Life Verse

"and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised."

--2 Cor 5.15

Driscoll in the News

Last night on NightLine and a couple of weeks ago in the NY Times.

The Journey Music

Here is a link to some good (and free) music recorded by The Journey (an Acts29 church in St. Louis).

Driscoll Interviews Carson

Here.

Ephesians 6

I have been studying Ephesians 6 for the last couple of weeks, and it's been good. I purposefully put off looking at commentaries until the end. Maybe I should have started looking at them a year ago though. In 1655, the puritan pastor William Gurnall wrote a commentary on the 11 verses dealing with spiritual warfare. The title is "The Christian in Complete Armour: The saints' war against the Devil, wherein a discovery is made of that grand enemy of God and his people, in his policies, power, seat of his empire, wickedness, and chief design he hath against the saints; a magazine opened, from whence the Christian is furnished with spiritual arms of the battle, helped on with his armour, and taught the use of his weapon; together with the happy issue of the whole war." The 1821 edition is 3 volumes, 261 chapters, and 1,472 pages.

More recently, the modern-day puritan Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote 736 pages on 11 verses! Calvin praised two things in commentators: clarity & brevity. So much for the latter. I'm with Calvin. Needless to say, I will not be consulting these commentaries.

Marriage Books

It's my personal opinion that couples (or at least husbands) ought to read at least one marriage book per year, to learn, be convicted, be refreshed and to be evaluating yourself as a Christian husband and thinking of ways you can make your wife smile more. Here is a helpful list of reviews by the folks at 9Marks.

New Year Traditions

The new year is a good time to reflect on God's goodness, pray for God's nearness, and think about our own life. Alicia and I have a few traditions I thought I'd share:

• Read/think through Don Whitney's 'Ten Questions'
• Read Jonathan Edwards' Resolutions
• We write letters to one another that are not to be opened until the next year. The content can consist of anything you like, but we mostly muse about what we think the next year will consist of. This is always encouraging and amusing.
• Read the Bible through in a year. Justin Taylor has a helpful post with several reading plans and printable bookmarks to keep yourself on track.