foto friday

messing around with bokeh and depth of field in the Parma’s grass. This one with my 300mm f4 and water droplets on the grass and this one with my 80-200mm f2.8 and a leaf (new custom header picture) here is a two flash “strobist” take on decorative grass headers sb800 to camera left about two [...]

where we are

Christian Smith and Patricia Snell have written a book that looks fascinating. It is called Souls in Transition: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of Emerging Adults at the link above you can read extended excerpts from the book and get a feel for what Christian and Patricia are doing therein. Take a look at Page [...]

speaking ill of others

Nathan Finn posted some great advice from Charles Simeon regarding what to do when hearing someone tell you a bad report about another person: This sage advice comes from Charles Simeon, the great 19th century Anglican evangelical: 1st – To hear as little as possible what is to the prejudice of others. 2nd – To [...]

abortion as genocide

Margaret Sanger and her monstrous eugenic aspirations for abortion on demand appear to be bearing fruit. Abortion kills more black Americans than the seven leading causes of death combined, according to data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for 2005, the latest year for which the abortion numbers are available. Abortion killed at least 203,991 blacks in [...]

Restless hearts

Justin Taylor posts the following quote from C.S. Lewis regarding our restless hearts. C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (HarperOne, 1980), pp. 49–50: What Satan put into the heads of our remote ancestors was the idea that they could ‘be like gods’—could set up on their own as if they had created themselves—be their own masters—invent some [...]

Another hard one

Stand to Reason Blog found a place on the net called “The Abortioneers” which has since disappeared but remains visible in Google cache. Here is the paper abstract and information. the article by L Harris is very interesting stuff. she acknowledges her deep ambivalence at performing abortions: To reflect seriously on the question of how [...]

the gospel

another post defining the Gospel. this one is excellent. check out the whole post, but here is the meat of the coconut: So what is the gospel? Although this brief survey is far from complete, it consistently reveals that the gospel is good news concerning Jesus and what he did to accomplish salvation for sinners. In [...]

photo phriday

these weeds have been fascinating me and I finally got the chance to photograph them this week. and I bought a canon point and shoot (powershot S90) to carry around for more spontaneous pictures. It is a great little camera.

new First Things blog

there is a new blog in the fold at First Things. It is Evangel. Headed up by Dr. Russell Moore and written by him and several others including Justin Taylor and Joe Carter. Looks like a good one to check out.

the Jesus threat

Todd Bumgarner posts an interesting quote from John Stott. what do you think about this? The context is Stott talking about the first century Jewish people and their priests and how they reacted and responded to Jesus’ ministry: “So they felt threatened by Jesus.  He undermined their prestige, their hold over the people, their own [...]

photo phriday

Tuesday morning was very foggy misty and gray. Tuesday afternoon was sunny and very bright. tried the 50 f1.4 for under the basket shots.

30 years

speaking of Justin Taylor, you have got to check out his post about John Piper’s call to the ministry 30 years ago if you haven’t already. The picture is worth the trip over this link. but the testimony is good too. The decisive night of wrestling was on Monday, October 14, 1979—30 years ago today. [...]

gospel coalition

Kevin DeYoung and Justin Taylor have moved their blogs over to the Gospel Coalition’s site. Here are their new digs: DeYoung Restless and Reformed Between Two Worlds

Choice, Sovereignty and an example

John Piper recently explored free will, God’s sovereignty and Paul’s example. fascinating stuff. One of the most influential passages in the Bible that God used to open my mind to his sovereignty over my will is Philippians 2:12-13. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to [...]

The only real question for believers

Matt Carter finished up the Blueprint series at Austin Stone Community Church yesterday. Please download all 5 of these messages and give them a listen. At the beginning of yesterday’s message, Matt asked the only question really worth asking for believers. “Are we going to live the watered down version of Christianity that we’ve defined [...]

He is winning everything in sight

look at him go. Here from Reason TV is the catalogue: HT to Veronique de Rugy

fridai fotoes

sunlight. joseph in uniform Lighting information for the Joseph pictures: two sb800′s and a setting sun. SB800 on the camera in TTL Commander mode. SB800 set to TTL on moving voice activated stand to camera right 3 feet away and pointing up at Joseph. Setting sun off to camera right approximately 93 million miles away. [...]

any marriage is fixable

any marriage is fixable/salvageable with the right spirit and in the right power (II Peter 1:3). check out this story: Al added, “We kept drifting apart. I knew what I was doing was wrong; I was too proud to ask for help.” After a brief pause, I quietly asked, “So are you guys going to [...]

J.I. Packer on Repentance

Timmy Brister is starting a blog series on the importance of ongoing repentance in a Christian’s life. His post today in that series is this quote from J.I. Packer: “We need to realize that while God’s acceptance of each Christian believer is perfect from the start, our repentance always needs to be extended further as [...]

Roles

An interesting phenomenon is occurring all of the sudden. Women are not as happy as they thought they would be in a society that is less bound by traditional roles for the sexes. here is the study that provoked the outburst above. and at First Things here are Mary Eberstadt’s thoughts about what is going [...]

Driscoll in Austin

Mark Driscoll started the Austin Song of Solomon conference yesterday evening. It was an excellent way to spend a Friday evening with my lovely wife of 20 years. Tim Hawks the pastor of Hill Country Bible Church kicked off the festivities by welcoming everyone to the church. Mark spoke for the next couple of hours. [...]

fotoe fridae

Another sunrise. I love sunsets and sunrises and the colors they make. up a little farther and I keep telling my wife that I need a 24-70 f2.8 for the close in work

Deep Church?

Kevin DeYoung takes a good long look at Deep Church by Jim Belcher. As you know, Kevin wrote his own book about the emerging church movement, so he knows whereof he speaks. he approached this new book with trepidation: I am always skeptical of “third way” books anyways. Usually, the “third way” is basically the [...]