Brown Blog

Tim Keller on Gospel, City, & Cultural Transformation

Ran across these a couple of months ago and they were brought back to my attention by a friend of mine. Here are 3 messages Tim Keller presented with New Frontiers:

- The Gospel

- The City

- Cultural Transformation

(HT: Steve McCoy)

Links, resources

C.J. Mahaney interviews David Powlison

I'm in the middle of a distance counseling course through CCEF. David Powlison is the instructor. C.J Mahaney recently interviewed him for Sovereign Grace Ministries. It is great. I strongly recommend Powlison's book: "Seeing With New Eyes: Counseling and the Human Condition Through the Lens of Scripture

Here is a link to the interview: MEET DAVID POWLISON

Links

Saturday Walks

On Saturdays, I take one of the kids and we go for a walk in a part of town and take some photos. This morning we went just north of downtown to the railroad yard / warehouse district. See some highlights on my flickr page. Here's one I like a lot.

Denver, photos

Piper on Prayer

John Piper:

  But the hard truth is that most Christians don’t pray very much. They pray at meals—unless they’re still stuck in the adolescent stage of calling good habits legalism. They whisper prayers before tough meetings. They say something brief as they crawl into bed. But very few set aside set times to pray alone—and fewer still think it is worth it to meet with others to pray. And we wonder why our faith is weak. And our hope is feeble. And our passion for Christ is small.

   And meanwhile the devil is whispering all over this room: “The pastor is getting legalistic now. He’s starting to use guilt now. He’s getting out the law now.” To which I say, “To hell with the devil and all of his destructive lies. Be free!” Is it true that intentional, regular, disciplined, earnest, Christ-dependent, God-glorifying, joyful prayer is a duty? … Is it a discipline?

   You can call it that.

   * It’s a duty the way it’s the duty of a scuba diver to put on his air tank before he goes underwater.

   * It’s a duty the way pilots listen to air traffic controllers.

   * It’s a duty the way soldiers in combat clean their rifles and load their guns.

   * It’s a duty the way hungry people eat food.

   * It’s a duty the way thirsty people drink water.

   * It’s a duty the way a deaf man puts in his hearing aid.

   * It’s a duty the way a diabetic takes his insulin.

   * It’s a duty the way Pooh Bear looks for honey.

   * It’s a duty the way pirates look for gold.

   I hate the devil, and the way he is killing some of you by persuading you it is legalistic to be as regular in your prayers as you are in your eating and sleeping and Internet use. Do you not see what a sucker he his making out of you? He is laughing up his sleeve at how easy it is to deceive Christians about the importance of prayer.

   God has given us means of grace. If we do not use them to their fullest advantage, our complaints against him will not stick. If we don’t eat, we starve. If we don’t drink, we get dehydrated. If we don’t exercise a muscle, it atrophies. If we don’t breathe, we suffocate. And just as there are physical means of life, there spiritual are means of grace. Resist the lies of the devil in 2009, and get a bigger breakthrough in prayer than you’ve ever had.

(HT: Justin Taylor)

Prayer, Quotes

Mark Resources

We started the Gospel according to Mark a couple of weeks back. Have gotten some questions about useful resources for studying this gospel. The interesting thing about Mark- particularly in comparison to the other gospels- is that because the gospel is driven overwhelmingly by action, it means that the details of each scene- and in a lot of places the background to each scene is extremely important. Here is a short annotated list I've found helpful:

Traditional Commentaries

The Gospel of Mark, R.T. France - This is simply the best commentary on the gospel. It is technical, thick, heavy, whatever... it is excellent and opens ones' eyes to things in the text which have helped me get behind the action again and again.

The Gospel According to Mark, James Edwards - Edwards' commentary is in the Pillar series and has proven quite helpful the last two weeks.

Mark, Robert H. Stein - This commentary has provided some helpful insights not contained in France's or Edwards. It is a sound and thorough exposition of the greek text of Mark.

The Gospel of Mark: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary, Ben Witherington - Witherington does a great job of keeping the whole forest in view and helping you to not lose it for the individual trees. He fills in some nice gaps and is a great supplement to France.

The Victory According to Mark, Mark Horne - This is a small commentary which carries a fairly large whack. I find his willingness to mine the depths of metaphor and analogy with the Old Testament wonderful- if perhaps overextended in places. This little commentary has been a huge delight so far and helps, sometimes more so than Witherington, to see the broad direction of the Gospel.

Other:

The Gospel of Mark Study, Timothy Keller - This can be purchased from Redeemer Presbyterian Church's website (www.redeemer.com). Fantastic for personal study and small groups. Keller draws some excellent things from the text and I find him pulling together the above resources in mostly helpful ways.

Mark for Everyone, Tom Wright - Wright has written a series of commentaries on each of the New Testament books. His volumes on each of the gospels are extremely helpful, if at times pedantic. He is writing for everyone, though. At times the commentary jumps significant themes to not distract from something else he is trying to draw out. But I would recommend this volume to anyone wanting to help them as they read along the gospel.

or The Challenge of Jesus or Jesus and the Victory of God, N.T. Wright - Though not specifically dealing with Mark's gospel, these two volumes were among the most helpful things I read for understanding Jesus ministry historically and theologically. JVOG is massive, The Challenge of Jesus is a little more bite size. Both efforts are well rewarded. Where I find Wright's rhetoric on justification can be unnecessarily confusing or unhelpful at times, his work on Jesus and the gospels is extremely clarifying and helpful.

Divine Government, R.T. France - Excellent little volume on the Kingdom of God as it is specifically addressed in the Gospel of Mark. I got tired of France referencing this volume in his commentary and being unable to look up what he was talking about so I ordered it off Amazon. Small book, but very helpful.

There are some other volumes I've referenced so far, many of which are very helpful- but these should be great for getting anyone started.

Books, Mark

Saturday photo...

find more photos in my flickr account

Family, photos

Illegal Daycare

Relatively often, Jen is asked on the way to the neighborhood park with our three children if she runs a daycare. This, at first seemed odd, but given our neighborhood's aversion to children in general, and dogmatic aversion to more than one child its become a bit of cultural oddity- but something we laugh about and serves as fodder for sermon illustrations.

Yesterday that was taken to a new level.

Let me explain. The twins are 4. Carson is 2. The Jones' share a backyard with us and have a 4 year-old boy, Sean. Rachel has a 4 year-old daughter, Rachel. Occasionally Elizabeth (Jones) watches a baby boy from the neighborhood. Imagine everyone's surprise when a knock on the door came yesterday from a woman working for CPS who had received an anonymous tip that we were running an illegal daycare facility in our home. We had four 4-year-olds running around the living room playing. We had a 2-year-old chasing them, and Elizabeth is holding a baby.

I mean, I guess with all the 4-year-olds it is a bit suspect.

carson

carson
Originally uploaded by bbrown6


And we woke up to this.

Calvin Quote

We must come, I say, to the Word, where God is truly and vividly described to us from his works, while these very works are appraised not by our depraved judgment but by the rule of eternal truth. If we turn aside from the Word, as I have just now said, though we may strive with strenuous haste, yet, since we have got off the track, we shall never reach the goal. For we should so reason that the splendor of the divine countenance, which even the apostle calls "unapproachable" [1 Timothy 6:16], is for us like an inexplicable labyrinth unless we are conducted into it by the thread of the Word; so that it is better to limp along this path than to dash with all speed outside it.

- Calvin, Book I Chapter IV Section 3

Molly

Family

Jan 9, 2009

My favorite seat today.

My Top 1 List.

Gobs of people are releasing their top 10 albums of the year.

I'm releasing my top album of the year (and only b/c I can't find this on anyone's list):

#1.

"Alas I Cannot Swim" (Laura Marling)

Everyone take a listen. Found myself swimming in this album after my first listen. It was released in August of this year, but I only discovered it just before Thanksgiving. Her vocals are haunting. The music is fantastic. And yet, no one has even taken note. This may mean I have horrible taste in music. It may mean that no one has heard her yet- or it might mean both. But there it is, my favorite album of 2008.

Music

Calvin Quote...#2

In celebration of Calvin's 500th, we're reading the Institutes. Here's this week's quote from Book I Chapter 4:

"...Vanity joined with pride can be detected in the fact that, in seeking God, miserable men do not rise above themselves as they should, but measure him by the yardstick of their own carnal stupidity, and neglect sound investigation; thus out of curiosity they fly off into empty speculations. They do not therefore apprehend God as he offers himself but imagine him as they have fashioned him in their own presumption. When this gulf opens, in whatever direction they move their feet, they cannot but plunge headlong into ruin. Indeed, whatever they afterward attempt by way of worship or service of God, they cannot bring tribute to him, for they are worshipping not God but a figment and a dream of their own heart."

Calvin's point is that our crime is that we fashion gods for ourselves of our own making. Instead of honoring God for who He is and how He has revealed Himself, we imagine Him to be what we want Him to be and do not love Him for who He is. Its as if a husband ignores the actual reality of his wife and imagines her as he wishes her to be. She is not honored. She is not loved. We love what is not God even though we use words like 'Jesus' or 'God' to describe it. God has revealed Himself in His Son, by the Holy Spirit, in the Scriptures themselves.

Calvin, Quotes

Weekly Calvin Quote

Started re-reading Calvin's Institutes and will be posting quotes and reflections up here. Here's the first from Book 1 Chapter 3:

"you cannot behold Him clearly unless you acknowledge Him to be the fountainhead and source of every good. From this too would arise the desire to cleave to Him and trust in Him, but for the fact that man's depravity seduces his mind from rightly seeking Him. For, to begin with, the pious mind does not dream up for itself any god it pleases, but contemplates the one and only true God. And it does not attach to Him whatever it pleases, but is content to hold Him to be as He manifests Himself; furthermore, the mind always exercises the utmost diligence and care not to wander astray, or rashly and boldly to go beyond His will. It thus recognizes God because it knows that He governs all things; and trusts that He is its guide and protector, therefore giving itself over completely to trust in him. Because it understands Him to be the Author of every good, if anything oppresses, if anything is lacking, immediately it betakes itself to His protection, waiting for help from Him. Because it is persuaded that He is good and merciful, it reposes in Him with perfect trust, and doubts not that in His loving-kindness a remedy will be provided for all its ills. Because it acknowledges Him as Lord and Father, the pious mind also deems it meet and right to observe His authority in all things, reverence his majesty, take care to advance His glory, and obey His commandments. Because it sees Him to be a righteous judge, armed with severity to punish wickedness, it ever holds His judgment seat before its gaze, and through fear of Him restrains itself from provoking His anger. And yet it is not so terrified by the awareness of His judgment as to wish to withdraw, even if some way of escape were open. But it embraces Him no less as punisher of the wicked than as benefactor of the pious. For the pious mind realizes that the punishment of the impious and wicked and the reward of life eternal for the righteous equally pertain to God's glory. Besides, this mind restrains itself from sinning, not out of dread of punishment alone; but, because it loves and reveres God as Father, it worships and adores Him as Lord. Even if there were no hell, it would still shudder at offending Him alone." (p.42-43)

Here, Calvin contrasts the unbelieving, depraved mind with the pious mind. At the heart of the difference is a deep commitment to see, fear and adore God as He really is- in other words, as he actually reveals himself in his word- and not as we think He should be or would want Him to be. This adoration and seeing leads to the transformation of every aspect of our lives- and a life lived out of a deep fear and love for the God who made us and has redeemed us.

Calvin, Quotes

Recommended Reading

Read this Advent sermon by N.T. Wright this afternoon and was deeply encouraged. So I commend it.

READ IT HERE.

preaching, N.T. Wright, Advent