I hope you are enjoying this Visual Theology series of infographics as much as I am. It has now visited the ordo salutis, the attributes of God, the books of the Bible, Philippians 4:8, the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Trinity, Philippians 2:5-11 and the Old Testament tabernacle. Today the series moves back to a particular Scripture passage—Galatians 5:22-23 where we learn about the fruit of the Spirit.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” Here we tried to capture the tree and fruit motif, but without making it too obvious. I think it worked.

(Click on the thumbnail to see the comple the infographic)

You can also download it as a desktop wallpaper if you’d like to pretty up your computer: 1024x768, 1280x800, 1280x1024, 1366x768, 1440x900, 1680x1050, 1920x1080, 2560x1440

If you are after a high-res version, you can have it here in JPG format (7 MB). Please feel free to download, copy, email, share, or print the graphic; I just ask that you don’t sell it.

If you have other ideas for theological infographics, please feel free to leave a comment. Several more are already in development.

There are few things that thrill me more than learning what God is doing in other parts of the world. The Lord works in amazing ways and calls to himself people from every nation and tribe and tongue. Yet even in a world that is rapidly shrinking through the new media available to us, we hear far more than we see. Dispatches from the Front is a series of DVDs created by Frontline Missions that gives us a glimpse of what God is doing across the world.

The most recent episode, number 5 (titled “Father, Give Me Bread”), arrived on my desk just a few days ago and I am glad to say that it is every bit as interesting as its predecessors. In this episode Tim Kessee travels to Ethiopia and South Sudan and gives clear evidence of the gospel’s advance in this war-torn region. As you watch the video you will meet brothers and sisters in the Lord and hear how their lives were transformed and you will see just how much work remains to be done.

Keesee writes about all of these things in his journal; the format of the DVDs is to combine video footage with his journal entries. And it’s a powerful combination.

Here is the trailer for this new episode:

And here is Tim Kessee discussing the series:

I hope you are enjoying this Visual Theology series of infographics as much as I am. It has now visited the ordo salutis, the attributes of God, the books of the Bible, Philippians 4:8, the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Trinity and Philippians 2:5-11. Today’s graphic looks to the Old Testament tabernacle. Every item in the tabernacle was given by God to display truth and here we’ve tried to show what each item proclaims about the sinner’s need, God’s provision, and the ultimate fulfillment in the coming Messiah.

While the infographics will always be free for you to download, I have also opened a store where you can buy prints of each of them. They are all professionally printed in a variety of sizes and are suitable for display. (Visit the store today and you can use coupon code DUNK22 to get 22% off your order.)

(Click on the thumbnail to see the complete infographic)

If you are after a high-res version, you can have it here in JPG format (14 MB). Please feel free to download, copy, email, share, or print the graphic; I just ask that you don’t sell it.

If you have other ideas for theological infographics, please feel free to leave a comment. Several more are already in development.

I've been at this blogging thing for quite a long time now--a bit over 9 years. I've been at the daily blogging thing for almost as long. This means that I've got an extensive backlist of articles from years gone by. I thought it might be fun to pull out some of the articles I wrote in previous Aprils, stretching all the way back to 2004.

2011

I Hate Hell - An article on hating hell but accepting the reality and necessity of it.

Why Christians Should Read in the Mainstream - I wrote about why Christians shouldn’t confine themselves to reading only Christian books. Looking back a year later I can see that I took this to heart!

2010

When God Abandons the Public Schools - Rejoicing in an evidence of God’s common grace when a particularly ugly curriculum was rejected by the public school board.

The Writer’s Life - I enjoyed re-reading these reflections on the writer’s life.

2009

The Quiet Time Performance - This was a reflection on how quiet time or personal devotions can so easily become a kind of performance.

Reveling in Humiliation - This article reflected on what it says about us that we find such joy in television shows that humiliate the participants.

2008

The Hardening - Maybe I had been reading John Owen and taking a page out of his playbook by comparing sin with an awful disease.

Drawing Out the Infection - Here are some thoughts on the value and method of accountability relationships.

Welcome to April! To ring in the new month I’ve got a great new desktop wallpaper for you to download. This month’s wallpaper was created by Zack Kirby, a designer from Raleigh, North Carolina.

A few notes: Your desktop or laptop may take any of the sizes, depending on your monitor size and a host of other considerations. If you’re not sure of the size, just find one that looks like it would be pretty much the same size as your screen. Generally you set one of these are your wallpaper by clicking on the link to the image, then right-clicking on the image (once it’s open) and selecting “Set as Background,” “Set as Desktop Background,” or something similar. If you aren’t sure, post a comment and we’ll try to help you figure it out.

Risen

With Calendar: iPad, 1024x768, 1280x800, 1280x1024, 1366x768, 1440x900, 1600x1200, 1680x1050, 1900x1200, 2560x1440

Without Calendar: iPad, 1024x768, 1280x800, 1280x1024, 1366x768, 1440x900, 1680x1050, 1600x1200, 1900x1200, 2560x1440

This Visual Theology series of infographics has now visited the ordo salutis, the attributes of God, the books of the Bible, Philippians 4:8, the genealogy of Jesus Christ and the Trinity. Today’s graphic is a visual representation of one of my favorite texts: Philippians 2:5-11. This text challenges us to grasp the extent to which Jesus went in glorifying his Father.

While the infographics will always be free for you to download, I have also opened a store where you can buy prints of each of them. They are all professionally printed in a variety of sizes and are suitable for display. (Visit the store today and you’ll see a few coupon codes that can bring the prices down.)

(Click on the thumbnail to see the complete infographic)

If you are after a high-res version, you can have it here in JPG format. Please feel free to download, copy, email, share, or print the graphic; I just ask that you don’t sell it.

If you have other ideas for theological infographics, please feel free to leave a comment. Several more are already in development.

I am kicking off a new series of posts today that will go through a list of theological terms to provide a concise and hopefully simple definition for each of them. By “basic” I don’t always mean that the words are commonly used among Christians (or even found in the Bible, for that matter), but that the things they represent comprise some of the central components of Christian faith and practice.

The content for these posts will most often come from one or more authors whose definitions I have found particularly helpful (though I may also provide some summary or synthesis from time to time).

To start, it seems most fitting to begin with a definition of that term that has brought all of the others together--theology.

Millard Erickson, in his massive work Christian Theology, gives a simple but rather comprehensive definition:

[Theology is] that discipline which strives to give a coherent statement of the doctrines of the Christian faith, based primarily on the Scriptures, placed in the context of culture in general, worded in a contemporary idiom, and related to issues of life. (23)

What Erickson simply calls “theology” here is more precisely distinguished by others as systematic theology. Wayne Grudem, a theologian who has also written a massive book on the subject (and pretty much a must-have for your library), makes this distinction, and he defines systematic theology as “any study that answers the question, ‘What does the whole Bible teach us today?’ about any given topic” (21).

Though much shorter, Grudem’s definition is, in essence, the same as Erickson’s; they are both good and useful.

Another even more basic way of saying it, with fewer qualifications, would be to say that theology refers to what we think God thinks about something.

Any other definitions for theology that you would suggest? For further reading, you may want to read about theology-ology.

2 Samuel 24:1 states that David took a census of Israel due (at least in part) to the anger of God: “Again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, ‘Go, number Israel and Judah.’” 1 Chronicles 21:1, on the other hand, while recounting the same moment in history, sees David’s action as being influenced by a different source: “Then Satan stood against Israel and incited David to number Israel.”

The difference between these two verses is stark and leaves us with an unavoidable question: Who really incited David? Was it “the LORD” (2 Samuel), or was it “Satan” (1 Chronicles)? Is this an example of the Bible contradicting itself? How are we to reconcile this?

In their book When Critics Ask, Norman Geisler and Thomas Howe show where this same “contradiction” appears elsewhere in the Bible, and give a helpful take on resolving it.

Both statements are true. Although it was Satan who immediately incited David, ultimately it was God who permitted Satan to carry out this provocation. Although it was Satan’s design to destroy David and the people of God, it was God’s purpose to humble David and the people and teach them a valuable spiritual lesson. This situation is quite similar to the first two chapters of Job in which both God and Satan are involved in the suffering of Job. Similarly, both God and Satan are involved in the crucifixion. Satan’s purpose was to destroy the Son of God (John 13:2; 1 Cor 2:8). God’s purpose was to redeem humankind by the death of His Son (Acts 2:14-39).

A similar answer is given in the study note on 2 Samuel 24:1 in the NET Bible. The answer offered here is a little bit different, however, because of the translators’ conviction that the Hebrew word satan in 1 Chronicles 21:1 is best rendered “an adversary” instead of “Satan”:

The Samuel version gives an underlying theological perspective, while the Chronicler simply describes what happened from a human perspective. The adversary in 1 Chr 21:1 is likely a human enemy, probably a nearby nation whose hostility against Israel pressured David into numbering the people so he could assess his military strength.

Whether the Hebrew is best understood as referring to a nearby nation or to Satan himself, the answer to the apparent contradiction is the same: God is sovereign over every aspect of human history, and he uses others to accomplish his perfect plans, regardless of whether or not that is their intention.

The current issue of Preaching magazine has Albert Mohler’s annual list of recommended books for pastors. There is a good mix of books here, though I suspect most pastors would take just about the whole year to get through the entire list!

• Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other by Sherry Turkle
• Christian Apologetics: Past and Present, Vol. 2 by William Edgar & K. Scott Oliphant
• The Christian Faith: A Systematic Theology for Pilgrims on the Way by Michael Horton
• Historical Theology: An Introduction to Christian Doctrine by Gregg R. Allison
• Lost in Translation: The Dark Side of Emerging Adulthood by Christian Smith, Kari Christofferson, Hilary Davidson, Patricia Snell Herzog
• A New Testament Biblical Theology: The Unfolding of the Old Testament in the New by G.K. Beale
• The Next Decade: Empire and Republic in a Changing World by George Friedman
• The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction by Alan Jacobs
• Reading Scripture with the Reformers by Timothy George
• The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement Became the World's Largest Religion by Rodney Stark

I find it tremendously valuable to have my prayers guided by Scripture. As I pray about sharing the gospel with others, or as I pray for those who do not yet know the Lord, there are many passages from the Bible that can give focus and direction. Here are just a few of them.

1. There is work to be done

Matthew 9:37-38
Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest."

2. Jesus has commanded you to do it

Matthew 28:18-20
And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

3. Success is guaranteed

John 10:16
And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.