The Best Bible Reading Program Ever ... Really!

Now that it's June, you may have long abandoned that Bible reading program you started back in January. Perfect timing to promote the method I prefer! The Cerulean Sanctum offers a good explanation of it.  This approach has been around in various forms for years. I've tried programs that have you read through multiple books at the same time. I've done several different read-through-in-a-year programs. But this Reading Program is the one I've landed upon because it's the one that has given me the most understanding & brought about the greatest change in my Christian walk. It puts Scripture into your mind...and it stays there! You'll discover you actually begin to remember what you've read... in its context. That is the beauty of repetition!
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How To Read the Bible for Life, Not Just a Year

Beyond the artifice behind them, most Bible-reading plans suffer from an imposed superficiality and disjointedness ...  The World's Best Bible-Reading Program, as I see it, moves beyond this piecemeal approach to reading the Scriptures. It has nothing to do with the proud announcement that, "I read through the entire Bible this year!" Instead, it has everything to do with knowing the word of God and putting it into practice. It's not a one-year reading program, but a "rest of your life until they bury you in a pine box" program. The first way of thinking is marketing; the other is transforming.

Here's how the World's Best Bible-Reading Program works:

1.  Find a quiet, undisturbed place to read. Start in the New Testament ... Might as well begin with Matthew.

2.  Read through one entire book in a single sitting. Obviously, the first five books of the NT are going to require some time. But do it. (You're eternal. Live like it!) These books are whole units and are meant to be read as such. We need to experience their coherence. Trust me; the Holy Spirit will bring the entirety of the book to your mind in the future in a way you've never experienced before.

3.  When you've read the book once, don't move on! Read through it again. For the first five books, if you must break them into chunks, go with five or six chapters - whatever maintains the arc of the narrative.

4.  Re-read that one book. Note the way the narrative and themes flow. Commit those stories and themes to memory. Note where they exist in the book.  [Write down your observations.]

5.  Re-read that one book. Pay special attention to the way the Lord is portrayed.  [Write down your observations.]

6.  Re-read that one book. Examine the relational aspects of the book, God to Man, Man to Man, Man to God.  [Write down your observations.]

7.  Re-read that one book. Note the Lord's redeeming and salvific acts within the greater arc of Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration. [Write down your observations.] This first pass-through of the NT assumes you have a modicum of OT understanding. After reading the OT through, the second pass-through of the NT will clarify things further.

8.  Re-read that one book. This time around, note all the Lord's commands and how we're told to practice them. Consider how they might work practically in your daily activities. [Write down your observations.]

[By this point, you've read the same book seven times. Depending on the length of the book, it may have taken seven days or seven weeks. It doesn't matter. This is about changing your life and relationship with Christ. This is about sixty years of discipleship. It's not about getting through the Bible in a certain length of time.] Now comes the hard (and controversial) part ...

9.  Take everything you've learned in this book and put it into practice. Take a month to do nothing but concertedly meditate on what you've just read by making it real in your own life. It might mean that the only Bible you read this month are the parts of this one book that you still aren't getting and must re-read. Doesn't matter - do it! (If you absolutely have to read something every day that isn't part of this program, consider a few Psalms or a cycle of Proverbs. They're the most suited to broken-up reading patterns since they are collections of wisdom and less unified than a book like Romans.)

10.  After your month, take stock of all that you've learned by reading and practice. Make a mental assessment of the themes of the book and how they apply to your discipleship. If you're confident you've read and practiced this book, move on to the next one.

Once the NT is finished, move on to the OT. (I realize some of the OT books are daunting in length for a single read-through. Make a concerted effort to read them in one sitting. Failing this, some of the OT books are narrative, which allows for breaks in the story. Psalms and Proverbs are easily segmented, as noted above. All prophets must be read in one sitting the first time through. A book as enormous as Isaiah is hard to partition, so consider reading it on a weekend day.)

Repeat these ten steps for the rest of your life.


[Entire post found here.]

Gifted to Serve as Part of a Body

When it comes to using our God-given gifts within the local body, much confusion can arise. Many expect that if God has gifted them to use a spiritual gift within their local assembly, they should not only be quite proficient at it, they should also enjoy every moment using it. "Therefore," the thinking often continues, "if I am not good at doing [insert spiritual gift], it must not be my gift." Or perhaps, "It's hard and uncomfortable for me to do "x", therefore it must not be my gift."  Allowed to go on over time, this kind of thinking leaves many paralyzed, unsure how to serve as a functioning member of their church, waiting to "discover" what it is they are "good" at. A related expectation is to believe that a person who has been exercising a spiritual gift for many years has always been able to do so at the ability level they currently enjoy.

Should we find ourselves in such a dilemma, it's good to remember the following Scriptural truths.

1) A spiritual gift manifests itself by what God does with it. The amazing thing is not so much your "giftedness" as that God chooses to use you in such a way that He may bring about the change, the encouragement, the understanding in the hearts of those to whom you minister or to meet a need in your church that enables others to use their gifts more effectively. It is not you being so proficient at something that you cause the desired result. [1Cor.12:4-7] Don't take God out of the equation. You are not "the star", He is! The truth is that every believer is gifted by God for service as part of their local body, perhaps in multiple ways. That's true whether you're a brand new believer just starting out or an aged saint who has been serving for years. [There's no "retirement" for a saint, just perhaps "reassignment".] That's encouraging! It means you can be used NOW!

2. There is not one specific, unique way to use a spiritual gift. As I've heard some do, I might say I have "the gift of teaching 5th/6th graders" or "the gift of teaching groups of women" or "the gift of biblical counseling". What I actually have is a teaching gift that can be used in multiple ways ... teaching 5th/6th graders or teaching groups of women or bringing Biblical truth to bear on someone's problem. Today I teach groups of women. Tomorrow I may be teaching the Bible to my nursing home roommate. The implication is that I should not expect I have to use my spiritual gift in any one specific way. This understanding is crucial! The leadership of my church may decide to reassign me at any time to an area they see as a vital need at that particular point in time. Or they may believe the women I teach would be better served by a different teacher or in a different context. The Lord may change my health at any moment making it impossible for me to regularly teach a group Bible study. But I could still exercise my gift by teaching through the medium of letter writing or the Internet or telephone conversations or one-on-one studies with women. And if I was physically unable to do any of those things, I could concentrate on a ministry of prayer. [I actually was "reassigned" to that task for several years due to health problems. It was incredibly satisfying and encouraging to be able to draw near the throne of grace and devote so much time to prayer!]  Amy Carmichael, missionary to India in the late 1800's to mid-1900's, was bedridden at the end of her life, reassigned by God to write edifying books and devote herself to prolonged, deep prayer. I've often used books written by her then to encourage women now!

3. Our spiritual gift should not be our primary focus. Humbly and cooperatively serving God alongside other believers in our local body, under the direction of the leadership God has placed over us is the focus. (Eph.4:11-13; Heb.13:17) A local body of believers is meant to function as a unified whole, working together as one, building up one another in order to do the work of ministry. The modern Christian world has too many divas. Your church does not exist to display your spiritual gift. Your spiritual gift was given to you by God in order for you to serve in the manner He has decided is necessary within the particular local assembly He has placed you in, within the timing He has chosen. Don't take God out of the picture and promote your gifts to superstar status. Don't expect your local assembly to accommodate every idea you might have for using your gift. That's not an attitude that brings any glory to God. At that point, you're serving yourself, not God. (Phil.2:1-2, 14-15)

4. There is a learning curve. Phil.2:12-13 tells us to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling ... because it is God who works in us both to do and to will. What a perfect example of "both/and"! Yes, God gives the gift, but you also participate by seeking to use it to the best of your ability. That means your comfort level will change. Your abilities will change. What may be difficult and uncomfortable today, can be accomplished with hardly a second thought once your Bible knowledge has increased, once you've practiced doing it time and time again, once you have matured in your Christian walk. So, yes, even a brand new baby believer is gifted to serve, BUT they are not meant to stop at that level of service. They are to be progressively growing in knowledge and experience. (Heb.5:14) It takes effort and it takes time.

Greek scholar Bill Mounce recently wrote about his first experience preaching as a young believer. I found his reflections most encouraging. It brought to mind my own first experiences teaching. It was terrifying, and admittedly, I wasn't very good at it! But I did it because there was a need and my pastor thought I should apply myself to it. May you also find Mounce's recollection encouraging. Remember everyone had to start somewhere!

"I was terrified. Stand up in front of people! What was God thinking? I still remember that Sunday. I wore this long sleeved gold and white shirt with a gold colored sleeveless sweater. (Does that date this story or what?) I remember preaching, rivers of sweat poured down my back and sides, and being glad that the baggy shirt and sweater combination wouldn’t show how nervous I was. And when I got down I said to myself, “If there is one thing I now know, it is that God has not gifted or called me to speak in public!”

As I stood on the front steps today of Mount Zion Church 38 years later, I know how wrong I was. I love to preach and teach; it is my gifting and calling. But just because you are called and gifted doesn’t mean you don’t have a lot of hard work ahead of you. For me, it was finishing college, a MA and PhD, and then years of teaching in college and seminary, and preaching hundreds and hundreds of sermons.

If you are just starting out, if you think you are called and gifted to pulpit ministry, or a teaching ministry, please understand that the call and gifting are not sufficient. Gifts and calling have to be nurtured, developed, practiced. So be patient. Don’t think you necessarily made a vocational mistake just because you are struggling with term papers, taking finals, or delivering what in your mind was the worse sermon ever preached. These are the fires we get to walk through in order to learn and to grow.

Did you think that being a herald of the king would be easy?"

Ennion Glass on Exhibit

The Israel Museum just opened a special exhibit of mold-blown glass from the Roman Empire, including many pieces of 1st Century AD Ennion glass from a private collection. I understand this is the largest display of Ennion's work ever available for public viewing.  The Getty offers the following information concerning the artisan, Ennion. If you happen to visit Israel before the end of January 2012, be sure to take advantage of seeing this exhibit! [Click on each photo for a close-up look.]

"Ennion worked as a glassmaker about 1 to 50 A.D. His signature is known from over thirty surviving pieces, and many other works are attributed to him on the basis of style. Ennion created the ground-breaking technique of blowing glass vessels into molds. This new process allowed the vessel and its decoration to be created at the same time and permitted the creation of multiple copies of the same vessel. Ennion's clear, precise designs distinguish his work; he also minimized the visibility of the lines caused by the seams in the mold.

The location of Ennion's workshop is debated, in part because his work is found throughout the Roman Empire. Some scholars believe he worked in Sidon in modern Lebanon, while others assert that he worked in northern Italy. The inscriptions he frequently used as decoration may provide a clue. Though his name may have been Semitic in origin, he signed it in Greek, the language of the eastern Mediterranean, not Italy. The city of Sidon, where he may have worked, had all the raw material for glass-making and extensive trade connections." 

Summer Reading Ideas for Children

As summer starts, I'd like to put in a plug for reading. Your children are bound to be busy this summer with a multitude of activities, but don't forget the one activity that will stay with them for a lifetime ... reading. I think one of the most encouraging complements I ever received was when someone told me I had given my children a great gift - the love of learning. I can't say that I had that goal in mind at the time, but if I stop to evaluate how learning was encouraged in our home, reading good books certainly holds a place of honor. 

I know it's a huge debate, but as for me, I pointed my kids towards good books and away from trash books ... and I didn't blink an eye doing it! One of my kids was an avid reader from his early years and the other had difficulty, but plugged away at it until it became easier for her in her late teens/early 20's. Unfortunately, people get the idea that if they have difficulty reading, then they just shouldn't read. Do you know how you become a better reader? ... by reading. You may never achieve the heights of a speed reader, but few of us ever do! Pastor John Piper often laments his painfully slow reading ability, yet he continues reading a few good books year after year, then shares what he learns with other pastors. It's well worth the effort to get your children to read good books. Without realizing it, they are building a body of knowledge and developing a "feel" for good writing. Once I did a creative writing study with a few of my favorite little girls, using well written children's books as examples of how it is done. We all loved it!

British Education Secretary Michael Gove recently recommended that the average 11 year old should read at least 50 books per year. Yes...that surprised me, too! So, in an effort to encourage summer reading, here are some suggestions from the books available in our 5th/6th SS Library (open to all children at FBC, starting at Level 2 readers & going up to Jr/Sr High). If you prefer, you may purchase them by clicking on the link (a small percentage of the sale goes towards my "Book Fund"). So turn off that TV and set up a "family reading" time. Start with 15 minutes a day, then expand it to 1/2 hour. You will discover that after a while, your kids (and you!) will want to read even longer! It's a great investment in giving your kids a love of learning! And if you're a believer, the ability to read discerningly is vital for a lifetime of studying God's Word!

The Phantom Tollbooth
Eagle of the Ninth (Bookworms Library)
The Hobbit
Little House On The Prairie
The Secret Garden
Black Beauty (Puffin Classics)
The Lantern Bearers (Roman Britain Trilogy)
The Magician's Nephew
The Horse and His Boy (The Chronicles of Narnia, Full-Color Collector's Edition)
Charlotte's Web (Trophy Newbery)
Caddie Woodlawn
The Trumpeter of Krakow
Rifles for Watie
Ginger Pye (Young Classic)

The BFG 

Tales from the Odyssey: The One-Eyed Giant - Book #1
Tales from the Odyssey, Part 2

There are also lots of Christian biographies available! I recently added an anthology series for girls and one for boys ("10 Girls Who ...." & "10 Boys Who ..."). If your child has difficulty reading, anthologies where each chapter is a single story might be helpful to get them started. And I have a series of Missionary books written in verse, for younger readers. Or you might choose to read them to your preschoolers. My 4 year old grandson was just telling me all about George Mueller and how God used him to care for orphaned children! For older children, the Janet & Geoff Benge books are terrific!

Ten Boys Who Changed The World (Lightkeepers)
Ten Girls Who Changed The World (Lightkeepers)
Ten Girls Who Made A Difference (Lightkeepers)
Gladys Aylward: The Adventure of a Lifetime (Christian Heroes: Then & Now)
Amy Carmichael: Rescuing the Children (Heroes for Young Readers)
George Mueller: Faith to Feed Ten Thousand (Heroes for Young Readers)

Which is More Demanding: Letter or Spirit?

If comments I overhear are any indication, many have a wrong understanding of the meaning of "the letter of the law" as opposed to "the spirit of the law." It is usually used in the sense that the "letter of the law" is more restrictive (and therefore "unloving"), while the "spirit of the law" is more relaxed, more lenient, less demanding on one's life (and therefore more "loving"). That's not what Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount. In fact, He taught the exact opposite! 

In Mt.5:20, Jesus prefaces everything He is about to say from here to the end of His discourse by stating, "For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven."  He then proceeds to give several examples, using the formula, "You have heard ... But I say to you ..." In each example He contrasts the false doctrine of the scribes & Pharisees with the correct interpretation of the law. His greater authority burns through His words.  A prophet always prefaced his words with phrases such as, "Thus says the LORD ..." or "The word of the LORD that came to (prophet's name) ..." The scribes and Pharisees quoted renowned rabbinical scholars when they taught, "According to Hillel ..." or "According to Shammai..." Yet Jesus boldly states, "But I say to you ..."  He speaks directly as God!  It is His law, and He knows its true meaning. It must have knocked their socks off!  No wonder the Jewish crowds hung on His every word and the religious leaders hated Him! At the end of this discourse, Matthew writes, "When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at His teaching;" (Mt.7:28) and then gives us the reason why they were so amazed, "for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes." (Mt.7:29)  [The Greek word translated "amazed" is a compound word (which intensifies meaning) defined as "to strike out, force out by a blow, in the sense of knocking one out of his senses or self-possession, to strike with astonishment, terror, admiration"]

In each example Jesus gives, He demonstrates how the scribes & Pharisees had reduced God's commandments to mere outward actions, the "letter of the law."  In contrast, He then teaches that the law goes much, much deeper ... all the way to the heart/mind attitude. The "spirit of the law" is not content with outer action alone, but reaches all the way to the root of one's thinking. The scribes and Pharisees believed themselves righteous because they had not committed an act of adultery, an act of murder. They believed that gave them righteous standing before God. You will remember how the Pharisee prayed in the Temple, "God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get." (Lk.18:9-14)

Jesus attacks their false doctrine and aims right at their unrighteous hearts. God requires a righteousness that goes that deep!  Coveting is as reprehensible under the law as doing of the deed itself.  Hatred is as unrighteous as murder. Lusting after a woman leaves one as culpable before God as physical adultery.  That is the "spirit of the law".  Its requirements are so much greater than the mere "letter of the law".  One might be able to keep the "letter of the law," but no man can keep the "spirit of the law" before a perfectly holy God. (Rom.3:10-12)  Only God the Son, who willingly left the glories of heaven to take the form of a bond-servant, and be made in the likeness of men could "fulfill" the law by living in perfect obedience to every "jot and tittle" of it. (Mt.5:17-19)  The second Adam succeeded where the first Adam could not.  And it's only through the imputation of Christ's righteousness that God the Father can be approached. (Jn.14:6)  Don't ever think that "the spirit of the law" requires less righteousness!  At the end of his examples, Jesus gives the resulting conclusion to everything He had just taught, "Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Mt.5:48)

Pray Them In

Rico Tice, co-author of a 10-week outreach study called "Christianity Explored," was interviewed recently and had something important to say about the role of prayer in outreach. I know I often find people I have been witnessing to or encouraging come to my mind throughout the day, but usually at the time I'm least able to actually communicate with them. Before you know it, more time has passed than I had intended! Tice offers the following suggestion...

"Personally, the key for every Christian is the morning quiet time. Are you specifically praying for anyone? If you are not praying for them, you will not follow up with them. If you are praying for them in the morning, you will text or call them in the afternoon for the purpose of the gospel."

[Christianity Explored - Study Guide, based on the Gospel of Mark, is available at FBC for anyone wishing to do an outreach Bible study with someone. Just see me. Or you may purchase it for yourself via this link.]

A Reason for the Hope That Lies Within You

I had pretty much ignored Camping's claim to "secret knowledge" of the Bible, attributing it all to another form of Gnosticism mixed together with a little numerology. Then I became angry at the harm he had caused the name of Christ. I don't find it amusing. The name of Christ is too precious. In his blog, Eric Landry offers the following reminder...
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"We must be very careful about how we respond....

History teaches us that previous generations caught up in eschatological fervor often fell away from Christ when their deeply held beliefs about the end of the world didn’t pan out.  While Camping must answer for his false teaching at the end of the age, Reformational Christians are facing a pastoral problem come Sunday morning: how can we apply the salve of the Gospel to the wounded sheep who will be wandering aimlessly, having discovered that what they thought was true (so true they were willing to upend their lives over it) was not?  If this isn’t true, they might reason, then what other deeply held beliefs and convictions and doctrines and hopes might not be true?

It’s at this point that we need to be ready to provide a reasonable defense of our reasonable faith. Christianity is not founded upon some complex Bible code that needs years of analysis to reveal its secret. Christianity is about a man who claimed to be God, who died in full public view as a criminal, and was inexplicably raised from the dead three days later appearing to a multitude of witnesses. When his followers, who witnessed his resurrection, began speaking of it publicly, they connected the prophecies of the Old Testament to the life and death and resurrection of this man who claimed the power to forgive sins. This is the heart of the Christian faith, the message that deserves to be featured on billboards, sides of buses, and pamphlets all over the world.  It is also the message that needs to be reinvested into the hearts and lives of those who found hope and meaning in Harold Camping’s latest bad idea."

Our Feeble Prayers in the Hands of a Mighty God

As a follow-up to the previous post about prayer, here is an encouraging story from the Sept./Oct. 2010 issue of "Israel My Glory", a free publication from The Friends of Israel. The article, written by Peter Colon, is entitled, "An Old Man Wept."

"Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." (1Thess.5:16-18)
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"Due to the prayers of an old German carpenter named Christian Wolfkes, Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand, founders of The Voice of the Martyrs, came to faith in 1938. Soon they led Jews and Gentiles to Christ. Then a church was launched, to the joy of the carpenter. Wolfkes died during World War II, and the Wurmbrands were imprisoned for their faith.

When Richard [Wurmbrand] finally was freed, he spoke to a large crowd of Christians, telling them how he came to know the Lord. As he spoke, he noticed an old man weeping.

When he had finished, Pastor Wurmbrand approached the man to find out what was wrong. The man said his name was Pitter and that he was a wheelwright and had led Christian Wolfkes to the Lord long ago. Since then, he thought all he had ever accomplished in life was to lead a plain carpenter to Christ. It moved him to tears to hear how God had multiplied his ministry a hundredfold to bless Israel and see so many come to faith in the Messiah.

Today The Voice of the Martyrs is one of the largest organizations in the world aiding the persecuted church - all because a wheelwright led a carpenter to the Lord who then led Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand to Jesus."

"Pray Without Ceasing"

A prayerless Christian should be an oxymoron. Yet, how often do you come across a sense of passion about prayer among the believers you know?  Periodically you might hear someone talk about prayer, yet they are noticeably absent whenever the church prays corporately, and you never hear mention of specific ways God has encouraged their heart or illumined their understanding of Scriptural truth or given them a deeper understanding of His character as a result of their prayer. The "talk" and the "walk" just don't match up.

When we do manage to pray, how often do our prayers sound more like the list of "wants" a child might pen to Santa Claus at Christmastime? Seldom do we pray from a biblical perspective. We expend more effort wanting God to remove adversity, make us healthy or protect our loved ones than we do beseeching Him to lead us into spiritual maturity or praying for the faithfulness of His saints. Worst of all, we fail to magnify God in our prayers or thank Him for His abundant love and mercies towards us or recognize our part in the advancement of His kingdom program. Sadly most of our prayers center around ourselves and those nearest us, as we focus on surface needs, not deep, spiritual, eternal needs.

Our prayerlessness demonstrates our lack of understanding of the providence of God, His sovereignty and the power of His mighty hand. We don't think "big enough". Our culture provides three huge stumbling blocks to rich, consistent prayer. Modern  life is overly busy and full of distracting, empty amusements demanding our time and attention. Too often we're not discerning enough to prioritize our time in a way that honors God and contributes to our own sanctification, thereby robbing ourselves of the very things we need to lead us into the victorious Christian life. Also, we tend to trust in ourselves more than we trust in God. When we're at the end of our own resources, THEN we'll call on God. Scripture commands us to humble ourselves before God BY MEANS OF casting all our cares on Him. (1Pet.5:6-7) When we're continually casting (Pres. Tense Greek verb) our cares onto God, we humble ourselves before Him. Finally, most of us have lost our facility with language. We don't know how to glorify God with our words. Even if we are aware of God's greatness, lovingkindness and providence in our lives, we don't know how to express it verbally during our prayers. We think vague thoughts, we feel vague emotions.

So what do we do? Here are two simple suggestions. First, become disciplined. Plan your time, rather than letting unimportant things crowd out vital things such as prayer. Second, use tools to direct your thoughts and expand your ability to express yourself ... go to the prayers of those who had great skill at doing so and use them as the "jumping off points" for your own prayers.

Personally, I love using Don Whitney's suggestion to pray through the Psalms. His book, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, has a chapter explaining the method. Basically, start reading a Psalm. When the Psalm triggers your thoughts toward adoration, confession, thanksgiving & supplication (the ACTS of prayer), stop reading and pray until your mind starts to stray, at which point you return and read more of the Psalm until your thoughts are triggered once again, at which point you stop to pray again. If the Psalms are short, you might find yourself reading through more than one. If it's a long Psalm, you might take several days to work through it. You will be amazed at how long and rich your prayer time becomes after using this approach for a few weeks! It will change your prayer life ... and it will change you!

A second suggestion is a system based upon the Puritan prayers in The Valley of Vision, an anthology of Puritan prayers. Like the Psalmists, the Puritans had a God-centric view of life and an amazing ability to express themselves, far beyond modern man's skill to do so. While the advantage of using Psalms is that you are also learning Scripture itself as you read through them in your prayer time, the Puritan prayers lead you to become more God-focused in your worldview. That was their great strength. I can see the advantage of using both, and recommend alternating them throughout the year. Joe Thorn offers a free copy of his schedule using the Puritan prayers here.  He sets aside three times during the day to go to the Lord in concentrated prayer.

Become a person of prayer. It will affect your own Christian walk, the lives of those you pray for and the purity, effectiveness & strength of your local assembly. It will also help advance God's program in the world. Don't you think those things worthy of your time?

Book Preview: "Give Them Grace, Dazzling Your Kids With the Love of Jesus"

Elyse Fitzpatrick and Jessica Thompson have a new book coming out this month. Raising our children in a manner that glorifies God can be a challenge, yet it is also a privileged responsibility He has given us. You may know the general biblical concepts, but the actual day-to-day implementation can be difficult to figure out.  I remember thinking, "Yes, I want to bring my children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, but how exactly do I do that?" 

Fitzpatrick offers advice concerning different responses to various parenting situations.  Not every situation should be treated the same way.  She even offers an acronym to help us remember the various approaches: Moms Need To Constantly Pray, which of course, is a basic tenet of Christian child rearing!  The letters stand for the various biblical approaches she suggests, depending on the actual need of the situation - Manage, Nurture, Train, Correct and Promise.  I'm assuming she derived her categories from the different ways God deals with His children.  2 Timothy 3:16-17 comes to mind. It lists four different areas where Scripture is "profitable" - for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness.  God also makes promises to His people,  encouraging them to "set their minds" on these things, thereby enabling them to have an eternal focus and a longing for the day when His promises come to complete fruition.  Fitzpatrick & Thompson suggest asking yourself the following questions in order to determine which of God's methods may be best suited to a particular situation in child rearing.  I've added some of my own thoughts about  situations in which these approaches might be implemented.

• Does this circumstance simply call for management?
• Mom finds herself unnecessarily  repeating herself too many times to get her 4 year-old to do his daily chores (e.g. dress himself, brush his teeth, make his bed, put dirty pjs in laundry basket in the AM; set the table for supper, pick up toys at end of the day, put on pjs, put dirty clothes in laundry basket, brush teeth in PM)  She decides this is a "management" issue and prints up & laminates "chore cards" or a "chore chart" using pictures he can check off as he accomplishes each one.
• Now that the situation has calmed down, do I have an opportunity to nurture his soul with the gospel?
• e.g. A parent has a serious illness & the child is unsettled & frightened at the thought of losing them.  The daily family Bible time is a perfect opportunity for addressing these issues by teaching who God is, as He has revealed Himself in His Word.
• Is this the time to train him in how to apply what Jesus has already done for him?.
• Do I need to correct her/his attitudes or actions so that they are more in line with the good news?
• e.g. A child is corrected when they speak unlovingly to a sibling, taught the language of repentance, seeks forgiveness & is taught to look for ways to show their love for their sibling.
• Should I remind him of God’s promises, either of blessing for faith or of consequence for unbelief?
• Personalizing God's promises to a level the child can understand; faithfully following through with consequences for their actions 
• Finally, is this just a time for me to pray and ask the Lord to show me how the gospel applies to my own heart?  Do I need clarity to understand why my child is struggling or resisting right now?  Do I need clarity into my heart’s responses so that I am not sucked down into her unbelief, anger, and despair?  What is it that bothers me about his attitude?  Why?

I've pre-ordered a copy for the FBC library, so keep an eye out for it.  If you prefer, you may pre-order your own copy by clicking on the link below. [Thanks to Justin Taylor's blog for the heads-up!]
Give Them Grace: Dazzling Your Kids with the Love of Jesus

One Way

In our post-modern multicultural society, repeating Jesus' warning that there is only one way to the Father, a way provided by the Father Himself, often generates anger and charges of great hubris.  Our world increasingly views such an idea as intolerant, unloving and arrogant.  But consider the source.  If the Creator provides a way for the creature to reach Him, should we not listen?  Should we not consider?  Should we not respond in humility and thankfulness?  What if you were dying from cancer and a drug company offered you, as a free gift, the only drug that could preserve your life?  Would you say, "No thanks. I know a little bit about science, I'll figure out how to save myself." Or might you reply, "No way. My family uses only all-natural remedies. I won't consider anything else."  Or would you insist that you are the captain of your soul and deny your mortal illness?

Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me." Shouldn't you bow down in grateful reverence at the loving provision of a holy God and say, "Thank you?"  [John 14:5-11]  It's not "intolerant," it's truth ... and it's our only hope.

"for the sake of Christ"

What motivates the Christian life?  Some desire personal recognition, appreciation, perhaps even admiration from others.  Some approach the Christian life as "duty".  Others spend their lives compiling long lists of  "dos" and "don'ts", fostering a critical spirit towards those who don't live up to their man-made requirements.  Some pamper and pet their spiritual gift, becoming the divas of the Christian world ... disconnected loners who come to think of the church as their "stage".  And some just long for a place to belong, make friends, develop a social life and have all their personal needs met.  The best way to help all of these people grow spiritually is to encourage them to turn their eyes off of self and onto their Savior.

In his book Studies on the Sermon on the Mount, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones writes, "The Christian's life is controlled and dominated by Jesus Christ, by his loyalty to Christ, and by his concern to do everything for Christ's sake ... the whole object of the Christian should be to live for Christ's sake and no longer to live for his own. ... That is something which you find everywhere in the New Testament.  The Christian, being a new man, having received new life from Christ, realizing that he owes everything to Christ and His perfect work, and particularly to His death upon the cross, says to himself, "I am not my own; I have been bought with a price."  He therefore wants to live his whole life to the glory of Him who has thus died for him, and bought him, and risen again.  So he desires to present himself, 'body, soul and spirit', everything to Christ.  This, you will agree is something that was not only taught by our Lord; it is emphasized everywhere in all of the New Testament Epistles.  'For Christ's sake' is the motive, the great controlling motive in the life of the Christian.  Here is something that differentiates us from everybody else and provides a thorough test of our profession of the Christian faith.  If we are truly Christian, our desire must be, however much we may fail in practice, to live for Christ, to glory in His name and to live to glorify Him."

Be Faithful in "Little Things"

Tim "happened" to run into someone who remembered me from some 25 years ago when his family attended FBC for a short time.  I'm embarrassed to say I don't remember him, even though he could recall my name after all this time.  But the incident got me thinking about our lifetime walk before the Lord.  There are times I feel so burdened that I'm not bringing God the glory He deserves, that I'm not saying the "right" thing at the "right" time, that I'm not reaching "enough" people with the gospel, that I have such little impact reflecting God's glory in this dark world.  There is such great need!  But... when you get right down to it, few of us ever have the opportunity to  see what God does with all those "little things" we might do in His name and for His glory.

Then I saw this video Challies posted on his blog today and it hit me.  Serving God is a lifetime endeavor of "little things" done faithfully, day by day.  For a few short years we are allowed to be but one small part of the advancement of God's program.  All He asks of us as believers is that we walk faithfully before Him TODAY, that we persevere in following Him, that we keep our eyes on His eternal truths, that we just be faithful in the "little things" and leave the "big picture" up to Him.  Viewing this video made me realize that in the 32 years I have been a believer, I have met and interacted in some small way in the lives of individuals in nearly every one of those situations mentioned!  In each case, whether I realized it or not, I  had represented God according to the God-given ability I possessed at that moment in my Christian walk. As difficult as their circumstances were, God's Word was able to reveal their greatest need, letting them know that the best answer to their life situation begins with Christ.  I have absolutely no idea how God used any of those experiences.  He is a mighty God, though my efforts may be feeble!

Now, 25 years later, God has chosen to use my child to possibly impact the life of an individual who has been given yet another chance to know God, to repent and trust in the finished work of Christ.  What a blessing to be given this peek at God working!  May we continue to walk faithfully before God TODAY to the best of our abilities by the power of God's grace ... no matter how "small" the task.  To God be the glory!

[Click here to see the video.]

"Pinkie" & "The Blue Boy" - Behind the Story

"The Blue Boy"

"Pinkie"

These two portraits are familiar to even the most casual art appreciator.  We're used to seeing them displayed together, but they were painted by two different artists and were not originally intended to be shown as a pair.

"Pinkie" was the family nickname of Sarah Barrett Moulton.  Her portrait was painted by Sir Thomas Lawrence in 1794, when she was about 11 years old.  She was born in Jamaica to wealthy English plantation owners and died about a year after the portrait was completed.  Her brother, Edward, later changed his surname to Moulton-Barrett, and fathered the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

"The Blue Boy",  thought to be a portrait of Jonathan Buttall, the son of a wealthy English hardware merchant, was painted by Thomas Gainsborough around 1770, in clothing from an earlier period in tribute to artist Sir Anthony Van Dyck (1599-1641). [Click on a photo for a closer look.]

In 1921, American railroad pioneer Henry Edwards Huntington purchased both paintings, to great British consternation, I might add.  He displayed the two full length portraits side by side, and they have been shown that way ever since.

The Huntington Art Museum, Library & Botanical Gardens is well worth visiting if you ever find yourself in the Pasadena, CA area.  One of my fondest memories is having my son & his wife take me there when they lived in the area.  If you have an opportunity to see "Pinkie" and "The Blue Boy", I hope you'll be able to appreciate them more now that you've heard a little bit about their background.  You may visit the Huntington online here.   Brew a cup of tea, put on a classical CD and enjoy perusing the collection online.  And remember ... there's a story behind every painting!

New Excavation to Start at Carchemish!

Carchemish [Karkamış] was an ancient city of the Mittani, Hittite and Neo-Assyrian Empires.  Occupation dates back to the Neolithic period, with pottery finds from ca. 3000 BC and tombs from ca. 2300 BC.  The site is on the border of modern Turkey & Syria. The tell is currently located on the Turkish side, just west of Ancient Haran, where Abraham first settled after leaving Ur of the Chaldees (Gen.11-12). [Also the site where his father died (Gen.11:32) and the city where Jacob's mother Rebekah & her brother Laban resided (Gen.27:43).]  SW of Carchemish is the ancient city of Alalakh, which our Women's Bible study may remember. [Click on the map for a closer look.]

Carchemish was a large and significant city throughout ancient history,  originally controlling the main ford across the Euphrates.  Mention of the city has been found in ancient Egyptian, Assyrian & Babylonian texts, as well as in several Old Testament passages.

• Isaiah made a reference to Carchemish (Isaiah 10:9). The city had been sacked by Sargon II of the Neo-Assyrian Empire in 717 BC.
• Pharaoh Necho of Egypt went up to Carchemish to help defend the  Assyrians against the encroachment of the  Babylonians, led by Nebuchadnezzar II, in 609 B.C. (2 Chronicles 35:20; Jeremiah 46:2). King Josiah of Judah (the "boy King" grown up) tried to stop him, but was killed.  The subsequent Battle of Carchemish between the Egyptian/Assyrian coalition & Nebuchadnezzar's Babylonian forces is well documented.  Babylon defeated the Egyptians & the Assyrians, absorbing the Neo-Assyrian Empire into the Neo-Babylonian Empire. Nebuchadnezzar then went on to conquer Judah and Jerusalem in 605 BC.

The site of ancient Carchemish was identified by George Smith in 1876 and excavated by British archaeologists Leonard Woolley & T.E. Lawrence.  In recent times it has been a military zone and off limits to archaeologists, but the area was just cleared of 1200 land mines and a new excavation is scheduled to begin this year!

[Read news story here. From: Ferrell Jenkins blog.]

Responding to Crisis

Natural disasters so easily touch our emotions, though I dare say we're often selective about which ones we choose to attach ourselves.  Some become deeply empathetic with the situation in one nation, yet are completely unresponsive to suffering in other parts of the world.  As Americans, I fear we too often direct our money at a problem and then feel we have done our part.  As believers we're called to go a step further, to look beyond physical needs to eternal ones.  We're called to direct our thoughts towards eternal realities ... even when there isn't a natural disaster involved.  Of course we should address physical need as God enables us.  But we must be cautious to not stop there.  There is a deeper crisis, a deeper need we dare not ignore.  Let's not limit Christian service to an emotional response to the Evening News, as tragic as those events may be.  Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981) left the medical profession to become the pastor of a mission church in Wales, a choice often misunderstood by others.  His response gives insight into how we must never lose sight of man's deepest need, the need of a Savior able to offer eternal peace with a holy God.

"It is not often that I make any kind of personal reference from this pulpit, but I feel this morning that I must speak of an experience which bears on this very subject.  When I came here, people said to me: ‘Why give up good work – a good profession – after all, the medical profession, why give that up?  If you had been a bookie, for instance, and wanted to give that up to preach the gospel, we should understand and agree with you and say that you were doing a grand thing.  But medicine – a good profession, healing the sick and relieving pain!’  One man even said this, ‘If you were a solicitor [lawyer] and gave it up, I’d give you a pat on the back, but to give up medicine!’

‘Ah well!’ I felt like saying to them, ‘if you knew more about the work of a doctor, you would understand.  We but spend most of our time rendering people fit to go back to their sin!’  I saw men on their sick beds, I spoke to them of their immortal souls, they promised grand things.  Then they got better and back they went to their old sin!  I saw I was helping these men to sin and I decided that I would do no more of it.  I want to heal souls.  If a man has a diseased body and his soul is all right, he is all right to the end; but a man with a healthy body and a diseased soul is all right for sixty years or so and then he has to face an eternity of hell.  Ah, yes! we have sometimes to give up those which are good for that which is the best of all – the joy of salvation and newness of life."

[Martyn Lloyd Jones, The First Forty Years]

"Looking Up" - Guest Blogger

I'm pleased to share a recent post from a "Guest Blogger".  Jen Wilson and her family, long time friends and members of my church, are in their first year serving with AMG in Guatemala.  She offers the following observation as she settles into her new life serving God in the foreign mission field.  Her comments are just as applicable to those of us working in the local mission field.  She's given me permission to share her thoughts with you.

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As we were driving to school a few weeks ago, I was struggling with a few things. I was also overwhelmed at the daunting thought of what was ahead of me that day. I was struggling with being in Guatemala when friends and family at home were having children.  And, also loved ones at home were dying.   I was overwhelmed with the daunting thought of all that needed to be done that day: language school, cleaning, cooking, and shopping.  All stuff in a normal day, but we are in the midst of a language barrier here. I was praying that I would have a better outlook on the day, and that I would not be thinking of things at home, but rather of things here in Guatemala.  I was praying that I would see outside of my world, that I would see the bigger picture.  Not many of you reading this have actually been to Guatemala, but some of you have.  Pictures do it no justice.  Let me tell you what happened when I opened my eyes.  We were coming off a mountain into the city where we go everyday for language, and as we rounded the corner right in front of me was the most spectacular view of a volcano.  It was just purely magnificent!  And at that moment, I thought to myself, I need to keep looking up!  I see this beautiful volcano everyday and many others like it.  I see the natural beauty all around me every day here in Guatemala.  You need to look up to see the mountains and the volcanoes. When you look down you see the trash and the filth.

Where am I going with this?  When we look at the little things, the “trash” that is around us every day, we can (I can) get so overwhelmed that I forget what needs to be done.  And I forget the purpose of why I am doing things. Is it still hard to be away from home and not grieving with friends?  YES!  Is it still hard being away from home and not rejoicing with friends?  YES!  Is it hard being 3000 miles from family as my father-in-law walked into the arms of Jesus?  YES!!  BUT, we have the hope and promise that we will one day be together again. We are here in Guatemala serving our loving sovereign Lord.  We have a hope!  We need to share that hope with a lost and dying world.  We need to focus on Jesus and not on the “trash” that is lying in our path.  We need to focus on the people around us and their souls, not on the daunting daily tasks.... We need to look at opportunities that God places in our lives.   Who do I talk to in the grocery store?  Who do we talk with when our washing machine is being fixed?  Who do we talk to at the market when we buy our fruits and vegetables?  These are people who need to hear of the love of the Savior who came just for them.  And when I am focusing on looking up, I know I can definitely see a difference in how I look at the day ahead of me.

Are you looking up?

[The Wilson family blog]

Intentional Parenting

 Here are a few practical parenting ideas from Rick Holland's blog. [Rick is a pastor at Grace Community Church, a Director at The Master's Seminary & the father of 3 school-aged boys.]  It's helpful to consider various ways to apply the command to bring up our children "in the discipline and instruction of the Lord." (Eph.6:4)  Christian parents must be "intentional" about child rearing, thinking through ways to incorporate God's truth into the lives of their children. If you don't actively and purposefully teach your children, the world will do it for you!  But if you start when they are young, by the time they are teens you will not only have built biblical truth into their lives, you'll be pleased to discover you  have also established strong communication patterns with them.

Here are a few things Rick does with his boys ...

• I take each of the boys out for breakfast before school once a week. This is as simple as a muffin at Starbucks or an earlier morning at IHOP. I’m going through different things with each of them. They are in very different places in spiritual understanding because of their ages. We have read books together, gone over chapters of the Bible that address what they are working through in life ... I try to end with a verse I’ve isolated for them that we simply read and pray through.

• We try to talk about the biblical instruction they are receiving at church. Driving home from church on Sundays includes a debriefing of what they learned in their youth ministry groups and the regular service sermon... Kim and I try to create and follow as many rabbit trails as we can to see what is at the end of their thinking.

• Dinner times are great because they are magnetized to the table by their appetites. It’s fun to throw out a topic and see what they think. I’m not so interested in using this time for instruction as I am to simply see what and how they think.

• Then there is “Monday Man School.” On Monday nights we try to get together to talk through issues of masculinity. This can include things like how to tie a tie, how to iron a shirt, how to skin and cook a rabbit, how to treat a lady (this an ongoing lesson), what to do when you get embarrassed in front of others, how to admit you're wrong and why that’s important, how to match clothes, how to shave (better), and sometimes we just watch a football or basketball game together.

• An important footnote is that there are always interruptions and exceptions to these activities. We rarely have a perfect week where everything happens, but we’re trying to make those the exceptions rather than the norm.

Then there are always the informal discussions that come up when you have kids. You can never let the antenna down... look for opportunities to speak into their worldview to encourage or correct it."

[Related Post: "Dinner Table Devotions" (Ideas for conversation starters at the dinner table.)]