Free Audiobook: Desiring God

John Piper’s Desiring God was a book that greatly changed the way I think about God and my life with him.  Christianaudio.com has been giving away a different audiobook every month for years and is giving away the audio version of Desiring God through the end of November.  They also have greatly discounted audio versions of Piper’s other works.

I often listen to audiobooks and sermons on my daily commute to and from work.  It’s a great way to make good use of the time!

Google Makes The News Fun Again

Google Labs has come up with a fun new web app which makes finding news even better.  A frequent user of Google News, I love having all the best news bits right in one place.   Fast Flip gives users the ability to scroll (or “flip”) through web pages like they would a news magazine.  The expected customization options Google is famous for are also built right in. 

Try it out!

http://fastflip.googlelabs.com/

If I Had $1,000,000 (To Give Away)

During my time as Research Associate at Excellence in Giving, I worked with and researched some of the most effective Christian ministries serving.  I decided to compile my personal $1,000,000 philanthropy list.  If someone asked me to personally steward the giving away of one million dollars, how would I implement these resources for the greatest kingdom impact?  I’ve chosen these ministries and gift amounts based upon these ministries resource stewardship, breath of impact and significance of mission.  

$250,000  Compassion – Based on Jesus’ passionate concern for children, I believe the work of Compassion in providing for kids spiritually, economically, socially and physically is outstanding.  Working through churches to enable children to become responsible, fulfilled Christian adults and continual commitment to child advocacy makes them my favorite Christian ministry.

$200,000  The Navigators – Practical, Biblical evangelism and discipleship at its best.  The Navs answer Christ’s call to go and make disciples of all nations.  They work on campuses, with military, in urban centers, in prisons and youth camps.  They go where the people are and teaching them how to do all Christ commanded.

$150,000  Bill Glass Champions For Life - Working with incarcerated adults and adolescents, Champions for Life shares Christ all through the United States.  Their one-on-one evangelism model and juvenile outreach has amazing impact on lives.  They are reaching people with the Gospel while pulling down the 

$150,000  National Center for Fathering – I strongly believe in the power of dad.  I am blessed to have a loving and supportive father, but so many do not.  This ministry trains and equips men to bring up children in the Lord.   Convincing research suggests children thrive when they have an involved father—someone who loves them, knows them, guides them, and helps them achieve their destiny.  I’m thankful for this ministry and their work.

$100,000  Third Millennium Ministries - Christianity is being won and lost in the realm of the heart at the level of ideas.  Therefore education must remain a huge priority.  3rd Millennium recognizes that most of the world’s people will not be able to go through traditional educational programs.  So they are taking great educational resources throughout the world for FREE.  The content I’ve previewed is top notch.

$100,000  Faith Comes By Hearing – The name of this ministry could stand alone as the reason I would give to this ministry.  Not only do they provide free audio Bibles on their website, they have developed solar-powered mp3 players, called Proclaimers, which they can load up with the Word and take to the ends of the Earth.  I love the vision to make the Word of God available to every tribe and tongue.  May their work continue!!

$50,000  Banner of Truth Publishers – This might seem like an odd pick, but I share their passion to keep Christian classics flowing through the minds and hearts of contemporary believers.  Many of the books which have challenged my faith the most through my college and seminary years were not on any syllabi, but  the works that were available only through the faithful work of Banner of Truth.  The historical classics written by Puritan men and women of faith (those J.I. Packer referred to as the “redwoods”).  If books were judged by the jewels available within, there would none so rich or spectacular as many Banner of Truth publishes.

There are many quality ministries that haven’t made my list.  It is a great honor to give beyond a tithe to ministries who are able to transform cultures, lives, and eternity dollar-by-dollar.  Appropriate gifting begins with identifying passions and researching organizations who have the same passion and are meeting needs with excellence.

Who am I missing?  Who would you give to if you had $1,000,000 to give away??

Should Christians think and talk about hell?

John Piper believes we should.  Here’s an interesting argument for it in a talk on Jonathan Edwards.  Whether you agree with Piper or not, he makes an interesting observation.  Christians do not talk about hell.  Should we?

New Book: Counterfeit Gods

Tim Keller has had a great impact on my thinking in the last several years.  Professor turned church planter, he has a deep understanding of the Scriptures and sincere heart for the people of God.  The Prodigal God is one of the best books I read in the last couple years.  He was asked to give a talk on the big ideas of it at the Willow Creek Leadership Summit in August.

His new offering Counterfeit Gods promises to be another excellent work.  Learn more about the book here and buy it 40% off here.  My copy is in the mail.

Keller is the Sr. Pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church (located in New York) also has 150 of his sermons available from free download here.

John Piper on Conditional Promises

John Piper has a helpful blog post on how we live in light of the Lord’s conditional promises.  This is a helpful example of how we understand and follow what God would have his people do. In the end, it is God who gives us the ability to follow and obey.

A Prayer of Contentment in God

The following bit from Psalm 73:25-26 is a great statement of the writer’s high value of God and low value of everything else.  Our culture increasingly places high value on stuff and health: two things that will not be significant priorities in heaven.  Pray God would give you a heart that fully agrees with the Psalmist here:

Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.  My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Free U2 Concert on YouTube

YouTube and U2 have joined forces to make Sunday night’s Rose Bowl concert available online.  2.5 million people have already tuned in.  Check it out here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/U2official#p/u/

Get Wisdom Part I: Fear The LORD

I’ve been studying the book of Proverbs the last several weeks.  The book’s calls to acquire wisdom are unending: serious repetition throughout.  The advice I recieve from other people often leads in many different directions: read more, watch tv less, work harder, volunteer more, invest in friends, give, get a mentor, get another degree, slow down, do more, work longer, stop, be silent.  Proverbs boils it down: “Get wisdom!”  I believe many of the frustrations and questions people have boil down to the need for Biblical wisdom.  Wise people know themselves, know what to do, and know how to do it. 

Proverbs starts out with a foundation for wisdom.  In verse 1:7, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”   When you step back from this verse, it seems a strange statement.  Wisdom begins with fear?  Not just any fear, but a fear of the Lord.  One thing is certain, we must get this.  If we miss it, we might miss wisdom.

The fear of the LORD is more a fear of His displeasure than His discipline.  Using a child as an analogy, if a child does the right thing because he doesn’t want a negative consequences or discipline, that is an external form of behavior modification.  Fear of the LORD is internal.  When a child loves his parents so much that their displeasure breaks his heart.  To hear, “you’ve disappointed us son” is worse than, “you’re grounded.”  As a parent, the child with the softer heart is more likely to do the right thing and change.  This is how I understand fear of the LORD.  Our love for Him makes us want to please him more than anything.  We HATE to displease him.  We want to say with Jesus, “I always do the things that are pleasing to him” (John 8:29).  If need be, the Lord will use discipline to teach and guide his children, but its better when they value their relationship with Him so highly, that the idea of Him being displeased drives them to seek obedience.

So how do we know if we have a righteous fear of the Lord? 

First, we look at our private lives.  What do we do, say and think when no one is around?  If the private life is out of control, there could be a greater fear of other people than fear of the Lord. 

Second, we look for ways we relax the commands of the Scripture.  Following the commands of Jesus should be challenging.  It’s often the case that the more we grow, the further we see we have to go.  There is no room for coasting.

Third, we reflect on what truly motivates us.  Are we more concerned with what our bosses, co-workers, friends, and students think than what God thinks?  This is the constant battle of the Christian life: to live life with the audience of one.

To cultivate a heart that increasingly fears the Lord, we must know him better.  We consume the Bible with a driving hunger to know him.  We seek him in His law handed down through Moses.  We seek him in the stories of the Old Testament.  We seek him in the Psalms of David.  We seek him in the wisdom of Solomon.  We seek him in the words of the prophets.  We seek him by watching Jesus.  We seek him by listening to Jesus.  We seek him in the story of the early church.  We seek him in the New Testament writings of Paul, Peter, James, and John.  And all for wisdom that comes through knowing him and fearing him for who he really is.

Gaining this wisdom will take work, but Proverbs promises it will be worth it.  Again and again, we are told to get wisdom.  Let us calibrate our lives to this end.

Spurgeon on Giving

This morning’s reading from Morning by Morning has got me thinking. 

You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the Lord of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house.
Haggai 1:9 (ESV)

Grudging souls limit their contributions to the ministry and missionary operations, and call such saving good economy; little do they dream that they are impoverishing themselves. Their excuse is that they must care for their own families, and they forget that to neglect the house of God is the sure way to bring ruin upon their own houses. Our God has a method in providence by which He can cause our endeavors to succeed beyond our expectation, or He can defeat our plans to our confusion and dismay; by a turn of his hand He can steer our vessel in a profitable channel, or run it aground in poverty and bankruptcy. It is the teaching of Scripture that the Lord enriches the generous and leaves the miserly to find out that withholding leads to poverty. In a very wide sphere of observation, I have noticed that the most generous Christians of my acquaintance have been always been the happiest, and almost invariably the most prosperous. I have seen the generous giver rise to financial levels of which he never dreamed; and I have as often seen the mean, ungenerous soul descend to poverty by the very stinginess by which he thought to rise. Men trust good stewards with larger and larger sums, and so it frequently is with the Lord; He gives by cartloads to those who give by bushels. Where wealth is not bestowed the Lord makes the little much by the contentment that the sanctified heart feels in a portion of which the tithe has been dedicated to the Lord. Selfishness looks first at home, but godliness seeks first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, yet in the long run selfishness is loss, and godliness is great gain. It requires faith to act toward our God with an open hand, but surely he deserves it from us; and all that we can do is a very poor acknowledgment of our amazing indebtedness to his goodness.

 

It seems to me, Spurgeon appeals mainly to the financial benefits of giving.  In summation, ‘Give to God and he will make you wealthy.’  I do see this principle articulated in the Bible, especially in Proverbs.  But is this a good reason to give?  Should I give generously to my church because God often blesses givers with more and more? 

Of course, it is important for us to give of our funds.  I believe giving of our income, regardless of what our income is, is the Biblical imperative.  Perhaps Spurgeon is thinking of the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30; Luke 19:12-28) where the faithful stewards are given more to steward.  I resist a mentality where we give strategically so that God will give us more.  Sounds like discontent and sounds like the health & weath heresy.  But perhaps this is Biblical…