Lots-o-Links 9.22.11

in , , ,

Been a while since I did a links post. Some you need to check out...

Tim Keller | "Gospel Polemics, Part 1"

in ,

Polemics is medicine, not food. Without medicine we will surely die—we can’t live without it. This is why “polemical theology’ must be a required part of every theological curriculum. Yet we cannot live on medicine. If you engage in polemics with relish and joy—if polemics takes up a significant percentage or even a majority of your time and energy—it is like trying to live on medicine alone. It won’t work, for the church or for you.

Tim Keller, "Gospel Polemics, Part 1" - read more

ESV Student Study Bible Giveaway

in ,

Esvssb

Thanks to the fine folks at Crossway, I have an ESV Student Study Bible to giveaway to one of the readers of Reformissionary. If you are reading this, that means it could be you.

If you haven't seen or heard about it yet, here's what Crossway says about the ESV Student Study Bible...

The ESV Student Study Bible is ideally suited for students who are serious about God’s Word—who want to learn more about what the Bible teaches and how the Bible applies to all of life. 

With 12,000 clear, concise study notes, the ESV Student Study Bible provides numerous new features—including nearly 900 “Did You Know?” facts, 120 new Bible character profiles, and 15 new topical articles. It also features a new glossary of key terms, more than 80 full-color maps and illustrations, an extensive concordance, and 80,000 cross-references. These and many other features make it the most comprehensive, colorful, and content-rich student Bible available today. Suited to high school and college students, the ESV Student Study Bible is also a versatile resource for anyone engaged in serious study of God’s Word.

Created by an outstanding team of more than 100 evangelical Christian scholars, teachers, and pastors, the ESV Student Study Bible is adapted from the highly acclaimed and best-selling ESV Study Bible. With numerous new features, the ESV Student Study Bible is an invaluable resource.  For high school and college students, but equally for all students of the Bible—for everyone who loves to read and learn more about God’s Word.

You can buy it in Hardcover, Trutone Taupe, Trutone Navy, or (coming soon) Trutone Brown/Blue Arrow. I have the hardback and I just bought Sarah (14) the Trutone Taupe. We've started using it to read & discuss Esther together. I really like it so far, and glad to have this resource for my kids.

Here's how you can win a copy...

STEP 1: Copy & share the following without the quote marks on Twitter (if you aren't on Twitter, use Facebook, or do BOTH!): "The ESV Student Study Bible for FREE! RT this & comment at Reformissionary for a chance to win: http://bit.ly/q4LWTN "

STEP 2: Leave a comment below (so I can verify you did step 1). Include your full name and real email address (kept private) so I can contact the winners. For fun, also comment on your favorite, guilty-pleasure snack.

I will randomly choose ONE winner in the late afternoon/early evening on Friday (16th).

Go!

Bloodlines by John Piper

in ,

Bloodlines John Piper's new book on race, Bloodlines (Kindle), is getting some buzz. Mostly because of the video at the end of this post, which you should watch. It's a trailer for a 20 minute documentary. Then today I noticed the forward is by Tim Keller. So, of course, I had to share that with you (via)...

I was excited when I learned that John Piper was writing a book on race and the gospel of the cross. When John gave me the privilege of reading the manuscript, I devoured it and found that despite my high expectations I was not disappointed. It was helpful to me personally, helpful to me theologically (in understanding the relevance of the gospel to racial conflict), and it was especially encouraging to me to think that many in the evangelical world would read it.

John and I are both old enough to remember the complicity of evangelical churches and institutions with the systemic racism in the US before the civil rights movement. I took my first church in a small town in the South in the early 1970s. The courts had recently ruled that the whites-only public swimming pool, operated by the town with taxpayers’ money, had to be integrated. So what did the town do? It shut the pool down completely, and the white people of the town opened a new private swimming pool and club, which of course, did not have to admit racial minorities. Because I was a young pastor, our family was often invited to swim there, and swim we did, not really cognizant of what the pool represented.

One of the reasons I think this book is so important is that conservative evangelicals (particularly white ones) seem to have become more indifferent to the sin of racism during my lifetime. Why? One reason, of course, is the stubbornness of the sinful heart. We never want to hear about what is wrong with us. Another factor may be cultural. Many have made racism and prejudice virtually the only thing they will still call a “sin,” and they often lay the guilt for the sin of racism at the doorstep of those who are social conservatives. Because of that, many who identify themselves as conservatives simply don’t want to hear about racism anymore. They give lip service to it being a sin, but they associate any sustained denunciation of racism with the liberal or secular systems of thought. John’s book is a strong antidote to this misconception. His motivation is simply as a preacher of the Word to bring to light what God says in it regarding race and racism.

There are many ways in which this book will help the church in its struggle with the sin of racism. First, John takes us to all the biblical texts that speak most directly to the subject of race. But—and this was most helpful to me—John does not stop there. He then goes to most of the central doctrines and themes of our faith and shows the implications of each one for our understanding of race. He demonstrates how Jesus’s proclamation of the kingdom, his substitutionary atonement, the doctrine of conversion, of union with Christ, of justification by faith—all transform our attitude toward our own race and culture as well as to those belonging to other races and cultures.

I won’t ever forget how one of the elders in my first church, who had been growing in his understanding of the gospel and of the cross of Jesus, said to me, “You know, I realize I’ve been a racist all my life.” I hadn’t spoken to him of racism at all, but as he was going deeper into the theology of grace, he connected the dots for himself. I must say that most of us are not that insightful, and that’s why we need this volume. Let John Piper connect the dots for you.

Tim Keller
February 2011
Foreword from Bloodlines by John Piper

PastorMark.tv

in ,

Markdriscoll Very cool to see Mark Driscoll's new website, PastorMark.tv, where he, his wife Grace & his daughter Ashley will be writing. Grace will write on being a Godly wife, mother, and friend. Ashley will write book reviews for teens and on how to balance the pressures of high school and staying faithful to Jesus. Mark will be writing on, oh, you know, the stuff a pastor, preacher, movement leader might write on. :) Should be a fine resource.

T4A: Pre-Conference with Tim Chester

in ,

I've been very blessed by the ministry & writing of Tim Chester. I've read Total Church twice & I've reviewed the excellent Delighting in the Trinity. You should also check out his book From Creation to New Creation among others. At the Together for Adoption Conference Tim and Dan Cruver (author of Reclaiming Adoption) are delivering a pre-conference event called "Missional Church, Missional God, Missional Story." Here's more from the website...

Missional Church, Missional God, Missional Story

Tim Chester and Dan Cruver

Missional church is not simply the latest fad. It’s rooted in the trinitarian character of God and the story of the Bible. Explore the foundations for shaping life around gospel, community and mission along with practical application for church life and the implications for orphan care.

Registration: $75 Per Person

Learn more about this pre-conference event with Tim Chester.