Links You Should Check Out

Here are some links that you should check out for life and ministry:

* The folks over at 9Marks have put together another excellent collection of articles for their July/August 2007 newsletter. One article that is simply a must-read is by David Powlison called "The Theraputic Gospel." What is the theraputic gospel? It is the one proclaimed in many pulpits across America, one that is...

"structured to give people what they want, not to change what they want. It centers exclusively around the welfare of man and temporal happiness. It discards the glory of God in Christ. It forfeits the narrow, difficult road that brings deep human flourishing and eternal joy. This therapeutic gospel accepts and covers for human weaknesses, seeking to ameliorate the most obvious symptoms of distress. It makes people feel better....Repentance from unbelief, willfulness, and wickedness is not the issue. Sinners are not called to a U-turn and to a new life that is life indeed. Such a gospel massages self-love. There is nothing in its inner logic to make you love God and love any other person besides yourself. This therapeutic gospel may often mention the word "Jesus," but he has morphed into the meeter-of-your-needs, not the Savior from your sins. It corrects Jesus’ work. The therapeutic gospel unhinges the gospel.

*Along similar lines, The Internet Monk reminded me of an article I had read years ago. If you haven't read William Willimon's article, "It's Hard to be Seeker-Sensitive When You work for Jesus", then delay no more. He says,

"Jesus is not simply about meeting my felt needs; he is also about rearranging my needs, not only about fulfilling my desires; he is also about transforming my desires. Jesus is wonderfully nonchalant about so many of my heart-felt desires. It's amazing how many of my needs (material affluence, security, sexual fulfillment, happiness, etc.) appear not in the least to interest Jesus. Many of you can testify that Jesus, the better you got to know him, did not fulfill all your needs but sometimes gave you needs you did not have before you met Jesus!"

*Tim Keller, as usual, has great things to say about "Talking About Idolatry in a Postmodern Age."

I ordinarily begin speaking about sin to a young, urban, non-Christian like this:

Sin isn’t only doing bad things, it is more fundamentally making good things into ultimate things. Sin is building your life and meaning on anything, even a very good thing, more than on God. Whatever we build our life on will drive us and enslave us. Sin is primarily idolatry.

* And lastly, over at Worship Matters, Bob Kauflin posted a video of Ryan Ferguson (why yes, we are related-- Gal. 3:26-29) dramatically reciting Hebrews 9-10. YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS!!! (It's about 11 minutes, but worth every second.)



This should (1) serve to encourage us in memorizing the Scripture, and (2) forever shame our laziness in thinking its not worth the effort to memorize Scripture, and (3) inspire us to try to tackle more than a verse here or a verse there.