0 After a Long Hiatus.... In Principio Deus is back

It's been a long spring - and a long year - but the Lord is good. Routine is returning to Northeast Iowa, and I will begin blogging again, the Lord willing.

Look for some new material tonight, and in the future.

0 Covenant Radio: Interview with Rev. Wes White on The Federal Vision

On Covenant Radio tomorrow, Bill and I will be conducting a very important and interesting interview with Rev. Wes White (see his blog here) concerning his former identification with Federal Vision teaching, and his leaving it behind - we'll also be discussing current challenges in orthodox Reformed and Presbyterian communions that the Federal Vision teaching presents. We have been looking forward to this program for a very long time - so we are particularly pleased to bring it to you. This is a program I'm sure our Covenant Radio listening audience won't want to miss - so please check us out at http://www.covenantradio.com. Expect the program to be uploaded sometime on Friday, and if you're a subscriber you'll have it soon thereafter.

0 Sola5 Radio is Back!

For those who actively listened early this year to Sola5 Radio, which is a 24/7 venture of Covenant Radio, and were disappointed to see it go off the air, we've got news!

We're starting up Sola5 Radio again, which for those unfamiliar with our previous broadcasting, is an online radio station (click here to listen - bookmark it!) dedicated to bringing music, both jazz and classical, hymns and psalms, as well as solid Reformed teaching and preaching, to our internet audience. We regularly rebroadcast programs from the Reformed Forum (Christ the Center), Scott Clark (Heidelcast and Office Hours) and our own Covenant Radio programs, and also sermons from pastors such as Joel Beeke, David P. Murray and Alan Cairns, among others. The Lord's Day schedule will be non-stop preaching and psalms. On the other six days of the week we'll play a mixture of teaching, podcasts, and the other music in our grab bag.

We hope you'll take a listen and use Sola5 for the purpose we've intended it - enjoyment and edification - to be a service to the church and to the world. Again, click here to listen, and for our program guide, look to our blog (http://sola5.wordpress.com) as we set things up again (we're in "test" mode now, but plan to be basically running full time and introduce more teaching into the mix as time goes on).

You can also join our Facebook group, and sign on for Twitter updates by following the Twitter feed Sola5Radio.

Soli Deo Gloria!

0 Today on Covenant Radio: J. Mark Beach on Piety's Wisdom

Later today on Covenant Radio, We're pleased to be speaking with Dr. J. Mark Beach, Professor of Ministerial and Doctrinal Studies and Dean of Students at Mid-America Reformed Seminary in Dyer, Indiana. In addition, he is an associate pastor at Redeemer United Reformed Church, also in Dyer.

Today we'll be speaking with Dr. Beach about a recent book of his published by Reformation Heritage Books, entitled “Piety’s Wisdom: A Summary of Calvin’s Institutes with Study Questions”. This book is a very important contribution to literature for the church - a study guide to introduce people to the teaching of John Calvin in his magnum opus, the Institutes of the Christian religion. Please check the Covenant Radio website for ways in which you can subscribe to our podcast, as well as check out show notes and download previous shows.

0 Covenant Radio Broadcast: J. V. Fesko on "The Rule of Love" and "Where Wisdom is Found"

On Thursday, August 12, Bill and I have invited J. V. Fesko, Academic Dean and Associate Professor of Systematic Theology at Westminster Seminary California to talk with us on Covenant Radio concerning two small works he has published recently: Where Wisdom is Found - Christ in Ecclesiastes, published in 2010, and The Rule of Love: Broken, Fulfilled and Applied, published in 2009 - both of these by Reformation Heritage Books.

Both of these books have their origin in sermon series preached by Dr. Fesko, and are designed for use by study groups for working through the Ten Commandments (The Rule of Love) and Ecclesiastes (Where Wisdom is Found). They are both excellent and offer a Christ-centered view on both these parts of Scripture that will provide both edification for the individual Christian and much thought-provoking material for discussion by church groups. I would highly recommend both of them for such uses. We're very much looking forward to having Dr. Fesko with us, and hope you'll grab the podcast when it's made available after recording.

We're also very much looking forward to having Dr. Fesko on Covenant Radio at a later date to discuss an important upcoming work of his, to be released in October by RHB, entitled Word, Water and Spirit: A Reformed Perspective on Baptism. Once the details for that program have been worked out, we'll let you know of our plans for that upcoming broadcast. Again, visit Covenant Radio's website for podcast subscription details.

0 Ridiculous sale at WTS Books on the NICOT series

For the scholar and pastor (and highly engaged layman :)) Westminster Theological Seminary Bookstore is running a promotion on the Eerdmans New International Commentary Series that gives you 10% off on every volume purchased, below their already low prices, as long as you buy two or more from the set. The sales details are found at this link, which advertises the release of the NICOT volume on Hosea by J. Andrew Dearman (a volume that comes highly acclaimed).

The link to the whole set at WTSBooks is here.

0 Sola5 Radio Update (Listenership and New Programming Guide)

A couple weeks ago, I wrote concerning Sola5 Radio, the streaming internet radio station that Bill Hill and I of Covenant Radio have put together, and I am happy to report that many of you have discovered Sola5 and are listening regularly - that's great, keep it up! We hopefully are providing edifying content and enjoyable music. In particular we hope the relatively rare combination of preaching, teaching, psalms and Bible reading represents something valuable for you and for Reformed and Presbyterian Christians.

If you've not listened, please do take the opportunity. Our program schedule consists of psalms and hymns, bible reading, teaching on the Reformed faith and Reformation church history, confession and catechism reading, and solid exposition of the Word of God given from a confessionally-Reformed foundation, in addition to the re-airing of select Reformed podcasts.

If you have listened now and again and find what we're doing worthwhile, I hope you'll be willing to spread the word to friends and relatives who might be interested in our streamed content. Please do continue to let folks know about us, and also, please do contact us either here or at the Sola5 site as to how we're blessing you and what you've enjoyed - or not enjoyed, as the case may be.

Click here for our updated programming guide, valid from 5 February 2010 to the unknown future.

Tune in live at this location to listen with your browser. If you wish to listen with iTunes, here's how.

0 Covenant Radio: Joel Beeke on Christian Piety and John Calvin, Tomorrow

On Thursday, January 7, 2010 at 6:30 PM ET we at Covenant Radio will be speaking with Dr. Joel Beeke on the book The Soul of Life: The Piety of John Calvin. This is a fantastic little book which includes a biography and summary of Calvin's teaching on the Christian Life by Dr. Beeke, and short selections from his commentaries, sermons and the Institutes of the Christian Religion. It's a treasure trove of thoughts on piety by our elder brother in the faith, and we are privileged to be able to talk with Dr. Beeke on Covenant Radio about the book, and Calvin's teaching on piety.

Our intention is to broadcast this discussion live on Sola5 Radio (more information on that will be released Wednesday or Thursday so check back often). It will also be accessible in the usual Covenant Radio podcast, which is available by subscribing either at iTunes, Zune, or from this direct address. You can also go to the Covenant Radio website to browse past programs.

In this particular broadcast we are going to be offering a discount code for those who are interested in purchasing one of the books in this series. So be sure to tune in and listen either to the live broadcast or via podcast.

This series commences tomorrow, but will encompass all the books in the Profiles in Reformed Spirituality Series published by Reformation Heritage books.

0 New Year's Blog Plan

In the coming year, in addition to topical things that come up now and then, I'm planning to blog through Joseph Caryl's masterful Exposition of Job, the 12 volume behemoth that Charles Spurgeon in his Commenting and Commentaries (found in the Banner of Truth's recent reprint of Lectures to My Students) characterized as follows:

Caryl must have inherited the patience of Job to have completed his stupendous task. It would be a mistake to suppose that he is at all prolix or redundant; he is only full. In the course of his expounding he has illustrated a very large portion of the whole Bible with great clearness and power. He is deeply devotional and spiritual. He gives us much, but none too much. Caryl's work can scarcely be superseded or surpassed.

I'm looking forward to this blog journey - as I've already found much meat in the first few chapters of Caryl's first volume.

0 Sola5 Radio Regular Weekly Schedule begins December 28

We will continue working on the Sola5 Radio stream, featuring some of the programming that we intend to present each week. We at Covenant Radio podcast appreciate your listening to our podcasts, and hope that you'll enjoy what we're doing at Sola5 Radio. Our weekly schedule is now loaded at the Sola5 Radio blog, and can be obtained directly here.

We're really pleased to offer this streaming programming, and hope that you'll find it edifying and a good alternative to the over-the-air radio that in most areas of the country and world leaves MUCH to be desired. Roughly speaking, we'll be streaming from 7am ET to 9pm ET M-F and on the Lord's Day, and 7am - 5pm ET on Saturday.

We'll be featuring each new Covenant Radio podcast on the Friday after it's recorded, as well as "back-issues" at other times during the week. We're also pleased to offer rebroadcasts of a sister podcast, Christ the Center, which offers edifying discussions of important issues for Reformed Christians, and Dr. Scott Clark's Office Hours podcasts, which feature discussions with professors at Westminster Seminary California. Finally, we also intend to feature rebroadcasts of the White Horse Inn radio program. Our teaching and preaching segments will feature Dr. Joe Morecraft on the History of the Reformation, Dr. Joel Beeke on Genesis and Dr. Alan Cairns on Romans. Interspersed with this will be readings from the Geneva Bible and various classical, Jazz and contemporary Christian pieces. We also plan to include teaching series such as audio from the Ligonier National Conferences, the Banner of Truth Conferences, and other Reformed gatherings. PLEASE DO give us feedback at the Sola5 Radio blog, or here. We hope to serve up an edifying and enjoyable menu, and want to make sure that what we produce is just that.

In order to connect to the online stream, you can go to the Sola5 Radio blog. You can also go directly to http://loudcity.com/stations/sola5-radio to get the stream.

0 Sola 5 Radio is back online this week! Enjoy....

After working out some of the kinks, Sola5 Radio will be streaming, Lord willing, this week, in test mode. This is a venture of the Covenant Radio podcast, and we hope will bless you in our presentation of teaching, music and exposition of the Word. Sola5 Radio has a blog at http://sola5.wordpress.com, where program listings will be presented, and from which the stream is accessible. You can also go directly to http://loudcity.com/stations/sola5-radio to get the stream.

0 Introducing Sola5 Radio: Live Reformed Programming

Covenant Radio is planning to set up a live streamed 24/7 Reformed internet radio station, entitled Sola5 Radio. Bill Hill, with whom I co-host CR's weekly programs, is taking charge of this venture, and we are pleased to announce the startup testing this week. At first, programming will be played from roughly 7am EST to 3 or 4pm EST. During the week of November 23, the plan is to go from 6am to 5pm EST. Monday the 23rd's planned schedule is:

All times Eastern

6-8 AM: Bible Reading and Music
8-9 AM: Old Testament Study: The Book of Genesis by Dr. Joel Beeke
9-11 AM: Music
11-12 Noon: Systematic Theology Lectures: Reformed Theology 101 by Greg Cumbee
12-1 PM: Music
1-2 PM: New Testament Study: Book of Romans by Dr. Alan Cairns
2-3 PM: Music
3-4 PM: Church History Lectures: History of the Reformation by Dr. Joe Morecraft
4-5 PM: Music

The rest of the week will look similar.

Starting 11/30/09, Lord willing, we will have a full 24 hour programming set each day, including rebroadcasts of Covenant Radio programs, more teaching and exposition, music and more. Please send any suggestions to us using the form at the Sola5 Radio blog.