Elementary…My Dear Watson

When building a digital library, there’s not really such a thing as a “bad” freebie. Sure, some things are lower quality, but today’s post definitely is not.

“Last Friday the Cornerstone Biblical Commentary (9 Vols.) hit the Pre-Pub page. This relatively new series from Tyndale, under the editorship of Philip W. Comfort, Tremper Longman III (OT), and Grant Osborne (NT), attempts—like the second edition of the New Living Translation it is based on—to be both exegetically accurate and idiomatically powerful.

Living on the Gulf Coast of Florida, we are preparing for Tropical Storm Fay, which is supposed to grow to Hurricane strength before it hits the coast, late tonight. All the storm shutters, putting things away, backing up important files, made me think, why does it take a hurricane to make us tidy up?

In some ways, the things we move are unnecessary. The lawn furniture we haven’t used in eons, that little garden gnome that was a Christmas present from someone. We clean these things because we don’t want them to become projectiles; things that could damage our home.

Similarly, our lives have hurricanes. The storms of trial, tribulation, and temptation that we frequently must weather. But why don’t we clean out the unnecessary things of our lives, in order to protect something more important? Our souls.

A hurricane brings into sharp relief the things that matter most. Quite frankly, our family and our home. Shouldn’t the hurricanes of our lives bring out what matters most there as well? Time spent with God. Not surface devotions, but total devotion! Time that is spent searching the scriptures for His face. Seeking its application to our own lives as we become more like Christ.

Perhaps however, we should take a lesson from the number of hurricanes that will batter towns and cities this season. For many of those towns, peoples’ lives have already been changed. Since the likes of Katrina and other hurricanes, many have never fully recovered. They live in a state of constant preparation for the hurricanes that are inevitable.

Should we not also live in constant preparedness for the storms of life? So that when they hit, we are not caught off guard, but are ready to meet them in the strength of the Lord? May the Lord find us faithful.

So, everybody likes free stuff right? Best way I’ve found to build my library is to do so at little/no cost. So here are my two favorite free resources.

1.) www.desiringgod.org
John Piper graciously put nearly all of his books online for FREE in electronic (pdf) format. This is great for sermon illustrations, and personal edification. No, you can’t exactly curl up with your laptop in quite the same way, but it’s still an incredible help. On the other hand, these are entirely searchable! I love to search on my computer.

2.) www.paperbackswap.com
The premise is simple. You have books you are done reading. So do other people. Swap them online. The specifics get slightly more complicated. It involves credits for sending books to people, which you can then use to order books from someone else. You get 2 free credits for just LISTING your first 10 books. So far I have used this to get several books:
Man in the Mirror and The Mark of a Man

I have also ordered several books, including Charismatic Chaos, Quality Friendship, The First 90 Days of Marriage, and The Ragamuffin Gospel.

Charismatic Chaos comes highly recommended by Dr. Bruce McAllister at Bob Jones. Quality Friendship was recommended to me by Steve Ridge, Discipleship Pastor at Grace Baptist Church, Wilmington, NC. First 90 Days of Marriage is by Eric Ludy, an evangelical author that I usually agree with in principle, though I take issue with his music choices. The Ragamuffin Gospel just happened to catch my eye.

All of these books for “free.” The only catch is you have to pay for shipping when another member requests one of your books. Shipping is typically $2-$3 dollars. Considering the market price for the books I’ve requested, I feel very happy about this method of building my library.

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How’s that for alliteration? Sad, but true. The Campus Store has blocked the backdoor that allowed us to check out our booklists ahead of time. Hope you copied them down.

On the plus side, I’m currently organizing a HUGE folder full of newly downloaded articles from Thomas Schreiner’s website (as recommended by Andy Naselli). These should keep me busy long enough for them to get Student Central working again.

Greetings BJ students.To get your booklist for classes, you can wait a week for them to get studentcentral up and running, or use a backdoor I found.

Go to www.bjucampusstore.com In the top of the page you’ll see a link that says “text-only site.” Click that, and then follow the “Textbooks” link from there. This allows you to bypass the Login Server, where there appears to be some issue.

Personally, I recommend logging in as soon as possible. Amazon.com has some great deals, and there’s no guarantee how long they’ll last. For example, CMn510 requires “Age of Opportunity” as a text. The Campus Store offers it for $14.99. Amazon.com currently has it on bargain pricing for $4.99! That’s 1/3 of the regular price! Guys, I need to save all I can, let’s be honest, Seminary isn’t free! Just add enough books to get the free super-saver shipping, and it should be here in time for classes!

Hope this helps.Any problems, let me know, I’d love to help you solve them.

Today’s a quick break from the Library series. I want to highlight an incredible (auto)biography I recently had the pleasure of reading.

Quiet Strength: A Memoir has some incredible principles, both explicit and implicit. These are applicable to people of all walks of life (as indicated in the final “new” chapter) however, I believe certain lessons are extremely applicable to anyone desiring to be a leader, or more specifically, a pastor.

First point of notice that stands out in the book is the man’s desire to be people oriented. Dungy often chose a particular player based on their desire over often seemingly “negative” performance. The application we may take is that far too often we consider a man for ministry based upon how he looks on paper, his resume, his degree, even his GPA. Perhaps more often we should consider his desire, his heart, and his communication abilities.

A personal enjoyment of reading for me was the continuity of Dungy’s philosophy. While he worked in a supporting role as an assistant coach, he slowly built a solid philosophy of 1) Do what we do. (And do it better than anyone else.) 2) Whatever it takes. 3) No excuses, No Explanations. Then, as he took the head coaching position of the Bucanneers (and later the Colts) he succesfully implemented this philosophy with new team(s) and new staff(s), often against tradition and popular opinion. Men looking toward a head pastorate would do well to consider the importance of having staff on board with your philosophy and the success that comes only by clearly defining goals.

A final note that sticks in my mind is the weight Dungy places on family. Believing that family comes first allowed him to create certain policies such as allowing children at the “office” and on the sidelines during games, as well as scheduling flexible work hours so that coaches would have devoted family time. Far too many ministers let Family slip by the wayside as they “give their all for God” when in reality the only god they serve is their pride. A teacher of mine once put it this way. Being bad at your ministry won’t take you out of your family, but being bad at your family will take you out of the ministry.

Overall, I found this a very easy read but very thought provoking. I also highly recommend it to those looking to use Football as a springboard to witnessing as Dungy speaks repeatedly of his faith in Jesus as the basis for his decisions, as well as his comfort after his son’s suicide. I am currently in the middle of my second reading just to cover a few nuggets of wisdom that may have slipped by the wayside. I believe it is time well spent.