Faith Bible Blog

ChristianAudio.com regularly gives a FREE audiobook each month.  This month, they’re giving away a great book entitled…

Crazy Love by Francis Chan

The God of the universe is crazy about you! His love is the most powerful thing in the world and He wants to give it to you, so you can live for Him. If you have made a commitment to follow Christ, then listen to Crazy Love to be reminded and challenged in your walk. Sharing from his own life struggles and sacrifices, author Francis Chan issues a call for selfless, Christ-like living. Let the love you have received from God impact your life like never before. Foreword by Chris Tomlin.

Simply add the download format of Crazy Love to your cart and enter the coupon code JUL2009 when prompted during checkout.

Discount Price for July: $0.00
Download List Price: $13.99
Coupon Code: JUL2009

John Books, Internet Notables

As some of you may know, I meet regularly with a group of firemen for discipleship, accountability and mutual encouragement. Today was a great day for discussion and conversation about areas we need to grow in. Below is an EXCELLENT section that I just loved. (Well, actually, the whole book has been good so far!)

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“The first order of business is to know the gospel.  This seems so obvious that stating it can feel silly.  But, in point of fact, many professing and believing Christians possess a shallow understanding of the gospel as a result of years of hearing short “gospel presentations” tacked onto the ends of sermons.  Still others who know the message of Christ find themselves feeling awkward and incapable of sharing the good news clearly with family and friends.  Taking steps to be sure we know the gospel with some clarity and depth, then, is necessary.

It’s helpful to rule out some ideas frequently presented as the gospel.  The gospel is not simply that (a) we are okay, (b) that God is love, (c) that Jesus wants to be our friends, or (d) that we should live right.  Neither is the gospel simply that all our problems will be fixed if we follow Jesus, or that God wants us to be healthy, wealthy, and wise.  All of these ideas may be true in some sense, but only in a partial sense and never as a solely sufficient statement of what the gospel is.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is literally “good news.”  As news it contains statement of fact and truths derived from those facts.  As good news the gospel holds out hope based upon promises of God and grounded in the historical facts and truths that vindicate those promises.

The gospel or good news of Jesus Christ is that God the Father, who is holy and righteous in all his ways, is angry with sinners and will punish sin.  Man, who disobeys the rule of God, is alienated from the love of God and is in danger of an eternal and agonizing condemnation at the hands of God.  But God, who is also rich in mercy, because of his great love, sent his eternal Son born by the Virgin Mary, to die as a ransom and a substitute for the sins of rebellious people.  And now, through the perfect obedience of the Son of God and his willing death on the cross as a payment for our sins, all who repent and believe in Jesus Christ, following him as Savior and Lord, will be saved from the wrath of God to come, be declared just in his sight, have eternal life, and receive the Spirit of God as a foretaste of the glories of heaven with God himself.

It is this message — briefly stated here — that we must imbibe and delight in if we are to be healthy church members.”

– Thabiti Anyabwile, What is a Healthy Church Member?, p.40-41

John Books, Gospel

f you’ve never read this book to your kids, it is a shame. Sally
Lloyd-Jones (no relation to the Dr.) has authored a
Christ-centered Bible storybook for children. Rather than teach your
kids the Old Testament in a moralistic story form like Aesop’s Fables,
Lloyd-Jones has written commonly known stories in such a way as to
reveal Christ at the center of it all.

The
Jesus Storybook Bible has forty-six Bible stories that span Genesis to
Revelation. The artwork is really good and this is at the top of my ‘buy
for my daughter’ list. And if you’re interested, know that sample
pages (pdf) are available to preview. Also, Sally was interviewed in
the spring of 2007 about this book. The
interview and her comments in the discussion that followed were
great…makes me more excited to read the book!

Read more…

John Books, Marriage & Family

John is busily working on a revamp of the website.  Today’s guest blogger is Erick Cobb.

I just finished "Einstein: His Life and Universe" by Walter Isaacson. I highly recommend it. Einstein was such a fascinating person.

On
the one hand he was an amazing example of God’s common grace (the grace
that God extends to even to people who deny Him). I was blown away when
I found out that Einstein didn’t really do experiments or even much in
the way of mathematics to make his major discoveries. Rather, he did
"thought experiments" in which he just imagined what might happen in
certain situation. For example he would say to himself, "suppose there
was a train traveling at the speed of light towards an observer and
there is a light beam emitting from the train…." and then he would
imagine how that light beam would appear to the observer. He just
thought out his major discovers! Other scientists would then come along
and verify that his discoveries were true. Einstein had a strange
intuition about how completely unseen things in the universe worked. I
wonder is this might be a small glimpse of how the human mind may have
worked before the Fall and the noetic effects of sin clouded our
thinking.

On the other hand the effects of
the Fall were very evident in his personal life. His relationship with
women was cruel and lacked commitment. His first wife became pregnant
and had their first child before they were married. He was still slow
to marry her and agreed to do so only if she would find a way to get
rid of their child (we don’t know what happened to their daughter,
adoption is assumed). Later he leaves his first wife because of the
affair he is having with his cousin. He then marries his cousin, who he
neglects and cheats on. Einstein found the idea of a personal, knowable
God intolerable (no doubt because he would then have to come to terms
with his accountability before God for his sin).

In
"Einstein: His Life and Universe we see that Einstein was a genius in
his understanding of his universe but sadly was totally lost when it
came to his life. And this is the way man is (without a relationship of
trust with God), a wonderful image-bearer of the living God yet
strangely marred by a heart to deny the One who made him and loves him.
It would be great if you could read this book and see both sides of
Einstein, but it would be even better is you took some time to really
see not only the lostness but also the image of God in you nonbelieving
friends and family. It will be by seeing both that you will have the
love and respect for them to take a risk and share your hope with them.

Read more…

Erick Books

This is the title of a book that I will be ordering soon.  It looks extremely good and comes out at the end of August.  Too often Christians don’t ask themselves this basic question nor are they prepared to talk with others about how to know if they’re saved.  Many, many people around us assume that they’re "in", but have no ground for that assurance.  So you owe it to yourself and to others to be able to walk through this issue in a careful, biblical manner.

Tullian Tchividjian’s forthcoming book, Do I Know God? Finding Certainty in Life’s Most Important Relationship, published by Multnomah and due out at the end of August should help with that.  Here are the endorsements:

 “Warm,
fresh, and helpful, Tullian’s insightful answer to the question ‘Do I
know God?’ will be a guide and encouragement to many.”—Os Guinness 

“With
wisdom, grace, and transparency, Tullian helps clear the sometimes
uncertain path of knowing and following after God. I am thrilled to
endorse this thoughtful work and trust you will find it equally
engaging and helpful.”—Ravi Zacharias

“Many
people are confused today as to whether we can truly know God. Is it
possible to actually have a relationship with the Creator of the
universe? This book by my former student Tullian Tchividjian makes it
clear that we can have such certainty and how that certainty is
possible. It is thoroughly biblical, well balanced, excellently stated
and illustrated. May God use Tullian’s volume to bring many to the
wonderful assurance that God loves them in Jesus Christ.”—John Frame 

“Tullian
has written a good, simple, solid book on a crucial subject. Tullian
wants you to know God and to know that you know God. Do you know God?
This book can help you answer that most important of all questions.
What better reason is there to spend money on buying a book—or time on
reading it?”—Mark Dever

“This
is a warm, personal book about assurance, about how we can know we have
been redeemed by Christ. It is written with pastoral wisdom for a
church often afflicted by deep currents of uncertainty and sometimes by
faltering discipleship. It speaks to our time with biblical
fidelity.”—David Wells 

“To know
that you know God and God knows you is life’s greatest source of peace,
joy, and strength for the journey. Tullian takes strugglers by the hand
and leads them with sure steps toward this certainty. Here is a book to
be trusted and treasured.”—J.I. Packer

“My
prayer for you, the reader, is that you will listen carefully to what
my grandson says here. Apart from the Bible, this may be the most
important book you could ever read, because it will help you answer the
most important question you could ever ask: Do I know God”—Bill Graham
(from the foreword)

Read more…

John Books

Every book in the Desiring God store will be $5 on June 27-28, Wednesday and Thursday of this week.

No limits, so tell others!

Read more…

John Books, Internet Notables