Book Review: Wisdom of the Sadhu

I was offered a chance to review the book "Wisdom of the Sadhu: Teachings of Sundar Singh". I was intrigued by the idea when I found that Sundar Singh was a Christian in India. I've mostly tired of books by western Christians (at least, those that are specifically evangelical), but I was interested in how the eastern mind thought and taught Christianity. Lest we forget, Christianity came from the middle east, and I think we do it a disservice trying to couch it in terms related to our 21st century American existence.

Wisdom of the Sadhu is a collection of the works of Sundar Singh, not arranged in any particular order of creation or publication. Some of them are his actual writings on subjects, some are recollections of parables and conversations he had with seekers and students.

Unlike the stories and parables western pastors and evangelists share, these are not contrived. You could consider them "Rabbinical". Jesus was a Rabbi, after all.

In the west, our dialogs are often question -> answer. In an eastern mindset, it's sometimes question -> clarifying question. Sometimes when a question is asked, it's best to respond with another question to help the questioner clarify his or her thoughts.

Sundar Singh grew up as a Sikh. He studied hard in search of peace. His village was very tolerant of other beliefs. His father even sent him to a Christian school. He didn't like it though, and threw stones at Christian missionaries and tore up and burned their Bibles. His father didn't like that. Eventually, he became a Christian and was run out of his home because of it. He then lived the life of a sadhu, an Indian holy man. It was apparently a beggar-like existence.

Of the whole book, on passage that stood out to me most was a discussion of living in the world without immersing ourselves in the world. Many 21st Century American Evangelical Churchians struggle with this. We do all kinds of crazy stuff like not watching TV to avoid being "corrupted" by the world.

Part of Singh's response was "The creatures of the sea live their entire lives in salt water. Yet, when we taste their flesh, we find that it is not salty. It is the same with us. If we maintain an active prayer life, if we turn constantly to the source of life, we remain free from the world's corrupting influences."

I think it would do all western Christians good to study the work of our brothers from other parts of the world and other points in time. Wisdom of the Sadhu is an accessible way to start.

You can buy it here:

Wisdom of the Sadhu: Teachings of Sundar Singh

Happy Resurrection Day

I tend to keep my faith minimized on this blog. I don't hide it, but it's normally not my prime focus. But I guess this is the kind of day I'm permitted a little liberty to discuss it.

For an Easter (also my 39th birthday), it's sure been challenging. I'm of course facing some personal challenges. I'll share the largest when it works out for better or for worse. I work 180 miles away from my family, and this year I'm getting home about every 3 weeks.

I took a few days leave last week to get the yard ready for spring. That included some hard physical labor. I got up early because I wanted to get back to Virginia before the rain was foretasted to start. I guess because I was working hard the last few days, and didn't sleep well the last few nights, and got up early today, I locked my keys in my car at a rest stop.

I had no clue what to do about it. I wanted to panic, until I realized that technology makes life easy. I used my insurance company's app on my iPhone to see if they had roadside assistance. I submitted a ticket through the app. Then I called. Turns out, they do cover locksmith services. Last time I locked my keys in my car (about 11 years ago), it cost me $50-75 for a locksmith. This time, all it did was set me back an hour. As much as Geico's commercials annoy me, I'm glad they have my back covered. That's a wonderful feeling.

In any case, Resurrection Day is not about the Churchianity claims that "coming to Christ" will make your life easier. He in fact teaches that you will face some intense challenges, in fact, painful persecution in many cases by following Him. So when I hit challenges like today, and the challenges I'm not going to talk about right now, they don't make me question my faith. They confirm it.

Last thing. I've heard the song "In Christ Alone". I never really cared that much for it, UNTIL I came across Owl City's version. I'll leave you with that. Happy Resurrection Day. As the song goes: "Till He returns, or calls me home, here in the power of Christ I'll stand".

Purpose Driven Life Day 3

Day 3 of PDL is “What Drives Your Life?” I can’t say I came across any new information in this chapter, but it was still inspirational. It was a good reminder to focus on the most important things.

In this chapter, Rick Warren lays out the five most common things people are driven by: guilt, resentment and anger, fear, materialism, and need for approval. Under fear, he explored unrealistic expectations. I think in my life, I’ve found the most frustration from that; from being expected to be something I’m not, or to do something I can’t do. I recently decided to deal with an unrealistic expectation by understanding that it is somebody else’s opinion. After years of trying to meet it, I decided not to play the game anymore. I’m not saying I wrote the person off. Not at all. I just stopped trying to meet that expectation and stopped arguing about it. Then I looked for other ways to handle the situation that I can actually do.

The Purpose Driven Life Day 2

After 6 years of the book sitting on my shelf, I finally decided to tackle Rick Warren’s “The Purpose Driven Life”. As much as possible, I’ll try to share my thoughts, insights, and critiques here on my blog.

While Day 1 got off to a good start, Day 2 felt a little basic. Day 2 is “You are not an accident”. It’s a premise I’ve long since accepted. While building his case, Rick Warren goes into territory that could be mistaken for God micromanaging every aspect of our lives. That’s not a debate I want to go into, as I have no idea where the line goes between God controlling things and us making decisions to do good or evil. God can use any person or event for His purposes. I have no problem with that.

For this day, Rick Warren uses various Bible verses to talk about how God formed the earth to be inhabited. He also uses various paraphrases of Psalm 139. The chapter concludes with a poem by Russell Kelfer. The essense of the chapter is “God created you to be loved”. By Him.

I regret I’m getting few insights to share. The chapter ends with a Question to Consider “I know that God uniquely created me. What areas of my personality, background, and physical appearance am I struggling to accept?” I’m not sure I have enough bandwidth to expound on that one.

Hopefully I’ll have more tomorrow, on Day 3. I may not write a blog post for each individual day though.

If you'd like to go through this with me, you can get a copy through my affiliate link.




Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

What Are You Doing May 22?

It’s an important question. Harold Camping says the world will end on May 21 of this year. He’s done this before. So on May 22, I plan to wait for word on when the world will really end according to Harold Camping.

I recently came across an excellent series of blog posts on Camping, written by a man who studied under him in church. He confirmed something I’ve long suspected about Harold Camping:

After Camping began to work full-time with Family Radio, he spent much time studying the Bible. His knowledge of Bible verses is impressive indeed. But his study of the Bible was undertaken in isolation from other Christians and theologians. He adopted a proud individualism. He did not really learn from Bible scholars. He studied the Bible in isolation from the church and the consensus of the faithful. As a result his understanding of the Bible became more and more idiosyncratic. No one could help, direct, or restrain him. He was really an autodicdact, that is, someone who teaches himself. He never really submitted his ideas to be challenged and improved by others. He was truly his only teacher. He has repeatedly said that he would be glad to change his views if he is shown that he is wrong from the Bible. But this humble statement covers a very arrogant attitude, because no one can ever show him that he is wrong. He alone really understands the Bible.

This is something I’ve noticed about men who seem to go off the deep end later in their lives. I’ve seen it before, and I’ve heard it from other men. I once heard Chuck Swindoll say he had a mentor who was very solid in the faith, but later in his life, he strayed into some serious error and kooky theology. I added “kooky”. That wasn’t Chuck Swindoll.

Jesus Is Not A Facebook Status

I was going through some blog posts I started and never finished. I came across this. I think I was going to write a long dissertation, but that’s not really required which is probably why I never finished this post.

I don’t consider this “witnessing”. I don’t consider it “furthing the Kingdom of Heaven”. I consider it annoying. Just like those silly emails that essentially tell you “If you don’t forward this silly, poorly written poem to 10 people, you don’t love Jesus”. I delete those immediately. This is designed to get people who agree with you to feel good, and to annoy people who don’t agree with you. It’s not a good argument, and it’s not a good example.

I recall a bumper sticker I saw once: “Dear God, please save me from your followers.”

There are far more effective ways to show we’re followers of Jesus that forwarding emails and copying and pasting Facebook statuses.

By the way, I did NOT post that message on my wall.

Col 3:[17] And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.

Naboth’s Vineyard

I haven’t written a Bible post in a while. I came across a thought this morning that seemed worth writing about.

When people tell me “the Bible is boring”, I question how much of it they’ve read. Sure, some portions can be VERY tedious to read. Genealogies, for instance, are hard to read just to read. You’ve got to have a certain mindset to plow through Leviticus, and even I dread having to read Ezra. It’s hard to read some of the prophets without learning the background of who is being written to and why. Some books, like Isaiah and Jeremiah, were written over a lifetime. It takes some homework to be able to understand either.

The New Testament has challenges too. Even Peter had trouble understanding Paul:

2 Pe 3:[15] And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, [16] as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. (ESV) (emphasis mine)

But the historical books are different. These are accounts of things that really happened. And they contain some VERY graphic descriptions of events and people. Battles. Massacres. Rebellions. Rape. Incest. It holds little back.

Judging and Condemning

I’ve been wanting to write this post for a long time. I doubt it’s going to become the long essay I originally wanted to write.

We’ve all heard people make comments like “Don’t judge me” or “You shouldn’t judge people”. Why?

The ironic thing is that these statements are often followed by some very judgmental statements, like “You shouldn’t judge people, you jerk!” “Don’t judge me. You’re so intolerant.”

As an amateur philosopher (and as The Stand-Up Philosopher), I have tried to construct a world in which it is possible to live without making any judgments at all. I can’t. It’s impossible.

If it were possible to live without judging anybody, why do we have a legal profession? Why is there an entire occupation known as judges?

Chances are, it’s a total misunderstanding of a couple of verses in something known as “The Sermon on the Mount”. You can find the relevant verse in Matthew 7, verse 1:

7 “Judge  not, that you be not judged

The problem is, it doesn’t stop there. The entire point to this passage is not that you should never judge anybody at any time for any reason. That’s impossible. Jesus continues:

2 For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. 3 And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? 5 Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
The New King James Version. 1982 (Mt 7:2–5). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

The whole point to the passage it to make sure that you’re straightened out before you confront somebody else about a “sin” in his or her life.

My point to this post is not to “preach” at you. I get annoyed when people don’t use the right words.

I think instead of “don’t judge me”, what people mean is “don’t condemn me.” Try using that next time. It’s impossible to make it through life without making judgments about people and things. Think about it, you have to “judge” distance when you drive.

The Ugly Side of Acts 6

It’s been a while since I’ve written a Bible or church related post. I don’t count my spiritual work post because it was about general spirituality.

The church we’d been going to the last 8 years appointed deacons two or three times in that period. As the church identified the need for new deacons and ramped up into eventual nomination, topical sermons were preached. Acts 6 always came up in those sermon series. I imagine it’s the same in most churches that have to appoint new servants.

The sermons usually centered around the need to appoint deacons so that the apostles can attend to higher priorities. It’s kind of like how Moses let himself get bogged down in judging every Israelite case of “He stole my chicken!” rather than leading them through the desert like he was supposed to.

Where Do We Get The Idea That People Engaged in “Spiritual Work” Are On Another Plane?

On Saturday, Seth Godin posted an entry on his blog titled “Phoning It In.” First, I want to state that I agree with his conclusion that we need passion in our work. We shouldn’t be, as they say in show business, “Phoning our lines in”.
I want to address the start of the post:

I was talking to a religious leader, someone who runs a congregation. She made it clear to me that on many days, it's just a job. A job like any other, you show up, you go through the motions, you get paid.
I guess we find this disturbing because spiritual work should be real, not faked.

I’m curious about where the misconception came from that people engaged in “Spiritual work” exist on some higher plane. I notice that even fairly well-studied believers somehow see pastors and elders and deacons as somehow holier.

Patience: Can You Pray For It, Or Just Do It?

I was having a talk with some friends from church recently, and the subject of patience came up. The subject came up along with the old line “I’ve been praying for patience.” I’ve done that plenty of times myself.

I started to change my perspective on patience recently though. I was studying the Proverbs. I started reading one chapter each day, the chapter that corresponds to the calendar date (for instance, today would be Proverbs 20 because it’s September 20th). I stopped recently though, and have to get back to it.

I’m sure anybody who has studied Proverbs has also heard some of the Proverbs taught legalistically. For instance, Proverbs 22:6 says “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” I have heard of people being counseled by pastors or other church members that when one of their children runs astray, it’s their fault for not training up the child.

Tim Challies- Don't Take Your iPod to Church

Last Friday, Tim Challies posted "Don't Take Your iPod to Church" to his blog. (UPDATE: Today he posted a 1.5 update as he continues to develop his argument.) I normally enjoy Tim's posts, and I read through this one. I didn't agree with it, and since nobody else had commented, I left the first comment. I did my best to be reasonable, and I hope my comment came off that way. I then spent the weekend far too busy to get back to read other comments. I also spend some time thinking about the issue. The last thing I would want is for my own pride to get in the way. I've been reading the Bible on electronic devices for years. I find it much easier to carry and study the Scriptures from a handheld and from a laptop. When I teach classes in church, I've taken to bringing my laptop to church and teaching from my notes.

As I processed my thoughts on Tim's post over the weekend, I came to a realization that his arguments against reading the Bible on a mobile device, especially in church, seem to come from the same reasoning that old people might use in their "any hymn written after 1850 is from the Devil!" arguments. Simply because something is new does not make it bad, and simply because something is old does not make it good or right. Speaking of hymns, I'm about burned out on the 19th century hymns my church sings.

Sometimes, in an effort to be pious or to urge other believers to holiness, Christians make some really weird arguments. Two weeks ago, a lot of Christian blogs were repeating a post about why you shouldn't Twitter in church. I couldn't resist: I sat down in church that Sunday and Twittered that I was Twittering in church in response to a blog post I read. OK, the service hadn't started yet, but I felt like I had to. (My wife was furious with me when she saw that tweet on Facebook later). 

To this point, I'm not convinced that the possibility of misuing technology or being sidetracked by technology equals an admonition to not use technology in Bible study or corporate worship. I'm also not convinced that just because Twitter can be distracting means I shouldn't use it in church either. I know at least one person who attends our church's second service reads my first service Tweets.

Nehemiah As an Example of Male Leadership

My church is going to start a new men’s group. It’s proven to be a real challenge as we are a “freeway church”, that is, our membership is pretty well spread out. We’re not a community church where our membership generally lives nearby. My house is currently about 10 miles from the church, and if we sell and move into my in-laws’, I’ll be 20 miles out. Some people come from even farther. We’re also incredibly busy. Trying to find a date and time for a men’s group to meet has been difficult. I can’t do breakfast meetings because I get to work at 6:30 AM. We finally settled on Thursday afternoon, with our first meeting being today. We’ll see how it goes.
In preparation for our first meeting, I read the book of Nehemiah from the perspective of male leadership. For the past several weeks our pastors have been preaching from Nehemiah. Several things stood out to me during this read. For one thing, Nehemiah considered Jerusalem as a reproach with the walls down. Putting the walls back up would make the city no longer a reproach. I have to wonder if there is anything I can draw from that. Is a person, a family, a church, a group, a society, etc. a reproach with a broken wall, a lack of boundaries, or no form of defensive security and self-containment? Is there a broader application? I don’t like to over-spiritualize or allegorize parts of the Bible for which neither was intended, but in many cases there is a deeper message. I don’t have the answer now, but I do plan to study this.

2009 Goal Update: Books

I figure I’ll be transparent about this one. I set a goal to read 100 books this year. I haven’t picked them out yet. So far, according to my records in Evernote, I’ve read 8.

Why 100? No particular reason, except that it sounds ambitious. I’m hoping over the course of achieving this goal, I learn how to read faster, and I learn how to absorb more. I’m not sure if I’m going to post reviews of a certain percentage or not. I’ll of course post them for the Thomas Nelson books I review, and if anything really stands out to me, I’ll post it as well. I’ll also add books I’m reading or that have influenced my life to my Amazon A-store. Check it from time to time, and feel free to buy anything that interests you from my affiliate.

What books am I going to read? I have no idea. No doubt I’ll read some from the bookcase full of books that I haven’t read yet. I’ll probably read some public domain books that I download online. I’ll also probably buy some new books and check other books out from the library.

The Chronological Study Bible- Review

After starting a trial program with The Faith of Barack Obama and Through the Storm, Thomas Nelson has decided to formalize a program of allowing bloggers to receive free copies of books in exchange for a minimum 200 word review. TN does not require positive or negative; only that the book be read through and reviewed. Don't believe me? Here's a negative review of one of their books, with a comment by Michael Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson.

When Thomas Nelson rolled out their Book Review Bloggers site, there were 8 books up for review, two of which I had already reviewed. I decided to take on the Chronological Study Bible for review. I figured if I like it, it would be an asset to me. If I didn't like it, it would prove to me that I don't like chronological Bibles. I once downloaded a piece of software called "The Bible Planner." I don't know if it's still available. I never used the calendar, tasks, or other organizer utilities, but it came with a daily Bible reading plan. The Bible was arranged roughly in order. I read it for 3 months, but didn't like it. It was in the King James, which I was using heavily at the time. For some reason, I just stopping liking the trusty old KJV for daily reading (though it's still superior for quoting and memorizing) and settled on the New King James, which is the translation used for Thomas Nelson's Chronological Study Bible.

Christian Heuristics

When I took my first Systems Analysis class, I was introduced to the word "heuristic". Wikipedia defines heuristic as a rule of thumb used to solve a problem among other things that you can read on your own.

I've been wanting to write this post for a while, but I partly haven't had time, nor have I known exactly what I wanted to say. I also realize that what I want to say could violate some principles that I'm supposed to hold to, or at the minimum could hurt some feelings.

Christians in 21st century America (at least, this is where I live, possibly it's the same in other western countries) have developed some strange heuristics, or rules of thumb. Some of them are starting to drive me nuts. I have no idea where they come from, I have no idea where the idea that they have any effectiveness came from, and I have no idea why they persist despite no evidence of any fruit whatsoever being produced by and through them. All I really want to accomplish with this post is to share some thoughts, and maybe get a productive discussion going about them. That's all I want. I don't want to hurt any feelings, attract any flames, or cause any problems.

My Comments on Fireproof

I originally posted this on 10/05/08. I took a look at it recently, and was horrified. I kept rambling on. I archived the original and rewrote it so people may actually read it. I tried to keep my original thoughts, so you don't think I took them from Dalrock, who came to many of the conclusions I did and analyzed it better.

In September 2008, I was invited to a pre-screening of a movie called Fireproof by the Fellowship of Christian Firefighters. For those in evangelical churches, Fireproof quickly became a phenomenon. The church we were going to had showings of it, and we had Fireproof small groups (I led one for a while- I'm a trained small group leader).

Fireproof opens with a camera panning through what appears to be a little girls's room. No character's are shown, but the dialogue and the paraphernalia indicate that this girl is a firefighter's daughter. They discuss when daddy is coming home, and not tonight because he's working. She says that she wants to marry daddy, and the familiar discussion ensues. I can't say I saw that scene directly connected to the story again. I assumed that Kirk Cameron's character's wife was that little girl, but no mention of her dad having been a firefighter is brought up. Some people say it's their daughter at a point after the end of the movie.

A scene early on shows Kirk Cameron's character, Caleb Holt and his wife Catherine arguing. I wouldn't be surprised if the writers sat outside my window writing down notes because  my ex-wife and I have traded many variations on those arguments. Catherine alludes to him looking at pornography on the Internet. He says that she doesn't respect him. A line I've used often is said by Caleb "I get respect everywhere I go except at home." I know that feeling well enough. Things reach a breaking point and divorce is brought up and agreed to.

The rest of the movie deals with the two characters and their interactions with others in their lives. The content is pretty much evangelical. Kirk Cameron is an evangelist with Living Waters Ministries. They teach an evangelism method called "The Way of the Master," which deals with showing a person how he or she stands before God by using the Ten Commandments. The dialog uses this method. Churchians eat it up, I guess because they never get past what the Apostle Paul calls "milk". They just keep listening to the basic Gospel over and over and over again, never growing.

The essence of this movie is about marriage. I must admit, most of the situations and characters seemed real. It also showed the difficulty of making a marriage work without serving (a Churchianity buzzword). I used to say at least one of the two MUST fight to make things work, but my own divorce proves that false. I fought for years to make it work and she fought against it working.

A comment another firefighter made to Caleb is "Fireproof doesn't mean that fire won't come. It just means that when it does come, you can withstand it." That is obviously where the title came from.

This movie obviously had no sexual innuendo or profanity. I didn't miss it. I'm no prude, but I'm tired of movies and sitcoms that throw that stuff in just to have it there. If it serves a point, fine, but just because it's on a major network at prime time doesn't mean it adds anything useful to the show.

Although I originally thought I identified with the main character, Caleb, and his situations, I had the thought  while driving home after seeing it and arguing with my wife that perhaps this movie was too much centered on the husband’s faults and failures. It was alluded to that his wife didn't respect him and nagged him and didn't have sex with him, but it seemed to center more on his failures than hers. Perhaps it’s my own desires in play here, and from my own experience and comparing notes with other men, wives seem impervious to any suggestion that they may have done something wrong to contribute to marital problems anyway, so the portrayal in Fireproof could be accurate. Also, from the Churchian perspective, it  shows that when Christ begins working through one person, that can have an effect on the other person.

The solution come through Caleb’s dad, who sends him a “40 day journey” called “The Love Dare.” Each day for 40 days involved a brief reading and an assignment, ranging from “Don’t say anything negative to your partner no matter how badly you want to” to giving gifts or performing services". In the beginning, Caleb tries and fails. He complains to his dad, who tells him “It doesn't sound like you’re giving this enough effort.” I’m paraphrasing as the exact line escapes me. (I had similar comments from other Christians regarding the failure of my own marriage). As the days go on, his dad leads him to Christ, yet he still struggles. That’s realistic. I call the “come to Jesus and your life will get better and you’ll be rich” line Bait and Switch Evangelism. In this movie, it shows that it takes a lot of time, a lot of work, and a lot of prayer for healing to result. There is even a sequence to a song about “Waiting on you” which shows Caleb going about his routine of praying and working while his wife’s heart is affected.

I thought I enjoyed Fireproof at the time. I don't like when movies, songs, books, or whatnot are made by Christians and it's just assumed that we'll like them just because Christians made them.

One thing that I'll say used to help me through some rough spots in my marriage is hearing from somewhere that couples with problems who stuck it out for 5 years reported a happier marriage, although my situation is an exception to that. I also came to realize that it is totally unrealistic to expect to get along with somebody constantly. Just because you’re arguing doesn't mean that you can’t work things out. Love is not a feeling, it’s not hormonal, it’s a choice.

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Follow up, June 2013: Fireproof has become the bane of my existence. I have several good Christian friends I've met with for accountability over the years. They've known my situation, and none are surprised at what happened. They've been helping me.

Other Christians, who just found out about it, drive me nuts. They all seem to think their advice has never occurred to me. I've had Christians tell me "You have to fight for your marriage!" Right, why didn't anybody tell me that five years ago? Would have made all the difference. My favorite is "You need to pray!" Thanks, that never occurred to me either. Would have been so much simpler if you'd been around since I never thought of the basic tactics.

My least favorite advice is "You need to run the Love Dare on your wife! Go buy the book right now!" Uh, you know Fireproof was just a movie, right? And not even based on a true story? And Love Dare isn't a magic incantation.

I do have a copy of The Love Dare. It was useless in my situation. My ex-wife has seen the movie. We hosted a Fireproof small group in our house for a while.

After moving most of my stuff to Virginia, I unpacked my copy of The Love Dare the same day I found my Zippo lighters and lighter fluid. I thought I could put the three together and have some fun. I wanted to see flames dancing off The Love Dare. Maybe after the divorce is finalized, I'll ask a friend if I can borrow his fireplace. Maybe it will be cathartic. Oh, hell, LET'S BURN SOMETHING!

In the end, I don't mind Fireproof AS A STORY, although I have watched it as many times as I'm willing to in this life. I will never sit through it again.

I am horrified at the thought of Fireproof being used AS A TOOL. But I guess that fad has passed. Next time those brothers in Albany come out with a movie, watch out! Churchianity will find it's next "evangelistic" tool.

Technorati Tags: Fireproof,Movies,Marriage,Kirk Cameron

STR: Are Sermons Enough?

http://str.typepad.com/weblog/2008/08/are-sermons-eno.html

Stand to Reason has a blog post this morning asking the question: Are Sermons enough? An excerpt from the post:

 

I came across this Chinese proverb recently:

"I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand."

For any of us who want to help Christians grow in knowledge, wisdom, and character, I have a question:

Can we continue to rely on sermons as the primary educational vehicle in our churches?

Lecture-type presentations are an essential piece to the puzzle, to be sure, but let's be honest about how much the average listener remembers from a typical sermon. Even more importantly, let's be honest about how much of the material we present the average listener actually uses after we are long gone.

I have to admit, many sermons, even good ones, don’t do much for me after I walk out. Some sermons leave me wondering how much time preachers ended up with for preparation at the end of the week. Our preachers are normally good, but some weeks I wonder if they didn’t just dust off an old sermon or borrow one from online. That is no joke; I’ve seen it happen. One year for Easter, our minister Dan used one of Rick Warren’s sermons. I know this for a fact because I run the computer and sound system and I had the sermon transcript and Rick Warren’s name was crossed off and replaced with Dan’s. Being Easter Sunday, the message was hardly relevant. It was along the lines of “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.” I had it figured out before I saw Rick Warren’s name. I’m not complaining; I’m just saying.

I personally prefer the expositional sermon. I’m not too fond of topical sermons. I seem to get more out of a sermon that focuses on teaching the Bible. The Holy Spirit can give me the meaning and application. I’d love to sit in a church under a preacher like John MacArthur.

It’s not that I sit in the pew looking to critique, but I have caught a few gaffes. I remember one sermon not too long ago where Paul’s first and second imprisonments were confused.

In any case, back to the point of my link to STR, I think they are right. I have a bad habit of wanting to sit around studying the Bible, but I know I fall short on taking the Word out to the world. We’re in a small group this year that plans to focus on one service project a month, so we'll see where that leads. I could use some leading into real world ministry.

Technorati Tags: church,sermons,application

Bait and Switch Evangelism

This morning during my church’s Bible class hour, we had an interesting discussion. The class opened with the talk about “How many of you found that your life became more difficult after you became a Christian?” That was followed by the question of how many of us were told that “coming to Christ” would make our lives easier? I was able to answer the first question in the affirmative, but I’m not so sure about the second. I’d heard many “pitches” for the Gospel over the years. I guess it was at the right time that some friends came into our lives that I was receptive.

The question got me thinking though, and I put up my hand to talk about how sometimes, evangelism sounds like a bait and switch scam. “Oh, if you come to Jesus, everything will be easier. You won’t be sick anymore, you’ll have lots of money and friends.”

“OK, I came to Jesus, and my life is falling apart. You told me everything would get better!”

“Oh, did I say that? Well, I meant everything would get better in the next life.”

To be honest, I hate when Biblical discussions degenerate into that “well, those promises are for after this life.” I realize where people are going with that, but the entire Bible takes place over 2000 and several nations so there are some promises that are specific for Israel at specific times, others for Israel in the future, others for the church now, others for the church in the future, and yet there are others for God’s people throughout time. It is very sloppy to just slap a spiritualized interpretation on everything. There is some allegory in the Bible, but it always seemed to me that the Bible will tell you what those are during careful study.

I guess I have little room to talk though. Whether I present the Gospel like I’m on commission or not, it’s been years since I’ve tried to talk to anybody outside of the church about Jesus. My non-Christian readers should have no fear about me showing up preaching on street corners anytime soon.

Free Chuck Smith Books Online

I do enjoy writing about Bible topics, although I often don’t on my blog. Sometimes I feel the urge to, but I tend to stay away from them. Part of it has to do with my behavior, part of it has to do with I’m not sure who the audience for my blog is. People stumble across through all kinds of search terms. Recently I came across a comment about God speaking through Balaam’s ass (donkey in the King’s English) and I realized that perhaps I am qualified to occasionally speak on such topics on my blog.

When I first started studying the Bible, I had all kinds of questions and a huge Internet. I spend a lot of time on sites that today I frankly would avoid. Sometimes the site is just not well made, other times the site uses poor logic and writing or takes a strange doctrinal stance. I’ve never really enjoyed searching for a certain topic, finding a site in Google that seems to have the answer, and landing on a page promising if I spend $150 for a DVD series, I’ll get my answer. I’m not disparaging anybody’s attempts to make money from research, work, and production, but that did me little good when I didn’t have the money.

There are lots of good, free resources for studying that Bible online, but finding them is not always easy. I’ll start you with a good one. Calvary Chapel of Hope on Long Island offers several of Chuck Smith’s books for free in online format. I’ll post some of my other resources later.