Month: April 2007 Page 1 of 2

I mentioned earlier that I had recently read Stephen King’s Lisey’s Story. I have never been much into reading thriller or horror novels, or modern novels at all for that matter. But I was interested in this book for at least two reasons. One, I had read King’s On Writing which I found to be a fascinating window into the world of the writer. Secondly, we have met some new friends, Brian and Marni, a young couple down the street. Marni comes from King’s home town and knows him.

So, I read Lisey’s Story and I am now reading It, which Marni, a writer herself, tells me is King’s scariest. In between Barb had me read a Dean Koontz novel The Taking (the back cover blurb says something about Koontz being the master of all our darkest fears).

One day a few weeks ago, I was juggling in my mind all my deepest anxieties and ‘darkest fears’. This wasn’t some kind of spiritual exercise or psychological discipline. I was just worried and fearful. The weight of my anxiety made me want to simply run to my bedroom and take up the book I was reading (the Koontz novel) and read.

That’s when it struck me as odd, this wanting to escape. I was wanting to flee from my own fears by reading of the imaginary fears of others.

I suppose I should find something profound in that. Obviously, my fears are to find their relief in the good and faithful providence of God. And obviously, to find mental relief in a good book is, in moderation, no sin.

But it simply struck me as odd that I would divert myself from my real fears by focusing on fictional fears. To what degree does this explain the phenomenal sales of books such as these? And for how many are such things the only salve for their fears?

I once read that Martyn Lloyd-Jones would not start preaching through the book of Romans before he first came to understand Romans 6. One presumes, since he produced many volumes of sermons on Romans, that he must have come to understand Romans 6 quite well.

I don’t have the mind of Dr. Lloyd-Jones, and I know that I do not understand this section of Romans as well as I would like. Probably one of the most misunderstood doctrines is the doctrine of sanctification, and yet it is the doctrine that has clear application every day of our lives! It is something we should wrestle, if necessary, to understand.

I encourage all to do some further reading on the subject. Come to understand it as much as possible. Reflect carefully upon your life and practice. We all should long to learn more and more what it means to live our lives by faith in the Son of God who loved us and gave his life for us.

Where to read? Here is a list of books off my shelves to get you started. I am not at all sure if all of these books are still in print! Some, I know, certainly are.

Holiness by Grace by Bryan Chapell — a good, clear, well-illustrated overview of the whole subject.

The Enemy Within by Kris Lundgaard — few reflected more deeply upon the Christian life than the Puritans, and few Puritans grappled with as much insight as John Owen. Lundgaard’s book is a retelling of the insights Owen recorded in his classic On the Mortification of Sin.

True Spirituality by Francis Schaeffer — a classic on the subject. Very helpful in enabling the Christian to set realistic expectations.

Keep in Step with the Spirit by J. I. Packer — Packer, another student of the Puritans, gives a very helpful and practical overview of sanctification in the middle chapters of this book.

The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification by Walter Marshall — this is a 300 year old classic statement of the subject, modernized for current readers. One friend says that this is the best thing ever written on the subject.

Let me know what you think.

From this morning’s quiet time reading and meditation on Matthew 7:11, I was struck with this:

Our Father delights in giving to his children the good things they seek.

I could clutter this post with a history of my own failure to believe this, or my failure as a father to model this. But if I let the truth stand, and look back upon my life, I have to say without equivocation, “This is true.”

Now, by God’s grace, this truth will inform my present and my future. I am not alone. Our Father delights in giving to his children the good things they seek.

***

(Matthew 7:11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!)

Over the past week I have been swimming upstream with every minute of every day and then some thoroughly booked. No time at all to update this blog.

Friday and Saturday was spent in Tampa at a special meeting of our presbytery.

Saturday night was spent with Matthew, Barb, and Colin, reconnecting with, as one person put it, my ‘inner redneck’, by attending the races at Desoto Speedway near Bradenton (the figure-8 school bus race was a must see). The picture is of me and my sons taking in some race culture.

Sunday, of course, was Sunday, with a large commitment to resting from Saturday.

Monday brought the opportunity of spending time with our longtime friend Bill Mills who was in Tampa teaching a conference. What a blessing he always is to my heart.

Tuesday was consumed with the presbytery examinations committee meeting which I chair. I was hoping to begin today updating my blog, but time has simply not allowed such luxuries.

So let me say at least that I am storing up ideas, and soon, but not immediately, the dam will break. Stay tuned.

What frightens us? For most of us it is not aliens or apocalyptic disasters.

I recently finished reading my first Stephen King novel, Lisey’s Story. King is famous for creating stories of horror, so I was braced for frightening images. What I encountered were people of ordinary evil: a deranged self-appointed hit man who took pleasure in maiming his victims, a father who both loved and terribly abused his children, and, odd to say, a mad-man with a gun on a college campus.

Each character was realistically drawn from the stuff of depraved human nature. There was nothing inconceivable about any of the evil. It is the world we live in; it is the stuff of our very own hearts.

I write this on the morning after a mad-man with a gun took the lives of 30+ on the campus of Virginia Tech University. The evil there displayed was awful and hard to fathom. But it was ordinary evil, the simple stuff of hearts in rebellion against God.

Here at HPC, we are not untouched by this tragedy. A professor of one of our families was among the victims.

I cannot begin to explain why such things happen, and why they happen to others and not to me. I know that such events do not fall outside the providence of God, but I cannot explain how they fall within that providence.

I do know that there is a cloud that hangs over human life, a cloud of ordinary evil. But this we know is a cloud that will be one day lifted. It is a cloud that we can even now see beyond. And it is a cloud whose impact and spread we can have a part in diminishing, as God blesses the testimony of his church.

In such times I cannot be driven or frightened by what I do not understand. I can only persevere in what God has called me to do in this world of evil, to so live and speak that through and beyond the evil his grace and kindness might be seen.

Being always and in every way on top of things, I today was reading and essay by Dorothy Sayers entitled ‘The Triumph of Easter.’ I was supposed to be reading her essay called ‘Why Work?,’ but I’ve inherited a bit of ADD from my son, and so got distracted. I have noticed in my preaching through Romans that Paul responds to those who misunderstand his teaching. To preach is to be misunderstood. Sayers adds this comment.

“If spiritual pastors are to refrain from saying anything that might ever, by any possibility, be misunderstood by anybody, they will end—as in fact many of them do—by never saying anything worth hearing.”

[from essays collected in a volume entitled Letters to a Diminished Church, now published by W Publishing Group, page 117]

First, some definition and explanation:

1) The place where I work, where I keep my books, where my desk resides, is not an office. It is my study. A pastor should not occupy an office, a place of administrative duty. He should occupy a study. In his study, a place of study and prayer, he will when necessary carry on administrative duty. But the place should be named for its primary use.

2) I study for my sermons in my study, but I do not always WRITE them there. Over the years I have found it helpful to write my sermons in a public place forcing myself thereby to look at real people and imagine how I might say what I want to say to them. I like to think that his helps my communication.

3) Occasionally, I write my sermons, or at least bring them to final outline form, in a Starbucks or a Panera. The Starbucks is preferred for comfort (and manifestly interesting people!); the Panera for its free Wi-Fi.

I have therefore been waiting expectantly for the new Panera to open in Bradenton, located, ironically, directly across the street from the former location of HPC, a place that I began writing my sermons 20+ years ago. It was to open yesterday, April 11, but did not. Why? The county inspectors failed to give it a c/o. The dumpster enclosure, the manager tells me, had not been properly constructed, and was lacking doors and a hose fixture, violating the old public safety adage: “No dumpster doors, no restaurant.” I feel much better being here today, writing my sermon, knowing that the dumpster is safely contained behind doors.

If there was a book with this title, Barb and I would qualify for the cover photo. Here is a sample shot if any publisher is interested. Aren’t we cute?

But we are not always cute. On Saturday, our greatly different personalities led to a train wreck. Under pressure for a number of reasons, our different ways of attacking problems created a tension that I set off by saying some things I should not have said.

When such things happen, they lead either to raised voices (surprisingly rare for us) or silence and isolation (our preferred response). It struck me in reflection upon this that such responses do not arise out of an inherent meanness. Barb and I love each other desperately and have no desire to hurt each other in the least. Such responses arise from a lack of alternatives. They arise from frustration and a simple ignorance of any other way of dealing with the problem.

IF I had the way of saying what I wanted to say without hurting Barb, that would be the path I would follow. IF she had the way of expressing her frustration with me with clarity and not irritation, she would do so. I saw in that moment Saturday the awful potential for the destruction of marriage. I glimpsed in our responses to one another the kinds of behaviors that if tolerated and left unaddressed harden emotions and drive a couple apart.

After nearly 29 years (are we really THAT old?) we have not mastered the communication tools which diffuse conflict. We still blow it. But it seems to me whether a couple are young together or old, such flare ups should be seen as something akin to pain. Pain in the body alerts us to a problem needing to be addressed. Conflict in a relationship alerts the couple to a point to which they should address their attention. It can reveal a communication weakness or even some suppressed anger which must not be ignored.

We encourage you in the deepest way possible, when there is conflict, find a way to talk it through and seek out alternatives to dealing with that conflict. Learn how to ‘fight’, to disagree without resort to the strategies of desperation.

One thing which Satan would want to make us forget, but which we cannot allow to be forgotten is the Scripture’s admonition to not let the sun go down on one’s anger. Or, as another has put it, to never go to bed angry. To confess our faults and seek the forgiveness of the other is essential for unity and peace.

At the end of an old movie, What’s Up Doc?, Barbra Streisand looks at Ryan O’Neal and says, “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.” O’Neal (of Love Story fame) replies, “That’s the dumbest thing I ever heard.” Yup.

Easter has come and passed. Quickly. I am suddenly appreciative of the ancient church observance of Lent which has never been a part of my experience or practice. Seven weeks of preparation and anticipation focused upon the celebration of the resurrection might certainly highlight the day and set the day in a proper relief and context.

But is not the weekly Lord’s day worship supposed to do that?

I walked outside thie Easter Sunday morning, “while it was still dark,” for reasons no more spiritual than to retrieve the Sunday paper. I looked around at all the quiet houses wondering how many of them really knew and believed that the Son of God had been raised from the dead. I wondered as well how zealous I would be to tell them if I really understood the profound significance of this reality. (I quickly ruled out banging on doors and shouting “He is risen” as being uneighborly at 5:45 AM.)

When the early church moved the weekly Sabbath from it’s seventh day position, it did not move it to the sixth day to commemorate the death of Christ, as critical as that is. Rather, the weekly sabbath was moved to the first day to commemorate His resurrection. The first day of the week stands as a perpetual reminder that He is risen.

My longing is that NO Sunday would pass by this year without my reflecting upon the knowledge that we worship and serve a living God who has raised our savior and Lord Jesus Christ from the dead.

The art show at the church Saturday night was a wonderful event. From content to presentation it was top notch and professional all the way around. Those who put it together did so in such a way that brought glory to God and a moment of beauty and wonder to His church. We are grateful. Hopefully we will soon get some pictures posted on the web site.

The show was very well attended, but who were these people? Where did they come from?

We need to be clear on this: unless they are looking for a church to attend, people in our culture do not look to the church as a place of engagement. The church has no role to play in their lives. We can offer the best spaghetti, pancakes, parenting seminars, concerts, or art shows, and we ought. But people are not looking to the church to meeet any of the needs that those things might address.

For the art show, we had two articles in the newspaper, I was interviewed on the radio, we placed over two dozen posters around town, erected two banners by the road, and distributed 300 flyers door to door. From all of that, I can point to only one who attended, and she brought a friend.

Don’t get me wrong. The show was well attended. It was an exciting time. But those who came came because of a relationship with one of the artists or with someone in the church, and they came because this person or that invited them. Had we done none of the advertising, I believe the show would have been just as fruitful.

There is simply no substitute for our coming to know men and women outside the church and allowing them to come to know Christ and his church through US. The success of this church will be measured by the degree to which each of us involves ourselves in personal ministry with others outside the church.

The art show has merit in and of itself. It also has merit as a place to which we can invite those with whom we have relationship, but who have no interest yet in Sunday mornings. Everything begins with our ministry outside the walls of this church.