It’s October 1 today, and that means that I’ve got a whole new batch of amazing desktop wallpaper designs for you to download. Thanks to each of this month’s designers for sending along some amazing work.

A few notes: 320 x 480 is for your iPhone; 1024 x 1024 is for your iPad; your desktop or laptop may take any of the other 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.

If you keep up with this blog, you know that I’ve been trying to learn how other people—pastors in particular—organize their prayer life. The fact is that I am a forgetful person and, at heart, a selfish one. Yet I want to pray for the things that I ought to pray for—the things that are important to the people I serve at my church. And I want to pray for other requests that come along, the kind of requests I mean to pray for, but tend to forget about. If I do not organize my prayer life, I naturally gravitate to only those things that are most urgent to me.

What I am finding is that most people, at least most pastors, eventually develop some kind of a system that ensures they pray for all the things they want and need to pray for. I am eager to learn from them.

But then something interesting happened. A reader of this site happens to have developed an app for iPhones or iPods that is meant to organize a person’s prayer life. He calls it PrayerMate. Now listen, I am as wary as anyone about using an app for prayer. But he sent me a copy of the app and asked if I’d like to check it out. Rather on a whim I decided to give it a try for a 1-week period. So for 7 days I relied on the app to guide me. And I have to say that I was quite impressed. It ended up being a very useful aid. I was genuinely surprised by this.

Now, I think the usefulness of the app will vary a lot with how and when you pray. I tend to do my praying early in the morning, before phone calls and text messages start to come in. If I were to use this app in the middle of the day I know I would be interrupted too often. But in the way I used it, it was remarkably helpful.

Here is what Andy Geers, who developed the app, says about it:

Charles Leiter’s book Justification & Regeneration has been available since 2007. At least, it has been available in English since 2007. More recently it has been translated into several other langauges. The author has given me permission to distribute the files. 

Here is a description:

What does the Bible mean when it says that Christians have died to sin? How is it possible for a just God to justify the ungodly without becoming unjust Himself? What is regeneration? What is justification? Why do all men desperately need to be justified? If I have died to sin, why am I still affected by it? As a Christian, am I the new man or he old man or both? What does the Bible mean when it says that Christians have died to the Law? Are Christians still slaves to sin?

The answers to these and many other questions become clear once we gain a Biblical understanding of justification and regeneration. These two great miracles lie at the very heart of the gospel, yet even among genuine Christians they are surrounded by confusion and ignorance. This book attempts to set forth in clear Biblical light the nature and characteristics of justification and regeneration that God may be glorified and His children brought to know more fully the liberty that is theirs in Christ. 

I also reviewed it right here.

And now, if you want it, it’s free for the taking. You can download the files for your own use or distribute them as you please. The book is available in:

• English
• Spanish
• Romanian
• Indonesian
• Dutch
• Korean
• French

It’s September 1 and that means that I’ve got a whole new batch of amazing desktop wallpaper designs for you to download. Thanks to each of this month’s designers for sending along some amazing work.

A few notes: 320 x 480 is for your iPhone; 1024 x 1024 is for your iPad; your desktop or laptop may take any of the other 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.

One of the designers will win a $50 Amazon or Westminster Books gift certificate courtesy of Church Plant Media. How can you have your say? You can have your say in who wins by downloading a wallpaper? Each download counts as a vote (and no, you can’t download the same wallpaper 100 times and have your vote tallied each time).

There is no featured designer this month; that feature will return in October.

The Crown of Wisdom

Created by Josh Mandell from Greenville, SC.

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My Cup Overflows

Created by Ariseli Modica from Lynnwood, WA.

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The most recent edition of Matthias Media’s enews newsletter had a great little list of tips for teaching young children about God. It was written by Stephanie Carmichael. Carmichael has written several books for young kids and two of them, Grumpy Day and The Birthday Party are available to read online. Here are her tips:

Teach all the time: Young children live in the moment. Help them to learn in the moment by making the most of opportunities as they arise. Talk about God in the day-to-day things you are doing.

Teach at a special time: Try to set aside a special time to read about God. Prepare for this time. If you are going to read the Bible, think about what you will read and how to simplify and explain it.

Questions and answers: Listen to your children’s questions, and give quality time to answering them. But also ask them questions about what you’ve been trying to teach to check they have understood.

Randy Alcorn has recently released a book titled We Shall See God (buy it at EPM or at Amazon) in which he has compiled some of the most profound spiritual insights on the topic of eternity from Charles Spurgeon’s sermons and arranged them into an easily-accessible format. He was kind enough to allow me to post one of the devotionals from that book. It is excerpted from a sermon Spurgeon preached on August 6, 1865 titled “No Tears in Heaven” and looking at Luke 16:24-25, 27-31 (the story of the rich man and Lazarus). Alcorn provides a one-sentence introduction and then follows up later with some of his own reflections.

Not one to shy away from difficult topics, Spurgeon tackles two troubling realities in this sermon: first, that some people we don't much care for will be in Heaven and, second, that some people we love will be in Hell.

Spurgeon

Perhaps another source of tears may suggest itself to you, namely sorrow in Heaven for our mistakes, misrepresentations, and unkindness toward other Christian brothers and sisters.

How surprised we will be to meet some saints in Heaven whom we did not love on Earth! We would not fellowship with them at the Lord's Table. We would not acknowledge that they were Christians. We looked at them suspiciously if we saw them in the street. We suspected their zeal as being nothing better than a show and an exaggeration, and we looked on their best efforts as having sinister motives at the heart. We said many unkind things and felt a great many more than we said.

It’s August 1 and that means that I’ve got a whole new batch of amazing desktop wallpaper designs for you to download. Thanks to each of this month’s designers for sending along some amazing work.

A few notes: 320 x 480 is for your iPhone; 1024 x 1024 is for your iPad; your desktop or laptop may take any of the other 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.

One of the designers will win a $50 Amazon or Westminster Books gift certificate courtesy of Church Plant Media. How can you have your say? You can have your say in who wins by downloading a wallpaper? Each download counts as a vote (and no, you can’t download the same wallpaper 100 times and have your vote tallied each time).

This month’s featured designer is Jeff Nine.

Canoe

Created by Harold Sikkema from Hamilton, Canada. This is the sort of dream you might picture filling that miragey space between the horizon and the sky on an open scorched August highway: somewhere equally hazy and metallic, but closer to the cool splash of Ontario lake trout.

• with calendar: 1024x768, 1280x800, 1280x1024, 1366x768, 1440x900, 1680x1050, 1900x1200, 2560x1440

• without calendar: 320x480, 1024x768, 1024x1024, 1280x800, 1280x1024, 1366x768, 1440x900, 1680x1050, 1900x1200, 2560x1440

Free

Created by Eric Novak from Chicago, IL. Based around Romans 3:24 and the old hymn, “Before the Throne of God Above,” this wallpaper is a reminder that we are justified by grace through Christ alone.

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I have always wanted to manage my money well. I have often been convicted that with my rudimentary knowledge of finances, it would be especially important for me to learn to budget well. For many years I tried to put together a budget and often found myself searching for software that would make it simple. I tried all kinds of programs and found that none of them quite did it. Then, finally, I found just the thing I was looking for. It is called You Need a Budget (YNAB). And it’s far and away the best budgeting program I’ve ever used.

The software, and the budgeting system that lies behind it, depends on 4 big concepts:

1. Give every dollar a job. Each month you assign your available dollars to spending/savings categories. This process takes 20 minutes and revolutionizes the way you think about your money.
2. Save for a rainy day. You’ll anticipate larger, less-frequent expenses and will be ready for them. Insurance premium due in six months for $600? Save $100 each month and watch the Car Insurance balance grow.
3. Roll with the punches. The key is to keep moving even when you fail (you will). YNAB will make small adjustments when you overspend, ensuring that you fix those mistakes before you go to the next month.
4. Stop living paycheck to paycheck. We want you to work toward living on last month's income. Both the software and methodology will help you do just that.

The big mind-shift at the heart of it all is to stop looking at your bank accounts, adding up the money, and believing that this is what you’ve got to live on. YNAB helps you start to divide that money into categories like “tuition payments,” “future car purchase,” “emergency funds,” “electric bill,” “vacation fund” and so on. This is remarkably freeing and helps you understand your money in a whole new way. Though you may look at your bank account and see a balance of $10,000, YNAB will show you that only $200 of that is actually available for spending on a new television—the rest has all been reserved for other uses.

In my estimation, and based on the way my mind works, YNAB is far more effective at budgeting than Mint or Quicken or any of the other packages. It does just the one thing and does it very well—budget your money.

You have probably heard of Christianity Explored, an evangelistic course that uses DVDs and workbooks to lead people through the gospel of Mark and ultimately to call them to become followers of Jesus. What you may not know is that there is also an excellent version of the course that targets a younger demographic. It is called CY.

CY is a life-changing journey through the Gospel of Mark. In seven interactive sessions, young people will explored what Christians believe, discover the Bible’s answers to the big questions of life and find out what Christianity is all about. CY is for older teenagers and young adults and works perfectly with the SOUL DVD. For 11-14’s, there is a special edition, CY Nano.

I led a group of teenagers through the course last year, using both the workbooks and the accompanying DVD, and was very impressed with it. It does a very good job of explaining the gospel in a way that is specially geared toward a young audience. It manages to avoid being hip and trendy even while still managing to appeal to that younger demographic. It focuses on the message, never letting the message get lost in the activities or presentation. Along the way it very powerfully pleads with participants to turn to Christ, whether they are church kids or people with very little church background.

You may be interested in taking a look at the trailer: 

This is a time of year that many church leaders are pondering activities for the fall. Might I suggest that you consider CY? I am confident that you will find it a great resource and one that will be a blessing to all of those who participate.

You can learn more about it right here.

A couple of times a year I like to browse through the statistics software that lies behind this site to see which articles have been read the most. Here, in case you’d like to catch up a little bit, are the top ten articles from 2011 (from January through to June 30):

#10 - 5 Questions With John MacArthur - Part 2 of an interview I did with John MacArthur.

#9 - Letting Herself Go - This was an article I wrote to interact with an always-difficult topic. It gained quite a lot of traction and was much improved upon.

#8 - The New Evangelical Virtues - A reaction to Rob Bell’s book and some of the areas of concern it highlighted within the evangelical world.

#7 - Why John Piper Should Not Have Invited Rick Warren - I wanted to reflect on why I thought it was unwise for John Piper to invite Rick Warren. This was actually published last year.

#6 - Book Review - 90 Minutes in Heaven - An old review of a book that keeps being read.

#5 - Thinking About Rick Warren and John Piper - This was a reflection that followed John Piper’s interview with Rick Warren.

#4 - Facebook Makes Us Miserable - I was surprised to see this one gaining so much attention. But I think it’s true—in many ways Facebook does make us miserable.

#3 - A Review of The Shack - There’s another book that just keeps flying off store shelves.

#2 - Heaven Is For Real - I really disliked this book. Apparently lots of people were eager to know what it is all about.

#1 - Love Wins - A Review of Rob Bell’s New Book - No big surprise here. Rob Bell’s Love Wins was a huge topic of conversation in the church and across social media. This review got close to 100,000 reads on just the first day.