This morning, had a full message on Jesus: The Suffering Servant from Mark 1:1-16:20, that’s right, the text was the entire book of Mark.
Tonight, during evening service, we are going to be sharing how Mark’s Gospel has impacted us as a church, so that should be exciting.
Anything stand out to you?
Our good friends, Ben and Jandee, are excited welcoming their second child into this world. Natalie Rose was born at 12:49PM, weighed 9 lbs 2 oz and was 19 1/2 inches long. Congrats!
Over on Timmy Brister’s blog, he linked to the latest Small Group resource from World Harvest Mission entitled The Gospel Centered Life by Bob Thune and Will Walker. Through July 31, 2009, they are sending out a free preview copy of this curriculum for those who sign up for their newsletter. It would be well worth you time to check it out.
Here’s a summary of the contents:
The Gospel-Centered Life is a nine lesson small group study intended to help participants understand how the gospel shapes every aspect of life. Each lesson is self-contained, featuring clear teaching from scripture, and requires no extra work outside of the group setting.
Designed for:
* Pastors and leaders who want to spur Gospel renewal in their churches and ministries.
* Church-planters who want to form Gospel DNA in the churches they start.
* Students and campus ministers who are looking to live out the Gospel on campus.
* Christians who want to be more deeply formed around the Gospel.
* Small group leaders who are looking for content that “works” with diverse groups of people.
* Missionaries who are looking for simple material to disciple new Christians.
Tomorrow, Lord willing, we will be doing an overview of the Gospel of Mark. If possible, why not read through the book again before the morning service. Hopefully, you will be able to remember some amazing things that God has done for you in this book.
Unpacking Forgiveness is an excellent book written by Chris Brauns. Over at his website, the author has posted a one page overview, which would be a great place to start to see what this book is all about.
While I’m busy this week prepping for the weekend and getting ready for camp (next week) I thought I’d post on what I’ve been reading…
I’m doing lots of background work on Luke and specifically Luke 15 for sermon prep. Particularly helpful have been a couple of books by Kenneth Bailey: The Cross and the Prodigal and Poet & Peasant.
I just finished volume 2 (of 4) in Spurgeon’s Autobiography.
Along with the Elders, I have really been helped by Elyse Fitzpatrick & Dennis Johnson’s recent book entitled Counsel from the Cross, which gives us more practical ways to employ the Gospel in our interactions with others.
I’m almost done with Voddie Baucham’s What He Must Be, which has been helpful in reminding me of my role and my responsibilities as a father.
Mark Driscoll’s latest, Religion Saves, was quickly worked through. Lots of helpful things in here from birth control to worship to law & grace.
Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck’s recent Why We Love The Church has been thoroughly enjoyable. I’m still rather early in it, but the introductions alone drop a grenade of sorts on our preconceived ideas about the church and the casual relationship so many of us have with her.
I know that I struggle consistently with fear of man related tendencies, so I picked up Pleasing People by Lou Priolo to give me some godly counsel.
I think I was tipped off at Piper’s Pastor’s Conference to the book The Mission of God by Christopher Wright and it was a good tip off. It demonstrates how God has always been on mission and how we can know His heart for missions by looking at His Word. I chop away at this book to the tune of a chapter a week or so.
Also on the list to read soon are:
Manly Dominion by Mark Chanski (another book related to my role in marriage)
Get Outta My Face! by Rick Horne (book on parenting teenagers)
Also, I nearly forgot Broken Down House by Paul David Tripp, an excellent book on issues related to sanctification and living in a way the redeems what sin has destroyed.
That’s been all lately. I have some other books that I’ve finished and would highly recommend, but I’ll save those for another post.
I thought we had a great Lord’s Day today. I finished up Mark 16:19-20 on Christ and His Followers. I was struck by a few things…
1) I am not the evangelist I should be.
2) The Gospel sets me free from disobedience to freely sharing the good news.
3) Much strategy can (and should) be employed in this terrifying campaign of advancing the Gospel.
What things stuck out to you?
I was directed back to Voddie Baucham’s excellent book Family Driven Faith recently. One of the major themes of the book is how God has set apart the family as the primary means of grace for children to be reared on a proper foundation of loving God. Unfortunately, many today feel that this role should be done by the church. Voddie comments on how reading an average youth ministry’s purpose statement sounds really incredible, covering all of the bases, but then he laments:
There’s just one problem with the aforementioned mission statement. It makes absolutely no mention of parents! This ministry sets out to do for teens what God commands parents to do. Think about it. It is not the job of the youth pastor to evangelize my child — that’s my job. It is not the youth pastor’s job to equip (disciple) my child — it’s mine. And it is not the youth pastor’s job to send my child out to engage the world; you guessed it — that’s my job too. (pp.176-177)
There are an increasing number of people who think that it is the church’s job to provide all this kind of “meaningful programming” for their kids. All the while, in their very admission, they are confessing with their life and lips that they don’t measure up the standard God has clearly set forth for them in His Word. This doesn’t mean the parenting task is easy or that we shouldn’t seek help in doing this most effectively. It does mean that we shouldn’t shirk our duties to others.
Isn’t this an amazing gift that God has given us? May all of our families be tools in God’s hands to further glorifying and enjoying God, forever, in the lives of our children.
For more info on Voddie and his ministry, visit Family Driven Faith.
In prepping to preach this coming Lord’s Day (7/12), I have really benefitted from C.H. Spurgeon’s sermon on Mark 16:20 – Christ and His Co-Workers. Among many things, I thought this description of how we need to be proclaiming the Gospel was very revealing:
A great many learned men are defending the Gospel—no doubt it is a very proper and right thing to do—yet I always notice that when there are most books of that kind, it is because the Gospel, itself, is not being preached. Suppose a number of persons were to take it into their heads that they had to defend a lion, a full-grown king of beasts! There he is in a cage and here come all the soldiers of the army to fight for him. Well, I would suggest to them, if they would not object and feel that it was humbling to them, that they should kindly stand back, open the door, and let the lion out! I believe that would be the best way of defending him, for he would take care of himself—and the best “apology” for the Gospel is to let the Gospel out! Never mind about defending Deuteronomy or the whole of the Pentateuch—preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified! Let the Lion out and see who will dare to approach Him! The Lion of the tribe of Judah will soon drive away all His adversaries! This was how Christ’s first disciples worked—they preached Jesus Christ wherever they went! They did not stop to apologize, but boldly bore their
witness concerning Him.
Pray that God would work through His Word this Sunday to inspire in us this kind of boldness.
Today’s sermon, “iWitness” from Mark 16:9-18 is now online. I thought God’s Word just opened up in amazing ways and we were able to see how we can be bold in our witness as well as how vast our witness should be. I hope this message was a service to you.
I was really struck by all the excuses I can make for not sharing the good news. May God shake us with boldness for Him.
