"And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever."
My fiancée and I have been enjoying a Netflix show called Tidying Up with Marie Kondo. In the show, Japanese tidying expert Marie Kondo helps her hapless clients figure out how to clean up their lives by getting rid of things that no longer give them joy. This system based on the idea of “sparking joy” is called KonMari. I cannot tell you why we enjoy this show so much, but were you to watch it, it would likely spark joy for you.
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No. It’s not. Why do I have to talk about this?
There’s a white supremacist who’s been in the news named Richard Spencer. He famously gave a speech at a conference in Washington, D.C. last November which he started with a Nazi salute and the proclamation, “Hail Trump! Hail our people! Hail victory!” It goes without saying that he’s an evil guy. Not only is he evil, but he holds a particularly evil viewpoint, not so much because God is more offended by some evil viewpoints than others so much as because his particularly viewpoint has dangerous consequences on other people. Furthermore, Naziism and racism are the two most vehemently hated evils in modern America. Continue reading “Is It Moral to Sucker Punch a Nazi?”
Disclaimer: These are Grant’s political views, not necessarily Chris’s or Calvin’s. They’re welcome to write their own posts. Continue reading “Election 2016: It’s the End of the World as We Know It, and I Feel Fine”
We’ve all seen them. Listicles are articles that are just lists of short bullet points, usually with pictures. And they’ve even made their way to the Christian blogosphere! Like this one, and this one, and worst of all this one. But this medium must DIE!
Here’s a listicle of 8 reasons why that’s the case: Continue reading “8 Reasons Christian Listicles Must DIE!”
On Wednesday, June 1, 2016, around 10 AM, an engineering student killed his professor, seemingly over a matter of grades, in one of the engineering buildings at UCLA. He then killed himself. Before police could confirm this story, the entire UCLA campus was placed under lockdown in response to the potentially active shooter situation. Having recently graduated and started work, I was not affected by these events, but many of my closest friends were. After hearing about the events during my lunch break (before the details were confirmed), I found myself thinking three main things during the rest of the day that I wanted to share with you. Continue reading “Reflections on a Shooting on Campus”
The majority of my readers will think that they are busy. That’s the world we live in these days; everyone keeps themselves very busy, moving constantly from activity to activity. In all this craziness, then, when I or someone else recommends a book to you about a person who died several hundred years ago that you’ve never heard of before or haven’t really thought about ever, you ask, “Why should I take the time to read this book? Why should I read a biography?” Today I’m going to try to answer that question! Biographies, particularly Christian ones, benefit you by providing examples, challenging your life, honoring those to whom honor is due, and illustrating the gospel. Continue reading “Why Should I Read a Biography?”
On Saturday, after almost thirty years of public service on the high court, Justice Antonin Scalia passed away unexpectedly. Shortly thereafter, so called writers at Buzzfeed and various other worldly, secular outlets under the domain of the prince of the power of the air started gleefully dancing on his grave. The response from evangelicals has naturally been quite different. For example, Al Mohler proclaimed “A Giant has Fallen.” For the first time ever, I spent my Valentine’s Day more saddened by the death of a political figure than my own singleness. Continue reading “Jonathan Edwards on Antonin Scalia”
I attend Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, CA (aka John MacArthur’s church). Recently, my church unveiled a new hymnal. I’ve met a great number of people who had never opened a hymnal before coming to Grace. There was one time I was having a conversation with a worship leader and mentioned that I sometimes followed the bass line of the four part harmony. When he said he’d never noticed more than two voices in a hymnal, we realized he’d never noticed that there was music written BELOW the words as well as above them. As a result, I figured I’d put together this guide to help understand hymnals. Continue reading “PSA: How to Read a Hymnal”
Over the past few years, the idea of cultural appropriation has gained unprecedented attention on social media and the blogosphere. I’ve read a lot about perceived crimes of white people taking elements form other cultures in a manner that some consider offensive. These days it’s not too uncommon to read articles like this one at The Atlantic. I could go into a number of reasons the “victimhood culture” described there is diametrically opposed to Christianity, but that would be off topic. The article, however, gave me a sufficiently alarming view of what people consider “cultural appropriation” (in this case use of a foreign language), that I thought the issue may need to be addressed. Continue reading “Towards a Biblical View of Cultural Appropriation”
I take as an axiom, “Great people read, and great people read a lot.” My purpose, then, is extending this principle to, “Christians should read, and Christians should read a lot.” Surely we are obligated to steward the intellects God gave us. We can do this by reading. Reading combats laziness, reading informs our worldview, reading gives us a knowledge of the devil’s devices, reading enables us to understand and love others. Most importantly, reading makes first dates less awkward—it gives us things to talk about. Reading is a good thing, but it is something many people foolishly neglect, much to their own detriment. By reading I mean primarily books, not newspapers, magazines, comics, or trashy websites. To quote Charles Spurgeon:
Give yourself unto reading. The man who never reads will never be read; he who never quotes will never be quoted. He who will not use the thoughts of other men’s brains, proves that he has no brains of his own. You need to read.
Of course, How to Read a Book exists, and I have shamelessly plagiarized its title. But this is not a post about how to read a book, it’s a post about how to read books. I shall explore how a Christian should approach the necessary discipline of reading extra-Biblical books. And I have three words to describe how you should approach reading: broadly, copiously, and deeply. Continue reading “How to Read Books”
Citizens & Sons 