New ESV Seek & Find Bible

Crossway has recently published the new ESV Seek & Find Bible for 5-9 year-olds (but which will also serve as a great Bible for family worship). Read this post by Justin Taylor for more information about it.

A Good Description of the Bible

"[T]he Bible - the book that could be described as the Father's portrait of the Son painted by the Holy Spirit."

--John Stott

Great Work Is Done While We're Asleep

And [Jesus] said, "The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come." (Mark 4:26-29)

Sabbath Poems (1979), from A Timbered Choir
Wendell Berry

Harvest will fill the barn; for that
The hand must ache, the face must sweat.

And yet no leaf or grain is filled
By work of ours; the field is tilled
And left to grace. That we may reap,
Great work is done while we're asleep.

We must do the hard work of sowing and scattering the seed (our hands will ache and our heads must sweat), but then we leave it to grace, trusting that "great work is done while we're asleep."

Avoiding Both Escapism and Conformism

"The church has a double responsibility in relation to the world around us. On the one hand we are to live, serve and witness in the world. On the other hand we are to avoid becoming contaminated by the world. So we are neither to seek to preserve our holiness by escaping from the world nor to sacrifice our holiness by conforming to the world. Escapism and conformism are thus both forbidden to us (italics in original)."

--John Stott, The Radical Disciple

Every Prop Will Sink or Fail But Jesus Christ

He That Trusts in His Own Heart
John Berridge, 1716-1793

He that trusts in hiw own heart,
Acts a raw and foolish part;
Base it is, and full of guile,
Brooding mischief in a smile.

Does it boast of love within?
So it may, and yet may sin;
Peter loved his Master well,
Yet a loving Peter fell.

Does it feel a melting frame?
David also felt the same;
Yet he made a woeful trip,
And perceived his mountain slip.

Does it talk of faith, and boast?
Abra'm had as much as most;
Yet beguiled by unbelief,
Twice he durst deny his wife.

Every prop will, first or last,
Sink or fail, but Jesus Christ;
On this sure foundation stone
Let me build and rest alone.

9Marks Interview with Danny Akin

The most recent 9Marks interview is with Danny Akin on "Life and Ministry in the Southern Baptist Convention." Dr. Akin is the president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina.

Insipid, Innocuous Pablum

"How wearisome it must be to God to hear His inspired Word replaced by insipid, innocuous pablum dribbled out of pulpits!"

--John MacArthur, Ashamed of the Gospel

Russell Moore Preaching at FBC Jackson This Sunday

For those of you in and around Jackson, Russell Moore, Dean of the School of Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, preaching pastor at Highview Baptist Church (Fegenbush campus), and author of Adopted for Life, will be preaching at First Baptist Church in our morning service at 9:00am this Sunday, November 7, which is Orphan Sunday. There will be a Q & A on adoption following the service (from 10:30-11:00) in the sanctuary for anyone who is interested.

All Saints Day

For All the Saints
William How, 1823-1897

For all the saints, who from their labors rest,
Who Thee by faith before the world confessed,
Thy Name, O Jesus, be forever blessed.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

Thou wast their Rock, their Fortress and their Might;
Thou, Lord, their Captain in the well-fought fight;
Thou, in the darkness drear, their one true Light.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

O blest communion, fellowship divine!
We feebly struggle, they in glory shine;
Yet all are one in Thee, for all are Thine.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

O may Thy soldiers, faithful, true, and bold,
Fight as the saints who nobly fought of old,
And win with them the victor's crown of gold.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

And when the strife is fierce, the warfare long,
Steals on the ear the distant triumph song,
And hearts are brave again, and arms are strong.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

But lo! there breaks a yet more glorious day;
The saints triumphant rise in bright array;
The King of glory passes on His way.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

From earth's wide bounds, from ocean's farthest coast,
Through gates of pearl streams in the countless host,
Singing to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost:
Alleluia, Alleluia!

Happy Reformation Day!

A little Reformation humor...

A Reformation Hymn

A Mighty Fortress Is Our God
Martin Luther, 1483-1546

A mighty fortress is our God,
A bulwark never failing;
Our Helper, He amid the flood
Of mortal ills prevailing.
For still our ancient foe
Doth seek to work us woe;
His craft and power are great,
And armed with cruel hate,
On earth is not his equal.

Did we in our own strength confide,
Our striving would be losing,
Were not the right Man on our side,
The Man of God's own choosing.
Dost ask who that may be?
Christ Jesus, it is He;
Lord Sabaoth, His name;
From age to age the same,
And He must win the battle.

And though this world, with devils filled,
Should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed
His truth to triumph through us.
The Prince of Darkness grim,
We tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure,
For lo, his doom is sure;
One little word shall fell him.

That word above all earthly powers,
No thanks to them, abideth;
The Spirit and the gifts are ours,
Through Him who with us sideth.
Let goods and kindred go,
This mortal life also;
The body they may kill;
God's truth abideth still;
His kingdom is forever.

Luther Before the Diet of Worms

As much as October 31 and Luther's tacking of the 95 Theses are celebrated as the beginning of the Reformation, in many ways, this was actually the moment that Protestant Christianity was born.

What the Reformation Was Really About

I posted this quote several months ago, but with Reformation Day quickly approaching I thought it would be appropriate to post it again:

The closer one looks, the clearer it becomes: the Reformation was not, principally, a negative movement, about moving away from Rome; it was a positive movement, about moving towards the gospel.

--Michael Reeves, The Unquenchable Flame: Discovering the Heart of the Reformation

An Inside Job

"[M]any Christians seem completely unaware - if not unwilling to see - that serious dangers threaten the church from within. Yet if church history teaches us anything, it teaches us that the most devastating assaults on the faith have always begun as subtle errors arising from inside the body itself."

--John MacArthur, Ashamed of the Gospel

A Profound Theological Blunder

The following was said by Martyn Lloyd-Jones in 1972. In 2010, this profound theological blunder has become the preferred method of much of American evangelicalism.

Our Lord attracted sinners because He was different. They drew near to Him because they felt that there was something different about Him....And the world always expects us to be different. This idea that you are going to win people to the Christian faith by showing them that after all you are remarkably like them, is theologically and psychologically a profound blunder.

--Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Preaching and Preachers