Sanity in Suffering

Josh Harris shares a couple of stories in his latest blog entry along with a quote from David Powlison about the "joyous sanity" of the believer who trusts God and the gospel in the midst of suffering. It's worth your time to read. Click here to read it.

The Christian and Horror Movies

John Divito serves as a deacon at Parkwood Southern Baptist Church, where I previously served as Minister of Music. I know that he has a blog and that he has also seen as many horror movies as I have seen, it seems. Since I know of his knowledge of horror movies and his keen Christian apologetical mind, I simply could not resist writing him and asking him to write about the topic. He has some good thoughts and resources, and I encourage you to check out his latest entry, "The Redemption of Horror Movies?"

For those that don't know, one of my fondest childhood memories was watching the "Howling" werewolf movies with my grandmother. We would shoot the "bad guys" when our hands weren't busy feeding our faces with apple slices, cheddar cheese wedges, and crackers. Ironically, eating healthy always went hand-in-hand with watching monsters. Don't ask me why...

Just to show you how serious of a horror aficionado that I was, I once owned the complete "Nightmare on Elm Street" movie collection on VHS. It didn't include the last movie in the series, which I had on VHS as well as DVD anyhow.

Months after my conversion, I felt it was wise to dump the whole collection in the trash. I didn't exactly have an explicit scriptural support or a well-developed theological under-pinning for that decision. I must admit that I still don't.

However, John's article helped provide another thoughtful response to a topic that is so sure to receive more heat than light.

That's why they call him the Reformed Baptist Thinker!

Bad Piper

Here's a silly little clip about John Piper that made me laugh today.

HT: Jim Hamilton of For His Renown