October Read: "Improving Your Serve"

As a believer in Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross alone for my salvation I bear the title “Christian,” which literally means “Christ follower.” This title also declares where my allegiance lies. And as a “Christ follower” it implies that I am following Jesus so that I can be like Him. That is the whole point in following someone; it is to learn everything about them so we can imitate them. As a Christian, I want to imitate Christ in everything I do.

One of the ways I must be like Christ is to serve as Christ served. “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45; ESV). It is this verse which is the whole foundation in Chuck Swindoll’s book, “Improving Your Serve.” In it Swindoll talks about “The Art of Unselfish Living.” Did you catch that? Living as a servant requires me to live unselfishly—and it is an art which much be mastered. When I measure my servitude against Christ I see I fall miserably short.

This book takes you through the nitty-gritty of what it takes to be a servant like Jesus Christ. Maybe the most frightening part of this entire book is the chapters called “The Perils of a Servant” and “The Consequences of Serving.” These two chapters show that just because you are serving like Jesus does not mean that everything in life will be perfect. In fact, they will probably be just the opposite. There are actually some dark sides to service that include suffering, affliction, confusion, persecution, and rejection. Oh boy! Sign me up! But there are also rewards in serving like Jesus Christ. We must remember that these rewards are very real, although they may never be seen or remembered by others. The point is that God is the One Who sees and remembers and rewards. And that’s all that truly should matter, because a Christian who is serving, is serving Christ for Christ’s sake. We do not do it to be noticed, lauded, or remembered.

After reading this book I am more encouraged than ever to become more like Jesus in this way. What better reward for service than an eternal one? What better praise than coming from the Lord Himself? I want to commit to a life of service so that one day I can hear those precious words from Jesus Himself: “Well done, my good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21).

September Read: “Love and Respect”

“To sum up, each one of you is to love his wife as himself, and the wife is to respect her husband.” Ephesians 5:33

 

When Lindsay and I got married almost 2 years ago (October 22 J) we received at least 3 copies of “Love and Respect” by Dr. Emerson Eggerichs. I had heard a lot about this book, but never took the time to actually read it, until this past month. “Love and Respect” is in three parts: 1) The Crazy Cycle, 2) The Energizing Cycle, and 3) The Rewarded Cycle. As I read Part One, I began to take issue with some of the things Dr. Eggerichs was saying (see below for a few them). I kept reading though, hoping to find something encouraging and beneficial in this book. Part Two was better. It had two sets of chapters—one designed for husbands to better understand their wives, and another designed for wives to better understand their husbands. There were some very good observations made and tips on how to be a better spouse. Part Three I found to be very good (FINALLY!). Dr. Eggerichs finally began to make some sense of all the comments he had brushed through in Part One.

The reason I especially like Part Three was because the entire time I had one question: So what if I do not get what I “need” from my spouse? Even if I obey God and show all the Love/Respect to them in the world and still see no improvement in my marriage – then what? (Based on some other things Dr. Eggerichs had been saying, I had my doubts I would like his answer.)

I took issue with some of the following ideas:

1)      The “Love and Respect” idea is based on Ephesians 5:33 (see quoted above). I do not like how Dr. Eggerichs feels he has discovered some message that has been secretly hiding for centuries.

2)      Limited presence of Scripture. While there was Scripture present, it was secluded (mostly) to the margins and most often not commented on – at all.

3)      The idea of your spouse stepping on your “air hose” which is supplying you love or respect. Dr. Eggerichs makes it sounds like it is perfectly acceptable for a spouse to lash out in any way that seems natural when you are not getting what you “need,” (i.e. “Love” or “Respect”) just like you would react to someone stepping on an air hose supplying you oxygen.

4)      Dr. Eggerichs description of submission. It was completely unbiblical. Dr. Eggerichs was attempting to appease the Bible with Feminism – and for that I understand why he said what he said, but it still is completely unbiblical. He said that men and women are to share responsibility and authority in the marriage 51-49%. I take issue with this because of what God says in Ephesians 5:22 and 24: “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord….Now as the church submits to Christ, so wives should submit to their husbands in everything.” The church submitting to Christ is the wife’s example. If you take the 51-49% idea of submission in marriage, then you would also need to do so in the church. That would mean that the church only has to give Christ 51% of authority. No one would say that. Christ receives 100% responsibility and authority in the church. So it should be in the marriage relationship.

***Now hear me out! I believe that biblically, the husband has 100% authority, responsibility, and thus also accountability, in the marriage. This does NOT mean that the husband may do whatever he wants and always get his way 100% of the time. Any good leader worth his weight in gold will take those under him into consideration. The husband should always prayerfully consider his wife’s opinion which she is always free to express, as well as consider how any decision will affect his entire family. Having 100% authority doesn’t mean you have the OK from God to make your wife a doormat. She is your helpmeet – one who you lovingly care for. And the wife lovingly supports her husband’s decisions.  

Reasons I liked his conclusion:

1)      “First, you must get to the place where you can say, ‘My response to my spouse is my responsibility’” (page 284). Finally! The idea that each spouse needs to only be concerned with their own response. If we would only be concerned with our own response in situations, things will be much less frustrating. You cannot control your spouse to react in good or bad ways in any given situation. It is our biblical responsibility to obey God and simply worry about our own reaction. God will take care of your spouse.

2)      “When my reactions to her are unloving, it reveals that I’ve still got issues…Maybe it is 70 percent her fault and only 30 percent my fault (and, then again, maybe it isn’t), but the point is, what about my 30 percent?” (page 284). Again – take full responsibility for your actions – don’t worry about your spouse’s responses.

3)      This was what really drove it home for me: “In the ultimate sense, your marriage has nothing to do with your spouse. It has everything to do with your relationship to Jesus Christ.” My marriage is first and foremost about my wife and me drawing nearer to Christ and displaying Christ to world. It is not primarily about my needs or her needs. This is why divorce should not be the solution. Normally, divorce is selfishly thinking of your own needs. “I can’t do this anymore!” “My needs aren’t being met!” The purpose of marriage (as is any relationship) is to honor Christ.

So in marriage, let us obey Ephesians 5:33 wholeheartedly! And if you get the chance to read “Love and Respect” do it! There are excellent points! Just do so with discernment and caution.

August Read - "The Stranger on the Road to Emmaus"

Over the past year I have been exposed to this book – “The Stranger on the Road to Emmaus.” Maybe you’ve seen this book on the shelves through the years (that orange and black cover with two men with their eyes bugging out in shock as they are looking at some man whom you only see from the back? That would be this book. The old cover of this book claims that it can help you understand the “world’s best seller” in “clear and simple” terms. This claim is most certainly true!

Maybe you’ve wondered what this book is all about. What’s with the title? It comes from Luke 24 when two men are travelling on a road out of Jerusalem to a city called Emmaus. It is just 3 days after Jesus has died, and now Jerusalem, which the two men have just exited, is all abuzz about this crucified Rabbi who has apparently vacated His final resting place. His followers claim it was a “resurrection.” While walking home a stranger meets up with these men—a stranger who acts as if he has no idea what has just happened in Jerusalem. Baffled, one of the two, named Cleopas, says, “Are You the only visitor in Jerusalem who doesn’t know the things that happened there in these days?” (Luke 24:18).

After hearing the two men’s explanation (and confusion) of the events of the weekend, the Stranger shows that He knows much more than He has been letting on. “He said to them, ‘How unwise and slow you are to believe in your hearts all that the prophets have spoken! Didn’t the Messiah have to suffer these things and enter into His glory?’ Then beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He interpreted for them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures” (Luke 24:25-27).

The Stranger is Jesus Christ—but the two are still clueless to this truth! After He tells them His story, He goes home with the men to share supper, but He doesn’t get too far. At supper Jesus prays, breaks bread, and then the Bible says that the men’s eyes were opened—and now they know: the Stranger is Jesus! But then Jesus vanishes from their sight.

Notice how Jesus explained the gospel beginning with Moses and all the prophets (that is, from the Old Testament). John Cross, the author, does an excellent job of clearly laying out the gospel story from Genesis to the Resurrection. This book is wonderful to share the gospel with people who know nothing about the Bible. At my church in Pana we are using this as a way to share the gospel with people around us – constantly praying for God to give us opportunities to go through this Bible study with someone.

If you’re looking for a way to evangelize, than look no further! This book is great! Check it out yourself and get to know the whole story of “The Stranger on the Road to Emmaus,” the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. 

July - Worship God East Conference

Like most New Year’s Resolutions, they eventually fail. Well, it took me until July to hit my failure. I wasn’t able to finish a book for July, but I still wanted to make an entry for July. Though I didn’t finish a book, July was still a month where I was challenged to grow spiritually.

July 31-August 3 I was able to attend Sovereign Grace’s “Worship God East Conference” with my brother-in-law Joe. The theme of the conference was “Called to Be Faithful.” I came away challenged and renewed in so many ways. While there we attended five main sessions and four seminars on a wide variety of topics – most of them about music.

While there I was reminded of the incredibleness of God and how He showed His power, love, grace, and mercy through the sacrifice of His Son Jesus Christ in my place for my sin. Yes, I certainly learned much from the tremendous preaching from God’s Word, but I was challenged in each session through worshipping with music. The opportunity to lift my voice and sing out to God was incredibly refreshing. How wonderful that when we give of our worship to God, He also freely and richly blesses us in return. After each session of singing (most of the time singing more than 40-45 minutes!!!) I always felt like we could be dismissed! The music was so theologically and biblically full that this part of the service was a sermon in itself!

Practically, as Associate Pastor of Music, I was challenged to return home and more closely examine the music I select for each service. Is the music pointing our thoughts and affections towards God the Father and Jesus Christ His Son? Is the music encouraging others and giving hope through Christ? It is my prayer that the music sung at First Baptist Church would reflect those truths.

I learned so many wonderful songs while there. It's hard to narrow it to my favorites. Here are two links to my top picks. "Shine into Our Night" and “Not in Me”. Praise the Lord that salvation is based on the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross and nothing to do with me!  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mU2FLhNGpjI&list=PL64B277E8E9DA4D35

http://thegospelcoalition.org/lukealbum/ (For this one you will have to scroll down to find "Not in Me" song #7. While there check out all the other great songs!) 

June Read - Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream

During the month of June (and honestly, partly into July) I have been challenged by this book, Radical, by David Platt. Platt is a young pastor of a growing church in Birmingham, Alabama. I have recently been exposed to his ministry in other places as well, and this is one solid man of God. His passion for God, His Word, and the Lost is so evident in this book.

The whole premise of “Radical” is that Americans have lost sight of what true discipleship (or following Christ) is all about. We think that we are all entitled a rich, comfortable, and luxurious lifestyle because we live in America. You know the American dream: a large house with a white picket fence, a family with children, and the nice car parked out front. None of these things are bad in and of themselves, but they can slowly, but surely, lull us to sleep as Christians. Bring us into a deep slumber where we end up completely forgetting what following Jesus Christ is all about.

No, I am not an America hater. I love my country. But Platt challenges us to cast off our deadly materialism and idolatry and embrace our freedoms given by God to do His purpose in His world. We should use our freedoms and incredibe monetary blessings from God to reach out and “shake the nations” as David Platt puts it so often.

David Platt is well traveled. He makes an intentional effort to travel around the world and bring the gospel to those who have never heard it. He also visits disciples of Christ around the globe who are risking everything to follow Jesus. This book is peppered with personal experiences of being exposed to men and women, who hunger for God’s Word more than the physical bread they usually lack; who thirst for teaching from the Bible more than the clean water they live without.  When we compare what these believers do to hear God’s Word to what we as Americans (myself especially!) do it quite convicting. Americans all across our county meet weekly (if it doesn’t interfere too much with our schedules or lives) at multimillion dollar buildings with parking lots filled with millions more dollars worth of cars and so “sacrificially” give two to three hours of our lives to sit and listen to the Bible intently…at least until our stomach grumbles or the preacher is cutting into that all too important football game! Well, then time’s up! Time to stumble out of our pews and to forget all we have heard and go on until next Sunday where we may or may not carve out enough time for God.

                            

I challenge you to read this book. I must be honest: sometimes I was terrified reading this book. I was scared that God might dig too deeply into my life and ask me to give up something I love too much. Well, God did challenge me. He challenged me to examine my life and priorities in Bible study and prayer. He challenged me in my materialism. I so desire to serve God overseas someday, Lord willing, but I was forced to evaluate my life. If that day should come, how easily could I sell all of my earthly possessions to enable myself to be free to go and share the gospel in a foreign land?  But I praise the Lord that as He continues to search my heart that He will also give me grace and strength to do all the things He will ask me to do. He is so good to me (us). 

May Read "The Knowledge of the Holy"

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.” Proverbs 9:10

This past month I picked up the classic “The Knowledge of the Holy” written by A.W. Tozer. It was a wonderful book which challenged me in my relationship with my Heavenly Father. Tozer’s premise is that the modern church has forgotten the awesome wonder of Who God truly is. He writes “The first step down for any church is taken when it surrenders its high opinion of God.”

We so often lower God to being like an old Grandfather sitting in heaven waiting to grant our every request, or an angry God waiting to crush us at any moment. Or even the complete opposite – that God is only a God of love and that He would never judge or punish. Tozer said that without the proper understanding of Who God is, than we cannot properly worship Him. And God must be worshipped with utmost reverence, awe, and wonder. We can fully know God through His revealed Word: The Bible.

God is presented through His beautiful attributes. Though I have normally thought of God’s attributes as those things which make up God – this is not entirely accurate. We must not think of God as being various compartments which compose the greater being. Rather, God is completely all of His characteristics at exactly the same time to exactly the same extent. He is holy, loving, merciful, and good all the while being wrathful, just, and powerful. God never sets aside one attribute to show another. He doesn’t need to, for He is God.

What is so incredibly sweet is that this all-powerful, all-knowing, everywhere present God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for me on the cross. God made innocent, holy Jesus die for guilty, wicked Josh. And Christ died for you too! What a marvelous thought. I can now have a right relationship with God because of what Christ has completely done for me on the Cross. It has nothing to do with how good I have lived, or how religious I’ve been. It has everything to do with Jesus’ finished work on the cross. This is what moves me to worship the infinite, incomprehensible, holy, loving, and merciful God.

Here is one of my favorite songs about Christ and a beautiful testimony of what God has accomplished in me through Christ’s substitute sacrifice for me. 

Thoughts on Acts

This week I decided that I was going to spend some special time in the book of Acts. I divided Acts up into four parts (7 chapters each) and began reading one part each day. Before I started I had decided to read Acts with specific lenses on – that is, read looking for specific details. Those specifics were evangelism and discipleship. Having just started my new position as Associate Pastor of Discipleship, I decided to turn to the best manual ever written about discipleship…the Bible. I learned so much this week I thought I would share my findings.

What I was most powerfully impacted by was the content driven message of the gospel. I recorded over 20 times that Luke, the author of Acts, gives a description of the content of the message that Peter, Paul, and the other apostles proclaimed (and depending on how you look at it, you could probably find more).  

So what were the apostles proclaiming in their sermons, evangelism, and discipleship? Most importantly, it was the Lord Jesus Christ. It was who He is and what He had done. Often the message of the Person of Jesus Christ is started way back in the Old Testament so that the speaker could build to Christ’s work on the Cross followed by His resurrection. The content of the gospel message also includes sin and judgment – not just for the purpose of rubbing peoples’ noses in their sins, but in order to offer the gift of repentance and forgiveness of sins. This leads to what an angel from the Lord calls the “Words of Life”: eternal life in the Person of Jesus Christ and His finished work on the Cross. This is also why the message speaks often of a resurrection. When we have new life in Christ we can look forward to a resurrection. Someday Christ is returning to earth and the believers who remain will be resurrected at the Rapture. If we are already absent from the body and therefore present with the Lord, then our resurrection will also be at the Rapture – and we’ll get to go first, before any other believers who are alive on earth! What a glorious hope!

I have been challenged by reading the evangelistic messages of Acts to make sure that whenever I preach, witness, or disciple my message must be filled to the brim with biblical content. Too often Christian says, “I have no need to share with words, because I am allowing my good works to ‘shine before men!’” True – but I think this is too often more of a copout than a proper defense against verbal proclamation of the gospel. Though it is so important to have your testimony supported with good works – it should by no means end with people simply watching these works. People need to be saved from their sins. God has called us as believers to be His messengers carrying this gospel message which has eternal impact on the hearer.  This is the manner in which the apostles spread the Good News of Jesus Christ – why should we do it any differently?

Would you please pray for me that I might have such boldness to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ in my community? I’ll do the same for you!