Free or Cheap Music

Free or cheap music from Noise Trade is not always the best quality. But if the music was a better quality it wouldn't be free or cheap. And sometimes a likeable artist can be found.

The Perfect Gift

"Experience the magic" of this "one of a kind spiritual accessory."

Dispatches From The Front

I haven't seen Dispatches from the Front yet, but just the trailer gets me excited about missions...

Dispatches From the Front Trailer from Frontline Missions on Vimeo.

First Date

This morning I found the message I sent to my wife before working out the details to our first date. I was so excited when she gave me her phone number...

Of course the profile pictures were different and her name was not Rebekah Drahosh...

Scripture, Evangelism, and Divine Sovereignty

This weekend I read J.I. Packer's work, Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God. The cumulation of my thoughts concerning the book are as follows.

Even though God's total sovereignty and the command to do evangelism are seemingly at odds, they are both taught in Scripture. Therefore, no one can claim the Bible as the ultimate authority and then state that God is not totally sovereign or Christians need not evangelize. If an individual denies God’s sovereignty or the mandate to evangelize, then he or she has proven that he or she does not view Scripture as authority, but rather his or her own logic.

Book Slaying

Writing a book critique becomes similar to slaying orcs while listening to The Lord of the Rings soundtrack.

Stop Signs for the Lord's Sake

Rebekah and I live on the campus of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. There is an all-way stop thirty feet from our apartment building. A very small percentage of cars heed these stop signs; some don't even bother tapping the brake.

The apostle Peter tells us why we should stop at stop signs.

Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.

-1 Peter 2:13-17

Human institution, in this case the U.S. government, has implemented stop signs which, by law, drivers are required to stop at. Therefore, subject yourself to this authority for the Lord's sake.

It doesn't matter if no one is around. It doesn't matter if police officers do it too. It doesn't matter if you are in a hurry. It doesn't matter if it's not killing anyone. There is absolutely no good reason for not stopping at a stop sign, and to be honest, there is an excellent biblical reason for stopping at a stop sign which I articulated earlier.

If you still want to ignore the words breathed out by the Spirit of Christ through the apostle Peter, please take the Icthus off of your car.

Educational Stewardship

The more I understand the cost of my education, the more I am inclined to be a good steward of it.

Submission

The real estate of submission has no hills to die on.

Seminary Books

Rebekah and I just bought some of our books for the semester.

Here are the numbers:

Total: 23 books
Total cost: $536.17
Cost per book: $23.31 (sweet deal, the campus bookstore hooks us up)
Total pages: 8906
Pages per book: 387
Largest book: 1059 pages
Smallest book: 79 pages
Estimated library growth: 7%
Books left to buy this semester: 9

Now to reading them...

Thorns Update

Alright. I have been a poor blogger lately.

So, I have reassessed how I blog and decided that I need not put off blogging until I have an essay to write. I don't have time to write a lot each time I post and it is unfair to my readers to wait until I have a significant amount of material. I must be more concise and consistent.

Also, I think that I have become a bit predictable, so henceforth the "Tree of the Week," has been suspended. I do plan on continuing through Jonathan Edwards' Resolutions, but hopefully on a more consistent basis.

Overall, I am changing my idea of blogging from something lengthy and academic to something that can be gleaned from quickly.

Please let me know if you have suggestions. Thanks!