The Future of Evangelicalism – Patheos has invited a long list of people to submit an article about the future of evangelicalism. Some of them are really quite good. Be sure to check out the one by Justin Taylor, Collin Hansen and Kevin DeYoung.

A Shout Out to Moms – Jon Seger: “Any time someone asks me where my wife works or what she does, I usually preface my response with, ‘My wife’s got a much more difficult job than me.  She stays at home to raise & care for our son.’  Here’s why.” He then links to an advice column which gives a shout out to moms.

The Ruling Class – Nancy Pearcey writes about the ruling class and how they hold on to power. “Because secularism gives no basis for objective morality, secularists dismiss moral objections as mere private feelings and preferences. Then they tell opponents they have no right to apply their private preferences in the public square — whether in politics or business or education or healthcare.”

ESV Study Bible on Logos – The ESV Study Bible is soon coming to Logos. You can preorder now and save yourself a few dollars.

Online Communion – An article in the Telegraph talks about a minister who is doing communion by Twitter. Here’s the big disconnect in my mind. If community is virtual, if we can still have “communion” via digital media, how is it that we still require physical bread and wine? If we’re experiencing virtual communion, shouldn’t we also be eating and drinking virtual bread and wine?

Sponsor:

 

Continue Reading »

It is my habit to post some kind of an original article on Monday and then a book review on Tuesday. This week I am going to reverse the order since the book review in some ways feeds into what I would like to say tomorrow. So bear with me.

I have not read too many of John Stott’s books over the years. Still, in writing sermons and writing my own books there have been several times that I’ve relied on his commentaries and have always found them very useful—biblically accurate and full of wise points of application. Of course, I’ve often referred to what may well prove his greatest book, The Cross of Christ and I know of people who were saved after reading his book Basic Christianity (among whom are Derek Thomas). Though Stott had a couple of unfortunate aspects to his ministry (the most notable of which was some sympathy for the doctrine of annihilationism) he is a man who remained faithful to his calling and who served the church well. He is also a man who served the church in what was often a background role, which is to say that time may prove that he had a measure of importance that few people noticed at the time. Then again, in 2005 TIME declared him one of the 100 most influential people in the world, so I suppose someone has noticed.

Just a short time ago Stott announced his retirement from active public ministry. But before he retired he penned a final book, the final of more than 50 he penned in his lifetime. The Radical Disciple draws attention to what he considers to be some of the neglected aspects of our calling as Christians. Why this title? “There are different levels of commitment in the Christian community. Jesus himself illustrated this in what happened to the seeds he describes the parable of the sower. The difference between the seeds lay in the kind of soil which received them. Of the seed sown on rocky soil Jesus said, ‘It had no root.’ … Our common way of avoiding radical discipleship is to be selective: choosing those areas in which commitment suits us and staying away from those areas in which it will be costly. But because Jesus is Lord, we have no right to pick and choose the areas in which we will submit to his authority.” And so in this book he seeks to consider eight characteristics of Christian discipleship that, though they deserve to be taken seriously, are too often neglected.

The areas he focuses on are these: Noncomformity, christlikeness, maturity, creation care, simplicity, balance, dependence and death. Naturally some of these will be a little more controversial than others with simplicity and creation care topping the list, I am sure. In the chapter on creation care he indicates that he believes man-made climate change to be an imminent danger while in the chapter on simplicity he sides with Ron Sider to share a document dealing with issues related to justice, international development and other hot-button topics. Among the strongest chapters, at least in my assessment, are those dealing with maturity (a topic near and dear to my heart) and dependence.

To be honest, there are some ways this book is unremarkable. It has its strengths and its weaknesses, as do all books, but for a title calling people to radical discipleship, it seems that it contains few truly radical ideas. At the same time, I believe it has genuine value; its value comes in who authored it and when he authored it. The book reminds me just a little bit of Jerry Bridge’s Respectabie Sins. In both cases the author is an older man who has seen the church through ups and downs, through good times and bad. Both men have traveled extensively and both have returned with observations. Bridges observed sins that Christians are prone to overlook or sweep aside while Stott observed areas in which Christians are not fulfilling their calling. In both cases, the book would mean a lot less if it was written by an author in his thirties. But with age, with experience, with a long and faithful ministry comes the right to say certain things, to make certain sweeping observations.

Like Bridges, John Stott has had a long and faithful ministry and has earned the right to be heard. He has had the wisdom to know when to retire, when to step aside from public ministry (and seriously, how many men write one book too many and continue on in ministry for too long?). And if a man of Stott’s stature pens a book outlining eight ways in which the church needs to do better, I think we would do well at least to read and consider. Few of us will agree with all eight emphases, I am sure. But all of us would do well to at least think them through and to see if there is a call here that we need to heed. I can testify at least that this book offered challenges to me.

You can buy it at Westminster Books or at Amazon.

<br>

Sponsor:

 

Continue Reading »

In the past few years I’ve often been asked to speak or write on the topics of discernment and Christian maturity. I’ve also been asked to discuss the ways Christian communicate using all of these amazing new media available to us. In both cases I’ve found myself drawn to a quote by John Stott. This comes from his excellent commentary on Ephesians and here he discusses the well-known words of Ephesians 4:15 where the apostle calls us to speak truth in love. Stott aptly describes two different kinds of people.

Thank God there are those in the contemporary church who are determined at all costs to defend and uphold God’s revealed truth. But sometimes they are conspicuously lacking in love. When they think they smell heresy, their nose begins to twitch, their muscles ripple, and the light of battle enters their eye. They seem to enjoy nothing more than a fight. Others make the opposite mistake. They are determined at all costs to maintain and exhibit brotherly love, but in order to do so are prepared even to sacrifice the central truths of revelation. Both these tendences are unbalanced and unbiblical. Truth becomes hard if it is not softened by love; love becomes soft if it is not strengthened by truth. The apostle calls us to hold the two together, which should not be difficult for Spirit-filled believers, since the Holy Spirit is himself ‘the spirit of truth,’ and his first fruit is ‘love.” There is no other route than this to a fully mature Christian unity.

Sponsor:

 

Continue Reading »

When reading about Charles Spurgeon you will be drawn to the unavoidable conclusion that he was a unique individual. He was uniquely gifted by God and then raised up to a unique ministry. There can never be another Charles Spurgeon.

I spent some time this morning pondering what is unique in Spurgeon’s background that would keep another Spurgeon from arising in our day. And I started to think about our media-saturated world. And i started to think about the character qualities exemplified by the Prince of Preachers. And I started to think about a lot of other things. And then I started writing and rambling.

From his earliest days Spurgeon was drawn to great writing by great authors. Even when he was just barely old enough to read, he was reading some of the greatest theological tomes ever written. Even in the youngest days of his ministry, when most pastors today are finishing up high school, he was able to quote widely and quote deeply from these great writers of days gone by, relying on a photographic memory (or a near-photographic memory) to recall what they had said. But he did not rely on mere recall; he had not just read these authors, but he had applied their words to his own life. From the day of his conversion he was exceptionally godly and almost unbelievably mature.

By the time Spurgeon was in his mid-teens he was already successfully pastoring a church. Already he was becoming known as the boy preacher and his fame was beginning to spread. Yet God had gifted him with an extraordinary humility and a profound sense of his utter dependence upon God. He would pray earnestly before he preached, throwing himself on God’s mercy and begging for God to be present with him and to give power to his words—power to change the hearts of his hearers. Though he was the Prince of Preachers, easily one of the greatest preachers the world has ever known, still he relied entirely upon God rather than upon his own skill. More rightly, his utter reliance was the root and the cause of the power in his words.

If Spurgeon arose today, I wonder if we would ruin him. If we saw a young boy, just old enough to read, who was spending his time studying the Puritans, I think we would grab some footage of it and put it out on YouTube. We would want all the world to know, to ooh and ah just as we do today when we see a three-year old reciting Scripture. Grab the video camera! By the time that boy was seventeen and preaching in local churches—and not just preaching but preaching powerfully—we would be hoping for his videos to go viral, to be the talk of Twitter and to be linked on all the Christian blogs. We would beg for him to speak at conferences, to write forewords to our books, to start his own radio program. We’d commoditize him, turning him into something more, or something less, then he really was. And we might just ruin him along the way. Certainly we’d cheapen him.

Or maybe we wouldn’t. Maybe God would so gift the man, as he did with Spurgeon, that he could hold up even under such pressure.

I wonder sometimes what the Bible would read like if Jesus had come to earth 2010 years later than he did. Can you imagine the media frenzy that would follow Jesus today as he drove the dusty highways of the middle east, with all the networks following in their vans, cameras rolling? Can you imagine the skepticism regarding his miracles as we watched them unfold on his very own YouTube channel? Wouldn’t you want to hear him guest on the radio shows and watch him on Larry King? Can you imagine what the gossip blogs would say about him, what they’d accuse him of, how they’d have paparazzi staked out on every hill and in every garden in all the land?

I digress, I think. Except to say that God chooses his men and he chooses their context. I think there is a sense in which Jesus had to be born when he was born. Obviously God isn’t bound by circumstances and by technology. Yet the context of Jesus’ day was just as it needed to be. And i suppose the context for Charles Spurgeon was just as it needed to be. God shaped a specific man to a specific purpose. He gifted a man, placed him in just the right context to maximize those gifts, and gained so much glory through it all. There can never be another Spurgeon because there can never be another time and another set of circumstances that would necessitate or that would even allow such a man. There will be other great men, to be sure. But there will never be another Charles Spurgeon.

Next Week

For next Thursday, please read chapters 9, 10 and 11. We will do three since the chapters are quite short.

Your Turn

The purpose of this program is to read biographies together. So if there are things that stood out to you in this chapter, if there are questions you had, this is the time and place to have your say. Feel free to post a comment below or to link to your blog if you’ve chosen to write about this on your own site.

Sponsor:

 

Continue Reading »

Centuries ago the Puritan preacher Richard Baxter penned some wisdom on the subject of reading. His concern was for people to become better, more discerning readers. His advice seems as timely today as it must have been for the men and women of the seventeenth century. It may be it is even more important today since we have access to far more books and writing (and blogs and web sites and Twitter feeds and e-books and…) than the Puritans could ever have imagined.

I’ve taken the liberty of adding annotations to his words of wisdom.

Make careful choice of the books which you read: let the holy scriptures ever have the pre-eminence, and, next to them, those solid, lively, heavenly treatises which best expound and apply the scriptures, and next, credible histories, especially of the Church … but take heed of false teachers who would corrupt your understandings.

Devotion to reading must never take pre-eminence over the study of Scripture. If we spend many hours every day reading but only a brief period of time studying the Scriptures, we would do well to examine our priorities. This is not to say there has to be a certain ratio (if I spend one hour reading the Bible I earn one hour of reading other material). Rather, it simply means that in our hearts, in our affections, the Bible must remain supreme. It is not a sign of spiritual health if we wake up eager to read a book but dreading time in the Bible. We should also take care if we find that we enjoy reading about the Bible more than we enjoy reading the Bible itself.

When we do read, we need to give priority to good books that increase our knowledge of and love for the Scriptures. Beyond them, it is wise to study the history of the church so we can never lose sight of our roots and seek to avoid the sins of our fathers. And finally, we should read with discernment and avoid submitting ourselves to the writings of false teachers who will corrupt our understanding of the truths of Scripture.

1. As there is a more excellent appearance of the Spirit of God in the holy scripture, than in any other book whatever, so it has more power and fitness to convey the Spirit, and make us spiritual, by imprinting itself upon our hearts. As there is more of God in it, so it will acquaint us more with God, and bring us nearer Him, and make the reader more reverent, serious and divine. Let scripture be first and most in your hearts and hands and other books be used as subservient to it. The endeavours of the devil and papists to keep it from you, doth shew that it is most necessary and desirable to you.

Baxer reiterates that the Bible must be pre-eminent. The Bible alone is God’s full, inerrant, infallible, authoritative revelation to us and we must treat it accordingly; it must be first and most. All other books must take a subservient and complementary role to Scripture.

2. The writings of divines are nothing else but a preaching of the gospel to the eye, as the voice preaches it to the ear. Vocal preaching has the pre-eminence in moving the affections, and being diversified according to the state of the congregation which attend it: this way the milk comes warmest from the breast. But books have the advantage in many other respects: you may read an able preacher when you have but a average one to hear. Every congregation cannot hear the most judicious or powerful preachers: but every single person may read the books of the most powerful and judicious; preachers may be silenced or banished, when books may be at hand: books may be kept at a smaller charge than preachers: we may choose books which treat of that, very subject which we desire to hear of; but we cannot choose what subject the preacher shall treat of. Books we may have at hand every day, and hour; when we can have sermons but seldom, and at set times. If sermons be forgotten, they are gone; but a book we may read over and over, till we remember it: and if we forget it, may again peruse it at our pleasure, or at our leisure. So that good books are a very great mercy to the world: the Holy Ghost chose the way of writing, to preserve His doctrine and laws to the ‘Church, as knowing how easy and sure a way it is of keeping it safe to all generations, in comparison of mere verbal traditions.

Perhaps the greatest reason to read is that it gives us access to the God-given wisdom of some of the greatest preachers and theologians of our day and of days past. While Charles Spurgeon (and Richard Baxter, for that matter) has long since gone to be with the Lord, we can learn from him as readily and effectively as did those people who sat under his ministry in the nineteenth century. Books are a great blessing from the hand of God and one we ought to be thankful for. They are indeed “a very great mercy to the world.” This paragraph more than any other, I think, shows Baxter’s great love for books. Any Christian book lover will feel his heart warmed as he reads it!

3. You have need of a judicious teacher at hand, to direct you what books to use or to refuse: for among good books there are some very good that are sound and lively; and some good, but mediocre, and weak and somewhat dull; and some are very good in part, but have mixtures of error, or else of incautious, injudicious expressions, fitter to puzzle than edify the weak.

For every good book, there are five or ten (or, more likely, far more) that are fit only for the trash. This is borne out in what shows up in my mailbox. I receive many, many books and so many of them are immediately disposed of. Much of what is published under the banner of “Christian” is anything but. Be careful what you read; a book can lead you astray as easily as it can lead you closer to the Lord. Find mature believers who can guide you to books and authors that will edify you. The Internet has been a great blessing in allowing book reviews to be disseminated far and wide. Take advantage!

Baxter’s Guide To The Value of a Book

Baxter also put together a guide to help judge the value of any book.

1. Could I spend this time no better?

Some of the most godly men I know of are (and were) voracious readers. Actually, it is hard to imagine a great preacher or a great theologian who was not also a great reader. So here Baxter is not downplaying the importance of reading, but merely suggesting that it is not a pre-eminent concern. It must not take priority over all other responsibilities. If I read while watching my elderly neighbor shovel snow from her driveway, I need to examine whether I have given reading undue importance.

2. Are there better books that would edify me more?

While reading is a wonderful way to spend time, it is merely a means to an end. It may be that there is a book I can read that will edify me more and prove more valuable. If in a lifetime I am going to read only one or two books on a certain subject, I should seek to make sure that they are the best books on that subject.

3. Are the lovers of such a book as this the greatest lovers of the Book of God and of a holy life?

This is a difficult question. I sometimes read books that are popular, but favored by those who do not hold high the Word of God. There are times when this is acceptable, I’m sure. However, when I do look at a book and consider reading it, it is worth thinking about who loves this book. This is one of the reasons we put endorsements on the back of a book; we can tell a lot about it simply by seeing who has give it a recommendation.

4. Does this book increase my love to the Word of God, kill my sin, and prepare me for the life to come?

In other words, does this book complement my reading of the Bible and help me live a life of godliness? Or does it pull me further from God and leave me with feelings of skepticism? While I do believe there is value in reading books for the purposes of research (for example, to understand what all those people found in The Shack), I need to prioritize good books that are loved by godly men and women. I need to focus the bulk of my attention on books that are truly good.

In all things, we must use discernment. As we read books we must continually search the Scriptures to “see if these things are so,” all the while praying to God for wisdom. Baxter’s advice is sound and we would do well to heed it, even (or perhaps especially) hundreds of years after it was written.

Sponsor:

 

Continue Reading »