PRTS Conference: The Glory of the Father

Joel Beeke, Burk Parsons and Derek Thomas will be among the great lineup of speakers at the fourth annual Puritan Reformed Conference, held August 23-25 in Grand Rapids. I attended the last two years when the conference themes were The Beauty and Glory of the Holy Spirit and The Beauty and Glory of the Son. This year's theme is (not  surprisingly) "The Beauty and Glory of the Father." Each of the conferences I have been to has been a blessing to my soul, and I have every confidence that this one will be no different.

Space is limited and they are almost certain to end up having to turn people away for this conference, so don't hesitate; click here to register online before July 22 and receive the early registration rate of just $65. I am steadfastly convinced that there is not a better value available anywhere for this type of conference. There are even great deals available for hotel rooms in connection with the conference.

The schedule for the conference is as follows:

August 23 (Thursday evening)

6:00 – 7:00pm
Registration

7:00 – 8:00pm
Welcome, Prayer, & Singing
Opening Message – Jerry Bilkes, Father and Son in the Exodus (Hos.11:1, etc.)

8:15 – 9:15pm
Plenary Session #1 – Derek Thomas, The Holiness of the Father in the Old Testament

9:15 – 10:15pm
Exhibits Open – 10:15pm, Day One ends


August 24 (Friday)

8:30 – 9:00am
Registration

9:00 – 10:30am
Welcome, Prayer, & Singing
Plenary Session #2 – Bart Elshout, The Father’s Love for His Son (Jn.3:35)

11:00am – 12:00pm
Plenary Session #3 – Burk Parsons, The Father’s Beautiful Hand of Blessed Chastisement (Heb.12:4-13)

12:00 – 1:45pm
Lunch Break

2:00 – 315pm
Plenary Session #4 – Ryan McGraw – The Need for a Trinitarian Piety

3:30 – 4:30pm
Breakout Sessions:

David Murray, Counseling and the Fatherhood of God
Burk Parsons, The Glory of the Father in the High-Priestly Prayer of Christ (Jn.17)
Paul Smalley, Richard Sibbes on the Mercy and Faithfulness of the Father
William VanDoodewaard, Your Father in Heaven (Mt.5-7)

4:30 – 6:30pm
Dinner Break

6:30 – 7:00pm
Special Music – TBD

7:00 – 8:15pm
Plenary Session #5 – Joel Beeke, The Apostle John and the Puritans on the Father’s Adopting, Transforming Love

8:30 – 9:15pm
Q&A Session (moderated by David Murray)

Joel Beeke
Derek Thomas
Burk Parsons
Bart Elshout

9:15 – 10pm
Exhibits open – 10:00–10:45pm, Day two ends


August 25 (Saturday)

9:00 – 10:30am
Welcome, Prayer & Singing
Plenary Session #6 – William VanDoodewaard, The Father’s Mercy (1Pet.1:3-5)

10:45 – 11:45am
Plenary Session #7 – Derek Thomas, Seeing the Father in the Face of Jesus (Jn.14:9)

11:45am – 12:00pm
Closing Song & Prayer – 12:00pm, Day three ends

Dane Ortlund on Staying Christian in Seminary

You may have noticed in the right sidebar of my blog that there is a section called "Most Popular Posts." At the top of the list, you'll find that of all the posts I've written, the one that has gotten the most traffic is my post entitled Seminary Doesn't Need to Kill Your Faith. It was a response to a series that Desiring God had started entitled How to Stay a Christian in Seminary and focused on the fact that far from being a place of spiritual turmoil, Covenant Theological Seminary was a sweet foretaste of heaven for me.

Fellow Covenant alum Dane Ortlund wrote a post yesterday entitled Staying Christian in Seminary in conjunction with the Desiring God series. In it he suggests that among the many good words of advice, there are two things in particular that the seminary student should remember:

1. You are justified by another.
2. You are strong in weakness.

In both of these, much is made of God's grace, and our need to be in performance-mode is minimized. If you are a seminary student, I highly recommend you read Dane's entire post. In fact, the gospel-centeredness of this post is so rich that it would benefit you greatly even if seminary is the last place you expect to find yourself.

Sara Groves...You Cannot Lose My Love

I saw this video from Sara Groves tonight when Scotty Smith posted it and found the song so beautiful that I knew I needed to share it too. What a great promise it is that Christians find in Romans 8:38-39,

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Matt Chandler: God is for God

Recently Matt Chandler preached at Elevation Church in North Carolina. If you've heard about it, likely it was due to some mild controversy that followed. Having listened to the sermon, I frankly am not exactly sure what the source of the controversy was. What I am sure of is this: This is a fantastic, Christ-exalting sermon that you will blessed to listen to.

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom...Packer on Knowing God

"God is not the sort of person that we are; his wisdom, his aims, his scale of values, his mode of procedure differ so vastly from our own that we cannot possibly guess our way to them by intuition or infer them by analogy from our notion of ideal manhood.  We cannot know him unless he speaks and tells us about himself.

"But in fact he has spoken.  He has spoken to and through his prophets and apostles, and he has spoken in the words and deeds of his own Son.  Through this revelation, which is made available to us in holy Scripture, we may form a true notion of God; without it we never can."

J.I. Packer
Knowing God

Desiring God Pastors' Conference Audio

One of the great blessings of living in the 21st century is the vast array of wonderful biblical teachers alive today. Another one of the great blessings is the fact that with the advent of the internet, much of this great teaching is readily available to us at any given time.

This week, Desiring God Ministries held their annual pastors' conference, and while I was not able to attend, I am able to listen to each one of the messages, as DG has made them available online.  I've already commented briefly on Francis Chan's message which I took in Tuesday.  The Speaker Panel Q&A was good throughout, with moments of brutal honesty and profound brilliance.  I look forward to hearing the rest of the messages.  Here are the links to them all:

Session One: Joel Beeke, "Cultivating Private Prayer as a Pastor"

Session Two: Paul Miller, "Helping Your People Discover the Praying Life"

Session Three: Francis Chan, "Prayer as a Way of Walking in Love: A Personal Journey"

Session Four: John Piper, "Robert Murray M'Cheyne"

Session Five: Joel Beeke, "Leading Family Worship"

Session Six: Jerry Rankin, "Unreached Peoples and the Power of Prayer"

Session Seven: Speaker Panel Q and A

Francis Chan on Prayer

During lunchtime today I watched the live stream of Francis Chan's message on prayer at the Desiring God Pastors' Conference.  Many great points were made as Chan challenged us to consider "Prayer as a Way of Walking in Love."

Of all the wonderful points he made though, I was most impacted and convicted by a question he posed.  He essentially asked, "If I were to look at a transcript of your prayers for the last month, what one thing would it be that I'd see that you kept asking for?"

Quite honestly, it hasn't always been this way in the past, but it is my hope and prayer that from this point forward I could answer this question with the words of David in Psalm 27:4: "One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple."

What an amazingly merciful gift it is that God offers this opportunity to us.  And what a tragic thing that we so commonly neglect it.

Free Books From Desiring God

Maybe I'm just an old-fashioned traditionalist, but if I'm going to read a book, I want it to be, well, a book.  I'm amazed at the technology of iPads and Kindles, but there's just something about the actual turning of paper pages that still appeals to me on some level.

I imagine that the day is coming though, when I will have to cave in and join reading's digital revolution.  And with amazing deals like this one, that day might come sooner rather than later.  Over at Desiring God, you can download PDFs of over 50 books for free, including most of the books John Piper has written.  Even if you don't have a portable electronic reading device, you can download them to your computer and read them there.

It may not be the best business practice if the mission is to make as much money as possible, but this clearly is not the mission of Desiring God.  I greatly admire their practice of making materials available so that they get in the hands of people and I have personally been greatly blessed by both the preaching and writing of John Piper.  Click here to take advantage of this great opportunity.

(HT: Challies)