This is my new home! Everything has been copied from my old site to this new one. The old site will be no longer existing within 2 -3 weeks. Please update your list and change http://totellyouthetruth.chumpmonkey.com to http://totellyouthetruth.wordpress.com.
Radio Interview
My brother, Dan of eucatastrophe fame, has recently joined Carolina Hope Adoption agency will be interviewed on the radio program Calling For Truth on Christian Talk 660 at 1:00p today (right now!!).
You can listen here and even download the mp3 on Calling for Truth’s website later today.
News from the UK: Separation over Penal Substitution
“Steve Chalke has made his dislike of penal substitution very clear by likening God’s act of punishing Jesus in our place to a cosmic child abuser. In good conscience, we simply could not allow Steve to teach during the Word Alive week. We’re very sad that after 14 years of fruitful ministry, Spring Harvest has decided to end the Word Alive partnership because we feel unable to shift on this position.” by UCCF via Adrian Warnock (HT: Dave Bish)
Tools, Tips, and Other Must-Know Information
Writely
“What is Writely,” you ask? Writely is an online word processor. Think of Microsoft Word or Corel WordPerfect on the web – for FREE. Recently purchased by Google, it’s a resource that will greatly benefit many people- including me! I have been plastering quite a few documents up there!
So what can you do with Writely?
Create and edit documents you normally would create in Microsoft Word or Corel WordPerfect.
Save your documents in Word, RTF, HTML, and PDF formats.
Collaborate with others on the same document.
Publish documents on your blog.
Let people subscribe to that document’s RSS feed.
Much more….
Google Spreadsheets
Think of the same idea as Writely but think Microsoft Excel.
Google Notebook
Google Notebook is similar to Writely, but I think the basic distinction of purpose is Writely is for formal documents and Google Notebook is more of an online pad of paper for well, notes. Although there is no spellcheck like in Writely, it’s a simple way to organize and categorize your notes on various subjects. I have about 6 notebooks going on depending on the type of subjects. Very handy indeed!
Google Alerts
Have you ever wanted to or needed to research a certain subject? To help you in your pursuit of information, Google Alerts does the work for you! All you do is enter your key words/phrases and save it. Google Alerts do the rest. For instance, some of my keywords are: “gospel-centered” OR “gospel centered” -lds -mormon – that’s right, the whole string of words is one entry. I want to cover my bases!
DGM National Conference 2006 – Invitation from John Piper
Invitation from John Piper
Dear friends,
When I read David Wells’ new book, Above All Earthly Pow’rs: Christ in a Postmodern World (Eerdmans, 2005), I knew I wanted to build the Desiring God National Conference around the message of this book. Amazingly when I called Dr. Wells, he was available for our dates, September 29 – October 1, 2006. I am thrilled at the team of speakers who will join him in exalting the biblical Christ in this new-but-ever-the-same postmodern world of sin in which we live.
The burden of Wells’ book is first to understand the postmodern world, and then to confront that world with the never-changing Christ. His thesis is that the West today is not simply a product of Enlightenment ideology, with its rejection of authority and reliance on reason without revelation, but is also the product of a process of consumeristic, technological, media-driven modernization that created an experience of reality which affirms and reinforces that ideology.
One effect of this modernization has been to give rise to the centrality of the psychologically oriented self in the place of a morally oriented human nature. The postmodern, all-consuming “self”—with its self-made spirituality—is subject to no outside authority. All reality has contracted into this self. It is radically individualized and privatized and insistently therapeutic. It does not feel at home in the doctrines and traditions of religion. It is on an endless quest for the enhancement of its experience measured by itself alone. “All of this has produced soil throughout society that positively invites the new spirituality. It seems normal and natural. That is why it is as difficult for the church to contest today as was Gnosticism in the early centuries” (p. 138).
America is tuned in to spiritual matters but not to religious formulations. This makes it very easy to gain a hearing for what is spiritual but hard to maintain a genuinely biblical posture because that becomes a part of “religion.” It is very easy to build churches in which seekers congregate; it is very hard to build churches in which biblical faith is maturing into genuine discipleship. It is the difficulty of this task which has been lost in many seeker churches, which are meeting places for those who are searching spiritually but are not looking for that kind of faith which is spiritually tough and countercultural in a biblical way (p. 119).
Into this world and this spiritual situation an amazing team of speakers is eager to speak on behalf of the risen Lord of the universe, Jesus Christ. I am honored that they were willing to come. David Wells, Professor of Historical Theology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, will set the stage for us on the theme, The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World. Don Carson, Professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, will speak on “The Supremacy of Christ and Love in a Postmodern World.” Tim Keller, Senior Pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, will address “The Supremacy of Christ and the Gospel in a Postmodern World.” Mark Driscoll, the Lead Pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, will aim at the topic “The Supremacy of Christ and the Church in a Postmodern World.” Voddie Baucham, the founder and leader of Voddie Baucham Ministries in Texas, will tackle the theme “The Supremacy of Christ and Truth in a Postmodern World.” My own address will focus on “The Supremacy of Christ and Joy in a Postmodern World.”
Our aim is to call the church to a radical and very old vision of the Man, Jesus Christ—fully God, fully sovereign, fully redeeming by his substitutionary, wrath-absorbing death, fully alive and reigning, fully revealed for our salvation in the inerrant Holy Bible, and fully committed to being preached with human words and beautifully described with doctrinal propositions based on biblical paragraphs. We love Dorothy Sayers’ old saying, “The Dogma is the Drama.” We think the post-propositional, post-dogmatic, post-authoritative “conversation” is post-relevant and post-saving.
We would like to worship this Christ with you. That is what we plan to do: speak, think, pray, and worship the supreme Christ. I hope you consider coming.
For the glory of Jesus Christ,
John Piper
Above All Earthly Powers: The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Scott Anderson, Director of Events
612.435.2441, scott.anderson@desiringGod.org
www.desiringGod.org
Above All Earthly Powers: The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World
Minneapolis, MN – September 29-October 1, 2006
Above All Earthly Powers: The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World is the theme of the Desiring God 2006 National Conference September 29-October 1, at the Minneapolis Convention Center in Minneapolis, MN. We are highly privileged to have John Piper, David Wells, D.A. Carson, Mark Driscoll, Tim Keller, and Voddie Baucham as our plenary speakers, and the program will include two excellent panel discussions on practical expressions of Christian living in a postmodern world.
The conference is designed to help people renew and deepen their understanding of God’s sovereignty in all things, to help them receive grace from God more fully, and to enjoy God more freely, expressing that joy in their families, friendships and other relationships.
According to Dr. Piper, the specific aim of this conference is to call the church to a radical and very old vision of the Man, Jesus Christ-fully God, fully sovereign, fully redeeming by his substitutionary, wrath-absorbing death, fully alive and reigning, fully revealed for our salvation in the inerrant Holy Bible, and fully committed to being preached with human words and beautifully described with doctrinal propositions based on biblical paragraphs.
Dr. Piper is Pastor of Preaching at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, MN. Other speakers include David Wells, Gordon-Conwell Seminary, Boston; D.A. Carson, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Chicago; Mark Driscoll, Mars Hill Church, Seattle; Tim Keller, Redeemer Presbyterian Church, New York City; Voddie Baucham, author and Bible teacher, Houston.
About the Desiring God National Conference:
The Desiring God National Conference was organized in 2003, and provides God-centered, biblical teaching and fellowship for believers from all over the world. The conference is affordable, conveniently located at the Minneapolis Convention Center with accessible parking and nearby restaurants and hotel accommodations. Visit www.desiringGod.org for more information or to register online.
About Desiring God:
Desiring God is a ministry that exists to produce and distribute resources that spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ.
To Tell You The Truth – A Year in Review
It is really hard to believe I have been blogging for 3 years. Yes. That’s right. Three years. My original site is still up, although I do not post on it all that often, if at all. The change in my writing style has been gradual and by God’s grace has become more gracious. I moved from the, old, old site to a new old site. Then roughly one year ago, the new, old site crashed. Hard.
But without the crashing of the site, it wouldn’t have become what it is today. I have written many articles both of serious and substantial nature, as well as fun and frivolous. With all of this in mind, I present to you the Top 5 most popular posts….
What’s New?
If you only come and read articles (which you should do!), you should check out the left side. I have added some great resources.
First and foremost, check out Carrie’s Notes (my wife’s blog). She’s ramping it up and is planning to put family (and other) pictures there as well as recipes and other “home-y” type things. So check it out!
In the New to the Site? Key Articles YOU Should Read section, I have added an audio resource for the “so what…” of Gospel-Centrality. Yes. I know. It’s audio in the “Articles YOU Should Read” section. Oh well!
Next, I have added a section called, Gospel-Centered Audio Sermons. I have listened to MANY of these sermons and loved every single one of them! One of the best ways to find out what Gospel-Centrality is all about is to listen to those who already are Gospel-Centered.
Reading is one of my favorite things to do. I have added a section of books, blogs, and articles to read that have been influential in my thinking – The Reading List. I will be adding more, soon!
Looking for good resources in researching books you’ve heard about or read about? Check out Reading Resources for Discerning Reader, Monergism, and Monergism Books. I hope to add some more sites later. You will be glad you found these sites!
Camp Ironwood has created blogs for each of the staff members of the camp. Go ahead. You know you want to check them out! But remember, they’ve JUST started them, and they’re trying to get acquainted with blogging. So go welcome them!
And finally, I am adding more links to other bliogs I like. I just found a new one (well, new to me)!! Go check it out! I’ll be adding more, soon!!
Oh Deer! Didn’t Know What Hit Her…
(For those of you who get the notication email, if you get squeemish, click this link first: http://totellyouthetruth.chumpmonkey.com).
I love Aunt Sue’s! What a great place! We decided to travel on Memorial Day by venturing to the South Carolina mountains off scenic highway 11. It’s just a beautiful drive. One of my favorite places to go. We arrived at Aunt Sue’s by 1040a, just 20 minutes before it opened.
Then the idea came to us that we should go drive through Table Rock park while we waited for the restaurant and shops to open. Alas, we never made it to the park. Once the park entrance was in sight, we were greeted by one of the locals of the area….
You can see her calling card below:
We think Bambi’s mom made it across the highway before we arrived on the scene, but not Bambi…. (WARNING! lifeless Bambi pictures below!)
