Potluck

Links:

• I recommend the whole 1 Corinthians series at Covenant Life Church, but I particularly have to refer you to an excellent message by Jeff Purswell on 1 Corinthians 5, "Protecting Church Purity." Part of his text is the "New Lumps" passage, thought that's not the only reason I thought it was great. I love the fact that they have several men preaching the same book series - even a guest in the case of Jerry Bridges!
  
• Years ago I came across an article by Richard D. Phillips called, "The Biblical Pattern of Reformation" (I can't find the article online, but if you want it I can email you a Word doc). It really changed the way I read my Bible. I recently found a series of four messages by Phillips at the Oklahoma Conference on Reformed Theology (free MP3 downloads). Jeremy Weaver recently posted on a new book by Richard Phillips on the same topic. Highly recommended - particularly if you think "Reformation" is not a biblical category!
  

Quizzing:

My two older children are involved in a regional Bible quiz meet on Friday and Saturday in Ft. Saskatchewan (North-East of Edmonton). My wife is the coach of our little team. I have been delighted to see the diligence of our team and the growing team spirit, not to mention all the Bible memory that will serve them well in the future. At the first meet, the kids were very impressed at the gracious spirit the teams had in winning, losing and encouraging. There will be about 300 young people at this meet and they are quizzing on memory work from the book of Acts.

Coming Up:

My friend John Kivell sent me some reflections on the death of his granddaughter that he wrote at that difficult time seven years ago. This journal is very moving. It reminded me of C.S. Lewis' A Grief Observed when I started reading it. In fact, John quotes from Lewis' book, though his observations are very original and personal as you will see.

John asked me if he could guest post these thoughts on my blog. I encouraged John to start his own blog to post this because I think his writing should be available on the 'net in his own space. However, he's afraid that it might lead to too much writing. No problem, John; if you post as infrequently as I do, blogging hardly takes any time at all!

I know John hopes that these thoughts won't just be a cause for moving our emotions, but that they will be of some comfort and assistance for any readers that might have had a similar loss. Stay tuned - part one of three will be coming very soon.