CH, Ch, ch, ch Changes . . .

I've updated a few things today.

Currently Reading List

I've deleted In His Image, as I've already finished that one and the second book in the Christ-Clone Trilogy - Birth of an Age. I'm now on to Acts of God, the finale in the series. Theologically, these books are from the dispensational, premillennial school of thought, which I disagree with, just like the Left Behind series. But as stories, these are excellent, far better than the Left Behind series. The evil of the Anti-Christ character is far more subtle, and thus believable as an Anti-Christ, and also more evil. The protagonist in this one is the right hand man of the Anti-Christ, who eventually finds himself on the horns of a moral dilemma, which makes for good reading. There are also some very vivid and picturesque descriptions of the judgments. As I said, I don't agree with the theology, but its a good story.

I've deleted A Time of Departing, by Ray Yungen, as I finished it up a week or so ago. I may go ahead and write a review of it if I have a little time. It was a very good book, showing how alot of what passes for "Christian Spirituality," and "Contemplative Prayer," is simply New Age hooey, dressed up with a little Christian vernacular. The weakness of the book is that at times he engages in a little guilt by association - i.e. person #1 endorses person #2 who endorses person #3 who is a bad guy. Therefore, person #1 must be embracing the errors of person #3. But that's a minor criticism. What he does well is showing the link between folks like Richard Foster, Brennan Manning, and Henri Nouwen with Thomas Merton. Merton is the father of the modern contemplative prayer movement, and Merton derived this from his attempts to syncretize Christianity with eastern religions. In that respect Yungen shows that Manning, Foster et al are bringing New Age and eastern mystical practices into the church.

I'm still working slowly through Ryken's book The Word of God in English, and Pagans in the Pews by Peter Jones.

I'm absolutely loving the barbecue book - I've learned how to make a really good hamburger, how to grill shrimp and vegetables. I never thought about grilling vegetables till I tried the grilled asparagus recipe - its excellent. I've branched out to grilling squash, zuchinni and onions on the grill while brushing them with an olive oil/teriyaki sauces, and sprinlking lemon juice on them - its delicious.

Addition of Baltimore/Washington Beltway Bloggers

I wanted to have a special feature on Baltimore bloggers, but then I realized that the Requiest doesn't technically live in the Baltimore area, he lives closer to DC, so I expanded this to include anyone who lives near either the Baltimore or Washington DC beltways.

I've added "Now I don't want to get off a rant here . . ." by Jeff Price. He seems to blog mostly on politics and the Baltimore Orioles, with a little theology thrown in it seems.

I've also added Intellectual Defenestration by Nathan Maphet. Nathan runs the Baltiblogs webring - he's a student at RTS and an excellent blogger, and he gets the award for the most peculiar name of a blog I have read. I won't spoil the fun for you, go ahead and look up the word "defenestration" in a dictionary and picture yourself defenestrating that person or idea which really annoys you.

And of course, I have my good friend Terry Pruitt of Pruitt Communications in this section. He's a ruling elder and pastoral intern at my church and a large proportion of the things I blog on seem to have roots in things he has posted or in conversations we have had.

I would be happy to feature other bloggers in the Baltimore/Washington DC area, especially those who write from a confessionally reformed perspective, since that's my own theological/denominational background. But, I'd be willing to consider some who didn't necessarily consider themselves reformed if they come from a basically orthodox evangelical position and have some good things to say.

Addition of Boar's Head Tavern to the main link list.

Boar's Head Tavern is not your average blog - it looks more like a forum with a lot of debate on a lot of different topics. These guys are all over the map, which is half the fun of it. I cringe at a bunch of the stuff I see on there, but I think that's the point - having different people from different perspectives arguing/debating and sharpening one another. As best I can tell, everything I have seen is pretty civil, although there is some good natured ribbing and plain spokenness going on there.

In addition, I wanted to say thanks to those folks - they've picked up on a couple of my posts and I've gotten alot of hits from their references - so cheers to the Jolly Swine over at the Boar's Head.