The game begins with the two combatants facing each other, holding hands, their fingers interlocked. When the word is given, they start twisting and writhing like contortionists, each trying to gain leverage over the other until their fingers are so agonised that one is forced to concede, “Mercy!” The winner graciously releases his grip, and the round is complete. In primary school, we called the game ‘Mercy’—but our grasp on the concept was as tortuous as the game itself. (more…)
Archives: jon-guyer
Just Start Talking
Review
Just Start Talking: Introducing Jesus into
your Conversation
Evangelism Ministries, Sydney, 2008.
Available from Moore Books
E info@moorebooks.com.au
W www.moorebooks.com.au
Review: “The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment” by Tim Challies
Review
The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment
Tim Challies
Crossway Books, Wheaton, 2007, 208pp.
Here is an exercise for you: open your purse or wallet and remove a banknote. Now rub it between your fingers. Look closely at the various markings. Hold it up to the light. Is it genuine, or is it counterfeit? How can you tell? This is the analogy Tim Challies uses in his book The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment to set up the task of Christian discernment. Christian discernment, he says, is “the skill of understanding and applying God’s Word with the purpose of separating truth from error and right from wrong” (p. 61). Doctrine and practice, like currency, can be the real deal, or they can be ‘funny money’. Only the discerning person can tell the difference. (more…)
Review: “Vintage Jesus” by Mark Driscoll
Review
Vintage Jesus: Timeless answers to timely questions
Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears
Crossway Books, Wheaton, 2008, pp. 256.
It is easy to like Mark Driscoll. How can you not like someone who founded a megachurch in his 20s, who has the flare of a stand-up comedian, and who can speak for an hour without wearying his audience? Minor differences aside, he is the poster boy for 21st-century Evangelicalism. And having spent considerable bandwidth downloading his sermons, I am constantly impressed at his sparkling use of language and his passionate conviction of the centrality of Christ. (more…)