It's a recurrent problem for those who lead Bible study groups and church services. People arrive with their heads full of stuff: their personal problems; a crisis with a friend; money worries; the pressures of a hard day at work; frustrations with children; the long-term problems that are a constant weight to our souls.
It's not uncommon for someone to say, or the leader to pray something like this:
Lord, help us to put aside the distractions of today, so that we can focus on you...
It sounds like it should be the right thing to do. After all, distractions are … well … distracting! And aren't we at church or homegroup to focus on God's Word and worship him? Sounds like the right thing to do, until you read the psalms and understand the lives God wants us to lead. The book of Psalms is not just a personal prayer book for our private moments - but a songbook for people to sing aloud as we approach the Lord. Take these examples of typical songs on the hymn sheet at the temple:... continue reading
1. God's Word For You E-Book Deal
Until midnight on Thursday, our very own God's Word For You ebooks are available for just £1 in the UK and $1.99 in the US.
2. 10 Ways to Become a Better Preacher
Justin Buzzard shares a list of 10 ways to become a better preacher.
3. Jesus' SCARS: How to Spend Quality Time with God
A helpful article about a new acrostic for daily use, Jesus' SCARS.
4. Free eBook: 'John Calvin: A Heart for Devotion, Doctrine, and Doxology'
A free e-book from Ligonier Ministries.
5. Christianity and Homosexuality: A Review of Books
In case you missed it, an article on Christianity and homosexuality from Tim Keller.
6. And finally…
Our video of the week, Dean Faulkner gives a tour of how to set-up and run a Good Book Company eBookstall:
Found something that you think should make it on to the On to a Good Thing round-up? Send it to: ontoagoodthing@thegoodbook.co.uk
As you saw last week we at The Good Book Company have to move with the times. E-books are more and more the favoured reading medium.
Last week we gave you the opportunity to get our Questions Christians Ask series on offer. Today we are giving you the chance to look at another relatively new series at The Good Book Company - our "For You" series.
This series will take a look at various books of the Bible in the coming months and years, not as a commentary but as an expository guide. That is a resource that is accessible from a theological point of view, to lay Christians and seekers alike. So far there's Galatians For You and Judges for You by Timothy Keller.
As e-books, these resources normally retail at £7.99, but we are offering them to you at just £1 until midnight on Thursday 10th October. Have a look HERE for more information. Use the code fys1013 at the checkout.
The Heart of Singleness is a book for women about singleness—but it’s not like all the others in that category! Andrea Trevenna takes readers to their own hearts, to their own feelings and hopes and dreams—and then shows how those hopes and dreams are truly satisfied. Here’s an extract from chapter 3, where Andrea discusses what is often going on when we follow our hearts.
Follow your heart?
What’s wrong with following your heart? Nothing—if our hearts always get it right. But they don’t. In fact, our hearts deceive us a lot of the time. “The heart is deceitful above all things” (Jeremiah 17 v 9). We can probably see that in our own past, in decisions we’ve made and then regretted. We can probably see that in others, in directions they take that we wish they wouldn’t. It’s harder to see it in our own heart at the moment that it’s happening. But it does happen. Our hearts tell us to run from the person our own hearts most desire—Jesus. That’s what it means to be self-deceived.... continue reading
A great article and review from Timothy Keller of Sam Allberry's book, Is God Anti-Gay?, originally written for Redeemer Report: Renewing the City Socially, Spiritually & Culturally.
Washed and Waiting: Reflections on Christian Faithfulness and Homosexuality
by Wesley Hill
Zondervan, 2010
Is God Anti-Gay? Questions Christians Ask
by Sam Allberry
The Good Book Co., 2013
The relationship of homosexuality to Christianity is without doubt one of the main subjects of cultural conversation today. If you are a Christian in New York City, it is nearly impossible to talk about your faith without this subject being raised. Although it is not central to the gospel message at the heart of Christianity, right now the cultural moment requires that we be prepared to address this issue whenever we are publicly identified as Christians.
A sign of this cultural moment is the wave of new books—from very divergent points of view—that have come out recently treating this topic. People who attend Redeemer will either come across the books themselves, or will have their basic arguments presented to them in shorter forms online. So over the next few months I will be reviewing several of these books. It’s my way as a pastor to point people to those volumes that both fit in with biblical teaching and are pastorally wise and sensitive, as well as those books that, for all their good intentions, are mistaken and unhelpful.... continue reading
He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.”
The LORD Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Psalm 46:10-11
When it comes to the gospel of Jesus Christ, to know it is to love it. And that which we love, we freely and widely broadcast. Countless named and unnamed Christians through the ages have discovered that their love for Christ plays out naturally – one might say supernaturally – in their desire to spread the word about the Word. But some of us - many of us - still struggle. How can you explain something to someone when they apparently have no desire to listen to what you want to tell them?
In Know and Tell the Gospel, the late evangelist and author John Chapman goes a step further than other authors of evangelism books. Rather than simply assuming that we, his readers, actually know the gospel, Chapman uses the first half of the book to reinforce the gospel's basic truths and provide Scriptural proofs for them. Being an Australian, Chapman might call it ‘revising’ the gospel – not in the sense of changing it, but rehearsing it. The second section, focusing more on method and technique, features only three chapters, and despite its practical focus, theological overlap from the first section is evident, since "a right understanding of the gospel should lead to right methods; an inadequate understanding will inevitably lead to inadequate practices".
Know and Tell the Gospel may or may not teach you anything new about evangelism, but the read is worth it even "just" to rehearse the message of the wonderful saving gospel of Jesus Christ once again. The book's spotlight shines on Christ, the author and perfecter of our faith.
Buy it HERE for just £4 - use code kat1013 at the checkout.
Offer expires 07.10.13.
Commandments and Lord's Prayer
Using Christianity to Fight Crime
Muslim converts to Christianity after coma
Walsall bible-quotes doctor loses sacking appeal
Angry Christians protest Pakistan church bombing; death toll rises to 81
Pastor Chuck Smith dies at 86; founder of Calvary Chapel movement
Disclaimer: The Good Book Company is not responsible for the content of external sites and does not necessarily agree with the content of articles listed.
What professions lead to the unhappiest people? It may have shocked you to discover that Ministers of religion are the happiest profession (see blog on Tuesday). But if the biggest driver for happiness and job satisfaction is interaction with people, it should be less surprising to see the bottom five. The interesting thing here is that they are, in general, much higher paid, and have a much higher social status, but they don't deliver the goods in terms of happiness:
5. Technical Specialist
4. Senior Web Developer
3. Product Manager
2. Director of Sales and Marketing: I guess the issue here is that social interaction in sales and marketing is dominated by wanting to get the sale. And of course, the pressure of meeting those targets.
1. Director of Information Technology: often high earning, but the pressure point for anything that goes wrong. People complain and are frustrated when it doesn't work - but do not appreciate how difficult it is to make it work properly.... continue reading
Do you know any teenage girls? You only have to walk through any town on a Saturday night to know some of the pressures these girls face. Or flick through their magazines, listen to their music, check out their Facebook pages… Every day they are bombarded with the world's messages – the right makeup, clothes, boyfriend, music, parties. The desire to be special; but the need to fit in.
It's tough being a teenager, and potentially even more so if you're a Christian. What does it mean to live for Christ in a world that ignores him? How can a girl be godly, and what does that look like anyway? Where are the role models to help them see what a "real Woman" – a woman of God – looks like?
Our new resource, Real Women, written by Sarah Bradley, is designed to help teenage girls who are caught up in this situation. It's a great tool to help Christian women meet up with teenage girls to explore together what living as a woman of God looks like.... continue reading
