Every so often...

Every so often there comes a book release that I eagerly anticipate. So was the case for the ESV Study Bible, so will be the case for Joshua Harris' new book to be released next year and so has been the case in recent weeks for Why We Love The Church. Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck did such a supereb job on their book Why We're Not Emergent, clearly outlining the dangers of the Emergent Church movement. When I heard they were teaming up for another book, I couldn't help but be excited. Last week their book hit shelves, and I am anxiously awaiting it's arrival in the next week or so. Needless to say, this book will be added to my summer reading list. However, in the mean time, Tim Challies' has a great review on the book and I encourage you all to read it and highly consider investing in the book yourself.

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Suffering in Relation to God's Church

So often we get in this rut where we feel that we should not be the ones to suffer. We continuously ask ourselves questions like, "Why is this happening to me?" and "Why do I have to be the one that always suffers." Tim Challies has a great post in regards to Ligon Duncan's new book, Does Grace Grow Best in Winter? In his post, Challies writes:

So I guess this is something we ought to keep in mind in those times that God calls us to suffer. Our suffering is not pointless; it is not meaningless. At least in part, our suffering is mandated by God so we can strengthen and edify our brothers and sisters in Christ so that they, and we, may strive toward Christian maturity. “Your suffering does not just belong to you. You are members of a body. Your suffering is for the body’s maturity as much as it is for yours. Your suffering is there to build up the church of Christ. It is there for the people of God to be given faith and hope and confidence in the hour of their trials. Your suffering is also the body’s suffering because one of God’s purposes in suffering is the maturity of the whole church.”

During times of great suffering, where we may feel helpless and alone, we must rely on the God, His Truth and His perfect and pleasing will. We must recognize the reality that our suffering could be causing a wider impact to glorify God in the lives of others, even though we might not be able to fully comprehend or see it.

Read Challies' whole post here.

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Challies' on Worship

Tim Challies has a great post entitled Worshiping Worship in which he shares an excerpt from D.A. Carson's book, Worship by the Book. Carson writes:

In an age increasingly suspicious of (linear) thought, there is much more respect for the “feelings” of things - whether a film or a church service. It is disturbingly easy to plot surveys of people, especially young people, drifting from a church of excellent preaching and teaching to one with excellent music because, it is alleged, there is “better worship” there. But we need to think carefully about this matter. Let us restrict ourselves for the moment to corporate worship. Although there are things that can be done to enhance corporate worship, there is a profound sense in which excellent worship cannot be attained merely by pursuing excellent worship. In the same way that, according to Jesus, you cannot find yourself until you lose yourself, so also you cannot find excellent corporate worship until you stop trying to find excellent corporate worship and pursue God himself. Despite the protestations, one sometimes wonders if we are beginning to worship worship rather than worship God.

I hope this challenges you as much as it did me. You can read the whole post here.

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Challies' Take

Tim Challies offers these comments regarding Jackson's death:

Michael Jackson was in so many ways a product of this sick celebrity culture (that he helped create) that will never rest satisfied until it has both created and then destroyed the newest celebrity. We want our celebrities to start strong and finish weak, to begin with a bang and then fizzle, pop and sputter, all for our enjoyment and entertainment (Susan Boyle stands as the most recent example of this). Jackson gave us so much to talk about, so much to enjoy. More than any other celebrity he embodied the "vanities" of Ecclesiastes. He was at one time known for what he did so well and then was known for being a freak; he was at one time fantastically wealthy and then utterly broke; he was once loved and then despised. He had it all and yet, it seemed, he had nothing. All of it was meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

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Have You Checked Your Mirror Lately?

Tim Challies writes regarding the importance of reading "the mirror" that is God's Word and furthermore the importance of doing so at the onset of your day. In his post he writes:

There have been other times that I've read the Bible, but have not allowed it to penetrate or to take hold. I've been just the person James warns about who "looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like." I have looked quickly, glanced briefly, but have not looked long enough to allow the Scripture to reflect back to me my sin and God's standard of holiness. I have gone merrily on my way having already forgotten to be both a hearer and a doer.

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Just Do Something

Tim Challies reviews Kevin DeYoung's book entitled Just Do Something. In his review he writes:

The author who seeks to add something to this genre is entering into a very crowded field and is going to need a unique angle. Kevin DeYoung takes on this challenge and succeeds admirably, crafting a short but powerful book that really packs a punch. His unique angle is reflected in the title: Just Do Something! “My goal,” he says, “is not as much to tell you how to hear God’s voice in making decisions as it is to hear God telling you to get off the long road to nowhere and finally make a decision, get a job, and perhaps, get married.”

I purchased this book last week and am eagerly anticipating its arrival tomorrow. A great subject by a great author, I believe that this book is going to be a must buy and a must read for those who constantly question what God's will is.

Read more of Challies' review here.
Read the forward by Joshua Harris here.

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Challies on Evil as Entertainment

Tim Challies has a great post on the way evil can entertain us. In it he writes:

The internet is such a strange phenomenon and one we are really only beginning to understand, at least in terms of its impact on society and faith and family and just about everything else. What passes for entertainment on the internet would, at most other times in history, be regarded as shocking or wasteful or disgusting or maybe just plain absurd...So much of the entertainment the internet offers is entertainment at its very worst. Evil has become entertainment.

Read the whole post here.

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Challies on Accountability

Tim Challies has a great post on accountability. He writes:

I am convinced there is great benefit in Christians pursuing accountability relationships, at least in some situations. It is valuable, I believe, for Christians to meet on a regular basis to confess sin, to speak of God’s grace, to share triumphs, to ask tough questions and to pray for one another.

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An Evening Praise from Challies

Tim Challies writes an evening praise that challenged me greatly tonight:

Giver of all,
Another day is ended
and I take my place beneath
my great Redeemer's cross,
where healing streams continually descend,
where balm is poured into every wound,
where I wash anew in the all-cleansing blood,
assured that Thou seest in me no spots of sin.

Read the whole thing.

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Challies on Theology

Tim Challies on the importance of theology:

Theology remains something of a bad word in Christian circles. I’d believe that the success of a book like The Shack has proven this to us yet again. Many people seem eager to embrace some form of Christian spirituality but have little desire or love for theology. Theology is linked in people’s minds with frigid, dead religion that cares more about principles and matters of the head than deeds and matters of the heart. It is associated with fundamentalism and with cold conservatism. We need only look at the meaning and etymology of the word, though, to conclude that God requires all Christians to be theologians.

Read the whole thing.

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Tim Challies on Freedom

Tim Challies writes:

We see that our submission to Christ leads to submission to others. We see that our submission to Christ requires us to do so many things that come so slowly and reject many things that come so easily. And we regard this as captivity. We may even resent these high, tough standards that God requires.

But God gives these high standards, he gives us these laws, he gives us these boundaries for our good and for our freedom. “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1). As we grow in our knowledge of God and as we grow to be more like him, we see that what we thought was freedom was really slavery and what we thought was slavery is in reality glorious freedom. We find our freedom in submitting to God and obeying him, even when such obedience goes against all we want to do and all we want to believe. God knows best and we live best before him when we submit to his ways, whatever the cost.

To read the whole thing.

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Spiritual Gifts

Tim Challies writes:

Often when I hear people speak of spiritual gifts they do so in this manner. “I have the gift of [insert gift here] and my church has no way for me to serve in that way.” Or “I know what my gift is and I am looking for ways to use it.” To these people I would suggest that they may have an inaccurate or incomplete understanding of the way the gifts work. The way to properly exercise spiritual gifts is not to be willing only to do what you’ve determined is your gifting, but to do anything that the church needs to have done, and to do it with joy and excellence. And as you do that, you may find that God gifts and equips you for something far outside your comfort zone.

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