The Gospel Coalition

Lord, you exalt the humble.
You use the yielded.
Help me not to feel that I am worthy or deserving of you.
Help me not to think that I can do anything major with minor trust.
Help me to say “yes” to your every proposition
so I can sing with Mary,
“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord.”

- Calvin Miller, The Christ of Christmas: Readings for Advent

Something is happening before our very eyes, as we gaze upon the baby in the manger, the Word made Flesh, and reflect on what it all means.

God’s gift of his own very self isn’t, as people so often imagine, a kind of alien invasion, an intrusion from outside.

It is of course a matter of grace, of totally undeserved mercy, the free gift of an uncaused and overflowing love – and if you want to see what free and overflowing love looks like and feels like, (and which of us doesn’t?) then read the rest of John’s gospel and marvel at Jesus loving his own who were in the world and loving them to the uttermost.

But this free grace, coming to us from beyond the world, is precisely coming from the one who created the world in the first place and made it to be a place of truth, of solid reality… so that when grace happens, truth happens. And in the baby in the manger we see them both happening; we see them both married for ever.

In the Word made Flesh we gaze upon the glory not just of the living God, coming to us in utter love in the person of this tiny baby, but of God’s design for his whole world. As St. Paul put it, God’s plan from the beginning was to unite, in Christ, all things, things in heaven and things on earth.

And part of the point of Christmas is that this marriage of heaven and earth, of grace and truth, has now begun and isn’t going to stop until it’s complete.

Welcome to the wedding.

- N.T. Wright, “Full of Grace and Truth”

Mark Galli reports on a new company that will send “secret guests” to your church much like organizations send secret shoppers to restaurants and stores. Galli sees through the marketing guise to the devilish temptation underneath.

Two great posts from Tullian this week: The Church – God’s Centrifugal Force and his interview with John Seel about the new movie The Tale of Despereaux.

Scot McKnight points out how the attitude of fundamentalism can be found on the Left, not just the Right.

Pope Benedict XVI has been quoting Martin Luther rather favorably as of late and has even celebrated the “wondrous exchange.”

Mark Driscoll on the need for silence.

Your chance to win my 10 favorite books of the year and an ESV Study Bible continues through December 25. Click here for more details.

All of these books could be yours! Today, it is my pleasure to announce the first ever Kingdom People Christmas Giveaway.

For the next ten days (Dec. 15-25), you have the opportunity to register to win all ten of my favorite books this year. Plus, an ESV Study Bible. That’s $260 worth of books!

UPDATE: Winner Announced HERE

#1. THE REASON FOR GOD - Tim Keller
#2. CULTURE MAKING - Andy Crouch
#3. SURPRISED BY HOPE - N.T. Wright
#4. WHY WE’RE NOT EMERGENT - Kevin DeYoung & Ted Kluck
#5. HOW PEOPLE CHANGE - Timothy Lane & Paul David Tripp
#6. THE BIG PICTURE STORY BIBLE -David Helm & Gail Schoonmaker
#7. JESUS MADE IN AMERICA - Stephen Nichols
#8. RESIDENT ALIENS - Stanley Hauerwas & Will Willimon
#9. WORSHIP MATTERS - Bob Kauflin
#10. The Sermon on the Mount through the Centuries - Jeffrey Greenman, Timothy Larsen, and Stephen Spencer

How to Register for the Kingdom People Christmas Giveaway

1. You must be a subscriber to my blog via email or RSS. (See the sidebar, upper right-hand column to subscribe.)

2. Send me an email, letting me know that you are a subscriber. Include your name, age, and shipping address.

3. On December 25, I will randomly select one person who will win the ten books and ESV Study Bible.

* BLOGGER BONUS *
If you have a blog and would like to increase your chances of winning, add my blog to your sidebar and send me an email with a link to your blog. I will add your name to the list twice. If you also write a post about this Giveaway, I will add your name to the pot a third time.

Almighty and most merciful Father,
we come to the season of Advent with
the brokenness of the world in our eyes,
the cries of our fellow human beings in our ears
and our own sinfulness in our hearts.

We come to Bethlehem,
as those who need a Savior.
We come to the light
because the darkness has almost overwhelmed us,
but the darkness can never overcome You.

We come to Bethlehem as invited guests;
to see, to wonder
and to be changed by the Child Messiah who is Jesus.
For his sake, and by his grace,
forgive our sins.
Give us hope and eternal life.
Help us to move through a worldly holiday of excess
to a worshipful Advent and Christmas.
For Jesus’ sake, and through Jesus we pray.
Amen.

- Michael Spencer

What would things look like if Satan really took control of a city?

Over half a century ago, Presbyterian minister Donald Grey Barnhouse offered his own scenario in his weekly sermon that was also broadcast nationwide on CBS radio.

Barnhouse speculated that if Satan took over Philadelphia (the city where Barnhouse pastored), all of the bars would be closed, pornography banished, and pristine streets would be filled with tidy pedestrians who smiled at eachother. There would be no swearing. The children would say, “Yes, sir” and “No ma’am,” and the churches would be full every Sunday…where Christ is not preached.

- Michael Horton, Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church

HT – Tullian

Tis the season for lists of good books! Two of my favorite bloggers – Tim Challies and Tullian Tchividjian - have made a list of their picks for 2008. The books I most enjoyed reading this year are here.

Russ Moore has a new and improved blog. Check out his post on the eschatology of parenting.

J.D. Greear weighs in on Newsweek‘s coming out in favor of same-sex marriage.

Christianity Today‘s response to Newsweek is well worth reading.

Interesting news in the television world. Jay Leno is moving to prime time.

Major changes to the dictionary. “Bishops” are out and “blogs” are in.

R.C. Sproul on making good use of time.

Michael Kelley on the “commonness” of Christmas

Justin Taylor interviews Michael Wittmer about his new book Don’t Stop Believing. You might also be interested in my 2007 interview with Wittmer regarding his previous book, Heaven is a Place on Earth.

Why it matters for you to preach the gospel consistently and faithfully.

Big news for Kingdom People readers. On Monday, I’ll be offering all my readers a way to win all ten of my favorite books of 2008 and an ESV Study Bible. Stay tuned for details.

During the last of my five years in Romania, I went through a particularly dry time of prayer and communion with God. I had a hard time praying regularly, and when I did pray, I felt as if I had little to say. 

A friend gave me The Book of Common Prayer in hopes that it might revitalize my prayer life. Despite my initial skepticism toward written prayers, I must admit that the prayer book helped me tremendously. I discovered that written prayers infused new requests into my prayer life, and the words on the page widened my heart – helping me to adopt a more expansive prayer vision. The Book of Common Prayer even revitalized and re-formed my spontaneous prayers.

Sacramental Life: Spiritual Formation Through the Book of Common Prayer (IVP, 2008) by Daniel deSilva takes the reader through The Book of Common Prayer as a method of spiritual formation. Part of IVP’s Formatio publishing line, Sacramental Life leads the reader to a deeper spiritual walk with Jesus by taking us through the riches of the Anglican prayer book.

The book is divided into four sections: Baptism, Holy Eucharist, Christian Marriage, and Christian Burial. Each section has a series of readings. Each reading ends in a practical application. All in all, there are 45 readings, making this an ideal book to read daily during a season of spiritual reflection.

There is much to glean from deSilva’s book. The practical applications are especially helpful. Some of them are tangible expressions that could serve as powerful object lessons in a pastoral setting.

As a Baptist, my problems with Sacramental Life are theological in nature. There is much to appreciate in deSilva’s comments on baptism. Yet, as expected, I part ways with deSilva on the mode of baptism as well as the persons qualifed for baptism.

Likewise, I take issue with several of deSilva’s theological affirmations. For example, deSilva sees patriarchy as a sinful system of injustice (and therefore, in the Marriage section, he subsumes the wife-submission texts under the principle of mutual submission). He also affirms that Christ is the only way to the Father, but then undercuts that belief by encouraging prayer for God to have mercy on the dead.

Despite occasional unbiblical speculations and left-leaning presuppositions, most of the counsel in Sacramental Life is theologically sound and spiritually beneficial. I enjoyed the thoughtfulness of the book and the emphasis on returning to the past for spiritual formation in the present.  The book succeeded in increasing my appreciation for The Book of Common Prayer, even if Sacramental Life is not a book I would heartily recommend for all readers.

written by Trevin Wax  © 2008 Kingdom People blog

Wax is an odd last name. I don’t run into Waxes every day. Generally, the only time I meet other Waxes is at family reunions. For those who might wonder where the name comes from, it appears the Wax name has some sort of Jewish origin. (In fact, I have come across several Rabbi Waxes!)

Not too long ago, I started wondering how many people with the last name WAX perished in the Holocaust. I looked up a website that documented the names of Holocaust victims. I entered my last name into the Search field and quickly discovered that (counting the ethnic variations of my last name) the  number of results was too large to be displayed. I had to refine my search based on location. Thousands upon thousands of Waxes died in the Holocaust.

Even though I am not Jewish and do not have (to my knowledge) any direct relatives who died in the Holocaust, I cannot help but feel a kinship with the people whose names occupy the long list of victims. These were real people – people who shared my family name. And so the horror of the Holocaust hits home.

Echoes from the Holocaust: A Memoir (1997, University of Tennessee Press) tells the story of Mira Ryczke Kimmelman. Mira’s story is, like most Holocaust memoirs, a heart-wrenching account of loss and survival. She writes with an eye to detail – using vivid imagery to accentuate the beauty of life and the horror of death.

Echoes from the Holocaust is not primarily about the death camps; it is about surviving with human dignity intact. Mira’s narration makes for a gripping story – one that begins with her early life in Poland and ends with her readjustment into society and her eventual immigration to America. The middle part of the book tells the story of the concentration camps and stands as a testament to Mira’s will to survive.

What differentiates this story from other books on the Holocaust is Mira’s lack of bitterness. Mira does not appear to harbor any hostility towards those who abused her. Of course, she never excuses the horrible behavior of the Nazis. Twenty members of Mira’s immediate family perished in the Holocaust.  But what impressed me most about this book was the fact that Mira does not tell the story out of bitterness or rage, but out of deep sadness and a sense of responsibility that these stories need to be told.

The enormity of human evil portrayed in this book will shake you to the core.

“Because of Auschwitz, the world will never be the same. Auschwitz was absolute evil and a warning of what mankind is capable of doing.” (58)

Likewise, there is a sense that evil leaves a mark that can never be fully erased.

“The scars of war I shall bear for the rest of my life.” (92)

Even as Mira recounts her post-Holocaust experienes, an underlying sadness lingers throughout the rest of the book.  She questions her father’s optimism that kept them from seeking asylum until it was too late. She finds love and laughter in her husband and children. But she also deals with survivor’s guilt, especially when she talks about her brother. Why did she survive? Why did he die? 

Echoes from the Holocaust: A Memoir serves as a warning to us today. The heart of man is desperately wicked. There is no end to the evil schemes that we can dream up and put into action. That is why it is important to hear the stories of those who have seen the capacity of human sinfulness in its darkest form. We must remember.

“Only by remembering the bitter lesson of Hitler’s legacy can we hope it will never be repeated. Teach it, tell it, read it.” (165)

written by Trevin Wax  © 2008 Kingdom People blog

Every December, I select the ten books that I most enjoyed reading during the year. Please note that I am not giving a blanket endorsement to everything in these books (after all, some of them contradict each other at points). I choose ten books a year based solely on how much I enjoyed reading them.
Here are my top ten picks for 2008.

#1. THE REASON FOR GOD
- Tim Keller

“….a landmark work that will create a new culture of its own within evangelicalism…

#3. SURPRISED BY HOPE
- N.T. Wright

…stands out due to the amount of material that Wright is able to incorporate into a single volume and in the moving way in which he makes his case. Wright’s description of the Christian hope carries an emotional resonance rarely encountered among works of theology…
See my full review here.
Read my interview with N.T. Wright about Surprised by Hope.

#4. WHY WE’RE NOT EMERGENT
- Kevin DeYoung & Ted Kluck

…a terrific addition to the growing number of books whose authors have accepted the Emergent invitation to dialogue…”
See my full review here.

#5. HOW PEOPLE CHANGE
- Timothy Lane & Paul David Tripp

…relentlessly biblical, immensely practical, and pastorally helpful…
See my full review here.

#6. THE BIG PICTURE STORY BIBLE
-David Helm & Gail Schoonmaker

… if you have long hoped for a book that teaches children the biblical story from Creation to New Creation – a book that anticipates Jesus in the Old Testament and makes his crucifixion and resurrection the proper climax of the New Testament - then this book is for you…
See my full review here.

#7. JESUS MADE IN AMERICA
- Stephen Nichols

… one of the most engaging, informative books I’ve read this year… shows how Americans tend to remake Jesus in our own image and to service whatever needs or promote whatever causes we believe are important…
See my full review here.

#8. RESIDENT ALIENS
- Stanley Hauerwas & Will Willimon

… a thought-provoking book that has increased my passion for the local church and the extraordinary nature of living an “ordinary” Christian life… has the effect of an earthquake that shakes things up and then leaves you with a new landscape once the dust settles…
See my full review here.

#9. WORSHIP MATTERS
- Bob Kauflin

…one of the best books on worship I have come across in recent years…
See my full review here.

#10. The Sermon on the Mount through the Centuries
- Jeffrey Greenman, Timothy Larsen, and Stephen Spencer

…No other book will give you such an easily accessible guide to interpretation of the Sermon throughout church history…
See my full review here.