For me one of the benefits of traveling is the chance to spend more quality time with my MP3 player. I love listening to MP3s while touring. Things like waiting for public transportation are transformed from being a drudgery to being productive, even edifying, times.
While in Prague I decided to focus my listening on Jan Hus and the Reformation. I listened to Reformation presentations by Dr. Panosian and Tom Browning, a pastor in Arlington, Texas. I also benefited from Dr. Minnick’s preaching on treasuring the Word of God. If I had been gone longer, I would have kept up with the preaching at my church via Sermonaudio.
Today it is so easy to access solid biblical resources, that we can easily take them for granted. Take a moment to think about all the tools the modern church has at its disposal for knowing God better: thousands of sermons available online, websites like Monergism and DesiringGod that make immensely valuable theological libraries available for free, commentaries & study Bibles, Bible software, language tools, Christian books, Christian music, and accurate and understandable translations of the Bible. We have tools that past generations of Christians could hardly have dreamed of.
As I look at history, I just can’t get over this. Not only do I have my own Bible I can study, but the efforts of great theologians have been preserved and published so that even a layman like me can benefit from them. Likewise, the best preachers of today are readily accessible. I can have their sermons waiting on my hard drive days after they are preached.
What tremendous resources. The church is rich.
*** I realize that many who read my blog are not Christians and may not even know much about Christianity. Here is a website that will explain some of the basic ideas of the Christian faith. If you’re looking for something more thorough, C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity is a great introductory work. These are truths that have wonderfully transformed my life.