Beyond a Veggie Tales Gospel

Russell Moore reminds and challenges us that the narrative of Scripture should not consist merely of moral principles but should mainly consist of the hard truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, His life, death, and resurrection.  Click here to read the whole article.

Excerpt:

There’s plenty of Veggie Tales preaching out there, and it’s not all for children. As a matter of fact, the way we teach children the Bible grows from what we believe the Bible is about–what’s really important in the Christian life. There’s also such a thing as Veggie Tales discipleship, Veggie Tales evangelism, even erudite and complicated Veggie Tales theology and biblical scholarship. Whenever we approach the Bible without focusing in on what the Bible is about–Christ Jesus and His Gospel–we are going to wind up with a kind of golden-rule Christianity that doesn’t last a generation, indeed rarely lasts an hour after it is delivered.

Another Excerpt:

As we teach and preach and disciple and evangelize, let’s preach the whole Bible–every verse. And in every verse, let’s show how God keeps His promises, in Christ. Let’s not simply teach our people how to be moral, or how to be well-tempered, or how to be authentic or how to put the erotic energy back into their marriages. Let’s teach them how to find themselves in Christ, to conform to His life, and to follow His steps through His Spirit, looking always to His cross and His resurrection and His glory. Let’s put aside the cartoons–whether in our children’s programs or in our Sunday morning sermons–and proclaim Christ.

 

Ketchup and pickle juice is one thing. But we have more than a Veggie Tales Gospel. We have a gospel about bones and blood and mangled flesh. We have a Gospel of nail scarred hands and a table of bread and wine. We have a Gospel that propels us to suffer and even to die, because we have seen how God has kept His promise to the pioneer of our salvation, our firstborn Brother, our Lord Jesus.

Adrian Warnock Interviews John Piper (Video)

Adrian Warnock recently interviewed John Piper at the New Word Alive conference this year.  He has broken it up into four parts.  Below are the first two. 

Piper on NWA and Spring Conference

Piper on passionate preaching

It’s Never Too Late: A Message To Struggling Christians

John Piper recently wrote a post on the DG blog on change and perseverence.  This post is especially beneficial for the disheartened believer.  If you are struggling with sin whether it be, materialism, uncontrolled actions of lust, the slavery of coffee, or just being lethargic in your Christian walk you will find this post enriching to your heart.  For me it’s those time consuming, morally neutral, easily entertaining movies that I sometimes struggle with.  It’s never too late….

John Piper:

One of the greatest hope-killers is that you have tried for so long to change and have not succeeded. Now you look back and think: What’s the use? Even if I could experience a breakthrough, there would be so little time left to live in my new way it wouldn’t make much difference compared to so many decades of failure.

That’s not true. Suppose you only had five years left to live with a new victory over some old way. Or suppose you only had a year, or a month, or an hour? Would it matter?

At this point stir the thief on the cross into your thinking. At first he was railing at Jesus (Matthew 27:44). Then he was broken by what he saw and repented and cried out for mercy: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” (Luke 23:42). Jesus received this faith-filled cry and promised, “Today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43).

Then the former robber lived for another hour or so before he died. He was changed. He lived on the cross as a new man with new attitudes and actions (no more reviling). But 99.99% of his life was wasted. Did the last couple hours of newness matter?

They mattered infinitely. This former robber, like all of us, will stand before the judgment seat of Christ to give an account of his life. “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil” (2Corinthians 5:10). How will his life witness in that day to his new birth and his union with Christ?

The last hours will tell the story. This man was new. His faith was real. He is truly united to Christ. Christ’s righteousness is his. His sins are forgiven. That is what the final hours will proclaim at the last judgment. His change mattered. It was, and it will be, a beautiful testimony to the power of God’s grace and the reality of his faith and his union with Christ.

Now back to our struggle with change. I am not saying that struggling believers are unsaved like the robber was. I am simply saying: the last years and the last hours of life matter.

If in the last 1% of our lives we can get a victory over some longstanding sinful habit or hurtful defect in our personality, it will be a beautiful testimony now to the power of grace; and it will be an added witness (not the only one) at the last judgment of our faith in Christ and our union with him.

Take heart, struggler. Keeping asking, seeking, knocking. Keep looking to Christ. If God gets glory by saving robbers in the 11th hour, he surely has his purposes why he has waited till now to give you the breakthrough you have sought for decades.

Atheism Remix

Al Mohler, president of Southern Seminary, is coming out with his latest book entitled Atheism Remix due out July 31, 2008. (HT: JT)

Crossway:

A leading Christian intellectual explores the newest strain of atheism, its foremost thinkers, the cultural conditions that have bred it, and how Christians should respond.

Something has changed in American culture. What for years was a little-regarded belief system—atheism—has now gained a large, and increasing, national hearing through the writings of “new atheists” such as Dawkins, Dennett, Harris, and Hitchens.

Wanting to both inform and equip serious-minded Christians regarding this cultural shift, R. Albert Mohler Jr. explores the environment that has bred the “new atheism” while also introducing readers to the movement’s four leading thinkers and the contours of their arguments. Mohler—deemed “the reigning intellectual of the evangelical movement in the US” by Time magazine—then uses this foundation to pinpoint eight major distinctives that make the new atheism new, and to discuss the future of Christianity in relationship to it.

At school and in the community, Christians are sure to encounter people who have been shaped by this strain of atheism. Here is keen insight that any believer can use to understand and challenge the new atheists.

Endorsements:

“Atheism Remix offers a masterful analysis of and timely response to the New Atheism. Thoughtful and insightful, this readable work illuminates for scholars, pastors, and students alike the key issues that must be addressed in order to engage the thinking of Dawkins, Harris, Hitchens, and others. I applaud Albert Mohler for his clarity and conviction in helping us understand that biblical theism is the only true alternative to the new atheism. I gladly recommend this book!”:: David S. Dockery, President, Union University

“The great strength of these lectures-turned-book is the sweep of their coverage. Instead of becoming just one more voice in the rising debate between Christians and the New Atheists, Dr. Mohler has chosen to provide us with masterful coverage of the dominant writers on both sides. Having recently worked through most of this material myself, I happily attest how accurate and penetrating are Mohler’s surveys and assessments. I know of no other introduction to this crucial debate that is as comprehensive and clear in such brief compass. Mohler tells us what’s going on, shows us how much depends on the outcome of this titanic cultural shift, and provides guidance to the resources Christians need to challenge the New Atheism root and branch.”:: D. A. Carson, Research Professor of New Testament, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

“The New Atheism needs a clear-headed, straightforward analysis. Atheism Remix does this, and it does it well. Al Mohler is clear and concise in his critique, and the readability of this book makes it accessible to a wide audience. This is a fine introduction and overview of the self-proclaimed “Four Horsemen” of atheism. They are examined and exposed for the vacuous arguments they offer.”:: Daniel Akin, President, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary

“Ultra Superior Memory”

I recently read an article on msnbc’s website on Rick Baron who can virtually remember anything since the age of 11. By the way he’s 39.  Reseachers are so intrigued by him that the University of California is actually doing a study on him. This stuff fascinates me as I’m on the other end of the spectrum of memorization. There’s also a video that you should check out of him being intervied by Matt Lauer. Click here for the story

Excerpt:

“It is May 19 and I’m sitting here at NBC,” Baron told TODAY’s Matt Lauer Monday by way of demonstrating an ability that has been confirmed in just two other Americans. “My mind automatically categorizes NBC and May 19 in various ways. Days in 1980 come out the same as 2008. The big story, if it’s 28 years later to the minute, is Mount St. Helens erupting.”

There are three other people with this type of memory.  Jill Price is one other and was recently on the Today Show being interviewed.  You can see a short video of her by clicking here.  Her new book entitled The Woman Who Can’t Forget is due out later this month.  She has expressed the negative side of having such a good memory.

They have apparently forgotten one other person with this type of “Ultra Superior Memory” and that is Southern’s one and only Dr. Albert Mohler.  Okay, I’m joking! 

reThink Conference (Live) Blog Sessions

Alex Chediak was kind enough to live-blog the recent reThink Conference (May 16th).  The reThink Conference centered around Steve Wright’s new book.  Steve Wright is filled with much wisdom concerning gospel oriented youth ministry.  With 20 years under his belt you will be blessed by this book as well as this conference.  Mike Hall of Two Institutions has mentioned that audio will be made available soon.  Be sure to check back!

Below is a two part interview with Steve Wright and the sessions from the event from Alex Chediak

Interview with Steve Wright: Part 1 of 2

Interview with Steve Wright: Part 2 of 2

reThink Conference – Session I – Leon Tucker

reThink Conference – Session II – David Horner

reThink Conference – Session III – Dave Owen

reThink Conference – Session IV – Steve Wright

reThink Conference – Session V – Randy Stinson

Derek Thomas interviews Carson on “Christ and Culture Revisited”

Derek Thomas interviews D.A. Carson on his new book Christ and Culture Revisited. Below is an excerpt:

DT: You mention several key issues which force us re-evaluate Christ’s role in culture (secularization, democracy, freedom and power). In short compass, can you explain what you mean by this and how this helps us to understand our own (postmodern) culture?

DC: Inevitably, we in the West, not least in America, tend to adopt a host of “givens” that are part of growing up here. Most of us think freedom is a good thing. But is it always a good thing? A friend in Slovakia once told me that only three weeks after the Berlin wall came down, for the first time in his life he saw pornography sold in the street. Was the enhanced freedom an unmitigated “good” thing? I’m not denying it was good in many ways, but some of us have given “freedom” such an iconic value that we fail to see how, in the name of freedom, we may become slaves to sin. Most of us are thankful to God that we live in a democracy. But I have met Christians who live in parts of the world under one form or another of tyranny who are much less daunted by the violent “beast out of the sea” that they face than by the “beast out of the earth,” the danger of deceptive teaching and materialism, that we face in the West: they pray for us that we will escape the tyranny of the seduction of easy, triumphalism, and materialism. Certainly what Paul wrote about the government of his day being appointed by God, he did not have a democracy in mind: what bearing do such differences in the structure of power have on our responsibility as citizens — as citizens of the US, and as citizens of the new Jerusalem?

(HT: Tullian Tchividjian)

Douglas Moo Resources on Jesus, Paul, and the Law of Moses

Justin Taylor has pointed out some articles by Douglas Moo on Jesus, Paul, and the Law of Moses. Douglas Moo is a scholar on Pauline theology as evidenced by his mammoth commentary on Romans. Below are the articles:

• “Law,” “Works of the Law” and Legalism in Paul (1983)
• Jesus and the Authority of the Mosaic Law (1984)
• Paul and the Law in the Last Ten Years (1987)
• The Law of Moses and the Law of Christ (1988 )
• The Law of Christ as the Fulfillment of the Law of Moses (1993)