Coram Deo ~

Looking at contemporary culture from a Christian worldview

Monthly Archives: September 2024


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My Review of Reagan

Reagan, PG-13
***

This inspiring film looks at the life of President Ronald Reagan from the time of his childhood in Dixon, Illinois, and his time at Eureka College, through his diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease. The film was directed by Sean McNamara, and written by Howard Klausner based on Paul Kengor’s 2006 book The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism.
Reagan’s story is told by a former Soviet KGB agent Viktor Petrovich, played by Oscar winner Jon Voight (Midnight Cowboy), to a young Russian politician. Reagan was long considered a threat to communism.

Dennis Quaid (I Can Only Imagine) portrays the adult Ronald Reagan, and David Henrie plays the young Reagan. Amanda Righetti plays Reagan’s mother Nelle. Mena Suvari portrays Jane Wyman, Reagan’s first wife, and Penelope Ann Miller portrays Nancy, Reagan’s second wife. Continue reading →


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MUSIC REVIEWS and NEWS


Hey Y’all – Adam Wainwright
***

Adam “Waino” Wainwright was a legendary pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals, winning 200 games in his outstanding career. Hey Y’All, which he describes as a 90’s country music vibe, is his first album. Wainwright’s country music influences include artists like Alan Jackson, George Strait, Travis Tritt, Tracy Lawrence and Garth Brooks. The album, which Wainwright describes as the story of his life, was produced by Gary Baker. The thirteen songs were co-written by Wainwright, Baker and Greg Barnhill, plus songwriting contributions from Jeff King (“American Hearts”) and Matt Johnson (“Hit The Ground Running”). I’m not a country music fan, but I really enjoyed this album.

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  • More of this review
  • Music News
  • Song of the Week Lyrics ~ Come Unto Jesus by Shane and Shane

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BOOK REVIEWS and NEWS

Joni Eareckson Tada: The Girl Who Learned to Follow God in a Wheelchair by Kristyn Getty. Illustrated by Hsulynn Pang. The Good Book Company. 24 pages. 2024
**** 

This new book by Kristyn Getty is a part of the Do Great Things For God series from The Good Book Company, which includes twelve books about inspiring women such as Susannah Spurgeon, Amy Carmichael, Corrie Ten Boom, Fanny Crosby and others. This book is about Joni Eareckson Tada, one of my wife Tammy’s and my heroes of the faith. Paul Miller, in his book J-Curve: Dying and Rising with Jesus in Everyday Life, wrote that Joni combines the best of Martin Luther and Mother Teresa. High praise indeed.
This book tells Joni’s life story. She trusted Christ at a church camp at age 15. Just two years later, while swimming with her sister, she dove off of a float, but the water was too shallow for diving. Her head hit the bottom, breaking her neck. She would be in a wheelchair for the rest of her life. She would go through emotions of sadness and anger.

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BOOK REVIEWS ~ More of this review…
BOOK NEWS ~ Links to Interesting Articles
BOOK CLUB ~ Truths We Confess by  R.C. Sproul
I’M CURRENTLY READING…. Continue reading →


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A Prayer for the Fall Season

Our Father in Heaven,

We thank you for the crisp cool fall mornings and evenings that we are experiencing now. It makes us aware of the cold winter weather that will soon be upon us. Before that however, we get to enjoy a colorful fall season, with joyful fall festivals, cider, pumpkins, raking leaves, and everything else that goes with this wonderful season. And we don’t forget to notice the beauty of the changing sunlight and lengthening shadows.
It seems like just last week that I saw the first signs of the green corn and soybean plants breaking through the fields of our rich Illinois soil. But it’s actually been much longer than that. Some of the fields have already been harvested, and those that remain are brown, and will soon be harvested and laid bare until next spring. Continue reading →


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THIS & THAT: A Gathering of Favorite Articles and Quotes

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  • Favorite Quotes of the Week

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FAITH AND WORK: Connecting Sunday to Monday

Faith and Work News ~ Links to Interesting Articles

  • Education and Vocation Belong in the Village. Gregory Thornbury writes “Everyone loves a comeback story. And for people of faith who sometimes feel in exile in contemporary society, nothing fires the imagination as much as someone reconnecting to their vocation through their trust in God.”
  • Christian Vocation Disrupts the Culture. Jay Kim writes “A job is necessary, but what most people are seeking is vocation—their voice(from which the word is derived) into the world, their unique contribution to the ongoing conversation of human history.”
  • When Motherhood Feels Invisible. Kira Nelson writes “There’s no such thing as an invisible mom or a supermom. But there are moms who are fully known, fully forgiven, and fully loved in Christ.”
  • The Case for Taking it Slow. Abby J. Perry interviews Michaela O’Donnell and Lisa Pratt Slayton about their new book Life in Flux: Navigational Skills to Guide and Ground You in an Ever-Changing World.

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Integrating Your Faith and Work Through the Ten Commandments

Recently, I was teaching an adult Sunday School class at our church about what the Bible says about our work. We had a lot of excellent conversation, but I found one particular comment to be of particular interest because I had never heard it before.

I asked how the attendees tried to integrate their faith with their work. This can be difficult in situations in which speaking of your faith is not permitted. One individual stated that we could integrate our faith and work if we lived what the Ten Commandments taught. I had never thought of it that way, but it makes a lot of sense.

Here’s a few examples of how we can live our faith at work by obeying the Ten Commandments: Continue reading →


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MUSIC REVIEWS and NEWS

 

 

Sing! The Great Commission World Tour LIVE Extended Edition
****

A live album has been released from the annual Sing! conference each year since the conferences began in 2017. This is probably my favorite of all of those releases. It is billed as Sing! The Great Commission World Tour Live, as it includes songs from Sing! events in Belfast, Singapore and Sydney, in addition to the Sing! Conference in Nashville. Here is my review of the original edition of the album.

This new “Extended Edition” includes three additional songs:

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  • More of this review
  • Music News
  • Song of the Week Lyrics ~ Turtle in a Chinese Food Box by Charlie Peacock

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BOOK REVIEWS and NEWS


Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance. Harper Paperbacks. 291 pages. 2018
****

I read this book when it was first released, and again recently as Vance, now a U.S. Senator from Ohio, has been named as the Republican Vice-Presidential nominee.
This is Vance’s incredible story of growing up poor in the Rust Belt, in an Ohio steel town that has been hemorrhaging jobs and hope for as long as he can remember. His grandparents, neither of whom graduated from high school, raised him. He almost failed out of high school. He served as a Marine in Iraq and graduated from Yale Law School, and is a Scots-Irish hillbilly at heart.

Click on ‘Continue reading’ for:
BOOK REVIEWS ~ More of this review…
BOOK NEWS ~ Links to Interesting Articles
BOOK CLUB ~ Truths We Confess by  R.C. Sproul
I’M CURRENTLY READING…. Continue reading →


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10 New and Upcoming Books You May Be Interested In

I love to reads books in a variety of genres, and am always on the lookout for new books. Here are 10 new and upcoming books by some of my favorite authors.

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