The Music Of Josh Garrels

When I was a student at Taylor, many of my friends and I followed a local musician whose lyrics were as thoughtful as they were faithful.   I always appreciated the reflection Josh Garrels integrated with his faith and  put into his music.

Several years later, Garrels is still making great music and expanding his influence way beyond Marion, IN.  His CDs are now available on iTunes as well as live concert clips on Vimeo.  Josh also has some free mp3 downloads available on his website.

I recommend getting to know his music.  There seems to be so little quality creativity flowing from Christian musicians these days.  Josh is a creative leader and brings something everyone will appreciate.  I recently commended Garrel’s music to some friends and was not shocked with their enthusiastic feedback.

My Favorite Songs:

Zion & Babylon

SISU

Train Song

The Stand

Restless Ones

Freedom

Recommended Devotionals

Here are some of the best devotional materials I’ve come across.  I think its beneficial to have a devotional work or two to plow through during the year.  These Bible-saturated works have worshipfully ushered me into the presence of the Lord time and time again.  I thank God for them!

Morning by Morning (C.H. Spurgeon)

Spurgeon is a master at balancing his sophisticated intellect and pastoral heart.  His daily offerings from various verses throughout the Scriptures are always practical and Christ-centered.  Few share his ability to go so deep so quickly, never wasting a word.  The new ESV-based edition edited by Alistair Begg is my personal favorite.

The Valley of Vision

This collection of Puritan prayers and reflections is excellent.   Capturing the tenacity with which the Puritan pastors and thinkers pursued their personal faiths, they stir the heart with their depth of passion.  Much like the Psalms, these prayers will add vocabulary to your prayer life if you’ll let them.

The One Year Book of Christian History (E Michael and Sharon Rusten)

Not merely for the Church History buffs, this work takes some of the finest moments in the last 2,000 years and makes them accessible throughout the year.   The spiritual benefits of reading the biographical snapshots of faithful brothers and sisters over the centuries makes this book a great place to start (or continue) a growing appreciation of Church History.

The Loveliness of Christ (Samuel Rutherford)

Drawn together from The Letters of Samuel Rutherford, this book of quotes is rich reading indeed.  I have never picked it up and put it down unchanged.  So many Christ-exalting quotes in one place is a rare treat.  I gave out over ten for Christmas this past year.

Thinkers beware!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A scary study for those of us who think for a living.  It seems cultivating epiphanies has been simultaneously cultivating waistlines

Not in Seminary? Go to Chapel anyway!

Several of the top seminaries and theological schools in the country put chapels (and even classes) online for anyone to download.  Here is a list of places to start, if you’re looking to be fed beyond Sunday morning sermons.

Denver Seminary (Littleton, CO)

Dallas Theological Seminary (Dallas, TX)

Fuller Seminary (Pasadena, CA)

Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Louisville, KY)

Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (South Hamilton, MA)

Westminster Theological Seminary (Philadelphia, PA)

Westminster Seminary California (Escondido, CA)

Bethel Seminary (Minneapolis, MN)

Reformed Theological Seminary (Orlando, FL)

Taylor University (Upland, IN)

Wheaton College (Wheaton, IL)

 

(NOTE:  If you know of other Christian seminaries and schools with chapel audio, please post them and I’ll add them to the list.  Thanks to those who already have!!)

One of the Greatest Sermons Ever Preached

As a seminarian, I listen to a lot of teaching and preaching.  There are times my Ipod has more sermons and teachings (by a variety of pastors) than music.  I observe the preacher’s style, the way he handles the text, the illustrations used to illustrate points.  It’s amazing the variety of styles and gifts God gives different preachers as they feed their flocks.  I enjoy listening to sermons and always grow somehow through them.  

Technology feeds this love for the Word preached well.  Sermonaudio.com has made many of histories finest sermons available for free in audio formats.  Not only can you listen to the best communicators alive through the internet and podcasts, but you can listen to the sermons of brilliant dead guys as you make your morning commute.

One of the most famous sermons in American history, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards was first given in Enfield, Connecticut on July 8, 1741.  Edward’s theological sophistication and thoroughness are clear in his writings and sermons.  Here, you can download and listen to this sermon.  I recommend everyone listen to it and hopefully go on to study the message in more detail.  Our culture needs preaching of the caliber and boldness of Edwards.  He is so quickly dismissed (as are so many of the most brilliant among us).  I believe reading (and listening) to classical sermons and works is like having a conversation with some of the most brilliant people who ever lived.  

We take for granted the gift of the preservation of so many works of literature and instruction that have been passed down over the centuries.  That we know what we know about Socrates, Augustine, Anslem, Edwards, Spurgeon, Pascal and hundreds of others is no less than a blessing from God.  If we ignore them, then we show our ignorance.  Download “Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God” and interact with Edward’s brilliance.  It’s okay to not believe everything he preached or believed, but too many historical people of all theological orientations have affirmed his brilliance for it to not be so.  Brilliant people can be wrong, but so can we…

Valley of Vision: A Disciple’s Renewal

O MY SAVIOR,

help me.

I am so slow to learn, so prone to forget, so weak to climb;

I am in the foothills when I should be on the heights;

I am pained by my graceless heart,

my prayerless days,

my poverty of love,

my sloth in the heavenly race,

my sullied conscience,

my wasted hours,

my unspent opportunities.

I am blind while light shines around me:

take the scales from my eyes,

grind to dust the evil heart of unbelief.

Make it my chiefest joy to study thee,

meditate on thee,

gaze on thee,

sit like Mary at thy feet,

lean like John on thy breast,

appeal like Peter to thy love,

count like Paul all things dung.

Give me increase and progress in grace so that there may be

more decision in my character

more vigour in my purposes,

more elevation in my life,

more fervour in my devotion,

more constancy in my zeal.

As I have a position in the world,

keep me from making the world my position;

May I never seek in the creature

what can be found only in the creator;

Let not faith cease from seeking thee until it vanishes into sight.

Ride forth in me, thou king of kings and lord of lords,

that I may live victoriously, and in victory attain my end.

 

Taken from The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions p. 184

John Piper on Television

John Piper is one of my heroes because he does hard things.  He often preaches hard things and I believe he works to live out his convictions regardless of personal cost.  I often lack the self-control to live out things I know to be true.  This shows up frequently in my use of television.  

I know television isn’t as good for me as other things.  Even the most educational programming can’t compare with the value from reading a good book or engaging in meaningful conversation.  But how easy it is to arrive home from a long day at work and crash in front of the television, letting it carry me through the evening.  

I’m challenged my these admonitions by John Piper.

Many of my heroes have commented on how they’ve systematically limited how much time they spend watching television.  Randy Alcorn wrote he’s thankful there wasn’t television and video games when he was a kid, because he never would have learned to love reading.  Psychologists are beginning to see a predictable correlation between time spent watching TV and poor academic performance. Believers are called to continuously build up their faith: capacity to see, hear and know things beyond the experience of physical senses.  Simply put, reading aides in this endeavor; television does not.  

Lack of pleasure from reading should not be an acceptable excuse.  I don’t like broccoli the way I like donuts, but if I replace broccoli (and other healthy foods) with donuts day by day, I will eventually kill myself.  Many times, life requires people to do things which are good for them regardless of the pleasure rendered.  Donuts make the body fat.  They, like cookies, are a “sometimes food” as Sesame Street’s Cookie Monster recently relented (somebody has to take the fall for the fat kids). Television must also remain a sometimes food.  Because the soul is infinitely more valuable than our physical bodies, one of our high values should be to guard it from excessively disengaging entertainments (Prov. 4:23).  Through moderation and commitment to guarding the heart, Christians can enjoy television from time to time, remaining engaged in the work the Lord has for us in transforming our culture from darkness to light.

Does beauty win votes?

Sarah Palin may not be so conservative in terms of her fashion.  POLITICO reports the Republican National Committee shelled out $150,000 to clothe and accessorize her.  Their story lists amounts per store per items at some points.

Does this bother anyone else??  I hope not to spend that much on clothes throughout my entire life!  The problem with this is so complicated.  The ultimate problem is not with the RNC’s willingness to shell out that kind of money (which isn’t good).  The problem is that most people play to it.  Fashion magazines have jumped all over the designer wardrobe of the Alaskan Governor because they know it will sell magazines. Our culture loves this stuff.

We would do well to remember that in the end it does not matter what you looked like or how you were adorned.  It will matter who you were and what you did with Jesus.  Don’t bow down to the current zeitgeist and think that you are what you look like or as Sprite puts it, “image is everything.”  

We would all do well to dust off our copies of Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress and read again (or for the first time) the chapter on Vanity Fair…

John Piper on the Prosperity Gospel

 

Test yourself against this message by John Piper.  I find in myself the need to continually resist valuing gifts over the Giver.  God is the satisfaction of the human soul: not money, not power, not relationships, not anything.  The Bible is full of people who suffered greatly and lived very simple lives.  How were they able to pass up earthly pleasures?  They believed that serving God and sacrificing for God would be worth it in the end, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Rom. 8:18).

This is where Americans are often held up.  We act as if this life were our end goal. So we accumulate as much as we can and experience as much as we can, all the while neglecting things that will matter for eternity.  Many Christians affirm Jesus is the most important part of their lives.  But a surface level observation of time management reflects various entertainments are really on the throne of their hearts.

I’m challenged by these words by Scottish Presbyterian theologian Samuel Rutherford (1600-1661), “I urge upon you…a near communion with Christ and a growing communion.  There are curtains to be drawn by in Christ that we never saw, and new foldings of love in him.  I despair that ever I shall win to the far end of that love, there are so many plies in it; therefore dig deep, and sweat, and labour, and take pains for him, and set by so much time in the day for him as you can: he will be won with labour.”  I can’t help but wonder if Rutherford would have had television in his home.  Setting aside as much time as possible for communion with Christ probably wouldn’t have allowed much time for it.  

The work of the Christian life can take on many forms, but it must always be sustained by a passionate pursuit of Jesus.  We must believe there is more knowledge and enjoyment of him to be chased down and embraced.  Christians that don’t know how to enjoy Christ won’t be able to suffer for him, resist sin, or love offers sacrificially.  We need more of Jesus, for without him we can do nothing (John 15:5b).

Only one life, it will soon be passed, only what’s done for Christ will last.

My Utmost For His Highest: August 15th

The Evidence of the New Birth

You must be born again —John 3:7

The answer to Nicodemus’ question, “How can a man be born when he is old?” is: Only when he is willing to die to everything in his life, including his rights, his virtues, and his religion, and becomes willing to receive into himself a new life that he has never before experienced (John 3:4). This new life exhibits itself in our conscious repentance and through our unconscious holiness.

“But as many as received Him. . .” (John 1:12). Is my knowledge of Jesus the result of my own internal spiritual perception, or is it only what I have learned through listening to others? Is there something in my life that unites me with the Lord Jesus as my personal Savior? My spiritual history must have as its underlying foundation a personal knowledge of Jesus Christ. To be born again means that I see Jesus.

“. . . unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God ” (John 3:3). Am I seeking only for the evidence of God’s kingdom, or am I actually recognizing His absolute sovereign control? The new birth gives me a new power of vision by which I begin to discern God’s control. His sovereignty was there all the time, but with God being true to His nature, I could not see it until I received His very nature myself.

“Whoever has been born of God does not sin. . .” (1 John 3:9). Am I seeking to stop sinning or have I actually stopped? To be born of God means that I have His supernatural power to stop sinning. The Bible never asks, “Should a Christian sin?” The Bible emphatically states that a Christian must not sin. The work of the new birth is being effective in us when we do not commit sin. It is not merely that we have the power not to sin, but that we have actually stopped sinning. Yet 1 John 3:9 does not mean that wecannot sin— it simply means that if we will obey the life of God in us, that we do not have to sin.

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I found this devotional was very thought provoking this morning.  It is easy to let fake things become our Christianity.  Chambers points to three real markers: Does my knowledge of Jesus flow from my own experience with him?  Do I see the world and my life as under God’s sovereign control?  And do I use God’s power to stop sinning? 

Three questions which will expose the heart for what it is.  Am I imitating the Christianity I see lived out around me or is my faith growing for a seed planted in my own heart?  Personally, I find these words challenging.  I want an authentic, growing relationship with Christ; I want to live as a faithful steward in the King’s absence;  I want to know the power of God to destroy the works of sin in my life.