The Whole Counsel of God

My wife and I are grateful to have completed our year-long project of reading all of God's Word. Or it will be when she reads Malachi 2-4 and Revelation 22, like I did this morning.

I'm now one and a half times through reading the Bible in the English Standard Version (I'll complete two times through in July 2008, if I stick with current habit) and she has done a combination of listening to audio ESV and reading a pocket NIV.

Profound insights? Not many, at least not yet. Increasingly thinking God's thoughts after Him? I pray so. This project has been a whirlwind (you can't really chew on Romans or Ephesians while blasting through them a chapter a day during lunch break) but it has helped us see this revelatory history of redemption in broad strokes. Getting the flavor of the various prophets, for instance, and a sense of the overriding themes of each historical book.

For anyone who would like to get started in 2008, here are a few workable plans. And don't think you must wait until next year if you didn't get started on January 1 with Genesis and Matthew. God's Word is a long train, and boarding a particular car matters a whole lot less than making sure you board somewhere.

Evolution Take-Down by Cranky Non-Theist?

I hope that both my loyal readers will give this column a try, sometime. It's long, so you need to block out enough time, but it's a fascinating look at several of the classic arguments (some of which the author would call 'arguments' only in the loosest sense) made by evolutionists.

If any convinced evolutionists stumble onto my little blog via search engine, I would enjoy your comments as well. I would like to hear your take on where (if at all) his analysis is spot-on, and in what ways (logic, facts) it falls apart.

Book Recommendation

I just finished a well-written treatment of an oft-asked question: does a national leader's private life have a bearing on the execution of his office? Many of us would agree that our presidents, for instance, should have a moral vision; yet many also say that a leader's private life should be kept private.

Marvin Olasky's The American Leadership Tradition: The Inevitable Impact of a Leader's Faith on a Nation's Destiny is a series of glimpses into the lives of American leaders - George Washington, Andrew Jackson, Woodrow Wilson, and John Kennedy, to name four. A pretty good case is made that integrity, or its lack, in the man's private life maps squarely onto how he governs. Among the several compelling portraits are those of Andrew Jackson and Grover Cleveland - both flawed men, to be sure, but men who faced their own failures and went on to take sacrificial stands against the corruption of the Union.

A good read.

I've Elfed My Family

... and you can share in their mortification!

From left to right: LittleMr, DPBoy, KittyLuvr, and LTLCPP.

Merry Christmas, friends!

UPDATE: and here's my MIL, yours truly, and Dixie the Wonder Dog doing a disturbing little cut-a-rug of our own.