my burg

This is just a short post to recommend to all of you the benefits of being in a reading group . I guess you could also call that a "book club". I'm not sure there's really a difference.  There were four of us, now three, who began eight years ago to meet every other week to read and discuss a book, from which we would read and discuss a few chapters at a time.  Our pattern, along with the authors we chose, was loosely based upon the Oxford Inklings -- C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, and their friends. That was the circle of literature we were interested in.  To date we have read over thirty books , including works by Lewis, Chesterton, MacDonald, T. S. Eliot, and Boethius. Modern works included books by Alan Jacobs, Peter Kreeft, Thomas Howard, Harry Blamires, and Michael Ward. We also sampled poetry W. B. Yeats and Robert Frost.  The benefit of a reading group is accountability, or at least some level of friendly accountability. To be sure, we all ...

While on our neighborhood walks, my wife and I would see garden gnomes in some of the yards,  and we had a bit of word play, which we'd share with grandkids, and now here... -- What do you call a garden gnome who is by himself? a gnome alone -- What do you call a gnome out west? gnome on the range -- What do you call a garden gnome in the city? a metro gnome -- How does a garden gnome his hair? a gnome comb -- How does a garden gnome hide his baldness? with a gnome over -- What do you call a gnome by another name? a gnome de plume -- How does a gnome name his children? using gnomen-clature -- Where do garden gnomes come from? Gnome, Alaska -- What do you call an unmarried female gnome? Miss Gnomer -- What is unique about gnome DNA? it has a ge-gnome   -- What do you call a gnome with lots of children? a poly-gnomial

Every now and then I rearrange my top ten or fifteen of what I consider to be classic Christian works that every Christian should read or be familiar with . Excluding works of fiction, poetry, and the larger works of theology* here are my current top 15... On The Incarnation , Athanasius. The Confessions of Augustine . The Consolation of Philosophy , Anicius Boethius. [ New to the top 15 ] On Loving God , Bernard of Clairvaux. Pensées , Blaise Pascal. Commentary on Galatians , Martin Luther. The Pilgrim's Progress , John Bunyan.   Religious Affections , Jonathan Edwards. Christianity and Liberalism , Gresham Machen. The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible , B. B. Warfield. Life Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer. The Everlasting Man , G. K. Chesterton Mere Christianity , C. S. Lewis. Knowing God , J. I. Packer. The Cross of Christ , John R. W. Stott. * Recommended fiction : George MacDonald, and anything by the Inklings (J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, etc.) Poetry : George Herber...

Here are the most recent reports of persecution against Christians around the world, as compiled by one of the elders at our church:  Pakistan, Feb 25. Christian family's ancestral home was allegedly taken over by a Muslim lawyer who accused the homeowner of blasphemy. Churches have been attacked, homes burned by mobs, and individuals imprisoned or killed following accusations under Pakistan's blasphemy laws.  Ukraine, Feb 24. Protestant congregations in Ukraine have been particularly targeted with raids, closures, and intimidation, with Moscow aggressively seeking to reshape the religious landscape to serve its political and military objectives.  Iran, Feb 23. A sharp rise in arrests and mistreatment of Christians in Iran, particularly converts, accusing the Islamic Republic of increasingly using national security laws to suppress religious dissent.  Uganda, Feb 23. A 33-year-old man in eastern Uganda was allegedly killed by his Muslim father after converting to...

I've enjoyed reading and pondering these two poems by the Irish poet, William Butler Yeats (1865--1939) ...  THE VALLEY OF THE BLACK PIG The dews drop slowly and dreams gather: unknown spears  Suddenly hurtle before my dream-awakened eyes,  And then the clash of fallen horsemen and the cries  Of unknown perishing armies beat about my ears.  We who still labour by the cromlech on the shore,  The grey cairn on the hill, when day sinks drowned in dew,  Being weary of the world's empires, bow down to you,  Master of the still stars and of the flaming door. Here is a brief analysis .  THE LOVER TELLS OF THE ROSE IN HIS HEART  All things uncomely and broken, all things worn out and old,  The cry of a child by the roadway, the creak of a lumbering cart,  The heavy steps of the ploughman, splashing the wintry mould,  Are wronging your image that blossoms a rose in the deeps of my heart.  The wrong of unshapely things is a wro...

It was the spring of 1970 and the war in Vietnam was in full swing, as were the protests around the country.   In April of that year, U.S. and South Vietnamese forces expanded military operations into Cambodia, and students on campuses across our nation erupted in protest. On May 4, the Ohio National Guard, called out to disperse a crowd on the Kent State University campus, opened fire upon the student gathering, killing four and wounding nine. Campus protests across the country responded with more violence.  It was a serious and intense time. Young people were being killed both in the jungles of Vietnam and on American campuses.  At Virginia Tech, an academic building, Williams Hall, was occupied by protestors. I was there, and I was supportive, though I was not in the building at the time the arrests were made. When the police arrived (in full riot gear) I was at the front door of the building and was told to move, which I did not do. An officer got behind me and w...