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A prayer group at my church are studying Richard Foster’s Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home.  Today’s quote is the epigram of the second chapter, by St. John of the Cross. To come to the pleasure you have not you must go by a way in which you enjoy not.

Here’s a pithy little quote aimed at the traditional Reformed view of Justification (in Justification: God’s Plan & Paul’s Vision). For too long we have read Scripture with nineteenth-century eyes and sixteenth-century questions. It’s time to get back to reading with first century eyes and twenty-first-century questions.

“The Devil made me do it!” Flip Wilson popularized that phrase in his comedy routines.  Here’s a good example from, “The Devil Made Me Buy This Dress”: While some people just blame everything on the devil to avoid taking responsibility for their actions (it is a pretty convenient excuse), there is a serious truth behind [...]

A Faith and Culture Devotional: Daily Readings on Art, Science, and Life © 2008 Zondervan 302 pages Kullberg & Arrington set out with a lofty goal: to unite seven different subjects of study in one devotional which would cause the reader to consider and interact with some of the great ideas, events, and people in [...]

In reading through one of George MacDonald’s children’s books, Ranald Bannerman’s Boyhood, I came across this very profound description of the sound a brook makes. At our feet, a few yards from the mound, ran a babbling brook, which divided our farm from the next. Those of my readers whose ears are open to the [...]

Pagan Christianity?: Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices © 2002, 2008 Tyndale House Publishers 295 pages I have mixed feelings about this book. The history Viola brings to light is very important for any Christian to understand and process.  On the other hand, his interpretation of the information is frustratingly one-sided. This book can [...]

Here’s a very astute line from Flannery O’Connor.  It’s quoted from the short story, “Enoch and the Gorilla” in The Complete Stories. However, you can read about the same incident in her novel, Wise Blood. The virtue of hope, in Enoch, was made up of two parts suspicion and one part lust.

This post is long overdue. You know the joy that comes from discovering a band before they’re popular?  The smug attitude that follows the words, “Yeah, I knew them before they sold out”? Now’s the time: listen to Driving on City Sidewalks. Their sound is inspired by Explosions in the Sky and Appleseed Cast. It’s [...]

Ranald Bannerman’s Boyhood © 1871 Johannesen 335 pages What an innocent book. This book tells the tale of Ranald Bannerman from his earliest memories to the moment his boyhood ended. It was so captivating, I read it through in three sittings. There were a number of highlights for me: Realizing how intelligent children’s literature was [...]

Here’s Samuel Terrien from his Commentary on Psalm 36: Life is a long interlude of spoken or mute prayer and a communion, never terminated, with the Presence.