I’m really excited about our current summer series, “Christ in the Old Testament“, and the opportunity to get to know the first portion of our Bibles better. But why have we decided to do this? The following quote provides an answer:

“The most compelling reason for Christians to read and study the Old Testament lies in the New Testament. The New Testament witnesses to the fact that Jesus of Nazareth is the One in whom and through whom all the promises of God find their fulfilment. These promises are only to be understood from the Old Testament; the fulfilment of the promises can be understood only in the context of the promises themselves. The New Testament presupposes a knowledge of the Old Testament. Everything that is a concern to the New Testament writers is part of the one redemptive history to which the Old Testament witnesses. The New Testament writers cannot separate the person and work of Christ, nor the life of the church, from this sacred history that has its beginnings in the Old Testament.”

–Graeme Goldsworthy, Gospel & Kingdom (p.18)

In light of this new series that will occupy us right through until the end of Setpember, I thought it might be useful to provide some resources and extra information so that we all might enhance the ongoing benefit of this series to our minds, hearts and lives.

First up is some documents that provide a rough outline of some Old Testament history and chronology. Secondly, you will see a list of recommended books for you and your children that will serve in deepening your understanding of Christ in the Old Testament.

An Outline of Old Testament Chronology

An Outline of Old Testament History

Recommended Resources for Further Study

We are back blogging again this week, and for today I want to speak to those of you who are parents, or have a desire to be a parent in the future.

As we’ve said before, the start of a new year is a good time to sit down and take stock of your life and family, and assess your priorities, time, resources, and plans, etc to make sure the year ahead is purposeful, and (by God’s grace) fruitful.

As a parent, I’m always on the look out (and grateful) for resources that can help me with regard to my children and my parenting.  And at the beginning of a new year I want to point you towards some materials that can help you as parents, sit down, take stock of your lives, families and children, and freshly instruct and/or remind you of the amazing privilege, and awesome responsibility of raising children for God.

The materials come from our good friends at Covenant Life Church, and there’s something for everyone as there are messages and materials for parents with children ranging in ages from 0-22 years old!

I suggest taking a listen together with your spouse and then discussing some areas for growth, change and application of biblical truth into this vital area of parenting.  I hope, and pray this material serves you and blesses your family in 2010!

(NB: Click on the links to listen on-line. To download: PC users right click and save file; Mac users ctrl+click and save file.)

The Parenting Years I: 0-5 year olds (Brian Chesmore)

Part 1: Biblical Principles of Parenting
Part 2: Training & Discipline
Part 3: Questions & Answer Session

The Parenting Years II: 6-10year olds (Kenneth Maresco)

Part 1: Biblical Principles for Parenting
Part 2: Shepherding Towards Conversion
Part 3: Shepherding Your Child’s Heart

The Parenting Years III: 11-14 years olds (Greg Somerville)

Part 1: Changing Bodies & Minds
Part 2: Emerging Convictions in a Changing World
Part 3: Changing Relationships
Part 4: Panel Discussion

The Parenting Years IV: 15-18 year olds (Kenneth Maresco)

Part 1: God’s Role and Our Role
Part 2: A Teen’s Relationship with God
Part 3: The Importance of Relationships in a Teen’s Life
Part 4: Questions & Answer Session

The Parenting Years V: 19-22 year olds (Bob Kauflin)

Part 1: Goals & Guidelines
Part 2: Rules & Relationships
Part 3: College, Careers & Beyond
Part 4: Questions & Answer Session

For this “Thursday Thought for the Day” I wanted to take the opportunity to draw your attention to two resources I have found useful to me in deepening my understanding and appreciation of God’s grace through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Firstly, I want to point you towards a great music resource – the “NEXT 2009 Live” worship album.  This live worship album was recorded at the Sovereign Grace-hosted conference “NEXT” in May 2009.

It’s an album full of really wonderful, truth-filled songs of joyful praise to God.  We’ve been learning, singing and enjoying some of the songs from this album in our Sunday gatherings for a few months now.

You can download (download only, no actual CD I’m afraid)  this album from the Sovereign Grace Store for an unbelievably low $6, which in real money works out at a shade over £3 (depending on the exchange rate).  Hop over there now and download it and get it on your iPod and saturate your soul in theologically rich, gospel centred worship songs! (You can even download 2 FREE songs, if you’re too scrooge-like to part with £3!!!!)

Secondly, I want to recommend the blog, “Of First Importance” to you.  This blog was born out of the authors’ need to live each day in the good of the gospel.  Each day this blog provides a thoughtful quote to help you remember what’s “of first importance”: the gospel of Jesus Christ.  I’ve found it a wonderful resource to help me “preach the gospel to myself everyday“, and commend it to you.

Here’s a sample of what you can expect:

Stand close to the cross of Jesus!
“Once more heed the exhortation- stand close to the cross of Jesus! It is the most accessible and precious spot this side of heaven- the most solemn and awesome one this side of eternity. It is the focus of divine love, sympathy, and power. Stand by it in suffering, in persecution, in temptation. Stand by it in the brightness of prosperity and in the gloom of adversity. Shrink not from its offence, humiliation, and woe. Defend it when scorned, despised, and denied. Stand up for Jesus and the gospel of Jesus. Oh, whatever you do, or whatever you endure, be loyal to Christ’s cross. Go to it in trouble, repair to it in weakness, cling to it in danger, hide beneath it when the wintry storm rushes fiercely over you. Near to the cross, you are near a Father’s heart, a Savior’s side.”
– Octavius Winslow, The Foot of the Cross

You can subscribe to receive the daily quotes via email, RSS updates, or by following them on Twitter.

May these resources edify your soul!

It was great to be together again yesterday morning, gathered as God’s people, united in Christ to celebrate the incredible grace that we’ve received through the gospel.

Yesterday’s sermon from Ephesians 1:3-14, entitled: “The Father’s Grace, the Father’s Glory” is available to listen to or download from here, or via our iTunes podcast feed.

The “Take-It-Home” Sheet for this sermon is available here.

And finally, the moment we’ve all been waiting for — the launch of our Ephesians Memory Verse Songs Project.  This week’s song – “Before the Foundations of the World (Eph 1:3-6)” is available now!

(To download this song to your computer… For Mac Users, ctrl + Click and download linked file.  For PC users, right click the link and “Save As” the file.)

This week’s bulletin is available to download from here.

This past Sunday (11th October) we began our new series studying together the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians – which I am very, very excited about!

The audio for Part 1 is available now.

During the sermon I made some suggestions for how we can all maximise the benefit of this in-depth study, on our lives and families.

The suggestions were:

1.  Read the whole book through a few times.

Sunday mornings are going to be like taking a “glass-bottom boat trip” over Ephesians.  We will have time to see the richness, beauty, glory and intricate detail of God’s truth.  But there’s also a place to take a “speed-boat” trip over the book, to get the bigger picture and to see how it flows and fits together.

Let me suggest reading the entire book in one sitting.  It should take about 25mins.

2.  Study Ephesians in your own personal devotional time.

Get hold of a good study Bible (like the ESV Study Bible) and work your way through Ephesians in your own quiet times.  Review your sermon notes from Sunday, get out the “Take it Home” sheet and use the questions to reflect on the passage/message.

In fact, there’s an on-line version of the ESV Study Bible you can use.

To aid you in your personal reading through Ephesians, get hold of a good commentary.  A particular favourite of mine (and the one Clare and I are using for this purpose) would be:

THE MESSAGE OF EPHESIANS

by John Stott

It’s a great one-volume commentary which is, at the same time, accessible, readable, simple to understand and, yet, wonderfully insightful.

We will have some copies available from this coming Sunday (18th October) at the Info Point, for a remarkable Amazon-price- beating£6!  Be sure to pick up a copy!

3.  Talk to others about what God is teaching you and what you are learning.

Don’t wait for home group to roll around, share the things God is teaching and showing you with others, to encourage them, and ask others what things they have been learning, so you might be encouraged!

4.  Memorise Scripture.

There can be an enormous benefit to our souls to learn and memorise portions of Scripture – to hide God’s Word in our hearts, and let the word of Christ dwell in us richly.  In order to serve us in memorising Scripture passages from Ephesians we have produced our Grace Church Ephesians Scripture Memory Songs Project.

As we saw in our recent “WHY: sing?“ sermon, singing is a gift from God that can help us remember the truth of God’s Word.  So, to coincide with almost every sermon, we will be releasing a short song (via this blog) that has a Scripture passage from Ephesians set to music.  Every song has been written, played/sung, recorded and produced by people in our church!

Look out for the release of the first song with next week’s sermon.

5.  Let’s pray!

This letter is packed full of majestic, grand themes and rich theological truth — the sovereignty of God in Salvation, the grace of God, what our union with Christ means — and also simple, profound practical truths for living our lives in a way that glorifies God.  This combination makes this book immensely powerful.

Let’s pray that God, through the power of His Holy Spirit would use our study to change our lives, for our good and His glory, as He gives us a renewed panoramic vision of the glorious and wondrous work of God in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

On Sunday’s message, the first part of our 5-week “WHY: church?” series, I used an illustration from the book, “The Shack” by William P. Young.

It’s a New York Times best-seller, with over 7 million copies in print, and has caused quite a stir in Christian circles!

I like to read these kind of books (e.g. Dan Brown’s “Da Vinci Code, etc) to know what is being said and to be in a first-hand position to answer questions that arise and counter any issues that result.

I have a file on my computer of articles and resources that can help us think through such books and the controversy surrounding them, and I’d like to share the relevant “Shack” ones with you today.

In April 2009, Dr. Albert Mohler dedicated a radio program to presenting his review of the book. He closed the radio program with these words:

“…Whenever you have an issue in which you are dealing in a narrative-fictional context with theology, you need to be really, really careful. It’s dangerous enough to write theology. But when you try to put it in the form of ‘theological fiction,’ or ‘Christian fiction,’ it gets all the more dangerous because you are inventing dialogue and inventing characters. And this is one of the grave, grave problems I have with this book [The Shack]. If you put God in some kind of character format—in this case as an African-American woman—you’re going to be creative and create a fictional character. Now, is it responsible to do that with the God of the Bible? I have grave concerns about that, but the concerns grow more grave when you look at the dialogue imbedded within the book and the fact that this simply, by any measure, falls far short of biblical Christianity. There is very little in this book about salvation, but there is absolutely nothing in this book that would help you to understand how one comes to be made right with God through the atonement achieved by Jesus Christ, the Son. My main issue is not with the particulars of the story—in some sense a story is a story. My problem is with what is imbedded in the story and this is a danger regardless of whether the story is presented as Christian fiction or something else. Remember, everyone has a purpose in writing a story. In this case, regardless of intention (I cannot read the man’s heart), I can tell you the effect of this book is deeply subversive of the Christian faith and I think inherently seductive as well.”

Listen to, or download, the full radio program here.

Also, Tim Challies, blogger and author of The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment, has written a 17-page review of The Shack. You can download the entire review as a PDF here.