The Reading Room

Reformed Theology in American, A History of Its Modern Development

2009-07-02T17:30:00.000-07:00

Title: Reformed Theology in America, A History of Its Modern Development

Editor: David F. Wells

Publisher: Baker, 1997

Pages: 248

Begun: March 14, 2009

Finished: July 1, 2009

This is a compilation of essays by about a dozen Presbyterian scholars, edited by David Wells. It is, as the title suggests, about the development of Reformed Theology in America and it gives great insight into a part of American Christian culture that those of us from the non-reformed background know so little about.

There are three parts to the book:

1. The Princeton Theology which begins with an explanation of what exactly that it and then three biographical studies of the three most significant men in this group, men that we would probably all be familiar with: Charles Hodge, B.B. Warfield, and J. Gresham Machen. I really enjoyed this section and felt a lot of sympathy for the theology and views.

2. The Dutch Reformed Theology which started with an essay on the Dutch Schools before going into a biographical examination of an essay a piece on Louis Berkhof, Herman Dooyeweerd, and Cornelius Van Til. Berkhof is, of course, well know in our independent circles because it is his systematic theology that was used at places like Bob Jones for years. The apologetics of Van Til have become more popular of late, but I had never heard of Dooyeweerd. However, I realized that I have a little bit of a connection to this branch of Reformed through Christian Liberty Academy Satellite Schools which had close affiliation with the Dutch Reformed. More well-known to us, perhaps, is Beeke.

3. The Southern Reformed Theology. Again, this starts with an essay on the particularities of the Souther Tradition that was hugely affected by the Civil War issues and then by three biographical essays of their most important men. I had to restrain myself to wait until it was the proper order of time to read about one of my all-time favorites, R.L. Dabney, and then trudged through the essay on James Henley Thornwell who apparently was very influential and still has an impact on RTS in Jackson, MO.

It was inspiring to me to read these essays and to wade through their philosophies and theology. These were men of conviction who believed that ideas mattered. The impact of their ideas last to this day in huge segments of conservative and fundamental presbyterianism. It was also fascinating to see that no man, particularly the remarkably great Dabney, could escape being affected by his times. But Dabney was also almost prophetic.

He wrote:

The history of human rights is, that their intelligent assertors usually learn the true grounds of them 'in the furnace of affliction'; that the posterity who inherit these rights hold them for a while, in pride and ignorant prescription; that after a while, when the true logic of the rights has been forgotten, and when some plausible temptation presses them to do so, the next generation discards the precious rights bodily, and goes back to the practice of the old tyranny... You may deem it a strange prophecy, but I predict that the time will come in this once free America when the battle for religious liberty will have to be fought over again, and will probably be lost, because the people are already ignorant of its true basis and conditions.

That is disturbingly even more realistic today.

This is a good read. I'm glad I did it. Opened my eyes to understand my Reformed brothers and their noble tradition even better. It also inspired me to be a thinker.

The Fight of Faith

2009-06-11T14:27:00.000-07:00

Title: D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The Fight of Faith, 1939-1981

Author: Iain H. Murray
Publisher: Banner of Truth
Number of pages: 809
Purchased: May, 2005, $20 (BOT American headquarters)
Begun: 1-6-2009
Finished: 5-16-2009
Rating: ****

Review: The Fight of Faith is the second in a two-volume biography of Martyn Lloyd-Jones. I read the first volume, which was only half the length, last year . This one, to be sure, is truly a behemoth in size. However, I found the many hours I spent between its bindings (remember, I am a slow reader) to be not only profitable but genuinely enjoyable. The second volume picks up with ML-J’s pastorate in London (he had previously pastored in his native Wales). These were the war years and London felt the worst that the Hitler’s war birds could produce. (For 57 nights in succession, an average of 200 German bombers were over London every night.) ML-J originally came to Westminster Chapel as an assistant to G. Cambell Morgan. Morgan was not a Calvinist like his assistant, but in the words of ML-J at Morgan’s memorial service:

“We differed theologically, but we never discussed that; we believed in the same final authority of this Book. If one of us was a little bit Calvinistic in his preaching, the other was always Calvinistic in his praying! So we never quarreled at all, and we just said nothing more about it.”

The book details ML-J’s efforts to transform Westminster from a “preaching station” into a church family--something that remained a continual challenge in such a large, transitory city. It also explains his great influence in Britain and the English-speaking world beyond. I found the discussion of Lloyd-Jones’ battle with the rising ecuminism of his day to be extremely helpful and relevant even to issues today. His concerns were doctrinal to the core , and he was willing to stand alone in his defense of truth. However, he never saw himself as the crusader of a certain “party” or group and longed for the unity of all true Gospel believers. I would highly recommend this book, especially to Gospel ministers.

Descartes' Bones

2009-06-06T19:55:00.000-07:00

Title: Descartes’ Bones

Author: Russell Shorto
Publisher: DOUBLEDAY
Number of pages: 257
Purchased: 12/2008
Begun: 12/20/2008
Finished: 6/6/2009 Rating: ***

Review: This book, published in October 2008, provides (in the words of its subtitle) “A Skeletal History of the Conflict between Faith and Reason.”

Russell begins with an overview of “The man who Died” (chapter 1). Descartes lived in a an age of many scientific discoveries. However, he perceived them to be without any unifying foundation. The crises he experienced was a loss of meaning, and he began a quest for truth, for something to believe in. He was resolved to slash every idea until he came to a proposition that was impossible to deny. Aristotle, Aquinas, Plato, the Hebrew prophets and the Apostle Paul were all regulated to the same dustbin. Even his own senses could not be trusted since senses can deceive. There might be a tree in front of me, or I might be just dreaming that that is a tree.

“At the end of this remorseless reduction there is only one thing that remains, one proposition that can’t be denied, one sound, as it were, in the universe, like the lonely ticking of a clock. It is the sound of the thinker’s own thoughts. For can I doubt that thoughts are occurring right now, including this one? No: it’s not logically possible.” Hence the conclusion: “Cogito, ergo sum,” or, “Je pense, donc je suis,” or “I think, therefore I am.” This was way more than a slogan. As Shorto explains, it declared that “the mind and its ‘good sense’--that is to say, human reason--are the only basis for judging whether a thing is true…. Human reason supplanted received wisdom. Once Descartes had established the base, he and others could rebuild the edifice of knowledge. But it would be different from what it had been. Everything would be different.”

Following the overview of chapter one, the majority of Shorto’s book is devoted to a description of the peregrinations of the French philosopher’s bones down through the centuries following his death in 1650. The story is fascinating, not only because the skull was separated from the bones sixteen years after Descartes’ death (and followed a completely different trajectory through different countries), but because of the recurring connection that Descartes’ bones had with the developing ideas and events of the “modern” world that Descartes’ philosophy had produced. Thus, in an odd way, Descartes’ skull and the ideas which emerged from it keep intersecting.

This is a fascinating read, because it is on the one hand a non-fiction historical detective story, and on the other hand a philosophical analysis of modernity. Descartes introduced “modernism” which eventually gave way to “postmodernism.” The postmodern world ended, according to Shorto, on September 11, 2001. He borrows from the German philosopher Jurgen Habermas the term postsecular to describe the next stage in the evolution of Western society. This is a stage in which the two radical extremes--radical secularists (such as Christopher Hitchens and other “radical Enlightenment” warriors) and the “theological camp” (people “at the fringes of Western society who [refuse] to go along with the basic ideals inherited from the enlightenment,” who reject homosexuality, etc., and who value supposed divine revelation over human doubt)--are brought into the “moderate Enlightenment camp” in which it is recognized that “scientific and religious worldviews aren’t truly inconsistent but that perceived conflicts have to be sorted out.” (He explains how the American Revolution was the result of “moderate Enlightenment” thinking, and the French Revolution the result of “radical Enlightenment” thinking.)

Our understanding of the relationship of faith to reason and reason to faith have titanic implications to our own personal worldview. Understanding how these two have related throughout western history helps us better relate to the millions around us who, indifferent as they may be to the doubts concerning the authenticity of Descartes’ skull, are nonetheless the products of the doubts that skull produced.

Here a video of the author explaining the thesis of his book, at the book’s official website.

On Being a Pastor

2009-06-06T07:42:00.000-07:00

Title: On Being a Pastor
Authors: Derek Prime & Alistair Begg
Publisher: Moody Press, 2004
Pages: 310
Begun: April 13, 2009
Completed: June 6, 2009

Prime and Begg have produced an impressive work on pastoral theology in On Being a Pastor. Mostly written in an informal style and very practical in content, the two pastors share their experiences in the pastorate. Prime ministers at Charlotte Chapel in Edinburgh, Scotland and Begg currently ministers at Parkside Church in Cleveland, OH.

The two men discuss myriads of situations a pastor must face in his ministry including a minister's devotional life, his family life, pastoral care, study, counseling, delegation, interpersonal relationships with his congregation, and interpersonal relationships with his fellow elders. Overall, I found the work helpful. There were many good ideas as well as some that I really didn't care for. Though I do not entirely agree with all their suggestions or practices, I appreciate their overall thrust and philosophy. Here are a couple of statements from the first part of the book (the more objective section):

"Before ever we are shepherds and teachers, we are first and foremost sons of God, and our spiritual life demands to be nurtured...God wants us and our fellowship with Him more than He wants even our pastoral and teaching ministry, important as it is." (85-86)

"Right teaching always leads to Him and shows the relationship of all other truths to His saving work and His supremacy in God's purposes." (56)

Don't Make Me Count to Three

2009-06-06T05:49:00.000-07:00

Title: Don't Make Me Count to Three
Author: Ginger Plowman
Publisher: Shepherd Press, 2003
Pages: 151
Begun: May 27, 2009
Completed: June 1, 2009

This book is a Mom’s look at heart-oriented discipline. This is written by a mom for moms. She follows Tedd Tripp’s (who endorses her book, btw) emphasis in Shepherding a Child’s Heart and gives some practical applications for mothers with young children. This book was very helpful for me and I plan to re-read it as often as necessary in the years to come. Her focus is on using Scripture to reprove your chidren and on helping them verbalize their own sin. “When a child learns how to recognize what is in his own heart, he is more likely to demonstrate godly responses on his own.” (p. 41) Not only is it a parent’s responsibility to teach our children to recognize their sin, but we must give them a way of escape. 1 Cor. 10:13 says,” God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.” She uses this verse to encourage parents (and mother’s in particular) to not only reprove your children for sin, but also to teach them and instruct them in the godly response or action they should have had. So often the instruction part is left out.

There are many things I could say about the book. It is full of examples and humor. It is an easy read and definitely well worth the read for those mothering young children. I’ll simply sum it up by listing the six parental responsibilities that she gives.

1. To use every opportunity to point children to their need for Christ.

2. To train them to obey God by honoring and obeying their parents.

3. To teach them wisdom.

4. To train them in righteousness.

5. To pray for them.

6. To be a godly example.

She does have a companion booklet, I believe, called Wise Words for Moms. I don’t have it but I think it is a collection of specific verses to use for specific attitudes/behaviors your child is demonstrating.

My Grandfather's Son

2009-06-05T21:47:00.000-07:00

My Grandfather’s Son
Written by Clarence Thomas

289 pages

I honestly couldn’t remember a whole lot about this era, probably because I was in college and uninterested in current events! (Distracted by dating, perhaps?)

Anyway, I enjoyed this book and learning more of his background, and the difficulties he had as a young black man seeking to get a good education and succeed in life. He worked so hard and still he and his wife hardly had any money, and he writes of them having to wash out their clothes in the bathroom sink each night, or at another time either paying for bus fare and not eating, or walking to work and eating.

It is interesting to note all of the ups and downs of his journey; first of all getting his law degree and passing his Bar. Secondly, of his different jobs, salaries, and then the Supreme Court Nomination?! Wow!

He of course brings up the Anita Hill scandal, and convincingly (to me at least) provides a strong argument of his uninvolvement with her. (She seems like a real flake!)

He quotes from the Bible, and leans towards conservative political views, but I didn’t get a real clear read as to where he is at spiritually. Maybe he’ll write another book on that topic some other time. ;-)

The title is due to his grandfather’s guidance throughout his life. His grandfather raised him, loved him and his brother, but was not very ‘warm and fuzzy’. He took his job of raising them very seriously, and made sure they weren’t wimpy. He would make them work very hard, and let’s just say he wasn’t too concerned with their ‘self esteem’. J It’s funny, because later on when Clarence has his son, all of a sudden Clarence’s grandfather spoils his great grandson absolutely rotten, and cuddles him all of the time. Clarence has a tough time with that!

I enjoyed it, I’d give the book a 7. (I don’t know if he had an editor, but……in my opinion, he should have either had one, or hired one! :-)

Brenda

Nickle and Dimed, On (Not) Getting by in America

2009-06-05T06:54:00.000-07:00

Part of my reading this year and last has included a real effort to acquaint myself with books that are required reading on the campuses of American secular universities (assuming, of course, that I can read them as a Christian). It's the way some of choose to contextualize without wearing nose-rings and tattoos.

How I find these particular books is rather unscientific. It usually happens by taking note of a comment in another book about an author or book that it is assumed everyone knows about. I then jot the name down on a piece of paper and retain the tidbit of information for a later time when I might have time, money, and opportunity collude conveniently for me to acquire the book that "everyone knows about" but me. Thus, I heard about Barbara Ehrenreich's book. I think I saw her on TV one time -- or mentioned -- and she is a flaming liberal and pro-Obama feminist.

I have to say at the outset that I have increasingly been unhappy with the American evangelical's conviction that Jesus is a Republican and that capitalism is the sanctified way of life among the nations that will separate the sheep from the goats at the bema. I personally have a bitter and cynical feeling toward raw, unchecked capitalism as anyone who has been on the losing side of a Monopoly game as many times as I have been may fully understand. There is no year of Jubilee. My Calvinistic theology convinces me that men are bad and that greed will prevail anywhere, be it a capitalistic or socialist system or in game of Monopoly. However, while it is incredibly naive to insist that capitalism is the best hope for the poor, it is also naive to think that socialism checks greed.

The disparity between the rich and the poor is even further in Western Europe than it is here in this messed up system and the gulf that separates the two classes is unbridgeable. Socialism, like Stalin's communism, classifies people permanently. In France or Sweden, for example, there is an impassible separation between the very rich and the not-so-miserable poor. At least in capitalism there is the technical possibility, though the probability is minimal, that one could move from class to class even though the poor or more miserable

Ironically, I also think that there is really a case to make that the poor in America are poorer than the poor in socialist Europe, but since I have also seen the downside of socialist government I am just as cynical and doubtful about the so-called hope that the new socialism is bringing to the United States of America.

The inability of the American Christian to see a third way (or fourth or fifth) or to weigh the arguments of economic liberals is because there is a patriotic head-buried-in-sand surrealism among American Christians about what life is really like in this country for most people. They believe in the "American Dream" without realizing that it is just a "dream." But worse, they only read or listen to people who are certified red-white-and-blue, anti-abortionist, Jesus-is-a-Republican, pro-Wal-mart, America-is-a-Christian-nation bona fide patriot. Anyone that does not fit that category is dismissed as an un-American quasi-communist infiltrator that has no other agenda but to see American go down in flames. Thus, with homeschooling and the Christian school and the Christian colleges there has developed another culture, another view point, and another concept of the America that we live in that is so radically different than the one their neighbors are learning about that they simply cannot even relate. Worse, the America they believe exists doesn't equate to reality. There is no America like the one most conservative Christians are willfully indoctrinating themselves to love and defend.

What is a Christian to do? The solution is not easy. You just don't switch parties. You don't fix lemming-hood by becoming the lemming of another party. Besides, in a two party system like America has presently, the morality issues of abortion and homosexual marriage, etc. are polarizing issues. For example, I may be sympathetic to some kind of governmental healthcare provision, but I can't in good conscience support a system that takes away the liberty of doctors to choose against abortion.

Thus, part of the solution for today's Christian is to get in the conversation. At least in conversation we don't have to be so either/or about things. As thoughtful Christians we should know what other people are thinking. That's what I suggested to my successful and generous Christian chiropractor yesterday. He had never heard of Ehrenriech's book. The goal is not political. The goal is missional. The goal is the Gospel. The Gospel is only really good news in reality.

The goal is present-day realism that makes one a much more effective witness to the world he lives in and demonstrates a more mature (and ultimately more effective) contextualization that goes beyond wearing hip-hop bling-bling.

We live in a world where ideas have consequences and thoughtless, driveling repetition of the party line exposes us as unhelpful minions of a perceived if not real oppressor. Can "good news" really come from someone who regurgitates something demonstrably bad?

It may also make him a more helpful contributor to the world's pursuit for practical solutions.

Christians need to face a reality that rich Republicans don't want Americans to see. I don't think it's a conspiracy on their part. I really don't think there are back-room deals among the very rich Republicans. I simply think that they and scores of thousands of comfortable middle-class evangelicals really don't see it; therefore, they think the mention of that reality is a conspiracy on the part of the liberals.

Listen to Hannity and Limbaugh scoff the poor. Listen to them say that anyone -- anyone! -- who wants to can be rich in this country. Just look at them, they say. They scrapped and clawed their way to their success by good old-fashioned work, they shrill. Basically, if you're poor and caught in a vortex of increasing poverty it's because you're lazy, they imply if not overtly declare. Of course, this is not new with them; we basically grew up with this Americana doctrine. However, the facts do not support the dream that these unimaginably rich men perpetuate.

The most blasphemous words a preacher of the Gospel of Jesus Christ can say from the pulpit are, "Weep and howl, you rich men." That they are biblical and applicable are irrelevant. These words are blasphemous to American Christians who grew up with a "Christian" worldview about American capitalism. One group of people that the American preacher knows he cannot address is the rich. After all, in most cases, they butter his bread.

Although, for the bold castigator of the rich there is always the realistic hope of, well, riches. Think Jesse Jackson and so forth.

In theory, I agree with the liberals in this state that think minimum wage should be elevated, but that puts me at odds with the accepted way of thinking among most Christians who for some bizarre reason think that employers are always fair and generous. I think the wages of the poor have "reached the ears of the Lord of hosts." However, I also think that the socialist answer is pocked with humanistic and naive thinking. Socialism obviously does not solve the greed problem and so far it only has a broken record which includes the stifling of innovation and liberties.

Millennialists are looking forward to seeing how Jesus will manage the economy since anything that includes unregenerate men will ultimately be abused. In the meantime, however, I think Christians would do themselves a service by accepting the fact that it is possible to be Christian without drinking the kool-aid of one party or the other. One doesn't have to sell his soul to a system. If capitalism is the "American Dream" they need to realize that for most people it's just a dream; and for others it has become a nightmare in which they are the losers of Monopoly that repeats itself over and over and over with no end in sight. If socialism is the answer, they need to realize that no legislation whatsoever will be just when unjust men are trying to shape society.

Instead, I think Christians need to see that all human beings have both an accurate and distorted perspective of the human problem of government, poverty, and wealth. I learned some things from Nickle and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America that not only opened my eyes to a reality that I knew existed but patriotically attempted to ignore, but I also saw that the liberal author is choosing her own set of blinds as well.

With that I conclude the introduction to my book review!

Putting Jesus in His Place: The Case for the Deity of Christ

2009-06-04T15:18:00.000-07:00

The title might jar a little, but the result of reading the book is the exact opposite of what one might sense in the title: honor and fear and awe and love and thankfulness.

I really needed to read this book. Sometimes I forget who I am serving. Putting Jesus in His Place: The Case for the Deity of Christ is probably the most thorough study on the deity of Jesus Christ that I have ever read. Perhaps because we take things for granted that we already know and believe we don't take the time to read, much less study, foundational doctrines. After all, we aren't Christians if we don't already believe that Jesus is God. But do we really know what we mean. I can honestly say that this read has sharpened my own convictions in this area.

The fact that Jesus is God has been forcibly restored to the forefront of my mind by this exhaustive but readable study. There are 280 pages plus 70 pages of endnotes and the book has the unique quality of being appealing to the average reader and the scholarly. My highlighting pen was going crazy: yellow for powerful insights, orange for helpful exegetical points.

The authors presented the case for the deity of Christ with the acronym HANDS. Jesus shares the same Honors as God, the same Attributes, the same Names, the same Deeds, and the same Seat. I was especially helped by the explanation of the "right hand of God" and my understanding of the bema of Christ was also very much enlightened.

Most importantly, I was humbled, convicted, and at times ashamed that I knew Jesus so little.

D.A. Carson has written a great summary of the book here. I commented briefly on it here.

Culture Making

2009-05-25T10:52:00.000-07:00

Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling

Andy Crouch

IVP 2008

273 Pages.

On the morning of my birthday while we were having our daily coffee time, Jennie handed this book to me. It was a gift from Joy McCarnan. I had told Jennie I was going to take the day easy so I ended up reading all day. I read this book that day from kiver to kiver.

Tim Keller gave it a glowly endorsement. He said it is "one of the few books taking the discussion about Christianity and culture to a new level." I had never heard of the book, but it certainly did take me and my thoughts about Christianity and culture to another level. I found it to be fascinating.

Almost all Christian books on culture take Niebuhr's classic five categories and build off of that, but Andy Crouch seems to have a little bit of a different take. Christians in America fall into the extremes of being culture consumers or culture condemners. Crouch suggests another way: we should realize that God has always been at work in history making culture. It takes a long, long time, but Christians who have understood their place have taken everything that they do (the arts, the trades, academics, etc) and have committed themselves to being the best that they can be in whatever their calling for the sake of making culture.

His definition of culture is instructive: “Culture is what we make of the world – we start not with a blank slate but with all the richly encultured world that previous generations have handed to us” (Crouch 73).

We are who we are and we really can't divorce ourselves from our pasts. This is particularly applicable to discussions of matters like fundamentalism, our traditions, witnessing to people from different backgrounds, and so forth.

All culture making requires a choice, conscious or unconscious, to take our place in a cultural tradition. We cannot make culture without culture. And this means that creation begins with cultivation- taking care of the good things that culture has already handed on to us. The first responsibility of culture makers is not to make something new but to become fluent in the cultural tradition to which we are responsible. Before we can be culture makers, we must be culture keepers (Crouch 74). Later on he says, culture making requires culture maturity.

I think that this is relevant to the craziness of American evangelicals to consume our culture without any effort of becoming the artists themselves. Crouch is realistic, though. Theologically realistic. Near the end of the book he warns that anyone who thinks they can change the world doesn't understand sin. But he thinks we ought to have a long term vision. This, of course, suggests a post-millennarian worldview, but before we reject it we ought to learn from it. William Carey and Jonathan Edwards both had a long term vision to make the world a better place, to be culture makers. We have benefitted from their zeal.

I don't think we have to buy into a postmillennialism to benefit from the emphasis of this book . Crouch said that anything that has had a huge impact on the world, no matter how sudden, had a LONG history behind it. Making a difference takes time. Therefore, it takes humility.

A good read.

Heaven On Earth

2009-05-06T07:36:00.000-07:00

Title: Heaven on Earth
Author: Thomas Brooks
Publisher: Banner of Truth, 1996
Pages: 320
Begun: January 21, 2009
Completed: May 2, 2009

First published in 1654, Heaven on Earth is a treatise on Christian assurance. Brooks explores in great depth the roots, essence, and fruit of assurance within a genuine child of God. Brooks' contemporary Joseph Caryl summed up Brooks' treatise quite well: "All saints shall enjoy heaven when they leave this earth; some saints enjoy heaven while they are here on earth. That saints might enjoy two heavens is the project of this book."

As difficult as it is to review a treatise with some deep theology, it will suffice to extract some provoking thoughts from the pen of Brooks. Consider some thoughts about how God uses suffering to strengthen a believer's faith and to give him assurance of His love:

"Suffering times are times wherein the Lord is pleased to give His people some sense of His favour. When they are in sufferings for righteousness' sake, for the gospel's sake, then usually God causes His face to shine upon them. Now they shall hear best news from heaven when they hear worst from earth. God loves to smile most upon His people when the world frowns most. When the world puts its iron chains upon their legs, then God puts His golden chains about their necks; when the world puts a bitter cup into their hands, then God drops some of His honey, some of His goodness and sweetness into it." (65)

"The suffering siant may be assaulted, but not vanquished; he may be troubled, but can never be conquered; he may lose his head, but he cannot lose his crown, which the righteous Lord hath prepared and laid up for him.....The Lord causes His goodness to pass before His people, and His face to shine upon His people in times of suffering.....for the praise of His own grace, and for the glory of His own name." (69)

The last half of Brooks' treatise is a detailed analysis of "the eight special things that accompany salvation:"

1. Knowledge
2. Faith
3. Repentance
4. Obedience
5. Love
6. Prayer
7. Perseverance
8. Hope

Of knowledge, Brooks writes,

"Divine knowlege fills a man full of spiritual activity; it will make a man work as if he would be saved by his works, and yet it will make a man believe that he is saved only upon the account of free grace." (178)

"Notional knowledge may make a man excellent at praising the glorious and worthy acts and virtues of Christ; but that transforming knowledge that accompanies salvation, will cause a man divinely to imitate the glorious acts and virtues of Christ." (179)

A difficult read, but an extremely rewarding one!

Beyond Suffering: Discovering the Message of Job

2009-04-27T13:37:00.000-07:00

Title: Beyond Suffering: Discovering the Message of Job
Author: Layton Talbert
Publisher: BJU Press, 2007
Number of pages: 375
Begun: February 2, 2009
Finished: April 15, 2009
Rating: *****

I used this book as a guide for my private devotional studies of the book of Job over a two-month period of time. It helped to provide some of the most enriching times of spiritual meditation I have experienced in a very long time—perhaps ever. There is so much to unpack in this story of God’s seeking to reveal more of Himself to a man through affliction, thereby demonstrating His authority to afflict, the necessity of human submission to Divine affliction, and the vast mercy He shows through affliction.

Though Talbert refuses to call his book a commentary, he clearly and thoroughly covers the background and context, as well as interpretational keys, and does a great job of expositing the text, if not always in a verse-by-verse manner, at least in a way that addresses every section and theme, and in a very readable and easy-to-attain style. (I was actually surprised at how easy to read the book was.) Perhaps the most challenging thing about the format of the book was having to stop so frequently to read the endnotes—but they were worth every bit of the price of the book! I highlighted nearly as much in the endnotes as in the rest of the book.

I profited so much on so many different levels from this book that the thought of trying to communicate all of that in a book review that would be short enough for you all to still want to read it is quite the daunting task! I will let it suffice to say that the overwhelming message that I walked away with is that God has all authority to do whatever He pleases, and I am responsible to submit to anything He chooses to do, and that in whatever He chooses for me, He is showing great mercy, however pleasant or ill it may seem at the time. (Sound familiar? Seems like I just said that.) To give you a little taste I will paste in the six lessons Job learned which Talbert cites in chapter 21. I used these as an outline for a lesson I taught in a ladies’ Sunday School class recently.

Man is ignorant of the vastness of God’s ways and works, and it is imprudent to advertise that ignorance by unwarranted theological confidence (Job 42:3).
God is free and sovereign to purpose what He pleases and to perform what He purposes (Job 42:2).
Man is small and demonstrates supreme contemptibility by speaking rashly to God and about God (Job 40:4).
Personal familiarity with God is worth supremely more than secondhand hearsay and academic knowledge (Job 42:5).
Correct theology expresses itself practically in personal humility and submission before God (Job 42:6).
It is necessary for an individual’s spiritual well-being to forgive those with well-intentioned or but erroneous or ill-applied theology (42:7-11).

And what can we learn from the book of Job about how a believer should respond to trials?

Believe Him implicitly, with or without proof, because He has spoken.
Trust Him submissively, with or without understanding, because He is sovereign and good.
Worship Him reverently, with or without reward, because He is worthy.
Wait for Him patiently, with or without reprieve, because He will come (James 5:7-11).

Dick and Jane and Friends

2009-04-13T18:07:00.000-07:00

I got this book last fall from Daddy. I started it in November of 2008, and I finished it on March 7, 2009.

My favorite, favorite person in this book is Dick. This is the biggest book I've ever read. It has 193 pages. Baby Sally is a little girl. There are a couple stories where we see that Spot digged in the ground. Puff is their little cat. There is a story of Spot and Puff and Little Tim that is a bear that she really loved and cared for. And one morning or one day (I don't know), Spot, Tim and Puff and baby Sally went out. And they went jumping, and they got on the railing and they jumped off.

My favorite story is about two boats who were racing. One was Dick's--the yellow boat, and one was Jane--the middle sized girl. And her boat was blue. And Baby Sally--the youngest--had like a little train thing that could hook onto a train and drive it. But when she put that thing into the water, it sank. And Dick knew that that would happen and he got a stick and apparently got it out while the wet water was dripping.

I would sometimes read this book in my mind, sometimes to my sister. I would sometimes read it to my daddy. And I would sometimes read it to my mommy. I love almost all the stories because they are very special to me.

Feed My Sheep

2009-04-13T06:25:00.000-07:00

Title: Feed My Sheep, A Passionate Plea For Preaching
Authors: Eric J. Alexander, Joel R. Beeke, James Montgomery Boice, Sinclair B. Ferguson, Don Kistler, John MacArthur, R. Albert Mohler Jr., John Piper, R. C. Sproul, R. C. Sproul Jr., and Derek W. H. Thomas
Publisher: Reformation Trust, 2008
Pages: 155
Begun: April 8, 2009
Completed: April 12, 2009

This book was originally written and published in the late 90s by Soli Deo Gloria Publications and then was republished again in 2004 by Ligonier Ministries. The newest publication of the book is the second edition published by Reformation Trust now in an attractive hardback cover. The work consists of eleven chapters, each chapter written by the eleven contributing pastors listed above. The overall theme as indicated by the book's subtitle is "a passionate plea for preaching." The book, then, is a biblical defense of preaching in general and of the lectio continua method in particular. Specific topics discussed are the primacy of preaching, the foolishness of preaching, expository preaching, experiential preaching, preaching to the mind, preaching with authority, and evangelistic preaching.

The two chapters that made the deepest impressions upon me were Ferguson's on "Preaching to the Heart" and Piper's on "Preaching to Suffering People." Ferguson gives five characteristics of heart preaching:

1. A right use of the Bible.
2. Nourishment of the whole person.
3. An understanding of the condition of the hearers.
4. The use of imagination.
5. Grace in Christ.

I like what he says here: "Preaching to the heart, then, is not merely a matter of technique or homiletic style. These things have their proper place and relevance. But the more fundamental, indeed, the more essential thing for the preacher is surely the fact that something has happened in his own heart; it has been laid bare before God by His Word. He, in turn, lays his heart bare before those to whom he ministers. And within that context, the goal he has in view is so to lay bare the truth of the Word of God that the hearts of those who hear are opened vertically to God and horizontally to one anther." (104)

He goes on to say: "In the last analysis, this is what preaching to the heart is intended to produce: inner prostration of the hearts of our listeners through a consciousness of the presence and glory of God. This result distinguishes authentic biblical preaching from any cheap substitute; it marks the difference between preaching about the Word of God and preaching the Word of God." (104-5)

In discussing grace in Christ as it affects the manner of our preaching: "For while preaching involves bringing the world of the Bible to bear upon the world of our contemporaries, it also involves bringing the message-in-words of the Scriptures through the message-in-manner of the preacher. There needs to be a marriage between the message and the manner; therein lies the heart of the mystery of preaching." (114)

Piper, in his chapter on Preaching to Suffering People, begins with five assumptions:

1. Preaching is expository exultation.
2. Preaching is a normative event in the gathered church.
3. The aim of preaching is the glory of God through Jesus Christ.
4. God is most glorified in our people when our people are most satisfied in Him.
5. Suffering is a universal human experience, designed by God for His glory, but endangering every Christian's faith.

If all these assumptions are true which they are, then "our preaching must aim, week in and week out, to help our people be satisfied in God while suffering. Indeed, we must help them count suffering as part of why they should be satisfied in God. We must build into their minds and hearts a vision of God and His ways that helps them see suffering not merely as a threat to their satisfaction if God (which it is), but also as a means to their satisfaction in God (which it is). We must preach so as to make suffering seem normal and purposeful, and not surprising in this fallen age." (131)

God uses our own suffering as preachers to affect our preaching to suffering people in the following ways:

1. God has ordained that our preaching becomes deeper and more winsome as we are broken, humbled, and made low and desperately dependent on grace by the trials of our lives.

2. God has ordained that when we preach from weakness and suffering sustained by joy in Christ, the people see that Christ is treasured and they are loved.

3. The suffering of the preacher helps him see from Scripture what he must say to his suffering people.

Piper's conclusion: "We must preach with a passion to produce people whose satisfaction in God is so solid, so deep, and so unshakable that suffering and death will not make our people murmur or curse God, but will help them count it all joy and say with Paul, 'To live is Christ and to die is gain.' How will that happen? I said that the preacher must suffer. That is what I have tried to show thus far. And then the preacher must rejoice. He must be hurt in the ministry, and he must be happy in God." (138)

I have found this a helpful resource on preaching that I want to reread in the future. It was greatly convicting and encouraging at the same time. I would highly recommend it to my fellow preachers.

2009-04-10T14:11:00.000-07:00

Title: If God Should Choose: The Authorized Story of Jim and Roni Bowers
Author: Kristen Stagg
Publisher: Moody Press
Number of pages: 221
Begun: April 4, 2009
Finished: April 7, 2009

If God Should Choose is the story of a young ABWE missionary couple who in 2001 were flying in a small plane over the Amazon when they were shot down by the Peruvian air force which had assumed them to be drug traffickers. I remember cursorily following the news about the incident back when it happened, but had not given it much thought in recent days until I downloaded and listened to a Mother’s Day sermon by John Piper. In the sermon, titled “To Be a Mother is a Call to Suffer,” Piper utilizes Jim Bowers’ testimony as a primary example of the fact that God’s sovereign plan for a parent (and really for any Christian) may well be a call to suffer loss for His sake. Piper isolates one statement from Jim’s memorial service testimony in which Jim dubs the instrument of both his wife’s and infant’s deaths “a sovereign bullet.” Both Tim and I could not help but be moved by the sermon, and it was somewhat ironic that just a week later our host in Mentor offered me this book which recounts the Bowers’ story.

The thing that struck me the most about the book was just how “normal” this young couple was. Granted, it’s not just anyone who leaves the comforts of an American home to become a missionary family living on the Amazon in a homemade houseboat barely larger than an RV. But even so, their struggles with things like finances, relationships and infertility were no different than we and a lot of other people with whom we all regularly brush shoulders experience. And yet within a few hours time, the Bowers went from relative obscurity to becoming the centerpiece of an international news event. Shot down without warning, 35-year-old Veronica “Roni” Bowers and adopted 7-month-old daughter Charity were killed instantly by the same bullet, fellow missionary pilot Kevin Donaldson was seriously injured, and Jim Bowers and 6-year-old Cory, though uninjured, were forced through the ordeal of a major cockpit fire, a nosedive into the Amazon, and a grueling afternoon spent guarding their loved ones’ expired bodies while waiting for all the government officials to make their assessments of the situation.

In addition to providing historical background and context, the author dedicates the first part of each chapter and then two entire chapters at the end to a detailed play-by-play of the incident. It truly was remarkable to learn of the many ways in which God provided superhuman grace to Jim and Cory throughout this trial and into the broad spotlight where Jim was able to publicly affirm that "though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him. " The most inspiring thing for me was to see illustrated a real-life, grace-filled, totally-submissive response to human loss. In the memorial service testimony that took place only one week after the incident, Jim listed out 14 different reasons why he knew his circumstances were Divinely purposed and enacted.

Equally moving is the encouragement Steve Saint gave publicly to 6-year-old Cory at the same service. He reminisced about how he had lost his own father, Nate Saint, at nearly the same age as Cory, and how people had often commented to him and his mother about that horrible “tragedy.”

And you know what? Now when people say, ‘That was a tragedy,’ I know they are wrong. In life, many of us Christians have tried to preach and have tried to believe that the life of a believer is all joy and no pain. That isn’t so. And we’ve tried to believe that for those people who don’t know the Lord as we do, their life is all pain and no joy, and that isn’t so. You know what the difference is? For them, the pain is fundamental and the joy is superficial because it won’t last. For us, the pain is superficial and the joy is fundamental. … Cory, I believe that when you’re as old as I am that you’ll understand like I do now, Jesus never wastes a hurt. (emphases mine)

This book was profitable for me in that many of these same concepts have been reinforced in my recent study of the book of Job (guided by Layton Talbert’s book Beyond Suffering). I’ll close with the poem Elizabeth Elliott read at the memorial service for Roni and Charity Bowers:

I stood a mendicant (a beggar) of God before His royal throne
And begged Him for one priceless gift, which I could call my own.
I took the gift from out his hand, but as I would depart
I cried, ‘But Lord, this is a thorn and it has pierced my heart.
This is a strange, a hurtful gift, which Thou hast given me.’
He said, ‘My child, I give good gifts and gave My best to thee.’
I took it home and though at first the cruel thorn hurt sore,
As long years passed I learned at last to love it more and more.
I learned He never gives a thorn without this added grace,
He takes the thorn to pin aside the veil which hides His face.

Martha Snell Nicholson

Worship Matters

2009-04-08T12:16:00.000-07:00

Title: Worship Matters
Author: Bob Kauflin
Publisher: Crossway, 2008
Pages: 259
Begun: February 9, 2009
Completed: April 8, 2009

Bob Kauflin, director of worship development at Sovereign Grace, has penned his thoughts on worship and music for the 21st century church. Though I do not entirely agree with some of his applications, especially in the music realm, I appreciated his obvious passion for biblical worship. He writes some excellent chapters on biblical worship that made the reading well worth it. I would describe his approach in this book as being philosophically practical. He shares a number of illustrations from his personal life. Consider some compelling statements:

"The Great God values not the service of men, if the heart be not in it: The Lord sees and judges the heart; he has no regard to outward forms of worship, if there be no inward adoration, if no devout affection be employed therin. It is therefore a matter of infinite importance, to have the whole heart engaged steadfastly for God." (26)(This is actually a quotation by Isaac Watts.)

"The better (i.e. the more accurately) we know God through his Word, the more genuine our worship will be. In fact, the moment we veer from what is true about God, we're engaging in idolatry. Regardless of what we think or feel, there is no authentic worship of God without a right knowledge." (28)

"There are many things we can proclaim during and after a time of corporate worship. God's glory is unending, and his perfections are infinite. But the fuel of our praise will always be the gospel of Christ who has redeemed us and brought us to God." (134)

All in all, this was a good read. A drawback for me personally was his wordy and rambling writing style. But that is a relatively minor thing compared to the core message of the book.

Sixty Million Frenchmen Can’t Be Wrong

2009-04-02T08:54:00.000-07:00

published by RuthBix

Title: Sixty Million Frenchmen Can’t Be Wrong (Why We Love France But Not the French)
Author: Jean-Benoit Nadeau and Julie Barrow
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc. (Naperville, IL)
Number of pages: 343 (111 pages read this year)
Purchased: Gift from Mom and Dad Bixby
Recommended by: Mom Bixby
Begun: September 28, 2007
Finished: March 23, 2009

As we began gearing up for deputation well more than a year ago, Tim and I were also becoming increasingly interested in beefing up on our knowledge of the French culture and thought. This book is the first of several we have been reading/have purchased to read in an attempt to better prepare ourselves for future life and ministry in France. Mom and Dad Bixby gave us this book as a gift for our seventh anniversary, and I have been reading it aloud to Tim little by little on long road trips. We have learned a lot from this book—in fact, more than I could ever convey here. It has also been confirming to find many of the same concepts reinforced through other reading that we had been doing concurrently with it (Au Contraire! and The French Way). The book really is as interesting as the title would lead one to believe, though honestly it plumbs such depths that I still don’t feel as if I have begun to grasp all of its implications. But it has provided us with a helpful framework to begin to understand how the French are different from us as Americans, and why we can’t begin to understand their thinking and perceptions by analyzing them through our “American glasses”.

The French Spirit
Written by a Canadian duo, Jean-Benoit Nadeau and Julie Barlow, which spent two years living in and studying France, the book is divided into three main sections: spirit, structure and change. In the first section on the French spirit, the authors undertake the task of explaining some of the intricacies of French culture and how so much of France’s modern orientation and worldview is derived from her long history. How her passion for the land and her sense of nobility go all the way back to the days of feudalism (when, I might add, no one but some Indians were running around in North America).The authors relate how attached the French are to rhetoric and how much they value the process of developing thoughts more than the ultimate goal of getting to a solution. In a chapter titled “Private Space,” the authors describe the French notion of public versus private, including what sorts of things the French would consider acceptable for public conversation (e.g. politics) and what topics would be considered completely taboo (e.g. religion) to their way of thinking. The authors also dealt with World War II and the Algerian Conflict and explored the many ways in which those major events have defined more recent French culture and thought.

The French Structure
The second division of the book identified the basic governmental and sociological structures upon which modern France is built. This section was especially helpful to my understanding of how France operates. Though it may seem paradoxical when one considers the significance of the French Revolution, the authors recount that the French have kept an undeniable attachment to absolutism. “The French, it seems, can’t resist making kings” (p. 118). The authors also observe how, unlike North Americans who build entire platforms around the notion of keeping the government out of their business, “the French look to the State for answers to everything” (p. 127). This section contained descriptions of the French judicial system, educational system, and their view of their own language. (“Anglo-Americans consider language a tool, but the French regard it as an accomplishment, even a work of art. … It’s their national monument” (p.162).)

As a future immigrant to France, I found the topic of assimilation to be especially interesting. The authors explain that because the French are so committed to the concept of the State (l’Etat), they are consciously committed to ignoring facts like one’s ethnic origin or religious affiliation. “Once you’re French, you’re nothing else. This attitude means the State doesn’t give—or really permit—anyone to have any other identity” (p. 139). Of course, where the rub comes in is in the fact that if one’s devotion to one’s ethnic origin or religious affiliation is perceived to be stronger than one’s commitment to the State, then you may be perceived to be at odds with the State, which necessarily puts you at odds with the common good of the entire French people.

Future Change
The final section summarizes the French worldview as presented in previous chapters. Here are some highlights (taken from pp. 283-85):

Because of their centuries-old attachment to the land, restriction is their second nature, not expansion.
The French glorify what’s elevated and grand, not what’s common and accessible.
They value form as much as content.
The French don’t just glorify their élite; French society needs a clearly identified élite.
They affirm the State’s role in virtually everything—culture, language, welfare, and the economy.
The French have learned to live with the idea that they are neither the biggest, nor the strongest, power on earth. But they still believe they are the best.

The authors conclude by showing that the French are becoming more flexible than they used to be, recognizing the necessity of change in order to accommodate relationships with the European community and the world at large.

“One thing is certain: France is not what it used to be. France has never been what it used to be, and it never will. So we might as well enjoy it while it lasts” (p. 343).

Résistance

2009-03-25T07:28:00.000-07:00

Title: Résistance: A Woman's Journal of Struggle and Defiance in Occupied France
Author: Agnès Humbert
Translated: Barbara Mellor
Publisher: Blumsberry, 2008 (Originally by Editions Emile-Paul Frères, 1946
Pages: 357
Begun: March 6, 2009
Completed: March 18, 2009

This book is truly living through Humbert's eventful ordeal of living in occupied Paris, to her eventual arrest, imprisonment, deportation, release, and reentry. The book is divided into 3 sections.

The first is in journal format taken straight from her journals--possibly with some editing on her part. The last entry is 2 days before her arrest. No one knows where she hid this journal so that it was not found by the Germans, but thankfully it was never found. She is one of the only people from this era that used real names and places in her journals. Most others used pseudonyms so as to protect the "guilty". Honestly, though she depicts the circumstances, the birth of the "movement de resistance", I would never have known she played such an important part in the resistance mouvement had it not been for the afterword of the book. In this historical document they explain in more detail some of the events of the book that she glossed over. She was definitely a prominent figure.

The second section follows a journal format, but is really recollections from her time of imprisonment. After her arrest, she, obviously, did not keep a journal, but she had an acute memory and was able to recall names of other inmates and circumstances to the tiniest detail. As soon as they were "released", she began writing about her imprisonment, so the memories were very vivid and real.

The third and final section picks up the real journal again as she works with the US Army as they weeded out Nazis still hiding in and around the area where her final incarceration took place. I guess one of the most amazing things to me from this section was how long the war continued after the war was ended! It was over 2 months after they were liberated that they were accompanied back to Paris. During that time, Humbert organized a hospital to take care of wounded, farms to help supply food for the starving, hunted out Nazis, and tried to keep peace with the Polish who were looting and vandalizing anything German.

I got a good laugh out of the paragraph where she described the Germans post-war. Everywhere she went she heard the same thing "We hated Hitler! But our hands were tied." To which she would reply "Were your hands tied more tightly than ours?" She says she could never resist the satisfaction of telling them that "we [the French] preferred to risk our lives rather than continue to live under Hitler." Then: "The Germans are a spineless lot on the whole, lackiing any ability to reason things through or view them with a critical spirit; and they suffer from a total and absolute lack of initiative, inculcated by their educational system down the centuries." !!! And the French, aren't?!

Humbert tells the story in a nearly void-of-emotion, matter-of-fact way. The atrocities that she does describe are stunning, but not described in a vulgar manner

I was reminded over and over again at the utter depravity of man. I cannot imagine people being so inhumane, but sadly to say, they were and even worse than what she witnessed. I also couldn't help asking myself if I would be willing to suffer the same atrocities she suffered for the sake of her country for MY Lord. What an even greater cause--and yet, would I be willing?

It is an excellent read. A good reminder of what the depravity of man and total abandonment to the beliefs of one man can lead to.

The Mission of Motherhood

2009-03-19T05:26:00.000-07:00

Title: The Mission of Motherhood: Touching Your Child's
Heart for Eternity
Author: Sally Clarkson
Publisher: Waterbrook Press, 2003
Pages: 235
Begun: February 4, 2009
Completed: February 25, 2009

When I saw the title of this book I was really excited. I had heard about the book on a couple of different occasions and was looking forward to reading it. From the outset I was somewhat disappointed with it. I could not place my finger on what exactly bothered me until several chapters into the book. In giving a description of dealing with temper tantrums in her child she says, "It took many moments of training to bring out the good that was already in his heart and to help him learn to use self-control." (p.92) Verses such as Lk. 18:19 "No one is good except God alone," and Rom 7:18 "Nothing good dwells in me," and Jer. 17:9 "The heart is more deceitful than all else" immediately came to mind. (I actually penciled them in my book so that they would come to my mind again if I read this again!) Here is the basic problem. Though she has many wonderful ideas and tools her basic view of the sinfulness of man is not in line with Scripture. How you view sin really has profound effect on how you train your child.

Clarkson has a very child-centered view of raising children. Her focus seems to be more on providing opportunities and experiences to raise the "whole" child than on giving them a sense of the desperate wickedness and need of the Gospel. In fact, after doing some looking up on the internet their ministry is called "The Whole-Hearted Child." References such as teaching your child to not have "unreasonable selfishness" bothered me as well. Is there such a thing as "reasonable" selfishness? Selfishness is sin. God hates sin. Period.

I was amused when at the end of the book she gives a long description of the Avonlea TV series and how the qualities of family love and community life are what she and her husband "longed for " in their family. "We added biblical training and a Christian world-view to the mix and sought to create an old-fashioned family life and love." (p.221) While that may be a cute series, I hardly think that is my highest goal for raising my family.

Now that I have given you (too many?) negatives, let me say that as in most books there are always some good things to glean. In some areas she helped me readjust my thinking. Her emphasis on showing Christ to your children was a help to me. In every situation, whether training, disciplining, encouraging, or teaching I am to be demonstrating Christ in how I act. There have been times when correcting Stefan that I have had to stop myself and realign my attitude with that of Christ's. Yes, he needs to be corrected, but my actions should always be spirit-controlled. For that I appreciate her book. I will probably pick it up again and scan through various portions of the book. That is the beauty of books. Take some things and leave others and I am the better off having read it.

posted by Johanna

In the Splendor of Holiness

2009-03-16T08:24:00.000-07:00

Title: In the Splendor of Holiness
Author: Jon D. Payne
Publisher: Tolle Lege Press, 2008
Pages: 115
Begun: March 11, 2009
Completed: March 16, 2009

The subtitle of this book is "Rediscovering the beauty of Reformed worship for the 21st century." Payne is the pastor of Grace Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Douglasville, Georgia. This fairly brief work is a compilation of his weekly pastoral letters to his congregation on the subject of corporate worship. Payne organizes his material by beginning with an introduction and then laying out a chronological order of a church's liturgy with Scriptural teachin on each section of the liturgy. From his introduction, I like his observation on the state of worship that tragically marks innumerable churches:

"In general, evangelical worship has become radically informal, presumptuously innovative, and biblically impoverished. Much of this is due largely to the abandonment of God-centered, biblically-regulated liturgy. What has been shelved is a Protestant liturgical heritage which, for centuries, has faithfully led Christians to worship God biblically and nourish their faith upon Christ through the ordinary means of Word and sacrament" (16).

The Second Chapter, in my opinion, is the best written and articulated chapter of this book, and is one of the best exposes on worship I have read. Payne lists eight qualities of Biblical worship:

1. Biblical worship is Biblical
2. Biblical worship is God-centered, not Man-centered
3. Biblical worship is Dialogical (a dialogue between God and His people)
4. Biblical worship is Simple
5. Biblical worship is Expressed in All of Life AND at Sacred Times
6. Biblical Worship is Reverent
7. Biblical worship is Trinitarian
8. Biblical worship Sets Forth the Person and Redemptive Work of Jesus Christ

Under the first quality, Payne says:

"Worship must, however, in its form and content be rooted in teh authoritative Word of God. Theology, and not a pragmatic philosophy for church growth or the weekly quest for a mountaintop experience with God, must drive our worship....Indeed, to worship God in a way not prescribed in His Word is to undermine His divine authority and rob Him of the glory due His Name" (22, 24).

This is a great book for both pastors and laypersons. I like Payne's deliberateness to be unashamedly Scriptural and Gospel-focused in every aspect of the worship service. It's especially refreshing in a day when churches conduct their worship services with little or no Scriptural thought to them. Why is it that some so-called Gospel-preaching churches engage in mindless, tradition-centered, man-centered "worship?" It is because there is a famine of the Gospel and/or lack of understanding of the Gospel in the church. Where there is a want of the Gospel in the church, there is no true worship. Worship is not about traditions, men, or fads, but as Payne states, "authentic Christian worship, when carried out according to what God (the ultimate governing authority) has instituted in His Word, is the context in which God is honored and His people flourish" (25).

"Black Like Me"- A Review by Bob

2009-03-14T07:20:00.000-07:00

Title: Black Like Me

Author: John Howard Griffin

Date Published: 1961

Date Read: Last Week

Pages: 200

It was a huge best-seller in the day, but I had not heard of it. The author was a journalist that decided to become black for several weeks during the height of the Civil Rights unrest in the South. With the use of injections and medication (and occasional supplements of dye) he was able to become black for a couple of weeks. He shaved his head and his arms and was never recognized as a white man.

In fact, having no idea how to enter the community of Black Americans in New Orleans he connected with a shoe-shiner at his stand several days before he "became black." After the procedure (which was highly secretive and sponsored by a Sepia magazine) he went back to the shoe shine stand and the fellow who had shined his shoes the days previously did not recognize him at all. He recognized the shoes and was stunned when the author told him specific details of their previous conversations. He was very enthused about the idea and promised to keep Griffin's secret.

The story is painful. John Howard Griffins had decided not to change anything about himself except his skin color. If people asked, he told them his full name and what he was doing. He simply did not tell them he was white. He tells about going into Mississippi and the tension tha was palpable. People were scared all the time. (In a recent interview John MacArthur shared about the same kind of tension during those days when he was arrested for associating with the Blacks). The outrageous treatment he endured just for being black. He could not believe it until he experienced it.

One time on a long bus trip the white bus driver stopped for a restroom break. All the blacks were in the back of the bus, of course, and all the whites got off to go to the restroom, but as the blacks got to the door he slammed the door shut in their face and dared them to challenge him. They were forced to go back to their seats and be uncomfortable.

He could never go to a restroom that was for "Whites Only." One time he saw a dilapidated outhouse behind a bar where blacks were served. He asked if there was a restroom nearby. The man kindly told him that he could walk down the street a couple blocks and turn left and walk a bit more and he would find a restroom. Of course, there was a restroom in the bar, but Griffin knew better than to ask for that. So, he said, "May I use the outhouse?" The man just turned away.

Some whites, he said, were apologetic, but never had the guts to go against the grain.

Some of the language is raw. I don't think it ever gets offensively over-the-top. He just puts you right in the scene. The parts that describe the white's perverted interest in black sexuality and their abuse of black women is done in such a way that did not offend my sensibilities. It just angered me appropriately.

There were tender moments. He tells about not having a place to stay and being picked up by a black man who lived in a cabin in the woods with his wife and four kids. It was the night of his daughter's fifth birthday and he couldn't help but think about the different life his daughter was leading at that very moment. There was no electricity. The father did not dare complain about his work. Businesses were actually trying to intimidate the black man out of the state. Griffins, a devout Catholic, tells about how he wept that night as he contemplated the evil way men treat other men and the bleak future that faced those children.

Personal observations:

1. I think Christian education (home and formal) has failed a whole generation of Christians because of its isolation from culture. This book is actually required reading for many seniors in highschools and is often reported on in college. Christians, for the most part, know nothing of it. I think that is due to several reasons:

a. a bias against everyone and all that were involved in the Civil Rights movement.

b. a deliberate unwillingness to put ourselves in the mocassins of another.

c. an unhealthy idea of isolation from culture that doesn't want to read a book because it may have a bad word in it, even though the book is non-fiction and highly influenctial.

2. I think it is a terrible blight on American Christianity that the Civil Rights battle was fought mostly by Roman Catholics and liberals. Why didn't a believing person think of this? It's an accepted fact that evangelical christians were by and large missing from the fight, insensitive to it. BJU only just now limply apologized for its racism. It made news, but it's also newsworthy that it is in 2008 and not in 1968.

3. It made me think of the incarnation. And the most effective ministry is always incarnational. We have to get in the other person's skin. Jesus did more than anyone. If we are to be like Him in our outreach we need to learn how to feel things as others feel them.

I noticed this when so many whites could not even conjure up empathetic feelings of happiness when a black man was elected president. They could not understand conservative blacks who were both happy and sad. They were just mad. An incarnational attitude can understand both the happiness and sadness of black conservatives.

4. This book made me ashamed. I have been more vocal than many in my circle about the sins of the evangelicals/fundamentalists in this area, but I am ashamed that my culture was part of the Southern White culture that oppressed the black.

5. I realized that there is still much, much work to do to recover the damage that has been done in our country. We have a HUGE problem when our church is considered unique in this town as one of the most integrated churches under 300 and, to date, we have only 2 black families.

It was a powerful read. It's a shame it's not required reading for college students in bible colleges.

For the record....

2009-03-14T03:37:00.000-07:00

Whether or not Grandma will give me any credit for just listing and not reviewing, I don't know but for the record, tomorrow is her day of reckoning, so I announce that I’ve read 4 books in their entirety, this year, and several others, much or most.

The four are :

1.       Abortion: A rational look at an emotional issue. By R.C. Sproul.  Very good.  Some excellent helpful arguments  for convincing middle-of- the- roaders.  

2.       The Truth War:  by John MacArthur.  A good timely book, basically a commentary on the book of Jude.  

3.       The Intentional Church: by Mark Devers (started last year, but finished this year.  It is in French too) Good

4.       When  Grace Comes Home: by Terry Johnson.  An excellent book that cleared up some of my thinking.

Love You Forever

2009-03-11T14:53:00.000-07:00

14 pages “Love You Forever”

I love to read this book because I feel really loved when I read it. The mother goes in to the boys room every night and rocks him and sings:

I’ll love you forever,

I’ll like you for always,

As long as I’m living

My baby you’ll be.

Then one day when he was older his mom was older she got sick and for the last time she sang it, but was too sick to finish. So her son sang it to her. Then he went home and sang it to his baby.

Patience

The Gospel & Personal Evangelism

2009-03-11T06:41:00.000-07:00

Title: The Gospel & Personal Evangelism
Author: Mark Dever
Publisher: Crossway, 2007
Pages: 119
Begun: March 10, 2009
Completed: March 11, 2009

In times past in reading books on witnessing and evangelism, I internally cringed at the plethora of "easy-believism" theology and at the "user manual" approach to soul-winning. This book, however, was refreshing for its emphasis on the Gospel, God's sovereignty, and God's glory. Having read Dever before, I like his deliberateness and the way he plainly articulates the Gospel. Consider some of his statements on how a true understanding of the Gospel compels us to herald it to others:

"We should stop blaming God. We should stop excusing ourselves from evangelism on the basis that God is sovereign. We should not conclude from his omnipotence that our obedience is therefore pointless. We should instead read from the Word that God will call a great number to himself from every tribe, tongue, and nation, which will encourage us in evangelism....Again, if you will realize that conversion always accompanies proclaiming the gospel and the Spirit's work, then you will stop trying to do the Spirit's work, and you will give yourself to proclaiming the gospel." (28)

"When we don't sufficiently consider what God has done for us in Christ--the high cost of it, what it means, and what Christ's significance is--we lose the heart to evangelize. Our hearts grow cold, our minds grow smaller (more taken up with passing concerns), and our lips fall silent. Consider that God has loved us as he has. Consider that God is glorified by our telling others of this amazing love of his....If we would be more faithful in evangelism, we should fuel the flame of love toward God within us, and the flame of gratitude and of hope. A fire so enflamed by God will have no trouble igniting our tongue." (29)

The book is in seven fairly brief chapters. In my opinion, the Second Chapter is the best, entitled, "What is the Gospel?" I would read the book again just for this chapter. The Appendix, A Word to Pastors, is also very good. Dever exhorts the pastor to cultivate a Gospel-culture within the church:

"It is our task as pastors to lead all believers in accepting, embracing, and using the opportunities that God richly gives them. In all of this, we should work not so much merely to implement programs as to create a culture in our church. We want our congregations to be marked by a culture of evangelism." (118)

I highly recommend this book. It doesn't take long to read, and Dever is easy to follow. You will find it, as I found, provocative and stimulating.

Trucks

2009-03-07T07:34:00.000-08:00

Trucks. This book is about trucks. It had a lot of nice pictures. There were red trucks and blue trucks, white trucks and red trucks. There was a red truck and it is my favorite truck because it's a fire truck!!!!! (Daddy, can you put a lot of exclamations because I really like them.) You can also see on my book that there is a fire truck. And I want to be a fireman when I grow up. The other one I liked was the big flat truck. It had a lot of logs. I had fun reading this book. I like to play with trucks. This book has 8 pages.

Granny Brand

2009-03-06T18:15:00.000-08:00

Title: Granny Brand: Her Story
Author: Dorothy Clarke Wilson
Publisher: Paul Brand Publishing, 1976
Pages: 222
Begun: February 8, 2009
Finished: March 6, 2009
Rating: ***
The writing was not the greatest, but the story and lessons were excellent.

Trust and Triumph. Her husband, Jesse, had seen this sometime before they were married and had taken it into his marriage as the motto for their lives as pioneer missionaries to the hill countries of India. Jesse died after he and Evie had been married for less than 15 years. The week before his sudden death from Blackwater fever, as he and Evie stood looking over the 5 known mountain ranges dotted with villages and unreached by the gospel, he had said, "Before we die we must go to all five ranges and take the saving message of the Christ!" "Yes," she replied with all the solemnity of a vow.

It was that vow that gave Evie the drive to continue in the ministry in the hill country for the more than 60 years following her husband's death and before her own in December of 1974. The hardships that she encountered during her 60 years of widowhood (she had been 35 when married!) were absolutely astounding. She had been born into a wealthy English home and was considered the "belle of the ball" in prominent circles in London. Yet she came to prefer sleeping on the floor to sleeping on a bed, riding a donkey to riding a car, and eating her meals on a bamboo rug to an ornate table.

It is obvious that Evie struggled with her flesh--primarily stubborness and wanting her own way. However, it is also obvious that Evie was aware of her weaknesses and willing to allow her Saviour to mold her and grow her into a vessel fit for His use. On one of his visits to his mother, when she was 89, Paul wrote back to his wife that he "'found her distinctly younger than she was a year ago.' Yet when he tried to define the change he was at first puzzled. She was not physically any stronger. ... Then he put his finger on it. In previous years her passionate love for her hill people had been striving within her with an anger towards those who had been hindering the work. The result had been stress and strain. Now it seemed that she had been able to extend her love a little further, to include those who may have deserved her criticism. In this broadening and deepening of her love had come a serenity and peace that brightened her smile and gave her new inner strength. 'This is how to grow old,' he had wirtten. 'Allow everything else to fall away, until those around you see just love. They will also see your own life renewed and they will recognise the love to be the love of God.'"

I was very touched by Evelyn's life and dedication. I was also encouraged by her weaknesses. She recognized that while she strived to make things happen according to her own personal agenda, the motto chosen by her husband so many years before was what she had to rest in. Trusting in her sovreign Lord would bring triumph--not necessarily what she had planned but what He had planned. In her 30+ years of ministry after retirement, Evie had the joy of seeing dozens of churches started not only on the 5 mountain ranges known Jesse, but 2 additional ranges. Evelyn went to her own triumphant entrance peacefully in her beloved India and was buried next to her husband at the age of 95. Hundreds of those saved, nurtured, taught, admonished, rebuked, but all loved flocked to pay hommage to "Mother", the lady who had manifested Christ's love to the most depraved and despicable of characters. Truly she had trusted and triumphed.