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.)
Andrew Sach on The New Perspective
In the latest Preaching Matters from St. Helen’s Bishopsgate in London, Andrew Sach introduces ‘the New Perspective on Paul’, and talks about why he would cover such material in a sermon on Galatians.
Living Out
“We’re a group of Christians who experience same-sex attraction, and we want to share our stories, answer your questions, and recommend resources about Christianity and same-sex attraction.”
– David Ould draws attention to what he describes as “a wonderful website full of stories of Christians who seek to live godly lives while being honest about their experience of same-sex attraction”.
At Ref21, Paul Levy writes, “This looks to be a great resource for the church and is worthy of our prayers and support, do visit the site and pass it on.”
Exult in the Saviour’s Birth
Songwriter Matt Boswell shares a new song for Advent. Don Carson wrote the words, and Matt wrote the music.
It’s generously available as a free download from The Gospel Coalition.
CMS Summer School 2014 promo video
CMS has released a 4 minute video introducing Andrew Reid who is giving the Bible studies on Exodus at CMS Summer School Katoomba in January.
Good News of Great Joy by John Piper — Daily Readings for Advent
John Piper writes:
“I’m excited to announce that our Advent eBook is newly revised and ready for December 2013 — and free of charge. It’s called Good News of Great Joy.
As you know, Advent is just around the corner. It starts the fourth Sunday before Christmas — this year, that’s December 1 — and is a season of preparation for Christmas Day.
Our prayer is that this eBook would help you keep Jesus as the center and greatest treasure of your Advent season. The candles and candies have their place, but we want to make sure that in all the Christmas rush and hubbub, we adore Jesus above all.”
The definitive work on Definite Atonement
From Heaven He Came and Sought Her: Definite Atonement in Historical, Biblical, Theological, and Pastoral Perspective, edited by David Gibson and Jonathan Gibson, is a major publication. …
David Wells says, “This is the definitive study. It is careful, comprehensive, deep, pastoral, and thoroughly persuasive.”
Michael Horton calls it “the most impressive defense of definite atonement in over a century.”
Read about it from Justin Taylor, see John Piper commending it, check out the book’s website and read an excerpt (PDF).
J. I. Packer: “I count it an honor to be asked to supply a foreword to this massive product of exact and well-informed scholarship.”
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…