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Gospel Centered Families

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Timmy Brister reflects on how the Gospel should influence our families:
1. Discipline in the home facilitates gospel mission.
2. Godliness in the home facilitates leadership development.
3. Humility in the home facilitates transparent community.
4. Simplicity in the home facilitates personal sacrifice.
5. Training in the home facilitates disciple-making.
6. Hospitality in the home facilitates ministry to others.

His conclusion:

When you think about the church, wouldn’t we want to see more people engaged in gospel mission, more leaders being developed and empowered, more transparent and authentic community, more personal sacrifice for the advance of the kingdom, more disciples being made, and more people ministering to others? That’s a tall order, right? What kind of program, technique, or best practice can facilitate this? My answer is gospel-centered families. If you do not take the gospel seriously in marriages, parenting, and overall home life, then all kinds of substitutes will attempt to promise what they cannot deliver. May God give us grace to embrace the gospel daily in our lives, in our families, and in our churches!

Next Conference Online

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I’ve had the privilege of attending the Next Conference (formerly called New Attitude) put on by Sovereign Grace Ministries three times in my life. This conference is usually held over Memorial Day weekend. Each time I’ve attended was a time God worked in my life in amazing ways through His Word. Each year, they put the audio of the conference online for free. Here’s this year’s:

Joshua Harris, What Are You Built On?
Mark Dever, The Doctrine of Christ’s Work Accomplished and Applied
Kevin DeYoung, Scripture
C.J. Mahaney, Sanctification
D.A. Carson, God
Kevin DeYoung, The Church
Jeff Purswell, The End Times

Related to the conference, they do amazing music. Bob Kauflin has put the Next 2010 Set List online for us to know exactly what music they did. This includes a lot of free chord charts and lead sheets for worship people.

On the Personal Side… (3)

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If you’ve been following my weekend, today is the day my wife returns from Florida. Although the night included Andrew waking up at 1:30AM claiming “something was in his room,” the night was pretty uneventful. Woke up to both boys ready to play at 6:55AM. During breakfast, I broke a tooth. Strange for me…I’ve never had teeth issues. But, for whatever reason, that bread seemed too big for my tooth to overcome. That was trial #1. It’s been crazy. I’m ready for Meg to be home and know that God wants to continue sanctifying me, exposing my heart’s weakness in this crazy day.

Got time this morning to do reading, (read Spurgeon on Colossians 3:1-2), listening (Chandler’s latest sermon as well as an excellent sermon from JR Vassar on what the church is to be and do), and cleaning (flooded the kitchen with laundry water). But, looking forward to heading to Wichita around 4 to get my babe.

Weekend Recap – Union With Christ

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As I was reflecting on Sunday AM’s events, I am still a bit awestruck by the implications of what it means to be united to Christ. The sermon, Union, from Colossians 2:20-23 is now online. The sermon really talked about the effects that being in union with Christ has upon the believer. Specifically, our connection with the world is severed and we are given real, effectual help in fighting sin. The challenge is that many of us think that we can defeat sin in our own ability. We need to remember that it is all Christ. As we received Christ Jesus, the Lord, we are to walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him, established in the faith, just as we were taught, abounding in thanksgiving (Colossians 2:6-7). Let’s look to our union with Christ and find it to be sufficient for our fight with sin.

On the Personal Side … (2)

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If you read my last post, it seemed as though I was going to cruise through the weekend without a hitch. After a great Friday night with friends, who really helped to give me a break, I was rolling Saturday AM. Got the boys loaded and picked up a package at the post office, but when I got back in the car, it wouldn’t start. After much work (and coming home using the truck to shuttle the boys around to run some other errands), found out the starter needed replaced and finished that up around 6:45PM. After supper, baths and prep for Sunday, boys went down.

Today was a pretty uneventful day, getting up and getting the boys around and then settling into a typical Sunday AM routine at church. Got through everything, grabbed some lunch with other friends, and came home and all boys (including me) got a nap in. Tonight, we get to be with some other friends for a Fish Fry. Just one more day till Mom gets home. I can’t wait!

Please continue to pray that God would be glorified in our home.

On the Personal Side… (1)

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A few of you know that Meg is in Florida with her mom for the weekend, which leaves me home with the 2 boys (4 and 2 year old if your wondering). Had a productive day yesterday: a friend came over and helped me clean maple tree sproutlets out of the gutters, fix the attic fan and put together a swingset. In the evening, we went to watch our adult church softball team play (we won pretty handily). Then, we went and got some ice cream.

Today, ran a few errands and am home enjoying some down time while the boys sleep. Have some friends over tonight for a break (for kids from me and me to adult world conversations).

So…if you’re a reader of mine, please pray that I would exhibit godliness to my boys by being patient with them, having a few extra things to account for this weekend. I really enjoy having an opportunity like this (and being able to bless Meg in this way), but I realize also my sinful nature is crouching at the door waiting to be served and I want to master it so the boys are served well. Pray for me to be holy in this.

Radical Review and Response..

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In a previous post I spoke of David Platt’s book Radical, which I had the opportunity to read last week. Justin Taylor interviewed Platt about the book and promised more to come. Today, Kevin DeYoung reviewed the book and allowed Platt to respond.

A few things:
1) The message of Platt’s book needs to be heard for many of us who are more devoted to the American dream than we are to the basic demands of the Gospel.
2) The charitable dialogue you will find in the links above reflects what’s best about being Gospel-centered.
3) If you are looking for some other Platt resources:
His T4G Breakout Session is online. But, if you have the time, you could listen to the Radical series from the Church at Brook Hills, where Platt pastors. This would give you the audio content found in the book (in about 8 messages).
RADICAL