There are a few reasons i'm not on twitter

I don't really understand how it works, it's impossible to sound like a man whilst saying 'i tweeted that' and i'd be forever writing things like 'Ed is at________ for dinner. Glad he ate first.' It's just too much bother. I am in a bit of a minority though so here's some excellent stuff on Christians using twitter:

Gethin Jones
iMonk
Josh Harris (this reminds me of something that Craig Mackay said to be once: 'we're all lead worshippers.' very, very wise)
John Piper

Trinity is community on mission (Terry Virgo on the Church)

Listen to the new Theology Network Tabletalk, Mike Reeves interviews Terry Virgo on the Church.

John Piper at the Basics Conference

John Piper's first two messages from the Basic's Conference are now online thanks to the tireless and speedy efforts of the DG team:

We are workers with you for your Joy
Preaching Justification Undiminished

Also, if you're super keen you can follow along with Piper's current sermon (and subsequent movements no doubt) 'Preaching Regeneration Undiminshed' on Twitter.

How would you describe The Gospel on Twitter?

Here's Rob Bell's effort, as reported in Christianity Today:

I would say that history is headed somewhere. The thousands of little ways in which you are tempted to believe that hope might actually be a legitimate response to the insanity of the world actually can be trusted. And the Christian story is that a tomb is empty, and a movement has actually begun that has been present in a sense all along in creation. And all those times when your cynicism was at odds with an impulse within you that said that this little thing might be about something bigger—those tiny little slivers may in fact be connected to something really, really big.

Here are some excellent thoughts from Greg Gilbert

Faith and Obediance

Do you sometimes read something that makes you sit up and go hmm? See the interchange of the word believe and the word obey in John 3:36. If you believe in the Son you will have life, if you do not obey, the wrath of God remains on you. No cheap repentance and easy license here.

The Pyros have been writing about the same thing.

Marcus Honeysett: Jesus is the Israel of God

Warm your heart and inform your worship, part one, part two.

Cerulean Sanctum: Why Christian men don't find their purpose

Very thougtful, thought provoking article from Dan Edelen here. Very hard to read in places, and even though i'm not sure all of them are fair, it makes me glad i met my wife on a missions trip really...

Don Carson on Jeremiah

I've finally just finished listening my way through a six part series by Carson on Jeremiah. Very illuminating, encouraging, challenging, scary, difficult, excellent stuff.

A couple of things i noticed:

1) It seems that most of the problems for Israel occurred because Kings, en masse, ignored the most important command to them in the Scriptures. That is, write down and learn and read and obey this law, that you might fear God. Time and again the prophet is ignored when he has a message from God, time and again we see Kings ignore the Word of God. And so they were judged.

2) Sin hardens our heart. Early on in the book Israel is likened to a camel on heat. 'How can we give up our false gods?' she cries. Sin does this to our hearts. Although we know what is right, we don't want to do it. We'd rather protect and provide for our sin instead of giving it up. Eventually we'll be so hard giving it up won't even be an option.

3) God is jealous and personal. Israel makes a cuckold of God. Israel whores after other gods. This language wouldn't be appropriate unless God was personal, unless He was personally affected by the sins of His people, unless His anger and wrath against it was real. Why does God give up Israel? To punish them and to bring them back. He is Hosea, we all are Gomer.

4) In the middle there is grace. Chapters 30-33 are full of grace. There are 14 'restoration oracles' in this block. God will break the back of Israel's oppressors, God will save His people from a distant land, God will restore them nationally and spiritually, God will restore their honour and end their weariness. And on, and on. God is gracious because God is gracious. He will save whom He will save. That's the best news there is.

Go listen!

Letting dead men teach you

Piper blogs about heart devotions and head study:

without a book or a class about what some part of the Bible means and a teacher who is ahead of you, your devotions will probably flatten out at a low level of insight. Year after year you will go over the same biblical ground and find it as perplexing as before. There will be little advance in understanding

Now, for my favourite part of any day...to the books!

Mark Driscoll interviews Matt Chandler

A great way to spend 28 minutes...you can listen here, or watch here

The Reformers Hermeneutic (or reading the Bible as if it were the Bible)

Glen points to this excellent article by Nathan Pitchford on reading the Old Testament Christianly. The literal reading is the Christocentric reading. yes! None of the Old Testament can be properly read unless it, as Luther said 'drives us towards Christ.' The point of the Old Testament is not interesting history lessons, not moralism for Kids Church, but for getting to know Jesus better.

As well as everything else, it just makes so much more sense that way!

Some random links about Psalms and Wrestling

Somehow i missed this, but Bish has posted twelve minutes of Mike Reeves on the titles of the Psalms. It was really helpful, especially as at the moment i'm near about Psalm 40 and Numbers 26!

Also, Paul has set five of the Psalms to music on his Myspace page. Paul, these are excellent...Jesus is the man!

High school wrestling is weirdly popular in North Carolina, and it seems, in Minnesota. For about four days last week, during the state championship meet the front page of the local paper was full of pictures of sweaty high school types rolling around on a mat. Piper comments on men wrestling girls (because ultimately, in high school, that's what it is), and is at his cutting best.

ESV Study Bible free online

Crossway is pleased to make the ESV Online Study Bible available free--for anyone and everyone--for a limited time through March 31, 2009.

For full access and free trial use of all the Online Study Bible features, users can create a login and password at www.esvstudybible.org/online. Email information will not be shared, nor will there be any obligation to purchase.

Crossway invites you to share this information with others--with the hope that many will benefit from this online resource and further experience the timeless truth of God's Word as a powerful, compelling, life-changing reality.

Hurrah!

Ireland's Worst Driver

Somethings are so funny that you can't even make them up...check out the story of Ireland's worst driver!

Matt, Challies and Scripture

Former housemate and long time Pro Evo adversary Matt has a linked to a great clip from John Piper about memorizing scripture here.

On the same note Challies is reminding his readers of his scripture memorizing email programme, which i've just signed up for...

Guess the Pastor

Can you name the Pastor who knows how many paces it is from the front door of his house to the front door of his church?

Of course, it's John Piper, briefly interviewed here by C.J Mahaney

I'd pay good money for a CD of Brian Blessed reading the KJV

As long as he did it in the style of the King from Blackadder I of course:

Pete Dray on the personification of Bible translations.

Also, if you're as cool as i am, you'll be fascinated to listen to the audio of flight 1549 leading up to it's safe landing in the Hudson River.

And in exciting iPod news, all the audio from the four previous New Attitude conferences are now online.

The Doctor on John 4

I love this from Martyn Lloyd-Jones, via Justin Taylor:

Possibly one of the most devastating things that can happen to us as Christians is that we cease to expect anything to happen. I am not sure but that this is not one of our greatest troubles today. We come to our services and they are orderly, they are nice ‒ we come, we go ‒ and sometimes they are timed almost to the minute, and there it is. But that is not Christianity, my friend. Where is the Lord of glory? Where is the one sitting by the well? Are we expecting him? Do we anticipate this? Are we open to it? Are we aware that we are ever facing this glorious possibility of having the greatest surprise of our life?

Or let me put it like this. You may feel and say ‒ as many do ‒ ‘I was converted and became a Christian. I’ve grown ‒ yes, I’ve grown in knowledge, I’ve been reading books, I’ve been listening to sermons, but I’ve arrived now at a sort of peak and all I do is maintain that. For the rest of my life I will just go on like this.’

Read the whole thing here.

This surely is the answer to the struggle of the Christian life. Come to Jesus! We need to get on our knees over Scripture and ask that the Holy Spirit would illuminate the glory of God in the face of Christ in the text. We should go to the spring of living water, and drink, search for the bread of life, and eat. Gorge ourselves on the glory of God.

I'm following a chronological reading plan this year. The more Scripture i read, the more i want to. The more i discover, the more i want to discover. Jesus Christ satisfies. But how? Only with a deeper hunger for holiness and Him, only by slamming the doors of sin shut in our hearts and opening up wide, deep, long avenues of grace will we be satisfied. Sometimes we plateau, but this isn't to be considered the norm...Jesus Christ appears, and our hearts come alive...

Two (more) blogs i've just discovered

On this, so far, very productive snow day i've spent a good amount of time browsing two blogs i've just found. The first, leithart.com is a veritable mine of Biblical articles. Including this excellent one on Matthew and pretty much all his stuff on Genesis. Plus, he has an excellent beard!

Also, give your iPod a birthday, and check out the faith by hearing audio blog. Especially their best audio of 2008 post. Excellent stuff.

Feeling cold, getting old, Cranmer and Kaka

Feeling Cold
Justin Taylor and Challies have both commented on how cold it is on the east coast at the moment. Temperatures here have been below freezing since this morning and will stay that way until Saturday afternoon It's not that bad compared to other places though, we're pretty steady in the low twenties high teens fahrenheit, which is must better than the minus numbers further north.

Getting Old
I felt like an old man this week. I was just paying for lunch at Andy's, a cheeseburger place, when one of the cooks, a guy called Jonny who'd been to church a couple of times came over to say hi. Instead of offering me his hand, or palm, or even first, he sort of waved his elbow at me. Perhaps he was doing an Alan Shearer impression, but i doubt it. Anyway, i awkwardly punched it, and we stumbled on with our conversation. Whats going on with kids today!

Cranmer
I've recently discovered the Cranmer blog. Excellent stuff on politics in religion, and religion in politics...especially this article on Rick Warren, Gene Robinson and the inauguration.

Kaka
And finally, will Kaka sign for Manchester City? Well i hope not, but thats not the point. Is he worth 100M pounds? Well, he's probably not more than twice as good as Zidane was when Real Madrid paid 43M pounds for him in 2001, but if thats what the market says then fair enough. And since Manchester City's owners have got 15B pounds at their disposal it's hardly going to stretch them. This is just the next step on the ladder that started in 1905 when Sunderland signed Alf Common for 1000 pounds. Should he be getting paid 500,000 pounds a week just 'for kicking a ball'. Well, if City want to pay him that, then i guess he should Is this any worse than John Terry getting paid 135,000 pounds a week?

I've never really understood why people get so upset about what premiership footballers get paid. How many other professions are there where thousands of people turn up to watch you work every week, and spend the rest of the week thinking and talking about what they've seen? Should nurses and doctors get paid more? Of course they should, but whats that got to do with the Premier League? It's almost as daft as the idea that footballers should be role models, with amounts to nothing more than a mass abdication of responsibility by so many parents. During all the hundreds of Wycombe games i've watched, many in my formative years, it never once occurred to me that i should want to grow up to be like one of them.