For now I live with disability.
Disability still says ugly things to me.
Disability is a part of this broken sin filled world.
But God has so many beautiful things to say.
And so I’m filled with hope.
God’s words grow louder and louder in my life.
The glory of his grace and mercy grow stronger and stronger.
I need to listen to his words.
I want to listen to his words.
God’s words change everything.
God’s beautiful words have changed my life.
And that is how I live with disability. (Krista Horning, “Testimony of God’s Good Design“)

by Richard Shin

Welcome back to another edition of Weekly Links. I hope you had a wonderful time with or without your family, with or without Thanksgiving food. And now that Thanksgiving Day has come and gone, I know all of you were looking forward to the next few days with immense anticipation for cheap Christian resources:

• Tim Challies has done a phenomenal job (as usual) of collecting many of these resources. He is updating them on some basis throughout the weekend; so I would encourage you to visit it again.
• Westminster Bookstore  is having a sale of 70% off on Tim Keller’s new book, Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God’s Work.
• If you haven’t seen it before, now’s a great time to peruse monergism.com for a list of free ebooks. Their collection is steadily increasing.

And here are some articles to complement some of the thanksgiving frenzy:

• Obamacare is in full effect as the federal courts rejected Hobby Lobby’s request to halt the enforcement of distributing abortion pills as part of their health care coverage. And because of this, they will have to pay hefty fines in order to make amends with the government. Now is the time to pray for our nation, not just the government but for the individuals who make up this nation.
• I pointed you to the Desiring God’s conference on disability before, and I would be remiss if I didn’t point you to the recordings.  I want to point you particularly to the testimony of Krista Horning that is so encouraging to hear. I included her closing statement at the top for good measure.
• While some of us may cringe at the words “Wesleyan theology,” there is perhaps a lesser known aspect to the legacy of John Wesley: his failed marriage. And to give a model to emulate, Jonathan Edwards’ marriage is given as an example.
• Do you ever get anxious? If you do, I would encourage you to read through Paul Tautges’ series on fighting anxiety. He begins with a two-parter on God’s prescription for anxiety here and here. Then he describes how we ought to pray. And then he tops it off with some biblical wisdom on how to fight anxiety in the long term.

I hope that whets your post-Thanksgiving appetite for a bit. Have a great weekend, everyone!

Coram Deo

It was come to this: either we must die eternally, or the Son of God must spill his blood; either we, or God’s own Son must suffer God’s wrath, one of the two; either miserable worms of the dust that had deserved it, or the glorious, amiable, beautiful, and innocent Son of God.

The fall of man brought it to this; it must be determined one way or t’other and it was determined, by the strangely free and boundless grace of God, that this his own Son should die that the offending worms might be freed, and set at liberty from their punishment, and that justice might make them happy. Here is grace indeed; well may we shout, “Grace, grace!” at this.

And beside, God did not do this for friends, but for enemies and haters of him. He did not do it for loyal subjects, but for rebels; he did not do it for those that were his children, but for the children of the devil; he did not do it for those that were excellent, but for those that were more hateful than toads or vipers; he did not do it for those that could be any way profitable or advantageous to him, but for those that were so weak, that instead of profiting God, they were not able in the least to help themselves.

God has given even fallen man such a gift, that He has left nothing for man to do that he may be happy, but only to receive what is given him. Though he has sinned, yet God requires no amends to be made by him; He requires of him no restoration; if they will receive His Son of Him, He requires neither money nor price; he is to do no penance in order to be forgiven. God offers to save him for nothing, only if he will receive salvation as it is offered; that is, freely through Christ, by faith in Him. (Jonathan Edwards, “Glorious Grace“)

By Richard Shin

There is a lot of great resources for you to enjoy this weekend and the weeks to come. Go, go, go!

• First, Trusting God by Jerry Bridges is currently free in the Amazon bookstore for the Kindle edition. I don’t know how long this deal will last, so you should take advantage of it now.
• There has been a lot of talk about Rachel Held Evans’ book called A Year of Biblical Womanhood, where Evans dedicates a year out of her life to obey the Biblical commands towards women literally. It’s one thing for a guy in the complementarian camp to critique the book; it’s quite another for a woman to do so in the same light. So here‘s a review by Mary Kassian, a council member of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood and the author of Girls Gone Wise in a World Gone Wild. 
• Tabletalk magazine just began releasing their magazines in digital format. It’s currently available on the iPad, and soon to be released for the Kindle Fire and Android tablets.
• Back in 1987, Virginia Stem Owens published an article that sheds a little light unto why people hate the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). Andy Naselli reproduced it on his blog, and it’s quite fascinating.
• Michael Kruger, the author of the fantastic Canon Revisited, has a series on 10 Misconceptions about the New Testament Canon. He is done with 9 out of the 10, but these are great articles to read through for a variety of purposes. And as a bonus, here’s the transcript of his interview with Apologetics 315.
• Nathan Busenitz at the Cripplegate makes a case for why Charles Spurgeon, the Prince of Preachers and the Beacon‘s most regular contributor, was a cessationist.
• R.C. Sproul is doing a weekly series on the TULIP of Calvinism. You can find the introduction to the series here. This is a great introduction to understanding the doctrines of grace.
• Dr. Albert Mohler has a new book out called The Conviction to Lead. He writes an introduction to his book on his blog here, and Adrian Warnock has a review of it here.

That should be enough for you to munch on this weekend.

Coram Deo

The Cross of Christ is certainly a noble example of self-sacrifice; but if it be only a noble example of self-sacrifice, it has no comfort for burdened souls; it certainly shows how God hates sin; but if it does nothing but show how God hates sin, it only deepens our despair; it certainly exhibits the love of God, but if it does nothing but exhibit the love of God it is a mere meaningless exhibition which seems unworthy of God.

Many things are taught us by the Cross; but the other things are taught us only if the really central meaning is preserved, the central meaning upon which all the rest depends.

On the cross the penalty of our sins was paid; it is as though we ourselves had died in fulfillment of the just curse of the law; the handwriting of ordinances that was against us was wiped out; and henceforth we have an entirely new life in the full favor of God. (J. Gresham Machen, What is Faith?)

by Richard Shin

We are back from the all-church retreat and in full force. I myself was tremendously blessed to have partaken in it. Looks like the blogosphere went a little overboard on good content while we were gone. In light of this, we’ll do this a bit differently today:

Here are some new and free stuff for you to indulge in:

• Not only did Logos come out with Logos 5, they released their free book of the month.
• Reformation Day was last week. In celebration of this, Desiring God is giving away some e-books on Calvin and a biography of Martin Luther.
• Crossway’s online Bible esvbible.org is changing its format to encourage Bible study and integrate with mobile apps.
• Another oft-forgotten Bible software is the Olive Tree Bible Study app. If you make an account before Nov 12, you can download the ESV for free.

Since this week was the conclusion of the long race to the Presidential election, I thought it would be appropriate to devote some space for some responses of the aftermath:

• Randy Alcorn notes that we never truly stop voting, even after we have voted.
• Russell Moore encourages us to honor the President.
• Pre-election Collin Hansen from TGC wrote a letter to post-election Collin Hansen.
• Al Mohler gives a broad overview of the moral climate in America.
• C. Michael Patton writes about the common response of Christians and how God’s will was done in this election.
• I would like to highlight one particular reflection piece by Garrett Kell who writes very honestly about his past sins and how he found refuge in Christ. It is quite sobering and extremely encouraging at the same time.

And then a few articles and videos to top it off, like icing on a triple-decker chocolate cake:

• Justin Taylor pointed to a video of the Gospel presentation using the numbers 3, 2, and 1.  Check out the producer’s website here.
• Depression is a serious issue among many Christians. Even some of the most prominent have experienced it, or even suffering it now. Drawing from the life of Elijah in 1 Kings,r read Dr. Bob Somerville’s 3-part series on fighting depression here, here, and here.
• J.D. Greear shares a powerful set of observations on giving from Exodus 35-36. It can be a sensitive topic, but nonetheless necessary to think about.

Have a great weekend, y’all.

Coram Deo

What is our only hope in life and death?

That we are not our own but belong, body and soul, both in life and death, to God and to our Savior Jesus Christ. (New City Catechism, Q1)

by Stephen Rodgers

I’m going to try to structure this a bit differently today…we’ll see how it goes.

FEATURED RESOURCE

Not everyone is familiar with the word, so it might be helpful to begin with the fact that Google defined “catechism” as follows:

1. A summary of the principles of Christian religion in the form of questions and answers, used for the instruction of Christians
2. A series of fixed questions, answers, or precepts used for instruction in other situations

Compared to some of the other catechisms, it’s considerably shorter: just 52 questions and answers, one for each week of the year. And it tries to claim the difficult-to-occupy middle ground between a child’s catechism (A Catechism for Boys and Girls, Catechism for Young Children, First Catechism) and the more well-known but difficult adult’s catechisms (Westminster Shorter, Westminster Larger, Heidelberg, etc.). It does this by having two answers to each question: a simple/short one for the child, and an expanded one for the adult/parent.

More information can be found here:

• Introducing New City Catechism
• Why Catechesis Now?
• Why Write New Catechisms?
• Catechism –  with OUR Kids?
• Catechesis Miscellanies

OTHER RESOURCES

• The free audiobook from christianaudio.com for November is Kevin DeYoung and Greg Gilbert’s What is the Mission of the Church? For anyone at LBC, that’s pretty much a no-brainer.  Enjoy!
• 9Marks recently did a series of talks at Southern Seminary on the topic of “conversion.”
• The new Tabletalk issue is on the topic of “The 5 Solas.” If you want to see what the previous topics were, I’ll plug my index once again.
• Last but not least, Ligonier Ministries is giving away their “Luther and the Reformation” series, which is pretty incredible.

NEW AWESOMENESS

• Remember the whole hubbub about the “Jesus’ Wife” thing? Me too.  Remember the embarrassment over the fact that it was likely faked? Me neither.
• Douglas Wilson has a rather devastating critique of Rachel Held Evans’ new book, which is getting quite a bit of media attention.
• In light of the upcoming election, I appreciated this list of 10 questions that a pro-choice candidate is never asked by the media.
• Even though October is officially “Pastor Appreciation Month”…and it’s now November…you’ll want to check out this article (which in turn is really a round-up of other articles) on the subject of praying for your pastor. 

ONGOING AWESOMENESS

• I’ve hyped RefNet before, but if you haven’t checked it out yet, you might want to see their new weekend lineup.
•  Tim Challies has a new article in his “Essential” series on the doctrine of election.

That’s it…hopefully you made it through all that. See you Sunday!

Pro Rege

Dwell much upon this partnership with the Son of God, unto which you have been called: for all your hope lies there.

You can never be poor while Jesus is rich, since you are in one firm with Him. Want can never assail you, since you are joint-proprietor with Him who is Possessor of Heaven and earth.

You can never fail; for though one of the partners in the firm is as poor as a church mouse, and in himself an utter bankrupt, who could not pay even a small amount of his heavy debts, yet the other partner is inconceivably, inexhaustibly rich.

In such partnership you are raised above the depression of the times, the changes of the future, and the shock of the end of all things. The Lord has called you into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ, and by that act and deed He has put you into the place of infallible safeguard. (Charles Spurgeon, All of Grace)

by Richard Shin

There’s a little bit of something for everyone here. Enjoy!

• Tim Challies explores the phrase “love the sinner, hate the sin” in the context of homosexuality. With his brief commentary, he shares three autobiographical books that share the authors’ experience on this topic.
• If you’ve been at Lighthouse for any span of time, you understand we place a strong emphasis on membership. I mention this because Jesse Johnson lists forty commands God gives from the New Testament while contending it is impossible to fulfill all of them without being part of a local body of believers.
• Mark Dever is a pastor at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. Despite his place of (potential) influence, he doesn’t preach politics very often at all. But this sermon from 2010 caught my eye (and ears) because he deals directly with Christians and political involvement.
• In this excerpt of his coming book, Michael Patton discusses five responses to the problem of evil. See how the inclusion and exclusion of three premises leads to one of five conclusions on the problem of evil.
• We at Lighthouse Bible Church have the tremendous blessing of hearing expository preaching during worship. Many of us, however, choose not to take advantage of this gift. To help us, Dan Phillips shares ten ways to profit from expository preaching.
• Desiring God is hosting its first ever conference on the theme of disability, titled “The Works of God: God’s Good Design in Disability.” John Piper invites you in this video to attend. I’m certain they’ll have audio and video recordings for us afterward as well. You may recall John Knight is referenced, to whose interview I pointed you a while back.

That’s it, folks. Enjoy your weekend.

Coram Deo

That is as if he said, You shall have as true an interest in all my attributes for your good, as they are mine for my own glory…. My grace, saith God, shall be yours to pardon you, and my power shall be yours to protect you, and my wisdom shall be yours to direct you, and my goodness shall be yours to relieve you, and my mercy shall be yours to supply you, and my glory shall be yours to crown you. This is a comprehensive promise, for God to be our God: it includes all. Deus meus et omnia [God is mine, and everything is mine, said Luther. (Thomas Brooks quoted in J.I. Packer, Knowing God)

by Richard Shin

The delivery of another set of weekly links for you to enjoy begins… now:

• October is Pastor Appreciation Month, and one extremely practical way to appreciate your pastor is to pray for him. For this, Tim Challies rallied some articles to help us understand the importance of praying for your pastor. I imagine this is particularly pertinent for Pastor J.R. who will undergo his ordination exam this weekend.
• At the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Dr. Albert Mohler, Jr. called a panel discussion with some notable theologians on the topic of the inerrancy of Scripture. A discussion among men like Dr. Albert Mohler, Jr., Gregg Allison, Denny Burk, Russell Moore, and Bruce Ware is surely something you don’t want to miss.
• On a similar note, the Gospel Coalition has an article that distinguishes between taking the Bible literally and believing that everything in it is true. It can be subtle and many confuse the two, but there’s a clear distinction in the hermeneutics.
• The Gospel Coalition also posted a video of a sermon clip by Matt Chandler where the crux is no one dies early. This is the same Matt Chandler who found out several Thanksgivings ago that he had a malignant brain tumor.
• Tony Reinke at the Desiring God blog is beginning a new podcast series: Authors on the Line. It’s an interview series with authors who write about theological issues. The first one is in regards to the author of Charity and Its Fruits. OK, Jonathan Edwards hasn’t been resurrected (yet), but the interview is with Edwards scholar Kyle Strobel.
• Kevin DeYoung has an article that points to seven cautions for polemicists. This is important for those who love to argue.
• Michael Kruger draws from the genius of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings the importance of moral examples in the world. It’s one of the reasons those who have read the series so love it.

That’s it for now. Have a great weekend, folks.

Coram Deo

“Do not say, ‘I am only a youth.’” Jeremiah 1:7

Every one of us has a counter-argument to the call of God. “No, Lord. I am only a _________.” But what God said to Jeremiah he says to you: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you” (Jeremiah 1:5). You don’t define yourself. God does. And he never has a trivial thought. He’s not capable of it.

God also said, “To all to whom I send you, you shall go, and whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the Lord” (Jeremiah 1:7-8). You have been sent into this world by God. You have a mission. He handmade you for it. He is with you every day to deliver you. Do not be afraid.

To fulfill your destiny, you don’t need to mimic someone else’s identity, someone who seems to matter more than you do. The you that you are by creation and redemption in Christ – that basic you is not fundamentally a problem; that you is fundamentally a strategy.

Being who you are is a privilege from God. Trust him. Rise up and serve him, as only you can. (Ray Ortlund, You)

by Richard Shin

The quote above seems timely as the Eastbay church plant is about to begin and as many consider the Los Angeles plant as well.

Here are your weekly links.

• It’s Pastor Appreciation Month. You won’t find it in your typical calendar, but it’s a much deserved form of recognition for the shepherd who labors for their flock. In honor of the pastor, Deep Roots Library is giving away free books. There’s an encouraging video that introduces the the giveaway. Be sure to go here.
• This past Tuesday, the Pew Research Center released a study on the rise of secularism and the decline of protestant Christianity. It’s a sobering reality that we are now a minority.
• Many would argue Jonathan Edwards was the greatest thinker our country has ever produced. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to share his works easily on your phone? Well, there’s an app for that.
• Nathan Busenitz has an article on the differences between the Roman Catholic Church and protestant Christianity regarding soteriology, the study of salvation. See the side-by-side (actually, top-down) comparison between the two ideologies and the corroborating evidence for each one.
• David Powlison, a leading figure in biblical counseling, has a series of Q&A going on the CCEF blog. So far there are two articles (part 1 and part 2).
• Since Phil Johnson’s departure from the Internet, Team Pyro has been posting his “best of Phil” weekly series. Here, he talks about having the right kind of passion. Do you know what that is? If not, you should read this.

That’s it for now. Have a great weekend, everyone.

Coram Deo

“Since I wrote Her Hand in Marriage, I have heard more than one courtship horror story. And more than once I have consequently said that the courtship model means that we have six idiots involved instead of two.” (Douglas Wilson, 5 Paths to the Love of Your Life, p. 59).

by Stephen Rodgers

I can get away with that quote because there’s a lot of good material below dealing with both pre-marital and marriage…see for yourself if you don’t believe me. Besides…Austin Duncan was the one who originally quoted it approvingly…blame him. (Speaking tangentially from Austin now…what the heck happened to the SC Media page? It’s practically unusable now…fortunately, the GCC page is still alright).

Alright… we’ve got a ton of material for you today, so we better get started.  And when I say a “ton,” I really mean a “metric ton”…because it’s heavier.

• First off, Ligonier ministries has been putting out quality material for a while now, but lately they’ve made huge strides in making it more available and exposed. For example, they now have a page that collects all their teaching series, and another that collects all their conferences. And if you want proof regarding that “quality material” I referenced, check out the new additions to RefNet and the latest edition of Tabletalk.
• Speaking of sermons…Monergism.com also just finished putting together an MP3 archive that includes at least one sermon for every chapter in the Bible.
• Since I alluded to some resources for both pre-maritial and marriage in my introduction, so here they are: Desiring God has recently released both “Preparing for Marriage” and “This Momentary Marriage” as free ebooks.  Enjoy!
• And since we’re on the subject of free resources…you’ll want to know that Amazon is giving away a dramatized audio version of the ESV New Testament for a limited time, christianaudio.com’s free resource for this month is How Should Christian’s Vote? by Tony Evans, and Logos’ free resource for this month is The Christian Doctrine of Prayer by James Hastings. And since we’re referring to Logos resources, you might want to know that they’re doing a promotional program where some other resources have been made free for a limited time as well.
• I’m not much of a “sports guy” or a fan of sports in general.  That being said, I’m a huge fan of Thomas Lake, and I’m thrilled that a few other folks around the Christian ‘net are taking notice of his work.
• Since the collegians are back with us once again, I thought this would be a good time to point out this excellent article from JP Moreland’s blog on how to have a worthwhile education.
• Anyone who’s followed John Piper’s ministry for any length of time knows that he has tried to write a Christian biography a year for several years now.  Well, Crossway is now bundling some of those together in book form, and Justin Taylor was kind enough to draw attention to the original books/talks (which are online for free at the DG resource library), as well as some lectures on church history by Michael Haykin.
• Anyone who’s followed John MacArthur’s ministry for any length of time knows he’s rather indifferent to political issues. However he recently gave a pair of sermons dealing with the issues of abortion and homosexuality that are particularly relevant given the political issues of our time. When asked why he was suddenly getting “political,” his response was that emphatically that Romans 1 is not politics…it’s theology.

Whew!  That was a lot!  Hopefully you’ll comb through those, and we’ll see you Sunday!

Pro Rege

 There is not a square inch in the whole world domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, “Mine!” (Abraham Kuyper, “Sphere Sovereignty”)

by Richard Shin

We have a great set of articles for you once again. They seem light (based on length), but they’re awesomely packed (based on content).

• Josiah Grauman has LDS (Loeys-dietz syndrome). Despite his genetic disorder, his grandfather decided to have kids, and Josiah decided to do the same. He explains his well thought-out reasoning at the Cripplegate.
• Carl Trueman pens an article reflecting on modern society’s need to stay connected. Read the article to find out his thoughts on what it might say about a Christian’s “hyperconnectivity” to the world.
• Paul Tautges has an encouraging post about sharing in one another’s burdens, even when one is in sin. It is a sobering reminder that we are not in this fight alone. The gift of fellowship is much more powerful than many of us make it out to be.
• Jonathan Dodson has a helpful article on having gospel fathers in discipleship. What’s a gospel father? Well, you best click through to find out.
• Are you excited about the LBC Eastbay and LBC Los Angeles church plants? So am I. But with anything that we do, it’s all the more necessary that we pray to God regarding such endeavors. Daniel Akin gives us a glimpse into the importance of prayer.

Have a fantastic weekend y’all.

Coram Deo

John Owen and John Calvin knew more theology than John Bunyan or Billy Bray, but who would deny that the latter pair knew their God ever bit as well as the former? (All four, of course, were beavers for the Bible, which counts for far more anyway than a formal theological training.) If the decisive factor was notional correctness, then obviously the most learned biblical scholars would know God better than anyone else. But it is not; you can have all the right notions in your head without ever tasting in your heart the realities to which they refer; and a simple Bible reader and sermon hearer who is full of the Holy Spirit will develop a far deeper acquaintance with his God and Savior than a more learned scholar who is content with being theologically correct. The reason is that the former will deal with God regarding the practical application of truth to his life, whereas the latter will not. (J.I. Packer, Knowing God)

by Richard Shin

And we’re back! It was another action-packed week. Here we go:

• Christianaudio.com has a free audiobook out by C.J. Mahaney called Don’t Waste Your Sports. Download it now before it’s too late.
• A new discovery of a piece of papyrus caused a storm this past week. Why? Because it suggested that Jesus was married. There have been a lot of responses. I’d like to point you to a few: Michael J. Kruger’s, Al Mohler’s, and Thomas White’s.
• Two people could argue until their teeth fall out on whether or not the gift of tongues has seized to exist with the close of the canon. Regardless, Scripture is abundantly clear on how and with what purpose one ought to speak in tongues. Josiah Grauman as a cessationist shares how one ought to engage in these discussions in two parts: part 1 and part 2.
• How do you define morality? One might argue that immorality is anything that harms other people. But is this true? In this video, Tim Keller and Al Mohler discuss whether this definition of morality suffices. For your information, I’m hurt by that definition.
• Mike Lee gives four reasons we as Christians do not burn things down when Jesus is mocked.
• I’m sure some of you can benefit from this graphic.

Can you believe we’re almost in the fourth quarter of the year? Neither can I. Have a great weekend, everyone.

Coram Deo