Well, I am finally back in Abilene, after about 20 hours of driving. It was well worth it. The conference finished up with Mahaney and MacArthur. Mahaney preached from 1 Timothy 4:16 and exhorted us to watch our life and doctrine. MacArthur didn't preach, and I was glad. I hear him preach all the time. I wanted him to give some encouragement, exhortation, and advice to pastors and that is what he did. As expected, he talked a lot about expository preaching. It was a real good talk. He was pretty open and just shared his heart. He is a very insightful preacher. I really enjoyed the format of this conference. After the sermon, rather than having Q & A from the audience, the four guys (Mohler, Mahaney, Dever, & Mohler) would sit and talk with the speaker and with one another. It was good to see their personalities. They were very pretty funny. I hope they will include this part in the audio they sell. It was my favorite part. Lots of sarcasm and laughing, except when Piper was up there of course. Be sure and check out some pics from Timmy Brister (esp. the one of Lig Duncan rapping), the overview of Challies nicely linked here by Justin Taylor, and you can order the conference audio here. I highly recommend it. It will be back in 2008. Start saving now.

Dang! Piper brought it tonight. His topic was 'How Expository Preaching is Particularly Glorifying to God.' It fittingly sounds like a title of an Edwards sermon. It was a very challenging sermon for pastors. I came away with a deep sense of the weightiness of the pastorate, or really the weightiness of the Christian life in general. I thank God for raising up men like Piper with a theocentric worldview who send alarming wake-up calls to the people of God. It is late and I need to read my bible, so if you want more details on the sermon, be sure and check out Challies. Good night.

This morning was excellent. We were dragging a little from lack of sleep so we thought we'd hit up Starbucks. We walked in and C.J. Mahaney was sitting there enjoying some coffee, hence the picture on the right. The conference started off with J. Ligon Duncan on preaching from the Old Testament. This was a very helpful message on a difficult task. Right after him was Mohler on preaching with the culture in view. Mohler's message was followed by a panel discussion. They hooked us up with Sproul's 'Getting the Gospel Right', 'Women's Ministry in the Local Church' by Duncan and Susan Hunt, and 'Give Praise to God' which was a book celebrating the legacy of Jim Boice. The next session was R.C. Sproul on Justification by faith alone. It was classic Papa Sproul. I don't think there is anyone better to talk about 'Sola Fide'. And of course there was lots of Luther, and lots of Latin. The panel discussion after that one was hilarious. They have all been pretty funny, but this one started off with Ligon Duncan and his brother rapping, and then C.J. and R.C. talking about the NFL. Tonight will be a little heavier because Piper is bringin' it. I think Piper may have almost cracked a smile once while the rest of us have been rolling. That man means business. We ran into Matt Chandler, the pastor of 'The Village' and he told us to go put on an extra pair of pants because Piper is going to be giving us all a spankin'. I am sure he will. I'll let you know. Challies is live-blogging the conference in detail if you want to check him out.

Today was excellent! We started the day off with R.C. Sproul at chapel. It was a packed house. He talked about the holiness of God. I really like Dr. Sproul. Then we went to the band of bloggers panel with Tim Challies, Justin Taylor, Russ Moore, and Al Mohler. It was graciously put together by Timmy Brister. It was real good. There were about 70 bloggers. They hooked us up with some Chic-fil-a and a free book about the new birth. Then we headed to the conference for registration. It was great to see 2,850 pastors all get together to celebrate the gospel. We got to visit with Sam Storms for about 20 minutes. Super nice guy! I can't decide if he, or C.J. Mahaney is my favorite charismatic calvinist. Mark Dever brought it tonight with an exposition of 1 Corinthians 4 and the role of the pastor. Then Dever, Mohler, Duncan, and Mahaney sat and visited with one another. Mahaney was out of control as usual, but very encouraging. I was challenged. It was very refreshing to hear 3,000 men sing together under the leadership of Bob Kauflin. It all made me very excited about the pastorate. Tonight we walked away with 4 books. One by Begg, 2 by Dever, and Baxter's 'Reformed Pastor.' More to come tomorrow, Lord-willing.

I cannot wait to start seminary. Today we went to chapel. It was awards day and the student who got the preaching award preached the message. It was an excellent exposition of Psalm 73. It was really a great sermon! Then we went to Dr. Schreiner's New Testament Theology class. He was dealing with law and gospel and going through the antithises of Matthew 5:21-48. He takes the interp. that Jesus is showing the true interpretation of the law. I think Jesus does a little more than that, but who am I? He is a brilliant scholar so I will just shut up now. Then we went to Dr. Don Whitney's class on Spiritual Disciplines. If you don't know of him, he is the authority on the disciplines. I really enjoyed his class. He expounded on 1 Timothy 4:16 with an emphasis on the first half: 'Keep a close on yourself and on the teaching.' He talked about the difficulties of the pastorate and the importance of watching yourself. He used Baxter's 8 reasons for pastors to pay close attention to yourself: 1. You have heaven to win or lose just like others 2. You have a depraved nature and sinful inclinations as well as others 3. You are exposed to greater temptations than others 4. For you have many eyes upon you and there will be many to observe your falls 5. Your sin has more heinous aggravations than other men (more serious because you have more light, hypocrisy, etc.) 6. For such great works of yours require greater grace than other men. 7. For the honor of Christ lies more upon you than it does on other people 8. For the success of your labors depends on it.
It was a really refreshing and challenging class. Tomorrow Sproul is preaching in chapel, then the band of bloggers panel, then the conference!

Yesterday was a good day. In the morning we went to Clifton Baptist. Tom Schreiner is the teaching elder. Bruce Ware is an elder and was finishing up a series called 'Truth Under Fire.' It was real good. He summarized the class by touching on the authority of Scripture, the new perspective on Paul, open theism and divine providence, egalitarianism, substitutionary atonement, and the nature of the church. Dr. Ware really believes what he teaches. It was refreshing. Schreiner preached a good exposition of Acts 4:23-31. We had some time to kill so we went to the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary to check out their labyrinth. It was my first one. We were bored. Then we went to Sojourn. It is an Acts 29 church plant pastored by Daniel Montgomery. The atmospheres of the two churches were very different. Clifton is a typical SBC church with mostly seminarians and older folks. Sojourn was very young and artsy. There were lots of bald heads, tattoos, low-gauge ear rings, and thick black frames. I really enjoyed it. You can really tell that Montgomery has been influenced by Tim Keller, which is always a good thing. Today we got some rest and spent a lot of time reading at Heine Brothers Coffee shop. The conference starts on Wednesday!!

The Southern Seminary preview conference is now over. It was real good. Chance and I had very stimulating and refreshing conversations with Dr. Tom Nettles, Dr. Bruce Ware, and Dr. Al Mohler. We also heard some preaching from Russ Moore that was very good. Friday night, we got to go to the Mohler's house for desert. Of course, Chance and I headed straight for the library. It is in his basement. The photo to the left is his personal desk. His personal library consists of around 55,000 books. I asked him about how many he has read. He replied with, "If it is on the shelf, it has pretty much been read." We were told there were 55,000 books on the shelf. Of course many of them are reference sets that you wouldn't read from front to back. He alots himself 5 hours a day for study. He tries to sleep five hours a night. He loves his wife and family dearly. The man is a machine! I had the opportunity to talk with him about the emerging church. Driscoll's 'Radical Reformission' was in a stack by his desk so I asked him about it. He was going to read that one and his new one together soon. I didn't think I could have more respect for him than I had before, but I do. He is a genuinely humble, Godly, and brilliant theologian. I am very thankful for the opportunity to attend Southern Seminary in the fall.

Tonight was the infamous 'Thunder over Louisville.' It is the largest fireworks show in North America. It was bad. There were a record-breaking 800,000 people in attendance along the Ohio River. It is the celebration of the upcoming Kentucky Derby. The pic on the right is from tonight.

Tomorrow, me and my good buddy Chance are road trippin.' He used to be my favorite cessationist, but turns out he is not a cessationist. He is just so cautious, that he might as well be a cessationist. I have some Sam Storms sermons for the drive. We are headed to Louisville, KY for an extended stay. We will be attending a preview conference for future seminarians, the band of bloggers panel, and 'Together for the Gospel." I also hope to find an apartment for me and Alicia. It should be quite the trip. We are staying at my boy Dustin's place for the majority of the trip. I will blog as much as I can to let you know what is going down in Louisville.

filthy calvinists

A while back, I posted about the debate over Calvinism that exploded on Tom Ascol's blog. Ergun and Emir Caner had some pretty ignorant things to say. By ignorant, I simply mean uninformed. They got a little sarcastic, and Ergun called Calvinism a virus. Well, James White got in on the mix. If you don't know White, he is pretty smart. He challenged Ergun to debate him. After dodging the question for a bit, he has accepted the challenge. James White officially announced it on his blog. It will be October 16th in Lynchburg, VA. It will be Tom Ascol and James White debating Ergun and Emir Caner on 'Baptists and Calvinism.' I will definitely be hittin' up the DVD for this one. Hopefully it won't be too expensive. By the way, be very careful when reading or listening to White or Ascol, or anyone they associate with. You may catch the Calvinist Virus!!

The Emerging Church

My latest read was Dan Kimball's 'The Emerging Church.' It took me a while to get through it. I was excited about reading it, but a little nervous about the theology. To my pleasant surprise, it was pretty much orthodox. I think he said some good things. I don't think I'd recommend it to anyone though. There are better books out there and he spends a little too much time on the practical aspects of it. I really liked his chapter on evangelism. There were lots of annoying parts. Anyway, some quotes:

"Those who think that postmodernism is a figment of the academic imagination, a passing fad, could not me more wrong." (55)

"Like missionaries respectfully entering a foreign culture, we need to approach our post-Christian culture with a gentle awareness of the prevailing worldview while boldly expressing the great news of Jesus and God's truth." (76)

"A strong theocentric approach to preaching is exactly what emerging generations are starving for." (178)

"A church doesn't need a missions department if its people think of everyone in the church as being on a missions, both locally and globally." (207)

Today take some time to reflect and meditate on the passion of Christ. Today we celebrate the most horrific and beautiful event in history: the murder of the sinless Son of God. Consider the agony. The blood. The sounds. The hatred of men. The wrath of God. The love, mercy, and grace of God. We celebrate the day that God's love and God's wrath met on the cross. God poured out his wrath on his Son, so that His people could be free. We celebrate the fact that our sins have been nailed to the cross. We celebrate the fact that Jesus kept the law for us. We celebrate his substitutionary atonement. We celebrate the glorious God who planned every bit of it before he created the world, for his glory, and our good.

Love so amazing, so divine

demands my soul, my life, my all

Sunday, me and some friends went to the Shane & Shane concert here in Abilene. Man, it was good. Those guys are talented, and their lyrics are pretty much the psalms. The lyrics are God-centered. Good Christian music seems hard to come by these days, but these guys are good. If you don't have any of their albums, get one. They are all good. Here is part of 'God did':

Could it be that morality Got the best of you and me/Got us thinking/That we’re on the brink Of a drink of the cup that’s all filled up/With the cross havin’ even a little to do with us/It was His day/It was His way/To the glory of His grace/Took our disease/Enough to please The Father of lights/To bruise Jesus

Well, the last 2 days haven't been the greatest. I sprained my ankle yesterday in a basketball game. It is a pretty bad one. It looked like there was an egg in my ankle. I am gimpin' pretty bad today. I couldn't work today so I thought I'd spend the day reading and preparing for a sermon on Wednesday. I first needed to call my bank to ask about some mail they sent me. Turns out that somebody from Asia stole my debit card number and spent about $900. Needless to say, I didn't have that much in my checking account. I almost felt called to Asia for some good old fire and brimstone preaching, but realized that was just me. Anyway, I acknowlege the hand of God in all of it and thank him for it. 'The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord."

theological heavy-weights

Here are a couple of pics from the ETS meeting at Southwestern:

Me, Dr. Wayne Grudem, and Chance

Chance, Dr. Al Mohler, and me

counting down

Today I just wanted to acknowledge that in exactly two months, I will be the ever so undeserving husband of Alicia Mattox.

'An excellent wife is the crown of her husband'