Tyler Kenney is the Web Content Assistant at Desiring God.

Some new additions to our website are welcomed with centerstage attention. Others creep onto the scene from behind the curtain. Here are three recent "creepers" you might've missed:

• Four more years of Piper's church newsletter articles (Taste & Sees): 1986, 1987, 1988, and 1991
• The transcript of "Let Your Passion Be Single"
• Audio and video from the new seminar, "The Pleasures of God"

Watch John Piper explain the Bible study method called "arcing" and why he uses it.

To learn more about arcing, and even to start doing it yourself, check out Bible Arc. Andy, my friend who put the site together, has added a number of new improvements recently, including:

• instant parsing of Greek words
• a section for sharing and rating arcs
• the ability to easily email your arc to others
• the Hebrew OT
• a Spanish translation

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For more Q&A with John Piper, check out Ask Pastor John. New episodes are posted 3 times a week.

What does it mean to lose heart?

To lose heart is to lose our courage or lose the will to go on. It means to be utterly spiritless and worn out, to throw in the towel. It is more than discouragement. It's discouragement to point of quitting the race before it is over.

God forbid that any of us should throw in the towel of our gospel ministries! We are those who do not lose heart! We do not throw in the towel of displaying the glory of God to the world! To throw in the towel of the gospel is to have believed in vain, to make shipwreck of our faith.

There are glorious promises that tell us that if we have indeed received this ministry that we will indeed not lose heart (John 10:27-30 for one). No power of hell, no scheme of man can ever pluck us from his hand.

How do we keep from being among those who just give up?

We do it by fixing our eyes on the God-centered realities that describe us:

But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. (2 Corinthians 2:14)

For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ. (2 Corinthians 2:17)

Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God. (2 Corinthians 3:5)

Surely there are times when it is wise to consider changing the way and type of ministry that we are doing. But we should be very slow to interpret our present difficulties as an indication that we should quit.

Therefore we do not lose heart. Despite all the difficulties we do not throw in the towel. For though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.

Here are my notes from Bruce Ware's message this morning at the Children Desiring God conference. The audio will be posted next week, Lord willing.

“There is None Besides Me”: Biblical Foundations for the Centrality of God

There are three themes from Isaiah 40-46 that demonstrate that God is exclusively and incomparably God.

1) God as Creator (Isaiah 40:18-26)

Implications:

• As Creator of all, God is independent of all that he has made. He doesn't need the world or you or me. His creation adds nothing to him. We cannot make God better or enrich his life. He is the Provider, we are the needy recipients.
• As Creator, God is rightful owner of all that he has made.

Application:

If we understand this rightly we should fall before God with a deep sense of humility and dependence before him. This is how to fight pride: by remembering the greatness, supremacy, and all-sufficient fullness of who God is. We have nothing we we can claim as our own that we have rights over or can take credit for.

2) God as Redeemer (Isaiah 43:1-13)

Implications:

• As Redeemer, God is rightful owner of his people. This was an implication of him being Creator. It's also an implication of him being Redeemer. Those redeemed by him are twice his people. They are doubly owned.
• As Redeemer, God demonstrates his selecting and particular love for his people. There is a lavish display of his goodness that God reserves for those whom he chooses with his electing love, though they are no more deserving of it than others.

Application:

This should make us respond with trust and confidence in God. He is for us. Can you believe it? We not only owe him our allegiance because he created us. We also owe it to him because of his great redeeming love for us. And we ought to gladly give it!

3) God as Sovereign Ruler over Good and Evil (Isaiah 44:24-45:7)

Implications:

• As Sovereign Ruler, God reigns over nature and nations. God not only makes everything; he also controls what they do. Whether sudden catastrophes or the installation of kings, all is in total control.
• As Sovereign Ruler, God rules over good and evil. We are usually OK with affirming the first. But Scripture is clear: he has absolute control over evil too. But just because God controls both good and evil doesn't mean that he is both good and evil (see Psalm 5:4; 1 John 1:5). God is good and wise in regulating everything that happens, even evil.

Application:

This truth should cause us to respond to God with hope and strength. Because everything is ordained by a wise and loving God, we can remain hopeful and strong in the midst of suffering.

Taken from notes on Piper’s message at the Children Desiring God conference.

1. Indoctrination

By indoctrination I mean putting thoughts into a child's head without a due concern that they should have good reasons for believing them. Whenever we teach children we must be concerned that we don't simply indoctrinate them.

To want to have truth go into a child's head is a very good thing. But you should also take care that while you are putting truth into their heads you should also try to give them a process they can test it with. Don't just give the what and the why behind it; also give the how.

2. Contextualization

Let's take a little people group called three-year-olds, for instance. If I only use words they don't know, they obviously won't learn anything. But if I only use words they do know, they won't learn anything either.

So contextualization isn't the most important thing with kids. The most important thing is concept creation. Children need to be given new categories of thought in order to learn.

Read the rest of the notes from this message.

All the audio and video from The Pastor As Scholar and the Scholar As Pastor is now available.

• Piper's message (audio, video, manuscript)
• Carson's message (audio, video, manuscript coming soon now available.)
• the discussion that followed (audio, video)

The Henry Center, who hosted the event, appreciates the generosity of sponsors BibleMesh, Moody Press, Crossway, Christian Focus, and Coffee Ambassadors who helped make it happen.

There is no other name [than Jesus]
by which men can be saved. 

These words from Acts 4:12 filled the screen in worship as we sang "There Is No Other Name." And it struck me again how incredibly exclusive they are.

I thought to myself, "Man, what a strong thing to say! In singing this, I'm immediately dismissing every other religion in the world. If they could hear me, no doubt I'd offend billions of people." 

Paul commands the Corinthians,

Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved. (1 Corinthians 10:32-33)

So why would I sing something in worship to Christ that I know is causing others (who I want to be saved!) to be offended?

Here's why: 

Offense is only one result of my singing, not the aim. I'm not singing in order to make other people upset. Nor am I trying to gloat over them or “seek my own advantage.”

We sing "no other name" because it is the truth. And we sing it with joy because it glorifies our Savior. It is a beautiful expression of his worth and our love for him. And to refrain from singing it so as not to offend others would instead be an offense to him.

We show more love for others than we do for Christ if we don’t say that his is the only name by which men can be saved. And that’s wrong! Jesus is our first love.

We shouldn't stop singing humble, honest lyrics to our Savior that happen to offend others. But with our singing, we must also spread the good news that no one needs to remain offended. God is still gathering a choir of people reconciled to him from every tribe and tongue.

The Gospel Coalition's 2009 National Conference begins today in Chicago. But if you didn't get a ticket, no worries. They have gone the extra mile (or miles and miles) to include all of us who can't be there in person.

• All ten of the plenary sessions will be broadcast live on the web, including John Piper's message at 4pm* this afternoon titled "Feed the Flame of God’s Gift: Unashamed Courage in the Gospel" (2 Timothy 1:1-12).

• At their website you'll be able to download the audio and video for each session within a day after it's given. Yes, for free.

• And if you want to see what conference attendees are paging through between sessions, the entire conference program (PDF) is downloadable as well. (Bonus: the program also lists the text for all of the conference hymns.)

(HT: JT)

*Correction made! The talk is at 4pm today, not 2 as initially written. My apologies for the mistake.

Chinese (Simplified)

• Advice to Pastors: How to Help Your People Be More Satisfied in God
  给牧师的建议：如何帮助你的会众以上帝为满足
  

• "All Flesh Will Come and Worship"
  所有的人都必来敬拜
  

• Can the Regenerate Be Erased from the Book of Life?
  已经重生的在生命册上会被涂名吗?

• God's Undeserved Gift to the World: Christian Sufferers
  世界本不应得到的神的礼物：受难的基督徒

• How can Jesus be God and man?
  耶稣为何既是神又是人
  

• If God Wills Disease Why Should We Try to Eradicate It?
  如果神意旨疾病,那我们为何还需试图根除它?

• A Sign: United and Fearless with the Gift of Suffering
  一个证明：在苦难恩赐下的一体与无畏
  

French

• 10 Reasons Why I Am Thankful for the God-Breathed Bible
  10 raisons pour lesquelles je suis reconnaissant d'avoir une bible inspirée par Dieu

Spanish

• All Israel Will Be Saved
  Todo Israel Será Salvo

• All Things Are From God, Through God, and To God. The Glory Is All His
  Todas Las Cosas Son De Dios, Por Dios, y Para Dios. La Gloria es Toda Suya

• Fifteen Pro-Life Truths to Speak
  Quince verdades pro-vida para compartir

• Thoughts on Jesus' Demand to Repent
  Reflexión Sobre el Pedido de Jesús de Arrepentirnos
  

Our resource library continues to grow. Recently we have...

• ...updated the audio (and added video) for two seminars, "Suffering for the Sake of the Body" and "Gravity and Gladness on Sunday Morning."
• ...posted the audio from a recent Q&A with Pastor John on singleness
• ...added 57 translated resources (1 German, 2 Bulgarian, 26 Portuguese, and 28 Spanish).

The last thing Dever left us with at the pastor's conference was a quote by Charles Spurgeon to illustrate how he viewed his role as a shepherd of God's people.

I am occupied in my small way, as Mr. Great-heart was employed in Bunyan’s day. I do not compare myself with that champion, but I am in the same line of business. I am engaged in personally-conducted tours to Heaven; and I have with me, at the present time, dear Old Father Honest: I am glad he is still alive and active. And there is Christiana, and there are her children. It is my business, as best I can, to kill dragons, and cut off giants’ heads, and lead on the timid and trembling. I am often afraid of losing some of the weaklings. I have the heart-ache for them; but, by God’s grace, and your kind and generous help in looking after one another, I hope we shall all travel safely to the river’s edge. Oh, how many have I had to part with there! I have stood on the brink, and I have heard them singing in the midst of the stream, and I have almost seen the shining ones lead them up the hill, and through the gates, into the Celestial City.

You can now listen to Mark Dever's second message "The Pastor and Evangelism."

Update: You can now watch the video.

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The following is from notes taken during the session.

5 Things We Can Mistake for Evangelism

1) Imposition

We mistakenly take evangelism to be manipulation. But that's what the world says. In truth, we're not trying to impose our beliefs on anybody. Biblically, we can't impose our beliefs on anybody. Force and coercion cannot finally bring about the change that God demands. You can't expand Christianity by the sword. Evangelism is not some sort of intellectual imposition.

To believe that something is true and to share that with others is not coercion. We don't impose when we evangelize. We freely offer it to all and do not, cannot, force it on anybody.

2) Personal Testimony

A personal testimony is a wonderful thing. The Bible is full of examples of it, and we should testify to the wonderful experience of receiving God's mercy.

But consider John 9 and the man born blind. He gives his testimony but doesn't even know who Jesus is. His words glorify God, but they don't present the gospel. This is not evangelism.

Unless you're explicit about Jesus Christ and the cross then it is not the gospel.

3) Social Action / Public Involvement

Mercy ministries display God's kindness, and they are good and appropriate for the Christian to do. But such actions are not evangelism. They may commend the gospel to others, but only if someone has told them the gospel. They need to have the gospel added to them. Helping others or doing our jobs well, whatever they are, in and of themselves are not evangelism.

4) Apologetics

Apologetics are valuable, but they have their own set of dangers. You can get bogged down in talking about purely intellectual or peripheral matters and never get to the gospel.

It's fine for us to talk with unbelieving friends about questions that they have, but our attempts to try and answer them without setting the gospel as the foundation does no good. Jesus must set the agenda for evangelism.

5) The Results of Evangelism

2 Corinthians 2:15

For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, 16 to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?

Note that the same ministry has two different effects. It's like the parable of the soil: same seed, different results.

We cannot finally judge the correctness of what we do by the immediate response that we get. The need for numbers puts an unnecessary stress on pastors and misunderstands the way that God saves.

We must practice our ministries realizing that some of us will be like Adoniram Judson or William Carey, who had no converts until after seven years of faithful gospel ministry. It's a fact that most people don't believe the gospel the first time they hear it.

Don't let the gospel that you preach be molded by what it is that gets an immediate response. Preach the gospel, trying to persuade--pleading for your hearers to believe--but knowing that you cannot convert a person. And then let God do with it what he will. He alone can call the dead to life. The gospel is powerful, and God is committed to using us to spread this good news.

Tim Jones offered this seminar for Children Desiring God this morning. It is based on his forthcoming book Perspectives on Family Ministry.

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Doing Family Ministry: Real-Life Ministry Models for Real-Life Churches

God commands us in the Scriptures to make the family the fundamental context of discipleship (Deuteronomy 6:4-8; Malachi 4:6; Ephesians 6:4).

Problems in the Church with Family Ministry

1) Parents, especially fathers, have become disengaged from the task of discipling children.

2) Most churches have not consistently expected or prepared parents to disciple their own children.

3) Adolescence is perceived as a developmental ideal instead of as a period of preparation for mature adulthood. It's a recent social construction in which responsibility is minimized and indulgence is maximized, and a lot of our church models have been built around it.

What Do These Problems Look Like?

• The youth group is barely connected to the congregation.
  
  
• The separate aspects of the church's family ministries operate in relative isolation from one another.

What Needs to Change?

Every church is called to some form of family ministry. This doesn't mean just adding one more program.

Rather, family ministry is the process of intentionally and persistently realigning a congregation's proclamation and practices so that parents—and especially fathers—are acknowledged, trained, and held accountable as the persons primarily responsible for the discipling of their children.

3 Models of Family Ministry

Family-Integrated Model - says that the way to make the family the primary context for discipleship is to get rid of all the separate ministries. Some churches are called to this model, but not all churches.

Family-Based Model - says to keep all the same ministries that are already going on but to make them do some additional, intergenerational things together.

Family-Equipping Model (Jones' favorite) - the entire congregation embraces shared responsibility to move children toward spiritual maturity. Church and family work together to set spiritual milestones to move the children toward mature Christian adulthood.

4 Assumptions Behind the Family-Equipping Model

1) God has called parents to serve as primary disciplers of their children.

2) The church is responsible to look after "spiritual orphans" while passionately seeking to disciple their parents. If a church has nothing for the single mom, then it's model is deficient. There must be a conscious process for taking care of children whose parents are not present or not involved.

3) Where God's kingdom makes itself present, generations are drawn together, not driven apart. Do the youth in your congregation know the older members? Do they care when the 90-year-old member dies?

4) What you do for God beyond your home will typically never be greater than what you practice with God within your home.

How Does It Work?

1) You must acknowledge that the family has the primarily responsibility of discipleship. Most parents are just ignorant of this, not openly rebellious against it. So we need to preach this responsibility and mention it in our new member classes, etc.

2) Hold the parents, especially the fathers, accountable.

3) Provide opportunities for the family to do ministry together (i.e. taking a mission trip together where the fathers end up leading their own families).

“Guard your heart” is a good command. That’s because it’s biblical:

Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. (Proverbs 4:23)

In its context, this verse suggests that keeping—or guarding—your heart means to retain wise words and resist wicked desires. But I’m afraid some people—ahem, me, too often—use it to justify being cowardly or cold instead of loving others, because we think that “guard your heart” means “don’t get hurt.”

C. S. Lewis provides the necessary rebuke:

Of all arguments against love none makes so strong an appeal to my nature as “Careful! This might lead you to suffering.”

To my nature, my temperament, yes. Not to my conscience. When I respond to that appeal I seem to myself to be a thousand miles away from Christ. If I am sure of anything I am sure that His teaching was never meant to confirm my congenital preference for safe investments and limited liabilities.…

There is no safe investment. To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket—safe, dark, motionless, airless—it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell. (From The Four Loves, as found in The Inspirational Writings of C.S. Lewis, 278-279.)

A number of new John Piper products have been released this fall, and we want to make sure you know that many of them are also available online for free. For example, you can download full length PDFs of Rethinking Retirement, Spectacular Sins, and Stand.

You might also like to know that we have added text for the well-known message “Doing Missions When Dying is Gain,” as well as for the very first sermon Pastor John preached at Bethlehem, while candidating to be pastor.

There are a few new translated resources as well. See the latest additions to our Spanish, Portuguese, and Bulgarian sections.

(Update: The book This Momentary Marriage is now available too.)

Today Johnathon Bowers introduces us to the new online Bible study site, Bible Arc.

In his post, Johnathon explains what the website has to offer, what the Bible study method "arcing" is, and why learning it is worth all the time you'll invest.

He testifies that it is “one of the most significant tools for Bible study I’ve ever learned.” And he concludes with a quote from John Piper that tells how arcing transformed the way he reads his Bible.

Paul Tripp spoke tonight on the most essential problem and the only lasting remedy to life's communication woes. You can listen to the message yourself and read my notes on it.

There are three things I know about you:

1. You talk. Every day of our lives and every relationship is filled with talk. Words are God's idea, and they belong to him. So when you hear the word "talk" you ought to hear something that is high and holy and important. Let us never regard talk as something that doesn't matter.
2. Both the saddest and the most celebratory moments of your life have been accompanied by talk.
3. Your world of talk is a world of trouble.

This last point is defeating, but the redeeming love of God is extremely zealous. And because of that we can have the courage to look at this difficult area.

What is the trouble of our talk?

For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, 44 for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. 45 The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. (Luke 6:43-45)

Christ teaches us in this passage that we live out of our hearts. What does the Bible mean by the word "heart"? It means the causal core of your personhood. It is your directional system, your steering wheel. Your behavior isn't caused by the situations and relationships outside of you. It's caused by the way your heart reacts to those things.

Word problems aren't vocabulary or technique problems. They are heart problems. Christ uses the example of the tree. Apple trees are apple-istic all the way down, a principle of organic consistency. We want to think that our problem is outside of us rather than inside of us. But that is a very dangerous heresy, because when you can convince yourself of that, you quit being a seeker after the transforming grace of Jesus Christ. You must come to admit that you are your greatest communication problem.

Much of what we do in our attempts to change communication is nothing less than trying to nail apples onto a fruitless tree. You may get it to look authentic and good for a little while, but those apples will soon rot and the tree will be fruitless again next year.

It's only when you stand before your Redeemer and are humbly willing to say, regardless of the flawed people you live among, "I am my greatest communication problem," you are heading in a direction of fundamental change.

What is the war for the heart?

It is most briefly summarized in a little phrase in 2 Corinthians 5:15: "[Jesus] died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised." Sin is fundamentally antisocial. It makes myself the primary focus. It is all about "I want, I want, I want, I want, I want." Apart from Christ we are vats of desire and entitlement. Notice Paul's warning in Galatians:

For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. (Galatians 5:13-15)

We must never say that harsh, proud, unloving, ungracious communication is ever OK. It's not OK. God has invested words with power and Paul says that people can be destroyed by what you say. Sin dehumanizes the people in our lives. It makes them either into vehicles that help me get what I want or obstacles that get in the way of what I want. If they help me get what I want, I speak kindly to them. If they're in the way, I speak harshly to them.

God didn't give us grace to enable us to serve our own kingdom. He gave us grace to enable us to serve his kingdom. The entire law is summarized in a single command: love your neighbor as yourself. Why is that a summary of all that God calls me to? Because it is only when I love God above all else that I'll ever love my neighbor as myself. You don't fix language problems horizontally. You fix them vertically.

What kind of kingdom is the kingdom of God? It's a kingdom of boundless, glorious, powerful, personal, transforming love. The center event of that kingdom is a shocking sacrifice of redeeming love. You know nothing about his kingdom unless you understand that it is a kingdom of love. And it's when our hearts are taken up with the mystery of that great love that our words become words of love and peace and healing.

True love is not propelled by duty. It is propelled by gratitude. We love because he first loved us (1 John 4:19).

What is this thing called love that is to drive my world of talk?

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. (1 John 4:7-12)

You don't define love through a set of abstract concepts. You define love according to what God did. Love is willing self-sacrifice for the redemptive good of another that doesn't demand reciprocation or that the person being loved is deserving.

But as long as sin still lives in me I get lured into the desires of my claustrophobic little kingdom of one. I try to get satisfied with the little glories that will never really satisfy me, and I need the saving grace of Christ.

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, 4 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. (2 Peter 1:3-4)

If you are God's child the power to live according to love is already in your storehouse. This is not a future "will be." It's a redemptive present "is"! He has given us everything we need for life and godliness so that we have access to it today.

O that we would live out of that identity! Instead we live in the poverty of inability when we have been enabled by Christ.

What are the gifts of our redemption?

• Forgiveness of our sins by the blood of Christ
• Empowerment to do those things that he calls us to do, and
• Ultimate deliverance from every ounce of sin in our hearts.

The glorious kingdom of transforming love is ours for the taking. “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom" (Luke 12:32). Why would you enter once again the claustrophobic confines of your own little self-centered world?

What kingdom rules your words? Whose kingdom do you speak in service of? The claustrophobic kingdom of self or the big-sky glory-infused kingdom of God? For most of us this is mixed, and so we still need the redeeming grace of Christ.

Three ways to pray each morning:

1. God, I am a man in desperate need of help this morning.
2. I pray that in your grace you would send your helpers my way.
3. I pray you would give me the humility to receive the help that comes.

The thesis of Dan Taylor's message:

The single best way of conceiving of faith and the life of faith is by seeing it as a story in which you are a character.

1. Stories are God's idea.

Stories are how God has chosen to present himself in the Bible. The theme of his story is shalom: all things in their created place, doing what they were created to do, in loving relationship with their Creator. And it is a story into which God invites you and me as characters.

If faith were just an idea the intellect alone might be adequate for dealing with it. But since it is a life we ought to live, we need story in order to learn it.

Why might God have chosen story?

It has the power to move us. Understanding stories involves the intellect, but it involves more than that: intuitions, imagination, physical sense, and personal experience.

Story is also a great way to preserve knowledge over many generations. Consider what Joshua commanded the people to do when they came to cross the river Jordan.

Then Joshua called the twelve men from the people of Israel, whom he had appointed, a man from each tribe. 5 And Joshua said to them, “Pass on before the ark of the LORD your God into the midst of the Jordan, and take up each of you a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel, 6 that this may be a sign among you. When your children ask in time to come, ‘What do those stones mean to you?’ 7 then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial forever.” (Joshua 4:4-7)

Joshua's pile of rocks is a story prompt, by which a new generation could understand the power of God. You could say propositionally that the Lord is powerful, but by itself it doesn't have any impact. How is the Lord powerful? Let me tell you a story...

Propositions are important, but they depend on the stories out of which they arise for their power, meaning, and application. Imagine having all the propositions of faith but none of the stories. They would be true, but we wouldn't know what to do with them.

Propositions are shorthand for story. They stand in for stories that we don't have the time to tell. And the Bible doesn't ask us to chose between proposition and story. They are both there, and they need each other.

Propositions serve as a check on story, clarifying how they ought to be interpreted, and stories serve as a check on propositions, keeping them from being shallow, inert, or legalistic. So we need them both. But take warning: never let your propositions get far from the stories out of which they came.

2. Stories fit how we have been made and how we live.

Humans are biologically made to be story tellers and listeners. The only way for the brain to survive taking in and processing new data is through story. And we are social creatures, made to be in relationship with God and others. And one of the most powerful ways to connect with each other is through story. "How was your day?" is a story prompt.

3. Like faith, stories engage us as whole persons, not as parts.

No one believes anything important with the intellect alone. Believing is a whole body, whole life experience. If it doesn't involve everything, it's not belief but simply an agreement with an idea. Believing enlists all the aspects of the mind. It involves the will, curiosity, personality, character, our bodies, imagination. You don't believe anything deeply that isn't a product of all that you are.

Reason is a tool that will serve any master, including the most odious. By itself it does not get us where we need to go. We need to use it as well as we can, but we are foolish to think that any single human faculty is sufficient to guide our entire lives. A lot of wrong thoughts about life come from not treating people wholly. Anything that respects only reason, or only will-power or discipline will break down.

Consider the example of Nathan's confrontation of David, after he had slept with Bathsheba and murdered her husband (2 Samuel 12). He tells a story to David, and he tells it masterfully, using timing and irony and pathos. David becomes enraged by the actions of the rich man in Nathan's story and declares that he deserves to die.

Notice that David's intellect, emotion, sense of justice, and body are involved. He responds as a whole person, which is exactly the response Nathan must have desired. And then the prophet says most powerfully, "You are that man!," bringing the full force of the message home to David and leading him to repentance.

4. Stories are about choices and their consequences.

And so is the life of faith. The essence of story is people making choices. We feel like we're in that position ourselves oftentimes, and we're looking for help. So they draw us in. They make us ask, "What would I do if I was in that situation?"

5. Stories have the power to change us.

And this is precisely what faith is about--changed lives. An important story cries out "You must be different because of what you have heard." David could not hear Nathan's story and its application and pretend like he could go about his own business again. It is the same with the Gospels--once you've heard them you are not allowed to remain the same.

6. Stories are directive.

They tell us we must change and they tell us how we must change. They teach us our lines in the script. People who don't seem to know how to behave in life have often not been told stories about how they are to live.

7. Stories are strong and complex enough to contain pain, suffering, failure and mystery.

If your faith story has no room for these things, it is not the biblical story.

8. Stories call us to action.

So does faith. Nothing kills a story faster than a passive protagonist. They must act, otherwise the story comes to and end. So too in the life of faith. It must lead to action. We are more likely to live out our faith if we conceive of ourselves as characters in a story than if we think it involves just maintaining some propositions.

9. Each of us needs a master story.

For Jews in the Old Testament it is the story of the Exodus. The master story for Christians is the Easter story, the resurrection of Christ, which also tells us who we are. If we forget that story, we start to believe that we are like everyone else.

Stories are not entertainment, decoration, or illustration. They are the raw material of thought, and they tell us how to live. The major difficulties of the world are a result of collision between master stories, whether in politics, religion, history, etc.

Be warned, however. Not all stories are created equal. Master stories can be healthy or unhealthy. They can leave you trapped in brokenness and despair. Satan is also a storyteller. He takes the story of what happened in the Garden of Eden and gives it a new interpretation. The good news, however, is that no one has to remain in a broken story.

10. Stories create communities.

That's who we are as Christians centered around the stories of the Bible. And our unity goes deeper than blood.

11. Stories makes connections between seemingly unconnected things.

12. Stories are the foundation for meaning and significance.

Listen to the whole message—it's far more illustrative than this blog post.

The following is taken from my notes on Bob Kauflin's message. You can listen to the whole thing or read the notes.

1) Singing can help us remember words.

Ever notice how easy it is to recall the words of songs you haven't heard for 20 years? We store literally hundreds, even thousands of songs in our memory vaults. Music has an unusual mnemonic power.

We remember patterns in music much better than patterns in words alone. Rhyme, meter and song are the most powerful mnemonic devices. They govern and restrict the way we say words and the time it takes to say them.

Implications

• In the church we should use effective melodies, that is, melodies that people are able to remember and that they want to remember.
• We should sing words God wants us to remember. Ask yourself, If the teaching of our church was limited to the songs we sing, what would our people know?
• We should seek to memorize songs. Don't be too dependent upon screens or hymnbooks.

2) Singing can help us engage the words emotionally.

Music is a language of emotion in every culture of every age. It is capable of effecting us in profound and subtle ways (like when Saul's spirit was calmed by David's harp).

Implications:

• We need a broad emotional range in the songs we sing: reverence, awe, repentance, grief, joy, celebration, etc.
• We don't need to pit different styles or traditions against one another. They each serve to help us in different ways.
• Know that there is a difference between being emotional moved and spiritually enlightened. Music has a voice but we're not always sure what that voice is saying. It can make us feel peaceful, but it can't tell us that the Lord is our shepherd or that Jesus endured God's wrath in our place to bring us eternal peace with God.
• Singing should be an emotional event. And they should be religious affections. God is worthy of our highest, purest, and strongest emotions. Singing helps express and unite them. Singing without emotion is an oxymoron.

3) Singing can help us use words to demonstrate and express our unity.

The first two points can be accomplished when we sing by ourselves, but this point needs other people.

People sing together in the strangest places: rock concerts, sporting events, birthdays, weddings, funerals. Singing together tends to bind us together. It enables us to spend extended periods of times expressing the same thoughts and passions.

Implications

• We should sing songs that unite rather than divide the church. We can appreciate the diverse musical styles and genres, but we shouldn't try and make church worship "something for everybody." There should be a unifying musical center that focuses on the sound of the people themselves.
• Musical creativity in the church has functional limits. Your iPod shouldn't be the starting point for selecting songs to sing together. We want to pursue a creativity that is undistracting and not just innovative.
• We must be clear that it is the gospel and not music that unites us. We shouldn't connect with people at our churches because they have the same song selection on their iPods. We should love them because Christ has enabled us to love them.
• Ask yourself, What are we doing to encourage our church in corporate singing? In the new heavens and earth we will sing gloriously and for a long time. Our thoughts and passions will be focused, and we will have the strength to give him the glory he deserves. What a glorious thing to anticipate that time! And part of our singing here on earth is anticipation of what is to come.

Tonight's panel discussion featured Sinclair Ferguson, Mark Driscoll, and John Piper, with questions by Justin Taylor. Here's what was asked:

• Pastor John, anything in particular from Sinclair's message that stood out to you or convicted you?
• Sinclair, how did you come to believe the gospel?
• How do you avoid the extremes of either indulging in controvery or neglecting it to a fault?
• What have you learned, Mark, from those who have criticized you?
• Sinclair, how do you use the psalms to minister to your own soul?
• Pastor John, in Matthew 12 Jesus says that people will have to give account on judgment day for every careless word they speak. How is that not massively discouraging?
• Mark, how do you counsel people from the cross?
• What alternative do people offer who are trying to get rid of the substitutionary atonement?
• Sinclair, can you say something about the importance of the doctrine of union with Christ? Any resources you recommend on this subject?

Listen to their answers.

You should consider inviting an international student to live with you. Perhaps you have an extra bedroom in your house, or maybe there’s space in your apartment opening up soon.

Why not purposefully seek to fill it with some of the most respectful, cultured, and eager-to-learn folks around?

This kind of initiative in the heart of one of my roommates caused our apartment-family to grow this past year, adding a pair of delightful Saudi Arabian young men. Now I'm only more convinced of the idea.

Here’s why I’m persuaded:

• God loves the foreigner (Deuteronomy 10:18) and calls me to love him too (Leviticus 19:34).
• Trying to pronounce Arabic words fosters my humility.
• Ahmed and I often have extended conversations about true religion.
• My news-media-based knowledge of Muslims is supplemented with and corrected by first-hand experience. We are very similar in our desires, our depravity, and our need for a Savior.
• Mohammed knows how to make kabsa, and he’s generous with it.
• I can play an active part in reaching the nations from my own living room.
• It exposes my other friends and family to all the above.

You may not have noticed, but a lot of things were added to the website last month. It's a goal of ours to make our content as complete as possible, so we regularly post material from the past that Pastor John has written or spoken.

Here are some of the recent additions:

1. Taste & See articles for all of 1981, 1983, and 1997.
2. Twenty-three Spanish and eight Bulgarian sermon translations.
3. Men's retreat messages on pursuing an undistracted passion for God.
4. Two messages on Jonathan Edwards and revival.
5. "Parenting for the Glory of God," two messages from Exalt '94 conference.
6. Lecture 1 and lecture 15 from Perspectives on the World Christian Movement.
7. Five messages on Job given at The Cove.
8. Six messages from Sovereign Grace (formerly PDI) conferences, Celebration East 1998 and 1999.

Again, these are just some highlights. You can locate anything that has been added by glancing through our Resource Library.

Some of the finer points in Scripture regarding Jesus' tomb—like the fact that it was new and that it belonged to a rich man—have helped archaeologists match their dig findings with the gospel record, thus affirming its reliability.

Leen Ritmeyer, the archaeological and architectural reconstruction editor for the ESV Study Bible, shares some of these connections in a recent interview he did with Justin Taylor.