Book Review of Barbara Rossing, The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation . By Andy Holt, who blogs at: The Sometimes Preacher. Full disclosure by Andy Holt, writer of this review: I’ve never believed in the rapture. It’s nowhere to be found in the Scriptures, and the very idea of all true believers being snatched away doesn’t make any sense. How does that gel with the rest of the Bible? When the going gets tough,... Read more

This picture is of two Iceland Poppies. Bought at the same time (there’s a third behind the big guy). Same size last summer but then… one of them has grown beyond all measure, no flowers, and we wonder why. Last year they were identical size, but the big one just kept growing (and stayed green during the winter, too). Anyone know? Read more

Our new neighbor. He asked me where the blue parakeets were. I told him I was his blue parakeet. But if he didn’t mind himself, he’d be my blue parakeet. This was flippin’ fun! This is a good reminder. And this is changing, resistance notwithstanding. In support of open membership with Mike Bell (at iMonk’s site). Speaking of which, who is your companion with Don Johnson. Good piece about the wisdom of Hazel. Mark Roberts on the National Day of... Read more

“Sunday’s Coming” Movie Trailer from North Point Media on Vimeo. Read more

What do you think these four fellas were looking for?   Read more

Ours is the decade of memoirs, especially faith memoirs. I think of Anne Lamott’s uproarious and serious stories, but many are following her path to tell the honest-to-goodness of one’s life. I think of Susan Isaac’s genuine, sometimes heart-breaking and other times just leg-slapping funny, personal memoir called Angry Conversations with God: A Snarky but Authentic Spiritual Memoir . Susan is an actress and writer, has appeared on Seinfeld, and has a story to tell.   The kind that makes you... Read more

Every now and then a new book presses home, usually from a bewilderingly new angle, an old theme in such a way it gets me to thinking. And I was reading such a book when Nancy Beach, a teaching pastor at Willow Creek, gave her inspiring and insightful talk last weekend on Sabbath. Judith Shulevitz, in her new book The Sabbath World: Glimpses of a Different Order of Time , is the book I’m reading and pondering and wondering. She’s... Read more

From President Obama’s speech at the University of Michigan… Today’s 24/7 echo-chamber amplifies the most inflammatory soundbites louder and faster than ever before.  And it’s also, however, given us unprecedented choice.  Whereas most Americans used to get their news from the same three networks over dinner, or a few influential papers on Sunday morning, we now have the option to get our information from any number of blogs or websites or cable news shows. And this can have both a... Read more

This psalm, Psalm 11 (see after the jump), once again, is a prayer that weaves in and out of theology, plea and reflection — it ponders God as it ponders enemies. John Goldingay sums up what this psalm does in words worth quoting: “When the foundations collapse, you can (e.g.) flit (like Elijah), seek to rebuild them (like Deuteronomy), preach (like Amos), tell stories to build faith (like Genesis), promise a better future (like Isaiah), or feel overwhelmed (like Ecclesiastes).... Read more