HARMLESS THOUGHTS

I just started another one of the books that I received for Christmas.  This one is titled Spectacular Sins and it is also by John Piper. I didn't know what to expect when I started the book.  The full title should have clued me in... "Spectacular Sins and their Global Purpose in the Glory of Christ", but I still wasn't sure what this book was going to be about.  Joni Eareckson Tada wrote this about the book (from the back of the book): "When it comes to holocausts and other horrors, most of us assume God has his hands tied and his back to the wall.  But John Piper paints a different picture from the pages of Scripture that will strengthen your heart, bolster your faith, and deepen your understanding of the 'largeness' of God's sovereignty." I have finished the first three chapters of this book, and I am having a hard time keeping myself from blogging the entire thing.  I believe it is an important book in what it is saying.  I believe that i...

Image from DesiringGod.org I just finished my first Christmas book.  It is called The Gadarene and it is a graphic novel based on an original  poem by John Piper. It was a really interesting book.  It is obviously fictional, but based on the encounter between the demon possessed man and Jesus.  This is the story that is found in the books of Matthew, Mark and Luke ( clink this link to read all three gospel accounts ). I enjoyed the writing style and the artwork of this book.  I would recommend this to all interested.  I would also recommend this to teens and pre-teens.  Piper adds in a back-story that fills in the gaps of how a person might have ended up in a situation like this which adds an element of currentness (is that a word?) and made the idea of a demon-possessed man more understandable. Here is a trailer for the book if you care to know a little more about it:

[HT: 22 words ]

"It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting,"  (Ecclesiastes 7:2 ESV) In the last two weeks I have come across this passage of scripture without intending to.  The first time was during a movie called, The Secrets of Jonathan Sperry .  It is a Christian movie that my wife found on Netflix.  Here is a bit about it from the movie's website: Best buddies Dustin (Jansen Panettiere), Albert (Frankie Ryan Manriquez), and Mark (Allen Isaacson) are twelve year old boys looking forward to a summer of fun in 1970.  When Dustin mows the lawn of seventy-five year old Jonathan Sperry (Gavin MacLeod), a man he has seen at church, a unique friendship develops. What happens the rest of this summer is something Dustin and his friends will never forget! The movie is not being released on DVD until May 4th.  It was a really good movie, but I am only mentioning it because one of the characters, Mr. Sperry, uses this passage in a teachi...

My wife loves to start traditions.  In 2004 she came up with the idea of going to the theater each Christmas season to watch a movie.  This tradition stuck, so each year we plan a Christmas Movie Day; complete with eating out, getting snacks, picking the perfect movie, and going to said movie.  Here is a list of the Christmas Movie Days we have had as a family each year since 2004. 2004: Polar Express 2005: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe 2006: Happy Feet 2007: Bee Movie 2008: The Tale of Despereaux  (which is also a great book ) 2009: Up! This year the movie that we are picking out is The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawntreader.  As a child, this was my favorite of the Narnia books.  I loved the different little islands that they traveled to and the imaginative nature (thanks to C.S. Lewis) of the residents of each of these islands.  I have read a few decent reviews of this particular movie...

Scandalous is a book by one of my favorite authors and speakers, D.A. Carson.  I own this book in print and I also just finished listening to it via Christian Audio. I really enjoyed this book.  I feel that D.A. Carson always brings to essential elements to the table that work together at drawing me into the topics that he is discussing.  The first element is his deeper understanding of scripture.  Now, I want you to know that I use the word "deeper" purposely.  You see, it isn't that he has a deep understanding of scripture, it is that he has an understanding of scripture that is always a step deeper than where I am at, and it is always driving me deeper into the Word. The book itself is about the truly scandalous nature of the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus.  The two chapters that had the most impact on me were the first chapter, dealing with the deep ironies of the cross as told in the book of Matthew.  The other chapter that I really enjoyed ...

About a week ago I applied for the Chrome OS Pilot Program .  This is the program where they send you their new Chrome Laptop... the Cr-48... and you have to agree to use it and send them feedback. This sounded like my kind of thing.  Get a free laptop.  Agree to get on the web.  Tell people what you think. Well.  Guess What?  I GOT ONE! It came in the mail today.  They didn't even send me an e-mail telling me that I had been selected!  I just got a free laptop!  And it is Google's!  This is what I am using right now to blog! If anyone wants to know about the Chrome OS laptop... Send your questions here and I will tell you.  So far it is really cool.

I am two thirds of the way through the King Raven Trilogy . This is a series by one of my favorite modern authors, Stephen R. Lawhead. In this trilogy, Lawhead tells the story of Robin Hood, but he doesn't tell this story the way one would expect. Though there are many familiar names in this series, such as Friar Tuck, Will Scarlet, Little John, and Merrian, there are other names that are slightly different, such as the lead character, who is named, Rhi Bran y Hud. The location has also been moved to Wales instead of the familiar Sherwood Forest and Nottingham. In the epilogue of the first book, titled Hood , Lawhead does an excellent job of explaining his reasons for these changes. It seems to me that his goal, as with the Pendragon Cycle , is to tell the story with such historical accuracy that the reader walks away believing that IF the story were true... this is the way it surely would have happened. This also means that I walk away with a better understanding of history....

I finished listening to Christian Audio's release of  Sexual Detox by Tim Challies a couple of weeks ago, so I would like to take a moment to recommend this book to everyone that comes by this blog. The subtitle to the book is "A Guide for Guys Who Are Sick of Porn".  So one might think that this book will only be beneficial to someone who is or has struggled with porn, but I want to recommend it, not just to those guys, but like I said, to everyone who comes by this review.  I really believe that this book would also be beneficial to the wives, friends, parents, pastors, etc. of those who have struggled.  I say this for two reasons:  One, this book offers a very accurate view of one who is struggling with porn and everything else that might go along with it.  Two, the "detox" part is also a detoxification of all of the sexual philosophies that are taught in the media today, the scope of which includes much more than porn. In the book Tim Challies do...