Many thanks to Wayne Grudem and Randy Alcorn for their faithful, humble, and helpful ministry among us this last weekend at Clarus ’10. It was an enormous privilege to sit under their teaching and a great pleasure to get to know them.

As Randy’s Facebook page attests, a lot of that time together was spent at Jason’s Deli.

(Ryan Kelly, Wayne Grudem, Randy Alcorn, and Randy’s pastor/friend, Steve Keels)

How should Christians relate to politics? Wayne Grudem explains five wrong views of political involvement:

1. Government compelling religion
2. Religion excluded from the public square
3. Christians abandoning government altogether
4. Christians doing evangelism and not politics
5. Christians doing politics and not evangelism

Dr. Grudem will be speaking at DSC on the topics of business, ethics, and world poverty this Friday and Saturday, as well as preaching in both of our Sunday AM services. Hope you plan to join us.

In this video, Randy Alcorn briefly answers the question of God’s purposes for suffering and evil. Suffering tells us:

This can’t be all there is; there’s got to be something better… There is a better world than this. We live between Eden and the New Earth.

Randy will be speaking on this topic on Friday evening of our Clarus Weekend (“Between Heaven and Earth”).

In preparation for that, you might want to take a look at a lengthy interview with Randy about his book, If God is Good: Faith in the Midst of Suffering and Evil.

I just finished listening to a wonderful message by Randy Alcorn, given at the 2007 Desiring God conference: “Today’s Decisions Determine Who You Will Be Tomorrow.” The thesis of the message is this (very convicting and helpful):

Whether or not you endure in your Christian life is dependent upon who you become. Will you become God’s man or your man, Christ-dependent or self-dependent? It is the little choices of life that determine which one you become. Endurance consists of a “long obedience in the same direction.”

As we gear up for our Clarus conference weekend with Wayne Grudem and Randy Alcorn maybe you’ll take time to watch or listen to this great message.

Videos of the panel discussions for Clarus ‘09 – “The Convergence of Doctrine and Delight” — are now on Youtube. Below are the links broken down by category and specific questions, 3-8 minutes each.

Questions on Worship

• How does the average Christian pursue worship in spirit and truth? Part 1
• How does the average Christian pursue worship in spirit and truth? Part 2
• How does the average Christian pursue worship in spirit and truth? Part 3

Questions on Miraculous Gifts

• If we believe in the continuation of all spiritual gifts, should we pursue them?
• Tell us about being a “charismatic Calvinist.”
• Further thoughts on pursuing miraculous gifts…

Questions on Election and Predestination

• If God has already chosen who will be saved, why witness and pray?
• How did you begin to understand election?
• Does “foreknowledge” mean God looked into the future to see what we would do?
• What does it mean that God wants all people to come to repentance? Part 1
• What does it mean that God wants all people to come to repentance? Part 2

Questions on Various Issues of Ministry and the Church

• What are some encouraging things you see God doing in the church?
• What are some not-so-encouraging trends you see in the church?
• What is Biblical Theology?
• How can a pastor capture the power of the Bible’s metaphors without being unnecessarily crude?
• How should we give assurance to our children?

If you missed the plenary sessions (or want to re-listen), the audio to this, as well as the previous year’s conference weekends, is on the DSC/Clarus website.

Just a reminder, there will be two different panel discussions with Wayne Grudem and Randy Alcorn at this year’s Clarus conference weekend — Saturday, May 1, 1:30 PM and 8:15 PM. If you haven’t purchased tickets, do so soon!