September 2014 – jtcochran.com

Monthly Archives: September 2014

Social Media and the Sensation of Missing Out

Social media is both a blessing and curse as we all know and have experienced. One curse is that it facilitates the sensation of missing out.

For example, have you ever gotten onto Instagram to see pictures from all your friends who are at the same event together? But you didn’t go. Your immediate response of dismay, envy, and justification for why you didn’t go or why you weren’t invited is how you manage that sensation of missing out. Or have you ever gotten on Twitter and discovered an unreal conversation that went on for swipe after swipe of your forefinger? Did you not feel those twinges of dismay and envy again? Did you feel a tractor-force beam pull to exhaust fifteen to thirty catching up on the conversation and then add a triumphal tweet of your own? This sensation of missing out is a beast to tame. It will own you until you own it. Here’s two things to remember about your sensation of missing out.

1. You’ve Alway Been Missing Out

There is only one infinite, present-everywhere being who is able to process all the information in the world. That person is not you. You are limited, finite, and can only occupy one space at a time. You can’t be everywhere doing everything. You can’t be in every conversation. You can be in one conversation at a time, one event at a time, and in one family at a time.

This is nothing new. This was the case before social media. It is the case now. And it will be the case again in the post-social media world. Yes. There will be a coming blissful world without social media. Or at least I dearly hope so. I vote for a hashtag free heaven.

Embrace your finitude; accept your limits. That guy who says, “No limits!” Whose he kidding? You’ve always missed out, and you’re going to miss out. The sooner you embrace this, the sooner you can get past it.

2. You’ve Never Missed Out

Sure, it seems like a complete contradiction, but really it’s more of a paradox. The moment you realize that the moment you lived, rather than the moment you lament not living, is truly the best moment, the right moment, and the ordained moment for your life, then the better off you will be. You will gain greater satisfaction from contentment, then you ever will from discontentment.

Anytime I get the missin’ out twinge, I reflect on what I actually did and celebrate it. Just the other day, I felt this sensation. But then I thought about all the fun I had with my wife and kids that social media free day. I rejoiced that I had been liberated by its allure.

The Deception of Omnipresence

One of the dangers — one we need to explore and remind ourselves about — is that social media deceptively gives us the sensation that we are no longer spatially controlled. Through social media we have unbound ourselves from space; we have procured false transcendence. I can talk to friends anywhere and everywhere. My experiences are not confined to my locale.

How awful! Both in the sense of complete awe and despair. God for whatever reason permitted the internet when he did not permit Babel. There must be a higher purpose for this which brings greater glory to Him.

Media Missteps, What Children Should Know About God, Electing Elders, Love the Foreigner.

Marvin Olasky. Where is Jesus Buried? And Other Media Missteps. (WORLD)

The New York Times is known as a solemn production that does not print comics, so we have to rely on its missteps to create some groaning-out-loud moments. One from earlier this month described “the vast Church of the Holy Sepulcher marking the site where many Christians believe that Jesus is buried.”

The Times later changed its online version to “was,” and we can mark its error as that of an ignorant reporter rather than a biased one. But many studies from the Media Research Center and others have spotlighted media bias, and few journalists do what Charlo Greene of Anchorage, Alaska’s KTVA-TV recently did on-air.

Conviction to Lead, The: 25 Principles for Leadership That Matters by Albert Mohler $3.03

Peter Enns. The Bible Tells Me So. Reviewed by Andrew Wilson. (CT)

Jen Thorn. 5 Things I Want My Kids To Know About God.

When I became a parent there were all kinds of things that I wanted to teach my kids: to work hard, enjoy reading, and love each other… to make family recipes and work on DIY projects together.

But above all, I want to teach them the knowledge of God. I want my kids to know him — the one who made them and cares for them. We should have a passionate desire to see our kids fall in love with the one true God. But in order for this to happen, we must teach them.

Here are just five truths (of many!) that I want my kids to know about their God…

David Murray. Electing Elders Is An Evangelistic Act.

I and my fellow elders at Grand Rapids Free Reformed Church have been focusing on elder training over the past couple of months. Part of that involved preaching on 1 Timothy 3v1-7, a sermon that ended up with 10 points (not usually recommended!)…

Chris Martin. Love the Foreigner Because You Are One.

Diversity is difficult, isn’t it? “The presence of differences” is essentially the definition of diversity.

In social settings, differences often create obstacles to overcome, and similarities provide foundations to build upon.

I mean think about it, when you were in elementary school, you probably found friends that were like you in some way. They the same music, the same sports, the same hobbies, or other things.

Have you ever been attracted to someone because of differences?

“Honour ought to seek thee, not thou seek it.” Augustine

Proverbs 3:35 “The wise will inherit honor, but fools get disgrace.”

Richard Bauckham on the Beloved Disciples Witness in God’s Lawsuit

If found this passage fascinating. This is from Richard Bauckham’s, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony. Here Bauckham interacts with Andrew Lincoln’s work from Truth on Trial: The Lawsuit Motif in the Fourth Gospel.

There can be no doubt that Lincoln is right to stress the metaphorical complex of the lawsuit as a theme that runs through the Gospel and accounts for the prominence of the idea of witness in the Gospel. The Beloved Disciple’s witness must be connected with this broader motif. Lincoln is also right to see the prophecies of deutero-Isaiah as the most important source of this motif, though it is, of course, also important that the Gospel’s story of a cosmic lawsuit includes the literal events of judicial proceedings against Jesus by the Jewish authorities, acting in the name of the “law” of Moses, and by Pilate. In deutero-Isaiah of YHWH brings a case against the gods of the nations and their supporters in order to determine the identity of the true God. He calls on the worshipers of the other gods to demonstrate their reality of supremacy, while he himself calls as witnesses his people Israel and the figure of the Servant of YHWH. It is their lawsuit that the Gospel of John sees taking place in the history of Jesus, as the one true God demonstrates his deity in controversy with the claims of the world. He does so by calling Jesus as chief witness and by vindicating him, not only as a true witness but also as incarnate representative of God’s own true deity. The witnessing role of the Servant in Isaiah is played by Jesus in the Gospel, while the accompanying role of the witnesses, God’s people Israel, in Isaiah is taken by Jesus’ followers in the Gospel. Even though the decisive verdict against the world is given in the cross, the trial continues as the followers of Jesus continue to bear witness against the world.

Life on Mission by Dustin Willis and Aaron Coe

This review first appeared at Lifeway’s Pastors Today web-blog.

Dustin Willis and Aaron Coe. Life on Mission: Joining the Everyday Mission of God . Chicago: Moody, 2014. 192 pp. $13.99.

The American church is in crisis as the great evangelical recession continues. If you are skeptical of this exaggerated doomsday statement, then you might browse through these two books: The American Church in Crisis (2009) by David Olson and The Great Evangelical Recession (2013) by John Dickerson.

Are these assessments of the evangelical climate accurate? If so, what do we do?

Dustin Willis and Aaron Coe serve in leadership with the North American Mission Board. They’re both experienced church planters, conversant and engaged in the air and on the ground, who know what’s going on in evangelicalism broadly and the Southern Baptist Church specifically.

Together they’ve teamed up to write Life on Mission , a three part book that presents the big picture of domestic missions (chapters 1-4), a way forward through developing hearty gospel foundations (chapters 5-8), which connect to an everyday missional mindset (chapters 9-12).

Benefit for Pastoral Ministry

Regardless of what you think about the present evangelical landscape – though Willis and Coe agree with other assessments and provide persuasive corroborating research – the need for everyday American believers to live on mission in their community is not just urgent but an essential aspect of lovingly and joyfully responding to the Great Commission.

Therefore, Christians need to hear a persuasive argument for the pressing call to live on mission. This is precisely what the authors provide with Life on Mission . Thoughtfully presented statistics (cf. chpt. 1, footnotes 1-8; chpt. 2, pp. 33-35), along with real life testimony of the dilemma in specific ministry contexts (cf. Aaron Coe, p. 21; Dustin Willis, 35; Adam Miller, pp. 35-36), present a compelling case that welcomes our response.

But Life on Mission isn’t just another cultural study of the evangelical predicament. Coe and Willis somehow wed it all together – providing the diagnosis and prescription in a digestible, accessible, and applicable manner – which is something I haven’t seen elsewhere. Hence, this book should not be overlooked.

Life on Mission is this year’s best book-study for equipping small groups to rehearse the gospel and act it out in mission. Life on Mission’s built in study guide – look for the red for reflection, introspection, and review – provides a tool for groups to process. In the appendix small group leaders find a 6-week study guide to assist preparation. The succinct nature of each chapter, most are 5-10 pages, removes any reading barriers for participants.

Life on Mission’s gospel-centered and gospel-applied focus is its distinguishing attribute. The authors kick off Part Two on Gospel Foundations reminding us that the gospel is the proverbial good life . “Living out the gospel mission is not a guilt- or fear-driven task – it is the good life” (59). In fact, it’s the secret to our joy: “We realize the good life as we see Jesus for all He is and follow Him without hesitation” (emphasis mine, 59).

Life on Mission is the trail guide for doing this. As a trail guide, we see the majestic beauty of God, we pick the best route forward, and we anticipate the pitfalls ahead.

In seeing the majestic beauty of God, we encounter God’s holiness and greatness. This is critical because: “As created beings, we are measured and defined by comparison to our Creator” (63). We also discover a practical theology proper on the basics of who God is: supreme, sovereign, and loving; these basics cultivate the groundwork for spiritual maturity (76-79).

We pick the best route forward through the memorable missional process of identify, invest, invite, and increase (Part Three). This part is where the gospel is applied towards the aim of reproducibility. Just as Willis and Coe remark: “The most effective thing you can do for the mission is to reproduce yourself as many times as possible” (141). So, readers think through biblically reaching neighbors, co-workers, and everyday acquaintances with the gospel. Practical advice like looking to the margins (113), identifying prayer needs (114), or the 5-step process of discipleship (145) are threaded throughout this part along with gospel threads – serving as trail markers throughout Part Three – to reinforce that we’re on the trail.

Finally, we anticipate five pitfalls on the missional trail: misplaced priorities, refusing to rest, weight-of-the-world mentality, lone-ranger mentality, and ministry idolatry (Chapter 13). This closing chapter is replete with vulnerability from both authors, which winsomely reminds us that we are not impervious and gently niggles us to recognize into what pit(s) we’ve already fallen.

This closing chapter effectively pressed on tender areas and caused reflection with this reader, leading me to this musing. When it comes to misplaced priorities, is our reaction to sacrificing our family on the altar of mission merely erecting another altar of family (cf. 152-53)? I wonder about this. I have seen this rhetorical motif in many publications during the past decade. How do we manage the tension between family and mission? Are we falsely dichotomizing them and pitting them against one another? How do we submit them both under God’s tutelage?

Though the authors raise the issue of this pitfall, not much treatment is placed on managing the tension, just stark warning to avoid the fall. This is no critique of the book, for this is not the main premise of Life on Mission nor can it command full treatment. This is merely a longing for more exploration on another pressing issue in the Church.

Essential Recommended Helpful Pass It By

Life on Mission will cause you to raze your kingdom and realign your life for the mission of Christ’s Kingdom.

Muscular Christianity, Underachievers, On Reading the Bible, Careful What You Click For.

Greg Forster. Rescuing Warriors from Muscular Christianity. (First Things)

Muscular Christianity is a ridiculous and detestable overreaction to a real failure on the part of too many churches to treat spiritual warfare as seriously as it needs to be treated.

Recovering the Real Lost Gospel by Darrell Bock $2.99

Andrew M Davis. An Infinite Journey. Reviewed by Andrew Spencer. (Themelios)

Nick Batzig. 5 Truths for “Underachievers”. (Christianity.com)

One of the most important verses in all of Scripture regarding the uncertainty of human success and achievement is Ecclesiastes 9:11. There we read, “the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen to them all.” This verse has become almost the singular source of self-evaluating recalibration for me in life.

Jonathan Parnell. Three Things to Remember When You Read the Bible. (DG)

You can never just read the Bible.

There is something deep happening. It’s something more glorious than the universe. Whether you open these pages before dawn, over midmorning coffee, or at the dinner table with family, whenever you read the Bible something miraculous is happening. After all, you are not just any ordinary person, and the Bible isn’t just any old book.

Rachel Marie Stone. Careful What You Click For. (CT)

When I click on links I know are trashy, or links I know I’m going to disagree with, I’m casting a vote for more of the same. Chances are, you are too.

Proverbs 16:22 “Good sense is a fountain of life to him who has it, but the instruction of fools is folly.”

“Agnosticism leads inevitably to moral indifference.” Thomas Merton

Are We on the Verge of a Coming Familypocalypse?

My family is important to me; I love my wife and three children dearly. I believe we are better together than apart. This should be the attitude of every father, right? Absolutely! Dads should cherish and enjoy their families. They should long to be with them and feel pain when apart. They also should fight to keep families together through thick and thin.

This conviction should be a shared conviction with all humanity. As humans, we should cherish the idea of family. Otherwise, how would we perpetuate and propagate our race?

Yet, occasionally, I get this unsettled feeling in my soul, as I observe the culture around me, that these are not shared feelings.

The Threat to Families: A Case Study

Last winter, in the heart of the polar vortex, my family felt cabin fever. We didn’t wish to venture far from home, but we knew we wanted to get out of the house. Kendall and I made an executive decision to go to Chipotle, which was practically across the street from our apartment.

At the time, we had only lived in Chicagoland for a few months, so we were still getting used to the culture. Likewise, we’re not Chipotle people. Every time I think of Chipotle, I think about how they were once owned by McDonalds. It’s hard for me to get past that. Besides, I’m from Texas, so I know what a Freebird is, and if I must, I’ll settle for a Qdoba. So, Chipotle falls precariously low on the burrito chain as it is for me.

My wife bundled the kids up, while I brushed the most recent snowfall off the van, and we drove across the street in the negative ten temperature. Upon entering Chipotle the first thing Kendall and I noticed was that we were the only family in the place. There were lots of people there but no children. The five of us shuffled into line. As usual the kids were a little restless and also excited about being out of the home.

I remember glancing around and seeing stares. They weren’t really the annoyed you need to do something with your children stares. They were the frightful I don’t want to be in that situation stares — the kind that remind you that your family is walking birth control for others.

We finally made it up to the burrito bar and started to place our order with the young lady behind the counter. She was your typical Chipotle burrito bar associate, tatted up and pierced like the real deal, original Freebird associate would be; knock offs bother me as you can tell. She was polite and kind to us, but found herself in a bind.

I asked about the children’s menu. There wasn’t one posted in their signage to order from. She let me know that they didn’t have a children’s menu, which just sent me reeling. Kendall and I plotted to figure out how to craft a makeshift kids meal, which ended up just being an adult chicken quesadilla meal split between the three little ones and a couple extra milks.

In itself, I guess not having a kids menu does not make you a non-children friendly business, but it sure doesn’t invite families into your establishment. I paid the cashier and we collected ourselves to find out seat. That’s when I discovered there were no high chairs. So we made due with Adalie sitting in mommy’s lap. It worked well until that point where she grabbed Kendall’s drink in just the wrong way and it tipped, spilling Coke all over the table and floor. Yep, that earned more sympathetic, yet relieved at not having children stares from the non-family patrons.

After dinner Kendall took Adalie to the restroom to change her diaper. She returned rather shortly to tell me there was no changing station. We then scurried home and retreated back into our safe world of family at the apartment.

My Reading of the Cultural Scripts

That story being shared, I wish to unpack what Kendall and I thought walking away from the experience.

First, we love living in the Midwest, and we’ve found Midwesterners to be super friendly. We lived in Tulsa for four years, which is precisely on the border between the South and Midwest, so we really feel like we’re used to the Midwestern mindset: quicker pace, direct, and extremely honest.

So this critique isn’t a critique considering geographical demographics and behavior; it’s a wider cultural critique of everyone’s general feelings towards family these days across every spectrum in American culture. Quite honestly, as a family, we’ve felt this sensation anywhere we’ve been in the last 10 years, accepting maybe the safe cloister of Disney World, where family is the ultimate altar.

As you picked up from my telling of the narrative, it’s not so much that people are antagonistic or annoyed. American culture is not quite anti-family yet, though if I were to put my chips on it, I might be a big winner in two decades that culture will be anti-family. Right now, culture seems merely hesitant towards family.

People are just not excited about jumping into family life. They either like their singleness, dinkness (dual income no kids), or they have that perpetual feeling of unreadiness. It’s likely that they come from broken homes and do not wish to break another.

Regardless, Americans are running away from family life.

Is this just mere speculation? Am I out to lunch as a biased husband and father? Am I just paranoid? What do the statistics actually tell us?

Businesses, like Chipotle, are reading the national demographics and are hedging their bets on the fact that they don’t need to tailor to families. There is plenty of family friendly places; Chick-fil-a is my favorite. So, not every business need be family friendly, and I get that; I don’t expect sushi shops to be family friendly. That’s just not their market. But who doesn’t love a good burrito, right?

Anyway, what are these businesses seeing in the national demographics?

In the most recent decennial census brief (2010) on households and families, the brief revealed that the 116.7 million households in America have 2.58 people in them. Of households that are defined as families, the number of people is 3.14. It’s no secret that these numbers have been declining for decades, since the baby boom.

Furthermore, of total number of American households, 7.7 million of them are unmarried partner households, which has grown 41% from 2000, which is four times the growth rate of households in general (10%). This is a staggering statistic. People aren’t getting married, but they are cohabitating.

In addition, for the first time in the history of census data, husband-wife households stooped below 50% of all households. Only, 48% in 2010 are husband-wife households, down from 52% in 2000, and 55% in 1990.

Essentially, family is on a slippery slope of decline; we are seeing the vanishing of families in America.

Now, I admit I haven’t always been a family man. I liked the idea of getting married in college, but I wasn’t super excited about having children. In fact, before Chloe, my eldest, was born, I had never changed a diaper, fed a bottle to a baby, or pushed a stroller. One time, when Kendall and I were dating, we helped in the nursery at church together. I ate the kiddos animal crackers while Kendall did all the real work.

What changed in me? It actually wasn’t some sort of intuitive longing within my soul to have children. It started with me being confronted with Scripture, repenting, and becoming obedient to the first chapters of Genesis.

In our young married’s group, we read Doug Wilson’s Reforming Marriage . In that reading, I was reminded of my primary functions from the Edenic Covenant; God created man to fill the earth and subdue it.

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that move on the earth. (Gen. 1:28)

That realization was the tipping point for me. I remember coming home that night and chatting with Kendall. I shared with her the realization that I did want to have children. She, of course, was surprised that I had felt otherwise. It’s not like I ever told her that I was content to just be the husband of Kendall.

God used his Word to change my affections that day. I’m really glad. I can’t imagine my world without Chloe, Asher, and Adalie. I’m thankful that I developed a discontent of only being a husband; my wife is glad too.

From the time Kendall and I married I understood that the two of us were a new family. What I had to embrace was that God wanted to add to that family over the years. Though it seemed to happen overnight through the power of God’s Word, really it has been a slow and steady process of affections being warmed, faculties being trained, and responsibility being owned.

My family braved the snowpocalypse for a dinner that sent my wife and I reeling. We realized that, though the snowpocalypse would end, we as a family were bound to face another: the familypocalypse.

If you’re young, married, and planning to have children, or have a few like we do, just realize that in the coming decades you will feel more and more out of place, lest drastic cultural changes are underway.

Likewise, if you are single or married and hesitant about children, please study Genesis 1, particularly verse twenty-eight. The endeavor might very well alter your perspective.

My hope is that the feeling we all feel is only out of place, rather than threatened.

Material Wealth, Journaling, the Greater Gardener, Fitting the Bible into the Margins.

Jordan J Ballor. Life to the Full: The Dangers of Material Wealth and Spiritual Poverty.

Last November, James R. Rogers published a short essay titled “ What’s Behind the Stunning Decrease in Global Poverty? ”. Rogers examined studies from a variety of sources, all of which “confirmed the overall conclusion that the rate of extreme poverty in the world has undergone a stunning decline.” These studies primarily examine figures such as the number of people living on one US dollar per day, a typical measure of “extreme poverty.” But this “mountainous rise in well-being,” in which hundreds of millions of people moved out of extreme poverty over the past thirty years, is attested to by other measures as well.

Preaching on Your Feet: Connecting God and The Audience in the Preachable Moment by Fred R Lybrand $2.99

Matt Mikalatos. Retelling Gospel Stories. Reviewed by Marc Cortez.

Barnabas Piper. 5 Reasons You Should Journal.

I don’t think everyone needs to journal. But I have a hard time thinking of any legitimate reason why someone wouldn’t. Some might think it’s girly. Some might think it’s time consuming. Some might just hate to write. Well, here are my five best reasons you should take up or, keep up, journaling.

Nick Batzig. Jesus, the True and Greater Gardener. (Christward Collective)

The Scriptures tell us that the Son of God began His sufferings in a Garden and brought them to a close in a Garden. That is an absolutely amazing display of God’s wisdom. After all, Jesus is the second Adam undoing what Adam did and doing what Adam failed to do (Rom. 5:12-21; 1 Cor. 15:47-49). He is the Heavenly Bridegroom, entering into His sufferings in a Garden for the redemption of His bride, the Church. He is the Heavenly Gardener, giving Himself to the cultivation of the souls of His people through His atoning sacrifice and continual intercession. When He hung on the cross, He spoke of Glory under the name of “Paradise”–an evident allusion to the paradise in which our first parents dwelt and the paradise from which they fell. He is the second Adam who, by the shedding of His blood, secured the New Creation. As we consider the double entendres of the fourth Gospel, we come to those specifically concerning the biblical theology of the second Adam in the Garden. Consider the theological significance of the following two Garden settings in which Christ carried out the work of redemption…

Bobby Jamieson. Fitting the Bible into the Margins. (Christianity.com)

I believe every Christian should strive to carve out time dedicated to Scripture reading and prayer every day. But for many of us, devotions aren’t very daily. Some people, like mothers of young children, have excellent reasons for this. Others, like many college students, not so excellent.

If you struggle to fit in a daily quiet time, the open spaces in your schedule can be great places to squeeze in the Bible. Even if you have a robust devotional life, you can still cram the Bible in wherever and however you can. Wedge it into the gaps in your schedule. Stuff it into the in-between places, the nooks and crannies of unclaimed time throughout your day. In other words, fit the Bible into the margins of your life.

1 Corinthians 10:14 “Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.”

“Whatever is your greatest joy and treasure, that is your God.” C H Spurgeon

10 Quotes from Visit the Sick by Brian Croft

I reviewed this book some time ago at Lifeway’s Pastors Today web-blog , but now I’d like to share some of my favorite insights offered. So here are 10 quotes from this book:

1. “In the resurrection of Jesus, we see confirmation of the promise of our own resurrection and the ultimate defeat of the curse of sin, sickness, and death” (23).

2. “Jesus powerfully teaches that in those moments when the disciples care for their least brother, they are also offering care to the King” (24).

3. “Those who care for the sick must be prepared to have the truth of God’s word on their lips to respond well when faced with difficult circumstances” (31).

4. “When you visit someone, make an effort to speak about God’s righteousness, man’s sinfulness, and Christ’s death on the cross in our place for our sins. I realize that many circumstances can make this difficult to do. But nothing should prevent you from praying the gospel” (34).

5. “God will use us. Even though we can be insensitive, fumble our words, and have glaring weaknesses that can make us painfully ineffective, God is powerful and gracious, and he will use us to fulfill his purposes” (36).

6. “Pastors and paid star must make a special effort to ensure they are visiting the sick out of love and care, not just out of a sense of obligation” (40).

7. “Visiting those who are sick and dying is one of the means God gloriously uses to accomplish this heavenly focus in our lives” (46-47).

8. “We must not be deceived into thinking that our own ability exercised in our own power can produce spiritual fruit, lest we conduct our visits with prideful and self-sufficient hearts” (54).

9. “We cannot expect our people to be faithful in this task if we are not fully engaged and committed” (58).

10. “As important as it is for you to be a model to others, you don’t need to be the only one engaged in this ministry. Seize key opportunities to praise and lift up laypeople in your church who faithfully care for the afflicted and dying” (58-59).

Blogs Gone Cold, Family Life, College Girls, Pearls and Pigs.

Tim Challies. Blogs Gone Cold.

Last month I posted a list of recommended blogs by and for Christian women . At the end of the post I made a parenthetical remark that many of the blogs I follow had gone cold in recent months. A short time later I received an email from three women who blog: Hannah Anderson, Courtney Reissig, and Megan Hill. They asked if they could speak to the issue, and I was glad to have them do so. Here are their thoughts on blogs gone cold.

Conservative female bloggers tend to publish less consistently than their male counterparts. Three women writers explore the reasons why.

Facing Leviathan: Leadership, Influence, and Creating in a Cultural Storm by Mark Sayers $4.99

Daniel Montgomery and Timothy Paul Jones. Proof. Reviewed by David Steele.

Gloria Furman. Family Life and the Kingdom of God. (The Gospel Project)

The families in these stories seem so far away from our own experience, but really, this is our family history, too. Like the fathers and mothers of Israel who were so eager to affirm their loyalty to the King, we desperately need God’s grace in order to live rightly under his rule. Like the children who lived in the days of the judges, we are tempted to live according to what seems right in our own eyes. Like Naomi who couldn’t see what the hand of the Lord was doing to her family, we all need help remembering that God’s hand is mighty to save.

Hannah Anderson. College Girls: Education, Imago Dei, and the Gospel.

We educate girls and women for the same reason we educate boys and men. We educate our daughters because they are made in God’s image. Full. Stop.

This doesn’t mean that everyone should go to college or that all education happens in a classroom. It also doesn’t mean that we don’t weigh the cost of a college education against the practical usefulness of it. And it certainly doesn’t mean that any of us (male or female) can elevate getting a certain degree to the detriment of our closest relationships. What it does mean is that the choice to educate a child is not a gender-based decision because both men and women bear the image of a God of knowledge.

But there’s a bigger problem…

Lore Ferguson. Pearls and Pigs and Guys and Girls.

After asking the questions (for research), “Can guys and girls be friends?” and then “Is it ever appropriate for the girl to initiate a date (or relationship)?” on social media, I wasn’t surprised at the barrage of opinions. We had PhDs discussing ancient Near-Eastern culture, husbands saying, “If my wife hadn’t initiated, we wouldn’t be married,” and wives saying, “We were friends for three years before I asked him to clarify—now we’re married.”

I’m going to save my main argument for later (so suspicious, I know), but in the meantime, I wanted to share this page from The Meaning of Marriage , by Tim and Kathy Keller. And also say this…

Isaiah 26:8 “In the path of your judgments, O Lord, we wait for you; your name and remembrance are the desire of our soul.”

“The nearer to heaven in hopes, the farther from earth in desires.” William Gurnall

Five Books on the Old Testament and Its Context

Finding the best books to read on a subject of theology can be a challenge. This series provides suggested resources for topics of Theology. Each title is linked to Amazon, if available. If you have another title to suggest for this area of study, please comment. I’m always happy to add another work to my library.

Here are 5 books that will launch you into studies on an introduction to biblical exegesis.

1. Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament: Introducing the Conceptual World of the Hebrew Bible by John Walton

2. A History of the Ancient Near East ca. 3000 – 323 BC, 2nd Edition by Marc Van De Mieroop

3. The Ancient Near East: An Anthology of Texts and Pictures editor James B Pritchard

4. On the Reliability of the Old Testament by Ken Kitchen

5. Cracking Old Testament Codes: A Guide to Interpreting Literary Genres of the Old Testament editor Brent Sandy

Emma Watson, Orthodoxy, Team Loyalty, God is Not a Philosopher.

Caroline Leal. Emma Watson, Men, and Modern Feminism. (WORLD)

On Saturday, actress Emma Watson—best known as Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter movies—gave an impassioned speech before the United Nations in her role as UN Women Goodwill Ambassador. Her speech introduced a new campaign called HeForShe, aimed at galvanizing one billion men and boys as advocates for ending global violence against women. Watson argued that achieving gender equality is impossible if only one sex participates in the fight.

Autopsy of a Deceased Church: 12 Ways to Keep Yours Alive by Thom Rainer $4.99

Sean McDowell and John Stonestreet. Same-Sex Marriage. Reviewed by Louis Markos.

C Michael Patton. Six Views on What It Means to Be Orthodox.

What does it mean to be orthodox in your beliefs?

There are really six primary views that I find represented in the church today. I am going to try to explain these views using both established and original terminology.

Todd Adkins. 6 Ways to Build a Loyal Team and Become a Better Leader.

Today’s blog is from my friend and colleague Todd Adkins . Todd serves as our Director of Leadership at LifeWay . We first served together in student ministry, more than a decade ago in Cincinnati, Ohio. I headed to Miami, and Todd went off to McLean Bible Church to serve as executive director of Frontline—the young adult ministry of McLean. Todd is a great strategic thinker and a strong leader and it is an honor to serve alongside him again at LifeWay.

Bruce Baugus. Why God is Not A Philosopher (and why Bavinck thinks theologians must be). (Ref21)

We all philosophize because, however quick we may be, we must think things through, learn in order to know, and build up knowledge bit by bit like children creating with Legos. That’s not true of God. God knows himself fully and in knowing himself he knows all things possible and actual in a single, eternal, and simple act. He does not think things through to gain new insights or learn over time or build up his knowledge. He knows all things immediately and instantaneously; no one teaches him anything and he never discovers something he did not already know. He does not work with concepts or trade in arguments; God does not philosophize.

Galatians 4:5 “…to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.”

“Adoption is a greater mercy than Adam had in paradise.” Thomas Watson

Logos: A Bible Software For Everyone

Every pastor and biblical scholar knows that having an excellent bible software is essential for ministry. However, times are changing. Just as the reformers valued the movement to have a bible in every home in a common tongue, today’s Christian leaders want to make the best biblical resources and scholarship digitally accessible for every home.

Of course this principle takes time to execute. These resources have to be developed and refined before they can become accessible for everyday users. It takes time to make these products affordable. At the same time, it takes time for everyday people to see the inestimable worth of investing in these resources.

In recent years, we’ve seen the rise of bible software products that are accessible for families. Yet, none of them compare to the industry standard: Logos Bible Software. Logos is the product that the majority of scholars and pastors use.

Logos is located in Bellingham, Washington. It started in a basement — like many software companies — in 1992. Over the course of the last dozen years Logos has grown to become “ the largest developer of Bible study software and a worldwide leader in multilingual electronic publishing.” Logos has partnered with over 150 publishers to produce up to 43,000 digital resources at this time and the number is growing every day. There is no wonder why Logos is the industry leader.

What Makes Logos so Great?

Logos has developed the richest, unparalleled quality of Bible resources for use in bible study. Because Logos focuses in producing the best resources for professionals, they have a team of professionals, skilled academicians and trained pastors, to tailor their product for the discipline. They have carefully researched and tailored their software with exegetical resources of verse-by-verse, literally word by word analysis of the biblical text, all built directly into the Bible software.

Likewise, all of the best resources that have been developed for digital use are also available from organizations such as the Society of Biblical Literature, United Bible Society, and Bible.org’s NET Bible. These are leaders in scholastic study of the Scripture and Logos is partnered with each of them.

Furthermore, Logos’s ability to migrate print-publisher resources from companies such as Crossway, Moody, and Zondervan into Logos’s digital interface allows them to make their product even stronger. Researchers and everyday users are easily able to search all their resources for a particular topic or bible verse in a matter of seconds.

But all of this is of little use if the product is not user friendly. That’s why Logos has kept user friendliness in mind all throughout the last decade. They don’t just want to keep professors from scratching their heads as they look blankly at an update wondering how to use this software — we all know that professors typically are better book people than software people — rather, Logos wants everyday people to be able to take advantage of their product, people like accountants, engineers, mail carriers, dads, moms, and children. Logos’s intuitive design and simplicity permits this to be the case.

I have been an Apple user since before I was a bible software user. For many years the only bible software specifically developed for the OSX platform has been Accordance Bible Software. I have used and enjoyed this software for over a decade. However, as soon as Logos developed their platform to work with OSX, I immediately grew an intense interest in switching software.

Last week, I finally had the pleasure of doing so. I am glad I did. I am already enjoying the simplicity, accessibility, and the multitude of new functions and benefits that come with Logos. Likewise, the package I received from Logos immediately doubled my digital library. This, I have known for sometime, would be the case when I switched to Logos.

I had no trouble learning Logos and adapting to its use. In an hour I felt confident in navigating through it’s many functions and tailoring my experience to my preferences. The introductory videos and user forums have proven helpful for me to learn how to make the most of this software.

In addition to receiving my package of Logos version 5 , I made sure to have key resources like the Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (HALOT) and A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other Early Christian Literature (BDAG) . These are essential resources for my study of the Bible.

If you are a seminary student, pastor, or scholar and you are in the market for purchasing bible software, I strongly urge you to look at Logos. But I don’t think Logos is just for professionals, I think it’s for everyone!

A Bible Software for Everyone

If you’re not a seminary student, pastor, or scholar, right now you’re wondering why you should use a bible software. Isn’t your print bible enough? Well, certainly so. Everything you need is right there in that bible. But are you making the most of it?

Digital technology is changing everything in our world just like the printing press did. You and I need to make the most of that. We need to maximize our study of the Word of God for the glory of God. I promise you, if you invest in Logos Bible Software, it will revolutionize your personal devotional and public worship experience. It will be akin to when the reformers traded up from stained glass to print bibles.

Of course, that’s going to take an investment on your part. Are you willing to do so?

I think so. I mean, you invest in your entertainment, right? You’re willing to pay for Amazon Prime, Netflix, cable TV, concerts, movies, and sporting events. Why wouldn’t you partition some of those resources for deeper devotion in the Word of God? After all, which of these is fleeting and which is powerful enough to spiritually form your family and equip your life for mission?

If you’re willing to buy a big screen TV, laptop, or tablet, why wouldn’t you be willing to bring the best bible software into your home for you and your family to enjoy? If you’re reading this, it’s likely that you have protected yourself and your family from explicit internet media by investing in internet filters. Many Christian families are doing this. Are you also proactively giving your family access to the Word of God in a way that will enrich your whole family?

I think you should, and I think you should do so by giving them access to Logos Bible Software. Check out this video and take the next steps today.

Third Culture, Mentors, Complementarians, Wisdom for Abused Women.

Peter Chin. Third Culture. (CT)

One might ask what I am doing here, a young Korean-American pastor blogging alongside such well-respected figures as Ed Stetzer and Amy Julia Becker. I’m not sure, but I suspect it’s some kind of mistake. It has something to do with an article I wrote last year for Christianity Today, which was one of the twenty most read articles for that year – number 12 to be exact, ahead of an interview with Billy Graham, but behind an article about Tim Tebow, which is in itself a sad commentary on the state of things. CT editor Mark Galli must have read my piece and assumed that I could write like that all the time, and I didn’t have the heart to tell the poor guy the truth.

It’s All in How You Tell It by Haddon and Torrey Robinson $2.99

James Emery White. The Rise of the Nones. Reviewed by Derek Rishmawy.

Chuck Lawless. Why Everybody Needs a Mentor and How to Find One. (Church Leaders)

A few years ago, I wrote a study called Mentor: How Along the Way Discipleship Can Change Your Life . That study was directed to college students because I believe every young person needs a mentor. Now, at age 53, I’m convinced EVERY person needs a mentor. Here’s why…

Carl Trueman. The Problem for Complementarians Will Come from the Right. (Ref21)

MoS will have a spanking new podcast out this Wednesday, when the Ref Pack spends time with Rachel Miller discussing one of the latest trends to emerge from the Reformed movement, that of patriarchy. It seems that we have tapped in to what is likely to be a significant topic of conversation and source of controversy, as Slate magazine ran an article just a few days ago on the sad story of an escapee from the Quiverfull movement who is now an atheist. Rachel has a typically gracious yet pungent reply at her blog, A Daughter of the Reformation.

Julie Ganschow. Wisdom for Abused Women. (BCC)

I do not know this woman, but I have met many like her over the years through my biblical counseling ministry. Women in abusive relationships don’t want to believe the man they love is really the monster other people tell her he is. Women in abusive relationships tell themselves it is unusual to be slapped, punched or harmed by their husband or boyfriend, even when it happens all the time. Women in abusive relationships will often support their abuser, standing up for him against the flood of criticism that comes his way. Women in abusive relationships will accept the blame for his actions against them while justifying and rationalizing his abuse.

Ephesians 1:5 “He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will.”

“The spirit of prayer is the fruit and token of the Spirit of adoption.” John Newton

John Calvin on the Restored Image of God (ICR I.XV.4)

This is a selection of quotes from John Calvin’s Book I, Chapter XV, Section 4 of Institutes of Christian Religion. Here Calvin explains how our union with Christ begins the restoration to a full reflection of God’s image, which is made completed in eternal bliss.

Therefore, ever though we grant that God’s image was not totally annihilated and destroyed in him, yet it was so corrupted that whatever remains is frightful deformity. Consequently, the beginning of our recovery of salvation is in that restoration which we obtain through Christ, who also is called the Second Adam for the reason that he restores us to true and complete integrity.

This is made possible because Christ is the perfect image of God.

Now we see how Christ is the most perfect image of God; if we are conformed to it, we are so restored that with true piety, righteousness, purity, and intelligence we bear God’s image.

As you can see here, Calvin takes a somewhat extreme view of how marred the image of God in humanity is marred by the fall. It’s clear that in general revelation, man does maintain and exhibit, through common grace, the image and likeness of God. But as Calvin indicates, this image is sorrowfully impaired in comparison to the state it once was in the garden of Eden.

Through union with Christ, the elect exhibit the likeness and image of God in a nobler way than before Christ. It’s helpful to reflect on 2 Corinthians 5:17 here: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

Now God’s image is the perfect excellence of human nature which shone in Adam before his defection, but was subsequently so vitiated and almost blotted out that nothing remains after the ruin except what is confused, mutilated, and disease-ridden. Therefore in some part it now is manifest in the elect, in so far as they have been reborn in the spirit; but it will attain its full splendor in heaven.

Beat God to the Punch by Eric Mason

Eric Mason. Beat God to the Punch: Because Jesus Demands Your Life . Nashville: B&H, 2014. 108 pp. $12.99.

When I got my copy of Beat God to the Punch , I wondered: “What was the deal with this provocative title and how was the author going to explain it?” Well, Eric Mason, the lead pastor of Epiphany Fellowship in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania spared no time in explaining the title. “This title is meant to draw the reader into the complexities (and simplicity) of a grace-filled life” (1). He goes on to share Philippians 2:9-11, drawing out the implication of “every knee bowed.” Everyone will bow his or her knee, either willingly or not. “Beating God to the punch involves willingly bending one’s life to Jesus now, and forever” (2).

Sounds sound, but how do we beat a provident, predestining, powerfully unparalleled God to the punch? Mason explains that it’s not by “our own effort, enlightenment, strength, or power. Only by God’s grace is one able to bow” (3). Thus, Beat God to the Punch ends up being a book about the grace of God, while also being a book about how Jesus demands our life. Because as Mason says, “God not only saves us from something, He also saves us for something” (7).

In this brief, 100-page, five chapter book, Mason gives us another gift of a book on grace. Chapter one explains how grace walked by in the person Jesus Christ. Chapter two imparts how grace is experienced. Chapter three presents grace at work. Chapter four traces grace through church history, and chapter five conveys how grace leads us home.

If you’re in tune to the grace frenzy, you’ll know that this is yet another to add to the smorgasbord. So, why should you read this one?

Well, quite honestly, I appeal to D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones here: “Everything is of grace in the Christian life from the very beginning to the very end.” Fundamentally speaking, if you’re reading about the Christian life, then it’s going to be about grace in some way or form; Beat God to the Punch is no different.

Mason uniquely offers his vantage point of trench ministry where he’s seen God’s grace in fresh ways. Instances include his own conversion story (14), when he and his wife lost their first child (63), and the story of a recovering addict (90). We also learn from his failures of not offering grace as he should (cf. the story of a homosexual church guest, 40).

We see how Mason faces discouragement ministering in the broken context of the inner city while still saying, “As the Spirit of Grace does His work in my heart and soul, I walk those streets with the dignity of the gospel because He uses the environment to help me learn where I am really finding my satisfaction” (60). Is this how you see your ministry? It should, regardless of context.

Beat God to the Punch isn’t merely a collection of feel-good grace stories. Beat God to the Punch is a rigorous engagement with Scripture that arrests our attention to be fully devoted to Christ. Thus, Mason makes sure we know whom we follow. From page 53-55 he lists every name to which we ascribe Christ, and endnote twenty-eight (pp. 103-106) provides Scripture references evidencing that ascription. This is a treasure trove for future sermons!

Throughout, Mason engages scholarly work on and about grace from Andreas Kostenberger, D. A. Carson, Jonathan Edwards, Sinclair Ferguson, and many others. These scholars constructively add to our understanding on matters such as the role of a talmid (17-22), the importance of abiding (28-29), and the vivid picture of God’s glory (38).

Chapter four’s riveting historical sketch of the work of grace in church history points us to figures like Augustine, Calvin, Whitefield, and Frederick Douglas. This sketch is accompanied with a handy summary table as an appendix (99-100).

Beat God to the Punch fosters fervor in pastor’s, church members, and the curious souls. Not just to respond to grace but to share it. Heed this unmitigated reminder from Mason: “All cross paths with grace, but not all respond to it” (14). Even though Beat God to the Punch grips you where you are to press into the grace of who God is, not everyone’s knee will bow now, but they will bow then. Whose knees in your congregation need to hear this message?

Beat God to the Punch is an expeditious, revitalizing, principled study on grace you won’t want to ignore.

Blogging Towards Humility, Bloom Where Planted, The Death of Adulthood, 7 Conditions for Confrontation.

Marvin Olasky. Blogging Toward Humility. (WORLD)

Folks still speak of “the blogosphere,” but it no longer is one sphere (if it ever was). Many readers have feeds of their favorite blogs, and that’s true of the religious realms as well. The 1994 document “Evangelicals and Catholics Together” is now 20 years old, but in blogging, evangelicals and Catholics tend to be far apart.

And so, as a public service, I hereby introduce evangelicals to the best-written Catholic blog I’ve seen: The Anchoress . It comes from the mind and heart of Elizabeth Scalia (not one of the justice’s nine children), and it’s not only counter-conventional regarding the world at large but sometimes regarding Roman Catholicism as well. One of her articles asked, “Is the world making an idol of Pope Francis?”

How (Not) to Be Secular by James K A Smith $3.99

John Piper. A Godward Heart. Reviewed by Mathew Sims.

Dave Jenkins. Bloom Where God Plants You. (Christianity.com)

While talking with my pastor recently, we discussed my increasing burden/passion for pastoral ministry. As we talked, he looked at me and said: “You need to bloom where you are currently planted.” I didn’t realize how much I needed to hear this. I’ve been looking toward ministry for so long that I’d missed something incredibly important: God wants to use me where I’m currently planted to produce patience, thankfulness and joy—fruits of the gospel in me.

Matthew Lee Anderson. The Death of Adulthood.

We’ve reached the end of adulthood in America according to AO Scott. Or at least of the patriarchal version of it, anyway, which Scott sees in three paradigmatic dramas of our era—Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and The Sopranos, whose protagonists and their downfalls allow us to “marvel at the mask of masculine incompetence even as we watched it slip or turn ugly.” On Scott’s reading, “in doing away with patriarchal authority, we have also, perhaps unwittingly, killed off all the grownups.” It’s a provocative, sweeping hypothesis of the sort that are useful for engendering conversations, even if it doesn’t stand up under analysis.

Tim Challies. 7 Conditi0ns for Confrontation.

have found myself intrigued by a new book by Chris Bruno and Matt Dirks titled Churches Partnering Together . I guess the title says it all—it is about developing bonds between churches so different congregations, and their leaders, can be on mission together. In one chapter the authors discuss the inevitability of confrontation and I appreciate their counsel on positive confrontation. They begin with Galatians 6:1-2: “ Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” And then they provide seven conditions for confrontation which apply not only to conflicts between church leaders, but between all Christians…

Psalm 4:5 “Offer right sacrifices, and put your trust in the Lord.”

“As long as we continue to trust to our own abilities and activities we shall avail nothing.” D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Five Books on Introduction to Biblical Exegesis

1. Invitation to Biblical Interpretation: Exploring the Hermeneutical Triad of History, Literature, and Theology by Andreas Kostenberger and Richard Patterson

2. Introduction to Biblical Interpretation, Revised Edition by Klein, Blomberg, and Hubbard

3. Is There a Meaning in This Text?: The Bible, the Reader, and the Morality of Literary Knowledge by Kevin J Vanhoozer

4. Biblical Exegesis, 3rd ed by Hayes and Holladay

5. Introduction to Biblical Hermeneutics: The Search for Meaning by Kaiser and Silva

Human Flourishing, Don’t Quit on Church, Hate to Wait, Love the Lost.

Joe Carter. Evangelical Leaders Discuss How To Enhance Human Flourishing. (ACTON)

Last week in Washington, D.C., AEI’s Values and Capitalism initiative hosted their inaugural Evangelical Leadership Summit. The summit was a nonpartisan conversation among leading evangelical writers, pastors, parachurch leaders, business executives, artists, and policymakers that focused on “concrete paths to enhancing human flourishing.”

Faith and Learning ed David Dockery $0.99

Jeramie Rinne. Church Elders. Reviewed by Trent Hunter. (TGC)

Barnabas Piper. Why You Shouldn’t Give Up On the Church. (Relevant)

I grew up in the Church. No really, I grew up in the church.

As a pastor’s kid, I spent countless hours in church and doing church activities. I am a church native and familiar with all its quirks and cultural oddities, with all its strengths and all its failings. As the son of prominent evangelical pastor John Piper, I not only saw the inner workings of my own church, I was also exposed to church leaders from around the world and saw the good and the bad from their churches, too.

Paul Maxwell. Do You Hate to Wait. (DG)

Anxiety is the slave song of the human heart under the tyranny of insignificance. Impatience is an acute strand of anxiety — played in a certain key — that can mesmerize and trap a soul in an infinite loop of hypnotized idolatry. With each heartbeat, drops of innocent desire increasingly become a torrent of violent mania, accruing simple words with vast jurisdiction: “I want it”. . . . “I want all ”. . . . “I want it all now , RIGHT NOW !”

Ed Stetzer. Loving the Lost: Church Without the Broken are Broken Churches.

It is a natural thing for Christians to want to be around other Christians. Something special happens in the fellowship of believers.

We can worship freely, study deeply, and communicate clearly. Hanging out with like-minded people who (appear to) “have their stuff together” can be a wonderful thing.

But how well are we engaging those who aren’t as spiritually stable as we (think we) are?

I’ve been fascinated by the fact that a lot of Christians don’t seem to like non-Christians—otherwise known as “the lost,” “the unchurched,” or whatever other term you may want to use. They want to keep away from the messy people– perhaps missing the obvious that we are messy as well.

Psalm 95:6 “Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!”

“What or whom we worship determines our behaviour.” John Murray

10 Quotes from Beat God to the Punch by Eric Mason

My review of Beat God to the Punch by Eric Mason will run tomorrow at Lifeway’s Pastors Today web-blog channel. You should check it out, and see what I thought about this new book. In the meanwhile, here are twenty quotes from Beat God to the Punch .

1. “On that day, those who are forced to bow will experience the punch of God’s wrath. Those who willingly bow at the appointed time of salvation will be missed by God’s wrathful punch because God hit Jesus on their behalf” (2).

2. “Real life, for a disciple, is a journey of wrestling with a pattern of faith and loyalty to who Jesus is” (6).

3. “Grace is not merely an esoteric theological concept, but it is seen and defined most vehemently in a person” (11).

4. “Jesus came to take our lives off layaway” (13).

5. “Truth lets people know where you stand, but grace lets people know you love them” (37).

6. “Grace is God’s work of creating potential where there is none, in spite of our circumstances” (41).

7. “We must recognize that there is no grace-filled life without comprehensive spiritual renewal. This is the promise that Jesus brings to us, spiritual renewal” (50).

8. “As we walk with the Lord, we find that God’s commitment to us is unending” (59).

9. “Jesus, not heaven, is the focal point of revelation” (86).

10. “Living in the tension of the already but not yet is to live in fervent submission to the sovereignty of God as He shows us the multifaceted nature of His grace” (87).

8-28, Emerging Adulthood, Friendship, College Students and Membership.

Amy Julia Becker. Ian and Larissa Murphy: Trusting God Through Traumatic Brain Injury. (CT)

A couple years ago, a video about Ian and Larissa Murphy’s marriage went viral . In some ways, they exhibit a conventional story of young love. They met in college and wanted to get married. But Ian suffered a traumatic brain injury after a car accident. Their plans were tenuous at best as Ian lay in a coma in a hospital bed.

The accident came 10 months into their relationship. For the next two years, Ian worked to regain his ability to talk, then the couple began talking about marriage. Two years after that, they married on Ian’s late father’s birthday, 8-28-2010—a date referenced in the title of their new book, Eight Twenty Eight . The number also refers to a favorite Bible passage, Romans 8:28: “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose” (ESV).

Loving the Way Jesus Loves by Phil Ryken $0.99

Ed. Michael Bird. How God Became Jesus. Reviewed by Jonathan Huggins.

Marc Cortez. The Rise of “Emerging Adulthood”.

Emerging adulthood is now viewed by many as a distinct stage of life in America, one that covers the period between high school and “real” adulthood. And according to Christian Smith , Professor of Sociology at the University of Notre Dame, it’s a stage of life that is powerfully shaping the way people in their 20s view the world, how they understand the church, and how they approach their own formation.

Chris Poblete. MANHOOD 101: Friendship. (CBMW)

Friend . What does this word mean to you?

The twenty-first century is suffering the inflation of the word “friend.” A friend used to be someone that you shared a special and mutual bond with, involving a certain level of love, respect, and camaraderie. Today, the word friend is more nebulous (thank you, social networks). According to dictionary.com, “friend” can be used as a verb now, simply meaning, “to add someone to a list of contacts associated with a social networking website.”

But when you friend me on Facebook, will you really know me? Sure, you can find out who I’m married to, where I live, how many kids I have, or how stupid my face looks when I’m not prepared for a picture snap. These facts don’t make up my story. They don’t tell you my sins, my struggles, my strengths, my weaknesses.

Dave Russell. College Students and Church Membership. (9M)

Should college students join a local church by campus if they have a church membership “back home”?

This question is often asked of me in reference to Christian students who are coming to college and have a church membership “back home.” Here are some things to consider that may help to answer the question.

John 8:34 “Jesus answered them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.”

“Man’s practices are the best indexes of his principles.” Stephen Charnock

The Moody Bible Commentary by Rydelnik and Vanlaningham

General Editors Michael Rydelnik and Michael Vanlaningham. The Moody Bible Commentary . Chicago: Moody, 2014. 2176 pp. $49.99.

A valuable new resource dropped onto the scene in the world of one-volume commentaries recently: The Moody Bible Commentary . This commentary on the whole Bible is developed by the faculty at Moody Bible Institute and includes contributions from 30 professors.

This 2,000 page behemoth of a commentary tackles difficult texts, commenting in light of the original languages, as it unfolds Messianic promises in the Old Testament, and traces the fulfillment of them in the New. It’s a user-friendly, trustworthy, and understandable text that harnesses a literal interpretive method. Each book of the Bible has a robust introduction with a detailed outline. The two-column structure and the typeset make for easy reading. Transliterations are italicized and key words are boldened for quick research. A number of maps, charts, and sketches are included for explanatory purposes and to bring the story of the Bible to life. And each book of the Bible concludes with an excellent bibliography to encourage deeper study.

Three things stand out about this commentary.

The commentators selectively reference other recent commentaries (e.g. NIVAC, NAC, et al.) and include the best stuff as helps. This ends up turning The Moody Bible Commentary into a helpful reference for knowing what one commentator’s conclusion may have been on an issue needing validation. Rather than picking up that commentary and digging through it to find that commentators position, one might quickly reference The Moody Bible Commentary and get that same conclusion much more swiftly.

Second, it really does tackle those tough issues that other study bibles or one-volume commentaries seem to skirt. In fact, it hits those issues head on and leaves alone the unassuming stuff that other commentators will certainly grab and engage.

Third, while it occasionally references other commentaries and it tackles the hard issues, it most certainly does all this with keeping an eye to straightforward exegesis. It is not a constant dialogue with other commentaries, nor is it only focused on resolving the big problems in every text. It is first and foremost an aid to pastors and studious lay persons who want to uncover more about the text. Thus, the observations and interpretations offer clarity for those that consult The Moody Bible Commentary .

The Moody Bible Commentary provides a well-calculated synthesis of the text that pastors will joyfully consult.

Men & Friendship, Women & Theology, Gospel Centered Talk, Moral Ambiguity in a Selfish Culture.

Wesley Hill. Why Can’t Men Be Friends? (CT)

As researchers like Laura L. Carstensen, director of the Stanford Center on Longevity, have observed, people approaching middle age tend to retreat to the relationships they already have, rather than seeking out new communities. “You tend to focus on what is most emotionally important to you,” she told The New York Times . “So you’re not interested in going to that cocktail party; you’re interested in spending time with your kids.”

But our widespread feeling that friendship is harder to come by hasn’t always been prominent among Christians. On the contrary, many of our forebears in the faith celebrated the love of friendship. Far from occupying a suspicious or wistful vantage point, they invested enormous effort in making and keeping friends. And therein lies a tale—one we need to heed today.

Church History in Plain Language by Bruce Shelley $4.99

George Marsden. The Twilight of the American Enlightenment. Reviewed by Matt McCullough. (9M)

Jen Thorn. 6 Reasons Women Should Study Theology. (Christianity.com)

When theology is mentioned in a circle of women I have often found the response to be less than enthusiastic. Mention books on homemaking, marriage or parenting, on the other hand, and everyone seems interested. Why is that? I have heard comments like, “I’m just not smart enough”, “I will leave the study of theology to the men”, or “I don’t need theology I just need to read my Bible.”

Dane Ortlund. What’s All This ‘Gospel-Centered’ Talk About? (TGC)

“Gospel-centered preaching.” “Gospel-centered parenting.” “Gospel-centered discipleship.” The back of my business card says “gospel-centered publishing.” This descriptive mantra is tagged on to just about anything and everything in the Christian world these days.

Erik Raymond. Moral Ambiguity in a Selfish Culture.

When I read the news I often feel like I am walking around in a the middle of a power-outage. Things are not arranged the way I thought they were (or at least the way my mind thinks they should be). Let me give you a couple of examples.

In the last few weeks the National Football League (NFL) has been in the headlines for incidents that occurred off the football field. In the first instance, Ray Rice was seen violently abusing his then fiancé. The running back appears to knock her out cold and then calmly drag her out of an elevator. The video goes viral and is accompanied by a loud public outcry. Rice is suspended indefinitely from the NFL and cut from his team. In another story, another running back, Adrian Peterson, is indicted for child abuse. Peterson, allegedly, went far beyond any reasonable forms of discipline and training his child. The images and descriptions of the wounds are graphic and disturbing. The public outcry over Peterson’s case is also loud and it appears, justifiably so.

As Christians we can join in the chorus of opposition. In both cases, Rice and Peterson, we see the breakdown of what God created man to be. Instead of loving, protective, sacrificial, servant leadership that promotes flourishing, there is violence, selfishness, and destructiveness.

Psalm 119:77 “Let your mercy come to me, that I may live; for your law is my delight.”

“The gospel is not a doctrine of the tongue, but of life.” John Calvin

We live in a peculiar and unparalleled age of erudites. Because we live in such an age it is of great interest to discuss them: what it means to be one and why it’s important to unmask one.

What’s An Erudite You Say?

Well, an erudite is anyone who considers them self to be learned. Really anyone and everyone these days can be an erudite. Because of the vast knowledge and information that is accessible through the internet, everyone has something that they may safely profess to be an expert on.

I’ve known erudites on My Little Pony; I think my daughter is one of those. I’ve known erudites on Spiderman; that would be my son and maybe me too. I’ve known erudites all over Pinterest sharing their expertise on their craft; I think my wife is one of those, though most of the time she seems to want to deny it. I’ve known erudites on Reformation or Puritan pastors and theologians; I think I might even aspire to be one of those.

You might even go so far as to say an entire generation may be considered a generation of erudites. Really, one of the quintessential attributes of a hipster is being an erudite, and if you statistically look at the academic prowess of the Millennial generation, you’ll quickly learn that this generations’ parents spared no penny at educating that generation. Millennial-hipsters have been incubated in the embryonic juiciness of eruditehood. No doubt this will present some benefits and liabilities for the former and forthcoming generations.

I like to consider myself an erudite, and really, don’t we all. We all want to be experts on something, right? And most of us think that we are. You might be an erudite on the Chicago Bears in the 1970’s or an erudite on Keynesian economics or an erudite on the dendrochronology of the Piney Woods. Whatever happens to be your forte, you probably take great pride in that knowledge.

Whatever the case is for you, it is imperative that you understand this about your eruditeness. Being an erudite is both easy and hard.

It’s easy in that you just have to be exceptionally studied in some narrow field of expertise. If one just reads all the books by a particular author, they fast become an erudite on that author. If one just listens to all the music of a particular artist or have vast knowledge on that genre, one fast becomes an erudite in that field. Really, all it takes is to have intense focus in a narrow field. And what makes it even easier is when there is not a lot of extant material in that field to study.

What’s hard about being an erudite is to remain humble about one’s knowledge. You see, a critical component of being an erudite is being perceived as an erudite. You’re not really one unless you’re recognized as one.

When I was in high school, my “group” that I hung out with had a knack for dubbing each other erudites in one field or another. We each had a title, “Czar”, that went with our field of expertise. They called me “THE Alternative Music Czar.” I earned this title because I constantly listened to The EDGE Alternative Rock Station, read Rolling Stone Magazine, had a membership to Columbia House Music (discounted Music CD’s Club), and acquired a library of a hundred CD’s of alternative rock music. I also went to a concert here or there as I had the freedom. I was a teen after all. If anyone wanted to know some generality about that field, I knew it, including many of the band members and the backstories of the bands. In the mind of my peers, I was recognized as the erudite of alternative rock music.

That kind of knowledge and recognition comes with a challenge, the challenge to be humble in that knowledge and recognition.

As the sage erudite Paul once said, “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up” (1 Cor. 8:1). What we learn from Paul in this verse is that the best way to protect the erudite from being puffed up is to foster love concerning the erudite’s knowledge.

The kind of love that needs to be fostered is a selfless love that doesn’t want to simply display knowledge but impart knowledge. The kind of love that needs to be fostered is a patient knowledge that helps others discover what the erudite already knows. You see, most people who are not on par with the erudites knowledge in his or her field will likely be skeptical of the erudite. Does this person really have deep knowledge on this subject? How did they attain it? What is their credibility concerning this knowledge? How do I know I can trust them? The erudite must be willing to take time to patiently win the confidence of his or her skeptics.

But fostering patience and selflessness in the erudite is not enough. The erudite must also be unmasked.

What do I mean by this? Well, one day at school I met a challenger to my mantle of “The Alternative Music Czar.” Yes, I met someone who knew more about Gavin Rossdale (Lead for Bush), Gwen Stefani (Lead for No Doubt), and their romance. Not only that but that person unmasked me before all my friends. They exhibited how I really didn’t have all that much knowledge on alternative music after all. Sure, I had a lot of music and had read some about the artists, but I had barely even scratched the surface on that field. I really only had an elementary understanding.

Really, that’s pretty much the case for most of us. As much as we think we are an erudite, there will always be another, someone who’s knowledge goes far deeper than even ours. The younger you are the easier it is to unmask you. Some of us talk a really good talk. We’re able to read a couple books on one narrow field and make it look like we are an expert. But, if we are in a conversation with the right person, or wrong person for that matter, before long we’re unmasked. We really aren’t the erudite that we present ourselves to be.

Unmasked Before the One True Erudite

Your eruditeness may not be unmasked in this life as it will one day. Some of us are actually pretty clever and are able to carefully conceal the chinks in our erudite armor. But at some point we will all be unmasked before the Creator and Judge, the one who stretched the canvas of the heavens, placed the stars in their orbit, and set the current of the seas. That moment will involve utter nakedness before him.

We will feel much like Job did upon hearing these words out of the whirlwind:

Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me. Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be in the right? Have you an arm like God, and can you thunder with a voice like his?

Adorn yourself with majesty and dignity; clothe yourself with glory and splendor. Pour out the overflowings of your anger, and look on everyone who is proud and abase him. Look on everyone who is proud and bring him low and tread down the wicked where they stand. Hide them all in the dust together; bind their faces in the world below. Then will I also acknowledge to you that your own right hand can save you. (Job 40:7-14)

Of course the discourse continues on for quite some time, and when it comes to a close Job responds in humility and repentance. He says, “I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know” (Job 42:3). Job had thought himself an erudite on God. What he discovered is that he had only scratched the surface on his knowledge. It wasn’t until God revealed himself to Job that he truly gripped the inadequacy of his understanding. Here the erudite, Job, became unmasked as he peered into and listened to the masked God in the whirlwind.

And that’s us. We’re all Job. We’re all erudites waiting to be unmasked. And one day that will happen. Are you ready to be unmasked? If you are, then what’s astonishingly different about that day and Job’s day is that on that day we’ll be unmasked before this God, and he too will be unmasked before us as well. He’ll see us naked before him, and we’ll see him in his full glory and splendor. We will not be ashamed of being unmasked and naked erudites because he has accepted us and found us pleasing in his eyes. We won’t want that mask anymore. We won’t want that recognition. We’ll be okay with who we really are, the unmasked erudite, the naked and without shame Adam.

Harvest Bible Chapel Church Discipline, If the Worst Happens, When Greek’s a Distraction, Poverty and Marriage.

Daniel James Devine. Harvest Bible Chapel Sorry for Church Discipline. (WORLD)

Harvest Bible Chapel, a Chicago-area megachurch with seven campuses and about 100 church plants around the world issued an apology over the weekend for harshly censuring three former elders last year.

James MacDonald, an author and the senior pastor of Harvest, read a statement to the church saying he and the current church elders met last week with the three men and asked for their forgiveness: “I wish to announce that the elders of Harvest Bible Chapel have unanimously agreed to lift all discipline from Scott Phelps and Barry Slabaugh and Dan Marquardt.”

Manhood Restored: How the Gospel Makes Men Whole by Eric Mason $2.99

Vaneetha Rendall. What If the Worst Happens? (DG)

I found myself growing fearful. Not a heart-stopping, all-encompassing fear, but the kind of constant gnawing that occurs when you look at the discouraging trends of the present and assume things will never change. When you think about the future and wonder, “What if the worst happens?”

I’ve spent a lifetime considering the “what ifs.” Those questions have a way of unsettling me, destroying my peace, leaving me insecure.

Peter Krol. A Little Greek Can Be A Big Distraction. (TGC)

You don’t have to reference Greek or Hebrew to study the Bible. You can observe, interpret, and apply using a decent English translation (such as the ESV or NET). In fact, knowing a bit of Greek can actually distract you from careful study of a passage.

Joe Carter. The Poverty Problem is a Marriage Problem. (ACTON)

If you’re out of work and can’t earn an income, it’s easy to slide down the economic ladder from working-poor to just plain poor. So it’s no surprise that the poverty rate in America has, since at least 1970, moved in sync with the unemployment rate. During each recession we would see a spike in the poverty rate and then a decline as the economy recovers and employment levels began to rise.

2 Tim. 2:8 “Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached by my gospel.”

“The law is a hammer to break us, the gospel God’s oil to cure us.” Stephen Charnock

Paul Washer on Love that Acts

In Gospel Assurance and Warnings , Paul Washer explains what true love that acts looks like:

The love that Christ demands and of which John writes must act. Therefore, it finds its truest expression when we are consistently living for the benefit of others in the body of Christ by daily dying to self and doing practical works of service according to our gifts and the opportunities that providence provides. Of course, this type of love requires that we actually enter into real relationships with God’s people that we actively seek out opportunities to serve them. Consequently, it would be difficult, if not impossible, for this type of love to manifest itself consistently in a community that comes together for only one weekly show on Sunday morning. This type of love must start in the midst of individual relationships within a local body and then work its way outward to believers and believing communities throughout the world.

The Stories We Tell by Mike Cosper

Mike Cosper. The Stories We Tell: How TV and Movies Long for and Echo the Truth . Wheaton: Crossway, 2014. 240 pp. $15.99.

Entertainment, particularly that of television and movies, has shaped generations. We might go as far to say we’re addicted to TV and movies. They shape how we think and how we behave. Yet, at the same time, Christians are suspicious of them as well, not knowing how to curb the addiction and filter the moral dimension of entertainment.

Is that the case for you? Do you ever feel ashamed of what you watch, yet seemingly unable to alter your fascination with shows such as Arrested Development , Keeping up with the Kardashians , or Dexter ? Do you ever ask yourself: “What will others think if they knew I watch these shows?”

Mike Cosper’s new book, The Stories We Tell , is certainly not an expose on media ethic: what we should and shouldn’t watch. He sets out from the beginning saying that he wouldn’t suggest everyone watch the shows that he discusses (13).

Rather, what Cosper – the Worship and Arts Pastors at Sojourn Community Church in Louisville Kentucky – does with The Stories We Tell is borrow from the world of TV and movies the most striking illustrations of the big picture, the gospel narrative. He reminds us: “All human creativity is an echo of God’s creativity” (33). And though humanity doesn’t always get it right, “These stories long for and echo the truth” (37). They illustrate God’s narrative of creation, fall, redemption, and consummation.

So, without assuming that the producers, writers, and actors of these TV shows and movies intended to tell God’s story, Cosper, nonetheless, retrieves from the gamut of media he has enjoyed to explore how these stories hint at and long for the gospel. All along Cosper helps us redemptively reconsider what we watch, why we watch it, and how to watch it with new eyes seeing the gospel story in previously unforeseen ways.

Chapter one sets up the framework upon which The Stories We Tell rests. Chapter two discusses the spectrum on which all viewers sit: the overanxious teenager on one side, enjoying edginess, while the church lady sits at the other pole, setting borders to stay within and judging those outside those borders. Tackling issues pertaining to gospel and culture, and conscience and community fall under the auspices of this chapter as well.

Chapter three begins Cosper’s interaction with the gospel narrative themes. It delves into creation through the movie The Descendants and flips the fall story by focusing on Pleasantville. He also uses Frankenstein, Jurassic Park, and Spiderman to talk about playing God. Chapter four investigates the theme of love by considering shows like How I met Your Mother , 30 Rock , and Who Wants to Mary a Multi-Millionaire.

Chapter five scrutinizes the fall, singling out Prometheus , The Tree of Life , Mad Men , and Seinfeld . Chapter six surveys the inevitability, frustration, and pointlessness of life found in Ecclesiastes by showcasing The Wire . Chapter seven plays on fears and evils lurking in shadows by leveraging horror movies such as Drag Me to Hell or paranormal classics like The Twilight Zone and X-Files .

Chapter eight reveals redemptive pictures prevalent in shows such as Dexter and pervasive themes of vengeance demonstrated in Pulp Fiction and other Quentin Tarantino films. Chapter nine inspects stories of heroes by developing the hero story of Jesus and then tracing parallels in other celebrated stories: The Lord of the Rings , Superman , Sleeping Beauty , et al (cf. the chart, 189). Chapter ten closes the book by calling attention to the social media and reality show phenomenon. Cosper analyzes reality shows like Here Comes Honey Boo Boo , Keeping Up with the Kardashians , and Survivor , all of which point to the universal human desire to be known, accepted, and found valuable, which these desires are only fulfilled at Christ’s consummative return.

Every solid book is built on a stalwart premise. The premise of The Stories We Tell is novel, culturally engaging, and profoundly grounded in biblical truth. Cosper talks about how researching and writing this book forced him to re-examine his approach to media. Looking for expressions of gospel themes in TV and movies nuanced what he celebrates and enjoys watching. I think that is precisely what’s happened after my reading. I can’t view a show without simultaneously reflecting on how I see gospel glimpses in that show’s story.

I want to caution readers to manage their expectation when reading The Stories We Tell . If you’re looking for anti Harry Potter and Twilight ammo, you won’t find that schtick here. Likewise, if you expect to find a list of okay or not okay shows to watch, it’s not going to happen either. Cosper reasons: “The content of the stories we hear and tell can’t be true without acknowledging – and sometimes delving deeply into – humanity’s darkness” (47).

What you will get is an overabundance of gospel connections, which sometimes come from unlikely sources (never saw Dexter coming). I don’t think Cosper considers one ostentatious “Christian” film. His selection of illustrations is completely eclectic and unapologetically built on his tastes. I commend him for this. If anything, this approach piqued my interest in shows or movies I had looked past or forgotten.

Cosper’s synopses of shows are concise; he is a purveyor of clarity. This is a tough task to master, and I am impressed with how simply he explains so many complex plots and provides character development in such few pages.

The Stories We Tell is a timely and fitting read for today’s audience. We all love TV shows and movies; redeeming the time we invest in them is a tangible benefit of this book.

Pastors should read The Stories We Tell as a guide to exploring and leveraging the many advantages that TV and film offer to their ministry. Pastors should recommend this book to their congregation because it will help everyone think in fresh perspective on what, why, and how to consume this media.

The Stories We Tell is an investigation of TV shows and movies that reveals an astonishing and riveting encounter with the gospel.

Facebook & Marriage, Lord’s Supper, Spanking, Clarity & Courage in Preaching.

Aimee Byrd. Can Facebook Really Ruin Your Marriage? (Ref21)

A third of all divorce filings in 2011 contained the word “Facebook,” and more than 80 percent of U.S. divorce attorneys say social networking in divorce proceedings is on the rise, according to Divorce Online and the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, respectively.

Mistakes Leaders Make (Re:Lit) by Dave Kraft $1.99

Paul McCusker. C. S. Lewis and Mere Christianity. Reviewed by Brandon Smith. (TGC)

Doug Wilson. The Household of Faith, Hope, and Love.

O ne of the ways we diminish our understanding of the Lord’s Supper is through saying that it is just a metaphor. In the first place, the world is more mysterious than that and there is no such thing as “just” a metaphor. God created the cosmos by speaking, and words are not impotent little labels. But even using the common language of metaphor, the Lord’s Supper would be a complex metaphor, not a simple one. There are many things going on here—thanksgiving, proclamation, longing for the day of redemption, and more.

Clarity and courage remain two of the most crucial characteristics of authentic Christian preaching. For they relate to the content of the message preached and to the style of its presentation.

Some preachers have the gift of lucid teaching, but their sermons lack solid content; their substance has become diluted by fear.

Others are bold as lions. They fear nobody, and omit nothing. But what they say is confused and confusing.

Clarity without courage is like sunshine in the desert: plenty of light but nothing worth looking at.

Courage without clarity is like a beautiful landscape at night time: plenty to see, but no light by which to enjoy it.

Psalm 40:8 “I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.”

“Without law, love is blind.” Samuel Bolton

Your Gospel Probably Lacks Judgment

Recently, I wrote an article about how “Your Judgment Probably Lacks Gospel.” Essentially, I said that we live in a critical world that often lacks gospel in our approach to handling social media, personal relationships, and rebuking sin. I argued that in the gospel you have this indelible link between justice and grace. You can’t really biblically define one without the other because they always come paired. Really, justice and grace are like peanut butter and jelly, Mickey and Minnie, or Simon and Garfunkle. You can’t have one without the other, and if you do, you intuitively know that there is a gaping rift in the cosmos.

Which leads me to this point: just as your judgment probably lacks gospel, there is a solid chance that your gospel lacks judgment. And I’m not the first to say this. Multitudes of pixels have been published (that’s right folks, we’re not spillin ink anymore) on this subject.

It’s common to see a diluted gospel preached. A gospel that says Jesus just wants to be your friend; he wants a relationship with you. You can start fresh now with a clean slate and devote yourself to him. Yet, these presentations often lack the important element of what’s wrong in the world. They are devoid of the sin problem, impending everlasting judgment, and the need to turn from sin. They are a false gospel rather than a gospel of repentance.

Listeners will often walk away from such preaching comforted and happy that they have a friend in Jesus, when they don’t realize they are not reconciled to him at all. Don’t get me wrong. Jesus does want to be your friend, but first he has to be something else. Jesus can’t be your friend until you recognize him as your sacrifice. And you won’t see him as a sacrifice until you see yourself as a sinner. Otherwise, for what is he a sacrifice?

All of this compels us to think about what it means to be a sacrifice. Jesus is a sacrifice not to just become a victor over sin and death, which he is, but to be a substitute for our sin and to experience the death that is due to us. This is the justice of God. God had to deal justly with the fallenness of humanity. Someone had to pay the penalty. Jesus is that one.

This isn’t for just pastors to consider in their preaching. This is for everyone of us to consider. When you breathe the gospel back into your life, when you remind your friends who are suffering, when you are helping sinners who can’t seem to break free of sin, you can’t give them the gospel without giving them the justice of God. Without this, they won’t feel the deep sense of fear and awe of a God who is just and justly condemns sin. They will not feel a deep sense of grief from how they’ve broken God’s law or sorrow over the fact that there is truly something deeply flawed in the function of the world.

All creation groans to the firmament to catch a glimpse of not just God’s grace but his coming justice in full consummation. But if your gospel lacks judgment, then you’re not ready for what’s coming, and neither are those that hear your false gospel. Those who miss this will not just see a glimmer of the grace of God that they will never taste, they’ll behold the one coming in the clouds and wail, because that coming includes unavoidable judgment for which they are not prepared ( Rev. 1:7 ).

Search to Love Kids, One-Day Retreats, Being Fundamentalists?, Humility’s Importance.

Kate Shellnutt. Jesus Loves the Little Children…But I Don’t. (CT)

To say I don’t have kids is an understatement. I barely interact with children, save for brief conversations with friends and fellow churchgoers with offspring in tow.

I can’t remember the last time I changed a diaper, pushed a stroller, or let a kid win at board games. When a friend passed her newborn to me this spring, I admitted it had been years since I held a baby.

And in 2014, that’s nothing to be ashamed of. It’s no longer a given in our society that every woman, or even every married woman, will have kids or want to have kids.

Minority Report: Unpopular Thoughts on Everything from Ancient Christianity to Zen Calvinism by Carl Trueman $3.99

Don Whitney. Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life. Reviewed by Dave Jenkins. (SoG)

Rob Hurtgen. Four Steps for Taking a Personal One-Day Retreat. (Pastors Today)

Life gets busy. There are certain times of the year that feel busier than others. If we are not careful, busyness gradually becomes both an idol and a substitute for effectiveness. Instead of advancing the kingdom we can easily wind up managing the mayhem. Scheduling and taking a personal one-day retreat is tool to avoid this temptation. Here are four steps to consider when taking a one-day retreat.

J D Greear. Don’t Be a Fundamentalist (Calvinist or Otherwise).

Heresy can be what you believe, but perhaps just as often, heresy is the weight you give an issue you believe. “Fundamentalism” might be understood, in part, as too much weight given to certain aspects of Christian doctrine or practice (the word fundamentalism, historically, doesn’t mean that, but in common parlance that is how it might be understood). Some people give such enormous weight to minor issues that the gospel itself is obscured.

Sam Storms. Why Is Humility Important?

Thus far we’ve looked at the meaning of pride and humility. But we now turn to the question: What difference does it make? Is it really that important?

John 14:9b “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.”

“We can never know who or what we are till we know at least something of what God is.” A W Tozer

10 Quotes from God in the Whirlwind by David Wells

I reviewed this book some time ago here , but now I’d like to share some of my favorite insights. I encourage you to pick up a copy of God in the Whirlwind by David Wells.

1. “Every age has its own challenges. This is one of ours. It is the affliction of distraction” (l. 326).

2. “If we are not self-directed, we will be tumbled along by our culture. And that is when we will lose our ability to reflect on the deeper issues of life. Without this ability to stop, to focus, to linger, to reflect, to analyze, and to evaluate, we begin to lose touch with the God who has called us to know him” (l. 685).

3. “What changes is not the presence of grace in this river of redemption, or its nature, or its necessity, but only its revelation. The language of grace becomes the language par excellence of the New Testament epistles because the apostles could look back on Christ in whom that grace has been exhibited” (l. 790).

4. “We should not pass by this point too quickly. Christianity is not simply about Christ. It is about this Christ. Christian truth formed around this Christ will not blend itself into other ways of believing or being religious. Its gospel is as unique as the Christ whose gospel it is” (l. 1033).

5. “God’s kind of love comes from above, not from below…God’s love descends to us. His is the initiative from first to last. When he took action on our sin, it was his love that offered up his Son to be the Mediator between himself and sinners…We could not make our way back to him, so he made his way to us; we could not make our way up to him, so he made his way down to us” (l. 1426, 1419, 1421).

6. “We are instinctively drawn to love. We are easily repelled by holiness…We need, first, to think more concretely, more biblically, about the meaning of holiness” (l. 1788-1789).

7. “The crucifixion without the cross is an incomplete picture, a half-told story” (l. 2279).

8. “We believe the gospel, not only so that our guilt might be forgiven, but so that, henceforth, on a daily basis, we might live for Christ, walking in his ways, living by the power of the Holy Spirit, who leads us into the paths of godliness. Our coming to faith in Christ, through the truth of the gospel, was the moment in time when God declared his acceptance of us and welcomed us into the family of the covenant by imputing our sin to Christ and his righteousness to us” (l. 2796-98).

9. “However needs-shaped worship is invariably self-focused. When worship begins from this premise, it quickly becomes a carnival of competing desires, demands, tastes, and private aches in the congregation. It easily descends into the therapeutic world” (l. 3333).

10. “It is this vision, though, this knowing of God, that puts steel into spines and fire into Christian hearts. When we are God-centered in our thoughts, God-fearing in our hearts, when we see with clarity what his character of holy-love is like, he begins to have weight in our lives” (l. 4225).

Ray Rice Video, Social Media, Apple Watch, Driscoll Leadership School, Led By Emotions.

Valerie Dunham. Not Seeing Is Disbelieving: How the Ray Rice Video Changed Everything. (CaPC)

Logically speaking, we should have been disgusted by the abuse from the time it happened. We should have been outraged by the victim blaming perpetrated not only by much of the general public, but by the NFL. Many were, but too many reserved true acceptance of the “altercation” as abuse until the graphic content of the beating was released. The sickening nature of the TMZ video leaves no room for “well maybe she egged him on,” or “it was a mutual fight that got out of hand,” which many had asserted, or at least hypothesized, before September 8 th . Watching a lifeless form pushed and prodded by the hulking man who put her on the ground to begin with leaves no room for “The two people obviously have a couple issues that they have to work through… they understand their own issues,” which is what Harbaugh was quoted as saying back in February.

An Honest and Well-Experienced Heart: The Piety of John Flavel edited by Adam Emery $1.99

Stephen Furtick. Crash the Chatterbox. Reviewed by Aaron Armstrong.

Dan Darling, Aaron Armstrong, and Derek Rishmawy. How Now Shall We Act Online. (ERLC)

Andy Crouch. Apple Watch: To Wear It Like a Man — or a God? (TIME)

Technology keeps getting more and more personal. First “personal computers,” which sat on your desk, gave way to laptops, which sat in a rather more intimate position. Now laptops are giving way to tablets and phones, which nestle in your hand and slip into your pocket. And early next year, the Apple Watch will wrap around quite a few wrists, which it will tap gently to signal that a friend is calling or a message has arrived.

You could say the Apple Watch will be the ultimate personal computer, but more to the point, it is one of the first intimate computers. It promises to be with you every moment of the day (though it will part with you at night for recharging—such sweet sorrow), aware of your every motion, responsive to your touch. It will be close enough, Apple promises, to feel your heartbeat—and share that heartbeat, in a feature that is either sweet or slightly creepy, with a friend.

Keith Miller. The Mark Driscoll School of Leadership. (Mere O)

We all knew that Driscoll was nicknamed the cussing pastor, but these behaviors are truly reprehensible. His abuse needed to be stopped.

Just one thing, though, before we rush to judgment. Those lines were not written about Driscoll. Those are the abusive workplace patterns of Steve Jobs .

Christina Fox. For Those Who Are Led By Their Emotions.

You know those sweet commercials about baby products where mom and baby are bonding over bath time? Those always make me tear up. I’m a sentimentalist. It doesn’t take much for me to cry. It never has.

Sometimes, it’s been a source of frustration for me, the way my emotions lie just below the surface. I never know when they’ll surprise me and jump up without notice. Other times, I’ve been embarrassed when I tear up and everyone looks at me like I have a second head on my shoulders. But there have also been times where being more of an emotional person has been a positive thing. It served me well in counseling, giving me an empathy and compassion that I needed in helping those who were hurting.

“We cannot seek God till we have found him.” George Swinnock

Luke 11:9 “And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”

Controversy / Featured Articles

Controversy: It’s the Stuff of Stories

There is nothing more entertaining than a good story. And the one most entertained in the process is never the audience, though we often assume that is who it is. No. The most entertained of every story is not the recipient but the storyteller.

Do you really think you enjoyed the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit as a reader or movie-viewer more than J. R. R. Tolkien enjoyed telling the story or Peter Jackson enjoyed reinterpreting and retelling the story. No way. J. R. R. Tolkien got so much satisfaction out of creating the world of Middle-earth, the characters, and the plot. And Peter Jackson relished every moment of having an immense budget to bring that story to life.

It’s easy to miss this because most of us are recipients, or at least we think we are. We don’t feel like we have the talent or skill to sit and write down a story. We’re not literate enough, or at least that’s what we tell ourselves.

But it’s true that storytellers are the most entertained in the storytelling process. And something they know about fostering the entertainment of a good story is that it hinges on conflict. You don’t have an entertaining story, unless you have an epic controversy.

The Stuff of Stories: The Illiad

Controversy is the stuff that makes stories entertaining. Controversy is built on the disagreement of two parties, a dispute if you will. Without this kind of disagreement, we would not have our most celebrated stories because they would lack that sine qua non of every story: conflict.

Few stories demonstrate this point better than the celebrated epic, The Illiad . Written by the master poet and storyteller Homer a millennia before Christ, The Illiad is built with controversy in both its prologue and all the way throughout this poem.

The Illiad begins in the throes of battle at the city of Troy, and it is not until much deeper into this epic, Book Three, that we learn what really brought everyone there. This epic war took place because of the abduction of the fairest woman in the world, Helen, by Paris the Prince of Troy.

Hektor provides the backdrop for us when Paris (Alexandros) cowardly retreats back into the battle lines because Menelaus, Helen’s husband, answers his challenge for the best of the Argives to meet him in battle.

Hektor scorns Paris for his cowardice and for causing this war in Book Three “Dueling for a Haunted Lady” from Robert Fitzgerald’s translation of The Illiad :

You bad-luck charm! Paris, the great lover, a gallant sight! You should have had no seed and died unmarried. Would to god you had! Better than living this way in dishonor, in everyone’s contempt. Now they laugh, Akhaians who thought you were a first-rate man, a champion, going by looks — and no backbone, no staying power is in you. Were you this way then when you made up your crews and crossed the sea in the long ships, for trafficking abroad? And when you then brought home a lovely woman from a far land: a girl already married whose brother-in-law and husband were great soldiers? Ruin for your father and all his realm, joy for our enemies, and shame for you! (62)

Why are they arrayed for battle against one another, the men of Troy and the Greeks? Paris abducts Helen, the daughter of King Tyndareus and wife to Menelaus. She is the fairest woman in all the world. After Paris abducts Helen, Menelaus calls all of Helen’s suitors to fulfill their bond. For before King Tyndareus selected Menelaus to be his daughter’s husband, he had all the suitors covenant that they would ally themselves to Helen’s husband if anything ever happened to Helen. So the epic, The Illiad , is built on a dispute over the fairest woman on earth.

But if you pull back the veil and dig into other literature, you discover that the dispute to return Helen to Menelaus is caused because of another dispute. Paris did not abduct Helen on a whim. He boarded his long boat with his crew to go claim his prize. Helen was his award.

If you read The Trojan Woman , a play by Euripides, you learn more about the prologue to The Illiad. You uncover what motivates Paris to abduct Helen. In The Trojan Woman the goddess Discord throws a golden apple into the banqueting hall at the marriage of Peleus and Thetis. The apple was designated for the fairest. This stimulates a controversy over who is the fairest of the Goddesses. It’s settled that it must be either Aphrodite, Hera or Athena. But rather than Zeus judging on the fairest, he suggests that the three Goddesses present their case to Paris. So they appear to Paris, who is shepherding in the hills. Rather than him judging their beauty, he is to judge based on who offers the best gift. One offers him lordship over Europe and Asia. Another offers him victory against the Greeks. But the golden apple ultimately goes to the final offer from Aphrodite — the offer of the fairest woman in all the world, Helen. This is the impetus of the epic The Illiad .

Without the dispute over the fairest Goddess, you would have no abduction. And without the abduction of the fairest woman, you would have no war. Without the two, you would not have The Illiad .

This is the case with all stories. Stories are not stories without controversy. Without controversy, there is no conflict. Without controversy, there is no protagonist or antagonist. Without controversy, there is nothing to resolve. Without controversy, there is no entertainment! And no one understands this better than storytellers like Homer, the ones who craft and tell the story.

The Controversial Narrative of Our Lives

We’ve just seen that controversy drives the narrative of all good literature. But what we forget is that controversy drives every narrative. I’m not just talking about literature. I’m talking about the narratives in social media, friendships, politics, news, and many more. I’m talking about the narratives of our lives.

We’re able to objectively see how controversy drives the narrative of literature because we sit passively as recipients receiving the story. What we forget is that we are all storytellers. Sure, we may not pick up a pen and get to writing like Homer or Tolkien, and we don’t start typing up a screen play and directing like Jackson. But we are still all storytellers deciding the narrative of our lives. And we’re entering into other stories as we wish.

We notice controversy in social media, friendships, politics, and news and we decide whether or not we will inject ourselves into those controversies. We decide whether those narratives will join with ours. Yes, we’re characters that enter those stories, but we’re also more than that. We are narrators that retell those stories from our vantage point.

We then lose ourselves in our subjective response to these narratives that hit us closest to home. It’s so much easier to choose a side in the controversy because we have skin in the game. We’re the narrator of the narrative. Since we are the narrator, we lose track of something else. What we don’t notice is that not only are we caught up in controversy because we have skin in the game, but because simultaneously, we’re being entertained. We are entertaining ourselves as we tell our own narrative from our vantage point of the controversy. And as the storyteller, we’re the one who is being entertained most of all.

Entertainment ends up driving our narrative, and we decide what controversies make for the most entertaining narrative. We decide which conversations to enter on social media. We pick our friends and our conflicts with them. We select our political party to champion, and we decide what news to consume and share. When we enter each of these narratives, we put skin in the game. Those become the narratives that hit closest to home. They are the controversies that we love and find most entertaining, whether we recognize it or not.

Furthermore, we want to convince our audience to love our version and be entertained with our telling of the story because this is the narrative of our lives. As the storyteller, we get far more joy out of it than anyone else, but at the same time we want everyone to see that joy and enter into it as well, and be won over to our narrative. We want them to side with us. We want them to see the controversy from our angle and champion it alongside us just like Homer, Tolkien, or Jackson.

The most important point to make of all is that we are not the only storyteller. There is another Storyteller, telling His own story. And it’s the most entertaining, controversial story to be told. And He’s inviting us all to enter it and join in the telling of that story. What is most fascinating is that he is getting the most joy in the telling of that story as well, and He knows it wouldn’t be much of a story without much of a controversy.

Previously on Controversy

Mars Hill Closes Campuses, Marketing God’s Presence, Living Dead Girl, Miraculous/Mundane Working God, Your Next Job.

Mars Hill to Close Seattle Branches, Lay Off 40 Percent of Staff. (Church Leaders)

Words for Readers and Writers: Spirit-Pooled Dialogues by Larry Woiwode .99

Barnabas Piper. The Pastor’s Kid. Reviewed by David Steele.

Bob Kauflin. Manufacturing and Marketing God’s Presence. (Pastors.com)

A few weeks ago a friend and I were glancing through a Christian magazine and noticed how often people referred to “God’s presence.” It’s a hot topic these days.

In his kindness and mercy, God often reveals his active presence to us. By “active” presence I mean God’s presence as distinct from his omnipresence and his promised presence, both of which we accept by faith. Whether we “feel” it or not, God is present when his Word is faithfully preached, when his people meet in Jesus’ name, when we celebrate the Lord’s supper, when we sing, and we were serve in his power (1 Tim. 6:13; 1 Cor. 5:4; Mt. 18:20; 1 Cor. 11:27-32; Acts 10:33; Eph. 5:18-19; 1 Pet. 4:10-11). At those times and others we can know that God is with us, empowering what we do.

Jen Thorn. Living Dead Girl.

Richard Baxter was a 17th century small town English Pastor. He was passionate about the gospel and even spent a couple years in jail for preaching it. It didn’t stop him. There was a passion and earnestness in his preaching seen in few men. He knew that life was short, and with that came the understanding that the time to be able to repent and find salvation in Christ was also short. In 1656 he wrote a book called “The Reformed Pastor” a kind of manual for preachers and preaching. In it he lays out his philosophy of ministry.

“I preached as never sure to preach again, and as a dying man to dying men.”

Those are good words for us, whether we are writing, discipling, teaching, or preaching.

Joe Holland. The Miraculous and Mundane Working God. (Christward Collective)

He makes an axe head float. He creates ex nihilo. He causes the sun to stand still. He can defeat an entire army on his own and cause his enemies to fall dead when he pleases. He brings the dead son of a widow back to life and commanded Lazarus to walk out of a tomb. The sick were healed, the blind received their sight. Our God is a mighty, miracle-working God. But he doesn’t always work that way.

John Piper. How to Decide About Your Next Job. (DG)

In 1997 I put a list of Bible texts together to help folks think through what job to pursue. Below I have taken that list and added comments to flesh out more specifically what I had in mind.

My prayer is that these thoughts will help saturate your mind with the centrality of Christ in all of life. He made you to work. And he cares about what you do with the half of your waking life called “vocation.” He wants you to rejoice in it. And he wants to be glorified in it.

May the Lord position you strategically in the workplace, as only he can when his people care deeply about these kinds of questions.

“To feel the we are ignorant is the first beginning of all saving knowledge.” J C Ryle

Psalm 119:66 “Teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I believe in your commandments.”

Do We Worship What’s In Our Pockets?

It’s just a matter of time before that event begins today. You know the one. Media has been buzzing about it all week. Many of us have vigilantly researched and studied leading up to the event to know all that we might ahead of time. And it will be the only thing that will be talked about with family and friends this afternoon and tonight. What will be said? How will we take yet another bite of the fruit offered? How will our life be affected?

I self-depricatingly type this on one of their devices after I read my Bible on another. And any moment now, I’ll get a notification from the one that’s in my pocket. But do I rule that device, or does it rule me? Let us not forget, we worship what rules us.

And does that company dictate my schedule today, or do I. Some take the day off, “a day of rest” whenever this company has a press release. Some even absentmindedly call for a holiday, forgetting the etymology of the word.

In a not too distant future, it might very well be that. People will all take a day off to rest. They’ll gather together a feast of foods to enjoy — just like on Super Bowl Sunday — everyone will gather around the streaming monitor to see what a drone will deliver to their doorsteps at the close of the address. Then they will play with their new toy, gadget, handcuff for the rest of the day, mesmerized by all the unknown needs it now fulfills. That’s right, resting and feasting will take place: a virtual sabbath will be called. And we might very well call what takes place worship.

Now, I’m not untouched. I navigate this world just as all the others — in turmoil about what to do and how to respond to all of this. Will I join in the spectacle? Will I be seduced to give more of my treasure for next year’s fleeting treasure? How much of my treasure will I share? Will I be overcome? Wait! Do you hear that echo? Will I be overcome? “For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved” (2Pet. 2:19).

I remember the first time I shared my treasure. I got a lot of help. I graduated from undergrad studies. My father came to me, knowing that I was starting seminary and offered to purchase for me the notebook of my choice, an award for hard work accomplished. Instantly, I knew what I would get. Though I used his treasure to procure mine, a little of the treasure in my heart also was shared.

I loved that device and cherished it for the next four years. It was dependable. It was efficient. It performed. It opened doorways to worlds I did not know. Every little bit of the time it stole a little bit of time from other treasure.

Then I added a listening device for working out, studying, and storing data. Then I got the one I keep in my pocket, which has upgraded at least twice since. I’ve since replaced that first notebook twice over the course of ten years. I keep a device on my wrist at all times as a clock, radio, and music player. I read consistently on another. Much of my treasure has been shared to gain these treasures. And I wonder, have I become overcome by what I treasure? Am I the subject of a ruler or are these merely objects to rule?

Is There Shame In Our Gain

I tell myself that I leverage these treasures for my greatest Treasure. And I really think I do. If you look what fills those devices and what is produced by those devices, I think you might agree. And you always know a tree by its fruit, right? Exactly!

If I’ve been vague in descriptors at all, it is as one who feels some deep sense of shame. Have I gone too far? Have we all gone too far? Not a day goes by where someone doesn’t ask, “Is that a…?” “What do you think of it?” “I’ve always wanted one.” And my responses are the normal ones that you expect; the responses that anyone has when they have great pride in their treasure.

But hidden beneath that response is a feeling of shame. O the attention these treasures draw. The assumptions that people make about the treasure and its possessor. The fulfillment that accompanies it. It’s fleeting. The day after gaining one, it becomes yet another token or trophy of status and success for the esoteric and aristocratic. Do they really need one? What does it really gain? And do I need another? It won’t satisfy. Rather, it will only remind me of my insatiable appetite that will only be fulfilled when I take a bite of an everlasting fruit and eat from a different tree.

So am I to react by becoming some sort of crazy Luddite? Or do I learn to manage my treasure that I have gained. What do I do with the shame? Do I keep burying it deep? What does it really mean? How do I embrace the already and not yet of that fruit that I will eat one day as I keep on taking bites of the fruit that tantalize me today?

5 + 5 Books On Apocalypticism and End Times

Here are 5 + 5 books that will launch you into studies on Apocalypticism and End Times.

1. Apocalypticism, Prophecy, and Magic in Early Christianity: Collected Essays by David Aune

2. Jesus, Paul and the End of the World by Ben Witherington III

3. Things to Come: A Study in Biblical Eschatology by J Dwight Pentecost

4. Jesus, the Tribulation, and the End of the Exile: Restoration Eschatology and the Origin of the Atonement by Brant Pitre

5. Prophecy and the Church by Oswald T Allis

1. Revelation and the End of All Things by Craig Koester

2. The Presence of the Future: The Eschatology of Biblical Realism George Eldon Ladd

3. Kingdom Come: The Amillennial Alternative by Sam Storms

4. Pauline Eschatology by Geerhardus Vos

5. The New Testament and the People of God V1: Christian Origins And The Question Of God by N T Wright

Truett Cathy, Child of Divorce, Confessing Sin to One Another, Celebrities/Voyeurs/Victims.

Lynde Langdon. Chick-fil-A Founder Truett Cathy Dies. (WORLD)

S. Truett Cathy, the unashamed Christian founder of Chick-fil-A, died this morning at his home in Atlanta. He was 93.

Finally Free: Fighting for Purity with the Power of Grace by Heath Lambert $3.99

Don Whitney. Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life. Reviewed by Chris Dendy.

Lindsay Swartz. Single, Christian, and a Child of Divorce. (CT)

Singles, especially women, often feel alone in the church, but being invited into authentic community through being “adopted” into a family offers the deeper sense of belonging that we were created for. Our fellow churchgoers offer lessons no class could have taught just by walking faithfully in the Lord. Personally, I have experienced so much joy, rest, and confidence in knowing that through the church I have a like-minded place I can call “home” on this earth.

Nick Batzig. 5 Thoughts on Confessing Sin to One Another. (GCD)

“Open Confession is good for the soul,” or so the maxim goes. Perhaps it might also be said, “Open Confession is good for your relationship with God and men.” While Scripture supports both of these statements, there is something of a haze that lays across the surface of the meaning of such statements in Scripture as, “Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed” ( Jas. 5:16 ).

Is James speaking of going around and confessing any sin that you can point to in your life to just about anyone you are in fellowship with in the church so that they will pray for you? Or, does he have in mind the practice of “keeping short accounts” with the brethren? Does he mean going to an offended brother or sister and asking forgiveness for a particular sin that was committed against them? Or, as the context might indicate, is James instructing individuals in the congregation to come to the elders and confess particular sins of a scandalous nature in order to be healed of a sickness with which they had been chastened by God? While we may not come to a completely settled agreement on the precise meaning of James 5:16 , there are two dangers and three applications of our duty that we should be able to agree upon when reflecting on this subject.

Tim Challies. On Nude Celebrities, Virtual Voyeurs, and Willing Victims.

I am sure you have heard by now that a group of hackers invaded the private accounts of a list of celebrities, found their photographs, and released them to the public. The celebrities were young women, the photographs were nude or semi-nude, and the shots were meant to remain private. The end result is that millions of people have now seen and enjoyed revealing photographs that were intended only for these women and their most intimate acquaintances.

2 Peter 1:3 “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness , through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence.”

“One can know a great deal about godliness without much knowledge of God.” J I Packer

Timothy Witmer on The Shepherd Leader

Timothy Witmer’s excellent book on The Shepherd Leaders is worth a close look by ever pastor and church member.

The simple thesis of this book is, “T the fundamental responsibility of church leaders is the shepherd God’s flock.” After all, the word “pastor” comes from the Latin word meaning “shepherd.” However, as you will see, shepherding is not merely the responsibility of those who are called to be pastors but also those who are called to be elders or its equivalent in our churches. In fact, you will see that “shepherding” is at the very heart of the biblical picture of leadership. Unfortunately, this emphasis is missing in many churches. …

… Therefore, though this is not a book on church polity, it will challenge your thinking on the nature, function, and structure of leadership in your church. This is important because the failure to shepherd in our churches is the simple but dangerous result when church members and leaders fail to embrace this fundamental biblical model. For example, if the church leader is called to be a shepherd,” those chosen to serve will be different than if he is to be merely a “decision-maker.” Are the elders or leadership team a “board of directors” making decisions, or is it a team of shepherds caring for the flock? The answer to this question will also have an impact on whether the primary qualification for your leadership team is corporate success and experience or a shepherd’s heart. Obviously, they are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but what is the fundamental orientation of your leaders? (ll. 110, 119)

Church Elder by Jeramie Rinne

Jeramie Rinne. Church Elders. Wheaton: Crossway, 2014. 146 pp. $14.99

Should churches have elders? How many elders should they have? Should they be paid or non-paid? What qualifies an elder? What do they do? How do you train one?

If these questions cross your mind, then Church Elders – a sensational book in the 9Marks Building Healthy Churches series – will be a huge benefit. Even if these question don’t cross your mind, this book will get your church and you, pastor, thinking about biblical church eldership.

Jeramie Rinne is the senior pastor of South Shore Baptist Church in the suburbs of Boston. He has reflected much on being an under-shepherd of his over-shepherd Jesus Christ. The fruit of this reflection is found in Church Elders , a concise handbook that helps churches identify godly men to lead the local flock of God.

Chapter one presents the biblical qualifications of an elder. Chapter two connects eldership to shepherding. Chapter three is a reminder that all elders must be bible teachers. Chapter four argues that elders watch over and protect the flock from straying. Chapter five checks pride by helping elders lead, through a servant-leader structure, without lording. Chapter six shares the advantages of leadership plurality. Chapter seven instructs elders to be worthy of imitation. Chapter eight urges elders to prayer.

In my reading of Church Elders , I found myself celebrating two key benefits. First, Rinne exposes misguided motives and models of church eldership and corrects them. Second, he gives sound counsel on qualities of elders that often go overlooked or not practiced at all.

In the first chapter, Rinne shares misconceptions about the qualities of church elders. There are three common insufficient reasons for installing someone as an elder: faithful membership, big giving, and having a leadership role outside of church. Sure, these are good qualities, but they are not biblical qualities for being an elder.

Rinne corrects these elder installation mishaps with biblical qualities: a desire for eldership, godly character, able to teach the bible, a leader of his family, being a man, and being a believer. He provides corroborating biblical evidence for these elder qualifications and concludes that biblical elders are those in whom “the sheep should detect strong traces of the Chief shepherd in the lives and character of would-be under-shepherds” (30).

In Chapter two, Rinne helps churches diagnose a popular non-biblical structure for polity. He says, “Pastors, elders, and member often misinterpret the church through business and organizational lenses” (31). He argues that it is popular to turn eldership into a board of trustees. This is an importation of a corporate business model into the Church rather than exporting the biblical view of shepherding from the text into the Church.

Is this your model of church eldership? Then, listen up. Rinne corrects this model by reminding us that elders are pastors. Shepherds always smell like sheep, which is hard to do when calling shots from a boardroom.

Rinne biblically synthesizes a biblical model here: “Just as literal shepherds live among their flocks and know their sheep, and just as Jesus immersed himself in relationships with his disciples, so elders share their lives with church members. They see people as ministry” (36). This should be the aim of every elder team.

Church Elders brings out not just the normal exposition of 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 – which it does really well – but it also guides churches to consider qualities that get overlooked or go unpracticed by elders.

One such quality is the elder as teacher. Rinne posits, “If elders shepherd Jesus’s sheep, then their most basic task is to feed the souls of church members from the Scriptures” (45). Rinne reveals that many elders are shy of preaching and teaching. But as 1 Timothy 3:2 and Ephesians 4:11 identify, elders are teachers. Thus, they not only must participate, but they also must be equipped to protect the teaching of the Bible.

Another important quality of an elder is his role to keep sheep from straying. To do this, elders must know who is in the flock. Rinne says, “It seems that biblical shepherding requires some clear way of defining the flock…to put it another way, church eldership requires some concept of church membership” (60). Rinne then presents a practical and helpful section on five species of straying sheep and how elders can protect them (62-68). Quite honestly, chapter four’s treatment on tracking down strays sets Church Elders apart from other books I’ve read on this subject.

A final noteworthy yet often overlooked or unpracticed discipline of an elder is prayer. Rinne remarks, “When an elder realizes he is a thirsty, wounded, wandering, hunted sheep himself, he will bleat for the Good Shepherd’s aid” (113). Because this is the case, elders should practice prayer extensively. Church Elders ’ outstanding section on this subject – covering public, presbyter, personal, and private prayer – will encourage and equip elder teams to leverage this discipline (113-19).

All said, Church Elders is a book that you want to carefully read with your leadership team. Church Elders will either cause you to repent and align with God’s biblical design for church polity, or it will affirm and sharpen what you are already doing.

Church Elders causes us to abandon misconceived motives and models for a biblically lush view of eldership.

Pope Hang Out, Our Response to Controversy, Evangelicalism’s Poor Form, The World in a Wafer.

Rafael Romo. In ‘hang out’ with Students, Pope Says He Was No Angel. (CNN)

It was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of opportunity: teenagers from five continents speaking directly with Pope Francis through a Google video chat.

The students from schools in Australia, Israel, Turkey, South Africa and El Salvador heard advice from the leader of the Roman Catholic Church, speaking Thursday from the Vatican in his native Spanish.

Jack: A Life of C. S. Lewis by George Sayer .99

Peter Watson. The Age of Atheists. Reviewed by Derek Rishmawy.

Trillia Newbell. The Problem with Our Response to Controversy.

I think there is a problem with our responses to controversy. It isn’t that we respond, though many could argue reasons why our responses aren’t helpful. Rather, it’s that we move on so quickly. Just a few weeks ago, I couldn’t open up a social media site without seeing the words Ferguson. I knew in my heart then that many of us would write about it and call attention to the tragedy and then we’d move on. Right now there continues to be a mother mourning and a community healing, but the rest of us have moved on.

Alastair Roberts. Evangelicalism’s Poor Form. (CaPC)

V arious approaches have been taken in response to the challenge of defining evangelicalism. Most of these have focused upon identifying the distinctive beliefs of evangelicalism. An important example is that of The Barna Group , which, for polling purposes, has identified evangelicals using nine criteria of personal belief. “ Bebbington’s quadrilateral ”—biblicism, crucicentrism, conversionism, activism—is another well-known approach, highlighting four historical emphases of evangelical theology. This definition, first advanced by the historian David Bebbington, originally served a more descriptive purpose. However, it has often subsequently been used for more prescriptive ends.

Patrick Schreiner. The World in a Wafer. (Canon and Culture)

Driving down Hawthorne Boulevard the other day I looked up to see Portland, Oregon’s version of Whole Foods called New Seasons Market . The tagline on the building says, “Locally Owned, Locally Grown.” On their website New Seasons is filled with phrases such as “home grown,” “we live local,” and “commitment to the community.” New Seasons is popular in Portland, like the other local restaurants and shops that seem to open daily in Southeast Portland. What is it about local that people love? Why are many cities in the U.S. seeing a resurgence of the Ma & Pa stores? And is there something deeper people are reaching for?

2 Corinthians 4:4 “In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

“He that is made in the image of God must know him or be desolate.” George MacDonald

15 Quotes from Church Elders by Jeramie Rinne

Today, you may have seen my review of this book at Lifeway’s Pastors Today web-blog . I’d like to share some of my favorite insights from this book.

Here are 15 quotes from this book:

1. “I hope that spiritually lethargic, pew-warming Christian men might read this book and experience an awakening desire to shepherd their families and churches” (15).

2. “When money-loving men lead a church, spending toward the poor, church-planting, and global evangelism dries up. Why invest heavily in causes that don’t directly enrich the greedy elder’s little fiefdom” (23).

3. “Pastors, elders, and members often misinterpret the church through business and organizational lenses” (31).

4. “Somehow, somewhere along the way, we have differentiated pastors from elders, the paid ministry pros from the unpaid trustees. But the New Testament makes no such distinction” (32).

5. “Just as literal shepherds live among their flocks and know their sheep, and just as Jesus immersed himself in relationships with his disciples, so elders share their lives with church members. They see people as their ministry” (36).

6. “If elders shepherd Jesus’s sheep, then their most basic task is to feed the souls of church members from the Scriptures” (45).

7. “Predators hunt sheep. Just as shepherds ward off lions and wolves, so elders must ward off false teachers” (51).

8. “It seems that biblical shepherding requires some clear way of defining the flock…To put it another way, church eldership requires some concept of church membership” (60).

9. “Elders manage, lead, admonish, and keep watch over members. Members respond by recognizing them, regarding them highly, and obeying them” (74).

10. “Pride constantly stalks our hearts, and it is ultimately the responsibility of each elder to crucify the ego daily by the Spirit’s power” (78).

11. “Aspiring elders should count the cost of serving and then spend themselves liberally for their churches while trusting in God’s grace” (86).

12. “The shepherds must shepherd the shepherds. Congregational oversight is sustainable because the elders, in plurality, act as pastors to one another” (91).

13. “But when a pastor combines sound teaching with sound living, he never lacks a devoted flock” (102).

14. “When an elder realizes he is a thirsty, wounded, wandering, hunted sheep himself, he will bleat for the Good Shepherd’s aid” (113).

15. “Overseers not only pray in order to shepherd like Jesus, we pray because we need Jesus to do the shepherding through us and to us. An elder’s ministry lives on prayer” (113).

Tapping into God’s Strength by Waiting on Him (ChristianityDOTcom Guest Article)

Isaiah 40:31 says: “But they who wait for the Lord renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”

This is one of the most celebrated and shared verses of the Bible. I’m sure you’ve seen it on greeting cards, framed pictures, and tees garnered with a picture of a soaring eagle.

If you’re like me you’ve had different responses at different times to these products. At one point you wrapped your hands on them anytime you found them. You got a euphoric inspiration from them. Then at other times these products exhausted you. You shunned them as superstitious, sentimental, or just flat out silly.

Though we oscillate between euphorically or exhaustingly responding to “soaring eagle” merchandise, this is not how we should respond to the truths in this verse. These are truths that promote waiting on God. They teach strength and endurance. Let me show you how.

READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE AT CHRISTIANITY.COM…

Parent’s Guide to Evangelical Left, Leading Millennials, Not My Plan, Pastors’ Forum, 9th Commandment: Lying.

Joseph Slife. Millennial Writes a Parent’s Guide to the Evangelical Left. (WORLD)

What does “evangelical” mean in 2014? The rise of the so-called evangelical left—a movement catching on with many younger Christians—has blurred the picture. Chelsen Vicari says the evangelical left is twisting the gospel. She is the author of a book released this week, published by Frontline. The title is Distortion : How the New Christian Left is Twisting the Gospel and Damaging the Faith . I spoke with Vicari, who serves in Washington, D.C., as the director of evangelical action for The Institute on Religion and Democracy.

Knowing Scripture by R C Sproul $2.99

Joshua Horden. Political Affections. Reviewed by Andy Draycott.

Dan Darling. 4 Ways Millennials Want to Be Led. (Church Pastor)

So, I’m not a Millennial, but barely. I was born in 1978 and officially you can’t be a Millennial unless you were born in 1980 or after. Or so I’m told. So I guess I’m a really young Gen-Xer.

Regardless, I want to address leadership among Millennials. While much ink has been spilled on what this generation wants (much ink that has wrongly cast them as a monolithic group—see my friend Chris Martin’s blog to bust this and other Millennial myths), it’s helpful for leaders of all kinds of organizations to think through what effective leadership looks like today.

Courtney Reissig. This Was Not My Plan. (TGC)

“What if I am meant to do this forever?” my husband asked me over the phone one October evening nearly two years ago. He was in Washington, D.C., for a national convention with his medical equipment company, and I was in Little Rock, Arkansas, home alone and 16 weeks pregnant with twins.

“Remember in seminary how professors used to tell us, ‘If you can do anything besides full-time pastoral work, do it’? What if this is what I should be doing?” he said, as a pit of anxiety sank deep into my stomach.

Various. Pastors’ Forum: Evangelism and Discipleship in the Local Church. (9M)

Editor’s note: We asked several pastors to tell us a few practical ways they encourage evangelism and discipleship in the life of their particular local church. Answers are below.

Kevin DeYoung. The Ninth Commandment is About Much More than Lying.

I love every bit of the Heidelberg Catechism, mostly for its Christ-centered comfort. But when read carefully, the Catechism is also tremendously challenging.

No more so than in its explanation of the ninth commandment. We may think of if as a prohibition against lying, but the Catechism rightly sees it as much more. In fact, when I read Q/A 112 of the Heidelberg Catechism I count nine things we are to do in obedience to the ninth commandment.

2 Peter 1:2 “May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.”

“Knowing God is your single greatest privilege as a Christian.” Sinclair Ferguson

Unbelievable $1.99 P&R E-Book Deals at WTS Bookstore

For 72 hours only Westminster Theological Seminary Bookstore is offering a killer $1.99 ebook deal on P&R books. There are so many books to go through, I thought that I’d give you some guidance on 5 books that you will want for sure. That’s right. For $9.95 you can get a great deal on some great books. There are many more to choose from but these are my favorites that I am glad are in my library. Each is linked directly to WTS Books!

1. John Frame. Systematic Theology.

2. Robert Letham. Union With Christ.

3. Timothy Witmer. The Shepherd Leader.

4. Richard Gaffin. By Faith, Not By Sight.

5. Mark Jones. Antinomianism.

Your Judgment Probably Lacks Gospel

You don’t have the good news without two things: justice and grace. Okay. So you need more than that. To name a few more, you need Jesus, a cross, an empty tomb, apostles to preach, and the Holy Spirit to regenerate and indwell people. But, my point is that these two other essentials, justice and grace, are indelibly linked one to the other. The gospel gives us both justice and grace. Justice in that sin is justly dealt with and redeemed sinners stand before God in full approval, and grace in that we receive unmerited favor by getting what we do not rightly deserve because of sin. Yep, if I’m ultra-reductionistic towards the gospel — which isn’t all bad since reduction is often helpful for explanatory purposes and to highlight important nuances — then it’s really hard to explain grace without justice and justice without grace.

So, here’s where this logic serves us in the day to day. If justice and gospel are indelibly linked, then our judgment should be saturated in gospel. Is yours? Because I know mine often is lacking gospel. What I mean is, when you decide to rant on social media about your “pet-peeves” or when you wax eloquent about the things that really bother you or when you want to nuance someone else’s ideas or when you are rebuking a dear brother — because we’re all about rebuking these days — you must ask yourself, “Is the judgment that I am making gospel-saturated?”

How does this practically work itself out? Well, does your judgment include compassion (Micah 7:19)? Does your judgment include sacrifice (John 10:11; 15:13)? Does your judgment include humility (Philippians 2:7-8)? These are characteristics of God’s judgment in the gospel. You see, when God looked at miserable humanity and its sinful state, he judged that salvation must come from his initiative. Which, by the way, he concluded, foreknew, and anticipated before the stars were hung in the sky. Before then, he knew he would set out to deliver humanity. His just means of reconciling sin put judgment on his Son. God, the Son, shouldered the weight of judgment upon himself and fully drank the wrath that it incurred.

So, now let’s import this into our practical living. When we air grievances, proclaim pet-peeves, gossip godlessness, we are pouring out wrath, but not on ourselves like Christ did, we’re pouring it out on others. We’ve missed the gospel here. “Judge not, and you will not be judged” (Luke 6:37) is preceded by a reversal “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36). If the gospel is saturated with mercy coated justice, then our judgment should saturate with mercy coated gospel.

So rather than heaping guilt upon others with self-righteous pronouncements: whether on social media, in a cafe, or between us and God behind the wheel of our car, we should aim to examine ourselves and look for what is wrong within us and how we might better dispense compassion, sacrifice, and humility for other’s benefit.

Osteen Predicament, A Tale of Two Mars Hills, He Increase/Church Decrease, Ruined by the Bell.

Albert Mohler. The Osteen Predicament – Mere Happiness Cannot Bear the Weight of the Gospel.

The evangelical world, joined by no shortage of secular observers, has been abuzz about the latest soundbite of note from the Pastors Osteen — this time offered by Victoria Osteen as her husband Joel beamed in the background. It is a hard video to watch.

Rediscovering the Church Fathers: Who They Were and How They Shaped the Church by Michael A G Haykin $2.99

Stephen Westerholm. Justification Reconsidered: Rethinking a Pauline Theme. Reviewed by Nate Claiborne.

Eric Geiger. A Tale of Two Mars Hills.

When I was in my late twenties, serving as an executive pastor, two young pastors suddenly seemed to burst on the evangelical scene. Their churches, both named Mars Hill, were growing rapidly, and a broader Christian audience was taking notice. The two Mars Hills— Rob Bell’s in the Grand Rapids, Michigan , area and Mark Driscoll’s in Seattle —were never associated with one another and were very different in doctrine and approach. The only relationship between the two Mars Hills is that they both became broadly well known around the same time. It seemed that suddenly I began to receive emails from pastors and Christians asking if I had heard of Rob Bell or Mark Driscoll and what I thought of their ministries.

Jared Wilson. He Must Increase; Our Churches Must Decrease.

There is one thing that the churches experiencing historic revival have in common: they seemed overrun with the sense of the glory of God. They preached the gospel and the response was, as some describe, that “glory came down.”

Now that’s not something you can schedule. You can’t advertise it on the church signboard: “Every Sunday: Glory comes down.” But it is something we can aim for, yearn for, cast a vision for, desire, crave, proclaim. You can’t program the glory, but you can plead for it.

Richard Clark. Ruined by the Bell. (CaPC)

Television, perhaps more than any other medium, has the potential to define lives – particularly when it is being watched consistently by young, impressionable children and pre-teens with rapt and trusting curiosity. Nickelodeon, MTV and Saturday morning cartoons all helped to define a generation. Their unmistakable theme songs, their likable protagonists and vile villains and their over-the-top moral lessons were taken at face value by a score of young people who didn’t know to engage culture rather than merely consume it. Unfortunately, we would later apply what we had subconsciously learned.

Proverbs 10:14 “The wise lay up knowledge, but the mouth of a fool brings ruin near.”

“Knowledge is the eye that must direct the foot of obedience.” Thomas Watson

Controversy. It’s what some cherish and others deride. Our homes, workplaces, and news are filled with it daily. The Church is far from being untouched by the effects of it. And one of the fastest places to find it and share it every day is on social media.

Right now you’re thinking about all the different controversies I could use as examples. A dozen come to mind without much thought. I don’t wish at this point to get into all those. Rather than treat the subject on a micro level — where I get into the nitty gritty of some of today’s most controversial subjects — it is far more effective to approach the subject at a macro level.

Why? Well, that’s what everyone else is doing. They look at controversy at a micro level. They take each controversy one by one and dissect it. They talk about the opposing views; they give pros and cons of each side to the controversy. Then they demand a moment of decision. Who’s side are you on?

Well, that’s well and good for a lot of people. Most of us are very interested in these controversies. We want to know all the details. We scour through wiki leaks and consume every piece of media we find on whatever that majorly controversial subject of today happens to be. We have our spokespeople or news source that provides the opinion we want to side on. We naturally gravitate this way. There is a reason for that, which I will get to below.

But rarely do people ever step back and think about the very nature of controversies themselves. What are they? What makes them what they are? How are they resolved? Why do we never seem to get away from them? Is controversy all bad? What are the advantages to controversy? These are some of the question that I hope to answer over the course of time.

Every controversy has two sides. That’s precisely what makes it what it is. After all, you don’t have a controversy unless you have a disagreement between two parties. And a good controversy is only interesting if everyone is required to make a judicious decision on what side they will fall. People are called to fall into rank on one side or the other. There isn’t a middle ground on a true controversy. That’s what makes it what it is. At the end of the day only one side will remain standing. Who will it be?

Just think of the last controversial discussion that you were in. Were you not at some point called upon for a moment of decision? Did you not have to array yourself for battle against an opponent? Did you not have to decide whether you were going to be for or opposed to the view of someone else? How did you respond to that controversial moment?

Controversy Touches Us All

Most of us don’t really know how to handle controversy. There are two poles of controversy on which we could sit. Each of us falls to one side or the other and anywhere between. On one side there are those who won’t touch it with a hundred foot pole. On the other side are those who seem to always be in the midst of the foray.

But, here’s the deal, no matter who you are, you cannot all out avoid controversy. You have been, are being, and will always be touched by it. Here’s why: Controversy plays a central role in the story of humanity. Controversy is inescapable because humanity at one point picked the wrong side for the first time. Since that moment of time, humans have been haunted by the dilemma of controversy.

For some of you, you’re already taking a cue from what I said. You’re opening your Bible now and turning to Genesis 3. You’re quickly reading along and coming to that, quite literally, fatal point of the story.

“She took of its fruit and ate…”

And there you have it right there. That’s the reason why humanity gravitates to controversy. Because we found ourselves on the wrong side for the first time. Humanity was given a dilemma. Will you trust God or trust someone less than God? Which will it be?

Over-Cafeinated Churches?, Hey Jealousy, Enoch & Afterlife, It’s Not Your Party.

Andie Roeder Moody. Give Us This Day Our Daily Brew. (CT)

A s the worship band exists the stage on Sunday morning, the pastor steps up holding the usual sermon supplies: a leather-bound Bible, an iPad with notes, and a latte from the church coffee shop.

This was an ordinary scene at the hip church we used to attend in Houston, where a brown paper cup was the accessory of choice for the pastor and most congregants. We all lined up before the service to purchase our Monk’s Blend teas or vanilla lattes. “Worship is just better when I’m caffeinated,” I often heard people say.

Inerrancy and Worldview: Answering Modern Challenges to the Bible by Vern Poythress

Mark Sayers. Facing Leviathan. Reviewed by Aaron Armstrong.

Paul Maxwell. Hey, Jealousy. (DG)

Christians always find ways to tidy up difficult and rebellious emotions. Anger has received a lot of attention lately. “Righteous anger and selfish anger,” we say. “That’s the important difference.” Perhaps. That’s fine enough. But don’t dare patronize jealousy with such trite platitudes.

Gavin Ortlund. Enoch and the Afterlife.

In the case of the doctrine of the afterlife, for instance, we have a little clue all the way at the very front of the Bible, in the first genealogy, before even the flood story: “Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him” (Genesis 5:24). The words “he was not” here cannot simply mean that God killed Enoch. In context, it is a commendation, the result of his walking with God and God’s consequent protection and blessing. As Hebrews 11:5 comments, Enoch “was taken up so that he should not see death.”

So if there was no doctrine of the afterlife in early Jewish thought, where is Enoch supposed to have gone? Where did God “take” him, if the early Jews had no notion (however dim) of heaven?

Paul David Tripp. It’s Not Your Party. (ABC)

Back in my early days of ministry, I was a kindergarten teacher at a Christian school. Those were the four longest years of my life…actually, that’s not true. They were four great years, because I was finally with an age group that I could relate to!

Romans 11:33 “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!”

“The devil has more knowledge than any of us, and yet is no better for it.” J. C. Ryle

Clayton Croy and Prima Scriptura

Clayton Croy’s introduction to New Testament exegesis explains its title, Prima Scriptura , to some degree, with a wider-angled lens on limitations of exegesis apart from contributing authorities that affect the understanding of the reader’s interpretation of the text.

For although the Bible is an authoritative source for the faith and practice of Christians, its authority does not operate in a vacuum. If it did do so, we could adopt the Reformation motto sola scriptura in the most absolute sense and largely do away with this third step. But in fact, nearly all Christian traditions employ one or more additional criteria such as tradition, reason, and experience. A more realistic motto, then, would be prima scriptura : Scripture as the primary authority, but in conjunction with and mediated by other authorities.

Know the Creeds and Councils by Justin Holcomb

This review first appeared on Lifeway’s Pastors Today web-blog.

Justin S. Holcomb. Know the Creeds and Councils . Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2014. 192 pp. $12.99.

“No creed but the Bible” is a common refrain for evangelical church leaders and members during the past few decades. Just the other day at the park a church planter shared with me this same refrain as the center of his church’s vision.

But is this a prudent philosophy? Should we really abandon two millennia of theological development and tradition? In Know the Creeds and Councils , Justin Holcomb an Episcopal priest and professor at both RTS and Gordon-Conwell – referring to the intrinsic value of Church History – graciously says, “To ignore these insights is to attempt to reinvent the wheel, and to risk reinventing it badly” (10). I agree with him.

In Know the Creeds and Councils , Holcomb sets out to bring clarified perspective of the background, content, and relevance for the essential creeds, councils, confessions, and catechisms of Christian History. In fact, each chapter is structured with that outline: Historical Background, Content, and Relevance.

Know the Creeds and Councils does not attempt to be a comprehensive guide, rather it is an accessible primer for pastors or laypersons, individuals or groups to provide a “deeper and better understanding of how the church has wrestled with major doctrinal questions and has emerged stronger as Jesus continues to build his church” (22).

This study spans Christian History, studying critical documents beginning with the Apostles Creed (ca. 140) and ending with the Chicago Statement of Biblical Inerrancy (1978), presenting synopses of crucial assemblies like the seven ecumenical councils, and examining vital reformation era statements like the Heidelberg catechism and Westminster Confession. Holcomb’s selection of source material and elucidation of church history indicates sincerity for unity and bias to produce praise of God – both admirable qualities!

There is a lot to be said about the merits of Know the Creeds and Councils . If, as many think, there is an increasing biblical illiteracy of membership within broader Evangelicalism, then let’s consider briefly how emaciated people’s understanding of Church History is? This intelligible and concise primer will be a wonderful resource for combating this infirmity within churches! Community groups and bible fellowships will profit by drawing from the well of lessons learned in Church history, and the discussion guide concluding each chapter provides ideal questions to help them drink from this well.

Pastors who utilize liturgy (something I recommend) to express the gospel and provide doctrinal guardrails may use this resource to help their leadership and congregation understand the benefit of confessions and creeds. The same can be said of us today as Holcomb asserts concerning early church leadership: “By sad experience, the leaders of the church found that there were areas in the “rule of faith” that left too much open to personal interpretation” (38). Thus, we need these time-tested statements crafted to withstand confusion or corruption.

Nestled within the pages of Know the Creeds and Councils are accounts of virtuous leaders overcoming enemies of orthodoxy (i.e. Alexander and Athanasius vs. Arius at Nicaea, 33-39), the invisible hand of God’s grace protecting the doctrine of the Church (i.e. Augustine and the Council of Carthage, 88-94), and quests for refined articulations of God’s Word (i.e. Definition of Chalcedon, 55-58). These many accounts illustrate not just the protective dogmatic nature of the Church but also the “common thread of ‘generous orthodoxy’” present throughout church history (83). Notably, throughout Know the Creeds and Councils , Holcomb exhibits where the Church agrees across the board and how she functions ecumenically in spite of remarkable distinctives.

Know the Creeds and Councils isn’t some mere fact-finding guide but a faith-forming affirmation of God’s providence over God’s people.

Screen Time, Barnabas and Noel Piper Interview, Masculine Priesthood, Life with Cancer.

Tim Challies. Faith Hacking: Managing Your Kids’ Screen Time.

One of the big challenges for every family today is placing limits on their children’s screen time. After all, if you leave the kids on their own, they will watch TV or play iPad games from the moment they wake up to the moment you force them into bed (or my kids will at any rate). How do you motivate your kids to pick up a book or go outside? How do you govern screen time without it collapsing into constant bickering?

I found an interesting solution in Greg McKeown’s book Essentialism . This is not a Christian book, but the solution is sound and could prove very useful. He, too, is a parent and he, too, has tried to limit his kids’ access to their devices and to increase their reading.

The Pastor’s Kid: Finding Your Own Faith and Identity by Barnabas Piper

Ian and Larissa Murphy. Eight Twenty-Eight: When Love Didn’t Give Up. Reviewed by Lindsey Carlson.

Trillia Newbell. A Mother’s Influence on One Pastor’s Kid: An Interview with Barnabas Piper.

It has been said that pastoral ministry is not for the faint of heart. There are pressures that stretch and challenge pastors both in ministry and personally. Evidently these pressures can also spill over onto their children. At least that was the case for Barnabas Piper who wrote about them in his book The Pastor’s Kid: Finding Your Own Faith and Identity .

Barnabas (31) is the son of popular theologian, author, and speaker, John Piper. Pastor John has served in ministry in various ways but most notably as past pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, MN where he ministered for 33 years. It is here that Barnabas derives much of his childhood memories.

But Pastor John has not served alone. Beside him, supporting and loving him along the way, has been Noel Piper, his wife of over 45 years. I asked Barnabas to tell us about his mother and how she influenced, protected, and cared for her family and specifically Barnabas as he wrestled with faith and his childhood.

Alastair Roberts. Why a Masculine Priesthood is Essential.

My thoughts about feminism, equality, and authority have provoked a considerable amount of controversy. Beyond the original discussion that sparked this off (about a month ago now), many comments have been left beneath Andrew’s post . My own post from yesterday is followed by a great deal of detailed engagement with the issues in the comments . Jenny Baker , Hannah Mudge , and Danny Webster have all written posts in answer to my position (I have also left a comment on Danny’s post, to which he has responded). Amidst the outrage in certain quarters, there has been a lot of thoughtful engagement, for which I am very appreciative. Although it is unlikely that we will all end up agreeing, I believe that it is important to understand and engage with other perspectives—especially when articulated by intelligent, experienced, and charitable interlocutors—and that all of us will find our positions sharpened as we participate in the challenge of discourse. Hopefully, the exact location of our differences will also become clearer, perhaps even being broken down to a much less threatening size. Thank you to everyone who has pursued this discussion in this productive and generous manner.

Keith Mathison. Life with Cancer: One Year Later. (Ligonier)

One year ago this week, I received a phone call I’ll never forget. I was sitting at my desk when the phone rang. I saw on the display that the call was from my wife Tricia. I answered the phone, and I could hear her crying as she spoke the words: “The doctor says I have cancer.” I felt physically sick, but I had to keep it together in order to comfort her. We talked for a few minutes, and she gave me more details. I hung up the phone, shut my door, and I prayed. I told a few of my colleagues and asked for prayer before leaving work to go be with my wife.

Proverbs 12:23 “A prudent man conceals knowledge, but the heart of fools proclaims folly.”

“That knowledge which puffs up will at last puff down.” Joseph Caryl