Ray Van Neste on Pursuing Manhood

Ray Van Neste is Asst. Professor of Christian Studies at Union University, so he is dealing with young men often. The current issue of the Journal for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood has an article by Van Neste on "Pursuing Manhood" available here. Here are a few quotes and one-liners from the article:

"Our culture is infatuated with youth and encourages you not to grow up. After all, it says, the glory is in the youth. If you would be men, you must reject this siren song and swim against the tide. You must diligently seek to throw off immaturity and to grow up. Remember the one boy who never grew up was Peter Pan-and in case you haven't noticed, his role has typically been played by a woman. The chase for perpetual youth is never manly."

"Reject the blame game. When the buck is passed, it is always done with a limp wrist."

"Before you should take a wife you need to know where you're taking her."

"Realize that every decision to do one thing is a decision not to do several others."

Biblical Counseling Resources

Pretty much anything written by the CCEF (Christian Counseling and Education Foundation) guys is worth reading. I have put together a 'Biblical Counseling' book list on the sidebar. Also check out the CCEF booklets here. These are very good little booklets applying the gospel to specific struggles in life.

Greg Bahnsen Videos

I have posted before on how much I have been helped by the teaching ministry of the late Greg Bahnsen. I have his picture on one of the bookshelves. I recently noticed that someone has put together 52 videos in a "Greg Bahnsen Channel" on YouTube. One set of videos is "Basic Training of the Christian Faith" and the other is audio of "The Great Debate." Watch these excellent videos here or buy them from Monergism or American Vision.

Gaffin

I have been greatly helped by the books and articles written by Richard Gaffin from Westminster Seminary in Philly. He is a systematic theologian who always seeks to have his systematics informed by biblical theology in the Vos/Ridderbos/Murray tradition. I have been particularly helped with the ordo salutis, union with Christ, and the importance of the resurrection in Paul's soteriology by Dr. Gaffin. Here is his new website. There was also a recent book published in honor of Dr. Gaffin: Resurrection and Eschatology: Theology in Service of the Church edited by Lane Tipton (of Abilene, TX!) & Jeffrey Waddinton. Here is the Table of Contents, Foreward, and Intro. Lastly, here are some books Dr. Gaffin recommends.

Reading the Greek NT

I have greatly benefited from the "UBS Greek New Testament: Reader's Edition." This resource provides English glosses according to context and parsing for words that occur 30 times or less or are obscure, idiomatic phrases, and an appendix with definitions of words occurring 30 times or more. Zondervan has also published "A Reader's Greek New Testament" for almost half the price (be sure and go with the 2nd Edition if you go with Zondervan). I looked into both and decided the UBS text was still a better choice for several reasons, the main one being that the Zondervan text does not parse verbs in the footnotes. Rick Mansfield has provided a helpful comparative review of the two products. He has also posted a first look and review of the Zondervan text. Our own Dr. Schreiner has reviewed the Zondervan text and Dr. Stephen Johnson has reviewed the UBS text here. Lee Irons has posted a helpful reading program and syntax notes for reading the Greek NT.

Gender-Related Preaching

A few weeks ago, Denton Bible Church partnered with CBMW and held three weeks of excellent preaching focused on gender. The preachers were Tommy Nelson, Bruce Ware, and Russell Moore. Audio can be found here.

2008 Xenos Summer Institute

This summer on July 23-25 in Columbus, OH (3 hrs from Louisville), Xenos Christian Fellowship is holding their annual summer institute. This year, the plenary speakers include D.A. Carson, Mark Driscoll, and Mark Mittleberg. This year's theme is "True to the Word, True to Our Mission." Also, they offer free housing, and the cost for students is only $15 per person. Here is the schedule. Register here and I will see you there.

Book Nook Sale

This week 7/8 - 7/11, the Book Nook is having a 20% off all used books sale. Here are the directions.

Denny Burk Coming to Boyce

As most Southerners know, Dr. Scroggins was recently elected as pastor of First Baptist Church of West Palm Beach, Florida. Boyce has announced that Dr. Denny Burk, former professor of NT at Criswell College & current editor of the Journal of Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (& blogger) will be replacing Dr. Scroggins as Dean of Boyce College. Here is what Mohler had to say:

Mohler said. “I am really excited about the coming of Denny Burk as the new dean of the college. He is a great young leader, a promising scholar, a tested teacher, and a man of great vision and conviction. He has a solid track record at Criswell College and left his mark during his doctoral studies at Southern Seminary."

(Props: InsideSBTS)

More on "Surprised by Hope"

A while back, I posted some thoughts on N.T Wright's book "Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church."

Here is a great review by Tom Schreiner from the most recent issue of the 9Marks E-Journal (which you can have emailed to you). Here are more book reviews and articles by Dr. Schreiner.

Here and here are some thoughts on the book by Douglas Wilson.

Here is an interview with Wright by Trevin Wax about the book.