New Albums Out Today

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Some really outstanding new albums out today...

Elbow | "Open Arms"

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Elbow makes some seriously cool anthemic rock songs. I'm a big fan of their previous album, The Seldom Seen Kid. Here's "Open Arms" from their new album, Build a Rocket Boys! (only $5.99!). Lyrics are below the video. Prodigal son, anyone?

You're a law unto yourself
And we don't suffer dreamers
But neither should you walk the earth alone

So with finger rolls and folding chairs
And a volley of streamers
We can be there for tweaks and repairs
Should you come back home

We got open arms for broken hearts
Like yours my boy, come home again

Tables are for pounding here
And when we've got you surrounded
The man you are will know the boy you were

And you're not the man who fell to earth
You're the man of La Mancha
And we've love enough to light the street
'Cause everybody's here

We got open arms for broken hearts
Like yours my boy, come home again
We got open arms for broken hearts
Like yours my boy, come home again

Everyone's here
Everyone's here
The moon is out looking for trouble
And everyone's here

Everyone's here
Everyone's here
The moon wants a scrap or a cuddle
And everyone's here

We got open arms for broken hearts
Like yours my boy, come home again
We got open arms for broken hearts
Like yours my boy, come home again

Everyone's here
Everyone's here
Everyone's here
Come home again

The moon is out looking for trouble
The moon wants a scrap or a cuddle
The moon is face down in a puddle
And everyone's here 

Keller | Lloyd-Jones on the Efficacy of Preaching Today

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Tim Keller has a new blog post on Lloyd-Jones on the Efficacy of Preaching. A blurb...

...if you make preaching central to your ministry, you are indeed expecting that the public ministry of the Word will be attractive and draw people in. At this point the Doctor takes the main objection—"they won't come"—head on. He says bluntly, "The answer is that they will come, and that they do come…" Now the Doctor was speaking of his own ministry at Westminster Chapel in central London after World War II. Church attendance throughout Europe plunged after the war, for a mixture of reasons. In that situation, he began preaching his long, theological, expositional sermons, and slowly the huge auditorium filled. His evening services were twice the size of the morning services, since people from all over London came to bring their non-Christian friends. I dare say that something similar happened to us in New York City over the past two decades, and in an analogous context. (emphasis mine)

Read the whole post: Lloyd-Jones on the Efficacy of Preaching

Summer Wakes the Bear Who Sleeps

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Summer wakes

Just got Summer Wakes the Bear Who Sleeps by Aaron Youngren and Charles Perrault in the mail for review. It's a book of poetry, one-act plays, sermons, and essays from St. George Rides the Dragon Press. Intriguing. Aaron is pastor of The Line in Chicago.

“Ah, now I see. For this she sleeps. She sleeps the winter gone, as do all of her kind. She sleeps for rest.” “No. The sleep she has chosen is a sleep without rest, a sleep tormented, a sleep that ends in death.” So begins an exploration of human frailty through the lens of fairy tale, image, one-acts, ritual, and poetry. Along the way: volunteerism as modern indulgence and doubt as modern fundamentalism; a father who tries to be a brother, and a brother who won't let him; a heretical text; a ship's captain who wants nothing more than to leave his wife and children. “So you have done all, you have sent all, and still she did not turn. There is nothing more to be done.” “No. There is still one more to send.”

$5 Albums for May (Over 1,500 of Them!)

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Music

Hard to list all my recommendations. I've narrowed to the best of the best, but go peruse the whole list of 1,500. Let me know what you found among the 1,500 that I haven't listed and you think it great. I'm always up for new recommendations.

JAZZ

Buy Note To Self by Joe Thorn

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Notetoself

Note to Self by my best friend, Joe Thorn, is already temporarily out of stock at Amazon. You can order there and they will have more soon, or get the Kindle edition, or you can go to WTSBooks.com and buy it, where I hope it's still in stock.

You will be getting copies for your friends after you read it. It's one of the best books on working out good theology in the practical stuff of life that I've read. And he doesn't need to be my best friend for me to say that.

Endorsements...

“I know of no other book that deals with the issue of preaching to yourself directly, and I can’t imagine another book will come along to fill this void better than Note to Self. Pastor Joe Thorn offers a richly pastoral, theological, and practical guide for thinking through the Christian life. After reading Note to Self, you will not only have Joe’s notes on how to preach to yourself on issues related to God, others, and yourself, but also you will have a model for practicing the discipline on your own.”
- Ed Stetzer, President, LifeWay Research

“Note to Self is a gospel-guided smart bomb scoring a direct hit on our strongholds of emptiness. But the explosion it detonates is life giving. It clears the way for Christ to enter in with powers of salvation where we really need help.”
- Raymond C. Ortlund Jr., Lead Pastor, Immanuel Church, Nashville, Tennessee

“I am thoroughly engrossed with Joe Thorn’s personal meditations on preaching the gospel to oneself. He combines a clear biblical knowledge with an excellent grasp of doctrine from a historical Reformed perspective and is able to press home a rich application of each aspect of truth to the development of personal holiness. These applications are not trite, but arise from knowledge of the church’s best soul doctors. My wife and I have been reading this each evening and have profited greatly. Each chapter can be managed in less than five minutes but provides an evening’s worth of rich reflection.”
- Tom Nettles, Professor of Historical Theology, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

“Martyn Lloyd-Jones once said that most of your unhappiness is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself. Joe Thorn brings this truth to bear on a new generation in Note to Self. It’s filled with pastoral concern and practical advice packaged as brief notes. I’ve been looking for a book like this my entire Christian life, and it’s every bit as good as I hoped it would be. I’m buying a copy for everyone in my church.”
- Steve McCoy, Pastor, Doxa Fellowship; blogger, Reformissionary

“Joe Thorn’s gift to our spiritual well-being is a contemporary, practical example of what the Puritan pastor Richard Baxter called ‘discursive meditation.’ At once both convicting and exhilarating, Note to Self is a great resource for cultivating the godly habit of preaching to oneself.”
- C. Ben Mitchell, Graves Chair of Moral Philosophy, Union University

“Joe Thorn has not only given us a good piece of writing, he’s given us a great idea! Note to Self is a series of brief notes in which Joe preaches the gospel to himself on a wide range of topics. The notes offer memorable insights on our view of God, others, and self. Everyone should write ‘notes to self.’ Read this book and learn firsthand how to write the gospel into every nook and cranny of your life!”
- Jonathan Dodson, Lead Pastor, Austin City Life, Austin, Texas; founding leader, The GCM Collective; author, Gospel-Centered Discipleship

“I talk to myself. Joe Thorn wants me to talk to myself more. And I need that. Regardless of one’s theological view of Law and gospel, these biblical repasts are a good chew.”
- Jim Elliff, Christian Communicators Worldwide

“Joe Thorn is my favorite kind of pastor—a theologian and a shepherd. Even better, he is a serious follower of Jesus Christ. Listen to him ‘talk to himself’ and you will discover that he is doing more listening than talking. Read Note to Self and it will help you to hear God’s Word and discern the gracious moving of his Spirit in your own life.”
- John Koessler, Professor and Chair of Pastoral Studies Department, Moody Bible Institute

“Joe Thorn has written a series of devotions that are concise and clear but also profound and penetrating. This is just the sort of resource that frazzled and frayed people (like this pastor!) need to read to come back to center and be refreshed by the wonder of the gospel and the beauty and majesty of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
- Chris Brauns, author, Unpacking Forgiveness; Pastor, The Red Brick Church, Stillman Valley, Illinois

“Note to Self teaches you a skill that will permanently change your life: the skill of preaching to yourself. This is a forgotten habit in our day, and Joe Thorn winsomely models how to resurrect this lost art. Note to Self models what I want to see more of in my life and in the lives of the people I pastor. Practice what this book preaches and your life will be different.”
- Justin Buzzard, Lead Pastor, Garden City Church, San Jose, California; blogger, BuzzardBlog

“It’s not enough to simply call people to the gospel. We must help them make the connections between the gospel and their everyday living. Joe Thorn’s Note to Self is gospel proclamation and application at its best. I will put this in the hands of my people."
- Daniel Montgomery, Lead Pastor, Sojourn Community Church, Louisville, Kentucky

Go get it! (Amazon | WTSBooks)

Brandi Carlile Live at Benaroya Hall

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One of my favorite singer-songwriters, Brandi Carlile, has a new live album coming out. Here it is streaming in full exclusively at Paste. We've seen Brandi live in concert twice and this album captures her live show beautifully.