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Showing posts from August, 2016

Commonplace Monday #49

"The major result of the many unrelenting scholarly attacks on the historical reliability of the New Testament has been to frustrate the attackers because again and again scripture has stood up to their challenges." Rodney Stark Commonplace Monday is a series of posts wherein, on Monday mornings, I share short quips, sentences -perhaps as much as a paragraph- which I have collected in my various commonplace books and files. If I wrote down or recall where it came from I will certainly give attribution. However, sometimes I write down things and not where they came from. So if you see anything like that here and recognize it, that's what comment sections are for. 

Commonplace Monday #48

"Man is a poetical animal and touches nothing which he does not adorn." CS Lewis Commonplace Monday is a series of posts wherein, on Monday mornings, I share short quips, sentences -perhaps as much as a paragraph- which I have collected in my various commonplace books and files. If I wrote down or recall where it came from I will certainly give attribution. However, sometimes I write down things and not where they came from. So if you see anything like that here and recognize it, that's what comment sections are for. 

Review: Jerry Baker's Great Green Book of Garden Secrets

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Jerry Baker's Great Green Book of Garden Secrets by Jerry Baker My rating: 2 of 5 stars There were a few helpful tips and ideas in this book (although I'm not sure if coke on my plants did a whole lot...), but much of it was redundant. This book could have been fit into about 100 pages and contained just as much information, had there simply been a useful index added in the back. Instead, recipes and suggestions were repeated ad nauseam. My copy will probably be making the trek to Goodwill. View all my reviews

Commonplace monday #47

"[The church is] the community of the joyful broken." Larry Crabb Commonplace Monday is a series of posts wherein, on Monday mornings, I share short quips, sentences -perhaps as much as a paragraph- which I have collected in my various commonplace books and files. If I wrote down or recall where it came from I will certainly give attribution. However, sometimes I write down things and not where they came from. So if you see anything like that here and recognize it, that's what comment sections are for. 

27 Years of Choosing Commitment

Today marks my parents 27th anniversary. 27 years of commitment, 27 years of struggle, 27 years of life together. 27 years of good, bad, and everything in between. My parents are far from perfect (doesn't that go without saying, at least assuming that we have human parents?). But today I want to meditate and dwell on one thing that I have learned from my parents that has already served me well, and I pray will continue to do so. What is this one thing? That staying married is a matter of desiring to stay married. What do I mean? Well, there is a self-evident reality to this. Why do marriages, over half of them today, dissolve? Because one or both parties desire that they no longer wish to be yoked together. Now, my parents never sat down and explained this fact to me. But when you watch two people, who in very many ways are polar opposites in thought, opinion, personality, etc., and watch them disagree, be frustrated with one another, argue--many people in our society wo

Can You Leave Your Kids in Public School?

This is a question I was asking myself long before I ever had children of my own. I determined, along with my wife, that public school simply wasn't an option for us. And because we don't live near any private schools that I would consider, either, that leaves us with homeschooling. Many parents whom I know, and for whom I have the utmost respect, do choose to send their children to school. I have no doubt that many of them have put much thought into this and feel they have good reasons for doing so. But with the drastic shift in our culture, I wonder how long parents will continue to consider this a viable option? Consider this post from Rod Dreher over at the American Conservative.  The cultural pressure on our children today to conform to the Sexual Revolution's notion of normal is immense, and it is not happening "out there." It's happening in your local school, among kids that you would never guess it from. Most parents are either complicit in thi

The kind of quotes worth mulling over...

Head over here to check out my wife's "Witsdom Wednesday", kind of like Commonplace Monday, but a little different.

Who is Jesus?

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“ God creates by speaking; but His speech is not like our speech. His speech is not the reverberating of atoms (for when God first spoke there were no atoms!). His speech is His creative action and revelation of Himself, especially through His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.” 1 Today we are going to start our look into God the Son, the Word of God. Our study will split into two parts, first taking a shorter look at the Son as He eternally has been with God, and then next week taking a more extended look at His coming to earth, His work here, and where He is now. I want to emphasize here again, that these videos are only giving you the tip of the iceberg on these subjects, an introduction. There is so much more we could say, and hopefully as we cover more ground some of these things will start to fit together better in your mind.  Continue Reading here...  

Commonplace Monday #46

"I rejected the church for a time because I found so little grace there. I returned because I found grace nowhere else." Phillip Yancey Commonplace Monday is a series of posts wherein, on Monday mornings, I share short quips, sentences -perhaps as much as a paragraph- which I have collected in my various commonplace books and files. If I wrote down or recall where it came from I will certainly give attribution. However, sometimes I write down things and not where they came from. So if you see anything like that here and recognize it, that's what comment sections are for. 

Why do We Need the Bible?

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Introduction: Knowing who God is, and responding appropriately, is the most important thing in our lives. Proverbs 1:7 says, “ The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” [1] You might even question if there is a God. I'll be honest with you, we aren't even going to grapple with that question, and here's why: “18  For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19  For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20  For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21  For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22  Claiming to be wise, they became fools

Review: City of Man: Religion and Politics in a New Era

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City of Man: Religion and Politics in a New Era by Michael J. Gerson My rating: 5 of 5 stars A brief, helpful, book on why Christians ought to engage in, but not hope in, the political realm. We are citizens of the City of God, called to act for the good of the City of Man. Well worth your time. View all my reviews

Review: The Message of Ecclesiastes: A Time to Mourn, and a Time to Dance

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The Message of Ecclesiastes: A Time to Mourn, and a Time to Dance by Derek Kidner My rating: 5 of 5 stars Kidner's sense for both the deep despair of Ecclesiastes and its underlying hope is a combination rarely achieved. His prose is striking and memorable, a perfect reading companion for this book of Wisdom Literature. View all my reviews

Commonplace Monday #45

"The key to faith's power is that it embraces the future grace promised by God, and is more satisfied with this than with the pleasures promised by sin--even if it costs us our lives." John Piper Commonplace Monday is a series of posts wherein, on Monday mornings, I share short quips, sentences -perhaps as much as a paragraph- which I have collected in my various commonplace books and files. If I wrote down or recall where it came from I will certainly give attribution. However, sometimes I write down things and not where they came from. So if you see anything like that here and recognize it, that's what comment sections are for. 

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