Pure Church

From D.A. Carson's essay, "Challenges for the Twenty-first-century Pulpit" in Ryken and Wilson (eds), Preach the Word:

Countless volumes have been written on this subject, of course. Here I shall restrict myself to five observations.

First, preaching is more than the oral communication of information, no matter how biblical and divine that information may be. Rather, we should think in terms of what might be called "re-revelation." Across the centuries, God disclosed himself--he revealed himself--in great events (e.g., the burning bush, the exodus, the resurrection of Jesus); he disclosed himself supremely in the person of his Son. But very commonly he revealed himself by his words. Perennially we read, "The word of the Lord came to such-and-such a prophet." So when that Word is re-announced, there is a sense in which God, who revealed himself by that Word in the past, is re-revealing himself by that same Word once again. Preachers must bear this in mind. Their aim is more than to explain the Bible, however important that aim is. They want the proclamation of God's Word to be a revelatory event, a moment when God discloses himself afresh, a time when the people of God know that they have met with the living God. They know full well that for the Scriptures to have this revelatory impact the Spirit of God must apply that Word deeply to the human heart, so that preaching must never be seen as a mere subset of public oratory. Both the content (the Bible is God's Word) and the transformative empowering (the Spirit himself) transcend any merely mechanical view of preaching.

Second, to remain true to this basic understanding of what preaching is, the preacher must be committed to the primacy of expository preaching. We must take pains to debunk what many people think "exposition" and "expository" mean. They associate exposition with a style that takes not more than half a verse per sermon and casts around widely for every conceivable association, biblical and pastoral. Certainly that is one form of exposition, but that form is not the essence of the matter. Exposition is simply the unpacking of what is there. In a narrative text (e.g., 2 Samuel) or major epic (e.g., Job), fine exposition may focus on several chapters at once. If a sermon takes two or three short passages from disparate parts of the Bible and explains each of them carefully and faithfully within its own context, it remains an expository sermon, for it is unpacking what the biblical text or texts actually say. If we expect God to re-reveal himself by his own words, then our expositions must reflect as faithfully as possible what God actually said then the words were given to us in Scripture.

Third, there is an heraldic element in preaching. The Bible sometimes envisages other forms of oral communication, of course: we may be invited to reason together with the Lord (Is. 1:18), for instance, or enter into a dialogical confrontation with him (e.g., Mal. 1:2-8; Rom. 6:1-2). Yet in the oft-repeated "Thus says the Lord" of the Old Testament is an unavoidable heraldic element--an announcement, a sovereign disclosure, a nonnegotiable declaration. As ambassadors, we are tasked with making known the stance and intentions of our Sovereign; we do not have the authority to tamper with his position.

Fourth, preaching is never an end in itself. It is not an art form to be admired, still less mere high-flown rhetoric that so captures the audience's imagination that the content is of little importance. This is not to deny that artistry and rhetoric may be traced in sermons; rather, it is to keep ultimate ends in constant view. The faithful preacher will care little what folk think of his oratorical skills; he will care a great deal about whether he has faithfully represented the Master and his message. This includes a passionate commitment to make the Word wound and heal, sing and sting.

And that means, fifth, that we must study our own people, the culture of the people to whom we minister. Inevitably there are commonalities from culture to culture, but there are countless distinctives as well. To communicate effectively we must address the people of the time and place where God has placed us. This is a perennially urgent need in the thoughtful and faithful preacher....

Challies begins what looks like will be a good series on living life according to the correct standard. See here for a riveting start to the topic.

No, this is not a post featuring 2008 first time events, it's a list of firsts that occured in 2008. I know my posts are long, but not that long!

Here are nine things we never saw prior to the year 2008:

1. The obvious first first: the United States saw the election of its first African-American presidential nominee for a major party and its first African-American president-elect.

2. The numbers behind the obvious first: The first presidential campaign topping $1 billion dollars ($1.7 billion to be more precise). And there were a lot of first time voters in this year's election.

3. March 25, 2008, the first democratic elections were held in Bhutan, the world's only Buddhist kingdom, Gospel for Asia reports.

4. Also in March 2008, for the first time the number of adherents to Islam outnumbered the number of adherents to Roman Catholicism.

4. 30,000 people turned out for fifth day of the first test cricket match between India and England. (Okay, it's official. I'm giving cricket "firsts" and I don't even know who is in the playoffs for the NFL! I've been in the Caribbean too long!)

5. Have we seen the first historical evidence of the Druids?

6. Bruno Julie, "the Mauritian Magician," earns Mauritius its first Olympic medal. The sport? Men's boxing.

7. In May 2008, the Archbishop of Perth announced the first female bishop of the Australian Anglican church, Kay Goldsworthy. A few days later, the first woman bishop was appointed in Victoria as well. Meanwhile, openly gay Bishop Gene Robinson began his second term

8. Their campuses are only a couple miles apart, but this year marked the first time that historically black N.C. Central University squared off against Duke University in a baseball game.

9. UNESCO completes first ever study of historical and contemporary slavery.

The more I think about the cultural questions surrounding Christmas the proper/improper celebrations and traditions of Christmas and their impact upon children, the clearer it is to me that the Christmas season becomes this intense time of parental shepherding. So much is happening with such volume that if ever parents were to be on their post, alert, watchful, theological, experiential, visionary, discerning, and able to teach it's definitely during Christmas. We must shepherd the hearts of our children all year long, but especially during Christmas.

So, I want to plug the audio and video from the Shepherding a Child's Heart conference with Dr. Tedd Tripp held out at Mars Hill Church in Seattle. Here's a listing of the sessions:

Session 1: The Call to Formative Instruction
Session 2: Giving Kids a Vision for God's Glory
Session 3: Helping Kids Understand Authority
Session 4: Helping Kids Understand the Heart
Session 5: Overview of Corrective Discipline

We use the video of Shepherding a Child's Heart in our parenting Sunday school class to good spiritual effect in the lives of folks who participate. We can't parent in as God-honoring, Christ-loving, and eternally-focused a way as we might otherwise if we don't think about parenting and apply biblical wisdom. That's an obvious point, but it's so often lost on me. Here's praying all of those tasked with raising a godly offspring for the Lord (Mal. 2:15) would think biblically, prayerfully, carefully, and joyfully about aiming the arrows in our quivers.

HT: Andy Naselli via JT.

I appreciated this quote posted over at Of First Importance:

All that Christ did and suffered, from the manger to the tomb, forms one glorious whole, no part of which shall ever become needless or obsolete; no part of which one can ever leave without forsaking the whole.

I am always at the manger, and yet I know that mere incarnation cannot save; always at Gethsemane, and yet I believe that its agony was not the finished work; always at the cross, with my face toward it, and my eye on the crucified One, and yet I am persuaded that the sacrifice there was completed once for all; always looking into the grave, though I rejoice that it is empty, and that ‘He is not here, but is risen’; always resting (with the angel) on the stone that was rolled away, and handling the grave-clothes, and realizing a risen Christ, nay, an ascended and interceding Lord, yet on no pretext whatever leaving any part of my Lord’s life or death behind me, but unceasingly keeping up my connection with Him, as born, living, dying, buried, and rising again, and drawing out from each part some new blessing every day and hour.

—Horatius Bonar, “Not Faith, But Christ”

C.J. Mahaney includes this excerpt from an article on why Christmas is disturbing. Read the entire post here.

Here's the excerpt:

Many people who otherwise ignore God and the church have some religious feeling, or feel they ought to, at this time of the year. So they make their way to a church service or Christmas program. And when they go, they come away feeling vaguely warmed or at least better for having gone, but not disturbed.

Why aren’t people disturbed by Christmas? One reason is our tendency to sanitize the birth narratives. We romanticize the story of Mary and Joseph rather than deal with the painful dilemma they faced when the Lord chose Mary to be the virgin who would conceive her child by the power of the Holy Spirit. We beautify the birth scene, not coming to terms with the stench of the stable, the poverty of the parents, the hostility of Herod. Don’t miss my point. There is something truly comforting and warming about the Christmas story, but it comes from understanding the reality, not from denying it.

Most of us also have not come to terms with the baby in the manger. We sing, “Glory to the newborn King.” But do we truly recognize that the baby lying in the manger is appointed by God to be the King, to be either the Savior or Judge of all people? He is a most threatening person.

Malachi foresaw his coming and said, “But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap.” As long as we can keep him in the manger, and feel the sentimental feelings we have for babies, Jesus doesn’t disturb us. But once we understand that his coming means for every one of us either salvation or condemnation, he disturbs us deeply.

What should be just as disturbing is the awful work Christ had to do to accomplish the salvation of his people. Yet his very name, Jesus, testifies to us of that work.

That baby was born so that “he who had no sin” would become “sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” The baby’s destiny from the moment of his conception was hell—hell in the place of sinners. When I look into the manger, I come away shaken as I realize again that he was born to pay the unbearable penalty for my sins.

That’s the message of Christmas: God reconciled the world to himself through Christ, man’s sin has alienated him from God, and man’s reconciliation with God is possible only through faith in Christ…Christmas is disturbing.

And the conclusion:

Only those who have been profoundly disturbed to the point of deep repentance are able to receive the tidings of comfort, peace, and joy that Christmas proclaims.

HT: Your wives.

See here.

Carson, Keller, and Piper chat it up about:

Ministries of mercy...



Evangelistic fruit and loving intentionality in mercy ministries, and looking for prophet, priest, and king gospel character in pastors...



Prophet, priest and king gospel character in pastors (cont'd), mentoring upcoming pastors, and being "gospel-centered" with libertines...



Being "gospel-centered" with libertines (cont'd), Bonhoeffer on cheap grace, and how does the cross help us conquer sin...



Seeing the ugliness of sin in conversion and sanctification, and why God is "stuck with being beautiful"...



True confessions from Piper and Keller...

God has kindly allowed me to get to know a ton of incredibly committed, intelligent and gifted young men zealous for His kingdom and glory. That's been one of the things I've treasured most about life in Christ, getting to know brothers and sisters from all over the world who share Christ as our Great Treasure. One of those guys heads up Access Partners, a business development firm that works in hard to reach places. FBC has been supporting this group over the last year. And I think you will be encouraged by their work.


Tell us about yourself.

My name is Jonathan, and I live in Washington, DC. Prior to founding Access Partners, I had a background in business development and used to negotiate partnerships for a telecommunications company.


What is the mission of Access Partners?

Access Partners is a business incubator that facilitates church planting among the least reached people groups in the world.

Our passion is to see the gospel proclaimed to the nations through the planting of biblical indigenous churches in the Central Asia. We come alongside church planters to bring the gospel to the ends of the earth through business.

One of the greatest needs in the cause of world missions is access to the gospel. As the apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans, “But how are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?”

For centuries people have been traveling as missionaries to share the gospel with those who have never heard it. But in places where worldviews, cultures and governments are hostile to Christianity, access to this message is increasingly limited. In other words, millions of people in the world have little chance to hear the gospel preached. In the past, Christians have been able to enter restricted access countries as students and humanitarian workers. However, as governments continue to crack down on mission work, it has become more difficult to obtain or even retain these visas.

One solution to this obstacle is the creation of viable, for-profit businesses that both contribute to a country’s economy and provide sustainability and credibility for those wishing to advance the gospel in that country. Why? Credible business has proven to be an avenue on which even “closed countries” are willing to let foreigners through.

To those ends, Access Partners (AP) seeks to create businesses that facilitate healthy church planting among the least reached. To be sure, we’re not talking about creating fake businesses or business that only serve the purpose of making money. We’re talking about real businesses that directly allow church planters to form relationships with people who have never heard the gospel. To facilitate this work, AP works together with missions organizations to start up and optimize businesses, enabling church planters to reach otherwise inaccessible locations and communities.


How did Access Partners begin?

In 2002, I explored “business as missions” through a project in Central Asia. I partnered with a team needing a legitimate means of residing in a city with few Christians. They wanted to share the gospel in this highly restricted and it seemed like business might be the avenue for doing so.

Our solution was to try to assist the locals in that community through selling fair trade handicrafts. Artisans in that city have a well-developed history of crafts that readily find local markets, so it was a great opportunity. I found it thrilling to wake up every day being able to use my skills and experience to do something I loved - and also know that I was helping establish a foundation for bringing the gospel to those who had never heard.

To get this business off the ground rightly, I found I needed help from someone with technology experience. So I started working with a technology consultant based in the US named Daniel - who would later become the other founder of Access Partners with me. Together we launched the business and saw encouraging initial sales.

Throughout the development of this fair trade business, one theme resonated continually: the importance of business in church planting strategy. It became evident that business was increasingly an optimal way of bringing the gospel to these locations where obtaining a visa had become more and more difficult.

Confronted with this reality, we decided to think in larger terms than even our initial handicrafts business. We traveled across the 10/40 window and interviewed over 20 church planters in 5 countries to see if they could use business consultation help in order to stay in-country and continue their church planting efforts. Almost unanimously, they responded positively to the notion.

With all of this in mind, Daniel and I returned to the States and decided to start what is now a growing organization: Access Partners.

Access Partners began as a consulting partner for a partnering organization working in the Central Asia region. We were called upon to formally assist several of their church planting teams set up kingdom businesses in the field.

During our first year, Access Partners helped establish two businesses, each supporting 6 church planters. Since then, we have expanded so that the organization is now supporting over 50 church planters on 12 teams.

AP has launched 4 businesses and is working on 12 new business start-ups in 2009-2010, 3 of which are in cities that currently have no gospel witness. These businesses will support an additional 40 church planters.


You are doing what you and others refer to as "business as missions." Can you explain what "BAM" is and how your approach is unique among other BAM models?

Business as missions (BAM) is a strategy that has been implemented in many ways by various proponents of it. For the particular problem we are trying to solve- that is, facilitating church planting among the most unreached people groups in the world- we have fine tuned our approach using five particular values:

1) Prioritize the 10/40 window
Our passion is to support those who are working among people groups who are least reached by the gospel message. They happen to live in places that are quite hostile to Christianity, where believers face persecution from their community and the government. As a result, their locations are where BAM is most relevant.

2) Implement sustainable models
We are not out to reinvent the business wheel. Rather, we aim to use best practices in international business development and apply it towards solving the problem of access in these closed countries. While there are circumstances beyond our control in these areas where war and corruption are daily realities, we seek to find business models that will allow our missionary friends to stay in the country for a long time. Because of this, we need to use business models that are legitimate and at the same time supportive of church planting activities and timeframes. A sustainable model will also take into consideration the community’s benefit - we want these businesses to be a blessing to the cities they serve.

3) Build legitimate businesses
Any BAM business needs to be run with integrity, to properly reflect the Savior whom we serve. We don’t want to risk damaging a church planter’s gospel witness, so we do not encourage fake businesses, or businesses that only exist on paper. This is why we take time to carefully design the business operations, make sure they have the right personnel on the ground leading it, and build a plan to be profitable. The business needs to be legitimate and needs to makes sense to the community it serves.

4) Partner with experts
We are blessed to work within a network of like-minded organizations, and we hope to keep expanding this network to help us solve this problem of access faster. We partner with missions organizations, for instance, who send people into the field who have done church planting for years and have spent much time learning the cultures and the environments of the people they serve. We work with organizations who have also used BAM in other contexts to learn from their projects.

5) Work through the local church
Matthew 28 is not just a command for individuals; it is a charge given by the Lord to His church. We have seen much success following this biblical pattern in the way we operate. Through our partner churches, we have found a treasure trove of skilled business men and women who are passionate about the Great Commission, and desire to use their gifting to get the gospel message out to those who have not heard it. We also find pastors and church staff who are willing to mobilize their congregation, give us their advice, and connect us with the right people.

Finally, the church planters we support work in teams and prioritize local church planting as an important aspect of their ministry: a setup that is invaluable especially when you are in a country where often you are the only Christians there.


Where exactly is your work taking place?

We focus on Central Asia region for our work — the most unreached region in the world (0.016% Christian).


Could you describe some specific projects you're working on?

Our most strategic initiative in 2008 was the Business Directors Program. We want to ensure that the right businesspeople are working on these teams overseas. Church planters who need to focus on leadership development and evangelism are often not equipped to manage a business. Instead of asking them to bear the full weight of entrepreneurship and business management, we recruit people from the US to manage the businesses and provide an umbrella under which the church planters can work part-time.

By God’s grace, we’ve hit our target of 3 business directors for 2008 and are almost halfway through the target of 7 for 2009! An example of the candidates is an owner of a construction company. He and his wife were planning on retiring before but now are joining one of our teams and helping run their operations. They are selling their company and preparing to move overseas in 2009.

Other candidates are former divisional managers of Fortune 100 companies and small business owners of companies with $10M revenue – in other words, there are solid businesspeople. We believe that this new approach establishes a good foundation from where we can then scale in the future.


What church planting impact have you seen as a result of this model?

The church planting impact in the field as a result of this business as missions model has been enormous. We traveled to Central Asia to meet with some of our church planting partners during their annual meeting a few months ago, and were thrilled to hear about the Lord’s work among the nations where they serve.

Take, for example, a young lady who heard the gospel for the first time last year. We helped provide her with a Bible during a trip that we took in 2007 and, over the past year, church planters have continued to share the gospel with her. Earlier this year, she became a Christian and was baptized.

Another team we support praised God for His work among locals. This team has been training local Muslim background believers to bring the gospel to other people groups. This past year, these believers started sharing with those around them and saw over 100 people make professions of faith. One of those people was a lady who met these believers as she waited by her gate outside her home. When she saw these believers, she was overjoyed since she had had a dream the previous night in which she felt led to stand outside gate the next day!

We also praised God when we heard of another team disseminating copies of the Bible to remote villages during a short-term trip, seeing the Word of God spread to new places. We are now helping this team consider ways they can live permanently close to these villages in order to be more involved in bringing the gospel to some very responsive, yet remote people.

As we support these church planting teams, we are continually amazed at what God is doing among the nations. He is accomplishing His purposes and displaying His wisdom. Although fruit may be slow sometimes, we know that God is working all things to bring Himself glory – and thus work with confidence as we support our teams on the field.


How can others get involved in your mission?

Here at the end of the year, the most influential way people can impact our work is by supporting us financially. We would be grateful for the readers of this blog to consider partnering with us by giving a gift to Access Partners online (http://www.access1040.com/).

But additionally, I encourage readers to educate themselves about the gospel needs and solutions to those needs in the 10/40 window by visiting our website and reading our white papers about business as missions, as well as recent updates from the field about church planting efforts. Sign up for our monthly E-newsletter and Quarterly mailings on our website as well, so that we can keep in touch with you about the work.

Finally, and most importantly, please pray for us. Pray for the church planters we support on the ground. And pray for the lost that we seek to reach with the good news of Christ. Let’s labor together is seeking God’s powerful hand among those who do not yet know Him.

At least that's the take of one journalist after a recently-released Child Trends study (HT: Challies). Truth in advertising: when I worked in the think tank world, Child Trends was an organization that I worked closely with. It's a good shop full of folks with research integrity.

According to the study, dating is passe. Apparently young people now lack the skills to simply ask someone out on a date. If the hook ups go well, then maybe a relationship develops. But not usually. Surprise, surprise; the guys aren't interested in a relationship.

This is the kind of thinking that creates opportunity for the church to give counter-cultural witness and display the wholeness of the good life in Christ. Jan. 4th we're starting up our Friendship, Courtship and Marriage class at FBC, patterned after some of the material from CHBC. What a joy it is to teach this class and to see light bulbs go off among the young and the old. If your church doesn't offer a Sunday school, small group, or Bible study focused on this topic, perhaps suggesting it to the leaders would be a good idea. Our people need it.

Abraham and Barnabas post one of the best tributes I've read to parents on their anniversary. John does a little reminiscing and thanksgiving here. Happy 40th anniversary John and Noel Piper!

Apparently, Mark Dever is leaving CHBC to work full-time as a model with Hanna Barbera. Details here.

This video has been making the rounds (HT: Pyromaniacs). I appreciated it for these questions: "How much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize? How much do you have to hate somebody to believe everlasting life is possible and not tell them that?"




How many churches do you suppose have by-laws that explicitly state that it will not recognize the resignation of people attempting to leave the membership of the church while under discipline? DJP has a survey running.

CT asks, "What does Obama's election mean for the segregated church?" An interview with Michael O. Emerson, one of the authors of Divided by Faith. (HT: Reconciliation Blog)

The careful interpreters at Reformation Theology give the biblical case for God's love for cats and disdain for dogs.

Derek Thomas (okay... just spelling his first name the way he does makes him an honorary brutha and among the coolest--don't tell Piper--PCA cats around; keepin' company with Lig' doesn't hurt either)... yeah, Derek Thomas on his appreciation for John Calvin:

What is it about Calvin that so inspires me? This: his disciplined style, his determination never to speculate, his utter submission to Bible words as God's words, his submission to Christ's Lordship, his sense of the holy, his concern to be as practical as possible; the fact that godly living was his aim and not theology for the sake of it. In a forest of theologians, Calvin stands like a Californian Redwood, towering over everyone else.

I know that the word 'Calvinist' is a theological swear-word in some circles. I am convinced that folk who use the word that way have never read Calvin at all! They may have read about him; but they have not read the careful, reverential way in which he wrote. It is, of course, what Calvin said about predestination that goads certain people. But Calvin was extremely careful not to speculate here. He talked about predestination--in the same way that Paul does in Romans 8 and 9. Rather than introduce election at the very beginning of his treatment on theology (the logical place to put it), he placed it after spelling out what the gospel is and does. Calvin talked about the free offer of the gospel first: that the gospel is for 'whosoever-will'. Only after he has established this does he introduce predestination, and then in the context of re-assuring believers of their eventual glorification (in exactly the same way as Paul does at the end of Romans 8).

What a joy it will be to read the Institutes with my wife in 2009, and then blog with the Ref21 gang: Ian D. Campbell, Ligon Duncan, Sinclair Ferguson, Sean Lucas, Steve Nichols, Rick Phillips, Phil Ryken, Justin Taylor, Derek Thomas, and Carl Trueman. Needless to say, I plan on doing a lot more learning than teaching with this group of brothers! Join us at Blogging the Institutes.

Finally, some ways religion impacted the news in 2008. Not reported: all those who were being added to the number of the faithful each day. The biggest news is how the Good News makes old things new.

Is my favorite! Man, I miss Bob Evans' Restaurant!

I don't believe these stats! I think there is a vast left wing conspiracy to destroy the culinary joy experienced by pork-loving Americans. They can't stand the fact that pork is the "other white meat." Puritans! They're afraid that somebody, somewhere, at some time might actually be enjoying their breakfast!

Dallas Morning News has the details. People for the American Way are disappointed. Then this must be good news on some level.

From the folks at DG and Josh Harris. Here.

When you hang out with the Sovereign Grace guys, you laugh a lot. I mean A LOT! And they don't take prisoners either. You've been with them 10 minutes, you're fair game! I love that. That take Jesus seriously, but not themselves--or you either! I think that's one of their core values or something. Shame a brother into humility.

Take this video from the Worship God conference for example.


In Two Keys at the Same Time from Sovereign Grace Ministries on Vimeo.

About 1,200 witnessed it live. But my dear fried Bob Kauflin, a prince among men, one who would never embarrass you for no good reason, thought this was good enough reason to put Joe out there for the entire blogosphere to laugh at--I mean learn from. These guys are sweet people. With friends like these... :-) LOL

By the way, Worship God, beginning in 2009, is becoming an annual event! In my opinion, it's the best conference of its kind. I don't know where there is more laughter, joy, solid singing and music, and useful spiritual and practical instruction. Excellent stuff.

From the folks at Shepherds' Conference:

Dear Shepherd,

As 2008 draws to a close, I want to keep you informed about our Shepherds’ Conference registration. Registrations for the 2009 conference continue to come in at a steady pace and we praise God for that!

As an added incentive to register for the conference, Christian Audio has partnered with us to offer 2 free audio book downloads to anyone who registers for the Shepherds’ Conference between now and January 15th. If you register in time, you will be able to download Ashamed of the Gospel by John MacArthur and He Is Not Silent by Al Mohler. These books are outstanding ministry resources authored by two of our own keynote speakers for 2009.

So here’s how it works. Just go to www.shepherdsfellowhship.org to register for the conference. Upon registration you will receive a confirmation email that will include Christian Audio’s website and the download code to download your 2 free books. Additionally, Christian Audio will be a vendor in our conference bookstore featuring many of their audio book products.

Finally, the Shepherds’ Fellowship will be launching a new website at the beginning of the year and I will email you pertinent information about that at the beginning of January. I am excited to extend you this limited time registration offer, and I hope to see many of you at the conference this coming year. On behalf of the Shepherds’ Conference staff, I want to wish you a Merry Christmas!


Lord’s Blessings,
Brent Small
Shepherds’ Conference Director

Seems today is a day for video posts. But I thought you all would enjoy this holiday greeting from the folks at 9Marks!

What happens when you mix Kirk Cameron and John MacArthur with a TBN audience???

First comes the stunning silence, then the screeching wheels of cognitive dissonance. See here:



and here. The last two minutes, meditating on 2 Cor. 5:21 are worth the entire video (which is excellent in its entirety).



MacArthur's line at T4G this year has stuck with me: "Hard truth makes soft people." I think these videos are exhibit a in support of that statement. Who loves the truth and yet can remain hard at such clear, Christ-exalting teaching?!

HT: A Daughter's Thoughts...