Al Mohler's Library

This is a clip of Al Mohler's library. If you love books, you'll love this. Note: another use for coffee in the video


Al Mohler - Study Video from Together for the Gospel (T4G) on Vimeo.

Preaching and Worship

As recently as today, in conversation with someone on the subject of "worship," the essence of worship was understood by my friend to be a matter of a particular style of music. Dr. Mohler reminds us of the centrality of preaching in worship. Although the study cited concerns Great Britian, I doubt that, except for a few exceptions, things fare little better on our side of the Atlantic. Maybe if we returned to the primacy of sound biblical preaching, we could at least call a cease fire in the "worship wars."

How Will They Hear Without a Preacher?

Fair Trade Coffee

This article is from the Philadelphia Barista Examiner:

Over the past five years, the sale of Fair Trade products has increased almost 40%, and continues to grow as consumers become more concerned with sustainability. The movement's roots can be traced all the way back to the 1940s in North America and Europe with the intention of providing relief to the impoverished communities of the world, but started to make real strides in the late 80s. As world coffee prices started to decline considerably, the first Fair Trade certification initiative was born, opening doors to both the mainstream coffee industry and coffee growers alike.

The United States is the largest consumer of coffee in the world, and Fair Trade Certified coffee is currently the fastest growing segment of the specialty market. It guarantees a living wage to farmers by increasing their income and putting in place tools for self-sufficiency, and also empowers consumers by helping them be part of a social movement that positively impacts the lives of poor farmers throughout of the world. Fair Trade is also beneficial to the environment, because smaller farmers tend to grow organic, shade-grown coffee that protect certain species of wildlife as well as preventing the clear-cutting of large areas. Not only are there notable community and environmental impacts of Fair Trade, but small, artesanal farming methods result in better quality product than high-quantity, cost-cutting practices.

Idolatry's Empty Promises

I heard someone describe some writers as “grocery list” authors; meaning that if they write a grocery list it would be worth reading. Tim Keller is one of my grocery list authors. His latest book is Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power and the Only Hope That Matters.

Keller deals with those things that are not always seen to be idols by many Christians. He refers to surface idols and “deep idols” of the heart. True to his commitment to expound Scripture, Keller demonstrates the danger of idolatry in Biblical examples, but he always defaults the “only hope that matters,” namely, the gospel of Christ.

Read this book! It may shake up the way you think about idolatry.

(Buy it from Monergism Books)

Political Idolatry

Timely words from Tim Keller:

When love of one’s people becomes an absolute, it turns into racism. When love of equality turns into a supreme thing, it can result in hatred and violence toward anyone who has lived a privileged life. It is the settled tendency of human societies to turn good political causes into counterfeit gods. Ernest Becker wrote that in a society that has lost the reality of God, many people will look to romantic love to give them the fulfillment they once found in religious experience. Nietzsche, however, believed it would be money that would replace God. But there is another candidate to fill this spiritual vacuum. We can look to politics. We can look upon our political leaders as “messiahs,” our political policies as saving doctrines, and turn our political activism into a kind of religion.

Tim Keller, Counterfeit Gods, p.98

The KJV

On today's date in 1604, at the Hampton Court Conference, John Rainolds presented to King James I the motion "...that there might bee a newe translation of the Bible." This motion was approved the following day by the attendees of the conference and the result was the Authorized (King James) Version of the Bible in 1611. Read the whole story in Alister McGrath's account of the history of the Authorized Version in In the Beginning: the Story of the King James Bible and How it Changed a Nation, a Language, and a Culture.

Young Spurgeon

I love this "actual historical photograph" obtained from the "Sacred Sandwhich." This explains the Downgrade Controversy quite clearly.