seeking to obey Christ one thought at a time
Verse:
John 3:16; Jn 3:16; John 3
Keyword:
Salvation, Jesus, Gospel
With Operators:
AND, OR, NOT, “ ”
I wasn’t able to attend William MacKenzie’s lecture Words for the World: Rejoicing in God’s Global Use of Christian Literature in town last night. However, I’ve just been listening to it online at Desiring God. If you haven’t heard MacKenzie (of Christian Focus Publications) it is a must listen. You will not be disappointed. It is exceptionally challenging and tremendously encouraging.
Tim Challies wrote yesterday on his Excessive Reading. It prompted our pastor to comment on it in Thoughts on Reading earlier today. Unlike him I’ve always been a reader, but however we approach reading, I agree with him entirely — the benefits certainly always outweigh the labour.
I like to take the Challies approach of reading with pencil in hand, though I’ve accumulated more pages of scribbled notes of late than I can cope with. Although I’ve read about the benefits of annotating books I find the note approach more helpful personally. Sometimes a phrase prompts me to a more involved meditation (occasionally posted here). I try to read widely, even articles and books I know I’ll profoundly disagree with. I sometimes find myself agreeing with the author in some points. But more often I’ll disagree, and when I do, I use my pencil to argue with the author, which I find sharpens my own beliefs tremendously.
And finally, on a practical note. I don’t know from whom I heard it, but it has stuck with me: good books are not a luxury expenditure, they’re an essential purchase, so you should include them in the household budget (if you can’t get people to send you them for free to review, like Tim Challies!).
Last night after the BBC News the announcer announced “The Lottery News”. How ironic that the “winning” numbers in the lottery qualifies to be news. It followed the news that 4 firemen were tragically killed in an arson attack in England, and Mexico was experiencing serious floods. But then I suppose that Postman is right — even the “serious” news is just entertainment. And “The Lottery News” is the tragic announcement that millions of deludedly expectant people have just been ripped off for another week.
Justin Taylor has posted a helpful piece on Halloween that quotes Tim Challies and links to a piece earlier today from Albert Mohler which was similarly thought-provoking.
