http://www.monergismbooks.com/
http://www.examiner.com/a-977346~He_s_b … inton.html
Maybe he’ll advise her that it’s possible to get into the National Archives, snatch documents, and get away with it without prison time or really any major consequences at all … everyone knows that if he had been a Republican, he would have been fried for that. Just look at Sen. Larry Craig … he gets caught doing something that in my mind, at least on a national security level, is far less harmful than stealing classified documents and he gets totally burned for it, while on the other hand a Democrat can go into the National Archives, steal classified documents, and get away with it. Just fascinating the double-standards. Why wasn’t there a media circus whenever the thing with Sandy Berger came out in the same way there was with Larry Craig?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/ar … Jul21.html
http://www.justpete.ca/proschat/index.php
I came across this today on AOMIN.org and didn’t even realize it was there: a theology chatroom. The link is the left-hand side of the main page (kind of obvious), but I just usually hopped on to read the blogs and hear the DL radio show. It uses a java applet to connect to an IRC server. Good stuff, check it out. Post your questions and I’m sure you’ll get answers, good answers. These aren’t just run-of-the-mill lay persons (like me), they are scholars and theologians.
“I honestly do not understand how anyone can say ‘I believe the Bible is the Word of God’ without being passionate about that confession. I love the Trinity, justification by faith, the Resurrection, and sola scriptura. I do not pretend to be dispassionate about these things, and, as such, I stand firmly on this assertion: Christian scholarship that lacks passion about the truth is not worthy of the name Christian to begin with. If dispassion and detachment are necessary attributes of scholarship, then I do not seek the appellation. I cannot comprehend dry faith, arid confession, or mere mental assent.”
James White’s blog and ministry can be found here: www.aomin.org
Prayer and the Gospel – Tim Keller
(Original): http://www.redeemer.com/connect/prayer/ … ospel.html
(Archived): http://www.westerfunk.net/archives/theo … %20Keller/
Incredible … though you can pay nothing for the album, they are telling people to pay what they want, so they are hoping people will pay something, but maybe the new open concept of giving away the album will attract more people to their music than if they had gone about it the normal way … guess we’ll see.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.j … dio101.xml
Update 1 …
It looks like their web systems cannot handle the load of users attempting to go to their site (as if mine could :). I mean the article was first published on Telegraph.co.uk and then posted on DrudgeReport.com … so word is out all over the world. It looks like they may have temporarily taken the link down (well now it’s back up). But regardless still trying …
Update 2 …
It appears it is next to impossible to actually get to a page to enter your email address so that you can get an activation code as well as instructions on how and where to download. After attempting to go through the process, I finally got to a point where I could enter information in, and then it sent me back to www.inrainbows.com and said I could only have one download (but I haven’t entered anything yet). Boo … still trying.
Update 3 …
I finally got to the secure site, registered my email address, entered in all my info to purchase the album (for 0.00 pounds), it went through processing, and then once I got to the confirmation page, it gave me a mysql_connect error (PHP to MySQL back-end connection issue), so I’m not even sure it sent my information to the DB at all (apparently it did not). I saved the page with my confirmation number just in case, but it doesn’t matter if the application did not write the data to the DB. I never received an email with an activation code or instructions on how and where to download. Still trying …
Update 4 …
I have now received my first spam email on my gmail account as a result of this I’m assuming. So they got my email to sign me up for spam, but not my registration and $0 purchase of the download. etc …
I know I blog about Grace Alone a lot. But it seems to be the forgotten doctrine in our age. So here it goes … So many fellow brothers and sisters in Christ will gladly confess the doctrines spoken in the Five Solas of the Reformation, possibly without understanding the implications of some of them, namely Grace Alone (Sola Gratia), of which Martin Luther said was of the most importance in denying the Roman Catholic Church doctrine of salvation = Christ + works (which amounts to you save yourself, as opposed to the Gospel which says God Saves Sinners). These great Reformation doctrines have a logical flow to them that is important to understanding what is at stake in the whole of the message, namely the last point, the glory of God alone (Soli Deo Gloria). It goes like this: salvation is by Grace Alone (Sola Gratia) through Faith Alone (Sola Fide) in Christ Alone (Solus Christus) revealed by the Scriptures Alone (Sola Scriptura) all to the Glory of God Alone (Soli Deo Gloria).
http://www.westerfunk.net/publicsermons … 0Grace.mp3
This isn’t a really long thought, just a short point Piper made in the sermon above that I was listening to today when running, concerning those who don’t know whether or not they are elect and are fearful God may have passed over them. Many will reason that because God chooses by sheer grace alone as clearly shown in the Scriptures (John 6:44, Romans 9, Romans 8:28-30, Romans 11:1-6, Ephesians 1:4, etc), and that His choosing of who to save is in no way based in the wrath-deserving sinner (by works or foreseen faith as many presuppose), they have not been chosen because of circumstances in their life (their sin, trials, etc). Piper states in this sermon that the person has no reason to think they have not been chosen either because, again, the point has to be reiterated: God doesn’t choose who to save because of anything we do at all, but His choice is based in His unfettered, sovereign purpose from all eternity. Our only hope of seeing the risen Christ as who He truly is (the Son of God in glory) so that we may believe in Him and His work and be saved, is for God to open our hearts, eyes, ears, and minds to be able to respond to the spoken message of the Gospel in faith. As the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals state, “Faith is not produced by our unregenerated human nature.” No rather, God does a decisive work which infallibly brings about faith in the sinner to be saved. So the point still stands to all, have you abandoned all hope of saving yourself and trusted in the risen Christ? Are you pursuing Him without any excuse to give for your negligence to this end? You cannot use the misinterpretation of election (hard determinism – that God will do what He wants to do anyway, so why try?) as an excuse to not pursue salvation and sanctification in the risen Christ. God is sovereign, man is responsible. Those are the truths we have in Scripture and must leave it there. We cannot understand how the two reconcile, because God is bigger than our limited understanding, so don’t you think he has a few things orchestrated that are beyond comprehension?
That aside, I just love this quote:
“How may I know I have understood the gospel and that I am elect? ‘First, by the Word of God having come in divine power to the soul so that my self-complacency is shattered and my self-righteousness is renounced. Second, by the Holy Spirit convicting me of my woeful, guilty, and lost condition. Third, by having had revealed to me the suitability and sufficiency of Christ to meet my desperate case and by a divinely given faith causing me to lay hold of and rest upon Him as my only hope. Fourth, by the marks of the new nature within me – a love for God; an appetite for spiritual things; a longing for holiness; a seeking after conformity to Christ. Fifth, by the resistance which the new nature makes to the old, causing me to hate sin and loathe myself for it. Sixth, by avoiding everything which is condemned by God’s Word and by sincerely repenting of and humbly confessing every transgression. Failure at this point will surely bring a dark cloud over our assurance causing the Spirit to withhold His witness. Seventh, by giving all diligence to cultivate the Christian graces and using all diligence to this end. Thus the knowledge of election is cumulative.”
– A .W. Pink