blog move

I moved to a wordpress.org hosted blog at bkingrblog.com

Forgotten God

I am reading Francis Chan’s book, Forgotten God. It is very similar to the writing style and approach that Francis took when he wrote Crazy Love (which is on my “read every January list”). In other words, it is easy to read, challenges assumptions, and dares us to move out of our routines into a [...]

why me?

These are questions we tend to ask when things aren’t going the way we would desire for them to go.  Why me?  Why this? Why now? Justin Taylor posts an answer tree from David Powlison, “God’s Grace and Your Sufferings,”  in Suffering and the Sovereignty of God (pp. 172-173).. here is a paragraph from the middle, [...]

book recommendation

John Piper is making a book recommendation other than the Bible.  Same Kind of Different As Me. My lovely wife read Same Kind of Different As Me last year and also recommends it highly. here are some lines that Piper mentioned: “Denver and I are not preachers or teachers but sinners with a story to [...]

Early Voting

Julie and I early voted this afternoon for my boss, Governor Rick Perry. Below is the text of an email that I received from someone else who works for the Governor, explaining why it is important to vote for him in this primary as well as for Justice Eva Guzman. Early voting is underway. You [...]

Fuel for the Christian Life

Tullian Tchividjian explains that the Gospel is the power of God for salvation as well as fuel for living the Christian life. HT to Timmy Brister

photoes on phridai

finally, at long last, I have some pictures for the last hour of this friday. From the Nikon F5, here are some taken with Fuji Velvia 50. I have been wanting to try this color saturated film for a while. hedge on the Capitol grounds messing with the sun in our front tree backlit flag [...]

Brian McLaren’s new book

Kevin DeYoung thoroughly (pdf 12 pages long) reviews all ten premises of Brian McClaren’s new book A New Kind of Christianity here. Kevin’s describes his approach at the outset: I want to be fair with McLaren. I want to understand his ideas and evaluate them based on their merits. If I misunderstand a point or [...]

UPDATE: Amos and Story

At her blog, Jamie Ivey has been posting updates regarding the integration of their two newest family members, Amos and Story, into the family. The latest update gives a glimpse into how difficult adoption can be. Amos asks me every day why I love him. I’ll tell him I love him and he looks at [...]

the Holy Crap must go

Walter Russell Meade lays down his marker. its a good read. I especially like this bit, but the whole thing is good: The Christian churches in the United States are in trouble for all the usual reasons — human sinfulness and selfishness, the temptations of life in an affluent society, doctrinal and moral controversies and [...]

doctrine

Big new book from Mark Driscoll is coming soon. Doctrine, What Christians Should Believe Looks good. here is the table of contents: Table of Contents Introduction Chapter 1 – Trinity: God Is Chapter 2 – Revelation: God Speaks Chapter 3 – Creation: God Makes Chapter 4 – Image: God Loves Chapter 5 – Fall: God [...]

why its a bad answer

Beldar has some thoughts on why Debra Medina’s answer to Glenn Beck was not just bad, but was actively disqualifying in her race for Governor. Those aren’t just wrong answers, they’re disqualifying answers. Public servants, to be effective at all, must be able to make good judgments. Indeed, they must be able to make good [...]

photos on phriday

J Pete needed a portrait made. here is the bokehed view from the back mike at the Texas House and Natalie snagging a rebound at the last game

wow! bye bye Debra

Debra Medina is in the Republican primary for Texas Governor and has been making some progress in the polls against Governor Perry and Senator Hutchison. There was even some talk based on recent polling that she could finish second ahead of the Senator. I think that talk will be finished after this morning’s appearance on [...]

Verge 2010

I wasn’t able to go to Verge 2010 last week, but I watched quite a bit of the streaming video. It was some amazing stuff. Many of the thoughts and beliefs with which I have been struggling for the last seven years were echoed from the stage. just amazing. In particular, two things that I [...]

current bookshelf

my current bookshelf of books that I am reading looks like this Amazon.com Widgets quite a stack on my nightstand

twitter thoughts

here is an interesting essay from George Packer in the New Yorker about twitter.  Here is how the meat of it begins: The truth is, I feel like yelling Stop quite a bit these days. Every time I hear about Twitter I want to yell Stop. The notion of sending and getting brief updates to [...]

interview

here is an interview with a man that will likely not be alive at the end of this year. fascinating difference in perspective even though any of the rest of could die this year too. There is a tendency that’s especially strong in Calvinist circles to read Romans 8:28, “All things work together for the [...]

photos on phriday

Too gray and wet for too many days for any picture taking this week. here are some oldies. Moo goes camping last fall all this rain makes me think the bluebonnets are going to be great this year. I am ready for them to get here. and this year in the bluebonnets, I will have [...]

effect of literature

Kevin DeYoung wonders what hath literature wrought? I agree strongly with his conclusion: I’ll take passionate and logical romantic rationalism over the tired tirades of false dichotomies any day. plus, I enjoy his perfect parallel prose. anyone who reads here long knows that I adore appropriate alliteration.

handling criticism

Tim Keller has some useful insights into handling criticism. First, you should look to see if there is a kernel of truth in even the most exaggerated and unfair broadsides. There is usually such a kernel when the criticism comes from friends, and there is often such truth when the disapproval comes from people who [...]

personal election

here is a beautiful essay by Tim Challies about Mary Magdalene at the tomb of Jesus and what it means for Jesus to have called us to life by name. As I read these words, I think of the way Jesus called me and the way he has called countless numbers of men and women [...]

family reengineering

you may recall a previous post on my blog regarding a liberal anthropologist’s case against homosexual marriage. today I present a conservative atheist’s questions about reengineering the family. worth a read. I like Heather’s ending the best: These are not easy questions. The deprivation to gays from not being able to put the official, public [...]

the spell is broken

Fouad Ajami pronounces the Obama Spell to be broken. do you agree? Here is the intro: The curtain has come down on what can best be described as a brief un-American moment in our history. That moment began in the fall of 2008, with the great financial panic, and gave rise to the Barack Obama [...]