Website of the Week – Desiring God

www.desiringgod.org – God centred resources from the ministry of John Piper

In its own words,

“Desiring God exists to say that…

God’s ultimate goal is to glorify himself.
And that’s good news.

Everything we do aims to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ.”

It is a truly staggering resource, with more than 25 years worth of sermons available to read, listen to or watch online. All of them organised by date, scripture, series, topic, occasion and title. In addition this, many of John Piper’s books and articles are also available alongside a wealth of other resources - and all for free!

If you find yourself with a spare minute, or just really need to hear a sermon (or six) on virtually anything, I’d highly recommend checking www.desiringgod.org out!

RSS – Reach Saturday Studies

In case you haven’t heard already, RSS is brand new this term!

The concept is simple: Bible study. Pure and simple.

Once a month on a Saturday morning we’ll be down at Nazarene Theological College, under the tutilage of PhD student Chris Foster and his wife Sarah, feeding on the word together. It’s going to be a great time for us to learn more about dealing with the scriptures as well as actually hearing God speak through them.

During the three sessions this term we’ll be taking a ‘macro’ approach to Bible study whereby we’ll looking to equip everyone in the generalities of Bible study as well as giving a contextual overview of both the Old and New Testaments. One of the books we’ll be using is How To Read The Bible For All Its Worth by Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart. Then after Christmas, we’ll be working through specific passages – using the tools we’ve acquired.

We’re so excited about this and hope you are too. Make sure you get along to the first one on 24th October. Drop the office a line if you want more info.

Map to Nazarene:

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Top 5 Books: #3

Coming in at number three we have….

…Knowing God by J. I. Packer

Knowing God is a bit of a theological classic. It’s main objective is to help you understand a bit more about our Creator and his character in order to be able to live for and worship him with greater vigour – essentially, to help you get to know God! The book is based on the notion that the greatest thing that can happen in a person’s life is for them to be able to say that they have known God – all else is secondary in comparison (Phil. 1:21). This doesn’t just mean knowing about God, but actually knowing him for who he is.

Now no book about God can ever be a substitute for time spent with him – that’s where you’ll really get to know him – but having a greater intellectual grasp of who God is can definitely be a significant help. Knowing God is excellent at this. Part 1 is a goldmine filled with discussion about the results (a.k.a. benefits) of getting to know God, how we can go about it, and how we know if we’re on the right track. One point that particularly struck me was Packer’s discourse on prayer in which he argues that the number one way we can measure how well we know God is not to calculate how much we ourselves know/do but to evaluate how we pray and what goes on in our hearts. We need to be “seeking the Saviour”.

Part 2 focuses in on specific aspects of God’s character – for example: his wisdom, his goodness, his severity – and the book closes with a third part that brings all the exposition of the previous sections into one presentation of the true saving message of God – a.k.a. The Gospel (The chapter entitled ‘The Heart of the Gospel’ is a particular highlight.)

There’s no escape from the fact that this book is by no means an ‘easy-reader’ but underneath the scholastic feel of the text is a great wealth of wisdom, so it’s definitely worth investing some time and giving it a read. Go on – challenge yourself! It’s even wrapped in a Piper-esque pretty cover to entice you in…

Read it? Let me know what you thought!