Coram Deo ~

Looking at contemporary culture from a Christian worldview


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THIS & THAT: A Gathering of Favorite Articles and Quotes

  • Spiritual Formation and the Reformation: Comer, Willard, Calvin. Is spiritual formation that moves beyond the practices of the Reformation what we need to help with our disillusionment with evangelicalism? Michael Horton discusses the contemporary spiritual formation movement most notably associated with John Mark Comer and heavily influenced by the late Dallas Willard, and compares its emphases to the hallmarks of Reformation piety.
  • How to Let Scripture Interpret Scripture. Benjamin Gladd and Nancy Guthrie outline principles for making sound biblical connections, tracing themes in the text, and avoiding common pitfalls of biblical interpretation.
  • FOREVERGREEN. Enjoy the Academy Award nominated animated short film with a gospel message. The thirteen-minute film was directed by Nathan Engelhardt and Jeremy Spears. Read Brett McCracken’s interview with Engelhardt and Spears about the making of Forevergreen, how Christian artists tell stories, and what they think of AI’s disruption in the arts.

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  • More interesting article links
  • Favorite Quotes of the Week

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FAITH AND WORK: Connecting Sunday to Monday

Faith and Work News ~ Links to Interesting Articles

  • Finding a Job That Fits. Are you in the right job? On this episode of Renewing Your Mind, R.C. Sproul gives practical guidance to help us seek a vocation where our gifts align with the motivation necessary to succeed.
  • The Multitasking Myth. Reagan Rose writes “What I’ve found is that disciplining myself to finish one task before moving to the next isn’t just more effective. It’s actually more fulfilling.”
  • Christlike Work in a Burnout Society. Kyle Tucker writes “In the malaise of modern work, God offers us a hopeful alternative. First Thessalonians 4:9–12presents a theology of work rooted in divine love, quiet ambition, and missional living.
  • Three Myths About Aging In the Third Third of Life. Amy Hanson writes “I have found that the third third of life tends to be viewed the most negatively in culture. We are conditioned at a young age to see aging as a bad thing and something to avoid.”

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  • More links to interesting articles
  • The Top 10 Faith and Work Quotes of the Week
  • Work and Leadership Book Review ~ The Gold Standard: Building a World-Class Team by Mike Krzyzewski with Jamie K. Spatola
  • Quotes from the book Working for Better: A New Approach to Faith at Work by Elaine Howard Ecklund and Denise Daniels

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Leadership Attributes: Leaders are Results Driven

In the organization that I worked at, there were three “Obligations of Leadership” for all of our leaders. They were: drive results, build a high performing work environment and develop people. I believe that’s a good summation of what the obligations of each leader should be. However, the achievement of each of these obligations was not rewarded equally. What I tended to see was that those who drove results were rewarded and recognized at a higher level than those who built a high performing work environment or those who excelled at developing others. And as important as those latter things are, organizations pay leaders to drive results and move their organizations forward. In our series on leadership attributes, we now look at the importance of leaders driving results. A leader who is results driven excels in many leadership attributes and competencies. Briefly, here are 10 of them: Continue reading →


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A Prayer for Easter

Our Father in Heaven,

As Christians around the world celebrate Resurrection Sunday, we thank you for the sacrifice that your Son made on our behalf, a sacrifice we don’t consider, meditate on, or give thanks for often enough. Sadly, for many, it’s only during this time of the year that much thought is given to Jesus’ resurrection.
In perfect unity with you and the Holy Spirit, Jesus willingly came to earth as a human, as one of us, enduring suffering and temptation just as we do, but without sin. From the beginning, Jesus knew that His earthly mission would end up on a cruel Roman cross. He prayed in the garden that His cup would pass, but He was always in complete submission to Your will.
In the “Great Exchange” on the cross, Jesus took on himself the sins of all Christians – past, present and future. In exchange, He gave us His righteousness. Hallelujah! What a Savior! Continue reading →


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THIS & THAT: A Gathering of Favorite Articles and Quotes

  • How We Can Pursue Joy in the Midst of Suffering? In this video, John Piper shares how we can pursue joy in the midst of suffering.
  • Sabbath. After completing His work of creating the world, God rested—but not because He got tired and needed a break. On this episode of Simply Put, Barry Cooper explains how the Sabbath reminds us to regularly rest in God and enjoy the ultimate rest that He has given His people in Christ.
  • Hospitality: What it is, and What it’s Not. Rosaria Butterfield addresses this question in this short video.
  • How to Study the Bible. In this message, R.C. Sproul will introduce some of the more important tools and concepts that are necessary in order to properly study and understand the Bible.
  • What Did You Give Up When You Became a Christian? Tim Challies writes “You have exchanged what is fleeting for what is lasting and what brings death for what brings life.”

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My Review of ‘Project Hail Mary’

Project Hail Mary, rated PG-13
****

Project Hail Mary is a brilliant film adaptation of a science fiction novel written by Adam Weir, who also wrote The Martian, which became a film starring Matt Damon.
The film is directed by Oscar winners Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse) and written by Oscar nominee Drew Goddard (The Martian), and Andy Weir (The Martian). The film is based on Weir’s 2021 novel Project Hail Mary.
The film begins with Dr. Rylan Grace, splayed by three-time Oscar nominee Ryan Gosling (Barbie, La La Land, Half Nelson), waking up from an induced coma to find his two crewmates dead, and no memory of why he’s in a spaceship that is 12 light years from Earth and rapidly approaching a star called Tau Ceti. As his memory slowly returns, he begins to recall his mission. He remembers reluctantly explaining it to his middle school science class. It was called Project Hail Mary, and he had worked on it. Continue reading →


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MUSIC REVIEWS and NEWS

Far Country – Ellie Holcomb
*** ½ 

Ellie Holcomb returns with her fourth full-length studio album Far Country, a solid follow-up to Canyon, one of my favorite albums of 2021. The new album features eleven new songs born from a season of profound grief and spiritual exploration. Holcomb co-wrote all of the songs. The album was produced and engineered by Cason Cooley and executive produced by Holcomb’s father Brown Bannister, and Samantha Steele.
The songs feature Holcomb’s strong and expressive vocals. The album contains themes of being made for a different place, there having to be more than this, light, love, hope, and the goodness and mercy for the Lord.

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  • More of this review
  • Music News
  • Song of the Week Lyrics ~ It Really Is Amazing Grace by Phil Wickham and Crowder

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BOOK REVIEWS and NEWS

BOOK REVIEW:
A Light on the Hill: The Surprising Story of How a Local Church in the Nation’s Capital Influenced Evangelicalism by Caleb Morell. Crossway. 353 pages. 2025
****

You may not think that the history of a church would make for very interesting reading. However, after reading several positive reviews of the book, I decided to read Caleb Morell’s history of the 150-year-old Capitol Baptist Church (CHBS), which is located just blocks from the U.S Capitol in Washington D.C. My wife Tammy and I have had the pleasure of worshipping at CHBC while in Washington D.C. on a business trip.
Morell did an outstanding job researching the church’s history for this book. I very much enjoyed reading how God has used this church for nearly 150 years.
We are told that this is not the story of an extraordinary church. Rather, it is about God and how he delights to do extraordinary things through ordinary people and ordinary churches. The book looks at the factors and conditions that contribute to gospel faithfulness. The church has stayed centered on the gospel and present in the place God planted it because of the ordinary people who worked, prayed, sowed, and stayed.

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BOOK REVIEWS ~ More of this review…
BOOK NEWS ~ Links to Interesting Articles
BOOK CLUB ~ Tim Keller on the Christian Life: The Transforming Power of the Gospel by Matt Smethurst
I’M CURRENTLY READING…. Continue reading →


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12 New and Upcoming Books You Might Be Interested In

I enjoy books in a number of genres – theology, biology, faith and work, leadership, Christian living, etc. Here are 12 new and upcoming books that you might be interested in.

Click on ‘Continue reading’ for more information on these books: Continue reading →


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A Prayer for Spring


Our Father in Heaven,
We thank You that our Midwest winter has finally come to an end. We have had more snow and more bitterly cold days than in the past few years. Though we have missed some of the more severe winter weather that the rest of the country has faced, it has still been a long, cold and dark season. But just like spring following winter, you have given us an encouraging verse out of the book of Lamentations. Continue reading →