A father in my congregation has asked me what sort of questions a father should be asking a young man who wants to court his daughter. It is one thing to affirm that fathers should be active in protecting their daughters, but it is quite another to figure out what sort of specific questions are …
Oh, Never Mind
Guy Waters’ Introduction has three main sections. In the first, he summarizes the doctrine of sola fide. That section was quite good in many respects, actually. I can say this because I affirm, believe, and teach the doctrine of sola fide. The only place I would quibble with Waters here is that I would want …
Let ‘Er Rip
The second chapter of Rod Dreher’s book is on consumerism. He begins by telling the appalling story of what the American people were urged by the president to do in the aftermath of the 9-11 attacks, which was, unbelievably, to “go shopping.” This was hardly a blood, sweat and tears exhortation. Instead of “we will …
Cory and Katie
Cory and Katie, I am giving this exhortation to both of you as a minister of the Lord Jesus Christ, and I am doing so in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. May our triune God seal these words in your hearts as He knits you together throughout the course of your …
Dead and Gone
C.S. Lewis commented once that the present is, historically speaking, a “period.” This may seem too obvious to point out, but there will come a time when what is currently happening will no longer be happening. Several centuries into the future, various schoolchildren will be sweating out the details of our century as they frantically …
Pina Coladas, and Walking in the Rain
The next chapter in Dawkins is called “The ‘Good’ Book and the Changing Moral Zeitgeist,” and it is one of the strangest bits of business I have encountered in some time. The first part of the chapter is dedicated to proving how the Bible exhibits “sheer strangeness” and is “just plain weird” (p. 237). To …
The Metaphorical Bonnet
The exhortation last Lord’s Day spoke to austere fathers. Today I want to address women who tear down their households with their own hands, and with their own tongues. Scripture has a great deal to say to us in our particular stations and callings. Men are addressed one way, and women another. In a community …
The Whole Thing Is Beyond Us
How does anything happen? It takes very little reflection to conclude that the world, and everything in it, is quite remarkable. How can a kernel of wheat germinate in the ground? How is a child knit together in the womb of his mother? How is it that a plant can feed on inanimate nutrients, and …
Just One More Elective Surgery
[Speaking of a radical Islamic political advances in the West] “Designating female genital mutilation (FGM) as an operation that Western doctors may legally perform on Muslim women will probably be first. Some doctors will welcome the extra income for such an easy surgery, just as some of them bank extra income for performing unnecessary abortions …
A PBS Whitewash
“With that, we can see that ‘Islam: Empire of Faith’ [a PBS special] totally covers up the truth about Mohammed—that he was a marauder, stealing other people’s property, having one innocent after another assassinated, ordering several hundred Jewish men beheaded, condemning captive women to spend their entire lives serving him and his followers as sex …