This week’s Free Stuff Fridays sponsor is Desiring God, a name you are all familiar with, I’m sure. Desiring God is the teaching ministry of John Piper, and DG would like to give you some of Piper’s best books. They are offering 5 prize packages, each of which contains a copy of the following 3 books:

• Desiring God
• The Pastor as Scholar and the Scholar as Pastor
• Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God

Here is a word about Think, the book you may be least familiar with:

This book will help Christians think about thinking. Focusing on the life of the mind helps us to know God better, love him more, and care for the world. Along with an emphasis on emotions and the experience of God, we also need to practice careful thinking about God. Piper contends that "thinking is indispensable on the path to passion for God." So how are we to maintain a healthy balance of mind and heart, thinking and feeling?

Piper urges us to think for the glory of God. He demonstrates from Scripture that glorifying God with our minds and hearts is not either-or, but both-and. Thinking carefully about God fuels passion and affections for God. Likewise, Christ-exalting emotion leads to disciplined thinking.

Readers will be reminded that "the mind serves to know the truth that fuels the fires of the heart."

Remember that there will be 5 winners!

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.

This week’s Free Stuff Fridays sponsor is Reformation Heritage Books. RHB is a small publisher, but one that consistently brings us a powerful combination of treasures from the past combined with some of the best of contemporary writing. Today RHB is giving away 5 prizes today, each of which is two complete sets of the 3-volumes series called Puritan Treasures—one for you and one for your church library (or another good cause). 

Here is a description of the 3 books:

• The Fading of the Flesh and the Flourishing of Faith by George Swinnock - The Puritans frequently talked about dying well. That is something we do not discuss much these days, though we should. In this book, George Swinnock presents modern readers with valuable food for thought as he expounds Psalm 73:26, "My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever." Swinnock combines careful explanation with vivid illustration to reveal the futility of earthly comforts and highlight the inestimable comfort, satisfaction, and joy afforded us in Christ. Displaying the relevance of the Puritans for today, you will find this sorely neglected and sobering topic an easy, thought-provoking, and compelling read.
• Triumphing Over Sinful Fear by John Flavel - To some degree, everyone experiences fear. It impacts the decisions we make and leaves us feeling helpless. John Flavel begins this book by examining various fears and discussing general ways God governs it in this world. He then turns to sinful fear in particular, explaining its causes and disastrous effects. His longest chapter discusses rules for dealing with sinful fear, showing how a proper fear of God is the ultimate remedy for all other fears. This practical book will help you avoid making excuses for sinful fear and encourage you to trust in Christ's commitment to settle His people's feeble and trembling hearts.
• Stop Loving The World by William Greenhill - Live in this world in such a way that people recognize that God is your treasure. Do you live in this world in such a way that people recognize that it is not your treasure? The Puritans were greatly concerned with suppressing worldliness in the church. Today, worldliness is an even greater problem, exacerbated by the fact that so few dare to speak out against it. In this book, William Greenhill provides modern readers with a healthy antidote to our love affair with the world. He explains what it means to love the world, exposes the dangers of cherishing it, shares how we ought to relate to it, and gives encouraging directions for removing our hearts from it. This is a book with a timeless message, demonstrating the relevance of the Puritans for today. By God's grace, it will help persuade you that the world and all its charms are not what you should live for.

Remember that there are 5 prizes to win (30 books in total!)!

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.

This week’s sponsor for Free Stuff Fridays is, once again, CBD Reformed, a regular participant in these giveaways. As always, they are giving away 5 great prize packs, each of which contains 3 books. Five winners will each receive:

• A Meal With Jesus: Discovering Grace, Community & Mission Around the Table by Tim Chester - Retail price $14.99
• Is Hell For Real Or Does Everyone Go To Heaven? by Various Contributors (Tim Keller, Al Mohler, J.I. Packer...) - Retail Price $9.99
• Desiring God, Revised Edition by John Piper - Retail Price $14.99

In addition, CBD Reformed is offering a 4-day sale (July 15 - July 18) on the following three products:

• The Complete Works of Francis Schaeffer, 5 Volumes - retail $150.00 / sale $39.99
• Bible Doctrine: Essential Teachings of the Christian Faith by Wayne Grudem - retail $32.99 / sale $15.99
• The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name by Sally Lloyd-Jones - retail $16.99 / sale $8.49

There are 5 prizes to win, go why don’t you go ahead and enter…

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.

This week’s Free Stuff Fridays sponsor is one you know, I think: Family Christian Stores. They are giving away a great new product that isn’t even available for sale yet—the new ESV Student Study Bible. 

The ESV Student Study Bible is ideally suited for students who are serious about God's Word--who want to learn more about what the Bible teaches and how the Bible applies to all of life.

With 12,000 clear, concise study notes, the ESV Student Study Bible provides numerous new features--including nearly 900 “Did You Know?” facts, 120 new Bible character profiles, and 15 new topical articles. It also features a new glossary of key terms, more than 80 full-color maps and illustrations, an extensive concordance, and 80,000 cross-references. These and many other features make it the most comprehensive, colorful, and content-rich student Bible available today. Suited to high school and college students, the ESV Student Study Bible is also a versatile resource for anyone engaged in serious study of God's Word.

You can read more about it right here.

Family Christian has 5 of these Bibles to give away, which means that there will be 5 winners.

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.

This week’s Free Stuff Fridays sponsor is a brand new one, You know I like to keep you on your toes with these giveaways and this week’s sponsor is, well, just a little bit different. Meet Backbone Threads, manufacturer of “Graphically Insane Christian Shirts.” If you’re over 30 or 40 years old, you may already be thinking of who you could give the prize to if you win it.

Backbone Threads has 8 different t-shirts in their catalog and are giving away 1 of each of them. Kind of. The winners will actually be able to choose whichever one they prefer.

Here’s what you need to know about the company:

We offer Graphically Insane Christian Shirts created for those who stand unashamed for Christ. We have some in-your-face attention grabbers, but offer some more subtle statements of faith as well. Our shirts are super soft, 100% preshrunk cotton fitted shirts. They tend to fit snug, so order a size up if you prefer a looser cut. We offer free and fast shipping and 100% returns for any reason. We donate 10% of our profits to worth Christian organizations, and are accepting recommendations through our Facebook page for new charities.

Backbone Threads has created a coupon code, CHALL2011, which will allow anyone to take 20% off of an order. So keep that in your back pocket if you don’t win the freebie.

Here is a sample of their wares (or wears, I suppose):

There are 8 shirts to give away, so there will be 8 winners.

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.

This week’s Free Stuff Fridays sponsor is Evangelical Press. EP is a non-profit mission organization. Its mission is to place sound Christian books and sound biblical teaching within reach of as many people as possible across the world. One hundred per cent of purchases and giving enables EP to hold conferences, produce books, newspapers, radio shows and correspondence courses. They currently have EP employees working in three continents, and books printed in sixty languages.

This week EP is giving away 3 new books:

• Does God Believe in Atheists? by John Blanchard
• The Power to Save: A History of the Gospel in China by Bob Davey
• Making Sanity Out of Vanity by Stanley Gale

Of these books, Does God Believe in Atheists? seems particularly noteworthy. “This award-winning title traces the development of atheistic and agnostic thinking over the past 2,500 years and shows how thinkers like Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Neitzsche, Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, Bertrand Russell and others have shaped many people’s thinking today. It also pinpoints the flaws in Darwinian evolutionism and in claims made for it by Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and others, explains why secular humanism self-destructs, reveals why here is no conflict between science and belief in God, exposes fatal errors in nine world religions and fourteen major cults and shows why the existence of evil and suffering is no reason to deny God’s existence.”

Also, here’s a special deal for North American shoppers. EP titles are available in North America through www.CVBBS.com. Between now and July 15 you can use the discount code epbooks to get an extra 10% off any of their books.

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.

If I was faced with a desert island scenario in which I had to choose a favorite commentary series, just one series to take with me, I am quite sure I would go with the Reformed Expository Commentary set published by P&R. For someone like me, someone who has no seminary education and who has very little knowledge of the original languages, this series offers trustworthy, accessible commentary on the biblical text. I have used them in sermon preparation, I’ve used them in writing books and articles and I’ve used them in personal devotions. In every context they have proved their worth.

The set now contains 16 volumes spanning 13 books of the Bible. The Old Testament has volumes on Jonah & Micah, 1 Kings, Esther & Ruth, Zechariah and Daniel. The New Testament has volumes on Ephesians, Acts, Luke (2 volumes), Matthew (2 volumes), 1 Timothy, Galatians, Hebrews and James. There is also a “Christmas” volume that focuses on Christ’s Incarnation in the Gospels.

In the Series Introduction the co-editors make clear that these commentaries were written for pastors, lay teachers and all other lay persons. "We hope that the devotional quality of these studies of Scripture will instruct and inspire each Christian who reads them in joyful, obedient discipleship to Jesus Christ." I think they've written the commentaries in such a way that this goal is attainable. As you may have discerning from the title, the commentaries are consistent with the Reformed creeds and confessions. They are biblical (committed to comprehensive exposition of the text), doctrinal (committed to the Westminster Standards), redemptive-historical (committed to a Christ-centered view of the Old Testament), and practical (committed to applying the text to people today). Individual volumes are endorsed by a wide variety of Reformed pastors and theologians (Baptist and Presbyterian alike).

Today I am giving away a complete set of these commentaries. And just to sweeten things even more, I’ve got another set of the Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament to add to it (see last week’s post for more information on this site).

So whoever wins this one will with both sets—16 volumes of the Reformed Expository Commentary and 4 volumes of the Zondervan Exegetical Commentary. 

I’m sticking with PunchTab to coordinate this giveaway. A few people have mentioned that they dislike PunchTab’s reliance on Facebook. Do know that they will soon open it up to people who do not have a Facebook account. However, with a giveaway like this one, PunchTab makes my life much, much (much!) easier.

Can’t See the Form?: If you are reading this via Facebook or RSS, please visit the blog to enter. If you are at the blog, trying hitting the “refresh” button in your browser.

This week’s sponsor for Free Stuff Fridays is, once again, CBD Reformed, a regular participant in these giveaways. As always, they are giving away 5 great prize packs, each of which contains 3 books. Five winners will each receive:

• God, Freedom and Evil by Alvin Plantinga - Retail price $15.00
• Generous Justice by Timothy Keller - Retail Price $19.95
• Operation World by Jason Mandryk - Retail Price $24.99

Also, CBDReformed is offering a sale on several items. Anyone is free to take advantage of these deals:

• Radical Together by David Platt - retail $14.99 / sale $8.99
• The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones - retail $16.99 / sale $9.99
• Systematic Theology: An Introduction To Biblical Doctrine by Wayne Grudem - retail $49.99 / sale $27.99

These items will be available at those prices from June 17 until June 20.

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.

The more stuff I give away, the more stuff I’m able to give away. I guess that’s a good thing. Today I am giving away a great little prize: Zondervan’s Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament. The series currently stands at 4 volumes and I’m giving away a complete set. Maybe if we get a big enough response I can convince them to part with another set or two.

Here is where the series stands so far:

• Matthew by Grant Osborne
• Galatians by Thomas Schreiner
• Ephesians by Clinton Arnold
• James by Craig Blomberg

With twenty volumes projected, this looks like it will be a must-have series for the student of the Bible (or the preacher of the Bible at any rate). Here is what Justin Taylor said about it, focusing on the ease-of-use:

I now think that the Zondervan Exegetical Commentary Series on the New Testament is probably the best in terms of creative typesetting and a well thought-through approach for making available the kinds of materials that pastors in particular need in preparing messages. The format it clean and attractive and useful. Especially helpful is the use of Greek instead of transliteration, the sentence flows that look at the logical relationships between the clauses and propositions, and the application section at the end. It's just the sort of thing I'm looking for when studying a passage, a chapter, or a book.

I agree entirely with his assessment. Here’s a PDF that allows you to check it out.

I’m going to stick with PunchTab to do the giveaway. Some have asked me why. Well, largely it’s because it is really, really convenient. I know a few have had trouble seeing the entry form and I think this may be connected to Internet Explorer. And I know that you still need a Facebook account to participate (though they’re working on opening it up). But bear with me, if you would.

This giveaway will close on Thursday morning.

If you are reading this via Facebook or RSS, please visit the blog to enter

For several years now every Free Stuff Fridays has been introduced with the same graphic. At long last it has gone into retirement and has been replaced by a new one. I guess that’s just the way the world works.

Now, let me get to the good stuff. This week’s Free Stuff Friday is sponsored by Missional Wear. Missional Wear provides quality apparel (and other stuff) that is inspired by reformed theology and missional living. They are giving away 5 prizes. 1 person will win a copy of The Resolutions Poster. “Beautifully designed to look like the original document, each poster is printed on a latex infused matte paper with eco-solvent inks that add to its vintage appeal.” I’ve got one hanging in the church office and love it! Another 4 people will each win a t-shirt of their choice plus a Soli Deo Gloria License plate frame.

As with the last time Missional Wear sponsored a giveaway, they have added a social element. If they get up to 5,000 Facebook fans they will double the prizes.

If you want to “like” them, just go ahead and click the button below…or click here and do it that way.

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.