Follow the Plan II - Online Bible Reading

As promised, today I'll give you some online options for Bible reading plans in addition to those mentioned last week.

The good folks at ESV.org have plenty of ways to remind you to be in the Word. They've got 10 plans listed here, each with 6 ways for you to get your passages for the day. Wow.

For example, for their basic Daily Reading Bible plan, which includes portions of the Old Testament, New Testament, and Psalms each day, you can use--

• Web (save this link as a bookmark/favorite, and visiting this same page each day will give you the appropriate reading for that date)
• RSS (put this into your customized homepage, such as iGoogle or My Yahoo, or Google Reader)
• Email (subscribe to have it sent to you each day)
• iCal (for Apple's calendar program)
• Mobile (same as Web above, though formatted for mobile phone browsers)
• Print (print out a reading schedule to tuck in your Bible)

A different plan that you can print out is one taken from the new ESV Study Bible (though you don't need an ESVSB to use it). If you click here, you will see a sheet that reflects four readings for each day. The nice part about this is that it is designed so that you can cut it into four bookmarks, keeping your place in each of those four daily readings.

Another option entirely is Bible.Logos.com, which is a way to read the Bible online with many different versions available: ESV, NIV, NAS, NLT, KJV, and lots more.

Go to "Reading Plan" on the left side under the search field. It will give you a drop-down menu, where you can choose "Bible in a Year, Jan 09 - Dec 09." In the menu below that, you can choose the day, such as January 1, 2009. It will then give you four links to each of the passages you are to read for the day-- no flipping pages, no typing in references. Create an account and sign in for your reading (it will remember you so that you don't have to do this each day), so that when you are finished, you can click a "Done Reading" button that records your progress.

There is a community aspect to this site as well. Because each user that has logged in and noted what is completed, the site registers how many people in total are using that plan, and how many are keeping up (just numbers, no names used). You can even leave comments about the passage to share your thoughts with other readers.

Of course, as with all technology, these tools can sometimes make things more convenient, accessible, or user-friendly, but they can't make you more disciplined or do the reading for you. And only the living Word can give you life.

Desiring God Conference for Pastors

Who would drive north to spend a few days in Minneapolis during the first week of February? More than 2,000 pastors and church leaders, that's who! [Please refrain from mockery.]

Each February, we take a vehicle filled with a few elders, a deacon or two, and a couple of guests up to the Desiring God Conference for Pastors in Minneapolis. This year's conference is called "Commending Christ: The Pastor, the Church, and the Perishing." The theme is evangelism, and it looks like they've got a great lineup of speakers.

In the time that remains until the conference, I'll post one or two short videos each week, so that you can get a flavor for what we'll be hearing. I think the videos will be beneficial to you as well. Here is John Piper, the conference host, explaining why he chose the conference theme.

Blinded by the Light

Psalm 19:1-2

1 The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
2 Day to day pours out speech,
and night to night reveals knowledge.

Passed along by Alan Jacobs, this story reminds us how our modern lives can tend to obliterate the revelation of God all around us. I'm certainly thankful for electric light, but it's a shame we miss all these stars.

Here's an excerpt from the article which gives some explanation to the photograph above. [Click on it for an even bigger view.]

The patch of ground in the imposing row of mountains is surrounded by 300 square miles of moorland, woods and lochs that form the rugged wilderness of Galloway Forest Park in southern Scotland, and in a few weeks, officers at the forest will take steps towards making it Europe's first official dark sky park.

It is the profound lack of light that makes the area worthy of recognition and such a spectacular place to look at nature. The spot is so remote that on a cloudless night it offers an unrivalled view of the heavens: a rare chance to see shooting stars and the distant Andromeda galaxy, the aurora borealis and stellar nurseries where suns are born to warm alien planets.

The Tribune and the Church

My family and I were with my wife's parents over Christmas and this past Sunday. They lived for decades in the western suburbs of Chicago before retiring to southern Wisconsin. Because of this, they have continued to subscribe to the Chicago Tribune, even though it has been more than seven years now since they have called Illinois their home state.

Recently, however, they stopped getting the daily paper, though they continue to subscribe on Sunday. They are not alone. The decline of many major newspapers' circulation has been well-documented. Many papers have had cutbacks, layoffs, and the Tribune Company itself has declared bankruptcy. Advertising revenue is down industry-wide, but some say that, with the internet, overall readership is up. The papers are feeling the pinch, all the same.

So why did my in-laws stop getting the daily paper? The front page of this week's Sunday edition illustrated their complaint. Scanning the front page, there was only one real "news" story to be found, which took up about 1/8 of the whole sheet. Around 2/3 of the page were filled with photos and graphics, including the main image of a rain-spattered window with the text "Warm. Wet. What's next?" Below the picture, which easily could have been a stock photo, were a few paragraphs that talked about the unusual weather Chicagoans were facing during the last week of 2008, but it wasn't informative and really didn't get specific.

These faithful subscribers and readers have gotten fed up with the fact that they are getting more splashy photography and chatty water-cooler conversation than hard news. And so, this retooling that the Tribune has undertaken to boost circulation is backfiring, at least with these readers.

Ideally, a newspaper should be committed to its journalistic mission as a service to its readers. There's a world out there with lots of people, events, issues, and ideas that the public needs to know about. The paper should have the resources, skill, and integrity to research and report on the important matters of the day. The reader should come to the paper with an interest in being informed, a curiosity of the world around him, and appropriate levels of trust and critical thinking as he interacts with the stories and opinions.

Instead, with circulation dropping, many newspapers have tried to figure out what the public is already talking about-- the hot new TV show, the latest gossip, a breaking scandal, etc.-- and then put that in the newspaper. It's always been included, of course, but now it's front and center, and the real news is greatly reduced or nearly eliminated.

Why am I posting about this here? I believe this whole scenario is an apt metaphor for the way many pastors and congregants approach their practice and experience of church, and it should serve as a warning to us.

As a church, we should be committed to keeping our Sunday morning worship service (our main time together as a church) focused on the "hard news" of the Christian faith: Who is God? What has he said to us? What does he want us to know about him and his purpose for this world and for us in particular? How has he gone about fulfilling his purposes in the past, what is he doing today, and what does he say he will do in the future? What does he want us to do, and how can we do it? What does this look like in our everyday life? These questions should be pursued through careful study of the Bible and done in such a way so as to honor God and serve the people of the church.

As you can see from the questions above, we can and should get around to the mundane realities of our lives when we're together as a church. But there is a big difference between starting with God and his perspective, agenda, and priorities and having all that define and direct our experience, and that of starting with our own frequently trivial pursuits and then making superficial connections from there.

As a pastor, I am responsible to help lead the church by using my gifts, skills, and resources to bring the Word of God to you through my preaching and teaching. There is an important Person to be known, His Word to be understood, His truth to be applied. There is a Gospel to be proclaimed, and a Savior to be believed and received. I am to fulfill my role in this way as a servant of God and his people. Likewise, those who come to church should be seeking to be informed of what they need to know about God and how to live in light of his Word, not looking to have someone toss around buzzwords and hot topics that the rest of the world is chasing after.

God will be more profound and powerful, and our faith will be more practical and life-changing, when we start with God and let him explain us and our world. When we start with "our world" and look for ways that God happens to intersect with it, our understanding of God and the experience of our lives will both suffer for it. In our attempts to boost readership, we may wander from our mission and lose subscribers.

Next Sermon - Matthew 3:1-17 on 01/04/09

The sermon this coming Sunday will cover Matthew 3 in its entirety:

Matthew 3:1-17

1 In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, 2 "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." 3 For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said,
"The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
'Prepare the way of the Lord;
make his paths straight.' "
4 Now John wore a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. 5 Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, 6 and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. 9 And do not presume to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father,' for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. 10 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

11 "I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."

13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. 14 John would have prevented him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" 15 But Jesus answered him, "Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." Then he consented. 16 And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; 17 and behold, a voice from heaven said, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased."

What do you make of John's message? And why do you think Jesus was baptized? How does the practice of baptism in the later New Testament, such as the book of Acts, relate to baptism here?

Follow the Plan

We're coming up to the end of one year and the beginning of another. It's a time where many of us make plans, if not actual resolutions, for a fresh start.

Have you ever followed a plan for reading your Bible? Perhaps you've only just read whatever captured your interest at a particular time, but you can actually make a great deal of progress with a little guidance and discipline. You can even read through the Bible in the year 2009 in just fifteen minutes a day.

How do you come up with a plan? Well, you can do it the hard way with a calendar and your Bible's table of contents (I've done that before), or you can go here to the Discipleship Journal website--a publication of The Navigators-- and download a few helpful plans that each take a different approach.

Their standard Discipleship Journal plan has the reader in four different places within the Bible each day. I personally like the Book-at-a-Time plan, which is pretty self-explanatory. A newer 5x5x5 plan is "5 minutes per day, 5 days per week, 5 ways to dig deeper. Takes you through one chapter each day. Read the New Testament in one year."

Pick one, print it, stick it in your Bible, and try it out. I'll post soon on some online options for reading through the Bible in a year.

"God Is Alive at Bethlehem!"

If you braved the cold this past Sunday night and came out to our Christmas Candlelight Service, you heard our choir sing a few Christmas songs, including an old Basque carol titled "God Is Alive at Bethlehem!"

Unless you are part of the choir, you may not feel both the joy of singing a challenging piece of music as well as the disappointment of having lots of practice time whiz by in a two-minute-and-eighteen-second performance. The song was over all too soon.

But take heart! You can download the song here and listen to it again. That will help you absorb all those antiquated yet richly biblical lyrics. Try right-clicking the link and use "Save as."

Free Conference Audio

Attending a Christian conference can be a great experience. It usually includes some great speakers, excellent music, and a bookstore-- often enhanced by an atmosphere of excitement that comes with a larger gathering than the average church.

If you go, the experience is heightened by the concentrated interaction you have with your conference mates. They have traveled with you, are rooming with you, and can discuss the content afterwards. Thus, a good conference involves challenging teaching and edifying fellowship.

There are no lack of conferences-- I would dare say that there are plenty of good ones (even if there might be plenty more mediocre ones). It seems that you could attend some sort of evangelical conference every weekend of the year.

The major downside of conferences, however, is the cost in time and money. So many conferences, so little time (and money), we might accurately say. But wait! There's another way to gain from the many good conferences and speakers who are out there.

Some conferences stream their content (broadcast live over the internet), and many others put their audio and even video online after the conference. That means, if you've got a good connection to the internet, you can glean some of the best material right there at home.

On occasion I will post information here about a conference that I am attending or, more often, just listening to via the MP3 player (an iPod sort of device, for those less tech fluent).

This conference is an odd one to start with, since I haven't listened to it, but am recommending it on the basis of a few women from our church who attended the True Woman conference back in October. Obviously, this is one for the ladies-- you can watch, listen, or read for free, or purchase recordings, all here.

Now here is something I have listened to recently: the Desiring God National Conference titled The Power of Words and the Wonder of God. You can find the transcripts, audio, and video here. I'd especially recommend Paul Tripp's presentation, "War of Words: Getting to the Heart for God's Sake."

Enjoy.

Searching for the Star of Bethlehem

This is backtracking a bit, but Christianity Today has an article on some new theories explaining the star of Bethlehem from Matthew 2:1-12. It's interesting, though not necessarily conclusive or convincing. Anyway, the final paragraph is why I'm taking the opportunity to post on it:

Edwin Yamauchi, emeritus professor of history at Miami University (OH), and the author of Persia and the Bible, said, "It is quite legitimate to consider such scientific explanations, as long as they are not reductions which deny God's supernatural ability. God the creator can use his creation to reveal and to work his will."

Yamauchi is a respected historian and a believer, and while he is addressing the star of Bethlehem here, his statement is helpful for us as we think about the many miraculous events of the Bible. We might be able to theorize about natural forces or phenomena that could help explain the plagues of Egypt, the crossing of the Red Sea, or Jesus' walking on water, but any explanation that effectively removes the supernatural element (the direct involvement of God, to be specific), then we are denying the Bible. The elements of creation are at God's disposal, and sometimes he uses them in unusual and remarkable ways to save his people, judge the wicked, or simply demonstrate his power and glory.

So, a planetary convergence might have been what those wise men saw, but that doesn't explain how God used it to guide them to the very place where the Christ child was. Newly proposed explanations might be fascinating, but we should not think that they make the Bible necessarily more plausible or believable. We may be making it less worthy of belief if we explain it all away.

Herod the Innocent?

The National Geographic story on Herod that I mentioned in the post below includes this section:

An astute and generous ruler, a brilliant general, and one of the most imaginative and energetic builders of the ancient world, Herod guided his kingdom to new prosperity and power. Yet today he is best known as the sly and murderous monarch of Matthew's Gospel, who slaughtered every male infant in Bethlehem in an unsuccessful attempt to kill the newborn Jesus, the prophesied King of the Jews. During the Middle Ages he became an image of the Antichrist: Illuminated manuscripts and Gothic gargoyles show him tearing his beard in mad fury and brandishing his sword at the luckless infants, with Satan whispering in his ear. Herod is almost certainly innocent of this crime, of which there is no report apart from Matthew's account. But children he certainly slew, including three of his own sons, along with his wife, his mother-in-law, and numerous other members of his court. Throughout his life, he blended creativity and cruelty, harmony and chaos, in ways that challenge the modern imagination.

Frankly, the article itself seems to be inconsistent: How could someone be "almost certainly innocent of this crime" when they acknowledge on the basis of historical records his many other atrocities? It hinges on the fact that no other record of the Bethlehem massacre exists outside the book of Matthew. This is not new information, and it is an issue that evangelical scholars have addressed for many years.

Here's an answer by Craig Blomberg, a professor of New Testament at Denver Seminary:

What makes the National Geographic report's statement all the more unfortunate is that it comes right in the context of fairly detailed recounting of Josephus' reports of all the cruelty and executions Herod did manufacture. Increasingly paranoid as he got older about supposed threats to his "throne," he had several of his sons and wives put to death. It would be one thing if Josephus gave one kind of portrait of Herod and Matthew a quite different one, but both sources agree entirely on Herod's ruthlessness and the specific manner it most manifested itself--repeated murders of those even slightly perceived to be a threat to his power. Reports that a boy had been born with the right ancestral credentials to reign over Israel would easily have threatened this megalomaniac from Idumea who wasn't even a Jew by birth and would never have survived the installment of someone with the right lineage.

So why didn't Josephus say anything about these babies (see Matthew 2 if you are not familiar with the story)? Because, like all other historians of his day, he was concerned to recount the events related to the kings and queens, military generals, aristocracy, and institutionalized leaders of religion of his people--not the lives and times of ordinary peasants. Bethlehem had at most 500 people and, even factoring in large families, one can scarcely imagine more than 20-25 babies affected by Herod's soldiers' raids, and perhaps less. It was a blip on the horizon of Herod's nefarious resume. It may even have been little reported in circles outside of later Christian ones.

Go here for his whole post: "National Geographic Blows It Again."

By the way, Blomberg has authored one of the commentaries that I am using in preparing my sermons on Matthew. It is very accessible and would be a good purchase for someone who wants some detail, but not too much. He also mentions R. T. France, whose commentary is another one of my sources.

Herod: The Holy Land's Visionary Builder

National Geographic did a story on Herod recently. Not surprisingly, the photography is excellent, but the story expressed doubts about the biblical account.

Go here to view the slide show of several ruins of massive and beautiful structures that Herod had built during his reign. Tomorrow I'll give you a link to a biblical scholar's take (i.e., rebuttal) on the accompanying feature article.

NG's caption for the photo above:

Herod the Great's three-tiered palace cascades down the north face of Masada, the work of a king long reviled as a villain but today recognized as a master architect. With Roman techniques and unique ambition, he created audacious masterpieces of stunning beauty.

Next Sermon - Matthew 2:13-23 on 12/21/08

Each of the last two sermons from Matthew's gospel has included an example of prophetic fulfillment in the birth of Jesus. Here are the final three citations, which we will address in one sermon on this final Sunday of Advent, from Matthew 2:13-23:

13 Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” 14 And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt 15 and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

16 Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. 17 Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah:

18 “A voice was heard in Ramah,
weeping and loud lamentation,
Rachel weeping for her children;
she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.”

19 But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, 20 saying, “Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child’s life are dead.” 21 And he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. 22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there, and being warned in a dream he withdrew to the district of Galilee. 23 And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled: “He shall be called a Nazarene.”

Bad Times Draw Bigger Crowds to Churches

...says The New York Times in a story here.

Navigating the Christmas Toy Minefield

Over at The Gospel & Culture Project, there's an interesting article on one parent's attempt in "Navigating the Christmas Toy Minefield." There are no simple, clear-cut answers here, and you may flat out disagree at points, but it's still worth listening in on someone who is really wrestling with how to shepherd their children through this time of year. It is more applicable to younger children, but you might find some principles for older ones as well.

You can read the whole article here, or this excerpt:

Undeveloped hearts require protection. The toy store was the wrong training ground for equipping them for this task. It is designed to work against that. I suspect my hopes would have been better served by my going alone to buy our toys for sharing and having my kids help wrap them. Rowan Williams is right when he suggests that part of the adult responsibility for childhood is in cultivating a space in which our kids can grow up free from endless consumer choices.

“Children need to be free,” Williams writes, “of the pressure to make adult choices if they are ever to learn how to make adult choices.” The sheer number of possibilities, some of them really lovely and some more pernicious, is more than young children are ready to handle. They don’t even have the tools to choose something they will really enjoy instead of a junk toy that will be quickly abandoned. Thrown into a roiling sea of consumer goods, they drown.

And the concluding paragraph:

I hope the toys I give will help shape them into adults who have the equipment to make good, holy choices. I pray that the trembling excitement of Christmas Eve, the knowledge that there is fun and beauty and joy in the morning, might somehow be linked in my kids’ hearts to the miracle of what God has done for us in becoming flesh and dwelling among us.

Barriers to Sharing the Gospel

Here's another post from Ligon Duncan at Together for the Gospel, the third in a series this week on the work of evangelism by the local church. You can see the earlier posts on this blog here and here. Does this help you think about your/our role in spreading the gospel?

In Mark Dever’s The Gospel and Personal Evangelism, he helpfully identifies five things that keep us from sharing the Gospel with others. Here's my spin on these reasons from Mark's chapter on "Why Don't We Evangelize?"

1. Fear - of rejection, of offending
2. Ignorance - don’t know what to say, don’t know how to say it
3. Inexperience - haven’t seen it done, haven’t done it
4. Attitude - that’s just not me, leave it to the experts
5. Lack of true love - we don't really care about the lost and their eternal destiny

In response, Mark suggests that we do twelve things:
(1) Pray - for a desire to witness to Christ, and for the opportunities.
(2) Plan - to witness (who, when, how).
(3) Accept - you are a witness.
(4) Understand - how God uses his witnesses.
(5) Be Faithful - be more concerned to be faithful to God, than for people to like you.
(6) Risk - something! - invite to a meeting; share a book; befriend someone.
(7) Prepare - that’s what this course is all about.
(8) Look - keep your eyes open for God’s opportunities.
(9) Love - cultivate a genuine love for lost people.
(10) Fear - God, rather than man.
(11) Stop - and realize the logic of sovereignty - "God is sovereign, therefore I’m responsible."
(12) Consider - the greatness of his love to you.

We will be most effective in bearing witness to Christ if we cultivate:
(1) a joyful fear of God;
(2) a biblical knowledge of who we are in Christ and what the Gospel is;
(3) fellowship with people who have a passion for the Gospel, and for showing and telling it;
(4) a proper attitude toward the task - not a drudging "I have to share the Gospel" but a joyous "I get to be a part of God’s work of salvation;"
(5) a genuine Gospel love for the lost, because of God’s Gospel love for us.

You can find the book here, and you can read the entire chapter from which this summary was taken here.

EFCA Today on the Gospel and Compassion

EFCA Today is a magazine that highlights the work of churches who are partnering together as the Evangelical Free Church of America. This is the larger denomination of which our congregation is a part.

The current issue (Winter, 2008) is titled "Take My Hands: The Gospel and Compassion" and has several good articles that not only describe what EFCA churches are already doing, but seeks to give a biblical basis for future development of wise and faithful ministries of mercy.

Go here to read articles from this issue online or download a PDF that corresponds to the print version.

Why sing contemporary songs at Christmas?

I'm always surprised by some of the most vocal advocates for contemporary worship music who say that they would be very happy to sing only familiar carols in our services at this time of year. So why bother to sing contemporary songs at Christmas?

Actually, it's the very same reason we sing some contemporary music and some traditional music throughout the year. It's not because we're trying to make everyone happy by singing a little something that everyone likes. It's because both old and new songs reflect the glory of God, the truth of the gospel, and the life of the church in different yet essential ways.

When we sing old songs, it's not because nostalgia is what we're after, but because we know the value of repeating again and again that which is true and has spoken across and through generations. We don't sing anywhere close to every "old favorite," but we try to retain the best of our tradition. Of course, this is a subjective process, and there are undoubtedly many fine songs that we no longer sing on a regular basis, but we have to choose some and let many go.

When we sing new songs, it's not because we want to prove our hip-ness by singing the popular songs of the moment, but because we believe in the value of having the truth of God's word expressed in each generation in new ways. We don't sing anywhere close to every song that tops the charts, but we try to select new songs that are biblically sound, theologically rich, devotionally passionate, and congregationally singable. Of course, this is a subjective process, and there are undoubtedly many fine songs that we never learn to sing together, but we have to choose some and let many go.

It gets tricky here because there are many, young and old, who have not grown up in the church, or may come to us from a different tradition, and so are not familiar with most, if not all, old hymns and songs. Also, there are many, young and old, who don't listen to contemporary Christian radio or recordings, and so are not familiar with most, if not all, new worship music.

If you're not hearing enough of "your" music on Sunday, please don't take it to mean that your favorites are necessarily unappreciated or outright condemned. Enjoy your music, with discernment, and learn to appreciate what we are (imperfectly) trying to do when we're together: expressing the truth and beauty of God as a community of faith in a diverse yet unifed way.

So, we go back to the Christmas issue. We don't want to sing only old familiar favorites at Christmas because there is only all the more tendency to reduce our faith to nostalgia and sentimental celebrations at this time of year. We want to show that the message of Jesus is still vital, our faith is real, and the church is alive. We are not so much concerned to prove that we are relevant, but to simply live and worship in ways that demonstrate that the gospel in fact is always relevant.

Free Song - "Glory Be to God"

Sovereign Grace Music is the source of several of the contemporary songs that we sing in our worship services. SGMusic is notable for being the music division of a theologically robust fellowship of churches (Sovereign Grace Ministries) which is committed not only to spreading the gospel through the multiplication of churches, but also to producing music for churches. Rather than being an independent Christian publishing house or part of a larger secular corporate entity, they write and produce music within the church and for the church.

In November of 2006, they released an album titled Savior: Celebrating the Mystery of God Become Man. As their site puts it, this set is "more than a Christmas CD, Savior includes twelve songs focusing on the Incarnation" of Jesus Christ.

In 2006, we introduced our congregation to "Salvation Is Born," and we sang it again just this past Sunday. Last year, we added "Glory Be to God," and we'll be singing that this Sunday.

If you go here, the kind folks at Sovereign Grace Music will give you a free MP3 download of "Glory Be to God." If you follow the link on the album title above, you can listen to samples of each of the songs on this album.

What is evangelism?

This is shaping up to be a great series of posts on evangelism in the local church from Ligon Duncan (see my post yesterday), so I will be shamelessly pasting and passing it on to you. You can go here to read the whole thing, but I'll give you the first half here below:

One of the things we did in our time together in The Gospel Course was wrestle with the question: what is evangelism? Our answer was drawn from reflection on a definition that J.I. Packer draws his reader's attention to in his chapter on evangelism in A Quest for Godliness (and elsewhere in his writings). Here's how it goes.

Evangelism is – To bear witness to Jesus Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit, so that
[1] people may come to put their trust in God, through Christ;
[2] to acknowledge Him as their Savior; and
[3] to serve Him as their King,
[4] in the fellowship of His Church.

That definition of evangelism helps us in at least six ways.

First, it makes clear that evangelism is about pointing people to the objective reality of the person of Jesus Christ, his claims and his work. Evangelism is first and foremost about telling his story, not our story.

Second, it makes clear that we are utterly powerless to bring about the conversion, the transformed life, that we long to see in the lives of those with whom we share the truth of the marvelous grace of our loving Lord. No, for that result, we are entirely (and deliberately) dependent upon the work of the Holy Spirit. Only he can raise the dead and give new life.

Third, this definition of evangelism expects the response of genuine faith, saving trust, receiving and resting on Christ alone for salvation as he is offered in the Gospel - in all who are awakened to new life.

Fourth, it reminds us of the uniqueness of Christ. He is the only savior, and so, for salvation, people must put their trust in him and in him alone.

Fifth, embracing Christ as Lord and King is a sine qua non for every true convert and disciple. Just as their is no such thing as justification without sanctification, so also there is no embracing Jesus as savior without embracing him as master. He is, after all, the Lord Jesus Messiah.

Sixth, to be a disciple of Jesus means to be a part of his people and to be nurtured and to serve in the midst of the assembly of the saints. When we are united to him, we are united to his people. We cannot be united to him and indifferent to his people, or deliberately detached from them.

I read that book by Packer a number of years ago, but I didn't remember that definition. I believe that it is outstanding, because, though we must defend the objective work of Christ apart from my works or response, we have not completed the work of calling people to Christ if there is no dimension(s) of discipleship-in-community.

Sometimes, in trying to be smarter and more careful than the Apostles, we separate out the message of the cross, forgiveness, and eternal life in such a way that no one would ever respond in the ways that those who heard the gospel proclaimed in the New Testament era did-- by repentance, faith, baptism, submission to Christ, and inclusion in a local body of believers.

Next Sermon - Matthew 2:1-12 on 12/14/08

Here is the text for this coming Sunday's sermon. It's the only biblical account of the "wise men" or Magi (in Greek). Take what you think you know about this story from nativity scenes and Christmas cards and compare it to what we can actually know from the text. More importantly, what is Matthew's concern with this story related to Jesus' birth, his identity, and mission?

Matthew 2:1-12

1 Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, 2 saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” 3 When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; 4 and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. 5 They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet:

6 “ ‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for from you shall come a ruler
who will shepherd my people Israel.’ ”

7 Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared. 8 And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may come and worship him.” 9 After listening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. 11 And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. 12 And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.