Free eBook on Sanctification

Desiring God has made available a free eBook on Sanctification – including three sermons on the topic from John Piper.

Where ‘mercy ministry’ fits into the church

The latest 9Marks Journal – on Where Mercy Ministry fits into the Church – is now available for download.

The Perfect Saviour: Key themes in Hebrews

Dr. David Peterson draws our attention to an important new book.

(Get a copy.)

Making sense of Scripture’s ‘inconsistency’

“I find it frustrating when I read or hear columnists, pundits, or journalists dismiss Christians as inconsistent because ‘they pick and choose which of the rules in the Bible to obey.’

Most often I hear, ‘Christians ignore lots of Old Testament texts – about not eating raw meat or pork or shellfish, not executing people for breaking the Sabbath, not wearing garments woven with two kinds of material and so on. Then they condemn homosexuality. Aren’t you just picking and choosing what you want to believe from the Bible?’…”

– Tim Keller looks at the relationship of the Old Testament to the New. (h/t Tim Challies.)

Getting to grips with the ‘God-particle’

“If you have studied a lot of physics, then you may understand your photons from your bosons and your leptons from your quarks. And you might be able to understand with ease what such things tell us about our universe.

But for those of us who struggle with physics and want a little assistance when it comes to engaging with our non-Christian friends on this subject, here are some helpful words from the Gospel Coalition…”

– Helen Thorne writes at The Good Book blog. (Image: phdcomics.com)

Commended: The Faith we Confess

“The Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion found at the back of the Book of Common Prayer are the doctrinal standard of the Church of England.

… Anglican churchgoers, ordinands, and ministers still require some kind of exposition of the Articles which are nearly four and a half centuries old, in order to understand them and see their importance as an expression of the faith we confess today. Into the breach steps Gerald Bray with this well-written, historically-aware, and faithful unwrapping of each Article.”

– Lee Gatiss, review editor for Churchman commends (PDF file) Gerald Bray’s book on the Articles. (Availability.) Related: “a brilliant resource” – Mark Thompson.

Download the Introduction from The Latimer Trust.

Defining Marriage webcast

On Tuesday night, the Australian Marriage Forum’s Defining Marriage webcast was seen in hundreds of churches across the country. The video from the evening has now been posted on their website and at Vimeo.

(John Anderson’s comments starting at 67 minutes 30 seconds are well worth watching.)

Welcoming Defence families

Defence members and their families probably move houses more than most and can face real challenges. Defence Anglicans have some ideas on how to welcome defence families to your church.

(The article complements the feature in the July 2012 issue of Southern Cross newspaper.)

The Atonement — Visual Theology

Tim Challies has published another chart in his ‘Visual Theology’ infographic series, this one to help explain what is meant by the Penal Substitutionary Atonement. See it here.

Audio file: The Thirty Nine Articles

A few years back, Lee Gatiss at The Theologian took the time to record a reading of The Thirty Nine Articles. It’s very helpful to hear them read.

You can find the audio here as a 9.5MB / 28 minute mp3 file.

(Or you can read the Articles here.)

 

Thinking Christianly about singing and music

Rob Smith, Sydney singer / songwriter (among other things) has recorded a number of videos to help us think Christianly about singing and music and their place in what we do in church. Helpful and encouraging.

Each segment is 2 to 4 minutes in length.

1. Introduction
2. Christian music
3. The importance of singing
4. Singing and praise
5. Honouring God in song
6. Singing and the Holy Spirit
7. Singing and emotion
8. Singing and prayer
9. Singing and proclamation

Also, check out Rob’s invitation to the concert coming up on Saturday 21st July at St. Barnabas’ Broadway (tickets).

John Stott — classic messages from Ephesians

In 1975 and 1976, John Stott, the Rector of All Soul’s Langham Place, expounded Paul’s letter to the Ephesians at major Christian gatherings in the UK, US, Mexico, Canada, India, Nepal – and at the CMS Summer School at Katoomba. One result of his labours was his volume in The Bible Speaks Today series, “God’s New Society: The Message of Ephesians”.

CMS has made available the audio recordings from five talks given at Katoomba on their Facebook page. Grab them while you can.

(And that’s also a good reminder to support the CMS Annual Appeal.)

Chappo unplugged

Richard Chin, National Director of AFES, recently interviewed much loved evangelist John Chapman. As Sandy Grant says at The Briefing, “Younger generations of ministers in Sydney and Australian evangelicalism should hear this for personal edification but also to understand something of our heritage.”

You will be greatly encouraged and helped by investing 86 minutes of your time in watching Chappo. Classic. And give thanks for our dear brother.

‘Redefining Marriage’ — Archbishop Peter Jensen’s letter to Sydney Anglicans

In the light of the forthcoming vote in Federal Parliament, Archbishop Peter Jensen has written to all parishioners in Sydney Diocese on the subject of same-sex marriage.

“However hard it may be and whatever pressure we may face, we do not love our fellow Australians if, knowing God’s grace and his written will, we do not speak up and point them to God’s plan for the flourishing of human relationships.”

In his accompanying e-mail to Rectors, he said, “The whole controversy gives us an opportunity to teach on the subject of marriage and to commend the Biblical way of life in our churches and to the community.”

The Archbishop made it clear that he respected the decision of Rectors as to how and if they would pass his letter on to parishioners. The text of his letter follows:

Redefining Marriage

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

It is likely that sometime in the near future our parliamentary representatives will be asked to vote on a proposal to change the legal definition of marriage in order to allow for same-sex unions to be dignified by this name. I am writing to you to urge you to oppose this move as out of keeping both with the word of God and also of the best interests of our community.  Read more

‘Sexegesis’ book launch in Hobart

Bishop of Tasmania, John Harrower, reports –

“Today we launched Sexegesis – An Evangelical Response to Five Uneasy Pieces on Homosexuality at St David’s Cathedral, Hobart. I would like to express my thanks to the Revd Joel Kettleton and the Dean Richard Humphrey, for their work in putting together this event.

Here is the introduction which I gave at the book launch:

2012 marks the 50th Anniversary of the Anglican Church of Australia. At the recent Synod of our Diocese we gave thanks that our founding documents affirm that we are part of the apostolic and worldwide church, that we are biblically based and that we are Christ centered.

As Anglicans then as we deal with issues such as homosexuality we do so in this context.

We are part of a worldwide Anglican communion and need to listen to that body which has clearly stated in the Lambeth Resolutions (1.10 – Human Sexuality) that homosexual practice is incompatible with the Scriptures.

As that resolution makes clear and the constitution of our Church says we take the Scriptures “as being the ultimate and standard of faith given by inspiration of God.” The Church is not at liberty to “ordain anything contrary to God’s Word written, neither may it so expound one place of Scripture, that it be repugnant to another.” (Article XX of the Anglican Church’s 39 Articles of Religion).  We need to keep coming back to Scripture, to wrestle with it, understand and apply it, even when it corrects and challenges us and our culture. Read more

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