October 2011

The Community of Celebration

Reading Classics Together
This week's reading from John Stott's The Cross of Christ for Reading Classics Together comes courtesy of Rebecca Stark. My week happened in such a way that I wasn’t able to write up my summary post, so I gladly borrowed Rebecca’s (with her permission of course). This week’s chapter was titled “The Community of Celebration” and here is how Rebecca summarizes it…

The Community of Celebration.

Stott starts by pointing out that Jesus didn't die simply to save individuals but to make a new community of his own people, people from every nation who "live by and under the cross." First of all, those in the new community of people have a new relationship to God, a relationship marked by

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Are You T4A?

T4AToday several hundred people are gathering in Phoenix for the 2011 Together for Adoption conference. This year the focus is on missional living, the gospel, and orphan care. There is a whole team of people liveblogging the event (you can see a complete list here). Speakers at the event include Dan Cruver, Darrin Patrick, Tullian Tchividjian and Tim Chester.

Among the livebloggers is my pal Aaron Armstrong who is also there to represent Cruciform Press which is one of the key sponsors of the event. If you are at the conference, be sure to drop by the Cruciform table to say hello to Aaron. And if you are not able to attend the conference, why don’t you check in with his blog to hear what is being said, done and taught at the event. He will be blogging all through today and tomorrow.

Free Stuff Fridays

Free Stuff Fridays
This week’s Free Stuff Fridays is sponsored by The Good Book Company. Today The Good Book Company is offering 5 winners two 50 pack sets of their Halloween tracts and a free copy of One Day Wonders, an activity book for Children's Ministries and families as they plan events around Christmas, Easter and Halloween. 

Halloween tracts with a gospel message

These engaging tracts take the theme of Halloween and use it as a springboard to explain the gospel to children and teenagers. A really positive way to share the good news with trick or treaters and also guests at alternative ‘harvest parties’.

Trick or Treat? is suitable for under 11s and The Fright of Your Life is ideal for ages 11-14. You can read both online.

Gospel

Tips for giving away a tract at Halloween

  1. Stock up on candy and tracts.
  2. Make sure you’re home on the evening of 31st October or take them along to your local trunk or treat event.
  3. TractWhen children come trick-or-treating, give them some candy along with a tract, which explains a bit more about Halloween.
  4. Pray!

Run your own ‘Harvest Party’

One Day WondersEverything you need to run a gospel event on October 31st.

This flexible and fun Bible activity book for children and families includes ideas for games and activities, comprehensive notes for leaders, talk outlines, dramas, a section on promoting your event and much more.

Turn the darkest night of the year into a gospel opportunity! Find out more here…

Giveaway Rules: You may only enter the draw once. Simply fill out your name and email address to enter the draw. As soon as the winners have been chosen, all names and addresses will be immediately and permanently erased. Winners will be notified by email. The giveaway closes Saturday at noon.

Note: If you are reading via RSS or email, you may need to click through to see the form.

A La Carte (10/21)

Hating Tebow - Denny Burk writes about why so many people hate Tim Tebow, the young, Christian quarterback for the Denver Broncos. “There are a lot of people out there pulling against Tebow, and I am not talking about football or the big game on Sunday. What I am talking about are the cynics out there who want Tebow not only to fail at football but also to fail at being a Christian.”

Smalltown Poets - The Smalltown Poets were one of my favorite bands until they took a hiatus. However, they are back with a new Christmas album that you can get for just $5. One of the songs is “In the First Light” which, unless I’m mistaken, was penned by Bob Kauflin (back in the GLAD days).

In the Danger Zone - Dr. Mohler looks at children in a digital age. Here’s a shocking statistic: by age 3 almost a third of children have a television in their bedroom.

Congregations Submitting - This is a good and important article, especially in light of a bit of controversy about congregationalism. “Do you see the dilemma? If the Bible located church authority exclusively in the elders, the idea of submission would be simple: the elders would make the decisions, and the congregation would submit to those decisions. But what does it mean for a congregation to submit to its elders when the congregation itself holds final authority?”

Mother Refuses Chemo - “Stacie Crimm didn't get to share much time with her infant daughter, Dottie Mae -- she'd made the ultimate sacrifice to give the little girl life.” Greater love has no mom than this…

TSA on the Highway - Wow, does this ever make me uncomfortable. “You’re probably used to seeing TSA’s signature blue uniforms at the airport, but now agents are hitting the interstates to fight terrorism with Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR).”

Invisible Drum Kit - I came across this classic Rowan Atkinson skit yesterday and enjoyed it again. It’s just amazing physical comedy.

Wisdom teaches us to wink at many of the injuries that are done to us, and act as if we did not see them. —Matthew Henry

How Do I Make Decisions That Please God?

Today we come to the fourth and final part of this short series on knowing and doing the will of God. In the first part of the series I laid a foundation of God's complete sovereignty over the universe and in the second part I sought to show that God is speaking to us today and how God is speaking to us today. In the third part I wanted showed that God is speaking to you and revealing his will for your life. In this final installment I want to ask the big question: When it comes right down to it, how do I make decisions that please God?

I want to give you 3 questions that will guide you as you think about any decision or any situation and that will help you have confidence that you are doing God's will for your life. As you consider that big decision, you need to ask these three questions in order.

Question #1

What does the Bible say about it? That's a rather obvious question, but it's one we sometimes miss. What does the Bible say about it? Is there a passage in the Bible that speaks directly to this issue or is there a principle that applies to it?

We need to look to the Bible because this is where we hear God's voice. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 gives us direction when it says, "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work." Teaching, reproof, correction and training—that is exactly what we need when we are making decisions. There is nothing else God promises for teaching, reproof, correction and training in righteousness. Feelings, circumstances and impressions can't do this. Only the Bible.

What this means is that when facing big decisions, you need to search the Scriptures and to ask others to help you as you do this. This is a great time to talk to a parent or pastor or mentor or some other person to have them help you. They may have a greater knowledge of the Bible and can help bring the Bible to bear on your situation.

What you are especially looking for here is one of two things: a clear command that you must do something, or a clear command that you must not do something. If the Bible speaks directly to the issue, you've got to obey right away. When God speaks, we must listen and obey.

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A La Carte (10/20)

Open Doors - Here’s an update from Frontline Missions. “This is the calm before the whirlwind. A time to prepare to step through the long passage that will lead to eight countries in the next few weeks.  In Ethiopia and along the banks of the White Nile, we will shoot the fifth episode of Dispatches from the Front.”

Holding Hands - “An Iowa couple who was married for 72 years died one hour apart last week in the hospital as they held hands.”

Amazonia - Some spectacular photos of the Amazon rainforest.

Lord, I Believe - A Free MP3. “Zac Hicks + Cherry Creek Worship has taken that old and largely forgotten hymn and given it new life on their album Without Our Aid.”

Airlines - This is exasperating. You kind of wish they’d just cut all the extra fees and instead just raise fares.

When the law of God is written on our hearts, our duty will be our delight. —Matthew Henry

CK2:21 - Mormons & Mormonism

  • Tim Challies
  • 10/19/11

You are missing some Flash content that should appear here! Perhaps your browser cannot display it, or maybe it did not initialize correctly.

Download: Audio File |

Our guest on this week’s edition of The Connected Kingdom podcast is ex-Mormon and now Christian author Latayne Scott. She answers questions like these ones:

  • How did you become a Mormon?
  • How were you converted to Christ?
  • Is Mormonism a cult?
  • Can a Christian vote for Mitt Romney?
  • What are the changes in and challenges to Mormonism?
  • How should we evangelize Mormons? Should we invite them into our homes?

Through Zondervan, Latayne has just published a new and updated edition of  The Mormon Mirage. You can also catch up with her at her blog Latayne.com.

If you want to give us feedback or join in the discussion, go ahead and look up our Facebook Group or leave a comment right here. You will always be able to find the most recent episode here on the blog. If you would like to subscribe via iTunes, you can do that here or if you want to subscribe with another audio player, you can try this RSS link.

God's Will For Your Life

Today I am continuing this short series on knowing and doing the will of God. In the first part of the series I laid a foundation of God’s complete sovereignty over the universe and in the second part I sought to show that God is speaking to us today and how God is speaking to us today. Today I want to progress to showing that God is speaking to you today and revealing his will for your life.

God Is Speaking To You

We have looked to the Bible and seen that today God speaks to us by his Son, through the Holy Spirit, in the Bible, and that apart from this, he makes no promises to speak to us in other ways. This means that if we want to know the will of God for our lives, we need to turn to the Bible since that is where God has promised that he will speak to us.

If you look to the Bible to seek God’s will for your life, what will you find? You will find that God is speaking to you. He is speaking to you about his will for you, for your life. You will find verses like 1 Thessalonians 4:3 which says, "This is the will of God, your sanctification." There is God's will for you in the big picture. He wants you to be sanctified. He wants you to be holy. His will is clear! Just one chapter later we are told, "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." God wants you to be thankful in all things, he wants you to rejoice in all things, he wants you to pray about all things. In other words, he wants you to be constantly aware of his sovereignty and to be constantly in communication with him, submitting your whole life to him.

There are all sorts of other passages like that. This is not the place to look at them all, but even if we did, the message would not change. The consistent message is this: God's will for you is that you would live like a Christian, like a person whose life has been transformed by his power. God's will for you is that you would seek to imitate Christ and that more and more you would serve as a greater reflection of Christ, prayerfully submitting yourself to him and his sovereignty. That is God’s will!

What you will not find? You won't find the Bible saying, "You should marry this fine, Christian girl instead of that fine, Christian girl." You won't find the Bible telling you, "Go ahead and buy the Honda and I will bless you" or "Don't buy that Toyota or I'll remove my hand of blessing." You will find lots of principles and lots of wisdom and lots of clear guidance on how you can honor God. But you will see that God does not reveal his secret will to you and he does not reveal his complete will for you. He guides you and he guides me and all of us in the same way and with the same words. The will he reveals for you is the will he reveals for me.

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A La Carte (10/19)

Joy Has Dawned - The Getty’s have a new Christmas album out and they are giving away one of the tracks as a free download. The song is a nice, Irish smash-up of “Joy Has Dawned” and “Angels We Have Heard on High.” The whole album is well worth the purchase.

Celebrity Pastors - I appreciated reading of some of the ways that James MacDonald deals with the celebrityism that follows him. Let me attest that it’s much easier in the abstract than in the moment to know what you’d do when someone comes up to you at church and asks to have their picture taken with you (or when someone says, “Will you sign my Bible?”). I appreciate that he has thought these things through and that he tries to react well.

When Fighting Temptation - Dane Ortlund quotes C.S. Lewis on fighting temptation.

Crybabies - This is an interesting take on all of the “occupy” protests going on these days. “North America and Europe, geographic epicentres of the Occupy Wall Street movement, are the fattest of fat cats, globally speaking. For any North American, least of all a Canadian, to claim economic kinship with the globally disadvantaged is silly. Mention that to an Indian. Mention it to a Chinese. Cry me a river, will be the likely response. Followed by a wry chuckle, or perhaps an expletive.”

Succession Law - Also from the National Post, an article on the English monarchy and its succession laws. It seems increasingly likely that the Reformation-era law forbidding a monarch from marrying a Roman Catholic will soon be abolished.

Ulrich Zwingli - Speaking of the Reformation, Steven Lawson is continuing his series of blog posts looking at the Reformers with today’s entry on Ulrich Zwingli.

I fear that what will surprise us most, when we see our Lord, will be the extent of our own ingratitude. —E.B. Pusey

Should You Go to T4G?

Together for the GospelNext April will bring the 2012 Together for the Gospel Conference—the 4th of these bi-annual conferences. What began in 2006 as a meeting between friends has expanded into a very large event with thousands attending. With a new, bigger venue, next year’s event promises to be bigger than ever.

With the early bird registration period ending in just a few days (October 31), I was asked to mention T4G on this blog. I took the opportunity to speak to Matt Schmucker, who helps direct the event, to ask him a few questions that I’ve been thinking about as I consider attending.

2012 will mark the 4th T4G Conference. Before I ask how it has changed over 4 iterations, let me ask this: What is T4G at this point in time?

In the simplest terms T4G is an every-other-year event that brings friends together to encourage pastors in their task of shepherding. In a grander sense we hope God uses it to help define and defend gospel truths for our generation. In the midst of confusing mounds of digital opinions, it offers, Lord permitting, a little bit of clarity.

T4G began as a conversation between friends and the co-founders called upon some of their heroes in ministry. Noticeably different this year is the subtraction of John MacArthur and R.C. Sproul and the addition of Kevin DeYoung, Matt Chandler and David Platt. Can you talk about this shift? Is this still a conversation between friends or has it become something else?

Dr. MacAruthur and Dr. Sproul sadly were unable to attend for personal reasons. We will miss their contribution. The generation of rising preachers may have little idea how indebted they are to these men for their decades of standing for the truth. We are excited about having Kevin, Matt, and David as plenary speakers in 2012. They all spoke at T4G 2010 either in breakout sessions (David and Kevin) or a main session (Matt). These men have been building solid relationships for years with Al, Lig, Mark and CJ. A unique feature of T4G is the friendship between all the men. There is no lack of familiarity. The relationships are, I believe, what makes T4G stand. Besides, Mark Dever would have it no other way!

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