Books

Together for Adoption | Main Sessions & Giveaway

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Molly and I are flying to Phoenix for the 2011 Together for Adoption Conference tomorrow morning, Lord-willing and the winds die down. I know many of you can't go but are interested in following along. So I encourage you to stick around for live-blogging here at Reformissionary. Follow me on Twitter for a lot of instant updates and pics and who knows what else. I also encourage you to follow other featured bloggers at T4A for a wide variety of experiences of and discussions about the conference. The official hashtag for all the stuff on Twitter is #t4aCon and official conference twitter account is @t4aCon.


You'll hear about a ton of different breakout sessions from different bloggers as well as these top-notch general sessions. You won't want to miss what these guys are saying...
Darrin Patrick: The Church and Social Justice
Tullian Tchividjian: Surprised by Adoption
Dan Cruver: Adoption and the God Who Gives
Bryan Loritts: The Church as the Theater of Transracial Adoption
Jeff Vanderstelt: Gospel-Motivation for Missional Living
Tim Chester: Relaxing in Trinitarian Love

GIVEAWAY

Ok, so for those of you who can't go, I'm doing another giveaway of 5 copies of Reclaiming Adoption: Missional Living Through the Rediscovery of Abba Father (edited & written in part by Dan Cruver). I love the book, and I want to get it in your hands. So, here's how you can enter for a chance at one of the copies. All three steps are required, and easy.
1. "LIKE" the T4A Facebook page.
2. TWEET (and/or post on Facebook wall), without the quote marks: " Win a FREE copy of Reclaiming Adoption! RT this & comment at Reformissionary to win: http://bit.ly/nW95S8 #t4aCon "
3. COMMENT BELOW (so I can verify you did steps 1 & 2). Include your full name and real email address (kept private) so I can contact the winners.

For fun, and since the World Series begins tonight, share your World Series winner in your comment. Texas Rangers or the St. Louis Cardinals? Also feel free to give your predictions on how many games it will take to win (sports SINthusiast Joe Thorn, just tell us your favorite color). I'm calling it for the Rangers in 5.
I will randomly choose 5 winners on Saturday, the last day of the Together for Adoption 2011 Conference. 

Cheap Kindle Books 10.5.11

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Some good Kindle books for cheap right now...

Fresh Air: Maurice Sendak is Happy/Sad

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Terry Gross of NPR's Fresh Air interviews 83 year old, award winning author Maurice Sendak. You know him as the author of Where the Wild Things Are. He has a new book coming out, which is the point of the interview. But it turns into a talk with an author reminiscing about a life of art, being homosexual, therapy, losing loved ones, and ending life as an atheist in love with the world and feeling it slip through his fingers. Well worth a listen.

"I'm a happy old man, but I will cry my way all the way to the grave."

ESV Student Study Bible Giveaway

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Thanks to the fine folks at Crossway, I have an ESV Student Study Bible to giveaway to one of the readers of Reformissionary. If you are reading this, that means it could be you.

If you haven't seen or heard about it yet, here's what Crossway says about the ESV Student Study Bible...

The ESV Student Study Bible is ideally suited for students who are serious about God’s Word—who want to learn more about what the Bible teaches and how the Bible applies to all of life. 

With 12,000 clear, concise study notes, the ESV Student Study Bible provides numerous new features—including nearly 900 “Did You Know?” facts, 120 new Bible character profiles, and 15 new topical articles. It also features a new glossary of key terms, more than 80 full-color maps and illustrations, an extensive concordance, and 80,000 cross-references. These and many other features make it the most comprehensive, colorful, and content-rich student Bible available today. Suited to high school and college students, the ESV Student Study Bible is also a versatile resource for anyone engaged in serious study of God’s Word.

Created by an outstanding team of more than 100 evangelical Christian scholars, teachers, and pastors, the ESV Student Study Bible is adapted from the highly acclaimed and best-selling ESV Study Bible. With numerous new features, the ESV Student Study Bible is an invaluable resource.  For high school and college students, but equally for all students of the Bible—for everyone who loves to read and learn more about God’s Word.

You can buy it in Hardcover, Trutone Taupe, Trutone Navy, or (coming soon) Trutone Brown/Blue Arrow. I have the hardback and I just bought Sarah (14) the Trutone Taupe. We've started using it to read & discuss Esther together. I really like it so far, and glad to have this resource for my kids.

Here's how you can win a copy...

STEP 1: Copy & share the following without the quote marks on Twitter (if you aren't on Twitter, use Facebook, or do BOTH!): "The ESV Student Study Bible for FREE! RT this & comment at Reformissionary for a chance to win: http://bit.ly/q4LWTN "

STEP 2: Leave a comment below (so I can verify you did step 1). Include your full name and real email address (kept private) so I can contact the winners. For fun, also comment on your favorite, guilty-pleasure snack.

I will randomly choose ONE winner in the late afternoon/early evening on Friday (16th).

Go!

Bloodlines by John Piper

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Bloodlines John Piper's new book on race, Bloodlines (Kindle), is getting some buzz. Mostly because of the video at the end of this post, which you should watch. It's a trailer for a 20 minute documentary. Then today I noticed the forward is by Tim Keller. So, of course, I had to share that with you (via)...

I was excited when I learned that John Piper was writing a book on race and the gospel of the cross. When John gave me the privilege of reading the manuscript, I devoured it and found that despite my high expectations I was not disappointed. It was helpful to me personally, helpful to me theologically (in understanding the relevance of the gospel to racial conflict), and it was especially encouraging to me to think that many in the evangelical world would read it.

John and I are both old enough to remember the complicity of evangelical churches and institutions with the systemic racism in the US before the civil rights movement. I took my first church in a small town in the South in the early 1970s. The courts had recently ruled that the whites-only public swimming pool, operated by the town with taxpayers’ money, had to be integrated. So what did the town do? It shut the pool down completely, and the white people of the town opened a new private swimming pool and club, which of course, did not have to admit racial minorities. Because I was a young pastor, our family was often invited to swim there, and swim we did, not really cognizant of what the pool represented.

One of the reasons I think this book is so important is that conservative evangelicals (particularly white ones) seem to have become more indifferent to the sin of racism during my lifetime. Why? One reason, of course, is the stubbornness of the sinful heart. We never want to hear about what is wrong with us. Another factor may be cultural. Many have made racism and prejudice virtually the only thing they will still call a “sin,” and they often lay the guilt for the sin of racism at the doorstep of those who are social conservatives. Because of that, many who identify themselves as conservatives simply don’t want to hear about racism anymore. They give lip service to it being a sin, but they associate any sustained denunciation of racism with the liberal or secular systems of thought. John’s book is a strong antidote to this misconception. His motivation is simply as a preacher of the Word to bring to light what God says in it regarding race and racism.

There are many ways in which this book will help the church in its struggle with the sin of racism. First, John takes us to all the biblical texts that speak most directly to the subject of race. But—and this was most helpful to me—John does not stop there. He then goes to most of the central doctrines and themes of our faith and shows the implications of each one for our understanding of race. He demonstrates how Jesus’s proclamation of the kingdom, his substitutionary atonement, the doctrine of conversion, of union with Christ, of justification by faith—all transform our attitude toward our own race and culture as well as to those belonging to other races and cultures.

I won’t ever forget how one of the elders in my first church, who had been growing in his understanding of the gospel and of the cross of Jesus, said to me, “You know, I realize I’ve been a racist all my life.” I hadn’t spoken to him of racism at all, but as he was going deeper into the theology of grace, he connected the dots for himself. I must say that most of us are not that insightful, and that’s why we need this volume. Let John Piper connect the dots for you.

Tim Keller
February 2011
Foreword from Bloodlines by John Piper

T4A: Pre-Conference with Tim Chester

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I've been very blessed by the ministry & writing of Tim Chester. I've read Total Church twice & I've reviewed the excellent Delighting in the Trinity. You should also check out his book From Creation to New Creation among others. At the Together for Adoption Conference Tim and Dan Cruver (author of Reclaiming Adoption) are delivering a pre-conference event called "Missional Church, Missional God, Missional Story." Here's more from the website...

Missional Church, Missional God, Missional Story

Tim Chester and Dan Cruver

Missional church is not simply the latest fad. It’s rooted in the trinitarian character of God and the story of the Bible. Explore the foundations for shaping life around gospel, community and mission along with practical application for church life and the implications for orphan care.

Registration: $75 Per Person

Learn more about this pre-conference event with Tim Chester.

Joe Thorn on White Horse Inn

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My buddy, Joe Thorn, was interviewed by Michael Horton on my favorite Christian podcast, The White Horse Inn. The topic was preaching to yourself & Joe's book Note to Self. From Joe's blog...

Over 17 years ago I started listening to The White Horse Inn radio program. In fact, while in college a group of students would cram into a dorm room and listen to Mike Horton, Rod Rosenbladt, Ken Jones, and Kim Riddlebarger talk through theology, Scripture, evangelical culture, and church life. We felt like theoloigcal insurgents at our Bible College, but we were really just theology nerds. The WHI is still one of the most valuable things I listen to, now as a podcast, so I was humbled and excited to get an invitation to talk to Mike Horton about my book, Note to Self. You can check out our conversation at the WHI website...

If you aren’t listening to the show, you need to make it a regular part of your diet. You have enough sermons, and broadly cultural podcasts streaming into your ipod, but there isn’t much else out there like this. And, while you’re adjusting your theoloigcal intake you should also subscribe to Modern Reformation magazine. Seriously, get on that. As a subscriber you have online access to all the back issues.

It's a great interview. Great job, Joe! And you should get the podcast. I never miss an episode.

Creed by Winfield Bevins

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(first posted at Thorntastic...)

Winfield Bevins, founding and lead pastor of Church of the Outer Banks in Nags Head NC, has written a new book I am eager to check out. Creed: Connect to the Basic Essentials of Historic Christian Faith explores the The Apostles’ Creed, The Ten Commandments, and The Lord’s Prayer and looks ideal for discipling new or young believers. Bevins isn’t interested in offering us something radically new, but something ancient. Any book that calls us back to our biblical and historic roots concerning the gospel, godliness, and a vibrant spiritual life is one I am buying. 

Our church typically reads either the Apostle's Creed or Nicene Creed every Sunday. I love new books on the old Creeds, and this looks like a good one. Check out Baptist21's interview of Winfield & this video from Winfield about Creed. Follow Winfield Bevins on Twitter. Pick up Creed at Amazon or get it on your Kindle.

Cheap Kindle Books 7.20.11

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Amazon is having a big sale on Kindle books, 900 of them to be exact. Peruse them all. Here are a few worth checking out at $2.99 a piece...

Cheap Kindle Books 6.6.11

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A number of Kindle books are really cheap right now. I don't necessarily recommend every book on this list, but I put the ones I felt you would be most interested in, even if you disagree with the authors. I will *star ones I recommend most.

$2.99...

$1.99...

$0.99...

FREE...

Romans: Commentaries & Books

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I started preaching through Paul's letter to the Romans a couple of weeks ago. Thought it would be helpful to list resources/commentaries I'm using. I listed them roughly in the order of how much time I give each volume. I'm not even coming close to reading everything listed, of course. Some only get a brief glance as I need another opinion. But here's what I have and what I'll use during this series.

Most essential...

As needed and occasional...

Devotional...

When applicable...