Some T4G 2012 thoughts

A lot has changed in the four years since my last T4G. Mainly: it is much bigger. The crowds are simply massive. Though this is starting out on a negative note, I'll say that I find that a minus. One is lost in the crush and, while I'm happy to see so many so eager for such good teaching and preaching... well, it reminded me of the seventies, when I'd go to Ticketmaster to get the very best seats the very second Chicago announced a concert -- and I'd end up in row XXXXX.

Also, the selection of books given away was not as uniformly stellar as in 2008, though it did feature some very good titles.

The highlights for me and my observations, mostly in random order:

1. Spending a lot of time with Frank Turk and his wife was probably the highlight. They were already two of my favorite non-relatives in the known universe, but for me hearing them chat and interact and cut up was a deluxe hot fudge sundae with lots of nuts and no cherry. (Don't care for cherries on sundaes.) Only thing that would have made that better would have been having my dear Valerie with us. In fact, that would have made absolutely everything better. But I digress.
2. Seeing Phil and Darlene Johnson is always a treat. (Readers: "Duh.")
3. The warm greeting and chats with Ligon Duncan and Jim Hamilton. Love those brothers, absolutely love them; what gifts to Christ's church they both are. My bucket-list includes finding some way to spend more time with each of them. Both made my day. Wish I could take every one of Jim's classes, and wish I could be an undercover Calvidispiebaptogelical apprentice to Ligon. (More on Ligon, below.)
4. Meeting and chatting with Chris Brauns, author of the stellar book on forgiveness (if you don't have it, you need it), and hearing of his writing plans.
5. Meeting and chatting with Dr. Matt Harmon, one of the readers for my TWTG manuscript, and discussing our book plans and thoughts. Matt has some terrific projects in the works, I'm excited for him. Also a brief chat with Brian Rickett, one of the gracious TWTG endorsers and a good guy who sounds like he's got a terrific work going.
6. Meeting -- and here I despair, because I know I'll forget someone I shouldn't -- Kim and Neil Shay for the first time in person, The Blainemonster (real name Blaine... Moore, I think?) Andrew Lindsey, Daniel Comings, Danny Wright, Steve Weaver, Evan May, Staci Eastin, Spencer DeBurgh, Logan Paschke, a missionary to Peru and then Mexico named Kenan Plunk, and Brad Williams.  Seeing David and Kelly Kjos again, and spending more time with them. I know there were others -- a David, a Chris, others -- and I apologize for not remembering better. Saw Joe Thorn for, as I recall, the first time since the conference at Tulsa where the seed-thought for TWTG was planted.
7. Dinner with Carl Trueman, along with my fellow Pyros and their wives, and Phil's associate Travis Allen. I think I understand many things better that affect me personally and evangelicalism at large, though not in a happy way. The dinner was very helpful, informative, fun. I think and hope it was good for him; I know it was good for us.
8. Carl appeared on a panel with celebrity pastors talking about celebrity pastors. Carl was winsome and persuasive, made excellent points. He said he is concerned that, when he asks students who are the most influential figures on their lives, they name celebrity pastors they've never met and seldom (never) name their own pastors. Trueman is concerned about the impact on students' aspirations and expectations. Carl said he understands the need to sell tickets, but asks why all conferences always feature "the same twelve names." Indeed. I leaned over to Frank and whispered that they should ask him for his recommendations, and just then Carl (reading my mind) said "Why can't you have one or two sessions conducted by a faithful and unknown pastor of a small church?"
9. On that: my mind went to the first session, where Mark Dever did his usual elimination rounds. I thought I might win one of them. He was closing in on the pastors there who'd been pastors for the least amount of time at their current churches. I was annihilated by a fellow who'd been a pastor for two days. But in the other direction, he discovered a gent who'd pastored the same church for (as I recall) well over fifty years. Now, other things being equal, that is a man I'd like to hear talk. I hope they kept his name.
10. By the way, if any of the leaders are reading this: here's how you do it. Get a no-name or a relative no-name. Have all the speakers ready to talk at every session. Then simply draw a name before the session, and have that brother speak. That way, attenders won't flock to favorite celebrities and shun the faithful unknown. There y'go, problem solved.
11. You will find audio of all the talks here. The talks I heard were all varying degrees of good. The most helpful and/or challenging to me were those by C. J. Mahaney, Thabiti Anyabwile, and Ligon Duncan. I spoke briefly with C. J. mainly to express appreciation. (In case anyone's fixing to accuse me of namedropping, C. J. stands in that vast majority of people who clearly don't know me from Adam.)
12. Mahaney's talk was first. He has that George W. Bush gift for lowering expectations, then exceeding them. His text was 2 Corinthians 4, and I'll be listening again. In particular, he made a terrific observation about verses 4 to 6: verse 4 shows the impossibility of the situation, verse 6 shows God doing what only god can do, and verse 5 places the preacher of Christ right there in the middle.
13. Thabiti talked about 1 Timothy 1, with particular emphasis on verses 11-17. He says the mention of the Gospel in v. 11 was like a favorite song for Paul, triggering a flood of associations. Thabiti's main challenge was that we not underestimate the Gospel, not exclude anyone as a lost cause -- for that exclusion surely would have excluded Paul. He challenged my cowardly timidity, left me with much to think and pray about. (I'm not sure Thabiti remembers me much, either, just to add to the previous.)
14. Ligon's talk was devastating to the degree that I'm not sure I'm ready to say much about it, or ever will. Just listen to it. My handkerchief was pretty wet at its close. Ligon's text was 1 Kings 19, and he preached it with a pastor's heart and a scholar's eye. Absolutely wonderful, absolutely devastating, absolutely glorious. I will definitely plan to listen to it again, and incorporate much in my BibleWorks notes.
15. Oh, and since several have asked, yes, a certain "recent book" was there, though not featured or mentioned by any particular T4G leader:

• Dr. Jim Hamilton.

• View from the nosebleed section:

• Love these guys.

Goodbye, California...

A post in two parts and two places

I am as Californian as it gets... or I have been. I was born in California, grew up in California, was saved in California, married and started a family in California, and have never lived anywhere else other than in California.

California is a pretty wonderful state. Just about everything you could want is in California, whether it be deserts, ocean, snow, lakes and streams: it's all there. It's a big, long state, and rich in beauty and natural resources.

However prosperity without Gospel faith and living always tends to ruin, and so it has gone in California. Tyrannical, obsessive over-regulation has is strangling the life out of its commerce and sending businesses running for friendlier climes, while politicians continue to multiply spending and taxation and fees in an inexorable cycle. While many faithful folks and ministries remain, California has a trajectory that is pretty dismal.

But it has a special place to me, for all the reasons I listed and more. My favorite area in the attainable world (this leaves out Scotland, for instance) is the Eastern Sierra. I've gone there probably since I was 2 years old. I remember 5-cent coffee at Schat's Bakkery in Bishop. As a young man, I traveled there as often as I could, scouting out places I'd eventually bring my wife and kids one day. And I got to do that, to my great joy.

But everything is subject to change except God, even one's lifelong place of living. Particularly when in pursuit of a larger goal.

And so last Friday I found myself seeing California recede in my rear-view mirror, at the start of a looong drive east and south.

Continued here

My sermons and talks online

From time to time I get asked whether I have any sermons online. Indeed I do (get asked, and have them).

After answering the last email last week, it seemed like a good idea to put them all together in a post — and, ladies and gentlemen, this is that post!

This post contains lectures in a conference on the Sovereignty of God

Lectures from a conference on Proverbs

Sermons from River City Grace church in Sacramento, CA (search for my name)

Select Dan Phillips as preacher, and this has a bunch of sermons

More sermons here

Wellnow, lookie what I just got!

(Honestly, I had no idea I'd be getting them so early)

Goodness... I hope they sell more than was in the box...

Howdy-hi there, friends and neighbors

Just wanted you to know I may or may not have anything for you today. For the next couple of weeks, I have a task at work that's going to put pressure on my blogging. So...

1. There's a post at Pyro.
2. Maybe this would be a good time for you to check the archives?
3. I just learned you can peek inside my book at Amazon. Weird, huh?
4. My Proverbs book is being type-set. Isn't that cool! Right now, we're dealing with all those weird Hebrew words. (It's like the Jews had a different word for everything!    < /Steve Martin >
5. Pray that I'm able to put together a Hither and Thither for tomorrow.
6. Philosophical question: if Raised-Pinkie Bloggers don't notice something... did it really happen?
7. Look... G'kar!

Proverbs book: invitation for (more) endorsers

I don't think I've ever done a double-post (here and Pyro) before. But hey: (A) it's my blog; and (B) who knows? There might be three people who come here without visiting Pyro, and one of them might fill the bill. So, without further eloquence:

---

by Dan Phillips

Let me say in opening that, though I am here to ask for something, it isn't money!

HSAT: I'm in a happy dilemma. I just tapped about all the folks I know to amass endorsers for World-Tilting Gospel for Kregel. Wonderful folks responded (thank you, every one of you), and a number of gracious souls drawn from that number are currently reading with a view to endorsing it.

But now, guess what? My Proverbs project has been moved to the front-burner. This is absolutely terrific news to me, of course. But what it also means is that I get to go beat the bushes to find some more gracious souls to consider endorsing that lengthy tome. (Reluctant, you will understand, to impose on those already doing me a favor to add yet another, so soon!)

Thank God, I already have some absolutely terrific brothers who have generously agreed to read and consider endorsing the Proverbs book. All I need now is... more.

What you need to know: it's not short! And the deadline the publisher is looking at for endorsements is the end of May.

What I am asking: interested parties meeting these criteria —

1. If you are a published author, and/or you teach (preferably Old Testament) at some institution, and if you believe you can make the deadline, drop me a line.
2. If you don't meet either specification, but know someone who does, to whom you might commend my meager effort, ask him to drop me a line.

What it is: The working title of the book is currently God's Wisdom in Proverbs: Hearing God's Voice in Scripture. I am dearly hoping that it makes a unique contribution to Proverbs literature. Here are some of the book's singular aspects:

1. Written, and reaping benefits from, conviction of the Solomonic origin of the whole. (You'll be surprised to learn what a minority opinion that is among evangelical writers, and what difference it makes.)
2. Deals with the Biblical text both in its historical/canonical position in the process of unfolding revelation, and in its larger Biblical context.
3. Engages the Hebrew text; yet
4. Crafted with a practical/pastoral focus and broad appeal (i.e. any reader can read, learn, profit).

Topics include:

• How to read, understand and apply proverbs.
• What the fear of Yahweh is.
• How to find wisdom.
• A fresh, closer look at the real meaning of Proverbs 1:7; 3:5-6; 22:6 (among others).
• Wisdom for friends, singles, married couples, parents, children.
• ...and other good stuff.

Sound like fun?

Of course, eventually I hope it sounds like fun to all of you and many others as well, God willing. But right now I need it to sound like fun to some additional endorsers. Lord willing, you will all have access to it in just a matter of months.

So if you fit the bill above or know someone who does... drop me a line.

My email is, without the spaces: filops @ yahoo.com

That is all. Thanks!

PS — I'd be tickled if a WTG endorser wanted to read this, too. Two already are, praise God. I'm just reluctant to pile on!

---

A fun (to me, anyway) book note

A reader recently wrote asking for book-recommendations.

He* had gone to an unhealthy doctrinal place, and now was asking for five or six books to help him get "started clawing my way back to doctrinal health and sanity." I asked what specific areas were needed, and he replied, "Salvation and all its elements for a start...grace, atonement, sanctification, etc."

So I started searching my internal bibliography for some examples... and then stopped, and chuckled. I wrote back,

My book! I'm chuckling, but seriously, that's exactly what [The World-tilting Gospel] is about! But unfortunately, it won't be on the book racks (as they say) until August.

And then I came up with some titles, like Knowing God, for starters.

On which (previous) note: Kregel just received my list of possible endorsers, some extraordinarily gracious men (and [cue Darth Vader voice] a sister) who agreed to sacrifice the time to peruse the tome. Scary. Humbling. I'm not joking: some of these folks have, I am sure, very literally read the finest Christian works in the English language (and others) — and now my humble little effort will be in their hands. Gulp.

Hm... would anyone buy a book whose back cover had endorsements from big names, like

• "Nice try! Really... nice!" (Dr. Heinrich Borfmann, Bogotron Seminary)
• "Moments of true semi-adequacy!" (Edie Contralto, Cupboard-Keepers Ministries)
• "We had such hopes for little Danny. And now, this. Oh dear. Well, at least he's not in prison.  ...He's not, is he?" (Verna Fleebner, Glenoaks Elementary School [retired])
• "Ambitious, but... well, ambitious!" (Pastor Eulie Lapidary, Church of Holy Perpetuity)
• "Brings to mind the greats. Longingly. By way of contrast." (Varf Konkelman, talk show host)
• "This one part was terrific!" (Bob Fernbern, mechanic)

Such are the inner thoughts of a first-time author venturing forth where giants have trod.

---

*I'll probably post on this stylistic note sometime, but I'm going to try to draw back from using conventions such as (s)he when I mean to speak generically. No force on earth can compel me to use "they" as a neuter. That leaves me with the classic, standard generic "he." So unless sex matters, when I speak namelessly of someone (as here), "he" means a person, without specifying his or her... agh! — his sex.

Read the post at Pyro

I doubt anyone reads here and not there but, just in case, check out the call for a few good readers over there today.

Hating iTunes some more

After my last hate-o-gram, where in I mention that (for the __th time) I had clicked a button and iTunes had wiped all my hundreds of sermons and lectures, and dozens of songs, from my iPhone, a bunch of smarties smirked that I hadn't done a backup.

Well, in the past, I had, and it was never a magic bullet.

But, regardless: for months, every time I open Photos, I've gotten some lame message about how some of my high-resolution photos were not synced right, and blah blah blah. I Googled, found that no one else had found a surefire simple solution. But the obvious starting place was some kind of sync.

So I synced my photos — after doing a backup. In fact, I've backed up a half-dozen times or so since the last disaster. It shouldn't take long, I only have a hundred or so photos on my iPhone.

Well, fifteen or more minutes later, I have hundreds and hundreds of photos, 5-7 gigabytes worth of photos. My entire hard-drive of photos, transferred to my iPhone.

Ungh.

Well, no fear. I'll just restore from backup.

Oh, but wait — the last backup showing was from November. So I just pick the only alternative (the present one) and do a restore.

Five minutes later... and I still have hundreds and hundreds of unwanted photos on my iPhone.

Only good news: I don't get that stupid warning anymore. Oh, and I bet that if I look, I've lost all the pictures I took that I did want on my iPhone. That would be typical.

I really, really, really hate iTunes. And I don't think that's against the second great commandment.

A funny thing about me and blogging

It happens almost every time. It happened with today's Pyro post. It's kind of funny, kind of frustrating, kind of worrying. But it just is, and I can't seem to do anything about it.

What is it?

Regular readers know I worry over my posts a fair bit before they see the light of day. Don't necessary picture days spent sweating in an obscure cave — well, with some, yes, but.... Just know I write carefully, and try to look at them from several different angles proactively before hitting the PUBLISH POST button.

But it simply Does. Not. Matter. how many times I do that, or how hard — some extra dynamic kicks in only after I publish it, and often after I re-read it in its posted form.

It happened today. That post took a couple-few days' work, and has been on my mind a good long time. Yesterday was a very crowded, tense day, but I carved the time to finish it. A few touches more, and it went up this morning.

But as I walked out to my car to head to work, bink! a critical addition struck me, a necessary clarification.

Thankfully, none of my earlier commenters seized on the lack, so I headed off... well, whatever. Perhaps herds of horses of my imagination. Regardless, I headed them off.

But only after I posted.

How is that "worrying"? Oh, you can guess.

Both my books that are with my two publishers. I worked and worked over them, worried and worried, sought others' input. Now my editor will add his. And I'll worry them some more.

But!

Experience indicates what will happen the moment I receive a printed copy.

So you can understand if I'm already praying for a second edition.

(And no, don't say you'll wait for that one, or there will never be one!)

Anyone getting not-from-me email...

...from my filops@yahoo.com account?

500th post today at Pyro

Turns out I'm the worst motormouth over there. Who knew? (Rhetorical question!)

Surely does not seem like it. I can vividly remember, as if it were last week, my eyes bugging out as I read Phil's completely-unexpected invitation to join him in this new team blog he was thinking of. I literally did not reply for a day or two as I recall, because I feared he'd written the wrong Dan. I wanted to be able to cherish the illusion a bit longer.

But I did answer, we did start the blog, and here we are. A lot has changed. Maybe I should do a post Over There about that. But one nice spill-off is that Pyro resulted in more visitors hitherward. So I get to inflict my eclectic variousness on a wider array of innocent souls... which is nice.

I forget my daily traffic before. It was no higher than the low hundreds, I'm sure. Now the weekday average is more like 800 visits, give or take. It doesn't make me a big dog, but that's okay. My dear wife calls me a "semi-famous blogger," and I'm plenty grateful for that.

The difference I usually design between the two blogs was best captured by a commenter — I wish I'd saved it! He said that Pyro was like listening to a pastor teach, while BibChr is like hanging around with a pastor, and just hearing about what's interesting to him from day to day.

Anyway, if the ride's been half as good for 51%+ of my readers as it has been for me, it's a "win" all around. Either way, I am continually grateful to God for His blessing, to Phil for the opportunity, and to you for reading.

What I got, pc-wise

This.

So far, I really like it and thank God for it. Spent the whole afternoon and evening "moving in." I've decrapified it, installed most of my essentials (except Office; waiting on that). Need to get a way to transfer stuff from old HDs.

Logos did its immense downloads and indexing. I've only been able to use it a bit so far, and it is a great deal peppier.

My beloved BW8 is peppy, of course. But I'm having problems with it. I drag Hebrew text to the editor, and nothing happens. It will in NT notes, but not in OT. Also, though I've copied all my notes over, I think I'm not seeing them all. I think I configured the Options correctly, but it's not all-there yet.

Justin and Kevin: also kinda funny

Worthy bros Justin Taylor and Kevin DeYoung are shocked, shocked that WORLD magazine would print an article by Andree Seu lauding Glenn Beck and dubbing the practicing Mormon a born-again Christian.

What about the "but-Beck's-a-Mormon" thingie? Seu dismissively chirps, "I know he’s Mormon and all that" — leaving one to assume that "all that" includes polygamy, damning Gospel of works-righteosness, adding books to the Bible, etc. She hopes he's just like Apollos: a little off, ripe for someone to explain the difference. Which no one has done. Ri-i-i-ight.

But anyway, back to Justin and Kevin. Both find Seu's column shocking. I myself used to love Seu's writing. This is shocking.

But is it more shocking than gushing all over an unrepentant murderess and antinomian, dubbing her (also) a "Christian"?

Is it more shocking than accepting as "Christian" a convert to Roman Catholicism, without as much as one question about the meaning of the Gospel?

WORLD did all this, and it was duly noted... more than four years ago.

By someone.

UPDATE: now WORLD magazine has clarified (?) matters by stating "All of us need editing. Our website editing system failed in regard to Andrée’s post about Glenn Beck." Nice. What does that mean? They don't say. They do say that they will all the more press to interview Beck and "ask hard questions." Well, that's also nice. I hope they do.

But before we get too happy, note that the writer goes on to say, "One of the hardest aspects of reporting is assessing hearts, so we try not to do it...." If memory serves, that was the excuse the reporter gave years ago for not even asking Ann Rice what she thinks the Gospel is.

So... we'll see.

(HT Justin)

Donde yo frijole 2 (Labor Day 2010 edition)

So here's "where I bean" for the last few days.

Friday morning I enjoyed bird-watching with my beloved Jonathan, who'd just turned 11 (thus making him not only older, but more expensive to feed at many restaurants).

We spotted some jays, some yummy quails, and one huge unidentifiable bird, possibly a turkey vulture .

Then Sunday we all took off for the Monterey-Carmel area, to meet BSIL, DAOD, and little Timothe for a whirlwind o' fun.

Here's DAOD holding the delightful Mr. Timothe, as we visit the Mission San Carlos Borromeo del Rio Carmelo.

.

Mr. T. also rode.

I really enjoyed the replicated rooms, set up authentically.

Spot the toaster ovens:

Afterwards, we picnicked at the beautiful Carmel beach, got a bit wet and a bit burnt. Loved the crash of the waves, the coolness of the water, the beauty of the coast.

That night, we ate at the Sea Harvest Fish Market/Restaurant. Took forever to be seated, but oh! was it worth it! They are an actual fish market. If you see something in the display case that isn't on the menu, you can order it. That's just what DAOD did, ordering a local specialty, Sable fish. It was delicious. My son Josiah, not a seafood lover, decided to be bold and ordered a combo of fried shrimp, fish, and squid - and loved it! Valerie and Jonathan enjoyed fish and chips, and I went for...

...swordfish steak! Last I had was a few years earlier, and it was not fresh, and overcooked. This had been brought in the previous afternoon, and was perfect.

Next day it was the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

What odd creatures cuttlefish are. Sort of like fish version of platypuses — a little here, a little there.

My dear wife really liked the Leafy Sea Dragons. Try to spot them.

Then for our Monday picnic, here was our view:

Timothe was chillin'.

The trip home was less fun, as we seemed to spend half the drive locked in a long, long parking-lot that had been billed as a "freeway" (hahahaha). Late home, but after a lot of fun, and a lot of God's beautiful and intricate creation.

O LORD, how manifold are your works!

 In wisdom have you made them all; 

the earth is full of your creatures.

Psalm 104:24

Twitter tactics

I still don't exactly "get" Twitter.

Over the months, I've amassed... let's see... 308 "followers." In not much more time, Turk has over 1000. And, as you'd expect, Phil has, let's see...1,024,375,918,327. Totally figures.

Now, I'm "following" 28, and Turk's "following" 89. Again, figures. He's such a follower. (Phil, of course, follows no man.)

I've noticed recently that some people with huge followership have "followed" me... several times. Same person, adding me, 2, 3, 4 times.

I wonder if that's a tactic. Is the theory that the more you follow, the more will follow you back? So when it doesn't work with me, they just re-follow me, in the hopes that I'll reciprocate and up their followership?

Weird world.

Book announcement

Many read Pyro and don't come here; I don't know whether any read here and don't go to Pyro.

But in case some do... or, er, don't, or whatever I mean.... there is an announcement about my book today, over at Pyro.

Justin still has the touch

Witness The Taylor Effect, in action.

Column A represents a typical, so-so day's worth of visits here.

Column B represents a day when Justin Taylor has mentioned a post.

It does rather give one some perspective... like looking up the trunk of a redwood tree.

Okay, okay... I'm a twit

BibChr

Because all the cool kids are doing it.

(Now to figure out how it's done....)

What th - - ?

I was on Facebook the other day, doing something on the page that listed out Suggestions as to who I could be "friends" with.

I noticed this:

Huh?

What's creepy is that evidently one of my "friends" is "friends" with The Hinnster. A mole?

I was tempted to be"friend" Hinn, take a screen shot of "Dan Phillips and Benny Hinn are now friends," and put it up on some Hither and Thither. It would make Adrian Warnock's day. Then I could just unfriend him.

Hinn, I mean.

But then I realized Hinn would have to accept me as a friend. The thought of being rejected by Benny Hinn....

I think things are fine as they are.