The Stones and the Village People

The latest in British archaeological discovery: Stonehenge people unearthed!

He speaks...

Yeah yeah yeah. I know. Is Andrew dead? The fact is, actually, I am. But that’s still no excuse to be in absentia when stewarding a blog. Either shut it down or keep it active, that’s my philosophy. But frankly, I think the reason I haven’t graced the web with my prosaic presence was simply due to the inconvenient truth that I have had, unlike I did during my year of faithful blogging, gainful employment. While serving as a caffeine technician in the Autumnal months, and now as a Tour Consultant at EF Education in Cambridge, I have had time next to nil to blog. I think. Maybe I do have time… I’m not sure if it’s the time factor or the lost interest factor. Needless to say, I think I want to regenerate my blogicity. To do that, I feel the need for a new style, a new look, a new approach. So there it is. I am returning, but not as what you see and have seen. I will retire The Wicket Gate, at least until a rainy day, and will birth something new, cutting edge, post-postmodern yet with ancient gravitas. Maybe I’ll even stop using over-the-top quasi-intellectual lingo....probably not.

In closing, I would appreciate all thoughts, good ideas, questions, or input. This site will be running until the inauguration of my latest innovation.

Thousands upon Thousands of Books

I've never been to one, but on Saturday, September 9, Christian Book Distributors (see link on right) is having one of their four annual warehouse sales at their HQ in Peabody, Mass. I'd be kind of scared to go; there are so many books I want, especially commentary sets, that I wouldn't know where to begin. Oh, not to mention the $$ factor.
CBD needs to empty out thousands of books to make room for new inventory, so some of the prices are practically give-away. For example, Calvin's commentaries, a 22 volume set, is published by Baker and the retail price is $1,000 US. But not at CBD! They charge $99.99!! To give you an example of how huge the warehouse sale is, here's some warnings from the website and tips on preparing:

"Take a few minutes to jot down the titles AND stock numbers of the specific products that you want to locate at the sale. CBD staff at computer stations will then be able to quickly print out the warehouse locations of your books, saving you time and energy!
Plan on spending the day. Eat a hearty breakfast, dress in layers, and wear comfortable shoes. Many folks find it easier to leave their little ones at home. Make sure you bring along totes to help you carry your wonderful "finds" more easily."

It starts at 7:00am and I heartell of people lined up outside in the wee hours ready to fight at the bargain tables.

Hahvid Yahd

Hi folks! Thought I was dead? Well, reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated. I am indeed alive.

After one and a half months of courting a prospective job at Harvard, including 4 interviews there, the position has been filled and not with me. Oh well, keep looking. Please pray for us as I'll be separate from my wife and baby for a time. Ciao.

P.S. I hope to resume my updating.

Where Andrew Pleads with Readers

I'm so sorry to those who have been faithful loiterers at the Wicket Gate! Everything's been crazy! We're in the States, I'm having job interviews, we're looking for a home... I'll be back!!

Allah Mia!

Separated at birth?

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (1966 – 2006)

Luciano Pavarotti al-Zarqawi (1935-)

Fright of Passage

It is indeed a sad thing when we can measure the maturity of a nation in the free world by its terror threats. In this spirit we now see that Canada has joined the parade of western superpowers with today's front page headline: Terrorist "Cell planned to behead Prime Minister."

Just the other day someone was saying how Canada's different from the States in that no one has the need to assassinate the PM. Well, the time has come.

17 men were arrested near Toronto at their terrorist training camp after people heard excessive gunfire in an area designated "No Hunting." The accused bearded fanatics told people prior to their trip that they would be "extreme camping."

With 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrate to make a bomb, the men were planning on storming Parliament Hill, taking hostages including PM Harper, and demanding the release of all Muslim prisoners and the withdrawal of Canadian troops from Afghanistan. If their demnands weren't met they would behead their hostages and blow up the Peace Tower, the CSIS (the Canadian "CIA") building, and the Stock Exchange. Thankfully, law enforcers caught them before any of their intended horror could be realized.

There are now snipers on top of Ottawa's buildings, and added security around Stephen Harper.

When the Conservative PM was asked about this threat on his life, he answered, "I can live with all these threats as long as they're not from my caucus."

And then we all chuckled. "Oh that Stephen."

"The Romance of Orthodoxy" -Wilson

"As you come to worship, always remember the romance of orthodoxy. By this we do not mean romance in the popular sense, romance having to do with mere sentimentalism. Rather, we are referring to truth in the sentiments, love in the affections, and deep courage in the battle – we are thinking of true adventure. We are talking about dragon-slaying, and all the emotional glory that accompanies it. The Scriptures declare that it is our purpose here, in this assembly of worship, to tread the serpent underfoot, for we are the body of our Lord and master. He treads the worm underfoot, crushing the head. We are His feet, and so we are privileged to crush the head of the dragon.

This not done with our paltry substitutes – it is not done with bow wow theological dogmatism, it is not done with liturgical correctness, it is not done by lining our ideological thoughts up in sterile little lines. Secular philosophy has no calendar, autonomous ideology has no rhythm, blind rationalism doesn’t know how to look forward to Christmas, or how to remember Pentecost.

Throughout, the Scriptures are clear. The just shall live by faith. This includes the cycle of our lives, and recovering this aspect of orthodoxy is a great romance, a great adventure."

Courtesy: Blog and Mablog

Gotta Love Classical Christian Homeschool Curriculum

From Trivium Pursuit Online.

Well, Jesus WAS frank with us

Westminster Theological Seminary had a great ad for their Da Vinci website in USAToday.

Where in the World is Sean and Ruth Carroll?

I can't imagine having a 24th birthday like this...

Veni Vidi Vinci

...I came, I saw, I led a Da Vinci seminar.

Please pray for me as I begin a seminar on the Da Vinci Code tonight at Bilberry Creek Baptist Church in Ottawa. It's scheduled for two weeks, but probably will continue as people have questions and issues to resolve. There will be non-believers there most likely. Pray that I would have wisdom and knowledge and "prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks me for a reason for the hope that is in me" (1 Pet. 3:15).

Quiz Result: Dead On

Your Scholastic Strength Is Deep Thinking

You aren't afraid to delve head first into a difficult subject, with mastery as your goal. You are talented at adapting, motivating others, managing resources, and analyzing risk. You should major in: Philosophy Music Theology Art History Foreign language

What Should You Major In?

Preemptive Grace

"Christian theology teaches the doctrine of prevenient grace, which briefly stated means this, that before a man can seek God, God must first have sought the man. Before a sinful man can think a right thought of God, there must have been a work of enlightenment done within him; imperfect it may be, but a true work nonetheless, and the secret cause of all desiring and seeking and praying which may follow.

We pursue God because, and only because, He has first put an urge within us that spurs us to the pursuit. 'No man can come to me,' said our Lord, 'except the Father which hath sent me draw him,' and it is by this very prevenient drawing that God takes from us every vestige of credit for he act of coming. The impulse to pursue God originates with God, but the outworking of that impulse is our following hard after Him; and all the time we are pursuing Him we are already in His hand: 'Thy right hand upholdeth me.' In this divine 'upholding' and human 'following' there is no contradiction. All is of God, for as von Hugel teaches, God is always previous."

-A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God, opening paragraphs (the whole text is also online for free).

Proud Papa

Everyone Has a Morning Ritual

I was just fooling around with a drawing tool in Microsoft Word and I got carried away.

Radars for the Lost Ark

My good friend David Graves just returned from Turkey on a reconnaissance mission to Mount Ararat. David, with the Archaeological Imaging Research Consortium (ArcImaging), will be conducting an expedition to the peak of the biblical mountain and will be using ground penetrating radar for the first time on the icecap to search for any evidence of man-made objects, especially those made of wood. His trip dealt mostly with meeting with the Turkish government. See some photos of Ararat and Hittite ruins on his blog here.

Congratulations, David, on a successful trip. Godspeed in July!

Science

"Science and religion are not at odds.

Science is simply too young to understand."

-Angels and Demons by Dan Brown, pg. 70

Belief In Yourself

"THOROUGHLY worldly people never understand even the world; they rely altogether on a few cynical maxims which are not true. Once I remember walking with a prosperous publisher, who made a remark which I had often heard before; it is, indeed, almost a motto of the modern world. Yet I had heard it once too often, and I saw suddenly that there was nothing in it. The publisher said of somebody, "That man will get on; he believes in himself." And I remember that as I lifted my head to listen, my eye caught an omnibus on which was written "Hanwell" [the lunatic asylum in London]. I said to him, "Shall I tell you where the men are who believe most in themselves? For I can tell you. I know of men who believe in themselves more colossally than Napoleon or Caesar. I know where flames the fixed star of certainty and success. I can guide you to the thrones of the Super-men. The men who really believe in themselves are all in lunatic asylums."

He said mildly that there were a good many men after all who believed in themselves and who were not in lunatic asylums. "Yes, there are," I retorted, "and you of all men ought to know them. That drunken poet from whom you would not take a dreary tragedy, he believed in himself. That elderly minister with an epic from whom you were hiding in a back room, he believed in himself. If you consulted your business experience instead of your ugly individualistic philosophy, you would know that believing in himself is one of the commonest signs of a rotter. Actors who can't act believe in themselves; and debtors who won't pay. It would be much truer to say that a man will certainly fail, because he believes in himself.

Complete self-confidence is not merely a sin; complete self-confidence is a weakness. Believing utterly in one's self is a hysterical and superstitious belief like believing in Joanna Southcote: the man who has it has `Hanwell' written on his face as plain as it is written on that omnibus." And to all this my friend the publisher made this very deep and effective reply, "Well, if a man is not to believe in himself, in what is he to believe?" After a long pause I replied, "I will go home and write a book in answer to that question." This is the book that I have written in answer to it."

-G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

Be Born Twice

Be born once, die twice. Be born twice, die once.