Do the Word!

My semester is almost over!!! Right now, I'm sitting in China class listening to the final lecture on communism.

Reading Steve's last post got me to thinking about a quote I once read. Carl Henry wrote, "Everyone has a theology. It may be a very shoddy one, and if it is shoddy, it will rise to haunt one in a crisis of life. It's my conviction that only a theology which has the living God at its center and that is rooted in Christ, the crucified and risen Redeemer, has the intellectual struts to engage the modern secular views effectively."

That crisis of life is the suffering of which Steve writes. In times of suffering we face the decision of how we react. There's no doubt about it. It's not a question of WILL we react, it's HOW we will react, and that reaction is based on our view of God, our theology. I hope you can see this as Steve writes about reflecting the humility, character, faith, and glory of Christ in the experience of pain and suffering.

As a response, Dr. Henry warns that NOT taking such a perspective to suffering will come back to haunt us. We will all face a life crisis at some point, either as suffering or trials, and when we do, we have no time to comtemplate our reactions. It flows, as Steve points out from Proverbs 23:7, from the heart. My attitude toward a crisis is a direct reflection of my heart.

I think James 1 is appropriate to this topic. In preparation for when we face trials, not "if" but "when," we need to examine our hearts. James 1:21-22 says, "Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves."

Do the word. Don't have a shoddy theology, as Dr. Henry mentions. Where does this theology come from? From the implanted WORD! That's how we develop an understanding of suffering with a "living God at its center and that is rooted in Christ." We hear the word, then we do the word. And when we face trials of suffering, our response comes out of our hearts, which have been implanted with the Word.

That's how we can respond to suffering with humility, character, faith, and glorifying Christ!

What a great time I had at MTSU!

Hey John, I looked all over for you yesterday morning. I had the honor of meeting at the MTSU Library with The Christian Communicators of Tennessee (do you by any chance know a student named Matthew Bullington? He is actively involved with this group.) to discuss the apologetics section of the upcoming Speech and Debate Tournament at MTSU on December 15-16 (John - come and be very impressed by these homeschool students!).

I want to give a great big shout out to the students that I met yesterday. I am so thankful for your desire to know how to explain the glory and greatness of our Lord Jesus Christ. I am impressed by the level of professionalism, clarity, and friendliness that each of you demonstrated.

Today I want to post the outline for my answer to yesterday's question (number 8). I have tried to make it simple, biblical, and easy to follow. This, I believe, will be a useful format for you to structure your answers in.

Begin Answer:

Question #8 - Give a biblical defense for why apologetics (a reasoned defense of the Christian faith) is both appropriate and necessary.

Personal testimony:
Speak about the guy who was asked to stop refereeing the children’s t-ball games because he refused to call anyone out at first base. When he tried to explain his reasoning he said that the boys worked so hard that he didn’t have the heart to call them out.

What he didn’t think to consider was how hard the other boys worked to get him out. What was he thinking?

We live in a time where we find less and less reasonable thinking. Christianity is no longer understood, much less believed. Christ’s ambassadors must represent their Lord’s person and His teachings clearly, with power and determination.

We live in a time where feelings rule and emotions are king. The problem is that they are so ambiguous.... what do we do with conflict?

Christians must develop a much more biblical worldview than “we’ve always done it that way before” or “I just really feel like such and such is true.”
We need to be reasonable (understandable, logical, simple, truthful) and personable (friendly, kind, patient, loving).

We practice apologetics because:

1. It is biblical.
a. The word ‘apologetics’ comes from the Greek word avpologi,a (apologia). It means to give a verbal defense or to speak in defense of. It is used to describe a lawyer’s defense whereby he gives reasons for his client’s actions. It doesn’t mean to say you are sorry (our culture’s understanding of apologize).
b. Paul did it. (Philippians 1:16 The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel.)
c. Peter taught it. (1 Peter 3:15 but in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you;)
d. Luke described it (Luke 1:1-4; 12:11; Acts 2:14-36; 3:12-26; 4:2; 8-12; 7:1-53; 8:26-35; 9:34-43; 17:22-31; 22:1)

2. It is commanded.
a. 1 Peter 3:15 but in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you;
b. 2 Timothy 2:15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
c. Matthew 28:19-20 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

3. It glorifies God through Christ.
a. Telling the truth glorifies the Truth (John 4:24 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."; John 14:6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.).
b. Obeying the truth glorifies the Truth (John 14:15 "If you love me, you will keep my commandments.)

As more and more of our culture fails to see the need for a truth that transcends our feelings Christians need to stand firm, fully armed with the powerful sword of truth which is the living and powerful Word of God.

End Answer

Those of you who heard me speak yesterday will notice that I used my outline as a simple skeleton. I didn't have the story about my feelings and peach cobbler written in. I did that on purpose. What we are trying to do isn't write the speech. Rather our goal is to collect as much information for the speech as we can. We want everyone to be able to give an individual, unique answer all their own. To do this we need to collect more information than simply "this is the answer."

Here is some direction for you to take in developing your answer.

1. Think about the question.

2. Really.... think about the question (What I mean is that you need to be able to restate the question in your own words so that you actually know what is being asked).

3. Write down some short answers (make a list of short answers or thoughts after you have thought through the quesiton).

4. What does the Bible have to say about this question? What does it have to say about your short answers?

5. Prepare your complete answer in an outline form.

6. Add personal stories or application to your outline (each person should do this as they take other families' answers and make them their own).

7. Ask your father to listen to your answer and help you develop it to communicate to someone who would struggle with the answer.

Your goal is to have a card box with all of the important information, specifically the Bible passages and theological information at your fingertips so that you can format your own answer with the information given.

I have already added verses to my existing outline as I have thought further about the question. That is your job also.

Please feel free to use the comments section of this blog to help me flesh out this format. Respond with helpful thoughts, other passages of Scripture, and ever other points. This, hopefully, will turn into an electronic notecard box that we can use to fill out our own personal answer box.

God bless you as you work to bring Glory to God through the knowledge of Christ!

Kevin, John, or anyone else is encouraged to help us collect more and more seeds of the Word to place in these young Apologists' seed bags!

Throw that Word!

What is the deal with suffering?

I am sorry for the apparent laziness of this blog's authors. We have been extremely busy of late.
I want to post a short article that has captured my thinking over the past couple of weeks.

How did Jesus Christ suffer so magnificently without any complaint (Isaiah 53:7 7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.)? My momentary afflictions seem to captivate my mind and control my mouth. Yet Christ, who was wrongly accused and brutally murdered, did not flinch.

This is what made Him perfect! In Hebrews 2:10 (cf: 5:9; 7:28) the author tells us that Jesus was made perfect through suffering. Although we would all argue that Jesus has always been perfect, there is the aspect of His real-time, historical, actual accomplishment that, when completed, fulfilled His perfection.

For me though, how does suffering make Christ, and by proxy, me perfect?

Suffering:
1. Keeps us humble – making us more like Christ!

In Philippians 2:7-11 we see a perfect picture of the humble Christ. He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death.

We aren’t special enough, powerful enough, strong enough, influential enough, good enough, rich enough, etc… to escape suffering.

Everyone suffers, no one is better than anyone else.

Are you listening? Has the suffering that God brought into your life caused you to think less of yourself and more of God’s provision? Are you less interested in what you can do because of circumstances that have made you realize that you are not in control?

2. Brings out what is on the inside – reveals character – more or less like Christ.

As a man thinks in his heart, so is he (Proverbs 23:7). In Mark 7:14-23 Jesus speaks about the things that defile us: those things that come out of us not the things that go into us. When we find ourselves in circumstances that cause us to experience pain the qualities of our character are revealed: our impatience, our selfishness, our greed, our love, our kindness, our patience are revealed.

3. Forces us to faith – making us more like Christ.

We see the perfect example of this in 1 Peter 2:23. Jesus, when he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. Suffering, for the believer, isn't something that is unfair or unjust. Suffering simply forces us to continue in the faith that brought us life (Galatians 3:1-6).

It is all about God’s perspective not ours!

4. Glorifies Christ – reveals Christ’s power in us – making us more like Christ.

Paul, in 2 Corinthians 12:7ff, pled with the Lord to remove his suffering from him and yet Christ's response was that His grace was sufficient. There is a special reassurance for us in that we certainly do not need to trust in the strength of this world. What a calming effect these words are to us: "for my power is made perfect in weakness."

Oh Lord... You alone know how weak I am... Please make your glory perfect for your sake!

Jesus has been made perfect! Are you being made perfect? What is your response to suffering?
Humility? Character? Faith? Glory to Christ?

Anybody into Apologetics?

I am sure that the three regular readers of this blog have been wondering about our lack of activity. For myself, I have been extremely busy (I am not sure what excuses Kevin or John will make but it will probably fall along the same lines.) with several things. The first is my manuscript for The Southern Baptist Primer, the second is pastoring Shellsford Baptist Church, and the third is my family.

It is the third thing that causes me to post today. My oldest children each won their division at the 4-H speech competition (Hannah would've won her's outright I am sure - I am her father BTW! - but because they need 7th graders to participate... they were all winners!). The next step is the county-wide competition in January.

One of our friends, Karen Spivey, has started a speech club for the 4-H/ Homeschool group that we associate with and it is so interesting! I have volunteered to help them prepare their answers for the apologetics competition and I would like your help. I have listed (below) the 10 questions that they will be preparing. I am not necessarily interested in just giving them the answers to them. I would prefer to point them in the right direction and let them work the answers out for themselves.

Do any of you have suggestions for resources in these areas? Websites, books, excepts...etc.

APOLOGETICS QUESTIONS
1. How does the fact that the cosmos exists argue for the existence of a Creator God?
2. How does the fact that there is apparent design in the universe argue for the existence of God?
3. Respond to this statement: “That’s fine that you believe in God. You’ve got your truth, I’ve got mine. But there is no absolute truth.”
4. How can there be a God when there is so much evil and suffering in the world?
5. Respond to this statement: “I believe there are many paths to God; Christianity is just one of them.”
6. Respond to this statement: “If God does not exist then everything is permissible.” Fyodor Dostoevski in, The Brothers Karamazov
7. Respond to this statement: “It is impossible to live consistently and happily within an atheistic world view. If one lives consistently, he will not be happy; if one lives happily, he will not be consistent.” -- William Lane Craig
8. Give a biblical defense for why apologetics (a reasoned defense of the Christian faith) is both appropriate and necessary.
9. Respond to this statement: “With so many religions in the world, how can you be so arrogant as to believe yours is the only right one.”
10. Respond to this statement: “I agree that Jesus was a great moral teacher; I just don’t believe he was God.”

I am not sure what a good format for this would be but I would love any help that you could give!

Where have I been?

John and Kevin, sorry that I raised a question and then vanished. A lot has been going on and it seems that I have spent more time than I would have liked trying to keep my head above water.

Reading Pink's book and pastoring have made me think about more than "how much of the church is really in the church" but also what exactly is a church and what is a church supposed to do.

One resource that has been helping me is David Alan Black's site. Visit it and see if you aren't stretched also.

Putting Wikipedia to the Test

The extremely popular website, Wikipedia, has recieved a huge amount of criticism(some could possibly even be from people on this website!) since its birth on the internet. People reject the idea that an open forum type of encyclopedia can be reliable. By people, read: scholars and professors for the most part. At least, according to this article. This is an interesting look at how reliable Wikipedia is, and the reason that many scholars do not look favorably at the internet encyclopedia. But I'm not going to tell you about it, go read for yourself.

My Initial, Reactionary Thoughts on This Subject

In response to Pink's thoughts, the first thing I would say is that we should not necessarily think this is simply a product of the last century. Historically, this has always been a problem within the church that leads to times of reform (one of which I pray we are entering). One could look at Spurgeon's trials in the DownGrade Controversy, and see how churches in England were replacing the Gospel with something more "accessible." Thomas Watson, one of the foremost Puritan thinkers of the Seventeenth Century, also recognized this similar danger in his book The Mischief of Sin. I'm simply saying this to recognize that this is not something that has popped up in our modern/postmodern context, but it presents itself each generation anew.

That said, I resonate completely with what Pink is saying. In his second quote he reminds of one of my favourite saying of Watson, "If heaven be too high for you to think, it will be too high for you to ever attain." The idea that we can get all the benefits of salvation and deny the very foundation of that salvation is so completely contradictory that its scary! However, we can't begin to think that this just happened over night. The people in the pews didn't come up with this, they have recieved it passed down through tradition. We'll never be able to reform the church if we don't recognize how it has progressed to this point. Moreover, we need to realize that reform of the Church is as much of a progress.

To read this statement (or to talk like this) to a church would not be helpful. It would probably be insulting. After all, most of the people I know who would agree with this statement are only free from it by a providential act of God. But for the grace of God that would be me, right? And if someone told me this in words like this I would simply turn off. So I think that as we recognize the value, and truthfulness, of this critique we need to also recognize the patience we should have as we progress toward reform. We need to make an intentional effort to work toward reform graciously and lovingly.

I'm not saying we shouldn't be confronting this. I'm simply saying that most people in church have never heard anything different than what Pink is critiquing. So why should we expect them to act any different? And why would we assume that everyone will immediately respond with favor the first time they hear something new and different? Most people in church are certainly not stupid, they just have not been exposed to good Biblical teaching. So before we crucify them, we should do everything we can to lovingly show them the truth. We can confront this positively, or we can confront it negatively. Confronting it positively isn't the way Homer would do it because it's a lot of work. However, confronting this negatively will close the ears of the very people you are trying to reach. I'm leery of confronting it in too negative a fashion, that's all.

Team Blogging - An Experimental Discussion: How much Church is Left in the Church?

Kevin and John:

I would love to have each of you comment on something that I have been reading lately in Iain Murray's biography on Arthur Pink. (Anyone else is more than welcome to throw your 2 cents in - Bill, Josh, Sarah, Chris, George, Jason, Helen, Jennifer, Dad, etc).

I am currently rereading this book (Helen or Jason - it was a great Christmas present! This is my third reading of it in less than 2 years!) and I came to a couple of quotes about unregenerate church membership (having individuals as church members who haven't been born again). As a pastor, this is becoming a much larger issue for me than ever before. As I look around at the many churches in just my community that are experiencing an incredible amount of un-Christian behavior within their congregations (an increase in divorce, co-habitation, unwed pregnancies, and vicious slander, and a decrease in attendance, giving, or commitment to personal holiness, prayer and Bible study) I find myself wondering if there is really much church left in the church.

Kevin and John, I would like to read your comments about these 2 quotes and then let’s see where this discussion carries us.

Pink wrote in 1928 that:

"One of the most solemn and soul-destroying fallacies of the day is that unregenerate souls are capable of worshipping God."

And then in 1934 he wrote that:

"The religion of vast multitudes consists in little more than a firm confidence that their sins are forgiven and that their souls are eternally secure. They consider it a serious fault to doubt their salvation, and the whole of their experience is made up of 'faith' and 'joy': faith that their sins are blotted out, joy in the sure prospect of eternal bliss. But there is no conformity to God's holy law, no mourning before him because of self-love and self-seeking, no humility and brokenness of heart. Let one bid them 'examine themselves,' test their foundations, take upon them the yoke of Christ, and they at once raise the howl of 'Legalism, Dangerous teaching'! O what a rude awakening awaits all such the first five minutes after death."

I am coming to see the tremendous insight that Pink had. The longer I pastor, the more I see that the modern church cannot seem to see the truth of fallen man. We introduce musical and theatrical innovations into our worship hoping to help them see how good it feels to attend our 'worship' service. We decry the length of the preaching because of lack of attention. We rest upon some vague idea that hope is found in church membership and baptism.

What a surprise it will be when we begin to know as we also are known!

Kevin and John:

Is Pink correct in the first statement? Do you see any significance in it?

What about the contrast between experience (‘faith’ and ‘joy’) on the one hand and obedience and humility on the other hand?

Why do ‘they at once raise a howl’?

Why is it that obedience and faith have been replaced with pragmatism and traditions?

The Chorus of Nature

7 Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; the world and those who dwell in it!
8 Let the rivers clap their hands; let the hills sing for joy together
9 before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity.




When I go fishing, there usually comes a time where I feel like taking a break from trying to catch something, and I'll find a place to sit where I can see the water and open my Bible. It never fails that I will read these verses from Psalm 98. These verses are meant to be read where one can here the rushing, low roar of the water as it bounces over the rocks. If you listen carefully, you can hear the wild, eerie cry of the wind as it moves through the trees surrounding you and the stream. And these two things, the river and the trees, join in an odd beautiful chorus of nature. I love those two sounds, and if I was allowed I would choose to live where those two voices were always present.

What a wonderful thought that those "noises" are representing what this verse speaks of. When I sit on an old driftwood log on a gravelly bar, watching the sunset reflect on the fast moving river I am listening to nature clap its hands, sing for joy, and praise its maker. What is even more beautiful to me is that I know that I'm meant to join in this song. This is not a song simply of nature, but I'm part of the choir. I'm created to sing with the ocean, the river, and the trees praises to our Lord, the Creator God. The verses just before these lift my heart.

Oh sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things! His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him.
2 The Lord has made known his salvation; he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations.
3 He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
4 Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises!
5 Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of melody!
6 With trumpets and the sound of the horn make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord!


So, when we are out in God's beautiful world, let us not allow that world to sing alone. but remember, we have been given the privilege, the joy, to sing as well.

Also, for your edification here are some of the rewards from my most recent fishing expedition. These be some wild mountain trout! Sorry about the blurry pictures but it was really stinking cold out there!