Thinking with sound judgment

A few years ago Money magazine reported that, “When researchers at Duke, Harvard, and Northwestern asked investors how their mutual funds performed last year compared with Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index, a third claimed their funds outperformed the market by at least 5 percent. One in six said their funds fared better by more than […]

An appropriate prayer

On the sixth day of NASA’s moon mission of Apollo 13, the astronauts aboard the badly damaged space vehicle needed to make a critical course correction in order to position themselves to reenter the earth’s atmosphere. Unfortunately, the ship’s onboard computer had been shut down to conserve power, so the craft had to be steered […]

Now that the Olympics are beginning…

This afternoon I read what I wrote four years ago after the last summer Olympic games ended. It’s worth reading “Now that the Olympics are over,” before they begin, to prepare your heart spiritually for temptations that lie ahead in the next two weeks. A sample: If I’m going to watch too much TV, it […]

What am I looking at?

“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.” (2 Cor 3:18) For believers in Christ, our faces have been unveiled. That is, we are allowed to gaze at the […]

That smells good!

Saturday evening we pulled back into our garage after a two-week vacation. And as soon as we opened the van doors, we could tell something had happened while we were gone — and the first thought was that the cat had brought an “offering” to us and that sacrifice was decaying in a hidden place. […]

Running rules

I’m not a runner. (I’ve long said that my body is built for comfort, not speed!) But there is a kind of running that I must do and that all believers must do. We run the race of the Christian life (1 Cor. 9:24-27) — that is, we labor and work in the Christian life […]

Imitate me

It is a simple, eight-word statement by the apostle Paul, but it sounds bold, brash, and arrogant to our ears: “Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me.” (1 Cor 4:16) Yet there is a sound biblical reason Paul offers this command: he was given to them by God as their earthly spiritual father to […]

Principles of building

For the third time in five years, today we are receiving new flooring in our kitchen and hallways. The first time, we laid new wood floors over some old, tired laminate. We were thrilled with the way it turned out and loved it. Then one Saturday night at 9:00 I went to get a drink […]

The Cross Quoter – a new blog

For several months I have appreciated the blog site, “The Old Guys” — a daily posting of quotes from deceased theologians who are still worth reading. Now a new, related site has been created, “The Cross Quoter.” The goal of this new site is “to put others in touch with helpful quotes, books, and resources […]

When obedience is not obedience

Not all obedience is obedience. If you have children, that statement is often easy to validate. Children will begrudgingly say, “sorry” when they’ve sinned, with little evident demonstrations of remorse or repentance. Children will fulfill a task (e.g., cleaning, chores, homework), all the while grumbling about it, so the job is done, but with all […]

The Hobbit

While the ratio of reading fiction books compared to non-fiction (and even more specifically, secular to spiritual) has decreased over the years, I still read a few non-fiction works. I read them for pleasure, as well as just exposing myself to good writing and good vocabulary. And sometimes those non-fiction works also have significant spiritual […]

Book blurbs

In the interest of “something is better than nothing,” here are a few blurbs and comments on some books I’ve recently completed reading: Title: Atheism Remix Author: R. Albert Mohler, Jr. Publisher: Crossway, 2008, 108 pp., $15.99 Recommendation (4-star scale): Summary: This book is based on a series of four messages that Mohler gave at […]

Grab bag

Some helpful articles seen recently: John Newton, writing his troubled friend William Cowper, notes the hardness of the Christian life — and the grace of Christ: “For every day shows us some new thing in the heart, or some new turn in the management of the war against us which we were not aware of; […]

May I Go In There?

From Jared Wilson’s blog: This is taken from an illustration in John Phillips’ Exploring Hebrews commentary that has always moved me. Imagine with me a Moabite of old gazing down upon the Tabernacle of Israel from some lofty hillside. This Moabite is attracted to what he sees so he descends the hill and makes his […]

A steadfast mind

Author George Bernard Shaw went to visit fellow Brit and sculptor Sir Jacob Epstein on one occasion. As the artist showed the writer his studio, Shaw noticed a huge block of stone in the corner and asked Epstein what his intention was for the granite. “I don’t know yet. I’m still making plans.” “You mean […]