The Gospel is powerful, deep and completely life-altering (Romans 1:16-17). “All of our personal & church problems come because we don’t come continually back to the gospel to work it in and live it out.” — Tim Keller, The Centrality of the Gospel (We work out what God has first worked in — Philippians 2:12-13) “Most necessary it is therefore that we should know the gospel well, teach it unto others, & beat it into their heads continually.” — Martin Luther (Let’s beat it into our own heads first — Ephesians 3:14-21; Romans 12:1-2) SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title:...

(Not that we rethink The Mission, but let’s rethink what we perceive as our mission. The Mission stays the same: Jesus’ words in Matthew 28:18-20, and Acts 1:5-8.) On Friday a new website launched:  rethinkmission.org. Team Rethink Mission, led by church planter and pastor Jonathan McIntosh, is all about “inspiring Gospel-centered missional churches.” I’ve been tracking Jonathan’s preaching and articles for a few years (he recently transitioned from the pastoral and teaching team of The Journey Church in St. Louis). His message is consistently about Jesus, and...

The Gospel is enough, because Jesus is enough. His infinite love and beauty, His sacrificial death, and victorious resurrection are all-sufficient for the Christian life. God came near and rescued us. This one event changes everything, and without it nothing matters. Timmy Brister, a pastor at Grace Baptist Church pointed this out in a recent post . He notes that C.J. Mahaney, in the concluding chapter of his book, Living the Cross-Centered Life , talks about the centrality of the gospel and how you never move beyond your need for the gospel.  When asked, “But don’t I need more than the cross?”...

Gospel-centered. Gospel-driven. That is what I hope to always be, from now through eternity. The Gospel is all about Jesus. We must see all things through His worth, work, words and ways, and be driven by His Gospel. (These are not terms I’ve invented. Nor did Tim Keller, but he has been so instrumental in our day on reminding us that every problem in our lives is really a Gospel problem.) In this audio message from the 2007 Gospel Coalition, Pastor Tim Keller speaks on "Gospel-centered ministry" from 1st Peter 1-2. Listen up, it’s well worth your time. [download mp3] In...

"Before you can ever make a clean and unamended confession of your sin, you have to first begin by confessing your righteousness. It’s not just your sin that separates you from God; your righteousness does as well. Because, when you are convinced you are righteous, you don’t seek the forgiving, rescuing, and restoring mercy that can be found only in Jesus Christ." (p. 22) “Grace is for the willing and we only become willing when we confess not only the gravity of our sin, but our inability to deliver ourselves from it. Then our willingness opens to us all the sustenance...

Never been able to make it to a Desiring God conference . This year’s conference ended today, and it looked to be an insightful time in God’s Word. Look forward to perhaps working through the audio recordings and become a better communicator of God’s glorious wonder. ————— The DG Blog has some recent posts summarizing the messages, with audio links and some notes either from the speaker or from an attentive listener Some of the posts: Pray More than You Criticize (about Mark Driscoll’s message) 3 Ways Singing Serves the Word (from Bob Kauflin’s...

The ever-challenging Jared Wilson wrote a recent piece on "Five Ways to Feel Scripture ." A little clip: "We like to keep Scripture short and manageable, and that’s understandable. It’s certainly more convenient that way. But we will not be mastered by Scripture if we don’t occasionally allow it to overwhelm us, intimidate us, and force us to wrestle with it." Read the whole thing … SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Feeling God’s Words", url: "http://www.deTheos.com/2008/09/28/feeling-gods-words/" });

The audio from the Resurgence Text + Context conference is now available [as well as the sessions from the concurrent Acts29 boot camp]. I’m looking forward to being able to listen to whole messages I only caught glimpses of parts. Stirring Gospel-centered pastoral stuff. SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Text + Context audio available", url: "http://www.deTheos.com/2008/03/11/text-context-audio-available/" });

Gospel-saturated thoughts Kari and I have been talking quite a bit lately on the need for us Christians to live with a Gospel-saturated mindset. That is, the Gospel (the Good News of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ) is not just a message for entering the Christian life. It is the principle we must continue to live by in all of life. Jesus is not just our ticket to God. When we believe the Gospel, we get God. He is the Gospel! This need to always keep the Gospel front and center in our minds is key to the Apostle Paul’s instructions concerning the life in Jesus: Colossians 2:6-7 6...