Continuing with the historical links posts and jumping back to 2007, here are the highlights from that May:The coldest case of all
This was my response to a Cold Case episode that was an ugly and unsubtle commercial for euthanasia.AI: Amnesty International, or Abortion International?
Protesting Amnesty International’s decision to become an abortion-rights organization—and their initial determination to lie to the public about having done so.Robert E. Webber, RIP
What a great leader of the American church . . .Musings on worship, illustrated by the Songs of the Week
On how not to make worship about God.Tributes
Taking note of the death of Jerry Falwell, and of Charles Taylor winning the Templeton Prize.

As I’ve been doing these posts linking to material from the archives (my way of addressing the concerns Jared Wilson raised about the ephemerality of blogs as a medium), I’ve been working my way through posts from the first part of last year. There isn’t a lot from the middle of 2007, though, so for the moment I’m going to jump back to the end of 2003, when I first started doing this.“The Occupation of Iraq Means Liberty”
That line comes from a column by Kamel al-Sa’doun, an Iraqi then living in Norway, writing in a London-based Arabic daily, who called the U.S. invasion and occupation “a blessed and promising liberation for Iraq, even if the U.N., Europe, Russia, India, and all the Arabs say otherwise.”“Evangelism”? What’s that?
On the controversy over Avodat Yisrael, a Messianic Jewish congregation planted by the Presbytery of Philadelphia, and what it said about the PC(USA) and evangelism.No guru, no method, no teacher
On the incarnational art of Van Morrison.“All Americans”? Uh-huh, riiight . . .
On the illusion of post-9/11 international goodwill.“That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.”
No, network execs weren’t any smarter 43 years ago, just luckier (maybe).“There’s too much to do—I’m bored.”
On the overstimulation and emptiness of contemporary Western society and how it stimulates us to sloth.A tree grows in Brooklyn
On Christmas, Kwanzaa, and the place of holidays in the public square.

Continuing with the historical links posts, here are the highlights from April of last year (most of my posts that month were lyrics and poetry on Holy Week):What a week; what a world
On the Virginia Tech attack and Gonzales v. Carhart.There are no Other People
Referencing Neil Gaiman’s post on the attack at Virginia Tech.

Continuing with the historical links posts, here are the highlights from March of last year:Simply Wright
N. T. Wright, fresh off his own crack at popular apologetics (Simply Christian), took the time to write a review essay of the modern masterwork in that respect, C. S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity. I appreciated his essay, so I blogged about it.Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, RIP
Just my attempt to pay due honor to one of the most remarkable scholars of my lifetime.Conversation on Calvinism
This one came out of a discussion on The Thinklings; I provided a brief summary of Calvinist distinctives as an opportunity for folks to ask questions on what exactly it means to be Reformed. The conversation, alas, didn’t keep going very long.Presumption, my dear sir; pure presumption
My response to the disciplinary arrogance of scientists (would-be debunkers of Christianity, in the cases cited here) who consider that being scientists makes them experts in history, philosophy, and theology, too.

A couple weeks ago, I noted the concerns Jared raised about the ephemerality of blogging, and his decision to address those concerns by reposting old pieces; for my own part, I decided to try links posts, looking at a month of a time. I started off with January 2007, so I figured I might as well keep going in chronological order for a bit.Musings on the missional church
This is probably most valuable for the links to Theology Matters; it is what the title says.Knocking on Heaven’s Door
I link to this because I highly recommend this book.Atheism and its discontents
My first post on atheism, I think, and a reminder that Christians should always treat critics with grace and love.An insurgency divided against itself cannot stand
I saw the signs of the surge’s success, though I didn’t draw all the right conclusions.In a mirror, darkly
If we don’t practice unsparingly honest self-reflection, someone else will do the reflecting for us—and we won’t like what we see.

Jared made a point today over at Gospel-Driven Church that I’ve been thinking about for a bit as well:

One of the inherent weaknesses in the medium of the weblog is the virtual temporariness of the best writing. A good solid piece may exist on a main page for a brief time, and then it disappears into the aether of the archives or random web searches. If a blogger attracts new readers, they will likely never see past posts unless they are the thorough sorts who read archives. But most are not.

His solution to that is to start reposting pieces, which is something I’ve thought about doing as well, but decided against. Given Jared’s example, though, I’m going to try a different approach to the same issue: putting up links posts to past material on this blog. To organize it, I’m going to limit each post to a particular month—maybe everything worth linking from that month, maybe not, depending. We’ll see how this works. I’ll start with January of 2007 because, though I began this blog in 2003, that was the month in which I first started posting consistently. (Even then, it wasn’t much.)Umm, what was that about grace?
On the confusion of grace and justice.The butterfly effect and the providence of God
On the ways God works through every circumstance.The parable of the three little pigs
“The day of the Lord is like three little pigs who went out into the world to make their fortunes. . . .”