July 2007 Archives

This Thursday from 1 - 2 p.m. I'm being interviewed about my new position at Carolina Hope Christian Adoption Agency by Kevin Boling of Calling For Truth on WLFJ's AM station (660) in Greenville, SC. It's a great opportunity to talk about adoption. There are many exciting things happening both in the adoption world in general and at Carolina Hope in particular.

Some of the people Kevin has interviewed in the past include Mark Dever, Noel Piper, Ligon Duncan, Richard Phillips, Steve Saint, and, most recently, renowned blogger Tim Challies. If you don't live in the Greenville area - or if you won't be near a radio, you can listen to the program live online here. The radio program begins at 1 p.m. (Eastern Daylight Time) on Thursday, August 2nd. Please pray for me if you think about it.

"Praise and thanksgiving be unto you, O God, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ and set him at your right hand in the kingdom of glory.

Praise and thanksgiving be unto you, O Lord Jesus Christ, you Lamb of God who has redeemed us by your blood, you heavenly Priest who ever lives to make intercession for us, you eternal King who comes again to make all things new.

Praise and thanksgiving be unto you, O Holy Spirit, who has shed abroad the love of God, who quickens us together with Christ, and makes us to sit with him in heavenly places, and to taste the good Word of God and the powers of the age to come.

Amen. Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto you our God for ever and ever. Amen" (taken from The Christian Doctrine of God: One Being, Three Persons, Thomas F. Torrance, 256).

I'm posting this link to our most recent press release so that churches become aware of Carolina Hope's passion for adoption and orphan ministry and our desire to serve churches in this ministry area. Please take a look.

Carolina Hope Press Release

Many thanks to Justin Taylor for announcing this press release on his blog. You can read it here.

Sally Lloyd-Jones, author of The Jesus Storybook Bible, wrote a post about the press release too. Thank you, Sally.

Westminster Bookstore is having a great sale on the best books on biblical theology. Books are on sale for up to 55% off list. Prices are good through August 14, 2007.

(HT: Timmy Brister)

This is so very good and helpful!

“The great gospel imperatives to holiness are ever rooted in indicatives of grace that are able to sustain the weight of those imperatives. The Apostles do not make the mistake that’s often made in Christian ministry. [For the Apostles] the indicatives are more powerful than the imperatives in gospel preaching. So often in our preaching our indicatives are not strong enough, great enough, holy enough, or gracious enough to sustain the power of the imperatives. And so our teaching on holiness becomes a whip or a rod to beat our people’s backs because we’ve looked at the New Testament and that’s all we ourselves have seen. We’ve seen our own failure and we’ve seen the imperatives to holiness and we’ve lost sight of the great indicatives of the gospel that sustain those imperatives. … Woven into the warp and woof of the New Testament’s exposition of what it means for us to be holy is the great groundwork that the self-existent, thrice holy, triune God has — in Himself, by Himself and for Himself — committed Himself and all three Persons of His being to bringing about the holiness of His own people. This is the Father’s purpose, the Son’s purchase and the Spirit’s ministry” (Sinclair Ferguson).

(HT: John Fonville)

As some of you know, I spent the last three years as an assistant professor of Bible and Theology. God gave me three great years teaching college students. I will most definitely miss the college setting. So what am I doing now that I'm no longer teaching? Well, God has provided me an amazing opportunity to serve in another area I'm very passionate about, namely, adoption. I am now the Ministry Outreach Coordinator for Carolina Hope Christian Adoption Agency, a liscensed agency that services both domestic and international adoptions. My responsibilities are (1) networking with pastors/churches, mission agencies, children’s homes, and other organizations to inform them of Carolina Hope’s established full-service adoption ministry; (2) speaking in churches, Bible study groups, and other venues to present adoption within the context of the larger story of redemption; and (3) writing content for Carolina Hope’s website and articles for publication. If you know of a ministry that might be interested in having me come to speak on orphan ministry in general and adoption in particular, please let me know.

Laura Beauvais-Godwin, the director of the agency, and her husband Ray, an adoption attorney, have written the book on adoption. It's the best resource on adoption out there.

Here's a blog article I wrote on what orphan ministry involves according to James 1:27 and the larger story of redemption: Orphans, Adoption, and Fuling, China (James 1:27)

My business e-mail: DanC (at) CarolinaHopeAdoption (dot) org

You can listen to the plenary sessions of The Gospel Coalition 2007. Since I've been without internet at home for over a month, I've just started to listen to them. Click here to go to the media page. Here's what you'll find:

Don Carson - What is the Gospel? Tim Keller - What Does Gospel Centered Ministry Look Like? Don Carson - Plans and Purposes of the Gospel Coalition John Piper - The Triumph of the Gospel in the New Heavens and the New Earth Crawford Loritts - Passing the Torch

Sinclair Ferguson preached the sermon for Richard Phillips' Sunday night installation service at Second Presbyterian Church, located in downtown Greenville (SC), this past Sunday. I heard from someone who attended the service that it was vintage Sinclair. You can download the mp3 here: Becoming a Model Church. Richard Phillips preached on John 1:1-3 for the morning service (download it here: The Word).

I had a brief opportunity to talk with Richard Phillips and welcome him to Greenville at the CBA convention early this week. I'm very excited that he's here and eager to see how God uses his ministry in this unique city. Richard was kind enough to give me (and many other people) a free signed copy of his latest book, Jesus the Evangelist: Learning to share the gospel from the book of John.

Since the graves of John Piper's parents are only 150 yards or so from my son Daniel's, I usually visit them after spending some time at my son's. Both grave sites provide the opportunity for me to think about life, death, and the resurrection. Here are a few pics I took two weeks ago.