Blogs

What Can the Church Learn about Sexual Harassment, Accusations, & Transparency from the Bill O’Reilly Debacle?
Ed Stetzer draws three main lessons:

1. The way we respond to an accusation teaches people how we value others.

2. large organizations will naturally exhibit tendencies of self-preservation, and we need to fight against that when that preservation victimizes others.

3. Powerful men without accountability tend to move towards bad behavior, and we need to hold ourselves and others accountable.

African American Preaching at RPTS | Gentle Reformation
Barry York asks why so many African Americans preachers are such effective communicators. It’s a question I’ve often asked myself, most recently at The Gospel Coalition conference where, for me,  Thabiti Anybwile’s sermon was the stand-out address of the conference. Barry highlights four factors that are spot-on and which all of us should think seriously about if we want to be effective communicators.

1. They rely little on notes, having worked the message deep into their hearts and having practiced until truly ready to deliver.

2. They preach with vivid language and pictures to capture the imagination and heart as well as the mind.

3. Instead of the linear style of preaching common to Reformed churches, African American preaching is usually rich in themes that are woven into their discourse and which are meditated upon for an extended time.

4. They make good use of rhetorical devices.

In short, they recognize preaching is an oral medium and so craft sermons with that in mind. They not only make sure their doctrine is sound, but pay attention to the sound of their doctrine.

The Quiet Plague of Painkillers
This is so tragically heart-breaking.

Since 1999, the number of deaths from opioids in the United States has quadrupled. Opioid overdose has claimed the lives of over half a million people since 2000. Although heroin accounts for many such deaths, more familiar medications pave a path to heroin. Coincident with rising death rates, sales of prescription opioids such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, and hydromorphone quadrupled between 1999 and 2010. Some patients with dependence upon these drugs progress to heroin, which they can acquire at a cheaper price. Others succumb to the prescription drugs themselves. Prescription drug overdose claimed 15,000 lives in 2015 alone.

One Very Good Reason to Study Church History
Here’s a perfect example of the kind of “Illustrated Theology” that I was recently appealing for:

Home Is the Front Lines of Christian Living
“My first field of service is my home. My wife and children are my nearest neighbors, and Jesus commands me to love my neighbor. Home is the first place I’m called to display the love of Christ. How I act there matters to God.”

The Parable of the Foolish Weightlifter
Although it comes a bit late for about-to-graduate Seminarians, here’s a parable about learning languages that beginning students will want to pin to their desks.

Kindle Books

For your non-Kindle book buying needs please consider using Reformation Heritage Books in the USA and Reformed Book Services in Canada. Good value prices and shipping.

Church History in Plain Language $2.99.

New Testament Introduction by Louis Berkhof $0.99.

A Christian’s Guide to Growing in Holiness by John Fesko $2.99.

New Book

The New City Catechism Devotional: God’s Truth for Our Hearts and Minds

Video

This is about that
Here’s a beautiful video about marriage that one church shows as part of it’s wedding services in order to remind everyone what marriage is ultimately about.

My greatest passion in life is to teach profound biblical truth simply; to take the deepest theological doctrines and explain them in a way that a child could understand. That’s what constantly motivates and shapes my preaching and teaching. It probably adds about 2-3 hours of work to every sermon I preach as I struggle mightily to simplify, simplify, simplify.

It’s simple to preach a doctrinally complex sermon. It’s much harder to preach a simple sermon about complex doctrine.

It’s especially the tool of illustration that brings a sermon down from the academic clouds to the ground level that ordinary mortals inhabit.

Jesus was the master of it with his ingeniously simple parables and memorable metaphors.

If Jesus had written a book, he would not have written a Systematic Theology or a Biblical Theology but an Illustrated Theology. Oh, wait, he did!

Now, I’m not denying the usefulness of these other disciplines–they are vital and helpful and I love them both–but I am pleading for the additional development of the rare skill of theological illustration. Very few of us Reformed types are good at it. Most of us don’t even try.

So what does this look like? Well, here’s an example of Illustrated Theology I recently used to teach about the Covenant of Works.

One evening at the supper table, Dad announced to the kids that he had designed a special test with a special reward. Four pairs of eyes opened wide as their ears tuned in to hear about this exciting prospect. Dad pointed to the various bowls of candy around the house which the children were free to eat from. He then went to the cupboard and brought back to the table a blue bowl of candy they had never seen before. He put it in the center of the table and turned to John, the oldest child.

“John,” he said, “You know how you are free to eat from any bowl of candy whenever you want, don’t you?”

“Yes, Dad,” replied John, “and I can fill them up again whenever they run out.”

Dad pointed to the blue bowl on the table and said, “Now listen carefully, John. I’m going to leave this blue bowl of candy on the table and I want you to promise that you will not eat any candy from it. Do you understand?”

“Sure, Dad. Don’t eat the candy in the blue bowl. Sounds easy. Now, what’s the reward?”

“I’ll get to that, but first you need to know that it’s a seven day test.”

“Just seven days. Huh, that’s easy. But what do I get?”

“The reward is a week’s vacation in Florida…for the whole family.”

The children erupted in joy, dancing excitedly around the table, high-fiving one another, and hugging their parents.

Once a measure of calm had been restored, Dad explained the test a bit further. “John, please understand that it’s only you being tested, but everyone in the family will get the reward. If you manage to resist that candy for seven days we all go to Disney.”

The width of John’s smile contracted as he weighed the responsibility for everyone’s vacation resting on him.

Dad noticed and put a friendly arm around him. John, to encourage you, I’m going to put the iPad right beside the blue bowl with videos of Florida beaches and Disney playing on a continual loop. If you’re ever tempted to stretch out your hand toward the blue bowl, you’ll be motivated to run away from it by the beautiful pictures of the reward.”

“Thanks, Dad. I doubt I’ll need it, but just to be sure, yes. Press play now.”

The Westminster Confession of Faith (7.1-2) describes the Covenant of Works as follows:

7.1. The distance between God and the creature is so great, that although reasonable creatures do owe obedience unto Him as their Creator, yet they could never have any fruition of Him as their blessedness and reward, but by some voluntary condescension on God’s part, which He has been pleased to express by way of covenant.

7.2. The first covenant made with man was a covenant of works, wherein life was promised to Adam; and in him to his posterity, upon condition of perfect and personal obedience.

One of the primary emphases in the Confession’s treatment of the Covenant of Works is God’s goodness.

1. We see God’s goodness in the initiation of the covenant. Like the Dad in the Covenant of Candy, God was under no obligation to enter into a covenant with Adam. Adam was already bound to keep God’s moral law. It was his duty as a creature. If he transgressed the moral law, he would be punished; but obedience would not entitle him to any special reward. In the Covenant of Works, God freely condescended (came down) to enable Adam to improve his condition and merit a special reward by a limited and specific act of obedience.

2. We see God’s goodness in the simplicity of the command. In both the Covenant of Candy and the Covenant of Works, the starkly minimalist command was, “Don’t eat.” This was made even easier to obey by the abundant provision of other candy and fruit in the respective covenants.

3. We see God’s goodness in the clarity of the threat. Neither Adam not John were left in any doubt as to the consequences if they failed. “Adam, you die.” “John. No Florida.” The unmistakable consequences were a huge motivator.

4. We see God’s goodness in the immensity of the promise. To spur him on, John was promised a vacation in Florida. Adam was promised even more–Life! Both rewards were far in excess of the human obedience. What the “life” was that Adam was promised is not specifically revealed, but it’s often taken to mean the impossibility of falling, and even a deepening of his spiritual life with God. The Confession describes it as “the fruition of Him as their blessedness and reward.”

5. We see God’s goodness in the greatness of the opportunity. Just as Dad promised to allow John’s obedience to earn the whole family a reward, God promised Adam to let his obedience stand for all his descendants. How much of a motivator this was, that he was obeying not just for himself but for millions and billions of people.

6. We see God’s goodness in the brevity of the test. John had to hold out for only seven days…not seven years. We’re not told how long Adam had to hold out, but Reformed theologians have usually viewed the Covenant of works as a short probationary period. 

7. We see God’s goodness in the provision of a covenant sign. Just as Dad provided John with the videos of Florida to empower his obedience, so God provided the Tree of Life as a constant visual reminder of the reward he would earn by obeying. Interestingly, the Tree of Life in the New Testament is a symbol of Jesus Christ (Rev. 2:7; 22:2, 14).

So, yes, the Covenant of Works contains a meritorious element–obey and you will be rewarded. But it’s not a cold legal transaction imposed by a distant, detached, and disinterested being. So much of God’s beautiful and encouraging goodness is revealed in it as well.

Blogs

Without Luther, There Would Be No Bach
Martin Luther never met Johann Sebastian Bach. The two Germans were born more than 200 years apart. But without Luther, there would have been no Bach.

Help Me Teach the Bible: Vern Poythress on Interpreting Scripture
Very Poythress explains steps for sound interpretation as well as mistakes Bible teachers often make. He offers keys to using a commentary wisely and to identifying analogies and types of Christ in the Old Testament.

We Need More “Parlour Preachers”
I am so envious of parlour preachers. Far harder than being a pulpit preacher.

Why You Shouldn’t Wait Until You Can Afford An Instagrammable Wedding
The overwhelmingly materialistic norms surrounding contemporary weddings are not simply irrelevant to marital happiness. Many are positively harmful.

The Gospel in Asia
Jeffrey Jue shares encouraging Gospel news from Asia

The advance of the gospel in Asia over the last century has been extraordinary. Christian churches are growing and thriving in countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, and of course South Korea, which boasts some of the largest churches in the entire world. Yet the gospel is also taking root in countries where we might not expect it to. For example, a movement of Reformed churches is growing in Indonesia, the largest Muslim country in the world. Moreover, the exponential growth of the house church movement in China is remarkable considering that the Communist government places strict restrictions on the activities of Christian churches. Clearly, the work of the gospel in Asia is something we rejoice over, continue to pray for, and look for opportunities to support.

And here’s more good news in The Gospel Tsuanmi Surging Through Latin America.

Are You Experiencing FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)?
Our phones and social media serve as a real-time refresh of our comparisons with the lives of others, constantly feeding our “fear of missing out” (FOMO). FOMO and social media go hand in hand. Even the new entry in the Oxford English Dictionary confirms the link: “FOMO—fear of missing out, anxiety that an exciting or interesting event may be happening elsewhere, often aroused by posts seen on a social media website.”

Kindle Books

The God I Love: A Lifetime of Walking with Jesus by Joni Eareckson Tada $0.99.

Home: How Heaven & the New Earth Satisfy Our Deepest Longings by Elyse Fitzpatrick $1.99.

Answering Jihad: A Better Way Forward by Nabeel Qureshi $2.99.

New Book

Learning to Love the Psalms by Robert Godfrey. See video discussion below.

Video

Learning to Love the Psalms
Nathan Bingham interviews Dr. Bob Godfrey about his new book Learning to Love the Psalms.

Conference

I’ll be in Arizona for the weekend delivering the Lloyd Jackson Memorial Lectures.

More Americans than ever before are stressed, depressed and anxiety-ridden, and many are unable to get the help they need, a new study suggests. According to this report:

An estimated 8.3 million American adults — about 3.4 percent of the U.S. population — suffer from serious psychological distress, an evaluation of federal health data concluded. Previous estimates put the number of Americans suffering from serious psychological distress at 3 percent or less, the researchers said.

What’s the cause? According to Judith Weissman, research manager in the department of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City, it’s “likely a lasting after-effect of the Great Recession that began in late 2007 — a stress-filled time that caused long-term emotional damage to many Americans.”

Many people psychologically affected by the Great Recession haven’t been able to get the help they need, either because they can’t afford it or because their condition hampers their ability to seek out treatment, she said.

As a result, hundreds of thousands of Americans live with serious psychological distress, an umbrella term that runs from general hopelessness and nervousness all the way up to diagnosable conditions such as depression and anxiety, Weissman explained.

And if you thought Americans had it bad, workaholic Japan has just introduced a law limiting workers to no more than 100 hours of overtime a month!

Royal Concern
Two British Royals, Princes William and Harry have also been talking about mental health issues in public. Prince William had a Facetime with Lady Gaga about the letter she wrote concerning her PTSD, and Prince Harry talked about his own long-term mental and emotional struggles following the death of his mother. Both emphasized the importance of removing shame and stigma by talking openly about these often invisible sufferings.

Prevention Better than Cure
In this short podcast Jared Wilson discusses how to Prevent Pastoral Burnout. He offers a three-words formula: Rest, Boundaries, and Margin. Tune in to hear his exposition and then read another take at Christianity Today. Their solution? Equip the Saints (Eph. 4:12), which Karl Vaters calls “the pastor’s prime mandate.”

In that passage, the Apostle Paul clearly tells us we have been called “for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.

The longer I pastor, the more convinced I am that one of the prime reasons for pastoral burnout is that too many pastors – especially small church pastors, like me – are ignoring that simple command.

5 Ways Exercise Helps the Leader’s Mind
Although it sounds counter-intuitive, one of the best ways to get more work done and increase free time is to add exercise to our daily routine. How does that work? Eric Geiger explains the 5 Ways Exercise Helps the Leader’s Mind.

• Exercise increases learning ability.
• Exercise lowers the impact of stress.
• Exercise lowers sensitivity to anxiety.
• Exercise helps fight depression.
• Exercise increases memory capacity.

Sleep is the New Status Symbol
“Sleep is the single most effective thing you can do to reset your brain and body,” Dr. Walker of U.C. Berkeley said. If that doesn;t get you to read this article, try some other quotes like:

For years, studies upon studies have shown how bad sleep weakens the immune system, impairs learning and memory, contributes to depression and other mood and mental disorders, as well as obesity, diabetes, cancer and an early death. (Sedated sleep — hello Ambien — has been shown to be as deleterious as poor sleep.)

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls sleeplessness a public health concern. Good sleep helps brain plasticity, studies in mice have shown; poor sleep will make you fat and sad, and then will kill you. It is also expensive: Last year, the RAND Corporation published a study that calculated the business loss of poor sleep in the United States at $411 billion — a gross domestic product loss of 2.28 percent.

Companies now fight “presenteeism,” a neologism that describes the lackluster performance of foggy-brained, sleep-deprived employees.

The Army has proclaimed sleep a pillar of peak soldier performance.

Jeff Bezos, the chief executive of Amazon, who used to take a sleeping bag to work when he was a lowly computer programmer, has said that his eight hours of sleep each night were good for his stockholders.

Aetna, the health care company, is paying its workers up to $500 a year if they can prove they have slept for seven hours or more for 20 days in a row.

For more, read Sleep is the New Status Symbol.

Get more Grace-Paced Life resources here.

Blogs

What Your Biology Teacher Didn’t Tell You About Charles Darwin
“You don’t need to be a Bible-thumping evangelical to question whether Darwin’s thinking deserves to be given a bit more thought. Whatever your views on origins and evolution, we can hopefully all agree that, at present, we give far too much honor to the British thinker who justified genocide.”

Survey Reveals Many Evangelicals Are Confused About Adultery
A survey asked “How often, if ever, would you say the following activities would be cheating on a spouse or partner?” Here are the results for evangelicals. It’s not pretty.

A World of Misery at My Very Door: A Story
Looking for some good news? Here’s an encouraging story from Tim Challies.

Church Administration: A Simple Formula
Jared shares his formula for a well-run church: Information + Inclusion = Importance & Involvement.

How to Fight for Faith in the Dark: Three Lessons for Depression
“If you’re depressed, how can you fight for faith? How can you believe while also stumbling through the dark? Here are some things that have helped me.”

The Achilles Heel of the New Perspective on Paul
New perspective on the new perspective.

5 Questions Leaders Should Be Asking All the Time
“Leaders should ask these questions both on a daily basis and during critical moments. Of course, these aren’t the only questions to ask; context certainly matters. But I have found these five to be a very practical and useful way to ensure understanding, generate new ideas, inspire progress, encourage responsibility, and remain focused on what is genuinely important.”

New Book

12 Ways Your Phone is Changing You by Tony Reinke. Here’s my endorsement of this much-needed book:

“Experience practical theology at its finest as Tony applies a thorough understanding of the Scriptures to a thorough understanding of our culture, resulting in a beautifully written and balanced guide to the dangers and opportunities in the palms of our hands. Yes, our phones have changed us for the worse, but this book will change us and our phone use for the better.”

Kindle Books

God’s Will: Finding Guidance for Everyday Decisions by J I Packer $1.99.

A Godward Heart: Treasuring the God Who Loves You by John Piper $4.99.

Video

Wayne Grudem Testimony
What a beautiful story.

I receive many email questions, most of which I don’t have time to answer. Sometimes, however, there are valuable questions that I think would provide helpful answers for others who read the blog. I therefore ask the questioner if I can remove identifying features and answer it on my blog. Such is the case with this question.

I have an M.Div and have read hundreds of books and still feel that I don’t know my Bible.  My knowledge has been all second hand as I have consumed commentaries during my devotional times.  And yet my faith feels hollow and lifeless.  I don’t know how to read the Bible and study it for myself.  I’m on the verge of a nervous breakdown…I try and start and I get so frustrated that I turn back to commentaries and the lifelessness continues…I can’t do this anymore

Please help me…I know you don’t know me…but please help me…..

Dear Christian Brother,

It sounds as if there are two problems going on here. First, there is the presenting problem of not knowing your Bible, even after years of theological study. Second, there appears to be an underlying mental health problem which is preventing a solution to the first problem.

Let’s deal with the second problem, the mental health problem, first. You say: “My faith feels hollow and lifeless…I’m on the verge of a nervous breakdown….I try and start and I get so frustrated…I can’t do this anymore…Please help me, etc.”

All these expressions suggest that you have exhausted your mind and that it needs a break to heal and recover. This may sound odd, but I’d recommend that you cut back on all reading at the moment, including Bible reading. You are trying to make your brain do what it simply cannot do in this state of stressed exhaustion. I suggest that you read just 1-2 verses from your Bible every day for two weeks – preferably in one of the Gospels. Read them briefly, pray briefly for God’s blessing, close your Bible and then walk away. After two weeks, increase your reading up to three verses a day. A week later, try four verses a day, and so on.

Also, try to spend large parts of the day doing work that will not take a huge toll on your brain. Give your tired mind a breather as much as you can. Do practical jobs instead of cognitively demanding work. Walk, exercise, get good sleep, eat healthy food, meet up with friends from time to time for an hour or so. Generally, you need to cultivate quiet and peace in your life. That especially means cutting out digital technology as much as possible. Stimulate your brain as little as you can for a few weeks.

I would suggest that you also consult your doctor and share with him your mental and emotional state so that he can guide you regarding any other treatment that might be appropriate.

Once you have got some mental capacity and ability back in your life, then you can begin to address what got you into this situation. You should talk to your pastor or a trusted spiritual adviser about this. I don’t know any more than you’ve told me, but I’ve seen other MDiv students end up in similar holes.

In some cases, it’s giving too much attention to their studies and not enough to their souls. In some cases, it’s sinful ambition that has prioritized theological knowledge above a personal relationship with God. Or maybe there has been way too much reliance on self and next to no dependance on God. You need help to explore these possible motivations in order to repent of any sin that is at the root of them and also to prevent this tendency from returning in the future.

I have a good hope that if you take a mental break, start with short Bible readings, prioritize calm and quiet, consult a doctor and a pastor, and do the spiritual work that’s required, that your love for the Scriptures will grow and spiritual life will return to your soul.

What’s really important is that you do not rely on yourself or on your commentaries but that you rely on God to give you light. Ask God for his Holy Spirit to enlighten your eyes and to shine light on His Word. He has promised to give wisdom and his Holy Spirit to those who ask for it (James 1:5-8; Luke 11:13). And remember, that knowing the Bible is not the end either. The ultimate end is knowing Christ personally, and the Bible is a means to that end. So is going to church; so make sure you are doing that also.

If you do these things and there is still no life in your soul or love for the Scriptures, then you will have to consider the possibility that you still need to be converted. If that is the case, there is still hope for you to repent and put your faith in Christ. There are many M.Div. students who have been converted after graduation and even in the ministry!

What other advice would you give to this struggling Christian?