Usage of E-books is on the Rise

Publishers Weekly has an article reporting on an ebrary survey conducted by almost 6500 students at about 400 institutions across the world. The report concludes:
Books, print or electronic, are holding their own as a
preferred resource. E-books were in second place as a
resource used for research/class assignments with 78% of
the students selecting them. Print books [...]

Sample the New Third Day Album

I used to listen to a lot of Third Day but haven’t been lately.  If you’re a Third Day fan (or used to be one and faded somewhat), go check out their new album.  It’s currently available to listen to for free at JesusFreakHideout.  I’m checking it out as I work today – so far [...]

A Sermon on Idolatry

So I preached a sermon on idolatry yesterday from the story of Micah in Judges 17-18.  If you’re interested, you can check it out at the link below.  Disregard the high percentage of “ums” in the first few minutes.
Defining, Identifying, and Smashing Our Idols
Once you click on the link above, you can click on “Launch [...]

Can’t Get Enough Bon Iver

I simply can’t get enough of Bon Iver. Here’s another video – showing a little more emotion this time, perhaps.

(HT: Steve)

Ecclesiastes: One of My Favorite Books

There is a book in the Bible that I continually go back and read over and over when I find myself in times of despair, confusion, frustration, boredom, and depression. It is called Ecclesiastes and it is in the Old Testament right after Psalms and Proverbs.
The whole premise of the book is that this godly [...]

ESV Study Bible Preview: Intro to Psalms

I posted a while back about my excitement for the ESV Study Bible which comes out this October. Crossway has recently released a preview of the ESV Study Bible consisting of the Introduction to the Psalms. One of my favorite parts of this Introduction is the table that maps particular Psalms to their [...]

McCain, Obama, and Rick Warren, Oh My

I was excited to read the following from Fox News yesterday:
Barack Obama and John McCain have agreed to their first joint general election appearance, meeting at Saddleback Church on Aug. 16 for a two-hour forum that is being billed as a “non-debate,” according to the church.
Founding pastor and moderator Rick Warren will exclusively pose questions [...]

Blogging vs. Bible

It’s time for a little confession and repentance.  Slowly, since I started blogging, I’ve found myself beginning to be sucked in a little further than I care to admit.  I used to have a solid routine of reading my Bible and studying devotionally and journaling in the early morning hours but lately I’ve found that [...]

Teaching on Idolatry (2)

Below are the notes from part 2 of some recent teaching I did on the topic of idolatry (see also part 1).  We didn’t quite get through all of the notes this past Sunday and so next Sunday (not this coming Sunday) we’ll wrap it up.

Idolatry – Part 2: Identifying Your Idols

The Costs of Procrastination

From AAIM seminar on Getting Things Done):

Poor Quality of Work

Procrastination on important tasks means that you have less time in which to complete them, which invariably leads to a rushed, poor quality of work.

Time Pressure

Leaving things until the last minute results in anxiety and time pressure as you go all out to complete tasks [...]

Trasformation Required

One last quote from Green.  This one is from the Epilogue and cuts right to the heart of the matter:
Unless there is a transformation of contemporary church life so that once again the task of evangelism is something which is seen as incumbent on every baptized Christian, and is backed up by a quality of [...]

10 Great Tech Books

Steven Levy lists his top 10 books about technology in an article on IEEE Spectrum’s website. Regarding the list, he states:
Any great nonfiction book combines education with entertainment. in drafting my A-list of general interest books about technology, I considered impact and significance but gave still more weight to the reading experience. [...]

Teaching on Idolatry

I’m teaching a young adult class this morning (18-30s) on the topic of idolatry: basically looking at the things that we lift up in our lives to a place higher than God.
The notes include some wonderful questions that I came across in my preparation that were part of a sermon that Darrin Patrick at The [...]

New Blog Worth Checking Out: sub-text

Joe Thorn and Steve McCoy have announced a new blog focused on ministry and church in the ‘burbs.  I’m really looking forward to taking in some info from this new blog.
Here’s the blurb (includes the proper links) from Joe’s blog from yesterday:
Steve McCoy and I have launched a new blog and ministry called sub•text, on [...]

Tertullian on Martyrdom

“The oftener we are mowed down by you, the more in number we grow.  The blood of Christians is seed.”
-Tertullian
(Yikes)

Free Keller Sermons

The Gospel Coalition has recently revamped their website and now includes a hearty supply of free sermons from various pastors. Check out the index here.
I’m most excited about the abundance of free Tim Keller sermons (another one of my favorite pastor/author types). Check those out here.
(HT: JT)

The Sound of Music?

I came across an excellent blog post today by Brian Dipert, Senior Technical Editor at EDN. The post is titled, The Fading Sound (And Influence) Of Music. In it, he asserts that no one really listens to music anymore. Instead, we use music for background noise, time-passing, and motivation for exercise.

This may [...]

Fewer Starbucks – Followup

I posted earlier this week on a Seattle Times article regarding Starbucks closing 5% of there stores.  If you’re concerned about your favorite caffeine cafe getting the nix, check out this interactive map to help discern where the stores are closing at.

Christianity: A Lay Movement

Christianity was from its inception a lay movement, and so it continued for a remarkably long time.  in a sense, the apostles inevitably became ‘professionals’.  But as early as Acts 8 we find that it is not the apostles but the ‘amateur” missionaries, the men evicted from Jerusalem as a result of the persecution which [...]

Music of Late

I think I’ve mentioned that music has really been having an effect on me recently. Here’s a brief list (with links to free samples) of some of the bands I’ve been listening to of late (new stuff to me):

Wild Sweet Orange
Sleeping At Last
Band of Horses
Shearwater
Ingrid Michaelson

Life and Proclamation – Both as Essential

Christianity is enshrined in the life, but it is proclaimed by the lips.  If there is a failure in either respect the gospel cannot be communicated.
–Michael Green, Evangelism in the Early Church (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans), p 300.

Why Post Book Quotes?

One of the things I love about reading others’ blogs are catching quotes from books that other bloggers are reading. I’ve often posted quotes from stuff I’m reading here and thought I’d share some points on why I do so:

It helps me to more thoroughly process what I’ve read.

By making notes in my books [...]

Fewer Starbucks

In case you missed it, Starbucks plans to close 5% of its stores beginning later this month. Read the story from the Seattle Times here.

Enthusiasm in Evangelism – An Example

The enthusiasm to evangelize which marked the early Christians is one of the most remarkable things in the history of religions.  Here were men and women of every rank and station of life, of every country in the known world, so convinced that they had discovered the riddle of the universe, so sure of the [...]

Wild Sweet Orange

I don’t listen to radio that often anymore.  When I do, I typically tune in to 89.1 the Wood which is the local station out of Lindenwood University.  I like this station because it is commercial-free and typically plays a lot of non-top 40 junk.
The other morning, I happened to tune-in on the way to [...]