Marriage in Gospel Focus — Tim & Kathy Keller

Tim and Kathy Keller spoke on “Marriage in Gospel Focus” at the Gospel Coalition’s Women’s Conference in Florida recently.

Video of their talks can be seen here on Vimeo – 49 minutes well spent, and worth passing on. Would be ideal for watching in a Bible Study group.

The collapse of the liberal church

“Two weeks from now, the United Church of Canada will assemble in Ottawa for its 41st General Council, where it will debate church policy and elect a new moderator. The top item on its agenda is a resolution calling for a boycott of products from Israeli settlements.

Fortunately, nobody cares what the United Church thinks about Israeli settlements, or anything else for that matter, because the United Church doesn’t matter any more. … the church is literally dying.”

– This opinion-piece by Margaret Wente in The Globe & Mail on The United Church of Canada has a similar tone to several articles published recently. See also:

Moore College School of Theology 2012

The Moore College School of Theology is coming up on September 12 and 13 –

Which book makes more statements about God than any other?
Which book do the New Testament writers quote more than any other?
Which book have Christians read, recited, prayed, memorised more than any other?
Which book has been disappearing from our church meetings faster than any other?

The answer to all of these questions is the Psalms.

– Read more about the School of Theology here.

Call to pray for Moore College

In the July edition of Southern Cross newspaper, Archbishop Peter Jensen writes to encourage prayer for the appointment of the next Principal of Moore College. Applications close July 31st.

“There is no more important task for a denomination than to provide theological education for its pastors and decisions made now will affect virtually every parish for years to come. As Moore has increased its global significance, the decision will have even more impact than ever before…”

– The Archbishop’s full article has now been posted at SydneyAnglicans.net.

Gender Matters

Last Sunday William Taylor, Rector of St. Helen’s Bishopsgate, preached on Gender, Authority and Sexuality.

The 45 minute address is available in video and audio formats.

Adoniram Judson biography — free eBook

Originally an address to pastors, John Piper’s biography of Adoniram Judson, pioneer missionary to Burma, is now available in a short e-book from Desiring God.

New Principal for SMBC

The Board of the Sydney Missionary and Bible College has announced that new Principal of the College will be the Rev Stuart Coulton.

Stuart studied at Moore College in the 1980s. He has served as Pastor of the Presbyterian churches in Burwood (1987-1991) and Blacktown (1991-2002) before teaching full time at SMBC from 2002. He has been Vice-Principal since 2004. Announcement here (PDF file).

The evangelistic strategy of the Book of Common Prayer

Lee Gatiss writes:

“It’s not entirely a Puritan thing. But it is very much a seventeenth century thing. Last week I gave a talk to a bunch of Anglicans at a clergy conference all about the evangelistic strategy of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer.” – Download the audio file from Meet the Puritans.

Mentioned in the talk: An English Prayer Book – free resource from Church Society.

Limited Atonement in the Bible, Doctrine, History, and Ministry

Andy Naselli draws attention to “a concise and helpful new book on a controversial issue: Lee Gatiss. For Us and For Our Salvation: “Limited Atonement” in the Bible, Doctrine, History, and Ministry. London: Latimer Trust, 2012.

– Read more here.

Should we pray to the Spirit?

“People often ask their pastor – “Is it right to pray to the Spirit?” I wonder – do you have an answer? Do you have a practice in your own prayer life? …”

– Adrian Reynolds at The Proclamation Trust shares some thoughts and a prayer from The Valley of Vision.

Communiqué of the Global South Primates, Bangkok, 20 July 2012

“We, the Primates and representatives of 17 Global South Provinces, met in Bangkok, Thailand, from 18-20 July 2012, in conjunction with the Global South Conference on the Decade of Mission and Networking. …

6.  We note with great sadness the passing of Resolution A049 at the 77th General Convention of The Episcopal Church which authorized a liturgy for blessing same-sex unions. This action confirms our disappointment that The Episcopal Church has no regard for the concerns and convictions of the vast majority of Anglicans worldwide.

7.  We stand in solidarity with our brethren in the Communion Partners who have dissented from this action. …”

– from the Communiqué from the meeting.

The Dark Night in Denver — groping for answers

Albert Mohler reflects on the tragic events in Colorado –

“The Fall released human moral evil into the cosmos, and every single human being is a sinner, tempted by a full range of sinfulness. When someone does something as seemingly unthinkable as this, we often question how anyone could do such a thing. …” – Read it all here.

Related, an opinion-piece on movie violence written in 2008 – ‘Our attitude to violence is beyond a joke as new Batman film, The Dark Knight, shows’.

The Gospel and its Proclamation

Dr Barry Newman has been blogging on the meaning of the word gospel.

“The gospel is so extraordinary and proclaiming it so much an imperative that I thought it would be a good idea to produce a blog series reminding ourselves of what the New Testament says about the gospel and its proclamation. Furthermore it may prove to be informative to see how these two Greek words are used outside of the New Testament, say, up until the end of the 1st century A.D. There are indeed some interesting differences between New Testament usages and the way the words are used in the Greek literature external to the New Testament.”

He’s just completed the series, and all of the posts can be downloaded as a single PDF file. Well worth downloading and reading.

Three lessons from crisis and decline in the mainline denominations

Timothy George, Dean of Beeson Divinity School in Alabama, draws three lessons from the crisis in TEC and other denominations –

“1. There is an intrinsic connection between spiritual vitality and theological integrity.
2. The continuing saga and approaching collapse of mainline denominations should prompt us to pray.
3. Evangelicals have no room to boast or gloat over the ‘sickness unto death’ in the mainlines.”

– full article at The Gospel Coalition.

Understanding Islam

The White Hose Inn broadcast recently featured a two-part interview on ‘understanding Islam’. Michael Horton interviewed Islamic specialist Adam Francisco. Worth hearing. Part 1. Part 2.

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