Desiring God 2009 Conference for Pastors

Desiring God has asked Go Do Something to come to the 2009 Pastors Conference!

Um, well, Okay. In reality we have friends that work for Desiring God, and they asked us if we would like to volunteer during the conference, February 2nd - 4th. So, hopefully we will see some of you there in Minneapolis!

This years theme is Commending Christ: The Pastor, the Church, and the Perishing

The featured speakers are: Pastor Mark Dever, Pastor Matt Chandler, Pastor Michael Oh, and Pastor John Piper.

Aims of the Pastors Conference
"Rooted in the Scriptures as God’s infallible Word, and dedicated to revival and reformation in the pastoral ministry, The Desiring God Conference for Pastors is a gathering of church leaders for serious thought, honest discussion, and earnest prayer concerning crucial Biblical teachings in historical and contemporary perspective. The aims of the conference each year are:
Theology: To stir up consideration of the Biblical truths that Puritans liked to call the "doctrines of grace."
Encouragement: To revive the spirit of the downcast and strengthen each other's hands in the work of the gospel.
Preaching: To promote earnest, powerful preaching that inspires in God's people a love for the truth and a life of obedience.
Missions: To advance the cause of frontier missions through the incentives of sovereign grace.
Worship: To promote God-centered, Bible-based, heartfelt worship in the churches. " - Desiring God

Registration is now closed for the 2009 conference, however, you can listen to past conferences here. Enjoy!

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Gianna Jessen Abortion Survivor Speaks

Gianna Jessen, abortion survivor speaks at Queen's Hall, Parliament House, Victoria. Australia - on the eve of the debate to decriminalize abortion in Victoria. Gianna's visit was sponsored by the Ad Hoc Interfaith Committee.

PART 1




PART 2

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Fifteen Pro-Life Truths to Speak

Download:

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By John Piper January 24, 2003

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"You will know the truth and the truth will set you free." - Jesus Christ

1. Existing fetal homicide laws make a man guilty of manslaughter if he kills the baby in a mother's womb (except in the case of abortion).

2. Fetal surgery is performed on babies in the womb to save them while another child the same age is being legally destroyed.

3. Babies can sometimes survive on their own at 23 or 24 weeks, but abortion is legal beyond this limit.

4. Living on its own is not the criterion of human personhood, as we know from the use of respirators and dialysis.

5. Size is irrelevant to human personhood, as we know from the difference between a one-week-old and a six-year-old.

6. Developed reasoning powers are not the criterion of personhood, as we know from the capacities of three-month-old babies.

7. Infants in the womb are human beings scientifically by virtue of their genetic make up.

8. Ultrasound has given a stunning window on the womb that shows the unborn at eight weeks sucking his thumb, recoiling from pricking, responding to sound. All the organs are present, the brain is functioning, the heart is pumping, the liver is making blood cells, the kidneys are cleaning fluids, and there is a fingerprint. Virtually all abortions happen later than this date.

9. Justice dictates that when two legitimate rights conflict, the limitation of rights that does the least harm is the most just. Bearing a child for adoption does less harm than killing him.

10. Justice dictates that when either of two people must be inconvenienced or hurt to alleviate their united predicament, the one who bore the greater responsibility for the predicament should bear more of the inconvenience or hurt to alleviate it.

11. Justice dictates that a person may not coerce harm on another person by threatening voluntary harm on themselves.

12. The outcast and the disadvantaged and exploited are to be cared for in a special way, especially those with no voice of their own.

13. What is happening in the womb is the unique person-nurturing work of God, who alone has the right to give and take life.

14. There are countless clinics that offer life and hope to both mother and child (and father and parents), with care of every kind lovingly provided by people who will meet every need they can.

15.Jesus Christ can forgive all sins, and will give all who trusts him the help they need to do everything that life requires.

Here are the places where most abortions are done in the Minnesota. Ask God how the gospel of Christ might be most fruitfully shared with those who work here, with a view to saving life now and for eternity. The one nearest the church (Meadowbrook) advertises on their website that they do abortions up to 21.6 weeks.

By John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org

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Who, Me?

The Navigators Devotional for Friday, January 16, 2009

Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." - Matthew 19:26

Moses was raised as the son of Pharaoh's daughter, but through a series of circumstances he found himself on the backside of the desert, tending somebody else's sheep. It was there an event occurred that led him to become one of the greatest men the world has ever known. Here's how it happened: God called to Moses out of the midst of a bush that burned but was not consumed. When Moses saw this strange sight, he turned aside for a closer look. And God revealed Himself with these words: "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." Then He told Moses, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them" (Exodus 3:6-8).

Can you imagine the joy that must have flooded Moses' heart? God Himself was going to take action to deliver the children of Israel from the hand of their oppressors. Then God said, "So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt."

Moses was dumbfounded. "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?" he said. The question was so irrelevant that God didn't even bother to answer it. Instead He said, "I will be with you."

Christian, are you tempted to back out of something, to tell God to get somebody else to do it? Remember in whose power you go, and then launch out and watch the hand of God at work.

Prayer

Lord, I feel inadequate for the task ahead, but I press on, knowing that You will go with me. Amen.

To Ponder

God delights in using ordinary people to do extraordinary things.

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The text for this devotional comes from the NavPress book Daily Discipleship, which features devotionals taken from radio broadcasts by long-time Navigator LeRoy Eims. For more information or to order a copy, visit the NavPress website.

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Jane Roe

Publish Post

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A Greater Dream

A Greater Dream

by John Piper

[Section taken from Every Race to Reign and Worship]

I was seventeen when, on August 28, 1963, King stood before the Lincoln Memorial and said, "I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave-owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. . . . I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." Martin Luther King articulated and symbolized a great dream - and it is not yet realized.

What I want to do this morning is ratchet that dream up to a full-blown Biblical vision of God's purpose for the world, and then call us as a church to consciously be a part of it. The Biblical vision is much bigger than how black and white people relate to each other. King knew that. It's about people from every race and every language and every tribe uniting with a passion for the supremacy of God in all things. One of the ways to see the purposes of God that drive history is to look at the end of the history that God describes in Revelation. This is where he is taking history. This is what history is about. This is what Bethlehem is about and what Minneapolis is about and what the USA and all the nations of the world are about. You can learn your reason for being by looking at the goal of God in Revelation.

In Revelation 5:9, John tells us why Jesus is worthy to open the book of the end of history so that things unfold according to the plan of God. Jesus is worthy because of how his death relates to all the races and tribes of the earth: "Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. 10 You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth."

Read The Full Artical : Every Race to Reign and Worship

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Why Fight Racial Prejudice?

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The Death of My Best Friend

The Death of My Best Friend

by C. H. SPURGEON [A Brief Autobiographical Excerpt of his Conversion and Subsequent Experiences]

There was a day, as I took my walks abroad, when I came hard by a spot forever engraven upon my memory, for there I saw this friend, my best, my only Friend.... MURDERED.

I stooped down in sad affright, and looked at Him. I saw that His hands had been pierced with rough iron nails, and His feet had been rent in the same way. There was misery in His dead countenance so terrible that I scarcely dared to look upon it. His body was emaciated with hunger, His back was red with bloody scourges, and His brow had a circle of wounds about it: clearly could one see that these had been pierced by thorns.

I shuddered, for I had known this Friend full well. He never had a fault; He was the purest of the pure, the holiest of the holy.

Who could have injured Him? For He never injured any man: all His life long He "went about doing good." He had healed the sick, He had fed the hungry, He had raised the dead: for which of these works did they kill Him? He had never breathed out anything else but love — and as I looked into the poor sorrowful face, so full of agony, and yet so full of love, I wondered who could have been a wretch so vile as to pierce hands like His.

I said within myself, "Where can these traitors live? Who are these that could have smitten such an One as this?"

Had they murdered an oppressor, we might have forgiven them; had they slain one who had indulged in vice or villainy, it might have been his desert; had it been a murderer and a rebel, or one who had committed sedition, we would have said, "Bury his corpse: justice has at last given him his due."

But when Thou wast slain, my best, my only-beloved, where lodged the traitors? Let me seize them, and they shall be put to death! If there be torments that I can devise, surely they shall endure them all. Oh! what jealousy; what revenge I felt! If I might but find these murderers, what would I do with them!

The Criminal Discovered

And as I looked upon that corpse, I heard a footstep, and wondered where it was. I listened, and I clearly perceived that the murderer was close at hand! It was dark, and I groped about to find him. I found that, somehow or other, wherever I put out my hand, I could not meet with him, for he was NEARER to me than my hand would go.

At last I put my hand upon MY BREAST. "I have thee now" said I — for lo! he was IN MY OWN HEART — the murderer was hiding within my own bosom, dwelling in the recesses of my INMOST SOUL.

Ah! then I wept indeed, that I, in the very presence of my murdered Master, should be harboring the murderer — and I felt myself most guilty while I bowed over His Corpse, and sang that plaintive hymn..."Twas you, MY SINS, my cruel sins, His chief tormentors were; Each of my crimes became a nail, and unbelief the spear."

Amid the rabble rout which hounded the Redeemer to His doom, there were some gracious souls whose bitter anguish sought vent in wailing and lamentations, fit music to accompany that march of woe. When my soul can, in imagination, see the Saviour bearing His cross to Calvary, she joins the godly women, and weeps with them; for, indeed, there is true cause for grief, cause lying deeper than those mourning women thought. They bewailed innocence maltreated, goodness persecuted, love bleeding, meekness about to die — but my heart has a deeper and more bitter cause to mourn.

MY SINS were the scourges which lacerated those blessed shoulders,

and crowned with thorns those bleeding brows; my sins cried — "Crucify Him! Crucify Him!"

— and laid the cross upon His gracious shoulders.

His being led forth to die is sorrow enough for one eternity;

but my having been His murderer, is more,

infinitely more grief than one poor fountain of tears can express.

If Christ has died for me, ungodly as I am, without strength as I am, then I cannot live in sin any longer, but must arouse myself to love and serve Him who hath redeemed me. I cannot trifle with the evil which slew my best Friend. I must be holy for His sake.

HOW CAN I LIVE IN SIN WHEN HE HAS DIED TO SAVE ME FROM IT?

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Top Email Subscriptions

Listed below are the GDS top picks for free email subscriptions (that are actually worth signing up for). Click the links and type in your email information to receive these on a daily or weekly basis.

Daily Discipleship
The text for this devotional comes from the NavPress book Daily Discipleship, which features devotionals taken from radio broadcasts by long-time Navigator LeRoy Eims.

C.H. Spurgeon's 'Morning & Evening
If you would like to receive some encouragement in your mailbox each day, they will e-mail to youeach day's reading of C.H. Spurgeon's 'Morning & Evening'.

Answers Weekly email
This informative weekly email will arrive in your inbox every Saturday with a poignant question, a “Quick Look” at News to Note, weekly articles on the website, After Eden, upcoming events, and more.

Unreached People of the Day by email
Get the Unreached People of the Day by email: Receive an HTML formatted email in your in-box featuring the Unreached People of the Day with photo, map, text and basic information. Use it to pray for the Unreached People of the Day and share it with friends.

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Mark Driscoll: TRIAL AND SIN Preview

During January-March, Pastor Mark Driscoll will be doing a sermon series called TRIAL 8 Wittinesses from 1 & 2 Peter. You can keep up with the sermon series at MarsHillChurch.org, and you can also download a PDF study guide from the website to help you follow along.

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GDS Update

This is a new organization, so we are still in the process of getting all of our material up and running for you. There are many things we are working on, but you can look forward to seeing a lot of them on our official website and blog within the next few months.

Currently we are working on:

• Finishing up our Statement of Faith.
• Making some introductory YouTube videos to GDS.
• Adding content to all the sections on our main site.

We hope, through the projects we are currently working on, to help you get a better idea of who we are and the main mission of our organization.

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Jonathan Edwards: Digital Collections

["Controversy Book C" and "Sundries"]
Edwards, Jonathan, 1703-1758

Through Yale University's online library you can zoom in and look at the original writings of Jonathan Edwards. Although, some of the writing is rather cryptic--it is interesting to be able to read his thoughts in the original writing.

You checkout the collections at:

Yale University: Digital Collections

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Jahaziel: My Story

Jahaziel My Story - Behind the scenes

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