Mahaney/Grudem 4

In the last part of the interview, Wayne Grudem talks about discouragement (rare for him) and disappointment, as well as exercise and sport.
Meet Wayne Grudem (4)

Mahaney/Grudem 3

The overall question in this extract is on counsel received.  In the detail, Wayne talks about faithfulness in the light of Paul’s example of teaching the whole counsel of God; there is also a brief leadership insight at the end of the article.
Meet Wayne Grudem (3)

Crazy Sovereign Grace Music and Book Sale | Worship Matters

Check through all that’s available, but note the great opportunity to get your hands on a copy of Bob Kauflin’s book, Worship Matters.
Crazy Sovereign Grace Music and Book Sale | Worship Matters

More from Terry Virgo on leadership in transition

I mentioned last week that Terry Virgo has been writing about leadership in a time of transition.  It is refreshing and encouraging to read the gracious wisdom of a seasoned leader.  He has now written the final part of his article.
Vision has been described as ‘a compelling picture of a preferable future that inspires us [...]

More on Wayne Grudem

In part two of the Mahaney/Grudem conversation, Wayne talks about preaching and use of time.
Meet Wayne Grudem (2)

C.J. Mahaney talking to Wayne Grudem

Five years ago we had Wayne Grudem and his wife for a weekend in Geneva when he taught and preached and we had some relaxed time together.  He’s a gracious and gifted man.  
His friend CJ Mahaney has decided to publish an interview with him on his blog.  Here is the link to the first [...]

Sunday at Portstewart Baptist

Yesterday morning was the fourth part of the Gospel-centred church series and we were looking at personal worship.  I worked from two passages in the gospels, Luke 18 and Jesus’ warning to the self-righteous, and Matthew 6, with his teaching on prayer.  Luke 18 teaches that our personal approach to God is based on mercy: [...]

Another round with the neighbours

After Monday evening’s 1-1 draw with Liverpool, it was the FA Cup at the weekend – and another 1-1 draw.  Apparently Everton forgot to give Liverpool a fair chance to win the game by trying too hard to prevent them scoring.  No doubt Rafa would have fancied his chances in a more open game, but [...]

Lloyd-Jones: Living Water

New book of sermons from Dr Lloyd-Jones: Living Water
Possibly one of the most devastating things that can happen to us as Christians is that we cease to expect anything to happen. I am not sure but that this is not one of our greatest troubles today. We come to our services and they are orderly, [...]

Delays

In an instant world, many of us find delays hard to cope with.  Whether it is internet speed, the length of time it takes for a parcel to arrive in the post, or waiting for the resolution to a problem, delays test us.
In Matthew 15, a Canaanite woman asks Jesus to help her demon-oppressed daughter. [...]

Terry Virgo on Leadership in a time of transition

Terry Virgo has a blog on the kind of leadership that is called for in times of transition.
When authentic leaders such as David, Nehemiah and Gideon devoted themselves to their calling, others were drawn to their vision. True leadership is the ability to obtain followers and a real leader is one that others gladly and [...]

Rick Warren’s prayer for President Obama

The choice of Rick Warren to pray at yesterday’s inauguration of Barack Obama drew the ire of some of Obama’s liberal supporters.  Perhaps Obama’s choice of Gene Robinson to pray on Sunday was an attempt to redress the balance – it certainly showed that Obama’s could be a wide tent: it will be interesting to [...]

Standing up to the neighbours

Tim Cahill celebrates his late equalizer against Liverpool.

Blue Monday?

They reckon that today is the most depressing day of the year in the UK.  The combination of weather, lack of daylight, Christmas credit card bills, and failed resolutions apparently make for Blue Monday.
Blue Monday? Try our celebrity cheer-up tips – Telegraph

One of the best messages I never preached

Last night at PBC we used a video recording of “Indescribable”, a message by Louie Giglio, presented a few years ago as part of a tour.  The message is based on the theme of the heavens declaring the glory of God (Psalm 19) and is supplemented by remarkable photography of distant parts of the universe. [...]

Does God like Jazz?

I used the following quote from Richard Lenski’s Ephesians commentary in this morning’s message on singing.
Did not also Luther say that music drives the devil away?  He was, of course, not speaking of jazz.

I don’t imagine Luther even knew what jazz was.
How did Lenski know whether Luther would like jazz or not?
It’s funny to see [...]

Sunday morning at Portstewart Baptist

It has been a bit of a wintery weekend in Portstewart with some skiffs of snow and sleet during the morning.  It’s not often you see people running to church but we had that this morning as there was a sleet shower just before the service began!
This morning was part 3 in our Gospel Centred [...]

Happy Birthday, Pauline

Today is Pauline’s birthday.  I am reminded of Proverbs 31 and its portrayal of an excellent wife.  The end of the chapter talks about how her works may praise her in the gates.
If “the gates” refers to the city gates where public life happened and business got done, I suppose the Internet is a form [...]

Australia

Part of Pauline’s birthday treat (after dinner at Table Table) was the movie, Australia.  Earlier in the week I had seen a story about how Nicole Kidman, the female star of the movie, had been reported as not enjoying it: you wonder how the rest of us will fare!  (She has disputed the interpretation of [...]

Table Table in Coleraine

I don’t imagine I am ever likely to have a career as a food critic, but I have mentioned a couple of restaurant visits on here in recent months.  Here is another – Table Table.  The occasion was dinner with a couple of friends to mark Pauline’s birthday.  TT is a fairly new restaurant in Coleraine’s [...]

The songs Christians sing

Show me a church’s songs and I’ll show you their theology.
(Gordon Fee).

Could e-literacy be the new illiteracy?

Thought provoking article looking on the impact of the information technology revolution.
While apologists for digital technology in the classroom trumpet computer smarts as an entirely new form of intelligence, an “e-literacy revolution,” Bauerlein offers page after page of studies that suggest e-literacy is merely newspeak for illiteracy.  If students visiting interactive sites and playing video games develop, as [...]

Sunday at Portstewart Baptist

This morning we moved further into our new Gospel-centered church series.  Over the next few months the Sunday mornings will develop the theme and our home groups during the week will be looking at material related to theme of the week.  I preached this morning on the difference the gospel makes to who we are.
The [...]

Marketing the ESV

I think the publishers of the ESV do a very good job of marketing their translation (the popularity of the new study Bible is evidence of this).  The photo below is not an ad: this is John Atta Mills being sworn in as President of Ghana this week.

Praying for your pastor

Pointers from Ligon Duncan.
T4G

Sunday at Portstewart Baptist

On Sunday morning we started a ten part series on Becoming a Gospel-Centred Church.  The series is going to try to explore some of what we recently outlined in our new vision document.  Along with the sermons, our small groups will be working through supplementary material on the same themes as the sermons.  The basic [...]

Through the Bible in 2009

It’s not too late to set out to read through the Bible in 2009 (you’d have to do a bit of catch up over the weekend to get on track).  The ESV publishers have listed a number of reading plans in a number of different formats.  You could download the plan directly to your calendar [...]

Ten Questions for the New Year

These, from Don Whitney, could fuel some helpful reflection and resolution at the start of a new year.
Ten Questions for the New Year