Thursday, 28 April 2011

Blog Tips: How to link Pages Tabs to other pages instead of static pages

This post is taken directly from this website.

An easy way to add navigation tabs in Blogger is using a Pages gadget. However, as the name implies, there is a shortcoming -the tabs only link to static pages.
Does that mean you should forget about adding tabs linking pages other than static pages? No, definitely not….because there is always a workaround.
Use the hack below to add tabs that link to any URLs. You can add tabs linking to label pages, individual post pages, website or whatever.
Here’s how:

Go to Dashboard > Design > Edit HTML.
Tick the Expand Widget Templates check box on top right of the HTML window.
Look for Pages gadget code, like this:

01 <b:widget id='PageList1' locked='false' title='Pages' type='PageList'>

02 <b:includable id='main'>

03   <b:if cond='data:title'><h2><data:title/>h2>b:if>

04   <div class='widget-content'>

05     <ul>

06       <b:loop values='data:links' var='link'>

07         <b:if cond='data:link.isCurrentPage'>

08           <li class='selected'><a expr:href='data:link.href'><data:link.title/>a>li>

09         <b:else/>

10           <li><a expr:href='data:link.href'><data:link.title/>a>li>

11         b:if>

12       b:loop>

13      PUT THE CODE FOR THE LINKS HERE

14     ul>

15     <b:include name='quickedit'/>

16   div>

17 b:includable>

18 b:widget>
Put the code for the additional links right after as indicated in line 13.
Each link shall be in this format:

view source print ?

<li><a href="YourLink">YourLinkTexta>li>

where YourLink is an URL and YourLinkText is the text you would like to appear on the tab.
To make the link open in a new window or tab, add target="_blank" attribute right after href="YourLink".
Preview before saving.
Enjoy!

Wednesday, 27 April 2011

Amazing Video with incredibly elaborately falling dominoes

Amazing Video of what the Gospel is and means for how we live

Tuesday, 26 April 2011

Old Testament Theology & Survey: Bible Teaching Mp3s

Theology

Paul House
A full seminary level course. House wrote one of the better known Old Testament Theologies

Survey

Douglas Stuart
A full seminary level course from well known Old Testament scholar Dallas Stuart who wrote one of the best commentaries on Exodus.

New Testament Theology & Survey: Bible Teaching Mp3s

Theology

Frank Thielman
This is a full seminary course from Thielman who has written one of the best New Testament Theologies (Canonical&Synthetic i.e. a book by book study of the new testament and how each book contributes to the theology of the New Testament)

Survey

Robert Stein
Gospels
Acts-Revelation
Full Seminary level courses.

Craig Blomberg
Introduction to the NT - Gospels/Acts
Introduction to the NT - Romans - Revelation
Full seminary level courses from an excellent NT scholar.

Missions (Missiology): Bible Teaching Mp3s

Timothy Tennent - The World Mission of the Church
This is a full seminary class. Tennent is a professor at Gordon Conwell and has done a lot of work in church planting in India.

Baptism: Bible Teaching Mp3s

Thomas Schreiner - Baptism

Schreiner a credo-baptist (believer's baptism). One lecture on baptism with a second Q&A session.

Wayne Grudem - Baptism
Grudem wrote an excellent Systematic Theology and this lecture is him teaching through the material on baptism in his book.

R.C. Sproul & John MacArthur Debate
2 session Video only of Sproul (infant baptism) and Macarthur (adult baptism).

Can christians lose their salvation (Perseverence of the Saints): Bible Teaching Mp3s

Thomas Schreiner - Run to win the prize: the nature of warnings in New Testament theology
4 part series by Tom Schreiner is one of the finest NT commentators and wrote one of the best commentaries on Romans and 1-2 Peter. He's also written a book on this subject. The Race set before us. In the link there is also a session on Baptism on which he also wrote a book Believer's Baptism

Purity, lust and Pornography: Bible Teaching Mp3s

Joshua Harris - Purity Series
6 part series by Joshua Harris who wrote the most helpful book I've read on purity, lust and pornograpy Sex is not the problem, Lust is. I found it very helpful.

Sex & the Supremacy of God (John Piper)
2004 National Conference with audio from John Piper, Mark Dever, Al Mohler, C.J. Mahaney, et al.

Spiritual Formation (Spiritual Disciplines): Bible Teaching Mp3s

Life in the Spirit: Spiritual Formation in Theological Perspective
18th Annual Wheaton College Theology Conference. Talks from Dallas Willard and Gordon Fee amongst others.

Marriage: Bible Teaching Mp3s

Marriage

Mars Hill The Peasant Princess (Mark Driscoll)
A series on the Song of Solomon covering all things marital, sex, romance, men & women's roles in marriage, etc. It's excellent!

John Piper 'This Momentary Marriage'
John Piper's series on marriage is an exposition of Ephesians 5 and it's really excellent. There is a focus on how marriage is a picture of the covenant love between Jesus and the Church. The first talk in the series is here. Then just go forward from that date to get the rest of them.

Listen to entire album free: 'Over the Grave' by Sojourn

With Sojourn's release of their new second volume of Isaac Watts Hymns today I thought I'd post the player for the first volume Over the Grave here.

Video Preview of Sojourn's New album 'The Water & the Blood'

Sojourn have just released their second volume of Hymns from Isaac Watts called The Water & the Blood. You can watch a video preview of the album in this post, and listen to a song from the album.

Monday, 25 April 2011

Listen to entire album free: 'Risen' by Sovereign Grace Music

Sovereign Grace Ministries is a family of churches passionate about advancing the Great Commission through church planting. One of the churches was pastored by C.J. Mahaney, and now by Joshua Harris. Their lyrics are usually very well thought out and theological and usually a little hymn like although not exclusively.They wrote one of my favourite christian songs Jesus my only hope (I come into your presence).

6 things Jesus Messiah accomplished for us by His Death

This post is taken directly from Matt Perman's Blog and was linked to by Tim Challies at his blog Informing the Reforming. If you're interested in more detail then listen to Mark Driscoll's excellent series on what Jesus accomplished for us on the cross in his series The Cross of Christ.

6 Things Christ Accomplished by His Death

Here’s a very brief summary of the six core things Christ accomplished in his death.
1. Expiation
Expiation means the removal of our sin and guilt. Christ’s death removes — expiates — our sin and guilt. The guilt of our sin was taken away from us and placed on Christ, who discharged it by his death.
Thus, in John 1:29, John the Baptist calls Jesus “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” Jesus takes away, that is, expiates, our sins. Likewise, Isaiah 53:6 says, “The Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him,” and Hebrews 9:26 says “He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.”
2. Propitiation
Whereas expiation refers to the removal of our sins, propitiation refers to the removal of God’s wrath.
By dying in our place for our sins, Christ removed the wrath of God that we justly deserved. In fact, it goes even further: a propitiation is not simply a sacrifice that removes wrath, but a sacrifice that removes wrath and turns it into favor. (Note: a propitiation does not turn wrath into love — God already loved us fully, which is the reason he sent Christ to die; it turns his wrath into favor so that his love may realize its purpose of doing good to us every day, in all things, forever, without sacrificing his justice and holiness.)
Several passages speak of Christ’s death as a propitiation for our sins. Romans 3:25-26 says that God “displayed [Christ] publicly as a propitiation in his blood through faith. This was to demonstrate his righteousness, because in the forbearance of God he passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration of his righteousness at the present time, that he might be just and the justifier of him who has faith in Jesus.”
Likewise, Hebrews 2:17 says that Christ made “propitiation for the sins of the people” and 1 John 3:10 says “in this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
3. Reconciliation
Whereas expiation refers to the removal of our sins, and propitiation refers to the removal of God’s wrath, reconciliation refers to the removal of our alienation from God.
Because of our sins, we were alienated – separated — from God. Christ’s death removed this alienation and thus reconciled us to God. We see this, for example, in Romans 5:10-11: “For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.”
4. Redemption
Our sins had put us in captivity from which we need to be delivered. The price that is paid to deliver someone from captivity is called a “ransom.” To say that Christ’s death accomplished redemption for us means that it accomplished deliverance from our captivity through the payment of a price.
There are three things we had to be released from: the curse of the law, the guilt of sin, and the power of sin. Christ redeemed us from each of these.

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13-14).
Christ redeemed us from the guilt of our sin. We are “justified as a gift by his grace, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24).
Christ redeemed us from the power of sin: “knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your fathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ” (1 Peter 1:18-19).

Note that we are not simply redeemed from the guilt of sin; to be redeemed from the power of sin means that our slavery to sin is broken. We are now free to live to righteousness. Our redemption from the power of sin is thus the basis of our ability to live holy lives: “You have been bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your bodies” (1 Corinthians 6:20).
5. Defeat of the Powers of Darkness
Christ’s death was a defeat of the power of Satan. “He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him” (Colossians 3:15). Satan’s only weapon that can ultimately hurt people is unforgiven sin. Christ took this weapon away from him for all who would believe, defeating him and all the powers of darkness in his death by, as the verse right before this says, “having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross” (Colossians 2:13-14).
6. And he Did All of This By Dying As Our Substitute
The reality of substitution is at the heart of the atonement. Christ accomplished all of the above benefits for us by dying in our place – that is, by dying instead of us. We deserved to die, and he took our sin upon him and paid the penalty himself.
This is what it means that Christ died for us (Romans 5:8) and gave himself for us (Galatians 2:20). As Isaiah says, “he was pierced through for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities . . . the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him” (Isaiah 53:5-6).
You see the reality of substitution underlying all of the benefits discussed above, as the means by which Christ accomplished them. For example, substitution is the means by which we were ransomed: “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28). Christ’s death was a ransom for us — that is, instead of us. Likewise, Paul writes that “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13).
Substitution is the means by which we were reconciled: “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18). It is the means of expiation: “He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21) and “He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness” (1 Peter 3:24). And by dying in our place, taking the penalty for our sins upon himself, Christ’s death is also the means of propitiation.
To close: Two implications. First, this is very humbling.
Second, “Greater love has no one than this, than he lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).

Contemporary Hymn Recommendations (From Tim Challies)

This post is taken from Tim Challies excellent blog. Read the original post here.

Contemporary Hymns

One of the happier musical developments in the Christian world over the past few years has been the resurgence of hymns. Though there are many contemporary worship songs that have excellent content and are ideal for congregational worship, we just can’t afford to lose the hymn.
There are two different kinds of contemporary hymn. In the first place, we have artists writing new hymns that come complete with new tunes. Alongside that we have artists who are finding old hymns and setting them to new music—either completely new melodies or contemporary adaptations of the traditional ones. In the list I’ve offered below, the first two seem to specialize in new hymns and new music while the others focus on the new music.
(Yes, there are many, many other artists writing new hymns or adapting old ones. I am focusing here on artists whose albums are predominantly composed of contemporary hymns)

Getty Music

Keith Getty grew frustrated with the songs his church was singing. He met up with Stuart Townend and together they decided to try to write something better. They ended up with “In Christ Alone.” The rest, as they say, is history. Keith got married to Kristyn, moved to America (he’s Irish by birth), toured the world, wrote many more great hymns, and recorded a handful of albums, most of which have a distinctly Irish feel. And the Christian world has been so much better for it. The most recent collection of hymns is titled Awaken the Dawn. Many of these songs are perfectly suited to congregational worship (already at Grace Fellowship Church we sing “By Faith,” “Creation Sings the Father’s Song” and “Communion Hymn.”).
If you want to learn more, it may be worth beginning with their YouTube channel. There you’ll be able to hear some of their best songs and hear them at their best through videos of their live performances. And trust me when I say it’s absolutely worth trying to catch their shows—their band is amazingly talented and they put on a very enjoyable, worshipful show (though somehow show doesn’t seem like the proper descriptor). If you want to learn about their tour schedule (try to catch one of their Christmas shows!) or buy one of their albums, visit gettymusic.com. I suggest you begin with Awaken the Dawn if you like albums, and each of the songs I’ve already mentioned if you prefer individual tracks.

Stuart Townend

Stuart Townend is the other half of the writing duo that has produced some of Keith Getty’s most popular hymns (including “In Christ Alone” and “The Power of the Cross”) but he has also written many without Keith’s help, including “How Deep the Father’s Love” and “Beautiful Savior.” Keith releases albums under his own name but also appears on other albums (such as Keswick Live, one I quite enjoy).
To learn more about Townend, it’s probably best to visit his web site (stuarttownend.co.uk). The site remains just a little bit underdeveloped, but still has lots of useful information, including a tour schedule and a blog. I’d recommend buying Keswick Live (if you can find it and if you enjoy live worship music) or Creation Sings if you prefer a studio album. If you prefer to just buy songs, go with “In Christ Alone,” “How Deep the Father’s Love,” “Speak, O Lord” and “The Power of the Cross.”

Indelible Grace

Indelible Grace is probably the granddaddy of these artists that write new tunes for old hymns. They have revisited such old favorites as “Abide with Me” and “For All the Saints” and have largely done so very well. They’ve also introduced us to old and long-forgotten hymns, drawing them out of obscurity. They have recorded 6 albums to this point and along the way have featured songs by a great group of artists including Sandra McCracken, Derek Webb, Jars of Clay, Matthew Perryman Jones and many others.
I have enjoyed each of their albums, but if I had to choose just one to recommend, I’d probably send you to Indelible Grace 3: For All the Saints. Jars of Clays’ adaptation of “For All the Saints” is just so good.
You’ll also want to take a look at the music of Matthew Smith who helped found Indelible Grace but who has recorded several independent projects as well.

Red Mountain Church

Red Mountain Church specializes in writing new tunes for old and all-but-forgotten hymns. They have released 6 albums to this point, many of them relating to a particular theme: Christmas, Heaven, the hymns originally collected in the hymnal of William Gadsby.
My favorite of the albums is The Gadsby Project. Be sure to listen right to the end to catch the song “Come Boldly to the Throne of Grace.” You can find one of their other albums, “Help My Unbelief” at NoiseTrade if you want to try it for free or trade some information for it.

Page CXVI

Page CXVI could probably use a catchier name (it’s taken from page 116 of a copy of The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis). But don’t let the name drive you off. They are a little bit more like Indelible Grace, writing new tunes for much-loved hymns (or creating slightly adapted but contemporary versions of the traditional tunes).
You can learn more and buy their 2 albums at pagecxvi.com. You’ll also find a tour schedule there in case you’d like to catch one of their forthcoming shows in CO, KS, OK or TX.

The Songs We Sing

While we are on the subject of hymns, here are some good words from J.C. Ryle (drawn from J.C. Ryle Quotes):

Good hymns are an immense blessing to the Church of Christ. I believe the last day alone will show the world the real amount of good they have done. They suit all, both rich and poor. There is an elevating, stirring, soothing, spiritualizing, effect about a thoroughly good hymn, which nothing else can produce. It sticks in men’s memories when texts are forgotten. It trains men for heaven, where praise is one of the principal occupations. Preaching and praying shall one day cease for ever; but praise shall never die. The makers of good ballads are said to sway national opinion. The writers of good hymns, in like manner, are those who leave the deepest marks on the face of the Church.
But really good hymns are exceedingly rare. There are only a few men in any age who can write them. You may name hundreds of first-rate preachers for one first-rate writer of hymns. Hundreds of so-called hymns fill up our collections of congregational psalmody, which are really not hymns at all. They are very sound, very scriptural, very proper, very correct, very tolerably rhymed; but they are not real, live, genuine hymns. There is no life about them. At best they are tame, pointless, weak, and milk-and-watery.