Must Read Book on Missions

As we are focusing on missions as a church this week, I wanted to highlight one of the best books out there on the urgency of the missionary cause, for which a new Third Edition is being published. It is Let the Nations Be Glad by John Piper. The foundational quote from the book:

"Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn't. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity. But worship abides forever."

(Italics Mine)

Short and Sweet Wisdom on Prayer

From Between Two Worlds:

R.C. Sproul: “If I can summarize Calvin’s teaching on prayer succinctly, I would say this:

The chief rule of prayer is to remember who God is and to remember who you are.

If we remember those two things, our prayers will always and ever be marked by adoration and confession.”

Physical Items......Spiritual Truths

Below is a very useful chart included in the ESV Study Bible, (which I'm finding is the most helpful resource I own), which serves to provide a great summary of the focus of Bryant's current sermon series from the book of John:

Physical Items Used by Jesus to Teach Spiritual Truths

Though often misunderstood by Jesus' hearers, the use of these tangible metaphors helps readers of John's Gospel understand its message as they meditate on the analogies between these physical realities and spiritual truths.

Physical Item	Spiritual Truth	References
Light	true knowledge and presence of God; moral purity	1:4–5, 7–9; 3:19–21; 8:12; 9:5; 11:9–10; 12:35–36, 46; cf. 1 John 2:8–10
Jerusalem temple	Christ's physical body	2:19–22
Physical birth	spiritual birth: being “born again”	1:13; 3:3–8; cf. 6:63; 1 John 3:9; 4:7; 5:1, 18
Wind	the Holy Spirit	3:8
Water	the Holy Spirit within believers	4:7–15; 7:37–39; cf. 1 John 5:6, 8
Food	doing the will of God	4:31–34
Bread	Jesus himself, his life and death	6:32–51, 58
Flesh and blood	Jesus' death	6:53–56; cf. 1 John 1:7; 5:6, 8
Door	path to eternal life in Jesus	10:1–9
Shepherd	Jesus' sacrifice and care for his people	10:11–18, 26–28; 21:15–17
Vine	Jesus in relationship to his followers	15:1–11
Cup	God's wrath toward sin	18:11
Breath	the Holy Spirit coming upon the disciples	20:22

Good Reflections from Tiger's Apology

Here's a good post after hearing Tiger Woods' comments yesterday. It highlights the key distinctions between the Christian Gospel and a religious faith like Buddhism. Read it here.

Who is this Jesus?

I have grown tremendously by listening to Tim Keller's sermons over the last 5 years or so. Here is the link to the first one I ever listened to, where he explains the person and work of Jesus Christ. This a great sermon to listen to and then get our non-Christian friends to hear as well - it is very friendly and respectful to the non-believer and demonstrates a real sensitivity to the way people think today. Listen here.

I thought this would be a good primer as we prepare to study Jesus Christ together as a class over the next weeks.

The Tebow Ad.....from the other side

Read this post from Zach Nielsen's blog which I read frequently. Are we discerning enough to see the fallacies in the argumentation presented in the Vanity Fair article? Could we show someone with these positions the logical end to what they are saying? And would they really want that?

It seems our class subject of late is rather timely...never thought the Super Bowl would give us so much to think about in class.

The Tebow ad continued.....

This is an amazing column by a pro-choice sportswriter for the Washington Post, Sally Jenkins.

A sampling:

"I'm pro-choice, and Tebow clearly is not. But based on what I've heard in the past week, I'll take his side against the group-think, elitism and condescension of the "National Organization of Fewer and Fewer Women All The Time." For one thing, Tebow seems smarter than they do."

"Here's what we do need a lot more of: Tebows. Collegians who are selfless enough to choose not to spend summers poolside, but travel to impoverished countries to dispense medical care to children, as Tebow has every summer of his career. Athletes who believe in something other than themselves, and are willing to put their backbone where their mouth is. Celebrities who are self-possessed and self-controlled enough to use their wattage to advertise commitment over decadence. "

We should thank God for Tebow's living example of the Gospel and the influence he is having on others who (at least for now) disagree with most of what motivates him.

Read the whole article here.