by Stephen Rodgers

Well hello again.  It’s Friday, and that means that we’re back with another collection of links for you this week.  I think that we’ve got some really great stuff this time, so please read carefully.

• Remember a couple weeks back when I gleefully announced that Al Mohler was back with podcasts?  Well, I’ve enjoyed The Briefing so much that I’m hyping it again.  The idea is simple: every morning, Al Mohler selects 5-6 headlines or issues from leading news publications, tells you what’s happening, and then offers insight as to the Biblical understanding of the issues.  They’re only 15 minutes long, and he posts them around 4am, so I’ve got no excuse not to listen while eating breakfast.  I’d encourage you to do the same. (AUDIO)
• RC Sproul concludes his series on “If God is Sovereign, Why Pray?” with part 5 in the series. (WEB)
• Here’s one for all the sports fans out there.  Over at the Irish Calvinist blog, Erik discusses Husker coach Ron Brown, and how he’s drawing fire and ire for living his faith.  (WEB)
• And here’s one for the PIT crew (and I guess this is where we find out if our future pastors read the church newsletter…hmmmm): Kevin DeYoung offers advice for theological students and young pastors.  Be sure to check out both part 1 and part 2.  (WEB)
• Over at the 9Marks blog, they have a post entitled “Recession and Ministry.”  Personally, I like the Piper-esque title of “Don’t Waste Your Recession” better, but that’s just me.  (WEB)
• And last but not least, Tim Challies takes on the topic of digital piracy and the Christian.  Believe me when I say that this is prime real estate for our collegians (and singles, and youth, and marrieds, etc.) to honestly embrace their identity in Christ and live differently from the world.  (WEB)

See you Sunday!

Pro Rege

by Stephen Rodgers

Alright, I’m going to keep it short this week, since you also really should scroll down and read the SPARK below. So, this week…

• Last week we looked at the first two parts of an article by RC Sproul. The article explored the question of “If God is Sovereign, Why Pray?” This week, part 3 and part 4 are up as well. (WEB)
• Over at the Resurgence, the interview with Randy Alcorn continues, as they discuss transforming the hearts of a generation of givers. For what it’s worth, I found his book The Treasure Principle to be simply excellent. (VIDEO)
• Also, speaking of Randy Alcorn, here’s a quick excerpt from a video on him discussing the importance of the local church. (VIDEO)
• Over at Desiring God, they’ve got a great article on how to diagnose idolatries in our lives. (WEB) And I think I’ve mentioned it before, but I’ve found Powlison’s article on the subject to be one of the best things ever written on the subject of idolatry. (PDF)
• Also, I know a lot of folks at our church have benefitted greatly from the writing of Paul Tripp. Well, did you know that he’s written several articles for Desiring God and they’ve collected them all in one handy place? (WEB) Also, over at his website, he has 70 free audio programs that you can listen to as well. (AUDIO)

Pro Rege

by Stephen Rodgers

Well, we made it to Friday! And to help you get through the day, here’s a new batch of links for you to enjoy:

• Over at the Resurgence, the interview with Randy Alcorn continues. This time, they discuss the question of what is a generosity theology? (VIDEO)
• I recently discovered a new blog on the recommendation of Dan Phillips (of Bibchr and PyroManiacs fame). In this post, the author critically dismantles the way that atheists sometimes try to use the “No True Scotsman” fallacy in arguments with Christians. (WEB)
• The unpronounceable Tullian Tchividjian has a wonderful article on vocation and the glory of God. And I’m pretty sure the title is a reference to Kuyper, so that’s the second time this week I’ve been made happy by a dead Dutch theologian. (WEB)
• This has to be one of my favorite things I saw this week. It’s an excerpt from Tim Keller’s talk at the 2007 TGC conference, and it is excellent. If you only look at one link today, this should be it. (VIDEO)
• Over at Ligonier, RC Sproul explores the question of “If God is Sovereign, Why Pray?” Part one is here, and part two is here. (WEB)
• Here’s one for all the marrieds at the church: over at the Mars Hill Blog, Mark and Grace Driscoll each give their top 18 lessons-learned from 18 years of marriage. (WEB)
• And last but definately not least…remember how sad I was when the Al Mohler radio program ran it’s last episode? Well, as they say in the movies, he’s baaaaaaaaaaaack. And with not one, but TWO podcasts! (I’m so happy!) (AUDIO)

There were some other major events that happened this week of course. That fellow down in Florida got everyone in a tizzy with his whole burn-the-Koran stunt, and Stephen Hawking seems to have announced that the law of gravity disproves God. And while I’d like to take those issues seriously, I have a bit of a hard time taking these particular instances of them seriously. They just strike me as publicity stunts. As Jon Acuff wisely noted, “If they’ve got a book they’re releasing or a new album within two weeks of their proclamation, they haven’t really made a proclamation, they’ve made a press release.”

See you Sunday!

Pro Rege

by Stephen Rodgers

Alright, it’s Friday, and that means another collection of links from around the Christian blog-o-sphere. Enjoy!

• Lately, in both Christian and secular circles there has been quite a bit of discussion revolving around the idea of manhood and coming of age. Mars Hill Church did a month-long series entitled the Month of Manhood which pulled together quite a bit of material on the topic.
• Jared Wilson, pastor, blogger, and author recently wrote an article on the topic of missions. What makes it so interesting is that he identifies the region of New England as the new American missional frontier. I’ll let you read the article for yourself.
• I’ve discussed a number of Bible study software tools here in the past, but here’s a new one for you. Crossway is rolling out the ESV Online. They have some basic tools for free, with more available for purchase.
• Douglas Wilson, in his own inimitable style, has a bit of a different take on the proposed Muslim mosque/community center near Ground Zero. The article is absolutely worth a careful read as he handles the topic of conflicting worldviews supremely well.
• It’s a new month, and that means new journals! The new edition of Tabletalk is out, featuring the topic of The Good, The True, The Beautiful. And the new edition of the 9Marks eJournal is out, on the subject of Hell.
• The interview with Randy Alcorn continues with videos on the issues of a Christian approach to family planning as well as recommended reading.
• Ok, I’ll admit that my eyebrows got stuck in my hairline when I read this, but apparently Justin Taylor has scored an interview with the Apostle Paul.
• And here’s one for the PIT crew. Collin Hansen asked a number of theologians what is the one thing they would change about seminary. And if you were in my apologetics class, yes, that is the same Pratt.

Pro Rege

by Stephen Rodgers

Sorry for the late update, I had some issues with work that kept me from updating as planned. But without further ado…

• Continuing their interview with Randy Alcorn, the folks over at the Resurgence ask the question Is There a Connection Between Birth Control and Abortion?
• Kevin DeYoung wrote an excellent series on rebuke, which Andy Naselli gave a great overview of. I’ll link you to Naselli, since he gives you all the links in one place, and provides some other related articles and resources.
• Every member at our church is familiar with the Peacemaker Pledge, but did you know that Peacemaker ministries has a lot of other free resources? If not, you might want to check them out.
• You know how much I love theological journals, so rejoice with me that the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary has put all their back issues online for free! Justin Taylor has some recommended articles to get you started. There are some amazing authors there: Carl Henry, Al Mohler, DA Carson, Mark Dever, John Piper, Douglas Moo…I’m looking forward to delving into it.
• So on a topic that calls for less rejoicing than free journals…Joe Thorn has a good series on common myths about Hell. And in the same vein, RC Sproul has a insightful comment on the worst thing about Hell.
• Last but not least, I’m getting ready to re-read a lot of books by CS Lewis, and I appreciated what Jared Wilson had to say on his “gospel wakefulness.”

Pro Rege

by Stephen Rodgers

So we’ve got some good links today, but we’re going to limit it to three distinct topics: church, ethnicity, and Randy Alcorn.

Church

Over at the desiringGod blog they’ve been doing a series on the local church, with each article focusing on a different Bible passage that illustrates a different role or function of the church. All of them are worth the time it takes to read and reflect on them:

• For Your Perseverance
• Training You for Ministry
• Helping You Grow Up
• People to Suffer With
• People to Rejoice With
• A Safe Place to be Judged
• Indispensable

Ethnicity

Switching gears a bit, the Mars Hill Church blog has been doing a series that explores various aspects of Biblical manhood, and they posted a couple of articles that caught my eye because they specifically addressed Christianity from an Asian-American perspective. The first article dealt with comparing and contrasting the teachings of Christ and Confucius. (That’s probably going to appeal more to the folks of Chinese descent in our congregation, and might help in talking with unsaved family members). The second article posed ten questions for the Asian Christian man, relating to particular challenges that come up in that heritage or family background.

Let me know if either of those were useful. A while back, we covered desiringGod launching their Chinese website (complete with many Piper articles in Chinese). I know that many folks in our church are on the lookout for good resources for unbelieving family members, or good non-English resources.

Randy Alcorn

And last up, we have two more videos with Randy Alcorn for you. The first delves into How God Uses Evil for Good, and the second asks Are Young Pro-Life Evangelicals Inconsistant?

Enjoy!

Pro Rege

by Stephen Rodgers

Hey there everybody…it’s been a bit of a strange week. There’s been a couple of very popular topics that I think need to be addressed, and then we’ll fill in the remaining space with some other good stuff.

Anne Rice

The first thing that happened this week was that Anne Rice (of vampire-novel fame), rejected Christianity publicly on her Facebook page. From the few conversations I’ve had, I’m guessing that about 5% of you are saying “Really?,” another 5% of you are saying “Anne Rice was a Christian?,” and about 90% of you are asking “Who’s Anne Rice?” In any event, I thought the responses to this were quite good:

• Anne Rice and Our Modern Sin by Michael Wittmer
• From 2007: It’s Now an Open Letter by Frank Turk
• Anne Rice Hasn’t Betrayed You by Russell Moore
• Anne Rice: Love Christ, Not His Bride by Collin Hansen
• Our Enemies Can Be Reconciled by Frank Turk

Prop 8

The second item of note this week was the overturning of Prop 8 by a US District Judge. There have been a number of responses and essays written, that run the spectrum from the cool and calculated (Dr. Mohler) to the not-so (Dr. White). First, some required pre-reading (if you’re going to dive into this topic, or Lord protect and shield you, the comments section):

• The Worst of All by Frank Turk
• On Christians, Compassion, and Being Gay by Fred Butler

I’ll post some links here for you to read, if you so choose:

• “Special Meaning” by Frank Turk
• A Gavel Falls on Marriage: The Proposition 8 Decision by Dr. Albert Mohler
• The Amazing Hubris of the Ruling Class Judiciary by Dr. James White
• Prop. 8 by Fred Butler

Everything Else

For anyone not interested in either of the above (although I think both topics are relevent to us as Christians and our attitudes towards those struggling with a variety of issues), I’ll leave you with these AWESOME gems. (And just because I had someone in mind when I flagged them, doesn’t mean you can’t read them, enjoy them, and talk to others about them):

• For Cesar, since he hasn’t been writing lately and might just need something wonderful to read: the August edition of Tabletalk is out. Enjoy 10th century church history m’man.
• For Pastor John, since he’ll need lots of MP3’s to keep him company as he gets lost in the streets and supermarkets of San Jose: did you know that there are free audio recordings of Martyn-Lloyd Jones? Me neither…amazing!
• And for Tia, since she needs more David Powlison, and we never did get to finish our discussion on anger: Part 1 – Understanding Anger, Part 2 – Three Lies About Anger and the Transforming Truth, Part 3 – Getting to the Heart of Conflict. (And no, I’m not saying that Tia’s angry, just that she’ll love the articles. Yeesh.)

See you Sunday!

Pro Rege

by Stephen Rodgers

We’re back! And we’ve got some really great links for you today. So without further ado…

• So the Resurgence is doing a series on Jonathan Edwards. So far, they’ve covered the following: Jonathan Edwards on Mission, The Most Famous Sermon in American History, and 5 Ways to Know if You’re Really a Christian. (WEB)
• Over at Thabiti Anyabwile’s blog (ask Patrick how to pronounce his name, he’s actually met the man) he had two posts that go exceptionally well together. The first was a brief survey of Paul’s warnings against quarreling, and the second was a thought-provoking exploration of how people benefit from unforgiveness. Those are definitely worth reading and thinking about. (WEB)
• I think I posted this once before, but it’s worth posting again. Over at CJ Mahaney’s blog he quotes Kevin DeYoung on the subject of Plodding Visionaries. (WEB)
• I had forgotten about this because I didn’t attend this year, but the audio/video for the 2010 Resolved conference is now available. (MP3/VIDEO)
• Over at the Desiring God blod, they’ve got a fantastic post up by Paul Tripp on the Nowism of the Gospel. Personally, I found this article to be very encouraging. (WEB)
• And last but not least, over at the Resurgence they’ve begun a new interview series, this time with Randy Alcorn. (VIDEO)

That’s all for now. See you Sunday!

Pro Rege

by Stephen Rodgers

Welcome back! It’s Friday, which is a bit of a surprise for all of us who work due to the shortened week (hooray for holidays!). But hooray as well for the weekly links:

• There’s been a little bit of back and forth on this issue lately between some folks blogs, so over at his blog Justin Taylor laid out A Primer on Limited (or Definite) Atonement. It’s worth a read. And if you’re still interested in reading a little bit more on the topic, I would recommend James White’s article Was Anyone Saved at the Cross.
• Speaking of atonement, Michael Horton has written an article over at the Resurgence on Why Substitutionary Atonement Remains Crucial. It’s also available in an easily-printable PDF version with footnotes (hooray footnotes!).
• It’s the end of an era. The Albert Mohler radio program is no more. I’d highly recommend the last two episodes, which are explained here, (or you can just go here directly). Also, Al has written a summary of what he spoke about on the last day which is worth thoughtful examination.
• Speaking of radio, or at least things that make sound (ok, awkward segue I’ll admit), the free book for July from christianaudio.com is A.W. Tozer’s The Pursuit of God. If you don’t know who Tozer is…well, he’s awesome. Seriously. GET THIS FREE AUDIO BOOK.
• The July edition of Tabletalk is out, and it’s all on the subject of worship. By now you know about Tabletalk, and you know how good it is. Enjoy!
• And ladies! I have something for you too…(ok, wait, that sounded creepy). I have something about you! (That really wasn’t an improvement). Ok, nevermind the clever intro…the latest edition of the 9Marks eJournal is out, and it’s on the topic of Pastoring Women. Everyone’s favorite/mandated author Jonathan Leeman writes an excellent article for it as well.
• You’ll recall that a couple weeks ago I linked to notes from the 2010 Ligonier National Conference. Well, if those interested you (and I’m sure they did!) you can now view any of the talks online. C’mon! The video is available! What are you waiting for?
• You all remember when I posted the link to John Piper’s famous Don’t Waste Your Cancer article/sermon right? It’s amazing…it’s Biblical…but for a lot of us, it’s difficult to relate directly. That’s why I appreciated Dan Phillips’ posting this funny-sounding but very serious correllative entitled Don’t Waste Your Feeling-Really-Yucky.

That’s it folks. See you Sunday!

Pro Rege

by Stephen Rodgers

One of the things I’ve noticed as I’ve done this segment is that people benefit from different forms of media, well, differently. Me, I’m a words guy. I love articles. I really love long PDF files with footnootes. I really, really love even longer books with footnootes. But to some people, that’s like kryptonite.

This post is for you.

Today, I just wanted to briefly highlight a few places where as a Christian you can find resources in audio format. Now, readers with memories better than mine will remember that there was an article on good resources for a Christian that included links to several sermon repositories. Along those lines:

• In case you didn’t notice, the LBC sermon archive recently started uploading sermons going all the way back to 2004. Paul is still working through those, but there’s a lot more up than there used to be. So high-five Paul when you see him next.

But what if you aren’t looking for a full-length sermon? What if you just were hoping for something to fill the time during your morning commute? I’ve got you covered. These resources will either let you download the programs for free, or subscribe to them so that you are automatically notified when a new one comes out.

• Al Mohler has a daily radio program where he discusses current issues from a Christian perspective. He’s always worth listening to.
• Apologist James White does a twice-a-week segment called The Dividing Line where he discusses current events and takes calls. The older shows cost money, but the program has been free for a couple of years now.
• Of course there’s also Grace to You, the radio arm of John MacArthur’s ministry.
• No Compromise Radio maintains an archive of all of their episodes that you could definitely benefit from.
• And last but not least, so does Stand to Reason, the ministry of apologist Greg Koukle. You’ll need to scroll down to see all the archives, but it’s always interesting and thought-provoking to hear what he has to say.

“Alright” you say. “That’s all well and good. But what if I only have five minutes? I just want something to think about and I need it delivered in less time than it takes to microwave a pot pie.”

• Well, I would heartily recommend Ask Pastor John, which are the freely available Q&A sessions that John Piper has done over the years. Each one is usually 2-5 minutes long, and focuses on the Biblical answer to a specific problem.

Any or all of those would be a great addition to your week. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

See you Sunday!

Pro Rege