For the first time, read the ESV Bible on your iPhone or iPod Touch, with or without an internet connection—for free. Record your own notes, highlight verses, save favorites, and share with friends. Please take a look at the ESV App and tell us what you think.
Please note: For those of you using other mobile devices, we haven’t forgotten about you. We’re working on it!
Joni Eareckson Tada, Bryan Chapell, Darrin Patrick, and Ligon Duncan are just a few Crossway authors who are joining in on the conversation. Check out what’s happening in the church and in the world—and how you can get involved in the Lausanne Movement.
If you’re in Chicago tomorrow and would like to join in, you can register for free. And of course we would love for you to stop by the Crossway booth!
12 Cities | 12 Conversations from ConversationGatherings on Vimeo.
An excerpt from Tim Chester’s You Can Change
It seems our first instinct when we want to change is to do something. We think activity will change us. We want a list of do’s and dont’s. In Jesus’ day, people thought they could be pure through ceremonial washing. Today it can be spiritual disciplines or sets of laws. I’ve tried these approaches. I’ve written out little rituals to perform every morning. I’ve tried to regulate my behavior with lists. Many of these things are good in themselves, and we’ll discover the role they can play in helping us grow in holiness. But our rituals and disciplines can’t change us.
‘Are you so dull?’ [Jesus] asked. ‘Don’t you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him “unclean”?…What comes out of a man is what makes him “unclean”. For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man “unclean”.’ (Mark 7:18–23)
External activities can’t change us, says Jesus, because sin comes from within, from our hearts. Our rituals might change our behavior for a while, but they can’t change our hearts. And so they can’t bring true and lasting holiness. We need heart change.
Learn more here.
In the March/April issue of Preaching Magazine, Dr. R. Albert Mohler suggests Ten Books Every Preacher Should Read in 2010—including Adopted for Life and Ancient Word, Changing Worlds.
In the expanded article found in the printed edition of Preaching Magazine pp 4-8, Mohler also recommends the following recent Crossway titles:
Are you a preacher or a pastor? We’d love to give you a jump start on your 2010 reading list. Tell us about a Crossway title that you’ve already read that you would encourage other preachers/pastors to read and why. We’ll pick one winner at random on Friday 3/19 to receive the above listed book bundle (13 books)!
by Tullian Tchividjian (original post available here)
I was asked by my publisher to write a brief summary of my forthcoming book Surprised by Grace: God’s Relentless Pursuit of Rebels for ByFaith magazine. This is what I wrote:
Most Christians assume that the gospel is something non-Christians must believe in order to be saved, but after we believe it, we advance to deeper theological waters. The truth is, however, that once God rescues sinners, his plan isn’t to steer them beyond the gospel but to move them more deeply into it. After all, the only antidote to sin is the gospel—and since Christians remain sinners even after they’re converted, the gospel must be the medicine a Christian takes every day.
For me, it was through probing the story of Jonah that I came face-to-face with the fact that the gospel is not just for non-Christians but also for Christians.Jonah is a storied presentation of the gospel, a story of sin and grace, of desperation and deliverance. It reveals the fact that while you and I are great sinners, God is a great Savior, and that while our sin reaches far, his grace reaches farther. This story shows that God is in the business of relentlessly pursuing rebels (a label that ultimately applies to us all) and that he comes after us not to angrily strip away our freedom but to affectionately strip away our slavery so we might become truly free.
I wrote Surprised by Grace because we all need to be.
Surprised by Grace will be available in May 2010.
Recent Comments