Crossway (a non-profit) Ministry in Wheaton, IL recently sustained flood damage. The extra costs jeopardize projects that are planned including strategic Bible initiatives in Asia. Would you consider praying for them and helping them between now and May 31st? You can be assured that your gift will help further the Gospel ministry. I can think of no better investment in the coming weeks. My wife and I will be praying about and making a gift.

In 2008 I had the opportunity to publish Unpacking Forgiveness: Biblical Answers for Complex Questions and Deep Wounds. It was a surprising opportunity. I was a first time author serving in a small church and community: the ideal combination for not getting a book contract. Further, Crossway was in the midst of preparing the ESV Study Bible for publication which was a tremendous demand on their resources.

The only reason Crossway published Unpacking Forgiveness was because they believed deeply in the need to teach God’s people about forgiveness in a Cross-centered way. I have observed this commitment repeatedly in Crossway’s heart for publishing God’s Word and Christian related materials.

Crossway has a wonderful team of people. One of the best part of writing Unpacking was the chance to personally so many quality folks. Jamie and I have spent personal time with Geoff Dennis (Executive Vice President). I have talked with Mr. Lane Dennis on any number of occasions. Justin Taylor’s blog blesses me several times each week. It is one of my central strategies for staying abreast of developments on any number of fronts in Christendom. And there are many others. I’ve continued to be amazed at how Crossway is building a wonderful team of young leaders who have the potential to continue to make an amazing difference for Christ. (They do occasionally add the obligatory old guy: D.D.)

In an ongoing way, many of us marvel at the opportunity we have to advance the Gospel and multiply our talents (Matthew 25:21) given all the developments of technology. Crossway is one of the organizations best leveraging our day. I’m praying that God provides for them in remarkable ways in the weeks to come.

Here for more information.

Crossway Flood: the Damage and Ministry Impact from Crossway on Vimeo.

Russell Moore on Patrick:

To our shame, most evangelical Protestants tend to think of Saint Patrick as a leprechaun. As we watch the annual drunken parades and pop-culture consumerism of the March holiday, no one could seem more removed from biblical Christianity than Patrick. And yet, Patrick’s life was closer to a revival meeting than to a shamrock-decorated drinking party named in his honor.

In his volume, St. Patrick of Ireland: A Biography, Philip Freeman, a professor of classics at Washington University in St. Louis, lays out a compelling portrait of Patrick, the theologian-evangelist. In accomplishing this, Freeman attempts to reconstruct Patrick’s cultural milieu-that of a world that had “ended” with the fall of Rome in 410 A.D. This collapse of Roman power had unleashed savagery in the British Isles, as thieves and slave-traders were unhinged from the restraining power of Caesar’s sword. Patrick’s ministry was shaped by this new world, not least of which by Patrick’s capture and escape from slavery.

Freeman helpfully retells Patrick’s conversion story, one of a mocking young hedonist to a repentant evangelist. The story sounds remarkably similar to that of Augustine-and, in the most significant of ways, both mirror the first-century conversion of Saul of Tarsus. Freeman helpfully reconstructs the context of local religion as a “business relationship” in which sacrifice to pagan gods was seen as a transaction for the material prosperity of the worshippers. Against this, Patrick’s conversion to Christianity was noticed quickly, when his prayers of devotion-then almost always articulated out loud-were overheard by his neighbors.

Read the whole thing here.

John Piper with inspiring thoughts about missions:

We should be dumbfounded at how doable the remaining task of world missions is. Before I show this, let’s clarify some definitions.

Missions is not the same as evangelism. Evangelism is sharing the gospel with any unbelievers, and that work will never be done till Jesus comes.

Missions, on the other hand, relates to people groups, not just people, and the number is finite and relatively stable — like the “every people, tongue, tribe, and nation” of Revelation 5:9.

So missions is crossing a culture, learning a language, and planting the church through preaching the gospel among people groups that have no churches strong enough to evangelize their group. . .

Read the rest here.

Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you .  . . 2 Thess 3:1

God’s Word is speeding ahead . . . running even . . . in Ethiopia. Watch the below video to be encouraged.

HT: Z

David Platt in the forward to Piper’s forthcoming book, Risk is Right:

Retreat or risk?

Throughout redemptive history, that question has confronted God’s people. As John Piper references in the pages of the new book Risk Is Right (Crossway, 2013), it was the decision facing the Israelites on a crucial day at Kadesh Barnea. Standing on the brink of the Promised Land, with the guarantee of God within their grasp, they ran from risk and chose to retreat. Instead of staking their lives on the faithfulness of God, they recoiled in fear. The cost was great, and the Lord left an entire generation to waste away in a wilderness until they died.

Read the rest here.

I’m not mandating it – - – but, I’m strongly asking – - my family to watch this video. I think it is that important. Would you watch it to? Is there 30 minutes of the news, ESPN, or your cooking show you would give up to watch this sermon?

57 As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” 58 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” 59 To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 60 And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” 61 Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” 62 Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

David Platt from InterVarsity twentyonehundred on Vimeo.

 
HT: Z