J.I. Packer on Seeker Sensitivity...

From an interview @ 9Marks: "One of the ways in which the entertainment culture expresses itself today is, it seems to me, is in the kind of [...] entertainment that's presented so often in churches that call themselves seeker friendly, and which say, if asked to explain themselves, "Well, we are orienting everything we do to attract the uncommitted outsider." I think there are two things wrong there, not just one. One is that we shouldn't cheapen or limit the worshiping and teaching life of the congregation in order to concentrate on people who are not yet members of the congregation. Otherwise the congregation will starve and I can tell you frankly that I have met members of congregations that have gone overboard in being seeker friendly and the saints are starving. But there's a second thing wrong, and that is that God himself is being dishonored by establishing a wavelength of entertainment which means gratifying people's present interests, which means worldliness, which means unspirituality. Which means that if the outsider is allured by the skits and the songs and the drama and all of that, [then] he or she will either have to learn at a late stage about the greatness and the majesty of God or, he or she will be an immature, juvenile, stunted Christian for the rest of their days. As a way of forming people in Christ, the seeker-friendly, seeker-sensitive way of structuring church life seems to me to be absolutely wrong at that level too.

J.I. Packer on false conversions...

From a 9Marks Interview: The preacher says, mistakenly, "If you believe that Jesus Christ died for your sins, you'll be forgiven and justified and saved." Then the preacher offers him the wording of a sinner's prayer and he prays it and he goes out of church saying, "I'm a Christian now." And nothing has been said to him about repentance. Nothing has been said to him about saying good-bye to the old life of self-centered self-indulgence. Nothing has been said to him about the fact that henceforth, he has a new life given him by the Lord and he belongs to the Lord who's given him the new life--he's bought with a price, hes not his own--and therefore, his whole business in life (I say "he"--it'll be "she" as well) their whole business in life is to glorify God in the way they live day by day.
     Where those things aren't said, you have an inadequate presentation of the gospel and you're simply asking for false conversions. That is: people believing they've become Christians when in fact they haven't. No one becomes a Christian who hasn't repented. No one becomes a Christian who isn't consciously saying good-bye to the old life and welcoming the new one.

J.I. Packer on Owen's Death...

I read this awhile back and it is so worth reading. Perhaps one of the best explanations of true Calvinism I've read. Packer is brilliant.

“But wait a minute,” says someone, “it’s all very well to talk like this about the gospel; but surely what Owen is doing is defending limited atonement—one of the five points of Calvinism? When you speak of recovering the gospel, don’t you mean that you just want us all to become Calvinists?”
These questions are worth considering, for they will no doubt occur to many. At the same time, however, they are questions that reflect a great deal of prejudice and ignorance. “Defending limited atonement”—as if this was all that a Reformed theologian expounding the heart of the gospel could ever really want to do! “You just want us all to become Calvinists”—as if Reformed theologians had no interest beyond recruiting for their party, and as if becoming a Calvinist was the last stage of theological depravity, and had nothing to do with the gospel at all. Before we answer these questions directly, we must try to remove the prejudices which underlie them by making clear what Calvinism really is; and therefore we would ask the reader to take note of the following facts, historical and theological, about Calvinism in general and the “five points” in particular.

Paul Tripp

Counterfeit gospels. 

Seminary's role in pastoral preparation.

I don’t think seminaries can do everything. And I get very tired of hearing young men or pastors who are seasoned, blame the seminaries for their inadequacies. I don’t think seminaries are designed to make complete pastors. Pastoring makes complete pastors. Life makes complete pastors. Families make complete pastors. Seminary is a little slice of influence in life. They’re good for languages. They’re good for theology and they’re good for historical theology. They’re good for apologetics. And they’re good for a few techniques here and there. And that’s pretty small. I mean, just think of what the challenges are in ministry. And if you go into ministry and say “Oh, the seminary didn’t prepare me for this!” I’m going to say to you: “Why do you think it should?” […] I skipped every practical course I could and took exegesis instead. And I would do it the same today. Why? When I took my first pastorate, I had never baptized anybody. I had never buried anybody. I had never dedicated a baby. I had preached fifteen sermons at age 34. I had done two weddings. I had never sat beside a hospital bed while anybody died. I was totally green. And I went to school for five years—the school of life. I did a funeral every three weeks for 18 months. And the old people fell in love with me. It was the best gift I ever got, because they all showed up at the funerals. The young people never came to the funerals. All the old people came to the funerals. They heard me preach over and over again and began to like this young fella who helped them die well—who helped the families. I didn’t know how to do a funeral. I just opened my bible and read about death and resurrection and gospel and thought: “Whoa! I’ve got good news!” I didn’t need a course of funerals—what a useless course. The month before I took the church I went to David Livingston on vacation at a motel and I said “I’m gonna be a pastor in a month. Show me how to baptize people.” He took me to the swimming pool and he said, “take your left hand, put it on their right hand, leave the right hand free to hold their nose, grab ‘em by this arm right here, put your hand behind their back, push ‘em under and pull ‘em up.” That didn’t take a course! And it was free! […]

Here’s the point: I want guys to come out of seminary loving their bible, knowing as much of it as they can. I want them to be broken and humble. I want them to be prayer-filled. I want them to be full of the Holy Spirit. I want them to love people and care about the lost. I want them to have a vision for the world. And a few skills and a willingness to make a lot of mistakes and learn heaps in their first years.    

Keller at The King's College

Two Tim Keller Studies

The Prodigal God

Gospel in Life

You'll have to fork out a little $$ to get them, but...

It takes All Types

Kevin DeYoung on planting and pastoring churches of all shapes and kinds. Must read, especially for those younger pastors who want to reach people like them. Not a reproof, but a reminder.

If You Can, Go. T4G2010.

Worth Saying Over and Over

From Coming Clean:

Graeme Goldsworthy:

The gospel is saying that, what man cannot do in order to be accepted with God, this God Himself has done for us in the person of Jesus Christ. To be acceptable to God we must present to God a life of perfect and unceasing obedience to his will. The gospel declares that Jesus has done this for us. For God to be righteous he must deal with our sin. This also he has done for us in Jesus. The holy law of God was lived out perfectly for us by Christ, and its penalty was paid perfectly for us by Christ. The living and dying of Christ for us, and this alone is the basis of our acceptance with God.

Chan on Devotion: Penetrating

Stott on Missions

From John Piper's introduction to the newest (3rd Edition) of Let the Nations be Glad:

John Stott has sounded the note I love to hear and echo:
The highest of missionary motives is neither obedience to the Great Commission (important as that is), nor love for sinners who are alienated and perishing (strong as that incentive is, especially when we contemplate the wrath of God . . .), but rather zeal—burning and passionate zeal—for the glory of Jesus Christ. . . . Only one imperialism is Christian . . . and that is concern for His Imperial Majesty Jesus Christ, and for the glory of his empire.

The Multifaceted Role of Preaching

The God-ordained means to save, sanctify, and strengthen his church is preaching. The proclamation of the gospel is what elicits saving faith in those whom God has chosen (Ro 10:14). Through the preaching of the Word comes the knowledge of the truth that results in godliness (Jn 17:17; Ro 16:25; Eph 5:26). Preaching also encourages believers to live in the hope of eternal life, enabling them to endure suffering (Ac 14:21–22). The faithful preaching of the Word is the most important element of pastoral ministry.

(John MacArthur, Jr., “Preaching” in Rediscovering Pastoral Ministry, John MacArthur, Jr., ed. (Dallas, TX: Word, 1995) p 250)

Why Expository Preaching

All good things require reminders. Contrary perhaps to my mother and grandmother's wisdom: "if it was important you wouldn't have forgotten it"--which is not altogether untrue; however, many times, things that are worth remembering are worth repeating so as to not forget them. The why of expository preaching is no exception.

McLarenism--another gospel

I read Brian McLaren's A New Kind of Christian a few years ago. I did so tethered to a friend in order to not be deceived by someone's unique communication skills during one of my "questioning phases". For those who don't have such friends to tether to, try on Kevin DeYoung. He writes a great response to McLaren's new book, which he is bold enough to call a New Christianity. Christianity is about the gospel of Jesus. A new Christianity then, must be about a new gospel or a new Jesus or both. Seems to me that the apostle Paul had words about this kind of thing.

Why Worship is Important for the Soul

A couple of clips from a couple of great men. Kauflin is worship pastor at Covenant Life Church. David Powlison is one of the founders of CCEF. In an age when worship can be dry (on one hand) or over-emotionalized (on the other hand)--and where counseling can be so behavioristic, it is refreshing to hear these two men give Christ-centered, gospel-saturated insight into both.

Mahaney for Pastors

Great message my CJ Mahaney for pastors. Particularly: being patient with your flock's growth; encouraging (not admonishing ) the weak; hanging with the flock immediately before and after the message to temper and tender our tone while presenting the message. Good stuff.

Exegetical Fallacies

At Thabiti Anybwile's blog, one of several great articles.

Piper on Retirement

Biblical Theology @ 9 Marks Interview

This interview points to a few good books probably worth checking out on Biblical Theology. They also talk about the difference between that and systematic theology and the place of each in the church's understanding of the Bible.

9 Marks Interview: Darryl G. Hart

While I am not so sure about what Darryl talks about during the first 3/4 of this interview, he is certainly provocative. One of the things he talks about is eschatology and how that should create within us a kind of contentment (of already-not yet kind) and what the implications of that are for living in a secular place. He advocates the separation of church and state in what I believe are compelling ways. He advocates tolerance and separation at the same time. He has written a few books on these topics as well that are probably worth checking out--maybe from a library IF they carry them.  One of the specifically interesting things is his desire for the eschewing of the "evangelical" label. His arguments for doing so are compelling and I have anecdotally  found them helpful in evangelism with secular academic culture.

Strength-based Stuff

One of my favorite practical blogs is Matt Perman's What's Best Next. A couple of items I need to bookmark for later...for self and for parenting. This parenting one would be good given that we are home schooling and our oldest daughter at age seven devours books: 1-2 a day at a 4-8th grade level. She is learning a lot this way. And while she is not that into math, she is learning a ton more than how to read by reading. Her strength is evident here. The other three kids...need to work on identifying that.

Far Too Easily Pleased: Video

What I love about this video is that I couldn't figure out where it was going until the end. Simple, but made a point well.

APs article on Matt Chandler

Piper on order of regeneration and faith

John Piper talks in this video excerpt about the order in which new birth (regeneration) and faith come. John Murray writes about this in great detail (as well as other elements in the chain from regeneration up to glorification in his book, Redemption Accomplished and Applied. This may seem unimportant, but it seems to me that understanding what the Bible says about how someone get's saved is perhaps one of the most important things to understand in the universe.