The Jesus Storybook Bible is #2 on the CBA bestseller list. This is very cool, Sally!

You can read my interview of Sally Lloyd-Jones here and see my picture project here.

I’m always on the look out for gospel-centered blogs. Here’s a new one by Josh Etter called Of First Importance. Josh writes:

The gospel of Jesus Christ is “of first importance” (1 Cor 15:3), but we easily forget.

More than anything, we need to see Jesus. Our souls grow strong only as they feed on Christ.

Each day this blog will provide one quote to help you live in the good of the gospel.

Josh’s blog provides several resource pages that have some great recommendations to help deepen gospel-understanding:

The Story of the Gospel
The Heart of the Gospel
Proclaiming the Gospel
Living in the Good of the Gospel
Singing About the Gospel

Of First Importance will be a daily visit for me.

I discovered a great new blog called Promises Kept: Exploring the Great Rescue. It’s great because it’s written by a blogger who is passionate about the gospel. Here’s how Tom Rush describes the purpose of his blog:

My heart’s greatest fascination is in the unfolding of redemption and the stunning work of our Great Rescuer. This blog isn’t about me keeping my promises — to my shame, I haven’t done that — it’s about all the promises kept and fulfilled in Him. Jesus Christ is worthy of all our delight and adoration and hope.

So we’ll concentrate on Him, and on the gospel.

I’ll still stammer; so will this blog. Irregular posts. Some ideas not always fully formed. Weakness in abundance. And it’s all cool, because that’s a mirror of my life, and because the Great Hobby is tracing out in Scripture and in experience how God shows his power in weakness and uses infants to defeat his enemies (Psalm 8:1ff).

If you’ve got the gospel all figured out, you won’t enjoy it here. But if every day you’re amazed at mercy, astounded at your own sin, humbled by grace, stupefied by the gospel, and blown away by Jesus… you’ve come to the right place. Read the rest of this entry »

Adapted from my journal - July 8, 2005, Fuling, China (recently revised for from hope to reality, the blog of Carolina Hope)

“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans…in their affliction” (James 1:27).

I spent the early morning thinking about James 1:27 (couldn’t sleep!), specifically about what “visiting orphans in their affliction” means. I probably should have given this serious thought years ago since James says that visiting orphans in their affliction is an essential mark of true Christianity, but I had not. There is something about spending several days in an orphanage in the middle of China that forces you to think about the meaning of James’ words though. So there I sat at 4:30am on July 8th, 2005, in Fuling, China wondering what “visiting orphans in their affliction” might really involve. Read the rest of this entry »

I recently discovered The Crowded House as a result of getting a book entitled The Total Church: A radical reshaping around gospel and community by Tim Chester and Steve Timmis. The Crowded House is a network of missional communities in Sheffield and Loughborough, England, that are committed to church planting. Most of their churches meet in homes and are committed to:

I’ve only just finished the third chapter of Total Church but have already been deeply challenged by its contents. It is not a book for those who are content with being content to play church or who think of church participation as one activity among others that they are involved in. Tim Chester and Steve Timmis are clearly passionate about the church, that is, about Christian community that is intentionally centered on the gospel and mission. Tim and Steve write, “Most gospel ministry involves ordinary people doing ordinary things with gospel intentionality” (61). “Being gospel-centred means being mission-centred, for the gospel is a missionary word. The gospel is good news. It is a word to be proclaimed. You cannot be committed to the gospel without being committed to proclaiming that gospel” (32).

Here are some quotations I’ve highlighted so far in my reading of this, what I’m finding to be, deeply challenging book: Read the rest of this entry »

If you haven’t already seen this series, go RENT it or buy it! There are 5 disks in the series. OH MY!!!!! Creation does indeed “declare the glory of God” (Psalm 19:1)!

There are three episodes on the first disk:

“Pole to Pole”
“Mountains”
“Fresh Water”

After each episode they do a short summary about “how” they filmed part of it. That part is very good as well.

Watch it as a family. You and your children will be filled with AWE.

There are some complete episodes online. The picture quality is obviously not as good as the DVD, but it gives you a feel for the incredible shots and scenery.

You can view an episode and get a taste for them here (Google Video).

If you’ve ever wondered how important spiritual adoption (i.e. God adopting us as His children) is to God, take a look at Galatians 4:4-6.

“When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’”

Consider the lengths to which God the Father went to give us adoption as sons and daughters. First, He sent His eternal Son—the one with whom He enjoyed eternal communion—into the world to redeem those who had committed cosmic treason against Him. It’s not just Read the rest of this entry »

Christopher Wright on Christ-centered interpretation:

“To speak of the Bible being ‘all about Christ’ does not (or should not) mean that we try to find Jesus of Nazareth in every verse by some feat of imagination. Rather we mean that the person and work of Jesus become the central hermeneutical key by which we, as Christians, articulate the overall significance of these texts in both Testaments. Christ provides the hermeneutical matrix for our reading of the whole Bible” (The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative, 31).

If you want to see more of the beauty of adoption, consider this brief quotation from Dr. C.F.W. Walther:

“Every Christian may apply to himself the declaration of God: ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

If you are a Christian, God speaks these amazing words over you: “You are My beloved child, in whom I am well pleased!” He doesn’t speak these words over you because you’ve earned them. You could never do enough to earn these words of love. God speaks these words over you because of who Jesus is for you.

When God the Father Read the rest of this entry »

John Piper talks about what it means to have been adopted by God. Listen to it or download it here.

[Originally posted at from hope to reality, the blog of Carolina Hope]

It has been my experience that many people do not really begin thinking about adoption theologically until they themselves are involved in adopting (or at least considering adopting) a child. Very often, the consideration to adopt a child precedes the consideration of the truth that God has graciously adopted us to be His children.

So is this a problem? Of course not. It’s natural and right to long for a child, Read the rest of this entry »

Tim Keller preached these two sermons at St. George’s-Tron Church in Glasgow.

The Prodigal Sons
Jesus, the Church, and the City

(HT: Steve McCoy)

Stammered Life considers this question: Is the Gospel News or Advice?

David Snoke preaches a sermon entitled “The Gospel-Centered Church” (Mp3 - right click) at City Reformed.

Goodmanson writes about leading Gospel-centered church meetings.

Creation Project highlights a new book about gospel-centered community and mission.

Scott Sterner shares his family’s recently updated gospel-centered mission statement.

The Purple Cellar interviewed Elyse Fitzpatrick, author of Idols of the Heart: Learning to Long for God Alone, this past April. It’s a brief interview that reminded me of how profoundly I need Jesus in the life long process of sanctification. Read it here.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – August 3, 2007
David Mathis, Executive Assistant to John Piper
david.mathis@desiringGod.org, 612.455.3407
www.desiringGod.org

Local Minister’s Response to the Collapsed Bridge

Minneapolis pastor and author, John Piper, has responded to the collapse of the I-35 bridge with a blog post/article that has been viewed 30,000 times as of this writing (www.desiringGod.org/blog/745). His ministry, Desiring God, has compiled a video of their own footage of the disaster scene with comments from Piper on why there is such suffering in the world (www.desiringGod.org/blog/747). Currently on YouTube this video is #7 most linked and #29 most viewed in the “People and Blogs” category today; and it is #43 most linked today out of all videos.

Both of these resources can be found at www.desiringGod.org < http://www.desiringgod.org/> and will be helpful in getting one evangelical Christian perspective on events like this.

About John Piper:
Dr. Piper is the Pastor for Preaching and Vision at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, MN, located within a mile of the collapsed bridge. Among other topics, he is known for speaking about what God has to do with tragedies like this. In 2005, he was interviewed on NPR regarding the tsunami. This is available to listen to for free (http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Interviews/1678_The_NPR_Tsunami_Interview/).

He has written, among other books, Desiring God, Don’t Waste Your Life, The Passion of Jesus Christ, God is the Gospel, and What Jesus Demands from the World.

About Desiring God:
Desiring God is a Christian ministry that exists to produce and distribute resources that spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ.

Here’s the link to the audio (streaming audio) of my interview early today. You can download the entire interivew here. I felt real freedom to talk about the gospel and adoption when that segment of the interview began. Thanks for your prayers.

Josh, creator of Carolina Hope’s blog, from hope to reality, added a post about the interview as well.

Carolina Hope Christian Adoption Agency is pleased to announce the creation of its new blog: From Hope to Reality. If you are a blogger, please seriously consider linking to it. I think it will be a great resource that will provide information about important adoption issues and posts that will explore what adoption means theologically.

Please feel free to comment and asks questions about posts. That will help this adoption blog to better educate and encourage. For those of you interested in receiving new post updates, there’s a place where you can subscribe.

Many thanks to Josh Jensen, one of my colleagues at Carolina Hope, for all his work on creating and launching this new adoption blog!