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Recommended: Gospel Wakefulness
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Singles pastor Kevin Rogers recently read a new book by Jared C. Wilson entitled Gospel Wakefulness
Have you grown up in church, but sometimes wonder what the fuss it all about? Do you have Christian friends who seem really excited about their faith, and wonder why it’s not the same for you? Maybe you have a hard time understanding why you should do the things that you know you’re expected to do as a Christian. Or maybe you remember a time when these things made sense, but right now you feel numb to what once animated your Christian life.
Many people, even true Christians, live with an awareness of the gospel but lack a depth of comprehension that floods their hearts and transforms their daily lives. Those are the people Jared Wilson is writing to in Gospel Wakefulness. With an inviting style and real life examples, Wilson presents ancient biblical truth in a way that captures the heart, and he shows how gospel reality transforms our lives when we are captivated by it as well. If you’re struggling to see Jesus, this book will present him to you again on every page.
February 13 2012 at 5:46 pm
New in the Bookstore
3 CommentsHere are two brief reviews from Robin Boisvert on books that speak to seeing Jesus clearly in the Gospels. Look for these titles in the church bookstore.
Jesus According to Scripture: Restoring the Portrait from the Gospels
This is a study of the life and teaching of Jesus using the actual material of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. It is not a gospel harmony, however. From his introduction, Bock states that his purpose is to present “a coherent portrait of Jesus … from the canonical Gospels that is both rooted in history and yet has produced its own historical, cultural impact because of the portrait these four Gospels give of Him.” Instead of focusing on the dissimilarities among the Synoptics (Matthew, Mark and Luke) and their differences from John, Bock seeks to appreciate how these dissimilarities support a unified portrait of Jesus. As detectives know, absolute agreement among witnesses suggests collusion, while slightly different reports demonstrate authenticity.
What an edifying experience it was, reading through this book with an open Bible! Bock states as a premise in his introduction … “too few people, much less students of the Gospels, are familiar enough with the Gospel accounts as they stand.” I would have to agree. Having read the Gospels countless times in my forty years as a believer, I benefited much from reading this book, seeing things I had not seen before. Bock is an excellent scholar, able to communicate on a popular level. He presents the helpful perspective that these documents stand tall as historically reliable. They are the eyewitness accounts of the apostles. They are the reason why Christianity spread so rapidly in the 1st Century and why it continues to spread in a mission that will result in God’s glory filling the earth as the waters cover the sea.
Fabricating Jesus: How Modern Scholars Distort the Gospels
For most of the church’s history, her views of Jesus Christ have been shaped by those documents known as the canonical gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. But over the last century or so modern (and post-modern) critical scholarship has amazed us with so-called facts and theories about Jesus much at odds with the portrait given in those documents. For example, the idea that Jesus was functionally illiterate, was married to Mary Magdalene or that Judas Iscariot, far from betraying Jesus, was really the greatest of his disciples. These and other ideas have found their way into the popular mind through books, TV documentaries and movies such as The Da Vinci Code. Evans explodes the shoddy scholarship that undergirds such contentions. In doing so he supports the historical reliability of the source documents of the Christian faith—Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. This book is easy to follow and has an engaging style. It will be helpful for those who have faced questions like, “Why does Christianity only accept four gospels when many others were written?”
January 30 2012 at 4:29 pm
Bible Study Resources in the Bookstore
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Here is a quick look at seven, handpicked Bible study resources currently available in the church bookstore:
One-to-One Bible Reading: A Simple Guide for Every Christian, by David Helm
One-to-One Bible Reading is a way to help non-Christian colleagues, friends at church, or family members understand more of God’s Word in a way that is simple and personal. The book presents who this kind of relational Bible reading is for, describes how it works and provides training to put it to use.
Pastor David Helm will be at Covenant Life on Saturday, March 3, to teach the book’s contents in a Saturday morning seminar. Come early for coffee and donuts in the lobby.
40 Questions about Interpreting the Bible, by Robert L. Plummer
The author provides a window into biblical hermeneutics (i.e., how to interpret and understand the Bible) for the uninitiated. The format of the book allows readers to pick and choose the issues that are most pertinent to their interests and needs.
Dig Deeper: Tools for Understanding God’s Word, by Nigel Beynon & Andrew Sach
Dig Deeper offers 16 “tools” readers can use to get to the bottom of any Bible passage and discover its intended meaning. The book’s brevity and easy-to-read format make it ideal for Christians who want to get the most out of their Bibles.
Getting the Message: A Plan for Interpreting and Applying the Bible, by Daniel M. Doriani
Daniel Doriani provides wonderful guidance for people who fear that they can’t find their way through the Bible. His “how to” guidelines and examples for interpreting Scripture are so clear that even those new to Scripture will say, “Hey, I can do that, too.”
God Has Spoken: Revelation and the Bible, by J.I Packer
Dr. Packer points the way to understanding and applying Scripture by pursuing a lifestyle of Bible-reading and “subjecting the mind of faith to God’s promises.” “At no time since the Reformation,” he observes, “have Protestant Christians as a body been so unsure, tentative and confused as to what they should believe and do.”
God-Centered Biblical Interpretation, by Vern S. Poythress
Poythress offers a look at linguistic principles for understanding Scripture and exposes the idols that lead us away from sound interpretation. In the process he seeks to introduce readers to a Trinitarian approach to interpreting the Bible.
Knowing Scripture, by R.C. Sproul
R.C. Sproul has written for those of us who have a hard time understanding the Bible, providing encouragement to dig out the meaning of Scripture for ourselves. He presents a commonsense approach to studying Scripture and gives eleven practical guidelines for Bible interpretation and application.
December 29 2011 at 11:10 am
Bible Reading Plans
0 CommentsBlogger Justin Taylor has written a post listing a variety of ways to read the Bible in a year. He has done his usual brilliant job, taking time to highlight why having a plan is important and why some plans are weak. He includes 10 Reading Plans for ESV Editions available in an array of formats and how to access them. Take a look, and consider what would work best for you.
Justin is vice president of book publishing and an associate publisher at Crossway. He blogs at “Between Two Worlds,” hosted by the Gospel Coalition.
December 15 2011 at 4:17 pm
Terry Virgo Messages
2 CommentsJoshua mentioned on Sunday that we would make available video of the Terry Virgo messages from this past weekend. Below are all three: two from Saturday evening and one from Sunday.
We are providing them here using a video sharing service called Vimeo. Soon, we’ll be offering video of recent sermons directly in the Resource Library. But for now, feel the freedom to bookmark the Covenant Life Vimeo channel that has sermons going back to December of 2010.
Special thanks to Dave Wilcox and the Production teams who work hard to make live and recorded sermon video (and audio) happen, and Communications volunteer Caleb Barker who has handled much of the processing/encoding of sermon video.
Visit the Resource Library for audio of Terry’s messages.
July 25 2011 at 5:09 pm
Russell Moore Will Speak to Men in October
6 Comments“Tempted and Tried” Trailer - Russell Moore from Crossway on Vimeo.
A “heads up” for men: On the evening of October 22, we’ll have the opportunity to learn once again from our friend Russell Moore. You may recall Dr. Moore’s visit last September and his Sunday message, “Christ in an Orphan-Making Culture.” This time his theme will relate to his recent book, Tempted and Tried: Temptation and the Triumph of Christ. The meeting start time is 7 p.m. Stay afterwards for macho snacks and an all-out epic game of dodge ball!
Bio
Russell D. Moore is the Senior Vice President for Academic Administration and Dean of the School of Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. The grandson of a Mississippi Baptist preacher, Dr. Moore is also a preaching pastor at Highview Baptist Church of Louisville, where he ministers weekly. Dr. Moore writes and speaks frequently on topics ranging from the Kingdom of God to the mission of adoption to a theology of country music. He is a senior editor of Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity and also blogs regularly at Moore to the Point. Dr. Moore’s previous books include Adopted for Life: The Priority of Adoption for Christian Families and Churches and The Kingdom of Christ: The New Evangelical Perspective. He and his wife Maria have four sons.