All posts tagged Tim Keller

Keller on Lust

by Hugh on January 1, 2009 in Books, Faith with No comments

The solution to a bad marriage is a reorientation to the radical spousal love of Christ in the gospel. “Thou shall not commit adultery” makes sense in the context of the spousal love of Jesus, especially in the cross, where he was completely faithful to you. Only when you know the spousal love of Christ will you have a real fortitude against lust. His love is fulfilling – which keeps you from looking to sexuality to give you what only Jesus can give.

What is the point? What makes you faithful or generous [or sexually pure?]� is not just a redoubled effort to follow moral rules. Rather, all change comes from deepening your understanding of the salvation of Christ and living out of the changes that understanding creates in your heart. Faith in the gospel restructures our motivations, our self-understanding, our identity, and our view of the world. Behavioural compliance to rules without heart-change will be superficial and fleeting.

Tim Keller, The Prodigal God (pg. 118)

Rarely do you ever get anyone give any practical advice in terms of battling lust (except lists of don’ts)… Keller gives both the theological advice (above) and the practical – also worth checking out is his after sermon Q&A on this subject, his main point, that I remember anyway, is that all physical lust is sexual energy, certainly it is more than just physical but it is still energy that needs to be released… through a punch bag maybe? I’m pretty lazy, but he’s got a point, it’s all energy and there’s different ways, some godly, some not, to release that energy. Have a listen below…

Redeemer Q&A� -� Celibacy and Sexual Fasting

Why I like the Prodigal God

by Hugh on December 31, 2008 in Books, Faith with No comments

I finally got round to finishing Tim Keller’s ‘The Prodigal God’, it’s not a long book, I’m just a slow reader and easily distracted! If you want a summary of the book, I would say… Tim Keller through the Parable of the Lost Son (Luke 15) exposes how we look for hope in the world – through the emptiness of sensual living (like the younger son) or through the folly of moral obedience (like the elder son), he shows us how living in these ways cause us to be lost. But he shows us the hope of a third way, the hope of the gospel, the hope that comes only from God’s lavish grace given in Jesus.

Here’s some reasons why I like the book, other than the previous sentence:

It helps you to see things differently – particularly in exposes the true cost of bringing the younger son back and the true heart of the elder brother
There are loads of little mini Bible overviews of themes running throughout; the Father, the true elder brother, Sin, forgiveness, repentance, exile, lostness, Hope, Home, feasts
Keller does faithful exposition, practical, relevant application and Biblical overview all in the same chapter
I don’t really read novels, but it’s great for people who do… Keller seamlessly interweaves the narrative of secular novels by way of illustration into his writing
Keller’s assertions are backed up through the writings of philosophers, it’s intellectually robust

Finally I loved Keller’s concluding acknowledgement to the influence of Edmund Clowney in his ministry:

“He also taught me that it was possible to be theologically sound and completely orthodox and yet unfailing gracious – a rare and precious combination.”

This is a definite must-read, go and get it – £10 from the Good Book Company.

Hopes and Dreams

by Hugh on December 22, 2008 in Faith, Life with 1 Comment

There seems to be a sense, then, in which we are all like the younger brother. We are all exiles, always longing for home. We are all travelling, never arriving. The houses and families we acually inhabit are only inns along the way, but they aren’t home. Home continues to evade us…

…The Bible says that we have been wandering as spiritual exiles ever since. That is, we have been living in a world that no longer fits our deepest longings. Though we long for bodies that “run and are not weary,” we have become subject to disease, aging, and death. Though we need love that lasts, all our relationships are subject to the inevitable entropy of time, and they crumble in our hands. Even people who stay true to us die and leave us, or we die and leave them. Though we long to make a difference in the world through our work, we experience endless frustration. We never fully realise our hopes and dreams. We may work hard to re-create the home that we have lost, but, says the Bible, it only exists in the presence of the heavenly father from which we have fled.

Tim Keller, The Prodigal God [pg 95-96]

What is Forgiveness?

by Hugh on December 19, 2008 in Faith with No comments

Forgiveness isn’t easy, it’s not free or even cheap, it shouldn’t be assumed, or taken for granted, it’s not about forgetting, or ignoring, or pretending things don’t matter, that they don’t hurt.

Forgiveness is hard, it’s costly, it’s a choice… what does it look like Biblically?

Matthew 18…

The master is within his rights to enslave the servant, that servant is within his rights to throw the other servant into prison because both are creditors (owed money). The master chooses to give up that right and forgives his servant – it is not free, the master bears the debt of the servant himself. That servant chooses not to give up his rights against the other servant, he chooses not to forgive.

Luke 15…

This is what the elder brother in the parable should have done; this is what a true elder brother should have done. He would have said, “Father, my younger brother has been a fool, and now his life is in ruins. But I will go and look for him and bring him home. And if the inheritance is gone – as I suspect – I’ll bring him back into the family at my expense.”

……Mercy and forgiveness must be free and unmerited to the wrongdoer. If the wrongdoer has to do something to merit it, then it isn’t mercy, but forgiveness always comes at a cost to the one granting forgiveness.

Tim Keller, The Prodigal God (pg. 82-83)

Hebrews 9:22

“…without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”

God’s forgiveness of us is not free, there is a heavy cost, the greatest debt to pay, the greatest sacrifice made, His Son.

A love that won’t let go

by Hugh on November 8, 2008 in Books, Faith with 1 Comment

The father patiently endures the loss of honour and the pain of rejected love. Ordinarilary when our love is rejected we get angry, retaliate, and do what we can to diminish our affection for the rejecting person, so we won’t hurt so much. But this father maintains his affection for his son and bears the agony.

Tim Keller, The Prodigal God [p20]

On Church

by Hugh on November 7, 2008 in Faith with No comments

Had the privilege of listening to John Chapman (Chappo) today on personal evangelism for church leaders.

He said this…

“Without good preaching, the wheels fall off a church”

I also picked up my copy of� ‘The Prodigal God‘ today – �10 from GBC. At the end of the first chapter [p16] Tim Keller makes this observation about our churches…

“If our churches aren’t appealing to younger brothers, they must be more full of elder brothers than we’d like to think”

The Prodigal God

by Hugh on November 4, 2008 in Books, Faith with No comments

Last month I spoke 3 times in different settings on the Parable of the Lost Son (Luke 15) – in preparing and speaking I became convinced that this story is not primarily about either of the sons, but about the Father.

In the same way that the other parables aren’t about the sheep or the coin, but the one who looks for them!

Here are some things the Father does, He: gives, looks, sees, has compassion, runs, embraces, kisses… he gives again, he clothes, he celebrates… he pleads, he’s always been giving!

All this said, I’m really happy the Tim Keller’s new book ‘The Prodigal God‘ has been released in the UK… and I’m really really happy that the Good Book Company are stocking it, and for the bargain price of �10, that’s cheaper than Amazon!! I’ve ordered my copy, you should do the same!

Some links…

by Hugh on October 7, 2008 in Random with 2 Comments

Well I may not have blogged that much recently… there’s plenty of posts to come, some are drafted already, but alas no time… however, I have been reading around…

Should you support Christian bookshops rather than Amazon??

I have mixed feelings which I’ve been discussing on Phil Whittall’s blog here and here.

Preaching Notes

I’m trying to work out the best way to do this… I like note form rather than script… Josh Harris has been publishing some well known preachers notes… my favourites are; CJ Mahaney, Tim Keller, Mark Driscoll.

Matt Chandler starts blogging

Love this guy. Loving him preaching on Luke, and pleased to hear he’s now got a blog called Dwell Deep.

Desiring God conference – The Power of Words and the Wonder of God

Piper, Driscoll, Ferguson, Kauflin, Tripp etc. check out the audio and video

Driscoll in Syndey and Jensen’s response

18 point critique of Sydney Anglicans (given that British Evangelical Anglicans steal all their ideas from Sydney, they pretty much all apply here too!)… 18 Obstacles to Effective Evangelism

Jensen gives his thoughts in response

….still coming soon will be some book reviews and the finishing off of some old posts

Dwell London � Mark Driscoll (1)

by Hugh on July 19, 2008 in Faith with No comments

Mark Driscoll kicked off the Dwell London conference by explaining the gospel – highlighting the difference between the Gospel of Grace, and the Religion of Works.

Mark began by quoting Martin Luther from his lecture on Galatians 2:14 -

“The truth of the Gospel is the principle article of all Christian doctrine…. Most necessary is it that we know this article well, teach it to others, and beat it into their heads continually.”

Driscoll then went to 1 Corinthians 15, asking – What is the Gospel?

It’s continual (now I would remind you)
Proclamation and Explanation
Pastoral and Personal
Essential (don’t assume too much, preach the priorities)
Relevant (don’t make it, show it)
Christological – it’s all about Jesus
Penal Substitutionary
Biblical (it was prophesied)
Eschatological (it has a future)

Under the PS point, Mark alluded to his knowledge of the NWA foundation, and told the story of how his church grew by 800 people on the week he preached PSA! He said that he wants to be a ‘truth teller’ – “I’d rather be hated than ignored – that’s my ministry!” Mark then moved on to look at the two enemies of the Gospel – Idolatry and Religion.

Idolatry

Driscoll quoted Luther who said that idolatry was “the sin”, and that it all came down to the first two Commandments – if we disobey the first two we have an idol, and will break the other commandments.

An idol is that which takes pre-eminence, which receives our worship. We’re all spiritual people because we all have our own definitions of heaven and hell, and the a ‘Functional Saviour’ (our idol) to take us from hell to heaven. He then goes on to reference Tim Keller who has a set of questions to expose our idols:

What are you afraid of? What do you long for? Where do you get comfort? How do you introduce yourself? Whose approval do you seek? What makes you happy/sad?

Religion

Mark started off by showing the clear differences between the Gospel of Grace and the Religion of Works:

If I obey God loves me� vs.� God loves me, his Spirit enables me to obey

Good and Bad People� vs.� Repentant and Unrepentant Sinners

What you do� vs.� What Jesus has done

He then explained the result of religion, it either leads to pride and self-righteousness (these people stay in the church), or despair at not being good enough (these people walk away from church). Rather, the Gospel ends in joy, those who receive grace are humble and happy.

Acts 17 – God commands ALL men to repent (religious and idolatrous)

Romans 1:16 – Mark reminded us not to be ashamed of the Gospel we preach, and again to notice that it goes to the Jews (the religious people) and to the Greeks (the idolatrous people)

New Books

by Hugh on July 6, 2008 in Books, Faith with No comments

Tim Keller has a new book coming out in October called ‘The Prodigal God‘, it’s an exposition of the ‘Parable of the Prodigal Sons’ and I get the impression that like ‘Reason for God’ it will be accessible for both Christians and non-Christians alike. It’s released on the 30th and you can currently pre-order from Amazon for around �9, I’m hoping that the Good Book Company might have it in stock at a similar price nearer the time, I’ll let you know.

Here’s a short interview with Keller about the book, and a response from Keller about the use of the word ‘Prodigal’ in relation to God.

Also, Mark Driscoll has lots of books coming out this year which has prompted the launch of Resurgence Literature publishing (ReLit). The first book was Vintage Jesus, I’ve finally got round to reading that so I’ll review it soon.

The latest books out (released last week) are a series of 4 books – ‘A Book You’ll Actually Read‘ – they’re less than 100 pages on ‘The Old Testament’, ‘The New Testament’, ‘Church Leadership’ and ‘Who is God?’. These are the square shaped ones (left). At the end of July there’s a book called ‘Practical Theology for Women’ coming out by Wendy Alsup, a deacon at Mars Hill. ‘Death by Love‘ (right) is coming out at the end of September, from what I gather it is based on Driscoll’s ‘Christ on the Cross’ series and then put in to a letter format. Finally in January 2009 ‘Vintage Church‘ (middle) is being released, subtitled ‘Timeless Truths and Timely Methods’ – it’s in the style of the Vintage Jesus book and I’m guessing will be similar to the Radical Reformission, probably with more of a focus on some of his sermon series (1 Corinthians, Nehemiah) and some practical suggestions. One more thing, they’re also publishing other non-Mars-Hill books, so far just Total Church by Timmis and Chester.

$A Book You\'ll Actually Read$ Vintage Church Death by Love

Last week I picked up some books for myself at EMA – Total Church (Timmis and Chester), Why we’re not Emergent (some American guys), and The Gospel and Personal Evangelism (Dever)… will give some thoughts when I get round to reading.