"I Pray the Spirit of Holiness on You"

I love hospitals!  Perhaps that is a strange confession to make but I spent almost 30 years of my life working in four hospitals.  The bulk of those years were spent in Flowers Hospital here in Dothan.  There is another hospital here in Dothan which a few of the old-timers remember as General Hospital, which became Southeast Alabama Medical Center, and has now morphed into Southeast Health.  I worked in their emergency department for a brief period on a PRN (as needed) basis in the late ‘80’s.  When I was in Houston attending Texas Bible College, I worked for a year at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital/Texas Heart Institute in a very busy CVICU.  It was there that the famed Dr. Denton Cooley carved out an international reputation as one of the world’s premier cardiovascular surgeons.  He had some excellent partners who did not have international notoriety but were very skilled in their craft as well.  People from all over the nation and the world came to Texas Heart Institute for their surgeries and transplants. 

Follow Up on the Letter that Got Me in Trouble

Last week, I wrote about one of the early Barnabas Letters that got me in trouble.  The earliest letters were all mailed out with envelopes and stamps before email was even a thing.  Then as I finally figured out email, I started gathering email addresses from various places.   If you are old enough to remember this activity, it was almost as exciting as the first login to America On-Line.  Back in the day, that was an early form of Facebook.  AOL was passed out on the small floppy disks back when our hard drives were huge sitting at forty megabytes.  I can remember getting a floppy from a cereal box and signing up with the login name “barnabas14” because “barnabas” had already been taken.  The seeming innocence of AOL was because we lived in a world where naivete was the king of the day.  As much as I have benefited from all the technology that changed our world since then, as I have aged and read and researched about the detrimental effect it has had on our world it gives me pause to think about the future.  What it holds for my grandchildren is the greatest concern that I have now.

A Story Behind this Barnabas Letter from September 12, 1995

I am reposting a Barnabas Letter that I wrote over thirty years ago.  Recently when I was trying to track down some Bible study notes, I found a treasure.  It was a three-ring binder that was full of letters that I had written to others and that had been written to me.  A long time ago, we used to write letters to each other and frankly I do miss some of those days.  I can remember the first prominent minister that I wrote a letter to.  It was to T.F. Tenney, the long-time district superintendent of Louisiana.  I had heard him preach in 1994 at our UPCI General Conference and in that message, he had mentioned that he wrote letters to young preachers and so I wrote to him one after I got back home.  I found that letter along with several others that he had written to me that had the Louisiana district letterhead on it. Two of those letters were personal letters and five others were ones that he had written to other young men. 

Death from a Thousand Tiny Cuts

I was sitting across from a good friend of mine, Pastor Ben Weeks, in Sonny’s BBQ in Thomasville, Georgia, when he dropped a spiritual MOAB on me.  The picture that his words had painted were clear, obvious, direct, and almost shocking to me.  So much so that I could hardly even say anything for a good 30 seconds or a minute, the missile had pegged me right where I lived on that day.  I can remember the conversation leading up to the moment that day.  My world had been marked by some personal major health issues, an incredibly challenging building program filled with trouble, and the general hectic pace of moving through church life and my own private spiritual world.  It was on that day he told me a parable of sorts that continues to resonate even now despite the fact that it has been more than two years ago.  It had been a day of shoptalk for two Spirit-filled preachers about the need for revival, the hunger for conversions and spiritual growth among those who we were seeking to pastor, and the necessary disciplines of personal spiritual progress.  He had mentioned some sermons he had recently listened to and some that he had preached.  He also had spent some time with a couple of notable elders among us and shared with me some of their wisdom that he had gleaned.  We also talked about one of our favorite subjects as well; books—both secular and spiritual—and about the craft, the art, the work, and the discipline of preaching and sermon preparation.  What he and I both have discovered long ago about preaching is that it is more a work of the soul than of the actual preaching event itself.  (If you are wondering how I could remember these details from two and half years ago, it is not a good memory but a good journal and fountain pen) There are demands that are made on the life of every preacher from the mental, the physical, the emotional, and the spiritual zones of our lives.  

Shakespeare and Preaching

She was probably in her mid-thirties when I met her.  Professional and articulate would be very good descriptive terms for her.  She had come to the Radiology Department for a CT scan for some diagnostic test that has long since escaped my memory.  Prior to these kinds of tests, I would take a brief medical history and then start an IV for the contrast to be injected during the scan.  Throughout that timeframe, I would be with a patient for about 10-15 minutes or so which gave me an occasion to get to know about their background as well as their medical situation.  When I asked her about her occupation, she told me that she was an English Literature professor who taught all of the Shakespeare classes at one of our local colleges.  Although I greatly enjoy books and have for most of my lifetime, I confessed that I would have some difficulty spending so much time with Shakespeare and all of his works. 

"Fake News" & "Fake Theology" Part 2

In the last post, I recommended a book by Abdu Murray Saving Truth:  Finding Meaning & Clarity in a Post-TruthWorld, that Pastor Tony Mansinho had sent to me.  Murray’s first chapter really struck me in the fact that just as “fake news” has played a major role in shifting a lot of public thinking even though it isn’t true, “fake theology” has enormous eternal consequences due to its lack of truth as well.  There was another matter brought up in Murray’s chapter “Confusion and the Church:  Seductions of a Post-Truth Mindset” when he described that almost immediately after the US Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges that legalized same-sex marriage another article got widespread dissemination throughout social media.  The article claimed a lawsuit was pending that would outlaw the Bible as hate-speech in the US.  Murray said that when he started reading and digging into the story, he described that it only took about three minutes to get to the root of the details and discover that this was an error that was being passed around as the truth.  The short of it was the case had been immediately dismissed because it had no basis in the law.  Murray put it in the category of an “alarmist” untrue story that had kernels of truth which it went far and wide on social media.  It is doubtful that very few really got to the truth of the matter.  He noted that this kind of thing makes Christianity look bad especially when we know that Jesus is the very core of all truth (John 14:6) and yet we who should be following him aren’t very careful and discerning about what we teach, preach, speak, or share with others.  Murray wrote that this creates a culture of confusion in the church. 

Old Man Pentecost

The New Year, 2018, has brought along its share of nostalgia, hope, and a bit of retrospect as to how far down the road I have come.  Some of the looking back could be due to a pretty significant health event that I endured this past July although thankfully I have made a near full recovery.  Even though I spent a number of years working in the medical field and was constantly made aware of the fleeting nature of life in others, it was brought home to me in a far more serious way when I was on the other end of a surgeon’s care.  Perhaps another reason that 2018 is a significant time for me is because it is the year that thirty years ago, I along with my wife were compelled to make a decision that entirely changed the direction of our lives.  In 1988, I attended my first Because of the Times, which is a minister’s conference hosted by the Pentecostals of Alexandria and led by Senior Pastor Anthony Mangun. 

A Morning in Thomasville with Ben Weeks

Recently I have spent a bit of time revisiting the Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan.  One of the things that Bunyan seems to stress during the story is the need for friendship and fellowship along the way to the Celestial City.  Two of the more constant companions that Christian kept with him were two men, Faithful and Hopeful.  The way is difficult but through the avenue of friendship, Christian and his companions find the way to be much easier.  For more than ten years, I have been friends with Ben Weeks, pastor of Truth Harbor in Lake Park, Georgia which is just outside of Valdosta, Georgia.  He is a Christian gentleman of the finest sort and he has a renowned preaching ministry that has been widely received in all sorts of national and international venues—conferences, camp meetings, marriage retreats, and pastoral anniversaries.  For the last decade we have met at various times in Thomasville, Georgia, which is about half-way between Dothan and Valdosta to eat at Sonny’s BBQ and other little hole in the wall restaurants there to talk about the Bible, matters of theology and doctrine, preaching, church life and sometimes just the mundane insignificant things that take place in life. 

Characters from Pilgrim's Progress -- Valiant for Truth

There are aspects of John Bunyan’s famous allegory Pilgrim’s Progress that have more details as you read on through the second portion of it concerning Christian’s wife and children who flee from the City of Destruction.  As their story unfolds, we read about some events that Christian went through but is not as detailed in the first half of the story as he is relating a first person account.  The story told by one of those characters in the second half is who I want us to visit with now.  The character is Valiant for Truth.  What a powerful name that Bunyan picks out for this young man, this young soldier, this young minister.  Bunyan is playing off Jeremiah 9:3 where the weeping prophet notes that there are some who aren’t valiant for the truth.  One of the chief characteristics of John Bunyan is pointed out by Charles Spurgeon and it is observed very clearly in this segment of the allegory.  Spurgeon noted that in reading all of Bunyan’s works and actually having read Pilgrim’s Progress more than 100 times, he said that when you read Bunyan, “he bleeds bibline.”  That means that his writings are so loaded with Scripture that you cannot help but notice how familiar that Bunyan is with the Word and he brings forth its application to us in a very helpful way. 

Characters from Pilgrim's Progress -- Mr. Worldly Wiseman

John Bunyan’s famous allegory Pilgrim’s Progress is filled with men and women who happened along the path of Christian as he has started his journey toward the Celestial City.  We have spent a little time with Ignorance who wanted to talk Christian into trying to make the journey on his own works.  Evangelist is another character who was very instrumental in the conversion and later the discipleship of Christian.  He is representative of a faithful godly pastor who spends time and effort working with the travelers as they labor through the journey.  We now come to another impediment, another character, who will serve as an agent of Satan to hinder the pilgrim’s progress.  Mr. Worldly Wiseman is a convoluted but very brilliant soul.  His brilliance rivals that of Ignorance who was just as polished and shameful except Mr. Worldly Wiseman is an older gentleman who has been around the world for a while and knows the general thoughts and doubts of the travelers. 

Book Recommendation--A Guide to Expository Ministry--Dan Dumas, Editor

One of the genres of books that I enjoy as a preacher is the group that deals with act and art of preaching itself.  If you have read this blog for any length of time, you have discovered that I have recommended a lion’s share of books about preaching—most have been to do with expository preaching.  It is good for preachers to continue to read books that will sharpen their skills as a preacher.  Because I believe that preaching—both the delivery by the preacher and the listening by the hearer—is an act of worship, I believe a preacher should do everything within his power to get better at preaching.  One of the ways that we can get better is to read books about preaching.

Last week, a friend of mine, Wayne Naylor, sent me a book, A Guide to Expository Ministry which has been edited by Dan Dumas.  It is a little over a hundred pages in length and it is packed with very good advice.  However, the advice in this book comes from a bit of a different angle in that it addresses the expositor in the first half and the listener in the second half.  I believe that churches that trend toward expository, verse-by-verse preaching goes a long way to creating something that takes place in the pews.  What takes place in the pews is a heightened awareness of the power of Scripture.  So Dumas and his covey of writers are working the angles of both the preacher’s responsibility and the saint’s duty as well. 

The Need for Pastor Theologians

There is something that takes place when you began to move beyond that middle point of life.  You tend to look back in retrospect at time and opportunity that was squandered.  You look forward with much more concern about the great values and virtues of a spiritual life than what was in those early years of youthful inexperience.  Age uniquely brings a sobriety, a seriousness, a focus, and at times even a sense of grimness to the mind.  This is especially true for a Christian pastor, or in my thoughts, it should be.  One of those areas of my own personal calling and ministry that I am looking back to are the countless times that I said, “I am an assistant pastor, preacher, minister not a theologian.”  Increasingly as my preaching style has drastically changed from my earlier years from topical preaching to much more expository preaching, I have been greatly convicted by the Spirit of God and my interaction with the Word of God that pastors need to be

A Needed Reformation in Pentecostal Preaching

There is a quiet buzzing that is beginning to rise from the grassroots among Pentecostal preachers.  Increasingly I am hearing a faint drum beating that is somewhat like music to my ears.  I am listening to remarks about Pentecostal preaching and its need of reformation at all levels; local, district, and national.  Our preaching has somewhat degenerated into cheerleading sessions that tout the accomplishments of the preacher or a local church or parachurch organization.  Our preaching has deteriorated into messages that take grand liberties with the text that the preacher may have read and wrested it from its true biblical context.  When we take liberties with the biblical text and take it out of context, we have basically said that what we have to say is more important than what God has to say by His Word.  It is my belief that out of context preaching is a very shrewd form of idolatry.  Furthermore,

What Is Good Preaching?

 I have just recently come home from the UPCI General Conference held in Indianapolis, Indiana.  A couple of the Thursday morning seminars provoked my thoughts for this blog.  The first was by Raymond Woodward, “Why I Call Myself a Teacher,” and the second one was by Jerry Jones, “Preaching and Revival.”  Both of the sessions highlighted the matter of preaching and its crucial importance for our churches and our world.  I was again drawn back to the fact that even though there are a wide diversity of demands made on pastor/teachers and evangelists in our day, we can ill afford to let our preaching slip way down the list of our priorities.  There is absolutely nothing that is as important as good preaching in our churches.  But that gives rise to a very good question—what is good preaching?

Study Bibles for Expositors--The Holman Christian Standard Study Bible (HCSB)--Holman Bible Publishers

This study Bible is the sixth one that I will review.  Several years ago I ran across a garage sale where due to some very unfortunate events a man had compromised his ministry and his family was selling all of his books, commentaries, and Bibles.  While I did find some very useful books at dirt-cheap prices, I did not want to purchase the Bibles because there was a little something sacred about them even though this man was not of my doctrinal persuasion.  As I was about to leave, his ex-wife came over and gave me a copy of a very nice leather bound Holman Christian Standard Bible that was just plain text with a single reference column.  I started to read it some weeks later and found it to be a thought-provoking translation. 

Study Bibles for Expositors--The NIV Archaeological Study Bible--Zondervan

The fourth study Bible that I would like to recommend to those who are endeavoring to develop into being an expositor is one that is very useful in looking at a text in a bit of a different light.  The NIV Archaeological Study Bible published by Zondervan is another excellent tool for those who would be critical of the biblical text.  A preacher will preach to a wide variety of people that visit the church where he will pastor.  For the most part the vast majority of apostolic churches have people who attend that believe the Scriptures to be authentic, inspired, inerrant, and authoritative.  But we have unbelievers who attend that do not have the same shared confidence in Scripture that we might not have and we have college students who attend schools where professors and other students can be militantly hostile against the Word of God.  This Bible is very helpful in combatting some of that rhetoric. 

Study Bibles for Expositors--Dugan Topical Reference Bible--Dugan Publishers, Inc.

The third study Bible that we come to has a great sentimental value to me.  It is the Dugan Topical Reference Bible from Dugan Publishers out of Tennessee although I believe they are no longer in business.  I purchased this Study Bible on September 15, 1989 from Rev. Kelsey Griffin who was teaching my Bible Study Methods class my freshman year at Texas Bible College when it was still located in Houston.  He had boxes of these Bibles that he kept in his upstairs study/library and he sold them to the students for $20.  If I had known then what I know now I would have bought as many as I could afford at the time.  What is unique about this Bible is that it came at a time when computers were just starting to come on the scene but the vast majority of people did not have $2000-3000 to spend on one.  So most of the resources that ministers had available to them had to be in printed form of books.  Also at that time there was very few study Bibles around.  Most Pentecostal ministers used a Thompson Chain Reference Bible, a Schofield Study Bible, or a Dake’s Annotated Bible.  Occasionally you might find someone who had a Ryrie Study Bible but they were not very many who had those at the time.  There were a couple of features about the Dugan Bible that Brother Griffin brought to our attention.

Isn't That Something?

I have been revisiting some of my journal scribblings from the last four years or so and have found a variety of thoughts I had written down.  Some of those scribblings had to do with little mental or spiritual stimulations that I thought I would put on this blog.  This post comes about from three different entries that I have merged together.  The first one was from Eugene Peterson’s very fine memoir, The Pastor and the other two were blog entries that Thom Rainer had written which dealt with pastoral ministry.  Peterson’s angle was that pastors have fallen into the trap of being turned into church growth gurus and it has cost them the priority of their own spiritual life of prayer, personal Bible reading/study (you would be shocked how many pastors don’t read the Bible on a regular basis), and the practice of spiritual disciplines which include the previous two and a host of others.  His fear was that pastors are being turned into executive automatons who can drive cattle about on a range but have lost the art of leading sheep through still pastures.  Rainer wrote about the dilemmas pastors face in the church which contribute to great dilemmas in the soul of the pastor.  The best way to describe it would be to say that the little foxes have gained an entrance and they are spoiling a harvest. 

Only 30%

Several weeks ago I had a very thought provoking discussion with my brother about Pentecostal preaching.  In 1992 my parents gave Mark a new Thompson Chain reference Bible for Christmas.  It wasn’t too long after that he began to use this Bible as his primary Bible as his everyday carry.  He used it for devotional matters, he used it at Texas Bible College in the classroom, and he also used it to preach.  One of the other things he did with this Bible was underline every sermon he heard during a twenty-year period.  After retiring this Bible in 2012, he discovered something very interesting about this Bible.  He went back and looked at all of the Scriptures that he had underlined when he was listening to preachers.  He noted that during that twenty-year time period that he had heard approximately 3,500 messages.  This came from a variety of places.  Obviously the bulk of these came from the local churches where he had attended during that twenty-year time period.  There were other unique places where he had listened to preaching.  He had been in multiple chapel services at TBC, he had gone to several of the larger Pentecostal churches in the Houston area, and he had been to various conferences although he had not attended as many as I have through the years. 

On Pastoral Criticism--Part 3

We have spent the last two posts speaking of what takes place with criticism in the confines of a church.  The first one was what takes place in the soul of the pastor.  The second was what takes place in the soul of the critic.  This last post is devoted to what takes place in the church when critics began to do their work. 

As a leaping off point, look to Romans 16:17-20 from the Message (as a disclaimer, I don’t use the Message as a primary source):

Romans 16:17-20 MSG  One final word of counsel, friends. Keep a sharp eye out for those who take bits and pieces of the teaching that you learned and then use them to make trouble. Give these people a wide berth.  [18]  They have no intention of living for our Master Christ. They're only in this for what they can get out of it, and aren't above using pious sweet talk to dupe unsuspecting innocents.  [19]  And so while there has never been any question about your honesty in these matters--I couldn't be more proud of you!--I want you also to be smart, making sure every "good" thing is the real thing. Don't be gullible in regard to smooth-talking evil. Stay alert like this,  [20]  and before you know it the God of peace will come down on Satan with both feet, stomping him into the dirt. Enjoy the best of Jesus!