The Heidelberg Catechism, Question 45:

Question: How does Christ’s resurrection benefit us?

Answer: First, by his resurrection he has overcome death, so that he might make us share in the righteousness he won for us by his death. Second, by his power we too are already now resurrected to a new life. Third, Christ’s resurrection is a guarantee of our glorious resurrection.

Kevin DeYoung expounds on each of these three benefits.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, feelings.” Yup, I mean that song (I prefer this version on YouTube, dubbed over a Japanese James Bond-like movie). The song has been in my head ever since I said “feelings” 56 times in my last sermon. Of course, the song doesn’t talk about feelings in the same way that Luke 8 does, but that’s just the oddity of a brain like mine — filled with Bible and pop-art.

So with the pop-art nostalgia out of the way and that song now freshly in your head, let me give you some book recommendations on the Bible and feelings.

I’ve been reading through a new book by Brian Borgman, which is more of an overview and analysis of all the different feelings in the Bible, Feelings and Faith: Cultivating Godly Emotions in the Christian Life. You can see the table of contents here, and from that page you can read each of the 21 chapters online for free (you got to love the people at Crossway, who actually seem to look at Christian publishing as more of a ministry than a money-maker).

During our recent Clarus conference on “The Convergence of Doctrine and Delight” we mentioned several great books on the importance of the affections and how to fight for joy, such as:

• Anything written by our speakers, Ray Ortlund and Sam Storms (see the Clarus Resource page).
• Anything written by John Piper, especially Desiring God and When I Don’t Desire God.

Of course, the references to emotions in Luke 8 are not just the kind of amazement and joy; there are many more references to fear, worry, and sadness. Here are a few books I’d strongly recommend on thinking through and wrestling with our “darker” emotions:

• Ed Welch, Running Scared: Fear, Worry, and the God of Rest
• Ed Welch, When People Are Big and God is Small: Overcoming Peer Pressure, Codependency, and the Fear of Man
• Paul Tripp, A Shelter in the Storm: Meditations on God and Trouble (also which can be read on the Crossway website for free).

That’s the review of last Sunday. On to the preview of this Sunday.

This coming Sunday, Lord willing, we’ll entertain this question: in light of the miracles and emotions in Luke 8 how do we fight for joy and faith when the miracle doesn’t come? How do we move from angst to awe, from fear to faith, and from lament to laughter when the storm-tossed drown, when the sick stay sick, when the dying die?  Do we need miracles to believe? Luke gives us some hints at the answer, but from there we’ll go hunting in the Psalms.

Following their previous web resource, The Truth about DiVinci, Westminster Theological Seminary has just launched a similar website for Dan Brown’s newer book/movie: The Truth About Angels and Demons.

The featured articles are written by the uniquely-qualified Vern Poythress (PhD in Mathematics from Harvard; DTh in N.T. from Stellenbosch):

• The Path of Illumination
• Scientist Motivated by God
• Is There Evidence that God Created the Earth?
• What is the Future of Religion?
• Does Religion Fear Science?

Other, more general, articles on the site are:

• What’s the Difference Between Protestants and Catholics?, by William Edgar
• Is the Bible True?, by Peter Lillback

Other matters relevant to the movie — such as the Vatican, the Illumanati, anti-matter, CERN, bio-ethics — are also explained on the (very nicely designed!) site.

This isn’t exactly new-news, but it’s possible that some of you are just now hearing about or reading Barna and Viola, Pagan Christianity: Exploring the Roots of our Church Practices, which argues against the institution of the church (e.g., its worship service, the sermon, the pastor, clergy salaries, etc.).

Ben Witherington has an excellent and thorough four-part review of this unfortunate-but-influential book:

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Part 4

There’s also this review by Trevin Wax, which offers basically the same conclusions as Witherington’s but without the length and depth.

A friend just pointed me to this excellent series of quick blog posts on spiritual gifts. Hopefully more posts on this theme will follow; so far, Driscoll has covered:

• Spiritual Gifts: Introduction
• Spiritual Gifts Misunderstood
• What’s the Point of Spiritual Gifts?
• The Spiritual Gift of Wisdom
• The Spiritual Gift of Knowledge
• The Spiritual Gift of Faith
• The Spiritual Gift of Healing