Listen to The Challenge 01/01/2011
 Would you prefer to listen to The Challenge, rather than reading it? You can listen to the chronological reading plan for The Challenge on your computer or iPod by clicking here. 1 Comment The Challenge 2011 01/01/2011
 In 2010, over seventy people at Woodbury Community Church took The Challenge, a challenge to read through the Bible over the course of one year. Many of those who took The Challenge completed that challenge yesterday. Many did not, but in taking The Challenge, they read more of the Bible in 2010 than they did in 2009. In 2011, I want to challenge you once again to attempt to read through the Bible. There is nothing that will change you as much as God’s Word. D. L. Moody once said, “This book will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from this book,” when referring to the Bible. When we spend time in God’s Word, we are changed. In 1959, D. Martyn Lloyd Jones, the minister of Westminster Chapel in London wrote, “There is nothing more important in the Christian life than the way in which we approach the Bible, and the way in which we read it. It is our textbook, it is our only source, it is our only authority. We know nothing about God and about the Christian life in a true sense apart from the Bible. We can draw various deductions from nature (and possibly from various mystical experiences) by which we can arrive at a belief in a supreme Creator. But I think it is agreed by most Christians, and it has been traditional throughout the long history of the Church, that we have no authority save this Book. We cannot rely solely upon subjective experiences because there are evil spirits as well as good spirits; there are counterfeit experiences. Here, in the bible, is our soul authority.” (D. Martyn Lloyd Jones, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, Second Edition, Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1976, p. 6.) One of the common requests that I received last year was for a reading plan that would allow us to read through the Bible chronologically. This year we’ll use the Chronological Reading Guide, which was put together by Back to the Bible Ministries. You can download your copy of the Chronological Reading Guide by clicking here. Some Kindle Freebies 12/28/2010
 I’m so excited! My wife bought me a Kindle for Christmas and I am loving it! Before I even received my Kindle I was downloading free Kindle books. Here’s the deal. Not all of these books stay free forever. Some are free for a couple days or a couple weeks, some are free for one day, so you want to download them when you can. You don’t have to have a Kindle to read Kindle books. You can download an application for your computer or smart phone right at Amazon’s web site. So, here are my freebie hints for you today: The Holman Christian Standard Bible is a new translation of the Bible that was put together by a team of conservative biblical scholars. It combines an absolute commitment to being faithful to the original languages that the Bible was written in with an emphasis on readability in the English language. It’s worth downloading to see how you enjoy it. You can download your free copy here.  Terri Blackstock has long been a favorite Christian fiction writer of my wife. She writes adventure fiction stories that keep you turning the pages. Her book Last Light, is free for a limited time on Amazon. From the beginning, the book will catch you with airplanes falling out of the sky due to a natural phenomenon. I’m preaching on the Sermon on the Mount this year, and the book has a direct tie to Jesus’ sermon. It’s a great book that would be worth reading even if it wasn’t free! So hurry up and pick it up by clicking here.  Like Terri Blackstock, Dee Henderson is a fantastic author of adventure fiction. Her books have sold millions of copies worldwide. Don’t miss your chance to download Henderson’s book, Danger in the Shadows, which introduces you to an author who has to live in the shadows because of being a part of the witness protection program. This book will keep you guessing and keep you interested throughout. You can download this book by clicking here.  Like John Grisham? If so, you may enjoy the stories of Robert Whitlow. Deeper Water is the story of Tami Taylor, a young attorney whose faith, values, and integrity are tested in huge ways as she begins life at a prestigious law firm in Savannah, Georgia. You’ll enjoy the twists and turns in this novel, the first in Whitlow’s Tides of Truth series. You can download the book by clicking here. Happy reading! Make Much of Jesus 12/28/2010
 When I accepted the call to serve at my first church, my Grandfather, who had been a pastor for many years looked at me and said, “Brian, make much of Jesus. In your ministry of the Word, in your life, in your home, in your church . . . make much of Jesus!” I loved my Grandpa, and to this day, his advice was the best that I have ever been given as it relates to the life of a Christian. David Platt, in his book Radical: Taking Back Your Faith From the American Dream writes, “While the goal of the American dream is to make much of us, the goal of the gospel is to make much of God.” Beginning this Sunday, Woodbury Community Church will take a journey to the heart of what it means to live as citizens in the Kingdom of God. The Sermon on the Mount, found in Matthew 5-7 is the most famous sermon that Jesus ever preached. Thousands of people gathered to hear the Rabbi teach about a new way of living. Jesus taught like no one else ever had. His sermon would shake the contemporary understanding of what it meant to live as a child of God. If you pay serious attention to Jesus’ message, it will shake us to the core as well. I wrestled with how I would begin the 2011 sermon year. There were about ten themes that I kept studying, but I couldn’t escape Jesus’ sermon. The words of Jesus are as revolutionary today as they were when he preached them two thousand years ago. We are going in depth, spending 33 weeks to unpack Jesus’ words in Matthew 5-7. Take some time between now and Sunday to read through Jesus’ sermon, and come ready to learn how we can best live as citizens in the Kingdom of God. If you would like some additional resources to study while we go through Jesus’ sermon, check out these three books, which will be my primary study tools outside of the Bible.  1) Kent Hughes book, The Sermon on the Mount: The Message of the Kingdom, is part of the Preaching the Word Commentary set published by Crossway Books. The Preaching the Word Commentaries are among my favorite, because they are simply the sermons that the authors’ preached in the churches that they serve. This book is from a series of sermons that Hughes taught at The College Church in Wheaton, Illinois. I used this book as a template for the way that I would divide up the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount.  2) John Stott’s book, The Message of the Sermon on the Mount, is a classic exposition of Jesus’ teaching. Stott is a brilliant Bible teacher and gives so many unique insights into Jesus’ words.  3) D. Martyn Lloyd Jones’ book, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, was mentioned in almost every commentary on The Sermon on the Mount that I read. It is a spiritual classic, written by the longtime minister of Westminster Chapel in London. All three of these books make much of Jesus, and I hope that our series will as well! Looking forward to God doing some great things in the weeks ahead!  I don't have a Kindle . . . yet. But, I'm hoping to purchase one soon. You don't need to have a Kindle to read Kindle books. You can download free software and read the books right on your computer or smart phone. Right now, Amazon is offering a couple of terrific books for free. The first is Lee Strobel's book, The Case for Christmas. You can download the book by clicking here. The book is a quick read and offers compelling evidence that Jesus Christ truly is the Messiah that was prophesied in the Old Testament.  The second, and by far the best book being offered on Kindle for free is the English Standard Version of the Bible. I love this translation of the Bible. It is what I use for most of my personal study time. The ESV is probably the most faithful translation of the Bible from the original languages that we have in the English language have. I highly recommend this translation of the Bible. You may download it for free by clicking here. | Brian SchulenburgChild of God, Husband, Father, Son, Brother, Friend, Pastor ArchivesMarch 2012 CategoriesAll |
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