Don Carson on Hebrews — at The Castle
Don Carson spoke at ‘Winter @ The Castle’ in Ireland in early December. He gave five talks on Hebrews.
Thanks to the organisers, you can now download the audio files from The Castle website or via iTunes.
The Pastor’s Role in World Evangelization
Some encouragement from John Piper.
Also this video on ‘the work of a Christian leader’ is a good reminder that reminders are constantly needed.
Tim Challies reviews ‘The Meaning of Marriage’
Tim Challies reviews The Meaning of Marriage by Tim Keller:
“the distinguishing feature of this book is its deep dependence on the gospel. This distinguishing feature is also the book’s greatest strength.
Marriage simply cannot be properly understood or practiced without being rooted in the gospel. ‘If God had the gospel of Jesus’s salvation in mind when he established marriage, then marriage only ‘works’ to the degree that it approximates the pattern of God’s self-giving love in Christ.’…”
– read it all here. Places to buy it.
Tim Challies reviews ‘Real Marriage’
After earlier making observations (1, 2) about Mark & Grace Driscoll’s new book Real Marriage: The Truth About Sex, Friendship & Life Together, Tim Challies has now published a review. From his conclusions –
“Having read the book through two times, I’ve found myself wondering how to best measure or evaluate it, but perhaps these criteria are useful: Would I want to read it with my wife or would I encourage her to read it on her own? Would I recommend it to the people in my church? In both cases the answer is no.”
‘Knowing God’ — free AudioBook for January
This month’s free audiobook from Christian Audio is J I Packer’s Knowing God.
The m4b version is about 300MB. It’s a new recording, read by Simon Vance. Know someone who doesn’t read books? Send them the link.
Bible Reading Plans for 2012
Justin Taylor at The Gospel Coalition has links to a selection of Bible reading plans here.
Update: Ligonier Ministries has more.
Whether you read on the web, on your phone, listen via podcast or read in your printed Bible (recommended!) there’s something here for you.
Prayers for defence chaplains at Christmas
This is a good time to be reminded to pray for defence chaplains. Many minister to servicemen and women who are far from home. Defence Anglicans has two stories to give ideas for prayer –
An army chaplain’s Christmas preparations and Advent in Afghanistan.
Nathan Tasker’s ‘A Star. A Stable. A Saviour.’
Nathan Tasker’s Christmas EP ‘A Star, A Stable, A Saviour’ is available as a free download for the next seven days, from Grouptune. (h/t Gary Ware.)
Exploding Fenella Souter’s Myths of Christmas
“Last Saturday, the ‘Good Weekend’ magazine published by the Sydney Morning Herald (and the Melbourne Age?), ran an article by Fenella Souter entitled “Truth, Lies and Santa Claus: Exploding the Myths of Christmas” (not available online).
It was highly sceptical towards the narratives surrounding the conception and birth of Jesus recorded in the Bible…”
– Sandy Grant at St. Michael’s Wollongong looks at some mistakes and undocumented claims in last weekend’s ‘Good Weekend’ – at The Briefing.