Blogs

Teaching Calvin in California – The New York Times
Yes, the New York Times!

Dad Enough to Sing
“I want my sons to grow up believing that a grown man singing is one of the most natural sounds in the world.”

The Life They Never Expected: Andrew and Rachel Wilson on Raising Special-Needs Kids
“I asked the Wilsons what role lament plays in their parenting, how churches can better serve parents of children with special needs, how having a child with special needs can challenge a marriage, and more.”

Seven Principles for Angry Parents Disciplining Angry Children
Martyn Lloyd-Jones offers seven principles to govern our disciplinary action as parents.

Pastoral Advice for White Pastors Shepherding Minority Members
“The reconciling power of the gospel urges pastors to become familiar with the ethnic demographic they shepherd.”

Is Your Church Messy Enough?
“If God is in the business of saving sinners, we need to expect that church will be full of sinners—those who are still wandering and those who have only just been found. If our churches reflect God’s heart for the lost, they will be full of people with problems, full of people showing the consequences of a lifetime of wandering. And this means that church may not be a safe and easy place. It may not be a place full of people who have it all together. It may be messy. It should be messy. Thank God if it is messy.”

Seven A’s of Confession | Counseling One Another
I need to hear this again and again and again.

New Book

The Temple and the Tabernacle: A Study of God’s Dwelling Places from Genesis to Revelation by J. Daniel Hays

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.

How to Enjoy Reading Your Bible by Keith Ferrin $1.99.

Five Views of Law and Gospel (Counterpoints Series) $3.99.

Video

Interview with Alister McGrath
McGrath tells of how he moved from atheism to Christ. Some people really do speak like this in England.

Although controlling/authoritarian/obsessive people often seem intimidatingly strong and confident, at heart they are insecure people who are controlled by a number of fears.

Fear of things going wrong: Hyper-conscious of all that could go wrong in life, they are trying to protect themselves against every possible risk.

Fear of being found out: They put a protective skin around themselves, often shunning relational intimacy, because they are afraid that if people see more of them, they will see their inadequacy.

Fear of trusting: Trust entails risk and vulnerability. It means depending on other people and therefore the possibility of being let down, betrayed, exploited, etc.

Fear of needing someone else: The closer they get to someone, the more they come to need him or her, which unnerves them.

Fear of being exploited: Results in a tendency to be excessively guarded about giving, lending, or spending money.

Fear of uncertainty: The norm is excessively detailed long-term planning and a phobia toward changes.

Fear of not knowing: They tend to be obsessed about knowing every little detail about everything because the more they know the more they feel in control.

Alan Mallinger offers a few remedies for some of these fears in Too Perfect: When Being in Control Gets Out of Control. They include:

• Remind yourself that no one and nothing can be one-hundred-percent dependable.
• Stop thinking in extremes. For example, just because it would be unwise to share every intimate detail of your life, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t share any. There is a middle ground
• Practice letting down your guard in one or two small ways to gain confidence and begin to build the habit of releasing control.

However, these are fairly basic and limited remedies. At the root of most sinful controlling is lack of submission to God’s perfect control. The sovereignty of God has to be the foundation of any lasting deliverance from these fears. I can release control if God is in control.

God’s sovereignty means that even if things do go wrong, they are not out of control but under God’s control, and He will work it together for our good.

God’s sovereignty means that even if people find out I’m not what my public persona portrays, He can still provide me with friends and loved ones who care for the real me. Indeed, God’s sovereignty means I can stop pretending and start trusting Him with the real me.

God’s sovereignty means that He will never let us down, and even if others do, he can still overrule even the greatest betrayal for good.

God’s sovereignty means that we can depend upon him for the big things, and through that learn to depend upon others for smaller things.

God’s sovereignty means that even if we are exploited and conned, that he can make it up to us as the cattle on a thousand hills are his, as are the millions in Merril Lynch.

God’s sovereignty means that His plan is certain and that nothing is uncertain to God. We don’t need to make detailed long-term plans because God has made an every-hair-on-my-head plan that covers time and eternity.

God’s sovereignty means we don’t need to know everything, because He already does.

God’s sovereignty means we can abandon perfectionism and embrace His perfection.

God’s sovereignty means we can repent of authoritarianism and trust His authority.

God’s sovereignty means we can release control into God’s control.

Previous posts on Perfectionism and Control: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3,Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7.

Blogs

Western Culture – Moral Suicide
Don’t read this if you’re depressed. Some recent developments in the godless West.

Conflict Is an Opportunity
If we handle conflict biblically, it can be an opportunity for spiritual growth.

Visiting the Home and Grave of C. S. Lewis
Trevin Wax is on a pilgrimage.

Why is Worship So Happy?
“Proverbs 25:20 says that happy songs sung to a heavy heart are like stealing a garment on a cold day or pouring vinegar on a wound. They don’t help – they exacerbate the problem. Rather than lifting spirits they simply delineate the gap between out broken spirits and the gladness of others. Trying to comfort the grieving or empty with happy songs makes about as much sense as having toasts and dancing at a funeral.”

Whatever Is False, Whatever Is Dishonorable, Whatever Is Unjust…
“What makes holy people holy? What makes unholy people unholy? To a large degree it is what fills their minds and their hearts. This is why the battle for holiness is first a battle to flood your mind and heart with the right things, the best things, and why it’s equally a battle to avoid flooding your mind and heart with the wrong things, the worst things”

I Am a Pastor – And, I May Be Suffering From Burnout
See video below as well.

New Book

Faithfulness: No More Excuses by Lou Priolo $4.99.

Kindle Deals

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.

Five Conversations You Must Have With Your Son by Vicki Courtney $0.99.

No Guts no Glory: How to Build A Youth Ministry That Lasts by Alan Stewart $2.99.

Video

Megachurch Pastor Pete Wilson Resigns: “I’m not OK. I’m tired and I’m broken.”
I don’t know much about Pastor Wilson but this is a deeply moving resignation announcement. I’d watch it all to get the flavor, but he gets into his resignation about 3.37.

In my “Christian Ministry” class we put together a “Call the the Ministry Checklist.” Basically we went through the Bible, and a number of pastoral theologies, pastoral biographies, and blog posts on the subject and noted the most common recurring marks that were given by various authors. In no particular order (apart from the first one):

• Salvation: You must be born again
• Christ-like character: Your life is clearly evidencing the fruits of the Spirit.
• Deep sense of unworthiness: “Unto me who am less than the least of all saints is this grace given that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.”
• Deep sense of insufficiency: You are asking, “Who is sufficient for these things?”
• Holy desire: You passionately want to be a pastor with holy motives firing the passion.
• Overwhelming constraint: It’s not an option but a compulsion: “Necessity is laid upon me. Woe is me if I preach not the Gospel.”
• Unofficial affirmation: Supportive and confirming feedback from those who know you best.
• Official confirmation: Your congregational leadership supports and affirms your call.
• A burden for souls: You love the souls of sinners and long to do them good.
• Energy: You have an enthusiasim for the task. If you lack this, get out of the way and let someone else take your place.
• Spiritual maturity: “Not a novice.” You have a proven track record of Christian service.
• Gifts: Ability to study, communicate, listen, organize.
• Friendliness: You like people and can initiate and sustain conversations.
• Providence: God is opening doors of service.
• Patient: Willingness to wait for the doors to open.
• Sacrifice: Willingness to suffer loss in pursuit of the call.
• Training: A desire and willingness to receive training for the ministry.
• Assurance: A sufficient degree of certainty about personal salvation and personal call.

What others would you add?

Blogs

Getting to the Secret Place
My Dad’s latest post on prayer:

God brought Jacob into truly dire straits, in order that he might bring him into the secret place, and bless him abundantly, as we shall see. The secret place is an important place for all who are RightWithGod; but getting to the secret place often requires effort and determination. In this Jacob has shown us a good example.

The One Unbreakable Rule in Business Writing
Surely this publisher’s questions are also important for pastors writing sermons:

“We developed a simple process to help people clarify their intentions and their positioning. It involves answering three basic questions: Why are you writing this? What audience do you want to reach? Why will they care?”

What Exactly Is Anxiety?
Tim Lane takes a look at anxiety and modern research.

10 Things You Should Know about Definite Atonement
After reading this, why would you not want to believe the doctrine of definite atonement?”

Reading for the Rest of Us | For The Church
Six simple tips to help you read more and better books.

Every Woman’s Call to Work
“The pertinent question for women entering the workforce or motherhood or setting up their home or any sphere of work is this: Am I faithfully obeying God as his child by meeting the genuine needs of others, or am I pursuing self-actualization, self-fulfillment, or selfish ambition apart from him?”

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.

Biography of J. R. R. Tolkein by Mark Horne $1.99.

What is Reformed Theology? Understanding the Basics by R. C. Sproul $3.99.

Compassion without Compromise: How the Gospel Frees Us to Love Our Gay Friends Without Losing the Truth by Adam Barr and Ron Citlau $2.99.

The Disciple-Making Pastor: Leading Others on the Journey of Faith $2.99

Video

God Bless the USA (A Cappella)
I doubt you’ve heard it sung like this before.

Here’s a helpful article I received from John Belden, Pastor at Pilgrim OPC, that explores one aspect of the role of science in biblical counseling.

I am so thankful for the dialog with Dr. Lambert on the sufficiency of Scripture in counseling. I pray that God will bring more light to His people as a result. It seems to me the issue boils down to how we know which problems have physical causes and which have spiritual causes. When Dr. Lambert says “autism is not, properly speaking, a counseling problem,” presumably this means it has a physical cause. But how do we know that? The Bible doesn’t tell us about autism.  It seems to me we know it’s “not, properly speaking, a counseling problem” because of general revelation. So it should be safe to say that God did not intend for the Bible to reveal autism. Nor was it designed to counsel Christians out of autism. It certainly was designed to counsel them through autism. I think everyone agrees on these points.

Physical or Spiritual?
The issue is, how do we determine if certain kinds of depression and anxiety have a physical or spiritual cause? How do we know if these are, properly speaking, counseling problems?  We all agree that if all depression is primarily caused by personal sin, then the Bible is sufficient to counsel us out of depression. The bigger questions will always be, do certain kinds of depression have a physical cause and was the Bible designed to reveal those causes without looking to science?

When I talk to people committed to Nouthetic Counseling they either haven’t thought about this or they say, “we don’t have enough conclusive scientific evidence to be sure,” or, “there’s no test that can be done to determine a chemical imbalance in the brain that causes depression.” But isn’t that admitting in some way that science must be involved in the process of determining this? Presumably, if the science was conclusive, we would say of certain kinds of depression and anxiety that they are not, properly speaking, counseling problems. That would then lead us to the conclusion that we can’t counsel Christians out of these kinds of depression. The ultimate cause must be addressed another way.  Yet Scripture is completely sufficient to counsel people through this difficult time as they work with doctors to address the ultimate cause.

Counseling Through Cancer
Let me use an obvious example to illustrate my point. Scripture is not designed to counsel Christians out of cancer. Cancer’s root cause must be addressed by surgery, chemotherapy, etc. But the Bible is sufficient to counsel Christians through cancer. The only way we know that cancer should be placed in this category, however, is that science has discovered cancer. We are, to some degree, dependent on science to determine that a problem is not spiritual at its root.

Let’s apply this to a slightly less obvious example. I doubt anyone would disagree that lack of sleep can cause all kinds of mental problems like depression, anxiety, even suicidal thoughts. Sleep directly effects the brain. And there are many physical problems that can cause sleep deprivation. For instance, take a person who has severe sleep apnea that eventually leads to sleep deprivation and then to severe depression. Is the Bible sufficient to counsel that person out of depression if it is ultimately caused by sleep apnea? Sixty years ago we might have said yes because we didn’t know about sleep apnea. Once it was discovered, however, we would all agree (I hope) that the best counseling in the world would not make the depression go away until the person was treated for the apnea and got some sleep.

None of this suggests that the Bible is not sufficient to counsel people through this kind of depression. And it is sufficient to counsel people out of the sins that often accompany these experiences (unbelief, self pity, bitterness, anger). But if we are going to get to the root of the depression, we must address the sleep deprivation. There are many more examples like this one.

Again, I don’t think anyone would disagree at this point.  The disagreement seems to be over what science has not revealed conclusively.  But even if we grant that there is no test that can determine a chemical imbalance in the brain (I’m not sure this is the case), we have a great deal of conclusive scientific evidence that the brain is extremely complex and there is much we still do not know. We also know that the brain is subject to physical problems just like any other organ in the body and that these physical problems can have a huge impact on our mental state. Isn’t it probable that there are still plenty of brain problems that we don’t know about? Isn’t it also probable that some of the experiences of depression and anxiety could be caused by these problems? If we understand the pervasive effects of the Fall, would we not expect this?

High Stakes
I know those who are eager to guard the sufficiency of Scripture believe the stakes are high. But the stakes are very high the other way as well. If we treat problems that are ultimately physical (like autism) as though they are ultimately spiritual, we can really hurt God’s people. And we are more dependent on science to reveal this than many care to admit.

I understand that conservative Christians are afraid this will open the door to excusing all kinds of sins. I know I was.  It was my own depression and anxiety that pushed me to consider that this issue might be a little more complex than I realized.  It was scary because I thought I was abandoning the sufficiency of Scripture. But I wasn’t. I was merely coming closer to what what God designed Scripture to do and not to do. And I was coming closer to understanding the real world I live in.

Article by John Belden, Pastor of Pilgrim OPC