Christianity Today just announced the winners of their 2014 Book Awards. We are very grateful to God for the fact that Nate’s recent book Death By Living won the award in their Spirituality category. Just fun all around. We are grateful to God, knowing that all such things are a gift from Him, and at …
Deeper Grace
“God’s grace is a tsunami that will carry us all away, and deposit us in places we would not have anticipated — and all of them good. We analyze all this carefully, and say that we want our grace to be genuine water, just like the tsunami, but we want it to be a placid …
A Purpose Driven Book Review
I won’t go into it now, but as a result of a series of odd events, I decided that at some point I needed to read a book by Rick Warren. I had picked up a copy of his Purpose Driven Life at a used bookstore, and despite the fact that California evangelical megachurch land …
Grace Got Loose
“Grace is not something we do. Grace is not something we can control. Grace is not something we can manage. And this means that we in the Church, particularly in the sola gratia wing of the Reformed church, need to recognize that curators of grace are frequently the most dangerous enemies of grace. Grace is …
Photogenic Lies
For a bit of balance on the issues raised on the passing of Nelson Mandela, I would send you here and here. If you sow the wind, sometimes you reap the whirlwind. Apartheid, a system of injustice established by Reformed Christians, was the wind. A significant part of the whirlwind is that we are beyond …
A Lot More Than Silver Bells
“A sentimental Christmas is a Christmas without conflict . . . a moralistic Christmas is a Christmas without sin . . . a spiritualistic Christmas is a Christmas without matter” (God Rest Ye Merry, pp. 32-33).
Why Lies Digest So Well
As Flannery O’Connor put it, “The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.” But a falsehood, as Chesterton notes, is engineered precisely so that the listeners would in fact be able to stomach it. Stomachability is a design feature when it comes to a lie. Who would invent lies that nobody …
Mark Driscoll and Problems of Citation
I don’t have much to say about the ruckus these last few weeks concerning the allegation of plagiarism by Mark Driscoll, an allegation that was made by Janet Mefferd, and then subsequently withdrawn by her. Not having much to say, I intend therefore to not say it. Initially I thought to say nothing whatever, but …
One or the Other
“From the moment Simeon spoke those fateful words, the winnowing has been in effect. Come to Jesus or go away. In Him is light, and away from Him is only darkness” (God Rest Ye Merry, p. 31).
And Fat Targets Are Everywhere
“Though it be not true that ‘ridicule is the test of truth,’ it is certainly a very effective way of refuting pretentious falsehood” (Broadus, Preparation and Delivery, p. 203).