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Because the Holy Ghost over the bent World broods with warm breast and with Ah! Bright Wings.

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January 19, 2010

Time and Money to Spare? Here’s a reading list!

I was poked and prodded by a dear brother to provide for him a good biblical/theological reading list. Making a reading list is hard work…it’s like picking your top 10 movies of all time. Just when you put Sleepless in Seattle in the top spot you suddenly remember how much you loved Big Momma’s House 2. So, this is of course a list in progress. If you want to build your library, or have some great resources at your fingertips, I commend these to you.

There’s the books I’d put in the ‘classics’ list:

Augustine, Confessions

Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress and Grace Abounding

Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion

Edwards, Religious Affections

Luther, Bondage of the Will

Knowing God by Packer is a modern classic and so is Piper’s Desiring God


Here are some classic Biographies:

Iain Murray, Jonathan Edwards

Arnold Dallimore, George Whitefield (2 big vols)

Charles Spurgeon’s Autobiography (or the Spurgeon Biography by Arnold Dallimore)

Any of the ‘Swans Are Not Silent’ Christian biography series by John Piper (I think there are five volumes, but they are really great)


Here is a rather broad and general list: (bit more ‘heady’ and theological)

John Piper, Future Grace

John Piper, Pleasures of God

Horton, Putting the Amazing Back into Grace (an easy primer on faith alone by grace alone as the keystone of the reformation)

John Murray, Redemption Accomplished and Applied (a small but heavy duty classic on the atonement- hard not to be a five point Calvinist after reading)

O. Palmer Robertson, Christ of the Covenants (a look at ‘covenantal theology’ – God’s work through his ‘covenants’ through Scripture)

Graeme Goldsworthy, According to Plan (a big, detailed portrait of the biblical outworking of God’s redemptive plan through Christ)

Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology (good to read by sections- maybe think of theological areas you need to grow in and read Grudem’s section on it)

D. Carson, Divine Sovereignty and Human Responsibility

D. Carson, The Gagging of God

David Wells’ 4 Volume Opus on Evangelical Church and Theology:

          -God in the Wasteland

          -No Place for Truth

          -Losing our Virtue

          -Above All Earthly Powers

A.W. Pink, Attributes of God

R.C. Sproul:

          -Chosen By God

          -Holiness of God

          -Just Shall Live By Faith: Exposition of Romans

John MacArthur,  The Gospel According To Jesus


On Counseling, Manhood and Womanhood, Marriage/Family:

Piper and Grudem, Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (big volume- but crucial work facing down the great challenge of feminism in the evangelical church)

Andreas Kostenberger, God, Marriage, Family

Ted Tripp, Shepherding a Child’s Heart

Paul Tripp, War of Words;  Lost in the Middle; Age of Opportunity; Instruments in Redeemer’s Hands

David Powlison, Seeing With New Eyes; Speaking the Truth in Love


Here are some good Devotional works:

Donald Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life (another good one - Spiritual Disciplines Within the Church)

C.J. Mahaney, The Cross Centered Life

Paul Miller, A Praying Life (just started reading it- but it is GREAT!)

(of course the ‘classics’ above are great devotional works, too)

Bennett (editor), Valley of Vision – Puritan prayers

Any volume of Spurgeon’s sermons

Any volume of Whitefield’s sermons (Banner of Truth press has a great ‘selected sermons’ of Whitefield)

J.C. Ryle, Holiness


As you can see, I could have titled this post - “How I Have Single-handedly Funded John Piper’s Ministry’.  Enjoy!

 

Tags: Theology

posted by Erik Braun

January 19, 2010

A Report from Pastor Henoc in Haiti- Keep Praying!

Here is a report from this past Saturday from the pastor of our sister church in Cape Haitian. It is grim and desperate. But, praise God for faithful brothers like Pastor Henoc who are there in Haiti fighting for the lives and souls of those suffering.

The earthquake happened on Tuesday evening.  All communication was cut off.
We did not know what was going on except for what we were reading on the
internet and on the radio..  Because of the heavy overcast, we could not
watch CNN.  I wanted to go to Port au Prince, but with no telephone
communication, it could get complicated.
Thursday morning, around 11, the telephone started to work slowly. Just one
company. So, we could try to reach anyone subscribed with Voila.  However,
people in Port au Prince cannot be reached because there is no power to
charge the phone.  Some have lost their phones and it takes a lot of time to
get through. 
We arrived around Port au Prince at 5:00.  However it took over 2 and a
half hours to travel the one mile road to the airport.  People are coming in
to look for their loved ones and others are leaving town.  We saw many
people on top of roof digging up flattened buildings.  Stock piles of dead
human beings were everywhere.  At the cemetery, and on open fields, they dig
large holes and fill them up.  We found at one cemetery where they put a
pile of dead people and burned them with gasoline.  To ignite the fire, they
used old tires.  The smoke was going up and I call it the Smoke of Hell.
There is no fuel.  However, there are lines of people by the gas stations.
They are just hoping that there will be some somehow.  There are no
government ministries.  Most of them have been crushed.  Some senators, some
deputies, a lot of high government officials have lost their lives.  There
is no one in Haiti that has not lost a loved one.  The schools and
universities have been crushed to the ground with students underneath.  It
happened at the end of the day when most people were still at work.  Many
banks have all their employees and clients under the rubbles.

There is no water, no electricity, no store opened, no food.  Dead people
are piled by the hundreds and dump trucks come by to pick them up.  All the
markets have been destroyed.  The prisons have been crushed.  The prisoners
are on the streets and some of them have been killed by the earthquake.
There is a lot of pillage, looting, raping.  There was even an exchange of
fire yesterday between the police and thieves.
People fear their homes will fall again.  Everyone sleeps on the streets
where there is the smell of dead flesh.
Banks are closed, churches have been destroyed.  There is nothing left.  The
people sleeping on the streets don’t know for how long.  They don’t even
know if they will ever return to their homes and have normal lives.  Port au
Prince is a metropolitan center with 4 million people coming from all
corners of Haiti.  Every one starts going back home.  No money, no vehicles,
no where to go.
I left on Thursday morning and came back in the middle of the night with 18
people in the double cab Toyota.  It was mainly students from CSS who are in
Port au Prince for university education.  Now their houses and apartment are
destroyed and they are homeless.  On Friday morning, I went back.  We spent
all day looking for Sainsoir’s two daughters.  One of them was found and the
other one was no where to be found.  We were looking for two other girls who
go to nursing school in Port au Prince.  On our way back, Sainsoir’s
daughter called us and we’ll go back on Sunday to pick her up.  On that day
we rescued 23 people and we were back by 11:45 PM.  Unfortunately, we had 6
flat tires.
Today, Saturday,  we bought 4 brand new tires.  One family from the church
had a daughter who is a nurse and had gone to Port au Prince to look for a
job. Both she and her son were found dead.  The same family could not locate
their son.  He was found alive under the ruins of a government building.
His leg is almost destroyed.  We will pick him on Sunday to take him to a
hospital.  A man from the Grande Riviere church has been found with multiple
injuries.  He will come back with us.  I will finish this e-mail and head to
Pignon where I will spend the night and need to be in Port au Prince before
8 am.

My cousin’s daughter was killed in school as the building collapsed and
everyone inside was killed.  A graduate of CSS, Sterly Manigat, was killed.
Many other friends and loved ones were destroyed.
I have seen death, but I don’t understand it.  I have seen people’s lives
destroyed and I cannot understand it.  However, I trust in the Lord and that
He has a purpose for everything. Above everything His name will be praised
and there will be a reason to see His glory in the midst of chaos.
Please pray for our safety as we travel at night time and everywhere.
Please pray for strength.

Henoc

Tags:

posted by Erik Braun

January 14, 2010

Come Pray for Haiti

We will gather in the sanctuary at the Four Oaks Center tomorrow from 12-1 pm to intercede for the people of Haiti. Please join us.

Before then- spend some time reading the news stories, google Haiti and get acquainted with this small and broken country. Look at the myriad photos of the tragedy. Tenderize your heart for these people and let your conscience be pricked and provoked, then come join us in praying for the three million people made in the image of God directly affected by this incredible catastrophe.

Here are a few links that will help you as you consider giving to Haiti; from a helpful list of trustworthy relief agencies at Desiring God Ministries

Please update your facebook and twitter pages to spread the word about our prayer time tomorrow.

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Erik

Tags:

posted by Erik Braun

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