Don’t Desire Wealth
John Piper:
I can smell it. It’s like toast or steak or brownies. It doesn’t just draw our desire, it creates desire. Deep drops in the stock market make many people salivate. They know it will rebound. They are sitting on cash. By year’s end their pile could ride the recovery to riches.
For such people I have a word from God. Read more
Time for lay administration
“When I first attended our diocesan Synod (= denominational ‘parliament’) 10 years ago as a new Anglican Parish Rector (= Senior Pastor), I expected to sit quietly and get a feel for how things worked, reading the business papers and listening to speeches from ‘old hands’ to shape how I’d vote on the various motions and ordinances (= denominational laws).
Somewhat to my surprise, I found myself on my feet, seeking the chance to enter a debate.…”
– Sandy Grant, Rector of St. Michael’s Cathedral Wollongong, writes at the Sola Panel.
Free audio book – Spurgeon’s ‘All of Grace’
This month’s free audiobook from ChristianAudio is a reading of C.H. Spurgeon’s “All of Grace”. Use the code OCT2008 at the checkout.
The mp3 files are around 100MB and run for over three hours – available free until the end of October.
Farewell to Tearfund (UK)?
“My family has supported a little girl through Tearfund for a decade or so and I have flown Tearfund’s flag and donated to it in various ways over the years. No more, however. I redirected our sponsorship from Tearfund to another Christian group which, I am told, will be able to continue to support our child in South America.…”
– Dr Lisa Severine Nolland writes about Tearfund in the UK and the importance of theology – at Anglican Mainstream. (Photo: Tearfund UK.)
The Courage to be Protestant
On last weekend’s (October 5, 2008) broadcast from The White Horse Inn Dr David Wells, author of ‘The Courage to be Protestant’, and numerous other books, was the special guest.
Dr. Wells has some very helpful observations on the accommodation of churches to the surrounding culture – and some challenging words on preaching.
Hear it at The White Horse Inn. (See our earlier posts.)
Ryan Ferguson recites from Psalms
Back in May, we linked to the video of Ryan Ferguson giving memorised dramatic recitation of Hebrews 9 and 10 using the ESV.
At this year’s WorshipGod08 Conference, run by Sovereign Grace Ministries, he recited Psalm 22, Psalm 25 and Psalm 145. The video files have been posted on YouTube. (Hat tip Challies.com)
In addition, audio files of the talks and seminars from the conference are available here.
Why Anglican? – Phillip Jensen
It is a strange phenomenon when your friends and enemies agree about you. But Sydney Anglicans enjoy this peculiarity. Neither friends nor enemies think we believe in Anglicanism. …
Anglican Christians have never believed in the sociological Anglicanism. We have always been Confessional Anglicans. We are Anglicans because we profess the Anglican beliefs of the Book of Common Prayer and the 39 Articles of Religion. These include the great creeds of the ancient worldwide church (the Apostles, Nicene and Athanasian Creeds). …
– Phillip Jensen, Dean of Sydney, writes in this weekend’s Cathedral newsletter.
Repentance and the Church of England
Lee Gatiss, co-ordinator of Reform London, spoke at a joint Reform London – London Diocesan Evangelical Fellowship meeting on Wednesday:
I’ve been preaching on Hebrews for the last month or so, and it’s struck me how penetrating some of the application of this book is for us today in the Church of England.
So a few weeks ago we looked on a Sunday morning at the great warning in chapter 2 verse 1 that “we must pay more careful attention to what we have heard (from Christ) lest we drift away from it.” For if we do drift, we will not escape God’s judgment. How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?…
God spoke on all the issues we’ll be discussing tonight, everything facing the Church of England, but we didn’t listen. And so the deceitfulness of sin has led us further and further away from the living God.
That probably means that it won’t be long before simple superstition takes over in the upper echelons on our Church. Anglican bishops will be going on pilgrimages to Lourdes and praying to Mary or something daft like that next.”
– Read the full talk at Reform London.
The Passions of the Marian Martyrs: Lessons for the Anglican Communion
Evangelical Christians within the Western branches of the Anglican Communion face continual hostility because of their commitment to Jesus Christ and the biblical gospel, as is increasingly apparent with every year that passes.
To become a gospel minister within the Anglican churches of Britain and North America now requires a willingness to face a lifetime of bullying and scorn, not least from neighbouring clergy and the episcopal bench. We cease to be surprised at scandalous tales of harassment of the godly by power-thirsty bishops. Ministers have their licences revoked, their church buildings confiscated, their stipends stopped, their families expelled from their rectories, simply because they insist on obeying God before men.
The persecution of the saints by those in positions of ecclesiastical power has become an established part of life within the Anglican Communion in the West. Yet we have been here before. …
– Dr. Andrew Atherstone, Tutor in History & Doctrine and Latimer Fellow at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, wrote this article (direct link to PDF file) for Churchman in 2006. Sobering reading.
Thanks to Church Society. (Photo: Wycliffe Hall.)
Desiring God Conference files online
The 2008 Desiring God Conference was held in Minneapolis over the weekend. Sinclair Ferguson, Bob Kauflin, Mark Driscoll and John Piper and others spoke.
Following their normal practice, the people at Desiring God have generously made the transcripts, audio and video files of the conference available.
John Piper’s talk on Is There Christian Eloquence? Clear Words and the Wonder of the Cross is particularly helpful –
“There is a way to speak the gospel—a way of eloquence or cleverness or human wisdom—that nullifies the cross. I dread nullifying the cross, and therefore it is urgent that I know what this eloquence-cleverness-wisdom of words is, so I can avoid it.”
See all the files at Desiring God. (Note that each video file is approx. 200MB.)
The Problem of Heresy
Next weekend the Diocese of Pittsburgh holds its special diocesan convention to consider separating from The Episcopal Church. The Rev. Christopher Klukas, Rector of a church in that diocese, has written a helpful analysis of what happens when heresy in a denomination is not challenged.
“But how did we get to this point? How did the Church become so corrupt? … The roots of our present problems go as far back as 150 – 200 years. The situation didn’t become acute, however, until the 1960s. It was at this time that Bishop James Pike published a book called ‘A Time for Christian Candor.’ In this work he openly denied such basic doctrines as the Trinity, the Incarnation, and the Virgin birth.”
Download the PDF document here, courtesy of Chris Klukas. (Photo of Bishop James Pike: Grace Cathedral, San Francisco.)
Carson on works of mercy
In many parts of the evangelical world, one hears a new debate—or, more precisely, new chapters in an old debate—regarding the precise place that ‘deeds of mercy’ ought to have in Christian witness. … the debate between those Christians who say that we should primarily be about the business of heralding the gospel and planting churches, and those who say that our responsibility as Christians extends to the relief of oppression, suffering, and poverty in all their forms. …
– In the light of the TEC/CofE focus on the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, Don Carson’s editorial in the current issue of Themelios is especially worth reading. (hat tip Justin Taylor.)
Barry Webb on Esther and the ESV
Gordon Cheng has interviewed Moore College’s Dr Barry Webb on the book of Esther. Barry wrote the notes on Esther for the forthcoming ESV Study Bible.
“Would I try to preach bit by bit? I doubt it. Stories mean what they do as a whole, not as parts. Once you dismantle the story, you dismantle the thing that gives meaning to the events. I might just preach one sermon on the whole of Esther, and it would be about God being present for his people, working all things to their good.”
– Read the full interview at The Sola Panel.
And the sample PDF file from the ESVSB is available as a free download.
Why it’s a great day to be a traditional Anglican
“Barely two months after lots of indabaing with 617 fellow Anglican Communion bishops… Katherine Jefferts Schori and her advisors had two choices. They could violate the canons flagrantly and hang ’em high now, further shattering TEC’s global reputation… or they could attempt to follow the canons scrupulously. They chose the former…”
– Sarah Hey writes at Stand Firm. (Photo: ENS.)
John Woodhouse on OT Narrative
Justin Taylor at Between Two Worlds has this for us –
If you want to learn how to read/preach OT narrative, John Woodhouse (Principal of Moore Theological College in Sydney, Australia) is an excellent guide.
If you want to learn by watching him do it, check out his expository commentary on 1 Samuel.
If you want to learn by hearing him teach on it, check out the following six one-hour lectures on OT narrative delivered for the Charles Simeon Trust:
Lecture 1 Lecture 2 Lecture 3 Lecture 4 Lecture 5 Lecture 6. (Photo: Moore College)
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…