Pure Church

Tim Challies gives his top 9 books of 2009 and his overall favorite. Good stuff on the list.

What were your favorites?

Challies shared this powerful martyrdom scene from his reading of a new biography on Calvin. It's worth pondering widely and deeply:

I saw two burnt there. Their death inspired in me differing sentiments. If you had been there, you would have hoped for a less severe punishment for these poor unfortunates. ... The first was a very young man, not yet with a beard, he was the son of a cobbler. He was brought in front of the judges and condemned to have his tongue cut out and burned straight afterward. Without changing the expression of his face, the young man presented his tongue to the executioner's knife, sticking it out as far as he could. The executioner pulled it out even further with pinchers, cut it off, and hit the sufferer several times on the tongue and threw it in the young man's face. Then he was put into a tipcart, which was driven to the place of execution, but, to see him, one would think that he was going to a feast. ... When the chain had been placed around his body, I could not describe to you with what equanimity of soul and with what expression in his features he endured the cries of elation and the insults of the crowd that were directed towards him. He did not make a sound, but from time to time he spat out the blood that was filling his mouth, and he lifted his eyes to heaven, as if he was waiting for some miraculous rescue. When his head was covered in sulphur, the executioner showed him the fire with a menacing air; but the young man, without being scared, let it be known, by a movement of his body, that he was giving himself willingly to be burned.

Tim Challies, reflecting on Ligon Duncan's book Does Grace Grow Best in Winter, gives a very helpful answer.

Tim reviews the book here. You can buy the book here.

Challies is blogging the Basics conference this week. I appreciated this nugget from the first plenary talk given by Oxford mathematician John Lennox:

Paul used reason and intellectual abilities, but he didn’t trust them. It is too easy to trust intellect and use God. Paul used every ability God gave him to the full but he trusted God. We must not find a theological reason to be intellectually lazy. God has no more patience for intellectual slackers than he does for any other slacker.

Check out the summaries from session one and two.

In April 2002 to be exact. Tim is up to some good cliffhanging posts this year. This one is about how he left the work-a-day world and began a new business in web design. If you ever wondered how the uber-blogger got his start, here's the skinny.

Challies begins what looks like will be a good series on living life according to the correct standard. See here for a riveting start to the topic.

I was there when it happened. And it broke my heart to see it. In fact, I can't even write about it. So, just check out the details here.

1. When Tim plugs a book, the sales skyrocket.

2. More women read his blog than just about any other blog on the planet.

3. You read his blog and you feel really warm inside.

4. People try to rip off his book covers (see here).

5. More people subscribe to his blog than any other (and maybe even more than O Magazine)


But then there are reasons that Tim is completely unlike Oprah.

1. His love for the Savior.

2. His commitment to the truth.

3. His love for the church.

4. The utter absence of New Age, therapeutic self-help gurus.

5. His picture doesn't appear on the cover of all his posts.

My man Tim Challies says, "The badder the bad, the gooder the good." Who knew Canadians spoke Ebonics?!

Tim Challies, author of The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment, is on a blog tour. He's guest blogging on a number of blogs, answering questions, and discussing things with folks who leave comments. This is an excellent idea. Check him out on tour at: