The Gospel for OC | blog » Click On These

Click On These [9/8]

The Gospel For OC — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 13:20:02 +0000

Crossway’s NEW September releases!
Our friends at Crossway have five new releases this month.

The Gospel Coalition Women’s Initiative
Exciting stuff. Meet Kathleen Nielsen. She is helping TGC launch a women’s initiative. Don Carson writes, “She is one of several women who will be leading breakout sessions at the 2011 national conference in Chicago. Other exciting TGC projects and events are in the planning stages.”

Two New Podcasts from Al Mohler
After he shut down his radio broadcast, everyone wondered what Al Mohler would be up to next. And here we have it. Al Mohler launched two new podcasts: The Briefing, which presents “a daily report of the important theological, cultural and ethical issues facing Christians in the 21st century.”; and Thinking in Public, “an interview forum for intelligent conversation about frontline theological and cultural issues.” (HT:JT)

What It Means to be Truly Reformed
A great post by Ray Ortlund, Jr.

Here Is Your God
Here Is Your God is the latest worship album from Grace Evangelical Free Church (La Mirada, CA). It features songs drawn out of the book of Isaiah.

Out-of-print Books for Your iPad or iPhone
Jeff Brewer tells you how to get out-of-print books from Google Books onto your iPhone or iPad for free.

Beginning with Moses
BWM is a great website full of articles and book reviews—all pertaining to biblical theology. It was recently re-launched.

Click On These [9/1]

The Gospel For OC — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 18:03:18 +0000

Biblia.com
Sign up for a free account at Logos Bible Software’s new project Biblia.com and get access to 37 online bible study resources. Look up a passage in Scripture, then read from a corresponding commentary. Genius.

8 Easy Ways to Be Missional
Jonathan Dodson: “Missional is not an event we tack onto our already busy lives. It is our life. Mission should be the way we live, not something we add onto life: ‘As you go, make disciples….’; “Walk wisely towards outsiders’; ‘Let your speech always be seasoned with salt’; ‘be prepared to give a defense for your hope’. We can be missional in everyday ways without overloading our schedules.”

3 Ways Facebook Places Could Assist You Being “Salt & Light”
Last week, Facebook rolled out their latest new function, Facebook Places, allowing users to “check in” to a specific location (a la GPS) and attribute their profile updates to that place. Love it or hate it, Nathan Bingham introduces three ways that Christians can use Places as a tool to be “salt and light” in their cities (Matt 5:13-16).

Free Book from Don Carson
A new book by Don Carson, From the Resurrection to His Return: Living Faithfully in the Last Days, is free for PDF download.

@BibleSummary
This person is tweeting the entire Bible, chapter by chapter, day by day, tweet by tweet—from Genesis to Revelation, all via Twitter.

The Snare of Compare
Geared toward the ladies: The Girltalk blog team addresses women who fall into the traps of sinful envy and comparison.

Click On These [8/16]

The Gospel For OC — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 08:14:28 +0000

Neue Magazine interview with Pastor Mark Driscoll
Mark Driscoll talks with Neue Magazine about comparing true doctrine vs. dogma, the challenges of today’s culture, the neo-Reformed movement, young men in the church, the responsibilities of the younger generation, and why he wants to be less “shock jock” and more Jesus-centered.

A Grace-filled Engagement
“The problem with most marriages is a lack of submission—to God.” Lynn Roush reviews the book What Did You Expect? by Paul Tripp. This book comes highly recommended.

Rest
Pastor JD Greear writes on the places that we tend to seek our rest in, and why true rest is found in God alone.

FREE Chapter from Dug Down Deep: Humble Orthodoxy (Ch.11)
I cannot recommend Joshua Harris’ Dug Down Deep enough. Harris has graciously offered the most popular chapter of the book entirely free.

Eager to Criticize
Dane Ortlund writes a good word of self-reflection that we ought to visit often.

The Pharisees: From Righteous to Religious
Tim Smith reflects: “The reality is that becoming a Pharisee can happen to any of us. And if you think it could never happen to you, then maybe it already has.”

How to Cut Your To-Do List in Half
More practical advice from Michael Hyatt (Thomas Nelson Publishers).

Missional Activism
Tim Gaydos writes: “As Christians sent into our respective cities, we are called to be the very best citizens of that city. We are to work for the peace, safety, security, vibrancy, and future of our city, plus the common good of all of our neighbors. A gospel-centered church is one that takes this mission seriously.” Orange County, here we are!

Experiential Theology
Joe Thorn talks with Jonathan Dodson about theology and discipleship. At one point in the interview, Dodson wisely recognizes, “…discipleship has been reduced to having a good marriage, handling finances well, raising good children, securing a future, and knowing your Bible. Our mission is very different than Jesus’ mission, our lives very different than Jesus’ life. This should scare us.” The whole interview is worth a read.

Click On These [8/9/10]

The Gospel For OC — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 03:22:54 +0000

FREE at ChristianAudio.com
Every month, ChristianAudio graciously offers one of their selections entirely free. August’s free audiobook is Tim Keller’s Ministries of Mercy. It’s a good listen on Christian responsibility and the fight against social apathy.

How God Uses Evil for Good
One example of how God uses evil for good in the life of Randy Alcorn (author of Heaven and If God is Good)

A “New Agnosticism” — Coming Soon?
Al Mohler on what he calls the “new agnosticism”: No one seems quite sure what to do with agnostics. In a sense, they are the odd cousins at the theological family reunion. The atheists and the theists know where they stand, but the agnostics? Who knows?

How to Make Sure You Destroy Your Marriage with an Affair
Pretty straightforward exhortation by Perry Noble—and good to read, whether married or not.

The Worry Hour
Justin Buzzard on how he deals with worry in his own life. He writes: The Bible is clear: ‘worry is sin.’ My experience is clear: ‘worry is no fun.’ The pragmatics are clear: ‘worry doesn’t help.’

Are You Content with Your Weaknesses?
Jon Bloom at Desiring God: In 2 Corinthians 11-12, Paul describes one of the most difficult things for us to grasp and believe about the life of faith: God purposefully blesses us with weaknesses for the sake of our joy.

Anne Rice Hasn’t Betrayed You
Anne Rice recently “renounced Christianity” and everyone and their dog seemed to have an opinion about it—including myself(Chris). I found this blog post by my friend Dr. Russell Moore to be the best; he writes with wisdom and grace. Convicting.

Idle Conversation
Great question from Joe Thorn: Why do some of us so quickly default to fun but fruitless conversations without an aim or effort to speak to one another about things that matter?

Tweology
Not sure how long this has been around, but I just recently discovered Tweology. This twitter-ministry of Nathan Bingham is “bringing theology to Twitter.” Looks legit. Follow it! (HT: NB)

Click On These [7/30]

The Gospel For OC — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 15:28:21 +0000

The Value of Theology with Ray Ortlund
Our friend, Pastor Joe Thorn, conducts a great interview with Ray Ortlund, Jr. on the value of theology. Ray offers answers to why theology matters, how one can grow theologically and what good-theology-gone-bad looks like.

Scraps of Thoughts on Daily Prayer
Offering “scraps of thoughts on daily prayer”, Tim Keller explains how he approaches his prayer life throughout the day. This article is not meant to be prescriptive, but rather, it should serve us by encouraging us to ask ourselves: How do I pray throughout my day?

The Omega Male
Eye-opening article and exhortation on the growing trend of “omega males,” written by friend and OC native Nick Bogardus.

“Husbands, Love Your Wives” A Practical Suggestion & Tool for Husbands to Use in Leading their Marriages…”
Rob Lister provides a great article, filled with solid advice and a practical tool for married couples to use in evaluating their marriage.

Great Deals:

The Essential Edwards Collection: Half Off ALL WEEKEND. I highly recommend this resource as an excellent primer on Jonathan Edwards, “America’s greatest theologian.”
The Pursuit of God (A.W. Tozer): FREE until Sunday at ChristianAudio.com

Social Media and the New Culture of Sharing
Michael Hyatt of Thomas Nelson Publishers offers some insight on information-sharing in the, well, information age.

Assist News Article about Daisy Merrick
Allison Trowbridge, journalist and Communications Director for the Not For Sale campaign, writes an article for Assist News on the unfolding story of Daisy Merrick. Please continue to pray for her!

Click On These [7/23]

The Gospel For OC — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 09:40:38 +0000

Your Procrastination is Sin
Some great thoughts on procrastination. Joe Thorn writes: ”Procrastination is an ugly sin that leads us away from engaging and enjoying the gifts and responsibilities God gives us.”

Are You Really a Christian?
Owen Strachan posted this article at the Resurgence; it is adapted from Jonathan Edwards on True Christianity. Jonathan Edwards lists 5 marks of true Christian conversion:

You love Jesus
You hate sin
You love God’s Word
You love Truth
You love believers.

Reader’s Greek and Hebrew Bible
This looks so sweet. For all you seminarians and/or biblical language buffs, Zondervan just released this amazing resource. From their website: “Ideal for students, pastors, and instructors familiar with the biblical languages, A Reader’s Hebrew and Greek Bible saves time and effort in studying the Bible.” View a sample.

When Should You Confront Someone About Their Sin?
Have you ever asked this question? John Piper offers some biblical insight.

Elliott Grudem on Reformed Theology and the Danger of Pride
Dustin Neeley on his recent interview with Elliott Grudem: “At the recent Acts 29 Boot Camp in Raleigh, NC, I sat down with Acts 29 Pastor Elliot Grudem to talk about Reformed Theology and the pride that often accompanies it. This is a great word for all of us no matter what tribe we find ourselves in.”

The Problem with Pastor as Rock Star
Ed Stetzer guest posts at the Challies blog. It’s worth a gander.

Francis Chan on the Importance of Loving the Lost

Abba Changes Everything
Russell D. Moore (dean of Southern Babtist Theological Seminary) wrote the cover story for Christianity Today’s issue on Christian adoption and orphans. I love this article.

Click on These [7/9]

The Gospel For OC — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 08:21:45 +0000

We invite you to “click on these”:

What is the Gospel? free on the Amazon Kindle and the Apple iBookstore
At the Crossway blog: Greg Gilbert’s What is the Gospel? is available for free this month on Amazon’s Kindle and in the iBook store! But just as the gospel isn’t only for us individually, our desire is that this content would reach well beyond those of you who download it for free!

Scheduling Time in the “Alone Zone”
The Orange County workplace is a busy place. Whether you labor away as a business professional, a blue collar worker, a student, or in full-time ministry, you know that if you want to be effective with your time, you need to be intentional with it. Michael Hyatt, Chairman and CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, provides a wise word on time management and getting to your “alone zone.”

ESV.to URL shortener
Also at the Crossway blog: We have developed a URL shortening service for the ESV Bible: ESV.to. URL shorteners simply convert long addresses into shorter ones (helpful for Twitter, for example, where character count is important). Bookmark www.esv.to to quickly generate shortened URLs for the ESV Online.

The Blessings of the New Media
Ed Stetzer writes for Tabletalk Magazine on how social media can be used for gospel proclamation. Like all good things common to man, social media can be either a distraction or a blessing. It depends on what we do with them. Some say they take too much time — which tells me they may not be familiar with tools such as Twitter or Facebook.

Meet the Rizers
Re:Sound introduces their latest installment–the Rizers. The Rizers are a music group that started with the vision of producing “an album of Scripture based, guitar-pop worship songs for kids.” The project started as a series of jingles to help children memorize Bible verses. You can download a few tracks for any price you choose.

Trip Lee interview
Justin Taylor interviews Trip Lee about his new album Between Two Worlds.

Westminster Bookstore Sale
Westminster Bookstore is moving it’s warehouse. To make up for lost time (since they cannot ship anything until the move is over), they are hosting an insane sale on many great books, including all ESV Bibles from Crossway. Any orders placed will be shipped July 14.

Click On These [06/01]*

The Gospel For OC — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 00:18:40 +0000

The Noise Sound Doctrine Makes
Scott Thomas (Acts 29 Network President) outlines six reasons that good doctrine makes good sense, drawing from Ligon Duncan in Proclaiming a Cross-Centered Theology.

7 Things I’m Doing to Simplify My Life
Dave Kraft (Leadership Development Pastor – Mars Hill Church) offers seven things he is doing to simplify both his life and ministry, getting rid of the clutter and maximizing his effectiveness.

Ask Paul Tripp : Full length video available
Desiring God hosted “a 2-hour live question and answer session with Paul Tripp. If you weren’t able to tune in then, you can watch the full-length video below.The discussion ranges from Paul’s mustache to parenting, marriage, and beyond. A very worthwhile two hours—seriously.”

Tim Challies’ Top Ten Biographies List
Well-known Canadian blogger Tim Challies—of Challies.com: Informing the Reforming—and avid book reader, compiles a list of his ten favorite biographies. It’s a solid list for some good summer reading.

7 Theology Books for the Beach
Speaking of summer reading, Christianity Today writer Collin Hansen put together a list of “new releases that make theology accessible and practical while staying true to Scripture.” More good summer reading for ya.

Think Conference trailer

John Piper narrates:

Thinking is one of the most hazardous things we do.

The Apostle Paul warns, ‘knowledge puffs up,’ but he also commands, ‘In your thinking be mature.’ The use of our mind is absolutely necessary for being human and worshipful. So do this dangerous thing, but do it well.

For many years, this has perplexed me. The call to think biblically seemed utterly necessary, but not ultimate. Thinking is for the sake of something greater. And that greater thing is loving God. So the act of loving God will always need right thinking about God.

The Church—and especially, the American church—have a long history of anti-intellectualism. Intellectualism has attacked and dishonored both the Church and God, and so rejection is understandable, but this does not end well. When the faithful, rigorous life of the mind is diminished, the spiritual benefits don’t last. The very thing we wanted to protect is eventually weakened.

The great commandment is to love God with everything in us, and that includes our minds. If our means of loving is restricted, then our love for God weakens. Our head and our heart must be united for Christ to produce God-honoring action and long-lasting satisfaction.

Would you join us in exploring this connection between thinking and loving God?

*To suggest a link or article for this ongoing series, e-mail info@thegospelforoc.com

Click On These [5/23]

The Gospel For OC — Mon, 24 May 2010 00:07:10 +0000

Jesus & Buddha On Happiness
Jon Bloom over at Desiring God gives a brief account on the biographical history of Prince Gautama Siddharta (aka Buddha), contrasting his philosophy with the biblical teachings of Jesus: “Jesus and the Buddha agreed that pursuing ultimate happiness in transient things is futile. But they direct us to opposite solutions. The Buddha says satisfaction is treasuring no thing. Jesus says it is treasuring God.”

Steve Jobs, the iPhone & Porn
Last week, Pete over at Grace City posted about a recent exchange between Steve Jobs and an Apple customer regarding the pornography restrictions on the iPhone Apple Store: “over the moral issue of pornography, Jobs is happy to tell customers to buy a different product. He argues that children and innocence ought to be preserved—and that trumps the dollar.” Interesting article.

The New Normal On Abortion: More American are “Pro Life”
Interesting article, with graphs and data from the Gallup Poll.

An Interview with Mark Driscoll on the Book Doctrine
The hybrid biblical/systematic theology book Doctrine is creating quite a buzz among young evangelicals. Justin Taylor, Editorial Director of Crossway, interviews Pastor Mark Driscoll on the book that cost Mars Hill Church one thousand members and gave him an intestinal ulcer, along with thoughts on whether the “New Calvinism” will hold its ground in seasons ahead.

The Resurgence: Book Giveaway :: Christian Theologies of Scripture
The Resurgence is giving away six free copies of Christian Theologies of Scripture, edited by Justin Holcomb (of Re:Train and Reformed Theological Seminary), with a chapter by Michael Horton (of Westminster Seminary and White Horse Inn). Click through for directions on how to enter and links to free chapters. Looks good.

Click On These [3/17]

The Gospel For OC — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 00:20:58 +0000

Psalm 3: Learning How To Process & Approach Life

Justin Buzzard shares his takeaway from a morning devotion on the lines of Psalm 3: “I love this psalm because its structure brings order to my often disordered life. I want to process and approach life the way Psalm 3 teaches me to do it.” Consider this helpful reflection and imagine if your day looked like this!

Preaching As Though We Had Enemies

A la Twitter, John Piper called this one of the best essays on preaching he had ever read. In the essay, Stanley Hauerwas writes, “God has entrusted us, His Church, with the best story in the world. With great ingenuity we have managed, with the aid of much theory, to make that story boring as hell.” He offers some wise words for any Christian sharing the Gospel (not just preachers). Click the link to read the whole article.

Free Downloads at Christianaudio.com

Speaking of John Piper, just in case you missed it: This month both John Piper’s Fifty Reasons Jesus Came to Die and Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s The Cost of Discipleship are available in convenient mp3 format at Christianaudio.com… FREE.

Doctrine: What Christians Should Believe

Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears forthcoming book, Doctrine: What Christians Should Believe, hits shelves on March31. Read excerpts from each chapter on the Re:Lit website.

How Should Christians Read The News?

Westminster Seminary professor and Modern Reformation magazine editor-in-chief Michael Horton provides some biblical insight on how Christians should approach news media.