Review: Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi

Since I've been blogging about the ETS conference, I thought I'd mention a book I read recently, which has many good suggestions about how to make the most of interactions with people you meet at a conference as well as many other situations. The book is Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi. In a nutshell the premise of the book is that success in life both personally and professionally is about relationships. Keith offers great practical advice about how to build and maintain those relationships that will give you the opportunity to help others be successful and in turn have others contribute to your success. This is a must read for anybody who has ever sat by the sidelines wondering what the magic is that allows so many others to strike up a conversation and become fast friends with a complete stranger. At times his suggestions may seem a bit too deliberate or premeditated, but if you often don't have the foggiest clue where to start, this book will give you some very practical ways to make the most of your social interactions. Happy reading!

P.S. My friend Peter recommended this book to me. You can read his review here.

Justification and the Diminishing Work of Christ

The folks at the Desiring God blog have been kind enough to post the audio and transcript of John Piper's presentation titled, "Justification and the Diminishing Work of Christ". You can find a link to it here.

Free Biblical Studies Courses

I really hope to get back to graduate school and/or seminary in the next 1-2 years. I very much enjoyed the time I spent studying at Wheaton College in the M.A. Biblical Exegesis program. However, with four children, it wasn't fiscally responsible for me to stay any longer. I haven't given up on my dream of a masters degree and eventually a phd. Distance Learning seems like it may be one of my best choices during this stage of my life. I'm discovering that many of the schools require a year or so in residency, so in most cases you will need to spend some time on campus. Right now, my two top choices are Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Illinois or Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kentucky. The earliest I'd be formally starting anything would be next fall. In the meantime, I've found some quality free study resources to keep my mind busy and further my Biblical and Theological education.

• Reformed Theological Seminary: LINK
• Concordia Seminary: LINK
• Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary: LINK
• Covenant Theological Seminary: LINK
• BiblicalTraining.Org: LINK
  

Vicariously living through ETS Bloggers Day 1

Since I'm vicariously living through other bloggers at ETS this year, I thought I'd share the posts that were of interest this morning.

• Ted Olsen has a post on Christianity Today's blog about J.P. Moreland's talk titled, “How Evangelicals Became Over-Committed to the Bible and What Can Be Done About It.” I would imagine this controversial topic created some lively discussion at the close of the session. you can read Ted's post here.
  
• Lydia Brownback has some comments about the "gender debate" in relation to a luncheon she attended, which was sponsored by The Council on Biblical Manhood & Womanhood. You can read Lydia's post here.
• Barry Carey has some interesting commentary on the sessions he attended yesterday, including the talk by J.P. Moreland. You can read his post here.

That's all for now. Time permitting I'll post more tomorrow.

It's that time of year again... (ETS & SBL)

The time of the two favorite annual meetings in the world of Biblical and Theological studies is upon us. ETS (Evangelical Theological Society) begins today, while SBL (Society of Biblical Literature) begins on Saturday. I'm hoping that I can get to one or both of these meetings next year. This year, I'll have to live vicariously through other bloggers.