Good News of Great Joy by John Piper — Daily Readings for Advent
John Piper writes:
“I’m excited to announce that our Advent eBook is newly revised and ready for December 2013 — and free of charge. It’s called Good News of Great Joy.
As you know, Advent is just around the corner. It starts the fourth Sunday before Christmas — this year, that’s December 1 — and is a season of preparation for Christmas Day.
Our prayer is that this eBook would help you keep Jesus as the center and greatest treasure of your Advent season. The candles and candies have their place, but we want to make sure that in all the Christmas rush and hubbub, we adore Jesus above all.”
Why I ran to Confessionalism
“So, in August of 2013 I ran to confessionalism. Specifically my ordination was transferred to the Presbyterian Church in America and I became the Lead Pastor of a PCA congregation.
The experience has been like finding an oasis in a desert. It has been like discovering a GPS after meandering blindly through an unknown country. Too dramatic? It does not feel that way to me. It is nearly impossible to effectively put down error and nurture unity within a church whose minimal statement of faith is only able to identify the grossest of heresies.”
– Todd Pruitt, who blogs at 1517, and co-hosts The Mortification of Spin with Carl Trueman, shares his discovery.
Related: The Thirty Nine Articles.
J. I. Packer: Fighting Heresy in Churches and Small Groups.
Grounded in the Gospel – J I Packer on The White Horse Inn.
The definitive work on Definite Atonement
From Heaven He Came and Sought Her: Definite Atonement in Historical, Biblical, Theological, and Pastoral Perspective, edited by David Gibson and Jonathan Gibson, is a major publication. …
David Wells says, “This is the definitive study. It is careful, comprehensive, deep, pastoral, and thoroughly persuasive.”
Michael Horton calls it “the most impressive defense of definite atonement in over a century.”
Read about it from Justin Taylor, see John Piper commending it, check out the book’s website and read an excerpt (PDF).
J. I. Packer: “I count it an honor to be asked to supply a foreword to this massive product of exact and well-informed scholarship.”
Does the Cross save?
At Stand Firm, David Ould asks what the Bishop-elect of the Diocese of Grafton believes about salvation – and about what she describes as a “rather mechanistic and grim understanding of atonement” (among other things).
Chappo’s splendiferous life
“As I reflect on Chappo’s life, a year after his death, my mind floods with so many splendiferous memories.”
– At SydneyAnglicans.net, David Mansfield remembers Chappo.
Read The Litany lately?
Thought not. UK evangelist Roger Carswell writes,
“I have found that using the Litany from the Book of Common Prayer has been a real help in covering issues that I would normally neglect. I hope you find it helpful.”
Here’s the 1662 version.
St Helen’s Training — Mark overview
At the St. Helen’s Bishopsgate website, the last two of Roger Day’s overview-of-Mark’s-Gospel videos have been posted.
Effective personal evangelism: summary
At Reformation21, Jeremy Walker has completed his series of posts on ‘Effective personal evangelism’.
“Not all Christians will be on the streets of our towns and at the doors of our communities. Some of us will do it sitting down over a cup of tea… around the dinner table or at the bedside, night after night, with our children…
I trust that these marks, rightly cultivated, will help us to be immediately effective in communicating the gospel faithfully to those who do not know our Saviour, and ultimately effective when we see God give the increase.”
The Eclipse of Freedom
“Like most in my generation, I recoil from Doomsday preaching. the announcement of impending disaster, the prediction of the widespread persecution of Christians just around the corner, the naming of this or that group as the antichrist or as an enemy set upon the absolute destruction of Christianity, still makes me wince.
… The dilemma for Christian communities is not to be alarmist while at the same time identifying clear trends in the public debate and the legislative programs of governments in the West. …”
– Mark Thompson writes at Theological Theology.
Stay in Noah’s Ark — or get into the lifeboat?
“I’ve just completed four years of training for ministry in the Church of England, and, God willing, have ahead of me many years of gospel ministry in the Anglican Church.
However, there seems to me to be more pressure than ever to doubt the integrity of that position. How can an evangelical who takes seriously his stewardship of revealed truth, ever with a good conscience take office in the Church of England? …”
– At The Church Society, Oak Hill graduate Matt Graham asks if it’s worth sticking with the Church of England. (PDF file.)
Related: Audio files of talks from the Junior Anglican Evangelical Conference.
Free ESV Study Bible web app
Crossway are giving away free access to the web version of The ESV Study Bible, in celebration of their 75th anniversary. It’s a companion module to their ESVBible.org.
Be sure to sign up before the end of November 2013 to get it free.
Your spiritual appetite
“This day was the best that I have seen since I came to England.… After Dr. Twisse had begun with a brief prayer, Mr. Marshall prayed largely two hours, most divinely, confessing the sins of the members of the Assembly, in a wonderful, passionate, and prudent way. Afterwards, Mr. Arrowsmith preached an hour, then a psalm … Dr. Twisse closed with a short prayer and blessing.”
‘So wrote Robert Baillie, one of the Scots commissioners at the Westminster Assembly, about one of the best days he had in England.’
– Food for thought. Read the whole post by Jeremy Walker at Reformation21 for a challenge, and then, over at the Proc Trust, see Adrian Reynolds brief words.
(Image: University of Glasgow.)
Chapel Messages from the RTS
Lots of helpful and encouraging Chapel Messages from the Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson (including the John Reed Miller lectures – speakers include Mark Dever, Steve Lawson, Kevin DeYoung).
Don’t go it alone!
“It is no accident that so many of the commands given in the New Testament letters involve ‘one another’:
welcome one another; care for one another; bear with one another; forgive one another; submit to one another; admonish one another; exhort one another, and so on. Don’t judge one another, deprive one another, lie to one another, speak evil of one another, envy one another…etc, but do comfort one another, encourage one another, edify one another, and – above all – love one another.
The reason for all these injunctions is quite obvious: clearly, we need one another! …”
– William Philip at The Tron Church in Glasgow with a great reminder about the importance of church. (Photo: Russell Powell.)
At 95, Billy Graham’s ‘last’ message is the same as his first
“Come to the Cross, by repentance and faith.” – Billy Graham’s Message.
29 minutes. Watch it and pass it on.
This is currently being shown across the United States in a national outreach as Bill turns 95.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…