Depression & the Ministry

I found this article by Paul Tripp immensely helpful.

The Church In Culture

I have great respect for Mike Horton, Matt Chandler and Tim Keller, and enjoyed listening to these three guys kick around the question of how the church is to be involved in the shaping and transformation of culture:

Chandler, Horton, and Keller on the Church in Culture from The Gospel Coalition on Vimeo.

Ingredients

There's not many items on this list that you'd like to eat alone, right? Maybe the peanut butter, but I don't see anything else looking very tasty.

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups white sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup butter

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 cup buttermilk

2 eggs, beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup butter

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/3 cup buttermilk

4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

But when it all gets mixed up, it turns into this:

I'll be trying to unpack the implications of this from Ecclesiastes 3 this coming Sunday. I'm looking forward to it...

The Treadmill

It's funny: the book of Ecclesiastes is a few thousand years old yet captures the same exact point that this Best Buy commercial makes:



I'll be preaching on this "unutterable weariness" tomorrow morning.

Thinking Theologically about Memorial Day

An excellent post from Kevin DeYoung. His conclusion:

In some parts of the church, every hint of patriotism makes you a jingoistic idolater. You are allowed to love every country except your own. But in other parts of the church, true religion blends too comfortably into civil religion. You are allowed to worship in our services as long as you love America as much as we do. I don’t claim to have arrived at the golden mean, but I imagine many churches could stand to think more carefully about their theology of God and country. Churches should be glad to have their members celebrate Memorial Day with gusto this Monday. We should be less sanguine about celebrating it with pomp and circumstance on Sunday.

The Biggest Problem in the Universe

I was fortunate to have been in attendance when John Piper delivered this message at the 2009 Worship God conference. I absolutely love this clip:

The Passing Over of Sins from Sovereign Grace Ministries on Vimeo.

Gospel Fluency

This is nearly four hours of material, but I found a wealth of wisdom here that I will probably be referring back to:

Gospel Fluency - Jeff Vanderstelt from Living Stones on Vimeo.

What is the Gospel - Jeff Vanderstelt from Living Stones on Vimeo.

Q & A Part 1- Jeff Vanderstelt from Living Stones on Vimeo.

Q & A Part 2 - Jeff Vanderstelt from Living Stones on Vimeo.

Christians & Public Schools

Tim Challies linked to this article today, about the role of Christians in the public schools.

From my experience, talking about how Christians educate our children can be a volatile subject. I think that's unfortunate, and also unnecessary. When Christians root their identity in their Savior and in the gospel of His grace, I believe there will be civil conversation on this subject, even when there might be strong disagreement.

So give it a read and let me know what you think of it. Even if you're committed to a form of schooling other than the public schools, I think there's some thought-provoking material here.

The 4 G's & Busyness

In Tim Chester's new book, A Meal with Jesus, he applies "the 4 G's" (4 liberating truths about God that Chester unfolds in this book, You Can Change) to the subject of busyness. Chester's conviction is that many Christians fail to engage in Christ's mission because they believe they are too busy. Yet we often fail to examine why were are busy. Chester presses us to consider:

• You may be too busy because you're insecure and need to control life. But God is great and cares for you as a sovereign heavenly Father.

• You may be too busy because you fear other people, and so you can't say no. But God is glorious, and His opinion is the one that matters.

• You may be too busy because you're filling your life with activity in a desperate attempt to find satisfaction. But God is good, and the true source of joy.

• You may be too busy because you're trying to prove yourself through your work or ministry. But God is gracious and justifies you freely through Christ's finished work.

What keeps you busy? Which one of these liberating truths about God can free you from the tyranny of busyness so that you can abandon yourself to the mission of making Christ known?

The Conspiracy

I finished reading Stephen Altrogge's new book on contentment over the weekend, and I highly recommend. Here's the premise of the book:

"Greener Grass Conspiracy" Trailer - Stephen Altrogge from Crossway on Vimeo.

There's a ton of wisdom in Stephen's little book. If I could live in these realities 24/7, I'd be an amazingly immovable person.

Psalm 131

This morning I read Psalm 131; I was moved, challenged and encouraged by this little meditation. It reminded me of a reflection I read on this Psalm awhile back from David Powlison. In Powlison's words:

Here’s Anti-Psalm 131:

Self,

my heart is proud (I’m absorbed in myself),
and my eyes are haughty (I look down on other people),
and I chase after things too great and too difficult for me.

So of course I’m noisy and restless inside, it comes naturally,

like a hungry infant fussing on his mother’s lap,
like a hungry infant, I’m restless with my demands and worries.
I scatter my hopes onto anything and everybody all the time.

Contrast that with the real Psalm 131:

O Lord,

my heart is not lifted up;
my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.

But I have calmed and quieted my soul,

like a weaned child with its mother;
like a weaned child is my soul within me.

So which Psalm describes your heart today?

Being the Church

I love the vision these guys have out in Tacoma, Washington:

Soma Communities - Tacoma, WA from Verge Network on Vimeo.

I long to quit going to church, and to start being the church.

What do you talk about most?

D.A. Carson (source: message, "Is the Culture Shaping Us or Are We Shaping the Culture?"):

If I have learned anything in 35 or 40 years of teaching, it is that students don’t learn everything I teach them. What they learn is what I am excited about, the kinds of things I emphasize again and again and again and again. That had better be the gospel.

If the gospel—even when you are orthodox—becomes something which you primarily assume, but what you are excited about is what you are doing in some sort of social reconstruction, you will be teaching the people that you influence that the gospel really isn’t all that important. You won’t be saying that—you won’t even mean that—but that’s what you will be teaching. And then you are only half a generation away from losing the gospel.

Make sure that in your own practice and excitement, what you talk about, what you think about, what you pray over, what you exude confidence over, joy over, what you are enthusiastic about is Jesus, the gospel, the cross. And out of that framework, by all means, let the transformed life flow.

Best Basketball Finish Ever

College hoops fans, nothing you'll see tonight in Houston could compare with this ending from a few years back in the Division 2 championship:

Good Question, Good Answer

"Why do bad things happen to good people? That only happened once, and He volunteered" - R.C. Sproul, Jr.