Today after Pastor John’s biographical sketch of C.S. Lewis, Tim Tomlinson, President of Bethlehem College and Seminary, updated a number of the attendees about the latest news from BCS.

For those unaware, Bethlehem College and Seminary is the latest expression of Bethlehem Baptist Church’s vision for Christian higher education. Formerly The Bethlehem Institute (TBI), BCS is now offering programs and courses at the graduate, undergraduate, and lay level.

The seminary offers a four-year Master of Divinity degree for men called to vocational ministry. In addition to courses in biblical languages, theology, and exegesis, seminary apprentices are mentored by Bethlehem pastors and participate in the ministries of Bethlehem Baptist Church.

At the undergraduate level, we offer four degree programs. Our foundational program is a two-year cross-disciplinary degree in Christian Worldview that integrates philosophy, history, culture, and the Christian faith in a global context.

Building on this foundation, students will have the opportunity to choose from two majors: one in Biblical and Theological Studies and one in the History of Ideas. In addition, we also offer a Degree Completion Program in Theological Studies designed to help working adults complete their college education.

Our publishing division, BCS Press, offers God-centered curriculum for adults within the local church.

More information about our vision, values, and programs may be found at our website. We are seeking people who will join with us in praying for the long-term faithfulness and vision of Bethlehem College and Seminary. We invite you to sign-up to receive our weekly prayer updates.

The 2010 Desiring God Conference for Pastors begins this evening, which means some spectacular book deals for those of you who will be here in Minneapolis (and this list of recommendations for those of you ordering from home).

For those shopping in person, the DG Bookstore is

• located in Room 101 at the Minneapolis Convention Center (behind FedEx/Kinkos, just outside the auditorium where the main sessions are)
• stocked with 1,275 different titles and nearly 20,000 individual items
• open 3:00pm-10pm today
           7:30am-10pm Tuesday
           7:30am-1pm Wednesday

Snow Storms

This week in Minnesota, the main Storms to keep an eye on (along with snowstorms) is our keynote speaker. For those wanting to get to know Sam’s life and theology, a greatly loved book of his is Convergence: Spiritual Journeys of a Charismatic Calvinist.

And you may want to check out Sam’s new 2-volume devotional on 2 Corinthians called A Sincere and Pure Devotion to Christ which provides 100 daily meditations (50 in each volume). We also have several other good devotional books by Sam.

All Storms titles are at least 25% off during the conference.

Clive Staples Who?

Our conference bookstore is the place to be for C.S. Lewis fans. We have plenty Lewis titles and biographies on hand, including classics like Mere Christianity, The Weight of Glory, and Surprised by Joy. We have a feeling those in attendance will hear a lot of C.S. Lewis quotations this week.

It’s a Tripp

We’re privileged to have Paul David Tripp providing this year’s pre-conference seminar, and the DG Bookstore has several Tripp titles ready. Among those are Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands, War of Words, and his most recent Broken-Down House.

Paul will be available at a “Meet the Author” session from 8:45-10:00 p.m. on Tuesday night in the Bookstore.

Also accessible during the author-meet is Adrian Warnock. Just off the press is his first book Raised with Christ: How the Resurrection Changes Everything (I’m very eager to read it, but it’s so new I haven’t had the chance yet). Adrian is a dear British brother who runs one of the top evangelical blogs in the UK.

New Titles

The Trellis & the Vine: The Ministry Mind-shift That Changes Everything by Col Marshall and Tony Payne is perhaps the most important book I’ve read in a long time. We highly recommend this recent publication from Matthias Media. (Put it together with Chester’s and Timmis’ Total Church and Dever’s and Alexander’s The Deliberate Church for an outstanding trilogy on Christian ministry.)

For the history buff (and Bible-lovers!) look for Ancient Word, Changing Worlds: The Doctrine of Scripture in a Modern Age by Stephen. J. Nichols and Eric T. Brandt.

Thank God for Vern Poythress. His most recent In the Beginning Was the Word: Language—A God-Centered Approach is outstanding, and similar in its remarkableness is Redeeming Science: A God-Centered Approach.

Read whatever Frame and Poythress you can get your hands on. (Speaking the Truth in Love: The Theology of John M. Frame is worth its weight in gold, and at 1,100-plus pages, that’s saying a lot!)

New Piper Titles

Last but not least are the new Piper titles. Out just this month are A Sweet & Bitter Providence: Sex, Race, and the Sovereignty of God and its companion poetry volume Ruth: Under the Wings of God. Still fresh are the fifth Swans book Filling Up the Afflictions of Christ and The Power of Words and the Wonder of God (co-edited with Justin Taylor).

Worship

One older title to recommend (not really old at all) that I picked up recently and continue to get help from: Worship by the Book, edited by D.A. Carson. Carson’s introductory chapter is terrific, as is Tim Keller’s (extended) final chapter. On that note, Keller’s most recent Counterfeit Gods might be his best yet (and his two previous books are very good).

*     *     *     *     *

Previous DG Conference Recommended Lists

• National Conference 2007
• Pastors Conference 2008
• National Conference 2008
• Pastors Conference 2009
• Pastors Conference 2010 Recommended Resources

I went with the Churches Helping Churches media team to Haiti last week to identify the needs of the churches and help raise money to meet their needs. The things I saw, the things I filmed, and the people I met are still with me. I am haunted by the horror I saw, and yet the palpable hope of homeless and hungry Christians amazed me.

If you live in or near Minnesota, I want to personally invite you to a concert Desiring God is sponsoring called Hip Hop for Haiti on Friday, February 5, 2010. Order your tickets online. 100% of all the money will go directly to churches in Haiti through Churches Helping Churches.

Don't Waste Your Life is partnering with Reach Records, Lamp Mode Records, and Club 3 Degrees to host a benefit concert to help the churches in Haiti rebuild and reach out again. Christian hip hop artists Lecrae, DJ Official, Flame, Json, and DJ Essence will be performing.

This concert will take place at Club 3 Degrees (Downtown Minneapolis, MN) on February 5 at 8pm. Ticket price is $10, and we recommend buying them in advance since it will likely be a sell-out show.

In addition to the ticket price, there will be several opportunities to give throughout the night.

One hundred percent of the money—from the tickets, merchandise, and all other gifts—will go directly to Churches Helping Churches, a ministry "created to address the immediate and long-term needs of churches when disaster befalls a country, region, city, or people."

Mark Driscoll and James MacDonald, the two pastors spearheading this new ministry, have already been on the ground in Haiti and have made several videos to help us see the condition and needs of our brothers and sisters there.

So come, have a great time, enjoy hip hop music to the glory of God, and give sacrificially for the furtherance of Kingdom work in Haiti.

I recommend Doug Wilson’s Five Cities that Ruled the World (Thomas Nelson, 2009). The cities he highlights are Jerusalem, Athens, Rome, London, and New York, each leaving the world a legacy.

Jerusalem has bequeathed to us a legacy of the spirit; Athens, reason and the mind; Rome, law; London, literature; and New York, industry and commerce. (xx)

In developing the literary legacy of London, Wilson unearths this nugget from C. S. Lewis about William Tyndale and the Reformation:

Tyndale was willing to endure great trials because of what he believed about the gospel. C. S. Lewis explained that the “whole purpose of the ‘gospel,’ for Tyndale, is to deliver us from morality. Thus, paradoxically, the ‘puritan’ of modern imagination—the cold, gloomy heart, doing as duty what happier and richer souls do without thinking of it—is precisely the enemy which historical Protestantism arose and smote.” (128-129, quoting Lewis from his English Literature in the Sixteenth Century [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1954], 187)

Nearly two weeks ago we had the privilege of hosting Dr. Russell Moore here at Desiring God for a few hours. During that time we were able to ask him a few questions about abortion, adoption, and the sanctity of human life.

Dr. Moore has authored a beautiful, biblical exposition of physical and spiritual adoption and how they relate to each other. Adopted for Life has become a manifesto for Christians to adopt. This book also trains believers who have adopted to help other families see the need for adoption.

In his sermon a couple weeks ago on "Holding Fast the Word of Life in 2010," Pastor John modeled scripture memory by reciting the entire book of Philippians to his congregation.

Later in the sermon, however, Piper issued the warning that memorization alone doesn't guarantee spiritual life or growth to any of us. Satan himself could quote the Bible, just like he did when he tempted Jesus. What is needed is both God's word and his Holy Spirit, who works through that word to bring us spiritual power.

Here are two more examples of scripture memory by men we know here at DG, men who have labored diligently to store up God's word for their own and others' true spiritual good:

• Jon Bloom, Desiring God's Executive Director, recited the book of Hebrews as a sermon for his church.
• Sam Crabtree, Executive Pastor at Bethlehem and Desiring God board member, recited the Sermon on the Mount at Bethlehem's 2010 Fighter Verse Kickoff event.

For resources related to memorizing scripture, check out Bethlehem's Fighter Verse Program page or Fighterverses.com.

Bethlehem's new website now has the audio from December 26-27, 2009, the weekend John Piper preached at The Village Church in Dallas. Our guest preacher was Bob Glenn of Redeemer Bible Church, a dear sister church in the Twin Cities.

Bob's message is titled "The Outrageous Love of God" from Jonah 4, and his refrain is that we won't see how outrageous God's love is until we've been outraged by it. It's well worth the listen.

Thanks, Bob, for serving our people so well.

Just as we seek to remember "the reason for the season" behind our Christian national holidays, it is likewise fitting for us to revisit the histories and heroes that have inspired our other national holidays.

Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and there are events taking place throughout the country commemorating the life and message of this man. You may wish to find one of these and attend (if it's not already too late).

Another option is to locate old speeches, videos, and documents and go through them on your own. My roommates and I are going this route, and we've invited some friends to join us in listening to his message "The Church on the Frontier of Racial Tensions."

Here are some other online resources that might help:

• Wikipedia article on Martin Luther King, Jr.
• The King Center website
• The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute
• Video of King's famous speech, "I Have a Dream"

Any other resources you would recommend? Feel free to share by leaving a comment.

With you, we at DG International Outreach are watching the news coming out of Haiti and praying for the victims and those who will be working to bring relief in the coming days. One of those groups bringing aid is Food for the Hungry, which has become a great partner of this ministry. We would like to encourage you to support their work.

Their vision is to answer the call to respond to physical and spiritual hungers worldwide through action and advocacy for those who Jesus spoke about when he quoted the prophet Isaiah in Luke 4:18,

He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed.

Here is how they are describing the situation:

FH staff on the ground have indicated that food and water are not available for purchase within Port-au-Prince, and that looting is already beginning as desperate people try to obtain what they can.  Major medical facilities have collapsed, hindering first aid help for those injured in the quake.  Communications are almost impossible, and a fuel shortage is cutting off transportation.  FH has only been able to contact five of our 20 Haitian staff members.  Meanwhile, survivors and rescue workers are digging through rubble to reach people trapped in collapsed buildings.

 Here’s the latest on how FH is responding:

FH’s Relief Director is en route to Port-au-Prince to join the efforts of Haitian staff and to assess our next phase of response. Staff in the Dominican Republic are also standing by to join relief efforts as soon as it is possible to cross the border. 

FH’s wholistic development initiatives reach tens of thousands of Haitians with HIV/AIDS and child survival programs in several of the poorest slums near Port au Prince, including Petionville, Jalousie and Bois Moquette. These areas were hit severely —the homes and other buildings in these slums are built on steep, unstable hillsides and not built to code.  During this crisis, program staff will utilize existing relationship networks to bring emergency help to these communities.

If you're looking for an organization to channel your money through for Haiti—and you probably should be—here are some options.

1. Compassion International
2. Feed My Starving Children
3. Food for the Hungry
4. World Vision
5. World Relief
6. Samaritan's Purse
7. Love a Child
8. Northwest Haiti Christian Mission
9. Compassion Weavers
10. Mennonite Central Committee
11. Water Missions International

Update: Another ministry to consider giving to is Real Hope for Haiti Rescue Center. They're operating one of the only clinics near the epicenter that's open right now.

Update #2: Another ministry worth giving through is Children's Hunger Fund. 

We’re now a week and a half into 2010, but it’s not too late to start a read-through-the-Bible-in-a-year plan. After all, you have more than 50 weeks to catch up on what you’ve missed. Or treat your year as January 10, 2010, through January 10, 2011.

Below are several good options.

Discipleship Journal
NavPress’s Discipleship Journal plan has been the most used at Bethlehem for years. I’m back at this one again in 2010, and I would highly recommend it. There are four daily readings (the year starts with Genesis, Psalms, Matthew, and Acts), but it’s only 25 days each month—which leaves some margin for missing here and there when life gets busy.

For Shirkers and Slackers
If “margin for missing” is what you know you need, then this plan from Ransom Fellowship might be right for you. Maybe you’ve tried the other plans in the past and stalled out again and again. This plan assigns certain genres to certain days of the week and breaks biblical books up into sections you can read in one sitting—so without reading everyday, you can still make measurable headway. Pace yourself well and do some extra reading, and you might even finish long before 2010 is over.

M’Cheyne
This is the classic plan, designed by Robert Murray M’Cheyne (1813-1843), the well-remembered Scottish minister who died before his 30th birthday. The plan has readings for every day of the year and will take you once through the Old Testament and twice through the Psalms and the New Testament. (Don Carson’s daily devotionals called For the Love of God are based on the M’Cheyne plan.)

ESV Study Bible
Like the Discipleship Journal plan, the ESV Study Bible plan has you reading in four places: 1) Psalms and wisdom lit, 2) Pentateuch and Israel’s history, 3) Chronicles and prophets, and 4) Gospels and epistles.

Chronological
With a reading for each day of the year, this plan from Back to the Bible aims to take you through Scripture in chronological order.

Engage Scripture
This new plan from The Journey in St. Louis looks very good. Also check out The Journey’s Engage Scripture page for videos and pdfs giving background info on the biblical books, as Pastor Darrin Patrick takes his congregation through the Bible in 2010.

Carolyn Mahaney wrote “Homemaking Internship ” especially for moms with daughters. It’s about how to pass on to the next generation of young women some of the most important things in life. She says, 

But the truth is that homemaking involves so much more than just cleaning a house. The commands in Scripture to love, follow, and help a husband; to raise children for the glory of God; and to manage a home encompass a vast responsibility. Homemaking requires an extremely diverse array of skills—everything from management abilities, to knowledge of health and nutrition, to interior decorating capabilities, to childhood development expertise. If you are to become an effective homemaker, then you must study these subjects and many more. 

It turns out that, in God’s plan, the home is the University and mom is the Professor of this all-encompassing subject. The whole article is wise and helpful.

In September, 2009, we admitted the first class in the four-year program of Bethlehem Seminary. Here at the end of the year I want to give public thanks to God and take some of you with me into this vision. Not everybody. But some of you carry a special, God-given burden for the preparation of future generations of God-centered leaders.

Bethlehem has been training future pastors, teachers and missionaries through The Bethlehem Institute for over ten years. That two year program has now become the four-year Bethlehem Seminary. We plan to admit 15 men every year to the seminary. The number will be kept small so that the vision for mentored ministry and church involvement can be sustained.

At the heart of this vision is the invincible God, the infallible Bible, and the indispensible Gospel of Jesus Christ. We want future pastors to be stunned by the greatness of God. And stay stunned by living in the Bible. And spread this amazement to sinners, who qualify through faith alone because of the Gospel.

We want them to love the church. The real live, blemished, blood-bought bride of Christ. So we sink them into ministry while they are here.

I love sitting with these brothers (There will be about 60 at any one time.) most Thursdays during the school year just talking about the hundreds of real-life challenges that ministry brings. This personal give-and-take is crucial for us.

I love the ministry of the word. I never get tired of preaching to the same flock. I have been doing it for almost 30 years at Bethlehem. There are things students can learn that let the Bible keep on feeding them and their people year after year in faithful expository preaching. We want to teach those things.

We have now called two new full time faculty, one in Old Testament (Jason DeRouchie) and one in New Testament (announcement coming soon).

They call me the Chancellor! It sounds incredibly overblown to me. But Tim Tomlinson is the President, so that title (and job!) is well-taken. And Tom Steller is already an incredibly gifted teacher and dean. And I have more responsibility than teaching. So there you have it: Chancellor.

I am eager to give the last chapter of my life to this vision, as long as God gives me breath and a clear head.

Whoever of you would like to stay in touch with us and follow the news of the new school you can sign up for email updates.

We would love your prayers for this new venture. May God use it long after we are gone. If God puts it in your heart, we would be very happy for you to be part of our prayer support.

What is the most important principle for productivity? Our Director of Strategy Matt Perman answers,

I would actually say: realize that you don't have to be productive. By this I mean: your significance does not come from your productivity. It comes from Christ, who obeyed God perfectly on our behalf such that our significance and standing before God comes from him, not anything we do. Then, on that basis, we pursue good works (which is what productivity is) and do so eagerly, as it says in Titus 2:14.

Read the full 3-question interview that this comes from.

There's a little while left to invite people over for tomorrow's feast. Listen to John Piper talk about who to have over.

(And if your table is already full, you can listen to the clip just because it's funny to hear how high his voice was in 1980.)

Originally posted last year.

My wife Molly met our sponsored child in El Salvador yesterday. I recommend reading her thoughts on the day.

No, no, no. My friend, Mark Driscoll. No, no, no.

Yesterday you tweeted and facebooked to a gazillion people:

Only the hardcore uber geek theological types who love footnotes will care, but John Sailhamer's The Meaning of the Pentateuch & Andreas Kostenberger's A Theology of John's Gospels & Letters were just released. For both of you - enjoy.

Emphatically, no. To all pastors and serious readers of the Old Testament—geek, uber geek, under geek, no geek—if  you graduated from high school and know the word “m e a n i n g,” sell your latest Piper or Driscoll book and buy Sailhamer.

There is nothing like it. It will rock your world. You will never read the “Pentateuch” the same again. It is totally readable. You can skip all the footnotes and not miss a beat.

'Nough said, buddy. I love you anyway.

P. S. I haven’t read Kostenberger yet.

As a father of a multiply-disabled child, I have consumed dozens of books, articles, and web sites on suffering, disability, and the sovereignty of God. 

What I read yesterday morning from a young man with spina bifida may be the best statement I have ever encountered on this subject.  Here is an excerpt:

Both pain and pleasure are meant to point us to the same reality; namely, that Jesus Christ is infinitely beautiful and so much more than enough for our every need. Living for Him, even suffering for Him, is worth every moment of affliction! Why? Because Jesus shows you such beauty in pain, because He is there and He is carrying us through.

The writer, Joe Eaton, is well-known to us at Desiring God as a volunteer and an intern with Children Desiring God last spring before starting college this fall. I can testify that he lives what he writes.

Today is a very important day in my life—my mother’s birthday.

At my blog, I’m in the middle of a series, telling our adoption story. Today, I skipped ahead a few episodes to describe Mother’s response to our adoption news.

I’m thanking God for Mother, who to this day points me toward him through her life and practical advice.

Bethlehem College and Seminary is offering new undergraduate programs beginning in the fall of 2010.

We'll be offering a two-year degree in Christian Worldview, a four-year degree in Biblical and Theological Studies, a four-year degree in the History of Ideas, and a non-traditional degree completion program.

Whichever of these programs students choose, they will not find a typical college experience.

The classes are small.

For starters, we keep the classes around 16 students per instructor (instead of those mammoth introductory courses at most colleges).

The price is small, too.

For 2009-2010, the tuition was under $5,000 for 32 hours of credit (compared to $24,000 for a typical private Christian college). And if you apply and are accepted before June 1, we'll help you find affordable housing with other students near Bethlehem Baptist’s downtown campus.

The teachers are many.

Besides learning from their regular instructors, students will learn from as many as 40 scholars, pastors, and missionaries, all of them accomplished in their fields.

The coursework is integrated.

In our foundational program in Christian Worldview, we weave Bible, theology, history, anthropology, world religions, biblical Greek, missions, science (and more!) into a single comprehensive course of study.

We take a chronological approach, beginning with creation and moving through to the present day, exploring God’s mission in history and how various religions, philosophies, and worldviews have left their mark on the world.

Our two four-year undergraduate majors build on this integrated foundation.

The college is church-based.

We don’t just want to instruct the minds of our students; we also want to engage their hearts and shape their lives. Thus, the classes don’t just take place at the church building; all of our programs are woven into the life of Bethlehem Baptist Church.

Along with coursework, our programs include mentorship by Bethlehem members, field trips to mosques, synagogues, and temples, and ministry opportunities in one of the most diverse neighborhoods in the country.

In the end, our goal is simple: to provide a unique, God-centered, life-transforming, cost-effective, undergraduate experience. John Piper explains,

What we have seen, and what we would like to teach, is a God-entranced vision of reality that will make all other study and all the rest of life, deeper, richer, and more in sync with God’s ultimate purposes for your life.

Applications for our primary undergraduate programs are available now. For more information, visit our website, download our undergraduate brochure, and listen to John Piper’s special address on the Biblical Foundations for Bethlehem College and Seminary.

I bought The Complete English Works of George Herbert recently, hoping to add a little more poetry and devotion to my reading list. Not 10 minutes after laying my hands on it I read "Bitter-sweet" and knew I would not be disappointed. I'm tempted to say these are the best 8 lines of English poetry I know of.

Bitter-sweet

Ah, my dear angry Lord,
Since thou dost love, yet strike;
Cast down, yet help afford;
Sure I will do the like.

I will complain, yet praise;
I will bewail, approve;
And all my sour-sweet days
I will lament and love.

(I've also discovered that John Piper quotes this poem in When the Darkness Will Not Lift (PDF), pg. 78.)

In this month's World Magazine, John Piper considers Bertrand Russell's "tragically odd" worldview.