Man is homo religiosus

or as I keep saying, “you don’t replace something with nothing.” the blue people movie is more evidence that in our modern culture spirituality is fine, but Christianity or other specific organized religion is off-limits. Jonah has an interesting piece up called “Avatar and the Faith Instinct.” a bit to tease you over there to [...]

truth

here is an interesting perspective on how much truth to give someone in their moment of pain and how our hearts have to be divinely prepared before some truths make sense to us at all. a taste: 2.Then there’s an important truth of practical and pastoral theology. Sometimes the right explanation is the wrong explanation. [...]

do something risky with your life

here is John Piper talking about the stoning of Stephen and its application for us. Hat tip to m cubed

secularism and paganism

useful post from Challies on the six faces of paganism present today in our society. Go read his post for the details. 1. materialism 2. empiricism 3. determinism 4. secularism 5. secular humanism 6. post-modernism see if you can tell which one of these six is not like the rest and tell me why it [...]

more AVATAR

this is a great read and a fun take on the new smurf native movie. Takes down radical earth loving environmentalists along the way. In Avatar, James Cameron has created a world that justifies the smug arrogance and bitter alienation of the radical environmentalist. The alien world of Pandora really is a maternal Gaia spirit, [...]

a little biblical archeology

here is a little biblical archeology for your reading pleasure this holiday weekend. How December 25 Became Christmas here is the beginning of a fascinating disquisition. The Bible offers few clues: Celebrations of Jesus’ Nativity are not mentioned in the Gospels or Acts; the date is not given, not even the time of year. The [...]

Les Lanphere

I found Les Lanphere’s blog through Twitter (@llanphere). He has been doing a series showing God’s sovereignty in everything and especially in salvation in each non-Pauline epistle of the New Testament in order to show that this doctrine is not something that only Paul writes about. Interesting stuff. I would also recommend three posts of [...]

the decline and fall of Detroit

here is a Steve Crowder video on the case study of the effects of liberal policies and union power in Detroit. more photos of the collapse of Detroit here. more pictures here Freaky story about how the city and people of Detroit are too poor to bury the dead.

AVATAR

Dr. Russell Moore saw it. I was watching his twitter stream (@drmoore) yesterday evening and saw this (oldest ones at the bottom): I didn’t cheer, by the way. Too much Merle Haggard in my blood, I guess. Like to see you make that movie in Afghanistan, fella…about 14 hours ago from Tweetie James Cameron’s last big [...]

friday fotoes

an explosion of color in my backyard not really happy with this one, but trying to get the elusive Christmas tree shot. ice in the grass on fuji film

Piper talking to Chandler

Here is a four part interview that John Piper did with Matt Chandler. Well worth a listen/watch. Part 1 – Chandler tells his story up to about 20 years old. Part 2 – More on Chandler’s story, through becoming a pastor. Part 3 – Chandler’s thoughts on being a pastor, a Calvinist, and a Complementarian. [...]

life

“yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.” or as Kansas says: Now, don’t hang on nothing last forever but the earth and sky it slips away And all your money won’t another minute buy Dust [...]

trade it all?

A friend of mine put this question up on Facebook last night: Michael Irvin “would trade it all for 19-0″ and wonders: What would you trade it all for? a question like that crawls up into my brain and rolls around for a little while. first of all the lawyer in me wants to explore [...]

you don’t replace something with nothing

very interesting study from Pew Forum about the religious views of Americans. The religious beliefs and practices of Americans do not fit neatly into conventional categories. A new poll by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life finds that large numbers of Americans engage in multiple religious practices, mixing elements of diverse [...]

new calvinism in the Christian Century

Kevin DeYoung has some thoughts about this article. here is one paragraph from the article: Moreover, the New Calvinism displays considerable diversity. African-American rapper Curtis “Voice” Allen is known for his distinctively Calvinist lyrics (“I been exposed to bright lights, the doctrines of grace, I’m elected, imputed perfected . . . Cuz nothing can stop [...]

phriday photos

the sky was a little bit strange Tuesday evening here is the same picture as the one from last week on 35mm film to show the full 17mm. (compare to D300 17mm which is more like 24mm) and I always love the flowers

the Office

take a look at this and tell me what you think. here is a bit: This is a very important point. Many shows, and much of the message coming out of popular American culture, is that we are all destined for greatness. We are all destined to do a job we not only like, but [...]

Banging the Drum

Francis Chan continues to bang the drum. This man really fires me up. Have you read Crazy Love yet? you should. here are a couple of bits from his article, but go read the whole thing. [In starting Cornerstone Church] I simply followed what other churches in America had done. I didn’t even think twice [...]

photos

you will notice over on the left sidebar that I added a button that looks like this: I have put some of my pictures on QOOP for folks to buy download print or whatever. Let me know if there is something else on my Flickr page that you would like for me to put in [...]

helpful reminder

here is a helpful reminder of our role in the scheme of things from Jeremiah Burroughs courtesy of Kevin DeYoung. I beseech you to consider that God does not deal by you as you deal with him. Should God make the worst interpretation of all your ways towards him, as you do of his towards you, [...]

Matt Chandler

Matt Chandler’s surgery to remove a mass from his frontal lobe begins in about 20 minutes. Be in prayer for him during the surgery and for a complete recovery. Here is a post from Matt going into surgery about the things for which he is thankful. The beginning: The last seven days have been some [...]

foto friday

I recently got a wide angle lens (17-35mm) and I have been trying to learn how to use it. from my parents’ backyard family during thanksgiving. Great great grandparents admiring the second great great grandbaby. the north side of the Capitol.

Lessons from Tiger Woods

C.J. Mahaney has some thoughts about what we can all learn from Tiger Woods and his troubles this last week.  Excellent stuff. Go read it all. Hunted by Sin But Tiger is being hunted by something more menacing than journalists. Tiger’s real enemy is his sin, and that’s an enemy much more difficult to discern [...]

headline sufficiency

here is a case where the headline really does tell you enough: “Man loses job after searching too hard for aliens.” But feel free to click through if you must have the gory details regarding misuse of public computers involuntary enlisted in the search for alien life to the tune of 1.2 to 1.6 MILLION [...]