John Newton on the Painful Process of Becoming Like Jesus

Just started reading John Newton’s letters again, and was struck by his spiritual insight.  In particular, Newton wrote three letters, describing the “manner of the Lord’s work in the hearts of his people”–basically describing the process of sanctification.  The second letter jumped out at me, primarily because Newton describes parts of my life so well!  Every Christian can relate at some level to the constant struggle with sin.  It seems that, sometimes, God gives us over to some sin, and Newton explains why.  I found his account quite compelling.

Luckily, Trinity Church (Myrtle Beach, SC), has put these three letters on-line!

John Newton on Christian Growth (Part 1) – Grace in the Blade

John Newton on Christian Growth (Part 2) – Grace in the Ear

John Newton on Christian Growth (Part 3) – The Full Corn in the Ear

Top Ten Myths of the Resurrection (Mike Licona)

Here are some links to videos from Dr. Mike Licona (which I promised my Greek 1 & Greek 2 students):

Top Ten Myths of the Resurrection (Myths 1-3)

The other videos can be found by scrolling through the Parchment & Pen blog from Credo House Ministries.

Your Church is Too Safe – Review

Your Church Is Too Safe: Why Following Christ Turns the World Upside-Down by Mark Buchanan

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Mark Buchanan is fast becoming one of my favorite Christian authors.  His book, Spiritual Rhythm, was spiritual and pastoral prose of the highest order. Buchanan is clearly a gifted writer–honest, God-soaked and reveling in life, even in the dirt and filth of humanity.  But, Mark Buchanan knows a secret and he’s letting everyone in on it–the local Church is God’s plan for redeeming this dirty world!  This is the burden of his latest book, Your Church Is Too Safe. He urges us to come out of  our “Christian ghettos” and to assault the powers of darkness.  Buchanan is brutally honest about his struggles, his church’s struggles, and the weakness of so many churches. However, these pages also shine with stories of love, forgiveness, and transformation … vignettes of a marvelous drama unfolding in Pastor Mark’s church. Other churches are getting it as well, and are beginning to live dangerously. Read this book at your own risk! If you let the Biblical and practical wisdom of this book penetrate your defenses, you might find your life (and hopefully your church) turned upside down … which means it will actually be right-side up.

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(Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the Zondervan book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.  You might question that, given how positive my reviews of recent Zondervan books have been.  Oh well.  Zondervan has just been publishing some remarkable books!  Kuddos to them.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.)

How to Read the Bible through the Jesus Lens – Review

How to Read the Bible through the Jesus Lens: A Guide to Christ-Focused Reading of Scripture by Michael Williams

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I love this book! I copied the chapter on Exodus and gave it to my students at the Christian school where I teach. Michael Williams goes through each book of the Bible, and somehow manages to capture how Christ fulfills the central themes of each book. But, this is no mammoth scholarly tome. This is an immensely practical book, and each chapter ends with “hook questions” that help to apply the Christological implications of each book in the Bible to our lives.

This book is designed to help students of the Bible recognize the broad theme of each Biblical book and see how it is fulfilled in Christ. Below the title of each chapter is a phrase which summarizes the theme of the Biblical book. For instance, under “Exodus” we find “Deliverance into Presence.” After an introductory paragraph, which outlines the historical background of the book. Then, we find the theme of Exodus: “God delivers his people from slavery into his presence.” After a paragraph summarizing the highlights of Exodus, we find a memory verse: Ex. 29:46. Williams has selected memory passages from each book which both epitomize the Biblical book, and are ultimately fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Williams typically follows the memory verse with a paragraph discussing the spiritual significance and themes of the Biblical book under consideration. Then, we get to Jesus, with “The Jesus Lens” section. Williams shows how Christ fulfills the themes of the books, resolves tensions, answers questions, and provides additional meaning. At this point, we can marvel at the intricate story that God has been writing throughout redemptive history. Williams then moves into pastoral theology, showing how our salvation and spiritual struggles follow the same patterns as the Old Testament narratives.

All good theology must be applied, and so Williams ends each chapter with “Contemporary Implications,” relating Biblical themes to our world and our experience. Lastly, Williams provides a few “Hook Questions” which bring these great truths and themes to an intensely personal level. These questions reveal much about our own sinfulness, and how much we fail to live out the grand story that God has written for us. But, Williams ends with a paragraph of pastoral encouragement, reminding us of God’s faithfulness and abiding love.

Although each chapter is short, I believe this book should be part of every pastor’s, teacher’s, and Christian’s, library. I say this because I have found that many Christians have no idea how the Old Testament applies to us now (especially the youth I’ve taught over the years). Williams’ book should help fill this lacuna in the contemporary Church.

(Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the Zondervan book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.)

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Liturgical Didacticism vs. Liturgical Doxology

“It became a tendency in Reformed liturgies to have lengthy prayers, including the prayers of consecration.  Prayers can express the sense of mystery, as the ancient Eastern anaphoras do.  Prayers can also be used to explain away mystery–to articulate doctrine so precisely that there is no ambiguity left concerning the liturgical action or the attitude of worship.  Luther shared with the other reformers a concern for intelligibility in worship, and the elimination of those ritual acts that too easily lent themselves to superstition.  Unlike many of the other reformers, however, Luther also had an appreciation for the mystery of Christian worship–the sense that the reality being addressed in worship, or addressing the worshipers, is ‘beyond reason’ and can only be apprehended by faith.”  (Frank Senn, Christian Liturgy, 303.)

Lenten Humility

Lent is traditionally a season in the church year where we actively seek to live in a state of more humility and repentance.  Orthodox theologian Alexander Schmemann has some brilliant insights into how we are actually becoming more like God when we seek humility:

“But what is humility?  The answer to this question may seem a paradoxical one for it is rooted in a strange affirmation:  God Himself is humble! … In our human mentality we tend to oppose ‘glory’ and ‘humility’–the latter being for us the indication of a flaw or deficiency.  For us it is our ignorance or incompetence that makes or ought to make us feel humble … God is humble because He is perfect; His humility is His glory and the source of all true beauty, perfection, and goodness, and everyone who approaches God and knows Him immediately partakes of the Divine humility and beautified by it … How does one become humble … by contemplating Christ, the divine humility incarnate, the One in whom God has revealed once and for all His glory as humility and His humility as Glory …”

“The lenten season begins with a quest, a prayer for humility which is the beginning of true repentance.  For repentance, above everything else, is a return to the genuine order of things, the restoration of the right vision.  It is, therefore, rooted in humility, and humility–the divine and beautiful humility–is its fruit and end.  ’Let us avoid the high flown speech of the Pharisee,’ says the Kontakion of this day, ‘and learn the majesty of the Publican’s humble words …’” (Great Lent: Journey into Pascha, 19-20).

John Stott on Being Missional

Although he doesn’t use the word “missional,” Anglican theological giant John Stott has some great thoughts on the relationship between “evangelism” and “loving our neighbor”:

“I venture to say that sometime, perhaps because it was the last instruction Jesus gave us before returning to the Father, we give the Great Commission too prominent a place in our Christian thinking.  Please do not misunderstand me.  I firmly believe that the whole church is under obligation to obey its Lord’s commission to take the gospel to all nations.  But I am also concerned that we should not regard this as the only instruction which Jesus left us.  He also quoted Leviticus 19:18 ‘you shall love your neighbor as yourself’, called it ‘the second and great commandment’ … and elaborated it in the Sermon on the Mount …”

“Here then are two instructions of Jesus–a great commandment ‘love your neighbor’ and a great commission ‘go and make disciples’.  What is the relation between the two?  Some of us behave as if we thought them identical, so that if we share the gospel with somebody, we consider we have completed our responsibility to love him.  But no.  The Great Commission neither explains, nor exhausts, nor supersedes the Great Commandment.  What it does is to add to the requirement of neighbour-love and neighbour-service a new and urgent Christian dimension.  If we truly love our neighbour we shall without doubt share with him the good news of Jesus.  How can we possibly claim to love him if we know the gospel but keep it from him?  Equally, however, if we truly love our neighbor we shall not stop with evangelism.  Our neighbour is neither a bodyless soul that we should love only his soul, nor a soulless body that we should care for its welfare alone, nor even a body-soul isolated from society.  God created man, who is my neighbor, a body-soul-in-community.  Therefore, if we love our neighbour as God made him, we must inevitably be concerned for his total welfare, that good of his soul, his body and his communityy.  Moreover, it is this vision of man as a social being, as well as a psycho-somatic being, which obliges us to add a political dimension to our social concern.  Humanitarian activity cares for the casualties of a sick society.  We should be concerned with preventative medicine or community health as well, which means the quest for better social structures in which peace, dignity, freedom and justice are secured for all men.  And there is no reason why, in pursuing this quest, we should not join hands with all men of good will, even if they are not Christians.

“To sum up, we are sent into the world, like Jesus, to serve.  For this is the natural expression of our love for our neighbours.  We love.  We go.  We serve.  And in this we have (or should have) no ulterior motive.  True, the gospel lacks visibility if we merely preach it, and lacks credibility if we who preach it are interested only in souls and have no concern about the welfare of people’s bodies, situations and communities.  Yet the reason for our acceptance of social responsibility is not primarily in order to give the gospel either a visibility or a credibility it would otherwise lack, but rather simple uncomplicated compassion.  Love has no need to justify itself.  It merely expresses itself in service wherever it sees need.

“‘Mission’, then, is not a word for everything the church does.  ’The church is mission’ sounds fine, but it’s an overstatement.  For the church is a worshipping as well as a serving community, and although worship and service belong together they are not to be confused.  Nor, as we have seen, does ‘mission’ cover everything God does in the world.  For God the Creator is constantly active in his world in providence, in common grace and in judgment, quite apart from the purposes for which he has sent his Son, his Spirit and his church into the world.  ’Mission’ describes rather everything the church is sent into the world to do.  ’Mission’ embraces the church’s double vocation of service to be ‘the salt of the earth’ and ‘the light of the world’.  For Christ sends his people into the earth to be its salt, and sends his people into the world to be its light (Matthew 5:13-16)” [John Stott, Christian Mission in the Modern World, 29-31].