While Europe Slept

Last year, I was encouraged by two good friends of mine to add Daniel Silva to my reading stack. After listening to them for over a year, I happened to walk into a used bookstore and decided to spend a whole dollar for a somewhat beat-up hard-bound copy of Silva’s The Secret Servant. I was a little surprised at the alacrity that this new author drew me in. It was one of those books that you start in the evening and end up sitting up way too late to see how it ends.

The story was about an Israeli spy who ran throughout Europe thwarting the efforts of Muslim assassins and their plans of destroying democracy. However, what really captured me about Silva’s works was the endnote. Silva listed several sources that he had used to research the background for the book. I subsequently tracked down most of these books and read most of them over about a four month period.

What I discovered was that there has been a growing Muslim influence in Europe over the last thirty years as they have slowly infiltrated geographically by immigration, politically by their fear and intimidation techniques, and religiously by building mosques and developing multiple cell groups that disseminate Islam concepts. This spread of Islam is well-documented by multiple sources although a recent Pew forum seems to suggest it may not be spreading as rapidly as once believed. But despite the fact of the Pew forum stats, one would be foolish to suggest that Europe and for that matter our world has not drastically changed through the ominous influence of the Muslim extremists.

The first book that I read was by Bruce Bawer entitled While Europe Slept—How Radical Islam Is Destroying the West from Within. While I cannot vouch or even condone some of the sinful lifestyle choices of the author, the book is incredibly well written and his documentation is impeccable. He is not just spitting in the wind and pulling numbers out of the sky.

He starts the book telling about the murder of Theo van Gogh. He was killed by a radical Muslim for some of his views on the Koran. Bawer then moves on with extreme precision in documenting events all over Europe and the fear of the media and its politicians to speak out against the radical imams who host mass rallies that encourage violence against Jews, Christians, and other groups whom are perceived to be “infidels.”

Bawer also documents where free speech is coming under fire and it is being outlawed and some writers are being prosecuted because when they bring to attention the violence of the radicals. Be warned that there are some parts of the book where Bawer gets bogged down with stats and lengthy explanations concerning the backgrounds of the various groups on both sides of the issue.

Book Recommendation--Why Johnny Can't Preach

One of the most important things that a pastor does is to preach. The longer I am involved in ministry the more I realize how crucial that solid biblical preaching is to a local church. I have not come to this particular thought overnight but rather a process of about fifteen years. I am constantly in the hunt to look for books, MP3’s, seminars, and journal articles that will make me a more effective preacher. I am often surprised at how infrequently that preachers read books that sort of fall into the “how to” mode of preaching.

I have recently purchased a book that I have had on a wish-list of sorts for almost a year now and have not been disappointed in its ability to deliver some hard facts about our generation of listeners and the preachers who preach to them. Why Johnny Can’t Preach by T. David Gordon is a must read for all preachers. The sub-title of the book is The Media Have Shaped the Messengers. It is a little over 100 pages and can be read through in an evening. I feel certain that you will be provoked by reading it if you are actively involved in preaching.

One of the random thoughts that came to me while I was reading it was to compare the preachers of yesteryear to those who are preaching today. So I made a comparison to some of Charles Spurgeon’s sermons from the Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit which is a 63 volume set of sermons to Max Lucado’s various books which are his sermons from the last 10 years or so. I also compared Joseph Parker’s twenty-plus volume set called Preaching

Through the Bible to Andy Stanley’s book, It Came from Within, and I am shocked at the lack of depth between modern day preaching and what was commonly preached back then. Spurgeon and Parker loaded their sermons with Scripture and the illustrations and applications were all scripturally oriented. Lucado and Stanley were more geared toward warm fuzziness that at the end of the day will be like cotton candy.

David Gordon tackles some of the issues facing our generation and points out how modern media methods have literally decreased the ability of both preachers and listeners to think for lengthy periods of time. Gordon takes his title from a book that was written sometime back Why Johnny Can’t Read that explored some of the reasons that children were having difficulties with reading comprehension.

So before you scoff at what the book is implying, think for a moment back to Genesis 3. The first thing the serpent did in the Garden was cause Eve to doubt what God had said. Fast forward over a period of 6000 years and you still have the same thing going on. The serpent is still trying to get us to doubt what God is saying through His Word, the Bible. If he can degenerate the Word and dumb down the ability of the listener to accurately grasp the meaning of Scripture about 90% of his work is done.

Gordon explores some of the pitfalls that preachers fall into. First of all he states that over years he has listened to multiple sermons that really had no discernible point whatsoever. Secondly he noted that many of the sermons had a text that was read by the minister but did not relate to the sermon and instead of hearing God’s will he heard a man’s opinion. Thirdly he discovered that most churches in their pastoral searches aren’t really looking for a preacher as much as they are looking for a social coordinator, a nice guy, a social fellow, and so forth. Gordon noted the reason pastoral search committees fell into this trend was the fact that most congregations had never really heard sermons that literally grabbed them by the lapel and held them to God’s high and holy standard. I am certain that some readers of this blog might associate such preaching to that of “hell-fire and brimstone” content. While that is a component of true preaching, it is by far only a small portion of the preaching content a pastor will do.

Gordon explores Robert Lewis Dabney’s Lectures on Sacred Rhetoric and asks some very potent questions to the man who preaches. You will not go wrong considering what Dabney and Gordon ask about preaching.

If you are a preacher and are content with your preaching—don’t buy this book, you will waste your money. However, if you are a preacher and there is a pressure in your soul to communicate well and promote truth, get this book and read it through once and then go back and read it again with a red pen. Mark it up and make notations in the margins because it will only help you to do more effectively what God has called you to do—preach the Word!

Resources for Reading the Bible In 2011--Memorizing Scripture

This last post to encourage you to read the Bible through in 2011 will be the most challenging one of all. It perhaps brings back those fears you had when you were in high school and you had a major gaffe when you were trying to quote “Mending Wall” by Frost or some ancient line of Shakespeare’s in front of the whole class.

Frankly, I associate memorization of any sort with all sorts of torment particularly after Gerald Bryant, my old A&P teacher in college, who much against our will forced us to memorize the Kreb’s Cycle and the ins and outs of Frank Starlings law. Add to that the forced labor of Ellen Borland exhorting us to memorize Hamlet’s soliloquy and my fleeing from these sorts of modes of education are highly warranted. However, I have to think that memorizing Scripture does not even nearly fall into the same category.

In fact, Don Whitney in his fine book on the Spiritual Disciplines stated that our whole attitude would change about memorizing Scripture if we were told that we were going to be paid $1000 for every verse we memorized. I have a feeling I could memorize at the very minimum, ten every week, probably more. It is a matter of motivation and priority as to whether you want to give yourself to such an activity.

There are multiple benefits in memorizing Scripture. One of the foremost is that it gives us a sense of spiritual power. By memorizing Scripture, we can know what to do in situations that life brings to us. Psalm 119:11 encourages us to put Scripture in our heart so that we will not sin against God. One of the elements of armor in Ephesians 6:10-18 is that wielding of the sword of the Spirit. An accomplished and skilled soldier knows how to use his weapons. Every Christian should know how to use the Word. If you give yourself to the goal of reading through it in 2011, I have a feeling that there will be some changes in your thinking. You will find that Scripture opposes much of the common and pop psychology that the world dumps on us every single day.

Scripture memorization will stimulate your mind toward meditation on godly things. Our society has increasingly become enamored with yoga and its supposed health benefits that it has. However, when you analyze the process of yoga, it is an emptying out of the mind rather than placing something in it. Empty minds create empty lives while Scripture-filled minds will create a godly mind. If anyone ever needed such an experience it is our generation. We need godly minds in pastors, husbands, wives, children, employees, employers, teachers, physicians, construction workers, attorneys, politicians, and every other occupation.

The way I ended up memorizing the Kreb’s cycle for the famous Gerald Bryant, who was a local celebrity on our campus, was by drawing it out on a 3X5 index card and keeping it with me all the time. By the time I got to test time, the card was in terrible shape but I passed the test and that was what was important. I encourage you to do the same and write down 2 or 3 Scriptures on a card and keep it with you. Don’t lower the bar and stumble around with quoting it but hold yourself to a high standard and lock in your mind to the task.

I recently found a link that has broken down Philippians in a way that if you are diligent about it, you can have it memorized by Easter. I also found a link to help you use a Moleskin to be very creative with a memorization plan. If you use a Moleskin this link can help to create your verse list. I also found a list that broke down the Sermon on the Mount from Matthew 5-7 that will allow you to memorize it entirely by the end of the year (listed below).

It is also important to remember that you are not memorizing Scripture just for the sake of being able to say that you have a certain amount of verses in your resume. The goal of memorizing Scripture is for personal holiness and godliness. You will find the importance and necessity of reviewing what you have committed to memory as time passes but stay with and be a godly person.

Thanks for reading. . .

PH

Week 1 - Daniel 2:20b-21 - To recite January 9 & 10
Week 2 - Matthew 5:3-6 - To recite January 16 & 17
Week 3 - Matthew 5:7-9 - To recite January 23 & 24
Week 4 - Matthew 5:10-12 - To recite January 30 & 31
Week 5 - Matthew 5:13 - To recite February 6 & 7
Week 6 - Matthew 5:14-16 - To recite February 13 & 14
Week 7 - Matthew 5:17-18 - To recite February 20 & 21
Week 8 - Matthew 5:19-20 - To recite February 27&28
Week 9 - Matthew 5:21-22 - To recite March 6 & 7
Week 10 - Matthew 5:23-24 - To recite March 13 & 14
Week 11 - Matthew 5:25-26 - To recite March 20 & 21
Week 12 - Matthew 5:27-28 - To recite March 27 & 28
Week 13 - Matthew 5:29-30 - To recite April 3 & 4
Week 14 - Matthew 5:31-32 - To recite April 10 & 11
Week 15 - Matthew 5:33 - To recite April 17 & 18
Week 16 - Matthew 5:34-36 - To recite April 24 & 25
Week 17 - Matthew 5:37 - To recite May 1 & 2
Week 18 - Matthew 5:38-40 - To recite May 8 & 9
Week 19 - Matthew 5:41-45a - To recite May 15 & 16
Week 20 - Matthew 5:45b-46 - To recite May 22 & 23
Week 21 - Matthew 5:47-48 - To recite May 29 & 30
Week 22 - Matthew 6:1-2 - To recite June 5 & 6
Week 23 - Matthew 6:3-4 - To recite June 12 & 13
Week 24 - Matthew 6:5 - To recite June 19 & 20
Week 25 - Matthew 6:6 - To recite June 26 & 27
Week 26 - Matthew 6:7-8 - To recite July 3 & 4
Week 27 - Matthew 6:9-13 - To recite July 10 & 11
Week 28 - Matthew 6:14-15 - To recite July 17 & 18
Week 29 - Matthew 6:16 - To recite July 24 & 25
Week 30 - Matthew 6:17-18 - To recite July 31 & August 1
Week 31 - Matthew 6:19-21 - To recite August 7 & 8
Week 32 - Matthew 6:22-23 - To recite August 14 & 15
Week 33 - Matthew 6:24 - To recite August 21 & 22
Week 34 - Matthew 6:25-26 - To recite August 28 & 29
Week 35 - Matthew 6:27-29 - To recite September 4 & 5
Week 36 - Matthew 6:30 - To recite September 11 & 12
Week 37 - Matthew 6:31-32 - To recite September 18 & 19
Week 38 - Matthew 6:33-34 - To recite September 25 & 26
Week 39 - Matthew 7:1-2 - To recite October 2 & 3
Week 40 - Matthew 7:3-5 - To recite October 9 & 10
Week 41 - Matthew 7:6 - To recite October 16 & 17
Week 42 - Matthew 7:7-8 - To recite October 23 & 24
Week 43 - Matthew 7:9-12 - To recite October 30 & 31
Week 44 - Matthew 7:13-14 - To recite November 6 & 7
Week 45 - Matthew 7:15-16 - To recite November 13 & 14
Week 46 - Matthew 7:17-20 - To recite November 20 & 21
Week 47 - Matthew 7:21 - To recite November 27 & 28
Week 48 - Matthew 7:22-23 - To recite December 4 & 5
Week 49 - Matthew 7:24-25 - To recite December 11 & 12
Week 50 - Matthew 7:26-27 - To recite December 18 & 19
Week 51 - Matthew 10:18-20 - To recite December 25 & 26
Week 52 - Catch-up/review - To recite December 26 through January 1, 2012

Resources for Reading the Bible In 2011--Different Translations

Before getting into recommending the various translations for 2011, my thoughts drifted back to 1990 or 1991 during my TBC days in Houston. Every year the campus would have a progressive dinner for all of the married couples. The staff and faculty of the school would host the couples in their homes and we would spend 30-45 minutes before moving on to the next course of the meal. When we got to the Griffin’s home, we all walked in and Brother Griffin greeted us. The girls gravitated to the kitchen with Sister Griffin and all the guys went in the den with Brother Griffin. He took his seat and one of the fellows asked, “Brother Griffin, what are you reading now?” His reply was met with a few loud guffaws and a few open mouths of surprise. He told us that he was reading through Nave’s Topical Bible and had almost finished with the “H’s.” We could hardly believe that he was serious but he was as serious as the proverbial heart attack.

Brother Griffin’s normal plan of reading the Bible in a year was comprised of reading entirely through the KJV in the first three months. He would follow this with a varying translation such as the NIV, NKJV, NASB, or Nave’s Topical Bible. When he finished the second translation, he would then pick up a set of commentaries and read through that set of commentaries for the remainder of the year. He was very high on R. D. Lang’s commentary as he had read it numerous times. I do realize that his job so to speak of teaching at a Bible college caused him to have to spend time with the Bible and all matters surrounding it but there was sufficient motivation for me to attempt to follow his pattern. When I discovered some of the older translations of the Bible, I found a gold mine of sermon fodder and Bible study material that hopefully enhanced my preaching. I will share some of those a bit later in this post.

What follows are some suggestions of various translations of the Bible:

ESV—The English Standard Version is probably the hottest (and newest) translation that is being touted on the market today. If you have the means to purchase the ESV Study Bible, you will have a wealth of material to glean from.

NASB—The New American Standard Bible is a translation that I have come to enjoy over the last five years or so. While my primary will probably always be the KJV, I do find that the NASB has the ability to open up some passages in a greater way.

NIV—The New International Version is another translation that is quite modern in some of its renderings. This is a version that I have not spent a lot of time with in the last 10 years or so. Occasionally I will look up verses to see what the comparison with the KJV is but it hasn’t been a primary focus for me.

Moffatt’s—This translation by James Moffatt is a fire-starter if you are a preacher. It is absolutely loaded with inspiration. I read it when I have found the well to be a little dry with my creative thoughts on what to preach. Furthermore, if you are savvy enough to run down all of the old sermon collections by Halford Luccock and read his sermons along with Moffatt’s you are in for some seriously good material. (All you preachers reading this owe me a Barnes and Noble Gift card for putting you on to this source!!! It is one of my secret fishing holes that never fails to add something to my study efforts. Furthermore, if you have an e-reader you can look for Luccock’s books in epub formats and download them all for free because the copyright has expired.)

Weymouth—This is another translation that I happened to stumble across. I found a 1902 leather edition in a used bookstore several months ago. It was in awful condition but I took some leather cleaner to it and it cleaned up remarkably well. You should read Ephesians 4:20-32 and you will see what kind of wallop it packs. I used it one Sunday night several months ago. I am continually awed at the power of the Word in my own life and the life of a church that honors the Word.

J. B. Phillips—This is a translation that was written in the 1940’s. It was written by a pastor who was preaching through the epistles in an expository fashion. He took the original Greek text and re-wrote it according to the word studies that he did in preparation to preach. I also found out that Elisabeth Elliott in her early years had a leather copy (which is unavailable now) that she had underlined with a pencil and written in the margins of it before it was lost in her luggage during air travel.

The Message—This is a paraphrase written by Eugene Peterson and is a very potent expression of the Scriptures. I have enjoyed reading Peterson’s books over the years and I think he did a very good job with his paraphrase. Just as a word of caution, with any paraphrase (Living Bible, New Living Translation, etc.) the focus has to be for devotional inspiration and not for doctrinal instruction. A paraphrase of the Bible is never a good benchmark for doctrine. A paraphrase is only good to stoke the fire of your imagination.

The Chronological Bible—This is a good Bible that arranges Scripture in a chronological fashion which is sometimes helpful for us. I have not spent a lot of time with this particular Bible although I have benefited from it with individual studies.

Spurgeon’s Devotional Bible—This is handy little tool to have if you can find it. I have a copy of it that was published by Family Christian Stores 10+ years ago. I have never noticed a copy again at any bookstore that I have gone into. If you have the Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit which is Spurgeon’s massive 63 volume collection of sermons, you have probably noticed that there are some passages of Scripture that CHS annotated. The Spurgeon Devotional Bible is the collection of those found in the MTP.

The Word (The Bible in 26 Translations)—This is another very good tool to have in your library. It is filled with 26 different translations and it will help you with some great devotional thoughts.

There are various other Bibles that are not necessarily different translations as much as they are a collection of material that the author has written. For instance, the Max Lucado Grace for the Moment Daily Bible and the Charles Stanley Life Principles Bible are a couple of good ones. Charles Swindoll also has an Insights Bible with a lot of his notes in the margins. I have found that these Bibles and their devotional additions are helpful to me when the gas tank is empty.

Read your Bible through in 2011. . .

Thanks for reading. . . PH

Resources for Reading the Bible In 2011Reading Plans and MP3 Downloads

One thing that generally comes with the New Year is a commitment to read through the Bible. Where is the best place to start? Old Testament? New Testament? What is the best translation? Can I do it? What are some things that will keep me accountable? Of what importance are all the genealogies? How do I stay motivated? Why can I never make it all the way to the end? Why do I get distracted with other things? All of these questions and a few others have been asked of me over the years.

Where to start? The easy way to do it is to start with Genesis and don’t stop until you get to Revelation. A good general rule of thumb to remember is that reading through four chapters a day will get you from beginning to end in a year’s time. Obviously by doubling to eight, you can make it through in six months or by reading sixteen chapters a day you can make it in a quarter.

Another way to add a twist to it is to take the Psalms and read five of them a day although when you get to Psalm 119 you will have to allocate a bit more time. Additionally read one chapter of the Proverbs every day. When the end of the year comes you will have read through the Bible completely once and have covered the Psalms five times and the Proverbs twelve times. Obviously with this pattern you will omit the reading of the Psalms and Proverbs when you come to them in a sequential manner.

Another plan to use actually helps you to read through the New Testament thirty-one times in a three year period. To get the idea for using this pattern, begin with Philippians which is a short book consisting of four chapters or 1st John which is five chapters. Read the epistle you have chosen every day for the month of January and then move on to another epistle in February. When you come to the larger books like the Gospels, Romans, and Hebrews break them up into seven or eight chapter increments and read them as you did with the shorter epistles. I can vouch for this method working as I have used it at various times in the past and you will find a great increase in the ability to cross-reference Scripture. Furthermore, you will find an ability to loosely memorize what you are reading. When I say loosely memorize; it may be that you won’t quote it exactly but you have a good head of steam in doing so.

What follows below are some links that you can download reading guides and print them out.

ESV Reading Plan.

Robert Murray McCheyne Reading Plan -- This works through the Bible in different areas.

Don Carson gives a helpful explanation for the McCheyne plan.

Don Whitney Reading Plan -- This downloads as a Word doc so you can cut it into an 8 ½ X 5 ½ sheet and slip into your Bible.

Professor Grant Horner’s Reading Plan -- Very interesting approach.

Read through the Bible for Shirkers and Slackers (I am not kidding).

A Two-Year Reading Plan.

The Discipleship Journal Reading Plan.

What follows below are some links to download MP3 readings of the Bible for your MP3 player:

KJV on Audiotreasure.

Faith Comes by Hearing offers multiple translations and even some dramatized editions.

Firefighters for Christ KJV downloads.

When people begin to read through the Bible, there is a component of spiritual growth that starts to develop in their life. Suddenly what God has to say is more important than all the advice that the world is feeding to us. Furthermore it will heighten your attention to the Word when a pastor is preaching.

More on translations tomorrow. . .

Thanks for reading. . .
PH

$56 and Change

Every year for the past 43 years our church has participated in the annual Christmas for Christ offering. It is the main force that helps fund the Home Missions Department of the United Pentecostal Church to start new churches around the United States. We make a big deal about it and wrap up our offerings in Christmas wrappings and try to give our best gift to the Lord so that somehow and somewhere a church can be planted. After placing our gifts around the altar area, the whole church prays over what we have given.

This year we did something a little different with our promotions. Director Carlton Coon and his team put together a DVD with four clips that ranged from about three minutes to seven minutes or so that focused on the history of the CFC program and some of the accomplishments of several church planters around the nation. With those clips, instead of an instrumental while we were receiving the offering, I played those clips. The last one that we used was sort of a “highlights” clip that spotlighted a church planter in Louisiana and another in Chicago. Both of the segments were quite moving and if you have any desire at all to be involved in reaching lost people this was a shot in the arm. It was also a provocation to look at priorities and consider where the best gift ought to go this Christmas season.

What I did not know was that during these four Sunday nights that two boys were intently watching Director Carlton Coon as he navigated us through history and the impact that church planters make on communities. Two boys, Josh and Alex, were on the verge of doing something that would reach out and change the world and probably change the course of their lives for the future. I believe that when kids are touched early on in the church that God has a way of setting their lives in a direction for Christian ministry.

Josh and Alex have faced incredible odds most of their lives. Without a lot of details, suffice it to say that their world has been very unstable as far as their home life goes. Jerked about from pillar to post and living behind the proverbial eight-ball, nothing has been easy for them. If I were to write about all of the calamities they have gone through in their short lives, I have no doubt that you would be weeping as you read through their troubled tale. Despite that, somewhere along the way the grace of God stepped in and slowly began to turn things around for them. Now there are warm beds and hot meals and clean clothes. Grandparents now provide some stability for Josh and Alex and also for their little sister Maddie, who is two.

About two years ago when their grandmother gained custody of Josh and Alex and Maddie, she and Mark, begin bringing them to church. I would notice that during our old-fashioned Pentecostal altar services that both of these little guys would be fervently praying the best way a seven and nine year old could pray. I had no doubt that God was touching them and helping them in ways that neither their grandmother nor our church could. I also noticed that there were several times that they would follow Brother Patterson around the platform while he was praying for people and take in all that was going on. I also noticed that there were times that Josh and Alex would cling to Brother Patterson and a few times to me. We would both pray for these little fellows and I suppose that my praying for them was more out of desperation than faith because I knew some of the sordid details they had to live with.

Josh and Alex’s grandparents save their change throughout the year and when the year is over, they give the change to the boys so that they can go and buy Christmas gifts for others. Last week, Josh and Alex approached their grandmother and asked her if they could give that money to Christmas for Christ. I think that their grandmother was as shocked and surprised by their request as I was when it was related to me.

So last night, they brought their little box to the altar and laid it up there. I saw it, Brother Patterson saw it, our church saw it but others saw it too! Heaven was watching last night, God saw, the angels saw, and that great cloud of witnesses mentioned in Hebrews 12, they saw it too. Two boys with a box had no idea who all was watching because they were caught up in the innocence of true sacrifice. They heard a story from Chicago about a church planter pulling a drug-dealer out of the depths of sin and something clicked in their little hearts. We have to get involved they thought. How shall we do it? Somewhere in the plotting and planning of the small world they live in, it came to them, our box, and our money. But it is not really our box, it is God’s box, and it is God’s money. So why don’t we give it back to him?

This is how God builds churches, this is how God reaches the world, and He works in the grass-roots. Josh and Alex are part of the bunch that Elijah never saw when God told him that there were some who had never bowed to Baal.

In that box? 56 and change. What can 56 and change really do?

It can fill up a church planter’s car with gas.
It can buy literature for a church planter’s Sunday school department.
It can support one foreign missionary for one month.
It can pay a portion of the electricity bill for a church planter.
It can be put with a whole lot of other folks sacrifice and it can help to reach another lost person.

Most of us don’t know what to buy our families for Christmas because we have far more than enough. iPads, iPhones, and iStuff have a way of choking the life out of our souls. We are like that barn-building fool who Jesus spoke of that had so much that he was going to tear down his barn and build a bigger one to hold his stuff.

Last night, Josh and Alex gave every bit that they had to the cause of Christ. 56 and change will go a long way to accomplishing something in Philadelphia, New York, Pittsburgh, and other metro areas here in America. I have a feeling that 56 and change will confront some of us at judgment.

What if every member of your church gave 56 and change this year for Christmas for Christ?

Reflections on "And the Shofar Blew" Part 1

One of the most provoking works of fiction that I have ever read is And the Shofar Blew by Francine Rivers. It was published in 2003 and having read one of her other books, I picked it up on a whim and read it. In the subsequent years that have passed, I have re-read it a couple of times. Recently I picked it up again and read it for a third time. This time I had a pen and underlined a number of places in the book that can serve as jumping off places for blog posts in the next several days.

If you are involved in ministry in any form, it is a very worthy book to be read and then ruminated over for the rest of your life in ministry. So as not to totally spoil it with a lot of details, it basically is a story of a young man who is called to take over a dying church who allows a maddening personal ambition and uncrucified dark motives to destroy him.

The first lesson that boldly stood out to me was the gradual deceptiveness of the gravity of human means. H. B. London of Focus on the Family gave some statistics about those involved in various forms of Christian ministry of all denominations some time ago. He noted that 1500 men left the ministry on a monthly basis. Five years after commencement fully half of the men who graduate from seminary are no longer involved in ministry. Another major denomination asserted that for every twenty men who enter ministry only one would still be involved by the age of 65. They gave up despite all of the energy and effort they spent on education, training, and adapting to the call.

Various reasons were given in the statistical study for their exits of public ministry. Health reasons, personal issues, others may determine that they misread the initial calling, and some give up because of the monumental stress that is placed on them. Others are forced out by their churches and determine never again to allow themselves to get into a position to be hurt again, so they walk away. Some give up in discouragement, others give in to frustrating challenges, and others give up because of the constant nagging feeling of failure.

For some money becomes an issue—either the heady pursuit of it or the bitter gnawing battle of not having enough. For some, immorality derails them. For others, ministry becomes a power struggle. This can take place on a local level in a local church or it can be a pursuit of power through the positions that denominational work may offer to them. For these men, political twists and turns become the sole motivation of what they ministry is all about. Those who find power to be a temptation have to become adept at manipulating and jockeying for position so that the seat they occupy is safe from attack. The struggle with pride also hammers them.

Paul Hudson, the major character in this story, struggled with every single one of the issues that have been listed. As he pursued the building of his own personal kingdom, the more he had to resort to political and human workings to build something that would ultimately fall apart. A recent Twitter that I received noted that far too many pastors have come to fill the roles as a CEO or board chairman rather than that of a humble shepherd.

At the outset of the story, the heart of Paul is soft, humble, and open to hearing the voice of God. However, it was not too long into his role of pastor, two or three years at most, that he had started an ominous change that would destroy him. He got so busy building his kingdom that he neglected the priorities of the inner life. The longer that you are in the ministry the more that you must understand that the joys of ministry begin to turn into assignments and responsibilities. This is why it is crucial to know that the ministry is not a sprint but rather a marathon. You are either making progress in your personal ministry or you are slowly becoming an enemy of the Cross. The longer you are in ministry the more you realize that every day you run across people who have empty buckets that have to be filled, if the well-spring of devotion does not find itself being replenished, you will find yourself being poured out in such a way that soon depletion will destroy you.

One of the paradoxes the Lord mentioned was that the Kingdom of God was going to be built only when our heart was like that of a child. Life and ministry will get complex, especially if a church starts growing. However, you must still maintain the discipline of a personal devotion on your heart. You have to make some choices about what to do with that situation. Far too many men buy into the idea of a messiah complex who believes that if they weren’t there the whole thing would implode. The real test of ministry is this; if the church implodes, you built it! If it lasts, God built it; you just happened to be a worthy servant for Him to work through! Those who fall admit after the fact that they quit reading the Bible and they quit praying. Prayer and devotion to the word is the life-source of ministry and you have to make sure that the ministry does not keep you from Jesus! There is a barrenness of busyness!

Paul Hudson soon learned that there were complainers in the congregation and he let them get the best of him. I will never forget a number of years ago when a physician I worked with (George Veale, M.D.) gave me a very good piece of advice. We (he more than I) were having to deal with another recalcitrant, obstreperous, arrogant physician (and every other adjective you can think of to describe him) who was not a happy camper on that day. In fact, I think the guy only had three or four happy camper days per year and he had already exhausted those when he found us. But Dr. Veale told me, “Philip, that guy just isn’t a happy guy!” Most chronic complainers are not happy campers and you will have to ignore their gripes and come to realize that they complain everywhere they go. Restaurants, department stores, and so forth seem to be in the complainers sights at all times. Paul Hudson let those complainers turn him into a cynic and his heart began to harden. Tie that up with less time in prayer and the Word and disaster is lurking.

Another element of gravity on the down grade put Paul Hudson into a place of professionalism. The more professional he became the more that style gave way to substance. He allowed the shortcuts to sink him. This is where technology can become disastrous to us. You can download sermon notes, MP3 sermons, and Powerpoints and use them without ever having to do anything spiritual again. But as the shortcuts are embraced, increasingly shallowness will rob your soul.

For the last two weeks, I have found that 1 and 2 Peter in the ESV has been more than just words on the page of the Bible. There are words that Peter left us that can stimulate great spiritual growth in our lives if we will allow the Word to transform us.

Do it for yourself and do it for me. . . Go somewhere and find a closet of prayer and open up your Bible and mark up 1 and 2 Peter. . . Your life and ministry depends on it. . .