Post Tenebras Lux

I know, I know, the conference ended yesterday. I’ll just give the excuse that I spent all afternoon (and evening!) in various airports trying to get home. A three-hour layover at New York’s LaGuardia Airport certainly will draw out your travel time.

The last morning of the Together for the Gospel conference was very good. C.J. Mahaney, president of Sovereign Grace Ministries and former pastor of Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, Maryland, addressed us on Watch Your Life & Doctrine. It was an excellent, heartfelt message preached with a dash of witty and often self-effacing humor. After a brief break, Dr. John MacArthur reminisced about Forty Years of Gospel Ministry, in which he exhorted the body to take seriously the charge of truly letting the biblical text direct and regulate the sermon. It was vintage, classic MacArthur, and a very good reminder.

I haven’t commented on this yet in the Together for the Gospel series, but I must “brag” about the loot we received. As a seminary student, I was able to attend the conference at a discount rate because of extremely gracious conference organizers. Little did I know that I’d actually make money in the end! What do I mean by that? Throughout the conference, we were given gifts of books. Each morning or afternoon the attendees would walk into the conference venue and sitting on each man’s chair was a gift of books selected especially by the next speaker. All in all, I received 14 brand new books, none of which I already possessed! Here’s a list of the titles:

• The MacArthur Study Bible (!)

• a paperback copy of the ESV translation of the Bible

• The Reformed Pastor by Richard Baxter

• The Deliberate Church by Mark Dever

• Getting the Gospel Right by R.C. Sproul

• Why Only One Way? by John MacArthur

• God is the Gospel by John Piper

• Counted Righteous in Christ by John Piper

• Give Praise to God edited by Ligon Duncan, Derek Thomas, & Philip Ryken

• Humility by C.J. Mahaney

• Sex, Romance, & the Glory of God by C.J. Mahaney

• Speaking the Truth in Love by David Powlison

• Women’s Ministry in the Local Church by Ligon Duncan & Susan Hunt

• Pathway to Freedom by Alistair Begg

The conference was fantastic, and I highly recommend that you try to attend the conference in 2008. I can enthusiastically say that it will be good for your soul.