Traitors for Christ
A little earlier this year Rob Bell, the popular founding pastor of Mars Hill in Grandville, Michigan, set off a bit of a web explosion by releasing a video trailer promoting his soon-to-be-released (at that time) book, Love Wins. The video didn't specifically say anything heretical, but it implied quite a bit in its questions…
About a month back a tweet came through offering to send a copy of The Greener Grass Conspiracy to the first 100 bloggers who would agree to review it by April 30. I’m a big fan of Crossway‘s efforts, so I put my name in the hat for Stephen Altrogge’s most recent book. Unlike any…
Agatha Christie & Martin Niemöller Little did I know when I chose the title, “And Then There Were None,” for this sermon that Agatha Christie actually wrote a book by that name. It is a mystery where ten unpunished murderers are invited to an island where, one-by-one, they are knocked off. I can’t really say…
The belief of demons This sermon is going to be both normal and abnormal. Normal in that we'll return to looking up a good number of scriptures together—abnormal in that we'll spend quite a bit time talking about demons. As a whole I don't think it's good to focus on the Devil and his angels….
Younger readers probably won't appreciate how when (growing up) I really would have liked a pair of the x-ray glasses that were advertised in various comic books. Now, I wasn't gullible enough to actually think they worked, but what a cool idea! Or even better, how about having Superman's x-ray vision? I think not being…
Explanation #1 Starting off today’s sermon, I would like to explain how this tan metallic cabinet beside me got here. About a month ago, the owner was transporting it in the back of his truck while driving to Keene and hit a frost heave on Route 31, causing it to bounce out of the back…
I have been the webmaster for a religious publisher since 1998, so I get email with questions now and then. Generally I point them to our e-mail discussion group, but today I got a query I figured I’d go ahead and try to answer myself. My response is below (minus names, correcting one tense, and…
What would you ask God? If you had the opportunity to ask God anything…and He would definitely answer…what would you ask? What if you could ask Him only one thing…what question would be most important to you? Would it be personal? Why something awful happened to you or someone you love? Would it be scientific?…
A couple weeks back you may have also cringed when you heard, on national news, that a New Hampshire state senator suggested we ship the mentally ill to Siberia to die. I cannot remember if the story stated his party affiliation, but even if it didn't I would have assumed he was Republican and figured…
This past week, to make the time on my Concept2 Rower pass more quickly, I listened to talk shows on Internet radio (well, the Internet streams of "real" radio stations). On one show they interviewed the founder of Voyurl, a service which "allows you to share your clickstream and find out who is looking at…
Town Meeting While in Rick and Diane's last week, I received a call from our town Moderator, Bob Flanders, asking if I could give the invocation at Thursday's town meeting. I was honored at the request, and said that since Mikey's Pops Concert was the same night I'd have to confirm time coordination with Michelle,…
If you click on the image, you’ll see that the “10-degree Map Centered at 40°N, 140°E” (generated Saturday, March 12, 15:22:22 UTC) says, “255 earthquakes on this map.”1 First, imagine having lived through the original estimated 8.9 magnitude quake—one that appears to have shifted Japan’s main island by 8 feet and the earth’s axis by…
Battle of the Bands This week I had a singer named Aloe Blacc playing on my iPod…probably because Augie really likes one of his songs and asked for it earlier. The title is "I Need a Dollar"…but Augie refers to it as the "Hey Hey Song" since he likes doing that phrase in the song…
Dateline Afghanistan This week the Associated Press reported some positive news from Afghanistan about a Christian named Sayed Mussa: An Afghan man who was jailed for nine months for converting to Christianity has been released after an intense campaign by international diplomatic missions and Christian activists, an official said Friday.1 Sadly, just being released from…
This week I spent a couple days off-the-grid in East Millinocket, Maine with Mike, my father-in-law (a retired truck driver who dabbles in used car sales). During one trip (to plain-old Millinocket) I saw a sign for an oil and propane supplier—one I'd never noticed before: Dead River Company. I told Mike that it seemed…