent some time in the hospital last week and my oldest daughter wrote the following story putting together some details from her visit and …

Jan 29, 2016: A Fight to the Death Abortion does not make sense. It is, and always has been, “fatal violence–against the most helpless members of our human community.” …

Jan 28, 2016: Communion Against Abortion Here is an outrageous claim that I believe is true: We must rejoice more when we remember Christ in communion if we want to stop abortion in our …

Jan 26, 2016: Busts along the Wall We started a string of exhortations on the Ten Commandments and last week we considered how Jesus summarized the first four commands by calling men to …

Jan 20, 2016: Chosen Symbols Why do we observe communion? We do it because Jesus gave the ordinance to His disciples and commanded them to keep it until He returns. We eat the …

Jan 19, 2016: Two Tables for Ten We know, according to Paul, that the law was given to point men to Christ (Galatians 3:24). The law tutored sinners toward the Savior because the law …

Jan 14, 2016: Not in Remembrance of You Of all the good gifts of God that have been abused, perhaps nothing has been more abused than the gospel. Salvation is not by works. No man can do …

Jan 13, 2016: Flotsam and Jetsam The Bible contains some hard truths, truths that cut against the grain of our sin. Scripture is profitable, Paul wrote, for teaching and reproof and …

Jan 11, 2016: Harassing the Devil In 1530 Martin Luther wrote the following to his friend Jerome Weller for his fight of faith against the evil one. Whenever this temptation of …

Jan 5, 2016: Overactive Victimhood One of our cultural contagions is overactive victimhood. Everyone is a victim of something and, once a victim, always a victim. This isn’t to …

Jan 4, 2016: Convicting Clarity According to the Bible some practices are more profitable than others during the assembled worship of a church. Paul emphasized the value of prophetic …

Dec 29, 2015: Delighting in the Saints Peter preached on the day of Pentecost about the resurrection of Jesus. He said, “God raised him [His Son] up, loosing the pangs of death, …

Dec 28, 2015: Birds of a Feather Where the old [way of education] initiated, the new merely ‘conditions’. The old dealt with its pupils as grown birds deal with young birds when they …

Dec 28, 2015: As the Year Turns We’ve arrived at the turn of the calendar when people typically consider their food intake and the health of their hearts. God’s people …

Dec 27, 2015: Savior of the Nations It is worth returning regularly to John’s vision of the throne and the Lamb in Revelation 5. We are reminded what the Lamb has done and what He …

Dec 26, 2015: No Good Drunk The first man to get drunk that we know about was Noah. He’s given credit for consummate obedience in the matter of the ark, he’s given …

Dec 23, 2015: Irrigating Deserts For every one pupil who needs to be guarded from a weak excess of sensibility there are three who need to be awakened from the slumber of cold …

Dec 23, 2015: Grasping and Grabbing If one of the central sins in the heart of man is grabbiness (and it is), then what would be the best solution? When the kids can’t wait to rip …

Dec 23, 2015: Wrapped with Ribbon I am fond of saying that there are a lot of ways to mess things up. Gift-giving is one of those subjects that falls under such a proverbial tree. …

Dec 16, 2015: Hiding Behind a Newspaper I assume most of you heard about the massacre in San Bernardino two weeks ago. Fourteen people were killed and twenty-one wounded in a terrorist …

Dec 8, 2015: Christmas Is Overboard How do we learn what we should do on Christmas? By remembering what God did at Christmas. Celebrate the stuff. Use fudge and eggnog and wine and …

Dec 4, 2015: The Blood of a New Humanity I grew up in a Baptist church where we didn’t potluck without casseroles or sing without hymnals. As a kid I remember thinking that we sang a …

Dec 3, 2015: Gravy That Requires Forks and Knives One passage that Joe Rigney readily and rightfully keeps on repeating in The Things of Earth is 1 Timothy 4:4-5. For everything created by God is …

Nov 24, 2015: Your Paper Is Too Small Though we know that passages in the Old Testament addressed to Israel were not written to us, Paul said that they are still for us. What happened to …

Nov 24, 2015: Adorned with Divine Delight A fantastic footnote (#10) found in chapter 6 of The Things of Earth (paragraphs added): Now observe that when that clever harlot, our natural reason …

Nov 4, 2015: Getting Accustomed Again Noah was 600 years old when the rain came down and the floods came up. He spent one of our entire lifetimes just building the ark. That project kept …

Nov 2, 2015: He Condemned the World The world prefers that we do not confess when we disobey God. For that matter, the world prefers when we do not obey God. It might seem as if this …

Oct 31, 2015: The Reformer’s Days Charles Spurgeon, “Holding Fast the Faith”: Everybody admires Luther! Yes, yes; but you do not want anyone else to do the same today. …

Oct 29, 2015: Enthroned over the Cross There are hard things that happen in the world. Though the gospel has had a great affect on many peoples, many other peoples haven’t heard the …

Oct 28, 2015: The Blockheads of Earth The Pharisees asked Jesus about the coming of the kingdom recorded by Dr. Luke in chapter 17 of his gospel. Jesus told the Pharisees that the kingdom …

Oct 27, 2015: Separate from the Sexual Fray God takes all sin seriously, though sexual sin is regularly referenced as a remarkable reason for God’s judgment. Paul did say, “every …

Oct 26, 2015: Our Supernatural Squeamishness We need God to poke our supernatural squeamishness. One of the greatest, subtlest dangers of our day is the (false) assumption that every effect has a …

Oct 24, 2015: A Certain Way I’ve posted about Enoch a few times the last few weeks. Though he is exceptional, he is also an example. The author of Hebrews includes Enoch in …

Oct 23, 2015: Choose Your Own Epithet Moses highlights Enoch in the family tree from Adam to Noah in the Genesis 5 genealogy. Enoch is seventh in line through Seth and compares with the …

Oct 21, 2015: A Site to See There’s a new website for the Raggant Fiction Festival that includes audio and video for all seven talks. You can also download an audiobook of …

Oct 20, 2015: New Soil As sons of Adam we have his sin. We don’t need to learn sin, in the words of our modern theologian Lady Gaga, we are born this way. Being born …

Oct 19, 2015: A Long Drive In our categories for sin, when we weigh which are the heavier matters, we often put discontent in the chaff pile. “Awww, shucks.” …

Oct 10, 2015: It's Happening “When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God” (Genesis 5:1). When Adam sinned, he did not lose this likeness completely, but …

Oct 9, 2015: Running Dark From Genesis 5 and Hebrews 11 we know that Enoch walked in the presence of God. From Jude we know that Enoch also prophesied about the judgement of …

Sep 23, 2015: Complex Carbohydrates God chose man-made products to represent something that man could not do for himself. Bread and wine are modest when compared to Solomon’s daily …

Sep 22, 2015: Slipping the Hold For all our Kuyperian talk about culture and cultural advances and the importance of the things of earth, we do want to take seriously God’s …

Sep 21, 2015: Raggant Fiction Festival The first ever Raggant Fiction Festival happens Saturday and today is the last day to register.

Sep 17, 2015: Two Kinds of Worldlings There is a kind of worldling with whom believers can associate and another kind with whom we must not. We can appreciate all true image-bearing …

Sep 15, 2015: The World as God The early chapters of Genesis call for significant attention not only on God’s command to men to marry and multiply and make but also on our …

Sep 10, 2015: Making a Contribution I had a roommate in college who loved to play SimCity. Even though I’ve never been a huge video game sort of guy, he let me play every so often …

Sep 9, 2015: Blood Speaks Blood speaks. God made the world in such a way that the shedding of blood reverberates. Cain killed his brother Abel in a field far away from earshot. …

Sep 7, 2015: Driven by Jealousy Last week I pointed out that God’s call to love one another started in Genesis not with Jesus. The apostle John wrote that this message was …

Sep 2, 2015: Offerings That Please God When it comes to offerings that please God, Abel’s was the first, but Jesus’ was the greatest. Abel offered the first and fattest of his …

Sep 1, 2015: As Old as Dirt Made into Man Jesus commanded His disciples to love one another. He told them that such love would identify them in the world and that He His life was the standard …

Aug 31, 2015: Sharing in the Symbols When we partake of the cup and the bread we partake in the nature of the Lord. To share in the symbols of His sacrifice is to identify with the God …

Aug 29, 2015: Which One Looks the Most Shady As Paul described the “old self” in Ephesians chapter 4 he compared it to the life of the Gentiles. Unbelievers are darkened in their …

Aug 6, 2015: The Lifeblood of Fiction My mom really wanted me to read when I was a kid. She taught English before I was born, then she stayed home to care for me (and my sister who joined …

Aug 5, 2015: That Sickening Feeling We can be thankful to God for the work of the Center for Medical Progress and their exposure of Planned Parenthood. Many Christians have been fighting …

Aug 4, 2015: It's Already Hitting the Fan When the laws regulating human society are so formed as to come into collision with the nature of things, and in particular with the fundamental …

Aug 3, 2015: Stiff-arming the Truth Though a short exhortation always precedes the act of confession in our Lord’s Day worship, why not place confession after the sermon? Imagine …

Aug 2, 2015: No Give, No Glory Glory is sacrifice, glory is exhaustion, glory is having nothing left to give. Almost. It is death by living. —N.D. Wilson, Death by Living, …

Aug 1, 2015: Not What We Once Were By His grace, we are the water made wine. We are the dust made flesh made dust made flesh again. We are the whores made brides and the thieves made …

Jul 31, 2015: More Than One Vessel We eat to know that we’re not alone. I adapted that statement from a line in the movie “Shadowlands.” In it, C. S. Lewis is talking …

Jul 31, 2015: There Are No Rough Drafts Living means writing your every word and action and thought and drool spot down in forever. It means writing your story within the Story. It means …

Jul 30, 2015: You've Got to Know When to Get Out of There Fight or flight are two typical reactions for a person who encounters a stressful or threatening situation. Let’s say you are walking down a …

Jul 25, 2015: The Best of Burdens Drink your wine. Laugh from your gut. Burden your moments with thankfulness. Be as empty as you can be when that clock winds down. Spend your life. …

Jul 24, 2015: The Investment of Suffering Some people spend their days in pain with bodies that keep the yearning front and center, that keep loss always in the mind’s eye. Widows. Orphans. …

Jul 23, 2015: Impossibillions Is a Lot Our futile struggle in time is courtesy of God’s excessive giving. Sunset after sunset make it hard to remember and hold just one. Smell after …

Jul 22, 2015: A Spoiled Supper One way that communion has been spoiled is by an incorrect understanding of worthiness. In the middle of his instructions about the Lord’s …

Jul 21, 2015: Of Mortal Ills Notwithstanding You cannot throw a diva fit backstage in this production and force the understudy to take your place. You are in every scene. You are on the field for …

Jul 20, 2015: The Gunk on Our Glasses What is the purpose, could we even say benefit, of planning a time in our worship service every Lord’s Day to confess our sins? Is our focus on …

Jul 19, 2015: It's an Important Difference How do you tell a scribe from a prophet…? The prophets love the people they chastise…. —Marilynne Robinson, Gilead: A Novel, 162

Jul 18, 2015: There Is Still Work to Do Assumption One: Paradise was easy living. Incorrect. It was joyful and glorious, which is a very different thing. Adam and Eve were given an entire …

Jul 17, 2015: Hard to Find, Harder to Miss Good Story: a linked thread of occurrence, real or fictitious, in, around, and after trouble of some degree or sequence, in which the triune nature is …

Jul 16, 2015: Image Bearing by Battle Nails are forged for pounding. Man is born to trouble. Man is born for trouble. Man is born to battle trouble. Man is born for the fight, to be forged …

Jul 15, 2015: Parents Are Always Parenting Other real live souls are now depending on you. You are the creator of their childhoods. You are the influencer of their dreams and tastes and fears. …

Jul 15, 2015: Bricks on the Wall Some Bible opposites are easy to couple. The opposite of night is day, of dark is light, of truth is lies. Some opposites are a bit more creative. For …

Jul 14, 2015: Such a Bone Head Harsh. Badly behaved. Worthless. Impossible to talk to. These adjectives are used about a character in a well-known narrative, but not about a low …

Jul 10, 2015: They All Involve Hills Here’s a good case for pastors to fight on the front of free speech rather than of tax exemption. One reason is because we will lose the …

Jul 7, 2015: Not the Final Meeting Thank God that the justice of God can never be isolated from the mercy of God. We can divide them when we study them. We can track both words through …

Jul 6, 2015: Motivation for Obedience We believe that God is God meaning that He does whatever He pleases (see Psalm 135:6). We believe that He controls everything, from ants in driveway …

Jul 4, 2015: Not That Far Apart Over the last couple days I’ve argued that the start of our cultural problems is when man rejects God as God. The Supreme Court and the cover of …

Jul 3, 2015: Mr. and Mrs. Grumpybottoms Yesterday I wrote that the sins in our culture are not worse than the original sin in the Garden of Eden. That said, our sins are bad and getting …

Jul 2, 2015: Our Cultural Garden The Supreme Court of the United States ruled last Friday that no State has the right to make it illegal for a man to “marry” a man and for …

Jul 2, 2015: When Obergefell Falls Part stone slung at Goliath, part song sung at Grendel’s mom, read the whole charge from Toby Sumpter that starts with this: We are being …

Jul 1, 2015: He Has Us Covered Even if you’ve heard it before, sometimes it’s good to cover the same ground again. When Jesus died on the cross He covered our sins. …

Jul 1, 2015: Children of the Rainbow Doug Wilson writing (again, for those who haven’t read him already) about why Christians kids need a Christian education before engaging the …

Jun 29, 2015: Running Out of Generations Christians don't listen to Immanuel Kant much, or get our worldview of marching orders from him. But his take on Genesis 3 may represent a typical, if …

Jun 24, 2015: His Shots Will Backfire We understand now that the ultimate fulfillment of God’s curse on the serpent, namely, that the seed of the woman would crush his head (Genesis …

Jun 22, 2015: Paternity Tests Confession of sin is an issue of fatherhood. I don’t mean that father’s are the most important confessors, though dads can’t help …

Jun 15, 2015: Premeditated Forgiveness When we celebrate the Lord’s Supper (and we do celebrate it), we are not celebrating that God has overlooked our sin but that He most certainly …

Jun 14, 2015: Spilling the Beans onto Someone Else's Lap It is possible to concede sin but not confess it. Or, to put it another way, a man may acknowledge what he did without acknowledging that it was his …

Jun 13, 2015: The Fountainhead of Antithesis Across the front of many communion tables is the phrase, “Do this in remembrance of Me.” Jesus told His disciples on the night of His …

Jun 12, 2015: Passing Our Lusts Through Spell-Check We are all amateur philologists. Philology is the study of language, and we use language to talk about everything. We type, text, speak, sing, and …

Jun 12, 2015: It's a Big Estate Because Adam sinned we are all born guilty. As the Westminster Shorter Catechism answers for question 17, Adam’s “fall brought mankind …

Jun 12, 2015: Ad Nauseum Wholus Foodus What we eat matters. God made us to eat. All sorts of bodily systems, some obvious and some more obvious when things aren’t working properly, …

Jun 11, 2015: More Fruitful Than Treebeard I gave the following address at our year-end assembly last Friday. If you’ve read The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, you no doubt remember …

Jun 8, 2015: Forty-one in Forty-one Here are lessons I’ve learned or reasons that I’ve got for giving thanks. Also, although I did recently turn 41, I don’t have a 41 …

May 26, 2015: Before or After? Most of us are familiar with Paul’s warning about eating the bread and drinking the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner. Unworthy eaters …

May 25, 2015: Inching up the Triangle I’ve heard it described before that marriage is like a triangle with God at the summit. As the husband and wife get closer to God they …

May 21, 2015: An Interrogative Shovel I value the Why? question. I think I’ve mostly lost the smart-alecky junior high attitude underneath the asking, but I still appreciate and …

May 20, 2015: Indeed a Political Act A happy marriage is a political act. (Note: the adjective is key in the previous sentence.) George Orwell meant as much in his dystopian novel, 1984. …

May 13, 2015: Two Adams There are two Adams that we need to know about. The first is Adam from Eden, the first man on earth, husband, father, gardener, and eater of forbidden …

May 12, 2015: An Act of Life To riff off Chesterton, a man cannot draw a triangle with four sides no matter how resourceful a geometry teacher. A man cannot sketch a giraffe with …

May 6, 2015: The Day of Resting Revelry The Church changed the day of resting revelry from Saturday to Sunday as a recognition that Christ rose from the dead on the first day of the week. …

May 5, 2015: Baby Kittens Harnessed to a Bobsled I gave the following address at our school’s fundraising dinner last Saturday night. “Let not him who straps on his armor boast himself as …

May 5, 2015: How to Go Glutton-Free Previously I took a crack at a predictable sin among dieters. In light of the abundance given to us by God, a certain sort of calorie counting and …

May 4, 2015: All That He's Provided After God identified the man the woman as His image-bearers, He eagerly showed them all that He had made for them. All kinds of food were available to …

Apr 27, 2015: That Big Piece of Leftover Cheesecake I want to address a subject where angels fear to tread: dieting. I could give an amount of qualifiers named Legion. Gluttony is a sin out of the …

Apr 23, 2015: More Than Thinking One reason that the ordinances seem weird to us is that we have trouble believing that what we do in the body matters. There is plenty of mental and …

Apr 22, 2015: Dinner and Devotions As we think about how God wants us to honor Him in His image, the opportunities are surprisingly practical. In 1 Corinthians 10 Paul makes a series of …

Apr 18, 2015: Image Conscious We live in a society that places a lot of weight on appearance. Red carpet events devote extra attention to what the stars wear and, at the other end …

Apr 17, 2015: The Stamp of an Image-Bearer The most heady and holy contemplation a human can have is considering himself or herself to be made in the image and likeness of God. No other …

Apr 9, 2015: A Resurrection Relationship If you could have whatever you wanted, what would you want? If you could define yourself by anything, what would you want said about you? There is …

Apr 8, 2015: Every Lesson Is a Gift What is missing most in most education? For me, my public schooling was more like a week-old donut hole: bite-size, dry, and missing much of the …

Apr 8, 2015: The Living and the Dead If Christ is not risen from the dead, then we are all still in our sins. Christians believe that Christ is risen from the dead, but that does not mean …

Apr 3, 2015: Not Even the Days Are Figurative The great resurrection chapter is 1 Corinthians 15. We are partaking of communion on Palm Sunday, a week before we celebrate Christ’s …

Apr 2, 2015: Not Running Over Pedestrians We finished our discussion about The Art of Neighboring at Men to Men last Monday and the ladies will finish at their next meeting. The elders …

Mar 26, 2015: Bread Has Never Sinned When believers gather at the Lord’s Table, the body of Christ is represented in two loafs, the loaf of bread and the loaf of people (see 1 …

Mar 23, 2015: They Would Be Dead by Now Many people are alive today who, had they been living even 100 years ago, would be dead by now. What I mean is that many hurt, weak, sick, or diseased …

Mar 21, 2015: As Reliable as the Sunrise On the night He was betrayed, Jesus told His disciples that the cup poured out for them was the new covenant in His blood (Luke 22:20). It is the sign …

Mar 16, 2015: Envy Kills Envy kills. It kills the taste buds of one’s own soul, making sweet things seem dull and unsatisfying. It kills contentment, making those who …

Mar 11, 2015: Let There Be Light Many things might discourage a pastor. A devoted pastor will probably be discouraged by a lack of response to the gospel, a blindness among men to the …

Mar 9, 2015: What Fits? What sort of behavior belongs with the God who created heaven and earth? When we receive His revelation about His effective word that brought about …

Mar 4, 2015: Less Mary Poppins Snapping Why did God create an unformed and unfilled mass of earth first (Genesis 1:1-2)? Why was Stage One at the beginning of day one a watery wilderness and …

Mar 3, 2015: The Things of Earth If you already saw my book review on Goodreads, I’d still say go ahead and reread my plug for the book below anyway. For emphasis. But first, …

Mar 2, 2015: The Whole Row One attribute of God in Genesis one that isn’t always mentioned by commentators, theologians, and preachers is that our God gives. All of …

Feb 27, 2015: To Force More Perfect Union Abraham Lincoln did not have the chops to unite the Union peaceably. Part of his problem is that he loved the Union too much. Caveats, qualifications, …

Feb 25, 2015: Like a Herd of Gerasene Swine How did God do it? He is a much more disciplined writer than any human author. I can’t handle when a question hangs too long, let alone if the …

Feb 23, 2015: Shooting Whales in a Barrel We’ve been working through our church’s What We Believe statement on Sunday evenings and last Lord’s day Pastor Jim took us through …

Feb 18, 2015: Be Cheered! Over her Christmas break from college, Katie Herrington came to our Life to Life group after one of the messages on worship. The question for …

Feb 16, 2015: Ongoing Application We believe that God saves sinners. We believe that the Father elected a people for His Son forever ago, that the Son laid down His life to pay for the …

Feb 10, 2015: The Tyrant's Life A single mom with eight year-old triplet sons went to Starbucks one afternoon for a break. She had spent her day not only making meals, cleaning …

Feb 9, 2015: The Nature of Things Knowing the nature of things is quite valuable and surprisingly elusive. When the church assembles on the Lord’s day and meets God in worship, …

Feb 6, 2015: An Airtight Case The only thing required to be guilty before God is to do nothing. Men transgress God’s law on purpose more than the evening news has time to …

Jan 12, 2015: Hunt You Down If you have sinned against someone, you do not need to wait for them to hunt you down. If a brother comes to talk to you, tells you your fault, and if …

Jan 6, 2015: Something Has to Be Done In the third book of his space trilogy, That Hideous Strength, C.S. Lewis relates a turning point in one of the main character’s life. Taken …

Dec 31, 2014: New Times Three God does not command His people to read the Bible anywhere in the Bible. That’s probably for two reasons. First, most people didn’t have …

Dec 30, 2014: What's Your Problem? Only the unrepentant are unwelcome at the Lord’s Table. Those who will not believe in and submit to Jesus do not have any part of Him. Those who …

Dec 29, 2014: Focus on Rejoicing The shortest verse in the Bible is not John 11:35, “Jesus wept.” Counting letters in the original language, there are 16 characters in …

Dec 24, 2014: Christmas Counters The apostle John wins for covering the Christmas story with the least amount of paper: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” …

Dec 22, 2014: Not Your Gift After midnight one Christmas Eve, when all the family had been in bed for a couple hours, the youngest of two teenage brothers couldn’t sleep. …

Dec 17, 2014: We Get Closer One way that the Lord causes our love for one another to increase and abound (1 Thessalonians 3:12) is by inviting us to share a meal together. He has …

Dec 16, 2014: The Laziness That Be Reading the Foundational Documents and seeing how natural it is for some men to take advantage of others, I ranted a bit in our last Omnibus …

Dec 15, 2014: Lawless Laws In the ECS Omnibus class we’ve recently been reading the foundational documents of the United States. We spent a few weeks reading and rereading …

Dec 10, 2014: Reached the Quota Consider the statement Paul made about the Jews in 1 Thessalonians 2:16. He said that they opposed “all mankind by hindering us from speaking to …

Dec 8, 2014: Our Pile of Sin Sin is not sweet. We shouldn’t ever look at it, or look back at it, with nostalgia. Confession is not a time for warming ourselves by the fire …

Dec 5, 2014: The Rounds Are Live Scottish politician Andrew Fletcher wrote in 1704: Let me write the songs of a nation, and I care not who writes its laws. (quoted in Wenham, The …

Dec 4, 2014: Recommended Instruments for Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs More than a few factors have excited me to study about and learn to sing some Psalms, some of which I’ve posted here over the last couple weeks. …

Dec 3, 2014: Things That Stand Out What kinds of things can be learned by imitation? Behaviors such as how to small talk can be learned, as can preferences such as how you like your …

Dec 2, 2014: Down with Dualism I have read the Psalms a couple dozen times, and parts of some Psalms probably hundreds of times, just as many of you have. Yet as I read them again …

Dec 1, 2014: Turn, Turn, Turn When Paul defended his ministry before King Agrippa in Acts 26, he included the charge that the Lord gave to him. Jesus said to him, I have appeared …

Nov 26, 2014: Forsaken by God More than David, more than Job, no man ever felt more forsaken by God than Jesus. Near the end of His time on the cross (Matthew 27:46), Jesus took a …

Nov 25, 2014: Not 149 More Doctrinal Bullet Points In my last post on Psalms I gave some reasons why our use of the Psalms is flat. That needs to change. It should BOOM. By boom I mean literally: make …

Nov 24, 2014: Thanksgrabbing Ah, the winter holiday season is upon us and it starts this coming Thursday with Thanksgiving. We are learning that God is honored when we feast and …

Nov 21, 2014: The Season of Our Desuetude There is a medley of reasons for our desuetude of Psalms. Not only are they my observations, they also are my experience. Our use of psalms is flat. …

Nov 20, 2014: Gold-Plattered Snot-Fests Somewhat recently a large group of believers were taken from their homes. Their capital city was attacked and those who weren’t killed were …

Nov 19, 2014: A Visible Purpose Abraham Kuyper stated that his aim was to equip a body of spiritually mature, sober-living, serious people who, consciously assuming God’s promises …

Nov 18, 2014: One Thought God’s entire counsel may be reduced to one thought, that in the end of the ages he may have a Church which shall understand His love and return it. …

Nov 12, 2014: Most Saturday Nights On most Saturday nights our household makes dinner into an event. The food may be a bit more fancy as well as the decorations on the table. We get the …

Nov 11, 2014: Overlooking Glory There is a stage of development as Christians are learning to love righteousness that can cause its own kind of damage. There is no way to not love …

Nov 7, 2014: The Fruit of the Womb November is National Adoption Month and in this first week of the month elections took place across our country. It may be too much to tie together an …

Oct 23, 2014: Everything in Subjection Though David wrote Psalm 8 about man as in mankind, the author of Hebrews also recognized a unique application for the God-Man, Jesus Christ. For it …

Oct 21, 2014: There Is No Spoon More from Saving Leonardo about the inevitable results of a man’s defective theology proper: When artists were persuaded that nature operates …

Oct 21, 2014: Protecting Our Talk The doctrine of creation does more than provide science with the origins of the universe. Because we know the first cause, in particular, because we …

Oct 18, 2014: The Day of Refreshing The following encouragement came in a letter from Robert Cushman to the William Bradford recorded in Of Plymouth Plantation: 1620-1647 (page 108): I …

Oct 14, 2014: The Son and the Psalter Psalm 2 sits in a special place in the Psalter. In fact, based on early manuscripts of Acts 13:33 that quoted Psalm 2:7 as being in the “first …

Oct 13, 2014: Three Nots The blessed man in Psalm 1 is known by three “nots”. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way …

Jun 16, 2014: The Door I gave the following address at our end-of-year assembly on June 5th. This year Mr. Sarr, Mr. Bowers, and myself (on Thursdays) read for you 100 …

May 7, 2014: A Good Egg I gave the following address at our school’s fundraising dinner last Saturday night. It’s been said that a man shouldn’t put all his …

Apr 3, 2014: Tohu Turns Ten On Tuesday I had a private little party (in my head) to celebrate a decade of posting things that are without form and void here on tohu va bohu. If …

Mar 29, 2014: A Zero Ego Party We will never be really happy without being really humble. Only humble eyes seen how many things there are that are amazing. A proud person’s …

Mar 29, 2014: I Am Not My Own One of the greatest comforts in life is knowing that we are owned. As disciples of Christ, we were the Father’s and the Father gave us to the …

Mar 21, 2014: Making Himself Known When Jesus instituted the Supper of remembrance He told His disciples, “this cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my …

Mar 19, 2014: Racing Back for More We’ll be studying John 17 as a church for a while on Sundays and taking our exhortation to confession cues from Jesus’ prayer. What He …

Mar 13, 2014: Many Offspring from One Offering Christ is our high priest. He ministers with our names on His heart as the priests in the Old Testament carried the names of the 12 tribes of Israel. …

Mar 12, 2014: Prayer for Sanctification Last Sunday we entered a study of John 17. The entire chapter is one prayer by Jesus for His disciples the night before His crucifixion. We learn, or …

Mar 3, 2014: Loathsome Liturgy Those of us who know so much, we who have been given so many biblical vistas of God’s glory, will naturally struggle to match our hearts with …

Feb 27, 2014: Table Rules When the Corinthian believers came together it was not for the better but for the worse. It is sadly, and maybe too often, the case that Christians …

Feb 26, 2014: Say the Same Thing Usually we use the word “confess” when we speak about admitting our sin. John the Baptist called men to confess their sins (Matthew 3:6). …

Feb 24, 2014: Training and Tasting At least two things keep church discipline from being as understandable and appreciated as it could be. First, too often church discipline is driven …

Feb 19, 2014: Comparing Kills Comparing kills. One sure way to kill joy and stir up envy, jealousy, and bitterness is to compare yourself with another, your lot with your …

Feb 12, 2014: Defining Gifts I told the following story for our school assembly last Thursday afternoon. Once upon time there was a boy named Ben Levite. Ben’s father, …

Feb 6, 2014: This Table Is Reserved God is full of grace. From His fulness He overflows in good things to the undeserving. He gives many good, undeserved things to those who hate Him. …

Feb 5, 2014: Cracks in the Sidewalk Sin separates. Sin divides what should be united. We know that sin isolates men from the holy God. Sin drives a wedge between friends. The good news …

Feb 4, 2014: One Table, Two Bodies The Lord’s Supper is a meal that acknowledges two bodies and the communion between them. Our King gave His body, actual flesh and actual blood, …

Feb 3, 2014: The Tone of His Table What flavor should season the meal of communion? Because we know that God is a consuming fire, because our salvation from sin required the sacrifice …

Jan 29, 2014: The Disciples Missionaries Made A disciple-maker should know where he’s going. If he does, then he probably knows his end depends on starting in the right spot. He also …

Jan 28, 2014: Before It Gets Worse Last week marked the passing of 41 years since Roe v. Wade when the Supreme Court of the United States legalized the murder of children in womb. We …

Jan 21, 2014: Near the Top of the Lists Every Lord’s day morning we set aside specific time in our service to confess our sins. I’m no statistician nor do I listen to the …

Jan 14, 2014: Blood That Speaks On the night He was betrayed Jesus told His disciples that they were drinking the cup of the covenant. “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my …

Jan 13, 2014: Saved from Righteousness We have many things to confess and God forgives us from them all in Christ. We confess wandering, when we neglect His Word and fail to follow His …

Jan 7, 2014: Why Work? I recommend this article by Dorothy Sayers, “Why Work?” She wrote it in 1942 in the middle of WWII. She touches on war, economics, …

Jan 1, 2014: We Win in Him Near the end of his first letter the apostle John utilized the overcoming language that he had heard Jesus use. For everyone who has been born of God …

Dec 31, 2013: Trimming the Fat We are at the threshold of a new year, a customary and fitting time to evaluate if we were worshipping any idols over the last twelve months that …

Dec 30, 2013: Sympathy and Division Our family advent plate was full the two weeks before Christmas so I didn’t post the last two communion meditations. Here they are, combined …

Dec 26, 2013: Passion and Patience In The Pilgrim’s Progress, not long after having his burden removed, Christian arrived at the Interpreter’s house. While showing Christian …

Dec 25, 2013: The Sin of Seasonal Humbug I hate Christmas for a different reason than I used to. I used to hate Christmas when I thought I was more of a saint. Now I hate it because I know …

Dec 20, 2013: What shall we call that? The Scars on Your Forearms: When shepherds have neglected the flock for so long, and the wolves are ravaging them, and the sheep come up with some …

Dec 11, 2013: Merry Communion! We are taking these four Sundays before Christmas as an opportunity for advent Lord’s Suppers. That is, we are considering how the incarnation …

Dec 10, 2013: Listening to Sad Songs Asaph wrote a sad song in Psalm 81, though not every verse sounds sorrowful. He ended by noting the kinds of things the Lord would do: “he would …

Dec 4, 2013: A Holiday Challenge When we are tempted to lose heart we go back to the gospel. When we are afflicted, perplexed, persecuted, and struck down we know it is nothing new. …

Dec 3, 2013: Why Bother? Why bother with righteousness? Why do we desire it and why are we as believers dissatisfied without it? Loving righteousness and sensing the lack of …

Dec 2, 2013: No Pilgrimages to Holy Places Yesterday was the fourth Sunday before Christmas, the usual time to begin the advent countdown. It also happened to be the first day of December, so …

Nov 29, 2013: When You're Jealous One slander against the early church regarded their Lord’s Supper celebrations. Those outside the church heard words such as “love …

Nov 27, 2013: Where Authority Belongs It is extremely difficult not to take on the worldview of the world around us. Not only do we live in the world, we used to be of the world, and the …

Nov 25, 2013: Gratitude Divas The hardest part about Thanksgiving is actually being thankful. It is much easier to imagine ourselves being thankful than it is to be thankful. When …

Nov 25, 2013: For the Last Time The Lord’s Table will be sweeter the last time we taste it than it was the first time. The apostle John recorded the Lord’s rebuke to the …

Nov 11, 2013: East and Not-East As Christians we know that we are in the world but not of it. Navigating this relationship requires more than quoting a great verse, it requires …

Nov 7, 2013: Burnout Preventative Regarding John 15:16, that the greater part of teachers either languish through indolence, or utterly give way through despair, arises from nothing …

Nov 6, 2013: Chasing with A Bigger Rake Paul quotes Isaiah 64:4 in 1 Corinthians 2:9. “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for …

Nov 5, 2013: Fostering Awareness Last Sunday was Orphan Sunday. It’s not a holiday, though many churches observe it in the United States and in other countries. For that matter, …

Oct 30, 2013: All God's Fullness What is the single most important thing you can do to grow into God’s image? Do you remember when the apostle Paul wrote about believers being …

Oct 28, 2013: Surprised by Sin Even though we do the same thing around the same time in our service every Sunday morning, those who benefit most from our time of confession are …

Oct 15, 2013: A Long Thank You Note What would our lives be like without the gospel? Only those who believe the gospel could come close to answering the question because those without …

Oct 14, 2013: Catching the Right Bus At our Life to Life leaders’ meeting last Wednesday we discussed how discussions are going at our different Life to Life groups. In order to …

Oct 9, 2013: Fruit by Derivative Is it necessary for Christians to bear fruit? Are we required to love God and others, obey God, have joy in God, and witness for God? Yes, we are …

Oct 8, 2013: We've Got a Long Way to Go I have never met a runner convinced that he would race faster if only he could carry a heavier bag. Runners run better by dropping weight, not by …

Oct 5, 2013: Cooked and Consumed I don’t remember where I read it recently1, but someone described the scene at the temple in a way I hadn’t considered before. There was …

Oct 2, 2013: A Confession Blessing Who gets the most benefit/blessing when we confess our sins? In other words, who do we confess our sins for? We do confess our sins for our good. …

Oct 1, 2013: As If It Is Real We live by faith and “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). But because many of …

Sep 30, 2013: Right Where He Wants Them John Calvin remarks on the rage of the nations and the response of Yahweh in Psalm 2:4. [W]hen God permits the reign of his Son to be troubled, he …

Sep 30, 2013: Not About Heaven's Books We are continuing to learn about the seriousness of our sin and the need to confess and forsake it. We are growing to hide it less and to deal with it …

Sep 24, 2013: It Can't Be Privatized Paul blessed the Corinthians at the end of his second letter when he wrote, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the …

Sep 16, 2013: Broken Pencils Some failures cannot be fixed by getting a new sheet of paper and starting over. If the pencil is broken, rewriting the assignment won’t make …

Sep 11, 2013: A Successful Catastrophe This was a helpful rundown from the military perspective, Can America win a war in Syria? From what I understand, the Assad regime has chemical …

Sep 10, 2013: Centuries Long Confusion Our blessings are almost an embarrassment. If we were thankful, it would be okay. Instead, we disgrace ourselves with skimpy gratitude and boldness. …

Sep 9, 2013: Glossing the Skids I taught John 14:6 a couple Sundays ago and thought that a great communion meditation that day would be to focus on the exclusivity of Jesus as the …

Sep 3, 2013: Go for It The following post is my convocation address for ECS from Tuesday afternoon. Or, Changing the World from a Basement, Part Two1 Today begins our second …

Sep 2, 2013: A Lot of Trouble At least four sorts of trouble surface in the Bible. First there is trouble that results from our sin (think 1 Peter 4:14). We will reap suffering if …

Aug 28, 2013: We Can't Be Silent Men proclaim their loves in a variety of ways and one of those ways involves words. There are many non-verbal forms of communication, too. A man may …

Aug 27, 2013: Adorned with Bible Verses Two brothers met for coffee one afternoon and the younger brother announced that he no longer loved his wife of seven years and was planning to leave …

Aug 22, 2013: Called to a Common Commandment It’s been said that there are some sights only visible in the valley. Likewise, some glories only shine on earth, not in heaven. The love of God …

Aug 20, 2013: Struck Out Looking The greatest commandment is to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Not one of us loves God with all of our faculties let alone …

Aug 19, 2013: They Didn't Know When Satan provoked Judas to betray Jesus he played into Jesus’ plan. Satan fulfilled his part in God’s eternal story and Judas obeyed …

Aug 15, 2013: He Knows Jesus knows everything. Nothing escapes Him. His knowledge penetrates the hearts of men, all their attitudes, intentions, and imaginations. He also …

Aug 9, 2013: Pair-a-Bowla One of my earliest sermons while in seminary was on Philippians 2:1-11. Paul urges the believers: “Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in …

Aug 6, 2013: Obedience Is Rock Jesus cuts the will with an incisive question near the end of His sermon. As Luke recorded it, Jesus said, “Why do you call me ‘Lord, …

Aug 5, 2013: Lectures on Calvinism Audio Book Here is a fantastic audio book for Abraham Kuyper’s Lectures on Calvinism. Abraham Kuyper has become a good friend the last couple years. His …

Aug 5, 2013: A Good Washing Paul provides well-known instruction in 1 Corinthians 6 that Christians shouldn’t take other Christians to court. It ruins our witness before …

Jul 31, 2013: We Don't Go Back to Dead Who taught you that when you come in for dinner, you don’t need to take a shower, you need to wash your hands? Your parents probably passed that …

Jul 23, 2013: Make It Look Good In Titus 2:9-10, Paul instructs slaves about being submissive to their masters in everything. He ends his counsel to them as follows: slaves should be …

Jul 22, 2013: Pinning Jealousy The jealous and the zealous are related. Our English word jealous comes down to us from a Greek word, ζῆλος (zealos, meaning strong desire or zeal. …

Jul 10, 2013: Getting up from the Table A lot of things happened when the sun went down Thursday evening of Passion Week. Too much, in fact, for the disciples to process until after the …

Jul 9, 2013: Who Told You That? One great success of Christians in our culture can be seen by considering one great criticism from the culture against Christians. One of the most …

Jul 8, 2013: All Poor Devils In light of all the reasons God gives us to be grateful–as a society, a church, in our families, and on the nitty-gritty of our dinner …

Jul 8, 2013: The Lard from a Nickel My dad’s dad and mom lived during the depression. My granddad (who I never met) used to say about my dad’s mom that she was so tight with …

Jul 1, 2013: Full of It Our God is special. He does things hardly anyone expects though He expects everyone will notice. Paul told the Romans that all men know God but they …

Jun 12, 2013: The Omniscient Forgiver Last week we learned of new ways that our government has been collecting data on us. Through web visits and wireless communication they gather and …

Jun 11, 2013: Tightening the Screws Ambrose Bierce construed the verb “acknowledge” or “confess” in The Devil’s Dictionary as follows: “acknowledgment …

Jun 10, 2013: One Makes the Other Theologians (a.k.a. debaters) love to go around on the nature of Christ’s work on the cross. Two common views are that 1) His sacrifice was …

Jun 10, 2013: A Pocketful of Pesos Solomon warned that “The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is safe” (Proverbs 29:25). How does the fear of man trap …

May 29, 2013: Finishing What He Finished What happened when Jesus was lifted up on the cross? We don’t have enough courses in the communion meal to give us the time to drink in all the …

May 27, 2013: Half as Well We don’t know half of judgment half as well as we should like; and we like less than half of mercy half as well as it deserves.1 If that seems …

May 22, 2013: We Can Die It Dying to serve others is difficult. It may be so difficult that, when faced with the implacable long hand on the clock, you say to yourself, “I …

Jan 26, 2013: Leaders from the Front The image of the shepherd is an extremely important biblical picture of a “leader” (Num. 27:17) because it implies not only an intensely personal …

Jan 15, 2013: Trickle up from Our Knees I read three national news items last week that I wish were fictional. First, I read that Planned Parenthood aborts a baby every 94 seconds. Second, I …

Jan 14, 2013: The Tyranny of Sensitivity If this hurts your feelings then you should reread it. One of the most extraordinary examples of adaptation to immaturity in contemporary American …

Jan 13, 2013: The Food We Serve We serve others by the food we serve. This is only said with the intention to raise the standard the right way. A modest meal prepared with lavish …

Jan 13, 2013: In His Own Words via Justin Taylor

Jan 10, 2013: Big Minds Make Big Changes Wise people are willing to change their minds. A man who won’t ever change his mind, no matter what, will end up a fool. Education is not …

Jan 9, 2013: Not with Contempt Imagine a close friend who one day sinned against you and broke fellowship. Imagine that you pursued him (or her) with no success. You communicated …

Jan 8, 2013: Honoring the Son of Man Jesus asked the man born blind if he believed in the Son of Man (John 9:35). Previously in John’s Gospel, Jesus told Nicodemus that “as …

Jan 8, 2013: Jolted Spills are an insight into what is inside our souls. Amy Carmichael has a note in her little book, If. “For a cup brimful of sweet water cannot …

Jan 6, 2013: Another Sort of Sight I recently heard someone say that there are two types of people in the world: those who divide the world into two types of people and those who get …

Jan 4, 2013: Say Who He Is Every Lord’s day we are called to say who we think Jesus is. We are given opportunity to confess our need for Him or to distance ourselves from …

Jan 2, 2013: We Don't Have It In the middle of many exhortations, Paul told the Romans to “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:15). The …

Dec 25, 2012: Into This World Jesus told Pilate that His kingdom was not of this world and Pilate didn’t get it. He asked Jesus if this meant that He was a king. Jesus …

Dec 24, 2012: The Hardest Part The hardest part about Christmas is not shaking off the lingering effects of tryptophan at 2 AM while shopping on Black Friday. The hardest part is …

Dec 18, 2012: Rabbits with Greek Names We finish our Omnibus class discussion on The Histories: The Landmark Herodotus in the morning. The long intestines of Herodotus measure more than 700 …

Dec 17, 2012: Stuck in the Driveway We should take the Lord’s Table seriously because the Lord Himself does. He “fences” His Table, He protects it from abuse, not …

Dec 15, 2012: Holding Out the Sharpie The disciples demonstrated their ignorance when they assumed an invariable connection between the man born blind and a specific sin in John 9. Not all …

Dec 4, 2012: Minor Chord Carols We sang “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” last Sunday morning as we prepared for communion. It is one of those fabulous minor chord carols that …

Dec 3, 2012: Lying Stands Out I’ve always been impressed by the trifecta of imperatives in Colossians 3:5-11. After telling the believers to set their minds on things above …

Dec 2, 2012: The Nature of Sacrifice In John chapter 8, Jesus addressed the Jews in Jerusalem who didn’t believe that He was God’s Son or that He had been sent by the Father …

Nov 27, 2012: Practice Proves Parentage A son’s deeds demonstrate the son’s dad. Sons do what their dads do not only because they share the same nature, but also because they …

Nov 21, 2012: Our Own Orphan Sunday November 4th was Orphan Sunday. We planned to have Andrew Schneidler speak about The Children’s Law Center of Washington at TEC that day until I …

Nov 18, 2012: Take It to Heart God wrote through the apostle Paul, “Believe the gospel.” God wrote through the apostle James, “Prove your belief.” In chapter …

Nov 16, 2012: The Larger Conflict Arc Last Sunday was Veterans Day in the United States. This national holiday was established by President Woodrow Wilson in 1919, one year after the end …

Nov 13, 2012: Raking Face I was listening to a message a few days ago that dealt with our need to repent from sin rather than adjust our definition of sin in order to protect …

Oct 31, 2012: Right Behind Isolation One of the great virtues in Scripture is hospitality. Faithful families in the Old Testament received visitors into their homes, sometimes hosting …

Oct 30, 2012: Our Last Names Many men have made the following observation: we–the people–always get the candidates that we deserve. That perspective is put forward by …

Oct 27, 2012: An Accountability Table The Lord’s Table is a table of community accountability. By God’s grace, our local church has not yet needed to remove anyone from …

Oct 23, 2012: Four Bases I started reading The Odyssey last week. This is yet another book I’m sure I was assigned and am even more sure I ignored. Like Roy Hobbs said …

Oct 21, 2012: God Never Wants to Say No I don’t always want to forgive someone who has sinned against me, at least not immediately. I know the verses about God forgiving us as we …

Oct 16, 2012: His Kids' Table We’ve all been to family events where the table wasn’t big enough to fit everyone. When I was younger, I remember throwing a fit (on more …

Oct 14, 2012: Guilty of All The apostle James explained our comprehensive accountability to God in his letter. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become …

Oct 10, 2012: A Real Mess Soldiers gather to eat in mess halls or mess tents. In this setting, the word “mess” does not refer to clutter or disarray, though it may …

Oct 8, 2012: Ready to Run The author of Hebrews urged his readers to join him and “run with endurance the race that is set before us.” While our leg of the race is …

Oct 2, 2012: A Glorious Certainty Nothing is more certain in a Christian’s life than change into Christlikeness because He loves us. It doesn’t always feel like it. …

Oct 1, 2012: Joy That Cannot Be Lost Jim Elliot famously journaled, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.” There is much wisdom about …

Sep 26, 2012: A Great Misunderstanding God is not against a certain sort of misunderstanding. When the Lord delivered Israel out of Egyptian bondage, He instituted an annual feast for them …

Sep 25, 2012: Cold Ham As I pedal my tricycle up the driveway to the education I never paid attention to, I finished reading The Codes of Hammurabi and Moses. As with our …

Sep 25, 2012: Get It Right This week we will finish our short Confession 101 series. We’ve been reminded that sin is bad, everyone sins, no one else makes us sin, and that …

Sep 19, 2012: Comments on John Commentaries John chapter seven is history and I will hit sermon #50 this coming Sunday on my way through the Fourth Gospel. I’ve studied enough by now to …

Sep 19, 2012: Thank God for Gilgamesh This week our Omnibus class is reading The Epic of Gilgamesh. I’ve read the summary in our textbook and about 70 pages of The Epic itself. …

Sep 11, 2012: More Careful Next Time How do you respond when you receive mercy or when you see mercy received by another? Mercy displayed often results in two responses: some who rejoice …

Sep 10, 2012: Second to None We’ve gone over three of five lessons in our exhortation series titled Confession 101. First, sin is bad. Second, we all sin. And third, no one …

Sep 8, 2012: No Inside Man Being saved is not like sinning. When we sin, we do it all on our own. No one makes us do it. Another person cannot sin for us or force us into sin. …

Sep 6, 2012: In the Bag We are half-way into a short series of confession exhortations under the banner of Confession 101. The first two lessons were that one, sin is bad, …

Sep 4, 2012: Changing the World from a Basement The following post is my address during the inaugural convocation of Evangel Classical School yesterday. Many school years ago Solomon wrote that the …

Sep 3, 2012: Back to School Our two oldest kids, Maggie and Calvin, head back to school tomorrow. School reentry is always exciting, but this first day is not only the first day …

Aug 29, 2012: Sheepwalking I’m reading Tribes by Seth Godin bit by bit. Even though not everything applies to my setting, it’s interesting to read his different …

Aug 24, 2012: A Spiritual Advantage One very significant benefit for us is that all of us who believe are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. While the Spirit has been at work throughout all of …

Aug 23, 2012: Favourable Conditions If we let ourselves, we shall always be waiting for some distraction or other to end before we can really get down to our work. The only people who …

Aug 22, 2012: Confession Ex Nihilo Last week we began a short series called Confession 101. Lesson #1 was, and is, that sin is bad. Sin blinds and rots and kills. Sin is bad. Lesson #2 …

Aug 17, 2012: That Movie Script We Wrote We don’t want to diet, we want to diet while winning the $250,000 Jello grand prize for being the biggest loser while confetti drops from the …

Aug 14, 2012: Confession 101 It may or may not be obvious to those who attend our church, but the exhortation during the corporate confession part of our Lord’s day liturgy …

Aug 11, 2012: The Field of Ego I cannot find any certified definition or doctrine of egology. If theology is the study of theos, God, then egology would be the study of ego, study …

Aug 10, 2012: No Crown for Confession We cannot be great without confessing our sins. True greatness upholds the greatest standard not a lesser one. The greatest standard is God’s …

Jul 30, 2012: Not in Their Right Mind We can take comfort as we observe the communion ordinance that we are probably either doing exactly what God wants us to do or we are absolutely …

Jul 30, 2012: Only Perfect People Allowed The signs were legion a half dozen years ago. There was a campaign to hook people into church by pledging that at First Such-and-such Church: …

Jul 28, 2012: Chosen for Humility Even Calvinists need to be humble. I preached all the way through John chapter 6 without using the word Calvinism once, though I most assuredly taught …

Jul 26, 2012: Strength to Repent The benediction in Romans 15:5-6 is one way of stating God’s aim for His people. May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live …

Jul 19, 2012: In the Flesh My fork is in the (small) piece of the evangelical pie that cares about words. I mean we really care. We care about the truth and we work to …

Jul 17, 2012: Giving a Rip It may be hard to remember all the things that other people did that enable us to enjoy our time of communion. A team of people arrived early this …

Jul 15, 2012: Not a Waiting Power Outlet Weekly worship on the Lord’s day isn’t only hard, it’s impossible for those who aren’t spiritual. In order to worship the true …

Jul 10, 2012: Copy and Paste Communion Those who gather around the Lord’s Table every week as we do face different temptations than those who do it once a year. A plain temptation …

Jul 8, 2012: The Bricklayer's Trowel Are you someone who is easy to edify or someone who is easy to offend? Do you respond like newly mixed mortar to the bricklayer’s trowel or like …

Jul 6, 2012: A Meal of Triumph The sacrifice of Christ was voluntary and compulsory. It was voluntary in that no law required it of Him, no external source coerced Him into it. And …

Jul 4, 2012: Moves Like Jagger I know how to party, regardless of what my friends say. Here I am at the 2012 Faith Bible Church student summer camp. In the video, watch for some of …

Jul 2, 2012: Mud Pies in Our Pockets The prophet Jeremiah wrote that the universe gasps at the evils of men who seek satisfaction in hand-dug, dirty, broken cisterns that can hold no …

Jun 28, 2012: Why Is This So Hard? Why Is This So Hard? ➔ We’re working hard over here in our small part of the Pacific Northwest to get a classical and Christian school up …

Jun 27, 2012: Glorious Day Not only did Jesus pray that we would be one as He and the Father are one, He also provided a meal to unite us. He Himself is the meal, His body the …

Jun 27, 2012: MVPs at Confessing One of the reasons that confession of sin seems so odd, even distasteful, is that we have little to no sense of togetherness. Sin creates space …

Jun 26, 2012: Imaging Creatures God has made humans to reflect him, but if they do not commit themselves to him, they will not reflect him but something else in creation. At the core …

Jun 4, 2012: Initiated without Our Interest We love God because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). We live because He lives and we have eternal life because His Spirit breathed life into our …

Jun 4, 2012: Überlingen Panorama I returned home from Germany last night. Jesse and Maggie are married (twice actually, once by the city registrar in a 15th century courtroom and once …

May 28, 2012: Again I Will Say, Grumble Listening to many of us talk, you’d swear that Philippians 4:4 said, “Grumble always before the Lord, again I will say, Grumble.” …

May 22, 2012: The Same God Many who love to profess their love of God’s sovereignty struggle to profess their love of God’s love. Perhaps that’s because it is …

May 21, 2012: They Have Empires There They Have Empires There ➔ Here is Mo’s first blog offering of 2012. The only reason she posted the story is that it was too long for her …

May 21, 2012: Telephone Poles We image-bearers are always telling the other image-bearers around us what God is like. If we were likened to a delivery company, we might say that …

May 18, 2012: If Only There are many sign seekers today. “If only God would show something miraculous to me, then I would believe. If only He would prove the truth to …

May 15, 2012: Dispensable to Replaceable Our government continues marching towards a legal redefinition of marriage. Last week our President pandered to the homosexual crowd and offered up …

May 11, 2012: Broken Glass One Wednesday afternoon in the spring of 2000 I arrived at my basement office in the student ministries department at Grace Community Church. I had …

May 7, 2012: Punching Entitlement in the Face The more I think about it the more I believe that the most powerful weapon God gives His people to fight dualism, entitlement, and hypocrisy is …

May 5, 2012: Complaining Like Americans If you’re like me, as you’ve read the Old Testament, you’ve probably wondered why the Israelites blew it so often. How did they miss …

May 1, 2012: A Meal to Soften Hearts Observing the Lord’s Supper softens the hearts for all those with faith. For those without faith, their participation will harden their hearts …

May 1, 2012: A Glorious Day Last Monday night we held an Informational Meeting for Evangel Classical School. Not everyone made it in time for my welcome and I thought I’d …

May 1, 2012: A Soft Heart Gathers No Plaque Hardheartedness is a signal sin in the Bible. As Jonathan Edwards described, Now by a hard heart is plainly meant an unaffected heart, or a heart …

Apr 21, 2012: Communion and Provision After the familiar story of Jesus feeding the five-thousand in John six there is much about how Jesus is the bread of life and about how His disciples …

Apr 21, 2012: Quite Appalling One of the biggest reasons that the gospel (and gospel worship) appalls men is that men don’t want to forgive others. The good news is that God …

Apr 20, 2012: Boasters Welcome The Lord’s Table is a table of glory. God invites boasters to eat and drink with Him, boasters who have repented of boasting in themselves and …

Apr 18, 2012: Exalting Dignity We don’t use it much any more, maybe because there isn’t much any more, but dignity is a great word. Dignity refers to a quality or state …

Apr 16, 2012: The Path of Life Every Lord’s day we gather as Christians to celebrate Christ’s historical, bodily resurrection. If He has not risen, if His resurrection …

Apr 3, 2012: Not the One They Wanted Israel rejoiced in John the Baptist’s lamp-light for a while (John 5:35). Many Jews saw the straight path from Baptist’s ministry to the …

Apr 2, 2012: THIQ Obedience Most Christians probably don’t need another acronym for our spiritual walk, and yet a well-applied acronym can slow down unraveling strings when …

Mar 27, 2012: The Author of Life The apostles John and Peter were in the temple when a man, lame from birth, asked for them alms. Instead of silver or gold, Peter told the him to rise …

Mar 26, 2012: Tebow in Babylon Tebow in Babylon ➔ Ross Douthat for The New York Times on Tim Tebow’s trade to the “Babylon-upon-the-Hudson” Jets: Why is …

Mar 26, 2012: All of Us Does Jesus have all of us? All we are and all we have is from Him and should be utilized to honor Him. Last week our congregation practiced, with a …

Mar 20, 2012: We Shouldn't Be Careless We emphasize that the Lord’s Table is a banquet, a feast, a celebration. We emphasize the joy of communion, God’s joy over us and our …

Mar 19, 2012: Out of Place There is an uneasiness we deal with every Lord’s day. We want to worship. We love God and we know that He is our good. We know that His Word …

Mar 12, 2012: Display Purposes Only If you sat down at a dinner table, what might cause you to get up after a while unsatisfied? There might be nothing on the table, no food to eat. …

Mar 12, 2012: Getting in Shape Worship is dangerous, especially to the status quo and especially to our pride. Of course, worship is inescapable. We were made to be admiring …

Mar 6, 2012: Little Miss Red Shoes Little Miss Red Shoes ➔ I don’t always read Challies but, when I visit his site, I typically scan through his A La Carte links. A week …

Mar 6, 2012: What It's Good For Our fellowship with God comes on very specific terms. Peace must be established between two parties that were previously enemies. In our case, the …

Mar 4, 2012: Two Great Things Two great things go together: the great commandment and the great commission. They do not compete with each other, they compliment each other (and …

Mar 4, 2012: Training for Hypocrisy Words matter. When there are no words, there is no clarity. When words come from an empty heart, there is no integrity. When words are inconsistent …

Feb 27, 2012: They Belong Together When we come to confession before the Lord, should we think more about our sin or His holiness? Should we think more about our sin or the sacrifice of …

Feb 26, 2012: Dust Sure Does Have Problems God is compassionate and He knows our frame. He knows that we are but dust (Psalm 103:14) and yet, dust sure does have a lot of problems. Even as His …

Feb 24, 2012: Enculturation Centers All schools are religious schools. All schools teach worldview. All schools have a philosophy of education. All schools have creeds, liturgy, and …

Feb 21, 2012: Better Than a Thousand Elsewhere The sons of Korah wrote eleven songs that were recognized into the canon of Israel’s worship including Psalm 84. How lovely is your dwelling …

Feb 20, 2012: Confession Songs The book of Psalms include some of the deepest, most desperate confessions of sin found in Scripture. The poetic lyrics, and presumably the key of the …

Feb 15, 2012: On Our Side Eating at the Lord’s table week by week ought to feed, foster, and fortify our faith that God is on our side. If God is for us, who can be …

Feb 11, 2012: Two Strings to Tune Liturgy is an effective teacher. The way we do things and the order in which we do them shapes us and shows others about the worship of God. Because …

Feb 7, 2012: Too Close for Some The Lord’s supper is a meal of peace and provision. Not only do we commune by eating His food, we must eat His flesh to live. Jesus said, I am …

Jan 31, 2012: True Glory Isn't Grabby I can’t recommend the whole book by any means, but this paragraph pokes grabby authority in the eye by observing that God gets more glory by …

Jan 30, 2012: Glad to Forgive and Fellowship In the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32), the younger son despised his father by asking for his inheritance early, then he dishonored his …

Jan 24, 2012: In a Dining Hall The Trinity intends to share their life with men. Eternal life is knowing God (John 17:3), it is sharing loving fellowship with the Father, through …

Jan 23, 2012: We Call It Choice Every culture can be identified by its worship and all worship can be identified by its sacrifices. Some of the most grotesque, almost unimaginable …

Jan 19, 2012: More Like a Segregation In his first letter to them, Paul admonished the Corinthian church about their failure to commune at communion. They were eating and drinking, they …

Jan 19, 2012: No Matter What They Were Every once in a while someone at our church throws around the word liturgy. Because most of us don’t come from traditions that talked about …

Jan 10, 2012: The Meat of the Meal When you sit down to dinner, when does the nutrition start to work? When do you feel most connected to those around the table? When is the best part …

Jan 10, 2012: All the Way Down the Line Looking at our corporate service from an unbeliever’s point of view, how ridiculous must it seem for us to confess our sins as part of our …

Jan 3, 2012: Calvinism as Guaranteed Fellowship On Calvinism as a life-system, or worldview, that explains how men relate to God’s eternal purpose: Calvinism takes its stand with a …

Jan 3, 2012: Too Much Life For 51 weeks our church has communed together at the Lord’s table. We’ve taken a distinct approach, or at least one that is different than …

Jan 2, 2012: Corporate Confession We take time in our service every week to confess sin before the Lord. Each of us could all do it at home, before the service, all by ourselves and …

Dec 28, 2011: Seasonal Sound Bites Printed on Christmas cards for generations, Luke 2:14 remains one of our favorite seasonal sound bites. We’re probably most familiar with the …

Dec 26, 2011: Spiritual Assets Do believers gather together on the Lord’s day to give or get? Faith will never reach that degree of maturity where it could live without …

Dec 26, 2011: Like We Do A common Christian abuse of Christmas poses in a spiritual position. The abuse occurs when Christians reluctantly, or refuse to, love others who …

Dec 21, 2011: Word and Sacrament Gospel ministers are sometimes referred to as ministers of the Word and sacrament. There’s no need to freak out over the word sacrament; here it …

Dec 19, 2011: Our Familiar Celebrations We often say that familiarity breeds contempt. Our contempt starts with that statement itself; it’s contemptible to hear about how easily …

Dec 14, 2011: Two Days with Jesus How did the town of Sychar change after two days with Jesus (Johh 4:39-42)? Many of the townspeople believed in Him and knew that He was the Savior of …

Dec 14, 2011: Hard to Take It’s hard to take responsibility. It is much easier to push, not only blame, but to push work onto others. That’s no good. When …

Dec 13, 2011: Stoppers at the Wrong End In John 4:31-38, Jesus told the disciples that His food was to finish the Father’s will as He worked in fields of souls to harvest the fruit of …

Dec 8, 2011: Free Subscriptions I was talking with a friend this week who mentioned that he’d like to subscribe to the Void by email. I used to have a page for just such a …

Dec 6, 2011: A Gluten Free Option Jesus told the woman at the well that true worshippers worship the Father in spirit and truth. He didn’t say anything about hymns and Christmas …

Dec 5, 2011: Our Side of the Pendulum Is it more important that God is light or that God is love? Is it more necessary for us to know Him truly or for us to love Him deeply? These are …

Nov 29, 2011: Our Particular Sins We thank God that the hour has already come where we don’t concern ourselves with worshipping on Mt. Gerizim or Mt. Zion (see John 4:16-26); …

Nov 27, 2011: Informing the Trinity Who do we confess for? I don’t mean, do we confess for someone else’s sin or for our own. Instead I mean, do we confess for our sake or …

Nov 22, 2011: 53 Times a Year Every Lord’s day when our church celebrates communion, I pray twice. We normally don’t do that at home, praying once before the meal and …

Nov 21, 2011: Bullet Points Like Them Thanksgiving is this week and it seems almost obligatory to address our weak attitudes of gratitude as an area for confession. It is true, we are …

Nov 18, 2011: Organizing Answers A couple nights ago someone asked me if I thought that believers are lazy in sharing their faith. I answered, without a doubt, yes. I don’t …

Nov 15, 2011: Emblems of Both All the ones believing in the Son see life. All the ones not obeying the Son remain under God’s wrath. When Christians come to the Lord’s …

Nov 15, 2011: Negotiating Submission No one can negotiate the past. A person may not like the past. They may wish it was different than it was. They may try to forget about it. They may …

Nov 13, 2011: Right up the Middle The apostle John wrote: Everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that overcomes the world–our faith. Who …

Nov 9, 2011: Toppling by Table One theme we keep repeating during our communion is the depth of the ditch of self-examination; we’re never quite sure when to stop digging, …

Nov 6, 2011: He Gets What He Wants John Calvin wrote that the heart of man produces idols like a factory, like Detroit produces cars: many makes and models that require more work than …

Nov 3, 2011: The Kuyperian Vision of Christ's Lordship I can’t remember being as excited about anything that wasn’t divinely inspired in a while. Though I’m always on the lookout for new …

Nov 3, 2011: The Kuyperian Vision of Christ's Lordship The Kuyperian Vision of Christ’s Lordship ➔ I can’t remember being as excited about anything that wasn’t divinely inspired in …

Nov 1, 2011: Radically Meaningless Brian Phillips wrote, Tim Tebow, Converter of the Passes, a commentary on the often inconsistent connection between faith and sports. Tebow, because …

Nov 1, 2011: Unafraid of Light Jesus commanded His disciples, “let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in …

Nov 1, 2011: Reformation Day I spoke yesterday for the Reformation Day assembly at Providence Classical Christian School where our two oldest kids attend. Here’s Maggie as …

Oct 31, 2011: Upsetting Continents October 31st is Reformation Day. We remember Martin Luther nailing his 95 Thesis to the Wittenburg church door and the recovery of the gospel of …

Oct 23, 2011: Our Life Meal The Lord’s Supper was instituted by our Lord at the Last Supper. It was the night He was betrayed, the eve of His crucifixion. This was His …

Oct 23, 2011: Pouting in the Corner God possesses many weapons in His judgment arsenal. One of the most dangerous weapons is abandoning wrath, when He gives men over to their sinful …

Oct 21, 2011: Sweeter Than Honey Over the last month, a few bloggers I follow have posted this video of the Kimyal tribe receiving their very own copies of God’s Word for the …

Oct 19, 2011: Sharing More Than Sentences Our time around the Lord’s table celebrating the Lord’s supper is also called communion. The KJV translates 1 Corinthians 10:16 …

Oct 19, 2011: One Buttock Playing I really enjoyed this twenty minute classical music experiment from Benjamin Zander. The primary take-away observation for me was: leaders with …

Oct 16, 2011: Welcomed Back What is the point of confessing sin? Why is it so important? The point of confession is not primarily to confirm our understanding of the rules, not …

Oct 5, 2011: Welcome to Watch Paul told the Corinthians that “as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 …

Oct 1, 2011: Confess Them All “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John …

Sep 30, 2011: Real Love We celebrate God’s real love for us at the Lord’s table. The bread is real and the cup is real. For those who believe, the communion with …

Sep 26, 2011: Desperation and Deliverance I think about “the rhythm of desperation and deliverance” all the time. A pastor who feels competent in himself to produce eternal …

Sep 25, 2011: What Is a Ditch? Truth lovers love truth and, therefore, they love words and definitions and sentences that carry the truth. Lovers of truth who collect and arrange …

Sep 22, 2011: Pink on Kosmos I regularly refer people to A.W. Pink’s observations on the New Testament use of κόσμος in Appendix III of his book, The Sovereignty of God. The …

Sep 22, 2011: Eminent and Transcendent Love John Owen on John 3:16: “The love here intimated is absolutely the most eminent and transcendent love that ever God showed or bare towards any …

Sep 20, 2011: Cultures Are Incarnational If it’s true that men become and live like who/what they worship (and God says it is, see Psalm 115:4-8), then there can be no truly secular …

Sep 13, 2011: Our Neighbor's Eating Immediately preceding Paul’s instructions to the Corinthian church about communion, he admonishes them about their selfishness. When you come …

Sep 11, 2011: Confessional Finger Pointing It is usually easier to see how much more someone else needs forgiveness than we do. Everyone needs a Savior, we say, and that’s especially true …

Sep 7, 2011: Using Bad Words Most of us shy away from using the word “magic” for much the same reason we prefer to offer providential blessings rather than wish to …

Sep 5, 2011: Thankful for Conviction There is no app to download for any smart phone that proves if a person has been born of the Spirit or is walking in the Spirit. There’s no …

Aug 27, 2011: Failing to Breathe One of the ways we know if we’ve been born again is our attitude those who sit around the Lord’s table with us. Everyone who believes …

Aug 27, 2011: One Sign of Being Born According to the apostle John, “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him and he cannot keep on sinning …

Aug 26, 2011: Check In to Build Up Singing to Build Up ➔ Greg Gilbert on the ministry of making melody: I think we ought to encourage every member of our churches to sing every …

Aug 26, 2011: Clearly Outrageous On Women, Divisiveness, and Hobby Horses ➔ A new post from Rachel Jankovic on the joy that’s possible when we differentiate principles …

Aug 26, 2011: Talking with Our Mouths Full We are witnesses of the Light. We see Him by faith, not by eye-sight, but that’s okay because we call men to spiritual sight in the Light. As …

Aug 24, 2011: Gloppy Gratitude We impress no one by pointing out all the things that are wrong or incomplete. We live in a fallen world, so complaining about all the fallen things …

Aug 18, 2011: The Right Banquet Hall God has prepared a banquet table and all who eat at the Lord’s table share not only His gifts, but also His very life. The bread at this banquet …

Aug 15, 2011: Wait No More There are many ways to adopt and/or care for widows and orphans. There are so many, actually, that many people who desire to do something may not know …

Aug 15, 2011: Ruined Appetites We won’t receive the food of His holy Word if we are full of sin. We must acknowledge and abandon sin before we’re free to feed on …

Aug 3, 2011: Even Harder to Find We may recognize it when we meet it, but we may not meet it very often. Spiritual authority is hard to pin down in words, but we recognize it when we …

Aug 2, 2011: Not an After-Creation Thought When the Word created grain and grapes on day three, was He thinking about the glorious purpose that He would give bread and wine around a table some …

Aug 2, 2011: No Successful Cover-Ups Among his collected proverbs, Solomon teaches us a few things about the wisdom of confession. Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, …

Jul 29, 2011: A Faith Increasing Ordinance Communion is a faith increasing ordinance, not a doubt increasing one. When we come to the Lord’s table, if we are thinking correctly, we …

Jul 28, 2011: ETP as ePub I received an email today from Lulu informing me that they converted my self-published book on Ecclesiastes into ePub format. It’s already …

Jul 27, 2011: Attitudinal Sins What kinds of sins should we confess? What kinds of sins separate us from fellowship with God? What kind of sins did Jesus die for? The answer is the …

Jul 18, 2011: Attached to Strings When Jesus said, “To whom much is given, much is required” (see Luke 12:48), what was He talking about? In context, He certainly meant …

Jul 13, 2011: Soul-sucking Mastery The cross causes offense. It scandalizes the heart and, in particular, it scandalizes religious hearts. It displeases “good” people who …

Jul 12, 2011: Good at What They Do Our culture depends on deception. Our economy goes round as advertisers put the best face on their products, and it only takes $19.95 plus shipping …

Jul 11, 2011: Motherhood as a Mission Field Motherhood as a Mission Field ➔ Though normally found writing at Femina, Rachel Jankovic’s guest post on the Desiring God blog hits home …

Jul 11, 2011: Merry Warriors Merry Warriors ➔ No one in my (small) theological circle would say that God gets panicked. Also, no one I know would say that God doesn’t …

Jul 8, 2011: Press On It is a sin to be stagnant in spiritual growth. The apostle Paul said, “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press …

Jul 6, 2011: Loving the Little Years Loving the Little Years - Motherhood in the Trenches by Rachel Jankovic is the best book on parenting I’ve ever read. I’ll admit that I …

Jun 12, 2011: Wearing a Religious Hat Taking oneself too seriously is a sin, and Christians sin this way a surprising amount. We’re not surprised to see an unbeliever take himself …

Jun 7, 2011: Those Who Do Nothing Wrong We’ve been on a roll reviewing some of the ways we distance ourselves from personal repentance, especially through various deflection …

Jun 7, 2011: Three Good Ones Nancy Wilson writes about parenting as image-bearers, in particular as it relates to parental rule-making: consider how many rules in your home are …

May 30, 2011: Field Full of Boulders I listened to a sermon by Doug Wilson a week or so ago in which he said, Often we rebuke not the ones who need it, but the ones who will take it. …

May 25, 2011: Right on Track Our regular time around the Lord’s table supports and buttresses the gospel (cf. 1 Timothy 3:15). As a church, our celebration of this ordinance …

May 22, 2011: Insulation Techniques We construct elaborate but rickety structures to shield ourselves from confession. One of the most popular insulation techniques is recrimination, …

May 20, 2011: hobbsandbean dot com hobbsandbean.com ➔ My bride pulled the trigger this week and migrated her Blogger to WordPress. Go, read, follow, and see many of the reasons …

May 20, 2011: 10 Things an Effective Minister Must Remember 10 Things an Effective Minister Must Remember ➔ Brief and pointed post by Doug Wilson on the perspective and practices of effective pastors. …

May 18, 2011: A Trinitarian Table The Lord’s table is a communal meal. At His table we commune with Christ: “The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body …

May 16, 2011: Portions of Grace Do you remember the story of Elijah, the widow, and the container of oil that never ran out? In the midst of a severe drought, with the prophet and …

May 9, 2011: Not Just in December Paul commanded the Philippian Christians: Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each …

May 1, 2011: Theology to Justify Rebellion There are at least two corrupt ways to witness about Christ to others that we must confess. The first sinful approach is thinking that witnessing …

Apr 28, 2011: Down the Hill of Grace God commands His people to proclaim Christ’s death as they gather around the Lord’s table regularly. However frequently Christians do it, …

Apr 28, 2011: The True Excellency of a Gospel Minister The True Excellency of a Gospel Minister ➔ This is a sermon by Jonathan Edwards at the ordination of another minister. He took John 5:35 as his …

Apr 26, 2011: Sunday Followed Friday There is no more pivotal day in history than the Sunday morning when Jesus rose from the dead. “Up from the grave He arose, with a mighty …

Apr 20, 2011: The Ones Everyone Else See We take it very seriously when someone says something wrong about Jesus, rightly so. Beliefs can only be true or false, and false things about Jesus, …

Apr 20, 2011: Fathers Who Give Hope Fathers Who Give Hope ➔ I listen to this sermon from John Piper regularly. The message comes from Colossians 3:12-21, especially verse 21: …

Apr 19, 2011: A Weekly Refrain Doing almost anything on a regular basis, especially religious anythings, can make it mechanical, stale, and/or hollow. There is no shortage of …

Apr 15, 2011: History's Tan Line This certainly must be the quote of the day regarding Rob Bell on the cover of TIME magazine. [I]n the big scheme of things, and I do mean big, it is …

Apr 13, 2011: The Other Gutter While I wouldn’t say that the Bible requires us to celebrate the Lord’s table every week, it does seem that the early church observed it …

Apr 11, 2011: A Hole in the Boldness Tank Unbelief as sin justifies God’s judgment because it is an affront to Him. Unbelief goes about as if He weren’t trustworthy, as if His …

Apr 11, 2011: No Less Wrath Deserving We usually think about (our) wrath-deserving sin as transgression, as leaping over the fence He forbids us from jumping. Our spiritual death certainly …

Apr 7, 2011: Reign of the Gray Witch I like the rain but my wife’s tweet is clever, and true. Just wanted to announce the reign of the Gray Witch (close relative of Narnia’s …

Mar 31, 2011: No Small Substitute The good Shepherd laid down His life for His sheep (John 10:11, 15). There are a number of causes for worship prompted by this part of the story. The …

Mar 31, 2011: Owning Our Offenses A key word for Christians is the word offense. It scales from annoyance, to resentment, to anger brought about by perceived insult or disregard. …

Mar 30, 2011: A Certain Kind of Person [O]ur time of confession ought not to be about a list of items, kept or broken. We are in the process of becoming a certain kind of person. Everything …

Mar 23, 2011: The Mutual Funds of Missions Funding The Mutual Funds of Missions Funding ➔ Doug Wilson writes about a local church’s advantages “to support a hundred missionaries at …

Mar 23, 2011: Loving the Wife of a Pastor Loving the Pastor’s Wife ➔ If it were up to me, I’d tweak the title of this Driscoll post from “loving the pastor’s …

Mar 22, 2011: Better Together In a recent sermon I preached Ephesians 3:10, that the church makes known the manifold wisdom of God in heavenly places. The church is Christ’s …

Mar 14, 2011: Not Forgiving Others Not everyone knows the gospel. Even fewer actually live the gospel. The gospel, the good news, is that we who rebelled against God–and that was …

Mar 14, 2011: Practical Foolishness Professing atheists1 are fools. “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God’” (Psalm 14:1). There are also practical …

Mar 14, 2011: Address the Issue In Mark 7 the Pharisees and scribes came to interrogate Jesus about His disciples’ failure to follow the proper eating liturgy. They asked, …

Feb 24, 2011: Distinguishing Marks of a Quarrelsome Person Distinguishing Marks of a Quarrelsome Person ➔ This is a helpful article by Kevin DeYoung about how to identify “habitually disagreeable, …

Feb 24, 2011: Better Than a Dead One Before the ages began, God promised eternal life. He did so out of love for His Son, and note that the gift is eternal life, because a living gift is …

Feb 21, 2011: A Closet Full of Clothes Unthankful people dominate our culture. We are skilled at identifying all the existing or potential problems rather than identifying all the things …

Feb 18, 2011: The Party Ditch There is more to the Lord’s table than confession of sin. While we ought not harbor sin, if we are keeping short accounts, confessing and …

Feb 16, 2011: Backpack Buddies While browsing some old photos, I came across this image captured while we were in line to board our flight home from the 2009 Desiring God conference …

Feb 16, 2011: Nothing More Terrible To me there is nothing more terrible for a preacher, than to be in a pulpit alone, without the conscious smile of God. —Martyn Lloyd-Jones, …

Feb 13, 2011: Dirt in the Carpet We are not our own. We are God’s. God chose us, created us, died for us, called us, and keeps us. He made each human being in His image, and He …

Feb 6, 2011: Our Favorite Wool Sweater In any given story, one character to watch out for is the guy who is always being told what to do and always doing whatever he wants anyway. …

Feb 4, 2011: Available Space “Keeping a rule,” however technically correct, falls easily into the trap of abstraction and impersonalism. As a result we oppose sin with …

Feb 4, 2011: The Gloomy Ordinance I am increasingly concerned with a perspective that many Christians seem to be taking toward what has become the gloomy ordinance. One post about the …

Feb 4, 2011: How Collected We Are We are not usually good team players. We put the “-ism” in individualism. We’re big on personal freedom and individual rights, …

Feb 3, 2011: Interruptions or Inconveniences Two Sundays ago was National Sanctity of Human Life Day. 38 years ago, January 22, our Supreme Court made a commitment to death, to legalized and …

Jan 19, 2011: Like a Compass Points North God takes His position as God seriously. He is not insecure or defensive, but He is jealous and promises to punish any who bow before knockoff gods. …

Jan 11, 2011: Swords of Two by Fours [I]n a fight a man needs a large heart and a narrow sword. We have jumbled everything, and now have narrow hearts, and our swords are clumsily made …

Jan 10, 2011: Mud All Over the Place In John 13, Jesus began to wash the disciples feet as a demonstration of His love for them. When He came to Peter, Peter objected and, in a sense, we …

Jan 10, 2011: Love of the Congregation Sometimes a minister tends to think too highly of himself as a clergy-man. He stands before the congregation; he, as God’s spokesman, pronounces …

Jan 6, 2011: How Important Is the Bible? In this 18 minute video, John Piper asks and answers five questions about the importance of the Bible. What would happen if it did not exist? What …

Jan 3, 2011: Inspiration Series | Inside the Walls Creation begins to make the case for the giving essence of God’s authority. The incarnation of His Son also …

Dec 31, 2010: The Year of the Unexpected I don’t mind the New Year’s resolution-making process. Reviewing the last year helps me to rehearse God’s gracious gifts and often …

Dec 25, 2010: Incarnation Series | Inside the Walls I am trying to make the point that, in the revelation of the Triune God, God is sharing Himself and inviting us into joyful …

Dec 23, 2010: Revealing Revelations Series | Inside the Walls Previously I asked, Why does God reveal truth? And what do we learn about authority by how God used His? The answer has far …

Dec 23, 2010: Expressing the Congregation Preaching does not have to be an individualistic sort of activity. In fact, great preaching well understands this. The true preacher is not over …

Dec 19, 2010: Revealing Definitions and Questions Series | Inside the Walls In my last post about truth I stated that problems come when truth-lovers are not totally truthful about God and about His …

Dec 16, 2010: Truth Revealed - The Essence of Authority Series | Inside the Walls The last five summers I’ve taught at a Reformation Conference for a church near my hometown in Ohio. Our relationship …

Dec 13, 2010: Adoption Advocates We met her in Denny’s and she told us to be adoption advocates. The social worker’s exhortation came at the conclusion of our home study …

Dec 9, 2010: Laughter Is War I’m a longtime reader of Credenda/Agenda. I admit that I enjoyed it more when hard copy issues arrived in the mail, but we take what we can get …

Nov 8, 2010: On the Line I loved last year’s theme for our student ministry. More than that, I lived on it. 2 Corinthians 4 reshaped my view of life and death in …

Nov 7, 2010: Libido Dominandi The intellectual life of our age is characterized by a squishy goulash of subtleties all the way to the bottom of the pot, a farrago of pomothot, and …

Nov 2, 2010: Fixing Bounds by Faith Were it deeply engraven on our minds, that in God alone we have the highest and complete perfection of all good things; we should easily fix bounds to …

Nov 1, 2010: Faint and Feeble John Newton on how to be humble when handling the treasures of Scripture: To be enabled to form a clear, consistent, and comprehensive judgment of …

Sep 28, 2010: Peter Pan Syndrome I love that image by Patrick Mahoney. The Washington Post article itself by Mark Driscoll isn’t bad either, The world is filled with boys who …

Sep 27, 2010: Truth Can Handle Structure To affirm of any human production that it contained many great and instructive truths which it would be impossible to systematize without weakening …

Sep 3, 2010: Making Disciples - The Seminar I’m passionate about discipleship. Because of that I wrote Making Disciples - The Series which later became Making Disciples - The Booklet. Now …

Sep 3, 2010: Don't Blow It Don’t Blow It! ➔ Or, The Almost Inevitable Ruin of Every Minister and How to Avoid It, a message by Don Whitney to pastors and church …

Aug 25, 2010: Jesus Is the True and Better In this video, Tim Keller answers the question, “What is the Bible really about? Is the Bible basically about me and what I must do, or is it …

Aug 25, 2010: Possessed Delivery should be the spontaneous product of the speaker’s peculiar personality, as acted on by the subject which now fills his mind and …

Aug 18, 2010: Equip the Rider The goal is not to cripple the horse, but equip the rider. —Rachel Jankovic, A Spirited Rider, on training girls to control their emotions.

Aug 16, 2010: The Unspoken Option Children learn far more unspoken theology than we tend to think. Suppose parents have operated with the doctrinal assumption that the kids might or …

Aug 12, 2010: Changing Seminary What one thing would you change about seminary? ➔ Read answers from Al Mohler, D.A. Carson, and this one from Richard Pratt: If I could wave a …

Jul 7, 2010: A Coward's Castle Lloyd-Jones protested against the use of the pulpit as what he called “a coward’s castle” into which a man might retreat to vent his …

Jul 4, 2010: Lit Up Lightning strikes three of the tallest buildings in Chicago at the same time! from Craig Shimala on Vimeo. Absolutely spectacular. Here’s even …

Jun 16, 2010: Word Fussers and Whowhomers Having the eggs doesn’t mean that you know how to make the omelet. But if you don’t have the eggs, it doesn’t matter if you do know how to make the …

Jun 1, 2010: Sweet Repentance A week from today I leave to preach a series of messages about The Religious Affections of Jonathan Edwards for the students of Foothill Bible Church, …

May 26, 2010: Mission Accomplished A friend of mine in Canton introduced me to the hip-hop of Shai Linne last summer. Lord knows I tried not to enjoy this. This video via Nathan …

May 26, 2010: hodegeo ὁ•δη•γέ•ω verb – [ho-de-geh-oh] definition: to assist in reaching a desired destination; lead, guide; to assist someone in acquiring information …

May 24, 2010: A Call to Gospel Ministry - Now When I began pursuing a call to gospel ministry, and even as I started studying gospel theology and pastoral responsibility, I did not realize how …

May 20, 2010: Thugs and Criminals I can’t decide if my favorite part is (political) “thugs and criminals” who keep people in the dark, or “who on earth would …

May 10, 2010: Laugh Track On laughing as responsible leadership: For this is what it means to be a king: to be first in every desperate attack and last in every desperate …

May 3, 2010: Chrome I’ve been toying with Google Chrome as a secondary browser (after Safari) since the Mac beta became available. A new version is available today …

May 3, 2010: Sharing What We Got Meals that are centered on gratitude and thanksgiving—like harvest home festivals and this Eucharistic meal—are never times for grabbing and getting …

Apr 23, 2010: A Call to Gospel Ministry - Then I grew up wanting to be a professional baseball player. I dreamed of standing on a well-manicured, thick, dark green grass infield, singing the …

Apr 22, 2010: No Conclusion Necessary Abraham Piper posted about why sermons are easier than other kinds of public speaking, namely, “All pastors have to do is pause—after any point …

Apr 22, 2010: The Sincerest Form of Flattery Mo informed me this afternoon that my two oldest children have found a new way to copy me and that they are delighted by it. They take their Red Robin …

Apr 22, 2010: Why International Adoption Why International Adoption ➔ A long time friend of mine, Dave Cleland, and his wife are well into the process for their third adoption, their …

Apr 21, 2010: This Was Grace HT: Justin Taylor The husband/father/narrator in the video is John Knight, Director for Development at Desiring God Ministries. He’s also …

Apr 20, 2010: Not What I Once Was In his T4G 2010 message, Mark Dever mentioned a paraphrased version of the following quote by John Newton. I am not what I ought to be–ah, how …

Apr 19, 2010: A Cruel Mistress Cultural acceptability is a cruel mistress. —Carl Trueman, Life on the Cultic Fringe

Apr 19, 2010: Chill Out Wisdom, Complexity, and Chilling the Heck Out ➔ Kevin DeYoung offers some perspective as he responds to responses to Justin Taylor’s …

Apr 18, 2010: Calvin's Shorter Catechism Calvin created a new shorter catechism at the breakfast table this morning. Four year olds don’t know fully, but they can know truly. Q: Who is …

Apr 14, 2010: Migrating to Jekyll Subscribers to my blog are now seeing some of my most recent posts for the third time in less than three weeks. I write this post to apologize for …

Apr 12, 2010: Down the iPad Rabbit Hole I probably won’t buy the book, but wow, this gives an idea of what the iPad rabbit hole looks like.

Apr 7, 2010: The Great Auction of Stolen Goods [O]ur elected representatives are not confiscating all this wealth for themselves personally–although they are doing quite well, thank you. They …

Apr 1, 2010: Why Piper Invited Warren to the 2010 DGNC Agree or disagree with Piper, it is interesting. Good timing, too, stirring the pot before taking a sabbatical. Update - April 6 at 3:07PM: …

Apr 1, 2010: myPad Yes, I’m posting this even after Mohler’s twarning earlier today. The iPad walks into the wild on Saturday. I’ve done a great poor …

Mar 28, 2010: Cynicism Is Not Wisdom “Cynicism is the air we breath, and it is suffocating our hearts.” That’s true on cable news shows, that’s true even in many …

Mar 27, 2010: Ridicule for Argument When ridicule is substituted for argument, the result is thorns crackling under a pot. –Doug Wilson, The Laugh Track of Unbelief

Mar 25, 2010: The Criterion of Successful Churches Indeed, the criterion of successful churches in the future is not how much Bible knowledge their people have, [or] how strong their pastor is in the …

Mar 24, 2010: Sharkey for President Sharkey for President ➔ Doug Wilson observes that a majority observation makes things more difficult. All the tawdry dishonesty on exhibit in …

Mar 13, 2010: Pure Religion Religio munda et inmaculata apud Deum et Patrem haec est visitare pupillos et viduas in tribulatione eorum inmaculatum se custodire ab hoc saeculo. …

Mar 13, 2010: Ten Commandments for Preaching Ten Commandments for Preaching ➔ Thou shalt not put words in God’s mouth. Thou shalt prepare and preach every message as though it were …

Mar 12, 2010: Needing Control The more control you seek, the less influence you will have. And the more influence you have, the less control you need. -Dick Gregory (via Mijah)

Mar 12, 2010: Standard Time Standard Time ➔ Gives new meaning to going by the board. -tweet

Mar 11, 2010: Overcoming Objections Nothing will ever be attempted, if all possible objections must be first overcome. -Samuel Johnson, sound bites with caution

Mar 8, 2010: A Head Regardless Obedience and disobedience on the part of a husband does not make him a head or not a head. He is a head regardless, but he can be an obedient head or …

Mar 8, 2010: Al Mohler's Library

Mar 8, 2010: The Tinker's Ability Could I posses the tinker’s ability for preaching, please your majesty, I would gladly relinquish all my learning. —Peter Toon, …

Mar 8, 2010: Theological Reasons for Wordiness Theological Reasons for Wordiness ➔ Regarding (tedious) repetition in Scripture, specifically in Numbers 7. Efficiency is not always the …

Mar 3, 2010: The Oxygen of Church Politics Hypocrisy is the oxygen of church politics. —Rick Holland, 2010 Shepherds’ Conference message

Feb 27, 2010: Marching in the Dark Continue with double earnestness to serve your Lord when no visible result is before you. Any simpleton can follow the narrow path in the light; …

Feb 27, 2010: Ministers Learning Sympathy It is of need that we are sometimes in heaviness. Good men are promised tribulation in this world, and ministers may expect a larger share than …

Feb 27, 2010: PEBCAK Errors and OCSO Sheep A friend of mine in the retail business shared an acronym used among his fellow-employees. Having regular interaction with confused computer …

Feb 27, 2010: Living Sacrifices It is our duty and our privilege to exhaust our lives for Jesus. We are not to be living specimens of men in fine preservation, but living sacrifices, …

Feb 27, 2010: The Critical Spirit It is not possible to sit this one out. —Doug Wilson, The Critical Spirit. Brief but fantastic article on the differences between a critical …

Feb 26, 2010: Love the Standard Wilson’s childrearing advice can also be summarized by his educational goal.

Feb 24, 2010: Five Sentences five.sentenc.es ➔ This isn’t a rule I force myself to follow, but it is a principle I practice when appropriate.

Feb 23, 2010: Technological Change Five Things We Need to Know About Technological Change ➔ Article by Neil Postman. His own summary: First, that we always pay a price for …

Feb 23, 2010: The Atonement-Real or Potential The Atonement: Real or Potential? ➔ In case there was any question about Dr. MacArthur’s (current) position on the extent of the atonement, …

Feb 19, 2010: Commitment Comes First No one can go into a marriage relationship to find out what it would be like to be married to this person without being married to them already. This …

Feb 19, 2010: Don't Flatten the Gospels Don’t Flatten Out the Gospels! ➔ Matt’s point about Gospel Harmonies also applies to epistle parallels. If you’re preaching a passage from one …

Feb 19, 2010: To Be Precious Jesus came and died and rose again not mainly to be useful, but to be precious. —John Piper, written here, from his message at Angola Prison

Feb 18, 2010: Like His Teacher God continues to give me the merciful privilege of speaking with young men who believe that God is calling them to pastoral ministry. I am one of …

Feb 17, 2010: Espresso

Feb 17, 2010: Out of Tune Going through proper Christian motions with unconfessed sin is like using the correct fingering on a guitar with all strings out of tune. —Doug …

Feb 15, 2010: Blowing Smoke When unbelievers blow smoke, it is not our task to try to weave something out of that smoke. It is our task to set up a big industrial-sized fan to …

Feb 15, 2010: Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing Words: Robert Robinson, Methodist pastor, at age 22 in the year 1757. Music: John Wyeth Background: on Wikipedia …

Feb 15, 2010: Knowledge That Matters Knowledge That Matters ➔ Scott Adams on the limits and benefits of others assessing our abilities, from his own experience with the cartoon, …

Feb 15, 2010: Laughter in Adversity Laughter in the face of adversity is the first step to profound joy in triumph. —Nathan Wilson, Christian Books, Truth, and Adultish Readers

Feb 12, 2010: An Environment of Grace A major part of pastoral ministry is preaching the doctrines of grace and managing an environment of grace. The latter is harder to accomplish than …

Feb 12, 2010: Cold Before Long You are very hot for mercy, but I will cool you; this frame shall not last always; many have been as hot as you for a spirit, but I have quenched …

Feb 10, 2010: 99 Balloons

Feb 10, 2010: The Little Red Tractor

Feb 9, 2010: Remember the Signs I read chapter two of The Silver Chair to the kids last night before bed (my first time through, too). Jill meets Aslan, and he explains the reason he …

Feb 8, 2010: A Story Culture A Story Culture ➔ Interesting article about attention to the hierarchy of information, data, knowledge, and wisdom at Rands in Repose titled, A …

Feb 8, 2010: Tapering Off in Sin At the prayer meeting, not many people ask for prayer so that they might taper off in their adulteries, or their thefts, or all the lies they are …

Feb 6, 2010: Showing Up Early If 80% of success is just showing up, 90% is showing up early. —Jeffrey Zeldman, Free Advice: Show Up Early

Feb 6, 2010: Stop the World Stop the World ➔ Last week, George Packer wrote an article titled, Stop the World, for The New Yorker. Though I use Twitter, I still enjoyed …

Feb 5, 2010: Omnivorous Attentiveness [C. S. Lewis had] omnivorous attentiveness. —Alan Jacobs on C. S. Lewis in The Narnian, quoted by Piper in Lessons from an Inconsolable Soul

Feb 5, 2010: treacle trea•cle noun – [tree-k*uh*l] definition: lit-British word for “molasses”; the syrup remaining after sugar is crystallized out of …

Feb 5, 2010: Behind His Back Gossip involves saying behind a person’s back what you would never say to his or her face. Flattery means saying to a person’s face what you would …

Feb 5, 2010: Ends up as a Racket Up to now, America has not been a good milieu for the rise of a mass movement. What starts out here as a mass movement ends up as a racket, a cult, or …

Feb 5, 2010: Dysfunctional Calvinism Dysfunctional Calvinism ➔

Feb 5, 2010: First, Care Own your distractions, resist fiddly half-measures, and never for a minute allow yourself to believe that productivity systems, space pens, or a …

Feb 5, 2010: Fantastic but Subordinate A Really Fantastic End, but Still Subordinate Doug Wilson responded to Derek Thomas’ recent article in Tabletalk regarding where evangelism …

Feb 5, 2010: A Less Busy Heart Learning to pray doesn’t offer you a less busy life; it offers you a less busy heart. —Paul Miller, A Praying Life, 23

Feb 3, 2010: Bad Christian Writing Bad Christian writing is usually bad because it is derivative and workmanlike. No new insights. No panache. —Kevin DeYoung, On Writing, Pt 3

Feb 3, 2010: Stop It

Feb 2, 2010: Running to Heaven What would they judge of thee if they knew thy heart began to fail thee in thy journey, or thy sins began to allure thee, and to persuade thee to stop …

Feb 1, 2010: Dangerous Calling Dangerous Calling Two messages by Paul Tripp at the 2010 Desiring God Pastor’s pre-conference seminar. The Pastor: Who Do We Think He Is Anyway? …

Jan 25, 2010: Totally Like Whatever, You Know? Typography of “Totally like whatever, you know?” a poem by Taylor Mali.

Jan 20, 2010: The Breech and Muzzle Persecution is a weapon that kills both at the breech and at the muzzle, that, though it may strike and wound those against whom it is directed, it …

Jan 20, 2010: Wearing Out Hammers It is the part of the Church to suffer rather than to strike, but it is an anvil that has worn out a good many hammers. —John Brown, John …

Jan 19, 2010: Communion with God [To the Puritans], communion with God was a great thing, to evangelicals today it is a comparatively small thing. The Puritans were concerned about …

Jan 19, 2010: In Us and From Us A man preacheth that sermon only well unto others which preacheth itself in his own soul. And he that doth not feed on and thrive in the digestion of …

Jan 19, 2010: assiduous as•sid•u•ous adjective – [uh-sij-oo-uhs] definition: constant in application or effort; working diligently at a task; showing great care and …

Jan 19, 2010: A Place for Writing Ministers never write or preach so well as when under the cross: the Spirit of Christ and of Glory then rests upon them. —George Whitefield, in …

Jan 12, 2010: Reorientation of Our Passions and Pleasures Series | Repentance Repentance involves remorse over our sinful nature and sinful acts. Repentance also involves renunciation of our self-sufficiency …

Jan 10, 2010: Renunciation of Our Self-Sufficiency and Self-Righteousness Series | Repentance There are three ingredients to repentance. Previously we saw that repentance involves remorse over our sinful nature and sinful …

Jan 8, 2010: Remorse over Our Sinful Nature and Sinful Acts Series | Repentance Repentance recurs regularly in the Bible. In the New Testament, the Greek word translated repentance is metanoia (μετάνοια), …

Jan 6, 2010: Toward True Joy Series | Repentance What do we think about when we hear the word “repentance”? What things do we associate with repentance? What synonyms …

Jan 5, 2010: proskartereo προσ•καρ•τε•ρέ•ω verb – [pros-kar-te-reh-oh] definition: to stick by or be close at hand; attach oneself to, wait on, be faithful to; to persist …

Jan 1, 2010: Ten for Ten This year, rather than making resolutions proper, I’m going to answer Don Whitney’s Ten Questions to Ask at the Start of a New Year. …

Jan 1, 2010: An Empty Barrel Profess men may, and make a noise, as the empty barrel maketh the biggest sound; but prove them, and they are full of air, full of emptiness, and that …

Dec 31, 2009: A Spectacular Something The annual resolutions review is good. And humbling. And heartening. And yes, both at the same time. My two 2009 resolutions were very much related to …

Dec 30, 2009: ESV Bible Reading Plans ESV Bible Reading Plans ➔

Dec 30, 2009: Thick Gratitude Every Christian in clay pot ministry1 should desire God’s glory above all else. According to Paul, abounding glory for God comes from abounding …

Dec 30, 2009: Pray for Your Elders Pray for Your Elders ➔ You see: what if all those lousy elders out there had an army of people like you praying for them daily, crying out to …

Dec 30, 2009: Not an Automatic Friend In this world, time is not an automatic friend…. Time deepens wisdom, but it also hardens folly. Time is given so that we might have time to …

Dec 30, 2009: Ten Questions Ten Questions to Ask at the Start of a New Year ➔ The beginning of a new year is an ideal time to stop, look up, and get our bearings. To that …

Dec 28, 2009: Stonified in a Toga When tall, stonified Susan Bone in a toga says to do something, you do it. —In a chat with @hobbsandbean, 2009-12-29 04:17 PM

Dec 28, 2009: In Honor of Tethered Preaching In Honor of Tethered Preaching ➔ The Bible-oriented preacher wants the congregation to know that his words, if they have any abiding worth, …

Dec 27, 2009: Something Has to Die Something Has to Die ➔ When we are not getting along with others, the pressing temptation is always to believe that you are just as you have …

Dec 26, 2009: His Blood is Bibline He had studied our Authorized Version … till his whole being was saturated with Scripture; and though his writings … continually make us feel and say, …

Dec 25, 2009: Wear the Pants Put on your man pants.

Dec 22, 2009: Jump Rope Sorry for the ad at the beginning. It is worth it to endure.

Dec 22, 2009: Seeing Sin for What It Is Series | Repentance Augustine had a powerful and profound impact because he accurately identified the real problem, in his own heart and in the …

Dec 19, 2009: Industrial Grade Sandpaper [L]iving in believing community is one of the central instruments that a loving God has given to us to prepare us for that great day. Living among …

Dec 18, 2009: A Long Way to the Top The original. I don’t know why I love it so. Not the band. Not the bagpipes. Not the subject. But it works for me.

Dec 17, 2009: Hard Fathers, Soft Sons The father who has a son like this—a son who shames him—must do more than just experience the shame. He must own it. That means that he needs to see …

Dec 17, 2009: Cross References and Context Cross-references may be the most abused practice in Bible study.1 Sure, some are helpful. When a New Testament author quotes an Old Testament passage, …

Dec 16, 2009: Does the Shoe Fit Does the Shoe Fit? ➔ Article by David Powlison on how responses to criticism reveal who we are.

Dec 15, 2009: Voltron I can’t really explain how I got from Sproul to Voltron but, man, did I love this cartoon as a kid.

Dec 15, 2009: Sproul on Preparing for Ministry R.C. Sproul on how to prepare for ministry.

Dec 15, 2009: Church Conversation SKH: You’re doing a great job (sitting still). SKH: I really like cuddling with you, too. Calvin: Yeah. Some guys don’t have a lot of …

Dec 14, 2009: Equipped by the Word The “man of God”…does not give fresh revelation himself, but rather is the man who has the compilation of that completed revelation …

Dec 12, 2009: What Comes Naturally Granted, this comic is funny now, as a Christian parent. It would not be funny if I was 16 (per the comments here).

Dec 11, 2009: Ox and Ass at Christ's Manger Ox and Ass at Christ’s Manger ➔ The reason the ox and the ass are prominent in manger scenes is because of early Christian …

Dec 10, 2009: fan•tod noun – [fan-tod] definition: usually, fantods. a state or attack of uneasiness or unreasonableness, extreme nervousness or restlessness. …

Dec 9, 2009: Prayer Seminar Material All audio, notes, and presentation slides from the Devoted to Prayer seminar are now available for free to anyone interested. There is maybe no more …

Dec 5, 2009: It's Going to Be a Problem Brian Regan on inevitable nightmares.

Nov 17, 2009: Agassiz and the Fish from Justin Taylor It was more than fifteen years ago that I entered the laboratory of Professor Agassiz, and told him I had enrolled my name in the …

Nov 15, 2009: SRMMX The new 2010 Snow Retreat site is live.

Nov 4, 2009: How Firm a Foundation Written by “Keen,” 1787. Based on the text: Isaiah 43:1-7 Online by Fernando Ortega How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, Is laid …

Nov 4, 2009: It Is Well with My Soul Written by Horatio G. Spafford, 1873. Includes Psalm 146:1 See Wikipedia for the background. When peace, like a river, attendeth my way, When sorrows …

Nov 2, 2009: Throwing Obedience Monday Night Football is one of my favorite parts about the fall season. I watched the fourth quarter of the game yesterday between the New Orleans …

Oct 30, 2009: ἐγ•κα•κέ•ω verb – [eng-ka-keh-oh] definition: to lose one’s motivation in continuing a desirable pattern of conduct or activity, lose enthusiasm; lose …

Oct 29, 2009: flac•cid adjective – [flak-sid] definition: (of part of the body) soft and hanging loosely or limply, especially so as to look or feel unpleasant; not …

Oct 19, 2009: The Walls of Doctrine We might fancy some children playing on the flat grassy top of some tall island in the sea. So long as there was a wall round the cliff’s edge …

Oct 18, 2009: Mythbusting A month ago I spent the weekend with Drew Buell and the high school ministry of Emmanuel Baptist Church at their fall retreat. The theme for the …

Oct 17, 2009: How We Say It In The Preacher on Preaching, Danny Akin made the point, What we say is more important than how we say it, but how we say has never been more …

Oct 16, 2009: The Confessions of Augustine's Life Series | Repentance Augustine wrote the Confessions when he turned 43, covering the first 33 years of life leading up to his conversion. He intended …

Oct 15, 2009: So You Wanna Be a Writer series by Nathan Wilson So You Wanna Be a Writer, Pt. 1 (Don’ts) So You Wanna Be a Writer, Pt. 2 (For the Critics, These Pearls …) So …

Oct 14, 2009: All Things Are Better in Koine

Sep 22, 2009: Living on Unseen Things Last year in one28 we were Starting at the Beginning. This year it’s time to move ahead. It’s time to make progress. But making progress …

Sep 15, 2009: Soiled Souls Image by Pulpolux If God hadn’t promised never to flood the earth again, would He see that the wickedness of man is great in the earth and that …

Sep 9, 2009: moun•te•bank noun – [moun-tuh-bangk] definition: a person who deceives others, especially in order to trick them out of their money; a person who sells quack …

Sep 2, 2009: How to Evaluate a Preacher How faithful is he to the Word of God? How much pain is he able to endure? John MacArthur, Marks of the Faithful Preacher, Part 4, from 2 Timothy …

Sep 2, 2009: κα•κο•πα•θέ•ω verb – [ka-ko-pa-theh-oh] definition: bear hardship patiently; suffer physical pain, trouble, danger, and distress. example usage: Σὺ δὲ νῆφε …

Aug 31, 2009: kakapatheo κα•κο•πα•θε•ω verb – [ka-ko-pa-theh-oh] definition: bear hardship patiently; suffer physical pain, trouble, danger, and distress. example usage: …

Aug 28, 2009: What a Friend We Have in Jesus I was in my study this morning and could faintly hear Maggie singing while making her bed. I don’t know where she learned this old hymn, but it …

Aug 26, 2009: The Portrait of the Godly Pastor The features of the pastor, as shown (twice) to Pilgrim by Interpreter: His eyes were directed up toward Heaven. The best of books were in his hand. …

Aug 24, 2009: Before you say that word Pastordude: please, before you say that word… ➔ So you’re a pastor, and you’re preaching this passage, and you want to …

Aug 22, 2009: de•noue•ment noun – [dey-noo-mahn] definition: the conclusion or resolution of the plot in a play; the final part of a story, especially a tragedy, in which …

Aug 20, 2009: ris•i•ble adjective – [riz-uh-buhl] definition: that which provokes laughter. synonyms: laughable, ridiculous, absurd, comical example usage: Someone …

Aug 20, 2009: σω•φρο•νέ•ω verb – [so-fro-neh-oh] definition: to be prudent, with a focus on self-control; to be in one’s right mind synonyms: be reasonable, …

Aug 19, 2009: sophroneo σω•φρο•νέ•ω verb – [so-fro-neh-oh] definition: to be prudent, with a focus on self-control; to be in one’s right mind synonyms: be …

Aug 18, 2009: A Biographical Jet Tour of Augustine Series | Repentance Augustine’s testimony is typical. He was born, lived in sin until God saved him at age 32, soon after was called to the …

Aug 16, 2009: Love the Standard [O]ur task, as a generation teaching the next one, is not to get students to conform to the standard. The task before us is getting them to love the …

Aug 14, 2009: Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah William Williams, 1717-1791; trans. from the Welsh by Peter Williams and the author Music: John Hughes, 1873-1932 Guide me, O thou great Jehovah, …

Aug 14, 2009: O For That Day Enfield We are pilgrims on Earth and we long to be home We were exiled in birth and wandered alone Until Jesus the Lamb who was slain in our place …

Jul 25, 2009: Jesus Paid It All The lyrics to “Jesus Paid It All” were written by Elvina Hall in 1865. Being prompted by his wife, John T. Grape wrote the score. However it was …

Jul 7, 2009: I Don't Do Découpage It’s been more than three months since my last post. Fantastic. The long absence moved one friend to ask via email if I had abandoned the Void. …

Jul 6, 2009: wast•rel noun – [wast-rel] definition: poetic/literary a wasteful or good-for-nothing person; a deadbeat. example usage: The righteousness of Christ, …

May 21, 2009: res•tive adjective – [res-tiv] definition: (of a person) unable to keep still or silent and becoming increasingly difficult to control, esp. because of …

May 20, 2009: Email Forwards Update - August 24 at 11:23AM: Read the following and thought it was good supplemental wisdom. Let me speak for everyone you have ever met, from a …

May 7, 2009: Hyper-busyness Six Lessons in Prayer Sorry, your browser is outdated and does not support the audio element. This highly-recommended message is by Alexander …

May 7, 2009: Communication Today Instant Constant Global Permanent Mentioned by Mark Driscoll in his 2009 Gospel Coalition message, as mentioned to him by Rick Warren.

May 1, 2009: Diagramming for sake of genuine textual exposition Since mankind, in general, is innately hopeless and helpless in reference to his own spiritual reformation or advancement, and since sinners suffer …

May 1, 2009: des•ul•to•ry adjective – [des-uhl-tawr-ee] definition: lacking a plan, purpose, or enthusiasm It is true that some traditional churches are desultory, …

Apr 28, 2009: Heidelberg One Q: What is thy only comfort in life and death? A: That I with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong unto my faithful Savior …

Apr 17, 2009: Why Twitter is perfect for the postmodern peoples It focuses on me. It can be used for whatever I want.

Mar 31, 2009: The Love of Forgiven Rebels I watched the Nightline Face-Off: Does Satan Exist? debate with great interest last week. Not only has Pastor Mark been a topic of conversation in the …

Mar 29, 2009: Bible Study Seminar Material All material from the Rightly | Dividing seminar is now available for free to anyone interested. I summarized the goal of the seminar as follows in my …

Mar 24, 2009: Portrait of a World-Changer Series | Repentance Sandro Botticelli’s first major fresco commissioned in 1480: Saint Augustine Augustine of Hippo may be the most important …

Mar 22, 2009: Faith by Hearing Mo gifted me with my first iPod on my 30th birthday in 2004. Not only I have moved out of Music Naysayer Neighborhood since then, but more …

Mar 19, 2009: Eyes to See Series | Repentance We learn much about seven churches’ problems in Revelation 2-3. Five of the seven addresses include the command to repent, …

Mar 19, 2009: Pink Ox 2.0 In March of 2005, I posted the original pink ox logo from Jesse Martin. I’ve used it as my Gravatar here at the Void, for my Twitter picture, …

Mar 17, 2009: The Invitation Series | Repentance The richest, most cherished fellowship awaits the repentant. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and …

Mar 12, 2009: The Imperatives Series | Repentance There is only one approach to receive His generous gifts offered in verse 18. There is only one path to escape spiritual poverty, …

Mar 11, 2009: The Instruction Series | Repentance Sin not only offends God, it ruins us. It not only robs God of His glory, it also steals our joy. Sin makes us soul-poor. Sin …

Mar 1, 2009: Tripping I started posting briefly about our annual trip to the Shepherds’ Conference in 2006, did so again in 2007, as well as 2008. We’ve taken a …

Feb 24, 2009: The Instruction Series | Repentance As He did with each of the previous six churches, Jesus asserted His knowledge of the congregation’s condition, then leveled …

Feb 23, 2009: To the Church in Laodicea Series | Repentance Yesterday I suggested that things are not good and that if Jesus visited us today, He might confront us much like He confronted …

Feb 22, 2009: Things Are Not Good Series | Repentance Things are not good. Nations are at war, babies are being aborted, businesses are collapsing, and people are sad, lonely, and …

Feb 12, 2009: 2009 Snow Retreat Audio All six sessions from the 09SR are now online. Each link includes a downloadable mp3 and the very rough draft version of my notes, especially for …

Feb 12, 2009: Repentance Retreat Audio Series | Repentance All six sessions from the 09SR are now online. Each link includes a downloadable mp3 and the very rough draft version of my notes, …

Feb 10, 2009: Ordination Service The elders of Grace Bible Church ordained me Sunday, January 18. I am grateful to all those who worked so hard to make the entire evening special, and …

Feb 8, 2009: My 2009 Resolutions I’ve been marinating much in 1 Timothy 4:11-16 since Eric Alexander took it as his text at the 2003 Shepherds’ Conference. My recent …

Feb 4, 2009: Repentance Clips and Quotes Ian Lugg created the following video for our snow retreat on Repentance last week. It moves my affections every time I watch it, and since many people …

Jan 24, 2009: Advance by Retreat I intended to have my new year’s resolution post up by now (yes, I’m aware that it is January 25th). It obviously hasn’t happened, …

Jan 9, 2009: Image-Bearing Resolutions The making of New Year’s resolutions can be a complete waste of time. Some goals are cheap or petty, while goals that are worthwhile may be …

Jan 7, 2009: In Praise of a Quite Gratuitous Ornament In my preparatory reading for our upcoming snow retreat, I came across this celebration of beards by Augustine in The City of God. There are some …

Jan 5, 2009: The Day YouTube Turned Off the Water I received the following email Sunday afternoon. Dear seankhiggins, Video Disabled A copyright owner has claimed it owns some or all of the audio …

Jan 1, 2009: My 2008 Resolutions in Review Having reached 2009 (Happy New Year!), I need to lay down my 2008 resolutions so I can build new ones on top. My first resolution for last year was to …

Dec 24, 2008: White Christmas We’ve never had a white Christmas in our seven previous years in Marysville. That changed today. Here is a boring 10 second video, not only to …

Dec 24, 2008: the Night Before Christmas I’m only familiar with the first few lines of the poem, A Visit from St. Nicholas. While we were watching a movie tonight, a loud snap in the …

Dec 20, 2008: Enjoying the Process - The Book I am excited to announce that I completed a major project last week and picked up copies of the finished product on Friday.1 A Bit of Context During …

Dec 18, 2008: The Laying on of Hands Lord willing, I will be ordained this Sunday night. I am humbled and excited by the implications of this occasion. Different churches (and …

Dec 17, 2008: To Infinity and Beyond Disclaimer: Some of you have heard parts of the story below but have waited a long time to see actual pictures. Others may wish they had never seen …

Dec 16, 2008: State of the Void Today is the first snow day of the school year. Since I’m not teaching at a school anymore, a snow day isn’t the novelty it used to be. …

Dec 1, 2008: One Week Later It’s been one week since my last post and all I have is another instant message from hobbsandbean. maggie is singing a song that sounds like …

Nov 24, 2008: It's Very Male / Female in Here The following is an instant message I received from hobbsandbean a short while ago. maggie leared how to chop carrots with a REAL knife today! a …

Nov 21, 2008: Too Late for Me Some interesting discussion going on at TeamPyro over the video below. I’m guessing most people younger than me probably don’t know that …

Nov 17, 2008: Happy 30th Birthday, Mo! On November 18, 1978, Mo was born. Her mom toasted her a bagel for breakfast, spread with peanut butter and decorated with (leftover Halloween …

Nov 12, 2008: You're the Reason Our Kids Are Ugly Trapped in Neverland by Carl Trueman underscores the ugliness of today’s world “because it prevents many from ever growing up at …

Nov 5, 2008: Open Minds and Open Doors As he promised, Phil de Oliveira made his attempt to prop open the door for theistic evolution in Genesis chapter one. Go. Read. Comment. But do try …

Oct 30, 2008: Repentance--Seeing Sin for What It Is Series | Repentance We have been tasked to change the world. As men and women made in the image of God, we’ve been tasked to take dominion on …

Oct 28, 2008: Night and Day Part 8 of the series: Shooting Down Theistic Evolution All six bullets I’ve mentioned come from observation of the biblical story itself. In …

Oct 27, 2008: Bullet Six - Bad Good Part 7 of the series: Shooting Down Theistic Evolution At multiple points throughout week one, God declared His work “good.” When He …

Oct 26, 2008: Bullet Five - Breeding Boundaries Part 6 of the series: Shooting Down Theistic Evolution This shoots as big a hole in theistic evolution as any of the previous bullets. Everything that …

Oct 25, 2008: Bullet Four - Defined Days Part 5 of the series: Shooting Down Theistic Evolution The hope of theistic evolutionists hinges on the word “day.” In order for evolution …

Oct 24, 2008: Bullet Three - Immediate Fulfillment Part 4 of the series: Shooting Down Theistic Evolution Seven of the eight creative acts in Genesis one include a follow up phrase of immediate …

Oct 23, 2008: Bullet Two - Chronological Sequence Part 3 of the series: Shooting Down Theistic Evolution Every verse in Genesis chapter one (except for verse 1) begins with the conjunction …

Oct 22, 2008: Bullet One - Narrative Genre Part 2 of the series: Shooting Down Theistic Evolution The bulk of the book of Genesis is in the narrative genre. “Narratives are stories, …

Oct 21, 2008: Shooting Down Theistic Evolution Part 1 of the series: Shooting Down Theistic Evolution According to Genesis 1:1, the universe was launched in an instant, due to the initiating, …

Oct 5, 2008: Breaking News Many of you already know that Mo is scheduled for a C-section on Wednesday morning since Hallie is breech. However, her water broke around 10PM …

Sep 29, 2008: What Not to Believe Photo thanks to keyphotographics Genesis 1:1 frames our beliefs about God in such a way that certain other beliefs are necessarily ruled out. As …

Sep 18, 2008: Starting at the Beginning A couple months ago I was having breakfast with some of the one28 staff men. Our conversation turned toward the subject of past one28 graduates, and …

Sep 17, 2008: Monkeys in My Backyard The following is not a joke. The Professor saw this poster on the wall at our local community college and “obtained” a copy for me. All I …

Sep 16, 2008: Beware of Dogs During the night Nathan Busenitz posted his points about why Mark Driscoll is not justified in his particular use of provocative and offensive speech. …

Sep 15, 2008: Wilson Thinks Out Loud about Palin I have told numerous people in the past couple weeks that they should read Doug Wilson’s posts on Sarah Palin. Whether you agree with his …

Sep 14, 2008: Ethics for a Can of Worms As I said last week, failing to understand God’s created order makes for all kinds of futility. Then we received our hard copy of …

Sep 11, 2008: My Middle Name Is Fun Dave Cleland continues his torrid posting with today’s, Our Youth Ministry is no Fun! Here’s a taste: Students who love Jesus expect more …

Sep 7, 2008: Framing a Generation There may be no better book in the Bible to confront our culture’s current issues than the book of Genesis. Our generation’s confusion …

Sep 3, 2008: Catching Genesis This Sunday I start my teaching trek through Genesis in one28. I already sense the thrill of paddling to catch the wave, but likewise sense the fear …

Aug 28, 2008: You think English is easy? The bandage was wound around the wound. The farm was used to produce produce. The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse. We must polish …

Aug 22, 2008: The Savanna Project My friend, David W. Cleland, is now writing at and about The Savannah Project. He has moved a time zone, switched blogging platforms, and even …

Aug 13, 2008: Discerning Repentance One’s attitude does not produce discernment, like sadness can’t diagnose disease. On the other hand, the right attitude should be one of …

Aug 12, 2008: How Do You Respond One week ago I was minding my own business, working on something in my office when I received a text message on my iPhone. I suspected it was a one28 …

Aug 7, 2008: Making Disciples - The Booklet A few months ago I blogged through a series of posts on Making Disciples. My ulterior motive was to prepare a booklet from those notes to share with …

Jul 29, 2008: You Can't Pay for This Kind of Promotion Ryan Hall is eager for the upcoming seminar on Bible study. We should all have this attitude and perspective toward our copies of God’s Word: I …

Jul 27, 2008: Pastoral Wisdom According to 50 former pastors, faithful pastoral ministry requires initiative and discipline, with a vivid sense of divine calling, from a constantly …

Jul 26, 2008: Rightly Dividing Your Copy of God's Word Today we announced a new seminar at church: Rightly | Dividing aims to move believers beyond personal Bible reading to Bible study. There are many …

Jul 21, 2008: Fools Play with Fire Series | Whispers and Flames Avoiding drama doesn’t mean we never say tough things, it means we don’t add theatrics. It also means that we …

Jul 21, 2008: Dear the Void Dear the Void, You have been so empty. I’m beginning to wonder if you even care about me any more. Please remind me why I subscribe, and tempt …

Jul 8, 2008: I Didn't Pick My Eyes Out Mo and I returned Monday afternoon from the Olympic Swim Trials. We spent a week together in Omaha, NE, in celebration of our 10th Anniversary and …

Jun 19, 2008: Happy 10th Anniversary, Mo! Mo married me 10 years ago today, June 19, 1998. Wow. Back then I was looking for someone who wouldn’t be satisfied with the status quo. I …

Jun 12, 2008: Enjoying the Travel In a few minutes Maggie and I are leaving for a two week trip to Ohio. Mo and Calvin are staying home this year, but I’m off to preach five …

Jun 10, 2008: Whisperers Eat Fires Series | Whispers and Flames There’s a reason we don’t put out fires: we love the action. The words of a whisperer are like delicious …

Jun 8, 2008: Quarrelers Inflame Fires Series | Whispers and Flames Not only do whisperers fuel drama as we saw in verse 20, quarrelers also play a large roll in drama. As charcoal to hot …

Jun 6, 2008: Whisperers Feed Fires Series | Whispers and Flames Starting a fire requires fuel and something to ignite the fuel.1 In particular, fires need heat, fuel and oxygen. Remove …

Jun 5, 2008: Whispers and Flames Series | Whispers and Flames Fire scares me; it has for as long as I can remember. For most of my life I refused to light a match unless it was one of …

May 28, 2008: Closed for Business The Graduate makes an excellent case that the church is a body, not a business. My favorite paragraph: It seems that if someone sees a weakness in …

May 24, 2008: The End of the Matter In the category of shameless plugs, I finished a three year project today with my sixty-first and final message from Ecclesiastes. Of preaching many …

May 14, 2008: Another Shot at Life The Everett Herald featured a great article today about Grant Weinberg as a walking miracle. (The write-up ran on the front page of the printed …

May 14, 2008: Sugar and Spice and Cloth Diapers We found out yesterday via ultrasound that Maggie and Calvin are having a little sister in October. Of course we’re excited about having another …

May 13, 2008: Like Being Thirsty I’m tweaking some three year old Ecclesiastes sermons. What follows is an illustration that needs cut from it’s current position, but …

May 13, 2008: Pay Close Attention While pounding out seven miles on my treadmill yesterday I listened to C.J. Mahaney’s message from the recent T4G conference, Sustaining a …

Apr 30, 2008: Chuck Norris Looks Down on Summa Cum Laude In case my last post left you feeling a little down, let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Now is perhaps the best time ever to be a …

Apr 30, 2008: I Don't Believe It I love Dr. John MacArthur. Much of my spiritual and pastoral growth can be attributed directly to him as the human instrument. When I packed my Ford …

Apr 24, 2008: From Disciple to Discipler Series | Making Disciples The Practical Discipleship Plan of Attack aims to take in a disciple and produce a discipler. The following chart gives an …

Apr 23, 2008: Stage Five - Inspire Series | Making Disciples This is the final stage in the practical discipleship plan of attack. In Stage Five the disciple exits the process as a …

Apr 22, 2008: Stage Four - Improve Series | Making Disciples There are always more ways for a disciple to grow no matter how well instructed they are or how many examples they’ve …

Apr 20, 2008: Stage Three - Involve Series | Making Disciples The practical plan of discipleship starts with instruction and includes living illustration. In Stage Three the disciple …

Apr 18, 2008: Stage Two - Illustrate Series | Making Disciples Making disciples requires instruction, but verbal communication isn’t the end of the process. Now we come to Stage …

Apr 15, 2008: Stage One - Instruct Series | Making Disciples Each stage in our practical plan of attack includes the Task, the Purpose, the Role, the Motto, and the Principle (as the …

Apr 15, 2008: Like Father, Like Son Two years ago today my dad died. We had less and less in common after I answered the call to pastoral ministry but I still miss talking to him. There …

Apr 15, 2008: Making Ministers through Difficulties I finished reading Lectures to My Students yesterday. The journey took almost two years and included some breathtaking sights. The Void previously …

Apr 14, 2008: A Vision for Young People Here’s a great start to a new series on a gospel vision for the rising generation of young people. From someone who’s in the thick of …

Apr 14, 2008: The Practical Discipleship Plan of Attack Series | Making Disciples Making disciples is job #1 for every Christian. So far we’ve identified the three target levels of discipleship: we …

Apr 5, 2008: What's Like the Sun This afternoon at Starbucks the barista compared my outfit to the sun in a bright blue sky. I responded that no one would ever make that comparison …

Apr 4, 2008: What I Did over Spring Break My post on Monday hinted at some travel; boy was there traveling. Sunday afternoon I left Marysville around 2:00 pm, picked up Tim Lugg in in …

Apr 2, 2008: One to One Ministry Here’s a BRIEFING on one-to-one ministry that compliments much of the Biblical Shepherding Bulls-eye and prepares the way for a Practical Plan …

Mar 30, 2008: Liveblogging the Intern in Chapel Follow updates of Micah Lugg preaching in chapel at The Master’s College here.

Mar 22, 2008: How Good Is God? Chuck Weinberg started a new blog to give updates on Grant’s condition and to thank God for His goodness. With his son in the Critical Care Unit …

Mar 17, 2008: Recapping the Three Target Levels Series | Making Disciples The Great Commission sets our sights high; we are to make disciples of all the nations. The apostle Paul also emphasized the …

Mar 13, 2008: Target Level Three - Equipping Series | Making Disciples Disciple-making ends (and begins again) here. This center circle on the target represents the third step to present every …

Mar 13, 2008: Misery 101 Since some reading in The Institutes yesterday afternoon I’ve been mulling over the lessons of misery under the sun, namely, misery teaches us …

Mar 13, 2008: Out of the Mouths of Fools The fool loves to talk, loves to hear himself speak, loves to share his opinion. Solomon said as much in Ecclesiastes 10:14 (part of a larger …

Mar 11, 2008: Target Level Two - Edifying Series | Making Disciples Disciple-making continues here. This second circle on the target represents the next step to present every man complete in …

Mar 10, 2008: Marinate on Twitter Watch and learn about Twitter in plain English just like RSS in plain English. For myself, I Twitter less about “What am I doing?” and …

Mar 5, 2008: Mama Said

Mar 3, 2008: Annual Pilgrimage Our Tahoe full of five is about 90 miles north of Los Angeles as I write on my iPhone. I already can see the sun and taste the smog. This will be …

Feb 28, 2008: Happy Leap Day Bible Reading I won’t miss the opportunity to blog on a day that only occurs every four years. So if I fail to post something substantial later today, Happy …

Feb 28, 2008: Target Level One - Evangelizing Series | Making Disciples Disciple-making starts here. This is the first and broadest circle on the target, meaning it encompasses the most people and …

Feb 27, 2008: The Biblical Discipleship Bullseye Series | Making Disciples The Christian life is simple. It’s hard, but not complex. Christians follow Jesus. Our single responsibility includes …

Feb 26, 2008: Unexpected Content Kiwi and an Emu paid me a compliment by questioning if “without form and void” really applied to my blog since I mistakenly published some …

Feb 20, 2008: This Too Shall Pass We interrupt our regularly scheduled post of substance to report this recent medical incident. I took my first trip to the Emergency Room via …

Feb 17, 2008: The Protection and Pay-Off of Accountability Series | Accountability Still there are those who hate accountability. I guess they don’t want the protection, though I’ve never heard …

Feb 15, 2008: The Levels of Accountability Series | Accountability Accountability is troubling because the natural man hates holiness. Almost no one in our culture promotes …

Feb 14, 2008: Built-In Accountability Repellent Series | Accountability A person is accountable when they are required or expected to justify their actions or decisions; they are responsible, …

Feb 13, 2008: The Trouble with Accountability Series | Accountability Jesus could have made our job as Christians a lot easier. All He needed to do was tweak His commission a little. He …

Feb 10, 2008: 08SR Sermon Audio by Phil Johnson All six Snow Retreat sermons are available for audio download here. The messages cover Playing for Keeps: The Gravity of Guarding Your Heart.

Feb 9, 2008: Little Girl Bike Helmets In seven previous snow retreats I had never visited the tubing hill at the Double-K. For years I’ve heard stories, seen pictures, and watched …

Feb 4, 2008: Pyro Tubing Take Two We saw over five feet of fresh powder fall at our Snow Retreat last week on top of the five or six already on the ground. Apparently it was record …

Jan 27, 2008: Winter Pleasures Winter pleasures have made blogging sparse here at the void. Last weekend I was in -25 temperature with Dave Cleland in White Lake, WI for his annual …

Jan 18, 2008: Ordination Images Friend, fellow GBC member, and Maggie’s fantastic art teacher, Joan Dabrowski, graciously photographed and uploaded pictures from my ordination …

Jan 10, 2008: My (Solomonic) 2008 Resolutions I’ve had more than ten days to think about resolutions for 2008 and if I put it off any longer the year will no longer be new. I’m only …

Jan 10, 2008: Irresistible Marriage Sans wedding date, here is reliable info from an insider that the MacArthur Study Bible is engaged to the ESV. A happy marriage between my English …

Jan 7, 2008: How to Make Solomonic Resolutions Though apparently not everyone agrees, I think the new year provides a perfect opportunity to examine if there are lifestyle changes or attitude …

Jan 4, 2008: How a Sidebar Stopped My Breath A few weeks ago I noticed incoming traffic from a notable blog. I held my breath as I clicked the address and scrolled down the sidebar. Low and …

Jan 4, 2008: Return of the Capranica In August the Capranica went dark. But Bret has been back for a few weeks now. So Happy New Year indeed to one of my favorite ordinary pastors!

Dec 30, 2007: Bible Reading Plans If you’re undecided about how to read the Bible this year take a look at these eight Bible reading plans for the ESV. Each plan can be read on …

Dec 29, 2007: High Altitude Assessment of 2007 The last couple years I’ve made resolutions, posted them publicly, then reviewed my progress publicly as well. This is good accountability …

Dec 20, 2007: Why Godly Men Must Pray Series | Prayer: A Man’s Most Difficult Struggle Prayer is a struggle for most men, and yet manliness and prayerfulness go together. So why is …

Dec 19, 2007: Manliness and Prayerfulness Series | Prayer: A Man’s Most Difficult Struggle Yesterday I wrote that a man’s most difficult struggle is prayer. While prayer is a …

Dec 18, 2007: A Man's Most Difficult Struggle Series | Prayer: A Man’s Most Difficult Struggle A man’s most difficult struggle is not dealing with a specific sin (like anger or lust or …

Dec 18, 2007: Seconds and Inches Last Thursday night I was in a somewhat significant car accident. I was not injured and as far as I know neither was the other driver. But there were …

Dec 15, 2007: Is This Nirvana? Or, Why Being a Youth Pastor is No Paradise. Phil Johnson recently wrote a pungent post that smells like teen spirit on the dangers of dumbing down …

Dec 6, 2007: Putting Wounded Egos Out of Their Misery Pride is bad. What’s more, pride is sickeningly ugly. It is a frightful thing to find in the mirror and a hideous thing to see in someone else. …

Dec 3, 2007: Persuading Men to Love God by Serving Idols Series | ComMission A loud voice continues to emerge in some parts of Christianity, with a heart for the spiritually lost, concerned that Christians …

Nov 20, 2007: What Mission Are We Talking About Exactly? Series | ComMission A few nights ago a friend forwarded an email from another friend with some quotes on the importance of being missional in our …

Nov 15, 2007: Raising the Stakes Tim Pickard saw my post from Piper on pride and raised me Stott and Spurgeon.

Nov 15, 2007: Serving the Next Generation The church is responsible to serve the next generation. For example, we must “relentlessly extol the maturing and strengthening effects of the …

Nov 15, 2007: The Finish Line High school senior Claire Markwardt was running the Ohio state high school cross country championship when her left tibia and then her fibula snapped …

Nov 1, 2007: Genuine Religious Affections are Fruitful Series | For the Love of God I am (almost) ashamed. I have been one post away from finishing Known By Fruit for two months. But today I fix that and …

Oct 30, 2007: Polka, Pirates, and Pontification I know I have not posted anything substantial for over two weeks. This post won’t change that. But a number of things around the internet stood …

Oct 22, 2007: Sage Advice on Book Buying Priorities Paul Lamey shares some sage, 500 year old advice on when to buy books.

Oct 22, 2007: The Art and Discipline of Ignoring Mark Driscoll posted about our beeping, ringing, and vibrating merciless sovereign gods [link no longer good]. Key quote: [T]here is a new spiritual …

Oct 15, 2007: Rejoice in Your Youth Thanks to Justin Taylor I’ve enjoyed the ads for the 2008 T4G conference. These three are my favorites by far.

Oct 11, 2007: Miracle Mug In July I made one purchase at our World’s for Sale. I affectionately call it my miracle mug. The glory: The guts: In case you’re …

Oct 10, 2007: Praying Your Way Into the Pulpit Colin Adams at Unashamed Workman collected some apropos quotes concerning pastors praying their way into the pulpit.

Oct 2, 2007: Aspiring to Seek His Help at All Times A cold “blog booger” on a paper plate collected some sentences from Calvin about God’s being due our adoration, trust, invocation, …

Oct 2, 2007: Puritanic Rigidity Is not the Problem Series | The Lord’s Day Charles Spurgeon once wrote, Ah, sirs! there may have been a time when Christians were too precise, but it has not been …

Oct 1, 2007: A Week on the Merry-Go-Round Series | The Lord’s Day Obviously our whole lives are to be worship; worship is more than just a Sunday activity even though I’ve tried to …

Sep 30, 2007: Passionately Exult in Worship Series | The Lord’s Day This is the fourth piece of practical advice for how to regard the Lord’s day as the best day. 4. Celebrate Isn’t …

Sep 28, 2007: Intently Endeavor to Worship Series | The Lord’s Day Here is the third piece of practical advice for how to regard the Lord’s day as the best day. 3. Concentrate Each …

Sep 27, 2007: Actively Engage in Worship Series | The Lord’s Day Here is the second piece of practical advice for how to regard the Lord’s day as the best day. 2. Participate By …

Sep 27, 2007: Hohenschönhausen is Happening One of our new youth staff, Kim Weinberg, arrived in Hohenschönhausen, Berlin safe and sound. She’ll be serving the Green family for almost two …

Sep 26, 2007: Eagerly Expect to Worship Series | The Lord’s Day I previously promised four pieces of practical advice for how to regard the Lord’s day as the best day. Here is …

Sep 25, 2007: The Best Day Series | The Lord’s Day A pastor friend of mine who helps lead a local body on the Lord’s day typically posts the order of service on …

Sep 24, 2007: Caveats and Clarification on First Day Conduct Series | The Lord’s Day Our Lord’s day practices require consideration and sometimes qualification. Even so, the following ammendments …

Sep 20, 2007: The First Day Series | The Lord’s Day The first day of the week, Sunday, was and is the Lord’s day. While the title “Lord’s day” is …

Sep 18, 2007: The Lord's Day Series | The Lord’s Day George Orwell said, Sometimes the first duty of intelligent men is the restatement of the obvious. I’m not …

Sep 17, 2007: Good for Nothing Bricks Series | The Lord’s Day In December of 2003 I taught a short series of sermons under the banner “Church Life for Teens.” The initial …

Sep 17, 2007: The Gospel in Six Minutes This video of The Gospel in 6 Minutes is a terrific asset for both evangelism and edification. I benefited from it so much I added it to the one28 …

Sep 17, 2007: One Million Islands Covered Happy 10 year anniversary and one million MacArthur Study Bibles. As I said before, “If I was stranded on an island and could only have one …

Sep 6, 2007: For the First Time in 28 Years I did not go “back to school” yesterday for the first time in 28 years. The past six years I taught one or more high school Bible classes …

Sep 5, 2007: Genuine Religious Affections are Relentless Series | For the Love of God This fifth mark is acutely helpful but typically ignored in the attempt to identify gracious, spiritual affections. 5. …

Sep 5, 2007: Three Minutes More The TruThseeker is back at his blog and crunched some numbers on the average life expectancy increase over three millennia. I’m using my extra 2 …

Sep 4, 2007: Genuine Religious Affections are Nature-Changing Series | For the Love of God Today we pick up with the next distinguishing mark of genuine religious affections. 4. Genuine religious affections are …

Sep 2, 2007: Crankiness Does Not Equal Authenticity Doug Wilson on why community living is messy, but also why crankiness in the community does not equal authenticity. (Here’s the 1000 words …

Aug 30, 2007: Out of God's Control Justin Taylor linked to this article by Dr. Roger Olson who claims that the Calvinist view of the Minneapolis bridge collapse distorts God’s …

Aug 24, 2007: What Do You Expect? I thought this was interesting…and tiring. The Rev. Warren Carr of Durham, North Carolina, prepared a questionnaire asking his congregation to …

Aug 23, 2007: The Mirror of Our Love There are a few things I don’t need any help with. I’m good at these things. I don’t need tips from books. I don’t need advice …

Aug 8, 2007: Winners vs. Losers My dad shared the following poem with me when I was a kid and I’ve never forgotten it. It was written by Pat Williams, a former NBA General …

Apr 18, 2007: Live or Memorex? I’m eager to publish (what is hopefully) the last explanation behind my music video. It was posted first on February 6, and within a week …

Mar 27, 2007: Resources for Studying Calvinism When Phil Johnson taught on Spurgeon at the 07SR he referenced some of Spurgeon’s contentions regarding Calvinism. I thought it would be helpful …

Mar 24, 2007: Teenagers Are Irresponsible Series | Lies Every Teen Believes The second lie teenagers believe is that they are, intrinsically, irresponsible. “Research” shows their …

Mar 15, 2007: Happy Sheep Come from Happy Shepherds There is a sinewy connection between joy and shepherding and I regret that there are still too many occasions when the two are cut asunder. It …

Mar 12, 2007: An Addendum on ADD One of the compelling issues in the adolescence, ADD, and ADHD phenomena is the possibility of genetic or hormonal causation. We are told that if it …

Mar 1, 2007: Teenagers Are Incompetent Series | Lies Every Teen Believes Today we’ll address the first of the six lies of adolescence. Remember, by the name “adolescence” …

Feb 11, 2007: Behind the Music Last Monday I posted a couple videos here at the Void. The clip of Phil tubing is growing in popularity with over 200 views. But somehow in just one …

Feb 5, 2007: There Is Nothing to See Here - Part Duet The 07SR is over. Audio from Phil’s sessions and hundreds of photos will be online soon. In the meantime, here are a couple videos to keep …

Jan 5, 2007: The Birth of Adolescence Series | Lies Every Teen Believes In 1904, G. Stanley Hall published a book titled, Adolescence: It’s Relations to Physiology, Anthropology, …

Jan 2, 2007: A Definition for Adolescence Series | Lies Every Teen Believes Adolescence has achieved objective status as an obvious stage in human development in our culture. It is probably …

Jan 1, 2007: An Introduction to the Myth of Adolescence Series | Lies Every Teen Believes “The facts are simple,” says Charles K. Johnson, president of the International Flat Earth Research …

Dec 21, 2006: Ten Books Every Christian Should Own A few weeks ago I listed the 25 books that have influenced me the most. In that post I promised a second list, namely my catalog of the 10 books every …

Nov 23, 2006: Four Tools for Great ComMissional Disciple-Making Series | ComMission In Ashamed of the Gospel 2.0, I criticized the man-centered, pragmatic approach of contextualization. I also promised to post four …

Nov 21, 2006: Ashamed of the Gospel 2.0 Series | ComMission “Contextualization” is a buzzword in Christian conversation these days. A little over a month ago an entire conference …

Oct 16, 2006: The 25 Most Influential Books on the Void Reading is making a comeback. Numerous bloggers have commented on the collection and reading of books in the past few weeks and I’ve started to …

Aug 6, 2006: Appetite and Ability to Study God's Word Series | Marks of a Healthy Student Ministry The third mark of health in our series is: A healthy student ministry has people with an appetite and …

Aug 2, 2006: A Better Beard I’m sure there are things more banal, but the C-Train points out some pros and cons in the better beard contest.

Jul 26, 2006: Godly Leaders Series | Marks of a Healthy Student Ministry Here is the second mark of a healthy student ministry: A healthy student ministry has people who are …

Jul 25, 2006: Part of the Local Church Series | Marks of a Healthy Student Ministry I retaught my series on the Marks of a Healthy Student Ministry almost a year ago. The introduction is …

Jul 18, 2006: The Marks of a Healthy Student Ministry Series | Marks of a Healthy Student Ministry It was four years ago–July 11, 2001 to be exact–that I preached my very first message at …

Jun 29, 2006: Recommended Reformation Resources I finished preaching through the Reformation solas again and wanted to put together a list of recommended resources for further study, similar to the …

Apr 24, 2006: The Precious Possession of Diligence Many of you know that my dad passed away early Monday morning, April 17. We travelled to Ohio for his funeral last week and soberly enjoyed the time …

Feb 20, 2006: The Best Online Edwards Resources In spite of the fact that the 06SR is over, I am hoping that many of you will desire to learn more about and from Jonathan Edwards. While curious …

Dec 30, 2005: Tags

Dec 14, 2005: Why Go to Church? I’m normally don’t enjoy email forwards, but this one was different. It was sent to me by my friend and fellow one28 staffer, Chuck …

Oct 3, 2005: How to Destroy Unity The theme of this year’s Grace Academy Junior High retreat was unity. I was asked to address the junior high students on Thursday night out at …

May 13, 2005: A Notice about Prayer You can’t be a Christian if you don’t pray. I’m not talking about prayer being a work that you do that saves you or sanctifies you. I am not talking …

Apr 19, 2005: Vocabulary for OT Young People Series | Lies Every Teen Believes The OT is a great place to start in our look to find adolescents in Scripture. We find people of all ages in the OT. …

Apr 12, 2005: Adolescents in the Old Testament Series | Lies Every Teen Believes There is a great old story about King Rehoboam in 1 Kings 12. At the beginning of the chapter we find Solomon’s …

Mar 22, 2005: Adolescence Growth Enhancements Series | Lies Every Teen Believes Though we’ve finished covering the eight ingredients in the growth of adolescence there are a few additional …

Mar 22, 2005: The Easy Sell of Irresponsibility Excuses Series | Lies Every Teen Believes This is (finally) the eighth and last ingredient in the growth of adolescence: it appeals to the flesh. Everything …

Mar 20, 2005: The Expansion of National Media Series | Lies Every Teen Believes Whether it is mass produces pop music, or cable television, or the internet, adolescent culture is disseminated and …

Mar 12, 2005: Buy Biography Good afternoon blogreaders! I haven’t much time to dilly-dally around writing a blog, but since Mo and I are off to the elders’ retreat …

Dec 29, 2004: The Emergence of Marketing Strategies Series | Lies Every Teen Believes This might be one of the biggest reasons our culture has perpetuated the myth of adolescence…because they are …

Dec 13, 2004: The Evolving Popularity of Psychology (Part 2) Series | Lies Every Teen Believes The most obvious and direct way that psychology has helped to establish the idea of adolescence is by it’s …

Dec 7, 2004: The Evolving Popularity of Psychology (Part 1) Series | Lies Every Teen Believes The fifth ingredient in the dominant belief in adolescence is the evolution of popular psychology. Of course, …

Dec 2, 2004: The Establishment of a Juvenile Justice System Series | Lies Every Teen Believes The fourth ingredient to the growth of adolescence is the creation of the juvenile justice system. This was …

Nov 30, 2004: The Expression of Parental Wishfulness Series | Lies Every Teen Believes The third ingredient in the rise of adolescence is the expression of parental wishfulness. Teenagers are not the …

Nov 23, 2004: The Endorsement of Compulsory Education Series | Lies Every Teen Believes Following on the heels of the new child labor laws is this second ingredient, the endorsement of compulsory …

Nov 22, 2004: The Enactment of Child Labor Laws Series | Lies Every Teen Believes The first ingredient to mention in the growth of adolescence was the enacting (or passing) of child labor laws. …

Nov 21, 2004: The Growth of Adolescence Series | Lies Every Teen Believes I’ve been doing a lot of reading about the Reformation and the Reformers in preparation for the 05SR. Of course, one …

May 24, 2004: A Community of Diversity Series | Church It has been a while since my last blog on the distinctive traits of New Testament churches, and to get us back into that discussion …

May 13, 2004: Always the Bridesmaid, Never the Bride My props go again to Mijah (Micah James) for today’s blog. Wednesday night he shared with me the new solo project by Derek Webb, “She Must and Shall …

May 12, 2004: Church - The Teen Edition? Series | Church Thanks to Micah Lugg for today’s weblog title. As we were on our way to Starbucks this morning he was describing some of his reaction …

May 9, 2004: An Example of Self-Defeating Segregation Series | Church If you haven’t read the weblog from 05/07 you should do that before reading today’s entry. The bottom line of that entry was to …

May 6, 2004: Leaders of the Flock - What (else)? Series | Church It is always beneficial for us when our vision is in line with God’s vision. By using the word vision I am not referring to some …

May 5, 2004: Leaders of the Flock - What? Series | Church Yesterday we took a brief look at some of the implications of who New Testament shepherds are and where they do their work. Today I’d …

May 4, 2004: Leaders of the Flock - Who? and Where? Series | Church We are back again to consider the distinctive traits of New Testament churches, and today I’d like to consider the fact that local …

May 2, 2004: The Chosen Chanel Series | Church If you’ve been in “Big Church” on Sunday mornings during the last couple of months you know that Pastor Z is in a series about the …

Apr 28, 2004: Eagerness vs. Necessity As a preacher it is a regular occurrence for me to hear criticism. Actually, I am amazed that I don’t get more disapproving comments from my teaching, …

Apr 23, 2004: The Battle over Surface Earth Yesterday was a monumental day in my life. Although there was no parade and no fireworks, it was an absolutely great day. Yesterday, for the first …

Apr 22, 2004: Scoffer Sensitive Services Off and on for the last twelve years or so I have been reading the “proverb of the day.” When I was in high school my youth pastor pointed out to me …

Apr 20, 2004: The Ugliness of Unthankfulness I thought that I might be able to skip over this thought in my head, but providence apparently had another idea. The thought came up yesterday while …

Apr 19, 2004: It's About Time Well, my first post was more than a few days ago, and I really do have a lot of things that are going through my mind that I want to write about. It …

Apr 1, 2004: Welcome to the Blog Well, it seems like everyone who is anyone on the internet has their own weblog, so I thought it might be fun to include some of my own rantings and …