If we don’t know that there is such a person as God, we don’t know the first thing (the most important thing) about ourselves, each other and our world. This is because…the most important truths about us and them, is that we have been created by the Lord, and utterly depend upon him for our continued existence. (Alvin Plantinga, Warranted Christian Belief)

by Stephen Rodgers

Since we already had one edition of the Weekly Links already this week, I figured I’d keep this one rather short for you, and just point out some resources you might not be aware of.

• First of all, christianaudio.com is giving away audio copies of John Piper’s Jesus: The Only Way to God for FREE until 3/31.  This is in addition to the regular free book for March, which is RC Sproul’s The Holiness of God. Download both.  You won’t regret it. (AUDIO)
• Furthermore, the audio files for the 2011 Shepherds’ Conference are now available. And yes, they are free as well.  You’ve heard Pastor Patrick preach on what he thoughtalready, but this is your chance to hear them all (all 35 of them!) for yourself.  (AUDIO)
• And last but not least, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of his book Desiring God, John Piper is going to preach through the book.  If you’ve never read this book before, this is a great time to do it, and get guidance from Pastor Piper as he goes through it again.  DG has a link explaining the details and offering discounted copies of the book if you’re interested.  (WEB)

That’s it for now.  Make sure you read the latest SPARK so that you know what’s happening at church.

See you Sunday!

Pro Rege

by Stephen Rodgers

Thanks for your patience.  The earthquake/tsunami/nuclear reactor catastrophe in Japan last week and the Singles’ Retreat last weekend pushed the Weekly Links to today.  Also, before we get to the Weekly Links, I wanted to point out that John Piper has some comments on the situation in Japan, and Desiring God has put up a list of Christian relief organizations as well.

First of all, I wanted to direct your attention to the Recommended Resources page, particularly the Software and Study section.  It used to just be the “Software” section, but I added “and Study” so that I would have somewhere to put resources like Biblegateway.com, CCEL, and the NET Bible.  Enjoy!

And with that out of the way, we can get to a few other links that you might like…

• A few weeks ago I posted a link to an audio version of the Westminster Shorter Catechism. If you’re not sure exactly what the WSC is, then perhaps you would like to hear Curtis Allen and DA Carson rap an explanation for you? (Trust me, this is probably the only time you’ll ever hear DA Carson holler “west side!”) (AUDIO)
• Over at the Ligonier blog, RC Sproul Jr. has an article entitled 5 Things I’m Surprised I Can’t Find in the Bible. In it, he highlights a number of issues where Christians hold to different opinions.  (WEB)
• I can’t remember how I found it, but there’s a video on Youtube that shows word clouds for all 66 books of the Bible (for those who don’t know what a “word cloud” is, it’s basically a grouping of words from a particular document, where words with higher frequency counts are represented in larger font). (VIDEO)
• Over at Triablogue, they recently had a great article with an excerpt from a book describing Christianity’s Influence on Friendship. (WEB)
• And this one goes out to all the hard-working servants in our own Youth Ministry.  In 2002 John Piper delivered a powerful challenge to men and women who are responsible for leading youth and college ministries.  You can listen to or download the sermon here. (AUDIO)

There you go!  Thanks again for your patience.

Pro Rege

by Stephen Rodgers

In the interest of full disclosure, I’m at the Shepherds Conference today, so this post had to be  worked out ahead of time.  I could have just grabbed half a dozen links from the backlog I’ve got, but I wanted to give you something a bit more substantial.

As you know, we recently began building out a Recommended Resources section here on the Beacon, and one of the categories/chapters/whatever is Journals. Now, as some of you may know, one of those journals in particular in the 9Marks eJournal.  Yes, that 9Marks…of Mark Dever and Jonathan Leeman fame.  You remember Jonathan…he spoke at the last all-church retreat.

Anyhow, long story short, the 9Marks eJournal has a LOT of good material, but it can be a bit difficult to find what you’re looking for at first glance.  To that end, I’ve done my best to put together a topical index of past issues so that you can find things more easily.  You may quibble a bit with how I defined the categories, but I think this gives you a way to see what’s available at a glance.  I’ll do my best to update this with future issues, and perhaps even do the same with some of the other journals if time allows.

Enjoy!

Church and Ecclesiology

• Authority: God’s Good and Dangerous Gift
• Church and Churches
• Church and Culture
• Church and Parachurch: Friends or Foes?
• Church Discipline (part 1 and part 2)
• Church Discipline (2018)
• Church Life: Our True Political Witness
• Church Membership: Holding the Body Together
• Church Mergers and Plants
• The Church’s Mission (see also their Book Reviews on the Mission of the Church)
• The Church Praying
• Church Revitalization
• Confessions, Covenants, and Constitutions: How to Organize Your Church
• Cooperation (and Separation)
• Corporate Prayer
• Counseling in the Church
• Deacons
• Discipling in the Church
• Elders (part 1 and part 2)
• Evangelism (part 1 and part 2)
• Healthy Churches Around the World
• Lay Elders: A User’s Guide (part 1 and part 2)
• Living as a Church
• Mercy Ministry in the Church
• Multi-Ethnic Churches
• Multi-Site Churches
• Sunday School
• The Church Singing
• Vanishing Church

Pastors and Preaching

• Apostalic Pastors
• Expositional Preaching
• Marriage and Pastor’s Wives
• The Pastor and Pornography
• Pastoral Burnout
• Pastoral Moves
• Pastoring Christians for the Workplace
• Pastoring Singles
• Pastoring Women
• Preaching
• Raising Up the Next Generation of Pastors
• The Pastor and his Staff (part 1 and part 2)
• Young Pastors

Theology

• Biblical Theology
• Biblical Theology: Guardian and Guide of the Church
• Complementarianism & the Local Church
• The Gospel
• Hell
• Is Scripture Enough?
• Prosperity Gospel
• The Reformation & Your Church
• The Underestimated Doctrine of Conversion

Other

• The Emerging Church
• Family and Parenting
• Hospitality and Friendship
• Miscellaneous Articles
• Missions
• Missions: Adding Wisdom to Zeal
• A New Evangelical Liberalism
• Race and Ethnicity

Pro Rege

When the apostle Paul, with great wonder, asks, ‘Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become his counselor?’ (Rom. 11:34), he is not expecting an upstart in the back row to raise his hand. (Douglas Wilson, Back to Basics. HT: Blog & Mablog)

by Stephen Rodgers

Welcome back everyone, and happy Friday!  By now you’re hopefully familiar with the fact that every edition of the Weekly Links comes with a free quote.  If not, you might want to go back and check out some of the previous quotes posted. But you probably didn’t come here just for quotes, however excellent they might be.  You came here expecting links, and so links you shall have:

• It’s a new month, and that means that there’s a new edition of Tabletalk available from Ligonier Ministries.  This month’s edition focuses on the role of the law of God in the life of the Christian.  And by the way, if you develop a taste for Christian journals, you might want to check out a few others that we recommend.  (WEB)
• Since it’s a new month (in case you missed it the first time I told you), there’s also a new, free audio book from Christianaudio.com.  This month’s free offering is RC Sproul’s The Holiness of God, so be sure to click on over there and download it.  (MP3)
• RPTS has a free collection of MP3s that are just audio recordings of someone reading the questions and answers from the Westminster Shorter Catechism.  You can download either specific questions or the entire set. (MP3)
• Over at Desiring God, John Piper has a thought-provoking snippet of an article on how “God’s Love is the Cause and Result of Ours.” (WEB)
• And finally, here’s something pretty cool…a rare video interview with Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. (VIDEO)

And don’t forget that today is a Flocks Night, so do your homework and come ready to discuss the sermon!

Alright, that’s it for this week.  See you Sunday!

Pro Rege

I am trying to rip open the inconsolable secret in each one of you . . . Do you think I am trying to weave a spell? Perhaps I am; but remember your fairy tales. Spells are used for breaking enchantments as well as for inducing them.  (CS Lewis, The Weight of Glory. HT: Jared Wilson)

by Stephen Rodgers

Apologies for the late post today folks.  Pastor John (he of San Jose fame) was kind enough to stay up rather late talking to me last night, so I got a late start on this.

And that brings us to the links for the week:

• John Piper has some valuable musings as to whether smartphone apps are a threat to focus, and what the solution is for that.  His answer may surprise you.  (WEB)
• The latest “Ask RC” event (from 2/17/2011) is available for viewing now.  And if Q&A with RC Sproul is something that interests you, you might want to check out the first one they did as well. (VIDEO)
• This testimony from Covenant Life Church is a great testimony (no pun intended) to God’s providence in both prayer and salvation.  If you have six minutes to spare, I think this is well worth your time. (VIDEO)
• Jared Wilson revisited the basics of the Lordship Salvation debate in this great article. If you really want to jump into a more exhaustive work on the subject though, I would heartily recommend John MacArthur’s The Gospel According to Jesus.  (WEB)
• Speaking of John MacArthur, I was personally encouraged by a Q&A he recently did with Phil Johnson.  You can read the transcript, or download the audio. Johnson takes the opportunity to speak highly of his pastor, and MacArthur takes every opportunity to poke fun at his friend. (WEB/MP3)
• Ken Sande gave a great interview to Christianity Today.  It’s so good, that I’m recommending you read it even though CT has terrible formatting. (WEB)
  • For the “pretty” version that makes you click seven times just to read it, click here.
  • For the “ugly” version that gives you the entire article but destroys formatting, click here.

That’s all for now folks.  See you Sunday!

Pro Rege

A gospel which is only about the moment of conversion but does not extend to every moment of life in Christ is too small. A gospel that gets your sins forgiven but offers no power for transformation is too small. A gospel that isolates one of the benefits of union with Christ and ignores all the others is too small. A gospel that must be measured by your own moral conduct, social conscience, or religious experience is too small. A gospel that rearranges the components of your life but does not put you personally in the presence of God is too small. (Fred Sanders, The Deep Things of God. HT: Jared Wilson)

by Stephen Rodgers

And by the way, that book is good.  Really, really good.

And that brings us to the links for the week…

• First of all, I was interested to see this article appear in the Wall Street Journal of all places.  In a piece entitled “Where Have All the Presbyterians Gone?” the WSJ explores how denominational churches and attendance is shrinking, while non-denominational churches and attendance are actually growing.  It’s an interesting read. (WEB)
• I was stunned at how well John Piper broke down the difference between God’s moral will and His sovereign will in this article.  I’ve tried to explain that to dozens of people, and sometimes I think I just confused them more.  So if you’re one of the people that I’ve confused, go read Piper!  (WEB)
• All of you should know that as a church we are going through The Peacemaker by Ken Sande as part of our Sunday morning classes.  What you might not know, is that Peacemaker Ministries has a blog. They typically only post about two articles a week, but they are always good to reflect on.  (WEB)
• And speaking of peacemaking…I know when we talk about it, most people realize (correctly) that we are talking about conflict resolution.  But do you also realize that we are discussing evangelism? Andy Naselli (quoting from J. Mack Stiles’ book) has the details over at his blog.  (WEB)
• And here’s some food for thought for our current and future seminarians: CJ Mahaney interviews James MacDonald on pursuing pastoral ministry.  (VIDEO)

Alright folks, that’s it for this week.  I’ll update the Recommend Resources when I get a chance and let you know what I add.

See you Sunday!

Pro Rege

Screwtape to Wormwood: “It sounds as if you supposed that argument was the way to keep him out of the Enemy’s clutches. That might have been so if he had lived a few centuries earlier. At that time the humans still knew pretty well when a thing was proved and when it was not; and if it was proved they really believed it. They still connected thinking with doing and were prepared to alter their way of life as the result of a chain of reasoning. But what with the weekly press and other such weapons we have largely altered that. Your man has been accustomed, ever since he was a boy, to have a dozen incompatible philosophies dancing about together inside his head. He doesn’t think of doctrines as primarily ‘true’ or ‘false’, but as ‘academic’ or ‘practical’, ‘outworn’ or ‘contemporary’, ‘conventional’ or ‘ruthless’. Jargon, not argument, is your best ally in keeping him from the Church.” (C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters. HT: AOM)

by Stephen Rodgers

Welcome back to another edition of the Weekly Links! So, assuming you’re ready to move on to the weekly links…

• Since our annual missions trips are coming up (if you’re not familiar with them, here’s a great place to start reading), so I was particularly excited to see this article over at DG on 30 Ways to Stay Alive to Missions. (WEB)
• Also, I know a lot of people are doing some shopping for books.  We all know places like Amazon and Christanbook.com have deals, but did you know that the Westminster Bookstore has a special section of “imperfect books?” Most of these are in pretty good condition; they just have a crease here or a scuff mark there.  And they discount them a little bit extra.  If you love books and love being frugal, this is a good place to start looking.  (WEBSITE)
• Over at the Ligonier blog, Sinclair Ferguson wrote an article on discernment that I thought was particularly well-put.  You definitely should check that out. (WEB)
• I’ve mentioned before that Jon Acuff can be rather hit-or-miss for me, but his three points of what to do when you encounter a confusing Bible passage were helpful.  And actually funny as well. (WEBSITE)
• Back to the DG website, they have an very brief article that sets up a quote from John Frame on “avoiding smarty-pants theology.” The more I read Frame, the more I benefit from his insight into both the Scriptures and the human heart. (WEB)
• This week, I have a special article for those in the Single’s Ministry (although honestly, anyone with a job will benefit from it).  Matt Perman offers a summary of a recent Tim Keller article on how both spiritual and secular jobs are God’s work. (WEB)

That’s all for now.  The Recommended Resources page should be updated sometime this weekend.  I’ll let you know when that happens.

See you Sunday!

Pro Rege

[Shawʼs] latest play, The Showing Up of Blanco Posnet, has been forbidden by the Censor. As far as I can discover, it has been forbidden because one of the characters professes a belief in God and states his conviction that God has got him. This is wholesome; this is like one crack of thunder in a clear sky. Not so easily does the prince of this world forgive. Shawʼs religious training and instinct is not mine, but in all honest religion there is something that is hateful to the prosperous compromise of our time. You are free in our time to say that God does not exist; you are free to say that He exists and is evil; you are free to say (like poor old Renan) that He would like to exist if He could. You may talk of God as a metaphor or a mystification; you may water Him down with gallons of long words, or boil Him to the rags of metaphysics; and it is not merely that nobody punishes, but nobody protests. But if you speak of God as a fact, as a thing like a tiger, as a reason for changing oneʼs conduct, then the modern world will stop you somehow if it can. We are long past talking about whether an unbeliever should be punished for being irreverent. It is now thought irreverent to be a believer. (GK Chesterton, HT: Victor Reppert via Tim McGrew)

by Stephen Rodgers

First of all, just to let you know, I gave myself a break this week in terms of updating the Recommended Resources page.  I needed to spend some time organizing materials for future editions of the Weekly Links and Beacon-related projects.  However, if you haven’t checked out that page yet, you really should, since there is a lot of good material there.

And that brings us to the links:

• It’s February!  And that means that a new edition of Tabletalk is out!  This month, the theme is Letters from the Abyss. Check it out! (WEB)
• And since it’s a new month, there’s a new FREE audio book available over at christianaudio.com.  This month, it’s the highly-acclaimed Adopted for Life by Russell Moore.  (MP3)
• Much like we did our own little “Best” of Beacon a while back, Ligonier Ministries has a list of their Top 10 Articles of 2010.  (WEB)
• Have I ever pointed out to you that an enormous quantity of both John Frame and Vern Polythress’ work is available for free online? No?  Shame on me.  But shame on you if you don’t scoot on over there and avail yourself to their materials… (WEBSITE)
• Here’s something for all the parents who read the blog…Rick Holland shares a few thoughts on parenting and discipleship. (WEB)
• Over at the CRBC blog, Tom Chantry has a great article on evangelism and how it pertains to a Christian perspective on panic and “catastrophes.” (WEB)
• And last but not least, I stumped across a couple of articles by Dane Ortlund that I thought were interesting.  In both articles, he asks 25 church leaders to answer a question in only one sentence.
  • What’s the Key to Healthy Christian Growth in Godliness?
  • What’s the Message of the Bible in One Sentence?

See you Sunday!

Pro Rege