Applying the Bible to applying the Bible

Tonight’s public Moore College Lecture for 2012 – given by the Rev. Chris Green from Oak Hill College in London – was streamed live on the web. If you missed it, you can watch the full lecture here.

Info on the upcoming lectures here.

Challenging equality Britain

“George Orwell’s famous allegory, Animal Farm, gave us the wry phrase, ‘All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others’. It brought out the way that you could have all the talk about equality and rights, but that it actually worked out with inequalities and with favoured groups. In Animal Farm, you remember, it was the pigs who ended up more equal than others.

I suspect that is how many Christians are coming to think about equality Britain. It’s a Britain where comedians are feted for their ‘daring’ in taking on the Christian religion on national TV, while never quite having the bottle to dish out equal satire to the equally fervent Richard Dawkins. It’s a Britain where major human rights abuses against Christians in countries such as North Korea or Syria are not reported as such.

It’s a Britain where you pray with someone in hospital at your peril, in case some third party takes offence. It’s a Britain where a prime minister appears to be under the impression that he can change what constitutes marriage. I suspect many of us find ourselves both frustrated and bewildered. How did it come to this?…”

– Oak Hill Principal Mike Ovey writes in the latest issue of Oak Hill’s Commentary magazine – available as a 6.4MB PDF file. Download it for the many worthwhile articles.

Preserving the Gospel in the Seminary

in March last year, Albert Mohler (President of Southern Baptist Seminary) and Peter Lillback (President of Westminster Seminary) spoke about the history of their seminaries. It’s a good reminder of what needs to be preserved. From ‘Christ the Center’. (Audio & video here, or on YouTube – via Justin Taylor.)

The Two-Pronged Strategy of a Master Evangelist

“It’s amazing how culture changes and we don’t notice it. The practices that one generation took for granted become unknown, and slightly shocking, to a later generation. Even for those of us who live through the change it happens too incrementally for us to observe it. It is when we revisit the old times that we detect how much we have changed – sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse, and often without any real difference.

Recently, I had the privilege of publicly interviewing John Chapman as he recounted his many decades of Christian ministry. In the interview, he unwittingly challenged us about changes happening that neither he nor we had noticed. …”

– Phillip Jensen writes in his weekly column. (Photo: John Chapman, 1980.)

Dick Lucas — The race set before us (2)

Dick Lucas preached on Hebrews 12:1-3 last Sunday at St Helen’s Bishopsgate.

Most encouraging.

See or hear it at the St. Helen’s website.

On preaching and preachers

“This is an article about preaching that is meant to be read by non-preachers. … As someone who is rather new to the pulpit, I thought it might be helpful to tell you what some of the surprises have been as I’ve somehow transitioned to a person who preaches on a regular basis…”

– Tim Challies shares some thoughts about preaching. Perhaps you could use these to inform your prayers for preachers.

Devote Yourselves to Prayer

Encouragement from Gary Nelson, Bishop of North West Australia:

“There’s no escaping the emphasis on prayer that comes to us from the Scriptures – whether we look to the example of the apostles, or the response of the Pentecost converts, or Jesus’ clear teaching on prayer. We’re called to pray!

So what a joy it is to share with you in this key ministry. Here in the North West we could not survive without prayer and the encouragement we receive from the army of pray-ers across our nation. Please keep praying.”

– Read his letter here. (And please remember the people of the North West in your prayers.)

The Spiritual Athlete – the race set before us

Dick Lucas preached this edifying sermon on 2 Timothy 4:1-8 on Sunday morning at St. Helen’s Bishopsgate.

Themelios 37.2

The latest issue of Themelios (issue 37.2) is now available as a free download from The Gospel Coalition.

It includes articles by Don Carson and Mike Ovey, and many book reviews (a review of Paul Barnett’s The Corinthian Question: Why Did the Church Oppose Paul? is among them.)

 

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.

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.

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.

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