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November 17, 2016 David Murray 0 comments

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A Good Time for Selah
“Last Thursday, two days after Election Day, I made a visit to my doctor’s office. In the elevator I said hi to a woman who had joined me for the ride. She was pushing a stroller, and inside was a sleeping newborn baby dressed in pink. I asked about the baby’s name, and she told me, “Her name is Selah.” Then she started to tell me where the name came from. A little shyly, she said, “It’s in the Bible.”"

How Often Should a Church’s Leadership Meetings Be Held?
“Church leadership meetings should happen as often as needed, but never more often than necessary.”

Four Daily Prayers for Your Children

The Golden Rule in Christian Dating
“after embracing and applying the first and greatest commandment, I have found that the golden rule in dating is this: Lean hard on the people who know you best, love you most, and will tell you when you’re wrong. ”

Frankly Speaking: Two myths about Christians and depression
“It was Ian’s death, partly, that motivated me to preach on mental illness this month at South Lansing Christian Church. I began the series by debunking two myths about Christians and mental illness. ”

Does Mental Illness Mean I’m Not a Christian?
“I have been diagnosed with schizophrenia. It’s awful. I can hardly get up and dress myself some days, it’s so hard. I am a Christian. Can you tell me if you lose your salvation for having this illness? And is schizophrenia caused by not serving God correctly or by believing lies? ”

Kindle Books

For your non-Kindle book buying needs please consider using Reformation Heritage Books in the USA and Reformed Book Services in Canada. Good value prices and shipping.

People to Be Loved: Why Homosexuality Is Not Just an Issue by Preston Sprinkle $3.99.

The Secret of Spiritual Joy by William Farley $0.99.

New Books

The Great Unknown: What the Bible Says About Heaven and Hell by Paul Blackham.

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November 16, 2016 David Murray 0 comments

Blogs

A Post-Election Prayer | Kevin DeYoung, TGC
Here’s how Kevin DeYoung led his church in prayer this past Sunday.

4 Ways to Fight Laziness in Ministry | Eric Geiger
“As I have offered four ways to fight being a ministry workaholic, here are four ways to fight being lazy in ministry. ”

I just caught my kid looking at pornography | Josh Hussung, ERLC
This isn’t the whole answer but it’s a good start.

18 Prayers to Pray for Unbelievers | Tim Challies
“A friend asked the question: How do I pray for unbelievers? How do I pray effectively? I trust that every Christian regularly prays for family or friends or colleagues or neighbors who do not yet know the Lord. And while we can and must pray for matters related to their lives and circumstances, the emphasis of our prayers must always be for their salvation. Here are some ways the Bible can guide our prayers.”

Building a Culture of Thankfulness| Rob Hurtgen, Lifeway
“As church leaders it is vital that not only are we personally thankful but that we work to build a culture of thankfulness. Let me offer three habits that build a culture of thankfulness.”

New Upcoming Doctoral-level Courses at PRTS
New faculty and new courses.

Video

18-Year-Old Rishi Sharma Surprises WWII Veterans Who Have Changed His Life
We lose around 500 WWII Veterans every day, and 18 year-old Rishi Sharma is on a mission to hear their stories.

A New (and Attractive) Definition of Holiness

November 15, 2016 David Murray 0 comments

What do we mean when we say, “God is holy?” Usually, it’s taken to mean that God is separate from sin and therefore from us. While there is truth in this, Sinclair Ferguson argues in Devoted to God that by describing holiness from the viewpoint of sin or of the creature, it is starting at the wrong place.

He, therefore, begins this book by insisting that any definition of holiness starts with God as he is in himself, considered apart from and before the work of creation. As God was holy before there was any creation, we must be able to define holiness without reference to the creation.

There was no separation or distance in the Eternal Trinity. Instead, there was perfectly pure devotion between the three persons – “absolute, permanent, exclusive, pure, irreversible, and fully expressed devotion.” Devotion, therefore, not separation, gets closer to the real meaning of holiness and opens up a much warmer and personal idea of holiness. So much so, says Sinclair, that “in a sense ‘holiness’ is a way of describing love. To say that ‘God is love’ and that ‘God is holy’ ultimately is to point to the same reality. Holiness is the intensity of the love that flows within the very being of God.”

“If this is what holiness means in God, then in us it must also be a corresponding deeply personal, intense, loving devotion to him that is irreversible, unconditional, without any reserve on our part.”

In a beautiful section, Sinclair re-frames the seraphic chorus in Isaiah 6 as veiling their faces because “to gaze on the sheer intensity of this flow of triune holy love would be to endanger themselves.”

That’s why Sinclair then defines holiness as to be devoted to God. Doesn’t that make holiness much more inviting and enticing?

Devoted to God: Blueprints for Sanctification

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November 15, 2016 David Murray 0 comments

Blogs

Why The Abortion Industry Wants To Ban Funerals For Miscarried Babies | Anna Paprocki, The Federalist
“Even in death, unborn infants receive no respect from an abortion industry anxious to portray such human beings as trash.”

4 Ways to Fight Being a Ministry Workaholic | Eric Geiger
“Because I love the roles I have served in and the people I have been honored to serve alongside, I have experience fighting the temptation to be a ministry workaholic. Here are four ways to engage in that fight:”

Are you a leader? Interview with Timothy Raymond | Credo Magazine
“Recently a friend interviewed me for a paper he was writing on the topic of leadership…After reading over the complied questions and answers, I thought our Credo readers might find the interview instructive and perhaps edifying. Here it is.”

Rhythms of Rest | Shelly Miller, ChristianityToday.com
“Author Shelly Miller invites us to reimagine Sabbath as more than a command—as a gift we deeply need. Reflect this week on how God may be inviting you to establish new rhythms of rest and recreation.”

The Simple Tool That Can Help Prevent Overeating | Kristina LaRue, Hello Healthy
“The ability to feel hunger and fullness is a quality that we were each born with. Babies and little kids don’t need to be told how much milk or food they need to consume to stay healthy; instead, when they are satisfied, they become disinterested in food and simply stop eating. As we mature, this ability becomes blunted—we learn to ignore it, confuse it with thirst or forget it altogether…”

New Book

For your non-Kindle book buying needs please consider using Reformation Heritage Books in the USA and Reformed Book Services in Canada. Good value prices and shipping.

Science Fiction?: Has science disposed of God? by John Blanchard

Kindle Deals

Awakening the Evangelical Mind: An Intellectual History of the Neo-Evangelical Movement by Owen Strachan ($5.99)

God’s Glory Alone – The Majestic Heart of Christian Faith and Life: What the Reformers Taught…and Why It Still Matters by David VanDrunen ($3.99)

Help My Unbelief: Why Doubt Is Not the Enemy of Faith by Barnabas Piper ($2.99)

How to Preach and Teach the Old Testament for All Its Worth by Christopher J. H. Wright ($4.99)

The Long-Awaited Successor to J. C. Ryle’s Holiness

November 14, 2016 David Murray 1 comment

There’s something about the first few books we read after conversion that often sets a tone or a direction to the rest of our Christian lives. That’s why I’m so thankful that God put Holiness by J. C. Ryle into my hands within weeks of my conversion to Christ. The first was John Murray’s Redemption Accomplished and Applied (you can read the story of that here). Murray’s book gave me a sound doctrinal understanding of what had just happened to me. Ryle’s book showed me how to live going forward.

Since then, I’ve read a number of books on holiness, but I’ve never felt as satisfied by them as I was with Ryle. Indeed, I’d almost given up on finding a modern successor to him when Sinclair Ferguson’s new book, Devoted to God: Blueprints for Sanctification, arrived on my desk. Within the first few pages, I was hooked by what I believe will go on to become a classic book on holiness and a worthy modern successor to Ryle’s earlier work.

I’ve been reading Sinclair Ferguson with much profit for years, but his recent books such as From the Mouth of God, Child in the Manger, The Whole Christ, and now Devoted to God, all the fruit of his retirement years, have taken his thought and writing into a new dimension of both reading pleasure and spiritual usefulness.

The goal of Devoted to God is “to provide a manual of biblical teaching on holiness developed on the basis of extended expositions of foundational passages in the New Testament.” It works its way through “some of the most important biblical blueprints for building an entire life of holiness.” Sinclair does not try to cover every possible passage on holiness but rather selects the most important passages with the aim of gaining some “mastery” of them. This foundational framework of these passages will act like mental Velcro strips to “help us to organize all of our future learning and enable it to stick in the proper places.”

Sinclair focuses on passages that describe sanctification (the indicative) rather than command it (the imperative). “This is not so much a ‘how to’ book as it is a ‘how God does it’ one.” His argument is that the New Testament is far more concerned with “shaping our understanding, so that a new life style emerges organically, than it is with techniques.” He is convinced that “a clear understanding of what the gospel is and how it works leads in turn to the development of new affections and a new lifestyle.”

So if you had to choose the most important passages on sanctification, which ones would you choose? Sinclair selected 1 Peter 1:1-25, Romans 12:1-2, Galatians 2:20, Romans 6:1-14, Colossians 3:1-17, Romans 8:13, Matthew 5:17-20, Hebrews 12:1-14, and Romans 8:29. Over the coming days, I’m going to dip into this book’s exposition and application of these passages to entice you to “pick up and read” for yourselves.

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November 14, 2016 David Murray 0 comments

Blog

My Saddest American Moment in 2016 Hasn’t Been the Election
“The prevailing sentiment seems to be that it is foolish for a young man that is academically gifted, with so many potential career options before him to enlist in the US military. I hate to even type these words, but it seems to me that many educated, financially stable people in America view the military as a place for people with no other options, a kind of Last Chance U for life. Our entitled, privileged culture undervalues and underestimates the meaning and significance of military service”

A Heart Set Free: A Journey to Hope Through the Psalms of Lament | MOS – Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals
“Hopefully this book will also help women to be more open with others when they are experiencing emotions that seem overwhelming. Our God is never overwhelmed. Fox shows well how the Psalms of Lament can teach us how to bring our emotions before God, leading to that fruit of joy in Christ that we so desperately long for. ”

Three Essentials to Prevent “Flaming Out” on Our Family and Ministry – Rooted Ministry
“No matter where you are in your student ministry career, here are three essentials that are necessary for true family and ministry balance. Without these three…it’s only a matter of time before you flame out, or your family resents your work.”

What Happens When We Help Mentally Ill People Kill Themselves
“The liberalization of euthanasia and assisted suicide policy to cover the mentally ill is leading us down a dark path—one that offers death instead of hope.”

A Confession of Liberal Intolerance – The New York Times
“Universities are the bedrock of progressive values, but the one kind of diversity that universities disregard is ideological and religious. We’re fine with people who don’t look like us, as long as they think like us.”