Enter the Lists: Guest List

This list is one compiled and contributed by Chris, who preached the sermon at our church last Sunday. This list is from his sermon, and it contains miracles of Elisha that point forward to (or foreshadow) Christ's miracles.

• Elisha healed Naaman of leprosy.
  
• Elisha transformed water in 2 Kings 2.
  
• Elisha suspends the characteristics of water when the axe head floats.
• Elisha raised the Shunammite’s son from the dead.
• Elisha multiplied the widow’s oil.
• Elisha gave and took away sight.

Enter the Lists: Too Many To List?

• Missmellifluous has a list of Australian slang words, and she wants you to tell her what they mean. Go play the game!
• From Colin Maxwell of Cork Free Presbyterian Church we some lists having to do with Protestant history, including a list of classic historical books.
• At Founders Ministries Blog, we have a list of "historical, theological and exegetical fallacies" in the sermon Why I Am Not A Reformed Baptist by Jonathan Modene.
• Violet of promptings has a list of eleven blogs she likes.
• Kim of Hiraeth has a list of responses to her survey, Reading As A Christian Discipline.
• Update (See! I did miss one.): Julana makes a list of things she's been doing to get through January.
• Yet another update: Pam of a rustling of leaves has a list to help you evaluate how much value you place in your Bible.
  

If you sent me a link to a list during the last week and you don't see it here, would you remind me? I was busy last week, and not very good at keeping track of things.

Enter the Lists: A Quote from Mark Dever

. . . about the story of Esther. It includes a list--a list that shows us that sometimes nothing tells the true story like a list.

You may have heard the proverb, "Large doors swing on small hinges." The course of history is often determined by the smallest particulars. This story of Esther is filled with crucial happenings that might have looked like chance to anyone observing the events at the time, and perhaps they looked that way to you. After all, the book explains the Feast of Purim, which comes from the plural Hebrew word for "lots" or "dice." And the roll of the dice gives a random outcome, right? If you think so, then to you this book will be nothing more than a really remarkable story of how all this stuff just seemed to happen. What stuff?

• Esther just happens to be Jewish, and she just happens to be beautiful.
• Esther just happens to be favored by the king.
• Mordecai just happens to hear the plot against the king's life.
• A report of this just happens to be written in the king's chronicles.
• Haman just happens to notice that Mordecai does not kneel down before him and he just happens to find out that Mordecai is a Jew.
• When Haman plots his revenge, the dice just happen to indicate that the date for exacting revenge is put off for almost a year! (What does Proverbs 16:33 say? "The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD.")
• Esther happens to get the king's approval to speak, but then she happens to put off her request for another day.
• Her deferral happens to send Haman out by Mordecai one more time,
  
• which just happens to cause him to recount it to his friends.
• They, in turn, just happen to encourage him to build a scaffold immediately!
• So Haman just happens to be excited to approach the king early the next morning.
• It just so happens that the previous night, the mighty king could not command a moments sleep,
• and he just happened to have had a book brought to him than recounted Mordecai's deed.
• He then happened to ask whether Mordecai had been rewarded, to which his attendants happened to know the answer. Simply consider for a moment the fact that Mordecai happened not to have been rewarded for having saved the king's life. How unusual this must have been! Someone who saved the king's life never rewarded? I wonder if Mordecai ever chafed under that: "Doesn't he realize what I did for him?" Well, it all just happened.
• Anyhow, Haman happens to approach the king just when the king is wondering how Mordecai should be honored.
• Later on, the king happens to return to the queen just when Haman happens to be pleading with Esther in a way that can be misconstrued.
• The gallows Haman built for Mordecai just happens to be ready when King Xerxes want to hang Haman.

I could keep going. Is that how you read the story of Esther—as so many happenstances and lucky coincidences? Apart from believing that God actively and sovereignly rules over our world, the book of Esther becomes a mere celebration of Mordecai's wisdom and Esther's courage, and, most of all, simply chance and luck.

But, friend, if you are a Christian, this is not how you should read this book. I assure you, this is not why it was written. This book was written to show that God himself acts to achieve the total defeat of his foes and the safety of his people.

From The Message of the Old Testament: Promises Kept by Mark Dever, pages 455, 456.

Update, Tuesday, January 30: The Blue Fish Project has several posts on the book of Esther.

Enter the Lists: I Haven't Forgotten You

I have a large collection of contributed lists that I haven't had time to post. I'll try to post them this afternoon, but I'm not promising

Enter the Lists: For Rabbie Burns Day

Prepare the haggis! Today is Robert Burns' birthday. In celebration, here's a list of all the poems of Robert Burns posted here during January of 2005.

• Winter: A Dirge
• To A Mouse, On Turning Her Up in Her Nest with the Plough
• A Grace After Dinner
• To A Louse, On Seeing One on a Lady's Bonnet, at Church
• A Red, Red Rose
• A Grace Before Dinner, Extempore
• O Thou Dread Power
• The Book-Worms
• The First Six Verses Of The Ninetieth Psalm Versified
• Bannocks O' Bear Meal
• On Politics
• The Selkirk Grace
• Address To A Haggis

Update: Brandon has posted his favorite Burns poem.

Enter the Lists: Grief, The Old Testament, and Old Regular

• David Hayward, aka nakedpastor, has a really good list of 11 ways to be with those who grieve.
• Gummby of Still Reforming has posted a list of reasons to study the Old Testament at Neil Shay's blog, Chez Kneel. Reason number one? The Old Testament "testifies about Jesus."
• Here's a different sort of list, and one I hope you'll find as interesting as I did. It's a whole blog devoted to listing the order of service, with links to recordings of each item, for the services at Blessed Hope Old Regular Baptist church, Liberty, Kentucky. You'll notice that the hymns are sung without instrumentation in a singing style that may be unfamiliar to you. To get a taste, listen to this recording of the congregational singing of Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah.

This is the month for everything listish on this blog. Have you posted a list--any list on any topic? Please send me the link, I'll include your post in this month's round up of lists of all sorts.

Enter the Lists: Fondue and the Puritans

• I pretty sure the Puritans didn't fondue, but Carla isn't letting that stop her. She's collecting fondue recipes, and if you have a good one, go add it to her list.
  
• I'm not sure we're supposed to take our food lessons from the Puritans, anyway; but we may want to consider what they can teach us about evangelism. Here's a place to start: Old Truth.com quotes Joel Beeke in 5 Puritan Evangelism Lessons For Todays Churches.

This is the month for everything listish on this blog. Have you posted a list? Any list on any topic? Please send me the link, I'll include your post in this month's round up of lists of all sorts.

Enter the Lists: Maturity

A list from Fideo: How To Be Mature Church Member

This is the month for everything listish on this blog. Have you posted a list? Do you know someone else who has? I'm looking for links to lists. You can email me with the links or leave them in the comments to this post.

Enter the Lists: Cool Stuff

Here's a list with links to a few interesting things I've seen recently:

• If any group suffered from bad press, it's those poor Puritans. Thankfully, there are those who try to help set the record straight:

  Puritanism: The Real Thing at Historia Ecclesiastica
  
  The Salem Witch Trials, the end of the story, at Grantian Florilegium.

• Hymn lovers of the world unite! Carla's already designed our group t-shirts.
• Kim from Hiraeth has a list of names. Compelling, she calls it. See what you think.
• Juanita of Jam and Books has a list of

  books about women's issues, most of them written from a non-Christian perspective, that critique what we now see to be the results of the feminist movement.

This is the month for everything listish on this blog. Have you posted a list? Any list on any topic? Please, I beg of you, send me the link!

Enter the Lists: Listen Up, Writers and Speakers!

• Matt of Still Reforming gives you a list of

  links that those who are interested in writing (and I'm gonna go out a limb here and guess that if you're a blogger you fancy yourself as some sort of writer) might enjoy.

• Kim of The Upward Call is compiling a list of grammar pet peeves.
  

This is the month for everything listish on this blog. Have you posted a list? Any list on any topic? I'm looking for links to lists.

Enter the Lists: For Biography Fans

How about a few links for those of you who love real life historical stories?

From Michael Haykin, a few historical lectures

• George Whitefield
• Charles Wesley
• William Carey
• Jonathan Edwards
  

From John Piper, biographical reflections in both audio and print

• John Newton
• David Brainerd
• William Tyndale
• John G. Paton
  

There's more where those came from here and here.

Enter the Lists: The Most Fun We've Had in a While

MissM has a list challenge, and the sons and I spent way too much time with it last night. Now that we've done our best, I'm turning things over to you.

Enter the Lists: For the Readers

• Sherry of Semicolon has the reading list to end all reading lists: A list of links to the reading lists of other bloggers, and 75 of them at last count.
• Linda of Soli Deo Gloria lists the best of the books she read last year, and also the books she plans to read this year.
• Colin of Unashamed Workman gives us 21 Reasons to Read Good Christian Books.
• I posted a book list yesterday. Make sure you check out the other books suggested in the comments of that post as well.
• Update: Island Sparrow has a list of the books she purchased for her school's library with the $350 she had to spend.
  

This is the month for everything listish on this blog. Have you posted a list? Any list on any topic? I'm looking for links to lists.

Enter the Lists: Doctrine for Dummies

Over the past couple of years, I've been on the lookout for books on doctrine or theology that are suitable for the reader who is interested in gaining a deeper understanding of orthodox Christian doctrine, but whose background includes, perhaps, only Sunday School and sermons and group and personal Bible study, not seminary. My cutsie title for this post is not really accurate, since it's not quite doctrine for dummies, but more accurately introductory level theology books. Not that a person who is more advanced won't find them valuable, but their strength is that they are not too dense for the average believer who is willing to do a little work as he reads. If you really want to learn about theology, these books should help.

• In Understanding Be Men by T. C. Hammond. I was introduced to this little book when it was used as the textbook for a Sunday School class on basic doctrine at the Evangelical Free Church of Bemidji, MN. It's subtitle is A Handbook of Christian Doctrine, and that's just what it it. It's a small volume, only 192 pages, and laid out in a manner that makes it easy to use for quick reference. I agree completely with the review at the Amazon link above, so let me point you to that rather than writing more here.
• Salvation Belongs to the Lord by John Frame. I reviewed this one last week. This book is more thorough than the Hammond's little handbook, but then you probably wouldn't want to carry it around in your purse, either.
• Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem. This one's longer than the two books listed above, more like you might expect from a systematic theology text, and that extra length means it's both more in-depth and comprehensive, but it also makes it more intimidating, length-wise. It is very readable, however, so you shouldn't find it intimidating language-wise. I particularly like the practical application section in each chapter, since I think many people stay away from theology on the mistaken idea that it has no practical value. It does, and this is a systematic theology that shows that it does.
• Knowing God by J. I. Packer. This is the first book on the list that has a narrow theological focus, if we can call knowing God a narrow focus. Everyone says this book is a classic, and they'd be right. If you stay away from things theological because you think it's all too dry for you, this book will prove you wrong by making your heart sing. If you've read none of the books on my list, let me suggest you start here. For those keeping track, it's another one you could slip into your purse.
  
• Father, Son and Holy Spirit: Relationships, Roles and Relevance by Bruce Ware. I've reviewed this one here, and I won't add any remarks to that except to say that this book also fits in the purse-sized category.
• The Atonement: It's Meaning and Significance by Leon Morris. I've done a sort-of review of this one here. There is nothing more crucial to the Christian than the cross of Christ, and Morris takes the terms associated with this wonderful gift from God and explains them, and the concepts behind them, in a way that is easy to read and understand. And in just over 200 pages, to boot. This book is another of the heart singers.
  
• Redemption Accomplished and Applied by John Murray. This book is the perfect companion to the one by Morris listed above. The subject matter is slightly different: The Atonement deals mostly with the objective reality of the cross; and Redemption Accomplished and Applied includes more on the subjective reality of it. I found this book to be just a bit more difficult to read than Morris's. At the time I read it, which was several years ago, I sometimes had to stop and read a portion over in order to understand it. You might want to try reading The Atonement first, and then move on to this one. Another shorty at 192 pages.

That's it for my list. Do you have suggestions for books I might want to read to see if they are suitable additions to this list?