The upward call of God in Christ Jesus
“But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
Santa vs Jesus
Glen Scrivener in the UK has released an updated version of his video contrasting Santa and Jesus. Perhaps you could use it this Christmas. Download it here (173MB mp4 / 1080p).
Live stream on Christmas Eve from Sydney Cathedral
St. Andrew’s Cathedral in Sydney, will live stream this year’s Christmas Eve service so friends in Australia and around the world can watch.
From 8:00pm AEDT on Christmas Eve. The theme is “The Romance and the Reality of Christmas”. The video stream should start around 7:50pm.
Watch it at new.livestream.com/audioadvice/christmas. (The time shown on the Livestream page is US East Coast time.)
Hundreds of talks from St Matthias and University Ministries
From the Administrator of Phillip Jensen’s website –
“Phillip has been preaching God’s word for over forty years. It has been his aim to preach the gospel by prayerfully expounding the Bible to the people God has given him to love.
As talks given prior to 2003 are currently being added to the website it is hoped that listeners will be enriched, refreshed and challenged by these talks.”
– An amazing resource. Thank you! (Photo: Matthias Press 1996.)
18 ways to make the most of your non-Christian family Christmas
“We asked Christians surrounded by non-Christian family at Christmas for their tips. This is what they said. …”
– from Eternity Newspaper.
Let your Christmas point to Jesus
At Desiring God, John Piper responds to questions about Santa.
Christmas in Dark Places
Another thought-provoking video from Glen Scrivener in the UK.
Related: Putting Halloween in its place.
Monergism updated
If you haven’t check out Monergism.com before, now is a good time to start – the site has just been updated.
Don Carson at The Castle
A couple of weeks ago, Professor Don Carson spoke on the First Letter of John – at The Castle in Northern Ireland.
The audio files of his talks have now been made available.
Living Out — for Church Leaders
The people behind the new Living Out website have a message for church leaders. See the 2:35 video here.
Related: EMA 2013 Engaging with an alien world (2) – same sex attraction.
Advent songs
In this season of Advent, here are two albums you may enjoy:
Emu Music’s Advent album. released this time last year –
“The songs on this album are each in their own way a celebration of the reality, purpose and implications of the incarnation. It is our hope and prayer that as you sing these songs together, they will bring glory to our great King Jesus and blessing to his people.”
Christ-honouring (with great words and music) as always from Emu.
And Page CXVI in the US have just released their latest album “Advent to Christmas”.
You can hear samples of each before you buy.
Themelios 38.3 available now
The latest issue of Themelios (November 2013) has just been published.
Australian Church Record December 2013
The latest issue of The Australian Church Record is now online.
This issue kicks off by interviewing Bishop-elect of North Sydney, Chris Edwards, “The Bishop from Belgium”.
Reform’s ReNew Conference 2013 audio files
Reform’s “ReNew conference met Nov 26th to 27th, 2013. The conference was predominantly for church leaders and for women in paid positions of ministry in the Church of England. The purpose of the conference was to establish the basis on which Anglican evangelicals can work together and to begin to chart a way ahead.”
– Audio files of the talks are currently being added to the Reform website. The audio is a little over-compressed, but is quite audible and the talks are well worth hearing.
So far they have the talks by –
- Hugh Palmer – Proclaiming the gospel – the urgency of the hour
– 1 Corinthians 15:1-11, - Alasdair Paine – Defending and contending for the gospel – Romans 16:17-20,
- and Vaughan Roberts – JC Ryle – an Anglican Evangelical role model.
The important message of Christmas
“On 3 January 2014, as a member of the SCG, I will get up at 5 am, queue up at the members gate at 6 am and then run from the gate, in what is called the “Paddington gift” to secure my seat for the day, in the Members’ Stand.
I will try to reserve the seat next to me for a friend. He will get up at about 9:30 am, wander into the ground at 10:30 for the start of play, secure in the fact that I have reserved a seat for him. I pay the member’s subscription, I get up at 5 am, queue at 6 am, race at 7 am, I do all the work, he wanders in and enjoys the fruit of my labours.”
– David Cook, Moderator General of the Presbyterian Church of Australia, writes about The important message of Christmas on the PCA website. (h/t Gary Ware.)
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…