Gaining a heart of wisdom
It's a delightful alchemy that takes geography and the events of historical context, and then blends in the like-mindedness and the variations of two distinct personalities. Common enough, this is the science of friendship that is traced and recorded by Randy Petersen in The Printer and the Preacher because, every once in a while, the melding of a friendship has historical impact,… Continue reading Ben and George: The Friendship that Invented America
. . . dangerous, reckless, irrational, absurd, shocking, rare, and surprising. These are not the labels normally associated with the word "grace," but Tullian Tchividjian would say that this is because our idea of grace is too tame. In One Way Love, he begins a conversation about the love of God that pulverizes the church's… Continue reading Drastic, Gratuitous, Liberating, Scandalous
What do you call a dentist who cleans an alligator's teeth? That's a great question to ponder on a car trip or a plane ride or a lazy, rainy Saturday, and it's just one of the many jokes and riddles found in Rob Elliot's and Jonny Hawkin's latest collaboration for kids: Laugh Out Loud Pocket… Continue reading Creativity and Fun in Your Pocket
To the already stunning list of monikers on the Dietrich Bonhoeffer resume -- pastor, martyr, spy, author, faithful brother -- Paul R. House has added another: theological educator. In Bonhoeffer's Seminary Vision, the author has fulfilled the promise of his subtitle by making A Case for Costly Grace in higher theological education, but there is… Continue reading A Higher Education
I have read Elisabeth Elliot's A Lamp for My Feet at least a half dozen times in the past twenty years, but turned to it again at the outset of 2015. Like an old friend, its words are familiar to me, and my copy is underlined and dog-eared and covered with scrawled verse references. It's a simple… Continue reading Reflections from the Lamp: Remembering Elisabeth Elliot
Reading Hebrews 11 reminds me that today's "yes" to God is a ripple in the pond of generations. The #livefree Thursday prompt today is "whisper yes." I'm blessed by the record of others' obedience to God, and challenged to add my "yes" to the choir of faithful followers. // In the age of Twitter and… Continue reading Another Generation of Anything
People have a tendency to view the population of the world on a continuum. Everyone whose ideas and opinions are to the left of mine is, by definition, "a liberal," and is to be most conscientiously converted to my way of thinking. Everyone whose ideas and opinions place them to the right of me on this imaginary… Continue reading Lonely on the Pinnacle of Truth
Character development is my favorite part of reading a book, whether it's a work of fiction, a biography, or an historical account. The individual's motivation, inner dialogue, sense of humor, use of language, and interaction with other characters is fascinating to observe. In Empire's End, Jerry Jenkins has taken on the challenge of melding a… Continue reading Rounding Out the Narrative
In Becoming Myself, Stasi Eldredge endeared herself to me in the first two pages with her sword-through-the-heart story about one-size-fits-all bathrobes at the spa she didn't want to go to in the first place. As a call to freedom and wholeness, the book is inspiring for cover-to-cover reading, but I see a greater role for it as part… Continue reading He Sings Over You with Love
Seventy years ago, on April 9, 1945, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was executed by the Nazis for his role in the German resistance movement against the Hitler regime. At age 39, he left behind a fiancée, his parents, and several siblings, but even more significant are his legacy of courage and his sound theological reasoning which live on. … Continue reading Bonhoeffer Remembered
Living Our Days 