Phillip and Kel on Church ‘discipline’ and ‘pastoral care’

In the latest episode of The Chat Room, Phillip Jensen speaks with Kel Richards about Church discipline. But is that the best name for it? – and how do other denominations approach the question? 28 minutes of wise and thought-provoking discussion – at phillipjensen.com.

Learning from Steve

Oak Hill’s Vice Principal Chris Green looks at the man behind Apple, the late Steve Jobs, in the latest issue of the college’s Commentary magazine.

Download the full issue as a 4.8MB PDF file.

Warning Passages Ahead

Collin Hansen writes:

“The Book of Hebrews daunts even the most gifted preachers and scholars. For one thing, we don’t know the author. He quotes the Old Testament at length and repeatedly, but his method of interpreting these passages doesn’t always make sense to readers. His arguments about angels, Moses, and the temple require more than cursory understanding of the Hebrew Bible.

And then there are the so-called warning passages. It might be hard at first to grasp the significance of the priest Melchizedek, but many Christians viscerally understand the practical importance of these warnings. Can I lose my faith? What if I doubt? Fail to overcome sin?

To answer these questions and more, I turned to the acclaimed scholar Peter O’Brien, professor emeritus at Moore College in Sydney, Australia…”

– read his questions and Peter’s answers at The Gospel Coalition.

J. I. Packer: Fighting heresy in churches and small groups

“[I]t’s my firm conviction that churches ought to foresee this unhappy possibility of heresy getting in when lay-folk are leading. And they should counter the possibility by what in the history of the church has been called “catechesis.” We hardly hear of it these days, but in the second and third centuries A.D.—and indeed for some centuries after—it’s rather amazing to discover that inquirers into the faith were fed into catechetical classes.”

– J I Packer was interviewed by Christianity Today International for SmallGroups.com (h/t Anglicans Ablaze.).

Don Carson on Hebrews — at The Castle

Don Carson spoke at ‘Winter @ The Castle’ in Ireland in early December. He gave five talks on Hebrews.

Thanks to the organisers, you can now download the audio files from The Castle website or via iTunes.

The Pastor’s Role in World Evangelization

Some encouragement from John Piper.

Also this video on ‘the work of a Christian leader’ is a good reminder that reminders are constantly needed.

Tim Challies reviews ‘The Meaning of Marriage’

Tim Challies reviews The Meaning of Marriage by Tim Keller:

“the distinguishing feature of this book is its deep dependence on the gospel. This distinguishing feature is also the book’s greatest strength.

Marriage simply cannot be properly understood or practiced without being rooted in the gospel. ‘If God had the gospel of Jesus’s salvation in mind when he established marriage, then marriage only ‘works’ to the degree that it approximates the pattern of God’s self-giving love in Christ.’…”

– read it all here. Places to buy it.

Tim Challies reviews ‘Real Marriage’

After earlier making observations (1, 2) about Mark & Grace Driscoll’s new book Real Marriage: The Truth About Sex, Friendship & Life Together, Tim Challies has now published a review. From his conclusions –

“Having read the book through two times, I’ve found myself wondering how to best measure or evaluate it, but perhaps these criteria are useful: Would I want to read it with my wife or would I encourage her to read it on her own? Would I recommend it to the people in my church? In both cases the answer is no.”

– Read his full review here.

‘Knowing God’ — free AudioBook for January

This month’s free audiobook from Christian Audio is J I Packer’s Knowing God.

The m4b version is about 300MB. It’s a new recording, read by Simon Vance. Know someone who doesn’t read books? Send them the link.

Bible Reading Plans for 2012

Justin Taylor at The Gospel Coalition has links to a selection of Bible reading plans here.

Update: Ligonier Ministries has more.

Whether you read on the web, on your phone, listen via podcast or read in your printed Bible (recommended!) there’s something here for you.

 

‘A Christmas message based on the prophetic lyrics of Mr Roy Wood’

“This Christmas-creep cultural shift seems to indicate three things about society: we have more money (or at least more access to credit) than was the case thirty years ago; we are increasingly obsessed with ‘treating ourselves’; and the boundary between adulthood and childhood has become blurred to the point of near erasure …”

– Carl Trueman has a thoughtful Christmas reflection at Reformation 21.

Knox/Robinson for today

“You might be unfamiliar with the term ‘Knox/Robinson’, but you may well have come across the substance of these two men’s teaching if you’ve ever looked into the doctrine of church.

Observers of Anglicanism in Sydney have often remarked on a confident and distinctive approach to the nature and purpose of church, led by such men as Howard Mowll, TC Hammond, Marcus Loane, Donald Robinson and Broughton Knox. The source of this approach is undoubtedly the teaching of Donald Robinson and Broughton Knox at Moore College from the early 1950s until the early 1980s, though both men denied they were teaching anything unusual and could point to others who were saying similar things.

For us, nearly thirty years after the last published piece by either of them, how should we respond to the theological legacy of Donald Robinson and Broughton Knox? …”

– Read Mark Thompson’s paper at The Briefing.

Prayers for defence chaplains at Christmas

This is a good time to be reminded to pray for defence chaplains. Many minister to servicemen and women who are far from home. Defence Anglicans has two stories to give ideas for prayer –

An army chaplain’s Christmas preparations and Advent in Afghanistan.

A Threat to World Anglicanism?

“… she predicts the imminent demise of Sydney Anglicanism in its present form, claiming that it will be brought down by a combination of financial mismanagement, the failure of the current leadership to ensure an equally committed succession and the general fatigue of Sydney lay people, who apparently want their diocese to look more like Perth or Melbourne. …”

– from Gerald Bray’s editorial in the Winter 2011 issue of Churchman. (PDF file.)

His demands are not burdensome

A Christmas reflection from Peter Brain, Bishop of Armidale:

‘He was born outside a small hotel in an obscure Jewish village in the great days of the Roman Empire. The story is usually prettified when we tell it Christmas by Christmas, but it is really rather beastly and cruel. The reason why Jesus was born outside the hotel is that it was full and nobody would offer a bed to a woman in labour, so that she had to have her baby in the stables, and cradle him in a cattle-trough. The story is told dispassionately and without comment, but no thoughtful reader can help shuddering at the picture of callousness and degradation that it draws.’ So wrote J I Packer in his classic Knowing God (1973).

Christmas reminds us of our sin, of that there is no doubt. We needed saving and continue to do so. The fact that we seek to beautify these ugly facts of the Christmas event, and continue to trivialise their importance with a range of activities that leave us too exhausted to reflect and rendered unable to grasp its seriousness by our round of trivial festivities, demonstrates our propensity to crowd God out.  Read more

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