Sons of Thunder

My wife, Katie, and I are huge fans of the worship music that comes out of Mars Hill Church in Seattle.  The music has a pretty awesome Seattle/indie feel to it.  The Church has made available quite a few live MP3's available for download on their website.  Check out this sample of the amazing song "Redemption" from their band Sons of Thunder.  

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Together for the Gospel- Christmas Edition

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What is Christmas?

That's Christmas! from andy pearce on Vimeo.

If you're tired of the commerciality and exploitation of the Christmas season and you've ever wondered what Christmas is all about... you should check out this video.

The Role of Reason in Coming to Faith

For my New Testament Theology class at Wheaton with Dr. Nicholas Perrin, we were recently asked to do an online bulletin board post and interact with other students in regard to the role of reason in coming to faith.  My professor was looking for some integrated theological thinking from the New Testament that bears on this issue.  So, for what its worth, here's what I posted on the Wheaton bulletin board for my class.    

At the outset, I believe that it is important to first lay down a definition of what I mean by the concept of “reason” as I approach this discussion. Although the concept has been weakened in our postmodern climate, reason is often understood in terms of the autonomous reason that grew out of the period of the Enlightenment. In this case, reason is a universal principle to which all of life must conform and by which all things are judged, even the concept of “God”. Such a concept of reason has no place within a Christian worldview shaped by the Bible. The New Testament makes it clear that all things are created by and for Christ and that He continues moment by moment to uphold the created order by the word of his power (Col 1:15-17 & Jn 1:3). So, there are no universal principles at work in the world that do not have their source and continuance constantly upheld by Jesus.

While Christians should reject the autonomous reason of the Enlightenment, there is a Biblical place for reason in New Testament Theology. This definition of “reason” is the rational faculty or cognition that human beings possess by virtue of their being created in the Image of God. However, the problem with this reason is that, as Paul points out in Rom 3:9-20 and 1 Cor 1:21 & 2:14, it is fallen and unable to seek God or find Him on its own.

If unaided human reason is thus useless with regard to faith so that it does not even begin to seek after God, what then is its role in a human being coming to faith? I think that we must affirm that the New Testament writers use language which expresses the exercise of human rational faculties in the process of salvation. Language such as “seeing”, “hearing”, “knowing”, “receiving”, etc all speaks of the human exercise of the rational faculties. However, it is part of the process of coming to faith in such a way that it cannot be said that man works together or cooperates with God in the process of coming to faith. Nowhere is this made more explicit than in 1 Cor 1:18-2:16. Wisdom which equates to a profound grasp of Christ’s eschatological victory and atonement on the Cross, is mediated to human beings only by the Spirit. Human reason or wisdom, unaided, is of no value and so must be brought about by the Spirit who imparts True Wisdom embodied in Christ crucified. This spiritual “making alive” is not done apart from human responsibility. The Spirit energizes our reason so that we are willingly drawn to Christ and call out to God for grace. This is done in such a way that human beings can in no way claim credit for this astonishing work of God’s grace through Jesus. It is, as Paul said, “all for the praise of his (God’s) glory.”

20 Books in your 20's

In keeping with the book them I seem to have going, I thought I'd post a link to Justin over at the Buzzard Blog who has compiled a list of "20 books to read in your 20's".  I have read many of these books on his list and have heard very good things about the one's I haven't read.  So, I pray that this list can be helpful for your faith and walk with Jesus.  

A Few Books I'm Looking Forward to Reading in the Next Few Months

As a follow up to my last post, I thought I just list a few books that I'm excited to read in the next few months.  Whether or not that will actually happen is another story since I'm always too ambitious in my reading plans.  Maybe God will be gracious and I'll have the time and discipline to finish them all...

1. We Become What We Worship: A Biblical Theology of Idolatry by G.K. Beale

2. The Resurrection of the Son of God by N.T. Wright

3. Death By Love: Letters from the Cross by Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears

4. Total Church: A Radical Reshaping Around Gospel and Community by Tim Chester and Steve Timmis

5. John Newton: From Disgrace to Amazing Grace by Jonathan Aitken

6. Communion with the Triune God by John Owen

7. Moby Dick by Herman Melville

• I was encouraged recently that technical exegesis is not truly reading.  It is common for Biblical Scholars to get so caught up in the details of exegesis that they forget how to read literature AS literature.  

Top 10 Books I've Read this Year (In no particular order)

A lot of bloggers tend to give a "Top 10" list at the end of the year.  While I am in no way a consistent blogger, I've read quite a few books in the last year both for personal edification and for school.  I thought I would post the top 10 from this past year with a run down on each one.  So, here goes:

1. Isaiah's New Exodus in Mark by Rikki Watts:

This book has literally revolutionized how I see not only the gospels but also Biblical Theology in general.  It's a quite technical read but is worth the effort in order to understand Jesus' significance and to feed your faith!

2. The Temple and the Church's Mission by G.K. Beale:

If you're not familiar with the writings of Dr. Beale, you need to get familiar as quickly as possible!  While also on the technical side, Beale gives a maximalist account of Biblical Theology in light of the Temple theme.  Has massive implications for how we read the Bible and how we function as a Church.

3. When I Don't Desire God by John Piper:

This MAY be the best book that John Piper has ever written on the Christian life.  It combines his robust theology of Christian Hedonism with the practical nuts and bolts of striving after God to enjoy Him even while our passions are pathetically weak.

4. The Peacemaker by Ken Sande:

I had the privilege of reading through this great book this summer in a couples bible study at my church.  It is ostensibly a book on Biblical conflict resolution (which it is) but it has much wider implications for my life than simply conflict resolution.  This is really a manual on how to apply the Gospel to every relationship in your life!

5. The Institutes of the Christian Religion by John Calvin:

While I have read portions of the Institutes before this year, I was able this fall, to read through the entire institutes over the course of a semester.  It has been breathtaking to see the broad-brush overview of Calvin's thought.  It has also served to reinforce in my mind the dictum that there is nothing new under the sun!  Most if not all of the controversies that Calvin was involved with in his day have some sort of contemporary representation among the theological challenges to Orthodox, Reformed teaching.

6. God Crucified by Richard Bauckham:

All I can say about this book is "WOW!"  In such a short book Bauckham manages to weave an incredible picture of Jesus' divinity in light of OT and first century Jewish thought.  This is not a dry scholarly work, it will feed your faith and cause you to worship Jesus in new and greater ways!

7. Gospel-Centered Hermeneutics by Graeme Goldsworthy:

Extremely helpful for seeing how the entire Bible relates to Jesus.  This is not simplistic I-See-Jesus in every passage of the Old Testament.  The Gospel message about Jesus Christ is not simply the result of our Biblical Interpretation, it is also the grounds of our interpretation!

8. The Mission of God by Christopher J.H. Wright:

I technically read this book last fall but I'm including it here because I'm beginning to take my college guys small group through it this year.  This is probably one of my top 5 all time books.  If you haven't read it, you need to... 'Nuff said!

9. The Glory of the Atonement edited by Charles Hill and Frank James:

A collection of Biblical and Theological essays defending a classic penal-substitutionary view of the atonement.  Extremely helpful for clarifying the discussion of the atonement.  Most of the authors in the work see penal-substitution as the central facet of the atonement but also have a healthy understanding that it is not the only facet of the atonement that the Bible presents.

10. How to Pray for Your Wife by Mark Weathers:

This is a 31 day devotional guide intended to help men pray for their wives by using... what else... Proverbs 31!  While I can't stand behind all of his exegesis of Prov 31, his suggestions on prayer for wives are extremely helpful.  God has used this to help me be more faithful in praying for Katie.