For those of you who attended my afternoon Logos session at the Bible Faculty Leadership Summit (and for anyone else who’s interested), I’m posting my Logos toolbar. It began life as Phil Gons‘ toolbar, then I made some additions and deletions.

Click here to download.

Here are instructions for installing this toolbar (make sure to start with Logos shut down):

1. Download the file.

2. Unzip the file, placing the contents (Mark Ward’s Toolbar.lbxctb) inside UserFiles/CustomToolbars in your Logos directory (which is probably under Program Files). UPDATE: If you can’t find this directory, open Logos and go to Tools > Options > Power Tools > User Files to see where you have your user files.

3. Start Libronix, right click on the empty gray space below the top menu bar, and click “Customize.”

4. Make sure you check “Mark Ward’s Toolbar.” Then click “Close.”

The toolbar should be ready for use!

This week I’m going to be at the Bible Faculty Leadership Summit—held right here at Bob Jones Seminary! In fact, I’m sitting right now inside the main Seminary lecture room with about 40 men from various fundamentalist schools.

We’re in for some good papers. The major theme is fundamentalism and scholarship, judging by paper titles. I’m hearing right now from Mark Sidwell, and Kevin Bauder (with a response by George Coon) and a few others will hold forth on that topic as well. Fellow bloggers Michael Riley and Rod Decker will address, respectively, 1) apologetics and canon and 2) the use of the OT in the introduction to Mark. We might also hear one of my favorite professors, Dr. Robert Bell, on “OTTs for Teaching and Preaching.”

Like all the BFLS papers going back many years, these papers will be publicly available at BJU’s Fundamentalism File (where I worked for five years under Mark Sidwell) in a matter of days or weeks, so I’m not really telling you any secrets.

I am excited about an opportunity I myself have to give Logos and BibleWorks presentations tonight and tomorrow, though it’s quite possible that nobody will show up! I hope some students show up, however, because I’m offering major discounts to those who do. Wish you were here!

I really do get good use out of the IVP Essential Reference Collection on Logos. My favorite maverick Bible software seller, Rejoice Christian Software, recently advertised the best deal I’ve ever seen on this collection.

Here are a few tips on what you’ll get:

These dictionaries are pretty standard. You’ll see them referred to often. The NDBT is a textbook for OT Theology here at BJ Seminary. It runs $35. Might as well just get this whole collection on Logos for a few dollars more.

I haven’t used the Background Commentaries much, but every so often a question comes up which leads me to them. Likewise the NBC: I don’t often have need for a one-volume commentary. But my family might in the future.

Handy.

Not always reliable in my opinion (this is actually a compilation of the work of several authors), but still worthwhile for a summary of possible solutions to difficult passages.

C. J. Mahaney recently recommended the article on “Humor” in this volume.

Who needs better maps than Google Earth? Well, the New Bible Atlas (NBA?) has more than maps, and it has period-specific maps. (Google Earth is a lot more fun, however.)

These little pocket dictionaries have been handy for me on many occasions. Not sure what “Heilsgeschichte” is? Wondering if it has to do with the history of Jack Hyles? This is your place.

Did you know that at least up until recently, you could download all of John Frame’s new The Doctrine of the Christian Life for free? Each of the chapters was a separate pdf.

I have all of the chapters but 20, 22, and 29—for some reason they didn’t download. Do any of you readers have them? I can’t find them now that the book is out!

I’m hoping to find some good help for my dissertation in this book. The secular “deontological” perspective of Kant and others is a major source for the error I’m seeking to combat, and Frame covers it well.

Looks like Westminster Bookstore is really vying for my book dollars! I’m impressed with their store layout, their graphic design, their selection, and their sales.

Check out their most recent sale: 50% off select books, including these good buys:

Schreiner’s brand new NTT:

Carson’s new book on Christ and Culture:

The only paragraphed, single-column ESV:

(I warned you that the present implications of a future physical resurrection might become a theme on this blog.)

N. T. Wright’s Surprised by Hope has been a stimulating read for me through the first 100 pages. I’m still waiting for him to build a bridge from point A (the physical is inherently good both because of God’s creation and God’s coming recreation) to point B (let’s all adopt some liberal political causes). Truly, I would like help understanding whether or not the goodness of God’s good creation and the greater goodness of God’s recreation have implications for Christian engagement in culture.

However, on page 100 he managed to strike a serious blow against one of my nearly visceral objections to his overall drift. See if you follow:

Phillipi was a Roman colony. Augustus had settled his veterans there after the battles of Philippi (42 B.C.) and Actium (31 B.C.). Not all residents of Philippi were Roman citizens, but all knew what citizenship meant. The point of creating colonies was twofold. First, it was aimed at extending Roman influence around the Mediterranean world, creating cells and networks of people loyal to Caesar in the wider culture. Second, it was one way of avoiding the problems of overcrowding in the capital itself….

So when Paul says, “We are citizens of heaven,” he doesn’t at all mean that when we’re done with this life we’ll be going off to live in heaven. What he means is that the savior, the Lord, Jesus the King—all of those were of course imperial titles—will come from heaven to earth, to change the present situation and state of his people.

I’m not ready to buy this yet, however, because I still wonder what to do with 1 Peter 1:1; 2:11; and Hebrews 11:13:

• “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the dispersion (ἐκλεκτοῖς παρεπιδήμοις διασπορᾶς) in Pontus, Galatia…”
• “I urge you as sojourners (παροίκους) and exiles (παρεπιδήμους) to abstain from the passions of the flesh.”
• “These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers (ξένοι) and exiles (παρεπίδημοί) on the earth.”

I’m willing to listen. I want to understand and then obey God’s word.

John Frame is a very helpful conservative theologian who is one of two on my short list of theologians I want to focus my reading in as time allows. Check out this video of his thoughts on seminary.

Full Dr. John Frame Interview from GoingtoSeminary.com on Vimeo.

I have been active in various forms of evangelism for many years now, but most of my activity has been focused on the lower-income kids populating the many depressed neighborhoods around my church. I’ve preached the gospel many dozens of times to groups of lost kids from 2 to 60. I did it again last night at our church’s Cola Wars outreach. I’ve also shared the gospel personally hundreds of times. And yet—with the possible exception of two or three of my campers at the Wilds nine years ago—no one that I know of has ever made a profession of faith as an immediate, direct result of my ministry to him or her.

One reason for that, perhaps, is that I am not reaching out to people who are most like me. We can all proclaim loudly that class doesn’t matter, that all men are created equal. But I’ve tried to bridge that gap for years and I believe it does matter. Love bridges that gap—and I love those kids so much—but the gap never quite goes away.

God has given me really just one way in my own life to reach out to people who, (again) providentially, stand on my side of the cultural gap: ultimate frisbee. I now know multiple people my age around Greenville who share a passion for ultimate. I played with some of them yesterday. I consider them my friends.

But how do I turn this into a gospel opportunity? I’m so accustomed to having the freedom to speak openly of Christ: kids come to my church ministries knowing that’s what I’m going to do. But I simply can’t be that direct during an ultimate game. The guys and girls I play with are my friends, and I did get to speak once with a few of them about Christ in a roundabout way. I’m not a mercenary pretending to like ultimate in order to witness; I really do like it! I’m just eager to turn the evangelistic corner this next year when my play picks up a bit again. But how?

Feel free to comment!