A Praying Life

Here is a quick recommendation--read A Praying Life by Paul E Miller (Navpress, 2009). Miller is director of seeJesus.net. From Miller's personal and family life, he gives the reader an honest, everyday look at the vital importance of being connected with the Heavenly Father through prayer. After reading the book, I thought: "Prayer makes a difference every day!"

There are several practical helps in the last section of the book as well. Miller greatly challenged me in many ways. I try to read a book on prayer once a year. This is the best one I've read in the last several!

Church of What's Happening Now

Cal Thomas has an excellent editorial, published in Wednesday's Greenville News that you should read: "Church of What's Happening Now Embraces Everything." It deals with the recent decision of the Episcopal Church to end the ban on the ordination of gay bishops and permit marriage 'blessings' for same-sex couples. The denomination explains the decision is to stem the exodus from their church by embracing a new doctrine they call 'inclusivity' which they hope will attract young people.

Thomas rightly criticizes the decision as having nothing to do with the foundational truths set forth in Scripture. Thomas writes, The church is inclusive only for those who are adopted by faith into God's family. There are more biblical references to this than there is room to cite here, but for the Episcopal leadership, biblical references no longer have power to persuade, much less compel them to conform. That's because Episcopal leadership denied the teachings of Scripture, in for of, well, inclusivity, a word that appears nowhere in Scripture. Even if it did, Episcopal heretics--for that is what they are--would choose another word to make them feel more comfortable, since accommodation with the world seems to be a more important objective than the favor of God.

Thank God for men like Cal Thomas, who still write/speak the truth. By the way, Thomas takes time in the article to also criticize Jimmy Carter, who also embraces same-sex civil unions.

An Episcopalian priest was a neighbor of mine in Texas. His church, along with several others in the state, had pulled out of the denomination over this issue. This man believed the Word and would not stand for compromise. There are many God-fearing, Bible believing Episcopalians who do not support this kind of rebellion against God. Thank God for them too!

By the way I went to www.calthomas.com to find the column but did not--apparently it has not been posted yet. However on his site are archived columns and comments.

Jamaica Pic 2

Here's Lesa doing what she loves in Jamaica!

Jamaica Pic

Lesa and Steph recently ministered a week in Jamaica. It was a blessing to them both. Here is Steph with one of the many friends she made.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to my blushing bride--Lesa. She's in Jamaica with Steph on a mission trip so we'll celebate later!

Church Rolls and Hebrews 6:4-6

Earlier this week we had a discussion in my New Testament survey class at North Greenville about the warning passages in Hebrews. Of particular interest to most is Hebrews 6:4-6, where it appears on the surface that one can lose his/her salvation. I interpret the passage as the writer warning those who 'profess' but do not 'possess' Christ. Examples of this would be Judas and Simon Magus in the NT as well as Jesus' Parable of the Sower.

I've been meditating on this passage with regard to the membership rolls of most SBC churches. Many folks on our roll who do not attend could not be found by the FBI. The great majority of them have not darkened the door of the church in years. I wonder if many of them give the church even the slightest thought. Some may but most probably do not.

What is their problem? I suspect the great majority are in the spiritual condition that concerns the writer of Hebrews. Many of these folks are simply not saved. They tasted the heavenly gift, became companions with the Holy Spirit, and tasted God's good word and His power, but simply never received Christ. They've professed but never possessed. They've walked down an aisle, filled out a membership card, perhaps even been baptized, but they've never been born again.

This condition is dangerous on a number of levels. What concerns me most is that many of these folks are putting their eternal security on church membership instead of Jesus. If you are placing your security on church membership, you're no better off than the folks of the book of Hebrews, many of whom were retreating back to Judaism instead of turning fully to Christ.

The problem of church rolls is a conundrum for the traditional church. Many see the church roll as sacrosanct. Every time I've ever brought it up, I get the "we've got to keep them because..." argument. The 'because' is usually, "If we drop them how can we minister to them?" Could it be that by warning them they could be dropped from the roll, sharing what biblical discipleship is all about, and reminding them of the importance of the church, is ministering to them?

Remember this: the church roll book is not the same as God's book, the Lamb's Book of Life. It is likely past time that church's stop contributing to this false sense of security, purge their rolls, and call people back to a personal relationship with Christ that is lived out in the community of His church. The church needs to hold its membership accountable and warn those who fall away that God's children persevere. We must warn in love, but doesn't love compel us to warn?

Thomas on Adultery

Cal Thomas' recent column on the Sanford 'affair' is insightful and should be read and thought about. Note a couple of paragraphs:

One can make excuses about power and loneliness and starting out as a friendship that develops into something else, as Gov. Sanford rambled on about, but one can’t explain adultery. It is what it is and the person who commits it should be calling on God for mercy, not the voters for understanding.

I once asked evangelist Billy Graham if he experienced temptations of the flesh when he was young. He said, “of course.” How did he deal with them? With passion he responded, “I asked God to strike me dead before He ever allowed me to dishonor Him in that way.” That is the kind of seriousness one needs to overcome the temptations of a corrupt culture in which shameful behavior is too often paraded in the streets.

Read the column; it will cause you to pause and ask for God's help and mercy.

Great Commission Task Force

The SBC this week approved as expected the formation of the Great Commission Task Force. It looks like a pretty good group, although I wonder if it is truly representative of the entire SBC. A couple of thoughts come to mind when I look over the list. First, there is no one from the mid-west (I don't think Kentucky is considered mid-west). Ronnie Floyd is as close as you get in Springdale, Arkansas. There are five members from Florida!

As usual, the super-church/very large church is represented the most. As far as I can tell (and I could be wrong), Mike Orr of First Baptist Chipley, Florida, is the only pastor of what I would call a medium size Baptist Church. By the way, I don't know Mike but I know FBC. I served in the Chipley area for over five years and FBC is a good congregation. There are no small churches represented as far as I can tell. I'm not sure of the membership/attendance of St. Andrew's in Panama City, but I know it wouldn't be termed small. Five of the members are denominational and three are educators.

I'm not sure what this group will be able to do, but I'm looking forward to hearing from them.

The Sanford "Affair"

You can't go anywhere today without hearing about the Sanford "affair." For those not from SC, you've probably heard the story about our governor; it's all over the news. I've reflected on all this from a biblical perspective and here are some random thoughts.

• We live in a fallen world and people sin, and sin always has terrible consequences.
• Integrity matters--always. A good name is better than riches [Prov 22:1].
• Believers must always have a heart of compassion and forgiveness [Matthew 18].
• Believers must never put too much trust in politics or politicians--our citizenship is in heaven and only our Lord is perfect!
• Believers have a responsibility to pray for our leaders [1 Timoth 2:1-3]. One thought that crossed my mind this morning was--if Christians prayed more for leaders, praying for a spiritual mind, a submissive spirit, and protection from the evil one, would this happen less frequently? God convicted me to be less critical and more prayerful.

I think too I must be consistent with this. When President Clinton was caught in his affair with Monica Lewinski, I believed strongly that he broke the public's trust and should resign. Contrary to his supporters, I believed then that his affair showed a basic flaw in character that inhibits sound decision making. I believe that now about Governor Sanford. He should resign. There's a problem deep down in his soul that also inhibits sound decision making. Besides, he should concern himself now with healing himself and his family.

I've committed myself to pray for the governor and his family. I hope you'll join me.

Steph's Blog

Stephanie is on mission this summer in Florence, SC. She is working with the Florence Baptist Association through the North American Mission Board. She has set up a blog to share some of her experiences. Lesa and I are extremely proud of what she's doing. I know Steph would appreciate your prayers as she continues the work through the end of July.

New Boy Friend

We recently attended a Greenville Drive game. Looks like Steph found a date!!

The Need for Silence

Al Mohler's always insightful blog has an entry today about the need for silence. Primarily he discusses children but the need is just as real for adults.

Similarly, I've just begun the book A Praying Life by Paul Miller. I read this only a couple of hours before Mohler's blog. He writes:

American culture is probably the hardest place in the world to learn to pray. We prize accomplishments, production. But prayer is nothing but talking to God. It feels useless, as if we are wasting time. Every bone in our bodies screams, 'Get to work.'

When we aren't working, we are used to being entertained. Television, the Internet, video games, and cell phones make free time as busy as work. When we do slow down, we slip into a stupor. Exhausted by the pace of life, we veg out in front of a screen or with earplugs.

If we try to be quiet, we are assaulted by what C.S. Lewis called 'the Kingdom of Noise.' Everywhere we go we hear the background noise. If the noise isn't provided for us, we can bring our own via iPod.

How true. I've become more and more enamored with silence. To use a quote from a recent blog entry, I've been working on 'ruthlessly eliminating hurry.' That would include having to have noise all the time.

I've never been able to truly study with noise or read with any kind of comprehension when there is something else going on. My staff here at Fairview laugh because I've always got a fan going [even in winter]. It is used primarily to drown out any extemporaneous noise. I'm applying that more and more to my spiritual life with increasing benefits. Try silence. You'll like it.

"Be still and know I am God" [Psalm 46:10].

Spiritual Leadership

This is from the latest "Preaching Now" newsletter.

An unclear understanding of spiritual maturity may be an underlying reason why there is so little progress in seeing people develop spiritually in the United States, despite overwhelming access to churches and unlimited products and resources, The Barna Group says."America has a spiritual depth problem partly because the faith community does not have a robust definition of its spiritual goals," David Kinnaman, Barna's president, said. "The study shows the need for new types of spiritual metrics."Barna found that most Christians equate spiritual maturity with following the rules described in the Bible.

Also, many churchgoers were unable to identify how their church defines spiritual maturity. Most Christians, Barna said, offer one-dimensional views of personal spiritual maturity, giving answers such as having a relationship with Jesus, living a moral lifestyle or applying the Bible.Most pastors struggle with articulating a specific set of objectives for spirituality and instead list activities over attitudes, the study said.

Pastors are willing to acknowledge that a lack of spiritual maturity is one of the largest problems in the nation, but few of them say spiritual immaturity is a problem in their church.When Barna asked the 600-plus pastors who were part of the survey to identify biblical references to chart spiritual maturity, most gave generic responses such as "the whole Bible," "the gospels" or "the New Testament." Just 2 percent mentioned the Galatians 5 passage listing the fruit of the Spirit."

One new metric might be a renewed effort on the part of leaders to articulate the outcomes of spiritual growth. Another might be the relational engagement and accountability that people maintain," Kinnaman said. "Of course, spirituality is neither a science nor a business, so there is a natural resistance to ascribing scientific or operational standards to what most people believe is an organic process."Yet, the process of spiritual growth is neither simplistic nor without guidelines, so hard work and solid thinking in this arena is needed."

(Baptist Press, 6-1-09; click here to read the full story.)

My own view is that spiritual maturity can be clearly guaged by Galatians 5. Is the fruit of the Spirit recognizable in an individual's life? I guage my own spiritual growth by sifting my life through that passage. Spiritual maturity is not measured in activities but in fruit.

Speaking Your Mind

Every once in a while someone will hurt another and rationalize it by saying, "I always speak my mind." I was reminded today reading David Jeremiah's devotional that speaking one's mind is not always the right and loving thing to do. Let's be reminded of the following Scriptures:

• A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man holds it in check. [Prov 29:11]
• My dearly loved brothers, understand this: everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger [James 1:19]
• The one who guards his mouth protects his life; the one who opens his lips invites his own ruin [Prov 13:3]
• No rotten talk should come from your mouth, but only what is good for the building up of someone in need, in order to give grace to those who hear. [Eph 4:29]

Remember all things, especially your speech, should be done in love. Most of the time "speaking my mind" means I'm going to say something hurtful. That's not the job of the believer. The job of the believer is to lift people up, not tear them down.

Just musing.

Number 21

This is a week late (it's been pretty busy around here!), but here's what a 21 year old looks like!!

Happy 21--Andrew

The Erosion of Inerrancy

The third mini-review from my vacation is G.K. Beale's The Erosion of Inerrancy in Evangelicalism. Beale's concern is that a significant number of evangelicals are moving away from the Chicago Statement on Inerrancy and embracing more postmodern interpretive methods, causing less confidence in the propositional claims of the Bible.

Primarily Beale debates Peter Enns, whom Beale sees as a primary example of those who are moving away from inerrancy. Enns' book, Inspiration and Incarnation: Evangelicals and the Problem of the Old Testament, is Beale's primary target. There are chapters concerning OT narratives [primarily those in Genesis], how OT texts are handled in the NT, the authorship of Isaiah, and OT cosmology.

Can the Bible contain myth and still be considered authoritative? Can inspiration for the Bible be maintained if it contains distortions of history? Did Jesus and the apostles misinterpret the OT? If Jesus taught that Isaiah wrote all his prophecy, can one hold to Second or Third Isaiah and still hold to the authority of Scripture? Does the OT borrow mythological beliefs about the cosmos that are clearly incompatible with modern scientific knowledge? These are important questions dealt with by the author as the book unfolds. Beale is concerned that these questions once posed by liberal theologians are now being asked from within evangelicalism. He is rightly concerned. If evangelicals continue to move along the lines outlined in this book, we all better be concerned!

I would urge a reading of this book to open one's eyes to what is happening in larger evangelicalism.

The Attentive Life

As mentioned earlier, I had the chance to catch up on some reading on my recent vacation. The best book I read was The Attentive Life by Leighton Ford. For Ford, the great sin Christians commit is that of inattention to God and what He is doing in your life. Ford writes: "We live in an age of continuous partial attention." This partial attention is a major hindrance in our relationship to God because it is sin. He quotes the Quaker writer Douglas Steere: "For prayer is awakeness, attention, intense inward openness. In a certain way sin could be described . . . as anything that destroys this attention" [26]. Ford's solution--practice in some way the Benedictine Hours, from Vigils to Compline. For the author, these divine hours are not just for one's day but for one's life.

The book then is structured along the "Hours." In each chapter there is a description of the "Hour," a biblical/devotional development of it, and an example of one "Who Paid Attention."

If distraction is the primary problem of most believers (and I agree that it is), then this book is at least a partial remedy. Some salient quotes:

• The true mystics . . . are not those who contemplate holiness in isolation, reaching godlike illumination in serene silence, but those who manage to find God in a world filled with noise, the demands of other people and making a living [quoting Kathleen Norris].
• The great irony of our wired age of communication is that many of our children are growing up information rich and imigination poor.
• To pray without ceasing is not to think about God rather than other things, or to talk to God instead of to other people, but rather to think, speak and live in the presence of God [quoting Henri Nouwen].
• Love is focused attention.
• Hurry is the great enemy of life in the Spirit.
• Ruthlessly eliminate hurry! [The key to keeping the 'fast lane' from ruining one's spiritual life]
• Death, some small, some huge, may be God's way of bringing transformation and new life.

You get the idea. There are many quotes and scriptural references that bring life to this book. Ford has written something we all need. He is calling for something we all need to do. We all need to slow down and pay attention to the One who always pays attention to us. You need to read this one!

Ending of Mark

I read several books during my recent vacation. I'll comment on three of them over the next few days. David Alan Black has edited, Perspectives on the Ending of Mark. The book consists of papers shared during a 2007 conference held at Southeastern Seminary.

Whether or not Mark 16:9-20 is original is something text critics and Bible students have grappled with for centuries. By and large there are three major views: (1) The Gospel ended at v. 8; (2) vv. 9-20 belonged with the Gospel from the start; and (3) the ending was lost. Those views were touted by Daniel Wallace, Maurice Robinson, and Keith Elliott, respectively. David Alan Black adds a chapter in which he touts his own proposal for solving the Synoptic Problem (see his Why Four Gospels?]. Black believes Mark wrote vv. 9-20 as an addendum to the Gospel later.

Each of the chapters is well done and clearly outlines the proposal championed. I have in recent years come to the conclusion that Mark ended his work at v. 8 and vv. 9-20 are secondary. That just seems to me to be the easiest and best explanation. However, as this work makes clear, one must hold to his view on these verses tentatively. The last word has yet to be spoken or written about them.

If you want a clear outline of the major ways this text is handled, this book is for you. I highly recommend it. All the chapters were a good read and stimulated further thought and study on my part.

Myrtle Beach 2009

Vacations are awesome but end too soon! We had a great time on Myrtle Beach. It was bike-week but that didn't bother us too much, surprisingly.

Divine Interruptions

This morning God turned my attention to Amos 7:14: So Amos answered Amaziah, “I was not a prophet or the son of a prophet; rather, I was a herdsman, and I took care of sycamore figs. The High Priest has warned Amos to stop prophesying and go back home where he belongs. Amos simply says he cannot. He had been living his life, tending to his business, when God interrupted and called him to be a prophet.

God specializes in divine interruptions. As you move along your day, look for them. They are divine opportunities to get in on kingdom work. Because He's God, He has a right to intervene in our lives anytime He chooses. It is up to us to be ready.

Ask God today to give you a discerning spirit. Ask Him to open your eyes and heart to those divine interruptions, opportunities to do something eternal. He's working. Are you ready?