Wednesday, 1 June 2011

John Piper's Top 10 Christian Biographies

Another Incentive to Read Christian Biography

May 31, 2011 | by: John Piper | Category: Commentary
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For starters, here are ten of my favorites:
Perhaps, Hebrews 11 is still the most compelling biblical mandate for reading Christian biography. Together with Hebrews 13:7 all those biographical lessons in faith seem like an overwhelming summons to keep finding such stories and “considering” them.
“Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.” (Hebrews 13:7).
But Philippians 3:17, together with 1 Corinthians 11:1, add something remarkable to the motivation. Paul says, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1). And then in Philippians 3:17 he takes this out three generations beyond Christ.
“Brothers, join in imitating me, and fix your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us.” (Philippians 3:17).
Notice the sequence:
  1. Jesus lives the perfect life for imitation.
  2. Paul imitates Jesus.
  3. Others “walk according to the example they have in us.”
  4. Finally, we fix our eyes on those who follow Paul’s example.
What makes this so remarkable is that Paul says it is spiritually wise to consider not just Jesus’ life, and not just the lives of those who follow him, but also the lives of those who follow those who follow him.
This seems to imply that the line of inspiration and imitation goes on and on.
Indeed it does. And the centuries are laden with the lives of saved sinners whose failures and triumphs of grace are meant to inspire and strengthen and guide the rest of us.
So among all the other things you do to grow in the knowledge and grace of Christ (2 Peter 3:18), follow Paul’s summons to “fix your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us.”
For starters, here are ten of my favorites:
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Frontier Missions: DVD highlights from missions DVDs

This post is taken from Justin Taylor's excellent blog. View the whole post here.

A Front-Row Seat for Frontier Missions
A Front-Row Seat for Frontier Missions avatar

I cannot recommend too highly these DVDs from the ministry Dispatches from the Front. Who knows what might happen if churches and small groups and families were to watch these videos together, open to God’s leading for going and sending? It is a risk to watch them. But the motivation is gospel grace, not guilt.

Below are some trailers and excerpts. I hope many churches in particular will choose to motivate and encourage their people with these excellent films.






Some endorsements:
“Are you afraid to open your eyes and see death and destruction in the world? Dispatches from the Front will open your eyes to the great needs of the lost, enflame your heart to go to the nations, and give you the courage to carry on the ministry of the Gospel of Jesus Christ for the glory of God. This is a bold call to action.”


—Burk Parsons, pastor, author, editor of Tabletalk magazine
“Dispatches offers a potent reminder that in the darkest places, the gospel shines brightest. It should come with a warning label. Danger: Graphic scenes of mission reality that will disrupt your comfort and ignite your heart for God’s work on the frontlines. Pray, watch and act!”

—Dave Harvey, Sovereign Grace Ministries – Church Planting & Missiology
“Frontline Missions is perhaps too modestly named. Its ministry often reaches behind the frontlines to those areas and peoples that are in greatest need of hearing the soul-saving gospel of Christ and receiving the compassionate assistance of God’s people. These ministries aren’t carried on in ‘hit and run’ fashion. Care is taken to train Christian leaders and to raise up and nourish responsible churches that will carry the work forward into the otherwise uncertain future of unreached and unbelieving peoples all around the world.”


—Dr. David J. Hesselgrave, Emeritus Professor of Missions, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, co-founder and past president, The Evangelical Missiological Society
“Paul tells us that the gospel comes to people (Colossians 1:5-6). The gospel, in a manner of speaking, searches people groups out in every corner of the world, and when it comes to them, it wonderfully bears fruit and grows among them (v. 6). Dispatches from the Front provides us with an inside look at the gospel doing its life-changing work in the forgotten places of the world. If you want to expand your vision of what God is doing in the world through the gospel, Dispatches from the Front will serve you, your family, and your church family extremely well.”

—Dan Cruver, Director of Together for Adoption


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Tuesday, 31 May 2011

Conferences


(John Piper)
Every year John Piper organises a National Conference and a Pastor's Conference.


Bi-Yearly mega-conference. Excellent stuff! Usually the reformed camp speakers like Tim Keller, Mark Dever, D.A.Carson, Driscoll, Piper, etc.
2011 Conference 
2009 Conference
2007 Conference





(Terry Virgo)
Newfrontiers is a Reformed Charismatic movement of churches who are passionate about planting churches worldwide. They organise a yearly conference.





Together for the Gospel
Ligon Duncan, Mark Dever, Albert Mohler, and C. J. Mahaney orginally set this up. They have organised a conference every 2 years beginning 2006


Reformed, Charismatic, Missional
Conference organised by NFI USA including sessions by Jeff Vanderstelt, Terry Virgo, Elliot Grudem.
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Gospel Coalition 2011 Conference Audio (Plenary Sessions & Workshops): Bible Teaching Mp3s

Links to the Mp3s of the Gospel Coalition Conference 2011. Just right click and save the files to download.




Plenary Sessions
Tuesday, April 12
2:00 PM Session 1: R. Albert Mohler, Jr.: "Studying the Scriptures and Finding Jesus" (John 5:31-47)
4:00 PM Session 2: Tim Keller: "Getting Out" (Exodus 14)
7:00 PM Session 3: Alistair Begg: "From a Foreigner to King Jesus" (Ruth)
8:00 PM Session 4: Panel Discussion: Preaching from the Old TestamentPanel: Tim Keller, John Piper, Crawford Loritts, Don Carson, Bryan Chapell
Wednesday, April 13
9:30 AM Session 5: James MacDonald: "Not According to Our Sins" (Psalm 25)
7:00 PM Session 6: Conrad Mbewe: “The Righteous Branch” (Jeremiah 23:1-8)
8:30 PM Session 7: Matt Chandler: "Youth" (Ecclesiastes 11:7-12:14)
Thursday, April 14
9:30 AM Session 8: Mike Bullmore: "God's Great Heart of Love Toward His Own" (Zephaniah)
11:00 AM Session 9: Don Carson: "Getting Excited about Melchizedek" (Psalm 110)

Workshops

2011 Gospel Coalition Workshops (MP3s)

The following files are in MP3 formats. To download, right click and save to your hard drive.
Training the Next Generation of Pastors and Other Christian Leaders
R. Albert Mohler, Jr. Mark Driscoll, David Helm, Don Carson, and Ligon Duncan
The Pastor’s Counseling Ministry
David Powlison
The Gospel for Muslims
Thabiti Anyabwile
Is Your Church a Safe Place for Sad People? Learning to Walk with Each Other Through Loss
Nancy Guthrie
Old Testament Narrative: Letting the Literature Speak
Kathleen B. Nielson
Women Teaching Women the Bible: A Suggested Model
Jenny Salt
Justification Versus Self-Justification
Ray Ortlund Jr.
Preaching a Christ to Whom We Can Come
Colin Smith
Orphans and Adoption
Russell Moore and Voddie Baucham
Power Through Weakness
Tim Savage
Signs of Grace in Inner-City Church Planting
Eric Mason
Gospel Faithfulness and Business Leadership in Tumultuous Times
Bob Doll

What Should a Local Church Look Like?
Tim Keller, Crawford Loritts, and Mark Dever
Pastoring with Discernment: Applying the Gospel to the Hearts of Those You Serve
C. J. Mahaney
Asian American Christian Thought and Theological History: Pastoral Implications for Diversity and Innovation in a Multiracial Church
Stephen Um and Julius Kim
An Invitation to Hispanic Pastors and Would-Be Pastors
Juan Sanchez
Humble Orthodoxy
Josh Harris
Gospel-Centered Pastoral Leadership
Sandy Willson
The Feminist Mistake
Mary Kassian
Literary Beauty and Gospel Truth: Celebrating the Biblical Union
Kathleen B. Nielson
Pure Desire: Gospel-Centered Morality in a Sex-Saturated Society
Gary Inrig
Mixing Whites and Colors Without Making Them Run: Building Gospel-Centered, Intentionally Multicultural Churches
John Mahaffey
‘They All Look Alike To Me’: The Implications of a Christ-Centered Identity on the Issue of Racial Reconciliation in the Church
K. Edward Copeland
Writing Corporate Worship Music
Keith and Kristyn Getty
The Spirit-Filled Missional Ministry of Jesus
Mark Driscoll
Trellis and Vine
Tony Payne and Colin Marshall
Fostering a Praying Church
Scotty Smith
The Genesis of Gender
Mary Kassian
When Despair Invades Gospel Work: Learning from Elijah
Paige Benton Brown
One-on-One Discipleship: Grass-Roots Church Growth
Jenny Salt
Biblical Theology: What It Is and Why It Matters
Stephen Um and Richard Lints
Substitutes for the Gospel: A Modest Critique of Modern Evangelicalism
Erwin Lutzer
The Mission of the Church
Kevin DeYoung and Greg Gilbert
Questioning Evangelism
Randy Newman
The Heart of the Expositor
Kent Hughes
Leading Corporate Worship Music
Keith Getty
Seizing Global Gospel Opportunities: Why and How You and Your Church Can Get Involved
Michael Oh

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Monday, 30 May 2011

Blog Tips: How to insert a flickr slideshow into your blog with custom size

Just go here and it's pretty self explanatory.

If you want the aspect ratio try here.
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Saturday, 28 May 2011

Blog Tips: How to insert inline images in HTML that link to pages

Just insert this code replacing the image icon URL and the link URL that you want. To stop it opening in a new window remove the target=blank" section.

<a href="http://www.hotmail.com/"target="_blank"><img src="http://www.downloadatoz.com/_imgbank/0910/Hotmail.icon.gif" /></a>&nbsp;
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Friday, 27 May 2011

John Piper interview with Rick Warren on what Warren believes

A 98 minute interview between John Piper and Rick Warren (The Purpose Driven ...) about what Rick Warren believes.

Posted by Bryn at 21:58 0 comments
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