THOUGHT OF THE DAY

Remember that Christ made not this atonement that thou shouldest anger God again; neither died he for thy sins, that thou shouldest live still in them; neither cleansed he thee, that thou shouldest return, as a swine, unto thine old puddle again; but that thou shouldest be a new creature, and live a new life after the will of God, and not of the flesh.
William Tyndale Doctrinal Treatises

LINKS

Just an FYI, I have added the links to several of my favorite blogs on the right hand side of this site.

POLITICS & CHURCH

Has the Evangelical church become too political? Russell D. Moore offers an opinion here.

JOSHUA HARRIS PART 3

Joshua Harris shares Tip #3 on resisting internet porn here.

FANTASY FOOTBALL

Is life as we know it for "roto-geeks" like myself about to change? Maybe, if Congress has something to say about it. Read why here.

DES MOINES REGISTER PART 2

A couple days ago, I blasted the Des Moines Register here.

This morning my wife found this, which is actually pretty funny.

CHARLES BARKLEY

Chuck for Governor? It may not be as crazy as you think.

Read why here.

A FUNNY GOSPEL

What role should humor and comedy play in our teaching of the Gospel? Jim Elliff, president of Christian Communicators Worldwide, discusses the question here.

(HT: My new favorite blog)

THOUGHT OF THE DAY

It appears that all that is ever spoken of in the Scripture as an ultimate end of God's works is included in that one phrase, the glory of God.
Jonathan Edwards The End for Which God Created the World

COLLECTING BASEBALL CARDS

If you enjoyed collecting Baseball cards as much as I did when you were a kid, here are a couple great articles to bring back some memories.

ESPN Page 2 Columnists
ESPN Page 2 Readers
History of Baseball Cards

FANTASY FOOTBALL ARTICLE OF THE WEEK

As promised, prepare for an overkill of Fantasy Football articles.

This one is pretty good.

DES MOINES REGISTER

Here is an example of why I can't stand my local newspaper, The Des Moines Register.

EVANGELICALS & ISRAEL

Russell D. Moore with an insightful commentary on Why Evangelicals Support Israel.

DAILY DEVOTIONAL

This looks like an excellent source of a daily on-line devotional. The couple I have read were saturated with truth and very encouraging.

I have added a link to it from my blog.

KIDS & SPORTS

Have adults taken the fun out of sports for kids? The Chicago Sun-Times Greg Couch thinks so. Read how here.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY

Man's proper happiness consists in the enjoyment of God; but it is not possible that man should enjoy God with only those things in him which he receives by the first birth. So that there is this necessity of man's being born again.
Jonathan Edwards

STEM CELL'S

Jim Hamilton posts some thoughts on stem cell's here.

His basic conclusion is that "our light view of human life grows directly out of our light view of God."

I think he's 100% right.

CHRISTIANITY & THE WORKPLACE

If you are looking for some good books regarding Christianity and the workplace, Russell D. Moore has some recommendations here.

JOSHUA HARRIS PART 2

Joshua Harris offers tip #2 on fighting internet porn.

KIDS & TV

Ligon Duncan shares some pretty alarming statistics from a study done to determine electronic media usage in the homes of young children.

Click here to see some of the results.

ABORTION

Dr. Albert Mohler with an excellent summary of an interesting debate between two pro-choice writers here.

PLANNED PARENTHOOD

How sad and scary is this?

JOSHUA HARRIS

Over the next couple weeks, Joshua Harris will be posting a series of tips for fighting internet pornography on his blog. Here is the first post.

FANTASY FOOTBALL

Now that football season is fast approaching, you can expect a lot of fantasy football talk on this blog.

I can't think of a better original post than this by The Sports Guy.

Yes, I am an admitted "roto geek".

BASEBALL TRIVIA

Which baseball manager holds the all-time record for ejections from a game and which current manager is closing in on the record?

Answer: Here.

STEM CELL RESEARCH

I will admit that I am not very well read on the subject of stem cell research and have not thought much about it. That being said, something about this article by Senate Majority leader Bill Frist feels funny.

If anyone has any useful resources on the topic, please forward them my way.

THE RELIGIOUS LEFT

Chuck Colson accurately summarizes the problems of religious groups who's key doctrine is tolerance here.

AUSCHWITZ

Here is a fascinating article in The Chicago Sun-Times where columnist Tom McNamee shares some experiences he has had with his neighbor, a survivor of Auschwitz.

As the Joe Weichselbaum's of the world pass away, may we never forget the horror's of the Nazi concentration camps.

POKER

Should professional card players be considered on the same level as professional basketball and baseball players?

The Washington Post's Norman Chad says yes here.

Quote of the article:
(Along with the public library, the card room is the greatest recreational gathering place in America. Upside to library: You can bury yourself in the written word, plus in the reference room, nobody talks. Upside to card room: You can walk out with more money than you walked in with, plus it never closes.)

ASSURANCE OF SALVATION

Dr. Albert Mohler with a builds a very biblically grounded case for the doctrine of perseverance here.

NFL DREAM TEAM

ESPN'S Football guru John Clayton attempts to assemble the best team possible under the NFL's 2006 salary cap. Neat idea. Horrible result. Not one Viking. Read about the team here.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY

I believe that prayer is the measure of the man, spiritually, in a way that nothing else is, so that how we pray is as important a question as we can ever face
J.I. Packer My Path of Prayer

RELIGIOUS LEFT????

Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and Howard Dean are apparently leading the charge for Democrats to win the Evangelical vote.

My favorite line of the article

Mr. Dean, as famously reported during his 2004 presidential bid, switched from his Episcopal to a Congregationalist Church in a dispute over a bike trail.

Read the rest of the article here.

50 MOST INFLUENTIAL CHURCHES

The Church Report lists the results of a 2006 survey of the 50 most influential churches in the United States. View the report here.

(HT: The Christian Mind)

THOUGHT OF THE DAY

"Give me the grace [O Lord] to do as you command, and command me to do what you will! . . . O holy God . . . when your commands are obeyed, it is from you that we receive the power to obey them."
St. Augustine Confessions

AMAZING GRACE

Chuck Colson shares the story of the hymn "Amazing Grace" and it's composer John Newton here.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY

I walked a mile with Pleasure,
She chattered all the way;
But left me none the wiser,
For all she had to say.
I walked a mile with Sorrow
And ne'er a word said she;
But, oh, the things I learned from her When Sorrow walked with me!

Robert Browning Hamilton

SERMONS

Here is a collection of sermons on children by Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill Church.

NEW YORK TIMES

Powerline shares the following . . . .


Lt. Tom Cotton writes this morning from Baghdad with a word for the New York Times:

Dear Messrs. Keller, Lichtblau & Risen:Congratulations on disclosing our government's highly classified anti-terrorist-financing program (June 23). I apologize for not writing sooner. But I am a lieutenant in the United States Army and I spent the last four days patrolling one of the more dangerous areas in Iraq. (Alas, operational security and common sense prevent me from even revealing this unclassified location in a private medium like email.)

Unfortunately, as I supervised my soldiers late one night, I heard a booming explosion several miles away. I learned a few hours later that a powerful roadside bomb killed one soldier and severely injured another from my 130-man company. I deeply hope that we can find and kill or capture the terrorists responsible for that bomb. But, of course, these terrorists do not spring from the soil like Plato's guardians. No, they require financing to obtain mortars and artillery shells, priming explosives, wiring and circuitry, not to mention for training and payments to locals willing to emplace bombs in exchange for a few months' salary. As your story states, the program was legal, briefed to Congress, supported in the government and financial industry, and very successful.

Not anymore. You may think you have done a public service, but you have gravely endangered the lives of my soldiers and all other soldiers and innocent Iraqis here. Next time I hear that familiar explosion -- or next time I feel it -- I will wonder whether we could have stopped that bomb had you not instructed terrorists how to evade our financial surveillance.

And, by the way, having graduated from Harvard Law and practiced with a federal appellate judge and two Washington law firms before becoming an infantry officer, I am well-versed in the espionage laws relevant to this story and others -- laws you have plainly violated. I hope that my colleagues at the Department of Justice match the courage of my soldiers here and prosecute you and your newspaper to the fullest extent of the law. By the time we return home, maybe you will be in your rightful place: not at the Pulitzer announcements, but behind bars.

Very truly yours,

Tom CottonBaghdad, Iraq

USA SPORTS

This just in....... The USA stinks at sports compared to the rest of the world. Read more here.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY

"Be killing sin, or it will be killing you."
John Owen

THOUGHT OF THE DAY

Joy is never in our power and pleasure often is.
C.S. Lewis Surprised by Joy

ADDICTED TO ESPN?

Rick Maese of The Baltimore Sun did something that a lot of us should try, one month without ESPN. Read about it here. Funny stuff.

KEN LAY

Former Enron CEO Ken Lay died this morning at his home in Aspen. Click here to read more.

BEST DUNK EVER

This is amazing!

SPORTS

In case you didn't already think sports are out of control in America, this may change your mind.

FATHERS AND SONS

Here is a helpful resource for all fathers of sons. It is an outline from a talk given by Trey Richardson at a Covenant Life Church Men's Retreat in September 2002.

ALCOHOL

Last month, I shared a link to an excellent discussion on christians and alcohol by Justin Taylor. You can read it here.

Daniel Akin, President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, argues for alcohol abstinence here.