It’s been a while long since I posted anything here on my blog, mainly due to the World Cup and a generally hectic schedule. Expect some reflections on church very soon, but for now, here’s some things around the web that have caught my attention this month.

– Eerdmans’ have new forthcoming releases catalogue. This includes a number of new commentaries. For me, the most anticipated is the new Pillar Commentary on 2 Peter and Jude by Peter Davids.

– Mark Roberts has been blogging on what could be the “end of the Presbyterian Church USA”. As usual his posts are thorough, Biblically informed and well thought out.

– There have been a few helpful parenting posts recently. Rob Wilkerson writes about blame-shifting. Tim Challies is one of a number to recommend a new booklet on Family Worship. Also Justin Taylor recommends a catechism for kids.

– Castle Sands is a new blog to me, but one that I have been enjoying as it comes from a fellow reformed charismatic from Newfrontiers. He has a great post on faith, arguing that “faith is not about achieving certain outcomes, but a trusting in the character and promises of God”.

– I stayed out of the last debate on tithing, but Justin Taylor summarises some articles by Andreas Kostenberger and David Croteau. (Part 1, Part 2). I think there can be some muddled thinking about tithing, which churches can teach in a legalistic manner, even when their approach to the similar issue of Sabbath observance takes the exact opposite approach. What we need is to teach the principles of giving, that should result in people gladly giving more than a tenth, rather than begrudgingly doing their duty.

– Sovereign Grace continue to churn out some great new music with real depth to the lyrics. The latest project, “Valley of Vision” draws on prayers from the Puritans.

– The “Emergent/Emerging” church has generated a lot of controversy, and though I have some sympathies with their ideas, I think Rob Wilkerson’s insightful discussion of emergent humility highlights an important reason why I don’t feel able to identify with the movement as a whole.

– Dave Bish has already read his copy of Sam Storm’s new book Convergence and liked it.

– The Americans just don’t get the beautiful game… I set Justin Taylor right in the comments though.

– Final news. In the latest newfrontiers magazine we are promised that the papers from the newfrontiers theological forum are going to be made available online. I can’t wait! I wonder if Dan’s lament that there were only 12 people on the comittee has anything to do with this. (check out the comments there for James Farrer’s response – someone who seems to be in the know)

Yet again, the general business of life as a father of three has kept me from posting much up here, so I’ll direct any visitors to some cool stuff I’ve come across this week.

• Mark Mould has started blogging. Mark has become a good friend over the last year or so as I discovered he shares my passion for theology, an appreciation for the Puritans (he’s reading the works of John Flavel at the moment), and a crazy enough sense of humour to be able to enjoy full faith.
• Jon Brombley has put some of his songs online at myspace. In fact, I’ve just noticed that Harun Kotch another friend from my church has some of his songs online too as well as some from his band Replenish.
• Mark Roberts has been working on an excellent series on the Da Vinci Code, with some very useful posts on the historical reliability of the New Testament
• Paul Schafer has created a great list of newfrontiers churches with audio sermons online.
• If you thought you would skip downloading sermons from Bethlehem Baptist Church while John Piper was on sabbatical, think again. He has a first rate lineup of stand-in preachers, including Wayne Grudem and Sam Storms.
• NT Scholar Andreas Kostenberger is blogging.
• And finally, Richard Collins has produced another podcast. I haven’t listened to it yet, but he’s always thought-provoking.

As you may have noticed, since having my third child I have not had much time for blogging. But that doesn’t mean I’ve spent all my time changing nappies. There’s a book review, and two home studio recordings on their way, and I’m spending a lot of time at the moment preparing for a talk I’m doing on Sunday.

In the meantime, I thought I would direct any readers disappointed with the lack of action here to some other blogs I have enjoyed in recent weeks.

• Ger Jones asks some interesting questions about Restorationist views on Sanctification
• Dave Skipper writes a excellent post about musicians and pride
• Scot McKnight fears that “church borging” may become prevalent
• Richard Collins has started podcasting – well worth a listen
• And finally, Dan has been prolifically blogging on all things Ern Baxter, with a bit of Lloyd-Jones, Owen and Coates thrown in for good measure.

I’ve not had time to write much over recent weeks, but I have been doing plenty of reading. Here’s some of the things that have caught my attention:

• The charismatic debate rumbles on, but this time its the cessationists who are continuing, just when the continuationists wanted to stop. Check out some insights from Mark Barnes too, who has sold me three commentaries this week (bang goes my New Years resolution not to buy commentaries faster than I can read them)
• N T Wright continues to attract discussion, with many reformed evangelicals still trying to decide whether he is a goodie or a baddie. Seems like he’s keeping the wrong company. He’s got at least three dubious friends…
• First is Steve Chalke, who caused a furore with his hostile dismissal of “penal substitution”. Sven agrees with him, and has posted three articles this week on the subject. Its also worth checking further back on his site for articles on the “Christus Victor” theory of the atonement. Tom Wright actually responds to some concerns in a Q & A on his site, where he doesn’t reject penal substitution outright, but sees it as one aspect in a richer theology of the atonement. As for myself, I need to do some more research on this subject, but I remember being very impressed after reading John Stott’s “The Cross of Christ” with what a wide variety of ways the Bible uses to talk about the meaning of the cross (redemption, atonement, reconcilliation, ransom etc …).
• Second is Brian McLaren, author of the most controversial book on LibraryThing. Justin Taylor asks why emergent folks such as Brian like Wright so much.. Kevin Cawley, Philip Ryken and Rick Philips offer interesting responses (summary: he’s a baddie).
• Finally, his egalitarian position has attracted the attention of Doug Wilson. Doug’s blog makes for great reading although I doubt many will agree with him on every view he has. He has written a lot about Brian McLaren as well, including a multi-part review of a Generous Orthodoxy, indexed here and here
• On a lighter note, there are two new episodes in the hilarious “Drowning Melville” series on the Save the Wheel website. This is an initiative that Sovereign Grace seem to be behind, with a rather way out sense of humour. Anyway, the “Drowning Melville” series is comedy genius. Check it out.

Here are some miscellaneous sites I’ve come across, and places I’ve been in the last few weeks.

• Jeremy Pierce has posted another in his series of reviews of commentaries on specific biblical books – this time Ephesians
• He also gets a mention in the latest Biblical Studies Bulletin from Ridley Hall, Cambridge, which this month sees the return of the Comments on Commentaries -this month it is an update on Mark.
• Church of Christ the King, Brighton sermons are finally back online. John Hosier is always worth listening to.
• Biblical Training is a promising site offering the chance to listen to some lecture series by various evangelical scholars for free.
• I H Marshall weighs in to the debate on “penal substitution” showing the weight of biblical evidence for the concept, particularly in response to Alan Mann’s writings (along with Steve Chalke) on the atonement. It was the first thing I have read by this highly respected evangelical scholar, (although his Arminian views creep in at one point!) and I was quite impressed. The paper comes from a joint Evangelical Alliance/London School of Theology Symposium on the Atonement.
• I went to hear John Arnott speak in New Life Centre, Emsworth on Monday night. The worship was very contemporary complete with smoke machine and dancers. The talk was on healing, and he made some interesting points, although there were some things I was unsure of (giving the devil a ‘legal right’ to make you sick, getting people to ‘forgive themselves’ for injuries). By the end I was one of the few people still standing, which meant I had to do a lot of catching falling people. A number of the people I went with met with God in a powerful way, and I pray that it will result in lasting fruit in their lives.
• Sonar 5 has been announced

My blog is under a spam trackback attack at the moment. I have hopefully got rid of most of it now, but please do not click on any trackbacks you see – they might lead to some unpleasant sites. If it persists, I may have to disable comments altogether for a while.

Update: I’ve turned off comments temporarily, as the other methods haven’t seemed to work.

My ISP managed to lose all the data on my webserver a couple of days ago, but thankfully the contents of the blog are still intact as they were stored on a different computer. It serves as a reminder to back things up regularly though.