Actor Heath Ledger was found dead earlier this afternoon.

I’m not the biggest fan of most of Hollywood, and don’t ever recall being truly surprised by a “celebrity tragedy” but I have to say, this one caught me off guard. I have an appreciation for Heath Ledger’s work. From The Patriot to 10 Things I Hate About You, he was truly enjoyable in a variety of different type roles. I’m looking forward to seeing his final performance, as The Joker in the upcoming Batman film.

Please join me in taking a short moment to pray for his family and friends during this hard time.

My good friend Calvin Park recently had an article published in the online edition of YouthWorker Journal. The article, Teaching Students the Torah, is very much representative of a passion that he has had since our undergrad days at Davis College.

Calvin is now Youth Pastor at Immanuel Baptist Church in Ipswitch, MA, and is working on his MDiv at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He also blogs at Random Bloggings.

Be sure to check out the article, and visit his blog too. And don’t ask him about the Woolrich logo.

The Southern Baptist Texan has an article stating that Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr. is likely to be nominated for the post of President of the Southern Baptist Convention, when the SBC holds their Annual Meeting in June.

Dr. Mohler is currently President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. He also a nationally syndicated radio host and blogger. I enjoy his radio program, despite disagreeing with some of the conclusions he draws at times.

I am not a Southern Baptist (I am affiliated with CBMNE and CBAmerica), so I really can’t comment on whether or not he would make a good SBC President, though he seems like a good option to me. However, given the current climate in the SBC regarding Reformed theology, I would think he’d be a controversial figure. Do any of you readers have any thoughts?

Okay, so I am a little late on that one, but at least it is within the same week, right?

I’ve never been much of a New Years geek. I’ve never really made resolutions, or seen that big of a difference between December 31 and January 1, but I have to admit that I was looking forward to the New Year this time. The past year was a hard year for me in a number of ways, and the idea of a fresh start has been appealing. I even made some resolutions for the year. Well, not resolutions, really, but ideals to shoot for. Personal benchmarks, if you will.

Most of those goals are personal, however some of them relate to this blog. For starters, I’m (really) planning to post more often, ideally at least once a week. Also, I’d like to move the focus of the blog a little bit, focusing more on ministry, theology, and scholarship, than on personal stuff (though that will always be included, of course).

I also plan to increase the time I spend reading, and that is likely to be shown here through reviews, random quotes, and the like. Diana and I got rid of a lot of books last year (something I really regret), so I am now slowly building my library back up, which you can check out at LibraryThing. One of the benefits of starting over, and having limited funds to do so, is that I’ll get need to be discerning about what I buy, so I’ll spend less time reading fluff.

You may have noticed from a past post that I’m concerned about my health. Improving my health is the closest thing to a traditional resolution that I have this year. You may see posts about that ocassionally. If you aren’t interested, skip them.

I’m looking forward to the coming months, and am trusting God for his faithful provision, and the transforming work of the gospel in the lives of myself and others. Will you join me?