Some Things that Help Me

The Lord has been so good to me. He has saved me, given me a great family, helped me find work, put me in a good church and has been teaching me many things. There are a great many things that He has given to help me live daily as a Christian. I will periodically discuss these things, and add links to their pertinent sites when appropriate.

1. One Year Bible OnLine - As I have mentioned before (see entry for January 10, 2008), I have difficulty reading my Bible daily. This site has helped me to focus on doing this. There are many versions available to study, and there is an option to have the Scriptures read aloud, which can be a real blessing.

2. The White Horse Inn - This site has some good articles and other resources, but what I go here for is the radio broadcasts. You can listen to the archives for the last six months or so here for free. Each year they theme their broadcasts around a specific topic and this year the series is on "Christless Christianity." This has been a compelling series, with some very salient points made concerning modern Christianity's priorities. As a bonus, first time listeners who sign their guestbook get free stuff, so be sure and check it out!

3. Monergism.com - This site is absolutely jam-packed with reformed theology resources. You can study up on whatever doctrine is stuck in your craw, or go to their bookstore and buy that hard to find addition to your library.

4. Christian Classics Ethereal Library - Administered by Calvin College in Grand Rapids, this site is loaded with writings of Church fathers, reformers, mystics and heretics. The main reason you'll find me here is for the searchable, downloadable, cut-and-pasteable, freely available complete Commentaries of John Calvin. This is good stuff my friends! As the prince of preachers said in his Commenting and Commentaries:

"It would not be possible for me too earnestly to press upon you the importance of reading the expositions of that prince among men, John Calvin! I am afraid that scant purses may debar you from their purchase, but if it be possible procure them, and meanwhile, since they are in the College library, use them diligently. I have often felt inclined to cry out with Father Simon, a Roman Catholic, "Calvin possessed a sublime genius", and with Scaliger, "Oh! how well has Calvin reached the meaning of the prophets--no one better." You will find forty two or more goodly volumes worth their weight in gold. Of all commentators I believe John Calvin to be the most candid. In his expositions he is not always what moderns would call Calvinistic; that is to say, where Scripture maintains the doctrine of predestination and grace he flinches in no degree, but inasmuch as some Scriptures bear the impress of human free action and responsibility, he does not shun to expound their meaning in all fairness and integrity. He was no trimmer and pruner of texts. He gave their meaning as far as he knew it. His honest intention was to translate the Hebrew and the Greek originals as accurately as he possibly could, and then to give the meaning which would naturally be conveyed by such Greek and Hebrew words: he laboured, in fact, to declare, not his own mind upon the Spirit's words, but the mind of the Spirit as couched in those words. Dr. King very truly says of him, "No writer ever dealt more fairly and honestly by the Word of God. He is scrupulously careful to let it speak for itself, and to guard against every tendency of his own mind to put upon it a questionable meaning for the sake of establishing some doctrine which he feels to be important, or some theory which he is anxious to uphold. This is one of his prime excellences. He will not maintain any doctrine, however orthodox and essential, by a text of Scripture which to him appears of doubtful application, or of inadequate force. For instance, firmly as he believed the doctrine of the Trinity, he refuses to derive an argument in its favour from the plural form of the name of God in the first chapter of Genesis. It were easy to multiply examples of this kind, which, whether we agree in his conclusion or not, cannot fail to produce the conviction that he is at least an honest commentator, and will not make any passage of Scripture speak more or less than, according to his view, its divine Author intended it to speak." - C. H. Spurgeon.

He has a great deal more to say on this subject, but I will leave you to check it out here.

Finally, I will leave you with a video that was of great encouragement to me this week: