Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Win a Calfskin ESV Study Bible

A Boomer in the Pew wants to give you a calfskin ESV Study Bible. Take a look to see how you can win it.
Click Here

Hybrid Images of The Leningrad Blockade

A very interesting project:

These haunting, hybrid images of past and present St Petersburg – formerly known as Leningrad – are the works of Sergei Larenkov. After studying old images of the city, Larenkov visited the same spots, capturing them on film. He then digitally superimposed the old image over new, producing these eerie and thought-provoking shots using remakable photoshop technique.
See the pictures here.

But hey, socialism/government bail-out is great, right? Who wouldn't want the government determining what's really the in best interest for the people and what's best for the economy? And what a great legacy they left us: 200 million dead peasants.

HT: Andrew Sullivan/ Justin Taylor

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

In Gratitude

These past two days, the fair campus of Grove City College was blessed by the presence and preaching of Dr. J. Ligon Duncan, senior pastor of First Presbyterian Church, Jackson, Mississippi.

Dr. Duncan came as a guest of the College and a plenary speaker of the second annual Grove City Evangelical Scholarship Conference, celebrating the 500th birthday of John Calvin this year. While I could ramble on about his many qualifications and accolades (Dr. Duncan is both a scholar and a gentleman, to be sure), and of the varying details of the conference, I want to make but a simple point here: expression of deep and sincere gratitude to for Dr. Duncan coming and preaching the pure and unadulterated gospel of Jesus Christ.

In chapel services Monday evening ("Covenants, Sacraments, and Assurance" on Hebrews 6, Genesis 15, 16, 17 and Joshua 9) and Tuesday morning (on Luke 2:1-7), we received nothing but positive feedback, and a sincere appreciation from the student body for what they felt were two of the best chapels of the semester.

There is no doubt a thirst here for faithful, practical, thorough, theologically sound, robust and powerful preaching of Word of God, rather than the ever-popular musings on events and happenstance that are vaguely spiritual or religious. And while the former happens more often that the latter, it doesn't happen often enough, which is why Monday evening in particular was such a wonderful opportunity for many. The preaching of the Word was accompanied with joyous singing, prayer, and faithful exposition of the Word and thoughtful application from the Word ("Less of what I have to say, more of what the Word has to say," to paraphrase Calvin).

Monday, we were reminded of the signs and seals of God in the sacraments and how that reassures us that God will uphold His covenant promises, in spite of our failure and faithlessness, for He never fails and is always faithful. Tuesday, as we heard the ever familiar "Christmas passage" from Luke 2, mindful of the fact that, though visited by angels, Mary and Joseph experienced trial and persecution, as do we, though often without angelic message--still on we press, in obedience and faitfulness, for we walk by faith and not by sight, knowing that what is happening is in accordance wih the Lord's perfect will.

Yes, indeed, it was a wonderful time to see the Lord's people gather in worship, as we were joyoulsy edified by the faithful proclamation of the Word of God.

FPC and RTS Jackson, you are very fortunate and very blessed indeed to have such a wonderful man of God and shepherd in that place.

Dr. Duncan, thank you for everything. We'll look forward to seeing you again soon, Lord willing.

soli Deo gloria!

HT: FPC Jackson blog

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Holy Cow!

How Much Is $1.1 Trillion?

Amanda Shaw collects the numbers on the price tag for the new "stimulus" plan:

Adjusted for inflation, here are some other massive expenditures:
  • * The Marshall Plan ($115.3 billion)
  • * The space race ($237 billion)
  • * The Korean War ($454 billion)
  • * The New Deal ($500 billion)
  • * The invasion of Iraq ($597 billion)
  • * The Vietnam War ($698 billion)
So the proposed "stimulus" package costs more than the Marshall Plan, the Korean War, and the New Deal combined.

Here are some thought experiments:
  • If you took collected a $1 million per day, ever day from the birth of Christ, in 2009 you'd only be about 3/4 of the way to a trillion.
  • If you got $1 every second, it would take almost 32,000 years to get to a trillion.
  • If you stacked a trillion dollar bills on top of each other, it would go 68,000 miles into space--1/3 of the way to the moon.
  • If you took 100-dollar bills and put them side to side, it would circle the equator 38.9 times
To make things worse, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office is saying that the stimulus plan will actually make things worse long-term.

HT: James Grant via Dustin Shramek

Update: Comparison with previous expenditures fixed. Sorry about that.
posted by JT at Thursday, February 05, 2009

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

No Text Please, I'm British!

Excellent article regarding Facebook and the nature of social networking.

Click here.