Just thought I'd kick off July with a little teaser. In God's kindness, Carl Trueman is coming out to Australia in August to speak at various events around the traps (including the Confess or Die conference). In preparation for his visit, Carl has agreed to do some guest blogging for us here at The Sola Panel, so be on the look out for three posts from him in the coming month.

For those who don't know him, Carl is the departmental chair of Church History at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia and the former editor of Themelios. He blogs regularly at Ref 21.

But more interestingly, here is a recent self-description:

I am the hapless lackey of right-wing Christian America ... a communist apologist for Islamic terrorism, a fundamentalist, a liar, a liberal (political and theological), an inveterate street fighter, a spineless girlyman, and a symptom of the crisis in American higher education ... (Read the full quote).

We're looking forward to hearing from him, and we hope you are too.

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Tony and I spent Thursday and Friday last week at the Church Planting conference held at Moore College. (Tony did Thursday and I did Friday.) It was a brilliant couple of days, and I couldn't help but be thankful to God for so many people who are working hard at making Jesus known in so many places. What an amazing gift to sit in the room with so many godly and gifted people whose great goal in life is to make Jesus known. Awesome.

I thought I'd post a couple of reflections on the day I attended. Here are three key things I have been thinking about since:

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I've been thinking a lot about emotions recently. This, of course, may be precisely my problem. I shouldn't be thinking about emotions; I should just be feeling them.

At least that's what people tell me. Emotions, I am assured, are an important part of who we are as humans created by God, and so Christian faith should also be emotional in some way. It's not enough just to think and to do; there's something a bit wrong with us if we don't also feel.

It's hard to argue with this, and so I have begun to rummage around in my soul to see if I can rustle up some emotions. And you'll be glad to know that I've managed to find some.

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Today is the last part in our series reminding us of Broughton Knox's teaching on prayer. It ends as simply and profoundly as it began.

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Just over a year ago, I started a blog. I was full of enthusiasm and daring—the kind of enthusiasm that only comes from an almost complete ignorance of the project you're about to embark upon. I guessed it would be a great opportunity for ministry. What I didn't anticipate is how God would use this new ministry to perform surgery on my heart.

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I have been thinking about the nature of Christian truth recently—in particular, what it means to live the Christian life. And I keep coming across these poles to avoid: one the one hand, legalism, and on the other hand, licentiousness.

But what would happen if you tried to drive your car down the middle of the freeway by adopting this strategy—whatever you do, avoid the right hand and left hand edges of the road? (The golfers all know the answer to this question already: “Don't hit it left, don't hit it left ... Doh!”).

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Following Gordon's excellent little post on the place of confession in our gatherings, Michael Johnson asked an equally excellent question in the comments: “I realize it's not directly related to this post's topic, but might you briefly elaborate on how you would describe why you gather with God's people on Sunday mornings (or whatever time you meet)?”

The only thing wrong with this question, Michael, is your opening disclaimer. It's a very related question, so thanks for asking it!

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There are rumours afoot that the key thing to think about when it comes to theological students is how much work they are not doing. A very strange shift has taken place somewhere, and it makes you wonder.

It is not unusual in our world-that-is-running-madly-after-Mammon to concentrate on (that is, be anxious about) busy-ness. Didn't Jesus himself say that it takes a lot of crazy running around to make sure you get enough of the good things God wanted you to have anyway? You would hate to miss out on those, so get up early, steamroll your way to work, overload your timetable, pressurize your body and relationships—you know the drill.

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Apologies to everyone who's been trying to comment since Saturday. Our webhost moved us to a machine, which meant Ben and I spent our Saturday evening trying to find a workaround for a particular problem (resulting from the move) and updating the settings to reflect the changes. Unfortunately we missed the one for the CAPTCHAs. That's now been fixed, so please comment away.

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I was recently reminded of my approaching middle age while teaching a Scripture class to a bunch of 12-year-olds. We were learning about the kings of Israel and Judah. At one point in the lesson, I told them that many of these kings were wicked, and therefore God's judgement came upon Israel and Judah. My pronouncement was met with a set of puzzled stares. What was confusing about this seemingly straightforward statement?

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