Steve McCoy and Joe Thorn have launched sub•text - a site about the preaching and practice of the Gospel in the suburban context. It looks like this site will be a great resource for all of us suburbanite Christians.

The Gospel Coalition website has a number of sermons by Tim Keller available to download free (turns out they’re not free…bummer) (HT: Justin Taylor).

TIME Magazine’s website has a cool Flash-based map of the United States showing the geographic distribution of the population. According to TIME’s figures 80% of the U.S. population lives in a metropolitan area.

These stats seem to give some numerical support to Tim Keller’s emphasis on taking the Gospel to the cities.

[tags]Population, United States, Gospel[/tags]

A friend sent me an article by the Rev. Ron Vanderwell, pastor of The Gathering, a Christian Reformed church plant in Sacramento, California. The title of the article, Becoming a Better Sinner, certainly catches your attention.

There is a myth passed along among Christians that we can conquer sin in our lives. It’s hinted at in our conversations, reinforced in songs we listen to, and sometimes preached with vigor from our pulpits. Given enough time, enough willpower, enough of the right conferences or radio shows or religious paperbacks, we should be able to get our spiritual acts fully together

…

As recovering sinners, our growth in Christ then would not involve the charade of sinlessness but instead would involve learning to more fully and freely absorb the astonishing grace Christ offers to us. To repent more easily, be forgiven more freely, and fight spiritual battles more powerfully, clothed in the armor that God makes available (Eph. 6).

It’s a thought provoking read. You can find the full article here.

I came across this passage again in Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ sermons on Romans 6. In this passage Lloyd-Jones is addressing the question raised in Romans 6:1 (”What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?”) in response to the Apostle Paul’s preaching about God’s grace.

First of all let me make a comment, to me a very important and vital comment. The true preaching of the gospel of salvation by grace alone always leads to the possibility of this charge being brought against it. There is no better test as to whether a man is really preaching the New Testament gospel of salvation than this, that some people might misunderstand it and misinterpret it to mean that it really amounts to this, that because you are saved by grace alone it does not matter at all what you do; you can go on sinning as much as you like because it will redound all the more to the glory of grace. That is a very good test of gospel preaching. If my preaching and presentation of the gospel of salvation does not expose it to that misunderstanding, then it is not the gospel…I would say to all preachers: If your preaching of the salvation has not been misunderstood in that way, then you had better examine your sermons again, and you had better maker sure that you really are preaching the salvation that is offered in the New Testament to the ungodly, to the sinner, to those who are dead in trespasses and sins, to those who are the enemies of God (Romans: Exposition of Chapter 6, The New Man, pp. 8-10).