Justinroy

If the rapid expansion of the Church is, in fact, a move of God, our new brothers and sisters will hunger and thirst for understanding.

On average, there are 28 million new Christians each year outside of the United States, and if you didn’t already know, the shape of World Christianity is changing. In fact, most argue that it has already changed.  The West is no longer the epicenter of the Church, and along with this global shift of Christianity, new challenges to the faith arise. The lack of sound theology and biblical teaching is a major problem. New global Christians are left without a biblical framework in which to live and learn the Christian faith. Even though I am overwhelmed with the success of evangelism, we now must exhort and equip our foreign family so that their worship might be true and their doctrines life-sustaining.

This is where Desiring God comes in. Desiring God Ministries have an international outreach program that is committed to feed the theologically starving Church.

International Outreach is working to relieve this theological famine. We are building a network of collaborators who provide biblical resources, in appropriate languages and formats, to equip church and missions leaders around the world. Will you join us in strengthening the global church for the cause of spreading the Gospel to all nations?

Some of their strategies are to:

Cultivate Relationships with those working in the cause of missions and church-planting.

Develop Resources in formats and languages to help equip those in our network.

Build Support through prayer and financial assistance from friends passionate about relieving this famine.

Mobilize Networks to distribute resources through the channels of our partners.

International Outreach is on the frontline of God’s mission by supplying theological education for pastors throughout the world. Jon Bloom, executive director of Desiring God, issued a statement today outlining their current strategy and goals for the year. He promises we will hear more as the year progresses, but he also asks for financial support.

I believe that the global shift of Christianity is God’s work, and He has providentially equipped the West to fund it.

Read Jon’s article here

Give here

This picture picture made me laugh

Art addresses us in the fullness of our being simultaneously speaking to our intellect, emotions, intuition, imagination, memory and physical senses. There are some truths about life that can be expressed only as stories or songs or images.”

[Dana Gioia, Commencement Address at Stanford University, June 17, 2007]

God knows that we are people of story.

I use this narrative analysis tool whenever I interpret the Gospels. It helps me slow down and read the story with new eyes. Using this tool, I start to see that the main point of the story is not whatever strikes me. The Gospels are unique; they dont fit squarely into any genre of literature and we should respect their use of narrative. It’s important for us to understand the basic structure of narrative in order to determine the main points of each literary unit and the book as a whole.
We must remember that the gospel stories are simultaneously a story about Jesus and a word of God to us. The canonical scriptures have two authors (God/Man) and we can learn from literary criticism to determine the authorial intent.

And here is one of the best tools for reading the Gospels

1. Isolate the Literary Unit
2. Identify the Settings and Characters
3. Observe the Story

a. Are there key words or phrases or repeated ideas? Are there cause and effect relationships stated? What illustrations are used if any?

4. Isolate the Different Scenes
5. Analyze the narrative:

a. Identify the (rising) Conflict
b. Identify the Climax
c. Identify the Resolution
d. Identify the Following Action/Interpretation

6. Think about the Context

a. Immediate literary context
b. Whole Gospel context (narrative flow and structure; intra- and intertextuality)
c. Redemptive-Historical context

7. Write a Summary

Find the main thrust of the story’s points, understood in context, and address what it teaches us about God and ourselves. Use two key ideas of Revelation and Identification – What is revealed about God in Christ and How we are to Identify as the disciples of Christ

There’s a lot to say about this tool and it’s not perfect, it doesn’t work every time.

Also, There maybe some terms your unfamiliar with, so feel free to ask questions. I will try and post more information/explanations later. Give it a try and tell me what you think.

Try using this tool on Matthew 4:1-11, Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness. There’s a mountain of meaning in Jesus’ temptation.

For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

(Matthew 5:20 ESV)

God’s Unfaithful Wife: A biblical theology of spiritual adultery by Raymond C. Ortlund Jr.

This is by far one of the best T-Shirts ever. Every kid should own one of these 

Using motion in photography is called kinetic photography. Using camera motion in photography is called “balls to the wall” kinetic photography.

Now, there are camera safe ways to create motion in your pictures, but the best and most dangerous way is just to launch you camera into flight while opening the shutter.

If you’re a baller, this might be what you end up with something like the image below

See how great that looks?

That’s what I thought – Now who’s up for some camera frisbee ?

The PCRT 2010 looks like it’s going to be a fascinating conference and you can register for free online streaming content at http://alliancelive.org/ .

Schedule

Pre-Conference — Texts of Christ’s Triumph
Friday
Interpreting Prophetic Passages, Rick Phillips
What Cannot Be Shaken,Cornel Venema
The Olivet Discourse, Cornel Venema
Rest for Christ’s Church at Hist Revelation, Cornel Venema
The Thousand Years, Cornel Venema
Question & Answer, Phillips/Venema

Conference
Friday
7:00 p.m. The Christ of History, Joel Beeke (CA, SC); Alistair Begg (MI); Sinclair Ferguson (PA)

Saturday
9:00 a.m. The Present Evil Age, D.A. Carson (CA, MI, PA); Michael Horton (SC)
10:00 a.m. The Age of the Spirit, Joel Beeke (CA, SC); Alistair Begg (MI); Sinclair Ferguson (PA)
11:00 a.m. Question & Answer, All Speakers
2:00 p.m. The Resurrection Hope, Cornel Venema (CA, SC); Joel Beeke (MI); Michael Horton (PA)
3:15 p.m. Seminars:
The Four (Main) Millennial Views, Cornel Venema (CA, SC, PA); David Murray (MI)
Eschatology in the Early Church, Ligon Duncan (MI)
The Origins of Dispensationalism, Michael Horton (SC)
The Postmillennial Vision of the American Puritans, Joel Beeke (CA)
Evangelical Eschatology, American Style, Philip Ryken (PA)
A Pastor’s Guide to Life After Death, Rick Phillips (CA, MI, SC)
Special Video Seminar: James Boice, A Christian View of History, (MI, SC, PA)
The Radical Implications of Eternity, Paul Tripp (PA)
7:00 p.m. The Eternal Glory, Philip Ryken (CA, PA); Ligon Duncan (MI, SC)

Sunday
A.M. Worship  Partakers of the Age to Come, D.A. Carson (CA, PA); Ligon Duncan (MI, SC)

It is as impossible to separate works from faith as burning and shining from ?re. Therefore be on guard against your own false ideas and against the chatterers who think they are clever enough to make judgements about faith and good works but who are in reality the biggest fools. Ask God to work faith in you; otherwise you will remain eternally without faith, no matter what you try to do or fabricate.

- Martin Luther in his Commentary on Romans

I’m finally taking the time to read through The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name by Sally LLoyd-Jones

There’s always the  temptation, especially in children’s  literature, for the Bible to be presented as something it’s not. And  most Children’s Bibles are paraphrases, with lots of selection and deselection occurring, so that children can easily understand the main points of each story, but sometimes they fail to connect the stories.

This is where the Jesus Storybook gets it right.

Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures,

(Luke 24:44-45 ESV)

Just read the introduction to Jesus Storybook and you’ll find that LLoyd-Jones captures the true meaning of all scripture.

God wrote, “I love you” – he wrote it on the sky, and on the earth, and under the sea. He wrote his mesage everywhere. Because God created everything in his world to reflect him like a mirror0 to show us what he is like, to help us know him, to make our hearts sing.

Now, some people think the Bible is a book of rules telling you what you should and shouldn’t do. The Bible certainly does have some rules in it. They show you how life works best. But the Bible isn’t primarily about you and what you should be doing. It’s about God and what he has done.

Other People think the Bible is a book of heroes, showing you people you should copy. The Bible does have some heroes in it, but (as you’ll soon find out) most people in the Bible aren’t heroes at all. They make some big mistakes (sometimes on purpose). They get afraid and run away. At times they are downright mean.

Now the Bible isn’t a book of rules, or a book of heroes. The Bible is most of all a Story. It’s an adventure story about a young Hero who comes from a far country to win back his lost treasure. It’s a love story about a brave Prince who leaves his palace, his throne – everything – to rescue the one he loves. It’s like the most wonderful of fairy tales that has come true in real life !

You see. the best thing about this Story is – it’s true.

There are lots of stories in the Bible, but all the stories are telling one Big Story. The story of how God loves his children and comes to rescue them.

It takes the whole Bible to tell this story. And at the center of the Story, there is a baby. Every Story in the Bible whispers his name. He is lithe piece that makes all the other pieces fit together; and suddenly you can see a beautiful picture.

And this is no ordinary baby. This is the Child upon whom everything would depend.

Is this not a beautiful description of what the Bible is?  Every story whispers his name (Luke 24:44-45)