Interview with Don Carson

Adrian Warnock interviews Don Carson at New Word Alive.

Part 1:

 

Spurgeon on Calvinism

“Calvinism is just a bad nickname for Biblical Christianity”.

(Charles Spurgeon)

Latest Links

The latest links from around the web that are worth a read or listen to…

Write a Prayer for a Friend

Gospel humility and confidence

Gospel Unity Among Educational “Camps”

Big Thoughts for Little Thinkers

John Piper writes a lot of books

A good reading list

What is an Evangelical?

Wanting everything in boxes

Devotions for young people

What I learned a month after leaving youth ministry

God is Blessed

What’s the big idea in Hebrews?

Personal work

Missions and Masturbation

Embrace Humble Orthodoxy

Piper, Preaching and … Water?

2009 - The Year of the Bible?

Getting Honest about Sex Selection Abortions

Luke 5:27-32 Kids Talk

Here’s an idea for a kids talk in church on Luke 5:27-32…

[Powerpoint for this talk HERE]

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The Worst Dinner Guest are…

Grab 

Who wouldn’t you invite round for dinner?  Which people would you least like to have dinner with? 

• - Someone who doesn’t like you and doesn’t really want to spend time with you?
• - Someone who is nasty to you, maybe they’ve been bullying you?
• - Someone who is just annoying? 

A recent survey conducted to find the best and worst dinner guests found that the following people are the worst dinner guests according to the British public. 

• - Prince Charles
• - Jade Goody
• - Russell Brand
• - Victoria Beckham

Now if this survey was conducted 2000 years ago in Galilee, the worst dinners guests would be ‘tax collectors’ and ‘sinners’. 

Hit 

Who do we find Jesus having dinner with in Luke 5? 

“Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them.” (Luke 5:29)  

Jesus is having dinner with Galilee’s least popular dinner guests. 

This shocked the religious leaders; they couldn’t believe that Jesus would spend time with tax collectors and sinners - ‘bad people’!  

They couldn’t see what Jesus had come to do.  So Jesus tells them:  “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” 

Jesus was saying that people who think they are well don’t go to the doctors, just like people who don’t think they need to be forgiven won’t go to the person who can forgive them. 

But the tax collectors and sinners knew they were sick, knew they needed to be forgiven, so went to the only doctor who can forgive sins and that’s Jesus.  Jesus came to forgive sins, so that people can be friends with God. 

Like the tax collectors and sinners 2000 years ago we need to be forgiven, because the Bible is very clear that we are sinners and will be punished in hell because of our sin (sin is disobeying God, the bad things we do and the good things we don’t do).  But the good news is that God will forgive us if we repent and trust in Jesus, the friend of sinners, to save us by His death and resurrection.

Clouds, harps and Shine Jesus Shine for eternity!

Here is the outline of a talk I gave to the IMPACT group (for young people aged 11+) answering the question ‘What is heaven like’.   More detailed notes can be found HERE.  Randy Alcorn’s ‘Heaven for Kids‘ was an excellent help in preparing and definitely worth a read!

Clouds, harps and Shine Jesus Shine for eternity!

Heaven is… 

1. …a real place (Revelation 21-22) 

2. …a place where people with real bodies will live forever (1 Corinthians 15:35-55) 

3. …a place where there will be lots to do 

• - Work 
• - Learn new things 
• - Play sport, draw and paint, make things. 
• - Fly?

 4. …is a place that definitely won’t be bored!

Kent and Barbara Hughes on Parenting

Kent and Barbara Hughes recently did a parenting seminar at Mitchelton Presbyterian Church.  The audio from the seminar is online. 

• Session 1 HERE
• Session 2 HERE
• Question Time HERE.

Kent and Barbara Hughes are the authors of the helpful book ‘Disciplines of a Godly Family’.

All Mankind Concert

Check out the ‘All Mankind’ website HERE.

Heaven for Kids

‘Heaven for Kids’ is a really really good book. 

Have you ever wondered ’Where exactly is heaven?’ ‘How old will we be in heaven?’ ‘Will we sleep in heaven?’ ‘Will there be animals in heaven?’ ‘Will there be sports?’ ‘Will we travel through time?’

If you have, get this book!  It answers those questions and more from the Bible in an easy to understand way.  Best of all it also tells you how to be sure that you are going to heaven!

It may say it’s for kids, but this book will get adults excited about heaven as they read this book too!

Check out the author Randy Alcorn’s website HERE.

More Reading to do!

The recommended reading list from the recent Together for the Gospel conference is HERE, and in the video below Mark Dever explains how the list came together.

Top Ten Books for Christian Students (New Word Alive 2008)

Brilliant!