Blogs

How Your Habits Show and Shape Your Heart | David Mathis, TGC
“For the Christian, the value of habit as it relates to the so-called ‘spiritual disciplines’ – or, as I like to call them, ‘habits of grace’ – is that it frees our minds from preoccupation with technique and skill, and the depleting energy of making the same regular decisions, so that we can tune our attention elsewhere, to the most important thing. Habits that get us into the Bible and prayer, and that keep us deeply connected in the body of Christ are, in fact, spiritual life-savers.”

How Does Jihad Compare with Old Testament Warfare? | Nabeel Qureshi, TGC
“Violence has a very different place in Islam and Christianity’s respective theological frameworks. The final marching order of Islam is jihad. But the final marching orders of Christians are grace and love.”

His Delight | Kara Dedert
Kara shares what she’s learning about God from parenting a special needs child:

“I look for and find delight in every expression he gives. I laugh and smile to see him filled with joy that comes from any exercise of his rigid body; I rejoice in him regardless of improper, uncoordinated and clumsy movement. It’s not a perfect example, this earthly relationship, but it gives me a glimpse into the immensity of the Father’s love and delight in us because of Christ.”

Why I Was Not Pro-Life | Kristin Tabb, Desiring God
“True confession: I was not truly pro-life until recently. Although I was disturbed by the reports I heard regarding abortion – its methods, its victims, its very nature, its utter disregard for the dignity of human life – I did relatively little to actually be pro-life, from the heart, with my hands and feet and mouth and money. Until God graciously opened my eyes.”

Why Your Top 10 Reasons For Not Having Kids Are Stupid | Gavin McInnes, The Federalist
“I was so adamant about not having kids as a young man, I tried to get my tubes tied at the tender age of 21. Now that I have three, my only regret is waiting so long. I wish I could have had five. You’ll hear a lot of parents lament that they had too few or didn’t have a boy or had all boys, but you’ll never hear them say, ‘I wish I hadn’t had a kid.’”

Puritan Preaching: William Ames | Bob McKelvey, Meet the Puritans
“Concerning delivery, Ames advises that speech and gestures should be ‘completely spiritual, flowing from the very heart’ and with ‘zeal, charity, mildness, freedom, and humility mixed with solemn authority.’ Pronunciation should be ‘natural, familiar, clear, and distinct so that it can be easily understood’ and without dramatic pauses and accelerations of speech. ‘The power of the Holy Spirit more clearly appears in the naked simplicity of words, than in elegance and luster.’ Still, if anyone possesses ‘forcefulness in speaking he ought to use it with genuine directness.’”

Kindle Deals

Beyond the First Visit: The Complete Guide to Connecting Guests to Your Church by Gary L. McIntosh ($1.99). Bit of a mix, but some good practical advice too.

Creating Life in the Lab by Fazale Rana

How to Raise a Child with a High EQ: A Parents’ Guide to Emotional Intelligence by Lawrence E. Shapiro ($0.99). Thought this might be a helpful counter-balance to the over-emphasis on IQ in our day.

Tiny Bear’s Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones ($1.99).

Video

Why Economics Matters | Institute for Faith, Work, and Economics

So far in this series of checklists for beginning preachers we’ve looked at:

• Selecting a text
• Introducing a sermon
• Exegeting a text

Today’s checklist is focused on sermon structure and theme.

1. Does your sermon have a recognizable structure/outline?

2. Is it simple enough to help people understand the text?

3. Is it memorable enough to help people remember the sermon?

4. Can you make it any simpler or more imaginative to further the aims of #2 and #3?

5. Does it have as few divisions as possible for the material?

6. Are the points symmetrical/parallel in form?

7. Are the points distinct or do they overlap? Same question for the subpoints?

8. Are the points in the right order? Do they follow logically?

8. Is the theme as short and yet as comprehensive as possible?

9. Does the theme reflect and incorporate the main points of the sermon?

10. Do the theme and points assist the aim of the sermon?

Bibliography

Here are my Top 10 Books on Preaching. And if you want to read more about how to outline a sermon and summarize your sermon in a theme you can try:

Jay Adams, Preaching with Purpose, pp. 45-78.
J A. Broadus, The Preparation and Delivery of Sermons, pp. 258-307.
Bryan Chapell, Christ-Centered Preaching, pp. 129-174, 350-51.
H. B. Charles, On Preaching, pp. 68-72, 83-85.
R. L. Dabney, Sacred Rhetoric or a Course of Lectures on Preaching, pp. 105-136, 214-232.
Mark Dever, Preach, pp. 85-91.
S. Greidanus, Modern Preacher and the Ancient Text, pp. 141-156.
D. R. Helm, Expositional Preaching, pp. 97-102.
C. W. Koller, Expository Preaching Without Notes, pp. 41-43, 76-84, 86-91.
D. M. Lloyd-Jones, Preaching and Preachers, pp. 64-80, 205-223.
Sam Logan, The Preacher and Preaching, pp. 275-302.
John MacArthur, Preaching: How to Preach Biblically, pp. 185-199, 242.
John Macarthur, Rediscovering Expository Preaching, pp. 225-241.
David Murray, How Sermons Work, pp. 85-106.
Denis Prutow, So Pastor, What’s Your Point, pp. 71-108.
Haddon. W. Robinson, Biblical Preaching, pp. 115-136.
John Stott, Between Two Worlds, pp. 228-242.

Blogs

Why We Really Put Our Kids in Sports | Melanie Springer Mock, ChristianityToday.com
“Overplayed offers a number of excellent suggestions for how Christians can uphold their values while also making space for kids to enjoy athletics.”

Why Silence Is So Good For Your Brain | Carolyn Gregoire, The Huffington Post
“In a loud and distracting world, finding pockets of stillness can benefit your brain and body. Here are four science-backed reasons why.”

Pastoral Ministry and the Struggle to Sleep | Christopher Ash, TGC
“Sleep is an expression of trust in God. You and I sleep because we don’t believe the project of building the people of God rests on us. We sleep because we know God never does.”

Muslims turning to Christ in Denmark | Gene Veith, Patheos
“The conversions of the Muslims would appear to be God’s work.  It isn’t happening due to church programs or to outreach efforts (valuable as those may be).  It isn’t that Christians are going to Muslims to try to convert them.  Rather, the Muslims are coming to the Christians asking for the Gospel. The revival in Denmark-as well as other countries-may just start with the Muslims and then keep spreading.”

On the Road with John Bunyan | Louis Markos, TGC
“What John Bunyan (1628-1688) taught me was that the journey isn’t only external; it’s also, perhaps primarily, internal.”

7 Rules for Online Engagement | Challies.com
“Seven rules that ought to guide our hearts, our minds, and our words as we have these difficult discussions.”

Learning More about Caring for the Widow | Barry York, Gentle Reformation
“How does one help the widow practically? Even as I am currently teaching a class on mercy at the seminary, I am being taught this anew by my congregation.”

New Book

Church Revitalization from the Inside Out by R. D. Stuart

Kindle Deals

The Compelling Community: Where God’s Power Makes a Church Attractive by Mark Dever and Jamie Dunlop ($2.99)

Outlaw Platoon: Heroes, Renegades, Infidels, and the Brotherhood of War in Afghanistan by Sean Parnell with John Bruning ($1.99). Although often hard to read, I try to get through a modern war history once a year to help me appreciate the sacrifices and the challenges of our military personnel.

Everyday Games for Sensory Processing Disorder: 100 Playful Activities to Empower Children with Sensory Differences by Barbara Sher ($1.99). We all know families with these challenges, so why not minister to them by buying this for them.

Video

Figure Skating at 5000′ in the mountains of British Columbia
I found this beautiful video strangely therapeutic.

It’s been a joy to get to know Dan and Cassandra Naulty over the past year as they have settled in Grand Rapids and joined the congregation I pastor. As I’d love for my blog readers to get to know Dan too through his new blog dannaulty.com, I asked him to introduce himself and his blog. If you click through to his media library you can view videos about his time as a pitcher for the New York Yankees, his drug use, and his salvation by God’s almighty grace. You can also follow Dan on Twitter @dannaulty.

In 1997 during my second year in Major League Baseball with the Minnesota Twins, God saved me from my sin and misery. After winning the World Series with the 1999 Yankees, I went on to complete my undergraduate degree in biblical studies (Moody Bible Institute), an MA in biblical studies (Trinity), and a post-grad degree in practical theology (Oxford University). You can watch my whole story here: dannaulty.com/media

I’m an aspiring writer on various theological topics–many of which I will share on my blog. I’m currently working on a book titled: Hope, A Memoir. It’s the story of my hopeless life being given hope in Jesus Christ.

I’m an ordained minister that pastored in a couple different churches in Southern California. Today, I help my wife raise our boys, write, preach, and speak.

Blogs

Losing Mom One Memory at a Time
“The disease has not yet robbed us of Mom’s personality. We joke about people, or the TV, or the weather, and the same wry Northern wit emerges. But I know that day is likely coming. When the disease has finished shredding all the memories it can, it will turn on her patience, her dignity, her warmth, her love-and leave us mourning for her loss while she still breathes .”

7 Interview Questions That Determine Emotional Intelligence
If you’re ever involved in interviewing candidates for a job, here’s a fascinating series of revealing questions.

The Feminism We Don’t Need | TGC
“If I could rewrite the feminist narrative it would be this: We are equal in value and dignity before God. We should, along with men, have a spirit of submission before our God. We cannot and should not do everything men do, as we are not the same as men. We should be protected. While only males should be ordained in the church, women can, like men, receive and proclaim Christ’s kingdom. I reject that to support real things to help women means I must embrace abortion on demand and deny biblically sanctioned submission. Christians should be on the front lines of those who champion valuing and protecting women. We do not, however, overlap with the current feminist mantra. That is good. To be a real woman all you have to do is, well, nothing. Because God made you one or he did not. I love being a woman. But even more than I am female, I am in Christ.”

When God Is Silent | Nancy Guthrie
“Sometimes what causes us the most pain and confusion isn’t what God says to us but the fact that in the midst of difficulty he seems to say nothing at all.”

Kindle Books

Raised with Christ: How the Resurrection Changes Everything by Adrian Warnock $17.99 $3.99.

Scandalous: The Cross and Resurrection of Jesus by Don Carson $15.99 $3.99.

Behold the King of Glory: A Narrative of the Life, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ $17.99 $3.99.

On Guard: Preventing and Responding to Child Abuse at Church $17.99 $2.51.

Video

Update After Fire
Can’t seem to get this video to embed but click through to see a beautiful testimony about God’s grace when a Christian couple’s house burned to the ground. For some background to the fire, read Trevin Wax’s post here (it’s Trevin’s brother and sister-in-law in the video).

One of the privileges of working at PRTS is the weekly arrival of new books to supplement our library of 70,000+ books. Here are the new picks this week.

Note: Inclusion in the library does not necessarily mean endorsement of contents. We often have to buy books to help students with specialist theses and also to train students to think critically. Also, a book new to the library does not necessarily mean a new book on the market.

A History of the University of Cambridge: Volume 2, 1546-1750 by Victor Morgan

“This volume brings to completion the four-volume series, a vital contribution to academic history. Special features of this volume relate it to social and political history–especially to the gentry who provided patronage and recruits, as well as the royal court and parliament. The history of the university features extensive material on its architectural heritage, and a chapter on such intellectual giants between 1660-1740 as Richard Bentley and Isaac Newton.”

An Independent People: The Story of Ulster’s Presbyterians (DVD)

An Historical Account of My Own Life, With Some Reflections on the Times I Have Lived in. (1671-1731.) by Edmund Calamy

Protestant Dissent and Controversy in Ireland, 1660-1714 by Phil Kilroy

The Last Puritans: Mainline Protestants and the Power of the Past by Margaret Bendroth

“Congregationalists, the oldest group of American Protestants, are the heirs of New England’s first founders. While they were key characters in the story of early American history, from Plymouth Rock and the founding of Harvard and Yale to the Revolutionary War, their luster and numbers have faded. But Margaret Bendroth’s critical history of Congregationalism over the past two centuries reveals how the denomination is essential for understanding mainline Protestantism in the making.”

From Cranmer to Sancroft: Essays on English Religion in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries by Patrick Collinson

“This collection of essays ranges from Thomas Cranmer, who was burnt at the stake after repeated recantations in 1556, to William Sancroft, the only other post-Reformation archbishop of Canterbury to have been deprived of office. Patrick Collinson’s work explores the complex interactions between the inclusive and exclusive tendencies in English Protestantism, focusing both on famous figures, such as John Foxe and Richard Hooker, and on the individual reactions of lesser figures to the religious challenges of the time.”

Wholeheartedness: Busyness, Exhaustion, and Healing the Divided Self by Chuck DeGroat

“We all feel that nasty pull to and fro, the frantic busyness that exhausts us and threatens to undo us. And we all think we know the solution — more downtime, more relaxation, more rest. And we’re all wrong. As DeGroat himself has discovered, the real solution to what pulls us apart is wholeheartedness, a way of living and being that can transform us from the inside out. And that’s what readers of this book will discover too.”

Liang A-Fa: China’s First Preacher by George Hunter McNeur

“Liang Fa holds a unique place in the history of Christianity in China. Baptized and ordained by the first Protestant missionaries to China, Liang aided the first two generations of missionaries and conducted his own work as an evangelist and writer… and his most famous tract is believed to have influenced the Taiping Rebellion.”

Confessions of a Childless Mother: Learning to Trust God Through Infertility by Sarah Fuller

“This book is written by someone who knows first-hand the grief of infertility. It is a truly honest account of her and her husband s struggles with all the painful aspects of this trial. Including testimonies from many others about how they too have grappled with the issues, this book above all encourages readers in the midst of their pain to find peace in God and His Word.”

Writing of America: Literature and Cultural Identity from the Puritans to the Present by Geoff Ward

“In this lively and provocative study, Geoff Ward puts forward the bold claim that the founding documents of American identity are essentially literary. America was invented, not discovered, and it remains in thrall to the myth of an earthly Paradise. This is Paradise, and American ideology imprisons as it inspires.”

The Rule of Moderation: Violence, Religion and the Politics of Restraint in Early Modern England by Ethan H. Shagan

“…The Rule of Moderation comprehensively rewrites the history of early modern England, showing that many of its key developments-the via media of Anglicanism, the rise of the ‘middle sort’, the idea of political liberty, the development of empire, the rise of religious toleration-were defined and defended as instances of coercive and aggressive moderation, producing the ‘middle way’ through the forcible restraint of apparently dangerous excesses in Church, state and society.”

Can We Trust the Gospels?: Investigating the Reliability of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John by Mark D. Roberts

“Attacks on the historical reliability of the Gospels—especially their portrayal of Jesus Christ—are nothing new. But are these attacks legitimate? Is there reason to doubt the accuracy of the Gospels? By examining and refuting some of the most common criticisms of the Gospels, author Mark D. Roberts explains why we can indeed trust the Gospels, nearly two millennia after they were written.”

The Bible: A History: The Making and Impact of the Bible by Stephen M. Miller and Robert V. Huber

“The history of one of the world’s most influential books, from its makings, through its development, to its impact through the ages…”

Evidence for God: 50 Arguments for Faith from the Bible, History, Philosophy, and Science edited by Michael Licona and William A. Dembski

“Leading apologists and biblical scholars offer accessible answers to both traditional questions and contemporary apologetics issues of our day.”