Connected Kingdom

Psalms & Ecclesiastes

Tim Challies & David Murray — Wed, 22 May 2013 21:44:51 +0000

As you know by now, David Murray and I are taking a course together and we invited everyone else to take it with us. Together we are going through R.C. Sproul’s course on the Old Testament’s Prophets, Poetry, and Wisdom Literature. Week-by-week we are recording a podcast to share our thoughts and answer some questions.

In this week’s podcast we look at Psalms and Ecclesiastes. And David also gives us an introduction to his baby son who was born last week.

Podcast: Minor Prophets & Wisdom Literature

Tim Challies & David Murray — Wed, 08 May 2013 18:07:17 +0000

As you know by now, David Murray and I are taking a course together and we have invited everyone else to take it with us. Together we are going through R.C. Sproul’s course on the Old Testament’s Prophets, Poetry, and Wisdom Literature. Week-by-week we are recording a podcast to share our thoughts and answer some questions.

In this week’s podcast we look at Joel, Micah, and Habakkuk and then turn to Dr. Sproul’s introduction to Wisdom Literature. We also talk about the baby David and Shona are expecting any day now.

Podcast: Ezra, Nehemiah, Amos and Hosea

Tim Challies & David Murray — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 18:32:38 +0000

As you know by now, David Murray and I are taking a course together and we have invited everyone else to take it with us. Together we are going through R.C. Sproul's course on the Old Testament's Prophets, Poetry, and Wisdom Literature. Week-by-week we are recording a podcast to share our thoughts and answer some questions.

This week’s podcast covers Ezra, Nehemiah, Amos and Hosea. We look at some of the most important parts of these books and try to answer a few of the most pressing questions.

Podcast: Ezekiel & Daniel

Tim Challies & David Murray — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 17:10:20 +0000

As you know by now, David and I are taking a course together and we have invited everyone else to take it with us. Together we are going through R.C. Sproul’s course on the Old Testament’s Prophets, Poetry, and Wisdom Literature. Week-by-week we are recording a podcast to share our thoughts and answer some questions.

Do accept our apologies for missing last week’s podcast. And please accept my apologies for being AWOL for this week’s episode in which David flies solo. I arrived in Orlando with an awful case of food poisoning and spent the whole first day in the fetal position (or wishing I was in the fetal position). So David hit the record button on his own and did his best to answer some of the most urgent questions from those who are taking this course with us. Listen in and I’m sure you’ll benefit from it.

Podcast: The Exile

Tim Challies & David Murray — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 17:59:00 +0000

As you know by now, David Murray and I are taking a course together and we invited others to participate with us. Well over 1,200 people signed up and we are now working our way through R.C. Sproul’s course on the Old Testament prophets and wisdom literature. We are supplementing this course with our Connected Kingdom Podcast.

Last week, instead of looking to a specific book of the Old Testament, we looked to a period of history—the exile—and allowed Dr. Sproul to guide us through some of the highlights and some of the worst of that period. David and I then took some time to consider the book together and to answer some of the questions other students asked us. David also offers some helpful counsel on learning and understanding Old Testament history. We hope you find it helpful!

Podcast: The Weeping Prophet

Tim Challies & David Murray — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 18:40:46 +0000

As you know by now, David Murray and I are taking a course together and have invited others to participate with us. Well over 1,200 people had signed up as of last week and we've now begun to work our way through R.C. Sproul's course on the Old Testament prophets and wisdom literature. We are supplementing this course with our Connected Kingdom Podcast.

Last week we looked to the book of Jeremiah and allowed Dr. Sproul to guide us through the most essential messages of that book. David and I then took some time to consider the book together and to answer some of the questions other students asked us. We hope you find it helpful!

Podcast: Reading and Understanding Isaiah

Tim Challies & David Murray — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 19:32:36 +0000

As you know by now, David Murray and I are taking a course together and have invited others to participate with us. Well over 1,200 people had signed up as of last week and we’ve now begun to work our way through R.C. Sproul’s course on the Old Testament prophets and wisdom literature. We are supplementing this course with our Connected Kingdom Podcast.

This week we answer some of the questions that have arisen about Elijah and Isaiah. David does most of the heavy-lifting since he is, after all, the professor of Old Testament. I chime in to offer some suggestions on how to gather resources that will guide you through the reading of any book of the Bible. Along the way I refer to an amazing testimony of the Lord’s grace in one man’s life. You can find it here: The Revival of a Rebel Jew.

If you would like to take this course with us, there is still a short time to join in. Simply click here and join the version of the course led by David and me. Have the first, second and third lesson completed by March 18 and you'll be right there with us. And in the meantime, give the podcast a quick listen.

Podcast: The Life of Elijah

Tim Challies & David Murray — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 21:42:42 +0000

David Murray and I are taking a course together and, as we’ve mentioned a couple of times now, we’ve invited you (yes you!) to take it with us. As we take the course, led by Dr. R.C. Sproul, we are recording weekly podcasts to discuss what we have been learning and to answer some of the questions that students ask of us.

There are almost 1,200 people taking the course with us and they come from all over the world. This map (though small) shows the international flavor!

This week’s lesson was on Elijah. In the podcast (which is only about 15 minutes long) David and I discuss some of what we learned and answer a few of the questions other students asked. We trust it will be helpful as supplemental material.

If you would like to take this course with us, there is still time to join in. Simply click here and join the version of the course led by David and me. Have the first and second lesson completed by March 11 and you'll be right there with us. And in the meantime, give the podcast a quick listen.

Podcast: Take a Course With Me!

Tim Challies & David Murray — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 21:19:56 +0000

Last week David Murray and I announced that we will be taking a course together and that we would love for you (yes you!) to take it with us. As we take the course, led by Dr. R.C. Sproul, we will be recording weekly podcasts to discuss what we have been learning and to answer some of the questions that students ask of us.

This first podcast, which you can listen to right here, talks about why we are doing this course and introduces a few of the students. It also reminds you that the course officially begins today, which is to say you’ve got between now and next Monday to take the first lesson (which is on Elijah).

If you would like to take this course with us, there is still time to join in. Simply click here and join the version of the course led by David and me. Have that first lesson completed by March 4 and you’ll be right there with us. And in the meantime, give the podcast a quick listen.

An Unparalyzed Faith

Tim Challies & David Murray — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 19:08:32 +0000

Robert Shelby’s boys saved his life. On July 3 Shelby, a pastor in Baton Rouge, was teaching them how to swim when he dove a little too deep and slammed his head into the bottom of the pool, breaking his C-5 vertebra. Unable to move, unable to swim, he was helpless to save himself. For a few moments he hovered between life and death until his young sons realized that something was amiss. They dragged him from the pool, performed CPR and saved his life.

Last week David Murray and I spoke to Robert about his accident and about life in the aftermath. He is now adjusting to life with quadriplegia (and do note as you listen to the interview that one of the effects of his condition is that it keeps his voice from being as expressive as it once was) and hoping to soon return to the pulpit.

Here is a link to the Shelby Family Fund.

Picture source and story

If you would like to give us feedback or join in the discussion, go ahead and look up our Facebook Group or leave a comment right here. You will always be able to find the most recent episode here on the blog. If you would like to subscribe via iTunes, you can do that here or if you want to subscribe with another audio player, you can try this RSS link.

An Interview with Paul Washer

Tim Challies & David Murray — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 18:38:29 +0000

Though David Murray and I took a short hiatus from our Connected Kingdom podcast while I travelled to Asia, we are back at last. This week we spent some time with Paul Washer, speaking to him about his new book, about his ministry, and (of course) about the Shocking Youth Message that has in many ways come to define him and his ministry. Here is a short index to our conversation (which lasts just about 25 minutes):

1.00 Why did you write your new book, The Gospel's Power and Message.
2.30 Who is Paul Washer the person? Conversion, family, hobbies, calling to mission work, etc.
7.30 What have you learned through your wife's protracted illness?
8.30 Present work is training and supporting 175 missionaries among unreached people groups.
10.15 What's the greatest need of the church in India?
11.35 How has that "Shocking Youth Message" changed your life?
16.00 What is Gospel reductionism and what are its fruits?
20.00 Has the Gospel-centered movement helped the church?
22.45 What would be your 2 minute message to pastors about building positively for the future?

The Testimony of an Unlikely Convert

Tim Challies & David Murray — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 17:57:30 +0000

There are some stories that just need to be told—some testimonies of the Lord’s grace that are so unusual and so encouraging that they will bless everyone who hears them. This is exactly the case with Rosaria Butterfield who recently authored The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert. David Murray and I recently interviewed Butterfield for an episode of the Connected Kingdom Podcast. At the very least, make sure you listen to the first ten minutes or so where she shares the way the Lord saved her. After hearing how she came to know the Lord, we also talk about issues related to the church and homosexuality.

Interviewing Tullian Tchividjian

Tim Challies & David Murray — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 17:47:57 +0000

Tullian Tchividjian is author of several books, including the much-celebrated Jesus + Nothing = Everything. His most recent book is titled Glorious Ruin and it deals with the always-tricky subject of suffering. Tullian was kind enough to be our guest on The Connected Kingdom podcast. What made the interview particularly interesting, at least to me, was that David had some significant disagreements with some of what the book contained so he and Tullian talked out some of those things. I found their interaction very helpful. But, of course, there’s a lot more to it than that. We also speak to him about his own experiences of suffering, why he chose to write about it at this time, and a whole lot more.

Early Infant Loss

Tim Challies & David Murray — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 19:32:08 +0000

In this week’s episode of the Connected Kingdom podcast, David and I discuss a difficult subject. Early infant loss is a term that applies to miscarriage, stillbirth, and the death of a newborn. We asked Glenda Mathes to join us to help us understand this issue from a practical and biblical perspective. Glenda is the author of Little One Lost: Living With Early Infant Loss and we ask her about how we can minister to (and how we should not attempt to minister to) those who have suffered this kind of loss, about the guilt that is so often a part of the grieving process, about how the church has too often failed such people, and about so much more. From a pastoral perspective, and simply from the perspective of one who has known many who have suffered such a loss, I found her wise counsel very helpful. I trust you will find the same as you listen in.

Living With Your Eyes Wide Open

Tim Challies & David Murray — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 17:25:19 +0000

In this week’s episode of The Connected Kingdom, David Murray and I talk to Steve DeWitt. Steve is the author of Eyes Wide Open, one of my favorite books of 2012 (here’s my review). It is a book about beauty, about learning to enjoy God in everything. We talk to Steve about:

Getting married (just a few weeks ago) at the age of 44 and after 20 years in ministry
Why God created this world to be beautiful
How beauty is meant to motivate worship
Whether beautiful art is objectively good or whether there needs to be an explicit gospel message
Why beauty can be so closely associated with lust

We discuss more than that, of course, but that’s the gist of it. I think giving it a listen will prove well worth your while.

Race, Women, Politics, Gospel

Tim Challies & David Murray — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 17:33:01 +0000

I was unexpectedly called away to a pastoral situation which left David to fly solo on this week’s podcast. He was joined by Trillia Newbell, an African American journalist and blogger who lives in Tennessee and often writes about the interconnected issues of race, women, politics, and the Gospel. The interview covers these issues in addition to Trillia’s conversion story, her experience of four miscarriages, and the voting dilemma that faces many African Americans. You can find more of Trillia’s writing at www.trillianewbell.com and www.wogmagazine.com.

What Is The Gospel Project All About?

Tim Challies & David Murray — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 20:48:51 +0000

On this week’s podcast, we’re joined by Trevin Wax, who’s packed a lot into his relatively short life: missionary to Romania (where he also met his wife), Southern Baptist associate pastor, Gospel Coalition blogger, and now Managing Editor of The Gospel Project. We take a quick run through Trevin’s bio before settling down to talk about the exciting work he’s been doing in preparing Gospel-centered curriculum for the whole church. We asked Trevin to “sell us” on the package and he did a pretty good job. He also answered some of the criticisms that a project of this nature inevitably attracts.

Meeting Mike Reeves

Tim Challies & David Murray — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 20:09:04 +0000

On this week’s episode of the Connected Kingdom podcast, David and I talk to Michael Reeves. Reeves works for UCCF and is the author of a book I absolutely loved, Delighting in the Trinity (you may want to check out my review). We talk to Mike about his work with UCCF but focus on discussions of the Trinity—where Christians tend to go wrong, why illustrations don’t help, why Modalism (or is it Moodalism?) is such an egregious error, and how we can truly delight in the triune God.

Social Media, Life & Ministry

Tim Challies & David Murray — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 17:09:09 +0000

After a summer-long hiatus, the Connected Kingdom Podcast is back at last. In this episode, David Murray and I interview Nathan Bingham. Nathan is a social media guru and we talk to him about this strange new, digital world, what it means to be connected, how the explosion of information has changed us, and so on.

If you'd like to give us feedback or join in the discussion, go ahead and look up our Facebook Group or leave a comment right here. You will always be able to find the most recent episode here on the blog. If you would like to subscribe via iTunes, you can do that here or if you want to subscribe with another audio player, you can try this RSS link.

Thinking About Seminary

Tim Challies & David Murray — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 16:29:42 +0000

This week's Connected Kingdom podcast discusses with seminary, whether it is good and necessary and wise and all the rest. You won’t be surprised to learn that David Murray does the bulk of the speaking! You've got two options: You can read the transcript below or you can listen in by clicking on the audio player. If you listen in, you'll be able to hear the two of us interact a little bit.

I have a hate-love relationship with Seminary.

When I was converted in my early twenties, and sensed an almost immediate sense of call to the ministry, I was looking at six years of training before I got near a congregation. (I'd gone straight from High School into Finance, because, I mean, who needs a degree to make a million dollars? Right!)

Six years? Three years at University, then three at Seminary? The world needs me, the Church needs me, lost souls need me! Why do I need books, lectures, professors, etc?

I was ready to jump on to MV Logos and save the world. Yet, despite trying hard to find someone to confirm my vital stop-the-clock mission, every voice, without exception, told me to get some education and some theological training first.

So with much reluctance and considerable resistance, I started the long, weary six-year plod through Glasgow University, then Seminary in Edinburgh.

Seminary Misery

Glasgow University taught me how to learn, and Seminary taught me what I needed to learn. At least, that was the theory. I'm afraid my Seminary years were a fairly miserable experience. Some of that was my own fault; but most of it wasn't.

This is not the place to enter into the details, but suffice to say that the Seminary's Faculty and the student body were angrily divided and fatally distracted by a major theological and moral controversy that eventually split our Presbyterian denomination. For that, and for other reasons, it was hardly the best place to learn or to prepare for ministry. I lost 24lbs going through Seminary (most people go the other way) because of the stress!

I'm telling you all this because I want to demonstrate that my current appreciation for Seminaries and their role in preparing men for ministry has been despite my own prejudices before Seminary and and my painful experiences in it. I've been won over through experience in the ministry and by seeing how wonderful places Seminaries can potentially be.

Seminary Hybrid

But one other detour before I get to that...After our Presbyterian denomination split, my own side of that divide were left without a Seminary or a Professor. After trying a few options, we eventually decided to start our own distance-learning Seminary.

As we couldn't afford to hire full-time professors, we asked five pastors to add teaching duties to their pastoral work and to teach our handful of students using mainly distance education methods. The idea was that our students would stay in their own home congregations, receive lectures to read and listen to, and then come together for a couple of days a month for face-to-face instruction with the five pastor-lecturers.

I was a real enthusiast for this "hybrid" approach as I thought it would avoid some of the dangers and difficulties of the residential seminary method that I suffered.

On the whole it worked very well. The part-time lecturers did an amazing job of producing quality lectures on top of their pastoral work. At times it was frustrating for the teachers to have so little face-time with the students. Seminary training is much more than data-transfer. Ethos and pathos are as important as logos and you can't communicate that without personal presence.

Some students found it very hard to motivate themselves without the daily discipline of lectures and seminars. The few face-to-face days were great, but they also reminded the students of how lonely the in-between weeks were. Some students were well-supported in their home congregations; others, however, had very little local interest or input.

Seminary Circle

And now I've come full circle. I started out hating Seminary before I even got there. I grew to hate it even more through my experience of training in one. I saw the potential of a healthy Seminary, though in a hybrid model, and now I'm teaching in a residential Seminary and I love it.

Although there can be significant disadvantages, and although it does not fit every student or church situation, on the whole I believe a good Seminary is a great way to prepare for a lifetime of ministry.

I'm not saying it's the only way - we all know men, past and present, who've had faithful and fruitful ministries without Seminary training. And I'm definitely not supporting Seminary training divorced from the local church - that's a disaster area. However I do believe in a significant role for Seminaries in training men for the ministry. Even where a large part of a man's training is in a local church, I would strongly encourage the integration of well-taught Seminary courses, or even a short period of residential study in a Seminary.

Benefits for students

Some of the benefits of a Seminary education are:

Well-trained teachers whose primary task is preparing men for Gospel ministry
Emphasis on original language training equips for a long ministry of fruitful and varied expository ministry
Forces you to study subjects you would not choose to but which you need to
Discipline of daily lectures/assignments/tests is good training for ministry routine and responsibilities
Access to well-stocked library
Fellowship and lifelong friendship with students from other cultures and nations (this is a huge plus).

Disadvantages

However, I know all too well that there are disadvantages, and I highlight them here, not as deal-breakers but as areas that require extra thought and care if we are to avoid Seminaries becoming a hindrance rather than a help:

Uprooting of family to live as "pilgrims and strangers" for a few years
Cost - is it right to leave Seminary with $20,000+ of debt?
Emphasis on PhD qualification attracts academic and scholarly staff, who are often lacking pastoral ministry experience in a local church
Students may become attracted to the academic life and lose the burden of ministry and mission
Pressure of academic success may quash spiritual life and even push out responsibilities to minister to your family, neighbors, etc.
Unless you choose your Seminary wisely you will expose yourself to unchallenged liberal theology and practice that may ultimately undermine your faith and your confidence in Scripture.
Living in an "unreal" world for a few years might disconnect you from everyday reality for most people (TIP: try to work, for a few years at least, in the "real" world before coming to Seminary)
Too much focus on the intellectual at the expense of the practical
Seminary becomes the master rather than the servant of the Church

Conclusion

Seminary is not a "Finishing School" for pastors. It's more like a starting school. It sets you up for a lifetime of learning. In fact, if all Seminary teaches you is how much you have to learn - it might be worth it just for that.

If you choose to listen to the audio recording, you will hear David and me interact a little bit.

Thinking About Conferences

Tim Challies & David Murray — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 16:12:31 +0000

This week's Connected Kingdom podcast deals with conferences, their strengths and weaknesses, and the ways in which I benefit from them. You've got two options: You can read the transcript below or you can listen in by clicking on the audio player. If you listen in, you'll be able to hear the two of us interact a little bit.

I have had the privilege of attending an awful lot of conferences over the past few years. At first I went as a liveblogger, sitting through each session and tapping out a summary of what the speaker said. More recently I have gone as an attender or sometimes even as a speaker. I suppose this means that I’ve seen conferences from just about every angle.

I like conferences and I believe in their value. Of course, like every other good thing in life, they demand moderation. I have met genuine conference groupies, people who follow conferences like Deadheads follow the Grateful Dead. I have met pastors whose churches allow them to attend five major conferences each year. I can’t imagine how that can be healthy or financially-sustainable! But a conference or two a year can offer times of learning, refreshment and relationship that can benefit any Christian, whether a layperson or a pastor.

I believe there are several different ways you can benefit from a conference.

Teaching Value

The most obvious benefit of a conference is in the teaching. In the Christian world in general, and in this segment of the Christian world in particular, we have no shortage of great conferences featuring wonderful speakers. There are the usual suspects: Ligonier, Shepherd’s, Desiring God, Together for the Gospel, Gospel Coalition, and many others. Each one of them draws well-known, highly-skilled teachers and many thousands of attendees. Then there are, literally, hundreds of smaller events. There is no doubt: We are well-served by conferences.

I believe in the teaching value of conferences, and particularly so when the event has a well-defined theme. Hearing several people teach on a common subject, moving from the beginning to end of a topic, can be powerful and effective. I don’t think I will ever forget the Desiring God conference that looked at Suffering and the Sovereignty of God. That teaching genuinely changed me. I definitely won’t ever forget R.C. Sproul’s message at the 2008 Together for the Gospel conference where he looked at the curse motif of the Old Testament. Thousands of people sat transfixed as he led us to the cross and to the curse that was laid upon Jesus. It was an intensely powerful moment. I am hearing similar stories from David Platt’s message at this year’s Together for the Gospel.

I believe in conferences for their value in teaching. If teaching is high on your list, consider Together for the Gospel or Gospel Coalition to sit under the teaching of some of today’s most popular preachers. If you prefer an event that sticks closely to a theme, consider Ligonier Ministries or Desiring God’s annual general conferences. And, of course, be sure to look for events that may come to your local area. Go and learn.

People Value

Conferences also have great people value and, in my experience, this may be the greatest and most lasting benefit. Teaching is wonderful, of course, but what I love about conferences is the way they bring people together. In the midst of a digital world, conferences provide one of the only sources of real connectivity that most of us experience. I have emailed with Brian Croft a hundred times, but at last week’s Together for the Gospel I was finally able to meet him, to put a face to the name, to share a meal with him. The Internet gives us the ability to form relationships with more people and often we form these relationships based on common interests. Conferences take people of common interest and give them a good reason to be together in a common space.

When I attend a conference I love to meet new people and form real-world relationships with them. I also love to meet up with people I’ve met before. There are actually plenty of people--friends even--that I’ve only ever been face-to-face with at a conference. These events offer a great opportunity to be with people. So when you go to a conference, be sure that you set aside some time to be with people even if this has to come at the expense of some of the teaching.

If the people value of an event is high on your list, be sure to consider Shepherd’s Conference or The Basics Conference; both of these events offer a relaxed schedule and plenty of opportunities to spend time with people, including the speakers.

Excitement Value

Finally, conferences have a unique ability to get you excited, to get you pumped up about things that interest you. This can be either a great benefit or a great drawback; there are many people who go to a conference and come back pumped up about something that will soon fade away again. But for many more, a conference will renew and refresh. It will refresh them physically or mentally, allowing the teacher to receive some teaching or the busy mom to take a couple of days to get away from the normal routines. The excitement of a conference serves to stir up old feelings, to renew things long forgotten or neglected. It offers a different context or a different way of hearing things and this can be very powerful.

There you have three reasons to attend a conference this year—for teaching, for relationships and for the excitement of doing so. Each of these reasons is valid; each of them is good.

If you choose to listen to the audio recording, you will hear David and me interact a little bit.

Workaholism

Tim Challies & David Murray — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 17:13:26 +0000

This week’s Connected Kingdom podcast has David talking about workaholism, one of those sanctified sins that has infiltrated the church. You've got two options: You can read the transcript below or you can listen in by clicking on the audio player. If you listen in, you'll be able to hear the two of us interact a little bit.

Hello, my name’s David, and I’m a recovering workaholic. And I say that with no sense of pride, even though workaholism is one of our society's most "respected”, even admirable sins. In fact, perhaps one of the places it is most admired is in the church, and especially in the Christian ministry.

Few Christians put this sin in the same category as homosexuality or murder. Yet, workaholism has probably destroyed more souls, especially in Christian homes, and maybe especially in pastors' and missionaries’ homes, than either of these sins. Many pastors spend their days denouncing this -ism, that -ism, and every other -ism, while seeking and accepting plaudits for their workaholism.

Diagnosis

So how do you know if you are a workaholic? Workaholics Anonymous - yes, there is such an organization - provides 20 questions. They include:

Do you get more excited about your work than about family or anything else?
Do you take work with you to bed? On weekends? On vacation?
Do you believe that it is okay to work long hours if you love what you are doing?
Do you get irritated when people ask you to stop doing your work in order to do something else?
Have your long hours hurt your family or other relationships?

Does that sound like someone you know? Your pastor? You?

Causes

Idolatry is at the root of a lot of workaholism. Many make “work” their functional god, and it can be a very satisfying one too. It doesn't just take; it gives back too. It often rewards with money, position, power, prestige, and praise

Other workaholics are motivated by greed. The work may be unsatisfying but the money sure promises to make up for it.

For some it's all about escaping less pleasant, less "glamorous" responsibilities. Far easier to be a frequent flier than change diapers; to speak at conferences than speak to your teenage son; to chair board meetings than comfort your lonely wife.

For some, work is a matter of identity; it's what defines them. In the 18th century most obituaries focused on the character of the deceased and rarely mentioned occupation. 150 years later, most obituaries assess a person in connection with their occupation and achievements. Probably explains many early graves as well.

Many workaholics are unable to trust God with their jobs and finances, and end up relying on excessive hours rather than on their heavenly Father.

Effects

Like all -isms, this addiction is a destroyer. It destroys marriages, relationships with children, friendships, and usefulness in the church. It destroys happiness, it destroys bodies, and it destroys souls.

And yet this destroyer is so deceptive, so plausible: "I’m doing it for my family…I'm trying to get my kid through college…I'm serving God…"

And pastors, I know, there are unending stories in Christian literature about how many hours famous ministers and missionaries worked. What many of the biographies don't tell you is that many of them died young or suffered long seasons of disease and burnout.

Cure

The cure begins with cold turkey; take a full week off work, yes a full week, in order to examine yourself in the light of God's Word. Ask your family if they think you've got work in the right place. How is your relationship with God, your devotional time? Listen to your body; is it bearing up under the stress or is it beginning to break up as you wear out your machinery?

Confess workaholism to God, and He will forgive you. He forgives all addicts who repent and seek mercy in Christ. Trusting in the finished work of Christ will bring a new calm, peace, and perspective into your life.

Then, to prove that your repentance is genuine, plot a future containing these elements:

Take every Sunday off work. If you are a pastor, designate any other day and stick to it. “Six days you shall labor" applies to pastors as well.
Memorize Ps.127v1-2, and believe it.
Set a reasonable number of working hours per week (recent research shows a huge loss of productivity after 40 hours of work in a week).
Do not answer email or make work-related phone calls on vacation.
Schedule daily exercise and family time.
Remember your created limits. So much of workaholism is a defiance of the physical limitations that God our creator has imposed upon us.
Remember that the Lord has also put a curse on work. Knowing that fallen man would seek ultimate satisfaction in his work, rather than in Him, God built in “thorns and thistles and sweat” to drive man from work to Himself.
Project yourself to your deathbed. A hospice nurse recently said that she has not yet cared for a man that did not regret how many hours he put into his work.

Conclusion

As for the rest of us, let’s not encourage workaholics by praising their addiction. Would you praise a drug addict or an alcoholic? Do them a favor, call them to repentance.

If it’s a pastor, remind him that not only is he sinning against God by harming himself and his family, he’s also providing a damaging role model for other men in the congregation.

Fiction

Tim Challies & David Murray — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 12:55:53 +0000

This week's episode of the Connected Kingdom Podcast has me talking about fiction—the value of reading novels (and this at David’s request). You've got two options: You can read the transcript below or you can listen in by clicking on the audio player. If you listen in, you'll be able to hear the two of us interact a little bit.

There is power in story. Christians have long realized this and today, perhaps more than any other time in the history of the church, believers speak of the whole sweep of Christian theology as a story--a story that has its beginning in the Creation of the world and a story that will close with the consummation, with God renewing this world and raising us to join him in it. This is the story that will go on and on forever, the story of all stories. Jesus himself used story in powerful ways, sharing amazing and important truths through parables, short stories designed to both hide and reveal truth--to hide it from those who would not hear and to reveal it to those who longed for it. It is worth noting, of course, that much of the Bible comes in the form of story and that the bestselling Christian book apart from the Bible--The Pilgrim's Progress--is a story.

I confess that I usually enjoy fiction only in short batches. Every year or two I will pick up a few novels--a few that have been nominated for a Pulitzer prize, perhaps, and I will read them through. They transport me to strange places and, more often than not, make me uncomfortable. But I almost always benefit from them. They give me a glimpse into someone else's mind, someone else's world or worldview. And as often as not they also tell me what other people, the people around me, are thinking or feeling, or what they will be thinking or feeling soon enough.

In some ways fiction tends to be just very slightly upstream from culture, which is to say that the kind of fiction that deals with ideas and not just stories or passion or action, puts into words the times, the thoughts and feelings that pervade the culture or will soon pervade the culture. These works of fiction ask the questions so many are asking.

I have heard it said that the purpose of fiction is to ask questions while the purpose of nonfiction is to answer them. That may be an over-simplification, but maybe it is not too far off the mark. At least that has been my experience of fiction. Fiction introduces ideas and evokes feelings and arouses emotion. These feelings demand answers or make us long for them. There are many questions I have been asked in fiction that I've had to go to the world of nonfiction to answer.

Cormac McCarthy's novels ask if there is hope even in a world like this one, a world of darkness and depravity. John Piper has rightly said that Cormac McCarthy is to the American literary canon what the book of Judges is to the biblical canon. McCarthy portrays the darkness of humanity and asks us if there is hope even here. It doesn't offer answers--just questions, questions brought about by deep feelings of pain or revulsion or sadness. Answers must be found elsewhere.

The recent novel The Snow Child asks, Is it worth loving if we can love for only a short time? Where do we find our hope and our joy? It makes us hope and long and wish and maybe even believe. But it asks questions that it cannot answer.

Olive Kitteredge, a recent Pulitzer Prize winner, asks what value there is in life and what joy can be found in growing old. What do we do about the sins we committed so many years ago? Do they still matter? And how can two souls remain knit together even after so many years and through so much hurt and sin?

Tom Clancy...okay, never mind. His books just tell some action-packed stories.

But how about The Lord of the Rings, a true and lasting classic? Here is a novel that transports us to a world of such clear good and evil. It asks us what we will give to defeat evil and what value there is in the deepest kind of friendship. Born out of Tolkien's experiences on the front lines of the First World War, this is a novel that seeks to give a very different take on this kind of a world--a world in which good and evil do battle to the death.

We could speak of C.S. Lewis and his Narnia series, which begins with the story of the Bible and then wonders, how would a story like this be told if there was a very different land in which it was always winter but never Christmas and where the Lion of Judah was actually a lion? But like most other fiction, it asks questions more than it answers them. It hints at something more, points to something beyond itself.

I am convinced that to truly enjoy fiction we need to have a knowledge of what is true and fixed and unchanging, which is to say, we need to know the Bible. So many questions are asked in the pages of books that can only be answered in the pages of The Book. The Bible interprets and refines and answers. It gives hope where fiction is hopeless, it gives light where fiction is dark, it gives joy where fiction is depressing. Fiction gives us stories of the world as it is or the world as someone images it; an author takes his experiences and hopes and desires and dreams and wraps them in a story. The Bible takes that story and makes sense of it. It tells us why the world is this way, why this author's experience of the world has been so painful, why there is still hope even in a world like this.

That is what I love in fiction; that is why I love fiction that probes the deep questions and asks the tough questions. If I did not have access to the answers through God's Word I would despair. But the Bible skillfully parries each blow and patiently, carefully answers each question. The fixed and unchangeable Word of God is the interpreter.

So I encourage Christians to read fiction--to read it carefully and discerningly and while listening to conscience and to allow it to asks its questions--but to always read it with the Bible as the source of answers.

A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words

Tim Challies & David Murray — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 17:03:31 +0000

This week's episode of the Connected Kingdom Podcast has David talking about typology in the Bible; if that sounds dry, it’s because you don’t understand it well enough! Understanding even just the basics of typology transforms the way you read the Old Testament. You've got two options: You can read the transcript below or you can listen in by clicking on the audio player. If you listen in, you’ll be able to hear the two of us interact a little bit.

"A picture is worth a thousand words."

How?

Pictures help us remember, understand, and look forward.

When we want to remember our wedding, we don't get our diaries or journals out; we open the photo album. When we want to understand how a rocket works, we don't get NASA's instruction manual out; we look for some pictures. When we are looking forward to our vacation, we don't look up Wikipedia; we look up Google images.

"A picture is worth a thousand words." It helps us remember better, it helps us understand better, and it helps us anticipate the future better.

That's why God used so many pictures in the Old Testament. Vivid visuals like the Passover lamb, or the flood, or the Tabernacle helped Israel remember better, understand better, and look forward better.

The study of how God used pictures to teach His people is usually called "Typology," not the kind of word that we are terribly familiar with. Basically it means "Picture-ology." Or as a famous blogger once put it "Visual Theology."

Let's try to define a type and see if it helps us to understand typology better:

A type is a real person, place, object, or event that God ordained to act as a predictive pattern or resemblance of Christ's person and work.

Let's unpack that a little:

A type is a real person, place, object or event: it is true, real, and factual (not made-up)
That God ordained: it does not resemble Christ's person or work by mere coincidence but by divine plan (mere resemblance is not enough; it has to be divinely ordained resemblance)
To act as a predictive pattern or resemblance: the same truth is found in the original picture and the ultimate fulfillment
Of Christ's person and work: the truth in the picture is enlarged, heightened, and clarified in the fulfillment by Christ.

In some ways Baptism and the Lord's Supper are pictures of truth. The difference between OT and NT pictures is that OT pictures look forward to Christ's person and work whereas NT pictures look back to Christ's person and work.

Two Disadvantages

Our 21^st Century Western minds encounter two major obstacles when we come to think about OT Picture-ology.

First, we don't do pictures. We are quite good at words and numbers - reading, science, technology, logic, and arithmetic. We like precision, clarity, and brevity.

But we don't really do picture; art, symbol, metaphor, meditation, poetry, etc., are strange and suspect to most of us. Propositional theology = good; visual theology = bad!

That, of course, doesn't help when it comes to interpreting the OT, which contains so many pictures, symbols and metaphors. However, pictures really played to the strengths of the original readers, the Israelites, who like most Eastern cultures of that day, were very familiar with the idea of using pictures, symbols, song, etc., to remember the past, learn in the present, and anticipate the future.

Second, we don't fully appreciate how future-focused the Old Testament was. From Genesis 3:15 onwards, the expectation and anticipation of a Savior was being continually fostered by God and His servants. However much Israel were reminded of the past, and taught for the present, they were always peering over the horizon for the coming Savior, variously known as "the Seed of the woman," "the Seed of Abraham," and "the Son of David." And they used the Old Testament types - persons, place, objects, events - as glasses to help them look in the right direction and look for the right person.

Take the Passover lamb as an example. It reminded Israel of God's past deliverance. It also taught them vital present truths: (1) God's anger against sin, (2) God's anger can be turned away by the sacrificial blood of a perfect substitute, (3) God grants safety only to those who are "under" the blood, (4) God's salvation redeems from bondage.

But Israelites with faith used the Passover Lamb as a lens to anticipate a greater, clearer and climactic expression of these truths in the future Messiah's person and work. As John the Baptist said: "Behold the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world."

Or take the Tabernacle. When the Israelites looked at it, they learned much about God - that God desired to live among them in a similar way to them - in tents. But Israelites with faith looked ahead to the Messiah's person and work displaying and demonstrating these truths in an even greater and fuller measure. As John the Apostle said: "The Word was made flesh and dwelt (lit. tabernacled) among us."

So whether you are reading about sacrifices, the priesthood, prophets, priests, kings, the Tabernacle, the Exodus, the Exile, the life of Joseph, the life of Ruth, the life of David, or whatever, you should always be asking yourself two questions.

What did this teach the Israelites about God?
What did this teach the Israelites to expect from God in the future?

It's as if GOSPEL was spelled in 12-point font in the OT and in 1200-point in the NT! Or we might say it was pictured in the OT using thumbnails, but blown up to poster size in the New.

The Christian Life Is Not Safe

Tim Challies & David Murray — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 16:47:42 +0000

This week's episode of the Connected Kingdom Podcast (another of our new, shorter episodes) has me discussing the Christian life being safe—too safe. You've got two options: You can read the transcript below or you can listen in by clicking on the audio player.

A couple of months ago I worked with a graphic designer to put together an infographic that would display the attributes of God. Putting it together was far more worship than work as I looked to the Bible to see what God tells us about himself, about who he is and what he's like. Each one of those attributes is worthy of a study because each one is part of an answer to questions like this: Who is this God who has forgiven me for my sin? What is this God like?

He is free, he is holy, he is wise, he is true, he is immutable. All that and so much more. Conspicuously absent from that list of attributes is safe. The Bible says nothing about our God being a safe God. But that is okay, because he is good.

I suppose I'm not allowed to pick favorites, but one of the attributes I find most comforting is God's goodness. God is good, which means that he is the source of all good, he is the standard of all good, and he is only and ever and always good. That's an awesome thing to know and believe, even if it can be hard at times to apply it.

This week I've been asked to speak on "safe," or "the Christian life is not safe." So why do I go straight to goodness? Because the Christian life truly isn't safe, but that's okay because our God is good and he would never ask us or command us to do anything that is in any way bad for us. I don't just mean sinful--of course God will never lead us to sin. But he also won't lead us to do anything that is less than what is best for us.

I think C.S. Lewis got it right with this little bit of dialog from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Mr. Beaver is trying to describe the attributes of Aslan, the book's Christ-like character. Concerned that Aslan is a Lion, Susan jumps in and asks "Is he--quite safe?" "Safe?" Mr. Beaver says. "Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you."

Our God isn't safe, but he is good. Why then do so many of us live such safe lives? God's attributes describe who he is, but in many cases they also describe what we are to be. Most theologians suggest that God's attributes come in two forms: communicable and incommunicable. The attributes that are incommunicable are God's alone--he cannot and will not communicate them to any other being. You and I will never be eternal, we will never be omnipresent. But most of God's attributes are communicable--he gives them to us and we are right to pursue them. God is loving, so we are to be loving. God is merciful, so we are to extend mercy. And God is good so we, too, are to be good.

But God is not safe, so why is it that we value our safety so highly? We tend to value it above just about everything else. This isn't just physical safety--the kind of thing that keeps us inventing and wearing seatbelts and the kind of thing that keeps us locking our doors at night. This is safety that keeps us from going outside our comfort zones, from refusing to do the difficult things that take us beyond what we are comfortable with.

So we give to the Lord a safe amount of money instead of an amount that is extravagant. Our giving to the Lord is just another budget item. We share the gospel carefully or passively, but without bringing it to the people who scare us or intimidate us. We praise the people who throw safety aside and who plunge into war-torn countries or who move to the difficult parts of the city. But it doesn't do a whole lot to change our lives.

Reading the gospels can be intimidating, especially in those places that Jesus is speaking to unbelievers and telling them what it will cost them to follow him. We have to count our lives as nothing; we have to be willing to love him so much that the way we love family and friends looks like hate by contrast; we have to be willing to sell everything we have, offering ourselves up completely. That's not safe and to most people it doesn't sound good.

We who know the Lord have accepted all of this. We have agreed that our lives are dedicated to him. We have agreed that our health and safety is less important than his glory. We know this in our heads, but we have trouble translating it to our lives.

I am convinced that this failure to live comes from a failure to believe, from a conflict between our desire for safety and what God says about his own goodness. The fact is that everything that happens in your life, no matter how incomprehensible it may seem, it all happens for a reason, a good reason. All of it has been designed, lovingly crafted, to bring good to you and glory to God. This includes the difficult things as much as the good things, the things we don't like as much as the things we love.

The antidote to a safe life is a firm and growing trust in God's goodness. The Bible is full of promises to those who follow Christ, promises like this one: "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose." God asks for an all-encompassing kind of commitment. He asks for everything, but he promises even more. He isn't safe, but he is good.

Entitlement

Tim Challies & David Murray — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 13:59:00 +0000

This week’s podcast has David Murray answering my request to hear him speak on the subject of entitlement. You can read or listen to what he had to say. If you choose to listen to it, you can also hear me interact with him a little bit.

Jack Chambless is Professor of Economics at Valencia College. Every year he starts his class off by asking his students to write a 10 minute essay on what the American dream looks like to them, and what they want the federal government to do to help them achieve that dream. He describes this year's results:

About 10% of the students said they wanted the government to leave them alone, not tax them too much, and let them regulate their own lives. But over 80% of the students said that the American Dream to them meant a house and a job and plenty of money for retirement, and vacations and things like this. But when it came to the part about the federal government 8 out of 10 students said they wanted free health care, they wanted the government to pay for their tuition. They want the government to pay for the down payment on their house. They expect the government "to give them a job." Many of them said they wanted the government to tax wealthier individuals so that they would have an opportunity to have a better life.

Professor Chambless' students belong to the "Entitlement Generation," also known as the "Gimme Generation." They think they can have and should have whatever they want, whenever they want, and from whomever they want it, while others pay for it." Or more simply, as one Occupy Protestor painted on her placard, "Where's my bailout?"

That sense of economic entitlement usually goes hand in hand with education entitlement. Students now come to college expecting straight A's. That's the default. And, as Anthony Carter notes, woe-betide any professor who "fails" to comply.

Harvard Professor of Law, Lawrence Lessig, has noticed a huge increase in the sense of entitlement among students especially in questioning authority. He says that the Internet "has created a world where everybody feels entitled to question somebody else." He goes on:

There's no authority, there's no like being the professor of law from Harvard that entitles you to say here's what the truth is. There's an opening. Here's a professor of law from Harvard who says here's what the truth is. That's a way of beginning a conversation. Some fifteen year old can say I just spent the last 6 months studying about the history about the fourteenth amendment and what you just said is #@X!. Here's the right answer. We've come to this place where the younger generation just believes its their right to be as involved and as engaged as anybody.

Of course, being a Harvard professor, Lessig thinks this is great:

I think that's a thing to be celebrated and encouraged, but I think that what you recognize that what you can see in a wide range of internet contacts the sense of entitlement has driven enormous creativity and engagement that before was presumed to be disqualified.

So is it just a case of, "Well there are some pros, and some cons to this. No big deal. Let's move on?"

Jean Twenge wrote the book Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled--and More Miserable Than Ever Before. She describes the entitlement generation as "smart, brash, even arrogant, and endowed with a commanding sense of entitlement."

But, like Professor Lessig, Twenge also sees a flipside. She sees many of the "Gimme Generation" as individualists, "free-thinkers who are willing to break the status quo and pursue their dreams. Their confidence is what allows them to accomplish great things and can keep companies progressing."

Again, we're being tempted to minimize the significance of these societal changes. So, do we just shrug our shoulders and succumb to the spirit of the age? Economics Professor Thomas Sowell was interviewed about this on Fox News:

Interviewer: Professor, we had a series here a couple of weeks ago called Entitlement. There's so many things that Americans now think they are entitled to because of government largesse. Everything from health care to food stamps, houses, even jobs. How do we get out of that?

Sowell:That's going to be very tough. Because the whole media, the educational system promotes the idea that you are entitled to something. It just seems obvious. Society is not entitled to anything. We can't even get the food that we need without working for it. So when you say that somebody is entitled to it you mean that somebody else has to pay for what you want...

I'm totally with Professor Sowell on this. I see no long-term good coming from this entitlement mentality. It destroys initiative, independence, inventiveness, resourcefulness, motivation, the fear of consequences, and the link between cause and effect. It promotes indulgence, jealousy, conceit, laziness, and self-centeredness. It creates bad winners and bad losers.

It hurts marriages by putting the focus on "What can I get from him/her?" rather than "What can I give?" It hurts charity because the rich leave it to the government and withdraw from contact with the poor; the poor just get handouts from an impersonal, faceless, soulless State rather than from real caring people. Above all, a sense of entitlement destroys the Christian life.

As a Christian, I believe in one entitlement.

I'm entitled to Hell. That's the only entitlement I have. That's all I deserve, because of my sin. Anything else is grace, an unmerited bonus from the God of all grace. I don't deserve a breath of life, a crumb of food, a drop of water, a stitch of clothing, a cent in my wallet, or an hour of education. I'm not entitled to one friend, one vacation, one verse of Scripture, or even one sermon. I'm certainly not entitled to salvation and heaven. I'm entitled to damnation and Hell.

That sense of entitlement makes me seek mercy, receive mercy, enjoy mercy, and be merciful to others. To paraphrase the Apostle Paul, "What have I that I did not receive as a free gift of divine grace? How therefore can I ever boast as if I had actually been entitled to it or earned it?"

So, there are basically only two ways to live: with a proud and angry sense of entitlement or with a humble and thankful sense of responsibility.

To summarize, "The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom. 6:23).

Introverted

Tim Challies & David Murray — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 14:09:42 +0000

This week's episode of the Connected Kingdom Podcast (another of our new, shorter episodes) has me discussing introversion. You’ve got two options: You can read the transcript below or you can listen in by clicking on the audio player.

I am an introvert. Whatever an introvert is, I know it is a description that applies to me. The classic definition of an introvert pretty much describes me to a T. The problem is that it's not a label I am comfortable with.

We are taught today that there is a kind of binary distinction between people--some are introverts and some are extroverts. If you've ever taken a personality test or aptitude test, you have probably been diagnosed as one or the other. Or more likely, you've been told that you are somewhere along a single continuum that extends from the greatest introvert to the greatest extrovert. It is a line and all of us fall along it somewhere. When I was in the workforce there were a few occasions that I had to take the Myers-Brigg Type Indicator test and I was always shown to be pretty far along that scale. That's just who I am. Or is it?

What people mean by this personality distinction is that some people are naturally shy and inward-focused while others are outgoing and other-focused. Some are introspective while others are assertive. Introverts tend to need to get away from people in order to rest and recharge; extroverts tend to need to get together with people in order to do the same. This kind of distinction impacts all of life, it describes each one of us in a really basic, foundational way. It's an attempt to answer the question, Who am I?

But here is my concern: introvert is not a biblical word and, as far as I can see, not even a biblical concept. This doesn't mean that it's necessarily unbiblical or anti-biblical; just that it's not a term the Bible uses to describe me, to describe the way I am, to describe my identity. It is a-biblical, unknown to the Bible. Yet it clearly describes some kind of a reality, that there are different kinds of personality.

So what is it? Is introversion like gender or race, things that are given to me and over which I have no say, just who I am? Or are they things that I can control or things that I can choose? Will we all be introverts or all be extroverts in heaven? Are these real distinctions or could it be that the are ways we excuse our sin? What I don't want to do is excuse sin or weakness by using respected or respectable terms that have no biblical basis. There are some ways that psychology offers some truth, but there are also ways in which it will inevitably lead us astray.

So how do I look at introversion through a biblical lens?

I've been helped by Ed Welch and CCEF here. Speaking on behalf of biblical counsellors he says "Terms that stay isolated from Scripture end up in the bin of 'psychological problems.' Our mission: empty that bin." The skillful biblical counsellor will want to look for ways people self-diagnose and explore those things--all of those things. That's true of psychological conditions and true of labels. If I say, "I am schizophrenic" or "I am depressive" or "I am introverted," the biblical counsellor needs to dig deep and see how and why I make that kind of distinction and how it will play out in my life. What is it that I am really saying about myself? What does it reveal about me?

Welch says that when I define my personality, when I say that I am introverted, I am actually describing and combining two things: character on the one hand and strengths and weaknesses on the other. When I say that I am introverted, I am revealing my character and revealing both strength and weakness, or perhaps either strength or weakness.

My challenge, and it is a challenge I face all the time, is to keep introversion from enabling or excusing sin. Introversion can quickly and easily become a way to validate sin. I can excuse selfishness, self-centeredness, escapism, lack of hospitality, rudeness. I can stay away from people and excuse it as being just the way I am, as being who I am. I can be shy and quiet when the Lord calls me to be strong and bold. Of course extroversion can also be a way to validate sin. The extrovert can run away from solitude, avoid spending time alone, validate himself by the amount of time he spends with others, doubt himself when he is alone. This introvert/extrovert distinction affects each of us in all kinds of ways.

I find it interesting that in my life right now I have two main spheres of public responsibility and influence. Blogging is an ideal setting for an introvert. I can stay in my office and tap away on my computer all day long. A shy and quiet person, I can appear strong and bold from behind a keyboard--the quietest coward can be a hero in the blogosphere. Blogging is an ideal means of communication for the introvert. But then I am also a pastor and in many ways it seems like extroverts have a natural advantage in ministry. The ministry offers a special kind of challenge for the introvert when it demands spending time with people, loving people, serving people; it is a people-oriented calling. And as a pastor this is one of my greatest challenges, not to retreat into myself, not to run away from people. I have had to learn not to avoid opportunities that are difficult for me but which bring opportunities to teach and serve the people I love.

In the end I see introversion as simply a descriptor, something that states the reality that at heart, in my natural state, I am a shy and quiet person. It is intensely difficult for me to be with a lot of people for a long time and it is incredibly draining for me to stand in front of a group of people. It can feel like death to preach a sermon. Being alone or being with just my wife is life to me. In this way introversion describes my natural inclinations and predispositions. I don't expect this to ever change. But what I demand of myself is to ensure that I do not allow my personality, my introversion, to have a negative impact on my life and ministry. I want to emphasize and enjoy the ways that introversion is healthy for me and effective in ministry, and I want to work hard to deny what seems to good and natural when it will have a negative impact.

If you choose to listen to the podcast you can hear David interact with this a little bit. Also, you’ll hear that David’s challenge for next week will be to speak on the subject of entitlement.

An Ordinary Podcast

Tim Challies & David Murray — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:49:38 +0000

This week’s episode of the Connected Kingdom Podcast (another of our new, shorter episodes) has David Murray answering a question I asked him last week: What’s it like to be ordinary? You can listen in or read along…

What would you say if one of your friends asked you, "David tell us what it's like to be ordinary?"

Well I had the privilege of "enjoying" that experience last week. When offered the opportunity to challenge me to speak on a subject of his own choice, my friend Tim Challies said, "David, why don't you tell us what it's like to be ordinary."

So that's what springs into Tim's mind when he thinks of me: "Ordinary."

I mean it's not a huge insult I suppose. He didn't ask me to speak on being "Ugly" or being "Offensive" or being a "Fool." But it's not exactly the greatest compliment either is it?! "Ordinary"

OK, I didn't expect him to ask me about being "Extraordinary" or "Super-intelligent" or "Tall, dark and handsome," but I expected maybe something a bit more than "Ordinary."

Maybe something like being "Loyal" or "Consistent" or "Reliable" or something like that. But "Ordinary!?"

I looked up ordinary.com and found that it's owned by Tanglewood Ordinary Restaurant - serving grandmother's Sunday dinner since 1986. Not exactly the most inviting name for a restaurant - Tanglewood Ordinary Restaurant. Ordinary.net hasn't even been purchased yet. Shows you how popular a concept "ordinary" is!

When I looked up a dictionary, I found this definition: "Ordinary: a clergyman appointed formerly in England to attend condemned criminals." It's also used to describe "some of the fundamental elements of the Catholic Mass." In Britain it can even be used of "a Tavern or eating house serving regular meals."

But I don't think Tim was meaning any of these possibilities; rather he was thinking along the lines of this definition: "ordinary - the regular or customary condition or course of things." Some synonyms are "everyday" "normal" "run of the mill" "humdrum."

Not much encouragement there, though, is there. Who wants to be ordinary, run of the mill, humdrum?

Well, the good news for me and for you is that God wants the vast majority of His people to be "ordinary."

I know I've been expressing outrage over Tim's choice of subject for me, but it's all been somewhat tongue-in-cheek. I know the sense in which Tim is using the word and that's why when he gave me the assignment, I didn't give him a punch over the Internet. Rather I said, "Thank you, Tim. I take that as the highest compliment." Because I believe that God's will for me, and indeed for most of us, is to be extraordinarily ordinary!

Let me explain what I mean!

When you read through Ephesians 1-3, you scale the immeasurable heights and depths and breadths of Christian doctrine: predestination, election, redemption, justification, sanctification, union with Christ, and so on. It leaves you utterly breathless with wonder and awe.

And you think, "Right what's coming. If God has done all that for me, what's he going to ask me to do to show my gratitude?" You come to the end of the doctrinal depths of chapter 3 with the climactic doxology: "To him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages world without end. Amen."

And you hardly dare turn the page.

Because you know that God's about to demand that you go on mission to Africa or Antarctica for the rest of your life. Or He's going to tell you to give away all your money and possessions and live in the 'hood. Or He's going to say "I want you to live on top of a pole in the desert for 40 days." Or "I want you to evangelize the whole city by midnight." Or "You must preach to 20,000 people every Sunday and plant 1000 churches before you die."

But instead, when you summon up the courage to start reading chapters 4-6 you can hardly believe your eyes. God wants me to tell the truth, to exercise my gifts in the church, to be honest, to love my wife or obey my husband, to honor my parents, to bring up my children for the Lord, to be a faithful employee and a fair employer, to be good citizen, etc.

It's hardly the stuff of bestseller biography or conference ministry is it! I mean it sounds so humdrum, so run of the mill, so...well, so ordinary.

And that's exactly what God's will for most of us is. Yes, there will always be a few Christians, maybe one in every hundred thousand, who are called to an extraordinary life or an extraordinary ministry. And yes, they're the ones that get so much attention in this inter-connected media-saturated world. So much so that we begin to think that every Christian is like them and I'm just such a boring failure.

But the reality is that God calls most Christians to ordinariness, to serve him in the everyday, in the humdrum - in the home, in the workplace, in the church, in the community and in the nation.

And that's not just found in Ephesians; you can see the same pattern in Romans, Colossians, Philippians, etc., too.

But remember I said that we are called to extraordinary ordinariness. Yes we are to serve God in these everyday run-of-the mill roles, but we are to excel in them. We are to be extraordinary wives, husbands, parents, children, employees and employers. We are to be the best ordinary we can be. And that's what will make a lasting difference to the church and the world.

Extraordinary ordinariness will have a much greater impact than mere extraordinariness. Yes, the latest Christian sports star will get a million blog posts written about him every time he breathes. Yes, the latest kid to write about his last trip to heaven and back will make millions for his parents. Yes, the newest mega church pastors will wow CNN for a few weeks.

But the greatest and the most permanent good will come from the impact and influence of extraordinarily ordinary Christians excelling in their ordinary days and duties.

Isn't that so encouraging! That will revolutionize the way I change my baby's diapers, tidy my yard, talk to my employer, manage my money, drive my car, participate in politics, behave in my marriage, and so on. On one level, it's so very ordinary. But God blesses faithful ordinariness, and especially extraordinary ordinariness to transform lives, families, churches, communities, and nations, one ordinary life at a time.

If you’d like to give us feedback or join in the discussion, go ahead and look up our Facebook Group or leave a comment right here. You will always be able to find the most recent episode here on the blog. If you would like to subscribe via iTunes, you can do that here or if you want to subscribe with another audio player, you can try this RSS link.

Crushed

Tim Challies & David Murray — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:24:54 +0000

At long last, David Murray and I are back with season 3 of The Connected Kingdom podcast. There’s a few changes this year, the most notable of which is that we are now including a [partial] transcript of the podcast. So you’ve now got the option to listen to it or read it. More information at the end…

Horatio Spafford was a man who knew pain and a man whose pain has left a powerful and lasting legacy to the church. A wealthy Chicago businessman, Spafford invested heavily in real estate and saw almost his entire fortune consumed in the Great Chicago Fire that swept the city in 1871. Far greater pain awaited him. In 1873 he decided that he and his family should enjoy a vacation. They decided to go to England since their dear friend D.L. Moody would be preaching there in the fall. Though business delayed his own departure, he sent his family on ahead. His wife Anna and their four daughters boarded the steamship Ville du Havre and set out for England. On November 22 another ship collided with that one and two hundred and twenty six people lost their lives, including all four of the Spafford girls. Upon arriving in England, Anna sent her husband a tragic telegram: "Saved alone."

Spafford set out to England to be with his wife and during that crossing penned the hymn, "It Is Well With My Soul," a powerful declaration of trust in the midst of tragedy.

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul.

"When sorrows like sea billows roll." It is a poignant metaphor, a simile really, that speaks of sorrow coming upon us like waves on a storm-tossed sea. The same sea billows that poured over the heads of his daughters, the waves that stole their lives, are now pressing hard against him, threatening to drown him in despair, to steal his soul. They are rising up above him, they are cresting and crashing down upon him, they are pulling him under and tossing him in the undertow. Yet he has more hope for his soul than his girls did for their lives. The Lord has taught him that all will be well. Whatever his lot, whatever the Lord decrees for him, he is able to say, "It is well with my soul." What was the source of such comfort in trial? It was this: "Christ hath regarded my helpless estate / And hath shed His own blood for my soul."

I am a stranger to this kind of sorrow. Though my life has not been completely free from pain and disappointment and sad farewells, I have never known sorrow to come against me like the waves of the ocean; I have never known it to threaten to drown me in despair. But discouragement, now there is something that too often crashes upon me like waves crash against the hull of a ship. There is something that often threatens to crush me.

Discouragement comes in different forms. There is discouragement that comes when I am left grappling with failure, when I have not succeeded at the things I've attempted to do well. There are the sermons that never take shape the way I had wanted them to, the ones that never seemed to yield to time and patience and brute force. There are the dreams that never grow into anything more than a rough and untenable plan, the relationships that never lead to friendship, the chapters that have to be left out of books, the opportunities wasted, the holiness lost and neglected. This life is one of so much failure and there in failure's wake is discouragement, towed along behind it.

Discouragement can come in a very different form--the form of other people's success. Here is the excruciating pain of seeing others do well in those areas where I have failed, of hearing of the sermons that went in all the directions my own never did or the books that sold a hundred copies for every one of mine. There is the discouragement of coming up to the edge of my own talent and seeing others with greater talent and greater gifts excel all the more. And there is the discouragement of seeing people with equal talents and equal gifts be offered all kinds of opportunity not open to me. Mixed up with sin and pride and envy, this kind brings with it a peculiar and poignant kind of agony.

And then there's the form of discouragement that comes with trying to do too much and be too much and exceed and excel at too much. Pride can push me here, to make me want to do more so I can be noticed by more people, and so I work too many hours and go in too many directions. I get away from the few things I've been called to, ignoring the gifts I've been given and trying to convince myself that I need to be someone I'm not. Instead of being me I try to be that guy or that guy or that one. I take my eyes off the great prize of bringing glory to God and instead put so much effort into bringing glory to myself.

And then there is the despair that seems to just come without reason and without source. It is the despair that feels almost physical, the despair that must have some kind of spiritual or supernatural source, the kind that offers no explanation, just the sense of being crushed under foot.

And there is discouragement, washing over me, and I am sinking under it, fighting desperately to manufacture some kind of joy to keep me from drowning in despair.

This is what it is to be crushed. Or nearly crushed. But there's hope when discouragement is pressing down. The Apostle Paul could say, "We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed. Perplexed but not driven to despair. Persecuted but not abandoned. Struck down but not destroyed." Where do you find that kind of hope when discouragement is thick, when it is tangible, when it surrounds you like water surrounds a man drowning in the ocean? You go where Spafford went when sorrow threatened to destroy him. You go to the day that all purposes will be revealed, that all sorrow will cease, that all discouragement will be destroyed.

And Lord haste the day, when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.

If you listen to the podcast, you’ll hear the two of us interact a little bit. You’ll also hear about how you may be able to participate in it.

On Being Gospel-Centered (CK2:23)

Tim Challies & David Murray — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 14:07:27 +0000

The phrase “gospel-centered” is fast entering the Evangelical mainstream. We are encouraged to be gospel-centered or to preach the gospel to ourselves. It is easy to say but, in my experience, far more difficult to do. This morning David Murray and I spoke with Joe Thorn about this very thing.

Joe Thorn is Lead Pastor of Redeemer Fellowship in St. Charles, IL and is the author of the great little book Note To Self. We took the opportunity to ask Joe what it means to be gospel-centered, whether the gospel truly applies to all of life, and then to give some practical pointers for how to preach the gospel to yourself in joy and in pain. Speaking personally I found it very, very helpful. So why don’t you give it a listen? It will take less than 30 minutes of your time and I think you’ll be well-rewarded for the effort.

If you want to give us feedback or join in the discussion, go ahead and look up our Facebook Group or leave a comment right here. You will always be able to find the most recent episode here on the blog. If you would like to subscribe via iTunes, you can do that here or if you want to subscribe with another audio player, you can try this RSS link.

The Attributes of God

Tim Challies & David Murray — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 12:59:00 +0000

I am woefully underqualified, or perhaps just plain unqualified, to evaluate rap music. Whatever I say on the subject, at least as it pertains to the beats and the rhythms and any other component that makes rap what it is, should be taken with a grain of salt. Or two. Maybe even three.

However, even if I am unqualified to speak of the music as music, I can at least comment on the lyrical content and on my personal feelings toward an album. And with the full weight of my complete lack of qualification I say that Shai Linne’s new album The Attributes of God is the best rap album I’ve heard; at least, it’s definitely my favorite.

As you may have surmised from the title, this is an album that speaks of God’s attributes. In a statement in the liner notes, Shai writes this:

In releasing this music, I'm hoping for something that is humanly impossible. My hope is that this collection of songs would point beyond themselves to the God who is described in them. That as His character as revealed in Exodus 33:18 - 34:14 is expounded through rhythmic poetry, complex rhyme schemes, melody, harmony and instrumentation --the heart of the listener would be compelled to exalt God and to love and trust and adore Him. To the extent that I have failed in this attempt, I am solely to blame. To the extent that I have succeeded, all of the credit goes to God. Soli Deo Gloria!

This is a noble goal and certainly a brave one. And what’s more, I think he has succeded. By combining that rhythmic poetry along with the rhymes, melodies, harmonies and instrumentations, he has crafted an album that speaks powerfully of the attributes and character of God. It is an album not of personal experiences with God, but rather an album that delights in the God who is. He writes of God’s glory, goodness, sovereignty, holiness, wrath and patience and love and faithfulness and so on.

So how does someone go about writing a song that delights in God’s wrath? Here is how Shai did it:

God's wrath is a perfection for which He should be adored. / A passion for this message: yes it needs to be restored / He has holy reflexes towards the evil / He abhors Cats who don't respect Him will receive His lethal sword / The mass prefers the pleasures that sin easily affords / Our blasphemous affections are the reason we're at war / We should be in awe, His sweetness should keep us floored / Sin's radical infection is the reason we get bored / Repeatedly we snore, He's frequently ignored / We explore evil lusts leaving us greedy for more / The Master's recollection of our evil He records / We have zero protection because He is keeping score / It's bad for every section, there's no passing His inspection / Because we're lacking the perfection that we need to be secure / Everlasting dissection: the unbeliever's reward / Disaster for rejection of the truth--Jesus is Lord!
Chorus God is an all-consuming fire / Burning away all false desires / soon He's gonna burn it away, the holy furnace will blaze / Eternal the days, Somebody come on / They're longing for mountains and rocks to be falling / Please don't refuse the One who's calling you / He's calling you, He's warning you / Whatcha gonna do? Somebody come on

Where this album is so successful, at least in my books, is in both the depth and the width of the lyrics. Shai covers a wide variety of topics and he does so by using thousands and thousands of words. As a medium, rap allows a vast amount of content, at least when compared to a rock or pop song. Some of the songs work 1,000 words into 4 or 5 minutes. Those words simply speak of who God is and, at times, of what he has done.

A couple of weeks ago I had spent the week working on a sermon and, on Sunday morning, was weary and discouraged. On the way to church I turned on this album and just soaked in the words. It was genuinely refreshing, just to hear about the God I was seeking to serve that day. It struck me that it was not the artist or the music that refreshed me, but the subject of it all.

Earlier this year I wrote about the strange phenomenon of white middle-aged pastors listening to rap music. I guess I pretty much fall into that category. I feel like as much of a poser as the next white middle-aged guy. But I can’t deny that I enjoy this music and have benefited from it. If I was at all qualified to judge it, I’d give it 2 thumbs up or 5 stars or whatever other measure would set it apart. As it stands, all I can say is that this is my new favorite rap album and one that has made a significant impact in the 3 or 4 weeks I’ve been listening to it.

If you scroll back up, you’ll find an interview I did with Shai just a few days ago. Or by clicking below you can see the trailer for the album. And, of course, if you’d like to buy it, you can visit Amazon (where it’s on sale for just $8.99).

CK2:21 - Mormons & Mormonism

Tim Challies & David Murray — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 14:59:00 +0000

Our guest on this week’s edition of The Connected Kingdom podcast is ex-Mormon and now Christian author Latayne Scott. She answers questions like these ones:

How did you become a Mormon?
How were you converted to Christ?
Is Mormonism a cult?
Can a Christian vote for Mitt Romney?
What are the changes in and challenges to Mormonism?
How should we evangelize Mormons? Should we invite them into our homes?

Through Zondervan, Latayne has just published a new and updated edition of The Mormon Mirage. You can also catch up with her at her blog Latayne.com.

CK2:20 - Talking about Preaching

Tim Challies & David Murray — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 15:35:59 +0000

David and I are back this week with another episode of The Connected Kingdom podcast—episode 20 in this second season. This week’s guest is Timmy Brister. A short time ago he wrote a blog post about preaching from a manuscript; since David and I have often discussed not preaching from a manuscript, we thought this would open up an opportunity to discuss that topic. We hope you enjoy it!

CK2:19 - Christianity Explored

Tim Challies & David Murray — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 15:59:00 +0000

Our guest on this week’s Connected Kingdom podcast is Rico Tice who founded Christianity Explored. Because I am on the far side of the continent, David took the lead in interviewing Rico. Be sure to give it a listen!

Rico Tice is Associate Minister of Evangelism at All Souls Church, Langham Place, London. He is also Founder of Christianity Explored, the evangelistic introductory course to Christianity. This week on the Connected Kingdom podcast, Rico talks about the impact of John Stott upon his life and ministry, how his previous singleness made Christianity Explored possible, and how he keeps his own evangelistic fervor alive. US listeners can find Christianity Explored resources here.

CK2:18 - Catching Up

Tim Challies & David Murray — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 15:08:47 +0000

After a long summer hiatus, The Connected Kingdom Podcast is back. David and I got back in front of our microphones yesterday and recorded the first podcast in some time—and the 18th podcast in season 2. Because it has been a while, we mostly got caught up with one another, talking about David’s new book, about my new position at Grace Fellowship Church and about my crazy schedule over the next couple of weeks.

CK2:17 - Counseling One Another

Tim Challies & David Murray — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 15:33:36 +0000

This week’s guest on The Connected Kingdom is Paul Tautges. Paul is a pastor, author, counselor and father of ten(!). He has recently begun a new blog called Counseling One Another. In this podcast, the last one we’ll be recording until after the summer, David and I speak to Paul about the importance of setting counseling within the context of Christian discipleship (which in turn takes it out of the exclusive hands of the experts).

CK2:16 - Myths About Calvinism

Tim Challies & David Murray — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 18:21:22 +0000

This week’s guest on The Connected Kingdom is Dr. Ken Stewart, who is Professor of Theological Studies at Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Georgia. Intervarsity Press recently published Dr. Stewart’s book Ten Myths About Calvinism: Recovering the Breadth of the Reformed Tradition. David and I spoke to him about the Old Calvinism about the New Calvinism and about what the even newer future Calvinism may look like. Here is a table of contents pointing out some of the highlights of our discussion:

1:30 - Overview of the ten myths about Calvinism
9:35 - Purpose and audience of the book
11:00 - Our polarized movement; who has the inside track on explaining and articulating the Reformed faith; too many Calvinist authorities
14:47 - Clarification on Calvinistic brands
16:15 - Did we blow the Rob Bell situation?
29:06 - Theological accountability and Gospel Coalition
31:42 - Fault lines in Calvinism

There is lots of interesting food for thought in this podcast!

CK2:15 - Thriving at College

Tim Challies & David Murray — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 06:00:00 +0000

This week’s guest on The Connected Kingdom podcast is Alex Chediak who is the author of the brand new book Thriving at College, a book that about how college students can launch into responsible, fruitful adulthood for the glory of God against the backdrop of a young adult culture that often values perpetual adolescence and the avoidance of responsibility. In this interview Alex talks about who he wrote the book for, he discusses who should and should not go to college and offers up some sound advice for the parents of young people.

CK2:14 - Training Your Children

Tim Challies & David Murray — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 17:51:30 +0000

In this week’s edition of The Connected Kingdom, David and I discuss a topic that we’ve both written about but never actually talked to one another about—children’s devotions. I wanted David to explain why he created a program of personal devotions for his children and then wanted to describe how I’ve adapted it a little bit for my own children. You may want to see this article for reference. We discuss the importance of having children learn to do devotions on their own while also touching on family devotions and the importance of a father leading his children in this area.

CK2:13 - Be Encouraged!

Tim Challies & David Murray — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 18:59:00 +0000

Tim Keesee has a pretty amazing ministry. He travels around the world with Frontline Missions in order to encourage missionaries, to meet indigenous Christians and to find new ways to partner in spreading the gospel. Some of his journeys have been documented in the Dispatches from the Front DVDs that I wrote about last week. As soon as I saw those videos I knew that I wanted to talk to Tim, and that is just what I did in this week’s podcast.

I’d encourage you to listen so you can be encouraged as you hear how and where the Lord is working. Tim shares some amazing stories and tells what he has seen of the church in faraway lands.

CK2:12 - An Interview with Nancy Guthrie

Tim Challies & David Murray — Wed, 25 May 2011 20:29:50 +0000

Author and speaker Nancy Guthrie pays us a visit on this week’s Connected Kingdom podcast. We talk about Nancy’s teaching ministry to women, and especially her Bible Study books on Christ in the Old Testament. Nancy also explains how the Lord used the loss of two infant children to move her and her husband David to host regular retreats for other bereaved parents. You can watch David and Nancy glorify God as they talk with Joni about Holding on to Hope in the midst of this suffering.

CK2:11- Important Lessons

Tim Challies & David Murray — Tue, 17 May 2011 14:58:00 +0000

I do not want to overstate the case, but I think this may be one of the more important podcasts David and I have recorded. David has recently suffered through some very serious medical complications and in this episode we discuss what he has learned from these trials. In the midst of difficult times God has taught him some very, very important lessons. At least I know that I benefited a lot from hearing them.

So listen in and hear how the Lord has graciously caught David’s attention.

CK2:10 - Was Adam a Real Man?

Tim Challies & David Murray — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 15:30:00 +0000

A few weeks ago we had Carl Trueman on the podcast with us. One thing he said really stood out—that one of the great challenges in the church today is defending the historicity of Adam. Although I had sense of what’s at stake in that debate, I wanted to know more. Since David Murray has done a lot of work in this area, I took the opportunity in this week’s podcast to ask him about that whole issue. What is the debate about? Who are some of the people who deny that Adam actually existed? What are some of the theological and practical implications of this? How can we prove that Adam is a historical figure?

I hope you enjoy hearing this discussion. If Carl Trueman is correct (and certainly he is not the only one who feels this is a fault line within evangelicalism right now) you may do well to listen in and at least learn the basics of what the debate is all about.

CK2:9 - A Discussion with Todd Friel

Tim Challies & David Murray — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 15:30:00 +0000

David Murray was not available for a podcast this week, so I drafted Todd Friel to help me out. Todd is host of Wretched Radio and, you know, various other things. He and I spent some time discussing New Calvinism, Rob Bell (including what those of us who responded to Bell didn’t do so well), the gospel and various other things. Mostly I was just trying to keep Todd from taking over.

CK2:8 - The Next Story

Tim Challies & David Murray — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 15:59:00 +0000

I don’t know if this is a fascinating or a boring podcast, but I think you’ll benefit from it if you give it a listen. Yesterday I sat down with David Murray and Ryan Pazdur, an editor at Zondervan, and we talked about The Next Story and subjects related to it. I hope you enjoy it!

CK2:7 - Pornography and Sex Addiction

Tim Challies & David Murray — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 15:57:57 +0000

This week’s episode of The Connected Kingdom finds us in coversation with Harry Schaumburg, a man who has dedicated his life and ministry to helping people recover from sex addiction and addiction to pornography. In this conversation we seek to ask him very practical questions about issues that are on many people’s minds.

Here is a breakdown (including time stamps) of some of the topics we cover and the questions we ask:

2:55 - How widespread is this problem?

4:30 - What’s the real issue here? What’s the heart issue?

8:48 - Should every wife suspect her husband and be suspicious that he is looking at pornography?

13:12 - How important is open communication about the sexual relationship within marriage?

15:41 - How can we protect our children?

24:30 - Here we quickly go through a list of very practical questions and answers.

What does a wife do if she discovers that her husband is looking at pornography?
What does a husband need to know about how pornography may affect his wife and family?
Does pornography tend to escalate over time?
When and how do you know you’re cured?
Can you offer a quick critique of Every Man’s Battle?
When does a person need to seek out help from his local church and when should he seek out help from a professional counselor?

Harry is the author of Undefiled and False Intimacy. You can learn about his counseling ministry at StoneGateResources.org.

CK2:6 - Answering Your Questions

Tim Challies & David Murray — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 16:55:25 +0000

In this week’s episode of The Connected Kingdom, David Murray and I answer some questions asked by you, the people who listen in. We answer (or attempt to answer):

Is there any value in critiquing a book like Rob Bell’s Love Wins or are we just giving him press?
Should Bible translations be copyrighted?
What is the importance of church membership?
Should members of churches have privileges that non-members do not?
How can I help my teens become self-directing in their use of technology?
Why do you believe what you believe about baptism?

I’m sure there were some other questions as well. We had intended to make this podcast available yesterday, but with the site getting a lot of extra traffic based on the review of Love Wins I thought it would be better to wait a day. So here it is—a day late, but not a dollar short.

CK2:5 - A Conversation with Carl Trueman

Tim Challies & David Murray — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 17:57:38 +0000

In this episode of The Connected Kingdom we enjoy a lively conversation with pastor, author, theologian and church historian Carl Trueman. We ask him about Rob Bell and the controversy on hell, we ask him about today’s theological controversies and how they’ll be won or lost, we ask him about why Americans don’t like to laugh at themselves, and we ask him about more things I’ve already forgotten about.

Carl is a regular contributor to the blog at Reformation21 and the author of quite a few highly-recommended books.

CK2:4 - A Conversation with Mary Kassian

Tim Challies & David Murray — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 14:19:05 +0000

Yesterday David and I were privileged to enjoy a great conversation with Mary Kassian. Mary is one of the best Christian thinkers when it comes to issues related to women in family, society, culture and church. We spoke to her about pop culture, Twilight and TwiMoms, meat dresses, raising girls in a world like this, encouragement, and many other things.

Honestly, of all the interviews David and I have done, this one seemed to offer some of the most immediately-practical wisdom and advice. We were truly blessed to have Mary take the time.

Mary blogs at GirlsGoneWise.com, a blog I commend to you. She is the author of The Feminist Mistake and Girls Gone Wise in a World Gone Wild, both books that come highly recommended.

CK2:3 - An Interview with Chris Larson

Tim Challies & David Murray — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 17:50:25 +0000

And here we go with Episode 3 of the Connected Kingdom Podcast. Earlier today I enjoyed recording an interview with Chris Larson. Chris serves as Executive Vice President of Ligonier Ministries and David and I were eager to talk to him about how the Lord saved him, how he exercises leadership over a major ministry, how he juggles his responsibilities at work and home and what he has learned by working so closely with R.C. Sproul.

Chris shares some very wise words related to leadership and how a person can lead as a Christian. He also shares some interesting little tidbits about Dr. Sproul.

CK2:2 - Catching Up

Tim Challies & David Murray — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 17:31:45 +0000

In the last episode of The Connected Kingdom (which was episode 1 of season 2), we interviewed Joel Beeke and spoke about prayer (if you haven’t listened yet, you really should; Dr. Beeke shared some excellent things). This time David and I step back just a little bit and talk about what’s happened in the past couple of months. So we talk about what we expect season 2 of the podcast to bring, we talk about my new book and my new position as a pastor at Grace Fellowship Church, and we talk about David’s new DVD and an interesting new course he’s teaching.

Next week will have a guest on the show. Stay tuned for details.

The Connected Kingdom is Back

Tim Challies & David Murray — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 17:17:20 +0000

After episode 25 of the Connected Kingdom Podcast, David and I signed off for a couple of months—a couple of months we wanted to take to re-evaluate and re-charge. And having done that, we’re now back with a new episode in what we are calling Season 2 of the podcast.

We are beginning with a bang, so to speak, having invited Joel Beeke to be our guest. In the podcast we talk to Dr. Beeke about prayer—always an interesting subject. So don’t listen to this for me or for David—listen to Dr. Beeke’s great wisdom when it comes to one of the great duties and delights of the Christian life.

CK25 - Interview with Conrad Mbewe

Tim Challies & David Murray — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 14:02:32 +0000

This week’s episode of the Connected Kingdom Podcast features an interview with Conrad Mbewe, pastor of Kabwata Reformed Baptist Church in Lusaka, Zambia, Africa. It’s not unusual to hear Pastor Mbewe described as the African Spurgeon. He is in the United States at the moment, sharing his vision for an exciting new venture, African Christian University. And we were able to get him on the phone during one of his stops.

We talked to Pastor Mbewe about himself and his family, about the state of the church in Africa in general and Zambia in particular, about African Christian University, and about ways in which the Western church can serve (and not hinder) the church in Zambia. So here we have a Canadian, a Scot and a Zambian talking together before a largely American audience. I guess that’s just a little glimpse, a shadow, of what God is doing in calling to himself people from all nations, tribes and tongues! I just hope your head doesn’t explode as you try to sort out all of the accents.

You can (and should!) learn more about African Christian University and their 425 campagin at acu-usa.com. And here is brief video in which Pastor Mbewe discusses the institution.

CK24 - Questions Answered

Tim Challies & David Murray — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 15:32:05 +0000

In this week’s episode of the Conneted Kingdom Podcast, David and I answer questions sent to us by readers of this blog and by people who listen to the show. We talk about reading good books, Bible translations, family devotions, doubt and assurance, the size of our libraries, how many books we read, the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament and what your chances are of winning Free Stuff Fridays. All that in one short show. Enjoy!

If you want to give us feedback or join in the discussion, go ahead and look up our Facebook Group or leave a comment right here.

You will always be able to find the most recent episode here on the blog. If you would like to subscribe via iTunes, you can do that here or if you want to subscribe with another audio player, you can try this RSS link.

CK23 - Lessons in Grace

Tim Challies & David Murray — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 15:30:00 +0000

This week on the Connected Kingdom podcast, David and I interview Greg Lucas, author of the new book Wrestling with an Angel: A Story of Love, Disability and the Lessons of Grace. Greg is the father of four children, one of whom has severe developmental disabilities. Last year Greg began a blog where he began to write about “lessons in the life of a father learned through the struggles of his disabled son.” It is not a blog about disability, but a blog that is all about grace—about lessons learned along the way.

When I co-founded Cruciform Press, Greg was the very first author I pursued and I was thrilled to have him accept and to have him prepare a book with us. That book is now available.

Way back in episode 4 David and I spoke to Justin Reimer, founder of The Elisha Foundation, and Paul Martin. Interestingly, both of those men show up in Greg’s story.

If you want to give us feedback or join in the discussion, go ahead and look up our Facebook Group or leave a comment right here.

And tell you what—I’ll give away a few copies of Wrestling with an Angel for those who give the show a listen (or who don’t, I suppose). Simply leave a comment here and I’ll randomly choose a few of you to win a free copy.

CK22 - An Interview About Sex & Sexual Detox

Tim Challies & David Murray — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 12:35:29 +0000

First off, David and I will soon be doing another Q&A episode of The Connected Kingdom. So if you’d like us to answer your question on the podcast, feel free to email, leave a comment here, or comment at our Facebook group.

In the meantime, here is this week’s episode. This time around David interviews me about my new book Sexual Detox. And I’ve got to say, the guy asks good questions—ones I wasn’t expecting. We talk about why I wrote the book, we talk about the purpose of sex, what sex has become in a pornified culture, and what all of this porn is doing to men today.

If you want to give us feedback on the podcast or join in the discussion, go ahead and look up our Facebook Group or leave a comment right here. You can subscribe to the podcast via iTunes or another program. As always, feedback and suggestions for future topics are much appreciated.

Connected Kingdom Podcast, Episode 21

Tim Challies & David Murray — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 15:30:00 +0000

David and I recorded an episode of the podcast last week but lost it to technical issues. Nevertheless, we’re back this week with a new episode. This time around we discuss just one aspect of an interesting discussion between Mark Dever, Mark Driscoll and James MacDonald. The three men got together to discuss multi-site churches (as you can see in the video below). I was struck by what MacDonald and Driscoll seemed to be saying—that there is really no significant or fundamental difference between hearing your pastor in a live setting and hearing your pastor preaching through electronic media. So I approached the issue from a media and technology perspective while David approached it through a pastoring and preaching perspective. And overall I think we ended up having an interesting discussion.

It will be worth listening to, I think, if you are a pastor seeking to know how you can best preach to your congregation or if you are a Christian who is eager to become a better listener.

Connected Kingdom Podcast, Episode 20

Tim Challies & David Murray — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 12:20:30 +0000

This week on the podcast David and I do something a little bit different—we answer questions from those who listen to the show (and those who don’t listen to it, I suppose). In just a few minutes we offer quick answers to these questions: What view of Creation do we hold to? What constitutes a truly happy Christian? Are there many Christians in the United States who can truly be content in any circumstance? How can God foreordain sin and yet not be held morally responsible for it? What do you believe about women teaching at conferences and in other non-preaching roles? Should a complementarian pastor accept a call to an egalitarian church?

Connected Kingdom Podcast, Episode 19

Tim Challies & David Murray — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 12:26:06 +0000

On this week’s episode of the Connected Kingdom Podcast we have Brian Croft as our guest. Brian blogs at Practical Shepherding, a blog every pastor or church leader should be reading. And it’s not just for pastors, either. There is a lot of wisdom there for anyone who cares to read it. For example, any dad can benefit from this post: How can I make sure I am individually shepherding my children?

In this podcast we talk to Brian about his testimony, how he got started in blogging, some particular challenges for pastors in their shepherding and the most urgent message he would share with a young pastor.

Connected Kingdom Podcast, Episode 18

Tim Challies & David Murray — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 12:19:41 +0000

Today we’ve got another episode of the Connected Kingdom Podcast for your listening pleasure. Our topic today is the subject of David’s new book (which is also his first book, as it happens): depression. This is a topic that is very important to David as he seeks to correct wrong teaching within the church and encourage those who suffer from it.

Here are the kinds of questions he answers through our discussion: What is depression and what are its causes? Do Christians really suffer from depression and, if they do, what does this say about their spiritual state? What is the role of medication in treating depression? Should Christians make sure that they visit a Christian family doctor or psychologist if wrestling with depression? We’ve tried to make the show valuable not just for people who suffer from depression, but also for those who do not.

Humble Beginnings

Tim Challies & David Murray — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 12:51:37 +0000

I know that there are far more who read this web site than listen to the podcasts. Well and good. But today I want to encourage you to listen in to this one; it’s just 20 minutes or so but along the way our guest shares some things that I’m convinced will be a blessing to you.

In this week’s podcast we speak to a man who helped begin an amazing ministry. Jeff Anderson, working through International Bible Conference, helps train pastors from around the world. From very humble beginnings this organization has grown to the point where they are now leading conferences in Africa with 5,000 pastors attending, many of whom have no training and no Bible. Each of these pastors is exposed to sound doctrine, learns the value of expositional preaching and walks away with a Bible. In this interview Jeff shares some of the ways God has worked through this small organization, drawing people to himself (saving hundreds of pastors in one of the conferences!) and grounding thousands of pastors in the truth of the Word. I was encouraged to hear about it and I know you will be too.

You can learn more about International Bible Conference at internationalbibleconference.org. Here is just a short snippet from one of their reports:

The Pastor's Conference emphasized "family," teaching mostly from Ephesians 5. Again, hundreds professed faith in Christ and thousands were encouraged and strengthened by sound doctrine and expository preaching. Over 8000 copies of the MacArthur Study Bible were received with indescribable joy and commitment. Two pictures describe it best: after running to receive the Bible, pastors lifted both hands toward heaven and knelt in an open field giving thanks!

Imagine 8000 voices resounding with upraised Bible in hand, "I will study the Word. I will obey the Word. I will preach the Word!" Alleluia! The shout of praise shook the earth!

Much of what encourages me about this ministry is simply its humble beginnings and low profile. This is not an effort brought about by a major international ministry, but one carried on by a single local church that simply seeks to obey God. It’s a beautiful thing!

Connected Kingdom Podcast, Episode 16

Tim Challies & David Murray — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 11:44:14 +0000

Here is this week’s episode of the Connected Kingdom podcast. This week we have a guest on the show—Daniel Hyde, author of Welcome to a Reformed Church. We talk to Danny about how he came to know the Lord, about the church he planted in California, about what it means to be Reformed and about sitting uncomfortably close to David. I was particularly glad to discuss what it used to mean to be Reformed and what it means today.

Connected Kingdom Podcast, Episode 15

Tim Challies & David Murray — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 11:38:07 +0000

Here is episode 15 of The Connected Kingdom Podcast. We have a guest on the show this week, none other than Tony Reinke who blogs at Miscellanies and who serves as assistant to C.J. Mahaney. Tony talks about a book he is currently writing (a book on the subject of reading), about what it’s like to work with C.J. Mahaney (it requires a lot of energy) and about the next book we’ll see from C.J.(something to do with sports, perhaps?).

Connected Kingdom Podcast, Episode 14

Tim Challies & David Murray — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 12:30:00 +0000

This morning I’ve got episode 14 of the Connected Kingdom Podcast for you. This week David and I spend our time discussing a question posed by one of our listeners, a dad who asked how he can get his kids reading and how he can get them to read good books. So we discuss that and also talk about strategies for getting our kids to begin the habit of daily personal devotions. The program is a little bit niche, of course, but we trust parents will benefit from the discussion. Oh, and you’ll learn which one of us wears a tie while doing the podcast.

In the podcast we mention Journibles so here, as promised, is the link. Journibles are quite a unique resource. “Each book is organized so that you can write out your very own copy of Scripture. You will be writing the Bible text only on the right hand page of the book. This should make for easier writing and also allows ample space on the left page to write your own notes and comments. From time to time a question or word will be lightly printed on the left page; these questions are to aid in further study, but should not interfere with your own notes and comments.”

Connected Kingdom Podcast, Episode 13

Tim Challies & David Murray — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 12:30:00 +0000

Here we are with episode number 13 of the Connected Kingdom Podcast. This week we have a guest on the show, none other than Justin Taylor of Between Two Worlds fame. We talk to Justin about his life and family, about blogging, about publishing and about other things I’m sure I’ve already forgotten. Justin always has lots of interesting things to say, at least in my experience. Give the show a listen and I think you’ll agree.

If you want to give us feedback or join in the discussion, go ahead and look up our Facebook Group or leave a comment right here. You can subscribe to the podcast via iTunes or another program. As always, feedback and suggestions for future topics are much appreciated.

Connected Kingdom Podcast, Episode 12

Tim Challies & David Murray — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 12:28:06 +0000

And here at last is episode 12 of The Connected Kingdom podcast. I was on vacation last week, of course, but this week we’re back with a show that deals primarily with technology. I reflected a little bit on what it was like to go off the grid for a week and what it means to my life while David spent a bit of time discussing his new film God’s Technology. If you use technology (which you do—you’re using it to read this) there should be something in this show for you!

Connected Kingdom Podcast, Episode 11

Tim Challies & David Murray — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 12:00:00 +0000

Here, for your listening pleasure, is episode 11 of The Connected Kingdom. This week David and I have Mike Pohlman as a guest on the show. You may know Mike from his work with The Gospel Coalition. Mike has just accepted a call to pastor a church in Washington and we talk to him about that new opportunity. But we also talk to him about his family. Mike’s wife Julia has been diagnosed with cancer and David and I have both been blessed to see how the Pohlman’s have dealt with this difficult situation. So as you listen, be sure to listen to the end (or at least to skip forward to around the 16-minute mark where we begin to talk about that).

Connected Kingdom Podcast, Episode 10

Tim Challies & David Murray — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 12:22:38 +0000

After a one-week hiatus (hey, we’re doing pretty well—10 episodes in 12 weeks) David and I are back with episode 10 of the Connected Kingdom Podcast. This week we discuss vacations and how Christians can do vacations well. We interact with a popular article written by C.J. Mahaney and we also discuss some issues related to Christian character and vacations. All-in-all, I think you’ll find it a helpful listen as you consider going away this summer. I hope you enjoy it!

Connected Kingdom Podcast, Episode 9

Tim Challies & David Murray — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 12:30:00 +0000

Here is this week’s episode of the Connected Kingdom Podcast. David Murray is still vacationing in Scotland and in his absence Matt Perman of What’s Best Next and Desiring God served as guest co-host. Matt and I discussed issues related to productivity and efficiency—it sounds niche, I suppose, but I think there are principles in there that will apply to anyone. Matt also gave me a little sneak preview of a book he hopes to write later this summer.

Connected Kingdom Podcast, Episode 8

Tim Challies & David Murray — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 12:30:00 +0000

After a one-week hiatus, we’re back with Episode 8 of the Connected Kingdom. My co-host David Murray is on vacation this week, spending time with his family in Scotland. In his absence we will have two episodes with guest co-hosts. And for this episode that guest host is Burk Parsons whom you know as an author, as editor of Tabletalk magazine and as Associate Minister at St. Andrew’s church in Orlando, Florida where he serves with R.C. Sproul. Our topic is mentoring. We discuss mentoring in both formal and informal contexts and talk about how churches and individuals can emphasize mentoring relationships.

Speaking personally, I can attest that I learned a lot from just listening to Burk and from plying him with questions. Listen in and I think you’ll find the same.

Connected Kingdom Podcast, Episode 7

Tim Challies & David Murray — Wed, 26 May 2010 12:05:32 +0000

A day late because of the long weekend up here in Canada, here is episode 7 of the Connected Kingdom. This week I had a neighbor sitting in “studio” with me, video taping the proceedings for a little “day in the life” he is putting together about me (to tell the truth, I don’t even totally understand what he’s doing, but I’m happy to let him into my life, boring though it may be). That got David and me thinking about the concept of a day in the life of a Christian and so we dedicated this show to discussing what it means to live as a Christian with a gospel focus on every area of life, from waking to sleeping and everything in between. I hope you’ll find it useful as you think about how Christians live lives that are not just marked by the gospel but that are transformed by the gospel.

Connected Kingdom Podcast, Episode 6

Tim Challies & David Murray — Tue, 18 May 2010 12:30:00 +0000

Here is episode 6 of the Connected Kingdom podcast. In this episode David and I discuss church leadership. Because I was ordained as an elder just last Sunday it seemed like a timely topic. We discuss what eldership means at Grace Fellowship Church and what it means within David’s Presbyterian tradition. We also look at what Christians mean when they discuss “calling,” what elder training ought to involve and how my life may be different now that I’ve been called into leadership within the church. Now that I write that all out it doesn’t sound so interesting, but I do think you’ll find it worth the 27-minute investment!

Connected Kingdom Podcast, Episode 5

Tim Challies & David Murray — Tue, 11 May 2010 11:30:00 +0000

And here is episode 5 of the Connected Kingdom podcast. This week I do the long-awaited interview with my co-host David Murray. Most of you do not know very much about David so I thought it would be valuable to you to learn a little bit about him now that he has become a weekly presence here at the blog. In this episode I talk to him about his life in Scotland, about his call to the ministry and about how he ended up moving to Grand Rapids. I was blessed to hear his story and I know you will be too.

If you want to give us feedback or join in the discussion, go ahead and look up our Facebook Group or leave a comment right here.

And one final note: I have not gotten a whole lot of feedback from you, the readers of Challies.com. I’d love to hear from you about how (or if) you are enjoying these podcasts. I know that most of you are accustomed to reading the content of this blog rather than listening to it. I’d love to hear whether you are enjoying these podcasts, what topics you’d like us to cover, what kind of guests you’d like us to have, and so on.

Connected Kingdom Podcast, Episode 4

Tim Challies & David Murray — Tue, 04 May 2010 12:59:39 +0000

This is episode 4 of the Connected Kingdom podcast. This week we continue our discussion on the subject of disability by inviting Paul Martin and Justin Reimer onto the show.

Do note that we had 4 people on the show this week and a couple of them were connecting remotely (one from a parking garage outside a hospital and another from somewhere within an airport, I think). That means there are some beeps and buzzes that are unfortunately present.

In the show I promise to share a link to Justin’s ministry; here it is: http://www.elishafoundation.org/.

If you want to give us feedback or join in the discussion, go ahead and look up our Facebook Group or leave a comment right here.

Connected Kingdom Podcast, Episode 3

Tim Challies & David Murray — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 12:07:00 +0000

A day late but never a dollar short, here is episode 3 of the Connected Kingdom podcast. This is the first of two episodes in which David and I discuss disability; we first talk about the theology of disability and then move toward looking at some of its pastoral implications (which is what we will focus on in our next episode). It is also the first episode in which we have a guest with us. Enjoy!

If you want to give us feedback or join in the discussion, go ahead and look up our Facebook Group or leave a comment right here.

Connected Kingdom Podcast, Episode 2

Tim Challies & David Murray — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 13:21:24 +0000

Thank you for all of the kind feedback on last week’s first episode of the Connected Kingdom podcast.

This week on Connected Kingdom, David and I talk about the Together for the Gospel Conference (what it was like to be there, what it was like to be left behind), we talk about a film project David is working on and we briefly discuss the iPad.

If you want to give us feedback or join in the discussion, go ahead and look up our Facebook Group or leave a comment right here.

Note: We had a small issue with my half of the recording—unfortunately David came across much clearer than I did. I’ll try to get that fixed for next week.

Connected Kingdom Podcast, Episode 1

Tim Challies & David Murray — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 11:55:30 +0000

I promised you three announcements this week. The first of these was Friends of the Blog and the second was Cruciform Press. And here comes number three.

At long last, after all these years of writing, I’m going to the realm of audio and starting a podcast. It is called Connected Kingdom and will (hopefully) be a weekly broadcast. My friend David Murray will be co-hosting the show with me. We’ll be talking about the kinds of things we discuss on our blogs—living the Christian life in this newly digital world.

But I don’t want to say too much—just give it a listen. We’re not going to take up too much of your time; we’re looking at 20-25 minutes per episode.

If you want to give us feedback or join in the discussion, go ahead and look up our Facebook Group.

If you’d like to subscribe to the feed, you can do so here: http://feeds.feedburner.com/challies/podcast. It will be available in iTunes in the near future.