How to Create an Instant Digital Christian Library Without Breaking the Bank

Previously I posted on my Facebook an article from Tim Challies blog that made theology geeks everywhere shout for joy. The title of the article is “A Secret Way to Kick-Start Your Theological Library” in which he gave tips on how to create a digital library without breaking the bank. Tim listed links of free downloadable theology journals from different seminaries or organizations. He even includes a link on how to use Evernote to save and catalog those fine resources. I already checked those journals and I can attest that they are great resources considering that they are free. So if you don’t want to buy expensive theology book, this article will give you the best alternative..

8 Favorite Quotes from the Book “Brave By Faith” (Alistair Begg)

One translator team member will also be involved in translating a study guide and subtitle of the complimentary video. Kindly lift him up as he do the work that will reach many Filipinos who haven’t heard the gospel.

Anyways, here are my favorite quote from the upcoming book Brave by Faith by Alistair Begg, published by The Good Book Company. If you want to support the author, you can pre-order/buy this book by following this link.

“…know the God who will give you all you need in the situation he has put you into, to enable you to stand firm for him and say, No, I am not going to give in.”

8 Favorite Quotes From the Book “J. I. Packer: His Life and Thought” (Alister McGarth)

Here’s some quotes from the book, J. I. Packer: His Life and Thought by Alister McGarth published by InterVarsityPress. If you like these quotes, consider supporting the author by purchasing the book by clicking this link.

“In studying the past, we can think of ourselves as stepping into the laboratory of faith, seeing how ideas were developed and explored, and checked out against their biblical moorings, their apologetic potential and their capacity to deepen our love for God – to mention just three criteria, to which more could be easily added.”

8 Favorite Quotes From the Book “Fearless Faith” by Jonathan Stephen

Our 27th year church anniversary was a blast last Sunday. It was by God’s grace successful. The special numbers, the fellowship and most importantly the preaching of the Word was edifying. Not only that, the Lord added 3 new members in His church during the afternoon baptism. Will you keep us in prayer as our church grows and spread the gospel in our community?

Anyways, here’s a book by Jonathan Stephen, Fearless Faith published by 10 of Those Publishing. This book is part of the series of books from Union Theology and with Michael Reeves as senior editor. If you like these quotes, please get yourself a copy of this book by ordering at 10 of Those.

“What we ultimately trust in, where our hope really lies and what we love most of all not only reveal our true selves but also determine the direction of our lives.”

“faith, hope and love as the three huge propellers that drive the church of Jesus (and you as a member of that church) safely through the perilous seas of life.”

“The truth is that fear cannot coexist peacefully alongside faith, hope or love. There is a constant battle between them until one or other takes control.”

“the antidote to great fear is a strong faith in the true Person of Christ.”

” If our lives were always pleasant and never challenging, our faith would scarcely be required and never grow. We would not be much use to the Lord in this life, nor would we be prepared for the life to come.”

“A Christian’s trials and troubles are a normal and necessary part of our training for glory. So let’s be thankful that our times are in the Lord’s hands, and not in our own (Ps. 31:15).”

“Let your experience of God’s goodness in the past feed your faith in his loving purposes for you now. While there is no promise that we shall be delivered from all our trials and troubles, by faith we shall pass safely through them. “

“Ultimately, nothing strengthens the believer’s faith more than a full realisation and understanding of the Saviour’s unique identity.”

Precious Gems Found in the Book of Hebrews

A few days ago I was checking old blog post that I would be considering to update and re-post over my social media accounts. As I’m searching my blog, I stumble upon a blog series that I almost forgot. I think it will benefit my readers as I benefited in meditating the Word of God. So to make the long story short, Ive decided to revive and continue it. So I’m bring back Precious Gems Found. Aside from posting the verses, I’ll include some sub-titles so you’ll know what these verses are about. Plus I’ll add some of my insights reading books of the Bible.

Of course there are lots of lessons you can derive from this book and in any books of the Bible.  I’m highlighting a few of them here and hoping that, as you study this you’ll find more.  Also we should remember that although these are great verses, they are meant to be read in context to get the full meaning and impact. Lastly, have a desire to read God’s Word daily.

The Deity of Jesus Christ

And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
HEBREWS 1:3

And when He again brings the firstborn into the world, He says, “And let all the angels of God worship Him .” And of the angels He says, “Who makes His angels winds , And His ministers a flame of fire .” But of the Son He says, “Your throne , O God , is forever and ever , And the righteous scepter is the scepter of His kingdom . You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness ; Therefore God , Your God , has anointed You With the oil of gladness above Your companions .”
HEBREWS 1:6‭-‬9 

For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings.
HEBREWS 2:10

Importance of Faith

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
HEBREWS 11:1 

By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible. HEBREWS 11:3

And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect.
HEBREWS 11:39‭-‬40

The Death of Christ

how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
HEBREWS 9:14

so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.
HEBREWS 9:28

nor was it that He would offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the holy place year by year with blood that is not his own. Otherwise, He would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
HEBREWS 9:25‭-‬26

Christian Maturity

For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant.
HEBREWS 5:13 

Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings; for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, through which those who were so occupied were not benefited.
HEBREWS 13:9 

But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.
HEBREWS 5:14

The Quotable Round-Up #83

Hello guys! I hope you’re having a great day as you dive in this brand new collection of quotes! This time we are featuring fresh quotes from the late Jerry Bridges book titled “Who Am I?” . And if you got stoked with these quotes, please get the book at your nearest Christian bookstore or on Amazon.

“The good news of the gospel is that Jesus took our place on God’s death row and actually died in our place to satisfy the justice of God so that God might fully pardon us without violating his justice.”
— Jerry Bridges

“On our good days we think God must surely be pleased with us and is smiling at us. We forget, as we saw earlier, that all our righteous deeds are like polluted garments in the sight of God (Isaiah 64:6). On our bad days we tend to think we have lost the favor of God because of our sin. We forget that he no longer counts our sin against us because Jesus has already born that sin in his body on the cross.”

“(This) faith is like the two sides of a coin. On one side is “renunciation.” On the other side is “reliance.” In order to trust in Christ we must first of all renounce any trust in our own perceived righteousness. Then we must rely completely on the finished work of Christ in both his life and death. That’s how we are justified.”

“In the plan and purpose of God the Father, he caused Jesus to become sin for us—again, with Jesus’ cooperation, despite the unimaginable anguish and torment involved. God took all of our collective sin down through the ages, all of it, and laid it upon Christ. Every sin that we commit in thought, word, deed, and motive was heaped upon him. He was made to be sin.”

“By his perfectly obedient life over thirty-three years, Christ earned the blessings of God. By his death on the cross he experienced the curse for disobedience. As our representative, all that he did in both his life and death accrues to our benefit.”

“Everything good in me or around me, whether spiritual or material, is a gift from God. More importantly, as one who has trusted in Christ as my Savior, I know that he has taken on himself the accountability for all my sins and has fully paid the penalty for my every act of disobedience.”

“When we begin to answer the question, “Who am I?”, we need to start with the most basic truth about us: we are created beings. “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27). While being made in God’s image puts us on an entirely different plane from any of the animals, we are still creatures. This makes us both dependent upon God and accountable to God.”

The Quotable Round-Up #77

Hello guys! I hope you’re having a great day as you dive in this brand new collection of quotes! This time we are featuring fresh quotes from Mark Jones latest book “A Christian’s Pocket Guide to Good Works and Rewards” . And if you got stoked with these quotes, please get the book at your nearest Christian bookstore or on Amazon.

“We find no stingy God in the Scriptures who keeps the heavens shut and refuses to bless his people. No, if he will ‘tear open’ the heavens and send his Son to die for our sins, ‘how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?’ (Rom. 8:32).”

“The fruit of the Spirit is love. To possess him entails possessing love. We therefore obey as loving creatures with hearts changed by the Spirit of Christ. In light of this, one fundamental point needs to be clearly made: God accepts and rewards our works not because of any intrinsic merit in ourselves, but because our good works are performed by the power of the Holy Spirit. As a result, for God to reject our good Spirit-wrought deeds, he would not only be rejecting us, but also himself.”

“We can never lose when we put God first, even if the immediate consequences may be painful or difficult. This is our hope: that living by faith out of love for God, he will one day reward us for those times we put him first, in situations where even our allegiance to God was tested.”

“Faith, hope, and love are theological virtues that make up the Christian life. It has been said that faith and hope may be exercised with regards to personal advantage, but love always has someone else’s benefit in view, whether God or neighbor. God loves to reward love.”

“The Father who gave two gifts to us, the Son and the Spirit, will look upon us as justified in Christ and sanctified in him by the Spirit. Our Heavenly Father will be well pleased with his work. He will accept us for Christ’s sake and reward and vindicate us because of his Spirit, who enabled us to do good works and prepared us for them in advance (Eph. 2:10).”

“Heaven will be a family of people who are in every way a treasured possession, not only to Christ, but also to us. Do we, in our evangelism, tell people we want to spend eternity with them in heaven.”

“A Christian’s standing before God is not based on their works, but a Christian performs good works to demonstrate their standing in Christ. Obedience doesn’t make one a Christian, but proves one to be a Christian.”

Pastor Talk: Delighting Grace Interviews Jon Hawkins of Pastor Discussions Podcast (Part 2)

Lets continue our chat with Jon Hawkins, one of the pastor of Pastor Discussions Podcast that will hit the internet on January 6, 2017.

 Delighting Grace:  How can listeners interact with you guys and be part Pastor Discussions Podcast?

Jon Hawkins:   We have a website set up (www.pastordiscussions.com) and on the front page, there is a contact form. People can fill that out and get in touch with us that way. They can email us at pastordiscussions@gmail.com. They can  head over to Facebook and “like” the Pastor Discussions Podcast page. We just launched that about 2 days ago and already have been given show fodder. It’s great! If you want to stay up to date on upcoming shows and giveaways, you can join our mailing list (details on the website).

In the future we will be adding a group on Facebook for discussion of show content or anything else really. We are also looking at doing some shows on Google Hangout that are just question shows. People can jump on and ask questions and we will talk about them live. Another thing we are looking at is doing a T4G meet up where anyone that’s at T4G can meet up, hang out and chat. We might even record a show live at T4G. If any of our listeners have more or better ideas, we would love to hear them.

Delighting Grace:  I’m excited already for your podcast. You said that you dont have any experience in podcasting? So now you have one what lessons have you learned in producing a show?

Jon Hawkins:   I have been on a podcast, but I have never had to deal with all the technical aspects of recording it. I just showed up and clicked a link. The biggest lesson I’ve learned so far is that God puts the right people in your life to help you do the things He wants you to do. Other podcasters have reached out and helped, we have people in our church that have helped and that have given technical advice, people like you have shown interest in what we are doing and offered to promote it, and there have been people that have been excited to be on the show.

It’s funny because don’t drop our premier episode until January 16th, but people are already excited about it. It’s just been amazing to see God bring the right people at the right time as we stepped out in faith. The second lesson I’ve learned is that quality is a must. We have invested in some good mics so that the content sounds good. As I’ve been researching podcasts, there are a lot that I stopped listening to within the first 5 minutes because of the audio quality. I’ve also learned that you can find tutorials for just about anything on YouTube.

Delighting Grace:  For you what might be a sticky topic that you might encounter in future episodes? Is Pastor Discussion Podcast open for controversial topics?

Jon Hawkins:   There are probably 1000 sticky topics because everyone has topics that they are passionate about and have strong feelings about. We have no issues talking about controversial topics because I think that part of the Christian life is dealing with controversial issues using the Bible. The gospel itself is controversial. It causes divisions and is an aroma of death to those who are perishing and an aroma of life to those who are being saved. Paul certainly talked about controversial issues. I’m preaching through Romans currently and Jew/Gentile relations was a massively controversial topic. So while we don’t want to be known for being controversial for the sake of being controversial, I’m sure we will hit on some issues that will cause some people to disagree passionately.

I think the key is to always stay tethered to the Bible and to speak the truth in love and grace. There is a way to say truth and be a jerk. We don’t want to do that. Anything is on the table though and we will try to be gracious and loving while at the same time, standing on our convictions from the Bible and if it’s a secondary issue, my hope is that we can discuss it, disagree with charity, and still be friends. Christians need to learn to disagree with charity and brotherly love. In a culture where disagreement means that you get demonized and are labeled “intolerant”, Christians need to learn how to have hard conversations and challenge one another without breaking fellowship or turning on each other. That will be our aim.

Delighting Grace: Can we have a sort of teaser on how episode #1 will go?

Jon Hawkins:   We are actually dropping 2 episodes on Jan 16th.

Delighting Grace: Wow two episodes!

Jon Hawkins:   We want to give people a couple of shows to listen to so they can see if it’s something they will enjoy and want to be a part of. Al I ask is if you don’t like the first two shows, maybe stick around. Hopefully we will get better at this. So the first episode will be a kind of intro to the show. We will introduce ourselves and tell a little bit about why we are doing this show and what listeners can expect in the future. We will also be announcing the winners of a giveaway we are running (details on the website). The second one is a secret. You’ll have to check out the feed on Jan 16th but I am really excited about it.

Delighting Grace: The second episode is a secret folks. So better check it out. Please invite our readers to come check you out and how they can get connected with the podcast.

Jon Hawkins:   Thank you for taking the time to read this and giving me an opportunity to share a little about what we are doing. I’d like to invite you to be a part of it and join the discussion. We premier on January 16th, 2018, but the show is already up and active so you can subscribe to the podcast. You can find it on iTunes (https://apple.co/2lKiHZr), Stitcher (http://bit.ly/2CxOszg) and Spreaker (http://bit.ly/2CHJzkU). You can sign up for our mailing list and find show info and promo/giveaway info on our website, www.pastordiscussions.com. You can also find us on social media. Facebook (www.facebook.com/pastordiscussions), Twitter (@RealPDPodcast) and Instagram (www.instagram.com/pastordiscussions). Finally, you can email us a pastordiscussions@gmail.com.

Thank you again for your time and thank you Nitoy for allowing us to share about what God is doing. We are really excited about this and looking forward to having a weekly conversation about doctrine, faith and the Christian life.

Delighting Grace: Again it’s a pleasure giving a hand to your podcast. Guys mark your calendars, January 16 Pastor Discussions Podcast will premier and we hope you’ll listen to it and share it with your friend. God bless and Enjoy Jesus!

 

(Pastor Discussions Podcast premieres January 16, 2018. Check their website www.pastordiscussions.com to listen to their podcast, subscribe to the mailing list and enter exciting giveaways.)

Pastor Talk: Delighting Grace Interviews Jon Hawkins of Pastor Discussions Podcast (Part 1)

There’s a new podcast on the block and Delighting Grace wants you to tune in. It features a couple pastors having a conversation about doctrine, faith and Christian life. Its’ called Pastor Discussion Podcast. It will hit the internet on January 16 and it will be awesome. So DG talked to Jon Hawkins about the podcast.

Delighting Grace:  Hi Jon, please tell us what’s Pastor Discussion Podcast?

Jon Hawkins: First, let me say thank you for reaching out and inviting us to share what God is doing with your readers. I really appreciate you including us in your blog.

Delighting Grace:  It’s a pleasure helping you guys out.

Jon Hawkins:  The Pastor Discussions Podcast is your weekly conversation about doctrine, faith and the Christian life with a couple of rural pastors. The idea is to invite the listener to join a weekly conversation about issues that they face and that are relevant to their lives. There are a lot of Christian podcasts out there and so we considered whether or not this was even something that was needed.

What we started noticing is that there are sermon podcasts, podcasts with one or two hosts talking with each other, podcasts that are simply interviews with famous people, and podcasts like Ask Pastor John where the pastor fields questions. We wanted to not only let the listeners drive the content through sending us topics for shows, but also include them in the show. We plan on regularly having listeners, fellow pastors, and church members on the show. The aim is a kind of podcast community where people feel like they are a part of the show and give them things to talk about with their friends and family so they can be more active in growing in their faith.

Delighting Grace:  How did you guys came up with this podcast? Who’s idea was it?

Jon Hawkins:  I have been thinking about it for a while. We have a group of guys that meet together weekly and it’s a time of fellowship and laughter, but we also talk about the Bible or situations we are facing in our lives. At one point one of the guys said “I wish that people could just experience this. That they could just listen and see how natural and beneficial it is to talk about the Bible or Christ with other people who will sharpen and challenge you”. That got me thinking. Our church has grown and we are no longer a small church, but we are also not a big church. We are in this sort of in-between stage and learning how to function that way. There are blessings to growth, but also challenges. Because of that, it is hard to find time to do discipleship with a large part of our congregation like I would like to. At best, I can meet with 4-5 people on a weekly basis and that’s wonderful, but I wanted to produce content that is easily accessible and practical for our church as a whole and is plug and play so it could accommodate people’s schedules.

Delighting Grace:  I think we all struggle with that part and we really need to address it through digital means.

Jon Hawkins:   So I started asking how we could leverage the blessing of technology to not only help address things that Christians in our church face, but also reach a broader population and minister to the Christian community as a whole. So I talked to the two other staff pastors about starting a podcast. We wanted to model what Christian conversations look like as well as give people content to talk about in their homes, to think about throughout the week, and to study in the Bible for themselves. I think a lot of Christians have never experienced what it looks like to talk about doctrine, faith and the Christian life without it feeling forced or cheesy or what it looks like to be sharpened by someone else. There are also others who don’t feel like they could contribute to a conversation like that because they feel they don’t know enough or something like that. I know I felt that way, but there were men in our church when I was a young Christian that invited me into those conversations.

I listened and thought and asked questions and grew as a result of that. A lot of Christian growth comes from talking about God and life, listening, and learning to see the world through the lens of the gospel. So that’s what we wanted to replicate using the medium of podcast. We are hoping that it will spur conversation within homes and friends, but especially that there would be people in our church that ask questions about a show and give us more of an opportunity to walk with them through their relationship with Christ and see it deepen and grow.

Delighting Grace:  Who are the pastors that will be on board on the podcast?

Jon Hawkins:   All three of us staff pastors will be regularly involved. Pastor Joe is our Pastor for Worship and Pastor Jonathan is our Pastor for Family Ministry. Both of them bring something unique to the show and have great perspectives. Joe has a tremendous grasp on worship and outreach and Jonathan is a Biblical Counselor and has a heart to see parents actively involved and leading in the discipleship and evangelism of their children. He is also a gifted writer and is planning on doing some blogging on the Pastor Discussions website. In addition to them, we will also have guest pastors on the show. We have some guys lined up from Chicago, rural Nebraska, Canada, the Dominican Republic and everywhere in between. Guys in cities and guys in small towns. There is also an open invitation to John Piper, Matt Chandler, and Kevin DeYoung, but they must have lost my email address 😉

Delighting Grace:  Whoa, John Piper on your show, that will be awesome!  There are lots of podcast out there in the internet, what makes “Pastor Discussion” unique?

Jon Hawkins:   I think there are a few ways that Pastor Discussions will be unique. First, we want to have listeners drive the content. We want to hear from them on what they want us to talk about and then we will talk about it. We aren’t extremely limited in our scope because the Christian life and the implications of what following Christ means in our daily interactions isn’t limited to one area or topic.

Second, we are unique in that we want to not only talk about issues, but hear real stories from Christians on how God has been faithful in their lives. We want to help people share their unique experiences of God’s grace and faithfulness to encourage others.

Third, it’s unique because we don’t want a niche. We want to address issues that people of different races and genders care about. We want to minister to a lot of different kinds of Christians. For example, we want to have women on the show and help encourage Christian women to be women of “Velvet Steel” (a term coined by John Piper). We might even be able to talk our wives into being on the show… It’s a long shot, but who knows. We want to have conversations on racism with minority brothers and sisters and address issues that they face and help people understand their perspective and then work talk through what the Bible has to say about that TOGETHER.

Finally, we are unique because of the guys on the show. We are serious when we need to be, but we are friends that like to laugh, joke around, and poke at one another. We are really trying to give people a glimpse into our friendship and the fellowship that flows out of that. We want to be a show where a husband and wife, parents and kids, or a group of friends can sit down together, listen and be entertained and challenged, and then have some good, edifying conversation afterwards about the content.

Delighting Grace: Now that’s something to look forward to. How can listeners interact with you guys to be part of the show?

(To be continued next week. Pastor Discussions Podcast premieres January 16, 2018. Check their website www.pastordiscussions.com to listen to their podcast, subscribe to their mailing list and enter giveaways.)

Help promote Pastor Discussion Podcast: Download and share it on your social media these promotional posters:  https://www.dropbox.com/sh/c0p033c6n5f20f8/AADkmN1Mg8r6tTPkaweyBUuqa?dl=0

Book Review: “Aspire: Transformed by the Gospel Part 1” by Matt Rogers

     This book is such a surprise because I would expect it’s just the usual book format that we all know. But as I open it from the postal package, it was this big journal size book. And as I thumb a few pages, the fonts are big and lots of lines which is where you’ll jot your answer. So this is not a usual book. And so is the content.

Matt Rogers “Aspire” is geared for one on one discipleship by tackling first the very foundation of the Christian faith which is the gospel. This book unravels the basic topics pertaining to the gospel in a 15 week study. The weekly studies discuss the gospel incorporated in some Christian doctrines. The starting point is creation where sin enters and how sin where our worship changes its focus from God to Satan. As the book progresses we see how this gracious and merciful God redeems these fallen worshipers. Of course when discussing doctrine, theological words are needed to be defined. “Aspire” covers that by highlighting these important words and defining it. The book’s later parts prepares the reader to be mission minded and to disciple too.

Now comes the sweaty part: the questions. You need to answers these to get most of the book. The questions on each part of the study are not just your run-of-the-mill passive questions you can get from a study guide in a usual book. Rather these questions will make you think and reflect for a moment. Also some of the questions are quite personal. And if you think this question and answer portion of “Aspire” left all the figuring out to the readers, think again. Chunks of biblical content are explained enough for you to chew and be satisfied on. “Aspire” will aid anyone to a healthy spiritual growth fit to be a disciple of Christ.
“Aspire” is well written, theological rich and personal workbook that will ground you in solid foundation. If you don’t know where to start with your discipleship, this book will definitely get you a jump start. If this book is so good how much more would be the sequel? For a pastor this will be a go to book for a deep one on one discipleship. For the individual Christian, prepare for a book that will pull you into a deep understanding of the redemptive story of God. Highly recommended.
My verdict: 5 out of 5 stars
(I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for my honest review)