Between Two Worlds

If you're in ministry and are married--or if your husband is in ministry--here's a book you may want to check out: One with a Shepherd: The Tears and Triumphs of a Ministry Marriage, by Mary Somerville.

At Capitol Hill Baptist Church Lindsey Braymen and Connie Dever have created a study guide for the book, a 9-session study for pastors' wives.

Russell Moore publishes an excerpt from his forthcoming book on adoption.

The book is Adopted for Life: The Priority of Adoption for Christian Families and Churches, due out from Crossway at the end of May. (The foreword is by C.J. Mahaney.)

I'll have more to say about it in due time; but suffice it to say that this is one of the best books I've read in a long, long time.

Here's an early blurb from Al Mohler:

"Thankfully, there are good books on adoption and good books on the Gospel. But, until the arrival of Adopted for Life, there has never been a book that puts the adoption of children so clearly within the context of the Gospel of Christ. Adopted for Life is one of the most compelling books I have ever read - both deeply touching and richly theological. You will never look at adoption or the Gospel in quite the same way after reading this book. How could the church have been missing this for so long?"

--R. Albert Mohler Jr.
President, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

It has a new home: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/. Update your bookmarks.

Dan Phillips has asked some theologians this question. See here for more details.

John Frame says he would do it only on the condition that he would be allowed to pray in Jesus' name, and that he would pray something like the following:

We pray to you our creator, the mighty king of kings and lord of lords, who governs all things that come to pass and rules over all the nations. You raise up rulers and cast them down at your own pleasure, in the pursuit of your just and merciful purposes. We thank you for the freedom we have to worship you, sought by the founders of this nation, freedom you have given to us through the righteous laws of this land. So we call on you to be with us again during this new era. Be with our new president and all the leaders of this country, that they may be willing to hear the wisdom of your word and thus may image your justice, mercy, and integrity in their public life. As the one who remains constant throughout history, and yet who ordains change from each moment to the next, move our leaders to know how to maintain the foundations of our nation, while changing to meet the demands of new situations. Be our rock, when so much is changing in our lives. We pray for those families whose loved ones have died in defense of our country, and we pray for the young men and women who continue to fight our battles, that they may be victorious, and that their efforts may bring about the fruit of peace. We pray for those who have experienced terrible losses through the changes in the economy, and we pray that the leaders of this nation may seek out the wisest ways of responding. Above all, pour out on this nation your Holy Spirit, that there will be revival in our land, that the hearts of many will be moved to seek you, and that they may find that new life you offer us of love, joy, and peace.

This we pray in the name of Jesus Christ,

AMEN

Keep an eye on the Team Pyro blog for other entries that may come in.

HT: James Grant

HT: Ryan Boomershine

From Sinclair Ferguson's forthcoming chapter in The Power of Words and the Wonder of God:

[Christ] our Savior is our Exemplar. But he is not only, nor is he first of all, an Exemplar. To be that, he needed first to become our Savior. All this is part of the grand vision of Isaiah’s Servant Songs (so influential in Jesus’ own reception of God’s word!). The Father opened the ear of his Son; the Son was not rebellious. He was willing to be “oppressed and afflicted.” As he experienced this in his trial and condemnation, “he opened not his mouth . . .” (Isa. 53:7).

Why was Jesus silent? Is there more to this than meets the eyes?

Indeed there is!

He was silent because of every word that has proceeded from your lips; because of every word that provides adequate reason for God to damn you for all eternity, because you have cursed him or his image.

The Lord Jesus came into the world to bear the judgment of God against the sin of our tongues. When he stood before the High Priest and the judgment seat of Pontius Pilate, he accepted a sentence of guilt. But that was my guilt. He bore in his body on the tree the sins of my lips and my tongue.

Do you wish you could control your tongue better? Do you want to follow the example of Jesus? Then you need to understand that he is Savior first, and then he is Example. You need to come, conscious of the sin of your lips, and say:

God be merciful to me a sinner.
I thank you that Jesus came and was silent
in order that he might bear the penalty of all my misuse of my tongue.

And when you know that he has taken God’s judgment and wrath against your every sinful word, you cannot but come to him and say:

O, for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer’s praise.

He is able to answer that prayer, and its companion petition:

Be of sin the double cure, cleanse me from its guilt and power.

All the guilt can be cleansed away! Christ can deliver you from the misuse of the tongue. And when you come to him conscious of that sin, you discover what a glorious Savior he is. Delivered—albeit not yet perfected and glorified—your tongue now shows forth his praises. Taken out of the pit and from the miry clay on your lips is now a new song of praise to your God. Then people not only hear a different vocabulary, but they hear you speak with a different accent. That is what leaves the lasting impression of the power of Christ and the transformation of grace in your life.

Amazon has a nice new (beta) feature, called Author Stores:

Amazon Author Stores (beta) are new corners of our bookstore dedicated to offering customers a new way to browse and shop favorite authors, discover new books, and more. Today each Author Store includes a bibliography, and can include a biography, author photo, and discussion board. But stay tuned--we'll be adding more features in the months to come.

Thus far they are only including a select list of authors. Here are some of the key evangelicals in their selection, along with other authors that may be of interest:

• Randy Alcorn
• D.A. Carson
• Chuck Colson
• Annie Dillard
• Mark Driscoll
• Norman Geisler
• Wayne Grudem
• Joshua Harris
• Tim Keller
• C.S. Lewis
• Tremper Longman (wrong picture, though!)
• John MacArthur
• C.J. Mahaney
• Alister McGrath
• Flannery O'Connor
• J.I. Packer
• Walker Pearcy
• John Piper
• Marilynne Robinson
  
• Ken Sande
• J.R.R. Tolkien
• A.W. Tozer
• Paul Tripp
• Edward Welch
• Walter Wangerin
  
• Ravi Zacharias

In a week or two, I'll be switching from a PC (Dell) to a Mac. I haven't been on a computer made by Apple since elementary school, so the switch should be interesting.

One thing I don't plan on switching from, however, is Firefox 3 for my web browswer. If you're using Internet Explorer, Firefox 2, or Google Chrome, I'd suggest going with Firefox 3. (I don't know much about Safari.)

One of the things I really like about Firefox 3 is its speed, as well as the Smart Location Bar. You don't have to go to Google any longer for searches. Just type whatever you want into the address bar and it will look it up for you in Google. You also can type the name of a website instead of an address. E.g., the URL for Trevin Wax's blog is www.trevinwax.com, but the name of it is "Kingdom People." If I start typing "Kin..." it pulls up his blog for me. It can save a lot of time.

Probably a lot of you have search bars built into your browser, but if you don't, adding them can be another timesaver.

For example, here's how to add the ESV search engine in Firefox.

1. Go to the ESV Bible page.

2. Click on the little down arrow on the left hand side of the search bar, which is located in the upper right of your browser.














3. Go down to "Add 'ESV Bible'" and select it.













You're good to go. Just scroll down to the ESV search engine wherever you're at on the web and you'll be able to look up verses.

You can also add search engines for Amazon, Wikipedia, Dictionary.com, YouTube, etc.

Tommy Keane has also created one for Westminster Bookstore.

Tim Ellsworth:

My wife entered a photo of Noah in the “America’s Cutest Last-Minute Tax Deduction” contest, and we found out that he’s a finalist. If you would, please take a second to go to the Cutest Tax Deduction site, scroll down to the bottom and cast your vote for little Noah.

Let’s rock the vote! (And no registration is required.)

Thanks very much.

Consider it your way to help out a Baptist blogging brother.

Dan Gilgoff has the details on a coalition presenting ideas to President-elect Obama's transition team.

Ten degrees below zero; wind chill is negative 25 (expected to go down to negative 40).

If you have never experienced the phenomenon of frozen nostril hair, then you are missing one of the more interesting sensations of life. . . .

A good practice for good reading is to ask good questions of the text.

Mark Dever models this for us with regard to 1 Corinthians 7. In an appendix to his book, Twelve Challenges Churches Face, Dever asks the following questions:

• In 1 Corinthians 7:1 is Paul teaching that it is good for a man not to touch a woman or is that a Corinthian teaching that Paul is commenting on?
• Is singleness better than marriage (1 Cor. 7:1, 8, 35, 38, 40)?
• Does Paul think sex is bad (1 Cor. 7:6)?
• Is divorce allowed (1 Cor. 7:10–16)?
• Is remarriage okay (1 Cor. 7:11, 15, 39)?
• What is "the present crisis" (1 Cor. 7:26)?
• What does it mean for the married to act as if they're not married (1 Cor. 7:29)?
• Does 1 Corinthians 7:29–35 teach asceticism?

For the answers, check out Lydia Brownback's blog post, and/or get the book.

Andy Naselli, Ben Peays, and Ryan James have performed a tremendous service to the church: they have uploaded to The Gospel Coalition website 443 MP3s of D. A. Carson's teaching. Many of these were previously available only for a price; others have never been available online. Some are even in French! They are all tagged for easy searching and organization: by title, Scripture text, series, topic, date.

I couldn't agree more with what Andy writes:

I’d highly recommend that you redeem the time and systematically and thoughtfully listen to these MP3s. I have profited immensely from them. Carson's manner of speaking is just as articulate, thoughtful, and engaging as his publications. He exalts Christ by exegeting his words, tracing themes through the Bible’s salvation-historical storyline, addressing hot topics with clarity and nuance, and engaging and confronting bad theology as well as the culture.

You can access them at Carson's TGC webpage. You can also browse most of them at his sermons page.

Yesterday I read Sally Thomas's article from the November issue of First Things, and tonight I discovered (via Owen and Zach) that it's online for free. It's called "iPhones Have Consequences." (I doubt she wrote the headline--the article doesn't mention iPhones once.) But it's a helpful piece on how ease of access to information can actually make us dumber.

She relies quite a bit on Mark Bauerlein’s book, The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future; or, Don’t Trust Anyone Under 30.

Someone with a very different perspective on this is Steven Johnson, who wrote Everything Bad Is Good for You.

For some good thoughts on the debate, see Alan Jacobs's posts:

• Johnson vs. Bauerlein, Round 1
• Johnson vs. Bauerlein, Round 2
• Johnson vs. Bauerlein, Third and Final Round

The Gospel Coalition has extended early-bird registration for the April conference until January 31. (In February the regular price kicks in.)

I'm really looking forward to this conference, as some of our best pastor-theologians preach and teach through 2 Timothy. Check out the sessions below. I know of no other conference that provides this degree of biblical, practical content.

• Tim Keller: “The Grand Demythologizer: The Gospel and Idolatry” (Acts 19:21-41)
• John Piper: “The Promise of Life” (2 Timothy 1:1-12)
• Phil Ryken: “The Pattern of Sound Words” (2 Timothy 1:13-2:13)
• Mark Driscoll: “Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth” (2 Timothy 2:14-26)
• Edward Copeland: “Shadowlands: Pitfalls and Parodies of Gospel-Centered Ministry” (2 Timothy 3:1-9)
• Bryan Chapell: “Preach the Word!” (2 Timothy 3:10-4:5)
• Ajith Fernando: “Gospel-Faithful Mission in the New Christendom”
• Ligon Duncan: “Finishing Well” (2 Timothy 4:6-22)
• D.A. Carson: "'That By All Means I Might Win Some': Faithfulness and Flexibility in Gospel Proclamation" (1 Corinthians 9:19-23)

"The Pastor as Scholar, and the Scholar as Pastor." (Reflections on life and ministry by John Piper and D.A. Carson. Held at Park Community Church in Chicago.)


Session 1

• Thabiti Anyabwile, "The Decline of African-American Theology"
• Buster Brown, "Preaching in a Christianized Culture"
• Michael Bullmore, "The Functional Centrality of the Gospel"
• Steven Chin, "Working Faithfully Under a Senior Pastor"
• Graham Cole, "Homosexuality and the Bible: Texts, Hermeneutics, and Pastoral Wisdom"
• K. Edward Copeland and Charlie Dates, "Mentoring Younger Pastors"
• Andy Davis, "The Gospel and Social Action"
• Joshua Harris, "Ministering in a Church-Hopping Society"
• David Helm, "Biblical Reflections on Building a Staff"
• Bill Kynes, "Complementarianism: Definition and Priorities"

Session 2

• Crawford Loritts, "Staying Faithful, Staying Relevant: The Use and Abuse of Polemical Preaching"
• Jeff Louie, "Gospel and Community: Definitions and Crucial Issues"
• Erwin Lutzer, "Finishing Well in Life and Ministry"
• C. J. Mahaney, "Trinitarian Pastoral Ministry"
• Tom Nelson and Matt Perman, "The Gospel and Money"
• Tim Savage, "Power in Weakness: The Heart of Gospel Ministry"
• Colin Smith, "Transformational Expository Preaching"
• Scotty Smith, "A Biblical Theology of Worship: On Preference and Other Matters"
• Stephen Um, "On Ministry and Revolving Doors: Practical Challenges and Ideas for Ministry in a Mobile Society"
• Sandy Willson, "Gospel Mission to the World: Arrogance or Love?"

The Wall Street Journal has an interactive page showing which Bible was used for each inauguration, and which verse the President chose.

HT: Sean Lucas (who writes, "why has no one used an ESV Study Bible? Maybe because it'd break the arms of the Chief Justice to hold it for the entire vow!")

John Younts is the author of the book, Everyday Talk: Talking Freely and Naturally about God with Your Children. I've only had a chance to dip into this book, but what I read was very good.

He's also blogging at the Shepherd's Press blog. Here are some recent posts he's been doing about Facebook:

• Facebook and You
• Post Only What Is Helpful
• It's Just Facebook
• Facebook and Friends
• Facebook and Your Time

David Instone-Brewer:

Our aim should be maximum time for reading, thinking and creative writing, with automatic facilities for searching, creating bibliographies and backups, and minimum time for writing and filing notes on what you've read. Utopia? Not any more.

With the following free software you can:

• access your work on any computer, and write it at the same time as a colleague
• never lose your work - automatically save to the internet every few seconds
• never ruin your work - previous versions of a document are always available
• add library catalog entries to your bibliography automatically, in your chosen style
• attach notes to a book or article which you can search and find later
• copy web pages or articles or documents which you can search later
• search videos from many sources (like YouTube) and save them (increasingly important!)
• copy pages from online books and save them as searchable documents
• save photocopies online and search them as though they were text documents

Check out his post for four free softwares that, when combined, can do all of this.

The latest podcast from CCEF.

James Grant offers some practical counsel.

Julius Kim--Dean of Students and Associate Professor of Practical Theology at Westminster Seminary California--at a conference at Reformed Presbyterian Church of Bowie:

1. The Motivation to Witness - Grace
2. The Mandate to Witness (Part 1)
3. The Mandate to Witness (Part 2)
4. The Message of Our Witness - Jesus Christ
5. The Mark of Our Witness - Love

(All MP3s.)

Douglas Kelly's 640-page first volume of his three-volume Systematic Theology is now available: Systematic Theology, Volume 1: Grounded in Holy Scripture and Understood in Light of the Church.

Professor Kelly writes:

I have written this first volume, thinking of my heritage as both Reformed and Catholic; gladly appropriating crucial insights of the whole people of God over the last two thousand years - Eastern Orthodox, Western Catholic, and Reformation Protestant - as they sought to live out the foundational truths of the inspired Word of God.

Here are some endorsements:

"If this first installment is any indication, Douglas Kelly’s three-volume Systematic Theology is sure to set a new standard. Harvesting decades of steady scholarship and equally steady engagement in all facets of the church’s life and ministry, Kelly displays the richness of the Christian faith, particularly in its Reformed expression. Christians of all traditions will benefit greatly from the catholic breadth, appropriate but not bewildering depth, and exegetical insight of this remarkable work."

Michael Horton
J. Gresham Machen Professor of Systematic Theology and Apologetics
Westminster Seminary in California, Escondido, California

"Douglas F. Kelly is one of the English-speaking world’s leading Reformed theologians. A brilliant Patristics scholar and a gifted linguist, with a grace-wrought passion for the Triune God, a love for truth, and a commitment to godliness, Dr. Kelly is a hearty advocate for supernaturalism in its fullest Christian sense (and you will not read far before you see his polemic against rationalism in every form). I know of no one who is better at making the unseen world of spirituality reality vivid and tangible. Here we begin to enjoy the fruits of his labors of more than three decades as a doctor of the church and servant of the Word in the teaching of systematic theology. What a feast it is. Few Protestant theologians in our day know the terrain of the doctrine of the Trinity, and the Person of Christ, as well as Professor Kelly. Consequently, he is at his best when opening up to us the unrealized importance and glory of these foundational truths about our Savior God. For those who yearn for an orthodox Reformed catholicity, Kelly shows the way forward."

Ligon Duncan
Senior Minister, First Presbyterian Church, Jackson, Mississippi
President, Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals
Adjunct Professor, Reformed Theological Seminary

"Professor Douglas Kelly’s eagerly awaited Systematic Theology exceeds all expectation. With the same exacting diligence and attention to detail that have always characterised his work, Doug Kelly presents a theology that is at once grounded in Scripture and appreciated within the church. His contention is that these are the hallmarks of all true theological reflection, and this volume fulfi ls its intention to distill the teaching of the Bible for the benefit of the believing community. Professor Kelly weaves together a rich tapestry of biblical exegesis, historical reflection, critical engagement and contemporary application; while standing in mainstream Reformed theology, he is not afraid to engage other traditions.
This first volume is a comprehensive introduction to discussion of God’s self-disclosure, Triune being, transcendent majesty, and covenant relationships. It is a magnificent gift both to the Church and the Academy."

Iain D. Campbell
Back Free Church of Scotland, Isle of Lewis

Here are the chapter titles for the first volume:

1. Knowledge of God: God Reveals Himself
2. Knowledge of the Triune God through Creation and Conscience
3. Western Rejection of God’s Testimony to Himself in Creation and Conscience (The Continuing Heritage of the Enlightenment)
4. The God Who Is: the Holy Trinity as One Lord
5. What Kind of Lord He Is: His Transcendence, Beauty and Majesty Mean that His Sovereign Control is ‘Good News’
6. The Triune God Makes Himself Known in the Covenant of Grace
7. The One Lord exists as three persons
8. The Christian Church Thinks Through how God is One Being and Three Persons
9. The Full Co-equality of the Trinitarian Persons: No Subordinationism

The full table of contents--with numerous appendices--and the author's preface can be read online.

If you need help managing your money--namely, giving and saving more, spending less--this is a quick, nicely designed, free program. (Not a Christian program.)

Denver Seminary's Doug Groothuis reviews Barry Hankins's Francis Schaeffer and the Shaping of Evangelical America and Colin Duriez's Francis Schaeffer: An Authentic Life.

ChristianityToday.com now has a new blog devoted to Christian History.