The Holdfast

Choosing discouragement or choosing God

Mark Ritchie — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 17:22:32 +0000

I wish I read more articles like this. Andree Seu in World this month has captured part of the essence of life, one of the parts where I most often fail.

Read The Active Heart.

Wordle

Mark Ritchie — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 04:31:05 +0000

OK, this is just fun. Wordle is a web site where you can plug in a piece of text, or another web site, and it will make a word-art poster out of it. You can tinker with the fonts and colors and such. It uses the frequency of the words to decide which ones are more important. Here is one I made by pasting in the entire text of Calvin’s Institutes.

Setting our eyes on things above

Mark Ritchie — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 17:52:32 +0000

From George Herbert, Man’s Medley. He is talking about a man (or woman):

… Not that he may not here

Taste of the cheer,

But as birds drink, and straight lift up their head,

So he must sip and think

Of better drink

He may attain to, after he is dead.

‘Telescope’ through the earth

Mark Ritchie — Fri, 23 May 2008 19:08:31 +0000

I love this device!

You can read the (phony) story at their web site.

Wikipedia and truth

Mark Ritchie — Tue, 06 May 2008 17:58:27 +0000

I suppose I should not be surprised by reports of ruthless editing in Wikipedia to exclude certain points of view, but I guess I really was surprised. Sometimes I get taken in by all the geeky goodness of freely shared information, and I somehow think that neutrality and free debate will be the result. Alas, the reality of fallen human nature always intrudes. Wikipedia still has a lot of good information, but let’s not fool ourselves about the neutrality of it.

HT: Challies.com

Bible Conference in Dallas

Mark Ritchie — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 03:24:03 +0000

Everybody should know that David Jackman is going to be in town on May 17-18 at the Trinity Hillcrest Church. Rev. Jackman is one of those great English evangelicals whose forthright faithfulness has been a bedrock under many of our lives (think John Stott, J I Packer, Martyn Lloyd-Jones). Currently he heads the Proclamation Trust, an organization dedicated to the revival of the preaching of the Bible. He is also associated with Oak Hill College, which has been at the forefront of the defense of the doctrine of penal substitution in the late controversies in the UK.

A friend of mine is getting married Saturday night, but I hope to make it to Saturday morning and Sunday night at least. Check it out!

Together for the Gospel pictures

Mark Ritchie — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 02:22:26 +0000

I hope I can write some real thoughts on Together For The Gospel 2008, but in the meantime here are the photo albums!

http://picasaweb.google.com/ritchie321/Louisville41508

http://picasaweb.google.com/ritchie321/Louisville41608

http://picasaweb.google.com/ritchie321/Louisville41708

Together For The Gospel

Mark Ritchie — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 18:10:46 +0000

I’m really excited to be heading for Louisville, KY tomorrow for what promises to be a wonderful conference - Together For The Gospel. I’ll be staying with my wife’s cousin and super-blogger Blake. Thanks my brother.

Best of all, I’m traveling with my oldest son, and he is the guy who talked me into going! Thanks Eric!

Jonah

Mark Ritchie — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 04:16:12 +0000

Food for thought on how children’s “Bible Stories” often do more harm than good.

Eaten Alive in the April issue of Touchstone Magazine

Free worship album “Sweet Sacrifice”

Mark Ritchie — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 18:45:39 +0000

Some wonderful men and women in the Northwest have posted an entire album of original worship music which you can download. The words are God-honoring and meaty. Not only are MP3’s available, there are PowerPoints and chords and other aids. One of the artists is Michael Card.

See The By/For Project.