Who Are You Reading?

Bring the Books 3

I do not remember when I have last been more burdened about a particular blog post. This one, or at least the idea behind it, has lain heavy on my heart for months. It does not help that I fully expect it to be widely misunderstood at best. The previous sentence is not sad to me because of me; it is sad to me because misunderstanding or refusing to apply the truth I present here is bringing and will bring widespread damage to the cause of Christ. No, I am not exaggerating here either. So as much as lieth in me, I implore you to give me a hearing.

Let us assume, for the moment, that you are the kind of minister who understands the importance of reading and study. You would not be counted amongst those whose ministries are vapid, shallow, gasping things, dressed in the finery of activity while existing on a subsistence level spiritually. You have your limitations and you know them, yet you strive to be diligent about preparing your mind to serve the Lord and feed your people – and because of this you read. Hence arises the following question:
Who are you reading?

I did not say what. You do not read a what; you read a whom. You do not pore over a book; you partake of the mind and heart of an author. The words you peruse were carefully chosen by the writer to transfer his thoughts into your mind. Descartes said, "I think, therefore I am." Reading invites more than just knowledge into your mind; it brings in the thoughts of another "I am". So who are you reading? Who have you read? Who will read next?

Stop. Before you answer me with a name or a list of names I have a follow-up question, one that is more important than the first one. Why? Why have you chosen to read after those men?

Let me suggest there are some bad answers to this second question. For example, if I ask you why you read a certain author and you do not have an answer – well, that is a bad answer. It means you have not thought through the implications of the fact you are reading a whom rather than a what. It means you have exercised zero discernment about whom you allow to influence you. In this sense, it is no different than choosing a church completely at random. You have a critically high percentage change of ingesting some seriously bad philosophy, doctrine, or practice if you do not stop to answer the why question.

That is not the only bad answer, of course. Others would include reading a particular author because your local family/Christian/Bible bookstore carries a lot of books by him. After all, if he is popular his stuff must be good. You do realize, don't you, that the average doctrinal discernment in a "Christian" bookstore is near zero? You do realize, don't you, that they are for-profit business? That does not make them evil but it does mean they will stock books that appeal to the widest possible sector of the "Christian" public. By definition, to appeal to that wide sector you have to avoid alienating people like the plague. You have to be simplistic, emotional, and uncontroversial. You have to talk about all the things people like about God but none of the things they do not. All of which means the books you will find widely available in the average Christian bookstore are poor books at best.

Unfortunately, we are not done yet. Remember, this is a blog series primarily aimed at ministers, and ministers do not generally give the first two bad answers I listed to the why question. That does not necessarily mean they give a good answer though. Instead, often they simply give a different yet equally bad answer. The why behind the men they read is simple – they read the men everybody else is reading. They read the same books their friends in the ministry are reading, that their friends are discussing, that everyone in their peer group is reading.

In a sense, I get that. I will often see or hear a friend of mine recommend a particular book. That brings the book to my attention, which is the first step to getting it on my reading list. Not only do I get it, as an author I profit from it. I am an average guy pastoring an average size church. The only hope I have to sell books is word-of-mouth recommendation.

Why is that a problem, especially since it helps me as an author? It is a problem because you are not reading a book, rather you are being influenced by an author. I shudder to think, even in relation to my own books, how few men bother to research an author before they read him. Many do not, and that is a problem because it means they are opening up their mind to an influence without first establishing carefully whether it will be a good influence or not.

See, here's the thing – as a listener or a reader I cannot control what influence I receive. I do not know what that person is going to say or write next. I opened my mind when I opened the book. Simply put, it is going to influence me. No, I cannot control whether that influence will take place but I can control who is doing the influencing. I cannot control what they say but I can control who I listen to (podcasts, I am looking at you) and who I read after. And I should, because who I listen to and read after will influence me. I cannot help it. I will not remain unmoved. So I had better think through who I allow to push me before they start pushing me.

This brings me back to the grief that lies on my heart as I write this piece. In my estimation, there is present in the independent Baptist movement a wide tendency to read men who are pushing us in the wrong direction. This is a philosophical piece. I do not want to press it to strongly into specifics lest you lose the larger point. I do, however, want to be clear so let me give you a couple of contemporary examples of what I am talking about.

Let us take Francis Chan for a moment. Most known as the author of the best-selling Crazy Love (no, I have not read it), he founded a mega-church, and a Bible college. His life, as far as is known, is marked by integrity and a genuine devotion to his family. He gives away a substantial portion of his income, and has a genuine passion to share Christ with as many people as possible.

So why won't I read Francis Chan? After all, numerous friends of mine have informed me his books are well-written, thought-provoking, spiritual, and edifying. My answer is simple: I don't want Francis Chan influencing me. See, in addition to all the good of the previous paragraph, Chan does not use the KJV, embraces contemporary worship, is a Calvinist, is comfortable speaking for doctrinally disastrous organizations, co-writes books with the most egregious religious pragmatists of our day, and embraces a charismatic approach to spiritual gifts. Further, his whole approach to ministry is constantly shifting, moving, morphing, transitioning, going somewhere else other than where he is now.

For good measure, let us throw David Platt into the mix too. As with Chan, he is a hot commodity amongst American preachers today, including with many younger independent Baptist ministers. Most known as the author of Radical (no, I have not read it), he is highly educated and articulate. He routinely occupies the most influential pulpits in not just the Southern Baptist Convention, but more broadly throughout America. Like Chan, he has a reputation as a thinker and a doer both, and appears to be by all accounts deeply committed to his wife and children.

So why won't I read Platt? You already know the answer, don't you? Again, like Chan, he embraces a huge swath of doctrine and practice and ministry that I find not just highly questionable but repugnant. I am not interested in allowing him to pour his thoughts into my mind and heart. I do not want him influencing me, and since I cannot read his books without also partaking of his influence I choose not to read his books. I do not want to go where he is at, let alone where he will be going next so I simply refuse to read him, period.

I can hear them from here, the multitudes of my preacher brethren sighing in exasperation with me as they peruse this. "C'mon, Tom, be serious. You cannot only read people with whom you agree. You have to eat the meat and spit out the bones."

Shockingly, I actually agree in principle with that statement. What I
disagree with is the practice that increasingly flows from that principle, as if it justifies reading after anybody and everybody. It is one thing to read an author with whom you know you have one or two differences. It is an entirely different matter to embrace willy-nilly the popular authors of our day, a day in which American Christianity is not coincidentally doctrinally deficient, practically anemic, and disastrously worldly.

I like fish, not to fish, but to grill them and eat them. I can pin-bone my own salmon (a risky proposition) or I can purchase one that has been carefully prepped already. Eat the meat and spit out the bones? Sure, but the more bones there are the greater chance they have of getting through, and once they get through they can inflict serious damage. My children eat what I grill. I would be a fool not to carefully inspect the fish I am going to pass along to them.

See, it is not just about you. It is even more about those whom you, in turn, will influence. If you allow yourself to swallow the swill that currently passes for edification in much of American Christianity you will find it does not stop with you. When Peter said we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard (Acts 4.20) it was in the context of not being able to keep quiet about Christ. Why couldn't he keep it quiet? Because Christ had influenced him, to put it mildly, and what was in Peter as a result of that influence was going to come out of him as he, in turn, influenced others.

A professor at a leading American independent Baptist Bible college recently published his recommended reading list. On this list you will find evangelicals of all stripes, including Calvinists, Southern Baptists, covenant theologians, professors at compromising, even liberal Bible colleges, and charismatics in all but name, with the occasional marketing expert thrown in for good measure. What you will not find is a single book written by an independent Baptist.

"So? You think independent Baptists have the market cornered on God and on truth?"

No, but I do think we are right about a whole lot of things many people in today's Christian America are wrong about. If I did not I would not be one. And I dead sure do not want the professors teaching in our Bible colleges recommending books that will move impressionable young preachers away from who we are, and the truths we believe Christ would have us to stand for. I am not saying this particular brother in Christ is wicked. I am confident he is sincere, a good man, serving the Lord out of a pure heart, but his course here is a very dangerous one. Why? Because you cannot control what an influence does once is is let loose; you can only control who does the influencing. 

I beg of you, grasp the fact you are reading more than a book; you are reading an author. For the love of all that is good and right and holy, for the sake of yourself and those that follow you, choose that author carefully. He will take you somewhere. Make sure it is where you want to go before you read him.

Feed the Flock

Bring the Books 2

It is simply inarguable that God's ministers are to be men who place a priority on reading and study. In my view, there are at least three reasons why the Pastoral Epistles specifically emphasize the necessity of reading in a pastor's life. Brace yourselves; here they come.

First, if you are going to feed people in a long-term pastorate you simply must be constantly growing yourself.

Spring
by Anton Mauve (1838-1888)

The word 'pastor' literally means to shepherd, and a shepherd's purpose in life is to care for his sheep. In this context, God repeatedly instructs His men that their primary task is to feed the flock of God via the preaching of God's Word. (John 21.16-17, Acts 20.28, I Peter 5.2) Yes, the pastor is to visit, to administrate, to mentor, to pray, to lead, and to do a thousand other things but he must prioritize preaching.

Preaching, if it is to be done correctly, takes preparation, sometimes vast amounts of it. That is even more true in a religious system such as ours that demands of its pastors several new sermons each week. Of course, short cuts have always been available to busy pastors, and never more so than in our day. It takes little preparation to bring an angry rant in lieu of a sermon. All one needs to do is to get their emotional dander up, and that is suspiciously easy to do. Other men seek to ride on the coat tails of others, snagging sermons from religious publications, from their friends, or from the internet.

Good preaching – and do not confuse this with entertaining preaching – like good food is not produced with short cuts. Yes, you can put your ribs in the oven but the only way to get that true, deep, to-die-for barbecue flavor is to smoke them low and slow for hours. Some things simply take time.

Let us move past the individual sermon, however. A pastor who occupies the same pulpit for decades - stay in Crete, beloved (Titus 1.5) – will find his internal store of knowledge severely tested, if not exhausted, after a few years. At this point he has only three choices, and two of them are bad. He can leave quickly, paint some brief strokes at the new location, then repeat said process for his entire life. Alternatively, he can remain where he is, retitle his sermons, and preach what is essentially the same content over and over again for as long as they will put up with it. Or, he can study, working diligently to show himself approved, and mine the Scriptures for more of the immeasurable wealth which they contain. Guess which one of these three options actually builds solid Christians and solid churches? Right.

Secondly, if a pastor will focus on growing the depth of his ministry he will find that God will take care of growing the breadth of it. All too often, however, we worry about the latter, emphasize the latter, strive to obtain the latter, and then wonder why God will not give it to us. Perhaps He does not allow our ministries to grow because He knows we will do little in reality to edify the increased numbers of people to whom we wish to minister.

The desire for a wider ministry is not wrong, of course. It is also not rare. Most men in ministry, both young men and mature men, desire a greater sphere of influence for the cause of Christ. But when we place our primary attention on schemes to obtain that wider influence we fail to realize that we have not produced the inner strength to handle anything larger. Such growth, if realized, often has a greater chance of ruining us than it does of benefiting them, or the cause of Christ. Simply put, we cannot handle it and it will not last. The roots of the maple tree outside my window must grow if the crown is to grow in any lasting way. When you deepen your message God broadens your ministry, which is exactly as it should be.

My own modest ministry is living proof. For years, it seems, I prayed, asking God to give me a ministry beyond the walls of my church building. (Not that I am above my church; that is not how I intend this to be taken.) For years, it seems, He ignored that request. All the while – and God is my witness – I poured myself into learning and teaching the Word of God to whatever people showed up in front of me. I spent hundreds and hundreds of hours reading, studying, comparing Scripture with Scripture, Bibles and books strewn all over my office as if a tornado had blown through, all to teach five students in a tiny Bible institute class. No one seemed to notice or care. None of the extra work on my part resulted in any income, let alone any wider sphere of influence. But I just kept studying anyway.

Curiously enough, in God's own timing and in His own way, He has begun to grant me that wider influence. More people listen to my sermons and read what I write now than ever before. And I say this cautiously, I have not found it beyond my ability to handle. If I teach a college class about music, and a student asks me a question, I have twenty-five books worth of material, and hundreds of hours of research and preparation out of which to draw an answer.

Perhaps I am being too transparent here. I apologize if this smacks of self-praise. I have not arrived. Just today I happened to glance around my office and see three subjects in particular about which I desperately need to educate myself. Nor do I know all there is to know about the ones I have already studied. Nor am I the best example to illustrate this, I am sure. By the same token, though, I have seen God graciously allow me a broader ministry; it is not a coincidence that I spent years in obscurity first with my nose in the books. When you have something worth hearing, rest assured, you may count on the fact that God will make sure you get that hearing.

Thirdly, if you do not read you have chosen to limit your intake of knowledge only to those people who are currently alive – and that is close to a tragedy.

I do not mean to minimize those godly men (and women) who mentor, counsel, train, and educate you. After all, I desire to be one of those myself, in a sense. They are not idiots. They are spiritual, knowledgeable, compassionate, and helpful. They are beneficial to you in a myriad of ways, and you are wise to avail yourself of their experienced perspective. What they are, however, is limited. They are finite. You can only have, comparatively speaking, a few such men and women present in your life due to the constraints of space and time in which we all live.

Books? Now those are a whole 'nother matter. Books, especially the ones that have come through the generations down to our time, are the distilled wisdom of the ages. My pastor friend across town may serve me for a decent enough sounding board, but, with all due respect, he cannot compare to men of such spiritual stature and grace that have been read by God's men for centuries.

John R. Rice (1895-1980)
author of more than 30 books

One of the concepts that I intend to hammer home with this series is the importance of reading dead guys. I suspect you will tire of hearing me say it before we are done. And this is a primary reason why. Mathematically speaking, there may well be a dozen spiritual giants alive in our generation. Due to the magic of the internet you can hear all of them preach, yes. By force of perseverance and networking you may even manage to build a relationship with one or two of them. But that is all. On the other hand, you can step into my library, and find hundreds of such men sitting there patiently waiting for you. I am not asking you to turn away from the dozen great men of our generation, nor the good men who are special to you; I am pleading with you to include the hundreds behind you sitting unused, gathering dust on the shelves of your library.

We are called to feed the flock. There is nothing in your ministry more important, nothing more pressing, nothing more vital to be done well. It cannot be done well unless we give attendance to reading, it simply cannot.

So shove aside your fantasy football prep. Mute your smart phone. Clear your schedule. Bring the books. Spread them out on your desk, pile them up precariously on the corners, and then set a few more on the printer. Open your Bible. Open a good book. And grow into the minister God desires you to become.

Give Attendance to Reading

Bring the Books 1

The cloke that I left at Troas with Carpus, when thou comest, bring with thee, and the books, but especially the parchments.

II Timothy 4.13

Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.

I Timothy 4.13

Paul, sitting in a dank, damp dungeon, was cold. He wanted Timothy to bring him a warm cloak that he had left on the shores of Turkey in the care of Carpus when he embarked for his voyage to Rome. As with all of us, his bodily comfort was important to him, and rightly so. But more than he wanted to be warmed against the chill of a Roman prison he wanted sustenance for his mind. He wanted books. He wanted parchments.

Paul was almost certainly either a member of the Sanhedrin or in training to be when he got saved. He was both highly educated and brilliant. As an apostle, his writings to the Church were directly inspired by God. Yet in spite of all of this, he still wants to read, he still wants to study, he still wants information flowing across his mind.

Likewise, it was important to him that his protégé, Timothy, incorporate this same desire into the DNA of his ministry. Give attendance carries an implication in the original language similar to the devotion one would give a religion, a devotion that was to be both deep and continual. In other words, in Paul's view and the Holy Spirit's, the minister of a New Testament church ought to be fervent and constant in his pursuit of the knowledge, wisdom, and understanding found in books.

In most religious systems this is a given. For some reason, however, in the independent Baptist movement, this idea is sometimes viewed with skepticism. That skepticism is sold by sincere, influential leaders to younger men under the guise of spirituality and wisdom. The only book you need, some men say, is the Bible. Commentaries are dangerous. Studying the original languages is dangerous. Study will turn you into a stuff-shirt deeper-lifer, and will kill the soul winning fervor that ought to be at the center of your ministry. Other leaders, just as sincere, would fractionally widen a man's book list to include books written by their favorite independent Baptist guru, but then criticize those who would step outside that narrow reading circle. Still other leaders carry a default suspicion of anything that smacks of intellectualism. Such leadership has turned whole sub-groups of pastors into men whose bookshelves are as empty as their minds, and whose churches consequently have little to no depth in their doctrine and practice.

In this series, I will pay my respects in detail to those whose reading circle is too wide, but the wisdom given in response of making it so narrow as to be practically non-existent is questionable at best. I take that back; such a statement is too nice. It is not questionable; it is flat out disobedient. No matter what reason is given by a pastor for his lack of reading and study it is nothing more than a bad excuse. We are not unable. We are not too busy. We are not too isolated. God explicitly commands His men to be in the books.

I realize some men are more prone to intellectual pursuits than others. But this is also true of soul-winners, however, and just as I refuse to accept that only the volubly gifted should be soul-winners so I refuse to accept that only the intellectually gifted should study. A cultivation of reading and a pursuit of study are to mark every pastor's ministry, regardless of his built-in tendencies, of his strengths and weaknesses.

There are a number of practical reasons why God instructed His men to put a primacy on reading. In today's post, I will give you a few of them that apply to everyone, and next week we will look at some that apply more specifically to pastors.

Reading improves your ability to empathize with others. It trains your mind to become instinctually emotionally attached. In other words, it teaches you to care.

According to the Journal of the American Academy of Neurology consistent reading strengthens your memory and your overall mental ability at every stage of life.
Reading is to the brain what cardio and weightlifting are to the body. They push us beyond our current capacity, and thus increase that capacity. In other words, reading makes you smarter; your brain literally becomes better at processing information of all kinds. In fact, reading is so beneficial in this area it actually helps to protect you from developing Alzheimer's disease. 

A peer-reviewed study published by the University of Toronto  found reading not only increases our vocabulary, as would be expected, but somewhat surprisingly it also makes us better public speakers. As our command of language increases, and the ease and comfort which we exhibit around words grows, our ability to communicate grows along with it, even in front of groups of people.

Reading reduces your stress level. By turning your mind into a completely different channel, reading rests a body tensed by concern or work. It slows down your heart rate and eases strain on your muscles. In a vocation such as the ministry which carries such tremendous levels of measurable stress the relaxation brought by reading can be invaluable.

Reading is so beneficial to us in so many ways that a 2016 study by the Yale School of Public Health, in which it surveyed 3,600 men and women over the age of 50 for twelve years, found that those who read as little as thirty minutes a day lived on average two years longer than those who did not. Indeed, we would be wise to give attendance to reading for these practical reasons alone.

Over the next several months in this blog series, I plan to explore not only the benefits that come to a pastor who lives in the books, but also some philosophical and practical wisdom about how to do so. We will look at what kinds of books to read and what kinds to avoid. We will examine which types of books are helpful in the ministry and why, as well as give you specific examples of these kinds of books. We will also see how to incorporate this into your life, and how to develop yourself as a reader, one who understands how to study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. (II Timothy 2.15)

I invite you along for the ride. As always, your feedback is welcomed, even when your perspective disagrees with my own. I simply desire to be a blessing to you, and through you to others as you serve the Lord.

Singular

Poetry 4

My next blog series, slightly delayed, hopefully will debut on September 11. In the intervening period between series I sometimes share with you a bit of poetry. Today's post is a poem I wrote sitting at my desk at Toyota Youngstown on a slow day about five months before I got married. It spoke of my hope for what our marriage would be. (The 'Man' referenced in the first line was a nickname I gave to Mandy.) Now, some eighteen years later, I find the desire I expressed in these words back then rings truer then ever. 

Sonnet XI

Singular

I want my life to merge with my dear Man, 

To twine itself around her own until

Others looking closely at us will

Not tell where she would end and I begin.

I want, to name a word I oft have used,

To mesh with her, to join, to be, to blend

So tightly nothing can be used to rend

A seamless union, welded, melded, fused.

Often in my daily chosen path

I meet with those who in unseemly wrath

Have severed lives not meant to be apart

Because they did it wrong right from the start.

Let us be together fifty years, 

Transformed so that our twain as one appears.

-Tom Brennan
July 19, 1999

One of our first pictures together
as a dating couple.

Three Benefits of Family Devotions

In the last few weeks I have repeatedly run across questions related to family devotions. Since I am currently between series' on this blog I thought I would take a week to offer my perspective. Of course, I do not think the only appropriate way to conduct family devotions will be the ideas here. I do, however, think that family devotions are an essential component of a vital Christian home, and I hope that you will consider them carefully.

My Dad and I discussing the
book of Philippians after
reading it together in my
backyard last week.

I was born and raised in a Christian home, one in which family devotions were held every morning before school. My father's procedure was simple. The eight of us gathered in the living room with our Bibles. Typically, we read a chapter of the Bible together and then prayed. The passage chosen was the next chapter of whatever book we were reading through. The youngest child read the first verse followed by the next in line, ending with my mother and father. Following this, we prayed around in the same turn order. And that was it.

When my first child was old enough to read we initiated the exact same thing in our own home. Now then, for many years, the five of us have gathered in the living room in the morning before school. We each bring our Bible. We read it in turn, and then pray in turn. In this manner in the past nine years we have read together as a family Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Ruth, I and II Samuel, II Kings, Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Isaiah, Amos, Habakkuk, Zechariah, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, I and II Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, I and II Timothy, Hebrews, James, I and II Peter, I and III John, Jude, and Revelation. And the Apocrypha. Ok. Just joking about that last one.

Why did my parents do this in our home growing up, and why do I do it in my own home? Because Scripture tells us in numerous places that it is a parent's responsibility to acquaint their children with the Word of God. Consider the following instances please:

Deuteronomy 6:6–9
6 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:
7 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
8 And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.
9 And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.
…
Deuteronomy 11:18–20
18 Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes.
19 And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
20 And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thine house, and upon thy gates:
…
Psalm 34:11
11 Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
…
Psalm 78:5–6
5 For he established a testimony in Jacob, And appointed a law in Israel, Which he commanded our fathers, That they should make them known to their children:
6 That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; Who should arise and declare them to their children:
…
Ephesians 6:4 
4 And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture 
and admonition of the Lord.

Not only is this taught in Scripture, it is also exemplified therein. Solomon taught his son, Rehoboam, God's Word. In fact, the entire book of Proverbs is the result. Timothy knew the Bible from a child (II Timothy 3.15) and this was a direct result of the faith of his grandmother and his mother. (II Timothy 1.5) Jesus knew the Word of God frontward and backward at the tender age of twelve. That does not happen absent a Bible-infused atmosphere in the home.

In addition to obeying the Lord and acquainting your children with the Word of God there are at least three other benefits that come to a home that practices family devotions on a regular basis.

First, family devotions force parental accountability for hypocrisy. If a mother loses her temper and in a moment of frustration curses her son, she will come face to face with that son over the Word of God the next morning. If a father decides to skip church to watch a ballgame, he will come face to face with his children over the Word of God the next morning.

My family at my high school graduation celebration

Did you ever notice that most of the qualifications for a pastor listed in I Timothy 3 involve the pastor's family? One of the reasons for this is that the spiritual condition of the family is the clearest visible indication of a genuine spirituality on the part of the father. Why? Because you can hide your hypocrisy from many people but you cannot hide it from those who live under the same roof with you. A father who regularly gathers his children around him to read the Word of God and pray together will find he cannot long ignore obvious flaws in his own character. He must address them in front of the family who sees them. He cannot hide from those little faces gathered together and staring at him solemnly from the couch of a morning.

Second, family devotions build a culture of praying together. This dynamic is tremendously helpful when your family is faced with a serious discipline situation, some sort of emergency or a crisis.

Every family at some point faces such things. If you have a habit of praying together with your children it is the most natural thing in the world to kneel together beside your son's bed, and ask the Lord to help him to do right, and then listen to his broken voice plead for grace at the throne of grace. When the call comes that grandpa has been rushed to hospital with a heart attack fear fills the eyes of each child. You gather, read Psalm 23, and pray. And grace arrives. Such moments are not strained; they are not forced; they are not awkward. They are as natural as breathing, and perhaps just as helpful. But such grace-filled moments are hard to come by in families that routinely neglect the Word of God and prayer.

Third, family devotions put the Bible front and center as a foundation for a practical family dynamic. When the Word of God is regularly read it is perfectly natural to consult it regarding any particular question that comes up regarding life in a family. A brother and a sister are fighting. Society gives a thousand different approaches to solve it. The Christian parent sits them down on the couch and tells them to read the Sermon on the Mount. They understand that because they are used to interacting with the Word of God on that couch. How do you teach your sons to respect women? With the Word of God. How do you help your daughter to deal with her emotions when friends turn their backs on her? With the Word of God. How do you deal with an otherwise innocuous television sports broadcast that suddenly veers hard left and advocates embracing homosexuality? You open up the Word of God. It is just what you do as a family because it has – over time – become who you are as a family.

I hurt for children who grow up in homes where the Scripture is just a book you go looking for when it is time to go to church. Their parents have abdicated their responsibility, and unknowingly or uncaringly left them without an anchor in the face of a horizon full of storms. Teaching children the Word of God is not the job of the church; it is the job of the parent. And the simplest, easiest, and perhaps best way to do it is simply to gather together every day, open it up, read it, and then pray.

It is of such stuff and only such stuff that generational faith is built.

Four Lessons From the Controversy

Micah 11

We have spent three months in the rather obscure book of Micah. Allow me to share four final thoughts with you before we go.

First, God's people need shepherding. Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of thine heritage, which dwell solitarily in the wood, in the midst of Carmel: let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old. (Micah 7.14)

The concept of God being our shepherd is found most famously in Psalm 23 but it is not found there alone. It is also found in Genesis 49, Numbers 27, I Kings 22, II Chronicles 18, Psalm 74, 78, 79, 80, 95, 100, and 119, in Isaiah 40 and 63, Jeremiah 31, Ezekiel 34 and 37, Zechariah 10, 11, and 13, Matthew 9, 25, and 26, Mark 6 and 14, John 10, Hebrews 13, and I Peter 2 and 5. That is a whole heap of a lot of passages. It is drawn most beautifully in Psalm 23, and I expect to devote a blog series some time to unwrapping that for you.

Beloved, we must needs understand we require shepherding. When God's people begin to get the idea that they know best themselves, and that they do not need protected, cared for, shepherded, or lead when they cease to yield or to follow trouble inevitably comes. We need the Good Shepherd, and must needs follow Him.

Second, God's people need to see their God as a big God.

7.15 According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt will I shew unto him marvellous things.
16 The nations shall see and be confounded at all their might: they shall lay their hand upon their mouth, their ears shall be deaf.
17 They shall lick the dust like a serpent, they shall move out of their holes like worms of the earth: they shall be afraid of the LORD our God, and shall fear because of thee.

Doctrinally speaking, I am a cessationist. That means I do not believe in the exercise of the apostolic signs of tongues, prophesies, and miracles. But I do still believe we have a miracle working God. He does things that are flat out impossible for us to do. He does them in answer to prayer, He does them to help us in time of need, and He does them to demonstrate His own power to a lost world. Do not be a timid, thumb-sucking, paranoid, pessimistic, defeated Christian. It is not worthy of the God we serve. He wins, no matter how it currently looks. God wins.

Third, God's people must needs remember God's mercy. Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy. (Micah 7.18)

It is fairly common for a sinner to think, 'Well, my parents, my wife, my children will not forgive me. God probably won't either.' Yes, it is common, but is also one of the most vicious of the devil's lies. He whispers to you, 'What you did is unforgivable. Even by God.' And you believe him.

Such a lie, when it is believed, leads to depths of depravity that were unthinkable in a former life because now you sin in despair. You forget the wideness of God's mercy. You forget the depth of God's mercy. You forget the longsuffering of God's mercy. And, as in other areas, you create a God in your own image. Since others cannot forgive you and you cannot find a way to forgive yourself you cycle ever deeper into a veritable pit of disastrous sin.

Beloved, never, never, never forget the mercy of God. If you are breathing you can have it.

Fourth, never-ending sin will surely someday end, and God will fulfil all of His promises.

Micah 7.19 He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.
20 Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old.

What a comfort the doctrine of the final sanctification of God's people is to me! What a comfort it ought to be to His people, whether the church of God or the Israel of God. There is a very bright future and that very bright future is certainly coming for His people.

I could have called this post 'Hope in the Controversy.' It is remarkable, is it not, how a book of such fierce judgment ends in such great mercy and hope? That is all of a piece with Who God is, beloved.

I hope these few months we have spent together in Micah have been as much of a blessing to you as they have been to me. I hope you have gained not only a better appreciation for this obscure book, but even more than that I hope it has given you a better knowledge of God. I want you to know better Who He is, what He expects, and how He operates.

Let us adjust our actions accordingly. 

Next week I will probably inflict some poetry upon you, as I tend to do between series, but following that a new blog series is coming your way on the subject of reading. Stay tuned... 

Contrition in the Controversy

Micah 10

What was God looking for as a reaction from His people? If we can discover this we can apply it to our own situation here some 2,800 years later, I think. Well, when God comes in public and righteous anger directly at us what does He want? Contrition.

'Contrition' is defined by the dictionary as 'sorrow for and detestation of sin with a true purpose of amendment.' In that sense, I could have titled this 'Repentance in the Controversy.' Follow me through a few verses of Bible study today; I think it will help you.

I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause, and execute judgment for me: he will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness. (Micah 7.9) 

This passage, in my opinion, is speaking of Israel's ultimate restoration from and vengeance on her enemies. But until that time comes, Israel's attitude must be one of sorrowful contrition, willing to bear whatever punishment the Lord chooses to dish out – even if that punishment comes from the very enemies that she will someday permanently triumph over. Around Micah 7.9 is indicated in context sorrow for her sin, acceptance of the justice of the consequences, patience in enduring her consequences, and faith in the ultimate triumph of God's plan.

Micah 7.7 ¶ Therefore I will look unto the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me. <patience/faith>
8 Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD shall be a light unto me. <faith>
9 I will bear the indignation of the LORD, because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause, and execute judgment for me: he will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness. <sorrow/contrition/patience/faith>
10 Then she that is mine enemy shall see it, and shame shall cover her which said unto me, Where is the LORD thy God? mine eyes shall behold her: now shall she be trodden down as the mire of the streets. <faith during the consequences>
11 In the day that thy walls are to be built, in that day shall the decree be far removed.
12 In that day also he shall come even to thee from Assyria, and from the fortified cities, and from the fortress even to the river, and from sea to sea, and from mountain to mountain. <faith during the consequences>
13 Notwithstanding the land shall be desolate because of them that dwell therein, for the fruit of their doings. <contrition/acceptance of the consequences>

We see this same contrition called for repeatedly throughout Scripture when God has a controversy with someone.

Take Cain, for example. And Cain said unto the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear. (Genesis 4.13) In other words, Cain said, 'God, You aren't being fair to me. This punishment is not right or just.' The truth is God is always just and Cain needed to accept that, to embrace God's working in his life.

Take Esau, for another example. For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears. (Hebrews 12.17) He sorrowed for what he had lost, but not for what he had done. The proof is that he did not change. He never knuckled under, so to speak, and allowed that God was right in what God allowed and did in his life.

On the positive side, we note the wonderful example of the church at Corinth. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit Paul chewed them up one side and down the other. What was their response? Acceptance. Godly sorrow. Repentance. Change. Zeal in the change.

II Corinthians 7. 8 For though I made you sorry with a letter, I do not repent, though I did repent: for I perceive that the same epistle hath made you sorry, though it were but for a season.
9 Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing.
10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.
11 For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter.

David is another wonderful example of contrition. He accepted that he was wrong and God was right. And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. (II Samuel 12.13) He sorrowed deeply in a godly way, and came back to the Lord in his heart as well as his actions.

Ps 51. 3 For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.
…
16 For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
18 Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem.
19 Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.

Peter, who cursed and swore and rejected His Messiah, came in contrition to full repentance. Peter remembered the word of the Jesus, which said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And he went out, and wept bitterly. (Matthew 26.75) How do we know his bitter weeping was more spiritual than Esau's? The rest of Peter's long life of service for Christ tells us.

Saint Peter Repentant, Francisco de Goya, 1825

How did God, through Micah, direct Israel to respond to His work in her life? With contrition and repentance. He called on them to accept their guilt, to be sorry for their crimes, to patiently endure whatever He chose to put them through as a result, and then to change.

…and I suspect that is the same requirement He makes of us.

You know what God is looking for in your life? Contrition.

Three Cures for the Controversy

Micah 9

Correction requires a corrector but what did this corrector, Micah, give as the cure to Israel's sinful condition? In today's post let us look at three in particular.

The first cure is a recognition that God cannot be bought off.

Micah 6.6 Wherewith shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old?
7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

The statement 'every man has his price' is found on over 67,000 web pages. It is a fallacious notion driven by men who themselves have a price, or by men who have experience dealing with men who have a price. Such people seek to get out of trouble, in some form or fashion, by buying their way out.

Agnus Dei, Francisco de Zurbaran, 1640

Centuries before our text God instructed Israel to offer Him numerous sacrifices but contrary to accepted notions of theology that sacrificial system was never about buying God off. It was about continually pointing people toward the ultimate solution to their sin, the suffering Lamb of God. Thus, to bring the symbol (a sacrifice) without an underlying understanding of and belief in that which it symbolized (Jesus) appeased God not at all. God has always been after our heart; He has always been looking for faith.

Not only were sacrifices insufficient to buy God off so was the offer of your own child to the service of the Lord in the Temple. Exodus 13 says that the first-born child or beast belonged to God – for His use. Later this individual service from every family was changed to the Levitical system, but a man was still responsible to buy back, to redeem his eldest from Temple use. But even if you allowed your oldest child to enter Temple service it would not alleviate your personal transgressions. You cannot give God a substitute for what He demands. God insists on specific obedience and you cannot buy Him off with anything else. Just ask Cain.

The second cure I find in Micah is that wondrous verse found in chapter six. He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

To do justly is defined by the dictionary as 'to conform.' In the original language it carries the connotation of a legal term. It is similar in aspect to 'controversy' (which relates to a lawsuit) in which a judgment is legally passed and to which it is being adhered. God had a controversy with Israel. He had taken them to court. The judge would, of course, rule in His favor for He was acting in accordance with the Law and Israel was not. Thus, when Israel adjusted her actions to conform with the judge's bench ruling God's reasons for His great controversy with them would be over.

Next, Micah instructs us to love mercy.

So often, in the few areas in which you and I actually conform to God's Law, we look with scorn on those who do not. Yet we ourselves are so prone to wrong in other areas, and thus God is busy exercising His mercy just as much toward us as He is toward those we belittle. We must ourselves do justly – abide by the Judge's ruling – and at the same time extend mercy to those around us who are still struggling with sin against God.

Additionally, Micah tells us to walk humbly.

Perhaps the greatest negative example of this in Scripture is the Pharisees. They gave themselves to study and learn and apply the Law to the nth degree, yet in the resulting pride they missed the entire point. Their actions were correct in the extreme but their heart was faulty to the same extreme. We must absolutely do justly with mercy and humility or else our own heart will be wrong in the midst of our very conformity.

Humility is the prerequisite for the proper exercise of any spiritual activity. Name a spiritual grace. Can it be exercised in pride? Well, it can be but doing so accomplishes nothing actually spiritual in me. To walk through life's journey accompanied by constant humility is absolutely essential to the performance of every scriptural activity.

The third cure we find in Micah is broad, but accurate; we must eliminate sin from our lives. This was and is the ultimate cure to any controversy God has with us. It is a total cure, a complete cure, a permanent cure. So how was such a cure effected in Micah's day? The same way it is in our day: through the coming of Jesus Christ.

Micah 5.1 Now gather thyself in troops, O daughter of troops: he hath laid siege against us: they shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek.
2 But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.

Jesus always has been and always will be the hope of Israel. In the original language His name means 'saviour', literally, 'Jehovah is salvation.' And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins. (Matthew 1.21) Jesus would save them from the penalty of their sin – hell. Jesus would save them from the power of sin – their old nature. Jesus would thus save them from both sin's condemnation and its curse.

I am currently writing my third book, tentatively entitled, 'Freed From Sin', a phrase we find in Romans 6. Sanctification is both done and being done. God is in the business of making us holy, of forming us into the sinless image of Jesus Christ. And while this applies most personally in our dispensation it also applies to national Israel. Jesus, it was prophesied, shall save his people from their sins. Has He done this yet? In a theological sense, yes, it is finished. In a practical sense, no, it is not yet finished. Israel is not yet formed into the image of Christ. But it will be. When you ask? At His Second Coming.

To us, as Gentile Christians, or to speak with more theological accuracy, as the Church, the Second Coming is almost viewed as the end of everything. However, to the Jews it is the beginning. It is the beginning of them finally becoming the people God intended for them to be all along.

We refer to this time, in our parlance, as the Millennium. Micah much to it as the ultimate cure for the controversy riling the relationship between God and His people. In fact, Micah spends almost one quarter of his book discussing God's ultimate redemption of and restoration of Israel under her Messiah, which, we know, takes place at the Second Coming of Christ as He ushers in the Millennium.

If you are so inclined, take a glance through these and you will see it quite plainly.

Micah 2.12 I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee; I will surely gather the remnant of Israel; I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah, as the flock in the midst of their fold: they shall make great noise by reason of the multitude of men.
13 The breaker is come up before them: they have broken up, and have passed through the gate, and are gone out by it: and their king shall pass before them, and the LORD on the head of them.
...
Micah 4.1 But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it.
2 And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
3 And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
4 But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the LORD of hosts hath spoken it.
5 For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the LORD our God for ever and ever.
6 In that day, saith the LORD, will I assemble her that halteth, and I will gather her that is driven out, and her that I have afflicted;
7 And I will make her that halted a remnant, and her that was cast far off a strong nation: and the LORD shall reign over them in mount Zion from henceforth, even for ever.
8 ¶ And thou, O tower of the flock, the strong hold of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem.
…
Micah 4.11–13
11 Now also many nations are gathered against thee, That say, Let her be defiled, and let our eye look upon Zion.
12 But they know not the thoughts of the LORD, Neither understand they his counsel: For he shall gather them as the sheaves into the floor.
13 Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion: For I will make thine horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass: And thou shalt beat in pieces many people: And I will consecrate their gain unto the LORD, And their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth.
…
Micah 5.3–15
3 Therefore will he give them up, Until the time that she which travaileth hath brought forth: Then the remnant of his brethren shall return unto the children of Israel.
4 And he shall stand and feed in the strength of the LORD, In the majesty of the name of the LORD his God; And they shall abide: For now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth.
5 And this man shall be the peace, When the Assyrian shall come into our land: And when he shall tread in our palaces, Then shall we raise against him seven shepherds, And eight principal men.
6 And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, And the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof: Thus shall he deliver us from the Assyrian, When he cometh into our land, And when he treadeth within our borders.
7 And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people As a dew from the LORD, As the showers upon the grass, That tarrieth not for man, Nor waiteth for the sons of men.
8 And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles in the midst of many people As a lion among the beasts of the forest, As a young lion among the flocks of sheep: Who, if he go through, both treadeth down, and teareth in pieces, And none can deliver.
9 Thine hand shall be lifted up upon thine adversaries, And all thine enemies shall be cut off.
10 And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD, That I will cut off thy horses out of the midst of thee, And I will destroy thy chariots:
11 And I will cut off the cities of thy land, And throw down all thy strong holds:
12 And I will cut off witchcrafts out of thine hand; And thou shalt have no more soothsayers:
13 Thy graven images also will I cut off, And thy standing images out of the midst of thee; And thou shalt no more worship the work of thine hands.
14 And I will pluck up thy groves out of the midst of thee: So will I destroy thy cities.
15 And I will execute vengeance in anger and fury upon the heathen, Such as they have not heard.

With respect, I do not care who you are, I do not care where you live, I do not care when you live. Your problem and my problem is the same – sin. Judgment for that sin is coming. And the solution is the same as it has ever been, both personal and corporate. The cure is Christ. We must tell men of Him. We must, with everything we have and in the power of the Spirit, yield ourselves until He is formed in us.