Missio Dei Suburbia

Driscoll on Building A Theological Library

From The Resurgence:

Building a Theological Library

• Glynn, John. Commentary and Reference Survey: A Comprehensive Guide to Biblical and Theological Resources
• Longman, Tremper, III. Old Testament Commentary Survey

Reading through the Entire Bible

• Mears, Henrietta C. What the Bible Is All About
• Fee, Gordon D, and Douglas Stuart. How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth

How to Study the Bible

• Doriani, Daniel M. Getting the Message: A Plan for Interpreting and Applying the Bible
• Duvall, J. Scott and John Daniel Hays. Grasping God's Word: A Hands-On Approach to Reading, Interpreting, and Applying the Bible
• Longman, Tremper, III. Reading the Bible with Heart and Mind

Bible Dictionaries

• Marshall, I. Howard. New Bible Dictionary
• Unger, Merrill. The New Unger's Bible Dictionary
• Tenney, Merrill. Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible

Topical Bible

• Nave, Orville J. Nave's Compact Topical Bible

Cross-Reference

• Torrey, R.A. The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Bible Atlas

• Brisco, Thomas C. Holman Bible Atlas: A Complete Guide to the Expansive Geography of Biblical History
• Pfeiffer, Charles F. Baker's Bible Atlas

Gospel Coalition Notes - Keller, Piper Driscoll

The Gospel Coalition National Conference began yesterday - here are notes/manuscripts from several of the main sessions:

• Tim Keller
• John Piper
• Mark Driscoll

You can watch the live webcast today here. Audio and video from yesterday's sessions should be available later today.

John Piper Interview With Matt Chandler

Matt Chandler is one of the best communicators I've ever been around. Here's an interview that John Piper recently did with Matt:

• Part 1 - Chandler tells his story up to about 20 years old.
• Part 2 - More on Chandler's story, through becoming a pastor.
• Part 3 - Chandler's thoughts on being a pastor, a Calvinist, and a Complementarian.
• Part 4 - Chandler and Piper finish up with some advice for pastors.

(HT: JT)

Mark Driscoll and Deepak Chopra Face-Off on Nightline

[UPDATE: The entire debate can be seen here.]

Last week at Mars Hill Church in Seattle, ABC's Nightline hosted a debate that included Mark Driscoll and Deepak Chopra. It airs tonight (Thursday, March 26th). Mars Hill Executive Pastor Jamie Munson was there and makes the following observations:

1. The debate was more about Jesus than Satan.
2. Mars Hill volunteers expressed hospitality.
3. There were lots of laughs.
4. Mars Hill folks engaged non-Christians in conversation.
5. Annie Lobert (who was on Driscoll's 'team' supporting the reality of Satan) expressed a heartfelt love for Jesus.
6. Deepak Chopra admitted he cannot trust his own mind.
7. Bishop Carlton Pearson (the other member of Chopra's 'team') quoted lots of Scripture, but...
8. God's Word was the closing argument.

Read the whole thing here.

A Church of the Cross

From Tim Chester:

The great Reformer Martin Luther spoke of theologies of glory and a theology of the cross. Theologies of glory look for the revelation of God in his mighty works: creation, miracles, spiritual experiences. But this kind of knowledge, said Luther, only puffs people up. Instead God has chosen to reveal himself supremely in the cross. And that means revelation is only discernible by faith. Only by faith do we see in the weakness, foolishness, and shame of the cross the power, wisdom, and victory of God. Theologies of glory lead to pride. The theology of the cross leads to humility—or, in Luther’s language, humiliation.

Now apply the same idea to our churches. Churches of glory will put their confidence in mighty works: stage performances, big budgets, large numbers, powerful arguments, charismatic preachers. A church of the cross will be characterized by power in weakness, wisdom in foolishness, victory in shame. Its confidence will be in the sovereignty of God, the presence of his Spirit, and the power of his Word. Jesus said the kingdom of God has been given to “my little flock.” Most of the time it will be under the radar. But, like yeast in dough, it will grow unseen to fill the earth.

Getting Ready for Easter - The Death of Death

Easter is more difficult to communicate than Christmas. We find it rather simple to talk about the birth of a baby compared to the brutal murder of an innocent man. Incarnation is more accessible than exaltation. 'He's here' is easier to swallow than 'he'll be back soon.'

So maybe this will help...

The central New Testament belief is that death will be not simply redefined but defeated. God's intention is not to let death have its way with us. If the promised final future is simply that immortal souls leave behind their mortal bodies, then death still rules - since that is a description not of the defeat of death but simply of death itself, seen from one angle.

NT Wright, Surprised By Hope, 15.

Struggling to Live on Mission?

Why do we have such a hard time living among non-Christians and loving them into the kingdom?

From Martyn Lloyd-Jones:

Once a man has the love of Christ in his heart you need not train him to witness; he will do it. He will know the power, the constraint, the motive; everything is already there. It is a plain lie to suggest that people who regard this knowledge of the love of Christ as the supreme thing are useless, unhealthy mystics. The servants of God who have most adorned the life and the history of the Christian Church have always been men who have realized that this is the most important thing of all, and they have spent hours in prayer seeking His face and enjoying His love. The man who knows the love of Christ in his heart can do more in one hour than the busy type of man can do in a century. God forbid that we should ever make of activity an end in itself. Let us realize that the motive must come first, and that the motive must ever be the love of Christ.

(HT: Adrian Warnock)

U2 - Theological Reviews

Two more reviews of U2's No Line on the Horizon - both of these look at the theology of the album:

Steve Harmon

Bob Flayhart

Sexy Boots - A Call to the Church?

Bob Flayhart, pastor of Oak Mountain Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, wonders if this isn't part of the message in U2's song 'Get On Your Boots':

So, Church, cry out to Christ to meet this broken world with His grace; Cry out that He will put on His boots and trample His enemies that foster hatred and violence. And Church, come join the song and fight against evil...fight against the violence and hatred...Church, be the redemptive force in the world you are called to be! Now, do I know that Bono means all this...not really. After all, he hasn't called me and talked about the song. But I will say this...what I've written would be completely in line with the symbolism and poetic layering he has used in the past.

The rest of the post is here. What do you think?

 

Monday Morning Rewind: Being a Spirit-Filled Church

As our church celebrates the very real evidences of God's grace and struggles with our flaws, imperfections and lack of love for God and neighbor, we're reminded of God's call to be a people who are filled with his Spirit (Ephesians 5:18).

But what does that mean? While resisting the temptation to reduce the Holy Spirit to a cosmic fuel pump and being reminded that God the Spirit has already come to us in his fullness, what we have is a picture of a people who are growing in wisdom maturity, a people whose life together is marked by a very real and radical declaration and display of God's infinite value because of the presence of the Spirit.

Andreas Kostenberger writes:

True discipleship is a complex and long-term process. Believers are to work out their salvation, knowing that God is working in them to complete his good purposes (Phil 1:6; 2:12). With regard to Spirit-filling, emphasis should again be placed on God who sovereignly filled in answer to believers' prayers or desires, but at any rate for the sake of his glory or by his own choice and initiative. Thus believers should be advised to shed any undue preoccupation with whether they are filled with the Spirit, focusing rather on living obedient Christian lives that are increasingly characterized by the Spirit's presence. At times they may be too involved in ministry even to recognize their need to be filled with the Spirit, but the sovereign God who bestows the Spirit will nevertheless 'fill' them with the Spirit if he deems it necessary.

So for us as a church, being Spirit-filled is not a calling to a new emphasis as much as the hope that what we do emphasize - living as a movement of people who share an identity, life and mission - becomes increasingly evident as time goes on as the Spirit brings everything back to Jesus as our hope and help.

For more reading on the person and work of the Holy Spirit, check out this page over at Monergism - a ton of resources by Spurgeon, Piper, Luther, Owen and many others.