The Nightmare, The Knife, and The Morning Light
Here’s my sermon from Sunday on Deuteronomy 10:12-22: The Nightmare, The Knife, & The Morning Light
Year of the Bible
Because I love the Bible and I want the people I care for to love the Bible, this Saturday I’m launching Year of the Bible. Building upon the release/momentum of a resource that trumps my seminary education–the ESV Study Bible, I’m encouraging my peeps to read through the Bible in a year (November 1st 2008-October 31st 2009). Many are committing to Year of the Bible.
To enrich our individual reading, each week we will have a different person share publicly for 2 minutes about a "discovery" they make (about God, the gospel, the Christian life, etc.) during their Bible reading for that week. We’re also working to create a culture where it’s normal for people talk with one another (when gathering in our weekly community groups and while doing life throughout the week) about how they’re being affected by this journey through the Scriptures.
Are you looking for a Bible reading plan? You might want to join us for Year of the Bible.
Here’s the reading plan: Year of the Bible Reading Plan (it folds into a bookmark)
And here are 5 Directives I came up with to help steer our reading:
Reading Habits
Fairly often I receive questions about my reading habits. This week I received an email that stated/asked:
I am impressed by how much time you, as a pastor, spend reading. Do you have any general guidelines about how much time you spend studying?
I thought this might be helpful to a wider audience, so here’s how I answered the email:
Thanks for your email.
I don’t know how much time I spend reading and I don’t have any big guideline suggestions.
For me, I simply love to read. I love to learn. I let curiosity/pleasure guide my reading. If I’m curious about a certain area of doctrine, I read about it. If I’m curious about a certain figure from church history or about the geography of Alaska, I read about it and ask other people about it.
So, reading isn’t a chore or a scheduled thing for me, it’s just an easy joy. The more I learn about God and this world he’s made us the more my capacity to enjoy God grows, so I keep reading.
I tend to always have a book with me and so I make time for reading when waiting in lines, in between meetings, etc.
Hope some of this helps.
The book, How to Read a Book, by Mortimer Adler was helpful to me when during my later college years my love for reading really began to grow.
I never read without a pen in my hand. I read like I’m having a conversation with somebody…I ask the book questions, I note my agreement and disagreement, I scribble little ideas and such in the margins.
Does this help?
Justin
Adaptation. Gradualism. Exchange.
Wise words from Jonathan Dodson on the importance of Adaptation, Gradualism, and Exchange in leading the church (over the past few years of spending a lot of time with San Francisco area non-believers
and brand-new believers who come from thoroughly pagan backgrounds, I’ve
found both "Gradualism" and "Exchange" to be extremely important in gospel ministry):
- Adaptation - To adopt a cultural form for Christian purposes. In Augustine’s case, he adopted heathen temples and turned them into church buildings. Gregory wrote to him: “Detach them from the service of the devil and adapt them for the worship of the true God.”
Many Christian leaders and Christians would frown on using a Jehovah’s
Witness Kingdom Hall for a church building because their conception of
church is so narrowly conceived. Since my first day in Austin, I have
been praying that God would give us a male strip joint called La Bare to
meet in and do mission from, located the corner of Riverside and
Congress. We are currently meeting in a downtown Theatre where we
frequently pick up beer bottles off the floor before people arrive. The
bathrooms are covered in graffiti and smell terrible, but the aroma of
Christ fills the Hideout every week and is slowly changing that part of
the city. This isn’t about being cool; its about adopting Austin’s
cultural forms, creating common cultural space for non-Christians, and
using these forms for Christ-honoring purposes.
- Gradualism - Implement Christian ideals slowly recognizing that individuals are undergoing and entire worldview shift.
Don’t expect radical holiness from your new converts. If they have
embraced Christ but still smoke pot or occasionally drink too much,
don’t beat them up for their behaviors. Instead, shepherd their hearts,
lead them into the gospel, and allow their inner joy to transform their
outer joys. Gregory wrote: “If we allow them these outward joys, then
we are more likely to find their way to the true inner joy… It is
doubtless to cut off all abuses at once from rough hearts, just as a
man who sets out to climb a high mountain does not advance by leaps and
bounds, but goes upward step by step and pace by pace.”
- Exchange - The creation of an entirely new cultural form in exchange for an existing idolatrous one.
It is one thing to use pagan temples for church buildings, it is quite
another to participate in pagan sacrifices. For instance, if your
people consistently go to happy hours to get wasted and have a social
life, create a more God-honoring context for socializing. Gregory
wrote: “People must learn to slay their cattle not in honour of the devil, but in honour of God and for their own food…” We need to work creating more social spaces for our people to exchange sinful social spaces with holy social spaces.
Read the whole thing…
Personality Profile Prayer
I think the Myers Briggs Type Indicator can be a helpful tool. I’m sure many of you have taken the test. I took the test when I was 17 and again, just 1 year ago. Both times I came out as an ENFJ.
Recently I came across the following, a list of facetious prayers corresponding to each Myers-Briggs personality type. I thought this was fun. The prayer listed with my type is descriptive of me. How about you…does the prayer listed with your “type” describe your dealings with God?
ISTJ: Lord help me to relax about insignificant details beginning tomorrow at 11:41.23 am e.s.t.
ISTP: God help me to consider people’s feelings, even if most of them ARE hypersensitive.
ESTP: God help me to take responsibility for my own actions, even though they’re usually NOT my fault.
ESTJ: God, help me to not try to RUN everything. But, if You need some help, just ask.
ISFJ: Lord, help me to be more laid back and help me to do it EXACTLY right.
ISFP: Lord, help me to stand up for my rights (if you don’t mind my asking).
ESFP: God help me to take things more seriously, especially parties and dancing.
ESFJ: God give me patience, and I mean right NOW.
INFJ: Lord help me not be a perfectionist. (did I spell that correctly?)
INFP: God, help me to finish everything I sta
ENFP: God,help me to keep my mind on one th-Look a bird-ing at a time.
ENFJ: God help me to do only what I can and trust you for the rest. Do you mind putting that in writing?
INTJ: Lord keep me open to others’ ideas, WRONG though they may be.
INTP: Lord help me be less independent, but let me do it my way.
ENTP: Lord help me follow established procedures today. On second thought, I’ll settle for a few minutes.
ENTJ: Lord, help me slow downandnotrushthroughwatIdo.
J.I. Packer’s 1-Point Calvinism: God Saves Sinners
Scott Thomas writes a helpful post pointing to J.I. Packer’s explanation of one-point Calvinism. An excerpt:
For to Calvinism there is really only one point to be made…the point that God saves sinners.
"God – the Triune Jehovah, Father, Son and Spirit; three
Persons working together in sovereign wisdom, power and love to achieve
the salvation of a chosen people, the Father electing, the Son fulfilling the Father’s will by redeeming, the Spirit executing the purpose of Father and Son by renewing."Saves – does everything, first to last, that is involved
in bringing man from death in sin to life in glory: plans, achieves and
communicates redemption, calls and keeps, justifies, sanctifies,
glorifies."Sinners – men as God finds them, guilty, vile, helpless,
powerless, unable to lift a finger to do God’s will or better their
spiritual lot. God saves sinners – and the force of this confession may
not be weakened by disrupting the unity of the work of the Trinity, or
by dividing the achievement of salvation between God and man and making
the decisive part man’s own, or by soft-pedalling the sinner’s
inability so as to allow him to share the praise of his salvation with
his Saviour. This is the one point of Calvinistic soteriology which the
“five points” are concerned to establish and Arminianism in all its
forms to deny: namely, that sinners to not save themselves in any sense
at all, but that salvation, first and last, whole and entire, past,
present and future, is of the Lord, to whom be glory for ever; amen."
Read the whole thing.
Training Your Children to Love God’s Word: 1 Key Practice
As parents, especially as dads, it’s important that we train our children to love God’s Word. Here’s the single greatest way I know how to do this:
Show your children every single week of their lives that YOU love God’s Word.
Chances are high that your children will gain a love and appetite for God’s Word if they grow up observing YOUR consistent and highly visible love, delight, hunger, passion, and desire for knowing and enjoying God through the Scriptures.
Start this practice early. Forge good habits now.
- When your son is one week old, hold him as you read your Bible.
- When your home is wild and noisy with two boys under the age of two, consider not escaping to a hidden corner of the home, but instead having your daily time in the Word somewhere within your kids’ line of sight.
- When your kids are too young to understand what you’re saying, still tell them what you’re discovering/learning, what you’re excited about, from your time in the Word.
Show your children every single week of their lives that YOU love God’s Word.
