What is the gospel?

/ David Thomas / 1 Comment

How would you answer that question?

This coming Sunday evening we will be asking the question, “What is the gospel?”  Perhaps it’s a question we think is so basic it doesn’t need an answer.  But as we saw a few weeks ago when we asked the question, “What is evangelism?” the most basic questions are the most important questions.

Below are a some definitions from a few well know evangelicals and you can find a lot more here thanks to Trevin Wax  who has complied a whole list.

Finally, this article by Derrick Olliff is a sizeable but excellent read.

 

 

Songs for Saplings

/ David Thomas / 2 Comments

If you have  young children I would highly recommend the Songs for Saplings CDs by Dana Dirksen.  We have the first three volumes of the Questions with Answers CDs (also downloadable from iTunes) and the children love them.  The tunes are good and the songs progress through the Westminster Shorter Catechism with lots of Bible verses and great truth as  the lyrics.

A few car journeys with these songs playing and children and parents will get to know the Bible better.

For a taster, click on the links below and find  lots more playable samples on their web site.

You shall not murder

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On Sunday evening we are going to be looking at the 6th commandment ‘You shall not murder.’ – Exodus 20:13. It’s a commandment that directly relates to many of the big issues in our society today including abortion, euthanasia / assisted suicide, as well as war, law and punishment.

These areas are so emotive because many are living in the shadow of past actions – either our own or of people dear to us, and we know the pain that facing these issues brings.

As we’ll be dealing with the commandment in general we won’t be able to say all that ought to be said about each of these issues.

That makes the series of posts that have been written on the Good Book Company blog this week on abortion most helpful and I’d recommend them to you. They have been written by Andrew Nicholls, an ex-doctor who is currently a pastor in Kingston.

Andrew starts with helpful pastoral insight when thinking about this issue. Then there’s a post on why we might think the unborn child is already a precious human life, followed by posts thinking how we might go about caring for those thinking about having an abortion and those who have previously had an abortion.

Somebody stole eternity – and it’s killing us.

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Here’s a clip of what those going to New Word Alive in sunny Prestatyn later this year have to look forward to.  It’s Paul Tripp, one of the main speakers at this years conference, talking about eternity and how we all live as though we don’t believe in it.  The clip is taken from a DVD of a book entitled Forever: Why you can’t live without it.

So try not to focus on the moustache too much and enjoy.

iPiper

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For those of you who like John Piper and have an iPad or  iPhone  you can now download the new Desiring God App for all things iPiper.  The App includes blog posts, audio, video and books and looks really well produced.

They also state somewhere that there will be a version available  for Android if there is enough interest shown.

The Desiring God App from Desiring God on Vimeo.

WWDD?

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It seems that the ruling to ban formal council prayers will be overturned within a week.  But there is a danger in Christians merely looking to Eric Pickles and Baroness Warsi to come to our rescue.

Regarding the ruling over the Bideford Council perhaps we need to ask ourselves ‘What would Daniel Do?’

Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before. – Daniel 6:10