Book Recommendation - Meet the Puritans

An amazing book that I bought several months ago has been well worth what I paid for it. It is entitled “Meet The Puritans, With a Guide To Modern Reprints” by Joel R. Beeke and Randall J. Pederson. The Puritans, particularly in our day, have gotten quite a bad name for some of their practices in the past. One of the activities that critics of the Puritans like to point out is their involvement in the Salem witch trials and the gross miscarriage of justice that was allowed. Because of that wide-sweeping characterization, much of their writings have been dismissed. In addition to this there are some huge doctrinal differences that permeate some of their writings. However, I have learned a long time ago that you read with a sifter and shake out the bad and keep the good.

This book is basically a summary of the work of many of the Puritans. The chapters run from 2 to 10 pages on each Puritan. It starts with a brief biography and then progresses to a description of their writings, sermons, and books. The book is loaded with good devotional material that will help stimulate your heart and mind from sermon preparation and Bible study. This book has become a highly treasured volume in my personal library.

If you have a high regard for Scripture and for the preaching of that Scripture, this book will certainly give you some motivation in that area. This is especially true when you begin to read some of the sermon titles associated with their study of Scripture. It is also a book that will put you on the trail of more books by the Puritans who spent much focus on gearing men toward prayer, holiness, worship, and the power of Scripture.

Just as a few examples that you will find are:

Thomas Brooks preached 58 sermons from Hebrews 12:14 and they are introduced in his book, “The Crown and Glory of Christianity.” He also wrote a book “Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices.” In this book he describes twelve of Satan’s devices and their remedies. He then focuses on eight devices that Satan keeps believers from using the means of grace. He writes of ten helps against the devices: walk by the rule of the Word of God, don’t grieve the Spirit, strive for heavenly wisdom, resist Satan’s first motions, labor to be filled with the Spirit, remain humble, pursue watchfulness, retain communion with God, fight Satan by drawing strength from the Lord Jesus, and be much in prayer.

Thomas Watson has become one of my favorites among the Puritans. He wrote “The Mischief of Sin” which is a written about the danger of sin. It is divided into four parts: (1) The Mischief of Sin; (2) An Alarm to Sinners; (3) The Desperateness of Sinners; and (4) Hell’s Furnace Heated Hotter. This book has some of the most incredible word pictures that you will ever read.

Benjamin Keach is described in this book also. From “Exposition of the Parables” it is noted that 147 messages are gathered from the parables which Keach preached. In “The Travels of True Godliness” he introduces the reader to over two dozen enemies of godliness. Some of them are apostasy, hypocrisy, legalism, antinominianism, worldliness, and the devil.

In the opening section, Joel Beeke and Randall Pederson give the following reasons that one will profit from reading the Puritans.

• They shape life by Scripture.
• They focus on Christ.
• They make Scripture guide the life by addressing the mind, confronting the conscience, and engaging the heart.
• They show how to handle trials. Some of the titles they mention in this point: Thomas Brooks “A Mute Christian Under the Rod”; Richard Sibbes “A Bruised Reed” and Jeremiah Burroughs “The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment.”
• They show how to live in two worlds.
• They show the power of a true spiritual life.

You can purchase the book from Reformation Heritage Books for less than $30. It is hard-bound and almost 900 pages in length.

Brendi's Big Day

Yesterday, April 12, 2008, Chad Kirkland and Brendi Mullen were married in Dothan, Alabama. They were married at the Dothan National Golf Club in an outdoor ceremony just along the edges of the course. It rained steadily most of the day until about thirty minutes before the wedding started.

You can see some of the photo's on Flickr.com. To get the best effect, click on the tab to "view as a slideshow."

Sir. . . . Reverend. . . . Would You Please Have Them Hold The Mayonnaise. . .

There are times that I really get wrapped up with being important. I mean those times when I am so into the importance thing that the whole world finds it’s orbit around me. I know that you may find that hard to believe. . . . . . . that “importance” could have such a dizzying effect on me but it does.

In fact some time ago, I found myself being very important. Our church was hosting a preaching workshop. Rick Wyser was doing his very good seminar “The Six Should-Be’s of Preaching” and I was feeling particularly important. We had plotted and planned and had all sorts of free books, gadgets, computer programs and all sorts of other things to give out to the participants. Somewhere around fifty ministers came and we were having a tremendous time. Nothing motivates me like talking about becoming a better preacher, so I was definitely enjoying the element.

We started on Friday evening and went long into the night and were to continue the next morning and work through most of the day. There I was in front of all of these ministers opening up the day with prayer and some brief but very important comments. I had on crisp, dry-cleaned clothes and a sparkling new tie and had the look of, well, importance. Right before Brother Wyser came to the platform, I managed to see someone motioning to me in the back of the church and behind the person who was motioning was someone very unimportant-looking. I knew what he wanted and I knew that in my status of current importance that I did not really want to get involved.

However, because of my importance that day, I was chosen to meet a little man who began to germinate the thoughts of what you are now reading. He was dressed in ragged clothes, his shoes were literally coming apart on his feet. He looked as if he hadn’t been near a razor or a tooth-brush in days, who knows, maybe weeks. As I got closer to him, it also became very obvious that he had not been near soap and water in several days either.

I ushered him into the office and honestly I wanted to give him a few dollars and send him on his way. See, I was busy helping Brother Wyser and busy helping other ministers become better preachers, frankly I was very busy being important. However, his story was compelling, in fact so compelling, I shall never forget that day or his story as long as I shall live.

He had a severe speech impediment that made it a little difficult to understand him. He had gotten a job with some Texas boys who had taken him to South Carolina to work at a condo along the beach. He knew how to hang sheet-rock and could paint so that is what they wanted him to do. The key to this whole deal was that the poor fellow was one of those guys that this world is constantly taking advantage of and that is exactly what happened. He had worked for three weeks and only had two-hundred dollars to show for it and then they conveniently left him in a bar in north Georgia drunk as a hoot owl. When he finally had aroused from his drunken stupor all he had was the clothes on his back, the shoes on his feet, and the two-hundred dollars were now gone!

So I began to quiz him on his story. Maybe quiz is not the right word, I began to interrogate this man. His story was so outrageous and I was so busy being important and I needed to get back in there with the action. Where is your car? I don’t have one. How did you get here? I walked. When was the last time you ate? Yesterday morning when I cleaned up some trash in a Burger King parking lot and the manager gave me some biscuits. How long have you been walking/hitchhiking from north Georgia? Four days, please sir, I am not lying to you. I see a fence row that needs cleaning off, can I do that for some money? I need to get back to Texas. How are you going to get there? Well, somebody told me in Georgia and if I could get to Hwy. 84 and follow it, it would take me to Texas.

Up to this point, my importance had been progressively dissipating but now all the importance had been effectively squeezed out of me. I took him to the fellowship hall and loaded him up with a large bag of food from the continental breakfast from our meeting. I noticed that as I walked down the hall that he was literally limping almost to the point of being crippled. I inquired about this and he told me that his feet were blistered so bad that he could not hardly walk and that he was going to rest for the remainder of the day.

I ended up taking him to a motel on Hwy. 84 and putting him in a room and thought to myself how wonderful and how benevolent that I had been on my way back to the church. It took me about twenty minutes and I slid right back into my important mode. I forgot him. . . . . . . . . until the waitress at Larry’s brought my second run of BBQ chicken around 8:30 P.M. I had been having a great conversation with Brother Wyser and Brother Patterson about. . . . . . you know, preaching and other important stuff. . . . . . but when I bit into that second run of chicken, the Lord graced my memory with that little guy. I asked Brother Patterson to take care of Brother Wyser that I had something that I needed to take care of. To this point, Brother Wyser nor Brother Patterson even knew about this little guy.

So with a full stomach and a very troubled soul, I went to this little guy’s room. The last time I had seen him had been around 9:30 that morning and it was now working toward 10:00 PM. He opened the door to my loud knock. He appeared almost fearful to me. Now as I think in retrospect he probably thought that I was coming to throw him out or take him downtown to the police station or some such as that. I asked him brusquely, “do you have any food left?” “No sir, I don’t. I ate the last of it around 2 o’clock.” “Are you hungry?” “Yes, sir, I am.” “I am going to Burger King to get you a Whopper Value Meal,” I said. I turned and started for my car and had gone no more than ten feet when I heard his voice again. “Sir. . . . . . Reverend. . . . . . would you please tell them to hold the mayonnaise?” I could not answer, I could only nod. I got in my car and he left the door open and watched me drive out of the parking lot and watched me go on down the rode.

The next twenty minutes or so as I drove to BK the Lord gave me a whole lot of insight into some things. Not an audible voice, but I heard the Lord as plain as day, tell me, “That is how you look to me when you get busy being important.” He reminded me of all the times at the great conferences that I asked Him for all the big stuff. Use me Lord to do the big stuff, the powerful things, the glamorous things, the high visibility things, let the miracles fall off of me, let my name be on the lips of all far and wide, please make me important, and by the way, God, can you hold the mayonnaise?

Where did I get that attitude from? From all of that blarney that I had been feeding my mind over the last several years, this leadership book, that time-management program, this self-development seminar, and on and on, ad nauseum. Now understand with me that I feel very strongly about all of these areas and some of the personal and professional development that has occurred within my own life could never have come to pass had I not known about the “how-to’s” and “what-for’s” of leadership development, goal-setting, and raw, rigorous discipline.

But there is something that is lost when our lives become dictated by the Covey “Habit’s.” We have a tendency to lose touch with humanity and the hurts, stresses, anxieties, and pressures that they battle with day-in and day-out. When we lose touch with those pressures that come from the pews, we become empire builders instead of kingdom builders. When I get busy intersecting flights, reserving hotel rooms, planning events, and just being important, I lose touch with what God wants for my life.

God does not want me to be important, He wants me to do His will and His will is never a mystery. His will is to do the best serving where I am when the need arises. Importance will rob you of a miracle. One of the most notable examples of this is Namaan. He almost did not get his healing because he was too important to dip in the muddy Jordan. I wonder how many miracles that I have circumvented miracles in my own life by being important.

Importance is summed up at the Last Supper when the Lord knelt down, girded with a towel, and washed all of the disciples feet. Maybe I had known it but somehow it had escaped me for all of these years that Jesus washed the feet of Judas before the supper ever began. He washed the man’s feet who was going to betray him. That is what importance really is. It is serving the Judas Kiss. It is serving the betrayer. It is ministering to the deserter.

Michael Card has a song entitled The Basin and the Towel. It goes like this:

An upstairs room, a parable is just about to come alive,

And while they bicker about whose best,

With a painful glance He’ll silently rise,

Their Savior Servant must show them how,

By the will of the water and the tenderness of the towel.

And the call is to community,

The impoverished power that sets the soul free,

In humility to take the vow,

That day after day,

We must take up the basin and the towel.

In any ordinary place or any ordinary day,

The parable can live again,

When one kneel and one will yield,

Our Savior Servant must show us how,

By the will of the water and the tenderness of the towel.

And the space between ourselves sometimes is more than the distance between the stars

By the fragile bridge of the servant’s bow,

We take up the basin and the towel.

And the call is to community,

The impoverished power that sets the soul free,

In humility to take the vow,

That day after day,

We must take up the basin and the towel.

When we bow to the basin and the towel, importance has a way of being totally removed from our lives. Servants are not very important. Servants have no rights. Servants move at the command and the whims of the master. Servants have no personal agendas they focus on the mission which supercede any personal agenda.

When we do the small things for the Lord, we advance the Kingdom. The whole attitude of importance revolts against the idea of doing something “hidden” in the Kingdom. Yet, when we fill this role of washing dirty feet, great power, great humility, great purpose slowly seeps into our lives. Increasingly, I am becoming convinced that spiritual greatness comes from serving and with heightening anonymity. Through the continual denial of the flesh, which is a monumental challenge in itself, and through the pouring out of ourselves into the lives of others with no expectations from those actions, that greatness does indeed seep into our lives. Therefore, live out and flesh out this principle of the basin and the towel because in doing so it strangles the very thin veneer of importance.

John Piper writes in Brothers, We Are Not Professionals:

We pastors are being killed by the professionalizing of the pastoral ministry. The mentality of the professional is not the mentality of the prophet. It is not the mentality of the slave of Christ. Professionalism has nothing to do with the essence and the heart of the Christian ministry. The more professional we long to be, the more spiritual death we will leave in our wake. For there is no professional childlikeness (Matt. 18:3); there is no professional tenderheartedness (Eph. 4:32); there is no professional panting after God (Psalm 42:1).

But our first business is to pant after God in prayer. Our business is to weep over our sins (James 4:9). Is there professional weeping? Our business is to strain forward to the holiness of Christ and the prize of the upward call of God (Php. 3:14); to pummel our bodies and subdue them lest we be cast away (1 Cor. 9:27); to deny ourselves and take up the blood spattered cross daily (Luke 9:23). How do you carry a cross professionally? . . . .

I trust that you take this Barnabas Blog in the spirit by which I have tried to write it. We still need discipline, we must have vision, we will fail if we do not plan, and we must continue to lead, but there must in all of this be ministries marked by utter dependence on God. The Kingdom of God is not advanced with importance nor professionalism but rather with humility.

Trying to Decrease. . . .

Book Review -- Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome

I took a phone call about six months ago that really got my attention. On the other end was a pastor who was having to endure some very difficult times. He was a good friend of mine and I know that his motivations are right but his understanding of “success” is all wrong. I tried to carefully and gently share it with him and the graft did not immediately take but in time it will because the pain that he is having to endure will bring clarity to what I told him.

As I listened, I discovered that I had heard this conversation countless times in the last 10 years. I noticed that there were some minor variations in the details of the call and that only the geography had changed. The geography was different but the essence of the story was not. I am coming to fear that far too many good men have allowed the American Dream concept of success to totally wreck the biblical prototype of successful ministry. If you are a minister, pastor, assistant pastor, or fill any other role in the American church, I plead with you to do a deep and careful study of 1^st and 2^nd Timothy, Titus, and for good measure toss in 2^nd Corinthians. Paul's words to Timothy and Titus map out a job description for pastoral ministry and 2^nd Corinthians gives the picture in shoe leather of what a man is to do that is in spiritual leadership especially under duress. If you choose modern books on business leadership to define your job description, ultimately what one will learn to do is gather up a host of tares and build a “tare house” of worship. The last time I checked Covey, Blanchard, Maxwell, Drucker, Holtz, Wooden, Collins, Csorba, Lencioni, and the chief heretic of all, Ayn Rand, weren't apostles and they could provide me with zero instruction of the spiritual aspects of building God's church. Sadly, I have spent a lot of time with these clowns before I chunked them all about 3 ½ years ago. I finally decided that Paul could give me a whole lot more insight into what God wanted than someone whose chief goal in life was to sit on top of a totem pole that exalted materialism.

One of the specific reasons that many pastors feel that they are failures is because they are not living up to the standards set by the business world to build the church. If the numbers were up, they were up. If the numbers were down, they were down. Everything had to do with line and bar graphs that measured attendance and dollars. The focus of ministry suddenly degenerated into one becoming a “spiritual bean-counter.” Ministry no longer focused on personal godliness of the man, holiness of life, integrity of character, and the stability of his home.

As time progressed, Satan sat in his corner and took a holiday. He decided that he would let the pursuit of “success” eat the soul out of the preacher and it would not only kill the man but it would kill his family and the church that he was serving. Kids would go haywire and a marriage would dry up, but before it did it would have to endure a thousand painful blows. It would not be long until the church would get lost in a pantheon of confusion that pursued humanism and idolatry. So presently the devil is sitting back just watching a lot of good men simply self-destruct in their pursuit of the wild numbers game called success.

In the pursuit of success, he would either get “it” or he wouldn't get “it.” Either way the devil would win out. Those who got “it” often got so busy that they worked for years building the church before they realized God had not been there in a while. In fact, success had kept them so busy that they really did not know how long it had been since God had been eased out the door on a greased track by professionalism. Don't worry about God, just make sure those PowerPoints are nifty and the lights are working and the sound is right where it needs to be. “Quick give me one of those handy little sermons that are wrapped in tight, relevant packages. Better yet, let's do a series so that things are mapped out for six weeks!” The band played on and the tares grew higher and higher until pretty soon there were only a few bedraggled stalks of wheat left. It would not be long until the tares would get them too and the whole harvest would be lost. Yet, the bars and lines on the graphs were leaping off the page. Numbers and money was up but the church was dying from a famine of Bread.

Pastoring a church in these times can be very challenging. If we aren't careful we can fall into the same trap that Nabab and Abihu did and offer a strange substitute that God isn't going to be real pleased with. It will end up costing us everything just as it did with Aaron's sons.

Back to my phone call that I first mentioned, the story went on of how that this good man had poured his time, his finances, literally his life into what God had called him to do. He rehearsed with me some of the difficult pressures that his family had been forced to endure because of his absence due to ministry demands or his work demands from a secular job. His children had been fatherless and his wife had been “husband-less” all in the process of “building a church.”

Over the years, it comes to my mind now that I know of several ministers whose marriages have literally fallen apart and they are now divorced because of the pursuit of “success” in the church. I am aware of a trail littered with their children who are now totally out of the church and have no intentions of every coming back because of the demands that they saw on their family. I know of more than one broken man who turned his back on his calling because of the incessant and demanding (maybe ungodly?) siren call to be successful in the ministry.

If it seems like that I am on edge with this blog entry, you have discerned correctly. I am angry that some men that I hold in high regard and count as close friends feel that they are colossal failures. I am angry that the American dream has been pulled into their ideas of what a church is to be. I am angry when I see others tossing non-negotiables over the side of the boat, things that are good, godly and necessary, that will take a church to the pit of carnality so it will be tasteful to the community.

You also might wonder what moved me in the direction of this thought and I have confess it was a little book that I recently picked up by Kent and Barbara Hughes entitled Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome. I got it yesterday and started reading it before my mid-week Bible study on 1^st John around 5:30. I came home last night and picked it up again around 10:30 and hang on for the ride until midnight. So compelling was the book that I have spent much time and thought throughout the day reading it. By the way, it is such a book that you read a while and then pray a while. I have prayed for a lot of the Lord's servants today and prayed that He would deliver us from the soul-eating, mind-exploiting, and pride-inducing grasp of “success.”

I am going to give you the introduction and I believe that it will be a worthy investment of your time to go out and find it and read it.

Some onlookers thought it was unusual, but few noticed when the pastor wheeled into the church parking lot in a borrowed pickup truck. But everyone's eyes were upon him when he backed the truck across the lawn to his study door. Refusing comment or assistance, he began to empty his office into the truck bed. He was impassive and systematic: first the desk drawers, then the files, and last his library of books, which he tossed carelessly into a heap, many of them flopping askew like slain birds. His task done, the pastor left the church and, as was later learned, drove some miles to the city dump where he committed everything to the waiting garbage.

It was his way of putting behind him the overwhelming sense of failure and loss that he had experienced in the ministry. This young, gifted pastor was determined never to return to the ministry. Indeed, he never did.

We wrote this book because of this story—and many, too many, others like it. We are concerned about the morale and survival of those in Christian ministry. Pastors, youth workers, evangelists, Sunday School teachers, lay ministers, missionaries, Bible study leaders, Christian writers and speakers, and those in other areas of Christian service often face significant feelings of failure, usually fueled by misguided expectations for success.

It is true that our Christian colleges, universities, and seminaries are flooded annually with bright and motivated students. But it is also true that every year thousands leave the ministry convinced they are failures.

We know what it's like. We too almost succumbed to the enticements. It is our hope that the account of our subtle confusion about success, our near ruin, and ultimately our liberation through the truth of God's Word will aid in delivering others from this unhappy goddess.

This is a portion of the introduction.

Part One is the gut-wrenching story that Kent Hughes writes frankly of his disillusionment with the ministry and with the church.

Part Two of the book deals with the core of success from the biblical model as being faithfulness, serving, loving, believing, prayer, holiness, and attitude.

I think it is worth your time and your money to read this book. I also realize that my tone in the opening salvo of this blog may have been looked upon with some disdain. But my justification, if there is any, is that I know of a lot of men who pouring their lives into the Kingdom of God and feel like defeated failures because their churches aren't measuring up to the one across town or across the country.

Thanks for reading. . . . .

When Good Words Are Ruined

While the world was mired in World War II in the 1940’s, a series of columns begin to appear in a now defunct newspaper called The Guardian. The author of this series was by C. S. Lewis of whom I read after for a number of years now. C. S. Lewis will force a man to think and even lean to the dastardly proclivity of discernment, which has been labeled as a bad thing lately. We user-friendly, password, “don’t give me a manual” type personas have some disdain for thinking. The sort of check your brains in at the door mentality has led to some grief here and there.

When one looks at history, this is not a recent development as one might want or even be inclined to think. The greatest spiritual battlefield is between our ears. It is not Hollywood, the media, the political system, or you-fill-in-the-blank that is the greatest area of spiritual warfare. All of these things have their merit in the spiritual battle but they are nothing more than accomplices to the spiritual battle that occurs in a man’s mind. Trace it out and you will find that the earliest casualty of sin was found when the doubt poisoned the mind. Once the serpent had let the venom of a lie explode in the mind of Eve all other activities of failure simply followed gravity.

Back to Lewis. . . . His little columns ended up becoming a collection of thirty-one little letters. Lewis used his imagination along with some solid Scriptural understandings and formed two characters. Wormwood and Screwtape are vividly brought to life as Lewis drags them out from under their rocks fresh from the Abyss. Wormwood is the nephew and Screwtape is the “affectionate uncle” and both are literally twisted angels, in other words, they are demons on the loose. Screwtape has decidedly determined to “school” his young protégé at how to trip up humans (or vermin) in their attempts to serve God.

At times the conversation is reminiscent of 7^th grade immaturity and mirth between the two but what is so alarming about the book is that the advice being dispensed is deadly in a spiritual sense. Over the years, I periodically sit down and refresh again my thoughts of how that the enemy is still at war in very subtle but effective ways with every man who is walking this path of faith.

In the last few days, one of the methods that Screwtape “enlightens” (or should we say “de-lightens) Wormwood is by corrupting good words. Screwtape writes of the Philological Arm of Hell and how it works. In our modern era this word would probably be better interchanged with linguistics. The Philogical Arm is the study of literature and the disciplines surrounding it. While this does not make much sense that the devil would want to study literature, what does make sense is that more importantly he wants to study what words mean and then daringly but subtly change what the meaning of the word really conveys.

Screwtape informs Wormwood that he needs to take some of the great virtues and associate them with bad “feelings.” If there can be subtle but effective associations that will create bad perceptions or associations so the word can longer have any useful benefit then the job has been done effectively.

One such example that Lewis cites is the word “ascetical.” Instead of the full thought of the word being associated with the discipline that one would be submitted to as Paul infers in 2 Timothy 2, the association must be changed. Instead of it referring to a faithful teacher, focused soldier, a patient farmer, or diligent workman, this “ascetical” life now is made to look like a wild-eyed, disenchanted, crazy mad-man. Make those who are separated to the Gospel look like cult figures in Jim Jones or David Koresh caricatures. “See my dear Wormwood, while we know the great value of living under the values of godliness and righteousness, our lexicographers destroys the hopes of any wanting to pursue such a course in life. We know that this sort of focused life creates great power but by changing the association of the word, it makes it hard for many to want to buy into it. It sounds too extreme.”

As I read through Lewis’ musings it came to my mind that a whole lot of good words have been changed by association in our generation. The more I thought about it the more I understood how the greatest spiritual battlefield does indeed rest between our ears. Clearly understanding that Paul counseled that knowledge would “puffeth up,” (1 Cor. 8:1) I am also queried to balance that caution out with the demand that Paul placed on the New Testament church for discernment (Romans 12:3; Php. 1:9-10; Heb. 5:12-14, etc.).

So with those thoughts rumbling through my mind, I begin to think of some words that the lexicographers from Hell have corrupted for our generation. I pass along this rambling vocabulary for your consideration.

Preaching -- This has been corrupted in several ways. First, you will be hard pressed to find a Joe Blow on the street that has a good association with preaching. Hellish Lexicographical Association: Preaching is pushy, judgmental, harsh, demanding. Preaching is moralistic and creates a wide gulf of separation. So the good word of preaching no longer gets across that there is a life-giving strength and eternal hope spelled out in such a way as to save men from their sins. Another way that preaching has been redefined follows. Hellish Lexicographical Association: Preaching is entirely uplifting, full of blessing, and puts me on a spiritual “high” of feel-good. So the good word of preaching is reduced to warm-fuzzy stories that have been circulated widely in e-mail boxes. The good work of preaching has been diminished when context and hermeneutics have been horribly violated to “encourage” the good folk.

Holiness -- Hellish Lexicographical Association: Prudish, harsh, judgmental folk who sneer at tattoos, body-piercings, and wreckages of sin. They are funny-acting, funny-dressing, funny-talking folk who are dumb as rocks. Watch out for legalistic rule-minders who drag around yard-sticks of condemnation and are ruled by preaching (see above definition part 1) that makes God a horrible and heavy-handed dictator. Instead of allowing the real definition of holiness to be an insatiable hunger for God and the things of His Word, a greater desire to move into avenues of a depth of prayer and revelation, the new inventors make it something that we want to hold at arm’s length.

Ministry -- Hellish Lexicographical Assocation: Big barns, cool lights, nifty Powerpoints, relevance, thousand dollar wardrobes, rigged out cars, and all the other stuff that will be corrupted by rust, eaten by moths, and stolen by thieves. My heart is torn by some of the things that have occurred in the charismatic world in the last few months. While we as Apostolics are widely separated from them in doctrine and lifestyle, the world at large lumps us all together and their view of “ministry” has been soiled by the tawdry evidence. Divorce at will, domestic abuse, extravagant lifestyles, and perverted and salacious living is crippling our credibility. The apostles and the early church were given to prayer, fasting, and ministry of the Word and it turned their world upside down. We must ever remember that the ox is not to be muzzled but at the same time one has to remember that gluttony has to do with more than just food, it has to do with appetite. If Hell can change our job description to something beyond what the pastoral epistles stipulate, particularly 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1, we are sunk. Furthermore, 1 Corinthians 4 refers to the ministry as one who are “stewards” or under-rowers of the mysteries of Christ. To further dig into this chapter proves that ministry will be challenging and not always easy.

Doctrine -- Hellish Lexicographical Association: Divisive, useless argument, camel-slapping and gnat-guffawing, dull, impractical (un-relevant, not relevant, lacking relevance), too deep, too demanding, and besides doctrine has now a dirty word. The facts say otherwise. A church and minister that is doctrinally sound has a very solid foundation. Doctrine also keeps one from spiritual error. Just a quick study of the Pauline epistles reveals to us that the Apostle spent much time and energy refuting false doctrine and false teachers. The modern Apostolic church must “nerve up” and face down the errors of our day. Salvation is more than just repentance and baptism, if there is no active evidence of tongues in the initial infilling it becomes another gospel. Paul had his share of miracles, signs, and wonders and he also had his share of solid biblical instruction to the new converts.

I have some other odds and ends but you and I are out of time and I shall not weary you with more.

As always, I am thankful that you have dropped by this blog and read through some of the ramblings.

1 Timothy 4:16 KJV Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.

Book Recommendation -- American Idols by Bob Hostetler

Over the last several months it has come to my attention that I have neglected one of the early practices of this blog—book reviews. I have been reading but I have failed to continue to write about books that I have gleaned something from.

If you are an avid reader, I am certain that at some points that you have talked back to the books that you read. I figure that if I buy a book, it is my property and I can treat it as such. Therefore, if I want to mark it up, write in the margins, or talk to it, I can have such liberties because it is my property.

Ever since our little Dave Ramsey journey through Financial Peace University, my book purchases have had to be much more judicious. The bad thing about this is that I have been unable to purchase books at a “beyond my ability to read them rate.” The good thing is that I have picked up some older books that have been in my personal library for quite some time and either I have not finished them or had not read them. Because of the Dave Ramsey effect, I now have to wait out my book purchases and instead of impulsively buying them, I can now only get them on a really “need” them level.

Such is the book that I mention now by Bob Hostetler. I went to Lifeway over a period of about two months before I finally pulled the trigger and bought this one. I must admit that I had read large portions of it before I purchased it. Finally I got tired of shifting from one foot to another and reading it in the isle as people busily walked around me.

The whole premise of the book is that America is filled with idols. Hostetler works up a good Bible study beginning on page 9 as he walks through the process in Exodus 32:1-7 that led the children of Israel to build their golden calf. He entitles it “The Alchemy of Idolatry.” I will list the following steps that he brings out that led to their graven image:

• Impatience -- They got tired of waiting for Moses on the mountain. While Moses was receiving the most powerful of revelations for their wilderness passage, they could not wait long enough for God’s timing to develop. “We seek for satisfaction from illegitimate sources because we don’t want to wait for our legitimate Source.”
• Unbelief -- They allowed the impatience of the day to put unbelief into their heart about Moses’ whereabouts. They said “we wot not what has become of him.” This KJVese could be translated, “we don’t even know what has happened to him.” This incited their lurch toward idolatry. We don’t know about tomorrow. Or our prayers. Or our troubles. Or what is awaiting us around the corner. Suddenly the God who had gotten them out had them boxed in.
• Pragmatism -- They desired for someone to make them a god that will lead them on. It did not really matter if the god had life. Aaron, just build us something we can see. It is quite ironic that Moses was getting the instructions for the Tabernacle that would house the most sacred things of Israel while they were clamoring for another god. The demand for a god to make them more comfortable was the thing they wanted. Give us a god we can use. Easy. User-friendly. A serviceable idol.
• Ingratitude -- Another contributing factor to their idolatry was their quick ability to forget where God had brought them from. Romans chapter 1 mentions the wrath of God’s abandonment. One of the characteristics of the godless is that they are “unthankful.” When our prayers lose their gratitude and thankfulness, trouble is brewing. Ingratitude leads on toward a sense of entitlement.
• Regression -- Their spiritual impatience led to a spiritual regression. Aaron’s choice of a golden calf was not a mistake. He was taking one of the most important of the Egyptian gods, Apis, the bull god of Memphis, who was associated with Ptah, the creator of the universe. Anytime our spiritual aspirations sink, we will serve a lesser, earthly, worldly god.
• Compromise -- Notice in Exodus 32:4-5 that Aaron called this golden bull the Lord. In effect he was saying, “Ok, if you must have an idol, let’s at least call it the Lord. Let’s not abandon the first commandment, even if you insist on breaking the second.”
• Corruption -- When the idol set in on them, it devoured them. Their worship became corrupted. The things they once offered the Lord were now placed at the hooves of a surrogate god. It turned into a drunken and debauched deal. “Corrupted worship of the one, true God is not worship of him at all. You cannot mix Living Water and sewage into a potable blend. You cannot make dance partners of holiness and idolatry.”

This book is literally loaded with examples of how that our culture is serving up very weak surrogates for God. This book is worth the time and money. I promise you that your highlighter and red pen will make many marks in the margins.

For the sake of your curiosity I list the chapter titles:

• The eBay Attitude (Consumerism)
• The Darwinian Conjecture (Naturalism)
• The Cowboy Ethic (Individualism)
• The Rock Star Syndrome (Celebrity)
• The Microwave Mentality (Instant Gratification)
• The Superman Myth (Humanism)
• The Cult of Personal Experience (Experience)
• The Lexus Nexus (Success)
• The Eros Ethos (Sensuality, Sexual Freedom)
• The Burger King Way (Choice)
• The Passion for Fashion (Appearance)
• The La-Z-Boy Life (Comfort)
• The Modern Baal (Money)
• The Martha Malady (Busyness)

The Appendix mentions some characteristics of a good church which serves as some extra food for thought.

The Disastrous Emerging Church - Part 2

A few days ago, I spent some time with a couple of the disasters that are coming from the Emerging Church. I took a little time to point out two of the problems that are very subtly finding their way into our churches. Doctrinal indifference has found its way in to pulpits who are concerned with “ministering” to “felt needs.” This style of preaching caters to the idea that the folks in the pews are stressed out and need to find some “word” of encouragement for “relevant” living. Furthermore they do not need to be exposed to the heaviness of doctrine and other ideas that are present in the Word of God.

Doctrine is too deep and unnecessary for we should just “love Jesus”, so they say. But as one looks to the owner’s manual of preaching/pastoral ministry in the pastoral epistles, Paul declared that the very first and primary reason for Scripture was doctrine (2 Timothy 3:16-17). As you read through this passage you also discover that for a righteous man to be thoroughly furnished that the preaching he hears will contain doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness. If this is not a part of the steady stream of Word that a congregation is receiving, its immune system will not be at an optimal level to ward off the spiritual diseases that are so prevalent. Brothers, we must preach the Doctrine of the Apostles! I might also add that all of these categories that Paul listed are low on the list in far too many places today.

Secondly, a false sense of humility tries to efface itself in the face of certainty. The Emergents say that no-one can be really certain about salvation. Doug Pagitt, one of the Emergent ringleaders, has endorsed and incorporated the use of yoga with prayer. Talk about another spirit! However, when he was confronted by this exact thought, he hedged and questioned if one could even know for certain that those who practice Eastern mysticism are lost. It appears to me that Pagitt’s familiarity with the Bible is at an all-time low. On the other hand, when you have a very low regard of Scripture as many Emergents do, we should not be surprised at such ideations.

This brings me to the third point the Emergents are doing: They are mocking a strong and solid Biblical message.

Rob Bell, another one of the highly read authors of the Emerging Church, along with his wife was quoted in Christianity Today with the following statement:

"Life in the church had become so small," Kristen says. "It had worked for me for a long time. Then it stopped working." The Bells started questioning their assumptions about the Bible itself—"discovering the Bible as a human product," as Rob puts it, rather than the product of divine fiat. "The Bible is still in the center for us," Rob says, "but it's a different kind of center. We want to embrace mystery, rather than conquer it."

"I grew up thinking that we've figured out the Bible," Kristen says, "that we knew what it means. Now I have no idea what most of it means. And yet I feel like life is big again—like life used to be black and white, and now it's in color." [Andy Crouch, "The Emergent Mystique," Christianity Today (November 2004).]

This was about the time (2004) that Rob Bell’s books begin to hit and they were almost gobbled up like candy. It appealed to a younger generation that was at odds with the operation of church life. It appealed to those who knew little oHowever, when you are greatly uncertain about the Word of God it will be cause you to seek out other alternatives. Bell’s NOOMA video series was also widely accepted and the pied piper of the Emergents was in business. In addition to Bell’s material, Brian Maclaren has literally emasculated Paul’s epistles in many of his books.

Some may wonder why I am spending this much time perhaps provoking your mind and your spirit with to tone of these last two blog entries. The answer is very simple, I am hoping to at least encourage your sense of discernment.

Consider this following video which is a parody of Rob Bell’s NOOMA “Bullhorn Guy” which is a far reach in itself to get the church to soft soap its message. This parody is called “Bullwhip Guy” and sadly this clip may be a parody for those who really believe an absolute message but it is truth for the Emergents.

So the Emergents simper that I am a Pharisee because I believe in a solid, Scriptural plan that calls for a sense of holiness and separation from the world. Now they are raging that in addition to being a Pharisee, I am a “Bullwhip Guy.” I can’t seem to win for losing but one thing is for certain, they may change their characterizations of me but I am certainly not going to change my message to accommodate them!

More to come. . . .