Heroes

The oxford dictionary defines a hero as, "a man who exhibits extraordinary...greatness of soul, in connection with any pursuit, work or enterprise."

God intends for us to have heroes in the faith (Heb. 13:7).

Who are your heroes? Who are those who have exhibited extraordinary greatness of soul in the work of Christ? Who are those worthy of your imitation?

Please comment. I'd love to hear who your heroes are.

Radical is Radical

I haven't been this excited about a new book in a while. David Platt's Radical is must reading. And, more than just reading it, we need to live it.

I'll be posting a review of Radical next week. But, for now, check out the video with Platt talking about the book and request to get a free copy of the booklet that summarizes the book, The Radical Question.

Here is the official book website where you can watch the video.

Dear WTS Books, please get this book soon!

Church Planting is for....

Wimps.

Clearance Books

WTS has some good stuff on clearance right now. ESV Study Bibles, Josh Harris, and more.

The Church Defines God's Love for the World

Here is how Jonathan Leeman summarizes the argument of his new book, The Church and the Surprising Offense of God's Love:

"Insofar as the gospel presents the world with the most vivid picture of God's love, and insofar as church membership and discipline are an implication of the gospel, local church membership and discipline in fact define God's love for the world" (p. 17).

Persevere in disciple-making

“The deceptively simple task of disciple-making is made demanding, frustrating and difficult in our world, not because it is so hard to grasp but because it is so hard to persevere in.”

The Trellis and the Vine, p. 151.

Gospel Implications for Evangelism

J. Mack Stiles gives us some implications of the gospel for personal evangelism. How does the message of the gospel inform our witness?

• The gospel shapes our view of people.
• We share our faith with joy, since our hearts are filled with gratitude about Christ's work in us.
• We can be generous with our faith since we know God's generous love.
• We do not fear the rejections of others since we know that we are accepted by God.
• We witness with humility since salvation is by grace through faith.
• We share without manipulation because true faith is from God alone and cannot be manipulated.
• We share freely with all because we know he redeemed us; as a result, there can't be difficult cases beyond the grace of God.
• Our proclamation of the gospel is filled with truth and grace because our message is filled with truth and grace.

Marks of the Messenger, pp. 57-58.

T4G Day 3 Recap

Lig Duncan helped us understand how to rightly read the Church Fathers (those who wrote during the first 3 centuries after Christ).

Matt Chandler was given some time to model suffering well for the glory of God. I so appreciate how Matt is allowing us to see his faith. We prayed for God to heal Matt.

CJ Mahaney took a few minutes after Matt spoke to challenge us to prepare our churches to suffer well. He challenged us to believe the gospel in the midst of suffering.

CJ Mahaney ended the conference with a very soul-edifying challenge to be faithful to the task. God gave me fresh passion to press on through his message. And, it was classic CJ: funny and helpful.

You can listen to or watch all of the messages from T4G here.

2 Marriage Books on Sale Today

1. What Did You Expect? By Paul Tripp ($9)
2. This Momentary Marriage by Piper ($5)

T4G Day 2 Giveaway Books

1. Dug Down Deep
2. The Jesus You Can't Ignore
3. The Gospel for Muslims
4. What is the Gospel?
5. Scandalous
6. Finally Alive
7. The Plight of Man and the Power of God
8. One of these 5 new Edwards' books

I saw that we are getting 4 more books in the morning. None of them on my list of possible books. Looks like I got 5 out of 8 (which would be a great batting average if we were playing baseball).

T4G Day 2 part 2 Recap

Shai Linne brought the hip-hop theology. Excellent.

John Piper brought justification by faith alone in Jesus' teaching. He said that we need to repent of our repentance.

T4G Day 2 part 1 Recap

Sang a great Newton song that I had never heard this morning about suffering.

Thabiti ripped it up. "Redeeming the culture" leads to adjusting the gospel. Pastors are not called to engage the culture. I'm looking forward to a response from Keller and others.

MacArthur preached from Mark 4 about the fact that we don't produce results. God saves people, not us. Therefore, we sow and sleep. God causes the growth.

Love hanging out with Jonathan and Rob. These are great brother pastors.

Went to David Platt's breakout session. Paul said, "keep your eyes on those who walk according to the gospel." This is a brother I've got my eye on. He has a wonderful command of the Scripture. Affected deeply by the gospel and the implications of the gospel to missions. Powerful talk.

Piper tonight.

T4G Day 1 Recap

Long line to register.

Love to sing God's praises with 7,000+ worshippers. Overwhelming at times.

Mark Dever helps me love the church. His talk was vintage Dever. Gospel and Church; Church and Gospel.

RC Sproul challenged us (via live feed) to never try to improve the gospel (it cannot be improved).

Al Mohler warned us against 8 trajectories toward an adjusted gospel.

T4G Day 1 Giveaway Books

1. The Trellis and the Vine
2. The Holiness of God
3. The Unquenchable Flame
4. It is Well
5. The Church and the Surprising Offense of God's Love
6. Proclaiming a Cross-Centered Theology
7. He is Not Silent
8. ESV Study Bible

At WTS Books price (30-40% off retail), that is over $123 worth of books on the first day.

Off to Louisville

God willing, I hope to provide some updates on the Together for the Gospel Conference this week. I'll try to highlight the day's events and (of course) let you know about the books.

Just For Fun: An educated guess at some T4G books

I have no idea which books will be given to those who attend Together for the Gospel. But, that doesn't stop me from guessing. Next week, we'll see how I did.

1. Proclaiming a Cross-Centered Theology (T4G -'08 book).
2. What Does God Want of Us Anyway? (Dever)
3. What is the Gospel? (Gilbert)
4. It is Well (Dever)
5. A Sweet and Bitter Providence (Piper)
6. The Church and the Surprising Offense of God's Love (Leeman)
7. The Gospel for Muslims (Thabiti)
8. New version of Ashamed of the Gospel (MacArthur)

Every Christian is a Vine-Worker

The Trellis and the Vine is a challenging book calling the church back to the main work God has called us to do: speaking the truth to one another in the power of the Spirit. Every Christian is called to this main work, not just church leaders.

The Bible does not say there are 2 classes of disciples, those who abandon all for Christ and those who don't. Every disciple is to be a disciple-maker. We all have the privilege, joy, and responsibility of stirring one another up to good works and encouraging one another daily.

The God Who is There

Looks like this is going to be a great resource in seeking to make disciples by teaching them to observe all that Jesus commanded: The God Who is There by DA Carson.

T4G Schedule

If you are going to T4G, which scheduled talk are you most excited about? If you are not going, which would you be most excited about?

Tuesday, April 13
Session 1: Mark Dever — The Church is the Gospel Made Visible

Session 2: R C Sproul — The Defense and Confirmation of the Gospel — What I Have Learned in 50 years

Session 3: Al Mohler — How Does it Happen? Trajectories Toward an Adjusted Gospel

Wednesday, April 14
Session 4: Thabiti Anyabwile — ‘Fine-Sounding Arguments’ — How Wrongly ‘Engaging the Culture’ Adjusts the Gospel

Session 5: John MacArthur — The Theology of Sleep! (Mark 4)

Session 6: John Piper — Did Jesus Preach the Gospel of Evangelicalism?

Thursday, April 15
Session 7: Ligon Duncan — Did the Fathers Know the Gospel?

CJ Mahaney with Matt Chandler

Session 8: CJ Mahaney — Expository Faithfulness (II Timothy 4:1-5)

The Good News We Almost Forgot

I have really enjoyed reading books by Kevin DeYoung. His new one is now available for 45% off for a limited time: The Good News We Almost Forgot: Rediscovering the Gospel in a 16th Century Catechism.

It Is Finished!

On the cross, the Savior declared that His redemptive work was completed (John 19:30). It's just one word in Greek: tetelestai. This one word is full of meaning and significance.

This is not the moan of a defeated man resigning to his fate. This is not a sigh of relief because the physical suffering is over. No, this is the triumphant recognition that He has now fully accomplished the work He came to do. This is the cry of triumph.

Spurgeon said of this cry, “it would need all the other words that ever were spoken, or ever can be spoken, to explain this one word. It is altogether immeasurable. It is high; I cannot attain to it. It is deep; I cannot fathom it.”

Jesus perfectly accomplished His work.
Jesus left nothing undone or incomplete.
Jesus left nothing unfinished or deficient.
Jesus left nothing unaccomplished or lacking.
His work was totally sufficient.

Meditate on an implication from this cry of victory:
Since Jesus paid it all, nothing needs to be added to His finished work.

All our hope has to be in His Work, not our works.

Derek Tidball wrote, “This single word rings out from the crucified Christ like a trumpet blast. It is finished, It is accomplished. The work his Father had sent him to do has been completed. The Father’s will had been obeyed to the last detail. The Father’s love had been revealed in its ultimate form. The Father’s grace had been released in the most convincing manner. The Father’s forgiveness had been purchased with the costliest payment. The Father’s glory had been displayed in the least expected way. The Father’s enemies had been definitively defeated" (Message of the Cross, p. 174).