Walking with God through Pain and Suffering
Of Tim Keller’s book “Walking with God through Pain and Suffering”, Andy Naselli writes,
“It’s probably the best overall book on suffering because it shrewdly addresses the issue from three angles: cultural, biblical-theological, practical.
As with Keller’s other books, this brims with wisdom from decades of fruitful pastoral ministry.”
– Read more here. (Tim Keller is coming to Sydney later this month.)
Steve Chalke or the repentant Rosaria? Whose religious experience?
“Who’s the most unlikely convert you have ever met? Of course, given the ravages of sin in our hearts and minds any convert is nothing short of a miracle, a new creation that only the original creator can bring about. All the same, there are some whose place in life seems to make it especially hard to hear the gospel, and when someone in that position does become a Christian, one stands amazed at the power of God’s grace in encountering them and bringing them home to himself.”
– Mike Ovey at Oak Hill College asks whose religious experience counts.
New Moore Distance Courses
Moore College is offering new Distance courses. Here are three videos giving some background –
1. An introduction to new courses with Dr. Mark Thompson, College Principal.
2. New Distance offerings explained.
3. ITS, Moore College’s newest distance course.
Archbishop Davies endorses new PTC course
In a new video from Moore College, Archbishop Dr Glenn Davies endorses the PTC correspondence course and its value to the life of believers everywhere.
See also the PTC course website.
Phillip Jensen on ‘Singleness, Marriage, Divorce, & Remarriage in Ministry’
Video files of Phillip Jensen’s talks from the recent Priscilla & Aquila Centre conference at Moore College are now available, courtesy of Audio Advice:
John Piper’s pleas to Pastors about money
Excellent advice from John Piper about the danger of loving money.
An Atheist becomes an evangelist… sort of
“Last week, sitting in a little pub in Dorset and about to sip my pint of Doombar, I was approached by the local vicar. He’d officiated at my daughter’s wedding last year and knew I was a Green, although he probably doesn’t know I’m an atheist.
He asked me if I had heard of the Diocese of Salisbury’s initiative called ‘Carbon Fast’…
I’ve never thought of myself as an evangelist, but now it suddenly makes sense.”
– Jenny Jones writes in The Telegraph.
More on the Carbon Fast here. And some thoughts from the Apostle Paul here and here.
Kevin DeYoung on expository preaching
Kevin DeYoung shares his thoughts on expository preaching in the latest edition of Preaching Matters from St Helen’s Bishopsgate.
Worth a look.
31 Days of Purity
Tim Challies challenges (first of all) the thousands of Christian men who read his blog –
“This is for all of us—for those who are young and those who are old, for those who are married and those who are single, for those who struggle mightily in the area of sexual sin and for those who may barely struggle at all. I would love it if you would commit with me to 31 Days of Purity—thirty-one days of considering what God’s Word says about sexual purity and thirty-one days of praying that God would help us fight sin and pursue holiness in this area. Will you join me?”
The 31 days has started, but it’s not too late to join in. Day 1. Day 2.
‘Introducing God’ 2.0
Introducing God is back – in version 2.0. The updated series was launched at Village Church Annandale on Friday night.
Learn about the course here (just in time for Jesus Brings). And John Sandeman has a story at Eternity Newspaper.
An Unspiritual Church
“‘Spirituality’ is a term of great confusion today. Both inside and outside Christianity, people use the word in ways quite different to the Bible. This not only confuses Christians in what to expect from the Spirit of God but also confuses non-Christians about the work of God’s Spirit and the teaching of Christianity. For when Christians, in our confusion, misrepresent God’s word it is no surprise that non-Christians do not understand our message.”
– In his weekly column for the Cathedral, Dean of Sydney Phillip Jensen looks at what makes a church ‘Spirit filled’ – and what doesn’t.
Challenges Gospel Ministers can expect
“What challenges lie ahead? The race this new generation is called to run will include several unavoidable challenges that will demand the highest level of biblical fidelity and theological courage, matched to keen cultural sensitivity and a deep love for human beings caught in the maelstrom of late modernity. …”
– Albert Mohler identifies several key challenges for all who are called to preach Christ.
I’d like an argument please
“Mortimer Adler, How to Read a Book:
You must be able to say, with reasonable certainty,
‘I understand,’
before you can say any one of the following things:
‘I agree,’ or
‘I disagree,’ or
‘I suspend judgment.’
For those who don’t do this, he says:
There is actually no point in answering critics of this sort. The only polite thing to do is to ask them to state your position for you, the position they claim to be challenging.…”
– Read the full (but brief) post by Justin Taylor at Between Two Worlds.
Why are you doing what you are doing?
“A friend sent me a postcard once from his holiday destination with the inscription ‘Why are you doing what you are doing?” I asked myself that question recently while I was sitting in a lecture at the Australian Command and Staff College at Weston Creek, where I am posted as chaplain…”
– Moore College graduate Peter Friend, inaugural Chaplain at the Australian Defence College, shares why he is doing what he is doing. (Good point for prayer too.)
Scam alert
From Presiding Bishop of the Church of England in Southern Africa, Desmond Inglesby (pictured) –
“It has come to our attention that that there is a scam going around that attempts to use the identity of Bishop Desmond Inglesby and the Church of England in South Africa. …
The premise of the scam is an invitation from Presiding Bishop Desmond Inglesby to speak at a conference or seminar. It asks at the end to please begin correspondence with these people to an email address that looks like it belongs to the Presiding Bishop.”
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…