the Root and the Tree

8 Principals for Christian Parenting

2010-07-11T14:31:00.002-05:00

These 8 principals are covered extensively in a series preached by Pastor Tim Conway of Grace Community Church in San Antonio, TX. Of all of the messages I've ever heard on the topic of parenting, these are by far the most powerful, biblical, and challenging.

Essential Principals of Christian Parenting

1. Christ-Likeness. Imitating Christ. It is not only the goal of every Christian, but it is the goal of us as parents to lead our children, to train our children, to discipline our children to be like Christ as well. This is based on the fact that every single characteristic of Christ that’s pressed upon you as a Christian somewhere, either in command or principal or example, the same things are somewhere in the Scriptures also required of your children.

2. Christ is to have preeminence in all things. Col. 1:18 “That Christ might have preeminence in everything.”

3. Just to be a Christian, Luke 14:33 says you must renounce everything. To be a Christian you must yield everything in your life to the authority of Christ, and that includes your children, your parenting philosophies, your ideas, your opinions—everything surrendered to the feet of Christ.

4. If you love son or daughter more than Christ, you are not worthy of Christ. Christ demands your chief affection, your chief love.

5. We are not our own. We have been bought with a price. And our children are not our own. Christ looks at everything and says “Mine.” He is the Master. He is the Lord. And we are the servants. And he taught us in Luke 17:10 to say “We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.”

6. As our Master, he has given us 3 very specific commandments in the NT with regards to parenting and children, and He has given only 3 commandments.

• Matt 19:14: “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them.” It is imperative.
• Colossians 3:21: “Fathers do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.”
• Eph 6:4: “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”

7. Our Lord gives special emphasis to one of these commands: “Do not provoke your children.”

8. Our Lord emphasizes fathers. “Fathers, do not provoke…” The more satanic (and distant from Christ) a society is, the more the fathers are turned against their children.

Men: We are at War

2010-06-18T06:30:00.004-05:00

Paul Washer:

This is War - Paul Washer from I'll Be Honest on Vimeo.

Here's some excerpts from the sermon:

You and I are called to be controlled by one single passion: the doing of the will of God, and for a crown that does not perish. We must strive to be in the center of God's will.

...Now, another thing that He has given us-- not just one great love, not just one great passion, but He's also given us a great commission.

Men, we were not made to live like most men. We were made to fight. We were made to strive. We were made to work. We were made to conquer. We were made to give ourselves for something that is eternal.

Adam was given a command to do what? To go out and subdue-- to bring everything in creation in harmony with the will of God, to do all his governing, all his things within the context of God's will.

Now we live in a fallen world that lives in darkness and death. The kingdom of the evil one spread abroad throughout the land. You and I were not called to play video games. We were not called to sit in front of a television set. We were not called to give ourselves to trifles. We were called to advance a Kingdom, to live with a passion, to fight for Him, and to only ever once and a while to drop our swords and look up for a smile.

I want to fight! I don't want comfort! I don't want ease in Zion! Because the Kingdom of God is built not by those who rest in Zion, but by those who go out into the streets and fight. And the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. They are mighty. Intercessory prayer, the proclamation of the Gospel, and sacrificial love.

Men-- rise up, oh men of God! Do what you were called to do! Be valiant and strong! And know that it's going to cost you. You take your stand next to Jesus Christ and his cause, and you watch the Devil come after you, buffeting you from the outside and from the inside. But that's what war is about.

And so He has given us a great commission... to pace a room at night saying, "There is a place, there is a place, where He is not worshiped, where He is not worshiped. There is a place where He is not worshiped. I cannot sleep, there is a place where He is not worshiped... There is a place where the flag of Zion does not fly." That's what we were made for. To set aside our little temporal causes and to give ourselves to this one great battle.

What is the most important trait in a man? Is it giftedness? Absolutely not! Some of the most gifted men in the world are self-destructive, and destroy others. What does your wife need, and what does your children need? What does the world need from you? Christ-likeness. This is what we are to strive for...

R.C. Sproul's Bible Reading Plan for Beginners:

2010-05-05T06:59:00.001-05:00

Here.

Memorize Now

2010-03-24T10:03:00.002-05:00

Justin Taylor introduces a pretty cool online memorization tool called Memorize Now.

Idolatry on Sunday mornings

2010-03-12T11:26:00.003-06:00

Justin Taylor posts various links to an old Bob Kauflin series on Idolatry on Sunday Mornings.

A good quote from this series:

"Music is a powerful medium that can affect us positively or negatively. However, the root of the division is often (though not always) people insisting they know what kind of music God likes."

Book Review : God, Marriage, and Family

2010-02-18T10:44:00.003-06:00

I know without a doubt that I’ll be referring back to God, Marriage and Family by Andreas J. Köstenberger for the next 40-plus years I expect to be alive, granted that I don’t die or Jesus returns. In this book Köstenberger gives a thorough analysis of what the Bible teaches on the institutions of Marriage and Family. Here’s a key statement from the book:

Both the Old and the New Testament present a coherent body of teachings pertaining to marriage and the family. From the Garden of Eden, to Israel, to Jesus, to the early church, to Paul, all uphold a very high standard in this crucial area of life. While countless times individuals fell and will fall short of God’s ideal, Scripture makes clear that the Creator’s standard for marriage and family remains intact—it was instituted at Creation, and is expected of humankind today. In this as well as in other areas, in the first century as today, Christianity towers above pagan cultures and displays the character of a holy God in the lives and relationships of his people. (275)

This book was honestly a challenge for me mentally, as the book was written at more of a pastor/scholar level. Also, I found that some of the topics were more interesting to me than others, requiring a bit of discipline, but that is my weakness and not the book's. Overall it was well worth working through this book to not only deepen my understanding of what the Bible teaches, but to also familiarize myself with it, knowing I'll be returning to it again and again as a helpful resource. Not only does Köstenberger spend a great deal of the book attempting to address everything the Bible says about marriage and family (Old Testament and New Testament), but he also thoroughly addresses many moral issues associated with family: divorce, abortion, birth-control methods, homosexuality, singleness, etc.

One thing that struck me as I read this book was the impact ignorance can play these areas of life. For instance, early in our marriage, when Kerry and I were trying to decide which “family-planning” method to use, we did not only lack in our understanding of how these methods actually worked, but we also lacked a biblical understanding of the sanctity of life and when life actually begins (inside or outside the womb). We thank God that our understanding deepened before we were married, and were thus able to avoid methods that were “abortive” in nature, but had we not sought out biblical wisdom and discernment in these issues and instead gone with our "natural" inclinations, we would have likely made a deeply regrettable decision. Köstenberger wrestles with issues like these in-depth and gives some helpful and practical guidelines for discernment.

The resources toward the end of the book are outstanding (171 of the book’s 448 pages are resources for further study!), and the overall format is easy to use as a reference. Not only do I plan to turn to this book much in the future, but I would highly recommend this book to anyone, especially elders, parents, or students of the Bible.

Classic Education

2010-02-15T16:09:00.003-06:00

A very good article on self-education by reading, and how to read well.

Book Reading Progress Report

2010-02-07T22:05:00.003-06:00

I knew it would be more difficult than it seemed to read and review one book every two weeks. So far, I've stayed somewhat on pace (reading A Praying Life and Family Driven Faith in January), though I've always got to weigh priorities carefully. Often the most important use of my time is not reading a book, but completing some other task or spending quality time with my wife and kids. There is honestly precious little time to devote to reading at home, and so many books I long to read. Right now I've started or am close to midway through the following books:

God, Marriage, and Family by Andreas J. Kostenberger
Seeing With New Eyes by David Powlison
The Trellis and the Vine by Colin Marshall and Tony Payne
How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler

At this point, I think that in order to make some real headway I need to put all of the books but one on the shelf, and that one should probably be God, Marriage, and Family, since it's been next on the list for quite a while, and because it's a slower read due to its "theological density". It's been a very good book, but I don't want to be reading it for the next year!

So I'm going to try to make a little more headway tonight and hopefully have God, Marriage, and Family done by the end of the week.

A Higher Step : The Sympathy of Christ

2010-02-05T09:19:00.008-06:00

The following is an excerpt from "The Love of Jesus, What it is, None but His Loved Ones Know", delivered by C.H. Spurgeon on June18th, 1862. I've been listening to some of these on my way to work (listen/download to it here), and every time I am in awe of the fact someone could ever speak with such power, eloquence, and wisdom.

"...But I want to take you higher than this; not higher in some senses, but higher really, for these raptures are, of course, only like angels' visits, few and far between; but here is something which may be more lasting, and which, certainly, is a higher state of mind as to the knowledge of Christ. To know Christ sympathetically, is a yet higher stage than any to which we have attained before. What do I mean by this? I will show you, first of all, what I do not mean. We will suppose ourselves standing on the brow of the hill with Jerusalem in the alley below. Jerusalem is to be destroyed by the Romans; the decree has none forth that its sin must be punished. Now, here is a brother who holds very high doctrines in his head, but who has not much sympathy in his heart. Come up here, brother. Do you see that city there? That is all to be destroyed! Do you see its streets? They are all to be crimsoned with blood! Do you see its temple? Not one stone of it is to be left upon another! What do you think of it? 'Well,'. says he, 'if they are to be saved they will be saved; if it is in the purpose and the decree it will be so. I am sure I am very sorry if they should not be, but I do not see that it is any particular business of mine; the Lord will have his own, and it will all be well.' Get down, sir! What do you know about the love of Christ? Nothing! Give such a man as you that text, 'He beheld the city and wept over it,' and you would not know how to preach from it, for you do not know the Savior's heart, and have not known his love. But bring hither another man; he holds the same doctrinal truths, but he looks down on the city, and what does he say?

'Oh, fain my pity would reclaim
And snatch the fire-brands from the flame.

'Lord, what must I do? Give me anything to do for them! My heart's desire and prayer for them is that they may be saved;' and the tears begin to flow, and when he turns to the book and reads that Jesus beheld the city and wept over it, and said, 'If thou at least in this thy day had known the things which belong unto thy peace,' he says, 'Well, I do not know how to explain that to my doctrinal friend; I do not know how to make these feelings quite square and tally with the doctrine; but somehow or other I know there is no disagreement, for I feel the one is true, and I also feel the sympathy in my heart; I know that God will have his own, but I hope he will have them through my instrumentality; I believe that his chosen will be brought in, but, O that it may be my happy lot to bring in some of them to the praise and the glory of his grace!' 'Why,' some professors say, 'I am not my brother's keeper.' No, but if you are not, I tell you what are- you are your brother's killer! You are one of the two. If you say you are not your brother's keeper, rest assured that you are a Cain, and that you will be your brother's murderer, for we either do good or hate. It is impossible for us to be devoid of influence. If the rill runs through the meads it makes them fertile; if you dam it up and make it stagnant, you have not destroyed its influence. Ah, no, you have only changed it into a fetid pool and its influence shall curse the valley with disease. So with a good man, if he serves his Master, he is scattering mercy abroad; but let him, if it were possible for him to do so, let him cease to serve the Lord and become idle, and then he scatters miasma, plague, and death. Oh, do we know the love of Christ by feeling it in our own hearts? There are some of us who can say that we have felt that we could do anything for souls. When we have heard it said of the Master, 'He saved others, himself he cannot save,' we have felt that we would not spare ourselves if God would only spare them; and when Paul said he could wish himself accursed from Christ for his brethren, while commentators have been spelling that over, and cannot make it out, we have had sympathy with it, and have been able to say, 'We have felt the same;' we have felt that we could even be lost to save others, and we have said, 'Let my name perish; let me be forgotten if my congregation may only be saved; if my children may be blessed; if my hearers may be converted to God.' Men in this state know Christ's love after a wonderful and marvellous sort. May God teach you each this way. May he help you to weep like Christ, to work like Christ, ay, and to be ready to die like Christ, if it were needful by such means to bring sinners to their Savior and their Lord. O that we could get here! I know my dear brother, the pastor of this Church, would desire nothing more for you than that you might know Christ's love by feeling it in your hearts. O that Christ would come and look out of these eyes, and weep down these cheeks! O that he would speak through these lips, till it should not be the old self, man, that thought, and spoke and acted, but the new-born Spirit of the Lord Jesus that had come into us and possessed us with a higher and a nobler life, that we might spend and be spent for him."

Book Review : Family Driven Faith

2010-01-31T22:28:00.007-06:00

Nowadays, it is fairly well known that almost 90% of teens who profess Christianity leave the church by the end of their first year of college. There seems to be a great deal of uncertainty as to how our kids should be raised, and what the church's and the parents' roles are in all this. But the fact that 1 out of 10 kids who claim to be Christians actually continue in the faith after high school is a red flag that something is wrong with today's norms.

When I started reading Voddie Baucham's diagnosis and solution to this the problem, outlined in his book Family Driven Faith, I have to admit I was very skeptical. From the few times I have listened to his sermons , I knew Baucham was a gifted and passionate preacher, and was not afraid to be controversial, no matter how "unpopular" his view may be. I knew he was very well-grounded theologically, and I think I can say "Amen" to almost everything he says about the foundational doctrines, but when it comes to his views on what it looks like to "obey" the Word of God in all manners of life, such as how to raise kids, I sometimes find myself in uncharted and unknown territory. Particularly on the issue of raising kids, I've always felt the Bible was clear that we were to "bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord," but I have agonized over the many views in Christian teaching on how this is applied. So, all that's to say that, in picking up this book, I was expecting to deal with some "uncomfortable" topics for me.

And as I read through the book, many parts did make me uncomfortable-- but in a good way. I didn't realize it, but before I read this book I had assumed a lot of things about how my kids would grow up, without questioning the biblical foundation of it all. I had never ever questioned the thought of my kids going to public school, nor had I considered having regular times of family worship and doing things that would shape my children's worldview. As Baucham states repeatedly, these are decisions worth wrestling with and testing.

Baucham seeks to challenge his readers (namely parents, especially fathers/husbands) to wrestle with what God would call them to do in light of what the Bible says about raising children, and to consider the Biblical standards related to managing the family (such as Eph. 6:1-4, 1 Timothy 3, Titus 1, and 1 Peter 5). One of his primary aims in Family Driven Faith is to inspire his readers to invest in their children with a view toward multigenerational faithfulness.

With this goal in mind, noting that it's impossible without the sovereign work of God (though I would say this is not emphasized enough), Baucham pleads with the reader to wrestle with societal norms for parenting, which tend to place faithfulness to Christ at the bottom of the priority list. I agreed with his descriptions of our culture, in that, upon closer examination, the American culture is predominantly anti-marriage and anti-child in nature. But what I really appreciated is that every area of weakness in typical child-rearing and youth ministry structures were countered with a great deal of biblically-supported ideas pointing to an alternative direction.

For example, I knew from the beginning that it would take a strong argument and a great deal of powerful persuasion to get me to even begin to think positively about homeschooling our own kids (the main reason being that we simply don't think we are capable of doing it well). My position didn't budge until I considered Baucham's words (directed toward cynics like myself) on page 123:

Before you run off screaming, "Another homeschool dad trying to convince us all to do what he does," let me assure you of a couple of things. First, I would never suggest that everyone should educate his or her children the same way we educate ours. Second, I don't want to make it that easy. I want you to think about what the Bible has to say on the subject and wrestle with the decision you have to make. That being said, let's look at some key biblical passages and their implications.
Proverbs 1:7 is foundational to our discussion. Solomon tells us, "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge" (cf. Job 28:28; Psalm 111:10; Proverbs 9:10; 15:33; Ecclesiastes 12:13). In other words, our educational choice has to be based on the fact that God cannot and must not be ignored in the process. Any educational system that denies the existence, preeminence, and primacy of God is in violation of this biblical principle and is detracting from, rather than contributing to, the discipleship process.

He goes on make what is, in my opinion, a strong argument for how difficult it is to develop a Biblical worldview in your child in government schools, as opposed to educating at home, which makes sense in light of Romans 12:2, Col. 2:8, and 1 Timothy 6:20-21. He says, "Clearly, believers are to avoid unnecessary exposure to worldview influences that would contradict and/or undermine biblical truth. Again, any educational choice we make must take this biblical principal into account."

Baucham offers many other ideas that greatly challenged my conceptions of discipling our children. Among these is setting aside times for family worship, a concept which, as a result of Baucham's persuasive arguments and helpful instruction, I've already put into practice with my own family.

With all of the "hot-spots" Baucham touches on in Family Driven Faith, I would say that the most "radical" ideas of the book are in the final two chapters, where Baucham argues for a paradigm shift from the contemporary "age-segregated" church model to what is called a "Family-Integrated" church structure, the structure his own church uses (and apparently many others across the country). In this structure there is no nursery, no children's church, no youth-ministry, and no other program that is designed to target specific age groups. Rather, everything the church does, it does in the context of the family, regardless of age. I have to admit, this is hard to imagine, especially with two children who at times are out of control and rebellious. Before reading this book I would have never imagined sitting through a church service with them sitting next to me. But this is an incredibly thought-provoking section that has probably forever changed the way I look at our church structure, which tends to place the "discipleship" responsibility on the youth leader and not on the parents. The statistics demonstrate well the effectiveness of this approach.

I appreciate that Baucham does caution his readers who might be persuaded toward a Family-Integrated Church model to not try to overthrow their churches with these ideas. He points out that if they're a leader, they would likely meet a lot of opposition and possibly get fired (he knows people who have), and he encourages non-leaders like me to simply pray.

Overall, I'd say this is a book that I recommend to any Christian who's willing to wrestle with the role of the family in discipling our children. I may change my mind in one direction or the other on the positions for which Baucham argues, but I am deeply appreciative of Baucham's book and the challenges it rings out.

Book Review : A Praying Life

2010-01-23T13:48:00.004-06:00

This has been a wonderful season for me in reading the Bible consistently and vigorously. The Gospel has spoken deep to my heart with new richness, and my intimidation with the Old Testament is slowly being replaced with interest and wonder. The thing that has haunted me, though, is reading passages like Matthew 7:21-23 and Matthew 25:31-46, where Christ is judging man according to what they have done, how they lived their life. In these passages, it seems that a key characteristic of those who have a real faith in Christ is that Christ says he knows them. There is a relationship there. I looked at my current relationship with God, and it honestly seemed disconnected from what Christ was talking about. I talk to God occasionally, but most of my time "dedicated" to Him is in the morning or on my drive to work, and is spent reading, learning and thinking about Him and very little prayer. I began to realize I didn't really know how to pray, nor was I sure if I really believed that prayer was anything more than "talking to air."

That's why, when Kevin DeYoung listed A Praying Life by Paul E. Miller as his #1 book of 2009, I immediately used my Christmas gift money to buy it on Amazon. Two weeks later, I would have to say this has been one of the most helpful and encouraging books I've ever read, in both prayer and parenting... more on that later.

One of the book's strengths is that Miller has written to a broad audience with broad struggles, brilliantly weaving and connecting his personal journey throughout the book. I'm sure that because he's conducted conferences about prayer for many years, he has heard the most common objections and struggles that lead people to a shallow prayer life. With great clarity, in A Praying Life, Miller acknowledges the negative extremes that people move toward and then humbly points the reader back toward the Good Shepherd. For the one who is influenced by mysticism he teaches the reader to watch the story God is weaving with hope, that you don't miss his beautiful work, and to seek God, not an experience. To the person who struggles with asking anything of an all-knowing, all-powerful God, he points to the child-like faith Christ talked about. He dedicates a significant portion of the book to "following Jesus out of cynicism."

I truly enjoyed this book, and I think the main reason for this is Miller's personal stories involving his daughter with severe autism, and all that God has showed him over the twenty-plus years of raising her and four other children. As I have found raising my own three-year-old son to be the most humbling responsibility I've ever taken on, I was heartened by Miller's teaching and enabled to see the role God is playing through these struggles.

Not only do I plan to read this book again and again, but this is a book I would recommend to any person who wants to pray better... in other words, it should be a must-read for every Christian.

Housekeeping...

2010-01-22T21:30:00.002-06:00

Life goes on, but I've been devouring both scripture and some new books. I'm almost done with Paul Miller's A Praying Life, which has been an amazingly helpful book!

7 Rules of Negotiating

2010-01-22T21:17:00.003-06:00

I'm in the process of filing all of these loose sheets of paper lying around, and I really didn't have a place for this scrap of paper with Dave Ramsey's 7 Rules of Negotiating scribbled on it. So, I figured it'd be better to file it away online. We don't officially endorse these rules-- some of these tactics may come across as rude and unloving, depending on the situation, and we don't want to do that! Nonetheless, these can also be helpful:

Dave Ramsey's 7 Rules of Negotiating:

Always tell the truth. One note on this, sited from Tom Stanley's "The Millionaire Next Door", was that the #1 characteristics of millionaires was that they had fanatical levels of integrity.
Use cash. We actually tried this when we bought our couches. Seemed to help.
Use walk-away power. In other words, do not emotionally attach yourself to the item. The salespeople have to feel they're "losing" you...
Shut up. Ask a question, gather information, and remember that silence is powerful. Good question to ask: "Is that price firm?"
Use the phrase: "That's not good enough." (This was made famous by Henry Kissinger)
Go to the authority. When you're not getting anywhere, say, "I'm sorry. I made a mistake-- I thought you were qualified to negotiate. (Something tells me Ramsey could say this more effectively than me. I'd probably get kicked out of the store...)
Use the "If I" technique. Example: "If I were to _____, I would need to ____." Have patience with this.

A couple of notes I jotted down were:

You must know where to look for the deals
Trade for something
Deal with individuals

Do with that what you may, but now I can throw away my piece of paper, so I'm happy!

10 Questions for 2010

2010-01-02T23:13:00.003-06:00

Inspired by Kevin DeYoung's post, I tried to think of 10 of my greatest weaknesses in which I would to grow over the course of the next year. So, if you see me, here are 10 specific questions to ask me throughout the year:

Is my prayer life growing?
Am I reading through the Bible and memorizing Scripture daily?
Have I done anything special for my wife to show that I "cherish" her?
Am I faithful to pray for my wife and kids daily?
Am I growing in love, patience and wisdom in my relationship with my kids?
Am I eating too much?
Am I reading books?
Am I being faithful in my job?
Am I consistently praying our church's elders, and for the groups/ministries I'm committed to?
Am I running away from suffering, or am I dependent and trusting in the Lord's provision?

Book Review : Tactics

2009-12-29T11:24:00.004-06:00

Two months ago, the very thought of bringing up spiritual topics with those of "opposing views" would have terrified me. Even after reading several books on evangelism and going through the Way of the Master program through my church, I had very little confidence in my methods for bringing up spiritual concerns, let alone in how to make the best use of the opportunities that came up on their own.

I have finally read a book that has completely changed my mindset. After reading Tim Challies' review, I knew had I had to give the book a try, and I was not disappointed. The book is called Tactics, and is written by Gregory Koukl, who, according to the back of the book, "holds MA degrees in both apologetics and philosophy", and has "spoken on many college campuses and hosted his own radio talk show for 18 years defending 'Christianity Worth Thinking About'". So now let's talk about the book...

The first two chapters of Tactics lay some foundation on why Christians should "argue", addressing many of his readers' reservations along the way. Koukl describes how one needs three basic skills in order to effectively represent Christ, or in other words, to be his ambassadors in the twenty-first-century: knowledge, wisdom, and character. He says:

These three skills-- knowledge, an accurately informed mind; wisdom, an artful method; and character, an attractive manner-- play a part in every effective involvement with a non-believer. The second skill, tactical wisdom, is the main focus of this book.

Koukl later defines what he means by "Tactics", saying that they involve focusing on the situation at hand, designing your "particular responses to particular people so you can begin to have an impact in specific situations". He says tactics can help because they offer techniques of maneuvering through difficult situations.

The first and most valuable in terms of flexibility and adaptability of all of the tactics is what he calls "Columbo". In fact, half of the book is dedicated to this tactic. Here's how Koukl describes it:

The key to the Columbo tactic is to go on the offensive in an inoffensive way by using carefully selected questions to productively advance the conversation. Simply put, never make a statement, at least at first, when a question will do the job.

For me, the Columbo tactic was by far one of the most helpful concepts that I gleaned from the book. The three basic steps to the tactic, each step having a chapter devoted to it, are:

Gather the facts ("What did you mean by that?")
Reverse the burden of proof ("How did you come to that conclusion?")
Lead the way

Koukl points out many of the advantages to asking questions (instead of responding with statements. For instance:

Questions are friendly and flattering
You'll get an education
Questions allow you to make progress on a point without being pushy
Carefully placed questions put you in the driver's seat

He goes into great detail using hypothetical (but common) situations to illustrate the tactics behind the Columbo method. This is the "Game Plan" section of the book.

The second half in the book goes into the nitty-gritty tactics for finding flaws in peoples' arguments. Some of these "deconstructions" were really helpful for me, such as the section on the "prohibition of proselytizing", or sharing the Christian faith in an attempt to influence someone to become a Christian. When someone objects, saying "You should stop trying to change other people's religions views," their statement has a fundamental flaw, because by making that statement, they are trying to change the Christian's religious views, which command sharing the gospel to all people.

However, I could see many people objecting to how "simply" Koukl points out flaws to some of the more complicated theological issues. For instance, his section on Theistic Evolution is so simple that there's no way it would persuade a theistic evolutionist (see some of the discussion on Challies' blog).

Overall, I found Tactics to be an excellent book on discussing spiritually issues with in a non-offensive manner. The message is offensive enough, without the messenger getting in the way. I certainly will be coming back to this book again and again in years to come.

Trevin Wax's Top 10 Books

2009-12-16T16:27:00.001-06:00

Check them out here and have a chance to win them all, plus an ESV Study Bible!

Manly Men of God

2009-12-09T07:04:00.002-06:00

Ray Ortlund offers three ways to create a culture of "manlyness" that is "intensely felt, openly demonstrated love between manly men of God".

Book Review: Peace Like a River

2009-12-02T07:01:00.007-06:00

As I navigated the final pages of Leif Enger's first novel Peace Like a River, my heart was thumping and tears were welling up. This book affected me deeply. In fact, after finally completing the work a week ago I would venture to say it was one of the most powerful illustrations of the Christian life that I have ever encountered. And in many ways, I would argue, it portrays a vivid and gripping "Biblical" understanding of what true godliness looks like. Here's a few thoughts on the Leif Enger's work:

Peace Like a River is told through the eyes of eleven-year-old Reuben Land, who speaks with the sort of voice you'd find in a Mark Twain novel, fresh and unique. To illustrate, here are the opening words of the book:

From my first breath in this world, all I wanted was a good set of lungs and the air to fill them with-- given circumstances, you might presume, for an American baby of the twentieth century. Think about your own first gasp: a shocking wind roweling so easily down your throat, and you still slipping around in the doctor's hands. How you you yowled! Not a thing on your mind but breakfast, and that was on the way.

When I was born to Helen and Jeremiah Land, in 1951, my lungs refused to kick in

My father wasn't in the delivery room or even in the building; the halls of Wilson Hospital were close and short, and Dad had gone out to pace in the damp September wind. He was praying, rounding the block for the fifth time, when the air quickened. He opened his eyes and discovered he was running-- sprinting across the grass toward the door.

"How'd you know?" I adored this story, made him tell it all the time.

"God told me you were in trouble."

"Out loud? Did you hear Him?"

"Nope, not out loud. But He made me run, Reuben. I guess I figured it out on the way."

As you read on, Peace Like a River unfolds in riveting fashion-- I'll leave the surprise to you. But what really captured my imagination was interplay between the life of a man completely devoted to God-- Jeremiah Land, Reuben's father-- and the world about him, which was filled with every kind of evil. The reality that this world is not our home and is in fact hostile to God is painted with a flavor of real truth. This worldview is nowhere as clearly defined as it is at the end of the first chapter in the words of Jeremiah Land:

We and the world, my children, will always be at war.

Retreat is impossible.

Arm yourselves.

So many other "Biblical" truths are played out in Enger's story, as well: the consequences and destruction that follow disobedience to authority, the moral dilemmas of speaking truthfully verses lying, the interaction between God's sovereignty and human choice, the goodness and love of God... And then there's the subject of "miracles", which is to the narrator of primary importance. As Reuben pondered the amazing miracles God performed through his father, beginning with the first miracle of raising Reuben from the dead as a baby, he said the following:

I believe I was preserved, through those twelve airless minutes, in order to be a witness, and as a witness, let me say that a miracle is no cute thing but more like the swing of a sword. (Itallics mine)

Overall, Leif Enger's first major novel appears to be one that may stand the test of time as one of the best under the category of Christian fiction. Read this book. I think you'll like it.

Also worth checking out: What John Piper has to say about Peace Like a River .

On reading books...

2009-11-29T19:53:00.002-06:00

For probably many reasons, my passion for reading books-- particularly nonfiction-- has dramatically increased over the past few years. It is simply an incredible way to interact with the world's greatest teachers, and to glean wisdom and understanding from great men of faith.

The only problem is that:

I'm a slow reader
I read too many books at the same time, thus rarely "finishing" them
I have higher priorities that demand time away from reading
I don't really have a lot of training in how to really "read" a book, how to interact with it and ultimately be able to reconstruct the main arguments to the satisfaction of the book's author, and I don't know how to make helpful notes for future reference. Things like this...

So I have begun a project of sorts to reform my reading habits. I'll have a great opportunity to improve, as I have a lot of reading material to work through. Here is a growing list of books which I plan to read through next year, in no particular order:

Peace Like a River; Leif Enger (A fiction book, I'm almost done with this one)
God, Marriage, and Family; Andreas J. Kostenberger
Christless Christianity; Michael Horton
War of Words; Paul Tripp
Future Men; Douglas Wilson
How to Read a Book; Mortimer Adler. (I'll read this as soon as it's available from the library!)
Heaven; Randy Alcorn
Worship Matters; Bob Kauflin
The Cross Centered Life; C.J. Mahaney
Successful Christian Parenting; John MacArthur
Grace-Based Parenting; Tim Kimmel
Tactics: A game-plan for discussing your Christian convictions; Gregory Koukl
Seeing with New Eyes: Counseling and the Human Condition through the Lens of Scripture; David Powlison
Lectures to my Students; C.H. Spurgeon
Speaking the Truth in Love; David Powlison
The Treasure Principal; Randy Alcorn
The Pursuit of Holiness; Jerry Bridges
Respectable Sins; Jerry Bridges
How People Change; Paul Tripp
Desiring God; John Piper
The Momentary Marriage; John Piper

So here's the plan. For the first time ever, I'm going to read each book, one at a time. And I'm going to make it a goal to read one book every two weeks. This means that with the current list I should be able to finish all of the books by late October of 2010... I've got a good start right now with the first book, Peace Like a River, which should be finished sometime in the next couple of days.

The second part of the plan is that I will write some sort of a review of each book I read and post it on this blog.

I'll end with an encouragement to all of you out there, to look at your own reading habits. Are there any adjustments are resolutions you'd wish to make for the upcoming year?...

Sesame Street Thanksgiving

2009-11-26T08:30:00.002-06:00

Why Read the Bible? - Part 4

2009-11-26T07:55:00.003-06:00

A Final Exhortation

I'm not exactly sure how to describe this, but over the last few weeks, one thing has been made clear to me, and it is this: as I surrender and turn from my own will to do things my way, and fall on my knees in full submission to the Lord, not only is my affection for His Word and my desire to pray dramatically increased, but it is as if a veil is removed and I am able to see the beauty of the Lord and joyfully behold his glory. My former way seems like silliness, like a mere trifling, and I long for this "clearer vision" to sink deep within my heart and soul and take hold of my will. I suppose it may also be important to note that this "clearer vision" and "awe" I experience is so easily snatched the moment I get up and begin to navigate through life's affairs. But the point is this: the Word of God is useless to us if we are seeking to go our own way. But it is the great teacher to the man who seeks the Lord and all his ways.

This makes sense, I suppose, but I find that we often try to find ways to improve our "devotional life" without first repenting of going our own way, and surrendering all we have to God. It is part of our sinful nature to want to go our own way.

So of all of the additional things I could say about why I or any other Christian should read the Bible, my final exhortation is to repent of going your own way. Without this, you will read the Bible for the wrong reasons, twisting scripture and using it for your own agenda. Repent of this before anything else.

God is not silent, for He has spoken through the prophets and apostles, and most of all speaking to us in the form of God and man, Jesus Christ our Lord. Read the Word, that "you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God." (Col. 1:9-10)

Why Read the Bible? - Part 3

2009-11-09T06:33:00.003-06:00

Analogy from "the Body of Christ"

Yesterday Pastor Tim used the human body as an example of what the "Body of of Christ" (1 Cor 12:27) should like be like, and how we need one another to "function" as God called is to, based on the gifts and abilities God gave us.

Now, it occurred to me how important the immune system is for the body. Without a healthy immune system, outside viruses will come in and disrupt the functionality of the body, even leading to death. In many ways the Bible, too, has an "immune system" function, enabling each part of the body to fight off the enemy's attacks and stay on track with what we're called to do. There's many other analogies, but to focus on this one you realize that temptations and attacks are constant, which is why Paul calls the church to take up "the Sword of the Spirit", which is the Word of God, "praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication." (Eph. 6:10-20)

Have the Word of God readily available, for the days are evil. Read it, meditate on it, memorize it, know it well with all prayer and supplication...

Why Read the Bible - Part 2

2009-11-06T07:05:00.003-06:00

From Duty to Delight

Let me first say that if you have any desire whatsoever to read the Bible right now, do that instead of reading this blog post, since my prayer here is that God would give you a desire for His Word... but if you lack desire, may these words be of encouragement:

"Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.

He is like a tree planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.
The wicked are not so,
but are like chaff that the wind drives away."

I have come to a realization over the years that, whether we know it or not, we are in a battle for our desires. Test what I'm about to say with scripture, but I would contend that worldly passions which diminish God are at war with passions that glorify God. And I plead with you to not be deceived by the things that war over your desire, for they are pulling you away from the source of life, the Word of God. From the moment you wake up to the moment you lie down-- newspaper, television, food, movies, music, video games, hobbies, sports, dreams, ambitions, money... all of these demand your heart's attention. But they will not satisfy. Pray, pray, pray for God to give you a desire for that which is more precious than all of these. Pray unceasingly (2 Thessalonians. 5:17) for a desire to know Him and to read the God-breathed scriptures (2 Tim. 3:16-17). There is so much more, but this is the beginning. This is the constant battle for our desires.

"Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever." (1 John 2:15-17)

Have the courage to pray to God and ask Him to make clear to you the things that are stealing your desires. Maybe even ask a brother in Christ if they see something you don't (this takes a lot of courage). Then ask God what He wants you to do, praying and searching His Word for answers...

Make the most of every opportunity, and sink your roots deep. May you be like that tree planted by the streams of water, yielding fruit and never withering.

The Marks of Manhood

2009-11-02T21:48:00.001-06:00

Al Mohler gives the 13 marks of male maturity.

Why Read the Bible? - Part 1

2009-11-01T21:31:00.004-06:00

Late last night, in honor of "Reformation Day", I sat down with my wife's family and watched the movie "Luther", which from all I can tell is a pretty accurate account of Dr. Martin Luther's role in reforming the Christian Church. It's the second time I've seen the movie, but the second viewing certainly hit home far more than the first.

I think the main reason for this is that I've read the Bible more in the past year than probably every other year of my life combined, and my love for the scriptures has seldom been as consistently high as it has in 2009. Yes, there's still books of the Bible I haven't read, but I have had an unprecedented desire to hunt for truth, to seek counsel and understanding from God, to be affected by His Word.

So when I watched "Luther", it really hit me to realize the cost Christians before us have paid for this book, that we might have the opportunity to read the Holy Scriptures for ourselves, to not have to depend on the interpretations of Priests who may not have even studied the Scriptures themselves, but to study the God-Breathed scriptures with my own eyes. Countless great men of faith gave their lives for this Book.

So what has happened in our time? What did men like Luther see and feel and know that we don't? Why do most Christians in America today own 5 Bibles and read none of them? Why do most Christians lack a strong Biblical understanding of what the Bible actually says about life issues? When we counsel one another, why is it not saturated with Scripture? Why do we not tremble with humility and reverence before the Word of God?

One possibility is that we are not truly a Christian. We must test ourselves:

"Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!" - 2 Cor 13:5

However, if we are truly saved by our Father-- that is if we have placed our faith and hope for salvation and life in Christ alone and not in ourselves-- then there must be other reasons why we don't devote ourselves to scripture the way we ought, and why our hearts don't yearn for it more than anything in this world.

So here's the point: I want to desire God's Word far more than I do now, and I want my brothers and sisters in Christ to love God's Word, too. For the next couple of weeks I'm going to dig into why it's important for us to read the Bible in hopes that not only my desire will grow, but that I would also be able to persuade and encourage many others to make Bible study a significant and passionate part of their lives.

Bible reading plans...

2009-02-26T13:44:00.003-06:00

Here are several reading plans recommended by Justin Taylor.

Memorize ESV Passages via MP3

2009-02-18T13:56:00.001-06:00

If you want to download and transfer passages of the ESV to an iPod (or any MP3 player), here's how.

HT: ESV Blog

Christ-Centered Parenting with Young Children

2009-02-17T23:53:00.003-06:00

A good Q&A from C.J. & Carolyn Mahaney, check it out here.

Lemonade Corporation

2009-02-16T16:31:00.002-06:00

HT: Justin Taylor's blog

What Great Managers Know

2009-02-11T16:29:00.002-06:00

From First, Break All the Rules by Marcus Buckingham, the point is made that great managers don't assume that they can correct or add lacking traits in their employees. Rather, they know that there is a limit to how much they can remold someone's nature. So, instead of bemoaning differences among employees, they capitalize on them.

"They try to help each person become more and more of who he already is.

Simply put, this is the one insight we heard echoed by tens of thousands of great managers:

People don't change that much.
Don't waste time trying to put in what was left out.
Try to draw out what was left in.
That is hard enough."

Conquering Anxiety and Panic - David Powlison

2009-02-09T14:31:00.013-06:00

This was a message presented by David Powlison (a good introduction to Powlison posted by Justin Taylor is posted here) on the topic of panic attacks, anxiety and fears. I have written below a fairly comprehensive outline of what was said, but if you want the main points, check out the conclusion toward the bottom.

Goals of message

1. "I want to communicate "feel" for a change process, "feel" for a person growing; what are the elements, pieces; what is going on where someone who has struggled intensely with these "free-fall", just utterly destructive patterns of fear-- the most extreme; what are ways that they go forward?"

2. Hope that all listening will, "by getting a certain kind of orientation, will not be intimidated, to be willing to enter very hard, deep waters with other people;" that underlying the scope and depth of the problem are certain points of continuity, of identity, there's no temptation that overtaken that's not common to all, that we'd have a confidence to not ourselves be stricken with fear because we're dealing with someone else who's absolutely ripped apart by fear.

3. To get some practical sense of direction

*Other introductory note is that these are fear experiences that are not generated by something outside of you, but rather the attacker is you, it's inside of you

I. Point 1

4 Scenarios with trajectories that can lead to panic:

1. Living double lives, guilt, pressure ("Paul" story)

2. There was a "traumatic event", where one encounters their fragility and lack of control

3. Pressure upon pressure, and eventually they break. "Straw that breaks the camel's back" occurs

4. The experience is extremely narrowly focused on one particular object. "phobias"

**There is a common thread that runs through all of these, where they all have in common the sense of precariousness, and the fragility of life, and our vulnerability and the fact that there's these things that are bigger than us that we cannot control that are very, very threatening.

Basic elements of genuine change (deep, ongoing, with staying-power):

1. A "Reckoning" with deeper connections, with wider issues.

2. He started to hear another's voice-- God's voice.

3. Not only does hear another voice, but he gains a voice.

There's someone you can talk with. There's something about gaining a voice that is the opposite of this fear experience, this fundamentally isolated experience that one has.

4. It's not just vertical. There's someone else there along with your for encouragement.

5. You start to see an outreaching care for other people.

6. There is an "unfolding" change process.

The difference between Christian perspective and our culture, is that the culture sees these horrendous symptoms, and says "if you can just take the edge off with medicine, fantasies, etc."... Christianity has brought in the lens because it has a sense of a far-more comprehensive change process.

..."from the Christian standpoint, you don't necessarily nail the fear experience in its extreme version directly and then hope it trickles out. You actually nail the whole life, and it inevitably ripples in and touches those more extreme experiences of fear."

Find commonality in fear experience

What you find is that everyone, if they're honest, has the ability to identify with the essential core experience, and it is that:

We are vulnerable
We are weak
We are fragile
There is something about the human condition that is fundamentally unable to control the world and unable to guarantee our own life
We are dependent even by our own creation.

We live in a world that is fundamentally evil. But God reverses this evil, both in this life and in the final reversal.

Our role in supporting someone suffering from panic (1 Thess 5:14):

Encourage the fainthearted-- There's no analysis, no admonishment; it's just straight encouragement. You're there with them, you're not leaving
Help ("hang on to") the weak - In the panic experience, it is the one best thing we have to offer is in a sense you "hang on", you're there as an anchor of sanity in a world of madness, of courage in a world of terror, etc...

Out of the box, we're working more in the "hold on" and "encourage" part of the ministry.

Notes on Phobias
Phobias "named fears" are actually too narrow of a focus of fear, attributing a fear to one defined thing, when in reality we are far vulnerable and lack control in a far wider spectrum.

The "unnameable fears", which are attributed to the panic attack, anxiety attack, dark abyss, etc., are just chaos, while with phobias --"named fears"-- point out specific dangers. With panic, it's just absolute chaos and destruction, you don't know what's coming at you.

One of the goals in helping a person with phobias is you really almost want to "broaden" the problem. There's something else that's bigger than that fear. Maybe they're without God and without hope in this world, and death is writing their script...

With panic, you actually want them to "name" the different sources of fear so that it's not just blank panic going on.

Meditating on Luke 12

The birds of the air, the lilies-- there is a fundamental vulnerability in all the world. We are fundamentally weak. We are dying, we are mortal.

You want to have good reasons for fear. Reasoning your way out of your fears is never is never big enough. The fears are too unreasonable, and the fears are too real underneath.

** The truth is, all that we work for will come to nothing. Death is all that's guaranteed, and the real marvel is that we're all "kooks", going crazy with panic, because this reality applies to all. Without a saving knowledge of the resurrection of Christ, we have no hope.

Summary: Relate your way Forward

You can't reason your way out of the fears of life, but you can relate your way forward in life. That relating gets you out of the "isolation" of the fear experience. It makes you connect to God and to others.

1. Involve others, or Be the Involved Other

If you're the sufferer: Involve others. Ask for help. God has designed it that having someone in the room is part of solving the problem with fear, that there's someone else there.

If you're the helper: This is a situation where you are truly powerless. You can't fix or control the other person's panic attack. And you're being asked to "jump in" to someone else's free fall, and you ask "who am I that I should be able to help this person?"

-- think of Moses asking God, "who am I?" God comforts him, "I'll go with you."

"The medicine for the helper is always the medicine for the needy. It's always the way God does it. It's terrific. It's a wonderful dynamic-- for grace, for grace, for grace, for grace."

2. Though we can't reason our way out of the whole, we can make sense of what' s going on. It's something bigger than the moment

a. It's very important for our self and others to face what we're afraid of. What is it? Name it, identify it.

If the person's got phobias, broaden the identification-- it's usually a fear of death or a fear of being out of control. There is always an underlying fear, and it's isolated on a specific object.
If it's panic, what are the evils, the troubles, the hardships that they are afraid of. This is not rocket science. (The fear of failing, fear of death, fear of running out of money). These are the things that become monsters in people's lives.

b. Identify what your wants

"Fear" and "want" are just two sides of the same coin. Fear is what I don't want, and it always implies something that you want. It usually is a good thing, but it's not good enough to build your life on.
Example: "I want to live, not die"-- living is a good thing, but it's not good enough because it's fundamentally precarious and you are going to die; it's good to want friends, but it's not good enough because friends will betray you and fail you
This identifies the idolatries of the heart

3. Be able to make sense of "What is my specific need for God's mercies?"

Christ is the only true hope of the fearful
When you can sort out the fears, you know who to call and what to say

It's not enough to just focus on Bible verses. Talk! Talk to God, get out of your head and talk to God. If God is Soveriegn and good and we need help, ask for help.

4. Walk openly with other people

- Be"sowing" to the needs of others (sowing implies you don't know what's going to happen); Like St. Francis of Assisi, pray, "Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is fear let me sow courage and hope and love; And Lord, where there is panic, let me sow safety and trust."

-We should be willing to go into people's lives and sow good things that will have a ripple effect in their lives

-One of the wonderful things about the way the Bible works is that all the things that are bad have this wonderful, redemptive alternative. For example, love is a good, holy anxiety for someone else's welfare. Phil 2, 2 Cor 12. We want to feel a holy anxiety, so that we can act on behalf of others.

Christian Classics: The Duties of Parents

2009-02-08T15:14:00.011-06:00

The Duties of Parents by J.C. Ryle.

This was one of about 15 outstanding classic short books I received via mail from the Chapel Library, which offers all of its materials free of charge. This particular work has proven very timely as our 2-year-old son, Cameron, is in a season of exhibiting both humble obedience and foolish rebellion. Kerry and I are often finding ourselves in challenging situations that demand a quick response, but we often encounter situations that are difficult to discern, and in general had lacked a vision for what godly training of our children looks like.

For this reason, I have found "The Duties of Parents", written nearly 150 years ago by pastor J.C. Ryle, to be a timeless and exceedingly helpful resource, and would recommend it to any Christian parent as a clear framework for developing a vision for "training" your children. The booklet is relatively short and describes 17 areas of "training" for parents to prayerfully consider. The book is easy to read and my copy was only 35 pages long, so it can be read in one sitting. You can also read it for free here. Here's a few highlights from the book:

The foundational verse of the book is:

"Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it." -- Prov. 22:6

Ryle begins with the argument that this text, though well known among most Christians, is not heeded. Thus the Lord's promise "when he is old, he will not depart from it", he argues, is not fulfilled. He asks the reader to ask himself, "Am I in this matter doing what I can?"

The 17 key principles/exhortations of Ryle directed toward parents are as follows:

First, then, if you would train your children rightly, train them in the way they should go, and not in the way that they would.
Train up your child with all tenderness, affection, and patience
Train your children with an abiding persuasion on your mind that much depends upon you
Train with this thought continually before your eyes-- that the soul of your child is the first thing to be considered.
Train your child to a knowledge of the Bible
Train them to a habit of prayer
Train them to habits of diligence, and regularity about public means of grace
Train them to a habit of faith
Train them to a habit of obedience
Train them to a habit of always speaking the truth
Train them to a habit of always redeeming the time
Train them with a constant fear of over-indulgence
Train them remembering continually how God trains His children.
Train them remembering continually the influence; of your example
Train them remembering continually the power of sin.
Train them remembering continually the promises of Scripture.
Train them, lastly, with continual prayer for a blessing on all you do.

Some brief comments:

-On #1: Followers of "Love and Logic" parenting strategies will conflict with this first point

-On #2: I find this point exceeding important and one of the most difficult. Ryle compares a child's mind to a lump of metal-- "not to be forged and made useful at once, but only by a succession of little blows." And, "their understandings are like narrow-necked vessels: we must pour in the wine of knowledge gradually, or much of it will be spilled and lost. 'Line upon line, and precept upon precept, here a little and there a little.'" He urges the parent to "try hard to keep up a hold on your child's affections", for "it is a dangerous thing to make your children afraid of you."

-On #3: A good point on the fact that we can't "convert" child. Ryle concedes this is absolutely true, but that God also expressly says,"Train up a child in the way he should go", and "He never laid a command on man which He would not give man grace to perform," and that "our duty is not to stand still and dispute, but to go forward and obey".

-On # 4: The idea of training your child for heaven, not for earth, has been impactful. This overlaps with other points, but gives meaning to witholding pleasures and comforts in this world.

-On #5: "Fill their minds with Scripture. Let the Word dwell in them richly. Give them the Bible, the whole Bible, even while they are young". I plan to give my son an ESV Study Bible as soon as he's able to read.

-On #6: This chapter could stand alone as an exhortation to pray:

"Prayer is the simplest means that man can use in coming to God."

"Prayer is on great secret of spiritual prosperity. When there is much private communion with God, your soul will grow like the grass after rain; when there is little, all will be at a standstill, you will barely keep your soul alive. Show me a growing Christian, a going forward Christian, a strong Christian, a flourishing Christian, and sure am I, he is one that speaks often with his Lord. He asks much, and he has much."

"Prayer is the mightiest engine God has placed in our hands. It is the best weapon to use in every difficulty, and the surest remedy in every trouble. It is the key that unlocks the treasury of promises, and the hand that draws forth grace and help in time of need. It is the silver trumpet God commands us to sound in all our necessity, and it is the cry He has promised always to attend to, even as a loving mother to the voice of her child."

"This, remember, is the first step in religion which a child is able to take."

On #8: Train your child to be content to obey without having full understanding of "why"

On #9: On the importance of teaching your children that obedience is of the highest importance (this will clash greatly with our culture):

"Parents, do you wish to see your children happy? Take care, then, that you train them to obey when they are spoken to, --to do as they are bid. Believe me, we are not made for entire independence, -- we are not fit for it".

On #11: Ryle says, "Idleness is the devil's best friend. It is the surest way to give him an opportunity of doing us harm."

On #12: Scriptures sited are Prov 13:24, Prov 22:15, Prov 23:13-14, Prov 29:15,17.

"Reader, if there be any point which deserves your attention, believe me, it is this one. It is one that will give you trouble, I know. But if you do not take trouble with your children when they are young, they will give you trouble when they are old. Choose which you prefer."

On # 13: See Exod. 13:17, Num. 21:4, 2 Cor 12:8,9

On # 14: "Fathers and mothers, do not forget that children learn more by the eye than they do by the ear. No school will make such deep marks on characters as home."

39 Lessons, 20 Tips and 10 "Don'ts" For Parenting

2008-12-13T15:16:00.000-06:00

An incredibly helpful collection of wisdom for parents, written by Matt & Elizabeth Schmucker at 9Marks.

Does John Piper use a reading plan?

2008-11-14T07:00:00.003-06:00

Yes, in fact he does:

"Besides planning for the place and time, plan how you will read your Bible. There are many ways to read the Bible. Any is better than none. Coming to the appointed place and time with no plan for how to read the Bible usually results in a hit-and-miss approach that leaves you feeling
weak, unreal, and discouraged. For many years I have read through the Bible once each year following 'The Discipleship Journal Bible Reading Plan.'"

-a little tip from John Piper's When I Don't Desire God

Another good reading plan is the Legacy Plan

A note on better blogging

2008-11-13T06:35:00.002-06:00

Abraham Piper's list of 22 Very Simple Ways for a Blogger to improve just brought to my attention that, among other not-so-helpful writing problems, the title of my last post doesn't really make sense in light of the content of the blog post. Let this be a lesson...

Practicing what you preach

2008-11-13T05:50:00.006-06:00

There have been a number of occasions over the past week when I have been moved to sit down and write about some situation that particularly struck me. However, in each instance I honestly had not effectively evaluated the situation and derived helpful insights. That takes discipline and work, a skill that I did not master in college, ironically.

And so, instead of posting my thoughts on events like the motivation seminar I attended yesterday or the situations I'm wrestling with at work or in the church, I'm going to step back and try to grow in the areas of study and fruitfulness through managing priorities.

In the area of study, I aim to better apply the following principles that John Piper states are the aims of education:

We aim to enable and to motivate the student

to observe his subject matter accurately and thoroughly,
to understand clearly what he has observed,
to evaluate fairly what he has come to understand,
to appropriate wisely in life what he has found valuable, and
to express in speech and writing what he has seen, understood, evaluated, and appropriated in such a way that its accuracy, clarity, fairness, and value can be known and enjoyed by others.

I aim to apply these principles to my blogposts going forward, out of a desire to provide the audience with fair and useful content.

On the topic of being more fruitful, I aim to not be deceived by the idea that busyness goes hand in hand with productivity. As C.J. Mahaney points out in his blog, you can be lazy and busy at the same time:

Busyness does not mean I am diligent
Busyness does not mean I am faithful
Busyness does not mean I am fruitful

Recognizing the sin of procrastination, and broadening the definition to include busyness, has made a significant alteration in my life. The sluggard can be busy—busy neglecting the most important work, and busy knocking out a to-do list filled with tasks of secondary importance.

When considering our schedules, we have endless options. But there are a few clear priorities and projects, derived from my God-assigned roles, that should occupy the majority of my time during a given week. And there are a thousand tasks of secondary importance that tempt us to devote a disproportionate amount of time to completing an endless to-do list. And if we are lazy, we will neglect the important for the urgent.

I'm sharing these personal convictions with hopes that they'll be helpful to someone else out there, and also as a way to confess areas I'm working on, by God's grace. I intend to heed this rebuke of laziness and turn from my busy-but-slothful ways (namely, attending to 2nd priority items over the highest priorities) that infiltrate my role as the head of the household and my role in my place of work. There are too many "high priority" items that, apart from God intervening, I will put off until Jesus returns. These items are typically the hardest to tackle, and may involve sacrificing my time for someone else, or focusing on something that is completely foreign and uncomfortable to me (like figuring out how much to save for my son's college). If you think of it, pray for me in this area. Lord bless you. --Joel

"Living Soli Deo Gloria Under Obama"

2008-11-05T23:02:00.002-06:00

Justin Taylor's blog has an incredibly insightful reflection posted by Eric Redmund on the election of Obama.

The Upcoming Election

2008-10-31T20:09:00.003-05:00

Here's my confession: with the whirlwind of many other high priorities demanding my attention over the past year, I have honestly been left with only a small amount of time to ponder and investigate the upcoming Presidential election. I've made efforts to do my homework, though mostly during my bathroom breaks (my grandparents-in-law have been gracious enough to let us borrow their old TIME magazines). The reality is that it's a struggle to balance the tremendous responsibility to vote with my other God-given responsibilities (husband, father, employee, church leadership, etc). I'll just say that I'm doing better than last election (I, uh, didn't vote), so progress is good, but I do rely heavily on the wisdom of my most trusted friends to form my own convictions.

In the spirit of the election, I was very encouraged by John Piper's perspectives in this interview:

One Reason Why I Am Not Good at Loving People

2008-10-30T20:14:00.002-05:00

Because love is risky. In fact, you are guaranteed to eventually get hurt. I am afraid of painful relationships. But after reading the following quote from C.S. Lewis, I have been pleasantly rebuked:

Of all arguments against love none makes so strong an appeal to my nature as “Careful! This might lead you to suffering.”

To my nature, my temperament, yes. Not to my conscience. When I respond to that appeal I seem to myself to be a thousand miles away from Christ. If I am sure of anything I am sure that His teaching was never meant to confirm my congenital preference for safe investments and limited liabilities.…

There is no safe investment. To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket—safe, dark, motionless, airless—it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell. (From The Four Loves, as found in The Inspirational Writings of C.S. Lewis, 278-279.)

Studying the Bible - What are Hermeneutics?

2008-10-28T06:40:00.006-05:00

For the majority of my "Christian" life, I have viewed and used the Bible as a collection of stories and nuggets, and as I would read it I would get frustrated with sections that didn't pertain directly to my life. The pastor would say, "Read the Bible every day," but it was so much easier to listen to sermons or read self-help books to get my doses of self help. The Bible was too difficult.

I still am in the infant stages of learning how to read this amazing book, which in reality is a collection of 66 books, 39 being the Old Testament and 27 being the New Testament. Together, these testaments contain 1,189 chapters of both descriptive texts (telling a story of what happened) and prescriptive texts (giving an application to how to live).

The greatest and most helpful lesson I've learned over the past year is that the Bible is not primarily about me. It is primarily about Jesus. The story begins with the Trinitarian God-- God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit (read the beginning of Genesis 1 and John 1). God created man. Man rebeled and ran from God. As a result man deserved punishment and eternal separation from God. But God pursued man. Continuously. And I don't understand this near enough to give it justice, but God had a plan from the beginning- to send Jesus as the sacrificial lamb, taking the penalty of sin to atone for the sins of the world. The gospels tell the central story of the universe, Jesus dying and raising from the dead. Everything in the Bible only makes sense in light of the Gospel, and one of the overarching themes is that God is good, man is rebelious and evil, and apart from God's grace, there is no hope for man.

The Bible is an amazing book. There is no other book that comes any where near it. It is picked apart from every angle, and yet it still stands to this day as the greatest source of Truth in the world. I could go on and on, but as I said, I am merely an infant in my understanding of this great book. Here are some really helpful guidelines for studying the Bible (taken from SymphonyofScripture.com), written by Philip L. Powell in his book Parables of the Kingdom:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Principles for Bible Study

Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth – 2 Timothy 2:15 (NKJV).

Hermeneutics is defined as “the branch of knowledge that deals with interpretation, especially of Scripture or literary texts.” The application of a correct hermeneutic is essential to proper Bible study and the deducing of right conclusions from scripture. In this regard the rules are few and simple:

1) CONTEXT – always examine truth in context i.e. the textual setting – what precedes and what follows;
2) COMPARISON – Paul speaks of “comparing spiritual things with spiritual” in the context of being taught by the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:13);
3) NO CONTRADICTION – “God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?”- Numbers 23:19 (NKJV). “Forever, O LORD, Your word is settled in heaven” - Psalm 119:89 – (NKJV).

Providing these principles are clearly established you will not go far wrong. In my own study I have accepted God’s Word as being totally inspired (i.e. “God Breathed” cf. 2 Timothy 3:16) with the thought that inspiration shines out brightest and best through our Lord Jesus Christ. Based on these considerations both consciously and unconsciously I always ask the following three questions of any difficult text:

a. What light does the context shine on the text?
b. What do other Scriptures say on this matter?
c. What did Christ say if anything on the subject?

If you approach scripture in this frame of mind and not primarily with a predisposition to investigate what other men have said or written the Holy Spirit will lead you into ALL truth (cf. John 16:3). That is not to say that we do not consider the thoughts, ideas and teachings of others – especially those great and godly men who lived holy lives. It simply means that we are doing what we should bytrusting God above men.

The idea that God never contradicts Himself and that He is IMMUTABLE –i.e. not subject to change – is fundamental to His WORD and to the interpretation of it. I recently outraged one or two people in a Pentecostal Church when I alluded publicly to a slogan that had been adopted by a well-known Hillsong ladies’ Conference in Sydney - “Hey princess God believes in you and we do too.” No, that is NOT true. It turns the glorious gospel of Christ on its head. God’s Word tells us that God does not believe in us and that we should believe in Him. Self-faith is a false faith.

It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in princes - Psalm 118:8-9.

If that is true of princes it is most certainly true of princesses.

Let God be true, but every man a liar - Romans 3:4.

Free Audio Books!

2008-10-26T14:30:00.003-05:00

Christianaudio.com features a new free download every month. This month's audio book (normally $14.98) is C.H. Spurgeon's All of Grace. It works!

Does Being Loved Mean Being Made Much of?

2008-10-25T23:37:00.001-05:00

"For many people, this is not obviously an act of love. They do
not feel loved when they are told that God created them for his
glory. They feel used. This is understandable given the way love
has been almost completely distorted in our world. For most people,
to be loved is to be made much of. Almost everything in our
Western culture serves this distortion of love. We are taught in a
thousand ways that love means increasing someone’s self-esteem.
Love is helping someone feel good about themselves. Love is giving
someone a mirror and helping him like what he sees.

This is not what the Bible means by the love of God. Love is
doing what is best for someone. But making self the object of our
highest affections is not best for us. It is, in fact, a lethal distraction.
We were made to see and savor God—and savoring him, to
be supremely satisfied, and thus spread in all the world the worth
of his presence. Not to show people the all-satisfying God is not
to love them. To make them feel good about themselves when
they were made to feel good about seeing God is like taking
someone to the Alps and locking them in a room full of mirrors."

-John Piper in Don't Waste Your Life

John Piper on C.S. Lewis

2008-10-25T19:44:00.003-05:00

Reading "Don't Waste Your Life" by John Piper tonight, I found this section very insightful, where Piper is explaining the deep impacts C.S. Lewis had on him in Piper's college years:

"He has made me wary of chronological snobbery. That is, he
showed me that newness is no virtue and oldness is no vice. Truth
and beauty and goodness are not determined by when they exist.
Nothing is inferior for being old, and nothing is valuable for
being modern. This has freed me from the tyranny of novelty and
opened for me the wisdom of the ages. To this day I get most of
my soul-food from centuries ago. I thank God for Lewis’s compelling
demonstration of the obvious.
He demonstrated for me and convinced me that rigorous, precise,
penetrating logic is not opposed to deep, soul-stirring feeling
and vivid, lively—even playful—imagination. He was a
“romantic rationalist.” He combined things that almost everybody
today assumes are mutually exclusive: rationalism and
poetry, cool logic and warm feeling, disciplined prose and free
imagination. In shattering these old stereotypes, he freed me to
think hard and to write poetry, to argue for the resurrection and
compose hymns to Christ, to smash an argument and hug a
friend, to demand a definition and use a metaphor.
Lewis gave me an intense sense of the “realness” of things.
The preciousness of this is hard to communicate. To wake up in
the morning and be aware of the firmness of the mattress, the
warmth of the sun’s rays, the sound of the clock ticking, the sheer
being of things (“quiddity” as he calls it3). He helped me become
alive to life. He helped me see what is there in the world—things
that, if we didn’t have, we would pay a million dollars to have,
but having them, ignore. He made me more alive to beauty. He
put my soul on notice that there are daily wonders that will
waken worship if I open my eyes. He shook my dozing soul and
threw the cold water of reality in my face, so that life and God
and heaven and hell broke into my world with glory and horror.
He exposed the sophisticated intellectual opposition to
objective being and objective value for the naked folly that it
was. The philosophical king of my generation had no clothes on,
and the writer of children’s books from Oxford had the courage
to say so.
You can’t go on “seeing through” things forever. The whole
point of seeing through something is to see something through
it. It is good that the window should be transparent, because
the street or garden beyond it is opaque. How if you saw
through the garden too? It is no use trying to “see through”
first principles. If you see through everything, then everything
is transparent. But a wholly transparent world is an invisible
world. To “see through” all things is the same as not to see.4
Oh, how much more could be said about the world as C. S.
Lewis saw it and the way he spoke. He has his flaws, some of
them serious. But I will never cease to thank God for this remarkable
man who came onto my path at the perfect moment."

Raising our Youth

2008-10-23T07:41:00.004-05:00

"Command and teach these things. 12 Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. 13Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. 14 Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. 15Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. 16 Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers." - 1 Timothy 4:11-16 (ESV)

As a parent, there is a lot to wrestle with in John Piper's sermon entitled, "Let No One Despise You for Your Youth." (Links below)

One area in particular that I'm convicted to bring before God is centered around how we discipline and instruct our children. Parenting is one of the hardest things I've ever been called to do. I'm realizing one of the primary reasons for this difficulty is my own sin and my own selfishness, which go into direct conflict with the my role as a father. God has much to do in me yet. But one central challenge brought about in Piper's message is in how to teach your kids about the gospel from an early age. His words are strong and challenging.

If you are a supporter of "Love and Logic" parenting models, as my wife and I have been, this will be especially challenging. The thing is, love and logic is in essence based on a legalistic framework: good behavior leads to good results, bad behavior leads to punishment. This is undoubtedly necessary in parenting, but if this is only form of discipline your parenting consists of, then your idea of a "successful" child will be one that follows rules, not one who loves and trusts in Jesus. You may indeed have a child who is wonderfully compliant. And though it will appear to be successful, it will fail in the most important respect: the child's hope and trust will be in his/her ability to follow rules, not in Jesus' sacrifice for their sins. I encourage you to listen to this message and wrestle with this and other issues involving the raising of our youth. Please comment on any thoughts you have!

Watch

Download Audio

12 Ways to Love Your Wayward Child

2008-10-20T07:12:00.002-05:00

12 Ways to Love Your Wayward Child

This was written by Abraham Piper, son of writer/preacher John Piper.

Hope and Trust

2008-10-10T19:51:00.005-05:00

Hour after hour, checked fund after checked fund (that's what I do a lot of the day), anticipation escalated. I had run nearly every possible scenario through my head, deciding it safer to think about how I would respond when I was told I didn't get the job.

Three o'clock - no phone calls. Four o'clock - nothing. Emotions of rejection began to threaten my soul, but I still managed to pray and thank God for His goodness, that He had a plan no matter what happened, and that I could trust Him. That helped a lot.

When I received an email from my boss around 4:05 p.m. asking if I'd have time to meet, I began to calculate the odds of this being good news. The fact that my boss was not directly related to the interview process made it pretty clear, though. I would not be promoted.

My manager - his name is Evan - is a man I deeply respect and look up to. The two of us casually walked into the small conference room, closed the door, and sat down. As he sat, he began to speak with a sheepish smile saying, "Unfotunately I can't tell you that you got the job-- they decided to go with someone else."

I've never been turned down for a job since I started with this company (I had been 2 for 2), so I took a second to take in the new experience of not being "the chosen one". Ironically, I had jokingly mentioned to my wife earlier in the day how I'd always wondered what it was like to not get picked. Now was my opportunity to be tested in this.

The bad news pretty much stopped there, though. What followed was an incredible series of blessings. First, Evan debriefed my on the feedback sent by Kurt, the manager who interviewed me (and who happened to be my first manager before he was promoted). The feedback was thorough and very encouraging, filled with helpful tips and comments. Something tells me that managers don't usually do that for "the rejects" -- and I felt pretty honored.

Second, I was able to talk about my thoughts on the interview process with Evan and benefit from his own comments and encouragements.

Third, given the fact that I wasn't going anywhere, we began to shift our focus to the situation at hand with our current team, and I finally was able to articulate some of my concerns with the leadership. Evan shared what he could and we had a great dialog, which was exceedingly helpful and informative.

All and all, know that I am filled with great joy and encouragement. Thank you for your prayers and support... I feel 100 percent at peace. Well, maybe 90 percent, but just give me a good night's sleep and some time in prayer with God, and I should be right up there.

The Day of Crossroads

2008-10-10T06:18:00.005-05:00

I interviewed for a management position two days ago where I work. Today I find out whether I am the chosen one.

It is almost eerie how I ended up in this situation, applying for a position I previously never imagined myself working in until I was at least 30 years old. But rough times bring strange and unforeseen opportunities, and it almost feels like God has been preparing me for this moment from first day I started with the company. Every technical challenge, every clashing with fellow employees, every opportunity to show mercy and grace, every experience in witnessing good leadership and bad leadership... all of these things have shaped me profoundly. It has become clear to me that I am here (at my occupation) to glorify God, to show how infinitely precious He is. My prayer is that God would work through me in such a way that people will look at my deeds and desire to praise God. I want Jesus to be made much of, to do things that could only be done through hope in Jesus Christ, not in the hopes of world.

Whatever the decision is, I will praise the Lord, who knows all things and is Holy and good. I'm simply excited to move on, be it my in current position or the new path of management. Either way, God has appointed me to be a leader, to demonstrate the redemptive power of Jesus, to fight for the redemption of the workplace, to love good and to hate evil. It doesn't matter what position I'm in, the job is always the same: to glorify God and demonstrate how precious Jesus is-- more precious than wealthy, prosperity, respect, or anything else this world has to offer.

Thank you, Lord, for life's struggles, for opportunities to realize how dependent we are on you for everything. Show the world how awesome you are.

Don't Desire Wealth

2008-10-10T06:17:00.000-05:00

Don't Desire Wealth
October 8, 2008 | By: John Piper
Category: Commentary

I can smell it. It’s like toast or steak or brownies. It doesn’t just draw our desire, it creates desire. Deep drops in the stock market make many people salivate. They know it will rebound. They are sitting on cash. By year’s end their pile could ride the recovery to riches.

For such people I have a word from God. The word is: Don’t desire to be rich. It will kill you. And in a world like ours many will probably perish with you. Paul’s language is more graphic than mine:

There is great gain in godliness with contentment, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.

But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils.

It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. (1Timothy 6:6-10)

Lecrae's new album: Rebel

2008-10-03T06:26:00.005-05:00

This is an album that's going right on my wishlist. It seems that one of the main themes of this album "Rebel" is to proclaim that the only real rebellion left is to rebel against our messed up culture and worldly principles-- greed, pornography, covetousness, selfish ambition, adulterous and broken marriages, laziness... wow. Here is the opening track:

Watch interview on Resurgence.com

You can buy the CD on Amazon

Singing to God

2008-10-01T06:44:00.003-05:00

Just yesterday I extremely encouraged by a message from Bob Kauflin (author of Worship Matters and worship leader) on the topic of communicating to God through singing. This was one of many outstanding messages presented at the 2008 Desiring God National Conference. Here is the promo video by John Piper, followed by a link to the actual message.

Watch the video

Don't Waste Your Sports

2008-09-23T05:30:00.003-05:00

Listen to the sermon here.

1 Corinthians 10:31 - "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God."

Rarely have I heard the topic of sports brought to the focal point of a sermon, though it is one of the leading "idols" in our culture, particularly for men. I have struggled often in my life with turning sports into an idol, making the activity purely about me, and without further wisdom I had often come to the conclusion I'd be better off to simply abandon sports all together.

Thankfully, I have been reminded that sports are a gift from God, a gift to be enjoyed. In his sermon entitled "Don't Waste Your Sports", pastor C.J. Mahaney brings to life the perspective of sports in light of 1 Corinthians 10:31. Here's an excerpt from early on in the sermon:

“Participation in sports must be informed by the knowledge of God. We have a tendency, when considering the topic of glorifying God in sports, to proceed immediately to practical application and to prematurely consider specific ways we are called to glorify God in sports. But any practical consideration must first proceed from a theologically informed understanding of the character of God as revealed in Scripture and the person and work of Christ. We must begin our consideration of this topic—of every topic!—with God. Until we behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ we cannot accurately or authentically glorify God (2 Cor. 4:6). Before we play sports for the glory of God we must behold the glory of God. … And this morning I have asked Puritan theologian John Owen to assist me:

Because he is—that is, an infinitely glorious, good, wise, holy, powerful, righteous, self-subsisting, self-sufficient, all-sufficient Being, the fountain, cause, and author of life and being to all things, and of all that is good in every kind, the first cause, last end, and absolute sovereign Lord of all, the rest and all-satisfactory reward of all other beings—therefore he is to be adored and worshipped. Hence are we in our hearts, minds, and souls, to admire, adore, and love him. His praises are we to celebrate. In him we are to trust and fear, and so to resign ourselves and all our concerns unto his will and disposal, to regard him with all the acts of our minds and persons, answerable to the holy properties and excellencies of his nature. This is to glorify him as God.

No doubt some are asking, ‘What does a 17th-century Puritan (who didn’t have game) have to say to the modern athlete? How does this relate to my soccer game or cross-country meet?’ Here’s why: When I behold the glory of God prior to playing sports, my heart is affected and transformed. This makes all the difference when I step out onto the field or court. This knowledge of God positions me to glorify Him and not myself. Our participation in sports must be informed by the knowledge of God in order to keep us from turning sports into something ugly, rather than beautiful. This knowledge of God’s glory will keep us from wasting our sports.”

The Legacy Reading Plan

2008-09-12T05:59:00.006-05:00

I ran across this Bible reading plan constructed by Hank Hanegraaff (The Bible Answer Man), called The Legacy Reading plan. Of all the plans I've run across over the years, this seems like one of the best-constructed plans for reading the Bible on a yearly basis, where each season has its own strategic focus of the Bible.

Here's the plan's explanation, as explained on the CRI (Christian Research Institute) website:

The Legacy Reading Plan explained:

The Legacy Reading Plan is an innovative approach to reading through sixty-six love letters --one book at a time -- for the rest of your life. If I live to be the age my father was when he died, I will have the privilege of reading through the Bible 18 more times. If I live longer, so much the better! Reading through the Bible at any age is a daunting proposition. Thus the Legacy Reading Plan is strategically designed to empower you to "eat the elephant 'one Book' at a time." The Format is specifically formulated to make your time in God's Word the best it can be.

Location: Do you have a secret place -- a location where you can drown out the static of the world and hear the voice of your heavenly Father as He speaks to you through the majesty of His Word? For some it may be the sauna, for others a study. We are all unique creations of God. Thus, your secret place may be a sedan. The point is we all desperately need a place away from the invasive sounds of the world so we can hear the sounds of another place -- another voice. So, begin your Legacy Reading Plan by locating your secret place.

Essence: The Legacy Reading Plan is unique in that it requires you to process Books of the Bible rather than piecing together bits of Books. The goal is to comprehend the essence of God as communicated by reading each Book as a whole. The exception is Psalms and Proverbs. Psalms constituted a hymnbook or devotional guide for ancient Israel. Likewise, our goal will be to meditate on three individual Psalms each week. Thus progressing through the Psalmistry once each year. Because the Book of Proverbs is replete with principles for successful daily living, the Legacy Reading Plan is to read one chapter of Proverbs each day, thus progressing through Provers once a month.

Genre : To understand Scripture in the sense in which it is intended, it is important to pay special attention to the genre we are reading. In other words, to interpret the Bible as literature, it is crucial to consider the kind of literature we are interpreting. As a legal brief differs from a prophetic oracle, there is a difference in genre between Leviticus and Revelation. Genre is particularly significant when considering writings that are difficult to categorize, such as Genesis which is largely a historical narrative interlaced with symbolism and repetitive poetic structure. During the spring the plan is to read through historical narratives, while the focus for summer is prophecy.

Author: As it is essential to read through Books rather than bits, so it is helpful to read biblical authors sequentially. As such, the Legacy Reading Plan is grouped by author. This is particularly helpful because even though biblical authors wrote "as they were moved by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1:21), their personalities and proclivities are clearly evident in their writings. For example, John and John alone, identifies Jesus as the Word, or Logos (John 1; Revelation 19). Likewise, John alone identifies Jesus as the true witness (John 5; Revelation 2), and it is John who most exploits the Mosaic requirement of two witnesses (John 8; Revelation 2).

Context: Context has an impact on how you contextualize one set of biblical Books in relation to another. For this reason, the Epistles are read prior to the Synoptic Gospels in the Legacy Reading Plan. As such, the didactic (teaching) principles of the Epistles will provide a theological context by which you can better understand the Gospel narratives. Moreover, because the Book of Revelation draws heavily upon the imagery of the Hebrew prophets, the reading of Revelation is placed in a close proximity to the Old Testament prophets. And because the Gospels recount the birth and ministry of Christ, the Synoptics and the Book of Acts are assigned to the month of December.

Years: The overarching objective of the Legacy Reading Plan is to read through the Bible once a year, every year for the rest of your life. The reading calendar is naturally segmented into seasons and the seasons into months. At the beginning of each year you know that during the winter your focus will be on the Pentateuch and Poetry (249 chapters); in spring, the Historical books (249 chapters); in summer the Prophets (250 chapters); and during the fall, the New Testament (260 chapter). Each season is further broken down into months. Thus every January your goal is to read through Genesis and Exodus and every December the Synoptic Gospels and Acts. There are times when you will naturally read ten chapters at a time and others when you will read one or two. More importantly you will read the Bible just as you read other literature.

Young, Restless, and Reformed

2008-09-07T23:25:00.005-05:00

Tonight my wife and I attended a lecture at our church given by a well-respected scholar of the Bible and of Christian history, Lyle Murphy. Though the talk wasn't formally modeled this way, he more or less spent the majority of the time discussing the history of a couple of the pillars found within the "TULIP" model, which is the Calvinist description of the Doctrine of Grace (though TULIP was never mentioned tonight).

We began with Total Depravity, with which there was little dissension in the audience. However, as we moved toward the history of the doctrines of Unconditional Election and Limited Atonement, the tension in the room began to grow. Lyle shared some of his convictions, supported by scriptures, and held that he no longer embraced all of the Calvinist doctrine of grace, particularly the aspect of God choosing, or "electing", only a few to be saved.

I think I see where Lyle is coming from-- I have wrestled with the Calvinist/Armenian debate for years and years, and one of the aspects of Calvinism that repelled me the most was that the people I knew who held that position were typically some of the worst at showing grace. But then I came across "Reformed" guys like John Piper, Mark Driscoll, Tim Keller, C.J. Mahaney, and I began to listen to a lot of their sermons. These guys wonderfully communicated the glorious beauty of sound doctrine and Christ-centered living, unraveling truths of Scripture, and most importantly blowing my mind with the immeasurable glory of God's Grace. I love Jesus more than I ever have. For this reason, I keep coming back to these guys for more-- I love their teaching, their theology, and I can't get enough. It's like dessert for me! I've probably listened to hundreds of sermons by Driscoll, Piper, and Keller over the past year, and thanks to the technology of the internet, I've been able to pass the precious teaching of these men on to others.

I'm learning that I'm not the only young guy who's turning to Reformed doctrine. In the midst of a Post-Modern movement, of which I used to be a passionate advocate, the old and time-tested theology (also known as "Biblical") is rising in opposition. And I've been won over to the side that gives God the most glory.

To continue this thought, check out this article published by Christianity Today in September of 2006, called "Young, Restless, and Reformed"

Survivor of Late-Term Abortion Comments on Barack Obama

2008-09-05T06:53:00.002-05:00

This was posted in June on Randy Alcorn's blog:

http://randyalcorn.blogspot.com/2008/06/survivor-of-late-term-abortion-comments.html

The Unwasted Life

2008-09-04T20:06:00.003-05:00

This is a great series of sermons John Piper gave at the 2008 Regional Conference on "The Essence of the Unwasted Life"

http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/ConferenceMessages/ByConference/40/

I've only listened to the first of these so far, but it was one of those sermons where the Spirit of God opened up my eyes and heart to catch a glimpse of the way things really are. What does an unwasted life look like? Piper points to Paul's plea in Philippians 1:20-21 as our template for such a life:

"...as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. 21For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. "

As Piper declares, this is the definition of an unwasted life, that in all that we do, all that we are, Christ will be exalted, lifted up and honored. The implications on your life are earth-shattering. How different would we live if we asked questions like:

How can I use my money to show that Christ is infinitely more valuable than my money?
How do I treat my career to exalt Christ as far more valuable than my career?
How do I take care of my body to show Christ is of the greatest value?
How do I treat my house and possessions to demonstrate Christ is infinitely more precious?
How do I enteract with people, friends and family to "magnify" the magnificence of Christ?

In the unwasted life, Christ becomes the chief goal and desire, and all other things become a means for lifting Him up. If I were honest today, though, I would have to admit that I far too often make Christ a means to my own version of heaven (new house, wealth, success, perfect church) rather than an end. To make Him a means, which is the norm for the American "prosperity gospel" philosophy, completely misses the point that nothing in this world even compares to Christ in worth. Nothing.

Mark Driscoll on Church Leadership

2008-08-17T20:34:00.002-05:00

This is a really helpful seminar/Q&A series by Mark Driscoll (Acts 29 President and Lead Preaching Pastor of Mars Hill Church- Seattle, WA) at the New Frontiers' Leadership International '08 Conference in Brighton, UK. Here's the messages:

Be Radical & Plant Radical Churches! Church Planter

Be Radical & Plant Radical Churches! Church Leadership

Be Radical & Plant Radical Churches! Final Thoughts and Q&A

Ryan Hall - Training for 2008 London Marathon

2008-08-07T22:21:00.002-05:00

Ryan Hall on Worshiping God Through Running

2008-08-05T20:13:00.006-05:00

For some reason, God gave Ryan Hall a gift to run really, really fast. This video testimony was taped before the Olympic Trials in November 2007, where he placed 1st, shattering the Trials' record in the process. Here is the video/testimony:

This is a more recent interview with Ryan as he talks about the struggles of idolatry that come with his passion for running. When asked what his goal is for the 2008 Olympics, his answer was simply, "To praise God and be content with however he wants to use me."

Who is in Control?

2008-08-02T19:58:00.002-05:00

blog post by Tim Challies

Who Is In Control?

Have you ever noticed how, when a person is looking for a house, driving slowly down a darkened street straining to see the numbers on the fronts of the homes or on the mailboxes at the end of the driveways, he automatically turns down the car radio? He does so because he instinctively knows that music or voices can be a distraction. A person cannot focus as well on the task at-hand when there is noise in the background. Noise is a distraction.

I’ve often found that when I am writing, and especially writing something that requires deep thought and consistent logic, I need to remove background distractions, whether that means I turn down the music playing from my computer or close the door to my office to drown out the sounds of squabbling or playing children. I do this without thinking about it. As I strain to collect my thoughts and to put words to them, I automatically turn down the music. I am often surprised, when I have finished my writing, to find that the music has been turned off or the door has been closed. I may have no recollection of doing so. It is a natural reaction.

Many years ago I heard a sermon, one of only a few I remember from my younger days, where the pastor suggested that we try turning off the stereos in our cars, especially when we are driving alone, and spend the time thinking or praying. He had apparently developed the practice of praying aloud when driving alone. It earned him some bemused looks from other drivers who saw him talking, apparently to himself, but because he found it a beneficial practice he swallowed his pride and continued to talk to God. I often make a decision—and it has to be a deliberate decision since I am accustomed to pressing the “play” button immediately after starting the car—to turn off the radio or CD player when I drive and find this time to be extremely valuable. My mind can process things and mull things over far better where there is silence. This is particularly true if the song I might be listening to is one that is familiar to me as then, whether I am aware of it or not, I tend to sing along. It is hard to think deeply when singing!

In our culture we have allowed ourselves to become incredibly busy. And all the time, while we are busily going through life, there is a great deal of “noise” in the background of our lives. It may be music that plays when we drive, when we work and when we play. It may be a television that is always turned on whenever we have a few minutes of downtime. Perhaps when we find fifteen spare minutes between picking the kids up from school and beginning to cook dinner we watch an episode of Judge Judy or catch a re-run of The Simpsons. The background noise may be a Blackberry that constantly beeps and buzzes as it receives emails or stock quotes, even when we are far away from the office. It may be a cell phone that keeps customers or employees in contact with us even on weekends and holidays.

It seems to me that, as society continues to move in its current direction, and as we become ever more “wired,” Christians will have to be focused and deliberate about moderating and perhaps removing some of this ever-present background noise. If we are to be thinking people, people who think deeply and deliberately about spiritual matters, we simply cannot allow our lives to be overshadowed by the noise of technology.

I wonder how much we miss because of our busyness. I am often challenged to think just how much of life I miss while I check my email for the seventh time in a given evening or while I follow along online with a football game that I really don’t care about. Technology, it seems, is a great distractor. Technology sticks its foot in the door of so many areas of my life. When I sit down to read to my children we may be interrupted by a call on my cell phone. As we head outdoors to play, I may do a quick check of my email and spend fifteen minutes typing out a reply that could easily wait until the next day; and then, while I play with the children, I am distracted, mulling over what I might have or should have said. Maybe we duck out of church before the time of fellowship is complete so we will have time to get home, make a sandwich and fluff the cushions on the couch before kickoff time.

Truthfully, I cannot think of anything that distracts us so fully and completely and consistently as technology. For too many of us, technology is a master and not a servant. It is our owner, not our possession. We let it run and rule our lives. We allow technology to determine the course of our lives, taking us where it leads. We determine our schedules with TV Guide in one hand, an iPhone calendar in the other. We invest countless hours in online friendships, many of which are shallow and insignificant, while ignoring people in our local churches and communities. Perhaps while ignoring even our own families.

Technology is a great servant but an evil master. Technology is proof of the greatness of God and something we ought to be thankful for. After all, He is the One who has endowed humans with the ingenuity that makes it all possible. But why, then, have so many of us allowed it to rule and govern our lives? Why do we allow it to play such an important, transcendent role in our lives and in our families?

It may be as simple as escapism. Technology, and especially its many applications to entertainment, provide unparalleled opportunities to escape from reality, even if only for a few minutes. Through technology we can leave the drudgery of our lives to listen to music that glorifies freedom or to watch television or film where what happens is far more thrilling than what we experience at home and in the office. The purpose of much of modern technology is to allow us to take our entertainment with us no matter where we go. MP3 players allow us to take thousands or tens of thousands of songs with us in the car or on the train. Video iPods allow us to escape from work or school for a few minutes by watching (ironically enough) The Office or nearly unlimited amounts of pornography. Portable DVD players allow us to keep the children quiet in the car while we take a vacation. No matter who or where we are, we can use technology as a brief escape.

Perhaps we use technology to hide. Maybe we hate to be alone with our thoughts. We have become so accustomed to constant noise that, like a baby who can only sleep in a room with a white noise machine softly humming, we can barely stand the sound of silence. Maybe we have lost the ability to think or even the desire to think, and so we anesthetize our intellects, we lull them into inactivity, by replacing them with noise.

Maybe we need constant noise from the cell phone or Blackberry or laptop so we feel like we are accomplishing anything. Perhaps we have bought into the lie that we need to be accomplishing something significant—something that either pays the bills or leaves us with another bill to pay—at all times. And so we take phone calls during dinner and answer emails in church. We check email compulsively and work while we should be resting.

Or it could be that we prefer the anonymity and safety of online relationships, relationships that allow us to be almost exhibitionist in what we reveal about ourselves, all the while hiding behind a mask of secrecy. We would rather tell our deepest secrets to strangers on the other side of the continent, strangers we know only by their online personas, than find and nurture deep and lasting friendships close to home.

We are busy. We are distracted. Too often we hide behind the noise. As Christians we need to ensure that we are mastering the noise, not allowing it to master us. We need to be in control of our cell phones, Blackberries, laptops and inboxes. We can and often should use this technology, but we must now allow it to control us.

C.H. Spurgeon quotes

2008-07-30T07:05:00.003-05:00

More of these can be found on the Thinkexist.com website

“If any of you should ask me for an epitome of the Christian religion, I should say that it is in one word- Prayer. Live and die without prayer, and you will pray long enough when you get to hell.”

“Fiery trials make golden Christians”

“Every generation needs regeneration”

“Beware of no man more than of yourself; we carry our worst enemies within us.”

“A man who does nothing never has time to do anything”

“Trials teach us what we are; they dig up the soil, and let us see what we are made of; they just turn up some of the ill weeds on to the surface.”

“Of two evils, choose neither”

“A good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you and were helped by you will remember you when forget-me-nots have withered. Carve your name on hearts, not on marble.”

Way of the Master - the good and the bad

2008-07-29T23:01:00.002-05:00

Mailbag: "The Way of the Master" Evangelism?

Written by Jim Bublitz on http://oldtruth.com.

Tim Keller talks about Belief in God at Authors@Google

2008-07-27T13:28:00.004-05:00

A really good framework for how we construct our beliefs:

The Sufficiency of the Gospel in a PostModern World

2008-07-27T12:15:00.002-05:00

Tim Keller on the “Alpha Program” and other once-successful evangelistic programs that churches adopt in order to reach those in their communities with the Gospel:

“I’ve seen this a million times with churches that just sort of try to take the Alpha Program or some other ‘magic bullet’: they raise the money, they train the people, they roll out the program, they’re just trying to ‘graft on’ to the side of their existing ministry an evangelism program hoping that somehow that’s going to help them win poor people—and it won’t work anymore. ‘The demon’s in too deep’.
There’s going to have to be a complete transformation of our personality, our theology and our community by the Gospel. The Gospel has to re-capture us and we have to re-capture the Gospel or evangelism will not work anymore. We won’t be able to do any kind of evangelism anymore. ‘The demon’s in too deep’.”

Listen -- Download Audio Track (right-click; save target as)

Doing Justice

2008-07-25T06:58:00.006-05:00

speaker: Timothy Keller

Listen - Download Audio Track (right-click; save target as)

As quoted from theResurgence.com website:

In session 8 with our keynote speaker Dr. Tim Keller, senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York, New York and founder of Redeemer Church Planting Center, preaches on, "Doing Justice" his last session of three from the Reform & Resurge Conference May 2006. The audio that you are about to listen to from Dr. Keller will challenge your view of the comprehensive work of the gospel. Four questions are fleshed out in this session. First, what is justice according to the Bible? Second, what is doing justice according to the Bible? Thirdly, who should be doing justice? Lastly, how can you be one of the people that does justice? These questions and a walk through the book of Proverbs will develop a biblically faithful approach to justice. The Biblical view of justice is counter to that of what we see in Western society. This mp3 from Dr. Tim Keller will stretch and hopefully encourage you to do justice not out of guilt but out of joy. Through faithfulness in doing justice the culture will begin to notice and hear the gospel that you preach.

Preaching the Gospel

2008-07-25T06:54:00.004-05:00

speaker: Timothy Keller

Listen - Download Audio Track (right-click; save target as)

As Quoted from theResurgence.com website:

Dr. Tim Keller, senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York, New York and founder of Redeemer Church Planting Center, speaks on, "Preaching the Gospel" in his second of three sessions (session 7) from the Reform & Resurge Conference May 2006. Listen now to this audio from Dr. Keller as he gives some insightful comments on preaching the gospel today. What is discovered is that the older evangelicals know how to preach the gospel of sovereign grace in salvation and the younger evangelicals preach the gospel of salvation as a means for a new heavens and new earth. Dr. Keller notes that there are not many movements today that combine these two ways to preach the gospel as both the building of God's Kingdom through people being redeemed by the atoning work of Jesus Christ on the cross. What needs to be realized is that every theme and/or thread points to Jesus. This also includes the building of the Kingdom of God and personal salvation. More importantly Dr. Keller gives great advice at preaching the gospel in getting to the roots of idolatry and selfishness rather than just the slap on the hand for doing wrong. Preaching the gospel in a manner that glorifies Jesus rather than us is key aspect for the church today and this mp3 from Tim Keller should push the church in that direction.

Gospel-Centered Ministry

2008-07-25T06:46:00.004-05:00

speaker: Tim Keller

Listen - Download Audio Track (right-click; save target as)

Listen to this audio from the Gospel Coalition, as Tim Keller from Redeemer Presbyterian in New York talks about what ministry shaped by the gospel looks like. In this mp3, Dr. Keller fleshes out seven significant features of the gospel and how to use those features to make ministry effective.

Evangelistic Worship

2008-07-24T22:12:00.003-05:00

by Dr. Tim Keller

THE WORSHIP WARS
One of the basic features of church life in the U.S. today is the proliferation of worship and music forms. This in turn has caused many severe conflicts both within individual congregations and whole denominations. Most books and articles about recent worship trends tend to fall into one of two broad categories."Contemporary Worship" (hereafter CW) advocates often make rather sweeping statements, such as "pipe organs and choirs will never reach people today." "Historic Worship" (hereafter HW) advocates often speak similarly about how incorrigibly corrupt popular music and culture is, and how they make contemporary worship completely unacceptable.

Read More...

Excerpts of "Lectures to my Students" by C.H. Spurgeon

2008-07-20T14:00:00.001-05:00

From Chapter XII: The Minister's Ordinary Conversation

Pg. 167-168

“Still, a minister, wherever he is, is a minister, and should recollect that he is on duty. A policeman or a soldier may be off duty, but a minister never is. Even in our recreations we should still pursue the great object of our lives; for we are called to be diligent “in season and out of season.” There is no position in which we may be placed but the Lord may come with the question, “What doest thou here, Elijah?” and we ought to be able at once to answer, “I have something to do for thee even here, and I am trying to do it.” The bow, of course, must be at times unstrung, or else it will lose its elasticity; but there is no need to cut the string. I am speaking at this time of the minister in times of relaxation; and I say that even then he should conduct himself as the ambassador of God, and seize opportunities of doing good: this will not mar his rest, but sanctify it. A minister should be like a certain chamber which I saw a Beaulieu, in the New Forest, in which a cobweb is never seen. It is a large lumber-room, and is never swept; yet no spider ever defiles it with the emblems of neglect. It is roofed with chestnut, and for some reason, I know not what, spiders will not come near that wood by the year together. The same thing was mentioned to me in the corridors of Winchester School: I was told, “No spiders ever come here.” Our minds should be equally clear of idle habits.

Pg. 168
“On our public rests for porters in the City of London you may read the words, “Rest, but do not loiter”; and they contain advice worthy of our attention. I do not call the dolce far niente laziness; there is a sweet doing of nothing which is just the finest medicine in the world for a jaded mind. When the mind gets fatigued and out of order, to rest it is no more idleness than sleep is idleness; and no man is called lazy for sleeping the proper time. It is far better to be industriously asleep than lazily awake. Be ready to do good even in your resting times and in your leisure hours; and so be really a minister, and there will be no need for you to proclaim that you are so.

Pg. 168
“The Christian minister out of the pulpit should be a sociable man. He is not sent into the world to be a hermit, or a monk of La Trappe. It is not his vocation to stand on a pillar all day, above his fellowmen, like that hare-brained Simon Stylites of olden time. You are not to warble from the top of a tree, like an invisible nightingale; but to be a man among men, saying to them, “I also am as you are in all that relates to man.” Salt is of no use in the box; it must be rubbed into the meat; and our personal influence must penetrate and season society. Keep aloof from others, and how can you benefit them? Our Master went to a wedding, and ate bread with publicans and sinners, and yet was far more pure than those sanctimonious Pharisees, whose glory was that they were separate from their fellowmen. Some ministers need to be told that they are of the same species as their hearers. It is a remarkable fact, but we may as well state it, that bishops, canons, archdeacons, prebendaries, rural deans, rectors, vicars and even archbishops, are only men after all; and God has not railed off a holy corner of the earth to serve as a chancel for them to abide therein by themselves.
“It would not be amiss if there could be a revival of holy talk in the churchyard and the meeting-yard. I like to see the big yew-trees outside our ancient churches with seats all round them. They seem to say: “Sit down here, neighbour, and talk aupon the sermon; here comes the pastor; he will join us, and we shall have a pleasant, holy chat.” It is not every preacher we would care to talk with; but there are some whom one would give a fortune to converse with for an hour. I love a minister whose face invites me to make him my friend—a man upon whose doorstep you read, “Salve,” “Welcome”; and feel that there is no need of that Pompeian warning, “Cave Canem,” “Beware of the dog.” Give me the man around whom the children come, like flies around a honey-pot: they are first-class judges of a good man. When Soloman was tried by the Queen of Sheba, as to his wisdom, the rabbies tell us that she brought some artificial flowers with her, beautifully made and delicately scented, so as to be facsimiles of real flowers. She asked Solomon to discover which were artificial and which were real. The wise man bade his servants open the window, and when the bees come in they flew at once to the natural flowers, and cared nothing for the artificial. So you will find that children have their instincts, and discover very speedily who is their friend, and depend upon it the children’s friend is the one who will be worth knowing. Have a good word to say to each and every member of the family—the big boys, and the young ladies, and the little girls, and everybody. No one knows what a smile and a hearty sentence may do. A man who is to do much with men must love them, and feel at home with them. An individual who has no geniality about him had better be an undertaker, and bury the dead, for he will never succeed in influencing the living. I have met somewhere with the observation nthat to be a popular preacher one must have bowels. I fear that the observation was meant as a mild criticism upon the bulk to which certain brethren have attained: but there is truth in it. A man must have a great heart if he would have a great congregation. His heart should be as capacious as those noble harbours along our coast, which contain se-room for a fleet. When a man has a large, loving heart, men go to him as ships to a haven, and feel at peace when they have anchored under the lee of this friendship. Such a man is hearty in private as well as in public; his blood is not cold and fishy, but he is warm as your own fireside. No pride and selfishness chill you when you approach him; he has his doors all open to receive you, and you are at home with him at once. Such men I would persuade you to be, every one of you.

About the Author

2008-07-20T12:35:00.006-05:00

Hi,

My name is Joel Conrad. Before I jump into the purpose of this blog, let me give you a bit of background info about me. As of today, July 20, 2008, I am a 25 year-old husband of the beautiful Kerry Conrad and father of the incredible Cameron Conrad (almost 2 years old). During the week, I work in the fund-accounting world (valuing mutual funds) for a company called State Street. That's what I do for living, and I try to spend the rest of the timedoing some or all of the following:

a.) Growing in knowledge/relationship with God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit (a.k.a. the Trinitarian God), which often involves praying/talking to God, reading (and hopefully understanding) the Bible, listening to sermons, reading theological books, and talking about Him with other people;

b.) Being a "godly" husband and a good father, which usually requires that I spend time with my wife and son;

c.) Spending time/ growing in relationships with people in our church (I attend Heartland Church in Blue Springs);

d.) Staying alive and fit (a.k.a. "Taking care of my temple"). I am so thankful that God gave me legs and the ability to run-- it is such a blessing, one that I'm trying not to take for granted. I run daily and occasionally compete in various races;

e.) Playing guitar and singing in various bands in our church.

These activities encompass my "plate", for the most part. Feel free to email any time at joelconrad@gmail.com

Pain and Progress

2008-07-19T17:08:00.003-05:00

From the 3/18/2007 sermon by Mark Driscoll on Nehemiah 4:1-4.

Download Audio

Reflections:
It is an important truth-- you can't have progress without pain. They go hand-in-hand.

C.H. Spurgeon - Lectures to My Students

2008-07-14T22:43:00.005-05:00

The audio reading for the first chapter "The Minister's Self Watch" is outstanding, especially for those called to preaching (this does not include me, but I still benefitted much from various sections).

-- Download "The Minister's Self Watch" at Sermon Audio

-- Check out the entire book at the Google Library

How to Experience Joy

2008-07-14T07:14:00.007-05:00

(This series is currently in progress, but I will try to post additional sermons as they come:)

Title: How to Experience Joy
Scripture: Book of Philippians
Speaker:Tim Buzan

Preached Heartland Church

Part 1 - Philippians - 6/8/2008 - Duration: 52:59 - Download

Part 2 - Phil. 1:1-11 - 6/16/2008 - Duration: 52:59 - Download

Part 3 - Phil. 1 - 6/22/2008 - "Experiencing Joy in the midst of Problems" - Duration: 45:24 - Download

Part 4 - Phil. 1 - 6/29/2008 - "Experiencing Joy in the midst of Problems" - Duration: 54:08 - Download

Part 5 - Phil. 1 - 7/6/2008 - "Are You Better Than God? (Well, are you??!)" - Duration: 49:37 - Download

Emergent Church

2008-07-14T07:01:00.004-05:00

The Emerging Church

Speaker : Mark Driscoll, 9/21/2007 - 1 hr. 21 min.
From the Convergent Conference, Session 3

Listen Now - Download MP3

Nightline - National Response Debate w/ Kurt Cameron and Ray Comfort

2008-07-13T20:32:00.002-05:00

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Part 9

Part 10

Part 11

Part 12

Part 13

Part 14

Part 15 (Ray's Closing Remarks)

Part 16 (Brian's Closing Remarks)

Part 17 (Kirk's Closing Remarks)

Part 18 (Kelly's Closing Remarks)

Same thing, as seen on Nightline:

PART II: NightLine Debate- Does God Exist? (1 of 5)

PART II: NightLine Debate- Does God Exist? (2 of 5)

PART II: NightLine Debate- Does God Exist? (3 of 5)

PART II: NightLine Debate- Does God Exist? (4 of 5)

"Send Me" - Hip Hop

2008-07-13T15:13:00.002-05:00

'Send Me' - Live at MHC | Ballard from Mars Hill Church on Vimeo.