Longings After God (05/31/09 - 3 Comments)
Through the past couple of weeks I have been fighting for joy, fighting to find joy in the journey. It has been one of those times that I've been longing for God but have seemingly found so little of him. And so this morning, when I opened up The Valley of Vision, as I so often do on a Sunday morning, I was encouraged by this prayer titled "Longings After God." My dear Lord, I...
Quotable (05/30/09 - 15 Comments)
A little while ago I was sorting through my files and found a document where I had jotted down quotes from four different books I had read at just about the same time. They are vastly different books so it was kind of interesting to me to see the juxtaposition between each of the quotes. The first quote is from God's Bestseller, a biography of William Tyndale written by Brian Moynahan. The author, comments about...
Free Stuff Fridays (05/29/09 - 5 Comments)
It's Friday and that means I've got another Free Stuff Friday for you. This week's sponsor is The Good Book Company (www.thegoodbook.com) which produces some great, practical resources that help Christians grow in their faith and reach out to others with the good news of Jesus Christ. Their Good Book Guide Bible studies cover a range of Old and New Testament books as well as some poignant topical studies for today's culture. Biblical Manhood,...
Reading Classics Together (05/28/09 - 69 Comments)
It is time to announce the next classic book of the Christian faith that we will be reading together. The impetus for this project was the simple realization that, though many Christians want to read through the classics of the faith, few of us have the motivation to actually make it happen. This program allows us to read them together, providing both a level of accountability and the added of interest of comparing notes. Those...
The Practice of Confession (05/27/09 - 18 Comments)
Some time ago I was reading the site of a Roman Catholic apologist and read a statement that showed a misunderstanding of Protestant theology. And there may be good reason for this error. The author said simply, "Protestants do not believe in confession." The statement is correct only insofar as Protestants do not practice auricular confession (confessing ones' sins to a priest in order to receive forgiveness). That statement along with others I have heard...
Outrageous Mercy (05/26/09 - 10 Comments)
Martin Luther got it right when he said, "No theology is genuinely Christian which does not arise from and focus on the cross." The cross of Christ is the very center point of the Christian faith; indeed, it is the very focal point of all of history. No event will or can be more significant than this. Little wonder, then, that so many books have been written that teach the cross, reflect on the cross,...
Soul-Winning Made Easy (05/25/09 - 64 Comments)
Some time ago a friend sent me a little gift she knew I would enjoy. It is a small book, published in 1959 titled Soul-Winning Made Easy and subtitled (The Encounter Method). It was written by C.S. Lovett who founded Baldwin Park Baptist Church (which, strangely enough, was later renamed Personal Christianity Chapel). This book is a guide to personal evangelism and it is one that is a classic example of technique-based evangelism. Now obviously...
A Man There Is, A Real Man (05/24/09 - 12 Comments)
There are a couple of songs we sing in church for which I've seen only the barest information. In our bulletin we generally record at least the author, composition date and name of the tune. For these songs we've got nothing (except, in one case,the author's name). I thought I'd put them up here today to see if anyone out there can point me in the direction of more substantial information about them. The first...
Books I Didn't Review (05/23/09 - 5 Comments)
Here is another roundup of a few books I have received but have chosen not to review. Also, this week I'll list some of the books I've received--ones for which I've not yet made a decision either way. Encouragement: How Words Change Lives by Gordon Cheng. This little book, published by Matthias Media, seeks to teach biblical wisdom on encouragement. I stumbled across it after searching for books on encouragement and realizing that this is...
Free Stuff Fridays (05/22/09 - 7 Comments)
It's Friday and that means I've got another Free Stuff Fridays for you. This week's sponsor is Ligonier Ministries which I'm sure you know primarily as the teaching ministry of R.C. Sproul. Everyone knows that Dr. Sproul has written many, many books over his career (60 titles and counting). What you may not know is that he was written several books targeted at children. And today we are giving out all four of the...
An Inflated Predator Panic (05/22/09 - 61 Comments)
This is a topic I've written about before, but one that has been on my mind again lately. I'll be interested in your feedback on it. Ted Wallis, a doctor in Austin, Texas, recently came upon a lost child in tears in a mall. His first instinct was to help, but he feared people might consider him a predator. He walked away. 'Being male,' he explains, 'I am guilty until proven innocent.'" As awful as...
reFocus Conference (V) (05/21/09 - 12 Comments)
On this, the final day of the reFocus Conference here at Moody Bible Institute, we heard first from Henry Blackaby who is the Founder and President Emeritus of Blackaby Ministries International in Atlanta, GA. More on that in a moment. In the day's middle session Crawford Loritts brought a sermon on the necessity of the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the life and ministry of a pastor. Basing his sermon in Galatians 5:16-25, Pastor...
reFocus Conference (IV) (05/21/09 - 5 Comments)
Day three of the reFocus conference began with a talk from Ken Davis. Ken is a humorist--a comedian, really. I don't quite know what to say about this session. He drew out a couple of messages he wanted to communicate to the pastors here and did it with a whole lot of laughter. My best efforts at blogging this comedy sketch fell flat (as I'm sure you understand). He did a great job of mixing...
reFocus Conference (III) (05/20/09 - 11 Comments)
It's a question I'm asked fairly often. "Have you ever blogged a conference and heard a speaker you really disagreed with?" I've always been able to say "no." Until today. Now I want to be careful here. Flip Flippen, a life coach and psychotherapist, did not ever claim to be preaching. He did not bring his Bible to the front of the room and did not seek to preach from Scripture. Yet speak he did,...
reFocus Conference (II) (05/19/09 - 4 Comments)
Because this conference is held on the campus of Moody Bible Institute, everything happens in a pretty small area. My room is within a two minute walk of the main auditorium and the cafeteria. Only the exhibit hall takes some effort to get to. Last night the conference kicked off with a talk by Michael Easley, Teaching Pastor of Fellowship Bible Church in Brentwood, Tennessee and a former President of Moody Bible Institute. And I've...
reFocus Conference (I) (05/19/09 - 10 Comments)
Yesterday afternoon I hopped on a flight to Chicago so I could get to reFocus, Moody Bible Institute's pastors' conference. This is going to be a slightly different experience for me, I think. It is bound to be a different than the "average" conference I go to at any rate. It's a long story as to how I got here, but it involves a) being asked to lead a breakout session b) learning that my...
Book Reviews - This Momentary Marriage & Velvet Steel (05/18/09 - 13 Comments)
John Piper waited forty years to write a book on marriage. It is only after forty years of marriage that he felt like he would have something valuable to say (or something valuable to add to a very crowded genre of book). "Romance, sex, and childbearing are temporary gifts of God. They are not part of the next life. And they are not guaranteed even for this life. They are one possible path through the...
Reliance (05/17/09 - 4 Comments)
Here is another selection from Arthur Bennett's The Valley of Vision. This old prayer confesses to God a reliance on self, and as it does so, it teaches both the folly of such reliance and the joy of relying fully on God. "When thou art angry towards me for my wrongs I try to pacify thee by abstaining from future sin." Who can say that he has not, at one time or another, done this...
The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God (05/16/09 - 9 Comments)
Until I read this book I would not have considered God's love as a particularly difficult doctrine. The Trinity is a difficult doctrine to understand, impossible even. The eternal nature of God--that is another difficult or impossible one. But the love of God? I wouldn't have thought of it as such. But this book convinced me otherwise. The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God by D.A. Carson is just a short book (96 pages)...
Free Stuff Fridays (05/15/09 - 4 Comments)
In the back of my mind I can almost hear that Monty Python guy saying, "And now for something completely different." This week's Free Stuff Friday giveaway is definitely a little bit different. The sponsor is 1031 Sermon Jams. 10:31 Sermon Jams was made to bring sermons and music together. They were created to bring life changing truth, and the good news of Jesus Christ to the current culture. According to their web site,...
Books I Didn't Review (05/15/09 - 20 Comments)
With books arriving at my door on a near-daily basis, I cannot hope to read and review them all. I'll admit that quite a few of these books meet an immediately and untimely end in the trash. But many others, even though they are perfectly good, I'm simply unable to read and review. I want to draw your attention to a few of those titles today. These are books I've looked through and perhaps read...
Ashamed of Shame Itself (05/14/09 - 14 Comments)
Last night as Aileen and I taught some of the teens at church (as we do every Wednesday evening) we encountered the concepts of guilt and shame. It is a tricky concept this, as it may be positive or negative depending on the context. The Bible makes it clear that, in their innocence, before they invited sin into the world, Adam and Eve were "naked and unashamed." Written after the fact and written at a...
The Basics Conference (VI) (05/13/09 - 8 Comments)
And just like this we've come to the end of this year's Basics Conference. It always seems to go by so quickly. I think I say this every year, but this really is one of my favorite conferences of the year (and perhaps even my absolute favorite). Many conferences geared to pastors are intense, packing every day full of teaching and preaching. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it does leave some people...
The Basics Conference (V) (05/12/09 - 5 Comments)
This evening, after rather an excellent dinner, we gathered again to hear from John Lennox. In his first talk (yesterday afternoon) he spoke of the use of the mind in engaging the world. In this one he wanted to use Scripture to address the mind; and not only the mind but also the imagination. One of the wonders of God's creation of the human mind is its ability to imagine. Parts of the Bible are...
The Basics Conference (IV) (05/12/09 - 4 Comments)
John Piper's second (and final) session was taken from John 3 and dealt with the topic of preaching the doctrine of regeneration undiminished. This is just the briefest overview. You know the audio will be available at the Desiring God site before the day is over. Piper's outline followed this pattern: What happens in the new birth; why the new birth is so necessary; how it happens. What Happens in the New Birth? Life happens!...
The Basics Conference (III) (05/12/09 - 3 Comments)
The second day of The Basics Conference began with Alistair Begg speaking from 2 Corinthians 5 and focusing on verse 20. He wanted to consider the matter of preaching that confronts people's stubborn wills; to think about persuasive preaching. To do this, is to place ourselves in good company for the apostolic precept pushes us in this direction (see Acts 18:4 by way of example). Scripture also urges people by way of precept, such as...
The Basics Conference (II) (05/11/09 - 12 Comments)
After a great dinner, and a few worship songs courtesy of Keith and Kristyn Getty, John Piper took to the pulpit to explore the theme of preaching the doctrine of justification from the Scriptures in an undiminished way. For ten years he has been very exercised about this doctrine and he began by offering five reasons why this has been the doctrine that has most consumed him over the past ten years. Here they are:...
The Basics Conference (I) (05/11/09 - 5 Comments)
Today marks the beginning of the 2009 Basics Conference at Parkside Church in Chagrin Falls, Ohio. This year's speakers are Alistair Begg, John Lennox and John Piper. I intend to bring you six updates through this conference, one for each of the keynote addresses that will happen between now and Wednesday morning (that's two today, three tomorrow and one on Wednesday). John Lennox had the privilege of teaching the first session. Lennox is Professor of...
Adopted for Life (05/11/09 - 9 Comments)
In the years since I began reviewing books, I have read titles on a wide variety of topics. But it occurred to me as I considered Russell Moore's title Adopted for Life that I had never read a book that dealt entirely with adoption. Sure, adoption has factored into books on family and books on theology, but never had I read a full-length treatment of the subject. Having heard so much positive press surrounding Adopted...
A Prayer Request (05/10/09 - 18 Comments)
It is amazing to me, but it was almost eighteen months ago that Crossway published my book The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment. I finished writing the book nearly a year before that. It all seems so much more recent. The reality is, though, that it has been a long, long time since I've actually been involved in writing a book. I did not intend to wait so long between books but, to be honest, I...
John and Betty Stam (05/09/09 - 4 Comments)
"The fateful day began with deceptive normalcy at John and Betty Stam's missionary residence in Tsingteh, China. Both the wood-burning stoves had been lit and were starting to heat up nicely, helping to lessen the chill that gripped the large old house that cold, early December morning. The Stams, along with the six Chinese who lived with them in the house, had already eaten breakfast. "John hoped to study and get some correspondence done that...
Free Stuff Fridays (05/08/09 - 7 Comments)
With a new Friday comes a new edition of Free Stuff Fridays. This week's sponsors are White Horse Inn and Modern Reformation. This week five winners will each be sent a prize package that contains: Too Good to Be True by Michael Horton (Signed by the author) Christless Christianity DVD A one-year subscription to Modern Reformation magazine. Here is what the publisher says about Too Good to Be True: "In a world of hype,...
While We Were Still Sinners (05/08/09 - 7 Comments)
This morning I came across the name Jason Dunham and spent a few minutes reading about his life and death. In 2004, Dunham was a twenty-two year-old Corporal in the United States Marine Corps, serving in Iraq. He became the first Marine since 1970 to earn the Medal of Honor--the nation's highest award for battlefield heroism--for actions in combat. On April 14, 2004, he was manning a checkpoint near Karabilah when an Iraqi man whose...
We Really Did It! (05/07/09 - 8 Comments)
When I was a child my father would occasionally take me to work with him. Dad did not work in an office so this was not a typical "take your child to work" situation. Dad was a landscaper and a day with dad was a day in the hot sun. It was a day of hard work, hauling, digging, planting, watering, tending. As a child I would grow discouraged at how little I could do...
The Soul in Cyberspace: An Interview with Douglas Groothuis (05/06/09 - 13 Comments)
In 1997, Douglas Groothuis (Professor of Philosophy at Denver Seminary) published The Soul in Cyberspace. It was, as far as I know, the first Christian book that critiqued and contemplated the darker side of computer-mediated communication. Twelve years is a long time when it comes to technology (and digital technology in particular) but I recently read this book nevertheless, and was surprised by just how relevant it is, even today. Though cyberspace has changed and...
Book Review - Unfashionable (05/05/09 - 84 Comments)
Every now and again I pick up a book that I feel I should really enjoy. And yet, for one reason or another, it simply does not "click." Unfashionable by Tullian Tchividjian is just such a book. It has been widely praised by Christians I respect and its six (!) pages of endorsements contain a veritable who's who of prominent Evangelicals, each of whom tells of his esteem for the book and its author. And...
The Stone Chair (05/04/09 - 13 Comments)
In The Lord of the Rings Tolkien writes about a kingdom called Gondor which for many years has had no king. While waiting for the rightful heir to come and claim his throne, a series of stewards has been placed in charge of the land. The steward in charge at the time of the events described in the book is named Denethor and he has two sons, Boromir and Faramir, both of whom figure prominently...
Happiness (05/03/09 - 1 Comments)
Here is another prayer from Arthur Bennett's The Valley of Vision. This is a prayer titled simply "Happiness." As I read the prayer I was particularly drawn to these words: "How precious is time, and how painful to see it fly with little done to good purpose! I need thy help." How much time I waste and how painful it is to me to see if fly on by, wasted, unused, with little done to...
Afraid? Of What? (05/02/09 - 9 Comments)
Last week I read a short biography of John and Betty Stam, missionary martyrs to China. Stay tuned for a review. In that book, written by Vance Christie, was a poem and the story that inspired it. I thought I'd share that today. ***** The poem, entitled "Afraid?" was written by Presbyterian missionary E.H. Hamilton following the recent martyrdom of one of his colleagues, J.W. Vinson, at the hands of rebel soldiers in northern China....
Free Stuff Fridays (05/01/09 - 34 Comments)
A new Friday brings us another occasion to celebrate Free Stuff Fridays. This week's sponsor is Crossway. They have put together a package of books ideal for a recent (or forthcoming) graduate. But, of course, the draw is open to anyone and ought to benefit whoever reads the books. Five winners will take home a prize package consisting of: ESV Study Bible Crossroads: Navigating Your Calling and Career by Colin Creel The Discipline of...
He Lives! (05/01/09 - 4 Comments)
This morning I cracked the cover of a new biography--one I spied while browsing the book tables at The Gospel Coalition Conference. It is titled The Life of Rowland Hill: The Second Whitefield and is written by Tim Shenton, a school teacher in England who has several previous biographies to his credit. Dr. Joel Beeke wrote the Foreword and he says this: "Here is biography at its best. Shenton marvellously brings Rowland Hill to life...
