This guy's photo-essay is hilarious. This Calvinist finds it funny. And if you dont find it funny - don't come looking to me for sympathy! The ability to laugh at yourself is somewhere near the theological foundation of Calvinism.
(PS I did mean that last statement - Calvinism allows no room for pride. Pride will not laugh at itself. So if we cant laugh at ourselves we must be too proud of ourselves for our ability to hold the truths that we hold to - which is a denial of biblical Christianity.)
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Sunday, December 11, 2005
Sabbath Sermon - Dangerous Amazing Grace (2 Kings 5:19-27)
Let me introduce to you 4 men:
Fritz Saukel - Nazi Head of Labour and Supply, described as the greatest and cruellest slave driver since Pharaoh, who worked millions of slave labourers to death without mercy.
Field Marshall Wilhelm Keitel - Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed forces. His unquestioning obedience to Hitler led to his being responsible for more deaths than anyone could count.
Wilhelm Frick - Minister of the Interior, a vicious hard-line Nazi who title covered up his reign of terror.
Joachim von Ribbentrop - Hitler's Foreign Minister, who had greeted King George VI with a "Heil Hitler".
Each man was on trial at the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal. Each man was found guilty of the most horrendous crimes against mankind. Each man was sentenced to be hanged.
As Ribbentrop was asked for his last words by the executioner, he said, "I place all my confidence in the Lamb who made atonement for my sins." And he turned to the Christian who had been assigned to be chaplain to the condemned men and said, "I'll see you again."
Saukel the slave driver, and Keitel the head of armed forces made similar statements, and Frick the man who terrorised hundreds of thousands informed the chaplain that he too had come to faith in Christ.
The chaplain was a man called Henry Gerecke, who wrote, "I have had many years experience as a prison chaplain and I do not believe that I am easily deluded by phoney reformations at the eleventh hour."
It would seem that these conversion were genuine.
And these men, despite their hands being red with the blood of millions are going to be in Heaven, and your very nice neighbour who would do anything to help you, and who is the picture of decency and moral integrity is going to Hell.
That is the shocking nature of the gospel. It cuts both ways. It is so wonderful and powerful that if a mass murderer accepts it, they will be saved. But it is so important and precious that the most decent person cannot get to Heaven without it.
The Gospel is a sword that cuts both ways. It cut Naaman free from his idolatry and pride, but it also cut Gehazi out of the people of God. With Naaman we see the transforming power of the gospel, but now with Gehazi we see the exposing power of the gospel.
It is amazing grace, but it is dangerous amazing grace.
And we learn a great truth and two very important warnings
God IS too easy on us!
Gehazi was right in v20
After Naaman had travelled some distance, Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, said to himself, "My master was too easy on Naaman, this Aramean, by not accepting from him what he brought. As surely as the LORD lives, I will run after him and get something from him."
Let me remind you of the story… Naaman had his sins forgiven and his leprosy washed away, Elisha wouldn't allow him to give him anything.
Gehazi is outraged because it is outrageous! And although Gehazi is a wicked and greedy man he still makes a profound statement here. Of course he doesn't react in a right way to what he says, but nevertheless it is still true.
Think about it for a moment. God is far too easy on us. Every day for all of your life you have disappointed and disobeyed God. One sin is enough to see you cast out of his presence. But we haven't just sinned once, we have sinned many times each day in what we have thought, in what we haven't thought that we should have thought, in what we have said and what we haven't said, in what we have done and what we haven't done. So there's an absolute bear minimum of 6 sins per day. That's over 2000 per year. Take your age and multiply it by 2 and add the word "Thousand" at the end. If you are 10 that's 20,000 sins, if you're 25 that's 50,000, if you're 40 that's 80,000, if you're 75 that's 150,000. And those numbers are the based on the ridiculous idea that we only sin once in each of these areas each day. They're far too small. So before the perfect holy God is the vast mountain of your personal sin.
And then add to that the fact that for those of you who are Christians - your sins are against knowledge - you should know better. Your sins committed each day as a Christian are in a sense even worse, even more of a slap in the face to God. And given that it is worse to know the truth and reject the truth than to be a filthy pervert, according to Jesus is Matthew 11:22 - many of us knew the gospel and rejected it for years before coming to Jesus.
And we need to remember that each sin is a personal offence against God. It is a personal insult to him.
And what does he do when you come seeking forgiveness for this vast mountain of wrong? What does he require of you?
To come and repent. To say and be sorry. And to believe what he says about himself
And for that he removes all the guilt and all the punishment that was waiting for us. Gehazi was right! God is far too easy on us!
It was his complaint - it should be a source of unending wonder for us.
Think of what we get - we get eternal life. At most we follow him for a few short years, and he gives us eternal life! The reward is vastly out of proportion to the service. And all the more when we realise that those who turn to Christ at the end of their lives receive the same eternal life! So it's not as if we earn the eternal life by following.
We who are dust get to live in eternity forever - we who are an offence and a stench to the nostrils of God - that's ridiculous, wonderfully ridiculous. Gehazi spoke the truth, but he didn't see the wonder of it.
Those of us who are Christians need to take this opportunity and stop to wonder at the greatness of God's grace. It is utterly stunning. He could ask the world of us, and it still wouldn't be enough to pay for one sin. Yet all he asks of us is that we repent and believe. Turn away from our sin and trust him.
God has been far too easy on us. It is a magnificent, wonderful, soul-enriching truth.
And that explains what happens in this passage. Since his grace is such a magnificent and amazing act
God will not tolerate his grace being distorted
That's main thrust of this section.
Elisha has laboured with Naaman to make the point that God's salvation costs nothing. It is just as free to Naaman as it is to any Israelite. That's the whole point of him refusing Naaman grateful reward. He knows that when Naaman arrives in Damascus, people will ask the obvious question, "What happened to you?" He wants Naaman's answer to be, "The God of Israel saved me, he made me clean." "How much did it cost?" "Nothing the God of Israel saves people for free."
Gehazi is livid that Elisha has taken nothing from Naaman. Gehazi is determined to make Naaman pay. It doesn't matter to him that Elisha has been trying to teach Naaman a very important biblical truth.
And so he goes off after Naaman who this made up story about two prophets arriving in great need. And of course Naaman gives him the money and the clothing, he's so thankful for his new life, and his new salvation that he'd do anything for God, and for God's people.
And in a moment Gehazi undoes all that Elisha had taught in v16. In a moment he distorts the grace of God.
Now we may think that we would never do that.
But if we found yourself thinking about the Nazi war criminals, "That's not fair, they should be made to pay" then you need to watch because you are in danger of making the mistake Gehazi made.
The grace that is amazing is also dangerous. It is dangerous if we forget that we didn't deserve it either.
The simple truth is none of us deserves anything from God. The Gospel is monumentally unfair. It is unfair to God - that he should have to pay for something he didn't do so that we could get something that was never ours.
We need to watch when we find ourselves being judgmental about others - because we are guilty too. We should be made to pay.
How can we do it?
We do it when we meet someone who has problems - say an alcoholic - and we make them feel as if they are sub-standard, as if they have to work even harder than the rest of us to be accepted by God. When we look down our noses at them, as if they aren't really whom the church is for. We're saying like Gehazi, "It isn't enough that you come to God, we want more from you."
We distort God's grace every time we add anything to the gospel.
You've got to be a Christian and wear the right clothes
You've got to be a Christian and come from the same background as us
You've got to be a Christian and be the same colour of skin as us
You've got to be a Christian and not done anything really terrible in your past.
Have you ever done that - assigned someone to a second class Christianity because you find out that they did something awful before they became a Christian? Or because they have been divorced? Or because they married someone who isn't a Christian? Or because they don't have the same theology as you? Or because they don't have the same pedigree in the church that you have?
That is a despicable thing. And that is what Gehazi was doing. And God does not tolerate people who add to his grace. We see what happened Gehazi, and similar will happen to anyone who adds to God's grace, and has higher requirements of others than God has.
No matter what background a person has - all God requires is repentance and faith. And you are a child of God, equal with every other child of God. There are no second class citizens of Heaven.
And pride has no place in the believers life. The only thing a Christian can say is "That could have been me."
Let me apply this in two specific ways
When God starts bringing people into this church - he'll bring all sorts. And when he does that we must be ready to welcome them and integrate them, displaying to them the amazing truth of God's grace - that even if you are a Nazi murderer, or a child abductor (like Naaman), you are now my brother or sister in Christ, and if God doesn't hold your past against you, then I certainly am not. And whether they become brothers and sisters in Christ or not, they need to see God's willingness to accept mirrored in us.
The other application is this - just as we must not distort God's grace with regard to others, so we must not distort it with regard to ourselves. There are some Christians who are immensely hard on themselves, they look at who they are and they feel that they couldn't possibly be accepted by God. They feel that they are some sort of second class Christian. We're not to do that to ourselves. God has said that we are his children, and we must not distort that grace.
God's grace is utterly amazing. We are all undeserving, and he makes any repentant sinner a son or daughter with all the rights and privileges of a son of God. We must not distort something so wondrous, for God does not treat lightly those who slander him or distort his grace.
And the second warning is this:
God will not tolerate those who ignore his grace
In this chapter we see that you can be amongst the godly and be ungodly yourself. You can have experienced all sorts of blessings, like Gehazi - he had seen countless miracles, he had heard countless sermons, he had lived in close proximity to a very godly man. Yet he was far from God.
And that is a solemn truth, you can be far from God while at the same time being very close to God's people. You can attend church, live in a home with other Christians, your closest friends can be Christians, and you still be far from God. You can have seen and heard about God's grace and ignore it.
And you may even fool many people. I'm sure the other prophets didn't suspect Gehazi of being anything other than a full-bodied believer. I'm sure that the woman at Shunem, or the widow thought Gehazi was a cert for being a believer.
But God was not fooled. And we see that he made it clear to Elisha that Gehazi was a deceiver (v26).
But Elisha said to him, "Was not my spirit with you when the man got down from his chariot to meet you? Is this the time to take money, or to accept clothes, olive groves, vineyards, flocks, herds, or menservants and maidservants?
Not only did God see what Gehazi had done when no-one was looking, but he knew exactly what he planned to spend the money on. And he revealed all of this to Elisha.
This is a great New Testament warning - Look how close you can be to the kingdom of God and yet not be in it. We see it with Judas, with Simon the Sorcerer, with Ananias and Sapphira. You can sit as Gehazi did, comfortable in the church for a long time, but God will weed you out. And he will replace you wqith ythsoe you currently look down your nose at.
Do you see what has happened in this chapter?
We started with Naaman the Syrian, the leper, and Gehazi the Israelite. Now we end with Naaman, the true Israelite, and Gehazi with his heart set on the things of Syria, the leper. There has been a complete reversal.
The Israelite receives the curse, and the pagan receives the blessing. And the story that started with an unconverted pagan and a professing believer, ends with the roles changed, and Naaman professing faith, and Gehazi condemned.
God will not tolerate those who ignore his grace. He will deal with you. And if there are people in this congregation who are ungodly amongst the godly, he will remove you. Your place is no more indispensable than Gehazi's was. God will provide a Naaman to sit in your seat.
So here is the warning - If you continue to ignore God's grace and your heart isn't set on the things of God, then you will find that God's heart is not set on you. God may say to some of you, perhaps some of you young people, perhaps some of you older people, "Enough is enough, you have sat in that pew long enough, I am going to take my grace to those who have never heard of it." And I tell you this, when you see people starting to come into this church from outside, from this community you will know that God is passing over you if you have not responded.
Conclusion
Some of us need to go home today and marvel that God has dealt so easy with us.
Some of us need to go home today and repent of wrong attitudes and superior feelings
Some need to need to go home today and repent of ignoring God's grace.
God's grace is amazing, but the grace that is amazing is also dangerous if we distort or ignore it.
Fritz Saukel - Nazi Head of Labour and Supply, described as the greatest and cruellest slave driver since Pharaoh, who worked millions of slave labourers to death without mercy.
Field Marshall Wilhelm Keitel - Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed forces. His unquestioning obedience to Hitler led to his being responsible for more deaths than anyone could count.
Wilhelm Frick - Minister of the Interior, a vicious hard-line Nazi who title covered up his reign of terror.
Joachim von Ribbentrop - Hitler's Foreign Minister, who had greeted King George VI with a "Heil Hitler".
Each man was on trial at the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal. Each man was found guilty of the most horrendous crimes against mankind. Each man was sentenced to be hanged.
As Ribbentrop was asked for his last words by the executioner, he said, "I place all my confidence in the Lamb who made atonement for my sins." And he turned to the Christian who had been assigned to be chaplain to the condemned men and said, "I'll see you again."
Saukel the slave driver, and Keitel the head of armed forces made similar statements, and Frick the man who terrorised hundreds of thousands informed the chaplain that he too had come to faith in Christ.
The chaplain was a man called Henry Gerecke, who wrote, "I have had many years experience as a prison chaplain and I do not believe that I am easily deluded by phoney reformations at the eleventh hour."
It would seem that these conversion were genuine.
And these men, despite their hands being red with the blood of millions are going to be in Heaven, and your very nice neighbour who would do anything to help you, and who is the picture of decency and moral integrity is going to Hell.
That is the shocking nature of the gospel. It cuts both ways. It is so wonderful and powerful that if a mass murderer accepts it, they will be saved. But it is so important and precious that the most decent person cannot get to Heaven without it.
The Gospel is a sword that cuts both ways. It cut Naaman free from his idolatry and pride, but it also cut Gehazi out of the people of God. With Naaman we see the transforming power of the gospel, but now with Gehazi we see the exposing power of the gospel.
It is amazing grace, but it is dangerous amazing grace.
And we learn a great truth and two very important warnings
God IS too easy on us!
Gehazi was right in v20
After Naaman had travelled some distance, Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, said to himself, "My master was too easy on Naaman, this Aramean, by not accepting from him what he brought. As surely as the LORD lives, I will run after him and get something from him."
Let me remind you of the story… Naaman had his sins forgiven and his leprosy washed away, Elisha wouldn't allow him to give him anything.
Gehazi is outraged because it is outrageous! And although Gehazi is a wicked and greedy man he still makes a profound statement here. Of course he doesn't react in a right way to what he says, but nevertheless it is still true.
Think about it for a moment. God is far too easy on us. Every day for all of your life you have disappointed and disobeyed God. One sin is enough to see you cast out of his presence. But we haven't just sinned once, we have sinned many times each day in what we have thought, in what we haven't thought that we should have thought, in what we have said and what we haven't said, in what we have done and what we haven't done. So there's an absolute bear minimum of 6 sins per day. That's over 2000 per year. Take your age and multiply it by 2 and add the word "Thousand" at the end. If you are 10 that's 20,000 sins, if you're 25 that's 50,000, if you're 40 that's 80,000, if you're 75 that's 150,000. And those numbers are the based on the ridiculous idea that we only sin once in each of these areas each day. They're far too small. So before the perfect holy God is the vast mountain of your personal sin.
And then add to that the fact that for those of you who are Christians - your sins are against knowledge - you should know better. Your sins committed each day as a Christian are in a sense even worse, even more of a slap in the face to God. And given that it is worse to know the truth and reject the truth than to be a filthy pervert, according to Jesus is Matthew 11:22 - many of us knew the gospel and rejected it for years before coming to Jesus.
And we need to remember that each sin is a personal offence against God. It is a personal insult to him.
And what does he do when you come seeking forgiveness for this vast mountain of wrong? What does he require of you?
To come and repent. To say and be sorry. And to believe what he says about himself
And for that he removes all the guilt and all the punishment that was waiting for us. Gehazi was right! God is far too easy on us!
It was his complaint - it should be a source of unending wonder for us.
Think of what we get - we get eternal life. At most we follow him for a few short years, and he gives us eternal life! The reward is vastly out of proportion to the service. And all the more when we realise that those who turn to Christ at the end of their lives receive the same eternal life! So it's not as if we earn the eternal life by following.
We who are dust get to live in eternity forever - we who are an offence and a stench to the nostrils of God - that's ridiculous, wonderfully ridiculous. Gehazi spoke the truth, but he didn't see the wonder of it.
Those of us who are Christians need to take this opportunity and stop to wonder at the greatness of God's grace. It is utterly stunning. He could ask the world of us, and it still wouldn't be enough to pay for one sin. Yet all he asks of us is that we repent and believe. Turn away from our sin and trust him.
God has been far too easy on us. It is a magnificent, wonderful, soul-enriching truth.
And that explains what happens in this passage. Since his grace is such a magnificent and amazing act
God will not tolerate his grace being distorted
That's main thrust of this section.
Elisha has laboured with Naaman to make the point that God's salvation costs nothing. It is just as free to Naaman as it is to any Israelite. That's the whole point of him refusing Naaman grateful reward. He knows that when Naaman arrives in Damascus, people will ask the obvious question, "What happened to you?" He wants Naaman's answer to be, "The God of Israel saved me, he made me clean." "How much did it cost?" "Nothing the God of Israel saves people for free."
Gehazi is livid that Elisha has taken nothing from Naaman. Gehazi is determined to make Naaman pay. It doesn't matter to him that Elisha has been trying to teach Naaman a very important biblical truth.
And so he goes off after Naaman who this made up story about two prophets arriving in great need. And of course Naaman gives him the money and the clothing, he's so thankful for his new life, and his new salvation that he'd do anything for God, and for God's people.
And in a moment Gehazi undoes all that Elisha had taught in v16. In a moment he distorts the grace of God.
Now we may think that we would never do that.
But if we found yourself thinking about the Nazi war criminals, "That's not fair, they should be made to pay" then you need to watch because you are in danger of making the mistake Gehazi made.
The grace that is amazing is also dangerous. It is dangerous if we forget that we didn't deserve it either.
The simple truth is none of us deserves anything from God. The Gospel is monumentally unfair. It is unfair to God - that he should have to pay for something he didn't do so that we could get something that was never ours.
We need to watch when we find ourselves being judgmental about others - because we are guilty too. We should be made to pay.
How can we do it?
We do it when we meet someone who has problems - say an alcoholic - and we make them feel as if they are sub-standard, as if they have to work even harder than the rest of us to be accepted by God. When we look down our noses at them, as if they aren't really whom the church is for. We're saying like Gehazi, "It isn't enough that you come to God, we want more from you."
We distort God's grace every time we add anything to the gospel.
You've got to be a Christian and wear the right clothes
You've got to be a Christian and come from the same background as us
You've got to be a Christian and be the same colour of skin as us
You've got to be a Christian and not done anything really terrible in your past.
Have you ever done that - assigned someone to a second class Christianity because you find out that they did something awful before they became a Christian? Or because they have been divorced? Or because they married someone who isn't a Christian? Or because they don't have the same theology as you? Or because they don't have the same pedigree in the church that you have?
That is a despicable thing. And that is what Gehazi was doing. And God does not tolerate people who add to his grace. We see what happened Gehazi, and similar will happen to anyone who adds to God's grace, and has higher requirements of others than God has.
No matter what background a person has - all God requires is repentance and faith. And you are a child of God, equal with every other child of God. There are no second class citizens of Heaven.
And pride has no place in the believers life. The only thing a Christian can say is "That could have been me."
Let me apply this in two specific ways
When God starts bringing people into this church - he'll bring all sorts. And when he does that we must be ready to welcome them and integrate them, displaying to them the amazing truth of God's grace - that even if you are a Nazi murderer, or a child abductor (like Naaman), you are now my brother or sister in Christ, and if God doesn't hold your past against you, then I certainly am not. And whether they become brothers and sisters in Christ or not, they need to see God's willingness to accept mirrored in us.
The other application is this - just as we must not distort God's grace with regard to others, so we must not distort it with regard to ourselves. There are some Christians who are immensely hard on themselves, they look at who they are and they feel that they couldn't possibly be accepted by God. They feel that they are some sort of second class Christian. We're not to do that to ourselves. God has said that we are his children, and we must not distort that grace.
God's grace is utterly amazing. We are all undeserving, and he makes any repentant sinner a son or daughter with all the rights and privileges of a son of God. We must not distort something so wondrous, for God does not treat lightly those who slander him or distort his grace.
And the second warning is this:
God will not tolerate those who ignore his grace
In this chapter we see that you can be amongst the godly and be ungodly yourself. You can have experienced all sorts of blessings, like Gehazi - he had seen countless miracles, he had heard countless sermons, he had lived in close proximity to a very godly man. Yet he was far from God.
And that is a solemn truth, you can be far from God while at the same time being very close to God's people. You can attend church, live in a home with other Christians, your closest friends can be Christians, and you still be far from God. You can have seen and heard about God's grace and ignore it.
And you may even fool many people. I'm sure the other prophets didn't suspect Gehazi of being anything other than a full-bodied believer. I'm sure that the woman at Shunem, or the widow thought Gehazi was a cert for being a believer.
But God was not fooled. And we see that he made it clear to Elisha that Gehazi was a deceiver (v26).
But Elisha said to him, "Was not my spirit with you when the man got down from his chariot to meet you? Is this the time to take money, or to accept clothes, olive groves, vineyards, flocks, herds, or menservants and maidservants?
Not only did God see what Gehazi had done when no-one was looking, but he knew exactly what he planned to spend the money on. And he revealed all of this to Elisha.
This is a great New Testament warning - Look how close you can be to the kingdom of God and yet not be in it. We see it with Judas, with Simon the Sorcerer, with Ananias and Sapphira. You can sit as Gehazi did, comfortable in the church for a long time, but God will weed you out. And he will replace you wqith ythsoe you currently look down your nose at.
Do you see what has happened in this chapter?
We started with Naaman the Syrian, the leper, and Gehazi the Israelite. Now we end with Naaman, the true Israelite, and Gehazi with his heart set on the things of Syria, the leper. There has been a complete reversal.
The Israelite receives the curse, and the pagan receives the blessing. And the story that started with an unconverted pagan and a professing believer, ends with the roles changed, and Naaman professing faith, and Gehazi condemned.
God will not tolerate those who ignore his grace. He will deal with you. And if there are people in this congregation who are ungodly amongst the godly, he will remove you. Your place is no more indispensable than Gehazi's was. God will provide a Naaman to sit in your seat.
So here is the warning - If you continue to ignore God's grace and your heart isn't set on the things of God, then you will find that God's heart is not set on you. God may say to some of you, perhaps some of you young people, perhaps some of you older people, "Enough is enough, you have sat in that pew long enough, I am going to take my grace to those who have never heard of it." And I tell you this, when you see people starting to come into this church from outside, from this community you will know that God is passing over you if you have not responded.
Conclusion
Some of us need to go home today and marvel that God has dealt so easy with us.
Some of us need to go home today and repent of wrong attitudes and superior feelings
Some need to need to go home today and repent of ignoring God's grace.
God's grace is amazing, but the grace that is amazing is also dangerous if we distort or ignore it.
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
Food for thought - Is George Best in Heaven?
Well I'm back - sorry for the long absence - holidays called! A couple of weeks rest and relaxation with a new baby (as if).
Anyhow, hopefully things will get back to normality. While I was away George Best, legendary footballer passed away. A friend of mine has written a great piece on the funeral on his football blog. And here's my contribution to the local paper.
Is George Best in Heaven?
Eric Cantona certainly thinks he is. Cantona's image of Heaven, according to his own words, seems to be that of a continuous football match with George on the right wing and God on the left. Denis Law certainly seems to think that he and 'Bestie' will meet again in a better place.
It always strikes me as odd that we assume that everyone who dies goes to Heaven. And it strikes me as even odder that the Heaven that people go to is always focused around them and their interests. The footballer is playing football, the native American Indian is in the happy hunting ground, and the fisherman is by the side of some heavenly stream landing huge salmon to his heart's content.
Doesn't that tell us something about ourselves? It's all so 'me centred' - as if Heaven is there to cater to my every whim and my every delight. Heaven is seen as somewhere I can go, and I can be at peace, and I can have pleasure, and I can do what I want to do.
Surely if Heaven is God's home, then everything revolves around Him? Certainly that is the Bible's teaching. The Bible's favourite way of describing Heaven is not in terms of our pleasure but of our being with Jesus. Over and over again Jesus uses the phrase, "With me" to explain what Heaven will be like. The New Testament nowhere speaks of people going to Heaven when they die, instead believers go to be "with Christ", which Paul describes as being "better by far" (Philippians 1:23).
Perhaps the thought of spending eternity with Jesus doesn't excite you much. Well, that makes sense - if we don't enjoy his company here, we certainly won't enjoy it in Heaven. But if we have put our trust in him here, then we will delight in him forever in Heaven as he opens up to us all the pleasures of his home.
And if Heaven is God's home, then he has the right to say who gets in. And he says the only way in is through Jesus, who made that point himself when he said, "I am the Door, whoever enters through me will be saved" (John 10:9).
So if George Best is in Heaven it won't be because he was a great footballer, nor because Heaven is an inalienable right for everyone. The only way would be if he had put his trust in Jesus as his Saviour and Lord. Ultimately we can't answer the question because we don't know what he did, but a far more important question is, "Will I be in Heaven?"
Anyhow, hopefully things will get back to normality. While I was away George Best, legendary footballer passed away. A friend of mine has written a great piece on the funeral on his football blog. And here's my contribution to the local paper.
Is George Best in Heaven?
Eric Cantona certainly thinks he is. Cantona's image of Heaven, according to his own words, seems to be that of a continuous football match with George on the right wing and God on the left. Denis Law certainly seems to think that he and 'Bestie' will meet again in a better place.
It always strikes me as odd that we assume that everyone who dies goes to Heaven. And it strikes me as even odder that the Heaven that people go to is always focused around them and their interests. The footballer is playing football, the native American Indian is in the happy hunting ground, and the fisherman is by the side of some heavenly stream landing huge salmon to his heart's content.
Doesn't that tell us something about ourselves? It's all so 'me centred' - as if Heaven is there to cater to my every whim and my every delight. Heaven is seen as somewhere I can go, and I can be at peace, and I can have pleasure, and I can do what I want to do.
Surely if Heaven is God's home, then everything revolves around Him? Certainly that is the Bible's teaching. The Bible's favourite way of describing Heaven is not in terms of our pleasure but of our being with Jesus. Over and over again Jesus uses the phrase, "With me" to explain what Heaven will be like. The New Testament nowhere speaks of people going to Heaven when they die, instead believers go to be "with Christ", which Paul describes as being "better by far" (Philippians 1:23).
Perhaps the thought of spending eternity with Jesus doesn't excite you much. Well, that makes sense - if we don't enjoy his company here, we certainly won't enjoy it in Heaven. But if we have put our trust in him here, then we will delight in him forever in Heaven as he opens up to us all the pleasures of his home.
And if Heaven is God's home, then he has the right to say who gets in. And he says the only way in is through Jesus, who made that point himself when he said, "I am the Door, whoever enters through me will be saved" (John 10:9).
So if George Best is in Heaven it won't be because he was a great footballer, nor because Heaven is an inalienable right for everyone. The only way would be if he had put his trust in Jesus as his Saviour and Lord. Ultimately we can't answer the question because we don't know what he did, but a far more important question is, "Will I be in Heaven?"
Saturday, November 12, 2005
Ex 'Christians' criticising Christianity
Here is something I've come across a bit in the last year or so. In summary it usually goes something like this:
"I have been there and I know what I am talking about. I know how you think, and I know that it is wrong."
There is another variety that says, "I have been there and I have looked at the arguments objectively and now I realise how blindly I was conned into accepting it all. Yet all in all, I really wish I could believe again."
I find myself torn as I meet these people. On the one hand I feel sadness - because I know that in all likelihood they haven't experienced true Christianity. A friend of mine falls into this category. His experience of Christianity and mine are radically different. If I had had his experience of Christianity I would be tempted to reject it too. But sadly I don't believe that what he experienced was genuine biblical Christianity. It was a blend of Christian truth and psychological manipulation dominated by strong personalities in a charismatic environment. Rightly he saw through it all. Sadly it appears that he thinks that it was Christianity he saw through.
Yet this is an important realisation - for if you haven't experienced real Christianity, it isn't possible to criticise it from the inside. It isn't a case of poacher turned gamekeeper, more a case of poacher turned 'Strictly Come Dancing' critic. The two aren't related.
In dealing with such people we need to help them see the difference between what they experienced and real Christianity.
On the other hand I find myself irked. There is a patronising attitude that looks condescendingly at those poor unenlightened Christians who still believe. Apparently we don't have the intellectual ability to see things as they see them. Perhaps this grows out of an element of truth. Perhaps their faith was built on teaching that wasn't intellectually rigorous, on facts that weren't facts. And if that is so then they are right to insist on intellectual rigour and honesty.
It also comes across that they think that there are no serious intellectuals who believe in Christianity. Perhaps in their background they haven't come across Alvin Plantinga, Cornelius van Til, Greg Bahnsen, Don Carson, Ravi Zacharias, or William Lane Craig, or the host of famous scientists that have believed the truths of the Bible - Lord Kelvin, Michael Faraday, James Simpson to name three.
However, just because what they were taught was wrong, that doesn't make Christianity wrong. Often there is an attitude of "I am cleverer than you are." There is an over-reliance on their own intellectual ability. But there needs to be a humility of heart that accepts the need to go back and look at what the scripture teaches, rather than what they think the scripture teaches. Yet often that is absent. I believe that is because deep down they know the facts are true and they're real problem is that they don't want to accept them, because they know that it will involve making changes in their lives.
How then do we explain all this? Is there a biblical explanation for this scenario?
The Bible teaches that those who are truly saved will never fall away. It teaches that those who are converted are the recipients of a series of completed and irreversible actions carried out by God. That doesn't mean that they wont have doubts, but it does mean that they know where to turn to in their doubts - they will turn to God. So no matter how hurtful it is to those who claim to be "Ex Christians", the Bible tells us that they were never Christians in the first place. Hence the use of the apostrophes around the word Christian in the title.
Well, what then explains their experience? Mark 4 is one of a number of places that explains it. It is the parable of the sower. Jesus clearly teaches that there are more than two responses - acceptance or rejection - of the gospel. There are also those who receive the word with joy but only last a short time. Others spring up and look like Christians, but other things come along and choke the life out of them. Neither is truly converted because they bear no fruit. Not everyone who responds positively to the gospel is converted.
Ex 'Christians' don't then come as a surprise to me because the Bible has already described that category of people.
How should we respond? What lessons are there to learn?
"I have been there and I know what I am talking about. I know how you think, and I know that it is wrong."
There is another variety that says, "I have been there and I have looked at the arguments objectively and now I realise how blindly I was conned into accepting it all. Yet all in all, I really wish I could believe again."
I find myself torn as I meet these people. On the one hand I feel sadness - because I know that in all likelihood they haven't experienced true Christianity. A friend of mine falls into this category. His experience of Christianity and mine are radically different. If I had had his experience of Christianity I would be tempted to reject it too. But sadly I don't believe that what he experienced was genuine biblical Christianity. It was a blend of Christian truth and psychological manipulation dominated by strong personalities in a charismatic environment. Rightly he saw through it all. Sadly it appears that he thinks that it was Christianity he saw through.
Yet this is an important realisation - for if you haven't experienced real Christianity, it isn't possible to criticise it from the inside. It isn't a case of poacher turned gamekeeper, more a case of poacher turned 'Strictly Come Dancing' critic. The two aren't related.
In dealing with such people we need to help them see the difference between what they experienced and real Christianity.
On the other hand I find myself irked. There is a patronising attitude that looks condescendingly at those poor unenlightened Christians who still believe. Apparently we don't have the intellectual ability to see things as they see them. Perhaps this grows out of an element of truth. Perhaps their faith was built on teaching that wasn't intellectually rigorous, on facts that weren't facts. And if that is so then they are right to insist on intellectual rigour and honesty.
It also comes across that they think that there are no serious intellectuals who believe in Christianity. Perhaps in their background they haven't come across Alvin Plantinga, Cornelius van Til, Greg Bahnsen, Don Carson, Ravi Zacharias, or William Lane Craig, or the host of famous scientists that have believed the truths of the Bible - Lord Kelvin, Michael Faraday, James Simpson to name three.
However, just because what they were taught was wrong, that doesn't make Christianity wrong. Often there is an attitude of "I am cleverer than you are." There is an over-reliance on their own intellectual ability. But there needs to be a humility of heart that accepts the need to go back and look at what the scripture teaches, rather than what they think the scripture teaches. Yet often that is absent. I believe that is because deep down they know the facts are true and they're real problem is that they don't want to accept them, because they know that it will involve making changes in their lives.
How then do we explain all this? Is there a biblical explanation for this scenario?
The Bible teaches that those who are truly saved will never fall away. It teaches that those who are converted are the recipients of a series of completed and irreversible actions carried out by God. That doesn't mean that they wont have doubts, but it does mean that they know where to turn to in their doubts - they will turn to God. So no matter how hurtful it is to those who claim to be "Ex Christians", the Bible tells us that they were never Christians in the first place. Hence the use of the apostrophes around the word Christian in the title.
Well, what then explains their experience? Mark 4 is one of a number of places that explains it. It is the parable of the sower. Jesus clearly teaches that there are more than two responses - acceptance or rejection - of the gospel. There are also those who receive the word with joy but only last a short time. Others spring up and look like Christians, but other things come along and choke the life out of them. Neither is truly converted because they bear no fruit. Not everyone who responds positively to the gospel is converted.
Ex 'Christians' don't then come as a surprise to me because the Bible has already described that category of people.
How should we respond? What lessons are there to learn?
- We need to accept the truth from these critics when they make valid criticisms. Often Christians are intellectually sloppy. Often they make generalisations that are untrue. Often we pass on stories that aren't factual - e.g. NASA records backing up the missing day in the book of Joshua, or Darwin recanted on his deathbed. Preachers, evangelists especially need to be intellectually rigorous. There is a trite approach to evangelism that says "All you need is John 3:16" - but that ignores the fact that God has given us minds, and that the scriptures say, "Come let us reason together."
- We also need to make sure that our teaching is biblically based, and not a blend of popular psychology and crowd manipulation.
- In evangelism we need to aim to break the pride of sinners before applying the grace of the gospel. Law first, then grace. Otherwise we will have intellectual converts who have never humbled themselves before God. And as Christians we need continually to humble ourselves, for pride is the surest route to failure.
- We need to realise the reality of what theologians call the 'noetic effects of sin'. In other words it affects our thinking. No unbeliever can look at the facts and, of their own intellectual ability, be convinced of the truth of the gospel (Rom 1:21). They will always find a way to explain them away. Evangelism that is based primarily in factual evidence will always fail because it forgets this biblical truth. There are plenty of facts that are intellectually credible, and we are to present them because we don't know whom God is working in. But we are primarily to aim at breaking the heart by a display of its guilt before God.
- We need also to realise that there are many people who will respond positively and then fall away. That is why Jesus taught the disciples as he did in Mark 4. When this happens we should not then be discouraged.
- And we need to respond in love, rather than in frustration. They are lost. We can have no pride or superciliousness in the fact that we are Christians. How did we become Christians? God opened our wilfully blind eyes to the truth. All we contributed was our guilt. How can we be proud in that? Where they have real criticisms we need to listen. Where they are mistaken in their perceptions we need to gently correct. Where other Christians have unjustly hurt them we need to help them see that that wasn't biblical Christianity.
Friday, November 11, 2005
Pensées on Pride - 13-18
Isaiah 2:11 The eyes of the arrogant man will be humbled and the pride of men brought low; the LORD alone will be exalted in that day.
Isaiah 28:3 That wreath, the pride of Ephraim's drunkards, will be trampled underfoot.
- "The Lord alone will be exalted" - how often do I look for me to be exalted, even in terms of the last day. There is a difference between being vindicated and being exalted. Sometimes it is easy to mistake the two. We will be vindicated. God will be exalted.
- There is a day for every proud man - minister or otherwise - when they will be brought low.
Isaiah 28:3 That wreath, the pride of Ephraim's drunkards, will be trampled underfoot.
- Foe or friend - God will not tolerate pride
- Do I find my joy in the Lord gone? It is the humble who rejoice (cf Psalm 138:6)
- Oh the ludicrous abomination of pride! I am contending with the Holy One of Israel for glory. Woe is me.
Sunday, November 06, 2005
Book Review - A House of Prayer
A House of Prayer
Andrew Stewart
Welwyn Commentary Series
Evangelical Press
Andrew Stewart, minister of Geelong RPC, has added this companion volume to his one on 1 Chronicles. It picks up where the other one left off and continues in the same easy to read style.
Why should we bother with Chronicles? Andrew Stewart answers that for us in the forward, "Much of this book was written as an encouragement to ordinary Israelites who were struggling to be faithful in daily and mundane matters." Sound familiar? He continues "That is why God has given us the book of Chronicles. It is good for us to learn about their struggles to be faithful to God."
This eminently helpful commentary opens up this often neglected book, and points out the emphases that make this history distinctive from the history recorded in Kings. Most importantly it continually points us to Christ, the fulfilment of the temple with which 2 Chronicles opens; and teaches us how to understand much of the Old Testament's history and how it relates to Christ.
As well as adding to our understanding of the Old Testament and our Saviour, there are many helpful and practical applications to the Christian life so that we can indeed be challenged and encouraged in our struggles to be faithful. Throughout the book key points are clearly illustrated which helps the reader grasp their relevance.
Many have already found the Welwyn series to be a great tool for personal devotions. Since most would find whole chapters too long for personal devotions (unless they have half the morning), Andrew has thoughtfully divided up each chapter into smaller bite sized sections with plenty of explanation and application in each.
Andrew Stewart
Welwyn Commentary Series
Evangelical Press
Andrew Stewart, minister of Geelong RPC, has added this companion volume to his one on 1 Chronicles. It picks up where the other one left off and continues in the same easy to read style.
Why should we bother with Chronicles? Andrew Stewart answers that for us in the forward, "Much of this book was written as an encouragement to ordinary Israelites who were struggling to be faithful in daily and mundane matters." Sound familiar? He continues "That is why God has given us the book of Chronicles. It is good for us to learn about their struggles to be faithful to God."
This eminently helpful commentary opens up this often neglected book, and points out the emphases that make this history distinctive from the history recorded in Kings. Most importantly it continually points us to Christ, the fulfilment of the temple with which 2 Chronicles opens; and teaches us how to understand much of the Old Testament's history and how it relates to Christ.
As well as adding to our understanding of the Old Testament and our Saviour, there are many helpful and practical applications to the Christian life so that we can indeed be challenged and encouraged in our struggles to be faithful. Throughout the book key points are clearly illustrated which helps the reader grasp their relevance.
Many have already found the Welwyn series to be a great tool for personal devotions. Since most would find whole chapters too long for personal devotions (unless they have half the morning), Andrew has thoughtfully divided up each chapter into smaller bite sized sections with plenty of explanation and application in each.
Friday, November 04, 2005
Pensées on Pride - 10-12
Psalm 94:2 Rise up, O Judge of the earth; pay back to the proud what they deserve.
- Lord, I can't sing this because it is me. Lord, thank you for your mercy in not giving me what I deserve.
- Why is it I feel God is distant? Why is it that he seems afar off? Here is the answer.
- We get it the wrong way round - we are proud because we think we deserve honour. God gives honour to those who are not proud.
- Lord, help us to keep ourselves in a proper perspective, without keeping an eye to the promise of honour.
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
Imagination in Preaching
This topic has popped up a bit a few times recently. It's something I feel strongly about and I mentioned it in my post on Books on Preaching a few days ago. Jollyblogger has been reading old Journals of Biblical Counselling and has found David Powlison writing on the same subject. And Sinclair Ferguson ranks it at No. 5 on his Ten Commandments for preachers.
The more the merrier! All for the sake of better preaching.
The more the merrier! All for the sake of better preaching.
Pensées on Pride - 6-9
1 Samuel 2:3 "Do not keep talking so proudly or let your mouth speak such arrogance, for the LORD is a God who knows, and by him deeds are weighed."
2 Chronicles 26:16 But after Uzziah became powerful, his pride led to his downfall.
- "By him deeds are weighed" - How do my deeds measure up in his hands? They must seem like the finest particles of dust.
- How often I compare myself to others - yet it is not the others, but the Other that I must compare myself to. Then I will have nothing to feel proud of.
- "The Lord is a God who knows" - He knows ALL about me, how then can I boast. Rather I hang my head in shame.
- When the Lord humbles his people there is a time limit. He only brings his people down in order to raise them up again.
2 Chronicles 26:16 But after Uzziah became powerful, his pride led to his downfall.
- I say to myself "I have done this or that…". A little God-given success here and there and it starts to go to our heads, and we forget that it is all God-given.
- A promise - if our hearts are responsive, and we humble ourselves, God will hear. Thank you Lord.
Monday, October 31, 2005
Pensées on Pride - 1-5
Earlier this year I printed out all the verses that contain all the variations of the words proud and humble. I used that for a basis for my morning devotions over the next number of months, taking 6 to eight verses a day.
Over the next few entries I want to share some of my musings. The title "Pensées"is taken from Blaise Pascal who wrote down thoughts that came to him on scraps of paper and these random musings are collected under the title of 'Pensées', French for 'thoughts'.
Exodus 10:3 "So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said to him, "This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: 'How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me?.'"
Over the next few entries I want to share some of my musings. The title "Pensées"is taken from Blaise Pascal who wrote down thoughts that came to him on scraps of paper and these random musings are collected under the title of 'Pensées', French for 'thoughts'.
Exodus 10:3 "So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said to him, "This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: 'How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me?.'"
- "How long" - indeed, how long will it be that I refuse to humble myself
- "will you refuse" - A deliberate act, pride is not accidental.
- "before me" - What a contrast! Me, proud in the sight of God! The height of arrogance!
- God will break my pride - He makes it his priority
- 40 years in the desert - all because of pride. What a deadly enemy I am to myself!
- "Lord, keep us in the desert until we will not contend for your glory, but let us be more teachable than the Israelites."
- "Lord, make us men and women of your word, who do not rely on our own abilities, but who constantly seek you through your word. Give us today our daily bread."
- Manna - Miracle food, but had to be gathered daily.
- "to test you" - A humbling test - keep on gathering every day, keep on depending on God, you always needed food from God to get through the day.
- "so that" - learn the lesson of daily dependence on God, and it will go well with you.
Sunday, October 30, 2005
Sabbath Sermon - Our All-Sufficient Saviour - 2 Kings 4:38-44
Gladys Aylward, missionary to China more than fifty years ago, was forced to flee when the Japanese invaded Yangcheng. But she could not leave her work behind. With only one assistant, she led more than a hundred orphans over the mountains toward Free China.
"During Glady's harrowing journey out of war-torn Yangcheng ... she grappled with despair as never before. After passing a sleepless night, she faced the morning with no hope of reaching safety. A 13-year-old girl in the group reminded her of their much-loved story of Moses and the Israelites crossing the Red Sea.
"But I am not Moses," Gladys cried in desperation.
"Of course you aren't," the girl said, "but Jehovah is still God."
When Gladys and the orphans made it through, they proved once again that no matter how inadequate we feel, God is still God, and we can trust in him.
There are times in the Christian's life when he or she feels utterly inadequate. There are times as we saw a few weeks ago when we looked at the start of ch 4 when trouble comes and we simply can't cope, we are in too deep, and we learnt then that "My God will meet all your needs out of his glorious riches in Christ."
But there are other times when our inadequacies show through in different ways, other than just being inadequate to face trouble.
Alice is on a mission team. They have been doing door to door work, and later that evening you find Alice sitting with a tear stained face. You ask her what is wrong and she responds, "I just feel so inadequate. I just keep messing up. And they had an opportunity to hear the gospel and I didn't know what to say, or how to answer them." What would you have said to her?
Brian has just given a talk to a group of young people, and he knows it wasn't great. In talking with an older Christian afterwards he finds out he even said some things that were wrong. And he is gutted. What would you say to him?
Carla has just had a conversation with a friend. She's sought to explain the gospel, and she is so nervous that she stumbles and stutters and gets herself muddled up. And she comes away thinking "I should have said this, or put it that way." And she feels inadequate. What do you say to her?
If we let this sense of inadequacy get to us, then the devil will have been successful, and we will be driven to despair, and not attempt anything again.
It's refreshing to hear the apostle Paul, and man immensely gifted, and experienced - he was trained as well as anyone could be trained, its refreshing to hear him ask,
"And who is sufficient for these things?" - 2 Cor 2:16
The passages we deal with today deal with times when our labour is marred by our mistakes, and when our labour is insufficient due to our shortcomings. And in both cases, we see what Paul later went on to write:
"But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us." - 2 Corinthians 4:7
Gods provision extends to our inadequacies as well as our needs. In these two Old Testament miracles we find pictures of two New Testament truths.
Christ can overrule our mistakes v38-41
There was famine in the land. Famine was God's judgment on the wicked nation of Israel. Is famine always God's judgment on any nation? No. But in Israel's case it was part of Israel's national constitution - the covenant. In it God had decreed blessings for obedience and curses for abandoning God's ways. Famine was one such sign of God's wrath.
And so there was famine in unbelieving Israel. But here we see that the godly prophets also experienced the famine. God's people are not exempt when God's judgment strikes a land. In Ireland we are ripe for God's judgment, and when it comes, whatever form it takes, financial collapse, job losses, natural disasters, God's people will be caught up in it. "God doesn't usually evacuate his people beforehand," Dale Ralph Davis writes, "We need to know this lest we expect of God something he's never promised."
This also should challenge us to pray for our fellow believers in Louisiana, Mississippi, Pakistan, India, and wherever else natural disaster, or war has struck.
So here in this famine struck region, Elisha arrives and is teaching the prophets and he instructs his servant to put on a big pot of stew. One of the prophets heads out into the fields looking for extra herbs, or vegetables to put in to bulk it up a bit, and to add some flavour. And perhaps he is from another area, or perhaps just because he is a male, he doesn't really know what's what. And he see a vine growing with these plump looking yellow fruit, and he gathers as many as he can in the folds of his cloak and he hurried back to the kitchen. And he chops them up and dumps them into the stew.
Then the rest of the prophets come in, and the meal is served out, and its not hard to imagine the pleasure on the face of the prophet as they get a little extra in their bowls. But then a shout goes up, "There's death in the pot". Whether someone recognised the poisonous vegetable, or whether they had taken a taste we don't know. But in an instant they go from having a great meal to eat to having nothing.
And that doesn't sound too serious to us, can't they just prepare another one? But these are days of famine. Food is scarce. Providing food isn't a matter of spending a few moments in a supermarket and a minute in front of the microwave. It may take a large part of the day to gather enough food together to make a meal. And now all that effort has been wasted.
Precious food was spoiled.
How do you think that scavenging prophet feels now? "I should just have stayed in bed today. I can do nothing right. Now everyone's upset with me. I'm always get it wrong."
And then Elisha stands up. He takes asks for flour, he dumps the flour into the pot and he stirs it in. And they are wondering, "what difference will that make?". The vegetables are still in the pot. We shouldn't think of this as some sort of magic, nor should we think of Elisha as some sort of early scientist who has figured out that the properties of this flour can neutralise the effects of this poison. I don't believe that that is the case. It is just another visual symbol, the same as he did with the salt and the bowl at Jericho. It was a symbol that it wasn't Elisha that changed the stew, it was from somewhere else. It was a symbol that the men would remember all their days, as they ground the corn to make flour, as they used flour to bake bread, you can almost hear them saying, "Do you remember the time Elisha threw the flour into the stew, isn't God great?" And then the man of God, to whom they have cried out for help, speaks again, "Serve it to the people to eat."
And as they start to, perhaps somewhat cautiously, nibble at the stew again, they find that there was nothing harmful in the pot!
I wonder how the scavenging prophet felt now? The meal was no longer wasted it had been redeemed, rescued from the rubbish pile. Can you feel his gratefulness? His labour had been marred, ruined, but it had been a sincere mistake.
Have you ever found that?
You have sought to act in a Christian manner towards someone, and you have only succeeded in alienating them. You thought you were doing something right by someone, and you have only succeeded in hurting them all the more. And you think to yourself, "I should just have stayed in bed, I can do nothing right."
Perhaps as you have tried to live out the Christian life as a witness in front of family or friends or work colleagues, you have made mistakes, and you feel, "I've blown it, that's that ruined."
Perhaps you have set an example to other Christians, and now you realise that you were wrong in what you did. And its too late to undo it.
Perhaps someone has come to you for advice, and you have sincerely given them advice, and when you check with another Christian you find that you have told them the wrong thing. And you feel so discouraged.
Or perhaps you have dealt with your children in a certain way - you thought it was the right way at the time, but now with hindsight you see that it was detrimental.
Is there anything you can do in these circumstances?
Do exactly what the prophets did - v40 "O man of God". They cried out to God's official representative. We are to do the same - Cry out to our great prophet, the one who intercedes for us before God. Cry out to Jesus.
It seems awfully ineffective doesn't it? You've been talking to someone and trying to explain the gospel and you are so nervous that you garble the whole thing, and it's all topsy-turvy and you waffled in places, and you left out bits you shouldn't have, and I say to you, Go home and call out to Jesus.
What's the point? Surely what has been said has been said? What good will praying do? It's about as ineffective as throwing flour into a pot of stew. The vegetables are still there. But we have a God who is powerful, and who delights to show his power through our weakness. And you can pray to him, "Lord, Take what I said and make them remember the bits that are important, and make them forget the bits that aren't."
"Take what I did and bring good out of my mistake Lord."
"Take what I said and use the good."
"Lord you know I was only trying to serve you, I thought I was doing what was best, but now I see how wrong it was. Please overrule my mistake."
And here is the wonder of having Christ as our Saviour. This is part of what Paul means when he writes, "God works all things for the good of those who love him".
This isn't to say that we can be careless or even sin with abandon, and God will follow around after us, like some sort of parent of a spoilt child, and tidy up. But when we have sincerely sought to serve him, and in our weakness, or ignorance, have got it wrong, we can come to God and the power of God can overcome our mistakes as surely as he overcame this cooks blunder.
"What a relief it is to see that the Lord does not allow our errors to derail his kingdom or destroy his people. How many times does Christ cushion our folly, redeem our errors, and neutralise our stupidity?" - D.R. Davis
And there is a wider application here. Even the mistakes that we have made in sinfulness, perhaps before we became Christians, or even when we were Christians, Christ can overrule them and turn them for good. Some of you may have made wrong decisions in your past and you have to live with the consequences of those decisions, but you have a Saviour who doesn't undo the past, but who overrules the past, and can turn these things for good. So don't despair, get on your knees and seek his intervention.
Christ can supply our inadequacies
There are other times when we haven't made mistakes, and we aren't in trouble, but we are overwhelmed with a feeling of our utter inadequacy. Perhaps you are talking to someone, and as they pour out their heart to you and tell you of what they are going through or have come through, you feel, "Lord what have I got that can help this person?" And if they aren't a Christian, and you listen to all their troubles, you find yourself thinking, "Lord, all I have is the gospel" and it seems very small and very inadequate. Their problems seem to swamp your experience.
Or perhaps you get an opportunity to speak to someone about Christ, and as you talk they have more questions than you have answers and you find yourself wishing you knew more, and thinking "I'm so inadequate."
Here is hope and encouragement for us in this miracle.
A man comes from Baal-Shalisha. It used to be called Shalisha, but it had become a place of Baal worship, a pagan town. Yet even in this pagan godless town there was a godly man. And this godly man is out harvesting his grain, and the way the two miracles are joined together here it would seem still to be the time of famine. Yet as he harvests his grain, and as he grinds the corn to make flour, he is reminded that the first-fruits belong to God. And because he is a godly man he is determined to obey. Now God had said that the first-fruits were to be taken to the temple, and given to the priests. Yet the land was now following Baal, and the king was sponsoring the priests of Baal, and had forbidden the worship of the Lord. So what is he to do? He decides that since he can't obey the letter of the law, he will obey the spirit of the law. And he takes some bread and some grain and treks quite a distance to the servants of God at Gilgal. And there he presents it to Elisha.
That is faithful service. And here we see sometimes how God provides - help can arrive to God's beleaguered people from unexpected source. There was a famine, food was hard to come by, although over at Baal-Shalisha things seem to have been a bit easier, and from the place where there is food, God sends to the place where there isn't. And here we see also the duty of believers who are experiencing plenty to look out for those who are in need, not just nearby, but far off.
Here is faithful and thoughtful service. He has already made some of his grain offering into bread, so that it is of immediate use to the prophets. And he has left some as corn so that they will be able to make bread as the days go on, because if he made it all now, it might have been stale. Here is a thoughtful believer.
And yet when he arrives, he finds that his thoughtfulness in serving God has backfired a bit. Perhaps he should have made all the grain into bread after all. Perhaps even then it wouldn't have been enough.
But he is about to learn a marvellous lesson: What looks impossible to us, is not impossible to God. Where our resources are at their end, God's haven't even begun to be exhausted.
Elisha says to his servant, "Put the bread before the men". The servant hesitates because unlike Elisha his faith is weak. He sees with his eyes, and they are eyes that see the limitations, they are not the eyes of faith which see the possibilities. He sees the shortage of 80 leaves, these loaves were no bigger than a fist. Elisha hears what God has said. "There is enough." And faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
And the impossible met God's word, and the servants, and the man from Baal Shalisha and the prophets found out that God's word is more certain than what is before our eyes.
God supplied. God provided. The inadequacy of the man's offering was overruled.
And we learn that when we give to God, or when we seek to serve God with what little we have, we just don't know what sort of a miracle we will end up involved in.
We learn that when we labour for God and we are disheartened by our inadequacies, our insufficiencies, our shortfall, our complete lack, that our God is able to supply what is lacking.
When we stand before someone whose life is falling apart and the gospel seems such a paltry thing to be telling them, we learn that God can take that gospel and use it to fill all their needs.
When we bring our 20 loaves of Bible knowledge to a person who has a 100 deep and searching questions, we learn that God is able to take our answer and make them sufficient. Go ahead and speak, God can take what you say and use it to start someone thinking, he can take it and apply it to their conscience and their conscience awakes and starts to accuse them, he can take what you say and bring to mind things they heard long ago. Christ can supply our inadequacies.
When stand and look over the town of Letterkenny/Milford and we look at ourselves, small in number, short on abilities, we learn that when we are weak then God is strong.
"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. - 2 Cor 12:9
When we are insufficient then we are in an ideal situation to find that God is sufficient. But how? By calling on God, by acknowledging our weakness and our inability.
There are so many parallels with the feeding of the 5000. The people were in great need, someone was fond with a little food, a disciple was unbelieving, God multiplied the loaves, the people all ate, and there was food left over.
Yet at almost every turn we see that our Saviour is much greater. Elisha fed 100 men. Jesus fed 5000. Elisha had 20 loaves. Jesus had 5. Elisha gave them bread. Jesus gave them fish as well. Elisha had some left over, Jesus had 12 basketfuls. Elisha did it by God's power, Jesus did it by his own power.
And as Gladys Aylward was reminded, we may not be Moses, or in our cases Elisha, but God is still God. And he is the same yesterday today and forever. And when we are in need, or inadequate, or mistaken he will provide.
And we see here also in these two miracles a picture of the gospel. A man whose deadly mistake is covered over by God, and a man whose offering was utterly inadequate and God provides what is needed.
Some of you here this morning need to hear this. How you are living your life at present is like this man in the first miracle. You think you are doing good, but in fact you are in grave danger. You think you are gathering up treasure for yourself in Heaven, when in fact all the good that you do will condemn you to Hell. You need God to work a miracle. You wouldn't be foolish enough to eat poisonous plants, but you are gobbling the poisonous leaves of the tree of good works. You are badly mistaken. And the poison will kill you forever. You need Christ to transform what is poisonous into what will give life. You need to go to him like the prophets did and beg for a miracle. Lord change me, save me, rescue from this death. Cover over my mistakes, my errors, my faults, my sins.
Like the man in the second miracle you bring your life's efforts to God and say, here Lord, here are all my decent works that I have done with my life. And they are insufficient. And they will never be sufficient to please God. Had you a hundred lives to live and fine tune each one of them, you could never get it right. You need God to provide for you the righteousness that you have failed so badly at. You need to look at your life and ask yourself, "How can I set this before God?" And then cry out to God, "Provide for me too!"
And if you do, you will find that God will provide, and Christ will cover your sins, and will replace your good works with his perfect righteousness and you will be able to stand before God.
Conclusion
We learn here that our daily needs, whether its bread, or stew matter to God.
And we learn here again that "My God will need all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus."
We learn that he will not always do it in the same way.
And these five miracles that we have looked at in this chapter point us forward to the day when we will see the wonderful richness of God's provision in all its glory:
"During Glady's harrowing journey out of war-torn Yangcheng ... she grappled with despair as never before. After passing a sleepless night, she faced the morning with no hope of reaching safety. A 13-year-old girl in the group reminded her of their much-loved story of Moses and the Israelites crossing the Red Sea.
"But I am not Moses," Gladys cried in desperation.
"Of course you aren't," the girl said, "but Jehovah is still God."
When Gladys and the orphans made it through, they proved once again that no matter how inadequate we feel, God is still God, and we can trust in him.
There are times in the Christian's life when he or she feels utterly inadequate. There are times as we saw a few weeks ago when we looked at the start of ch 4 when trouble comes and we simply can't cope, we are in too deep, and we learnt then that "My God will meet all your needs out of his glorious riches in Christ."
But there are other times when our inadequacies show through in different ways, other than just being inadequate to face trouble.
Alice is on a mission team. They have been doing door to door work, and later that evening you find Alice sitting with a tear stained face. You ask her what is wrong and she responds, "I just feel so inadequate. I just keep messing up. And they had an opportunity to hear the gospel and I didn't know what to say, or how to answer them." What would you have said to her?
Brian has just given a talk to a group of young people, and he knows it wasn't great. In talking with an older Christian afterwards he finds out he even said some things that were wrong. And he is gutted. What would you say to him?
Carla has just had a conversation with a friend. She's sought to explain the gospel, and she is so nervous that she stumbles and stutters and gets herself muddled up. And she comes away thinking "I should have said this, or put it that way." And she feels inadequate. What do you say to her?
If we let this sense of inadequacy get to us, then the devil will have been successful, and we will be driven to despair, and not attempt anything again.
It's refreshing to hear the apostle Paul, and man immensely gifted, and experienced - he was trained as well as anyone could be trained, its refreshing to hear him ask,
"And who is sufficient for these things?" - 2 Cor 2:16
The passages we deal with today deal with times when our labour is marred by our mistakes, and when our labour is insufficient due to our shortcomings. And in both cases, we see what Paul later went on to write:
"But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us." - 2 Corinthians 4:7
Gods provision extends to our inadequacies as well as our needs. In these two Old Testament miracles we find pictures of two New Testament truths.
Christ can overrule our mistakes v38-41
There was famine in the land. Famine was God's judgment on the wicked nation of Israel. Is famine always God's judgment on any nation? No. But in Israel's case it was part of Israel's national constitution - the covenant. In it God had decreed blessings for obedience and curses for abandoning God's ways. Famine was one such sign of God's wrath.
And so there was famine in unbelieving Israel. But here we see that the godly prophets also experienced the famine. God's people are not exempt when God's judgment strikes a land. In Ireland we are ripe for God's judgment, and when it comes, whatever form it takes, financial collapse, job losses, natural disasters, God's people will be caught up in it. "God doesn't usually evacuate his people beforehand," Dale Ralph Davis writes, "We need to know this lest we expect of God something he's never promised."
This also should challenge us to pray for our fellow believers in Louisiana, Mississippi, Pakistan, India, and wherever else natural disaster, or war has struck.
So here in this famine struck region, Elisha arrives and is teaching the prophets and he instructs his servant to put on a big pot of stew. One of the prophets heads out into the fields looking for extra herbs, or vegetables to put in to bulk it up a bit, and to add some flavour. And perhaps he is from another area, or perhaps just because he is a male, he doesn't really know what's what. And he see a vine growing with these plump looking yellow fruit, and he gathers as many as he can in the folds of his cloak and he hurried back to the kitchen. And he chops them up and dumps them into the stew.
Then the rest of the prophets come in, and the meal is served out, and its not hard to imagine the pleasure on the face of the prophet as they get a little extra in their bowls. But then a shout goes up, "There's death in the pot". Whether someone recognised the poisonous vegetable, or whether they had taken a taste we don't know. But in an instant they go from having a great meal to eat to having nothing.
And that doesn't sound too serious to us, can't they just prepare another one? But these are days of famine. Food is scarce. Providing food isn't a matter of spending a few moments in a supermarket and a minute in front of the microwave. It may take a large part of the day to gather enough food together to make a meal. And now all that effort has been wasted.
Precious food was spoiled.
How do you think that scavenging prophet feels now? "I should just have stayed in bed today. I can do nothing right. Now everyone's upset with me. I'm always get it wrong."
And then Elisha stands up. He takes asks for flour, he dumps the flour into the pot and he stirs it in. And they are wondering, "what difference will that make?". The vegetables are still in the pot. We shouldn't think of this as some sort of magic, nor should we think of Elisha as some sort of early scientist who has figured out that the properties of this flour can neutralise the effects of this poison. I don't believe that that is the case. It is just another visual symbol, the same as he did with the salt and the bowl at Jericho. It was a symbol that it wasn't Elisha that changed the stew, it was from somewhere else. It was a symbol that the men would remember all their days, as they ground the corn to make flour, as they used flour to bake bread, you can almost hear them saying, "Do you remember the time Elisha threw the flour into the stew, isn't God great?" And then the man of God, to whom they have cried out for help, speaks again, "Serve it to the people to eat."
And as they start to, perhaps somewhat cautiously, nibble at the stew again, they find that there was nothing harmful in the pot!
I wonder how the scavenging prophet felt now? The meal was no longer wasted it had been redeemed, rescued from the rubbish pile. Can you feel his gratefulness? His labour had been marred, ruined, but it had been a sincere mistake.
Have you ever found that?
You have sought to act in a Christian manner towards someone, and you have only succeeded in alienating them. You thought you were doing something right by someone, and you have only succeeded in hurting them all the more. And you think to yourself, "I should just have stayed in bed, I can do nothing right."
Perhaps as you have tried to live out the Christian life as a witness in front of family or friends or work colleagues, you have made mistakes, and you feel, "I've blown it, that's that ruined."
Perhaps you have set an example to other Christians, and now you realise that you were wrong in what you did. And its too late to undo it.
Perhaps someone has come to you for advice, and you have sincerely given them advice, and when you check with another Christian you find that you have told them the wrong thing. And you feel so discouraged.
Or perhaps you have dealt with your children in a certain way - you thought it was the right way at the time, but now with hindsight you see that it was detrimental.
Is there anything you can do in these circumstances?
Do exactly what the prophets did - v40 "O man of God". They cried out to God's official representative. We are to do the same - Cry out to our great prophet, the one who intercedes for us before God. Cry out to Jesus.
It seems awfully ineffective doesn't it? You've been talking to someone and trying to explain the gospel and you are so nervous that you garble the whole thing, and it's all topsy-turvy and you waffled in places, and you left out bits you shouldn't have, and I say to you, Go home and call out to Jesus.
What's the point? Surely what has been said has been said? What good will praying do? It's about as ineffective as throwing flour into a pot of stew. The vegetables are still there. But we have a God who is powerful, and who delights to show his power through our weakness. And you can pray to him, "Lord, Take what I said and make them remember the bits that are important, and make them forget the bits that aren't."
"Take what I did and bring good out of my mistake Lord."
"Take what I said and use the good."
"Lord you know I was only trying to serve you, I thought I was doing what was best, but now I see how wrong it was. Please overrule my mistake."
And here is the wonder of having Christ as our Saviour. This is part of what Paul means when he writes, "God works all things for the good of those who love him".
This isn't to say that we can be careless or even sin with abandon, and God will follow around after us, like some sort of parent of a spoilt child, and tidy up. But when we have sincerely sought to serve him, and in our weakness, or ignorance, have got it wrong, we can come to God and the power of God can overcome our mistakes as surely as he overcame this cooks blunder.
"What a relief it is to see that the Lord does not allow our errors to derail his kingdom or destroy his people. How many times does Christ cushion our folly, redeem our errors, and neutralise our stupidity?" - D.R. Davis
And there is a wider application here. Even the mistakes that we have made in sinfulness, perhaps before we became Christians, or even when we were Christians, Christ can overrule them and turn them for good. Some of you may have made wrong decisions in your past and you have to live with the consequences of those decisions, but you have a Saviour who doesn't undo the past, but who overrules the past, and can turn these things for good. So don't despair, get on your knees and seek his intervention.
Christ can supply our inadequacies
There are other times when we haven't made mistakes, and we aren't in trouble, but we are overwhelmed with a feeling of our utter inadequacy. Perhaps you are talking to someone, and as they pour out their heart to you and tell you of what they are going through or have come through, you feel, "Lord what have I got that can help this person?" And if they aren't a Christian, and you listen to all their troubles, you find yourself thinking, "Lord, all I have is the gospel" and it seems very small and very inadequate. Their problems seem to swamp your experience.
Or perhaps you get an opportunity to speak to someone about Christ, and as you talk they have more questions than you have answers and you find yourself wishing you knew more, and thinking "I'm so inadequate."
Here is hope and encouragement for us in this miracle.
A man comes from Baal-Shalisha. It used to be called Shalisha, but it had become a place of Baal worship, a pagan town. Yet even in this pagan godless town there was a godly man. And this godly man is out harvesting his grain, and the way the two miracles are joined together here it would seem still to be the time of famine. Yet as he harvests his grain, and as he grinds the corn to make flour, he is reminded that the first-fruits belong to God. And because he is a godly man he is determined to obey. Now God had said that the first-fruits were to be taken to the temple, and given to the priests. Yet the land was now following Baal, and the king was sponsoring the priests of Baal, and had forbidden the worship of the Lord. So what is he to do? He decides that since he can't obey the letter of the law, he will obey the spirit of the law. And he takes some bread and some grain and treks quite a distance to the servants of God at Gilgal. And there he presents it to Elisha.
That is faithful service. And here we see sometimes how God provides - help can arrive to God's beleaguered people from unexpected source. There was a famine, food was hard to come by, although over at Baal-Shalisha things seem to have been a bit easier, and from the place where there is food, God sends to the place where there isn't. And here we see also the duty of believers who are experiencing plenty to look out for those who are in need, not just nearby, but far off.
Here is faithful and thoughtful service. He has already made some of his grain offering into bread, so that it is of immediate use to the prophets. And he has left some as corn so that they will be able to make bread as the days go on, because if he made it all now, it might have been stale. Here is a thoughtful believer.
And yet when he arrives, he finds that his thoughtfulness in serving God has backfired a bit. Perhaps he should have made all the grain into bread after all. Perhaps even then it wouldn't have been enough.
But he is about to learn a marvellous lesson: What looks impossible to us, is not impossible to God. Where our resources are at their end, God's haven't even begun to be exhausted.
Elisha says to his servant, "Put the bread before the men". The servant hesitates because unlike Elisha his faith is weak. He sees with his eyes, and they are eyes that see the limitations, they are not the eyes of faith which see the possibilities. He sees the shortage of 80 leaves, these loaves were no bigger than a fist. Elisha hears what God has said. "There is enough." And faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
And the impossible met God's word, and the servants, and the man from Baal Shalisha and the prophets found out that God's word is more certain than what is before our eyes.
God supplied. God provided. The inadequacy of the man's offering was overruled.
And we learn that when we give to God, or when we seek to serve God with what little we have, we just don't know what sort of a miracle we will end up involved in.
We learn that when we labour for God and we are disheartened by our inadequacies, our insufficiencies, our shortfall, our complete lack, that our God is able to supply what is lacking.
When we stand before someone whose life is falling apart and the gospel seems such a paltry thing to be telling them, we learn that God can take that gospel and use it to fill all their needs.
When we bring our 20 loaves of Bible knowledge to a person who has a 100 deep and searching questions, we learn that God is able to take our answer and make them sufficient. Go ahead and speak, God can take what you say and use it to start someone thinking, he can take it and apply it to their conscience and their conscience awakes and starts to accuse them, he can take what you say and bring to mind things they heard long ago. Christ can supply our inadequacies.
When stand and look over the town of Letterkenny/Milford and we look at ourselves, small in number, short on abilities, we learn that when we are weak then God is strong.
"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. - 2 Cor 12:9
When we are insufficient then we are in an ideal situation to find that God is sufficient. But how? By calling on God, by acknowledging our weakness and our inability.
There are so many parallels with the feeding of the 5000. The people were in great need, someone was fond with a little food, a disciple was unbelieving, God multiplied the loaves, the people all ate, and there was food left over.
Yet at almost every turn we see that our Saviour is much greater. Elisha fed 100 men. Jesus fed 5000. Elisha had 20 loaves. Jesus had 5. Elisha gave them bread. Jesus gave them fish as well. Elisha had some left over, Jesus had 12 basketfuls. Elisha did it by God's power, Jesus did it by his own power.
And as Gladys Aylward was reminded, we may not be Moses, or in our cases Elisha, but God is still God. And he is the same yesterday today and forever. And when we are in need, or inadequate, or mistaken he will provide.
And we see here also in these two miracles a picture of the gospel. A man whose deadly mistake is covered over by God, and a man whose offering was utterly inadequate and God provides what is needed.
Some of you here this morning need to hear this. How you are living your life at present is like this man in the first miracle. You think you are doing good, but in fact you are in grave danger. You think you are gathering up treasure for yourself in Heaven, when in fact all the good that you do will condemn you to Hell. You need God to work a miracle. You wouldn't be foolish enough to eat poisonous plants, but you are gobbling the poisonous leaves of the tree of good works. You are badly mistaken. And the poison will kill you forever. You need Christ to transform what is poisonous into what will give life. You need to go to him like the prophets did and beg for a miracle. Lord change me, save me, rescue from this death. Cover over my mistakes, my errors, my faults, my sins.
Like the man in the second miracle you bring your life's efforts to God and say, here Lord, here are all my decent works that I have done with my life. And they are insufficient. And they will never be sufficient to please God. Had you a hundred lives to live and fine tune each one of them, you could never get it right. You need God to provide for you the righteousness that you have failed so badly at. You need to look at your life and ask yourself, "How can I set this before God?" And then cry out to God, "Provide for me too!"
And if you do, you will find that God will provide, and Christ will cover your sins, and will replace your good works with his perfect righteousness and you will be able to stand before God.
Conclusion
We learn here that our daily needs, whether its bread, or stew matter to God.
And we learn here again that "My God will need all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus."
We learn that he will not always do it in the same way.
And these five miracles that we have looked at in this chapter point us forward to the day when we will see the wonderful richness of God's provision in all its glory:
- When we will see that our debt has been cleared, on the day of judgment
- When we will have every tear wiped away from our eye, and there will be no secret aches in our hearts
- When the dead in Christ will be raised
- When the effects of sin on this planet will be removed and there will be no more famine, no more poisonous plants.
- When we will enjoy the delights of Heaven forever and ever, and there will always be some left over to enjoy.
Thursday, October 27, 2005
Six Favourite Books on Preaching
As sort of a follow-up to yesterday's post, here's a selection of some of the books that I have really appreciated on preaching. In no particular order
Ministering like the Master - Stuart Olyott
If Jesus preached from one of our pulpits today, what would his preaching be like? Stuart Olyott, one of my favourite preachers, looks at Jesus' preaching in the Sermon on the Mount and brings out key principles. One of the great things about this book is that it originated as three addresses at a minister's conference, and so it carries the flavour of the spoken word, and as such illustrates the principles that Olyott is seeking to instil. One of the best books on preaching. Olyott says a lot with few words.
Preaching - Pure & Simple - Stuart Olyott
This is Olyott's second book on preaching. I first heard the content of these talks on mp3, and they transformed how I think about preaching. He isn't afraid to call traditions into question, or to make bold suggestions. His chapter on Spiritual urgency and Supernatural Authority are worth the price of the book alone. Olyott is a deceptively simple communicator - his few words, and short sentences contain a wealth of thought.
Preaching and Teaching with Imagination - Warren Wiersbe
I came across this footnoted in a compilation of essays edited by DA Carson called "Telling the Truth". The essay by Colin S. Smith quoted a fictional story Wiersbe had used to illustrate his point. Let me give it to you in abbreviated form:
Sense appeal in the sermons of CH Spurgeon - Jay Adams
I think it's sinful to be dull as a preacher. And since God has given us different senses we should preach in such a way that the whole man is engaged. Adam's study of Spurgeon is most helpful and thought-provoking.
The Power of Speaking God's Word - Wilbur Ellsworth
What makes a sermon memorable? By memorable, I don't mean outstanding, rather that it sticks in the memory. Ellsworth's argument is that sermons should be prepared to be so clear that we don't need notes, but rather can look the people in the eye and tell them what we have to say. What a challenge! His argument is that if after a week of study we can't retain what we are about to say without notes, what hope is there for those who haven't studied it all week!
My Heart for thy cause - Brian Borgman
The sub-title of this book is "Albert N. Martin's Theology of Preaching". For anyone who has heard Al Martin preach you'll know why this book has an impact. His sermons are marked by faithful exegesis, forceful and pointed application, clear illustration and a passionate desire to communicate the truth of God's word. This book looks at the key elements of Martin's preaching. In a sense it could be the contents of a homiletics course, it is so thorough.
Ministering like the Master - Stuart Olyott
If Jesus preached from one of our pulpits today, what would his preaching be like? Stuart Olyott, one of my favourite preachers, looks at Jesus' preaching in the Sermon on the Mount and brings out key principles. One of the great things about this book is that it originated as three addresses at a minister's conference, and so it carries the flavour of the spoken word, and as such illustrates the principles that Olyott is seeking to instil. One of the best books on preaching. Olyott says a lot with few words.
Preaching - Pure & Simple - Stuart Olyott
This is Olyott's second book on preaching. I first heard the content of these talks on mp3, and they transformed how I think about preaching. He isn't afraid to call traditions into question, or to make bold suggestions. His chapter on Spiritual urgency and Supernatural Authority are worth the price of the book alone. Olyott is a deceptively simple communicator - his few words, and short sentences contain a wealth of thought.
Preaching and Teaching with Imagination - Warren Wiersbe
I came across this footnoted in a compilation of essays edited by DA Carson called "Telling the Truth". The essay by Colin S. Smith quoted a fictional story Wiersbe had used to illustrate his point. Let me give it to you in abbreviated form:
Grandma Thatcher hobbles into church one morning. As usual, her unsaved husband had sent her off to church with curses ringing in her ears. She was in constant pain, and had a doctor's appointment on Wednesday. She dreaded the arrival of winter and was praying that fuel prices wouldn't go up again. If it weren't for her Lord, her large-print Bible, and her Christian friends, Grandma Thatcher would have given up a long time ago.It struck me that that outline was like a lot of the preaching I heard around me (except from my own pastor). It wasn't really a sermon, just a verbal commentary on the passage. Wiersbe's book seeks to bring life and imagination into such stale sermons. He does so not by being innovative, but by being biblical. A significant chunk of the book is devoted to looking at the use of imagery throughout scripture. He then shows how we can use the Bible to guide our imagination in our sermon preparation so that what we say makes it into the lives of our hearers.
When Pastor Bowers stepped into the pulpit to preach, Grandma Thatcher silently prayed, "Father, give him something special for me. I need it!" The text was Genesis 9, and the message was the twenty-second in a series on Genesis that Pastor Bowers called "Beginning at the Beginnings."
The sermon was titled, "God Talks to Noah." Pastor Bowers read the chapter and then gave the congregation his main points:
I. Creation Presented - 9:1-3
II. Capital Punishment - 9:4-7
III. Covenant Promised - 9:8-17
IV. Carnality Practiced - 9:18-23
V. Consequences Prophesied - 9:24-29
As some of the saints dutifully wrote the outline in the space provided on the back page of their worship folders, Grandma Thatcher breathed a disappointed sigh. "Last week it was all S's. Today it's all CP's." She settled back in the pew, turned the preacher off and began meditating on the psalm she'd read early that morning before George had gotten up to menace her day.
Sense appeal in the sermons of CH Spurgeon - Jay Adams
I think it's sinful to be dull as a preacher. And since God has given us different senses we should preach in such a way that the whole man is engaged. Adam's study of Spurgeon is most helpful and thought-provoking.
The Power of Speaking God's Word - Wilbur Ellsworth
What makes a sermon memorable? By memorable, I don't mean outstanding, rather that it sticks in the memory. Ellsworth's argument is that sermons should be prepared to be so clear that we don't need notes, but rather can look the people in the eye and tell them what we have to say. What a challenge! His argument is that if after a week of study we can't retain what we are about to say without notes, what hope is there for those who haven't studied it all week!
My Heart for thy cause - Brian Borgman
The sub-title of this book is "Albert N. Martin's Theology of Preaching". For anyone who has heard Al Martin preach you'll know why this book has an impact. His sermons are marked by faithful exegesis, forceful and pointed application, clear illustration and a passionate desire to communicate the truth of God's word. This book looks at the key elements of Martin's preaching. In a sense it could be the contents of a homiletics course, it is so thorough.
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Spurgeon - All the subtlety of sledgehammer
There was me worrying about giving a slightly negative book review, and then I remembered Spurgeon's "Commenting and Commentaries". For those of you who don't know, this is probably the funniest serious work by a Christian in the last 200 years. In it Spurgeon gives comment on hundreds of major and minor commentaries and devotional writings. It must have been a real publishers nightmare for each book in different font sizes depending on how worthwhile they are.
However, it is not the font-size that is so entertaining, but the comments from the Prince of Preachers. Here are a few gathered from a very quick gleaning:
However, it is not the font-size that is so entertaining, but the comments from the Prince of Preachers. Here are a few gathered from a very quick gleaning:
- A masterly work; but about as dry as Gideon’s unwetted fleece.
- Comparatively feeble.
- Contains nothing of any consequence to an expositor
- On a book subtitled "For reading at family prayers" - Alas, poor families! Ye have need of patience.
- We hope they benefited the printer; they will not help the reader much.
- On a book by a man called Wake - The author was Wake, but not awake, or he would never have wasted so much good paper.
- Our estimate of his work is not so high as his own.
- More curious than valuable. The style is scholastic and pointless.
- To listen to these sermons must have afforded a suitable Lenten penance to those who went to church to hear them.
- Dry and tedious
- We need no longer wonder how spiders make such long threads with such little material, for here is an equally amazing instance of spinning.
- Another specimen of sermons published by subscription. The poor curatewas no doubt the better for the profits, and nobody was any the worse. Clipston church was not set on fire by the flaming eloquence of the preacher, nor was the country disturbed by any fanatical excitement produced by his excessive zeal.
- The Proverbs themselves are plainer than this author’s exposition of them.
- The author professed to offer his work with great diffidence, and he had just cause to do so: he had better have burned his manuscript.
- Commonplace remarks; intended to be used at family worship. Likely to send the servants to sleep.
- On a book entitled "Psalms: a commentary and Prayer, for use in families" - Families will best use these commentaries and prayers by lining their cake tins with them.
Book Review - Preaching Christ
I'm not sure what to do here. On the one hand I have a book to review that deals with a worthy subject. On the other hand, I don't think it's very good. I usually chicken out at this stage and just don't bother reviewing the book. But I feel an obligation to the general reader to be up front about these things. It's a difficult line to walk - being honest and being gracious, and I don't know how well I manage it, but here goes:
Preaching Christ
Edgar Andrews
ET Perspectives No.1
(Evangelical Press)
This book was originally a series of articles in Evangelical Times, and I find it hard to know why it was reproduced as a book. It is not that there is anything wrong in the book, it is just that there is nothing new in it - it has all been said before. As a series of articles it may have had a place summarising what preaching Christ involves, but as a book it doesn't 'compete' with other fuller and more helpful volumes.
I started reading it with high expectations - what preacher wouldn't want to know more how to preach Christ better. So I was hoping to find help in preaching Christ, especially from the Old Testament. But alas, the author simply outlines that we are to preach him, as the New Testament preachers did, from direct references, from types and pictures, and from obscurer references. And not much more detail is given than that, although a couple of outlines are given as examples. Much more on the 'how to' would have been more useful. As it is, it is really just an extended plea to preach Christ more.
That said, I appreciated his insistence that we must preach Christ to Christians. It is not enough to preach Christ evangelistically, but Christ must continually be set before believers in all the fullness of his salvation.
If you are really looking help in this area I would suggest Graeme Goldsworthy's "Gospel and Kingdom", and "Preaching the Whole Bible as Christian Scripture". For two excellent books on preaching in general see "Preaching, pure and simple" and "Ministering like the Master" both by Stuart Olyott.
Preaching Christ
Edgar Andrews
ET Perspectives No.1
(Evangelical Press)
This book was originally a series of articles in Evangelical Times, and I find it hard to know why it was reproduced as a book. It is not that there is anything wrong in the book, it is just that there is nothing new in it - it has all been said before. As a series of articles it may have had a place summarising what preaching Christ involves, but as a book it doesn't 'compete' with other fuller and more helpful volumes.
I started reading it with high expectations - what preacher wouldn't want to know more how to preach Christ better. So I was hoping to find help in preaching Christ, especially from the Old Testament. But alas, the author simply outlines that we are to preach him, as the New Testament preachers did, from direct references, from types and pictures, and from obscurer references. And not much more detail is given than that, although a couple of outlines are given as examples. Much more on the 'how to' would have been more useful. As it is, it is really just an extended plea to preach Christ more.
That said, I appreciated his insistence that we must preach Christ to Christians. It is not enough to preach Christ evangelistically, but Christ must continually be set before believers in all the fullness of his salvation.
If you are really looking help in this area I would suggest Graeme Goldsworthy's "Gospel and Kingdom", and "Preaching the Whole Bible as Christian Scripture". For two excellent books on preaching in general see "Preaching, pure and simple" and "Ministering like the Master" both by Stuart Olyott.
Halloween - a time to laugh or a time to weep?
(Column for a local newspaper - I now write for a second newspaper, and it has to be different from the first!)
Last Halloween a colleague of mine went into a home in Letterkenny to visit. Crouching behind the sofa was a small boy, stark naked, and in the process of painting himself from head to toe in red paint! Apparently he wanted to look like the Devil.
It can be a time to laugh, yet it is also a time when elderly people are afraid to answer their door, when they are frightened by all the racket outside of fireworks and bangers.
It's a time of increased vandalism and wanton disregard for the property of others, of bangers thrown through letterboxes or at windows, and fireworks aimed at people or cars.
As a pastor I see another reason for concern - Halloween dumbs down the spiritual dangers we face by making light of them. There is a spiritual realm which we need to take seriously. The devil is real, a terrifying being who is certainly not some mildly mischievous man in a red suit with pointy ears. He is the ultimate cause of all that is wrong in this world. And while it's mostly fun and games at Halloween, it reduces spiritual matters to "a silly dressing up that we did when we were kids". When we pretend that he's just a harmless bit of fun, we are swallowing his propaganda.
Besides all this, there is the duty that each of us has to show compassion to those around us. The Bible commands us to "love our neighbour". We can't say we're doing this if we, or our children, are making elderly folk fearful or nervous in their own homes.
The whole concept of Halloween is a licence for mischief, and one that we could well do without. At the same time, it is a holiday and therefore an opportunity for families to enjoy some time together. So I would encourage you to be both wise and considerate in how you spend this time, to look out for your neighbours, and to take seriously that "the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." (1 Peter 5:8)
Last Halloween a colleague of mine went into a home in Letterkenny to visit. Crouching behind the sofa was a small boy, stark naked, and in the process of painting himself from head to toe in red paint! Apparently he wanted to look like the Devil.
It can be a time to laugh, yet it is also a time when elderly people are afraid to answer their door, when they are frightened by all the racket outside of fireworks and bangers.
It's a time of increased vandalism and wanton disregard for the property of others, of bangers thrown through letterboxes or at windows, and fireworks aimed at people or cars.
As a pastor I see another reason for concern - Halloween dumbs down the spiritual dangers we face by making light of them. There is a spiritual realm which we need to take seriously. The devil is real, a terrifying being who is certainly not some mildly mischievous man in a red suit with pointy ears. He is the ultimate cause of all that is wrong in this world. And while it's mostly fun and games at Halloween, it reduces spiritual matters to "a silly dressing up that we did when we were kids". When we pretend that he's just a harmless bit of fun, we are swallowing his propaganda.
Besides all this, there is the duty that each of us has to show compassion to those around us. The Bible commands us to "love our neighbour". We can't say we're doing this if we, or our children, are making elderly folk fearful or nervous in their own homes.
The whole concept of Halloween is a licence for mischief, and one that we could well do without. At the same time, it is a holiday and therefore an opportunity for families to enjoy some time together. So I would encourage you to be both wise and considerate in how you spend this time, to look out for your neighbours, and to take seriously that "the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." (1 Peter 5:8)
Saturday, October 22, 2005
Rugby, American Football, and the Singing of Psalms
Amen to Carl Truman's thoughts on Rugby and especially unaccompanied Psalm singing!
It takes a special breed of man to get the glorious game, the Psalms, and a dig at the Yanks all into one post. The more I read by this guy the more I like him.
(Only joking, my American friends - I love you all!)
It takes a special breed of man to get the glorious game, the Psalms, and a dig at the Yanks all into one post. The more I read by this guy the more I like him.
(Only joking, my American friends - I love you all!)
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Cara Jean has arrived!
Ok, so she arrived on Sabbath evening just before 8pm. And her name was Cara Joy then, but we realised that it would have been my Granny's birthday, so we changed 'Joy' to Jean in memory of Granny. For those of you who quite liked Joy, never fear, for Cara is Greek for Joy, as well as being Irish for 'friend'.
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
Book Review - "Being a Christian Husband"
Being a Christian husband
Colin Hamer
Evangelical Press
I liked this book straight from the start. It is about men being godly men in their marriage. This world needs Christian men to demonstrate what being a godly Christian husband is like. We live in a world where young men often grow up in single parent homes and don't know what a father behaves like, or where young men see a father behave in a way that may even be good, but isn't godly. Even marriages between Christians aren't necessarily Christian marriages, in other words they don't follow God's guidelines.
As well as being on a theme that is very necessary, I enjoyed this book because the author writes in a concise and fresh style. In a good way you can tell that he is not a minister - if a minister had written this book it would have been twice as long!
The book really falls into four parts: an introduction, the biblical basis, the practical implications, and a conclusion. After considering some of the contemporary views of marriage and manhood, Hamer outlines what the Bible has to say. He takes some time over this before he gets to the practical applications. In a very helpful way he focuses on Jesus, showing what Jesus was like as the perfect man, and showing what Jesus is like as the perfect husband to his bride, the church. This is a tremendously important section - and forms the basis for what he goes on to say later as he applies it to husbands.
The third section takes the four principles discovered from Jesus and applies them to marriage: the Christian husband has to love, to take responsibility, to exercise authority, and to be faithful. These are fleshed out in practical situations, though perhaps more detail could have been given, but that's the minister speaking!
Repeatedly though these sections he returns to Christ; something that I feel is often missing from other books on marriage.
The book closes with a section which looks at some objections to this biblical pattern of manhood, and gives biblical advice on looking for a wife.
All in all, I feel that this book would be a great book for every newly married husband to read, or for any newly converted Christian husband. In one sense it isn't rocket science, it is a laying down of foundation principles - but that is exactly what needs to be done, even for Christians.
Colin Hamer
Evangelical Press
I liked this book straight from the start. It is about men being godly men in their marriage. This world needs Christian men to demonstrate what being a godly Christian husband is like. We live in a world where young men often grow up in single parent homes and don't know what a father behaves like, or where young men see a father behave in a way that may even be good, but isn't godly. Even marriages between Christians aren't necessarily Christian marriages, in other words they don't follow God's guidelines.
As well as being on a theme that is very necessary, I enjoyed this book because the author writes in a concise and fresh style. In a good way you can tell that he is not a minister - if a minister had written this book it would have been twice as long!
The book really falls into four parts: an introduction, the biblical basis, the practical implications, and a conclusion. After considering some of the contemporary views of marriage and manhood, Hamer outlines what the Bible has to say. He takes some time over this before he gets to the practical applications. In a very helpful way he focuses on Jesus, showing what Jesus was like as the perfect man, and showing what Jesus is like as the perfect husband to his bride, the church. This is a tremendously important section - and forms the basis for what he goes on to say later as he applies it to husbands.
The third section takes the four principles discovered from Jesus and applies them to marriage: the Christian husband has to love, to take responsibility, to exercise authority, and to be faithful. These are fleshed out in practical situations, though perhaps more detail could have been given, but that's the minister speaking!
Repeatedly though these sections he returns to Christ; something that I feel is often missing from other books on marriage.
The book closes with a section which looks at some objections to this biblical pattern of manhood, and gives biblical advice on looking for a wife.
All in all, I feel that this book would be a great book for every newly married husband to read, or for any newly converted Christian husband. In one sense it isn't rocket science, it is a laying down of foundation principles - but that is exactly what needs to be done, even for Christians.
Lap dancing - Lighting a fuse and standing back
(Column for a local newspaper)
I see from the front page of last week's Post that Dundalk lap dancers are eyeing up Letterkenny as a potential venue. I see from page two that 35 counts of sexual assault have been brought against a Donegal man.
Several weeks ago the Post ran an article on the sex shop in Letterkenny, and the same issue featured separate articles on rape fears on the L.I.T. campus and sex abuse charges.
It seems to me that if you keep throwing petrol on a fire you can't be surprised when people get burned. So it shouldn't surprise us that, as sexuality is touted openly in Letterkenny, we will see an increase in sexual violence. We have opened a Pandora's box and haven't the intelligence to close it.
It's time that nightclubs started to take their community obligations seriously. On the one hand they load young men with alcohol and then turn them out into the street where drunken brawls are inevitable. On the other hand they charge up their hormones, raising them to fever pitch by the 'look but don't touch' show, and send them off into the night where females are also making their way home. And they seem unwilling to take responsibility for the violence, sexual or otherwise, that results.
True, individuals need to accept responsibility, but so too do nightclubs and sex shops. You can't run around lighting gunpowder trails and then abdicate responsibility when the barrel explodes and people get injured.
Sexual arousal is not something that can be turned off at the flick of a switch. Sex is a fantastic gift from God to be enjoyed within certain parameters. Otherwise it results in hurt, pain and regret. Perhaps that's why God says in a book of the Bible completely given over to the joy of sexuality, "Do not arouse or awaken love until the time is right." (Song of Solomon 8:4).
I see from the front page of last week's Post that Dundalk lap dancers are eyeing up Letterkenny as a potential venue. I see from page two that 35 counts of sexual assault have been brought against a Donegal man.
Several weeks ago the Post ran an article on the sex shop in Letterkenny, and the same issue featured separate articles on rape fears on the L.I.T. campus and sex abuse charges.
It seems to me that if you keep throwing petrol on a fire you can't be surprised when people get burned. So it shouldn't surprise us that, as sexuality is touted openly in Letterkenny, we will see an increase in sexual violence. We have opened a Pandora's box and haven't the intelligence to close it.
It's time that nightclubs started to take their community obligations seriously. On the one hand they load young men with alcohol and then turn them out into the street where drunken brawls are inevitable. On the other hand they charge up their hormones, raising them to fever pitch by the 'look but don't touch' show, and send them off into the night where females are also making their way home. And they seem unwilling to take responsibility for the violence, sexual or otherwise, that results.
True, individuals need to accept responsibility, but so too do nightclubs and sex shops. You can't run around lighting gunpowder trails and then abdicate responsibility when the barrel explodes and people get injured.
Sexual arousal is not something that can be turned off at the flick of a switch. Sex is a fantastic gift from God to be enjoyed within certain parameters. Otherwise it results in hurt, pain and regret. Perhaps that's why God says in a book of the Bible completely given over to the joy of sexuality, "Do not arouse or awaken love until the time is right." (Song of Solomon 8:4).
Monday, October 17, 2005
Book Review - War and Grace by Don Stephens
War and Grace
Don Stephens
Evangelical Press
There are some mistakes you can do well without. Others are quite pleasant. Evangelical Press sent me a box of books, nine in total, by mistake. Normally they just send me a list of books they've just published.
Reviews of most will hopefully follow. But I want to start off with a book called "War and Grace" by Don Stephens. This is a collection of short biographies of men and women from World War II. It records what God did in them either as Christians or in bringing them to faith. What a wonderful book. Not only did it encourage me to read of God's amazing grace, but it stirred my heart again with compassion for the lost.
Stephens is a man who has had a passion for WWII, but he also has a passion for communicating the life-changing grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and this shows in his writing. He has been collecting this information over the last number of decades, and he assembles it here in a series of thrilling accounts.
Like most males, war has held a fascination for me, especially the two world wars. I grew up on a diet of Victor, Battle and Warlord comics, and the little 'Commando' comic story booklets. The tales of bravery and courage were inspiring. But I never really had heard much of what God was doing in those years. Here Stephens fills the void.
Not only does he show the courage and the stand Christians took, but he shows how God worked to bring hate-filled atheists to Christ and turned them into powerful missionaries.
I had heard of some of names before: William Dobbie, the defender of Malta; Mitsuo Fuchida, the lead pilot in the Pearl Harbour attack. I had read about some of them before: Charles Fraser-Smith, the real 'Q'; Donald Caskie, Scottish pastor in France who ran an escape route for airmen and soldiers. But often in newspaper reports and in books written about them their faith is left aside. Stephens redresses the balance and brings out overpowering influence of the gospel in their lives.
Perhaps for me the highlight was the story of Henry Gerecke, chaplain to the highest ranking Nazis at the Nuremberg trials. His account of taking the gospel to these men and the resultant effects is quite startling and shows the shocking nature of grace at its best.
It really is a triumph of grace.
One of the things that impressed me was that Stephens writes with discernment - unlike some Christians he doesn't claim every religious person was actually a Christian. Nor does he accept that every profession made, for example by the Nazi war criminals, was necessarily genuine. This isn't a rose-tinted view of God's work in the war. He also corrects errors that have been made in other biographies, or obituaries, or films and provides a helpful balance.
If, like me you grew up on a diet of Victor comics and war films, and your shelves are filled with novels by Leon Uris and Cornelius Ryan, then this is a book you will enjoy.
Don Stephens
Evangelical Press
There are some mistakes you can do well without. Others are quite pleasant. Evangelical Press sent me a box of books, nine in total, by mistake. Normally they just send me a list of books they've just published.
Reviews of most will hopefully follow. But I want to start off with a book called "War and Grace" by Don Stephens. This is a collection of short biographies of men and women from World War II. It records what God did in them either as Christians or in bringing them to faith. What a wonderful book. Not only did it encourage me to read of God's amazing grace, but it stirred my heart again with compassion for the lost.
Stephens is a man who has had a passion for WWII, but he also has a passion for communicating the life-changing grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and this shows in his writing. He has been collecting this information over the last number of decades, and he assembles it here in a series of thrilling accounts.
Like most males, war has held a fascination for me, especially the two world wars. I grew up on a diet of Victor, Battle and Warlord comics, and the little 'Commando' comic story booklets. The tales of bravery and courage were inspiring. But I never really had heard much of what God was doing in those years. Here Stephens fills the void.
Not only does he show the courage and the stand Christians took, but he shows how God worked to bring hate-filled atheists to Christ and turned them into powerful missionaries.
I had heard of some of names before: William Dobbie, the defender of Malta; Mitsuo Fuchida, the lead pilot in the Pearl Harbour attack. I had read about some of them before: Charles Fraser-Smith, the real 'Q'; Donald Caskie, Scottish pastor in France who ran an escape route for airmen and soldiers. But often in newspaper reports and in books written about them their faith is left aside. Stephens redresses the balance and brings out overpowering influence of the gospel in their lives.
Perhaps for me the highlight was the story of Henry Gerecke, chaplain to the highest ranking Nazis at the Nuremberg trials. His account of taking the gospel to these men and the resultant effects is quite startling and shows the shocking nature of grace at its best.
It really is a triumph of grace.
One of the things that impressed me was that Stephens writes with discernment - unlike some Christians he doesn't claim every religious person was actually a Christian. Nor does he accept that every profession made, for example by the Nazi war criminals, was necessarily genuine. This isn't a rose-tinted view of God's work in the war. He also corrects errors that have been made in other biographies, or obituaries, or films and provides a helpful balance.
If, like me you grew up on a diet of Victor comics and war films, and your shelves are filled with novels by Leon Uris and Cornelius Ryan, then this is a book you will enjoy.
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