Amazing story: Pro-life Pastor chooses jail time

World Magazine:

A few minutes later, another man walked over to Hoye’s bunk and jabbed his finger at a newspaper he was holding. “This you?” he said, eyeing Hoye skeptically.

Hoye peered at the Oakland Tribune headline: “Anti-abortion pastor chooses jail.”

“Yeah, that’s me,” he said.

In the next moment, the inmate was striding up and down the length of the cell, announcing, “Hey, he don’t have to be here! He turned down probation! He doing straight time for what he believed in!”

Read the full story here – it is well worth your time.

~Donovan

HT: Tim Challies

Jelly Telly

Ministry-To-Children.com:

“Phil Vischer, the creator of VeggieTales, has a new web-based ministry for children. It is called Jelly Telly. The essence of the website is to provide a safe-haven for children to “surf” the web. There is a daily “television” show with puppets, computer animated characters, and live actors teaching a God-centered lesson… Ultimately, this is a resource worth checking into for your children in your home as well as an aid in your children’s ministry.”

You can read their whole post about Jelly Telly here. 

The video below will give you a glimpse into what is offered by the Jelly Telly website:

~Donovan

Gospel Coalition Conference Audio and Video

“Entrusted with the Gospel“, the 2009 Gospel Coalition conference, was last week. The conference had an incredible line-up of speakers.

Justin Taylor:

The audio and video from The Gospel Coalition conference are now available online for free. Most of them are expositions of 2 Timothy:

• Tim Keller, “The Grand Demythologizer: The Gospel and Idolatry” (Acts 19:21-41)
• John Piper, “Feed the Flame of God’s Gift: Unashamed Courage in the Gospel” (2 Timothy 1:1-12)
• Phil Ryken, “The Pattern of Sound Words” (2 Timothy 1:13-2:13)
• Mark Driscoll, “Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth” (2 Timothy 2:14-26)
• K. Edward Copeland, “Shadowlands: Pitfalls and Parodies of Gospel-Centered Ministry” (2 Timothy 3:1-9)
• Bryan Chapell, “Preach the Word!” (2 Timothy 3:10-4:5)
• Ajith Fernando, “Gospel-Faithful Mission in the New Christendom“
• Panel Discussion: Tim Keller, John Piper, Ligon Duncan and Crawford Loritts (chair: Stephen Um)
• Ligon Duncan, “Finishing Well” (2 Timothy 4:6-22)
• Don Carson, “That By All Means I Might Win Some’: Faithfulness and Flexibility in Gospel Proclamation” (1 Corinthians 9:19-23)

The Audio from most of the worskshop sessions is also available:

• Buster Brown, “Preaching in a Christianized Culture“
• Graham Cole, “Homosexuality and the Bible: Texts, Hermeneutics, and Pastoral Wisdom”
• Joshua Harris: Ministering in a Church-Hopping Society
• CJ Mahaney: The Pastor’s Charge 
• Thabiti Anyabwile: “The Decline of African-American Theology”
• Steven Chin: “Working Faithfully Under a Senior Pastor”
• Graham Cole: “Homosexuality and the Bible: Texts, Hermeneutics, and Pastoral Wisdom”
• K. Edward Copeland and Charlie Dates: “Mentoring Younger Pastors”
• Andy Davis: “The Gospel and Social Action”
• David Helm: “Biblical Reflections on Building a Staff”
• Bill Kynes: “Complementarianism: Definition and Priorities”
• Crawford Loritts: “Staying Faithful, Staying Relevant: The Use and Abuse of Polemical Preaching”
• Tom Nelson and Matt Perman: “The Gospel and Money”
• Colin Smith: “Transformational Expository Preaching”
• Stephen Um: “On Ministry and Revolving Doors: Practical Challenges and Ideas for Ministry in a Mobile Society”
• Sandy Willson: “Gospel Mission to the World: Arrogance or Love?”

Three of the sessions had corrupt audio, and the files are being worked on. It may be some time, however, before they become available:

• Michael Bullmore, “The Functional Centrality of the Gospel”
• Tim Savage, “Power in Weakness: The Heart of Gospel Ministry”
• Scotty Smith, “A Biblical Theology of Worship: On Preference and Other Matters”

~Donovan

Seeds Family Worship

Seeds Family Worship:

“Seeds Family Worship was planted when worship leader, Jason Houser, was asked to write some songs to help kids remember the verses from his church’s summer Bible school. Jason began writing songs and singing them for the kids and families at church. The songs were well-crafted, catchy, and taken straight from scripture. Families liked them… a lot. From just a handful of songs, Seeds Family Worship was planted – providing God’s Word set to music for thousands of families all over the world. We are gladdened by stories of worship times at home, scripture memorized, and object lessons taught using Seeds songs. The fifth Seeds Family Worship album – The Power of Encouragement – has just released. In total, Seeds has grown to 58 portions of scripture set to music!”

A Seeds song, from Psalm 55:22:

~Donovan

HT: Tim Challies

Big Truths for Young Hearts

Justin Taylor recently interviewed Bruce Ware about his new book, “Big Truths for Young Hearts: Teaching and Learning the Greatness of God“. It looks excellent! Read the interview here.

~Donovan

Homosexuality and the Church

Al Mohler:

“The times demand Christian courage. These days, courage means that preachers and Christian leaders must set an agenda for biblical confrontation, and not shrink from dealing with the full range of issues related to homosexuality. We must talk about what the Bible teaches about gender–what it means to be a man or a woman. We must talk about God’s gift of sex and the covenant of marriage. And we must talk honestly about what homosexuality is, and why God has condemned this sin as an abomination in His sight…

…And yet, even as courage is required, the times call for another Christian virtue as well–compassion. The tragic fact is that every congregation is almost certain to include persons struggling with homosexual desire or even involved in homosexual acts. Outside the walls of the church, homosexuals are waiting to see if the Christian church has anything more to say, after we declare that homosexuality is a sin…

…We cannot settle for truth without love nor love without truth. The Gospel settles the issue once and for all. This great moral crisis is a Gospel crisis. The genuine Body of Christ will reveal itself by courageous compassion, and compassionate courage. We will see this realized only when men and women freed by God’s grace from bondage to homosexuality feel free to stand up in our churches and declare their testimony–and when we are ready to welcome them as fellow disciples. Millions of hurting people are waiting to see if we mean what we preach.”

You can read the whole article, “No Truth Without Love, No Love Without Truth”, here.

~Donovan

HT: Tim Challies

Chosing to love even when hurt is guaranteed…

The Together for Adoption blog:

“What would move a Christian couple to adopt when adoption means walking a path of deep suffering and profound heartbreak? Read this post by Zach Nielsen to find out.”

Please do read the post linked to above – it’s powerful, and the truths it delves into are applicable for all of us.

~Donovan

HT: Justin Taylor

Biblical Guidelines for Loving Each Other Amid Differences

John Piper recently exhorted his pastoral staff towards unity and love amid differences. He boiled his meesage down to a brief blog post, giving 6 points of excellent, biblical counsel that are applicable to all Christians seeking to live in the unity Christ calls us to. Read it here.

~Donovan

HT: Justin Taylor

Do you know Him?

This is from a sermon entitled, “That’s My King”, delivered in 1976 by Dr. S. M. Lockridge (1913-2000). It’s powerful:

It’s wonderful to know this King. Wonderful! Do you know Him?

~Donovan

HT: Justin Taylor

Read Jack

Read Jack. That’s the advice given by Desiring God ministries, and we’re following it in our men’s and women’s groups… The book we’re currently reading in these groups is called A Faith Worth Sharing, by C. John “Jack” Miller. David Mathis of  Desiring God Ministries describes this book as “the best resource I’ve found on gospel-telling.” You can read what else he has to say about it here.

If you are not currently in a men’s or women’s group, I encourage you to join for our next round! Details will be announced soon…

~Donovan