Biblical Parenting

Here is the audio for the sessions from the recent Biblical Parenting conference at Mars Hill, with speaker Tedd Tripp. Alternatively you can go here and here to watch the video.

The Call to Formative Instruction



Giving Kids a Vision for God's Glory

John & Rach

Today at titus2talk we are celebrating with fellow-blogger Rachel on her recent engagement to John Percival, a dear friend and former Assistant Pastor at our church. Our prayers are for them both as they prepare for their wedding day in the new year and as they start out on a new life together as husband and wife.

But for now, here's something to ponder on - the importance and magnificence of marriage.

Feminism in Four Minutes

Go here to see a 4 minute video on feminism by Carolyn McCulley, author of Radical Womanhood: Feminine Faith in a Feminist World.

The Daily Scroll

Our friend Chris has just set up this new website. Subscribe now to get up-to-date news and other stuff from the blogosphere.

There is a day

Maybe this is the end of a challenging week for you or maybe you just need a reminder of the hope we have in Christ. Anyway, watch this video of the song "There is a day" by the UK band Phatfish. It's just made my day!

Craving and grumbling

I was reading Numbers 11 recently as part of working through the excellent Gentle Rain on Tender Grass by Sharon James. In this chapter, the Israelites are grumbling against God about the manna he has provided for them and harking back to their captivity in Egypt (where they had all the cucumbers they could eat, apparently!). As a result of their complaining and ingratitude they were judged severely. This also tied in with a John Piper sermon I just listened to on John 13:31-35. Part way through he talked about how we must lay aside our feelings of "entitlement" in order to love like Christ.

All of this has reminded me again how easily it is to slip into an "entitlement syndrome" where I feel things should happen in a certain way, to a certain timetable of my choosing. When things don't go that way, often my first response is to grumble to God, just like the Israelites did.

We are in the middle of planning a very big move from Scotland to the USA, and there is a lot to do. When things don't seem to be working out to plan, or when the headlines are yet again full of financial disasters I'm finding it hard not to default to grumbling. But as Sharon James says,

If our hearts crave after things that the Lord has not yet provided, there is only one thing to do: pray.

She then quotes from the Imitation of Christ:

What you should feel and say when you meet something you would like: 'Lord, if this is your will, let it happen like this. Lord, if you see that this will help me and do me good, then grant that I may use it to the honour of your name. But if you know that it will harm me and not advance my soul's salvation, then take the desire away.' You cannot find complete satisfaction in any temporal gift, because you were not created to find your delight in them. Even if you possessed all the good things that God has created, you could not feel happy and glad; all your gladness and happiness rests in the God who created those things.

Shepherding A Child's Heart Conference

Some of our UK readers might be interested in attending the upcoming Shepherding a Child's Heart Conference with speaker Tedd Tripp at Grace Church Bristol in March of next year. Here is the blurb:

Everyone wants to be a great parent — the biggest responsibility of parenthood is teaching your children to love Jesus with all their heart, soul and strength. For parents with children of any age, Tedd Tripp’s insightful, biblical teaching provides perspectives and procedures for shepherding your child’s heart into the paths of life.

For more information and registration go here.

Ruth

I'm currently working my way through John Piper's sermons on Ruth from the recent UCCF Forum here in the UK.

Ruth: Sweet & Bitter Providence
Ruth: Under the Wings of God
Ruth: Strategic Righteousness
Ruth: May the Redeemers Name be Renowned

To complement, my husband and I are reading together Iain Duguid's commentary on Ruth which I've recommended before.

Pondering Bunyan

"We had this sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God that raiseth the dead." 2 Corinthians 1:9

"By this scripture I was made to see that if ever I would suffer rightly, I must first pass a sentence of death upon every thing that can be properly called a thing of this life, even to reckon myself, my wife, my children, my health, my enjoyment, and all, as dead to me, and myself as dead to them. The second was, to live upon God that is invisible, as Paul said in another place; the way not to faint, is to "look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal." John Bunyan

Taken from John Piper's biographical sermon on John Bunyan.