Download here.

Tim Challies and I and a good number of others are going through R.C.Sproul’s course on the Old Testament’s Prophets, Poetry, and Wisdom Literature. Week-by-week we are recording a podcast to share our thoughts and answer some questions.

In this week’s podcast we look at Psalms and Ecclesiastes. And yet more baby-talk.

We’re now well past halfway in our Ligonier Connect course on the Old Testament’s Prophets, Poetry, and Wisdom Literature. In this week’s podcast we consider student questions on Joel, Micah, and Habakkuk and then turn to Dr. Sproul’s introduction to Wisdom Literature. We also indulge in some baby-talk.

Download here.

This week’s Ligonier Connect/Connected Kindgom podcast covers Ezra, Nehemiah, Amos and Hosea. We look at some of the most important parts of these books and try to answer a few of the most pressing questions.

Download here.

This week’s episode of the Ligonier Connect – Connected Kingdom podcast considers the exile. Dr. Sproul’s lecture guided us through a complicated period of history, raising a number of questions among our students which Tim and I try to tackle, including:

1. The importance of understanding history for understanding Scripture

2. How the loss of biblical worship leads to the loss of God’s favor.

3. How is our day like Josiah’s day and why should this encourage us?

4. What does the Jewish exile represent for the Christian?

5. How do we reconcile the seeming difference between two Scriptures, one of which says the devil incited David to number the people and the other which says God incited him?

6. Why does Chronicles not mention David’s adultery?

Download here.

In this week’s podcast, Tim and I review R C Sproul’s Lesson 2: Isaiah in the Ligonier Connect course that we are studying with 1200+ others.

This week we answer some of the questions that have arisen about Elijah and Isaiah. Some of the questions we consider are:

1. How do we explain God seeming to send a lying spirit in 1 Kings 22?

2. What’s the best way to read and study Isaiah?

3. How do we interpret poetic literature in the Bible?

4. What will the new heavens and the new earth be like?

5. How should we read Isaiah 53? Tim refers to this testimony: The Revival of a Rebel Jew.

There were a number of other questions that we couldn’t cover in the limited time, but we’ll post the other answers to your questions on the Ligonier Connect Course pages.

If you would like to take this course with us, there is still a short time to join in. Simply click here and join the version of the course led by Tim and me. Have the first, second and third lesson completed by March 18 and you’ll be right there with us. And in the meantime, give the podcast a quick listen.

And what’s perhaps the largest Christian MOOC? Possibly the Connected Kingdom – Ligonier Connect collaboration that I hope you are a part of. Yes, the course we launched last week now has over 1,200 people signed up from 45 different countries including: Niger, Burkina Faso, Kenya, Uganda, Saudia Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, India, Thailand, China, Columbia, Venezuela, Uruguay and even Scotland! Here’s a map showing our students’ locations.

There’s still time for you to sign up (it’s free!) and join the rest of us in learning about the Old Testament Prophets and the Poets from Dr. R.C. Sproul. You can find Week one’s podcast introducing the course here, and week two’s podcast reflecting on the teaching about Elijah below.

Download here.

Last week Tim Challies and I announced that we will be taking a course together and that we would love for you (yes you!) to take it with us. As we take the course, led by Dr. R.C. Sproul, we will be recording weekly podcasts to discuss what we have been learning and to answer some of the questions that students ask of us.

This first podcast, which you can listen to right here, talks about why we are doing this course and introduces a few of the 700+ students that have already signed up. It also reminds you that the course officially begins today, which is to say you’ve got between now and next Monday to take the first lesson (which is on Elijah).

If you would like to take this course with us, you have only six days left to sign up. Simply click here and join the version of the course led by Tim and me. Have that first lesson completed by March 4 and you’ll be right there with us. And in the meantime, give the podcast a quick listen.

For the past few weeks, Tim Challies and I have been throwing around different ideas for the fourth season of our Connected Kingdom podcast. In the past we’ve done interviews, Q&A’s, monologues, and more. This time we thought we’d do something completely different. We’ve decided to learn something together and we want to invite you all to join us!

As we worked through various ideas, we found we were both eager to begin some kind of Bible study and preferably something not too long. We also wanted to study a less-travelled part of the Bible, something we could learn from ourselves. When we put all these things together, we settled on the Poets, Prophecy, and Wisdom Bible Survey, a 13-week course taught by Dr R.C. Sproul via video lectures. We asked Ligonier Ministries what they could do for us and they generously offered a free class to us and our listeners through Ligonier Connect.

If you sign up, you will get all course materials, a full downloadable study guide, and access to the students forum. Tim and I will moderate the class and record an optional weekly podcast where we reflect on the lessons, and answer some of the questions raised by our fellow students. You won’t need to be taking the class to benefit from the podcast…but we trust it will help!

This link will take you to the course page. Click on the Connected Kingdom Class tab and sign up for the course. Have a look around, introduce yourself, and bookmark next Tuesday for the first Connected Kingdom podcast when we’ll introduce the course and get us started. You will want to have the first lesson completed by March 4.

We’re so looking forward to learning from Dr. Sproul, and from one another, as we study God’s Word together. We hope many of you will join us.

Here is our tentative timetable:

• Feb 19-28 Sign up period
• Feb 26 Connected Kingdom Podcast to introduce and explain the class
• Feb 26-March 4 Watch first lecture and complete questions
• March 5 Connected Kingdom Podcast on Lecture 1 (and begin lecture 2)
• Weekly lectures and podcasts thereafter.

Sign up for Connected Kingdom Bible Survey Class: Poets, Prophecy and Wisdom.

Here’s how Tim Challies describes this week’s episode of the Connected Kingdom. Download here.

Robert Shelby’s boys saved his life. On July 3 Shelby, a pastor in Baton Rouge, was teaching them how to swim when he dove a little too deep and slammed his head into the bottom of the pool, breaking his C-5 vertebra. Unable to move, unable to swim, he was helpless to save himself. For a few moments he hovered between life and death until his young sons realized that something was amiss. They dragged him from the pool, performed CPR and saved his life.

Last week we spoke to Robert about his accident and about life in the aftermath. He is now adjusting to life with quadriplegia (and do note as you listen to the interview that one of the effects of his condition is that it keeps his voice from being as expressive as it once was) and hoping to soon return to the pulpit.

Here is a link to the Shelby Family Fund, and this is a link to a newspaper report about what happened.

If you would like to give us feedback or join in the discussion, go ahead and look up our Facebook Group or leave a comment right here. You will always be able to find the most recent episode here on the blog. If you would like to subscribe via iTunes, you can do that here or if you want to subscribe with another audio player, you can try this RSS link.

Download here.

There are some stories that just need to be told—some testimonies of the Lord’s grace that are so unusual and so encouraging that they will bless everyone who hears them. This is exactly the case with Rosaria Butterfield who recently authored The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert. Tim and I recently interviewed Butterfield for an episode of the Connected Kingdom Podcast. At the very least, make sure you listen to the first ten minutes or so where she shares the way the Lord saved her. After hearing how she came to know the Lord, we also talk about issues related to the church and homosexuality.

If you would like to give us feedback or join in the discussion, go ahead and look up our Facebook Group or leave a comment right here. You will always be able to find the most recent episode here on the blog. If you would like to subscribe via iTunes, you can do that here or if you want to subscribe with another audio player, you can try this RSS link.