Large print Essential Jesus
The Essential Jesus (the Gospel of Luke) being distributed across Sydney as a part of Connect09 is a wonderful resource. Many who have received copies have commented on its clear layout and attractive presentation.
It’s not ideal to give to everyone though. Some people would like larger print! See this from Matthias Media.
David Peterson on Acts, the Spirit and more
David Höhne and Michael Jensen recently interviewed David Peterson for the The Common Room.
David is now back at Moore College after his term as Principal of Oak Hill College in London. Listen and be encouraged to re-read Acts.
The interview runs to 16.7MB and goes for 24 minutes.
Related: Carson on David Peterson on Acts.
No laughing matter
“A friend sent me a link yesterday to one of the most bizarre things I have ever heard. On September 16, John Piper spoke to a large conference of the American Association of Christian Counselors.
He decided to start the message by confessing a list of sins he had struggled with all his life. Here’s the result.”
Greg Gilbert makes some perceptive comments at Church Matters. What might we learn from this episode?
Evangelism is not proselytism
“‘Mission’, ‘evangelism’ (and ‘evangelization’) and ‘proselytism’ are often muddled by speakers and this results in confusion and conjecture…”
– Bishop of Tasmania John Harrower points out the difference.
“I Have No Greater Joy”
Two weeks ago, Don Carson preached at CrossWay Community Church in Bristol, Wisconsin. His text was on 3 John, focussing on verse 4.
As always, Christ-centred and edifying. Hear the sermon here (60min / 14MB mp3 file).
Episcopalians Deceived
“Those who wonder why the Episcopal Church Church accepted such a radical revision of the historic Book of Common Prayer in 1979 might profit from reading an article at episcopalnet.org: ‘How Episcopalians were Deceived’, by Francis W. Read, written for the New Oxford Review in 1981. He reveals that the authors of the new book resorted to deception in order to introduce a new theology into the church, ignoring their critics and lying about their true intent…”
– Roberta Bayer, Editor of Mandate, published by the Prayer Book Society in the USA. See her article on page 9 of this PDF file. She refers to this: How Episcopalians Were Deceived.
The danger of ending every sermon with application
“The standard sermon ends with several points of application. I have nothing wrong with this. Many of my sermons end with some ‘now what’ points that relate the text to everyday life. But congregations should not expect every sermon to end with three ‘take home’ points…”
– Kevin DeYoung with some helpful thoughts on preaching at DeYoung, Restless, and Reformed.
Why learn Biblical languages
Elizabeth Groves, who lectures at Westminster Seminary, speaks on why learning the biblical languages is so important. Worth watching on YouTube (h/t Ian Clary.)
Inspiring People: John Anderson
Former Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson speaks with Karl Faase at one of last week’s ‘Inspiring People’ events – about what’s wrong with Australian society. See the 1 min 45 sec clip on Vimeo.
(Thanks to SydneyAnglicans.net)
Christian radio and the gospel
Moody Bible Institute graduate and radio feature producer Paul Butler reports on a look at Christian radio in the US, and asks what is really Christian about much of it.
While the territory is not quite the same in Australia, the questions raised could be put equally well to Christians at work or at home – are we really any different?
Hear the two segments of the programme at Paul Butler’s Production Blog. (h/t Justin Taylor.)
Anglican Identity and Mission paper
Last month, Bishop Robert Forsyth spoke at the Anglican Identity and Mission Conference in Adelaide.
“We have a crisis in which some Anglicans have removed themselves from the Anglican Churches of their provinces or dioceses, claiming that in doing so they, not the province or diocese, embody Anglican identity. Or at least are still really Anglican despite the breach with their bishop or national church. Are they? How would we go about answering that question?”
The paper he presented is now available here as a PDF file.
As well, the Diocese of Adelaide’s Guardian (PDF file) has a report (pages 4 & 5) on the conference. (With thanks to Rob Forsyth. Photo: The Guardian.)
Bioethics and Future Hope lectures online
Audio files of the talks from last week’s New College Lecture Series on Bioethics And Future Hope by Professor John Wyatt are now available, courtesy of New College.
See the New College website to download the files.
At his Just in CASE blog, Trevor Cairney also provides helpful thoughts on the lectures:
Two worldviews: Two views of life and death
Bioethics and Redemption: Understanding pain, suffering and death
Bioethics and Future Hope: An Eschatological View of the Future
(Related: Tom Hargreaves recommends a Firefox plugin called DownThemAll for downloading links from web pages – useful for getting all the audio files linked from a page.)
Confess or Die audio
The audio files of the Confess or Die conference held at the Presbyterian Theological College in Sydney last month are now available for download, with thanks to the PTC.
“The contemporary church seems to have amnesia about what it really believes. This two day conference is here to jolt the church’s memory, and give it new life for mission. …”
Carl Trueman – Talk 1, Talk 2, Talk 3
John McClean – Bible and Confessions
Mark Thompson – The 39 Articles and Global Anglicanism
Geoff Tacon – The AFES Doctrinal Basis
Chris Balzer – WCF and Presbyterian Church of Australia (Text only)
Source: Confess or Die website.
The need for GAFCON
“The immediate cause for GAFCON was the invitation from the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams to those who had consecrated Gene Robinson as a Bishop to attend the Lambeth Conference. This invitation was sent in July 2007, and the timing was significant as I will show later.
Following this invitation, Archbishop Peter Akinola made a visit in October 2007 at his own expense to London to meet with Archbishop Rowan Williams to ask him most seriously to delay the Lambeth Conference until the issue of the consecration of Gene Robinson by the Episcopal Church could be resolved. When Archbishop Williams proved immovable on this certain things became crystal clear to Archbishop Akinola and his colleagues. …”
– Chris Sugden spoke at last week’s launch of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, Southern Africa. Read the full text at Anglican Mainstream.
Book Review — Words from the Fire
“We’ve seen a steady stream of books come from Mohler’s pen in the past couple of years. I have read them all and am quite comfortable saying that this one is the best of the bunch.”
– Tim Challies reviews Albert Mohler’s new book, “Words from the Fire: Hearing the Voice of God in the 10 Commandments”.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…