It dawned on me today that, since I devote most of my posts on the blog to particular things I’m reading, I don’t actually share links and resources that often. I thought I would post links to a few resources that you may find helpful (or at least that I’ve found helpful).
AUDIO BIBLES
First, I’ve meant to share this before, but my absolute favorite audio recording of the Bible is available HERE. The translation is actually the World English Bible, which isn’t too bad and is available for free because it’s in the public domain. The only downside with this site is that you have to listen to each chapter of the Bible individually and click a link for each new chapter. But I actually like that feature until you get to Psalms. I use this audio Bible literally every day.
If you don’t care for that one, you can use my number two choice HERE. You can pick the translation and from various readers. I like to listen to Max McLean personally. The reason I prefer the David Field audio to this one is the speed. Field reads a bit faster. I generally use this version for the psalms and if I want to hear how McLean pronounces a word.t
PRAYER
Next, I want to recommend (again) a recording of some of the pastoral prayers of Martyn Lloyd-Jones. While we have many of the great sermons of the great preachers left in print, we do not have many of their prayers. Here we have the blessing of hearing the Doctor pray in his own voice. You can listen to them HERE.
You can also read a good number of Charles Spurgeon’s prayers HERE. I also have a little book of prayers by John Calvin that I read fairly regularly, and have for years. The closest thing to it I’ve found online is HERE. A great overall site for prayer, based on Matthew Henry’s Method for Prayer, can be found HERE.
COMMENTARIES
As far as commentaries, I have Calvin’s commentaries in my library, but I often use the easily accessible online version found HERE. I also frequent the online version of Matthew Henry’s commentary HERE (you can choose from a number of classic commentaries on the page).
SERMONS
As far as reading sermons, for printed sermons I usually go HERE for Spurgeon and HERE for others. The second site linked here is Monergism, which I highly recommend. Another great resource is Yale’s Jonathan Edwards page HERE.
For audio sermons I frequent the MLJ Trust (Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ audio sermon archive) HERE, Redeemer’s free audio page HERE (sermons by Tim Keller), and Desiring God (John Piper) HERE. I also occasionally visit HERE to search for audio readings of the sermons of Spurgeon, Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, and others.
BOOKS
Finally, for free audio books I frequent Books Should Be Free, which can be found HERE. I’ve listened to several G.K. Chesterton books via this site, as well as some John Owen and John Calvin. In addition to that, I have listened to several fairy story books with my children.
AUDIO JOURNALS
I highly recommend Mars Hill Audio. I can’t imagine what my life would be like had I never been introduced to their audio reports and conversations. There is some free content on the site, but most of it isn’t free. Everything I have ever purchased from them has been well worth the price. Ken Myers is about as thoughtful a Christian as we have these days, and he speaks with people who have thought deeply about the various topics they discuss. There are many great resources available on C.S. Lewis, reading, philosophy, culture, and all sorts of other things. You can create an account to get a free sample of their audio journal HERE.
POETRY
I usually read poetry from a few massive volumes I have bought at library book sales. There is, however, a great online source HERE.
A WORD ON BOOK SALES
Speaking of library book sales, let me encourage avid readers to find out if their libraries have such sales. Our local library has one the first weekend of every month, and other libraries in our area have similar sales from time to time. You can usually get paperbacks for a quarter. If you live in a metropolitan area, thrift stores like Goodwill or Salvation Army are a great resource for cheap books. I have found some of the greatest books that I’ve every read at so-called junk stores.
As a matter of fact, just a couple of months ago I was at one such store and discovered that, apparently, a large chunk of a minister’s library had been donated. There were books on Hebrew and Greek and all sorts of other books on sale for a quarter each. I bought a whole collection (8 volumes) of G. Campell Morgan sermons, two Francis Schaeffer books, some C.S. Lewis, and several other books as well, for less than 5 dollars.
That’s all for now, happy reading.
Thank you!
You’re welcome!
Do you know anything about Douglas Wilson; one of whom spoke at the c s lewis conference at desiring God? Is there any warnings? I did some research and it seems like there might be or there is some confrontation with the Federal vision? I’m not very familiar with this. Your a pastor you said and may be familiar with some of these discussions or not I don’t know. Could you shed any light on this or these questions? Thank you …God bless your day and may Christ dwell richly within you!
I like Douglas Wilson. I listen to him often and subscribe to his blog. He’s a very good expositor of Scripture and I have benefited tremendously from listening to him. Having said that, I do have issues with some of his teachings. Most of it is nitpicky theological stuff that has to do with historic covenant theology, especially within Presbyterian tradition. I agree with him in far more areas than I disagree. I would recommend listening to him more than reading him. His CanonWired page on Vimeo and Youtube has a ton of videos from Q & A’s to debates and discussions to sermons. His son N.D. Wilson also happens to be one of my favorite authors. Notes from the Tilt-A-Whirl is one of my favorite books.
He does consider himself a Federal Vision guy. I’ve read books on the Federal Vision and sat under the teaching of an expert who’s written a book on it, and I’m still not sure I understand exactly what it is. I don’t think anyone does completely, but that’s probably because all of the FV guys differ in views in many areas. The issue is how they view the Lord’s Supper and baptism and how those sacraments relate to membership in the Covenant of Grace (and like I said, this is some nitpicky theological stuff that probably wouldn’t interest anyone who’s not Presbyterian). I am not in agreement with his views about serving communion to small children and I do not agree with his views on how infant baptism relates to membership within the covenant of grace (that wouldn’t mean anything to most folks, so you can ask me if more questions come up).
I’ve rambled. I said all that to say this: it’s like any other teacher. I really like him, I recommend listening to him, but be discerning like the Bereans in the New Testament – always check the teaching against the Bible.