The Banner Podcast

What is God's response to a world that rails against him? 

Rob Ventura, co-author with William Boekestein of our forthcoming devotional book on the Psalms, God is Our Refuge and Strength, reads the entry for Psalm 2. 

Listen to the full author interview with Rob Ventura and William Boekestein: 

https://bannerpodcast.podbean.com/e/interviewing-the-authors-god-is-our-refuge-and-strength/ 

Join the Waitlist for God is Our Refuge and Strength: 

https://banneroftruth.org/store/devotional-books/god-is-our-refuge-and-strength/ 

Barnabas, the 'son of encouragement,' was a man willing to give generously, advocate for the misunderstood, and bear patiently with the weaknesses of others. 

Today's reading invites us to appreciate afresh those we know who have the gift of encouragement, and to seek to be encouragers ourselves. 

Featured resource: 

Cecil Siriwardene, 'Sons and Daughters of Encouragement,' Banner of Truth Magazine, Issue 526 (July 2007). 

Explore the work of the Banner of Truth: www.banneroftruth.org 

Subscribe to the Magazine (print/digital/both): www.banneroftruth.org/magazine 

Leave us your feedback or a testimony: www.speakpipe.com/magazinepodcast

God is Our Refuge and Strength: 150 Devotionals Through the Psalms releases in October.

Through brief, practical expositions of all 150 psalms, this volume proclaims, explains, and applies each one in light of the New Testament and the finished work of Jesus Christ the Lord. These reflections are designed to enlighten the mind, warm the heart, strengthen the hands, point to the Saviour, and encourage the soul.

In this Friday Extra we discuss the book with its authors, William Boekestein and Rob Ventura.

Among other things we ask the following: 

— Why write another book on the Psalms? 

— Why should we seek greater familiarity with this biblical book? 

— What do we do with the 'imprecatory Psalms'? 

— How can we read a Psalm with profit when we don't feel like we are connecting with it on an emotional level?

Join the Waitlist: 

https://banneroftruth.org/store/devotional-books/god-is-our-refuge-and-strength/ 

Prayer is indispensable—it is the key ingredient in truly fruitful life and ministry. This week's Magazine Monday looks at a group of nineteenth-century Scottish ministers who knew this to be the case to an extraordinary degree. 

Featured resource: 

Jonathan Watson, 'John Milne of Perth and the Importance of Prayer,' Banner of Truth Magazine, Issue 617 (February 2015). 

Explore the work of the Banner of Truth: www.banneroftruth.org 

Subscribe to the Magazine (print/digital/both): www.banneroftruth.org/magazine 

Leave us your feedback or a testimony: www.speakpipe.com/magazinepodcast

This week's Friday Extra is a short snippet from David McKay, author of Last Things: Preparing for the Future in the Present. This volume is one of our Banner Mini-Guides, concise introductions to essential areas of Christian belief and life. 

More on the book: 

https://banneroftruth.org/store/christian-living/last-things/ 

What makes a Reformed pastor? Ian Hamilton draws out some lessons from the strengths and weaknesses of the seventeenth-century Scottish pastor, Samuel Rutherford. 

Featured resource: 

Ian Hamilton, 'Marks of a Reformed Pastor: Lessons from Samuel Rutherford,' Banner of Truth Magazine, Issue 617 (February 2015). 

Explore the work of the Banner of Truth: www.banneroftruth.org 

Subscribe to the Magazine (print/digital/both): www.banneroftruth.org/magazine 

Leave us your feedback or a testimony: www.speakpipe.com/magazinepodcast

What do we need to know when melancholy comes knocking? Where do we turn when the darkness does not lift? 

Featured resource: 

John Colquhoun, 'Directions to Christians Afflicted with Melancholy,' Banner of Truth Magazine, Issue 97 (October 1971). 

Explore the work of the Banner of Truth: www.banneroftruth.org 

Subscribe to the Magazine (print/digital/both): www.banneroftruth.org/magazine 

Leave us your feedback or a testimony: www.speakpipe.com/magazinepodcast

In this Friday Extra, Rufus Burton, Minister at First Presbyterian Church, Martinsburg, West Virginia, recommends Chad Van Dixhoorn's Confessing the Faith: A Reader's Guide to the Westminster Confession of Faith. 

Buy the book: 

https://banneroftruth.org/store/theology/confessing-the-faith/

Study guide, authored by Emily Van Dixhoorn: 

https://banneroftruth.org/store/theology/confessing-the-faith-study-guide/ 

'Endeavour with all your might to make a conquest of all those enemies that be within you.' So wrote the Puritan Thomas Brooks (Works, vol. 6, p. 385). 

This week we take a closer look at the virtue of self-control, without which we are left vulnerable to all of the predations of Satan and sin. Heaven-bound saints cannot afford to neglect self-control. 

Featured resource: 

Mark J. Larson, 'The Virtue of Self-Control,' Banner of Truth Magazine, Issues 515–516 (August–September 2006). 

Explore the work of the Banner of Truth: www.banneroftruth.org 

Subscribe to the Magazine (print/digital/both): www.banneroftruth.org/magazine 

Leave us your feedback or a testimony: www.speakpipe.com/magazinepodcast

In this Friday Extra, the Chair of the Banner board, Rev. Jeff Kingswood, recommends one of our more obscure biographical titles, Faith Cook's William Grimshaw of Howarth. 

Buy the book: https://banneroftruth.org/store/history-biography/william-grimshaw-of-haworth-2/