Martin Luther at study
On October 31, 1517, German monk and theologian Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg.
In this free audio download from Christian Audio, John Piper speaks on the discovery that Martin Luther made 491 years ago – that God speaks to us in his Word.
How should pastors today go about their ministry? Piper draws us back to God’s word – the Bible.
The 36MB mp3 file runs for 1 hour 19 minutes – to get it, start at this page.
(You will need to create an account if you don’t have one and go through the check-out process, but the file is free of charge.)
Voting for generations of children and their right to live
“What would you think if a politician said ‘I’m not pro-rape, I’m simply prochoice about rape. And though I would not choose to rape a woman, I believe that every man should be free to rape a woman if that is his personal choice.’ And what would you do if that politician promised the rape lobby that if he is elected president, the ‘first thing I would do’ is to sign legislation that would invalidate all the state laws that restrict rape in any way?…”
– Randy Alcorn writes persuasively about choices facing voters in the US election.
Terrific Gospelling idea
Here’s a reminder about an event coming up this week –
St. Philip’s Church in the Sydney CBD is modelling a great idea for outreach. Later this month they are hosting a public reading of Mark’s Gospel over two lunch hours.
The purpose is to provide Christians who work and shop in the City with an opportunity to bring their non-Christian friends and work colleagues to hear about Jesus from the Scriptures. Read more
Top Ten ways to write bad worship songs
In my eleven years as director of worship development for Sovereign Grace Ministries, I’ve reviewed hundreds of worship songs and written a few of my own. Not all of them have been stellar. Actually, very few of them have been.
I’ve noticed recurring tendencies that keep weak songs from becoming good or great songs. I’m intimately acquainted with those tendencies in my own songs and I’ve listed my top ten below. While these thoughts are meant for songwriters, most of them apply to leading worship as well.…
– Bob Kauflin writes at Worship Matters. (Number 10 is especially true.)
Preach what’s True and Precious
“A word to preachers. Truth and falsehood is a good pair of categories to use when deciding what to preach. Speak truth not falsehood.
But there is another crucial pair of categories. God tells Jeremiah that he must use this pair if he would be faithful…”
– Brief advice to preachers from John Piper.
The Oxford Movement
“It is likely that we will see a growing interest in the Oxford Movement in the wake of proposals by Roman Catholics to declare one of its founders a saint…”
– David Phillips, General Secretary of Church Society, points out that “many of the practices that were opposed by our evangelical forebears are common within the Church of England” today.
Read his article from Crossway as a PDF file at Church Society.
The Jerusalem Declaration: Available for download
Last night, Sydney Synod enthusiastically endorsed GAFCON’s Jerusalem Declaration.
During the debate, it was suggested that the Declaration could be made available for churches – either to give copies to members or to display one in your church.
For your convenience, you can now download the Declaration as a PDF file – it’s formatted to fit two A4 pages – an 80kb download.
Create Conference to help churches communicate
Learn about the Create Conference being held in Sydney on November 15 – to help churches in effectively communicating with our culture.
Website at createconference.org.au
Got an iPhone? Get this.
If you have an iPhone – or an iPod Touch – the people at Desiring God have now formatted John Piper’s book Don’t Waste Your Life for your device. Of greater eternal significance than playing Cro-Mag Rally on the way into work.
You can get Don’t Waste Your Life for iPhone at Desiring God. (Hat tip: Justin Taylor.)
And if you don’t have an iPhone, you can still read the book online.
From the book:
For me as a boy, one of the most gripping illustrations my fiery father used was the story of a man converted in old age. The church had prayed for this man for decades. He was hard and resistant. But this time, for some reason, he showed up when my father was preaching. At the end of the service, during a hymn, to everyone’s amazement he came and took my father’s hand. They sat down together on the front pew of the church as the people were dismissed. God opened his heart to the Gospel of Christ, and he was saved from his sins and given eternal life. But that did not stop him from sobbing and saying, as the tears ran down his wrinkled face – and what an impact it made on me to hear my father say this through his own tears – “I’ve wasted it! I’ve wasted it!”
Our aim is one hundred percent
This week’s Synod was focused on our Diocesan Mission.
There is much to praise God for in the work of the last six years. But there is still a long way to go. There is no sign yet that multitudes of Sydneysiders are beating a path to our door. Nobody promised they would.
A mid-point review gives an opportunity to understand where we are up to in the Mission process, and to make any necessary adjustments to our plans. Two issues are coming to the fore: “the population” and the “ten years”. These are critical issues that we keep trying to ignore but lie at the heart of the Mission.
Most people hearing of the Mission have focused on the wrong part of the aims and goals. The critics and the supporters alike have emphasised the ten percent that we are aiming to reach. Not understanding what it is about.
They tend to think that success or failure will be measured by this ten percent. They fail to notice that the aim is actually one hundred percent…
– Read the whole article from Phillip Jensen, published in the Cathedral newsletter.
A New Anglican Province in a Culture of Death
“I freely admit my intention to describe the abortion industry found on this continent as I believe it really is: an enterprise that is as bad as, and perhaps worse than, the Third Reich’s T4 system of extermination.
While I fully appreciate the gravity of the Episcopal Church’s decision to certify Gene Robinson’s election as a bishop in the Church, I am far more disturbed by the fact that for too many years, the majority of us who cut our teeth on Episcopal Church altar rails failed to speak out against a far more insidious evil, the sin of pre-partum homicide…”
– Dr Briane Turley writes at VirtueOnline. (Photo: West Virginia University)
The Cries of the Helpless
On Thursday, Dr. Russell Moore, Dean of Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, pulled no punches in a sermon on Matthew 2:13–23 and the slaughter of the innocents.
His topic? “Joseph of Nazareth Is a Single-Issue Evangelical: The Father of Jesus, the Cries of the Helpless, and Change You Can Believe In”. Hear the 37 minute sermon via this 8.5MB mp3 file. Chilling – but recommended.
(Related: The Abortion Question and the Future.)
The ESV Study Bible – A Review
“The ESV team has done an excellent job of generating excitement for the ESV Study Bible and particularly so among the type of person who tends to read my book reviews. So in this review I will try to cut through the hype and, to the best of my ability, judge this new Bible on its own merits.…”
– Tim Challies offers his review of the just-published ESV Study Bible.
Also, learn about the ESV Study Bible Online – the full text of which will be available to owners of the printed version. The site explains –
“Even if you don’t have a registration code, the ESV Online Study Bible offers you several features:
- Create a personal account
- Search the ESV text
- Write personal notes
- Highlight Scripture
Basically, without a registration code you can do everything except access the ESV Study Bible notes and resources. If you buy a print ESV Study Bible later, you can unlock these notes and resources. One of our goals is to make the ESV Online Study Bible useful to you, even if you don’t yet own a print ESV Study Bible.”
The Abortion Question and the Future
In a recent essay, Professor Robert P. George of Princeton University makes the case that Sen. Obama is “the most extreme pro-abortion candidate ever to seek the office of President of the United States.” Further: “He is the most extreme pro-abortion member of the United States Senate. Indeed, he is the most extreme pro-abortion legislator ever to serve in either house of the United States Congress”…
Without doubt, we are faced with many urgent and important issues. Nevertheless, every voter must come to terms with what issues matter most in the electoral decision. This is the case with the sanctity of human life. I can understand the fatigue. …
Yet, there is the reality that we face a choice. This is a limited choice. And we cannot evade responsibility for the question of abortion. Our vote will determine whether millions of unborn babies live or die.
– Al Mohler paints a sobering picture of the choice presenting American voters.
He also provides this link to the Freedom of Choice Act which Senator Obama said he will sign as his first priority. On his radio programme, he interviews Professor Robert P. George of Princeton. The segment starts 11 minutes 25 seconds into the programme.
Witnessing to Jehovah’s Witnesses
Last Thursday was a bit curious — I actually had a scheduled visit from the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Typically, this had started with the ringing of the doorbell (at an inconvenient moment, but then what moments are convenient for such a visit?) by a young woman with child in tow.…
– John Richardson at The Ugley Vicar has some wise words on sharing the gospel with those who come to our doors.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…