God Is with You in Depression

Depression is often illusive. Some dark cloud gathers and hangs overhead. You feel constantly ill at ease. Whether triggered by negative events, or some undefined cause, you know despondency when you experience it, even if you find it hard to describe.

Sometimes it’s circumstantial, but often you’re left scratching your head, wondering, Where did all the joy go?

God Is There with You

Author Randy Alcorn is no foreigner to depression. He has journeyed through dark seasons — once for four months on end — and offers this word of hope to the Christian: “God is there with you in the depression.”

Don’t wait till the depression passes to seek God, advises Alcorn. He’s not waiting for you to come out of it before walking with you, but he’s eager to walk with you in the midst of it.    Continue at David Mathis

Andrew Fuller Defended the Biblical Gospel

Today marks the 198th anniversary of Andrew Fuller’s death. Though largely unknown to contemporary evangelicals, Fuller was a Particular Baptist pastor and one of the leading theologians during the final decades of the so-called Long Eighteenth Century (1689–1815). He was a tireless promoter of missions at home and abroad, and widely published polemical theologian, defending the biblical gospel against two key errors in his day: High Calvinism and Sandemanianism.

High Calvinism, Edwardsian Theology, and Missions

 

Many parishes in the Church of England had experienced significant spiritual renewal from 1730 to 1760, but most English Nonconformists, including Particular Baptists, remained largely untouched by the Evangelical Awakening. Many Particular Baptists were suspicious of the revivals on account of Wesleyan Arminianism. However, others, especially in London, also advocated a form of High Calvinism (or hyper-Calvinism) that was suspicious of “promiscuous” evangelistic preaching and frequently advocated an antinomian understanding of God’s moral law. Fuller was raised in this context, though in the early years of his pastoral ministry he rejected High Calvinism for evangelical Calvinism.

Fuller found many guides along his path to evangelicalism. He learned that the seventeenth-century Puritans and their Particular Baptist cousins affirmed God’s sovereignty in salvation and were dedicated to intentional evangelism. But by far Fuller’s most influential guide was the New England pastor-theologian Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758). By the 1770s, several pastors in the Northamptonshire Association were reading the writings of Edwards, especially The Freedom of the Will (1755). In that work, Edwards argues that men are naturally able to believe the gospel, but are morally unable to do so. While any man can believe, no man will believe without receiving the Holy Spirit’s effectual calling that frees his will from its moral captivity, thus enabling saving faith.    Continue at Nathan A. Finn

Youth Ministry + Jesus – Fun = Biblical?

Josh Cousineau published a post on the Gospel Coalition website this morning entitled “The Only Foundation for Youth Ministry” that’s getting some traction. That’s a good thing.  I thought it was a pretty strong article.  BUT, reading the comments on these type of posts can be frustrating.  I even linked it up on my Facebook and had a good back-and-forth with one of my biggest youth ministry mentors over whether or not it was actually a good article or not. 

So if you haven’t read it, use the link above and read it first, then continue reading…

Be Consistent in Critiques

 
I usually can’t stand these types of articles because I believe they take cheap shots against Youth Ministry that they don’t take against other areas of church-ministry.  What pitfall within the field of YM is not found elsewhere in the church: an over-reliance on “relevance”, replacing biblical teaching/preaching with good moralistic advice, or an unhealthy desire to draw a large crowd through fun/events/flashiness?  Isn’t that something that every church wrestles through?  If your pastor/church doesn’t wrestle with those things, then maybe they aren’t passionate about seeing God’s Word transform real people’s lives?  (yes, I really mean that… but that’s a subject for another post)

Maybe it’s just because I am a youth pastor, but it seems that whenever Youth Ministry is brought up on sites like The Gospel Coalition or Desiring God or other similar sites (both of which I read very regularly and highly respect, which is probably why it’s so frustrating to me) it seems there’s very little recognition that maybe… just maybe… Youth Ministry isn’t all about fun.  Continue at Pastor Mike

Once More: Reformed and Charismatic?

Our friends at DGM have done it again. This time it’s a lecture by Tope Koleoso that has folks discussing the question of the relations between the charismatic movement(s) and Reformed theology, piety, and practice.

Tom Chantry, a Particular Baptist friend, has replied to this specific video. This topic was covered on the HB in 2008 in response to an essay by Calvin College prof Jamie Smith and in 2009 in response to a query from HB reader Nick. There’s no need to repeat those posts here but I want to say a couple of things:

There is an objective definition of the adjective “Reformed.” Words mean things and the adjective “Reformed” signifies “that theology, piety, and practice derived from Scripture and confessed by the Reformed churches in their ecclesiastical catechisms and confessions.”

Objection: But the meaning of words change. The word “nice” used to mean “stupid” but that’s not how we used it any more.

Answer: I understand that the meanings of words change but there is a difference between the natural evolution of the meaning of a word and theft. When a word has been in continuous usage by an identifiable society of people, and when the meaning and intention behind the word has remained constant, the sense of the word cannot suddenly be said to have “changed” when another group simply lays hold of the word by force and re-defines it.  Continue at R. Scott Clark

See also: Why Reformed Pastors Need Not Be Charismatic – Part 3

Now Available: National Conference Audio and Video

It was a memorable weekend for nearly 3,000 of us last Friday to Sunday, as we gathered for the Desiring God 2012 National Conference. We promised there that we'd aim to have the audio and video ready by today, and in God's kind providence, we're ready to deliver.

Below you'll find the plenary and breakout audio and video for streaming and download.

May God be pleased to use it in empowering you to "act the miracle" of sanctification.

Plenary Sessions

John Piper
Prelude to Acting the Miracle: Putting Sanctification in Its Place
 
Kevin DeYoung
Incentives for Acting the Miracle: Fear, Rewards, and the Multiplicity of Biblical Motivations
 
Ed Welch
Sinners Learning to Act the Miracle: Restoring Broken People and the Limits of Life in the Body
 
Jarvis Williams
Acting the Miracle in the Everyday: Word of God, Means of Grace, and the Practical Pursuit of Maturity
 
John Piper, Ed Welch, Kevin DeYoung, Jarvis Williams, Russell Moore
Speaker Panel

Russell Moore
Acting the Miracle Together: Corporate Dynamics in Christian Sanctification

John Piper
Act the Miracle: Future Grace, the Word of the Cross, and the Purifying Power of God's Promises

Seminars

Forgotten Factors in Sanctification

• David Mathis, Mission and Disciplemaking
• Kevin DeYoung, Bread and Wine
• R W Glenn, Work and Rest
• Fernando Ortega, Corporate Worship

Sanctification in the Seasons of Life (audio only)

• Elyse Fitzpatrick, Grand-Parenting
• Carolyn McCulley, Singleness
• Sally Lloyd-Jones, The Child, The Parent, and The Story (forthcoming)

Also download the list of songs from each worship session. 


HT: Desiring God

Food for the Hungry's Haiti Response

Encouragement to Husbands and Caution to Wives