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I just got the Westminster Bookstore April eNewsletter, and they have some great books on sale. Here are four titles worth checking out. (And no, I am not sharing this list just because my birthday is in two weeks.)

The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism (Hardcover), by Tim Keller; List Price: $24.95; Westminster Bookstore: $13.72 – 45% Off

Why is there suffering in the world? How could a loving God send people to Hell? Why isn’t Christianity more inclusive? Shouldn’t the Christian God be a god of love? How can one religion be “right” and the rest “wrong”? Why have so many wars been fought in the name of God? These are just a few of the questions even ardent believers wrestle with today. In this book, Tim Keller uses literature, philosophy, real-life conversations and reasoning, and even pop culture to explain how faith in a Christian God is a soundly rational belief, held by thoughtful people of intellectual integrity with a deep compassion for those who truly want to know the truth.

The Courage to Be Protestant: Truth-lovers, Marketers, and Emergents in the Postmodern World (Hardcover), by David F. Wells; List Price: $25.00; Westminster Bookstore: $16.00 – 36% Off

Wells argues that the historic, classical evangelicalism is one marked by doctrinal seriousness, as opposed to the new movements of the marketing church and the emergent church. He energetically confronts the marketing communities and what he terms their “sermons-from-a-barstool and parking lots and apres-worship Starbucks stands.” He also takes issue with the most popular evangelical movement in recent years – the emergent church. Emergents are postmodern and postconservative and postfoundational, embracing a less absolute, understanding of the authority of Scripture than Wells maintains is required.

Christ and Culture Revisited (Hardcover), by D. A. Carson; List Price: $24.00; Westminster Bookstore: $15.84 – 34% Off

Called to live in the world, but not to be of it, Christians must maintain a balancing act that becomes more precarious the further our culture departs from its Judeo-Christian roots. How should members of the church interact with such a culture, especially as deeply enmeshed as most of us have become?

D. A. Carson applies his masterful touch to this problem. He begins by exploring the classic typology of H. Richard Niebuhr and his five options for understanding culture. Carson proposes that these disparate options are in reality one still larger vision. Using the Bible’s own story line and the categories of biblical theology, he attempts to work out what that unifying vision is.

In My Place Condemned He Stood: Celebrating the Glory of the Atonement (Paperback), by J. I. Packer and Mark Dever; List Price: $16.99; Westminster Bookstore: $11.21 – 34% Off

Combines three classic articles by Packer—””The Heart of the Gospel”; his Tyndale Biblical Theology Lecture, “What Did the Cross Achieve”; and his introductory essay to John Owen’s The Death of Death in the Death of Christ—with Dever’s recent article, “Nothing but the Blood.” An important anthology that reaffirms the classic doctrine of substitutionary atonement and counters the ongoing attacks against it.

Taming Technology in the Home series:
    ● Taming Television in the Home
    ● Taming Video Games in the Home
    ● Taming the Internet in the Home

One of the dangers that comes along with TV, video games and the internet is the potential for wasted time. We have found this particularly true with video games. Video games can be incredibly addictive and time-consuming. If you are not careful, they can quickly turn into a giant sinkhole of wasted time for your child. How do you help your children manage their time with video games and other technology in the home? Here are some of the things we do.

• Set time limits: We allow our kids a set amount of time to play video games each week. We know if we did not set limits for them, video games could easily take over their lives. Most kids have not developed the willpower or self-control to make good choices in this area yet, so as parents we need to help them. Setting time limits for our children has allowed them to pursue other interests and to use their time more productively. (More on setting time limits below)
• Set alternate activities: Video games are not a priority in our home. School work, reading, musical instruments, activities and chores come first. When you require certain activities of your children, it automatically limits the time they have for other things. By setting up alternate activities, there is only so much time left over for video games.
• Kick them outside: We don’t do this one as often as we should, but there is nothing wrong with telling your kids to go outside and play for a couple hours. Kids are naturally creative, and they will find plenty of stuff to do.
• Know your kids’ games: Time isn’t the only problem with video games. Some games have inappropriate content. Be sure to read the ratings on your kids’ games and set the ground rules for what is and is not acceptable in your home. When your children get a new game, sit down and watch it with them to make sure you are comfortable with the content.

Now, I promised you I would tell you more about setting time limits. This was the biggest frustration at our home for the longest time. At first we just told our kids how much time they could spend. But then they would forget how long they had been playing. Next we tried sign-in sheets, but they would forget to sign in. Or they would sign in and forget to sign out, and then when they came back later to play they would have no idea how much time they had remaining. Sometimes it got so bad we thought about just getting rid of all the video games in the house. But we knew they enjoyed the games, and we didn’t mind them playing as long as they kept their time under control and were doing other things as well.

Then we discovered Bob. Bob solved all of our time problems when it came to video games overnight. Suddenly the kids knew how long they had been playing and when to stop. They began to monitor their own game time and budget it carefully through the week. We no longer had to get on their case or constantly police them. It was amazing. We like Bob! Bob is our friend.

You are probably wondering, who or what is Bob?

• Bob is an electronic time manager. It looks like a miniature ATM machine. You set the daily or weekly time limits, give your child a passcode, and Bob takes care of the rest. When your child exceeds their time limit, Bob shuts off the TV and will not turn it back on again. Bob can manage time for up to six different users. Bob set us back about $100, but it was worth it. We like Bob! Bob is our friend. We mostly use Bob for video games, but Bob can also be used to manage time spent watching TV.

So, what things have you done to help tame video games in your home? Feel free to share in the comments below.

Click here for next post in series: Taming the Internet in the Home

UPDATE: My wife pointed out to me that much of what I wrote in this post deals more with the past in our home than the present. There was a time when we really had to crack the whip with video games in the house, but it is no longer an issue. Our oldest son no longer has any time restrictions, and he does fine. And the younger two really don’t need the time restrictions anymore. They do plenty of other things on their own – including playing outside! So, sorry boys. I hope I didn’t make you look bad. It was not my intention, and it certainly does not reflect where you are at now.   – Dad

STUPID CRIME EDITION.

Dead giveaway. A man who broke into a funeral home tried to fool the police by playing dead. Unfortunately for him, two things gave him away. First of all, the corpses were dressed in suits while he was wearing street clothes. And secondly, he was breathing!

Big yellow taxi. A bank robber was arrested after using a taxi cab for his getaway car. The man had the cab pick him up at his apartment, take him to the bank for the robbery, and then take him home again. The cab driver gave the police the man’s address and identified him in the bank surveillance video.

Applying for jail. An armed robber in Georgia filled out a job application while waiting for customers to leave before robbing a convenience store. He put a fake address on the application, but police were still able to locate him because he used his real name and phone number.

Take my number, please. An armed robber entered a Chicago muffler shop wearing a mask and demanded they open the safe. When the workers told him only the boss had the combination, he gave them his phone number and told them to call him back when the boss got in. They did, and he came back to the shop still wearing his mask where the police promptly arrested him.

Taming Technology in the Home series:
    ● Taming Television in the Home
    ● Taming Video Games in the Home
    ● Taming the Internet in the Home

Although television can be a valuable source for news, information and entertainment, it can also bring a number of negatives into your home. The two main issues with television are time and content. I will address the time issue tomorrow (along with video games), but today I want to talk about content. How do you protect your children from inappropriate content on TV? Here are some of the things we do.

• Watch on DVD: One way we control content is by doing much of our TV watching on DVD. We collect movies and old favorites on DVD so that we can watch what we want when it is convenient and avoid commercials at the same time.
• Use a DVR: We use a DVR (Digital Video Recorder) to record current programs we would like to watch without being tied to the TV at a certain time of day. As an added plus, the DVR also lets us fast-forward through the commercials. (This is a great time-saver, especially when watching sporting events.)
• Keep it public: Our kids do not have TV’s in their bedrooms. When you are trying to control content in the home, it makes sense to limit the number of TV’s available and to keep them in the public areas of the home.
• Set appropriate boundaries: We set boundaries with our kids for both time and content on TV. (Again, more on the time issue tomorrow!) We direct them to good content, and we let them know when a certain movie or show is not acceptable. If something comes on that is inappropriate while watching together, we set the example by switching the channel or turning it off. It is important to know what movies or shows your kids are watching and to make sure they are appropriate for your children.
• Talk: We try to talk with our kids about what we watch. We want to teach them how to discern the various messages found in TV shows or movies. For example, we like Star Trek as a family. It has some great story lines and admirable characters. However, I don’t always agree with the worldview that is presented. So we talk about it and help our kids become active viewers of media rather than passive receptacles.
• Block: We use the settings on our DVD player and cable box to block certain programs or channels with inappropriate content. We have it set up so that anything with a PG-13 rating or higher requires a password for access.

And here are two additional gadgets we have found helpful. These have allowed us to watch a lot of great movies together as a family that we would have otherwise passed by, either because of the language or due to certain scenes we felt were inappropriate.

• TVGuardian: TVGuardian filters out inappropriate language from TV shows and movies. There are various settings depending on what you want to filter. You can purchase TVGuardian built-in on some DVD players or as a separate device. We have used it in our home for years, and it does a great job of filtering out curse words and religious exclamations we would rather not have in our home.
• ClearPlay: ClearPlay DVD Players filter out both language and visual elements from regular DVD movies. ClearPlay is customizable, and you can turn off or on fourteen different filter settings relating to inappropriate language, violent content or sexual content. ClearPlay has an extensive library of available filters, and they are always adding more. They offer several price options, including a monthly membership which gives you full access to all filters at all times.

So, what things have you done to help tame the television in your home? Feel free to share in the comments below.

Click here for next post in series: Taming Video Games in the Home

Well, I posted Obama’s tax returns two weeks ago, so in order to be fair, here is the summary chart for Hillary Clinton’s tax returns too.

Most of the income came from Bill’s book sales and speeches. Charitable contributions averaged 9.5% over the eight year period. What is interesting is that most of those contributions went to the Clinton Family Foundation. Here is a chart showing 92.8% of donations going to the Family Foundation in years 2002-2007 (100% in years 2003, 2005 and 2006).

Aren’t you glad you don’t have to release your tax returns to the public?

Related posts:

• All the Candidates’ Tax Returns
• Click here for Obama’s Tax Returns
• Click here for Britney Spears’ Budget.
• Click here for more posts on politics.

I saw this video clip over the weekend. You supply the title in the comments section. (There is no audio on the clip, but you should understand it just fine.)

Get the latest Flash Player to see this player.

Taming Technology in the Home series:
    ● Taming Television in the Home
    ● Taming Video Games in the Home
    ● Taming the Internet in the Home

This series of posts will deal with three particular forms of technology in the home — television, video games and the internet. All three of these have the potential both for good and for harm. So how do you enjoy the positive aspects while guarding against the negative? This question becomes especially important if you have children in the home. You want your children to enjoy the benefits of technology, but you also have a responsibility to protect them from any possible dangers.

Some parents embrace technology in the home with little or no discernment. Ignoring the dangers, they allow an unbroken stream of media to flood their homes at all times. Other parents choose to eliminate technology from the home — no TV, video games or internet. This may take care of the problem in the short run, but it also cuts their children off from the potential benefits of these technologies. Most parents fall somewhere in between these two extremes and look for ways to tame technology in the home.

Like it or not, TV, video games and the internet are a part of life in the twenty-first century. We should protect our children from any negative aspects while teaching them to make wise decisions concerning technology and media in their lives. In this series I will be sharing some of the tools we have used with our children to help tame technology in our home. I invite you to come back and visit the series during the week and share your thoughts on any of these areas. You can also click here to subscribe to this blog by email or feed reader.

Click here for next post in series: Taming Television in the Home

You know it’s Monday when …

your Easter eggs hatch before you can find them.

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Click on a month for more Garfield Mondays:  January, February, March,
    April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December

Click here for Real Life Garfield.
Click here for Garfield Monday Extra.

Check back the first Monday of each month for more Garfield Mondays.

Yesterday’s message in the Church on Purpose series was called Community – Loving Our Neighbor. The main idea of the message was that community is one of God’s primary purposes for the church. We looked at the following four aspects of community from the Scriptures:

1. Reaching out with compassion to those who do not know Christ (Matthew 9:36; Luke 10:27; John 20:21)
2. Loving one another with the love Jesus had for his disciples (John 13:34-35)
3. Experiencing the fellowship of a united body (Ephesians 4:1-3)
4. Serving others with our God-given spiritual gifts (Ephesians 4:7-16; 1 Corinthians 12)

Click on the Sermons tab at the top of the blog for this and other messages.

Hymnscript. Pretty hymn sheets available for free download and distribution. (HT: Semper Reformanda)

Diploma Guide presents a List of Online Archives for Free Unabridged Books Online. “Here’s where you can go to get free unabridged reference books, novels, audio books and other texts online.”

Matt Lewis explains what Humphrey Bogart, Captain Kirk and John McCain all have in common. “Humphrey Bogart never said, ‘play it again, Sam,’ Captain Kirk never uttered, ‘Beam me up, Scotty’ — and John McCain never promised a hundred year war!”

Abraham Piper offers six reasons why pastors should blog. “In this article I want to convince as many pastors as possible to sit down and start a blog today. If I can’t convince them, then I want to convince churchgoers to hound their pastor until he does.”

Wendell Berry writes a letter encouraging young writers. “The first obligation of a writer is to tell the truth–or to come as near to telling it as is humanly possible. To do that, it is necessary to learn to write well. And to learn to write well, it is necessary to learn to read well.” (HT: Sand in the Gears)

Mark Mikasa lost his wife, Midi, and son, Nathan, in a car accident on January 1, 2008. Mark has been blogging openly and honestly about how he and his remaining son, Lucas, have been coping and adjusting since. You will find some helpful words on grief and loss from a Christian perspective as you read Mark’s posts. Please pray for Mark and Lucas as they walk this journey together.

Andrew Jackson writes on How to Engage in Politics without Losing Your Soul. “Over the years I have watched many Christians who became zealously active in partisan politics actually ‘lose their souls.’ That is, they lost their unique public witness as a Christian; they began to act contrary to the character of Christ and the fruit of the Holy Spirit; and they became agents of division within the church itself.”

Jim Martin asks some good questions about Staying Fully Alive Until You Die. “What message do we send others when we simply exist? How does this impact our children and others around us? What have you noticed in people who remain fully alive on this earth versus those who simply exist? What do you see in one that seems to be absent in the other? What should a person do intentionally to remain fully alive?”

Joe Carter sometimes wonders if he will end up being The Last Evangelical in America. “I think being an evangelical is the best way for me to be Christian; for better or worse, I’ll never abandon the tradition or the label. I’ll remain attached to the tradition that gave us Jonathan Edwards and Jim Bakker, William Wilberforce and the Wittenburg Door…and Francis Schaeffer.” Don’t worry, Joe, I will be right by your side.

Here is the definition I offered for worshiping in spirit and in truth in last Sunday’s message on worship. Worshiping God in spirit and in truth means:

Worshiping God truly and sincerely from the heart in the power of the Holy Spirit while proclaiming the truth about God as found in Holy Scripture.

What do you think?

“God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.” (John 4:24)

Check out this very neat and educational flash animation explaining the anatomy of a black hole. You can click through the presentation at your own pace. (HT: Presurfer)

Click here for more Space related posts.