So, you have a new iPad and would like to actually do something with it that doesn’t look like you’re worshipping it. You know that free ESV Bible app that Crossway released for the iPod/iPod Touch last month? It’s now available for iPad as well — also for free. Now, this will only be cool if you actually take time to read it. Maybe you won’t need to download as many other apps if you get this one. Just a thought.
From John Piper, talking about the two paradoxes in the death of Christ:
The death of Christ was the curse of God and the wrath of God; and yet, at the same time, it was pleasing to God and a sweet fragrance. While turning from his Son and giving him up to die laden with our sin, he delighted in the obedience and love and perfection of the Son.
Therefore, let us stand in awe and look with trembling joy on the death of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. There is no greater event in history. There is no greater thing for our minds to ponder or our hearts to admire. Stay close to this. Everything important and good gathers here. It is a wise and weighty and happy place to be.
And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. — Luke 19:41-42
Scotty Smith writes great prayers at Heavenward because they go deep. This week I particularly felt touched by this one, based on the verses above:
Dear Lord Jesus, everything about Holy Week reveals the depth of your compassion for sinful, broken people, just like me. The tears you wept coming into Jerusalem, even the anger you showed in driving the money-changers out of the temple… every encounter, parable and action gives staggering clarity to Paul’s words…
“You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:6-8).
Paul was writing about me, Jesus. I’m the powerless, ungodly sinner for whom you died, demonstrating God’s incomparable and irrepressible love for me. I was God’s enemy when you reconciled me to him through your death on the cross (Rom. 5:9). May I never believe otherwise.
I would still be blind to what, alone, brings me peace if you hadn’t opened my eyes to see my need of you and your death for me. The gospel would still remain hidden from my eyes unless you had given me sight to behold you as the Lamb of God that takes away my sin. I can’t and I won’t sneer at a single Pharisee, Sadducee, priest or teacher of the law… or anyone else, who tried to trick or trap you during Holy Week. I am just as worthy of judgment as they.
Also of note: Al Mohler, RC Sproul, Thabiti Anyabwile and Francis Chan will also be speaking (along with John Piper, of course). This year’s theme is Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God. It sounds like it will be a great conference.
HT: Desiring God
Rick Warren, author of The Purpose Driven Life and pastor at Saddleback Church, is not a guy who resonates in Reformed circles. So, the word that’s been leaking out the last week or so that John Piper had invited him to be the keynote speaker at this year’s Desiring God National Conference has caused quite a buzz. Ben Terry has the audio (also below) of Piper talking to a group at Mt. Sinai Missionary Baptist Church about what he likes (and what puzzles and confounds him) about Warren.
More will probably come from this as Piper will host a Q&A live tonight at the Desiring God site.
Sojourn Church, based in Louisville, Ky., is another one of those groups (like Indelible Grace and Red Mountain Music) who take old hymns and refresh them. A few years ago they did the wonderful Advent Songs album, which was a great way to prepare for the Christmas season and the birth of Christ. They have produced another effort that sounds worth at least a listen called Over the Grave. According to the Sojourn Church site, the new CD is the “first installment of the Isaac Watts Project: songs inspired by and adapted from his hymns. The record was written and performed entirely by musicians from Sojourn Community Church — 35 in all. It is our hope that this project, like Watts’s hymns, will point us beyond the music and lyrics to see the glorious Savior who inspires them.”
Justin Taylor, at his blog, has posted one of the songs, Only Your Blood Is Enough, along with the lyrics. Give it a listen and see for yourself the fine work this group of musicians is doing.
Mark Driscoll, pastor at Mars Hills Church, has written a guest editorial in today’s Washington Post about heaven:
Everyone believes in a heaven.
The next time you are standing in line at a store, take a moment to look at the covers of the magazines on the rack. Each cover presents a picture of some sort of heavenly life. There is vacation heaven, fishing heaven, hunting heaven, pet heaven, entertainment heaven, sex heaven, bridal heaven, nicely organized home heaven, baby heaven, and so on. The articles in the magazines speak of life in hellish terms but offer functional saviors to take us from our hellish life to our heavenly one if we just obey the steps and buy the products.
The question persists, however, why? Why do we live for the endless pursuit of heavenly perfection on earth, and spend our hard-earned money relentlessly pursuing that perfect place, perfect thing, perfect person, or that perfect day? Perhaps all of our toys, hobbies, home improvement projects, festivals, parties, toys, joys, and vacations are simply our way of looking for paradise and practicing for heaven.
But practice does not make perfect because we are not able to reach that ideal, no matter how hard we try.
According to the Bible, God kicked us out of paradise because of our rebellion, much like we would do to a roommate who declared war on us in our own home. Subsequently, ever since then we have all been booking airline flights, gassing up our cars, hiking in the woods, buying junk, logging on, and walking on the beach searching for paradise. Deep down we all feel homeless and restless.
Our pernicious problem is that paradise is lost. No matter how close we get to that perfect day in that perfect place, we are continually disappointed because sin is there too and things are not as perfect as we had hoped. Subsequently, we get sunburned, food poisoning, seasick, or bumped off our flight home from the search for paradise and are left to wander through the airport, which is perhaps the best illustration of hell that earth has to offer.
As we progress toward Easter, we should think about what heaven is and how we may be trying to recreate it here on earth. Whatever we think is good about this life, heaven is much better. Of course we are eager to leave behind the pains and disappointments of this world, but we need to look into our hearts and ask if we are treasuring the things we love more than heaven.
Singer/songwriter Jennifer Knapp, who seemed to fall off the face of the earth not long after her wonderful The Way I Am was released in 2001, is back with a new album, Letting Go, which will hit stores on May 11. Currently, she is touring with Derek Webb. In a post on her blog, Knapp talks about where she’s been all that time:
With every ‘old friend’ I run into these days there is the sudden rush of questions … How are you? Where have you been? Are you working? What have you been doing? What hole did you fall into? Were there any trolls? Did you have enough water? Is this a real jenniferknapp.com or just another ruse? Are you really coming back? Are you making a new record? And so on…
We’ve been flooded with emails and phone calls simply by putting up a humble little homepage. So much for my holiday, it looks very much like it may be over.
Despite what some may say, I didn’t actually disappear. I have truly been corporeal this whole time. I’ve just been travelling. I’ve seen many of the places I’d only previously flown over and eaten some fantastic cuisine that has pushed mashed potatoes down the list. I have spent many days sulking about how strange life is and many more discovering just how truly beautiful people can be. My experiences have been both wildly exotic and extraordinarily mundane.
I am grateful for the chance to get my feet under me. I took that time to discover more about myself and my own faith, without the pressure of expectations. Without writing a novel at this point, I’ll just say that I’m starting to think that I might actually be a songwriter, musician or artist of some kind. So, maybe I should do something about it?
It will interesting to hear what she has to offer, since her previous work was some of the finest songwriting out there. The clip below is an acoustic performance of one of the new songs on the album.
Rockstanding 
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