Tomorrow morning I will preach in the three morning services of the First Baptist Church in Henderson, Kentucky. As I was preparing tonight, I was reminded of a little exhortation that John Piper wrote eleven years ago titled “Take Heed How You Hear.” In it, Piper gives his parishioners ten practical preparations to prepare to receive the word of God on Sunday morning. You can either listen to the exhortation below or read it here. [audio:http://media.desiringgod.org/audio/1998/19980222.mp3] I’ll give you the ten points, but you should take time to go and read the rest of the article and the scriptures in it. 1. Pray that God would give you a good…
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A Clarification about Plan B
The FDA announced this week that it will allow “Plan B” contraceptive pills to be sold without a prescription to girls as young as 17 years old. You can read the announcement here. Earlier this morning I read the New York Times‘s editorial about the decision and was miffed that the editors implied that there were no human life concerns when it comes to the use of the Plan B pills. The editors say that Plan B merely “blocks” or “prevents” pregnancies. Such language might appear to some to be saying that human life is not endangered by the use of this drug. But nothing could be further from the…
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Rob Bell Can’t Tweet the Gospel
Rob Bell tells Christianity Today that he cannot Tweet the gospel. There’s just too much there to fit into 140 characters. Here’s CT‘s question followed by his answer: How would you present this gospel on Twitter? I would say that history is headed somewhere. The thousands of little ways in which you are tempted to believe that hope might actually be a legitimate response to the insanity of the world actually can be trusted. And the Christian story is that a tomb is empty, and a movement has actually begun that has been present in a sense all along in creation. And all those times when your cynicism was at…
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Gospel Coalition Online
We’ve had a very busy week here in Louisville, and I have been out-of-pocket as far as this blog is concerned. Things are getting a little bit back to normal, and I want to take a minute to bring to your attention that The Gospel Coalition met this week and has made available the MP3’s from its conference. The speakers include John Piper, Tim Keller, D. A. Carson, Mark Driscoll, Lig Duncan, and many others. I have already listened to Mark Driscoll’s sermon and am looking forward to hearing the others as well. Here’s the link to the audio from the 2009 Gospel Coalition messages. UPDATE: For those who are…
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Tom Schreiner Charges Jim Hamilton
Tom Schreiner preached today at Jim Hamilton’s installation as pastor of Kenwood Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. I was out of town preaching today, so I missed it. Thankfully, the audio is available for download here. Or you can listen to it below. [audio:http://cdn.sermonplayer.com/d/kenwood/audio/216476_18295.mp3] (HT: Jim Hamilton)
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Schreiner, Seifrid, and Vickers Assess Piper-Wright Debate at Boyce College
Yesterday, Tom Schreiner, Mark Seifrid, Brian Vickers, and I had a conversation with the students of Boyce College about Paul’s doctrine of justification. In particular, we discussed Tom Wright’s new book Justification: God’s Plan & Paul’s Vision, which is largely a response to John Piper’s 2007 book The Future of Justification: A Response to N. T. Wright. You can download the audio of this discussion at the Boyce College blog, or you can listen to it by pressing the play button below. [audio:http://www.sbts.edu/MP3/BoycePodcast/20090415_Boyce_Chapel.mp3] In the main, the panel members agree that Wright’s book doesn’t advance the discussion beyond where it was before. The central concern of John Piper’s book is…
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Stop Hitting Yourself!
I think this one may make my “best-of-2009” list. Wow.
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Colbert Lampoons Ehrman
For those of you who may have forgotten, Bart Ehrman is a New Testament scholar at the University of North Carolina. I have written about him numerous times on this blog. He’s the guy who used to be an evangelical Christian but who left the faith some years ago. He is now writing popular level books trying to convince others to leave the faith as well. I wrote a review of one of his books that you can read here. I am not sure why Ehrman would subject himself to this, but I don’t mind that he did. Colbert is actually pretty effective at poking holes in his arguments. Favorite…
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Tim Keller on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”
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The Innermost Meaning of the Cross
In 1998, I went to Austin, Texas to a conference called “Passion 98.” It was there that the Lord began a spiritual renewal (a Copernican revolution of sorts) in my own heart and mind concerning the Supremacy of God over all things for the joy of all peoples. It all began with a sermon delivered by John Piper on Romans 3:25-26, “Did Christ Die for Us or for God?” This sermon more than any other has shaped my view of the meaning of Christ’s work on the cross–that it was a propitiatory sacrifice for sinners. Piper quoted C. E. B. Cranfield, calling this the “innermost meaning of the cross.” On…