Friday, September 23, 2022
Doing Well at the Things that Count
Tuesday, January 25, 2022
Driving, Writing, and Living On the Wrong Side of the Road
"One road leads home and a thousand roads lead into the wilderness." CS Lewis
And then there's the matter of my talking--while driving (whilst motoring, to be more colloquial). One previous OCWMC participant, her hand trembling, passed me an almost illegible note on which she had scrawled out a plea for me to stop using hand gestures as I talk--and drive. "Please, please, keep both hands on the wheel," she implored me (I nodded, looking down at the clutch and gear shifter, wondering just how I was supposed to do that when every vehicle in the UK seems to be equipped with a manual transmission). As I teach my master class writers the evil of exaggerating language, I will avoid pronouncing it "miraculous," but it is a significant answer to prayer, with many instances of divine intervention, that I have never had an accident whilst motoring in Britain (okay, a few close calls; every one of them, I am morally certain, not my fault, like the one en route from London to Oxford opening day of the master class when a raven-colored Peugeot nearly strafed the side of us on the M-40, clearing my arteries, invigorating my vocabulary, and making me still more grateful).
Thursday, January 6, 2022
What To Do When Heroes Fail Us
My life has been shaped in significant ways by the lives of men and women whom I look up to. Like it or not, this is true of everyone of us. "Hero-worship exists," wrote Thomas Carlyle, "has existed, and will forever exist, universally, among mankind." We were made for worship, ultimately the worship of God, but we all "worship" certain people. Tragically, in the modern world, hero worship has degenerated into celebrity worship, the worship of men and women who worship themselves, and have spent their lives trying to get the rest of the world to do the same. True heroes are heroes in large part because they didn't worship themselves. They lived for something larger than themselves.
Friday, December 4, 2020
Hey, I Read Your Book!
"Hey, I read your book!"
I've lost count how many times I've heard that from people I meet. It's a little embarrassing for them (and seems a bit self-serving for me) if I reply by asking, which one? That was a completely accurate thing to say twenty-one years ago (though there were obviously many fewer people who had reason to say it back then). But with gift giving upon us, and with our Christmas Buy-3-Get-1-Free special, I thought I would post a timeline showing where my books fit in history.
HISTORY TIMELINE
“Douglas Bond is a historian with unusual insight.” Russ Pulliam, Indianapolis Star
GOD’S SERVANT JOB—circa 1473 B.C.
THE TRUTH ABOUT RUTH—1011-931 B.C. (Forthcoming)
HOSTAGE LANDS -- 3rd century Roman Britain
HAND OF VENGEANCE -- 8th century Anglo-Saxon
THE ACCIDENTAL VOYAGE -- 2nd-13th century Europe
THE REVOLT -- 14th century England, John Wycliffe (adult and mature young adult readers)
GIROLAMO SAVONAROLA Heart Aflame -- 15th century Italy
HAMMER OF THE HUGUENOTS--1560s, Renaissance Reformation France
LUTHER IN LOVE – 16th century Reformation, Life of Martin Luther (adult and mature young adult readers)
THE BETRAYAL -- 16th century Reformation, Life of John Calvin (adult and mature readers)
THE THUNDER -- 16th century Reformation, Life of John Knox (adult and mature readers)
THE MIGHTY WEAKNESS OF JOHN KNOX -- 16th c. Scotland
(3) CROWN & COVENANT TRILOGY --1666-1681, Scotland/England
THE HOBGOBLINS, a novel on John Bunyan—1628-1688, English Civil War
THE POETIC WONDER OF ISAAC WATTS – 18th c. England
AUGUSTUS TOPLADY Debtor to Mercy Alone – 18th c.
(3) FAITH & FREEDOM TRILOGY -- 1740-1779, American colonies, War for Independence, and Jacobite Rebellion
MR PIPES & PSALMS AND HYMNS OF THE REFORMATION -- 16th and 17th century Europe
MR. PIPES & THE BRITISH HYMN MAKERS -- 17th-19th century England/Scotland/Wales
MR. PIPES COMES TO AMERICA --17th-20th century America
MODERN HEROES, with Joel Beeke (Forthcoming)
THE BATTLE OF SEATTLE – 1850s PNW Puget Sound Indian War
WAR IN THE WASTELAND – 1914-1918 World War I (CS Lewis in WWI, embedded Christian apologetics)
THE RESISTANCE--1944 World War II (CS Lewis, the BBC voice of faith in WWII)
GOD SINGS! (And Ways We Think He Ought To) - contrasts the biblical ethos of worship with the entertainment ethos; evaluates both the content of what we sing and how we sing it in congregational worship; for families, homeschool, Christian school Bible classes, small groups, Sunday School classes.
GRACE WORKS! (And Ways We Think It Doesn’t) – traces ways we corrupt the gospel throughout church history, with study guide for families, homeschool, Christian school Bible classes, small groups, Sunday School classes.
STAND FAST and HOLD FAST – Devotions for fathers and sons to read together with study guide
Order 3 author-signed books at bondbooks.net and we will pay domestic shipping and throw in a free copy of GOD SINGS!