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!

Website of the Week – IHOP

Apologies for the lack of action recently, hopefully you’ve had more chance to browse round the other bits of the site instead.

So, WotW is back, and with a bang! This week’s incumbent is…

IHOP.org – The International House of Prayer in Kansas City

In case you’re unfamilair with IHOP it is a ministry committed to night and day continuous prayer and worship. They have their main house of prayer in Kansas City, but have a presence all over the world. Their passion to know God’s heart is really encouraging.

It’s definitely worth checking the website out – it might reinvigorate how you think about the importance of prayer and fasting and how they relate to the day-to-day Christian life. The great things is that they don’t box things off into prayer or worship or teaching or whatever – everything is prayer and everything is worship, they flow out of each other.  They’ve got loads of cool resources on there too – especially in the Forerunner music section – so make sure to have a look through them to see if there’s anything that interests you. Go get involved!

If you’ve found a website that you think should feature on here drop us a line and we’ll make it happen!

Website of the Week – RELEVANT Magazine.

Relevant Magazine: God. Life. Progressive Culture. (as they put it)

This website is ace. In fact I haven’t even had a chance to find out just how good it’s going to be yet because I couldn’t wait to post it on here.

It’s got everything you’d expect from a “relevant” Christian website – there are artciles about Christian living in contemporary society, media content, forums etc etc. But there’s one big difference, the stuff on here is actually good (and consequently “relevant”)! For example, take music. Not only do they have videos and reviews of  “Christian” stuff but to good “non-Christian” stuff too because, you know, it’s what people are actually listening to. But culture doesn’t stop with music so they have film and technology features up there too (among other things). I really like the ‘Life’ section. It’s got articles about issues that, as Christians, we need to be a lot more clued up on – health care, evolution, politics and news in general.  I’m looking forward to reading a few. (But bear in mind it is American so the news and stuff will be American. But hey, they gave us Chuck Norris so we can probably have a bit of grace for them right?)

So make sure you check it out, and let me know if you find anything particularly good – www.relevantmagazine.com

In other news, I think it’s important to make sure that everybody has seen this:

Website of the Week – I Am Second

Greetings!

A special welcome to anyone who’s here for the first time following 20:20 last night, we hope you enjoy your stay!

So every week on the blog we showcase a website that we feel will encourage/equip you in some way. This week’s one is a corker…

I Am Second

iamsecond.com is part of the I Am Second movment – a group dedicated to helping people to rediscover their significance in life. The website features a number of video testimonies from famous/non-famous people about they overcame destructive lifestyles and everyday struggles. They are real, gritty stories about how God changes lives, in all walks of life. The stories are really very powerful and are well worth investing some time in. Why not head on over and check it out for yourself.

To whet your appetite, here’s a couple jacked from YouTube…

Brian Welch the ex-head guitarist from Korn telling his story:

Nate Larkin, an ex-pastor – this one’s amazing:

Make sure you check out the full website too, if nothing else it’s very pretty!

Website of the Week

Back after it’s own summer vacation, Website of the Week returns with a site dedicated to equipping you in the practical aspects of evangelism…

“Evangelism Explosion is a ministry that trains people how to share their faith in Christ and how to bring people from unbelief to belief. It utilizes a variety of components including prayer, actual on-the-job training where the experienced lead the inexperienced, and the principle of spiritual multiplication.”

The section I found most useful is the Answers to Tough Questions page. Assuming that people you are sharing your faith with have questions (and they will), it takes a systematic look at how to go through the most common problems people have with Christianity. So it starts with broad questions about the nature of Truth before gradually focusing more and more on Christian issues, from the authority of the Bible right down to hypocrites within the church.

The answers it gives are concise and might help you to formulate your own thoughts a bit more so you can feel more equipped to give an answer for the hope that you have (1 Peter 3:15). Clever arguments should never be the main method of evangelism – demonstrating the love and power of God should be – but we neglect a clear knowledge of what (and why) we believe at our peril. So hopefully this site will throw a couple more tools in your evangelism utility belt!

Website of the Week

A little later than planned we have the third installment of website of the week. The illustrious recipient this week is…

… Scripture Text

Scripturetext.com, like Bible Gateway, is a searchable online Bible available in multiple tranlsations and languages. The beauty of Scripture Text lies in the extras that surround a selected passage following the intial search. Handily organised in tabs above the text, you are able to access parallel passages, cross references, and commentaries – as well as being able to see the text in its original language (Hebrew or Greek). Not only that, there is a ‘Lexicon’ (dictionary) tab that goes through the passage word-by-word giving full definitions which will help you to get a fuller grasp of the meaning of the words employed by the original authors, and not just the one English word or phrase that was selected by the translator (much like The Amplified Bible).

Furthermore, alongside each passage you will be provided with a list of maps and photos from the areas pertaining to the text which will help you to appreciate the words in a more “real” sense. It’s much easier to associate with the places that are in question when you can see them and know where they are in relation to us now. And there are a number of handy general resources on the Bible as a whole that are also housed at this site so make sure you have a good click around.

So if you’re interested in taking your study of the Bible that little bit deeper this might be just the resource to help you do that.

Website of the Week

No bells and whistles on this week’s feature website as we head on over to a blogspot page, but what resides there is more than worth a good read. And the award goes to…

Students of Jesus

Students of Jesus: Taking the yoke of discipleship seriously is a blog written by a guy called Ray Hollenbach from Campbellsville in Kentucky. Twice a week he posts short articles on his view of the outworkings of the Christian faith. A big fan of Matthew in particular, Students of Jesus mixes Bible observations with real-life reflections in an attempt to exhort readers into becoming faithful and empowered disciples.

It’s nothing flashy and, thankfully, not very preachy, but it’s a blog that I like to check regularly and one that I find both thought-provoking and challenging. So why not go and have a look for yourself. It’s very accessible and you’ll be able to tell almost instantly if it’s for you or not.

takingtheyoke.blogspot.com

Website of the Week

Morning all!

Today sees the introduction of what is intended to be a regular feature of Students @ Vinelife – that of website of the week (catchy title, huh?).

As you might have deduced from the name, each week we’ll pick a website to profile that is of particular interest/use and then point you in its direction. We’ll have a mixture a media content, blogs and other online resources so hopefully there should be a least a few things that grab your attention. Please feedback on these links – good or bad – and don’t be shy about sending in any good ones of your own that we can whack up here.

And the award for week one goes to…

…iBethel.tv

iBethel.tv is the media site of Bethel Church (Redding, California). Bethel has gained a level of (positive) notoriety over the last few years for a number of reasons including the rise of prominence of the Jesus Culture conference and indiviuals such as the Senior Pastor, Bill Johnson. But the main reason loads of people love this church is simple – they love Jesus and they’re really good at pursuing his call on their lives!

The iBethel.tv features of variety of media including preaches, live worship, testimonies, and seminars from their various ministry schools. The page I’ve linked to is the free section of the site which is jam-packed with clips and videos so there’s loads of stuff there for you to access right away. Have fun!