I was first introduced to The Autobiography of Jacob Bower in my Baptist History course at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Jacob Bower, early 19th century Baptist preacher and missionary, continues to have a lasting impression in my own spiritual journey. Much like David Brainerd, Bower is a man driven by conviction and a sense of divine calling to preach the gospel even in the face of staunch opposition. I find less impressive the 40,000+ miles he rode while fulfilling his preaching circuits when compared to the candor with which he relays his daily struggles as a frontier father, preacher and sinner. The details are fascinating as they both reveal his spiritual journey and the life of a 19th century American missionary.

Until now, it appears that The Autobiography of Jacob Bower, a work in the public domain, has existed only online on just two or three websites and has never seen a published (and edited) printed edition. A PDF of the work is made available through Baptist Studies Online in the primary source section located at the following URL under the sub-heading Baptist Biography: http://baptiststudiesonline.com/baptist-biography.

With this post I would like to present my first attempt at an audiobook: The Autobiography of Jacob Bower Audiobook. My hope is that this audiobook will help to popularize this little-known work by making it available in a format accessible to all and under a license that permits its free, non-commercial distribution. It is offered free of charge to be enjoyed by lovers of history, biographies, and the Christian pilgrim’s progress as well as the audiobook/podcast/MP3 addict.

Download

MP3s are available in two qualities, 64kbps and 128kbps. These files should play normally on all computers, MP3 players, and burn to CD without problem. Browse the directory for individual files or download the entire book bundled together in one of the zip files below. If you’re not sure which quality you want, download the 64kbps.

11 tracks, 1hr 38mins, ~50mb (64kbps)/90mb (128kbps)

Download 64kbps Zip

Download 128kbps Zip

Stream

Parts one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, and eleven.

Disclaimer

A causal glance of the manuscript will prove to the listener the difficulty of recording a work which does not adhere to standardized spelling or punctuation. This made reading The Autobiography oftentimes tricky and resultingly awkward. Please excuse any misreadings and/or mispronunciations that I did not catch or failed to slickly edit out. Hopefully, these won’t render the audiobook “illegible.” I do recognize after re-listening that I should have spoken slower overall. Sorry. Try to keep up.

License

The Autobiography of Jacob Bower Audiobook by Drew Maust is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Based on a work at baptiststudiesonline.com. Basically, you can download, listen, distribute and enjoy (and even remix, if you like, under the same license); but you are not permitted to sell or even include this audiobook in any commercial product. Also, please do not host this elsewhere. Instead, link to this post.

photo credit: mnadi

It’s not that you have a place “around the table” of Christianity, for there is no table. There’s a person, Jesus Christ. We don’t gather around, rally around, an abstract idea or a metaphorical table but a person. He is the what we gather and rally around. We should then ask ourselves whether we have a place around Jesus to discuss the things of Christianity, not whether we have a place at an abstract “table.”

Several semesters ago during the presidential forum at Southeastern (SEBTS) the question was asked of President Danny Akin whether Arminians had a place at the table of Southern Baptists. His response was to the effect that if you can affirm the Baptist Faith & Message (BF&M), you have a seat around the Southern Baptist table. You see within the BF&M is contained the basics (and not so basics) of what it is to be a Southern Baptist and on many counts what it means generally to be a Christian. What Akin is driving at is if you cannot afirm along with those with whom you wish to fit in that which they affirm, you have no place around “the table.” A place at the table is contigent upon like affirmation.

So, to find out if you have “a place at the table of Christianity,” ask if you affirm the basic teaching(s) of Christianity: the gospel. I am a sinner in need of a savior. Jesus Christ is that savior. From there, there is much to learn as the whole of the Bible testifies to; but starting here, one gains a seat around Jesus Christ whom we love and worship. He’s the around-which we should be looking to gather.

It is with this understanding of Christianity that we can proceed to enjoy the multiethnic beauty of Christians that make up his body. One musn’t have completed seminary to have a voice. Neither must one be Caucasian, nor must one be non-Caucasian. You gather around him because you love him, and you there (read: at him) find others around him much (un-)like yourself. What this all means completely I’m not quite sure; but that’s OK. It’s a good place to re-orient one’s thinking to.

(Reading The Mission of God has inspired this post [Chapter 1]. Yes, you should own it. Thanks, JBA!)

Finals all done. Fall 2008 semester: complete.

photo credit: MatthewBradley

When my mom called while I was on the road, telling her that I was headed to an abandoned Kmart for a book sale sounded a lot sketchier than it turned out to be. The sale: the 2008 Wake County Public Library Book Sale.

The annual Wake County Public Library Book Sale will be held for the third year in the former Super Kmart building at 4121 New Bern Ave. , in east Raleigh, on US Highway 64 Business. The site is in a shopping center anchored by Golden Corral on the street-front. More than 300,000 books will be available for sale in the largest sale of its kind in the Southeast.

Paperbacks $1. Hardbacks $4. But if you can contain yourself, the prices drop every day.

• Wednesday, November 19: noon till 9 p.m.
• Thursday and Friday, November 20 and 21: 10 a.m. till 9 p.m.
  • Prices the first three days are $4 for hardbound books; $1 for paperbacks.
• Saturday, November 22: 8 a.m. till 8 p.m.
  • Prices on Saturday are $2 for hardbound books; 50 cents for paperbacks.
• Sunday, November 23: 10 a.m. till 6 p.m.

I walked away with 18 books and, yes, I feel like a bandit after paying only $18.

This sale actually comes at a great time (but when could a massive book sale not come at a good time?) considering this is the week of the annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society, a gathering which boasts its amazingly low, steal-of-a-deal convention book prices. It, however, is in Rhode Island. My book sale? An abandoned Kmart!

So, if you’re a Southeastern student like me, get your buns down to that Kmart. Take cash and/or your checkbook as these are the only accepted forms of payment. It’s the perfect place to buy any classic that you’ve been wanting and meaning to get a copy of (e.g., Pilgrim’s Progress).

Now in my senior year in seminary, I’ve witnessed it many times. A professor has expounded key Scriptures on a subject but very carefully avoided devoting himself to a specific system of thought or theology. His seemingly skirting around the issue is not unintentional, however, I’ve learned. This drives students crazy.

“Show us your cards!” “Ally yourself with a known school with which we’re familiar!” Some professors aren’t afraid to rail against a known school using precise, loaded language in the process, but I submit to you that this is the far less thoughtful option. The clever student can often deduce the professor’s position on a subject. But, if this position is stated directly and using well-known terminology, this takes the fun out of the mental gymnastics and exegetical heavy-lifting that should be encouraged and instilled in the classroom. A novice poker player (if I dare use a card game analogy) should learn to play, not knowing the poker master’s hand every round. This is part of the learning process, though it undoubtedly drives the student mad.

Words of Advice

So, professor, you’ve said less and taught less when you’ve flat out (lazily) revealed your party compared with the professor who creates a heurestic atmosphere. Student, don’t ask; it’s a seminary faux pas. It’s all about the tertium quid anyways (not in the Christological to be sure, if anyone was wondering). Watch out for the false binary!

It’s been a while since I’ve done a weekly review post; but since I’ve listened to some rather impressive things this week, I wanted to fill you in with the goods:

1. Upon recommendation I bought Flame’s latest album entitled Our World Redeemed. Amazing Christian rap. I especially like the last track, Joyful Noise, and number seven, Hold On. Deeply and richly biblical. Powerful.
2. Dr. Russell Moore presented a very moving treatise against abortion from the first chapters of the Gospel of Matthew in Southern Seminary chapel on October 16 entitled “Joseph Is a Single-Issue Evangelical: The Father of Jesus, the Cries of the Helpless, and Change You Can Believe In.” Definitely worth your time. Download the MP3.
3. Al Mohler just today preached a very timely message here in Southeastern chapel on How Not to Raise a Pagan fromDeuteronomy 6. Listen to the MP3 or watch the video (MP4). Your children need to know that “God kills people.”
4. On the latest edition of The White Horse Inn Dr. Michael Horton and company give unique Election Coverage. No mention of Obama or McCain here; only the biblical concept of election presented from a decidedly reformed standpoint with plenty of helpful discussion.
5. If you listen to nothing else from this list, download the interview with Burl Cain, Warden of Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, on The Drew Marshall Show. The testimony of the power of the gospel to transform lives that is taking place right now at this prison in Louisiana will astound you. It could only be God.

School started back up the end of this week…which means that the quotables will now start rolling in. Dr. McDaniel reminded us this morning (at 7:30am!) that during Jesus’ temptation, he pulled directly from Deuteronomy to combat the Adversary

“If your struggle against sin depended on your knowledge of Deuteronomy, how well would you do?”

It might be fair to say that our struggle against sin should include a working, quotable familiarity with Deuteronomy. Nonetheless, point taken.

…ordering one of my required textbooks for a seminary class from a popular online retailer, I notice that the first line of the book is the following:

“I did not plan to be a heretic. It just happened.”

Great! Let’s go Fall 2008: The Year Seminarians Become Heretics Unawares.

The latest post on the new Sovereign Grace blog recaps the sermon delivered by C. J. Mahaney at SEBTS’ 2008 20/20 Conference Missio Dei just a week ago. Find there an overview of the conference, an outline of Mahaney’s message “The Cup”, and Dr. Akin’s conclusion:

I was listening very carefully when C.J. preached. Sometimes at a conference like this people are very enthusiastic and demonstrative in their response to the preaching. But tonight as C.J. preached, there was a holy silence in this room. There was not much stirring because we were standing on holy ground. I’ll never, ever look at the Garden of Gethsemane the same again.

Download the entire message at the SEBTS chapel schedule page.

It looks like it’s going to be a fun semester for chapel messages at Southeastern. I’m particularly excited (and you should be too) to hear John Lennox of the University to Oxford throw down. Just look at his jolly face…and you haven’t heard him speak yet. What a gracious, calculated (yes, pun intended–considering he’s a reader in mathematics) fellow. March 11-12 he’ll be here, Lord willing. Please, Lord. What you’ll want to do in the meantime is familiarize yourself with Dr. Lennox’s demulcent voice, and you can do that by clicking around at bethinking.org (his “God and Richard Dawkins” talk available there is a good intro to the man) and by smuggling yourself into Darwin’s Rottweiler’s den and listening to a debate between Lennox and Richard Dawkins.

Moreover, we have Mark Dever Tuesday, February 26 (cf. Capitol Hill Baptist Church [that this page has a Netscape fav icon is stultifying]). His current sermon series is entitled “Pierced for Our Transgressions.” You can most likely guess the inspiration for such a series and the content thereof considering his endorsement of the book by the same name. We can only hope that he brings a sermon in this vein.

Lastly, get ready for a Canadian kerfuffle on April 8 when Dr. Hogg brings history, humor and homily.

Anyone I missed that you’re looking forward to? Student preaching week? Here’s the full lineup.