Woody Allen & Billy Graham

I came across this on my lazy saturday morning. It's Woody Allen interviewing Billy Graham on the The Woody Allen Special (~1969). It's quite astonishing seeing these two popular figures in conversation.

Part 1

Part 2

Stott Reflects on Prayer

Men and women are at their noblest and best when

 they are on their knees before God in prayer.

 To pray is not only to be truly godly; 

it is also to be truly human. 

For here are human beings, 

made by God 

like God and 

for God, 

spending time in fellowship with God.

So prayer is an authentic activity in itself,

 irrespective of any benefits it may bring us.

 Yet it is also one of the most effective of all means of grace.

 I doubt if anybody has ever become at all Christlike 

who has not been diligent in prayer.

--From "Your Confirmation" (rev. edn. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1991), p. 118.

Deliberate Church by Mark Dever and Paul Alexander: A Review

The purpose of The Deliberate Church is to get churches centered back on the Bible; primarily the Gospel. God’s Word needs to be the central authoritative standard by which all actions of the local church are conducted. Mark Dever, Senior Pastor at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington DC. and executive director of the 9Marks Organization, is credited to much of the content of this work. Paul Alexander, who interned under Dever in 2003 and currently serves as an editor for 9Marks, here put his and Dever’s conversations about the church into print. Though slender in size, the role for members and elders in the local church in this work is above all clear. They look at the foundation stones of the church and then move to what constitutes the actual services. The second part focusses on the elders of the church and the elders meetings.

Assessing the member’s roll is a great chapter on how the pastor should seek out individual interviews with each church member. Chapter five, on church discipline, is an excellent reminder of how the leaders should be treating unChrist-like members. There is an admonition for corporate times of music to be just that: corporate. The pastor’s goal for the members should be for them to sing and hear truths about God from each other, instead of their memory falling to one individual or “the band”. The only skimmer chapter is on church paid-staff who aren't elders. This chapter is the least relevant to many churches outside of the slim American mega-church percentage. By far, the primary appeal in this book is for biblical eldership. It is the most helpful advice that any pastor will glean from this book. With much confusion over leadership and church membership this work is an invaluable guide to casting out the false and diluted views of the local church and reverting back to those developed from the Bible. 

Got Questions?

This is a great site to send any of your friends, family, acquaintances or co-workers to. It's evangelical and their collection of pastors, theologians, and Christian volunteers have answered over 292, 600 questions about God, the Bible, theology, spiritual issues, right down to interpretation of those harder Bible verses. I find it the most helpful site to either send people to when I don't have the answer or when I need to find one myself. Check out their promo video. 

Call it a Guys Night @ TBS

(Top L-R: Benoit & Eric; Bottom L-R: Caleb, Kosner, Yours Truly, Nathan)

What to do on a wednesday night? Well, a few of us TBS'rs got together to listen to a sermon about being a biblical man. We listened to "Marriage as an Apologetic" by Voddie Baucham (click for link to audio/download). This is definitely a favourite sermon of mine. Baucham first gave it at The Master's College back in 2008. He preaches out of Ephesians 5:25-33. It was great to listen to this sermon with a group of my buds here. We got to chat about the implications of loving as Christ does. These means going against the grain of the culture. Hard but true words:

  Husbands, love your wives as

 Christ loved the church and 

gave himself up for her.

Spurgeon on Preaching

It is infamous to ascend your pulpit and pour over your people rivers of language, cataracts of words, in which mere platitudes are held in solution like infinitesimal grains of homeopathic medicine in an Atlantic of utterance. Better far give the people masses of unprepared truth in the rough, like pieces of meat from a butcher's block, chopped off anyhow, bone and all, and even dropped down in the sawdust, than ostentatiously and delicately hand them out upon a china dish a delicious slice of nothing at all, decorated with the parsley of poetry, and flavoured with the sauce of affectation.

From Charles Spurgeon's "Sermons-Their Matter" in Lectures to My Students.  

David Brainerd Conference

To share the flyer, click the above photo.

Holiness

Self-control is primarily mind-control. 

What we sow in our minds 

we reap in our actions.

John R. W. Stott

What is the GOSPEL? Poetry by Dare 2 Share

"...pierced feet, pierced hands, 

blood stained Son of Man..."

Thanks to Phil for this link to hear the gospel through spoken-word poetry. 

Sowing to the Flesh

To 'sow to the flesh' is to pander to it,

to cosset, cuddle and stroke it, 

instead of crucifying it. 

The seeds we sow are largely thoughts and deeds. 

Every time we allow our mind to 

harbour a grudge, 

nurse a grievance, 

entertain an impure fantasy, 

or wallow in self-pity, 

we are sowing to the flesh. 

Every time we linger in bad company whose 

insidious influence we know we cannot resist, 

every time we lie in bed when we ought to be up and praying, 

every time we read pornographic literature, 

every time we take a risk which strains our self-control, 

we are sowing, sowing, sowing to the flesh. 

Some Christians sow to the flesh every day and 

wonder why they do not reap holiness.

Taken from Authentic Christianity © 1995 John Stott and Timothy Dudley-Smith.

Welcome Wagon - Nice!

Hey meet the Welcome Wagon - some interesting modern Christian-folk artists to jam to while doing the hmwrk. A mix of Sufjan Stevens and Phil Wickham with some spook. They're signed with Asthmatic Kitty.

Get a free single here!

Interesting Social Reflection Documentary

This is a new documentary from Ray Comfort and thewayofthemaster guys.

I have reservations in reference to his evangelism style and his interviews being very selective. Nonetheless he presents a daunting look at abortion in parallel to the WWII holocaust. Over 53 million dead haunts more than momentary reflections. Watch for a study break.  HT: Mr. Dizon.

Still Hour or Communion With God by Austin Phelps: A Review

Often does monotony in prayer steal its zeal. Thanklessness bring a joyless heart. Forgetfulness in our access to the Father solely through Jesus' blood bring ingratitude and dishonour. When the wisdom from this 14 chapter prayer purifier is practiced one's low prayer-life can be instead revitalized. The objective look Phelps has in his evaluations throughout each chapter refines the naive and brings illumination; particularly his chapter on idolatry in prayer. Phelps directs his admonitions to Christians with an universal appeal. This past summer I had the pleasure to go back to this favourite of mine; it led me to seek forgiveness in my lacking. No matter where your relationship is with Christ, the pump needs continual priming. Although a percentage of his language in its distinguished caliber can be diverting, his writing is penetrating nonetheless. He helps in pealing off our anti-Christian prayer methods by giving biblical tips and resolutions for approaching the King of Kings.

Phelps, Austin. The Still Hour or Communion With God. Boston: Gould and Lincoln, 1860. 

*Since it's Public Domain you can access the book online here for free.