Bible Reading Plans

Justin Taylor gives a lengthy list of plans of all shapes and sizes here. Most intriguing to me was the ESV audio bible listening plan in the form of a free podcast. Daily listening for 17 minutes equals the Bible in one year! Honourable mention goes to Professor Grant Horner, though his plan is only for he ambitious at ten chapters per day. If you need structure to help with consistency in personal devotions, why not check out Taylor's post and find that plan that is right for you!

Pastors and Vacations

Kevin DeYoung shares some excellent thoughts here.

Some of his key points:

I understand that some churches can’t pay their pastors as much as they would like to offer. We’ll save that for another post. But here’s the wonderful thing about vacation and study leave–it adds almost nothing to the church budget. At most it may cost an extra thousand dollars to pay for a few more weeks of pulpit supply. But what you’ll gain is worth so much more.

• Your pastor will have more time away from the pressures of ministry. This will be good for the long term health of his marriage and family.

• Your pastor will have time to think through that thorny congregational issues or complex theological conundrums. He may be able to hone his writing skills. He’ll have the energy to dream again. Or he may just have free time to read a book and go on a long walk with his wife. All these will benefit your pastor and your church.

• Your pastor will come back rejuvenated. I’m told my best sermons are usually the first ones after I get back from a break.

• You’ll get to hear other men preach. Even if you have John Piper or Tim Keller preaching to you, you’ll gain by hearing the same gospel message from other messengers.

• A few extra Sundays without your pastor will allow other men in your church to exercise their teaching gifts. It might also give you the chance to hear from other pastors laboring in your city.

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Still More ML-J

I've updated my original ML-J round up, but in case you missed it, here is a link to two more Martyn Lloyd-Jones audio sermons, though one is not yet uploaded by looks of things.

More ML-J

Thanks to a tip from an employee of the Master's College in California, here are nine more free Martyn Lloyd-Jones sermons, for your streaming or downloading pleasure. They can be found here.

Wexford Carol

Written in the 12th Century. . .and performed more recently by Allison Krauss and Yo Yo Ma:



Find it on iTunes here.

HT: JT

Martyn Lloyd-Jones Round Up - Free (and not free) Audio

It's a shame if you ask me. (Un?)Arguably the greatest preacher of the 20th century, the last few decades of whose ministry were largely recorded, and it's hard to find a free download. One can order CD's from The Martyn Lloyd-Jones recording trust, and that is great. But given the web explosion of great, free preaching, it's a shame that ML-J is largely not available for free download. Someone needs to raise funds, hire the personal, and get a good free site going. If Piper and Mahaney and Carson and MacArthur are free, why not Lloyd-Jones? So how can we get our hands on ML-J? Here are some options:

693 of his sermons are available for download ($3 each) here.

Countless of his sermons are available to purchase in book, CD, or MP3 CD formats here. The problem here is simply this: who would be willing to pay $450 for 14 MP3 CD's of ML-J on Romans, when 224 Piper sermons on the same book can be downloaded for free?

Moving on to the free category, there is a free weekly radio program for streaming (and I think for download as well). If I remember correctly, each week features half of a sermon, bracketed by the comments of a guy with a British accent. It is found here.

Better still, nine of his sermons are available for free download here. These were delivered in Pensicola, Florida in 1969.

Finally, five of his regular sermons are available for free download here. The first one, entitled 'Mind, Heart, Will' is especially good. Start there!

I'll leave this with you: do you know of any free Martyn Lloyd-Jones audio download sites? Am I missing anything? Leave a comment and let me know! Or, do you want to donate large amounts of money to the Martyn Lloyd-Jones recording trust, to set up a free download extravaganza? Contact them and let them know!

Update: 3 more free downloads can be found: here.

Yet another update: 9 more free ones can be found here.

Still yet another update: 2 more free ones can be found here (one is not yet working, though).

D.A. Carson: You Impart What You Are Most Passionate About

I appreciated this quote when I heard Carson make it, I appreciated it when I heard CJ Mahaney quote it in November, and I appreciated it again when I read it today. Consider. . .

If I have learned anything in 35 or 40 years of teaching, it is that students don’t learn everything I teach them. What they learn is what I am excited about, the kinds of things I emphasize again and again and again and again. That had better be the gospel.

If the gospel—even when you are orthodox—becomes something which you primarily assume, but what you are excited about is what you are doing in some sort of social reconstruction, you will be teaching the people that you influence that the gospel really isn’t all that important. You won’t be saying that—you won’t even mean that—but that’s what you will be teaching. And then you are only half a generation away from losing the gospel.

Make sure that in your own practice and excitement, what you talk about, what you think about, what you pray over, what you exude confidence over, joy over, what you are enthusiastic about is Jesus, the gospel, the cross. And out of that framework, by all means, let the transformed life flow.

HT: CJ