How to Outline a Book in the Bible

Justin Taylor, of the blog, Between Two Worlds, Put this link to how to outline a book in the bible. Super helpful. I have fumbled myself into all these things through failures, and here he saves all that effort and just helps us figure it out. Start and outline today! Doing this has been some of the richest gleanings I have ever had from reading the Bible.

Check out the ESV Study Bible as well.

"When our hearts throb with our own self-absorption, of course we are unable to be passionately committed to the person of Christ. It is essential that the cross and our memory of its power daily act as lance that pierces our hearts, allowing the self-centeredness of our sin to be drained. Only then can the cross change us and allow godliness and passion for Christ to grow within our hearts. Just like those early believers, once we have experienced it’s ongoing power in our own lives, we will never be able to forget it!" -Rich Gregory, from The Pulpit Magazine, September 10th, 2008

Quotes on Theology of Missions

Read this selection of quotes from a missions class at R.T.S. with Thabiti Anyabwile, its really great.

The Shack

If your not aware of "The Shack" its a new christian fiction about the modalism (oops i mean the trinity but not really).Seriously lets read something thats biblical....watch this:

Unstoppable Hope

"For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us" -Romans 8:18

People under the shadow of incorruptible hope are those who are defined as unstoppable. Like a mighty behemoth they roll always increasing in momentum tearing through all obstacles that encumber their pilgrimage. With the mighty fortress of a heart, mind, ambitions, and then actions girded with the hope that the redemption of all things is near(Luke 21:28). And this hope, this hope of glory that we have been given the radical imputation of Christ righteousness, merited to our account freely, as a gift is the strength to endure this falable, fickle generation(Matt 24:12-14) and to preach with unbounded grace to all the greatest joy of all, to worship the one true God who brings unity into diversity. Let us unswervingly hold to our confession, the hope of Christ. And let despair die beneath the foot of the cross so as to have same fate as those whose walk ends with the guillotine.

Do we not gaze upon such hope that fueled the life of Christ and how he always hoped in the sufficiency of Scripture to deliver him from this world(Matt 4:10). And then Paul, herald of the eternal gospel and his unstoppable pilgrimage, sparked by the ethanol hope of Christ, "And thus I make it my ambition to preach Christ we he has not been named, lest I build on someone else's foundation, as it is written, 'Those who have never been told of him will see(hope), and those who have never heard of him will believe(hope)'"(Romans 15:20,21). And last but not least the martyrs in the first three centuries of the church scream of radical purity, radical generosity, and radical hope as they laid next to decaying plague victims, abandoned by all who knew them for fear of rot forming within their own bones. They were to become victims themselves by the ethanol of hope steeled into their muscles by the gospel. But as the least of these are those saddled with disease, so many shall become first in the kingdom of heaven due to the galvanization of the gospel in the hearts of our forefathers in the faith. Forever immune to the rust of this world. Galvanize us oh great father by your love, "and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us" (Romans 5:5).

Have ye any hope to speak of today? Are the cares of this world binding themselves to you like leaches upon a cow in a rice field? Then come, awake, find hope, strength and fortitude back at the simple message of the gospel, "Rise your sins are forgiven." Let us hold fast unswervingly to this hope of the gospel and the unstoppable force that it is.Christus Victus

Oh, Sleeper (Album Review)

Oh, Sleeper

(The following is a CD review of Oh Sleeper, if you don’t like metalcore, feel free not to read.)

So I was talking to a friend at work and I realized that when I said, ‘I like metal’ and so did he, we were really talking about two different types of music. When he meant Pantera, I was talking about As I Lay Dying. This intense realization required me to sharpen the sword that I call my music expertise (right….) into the genre of what we call metalcore.

Embrace…Oh Sleeper. The first few seconds start slow and have you thinking, ‘What is this, I thought it was a metalcore album?” Then within the blinking of an eyelid harp like accurate and just as delicately sounding slice through what you thought was your brain and now realized was an overpowered emotional outburst like that of a car whose red line was hit 5 minutes ago, and your still driving. Fortunately for the car of “When I Am God” for Oh, Sleeper, it never overheats, but only grows in speed and thuds. You will be singing along within the first of the anthems that rip through your brain. They precisely put in the right place all of the breakdowns helping you to want for more. The vocals are very well placed and as far as hardcore goes, understandable which is nice. Break out the liner notes (do you young ones even know what that is?) and start following along for it is definitely worth it. The arrows of this armored march definitely blot out the sun.

The one thing that makes this album, and most other Christian hardcore (and by most I mean all, not unlike when Calvinist talk about their definition of the word ‘world’) is that they are constantly on the search to create something interesting, something unique. And on the line of the anti-historical cocaine that they inherited from the postmodern world, they sniff up only shadows of a false interpretation of biblical reality. They create a world very cleverly masked by amazing music that makes no accurate reference to the bible. They are fighting a bible that has more to do with Frank Perreti’s books about ‘so called spiritual reality’ that does not exist in the bible. They make great allusions, but to what? Have they no understanding of the historical context of the word bishop? Well, like most other Christian Hardcore/Metalcore bands their music is radically progressive and thoroughly entertaining, but about as empty of actual Christian witness as a shadow is the substance of a real person. Great music, but try again on your theology. Perhaps this is a little harsh of a criticism, but I say like Carl Trueman that the world needs a cold hearted cynical historian to look down the annals of history and critique things in the light of the continual vomit of history repeating itself.

However I would say this: that they gave the album a great shot. It does lift up the soul in a kind of honestly that has not been engrained in since the old days. Not a total loss, but what isn’t nowadays. If you buy it for metalcore, your stoked, but don’t try to get any good reasoning out of it.

Did I buy the album? Yes. Did I like it? Yes, will I recommend it? Yes. Will I pray for their theology to be biblical? Yes.

Oh abundant mercy I cry to you,
Oh gracious king make my heart anew,
Steadfast the shade for sorrow for sin,
Light dawns for all he claims as kin.

Dreadful phantoms swirl around,
Deep in my mind they are found,
Changing creations true culture,
To the parasite kingdoms opposite order.

Yet in simple submission, alas oh surrender,
Thy kingdom come is sins own murder,
Sins severed nerve never knows such a defeat,
Then at the cross where Gods covenant is complete.

Oh rain down precious unmerited favor,
Let us rest unfailingly in its sweet savor,
Darkest horrid winters cold night,
Ended forever by Christs second flight.

Praise be to the God who reigns,
High from heaven, even through our pains,
The heavenly orchestra brings praise,
To the God of the cross, the Ancient of days.