As we kick off this week’s book news, we note that Paul Miller’s A Loving Life is 40% at WTS Books ($7.79). There were several books that went on sale for Kindle: Let the Nations Be Glad by John Piper ($2.99); J.D. Greear’s Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart ($2.99) and Gospel ($1); Paul Tripps’ Forever ($1.99); Mark Dever’s The Church ($1.99); Ravi Zacharis’ Has Christianity Failed You? ($3.79); Crossway’s essay collection, Fallen: A Theology of Sin ($4.99); several of Evangelical Press’ Bite-Size biographies are on sale for Kindle. Finally, our own church’s Anchored Press released one new (Jude) and two revised (Leviticus and Hebrews) Bible for Life Study Guides. You can learn more here.
Many cultural events lit up the internet this week, which also produced some good Christian thinking and commentary. First, there was the moral train wreck that was the Grammy’s. Christian singer Mandisa explained why she didn’t go and Trip Lee followed it up with five questions for Beyonce. Then we saw the Academy Award nomination for a Joni Erickson Tada song revoked. Joe Carter gave us a list of common myths about the Super Bowl and why it’s important to get the facts right. Denny Burk explained why Rachel Held Evans is wrong about contraception. Finally, Owen Strachan offered some thoughts on the study that showed Planned Parenthood facilities raised teen pregnancy rates.
Thinking of the Christian life and ministry, Ligonier republished Sinclair Ferguson’s “A Catechism of the Heart” (which is well worth your time). Brian Croft offered a simple plan that would enable pastors to be faithful in shepherding their entire flock. He went on to show how this work for larger churches. Mez McConnell posted some helpful thoughts on “The Importance of Good Research for Church Planting Ministry.” The 2014 Together for the Gospel conference released a list of their breakout session titles. Finally, Micahel Emlet offers some good words on how to develop male friendships:
Credo Magazine kicks off the material published for theology. There new issue is focused on the issue of justification and includes, among many other things, a massive review article of N.T. Wright’s latest work by Thomas Schreiner. Justin Taylor provided a nice summary of the article. Jared Wilson made some good observations on the prosperity gospel as a stealth movement in evangelical churches. Conrad Mbewe kicked off a new blog series answering questions put to him on Facebook. The first is a perennial: “Can a person lose their salvation?” John Piper, and Desiring God, followed up the poem video “The Calvinist” with another more documentary-style video on why the theology of Calvinism is so important to Piper’s ministry:
MAGNIFY CHRIST 