The women of GirlTalk have given us another gift from C.J. Mahaney. Here are book recommendations for the men you know from him.

Here’s a pic of Andrew with his cousins. From l-r, Tyler is holding Anna, then Leah, Andrew and Caleb. They were down here in mid-October and we loaded up and went to a Corn Maze just south of Salina. Was a good day, but thought everyone would like to see Andrew. It’s been a while since I’ve posted about him.

In yesterday morning’s message, we looked at being slow to trust. Click here for audio or here for talksheet.

One thing that continues to stick out in my mind was the fact that the disciples were so slow to trust in Jesus Himself and were overly concerned about not having enough bread. I’ve found that often I am guilty of the same silliness when I am so concerned about the circumstances of life that I can’t see the loving God with me through thick and thin. It was a great, challenging message.

Much happiness filled me this past Thursday when this was released.

Last Friday night at HomeWord, we continued looking at communication. One thing that emerged was the high and incredible challenge we have as new creations in Christ to speak in a way that distinctly glorifies Him. Paul David Tripp calls this a destination. In chapter 8 of his book War of Words, Tripp gives these steps to get to the destination of good communication…

1) Don’t give in to regret. – It is easy to be paralyzed by “if onlys”. We need to rest in sovereign wisdom and remember that God restores.

2) Embrace gospel hope. Grace superabounds where sin abounds. God hasn’t forsaken you and He’s working within us for His glory.

3) Examine your fruit. Humbly examine the harvest of words that pour out of your mouth.

4) Uncover your roots. It is out of the overflow of heart that the mouth speaks. It is not just circumstances but our hearts that control our words.

5) Seek forgiveness. We have 2 options. We can 1) confess our sins seeking forgiveness or we can get into 2) self-justification.

6) Freely grant forgiveness. There is a distinction between vertical, judicial forgiveness (handing it over to God) and horizontal, relational forgiveness (willing to forgive anyone coming seeking it). Both are needed in the restoration process.

7) Change the rules. Learn to cry “foul” when what needs to change that’s been forgiven reoccurs.

8) Look for opportunities. We need a solid change in perspective to live boldly.

9) Choose your words. Prov. 15:28 encourages us to be careful in the words we use. Our communcation, according to Tripp, should flow on 2 tracks 1) God’s glory, 2) neighbor’s good.

10) Confess your weakness. God came because we were weak. Humbly allow God’s power to be seen in your weakness.

11) Don’t give the Devil an opportunity. Tripp encourages 2 things to keep the devil immobilized… 1) courage of honesty, 2) humility of approachability. Tripp says this will render Satan useless in his tracks.

Embrace these tips as ways to have effective communication in your life.

Last night, our church had it annual Men/Boys Chili Feed. It was a great event and we had a great turn out. Our speakers were Jerry and Nate Humes. They did a great job pointing us to Galatians 5:22-23, 25-26 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.”

They encouraged us to think about INTENTIONAL ACTS OF RELATIONSHIP. In other words, we should look, in all of our relationships, for the fruit displayed (is it of the Spirit?), to whom was the fruit displayed, what was the intentional action pursued that led to that fruit, and what was the result.

This was a great challenge. The audio should be up soon on the church’s audio page.

I’ve posted previously about my anxious anticipation of John Piper’s new book, The Future of Justification. I ordered my copy from Desiring God and expect it any day.

My friend, Josh Seachris, has received a copy and he is enthusiastic about the introductory tone of the theological dialogue. Mathis has a post on how those of us less trained in theological discussions could benefit from this book, which might be a helpful post for you to read. At any rate, evidently you can browse it for free online (PDF). That might be a good place to start. More to come…

This week’s featured (free) audio resources comes as a gift from Sovereign Grace Ministries. As you may or may not know, they offer all their MP3 downloads for free without registration. This is an incredible gift of grace for those of us longing for sermon audio that glorifies God.

This particular message was recommended to me by my good friend, Joe Braden. It is from the 2005 Leadership Connference of Sovereign Grace. The message is entitled “The Functional Centrality of the Gospel In the Life of the Local Church” and is available to download with an outline available as well.

Often in church life, we verbalize an adherance to the Gospel but are often left scratching our heads as to how the Gospel relates to the life of a believer. Bullmore gives practical reasons why the centrality of the Gospel should be the lifeblood of the local church. I highly recommend you listen to this (more than once if possible).

Tim Challies is at it again, this month giving away some incredible audio resources. Check it out by clicking on the above banner, or register to win by clicking here.

This Friday night at HomeWord, we will continue looking at how communication can be enhanced by the power of the Gospel in our homes. In preparation for that this week (and realizing I needed a Marriage Monday post) I came across this wonderful study from Navpress entitled Building Bridges Not Walls by Jeff Rosenau. His helpful summary in the introduction is as follows:

Buiding bridges, not walls, is about:
– Communicating in ways that bear fruit for God’s glory
– Learning to become servants of God
– Living transformed lives
– Maturing in Christ by becoming other-minded rather than self-centered
– Remembering, above all else, our desperate need for Jesus Christ

Hopefully, you can join us as we seek to pursue these things and have our communication impacted. If not, be sure and look for the follow up post and audio next Monday.