The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert — free audiobook August 2015
The Christian Audio free download for August 2015 is The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert by Rosaria Champagne Butterfield.
It’s read by the author, and the zipped mp3 version is 207MB in size.
A Clear or Cloudy Gospel? – A review of ‘The Suburban Captivity of the Church’
“An interesting juxtaposition of events happened to me last week. I found myself reading Tim Foster’s The Suburban Captivity of the Church at the same time as eagerly following the consultation conference of the Australian chapter of The Gospel Coalition.
Tim Foster is the Vice Principal of Ridley Theological College in Melbourne and the book has been shortlisted for the Australian Christian Book of the year award. The Gospel Coalition Australia is a local iteration of The Gospel Coalition originating in the US. Two voices labouring to see Australia won for Christ. Yet, given the difference in descriptions of the gospel were so significant, I felt it prudent to review Foster’s recent book.
The major purpose of Foster’s Suburban Captivity is ‘… to develop a theology of gospel and culture, and then illustrate how contextualisation works.’ (p. 5). …
It’s not a pedestrian read. Foster strongly denounces conceptions of the Gospel that centre upon the sacrifice at Calvary, and calls for a reconceptualisation of the Gospel around God’s wider purposes. We are told in no uncertain terms that this is the only way to break the shackles of our suburban captivity…”
– An important review by Mark Earngey, an ACL member currently studying Reformation theology and history at the University of Oxford.
Tim Foster has posted this response.
The dangerous calling of Christian missions
“America’s evangelical Christians are facing a critical time of testing in the 21st century. Among the most important of the tests we now face is the future of missions and our faithfulness to the Great Commission. At a time of unprecedented opportunity, will our zeal for world missions slacken?
Just as doors of opportunity are opening around the world, the church seems to be losing its voice. A virtual re-paganization of Western culture is occurring around us at a velocity unprecedented in human history. At the same time, we are also witnessing the rise of militant Islam…”
– Albert Mohler reminds his readers that the dangerous nature of Christian missions is just as the Lord Jesus predicted.
Societas 2015 launched
Just in time for Moore College Sunday (being observed in many churches this weekend), the 2015 edition of the Moore College students’ magazine, Societas, has been released.
It’s available online – to view or download using ISSUU – or to download as an 11.2MB PDF file from the college website.
Creation and the Christian
“One of the most sustained reflections on the nature of created life is Psalm 104. In this article I’d like to offer some thoughts drawn from this psalm on what it means for us to be made by God. These are not the only things that can be said about our created nature but they are very helpful in our approach to life in this world…”
– Moore College lecturer on Old Testament and Biblical Languages, Dan Wu, turns to Psalm 104 at the College’s Think Tank. Take the time to be encouraged by it.
Be a Gospel Patron
At GoThereFor, Tony Payne interviews John Rinehart, an advocate of ‘gospel patronage’.
And his book is available at Matthias Media.
‘I thought Planned Parenthood protected family values’
“Abortion steals praise from God by denying image-bearers the opportunity to live through and for him. Abortion despises and attacks and destroys the image of God…”
– Rosaria Butterfield asks how our worldview affects our view of humanity.
Speak now, or forever hold your peace
“Marriage is the exclusive union between a man and a woman.”
“It wasn’t so long ago that making a statement like this wouldn’t even raise an eyebrow. In fact, if you’d said this, most people would have responded with a ‘Yes, and?’. It would be liking stating that the sky is blue, or the Australian cricket team had been disappointing.
Today in Australia, this is perhaps the most controversial statements you can make…”
– At Communicate Jesus, Steve Kryger pleads with Christian leaders to actually lead Christians in responding to the challenge of same-sex marriage.
William Taylor on the wrath of God
William Taylor at St Helen’s Bishopsgate in London preached from Romans 1:16-23 at a lunchtime gathering to explain why everyone needs the gospel.
28 minute audio.
Pride
“According to Solomon, of the seven things God hates, pride tops the list (Proverbs 6:16 – 19).
CS Lewis called pride, “that complete anti-God state of mind – it leads to every other vice!”. Martin Luther claimed that his greatest enemy was not the Pope or Cardinal, but the enemy within, his own pride…”
– Presbyterian Moderator-General David Cook writes.
Planned Parenthood, Abortion, and the Conscience of a Nation
“Yesterday’s release of a video showing the senior medical director of Planned Parenthood casually discussing the sale of organs from aborted babies is a moral challenge thrown right in the face of all Americans…”
– Albert Mohler writes about the video which has exposed the depths of human depravity.
Russell Moore also writes about it, and Carl Trueman congratulates Planned Parenthood “for having so perfectly summarized the spirit of our age.”
True Repentance — Peter Jensen on Judges chapter 10
From Moore College:
“Former Archbishop (and College Principal) Peter Jensen preached on Judges 10 at St Andrew’s Cathedral on 12 July.
We are convinced this is a message that should be heard by as many people as possible and are pleased to be able to make it available through our podcast.”
Listen to Archbishop Peter Jensen’s sermon here (14MB mp3 file).
Same-sex intimate unions
Moore Theological College Principal, Dr Mark Thompson, has written a very helpful piece to aid Christians in their thinking and discourse in the current debate around same-sex marriage. Read more
Evangelical Ministry Assembly 2015 talks
The Proclamation Trust has made available audio of the talks from the 2015 EMA, held 22-24 June at the Barbican in London.
The theme: “Identity Crisis: Preaching to a Confused World”.
Speakers included –
- Christopher Ash (Director of the Cornhill Training Course)
- Tim Keller (Redeemer Presbyterian, New York)
- Andrew Reid (Holy Trinity Doncaster)
- Vaughan Roberts (St Ebbe’s, Oxford)
- Bruce Ware (Southern Baptist Theological Seminary)
- John Wyatt (University College London).
The audio files are all on this page.
‘Will the same-sex marriage push destroy the right of churches to dissent?’
“This raises the question about the real ideology of the same-sex marriage campaign. Is it merely to allow gays to marry? Or is its ultimate purpose to impose ‘marriage equality’ across the entire society, civil and religious. Ideologies do not normally stop at the halfway mark…”
– Andrew Bolt at The Herald-Sun quotes from an important article by Paul Kelly in The Australian (which requires a subscription to read in full).
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…