The Nightmare, The Knife, and The Morning Light

Here’s my sermon from Sunday on Deuteronomy 10:12-22: The Nightmare, The Knife, & The Morning Light

Year of the Bible

Because I love the Bible and I want the people I care for to love the Bible, this Saturday I’m launching Year of the Bible. Building upon the release/momentum of a resource that trumps my seminary education–the ESV Study Bible, I’m encouraging my peeps to read through the Bible in a year (November 1st 2008-October 31st 2009). Many are committing to Year of the Bible.

To enrich our individual reading, each week we will have a different person share publicly for 2 minutes about a “discovery” they make (about God, the gospel, the Christian life, etc.) during their Bible reading for that week. We’re also working to create a culture where it’s normal for people talk with one another (when gathering in our weekly community groups and while doing life throughout the week) about how they’re being affected by this journey through the Scriptures.

Are you looking for a Bible reading plan? You might want to join us for Year of the Bible.

Here’s the reading plan: Year of the Bible Reading Plan (it folds into a bookmark)

And here are 5 Directives I came up with to help steer our reading:

Reading Habits

Fairly often I receive questions about my reading habits. This week I received an email that stated/asked:

I am impressed by how much time you, as a pastor, spend reading. Do you have any general guidelines about how much time you spend studying?

I thought this might be helpful to a wider audience, so here’s how I answered the email:

Thanks for your email.

I don’t know how much time I spend reading and I don’t have any big guideline suggestions.

For me, I simply love to read. I love to learn. I let curiosity/pleasure guide my reading. If I’m curious about a certain area of doctrine, I read about it. If I’m curious about a certain figure from church history or about the geography of Alaska, I read about it and ask other people about it.

So, reading isn’t a chore or a scheduled thing for me, it’s just an easy joy. The more I learn about God and this world he’s made us the more my capacity to enjoy God grows, so I keep reading.

I tend to always have a book with me and so I make time for reading when waiting in lines, in between meetings, etc.

Hope some of this helps.

The book, How to Read a Book, by Mortimer Adler was helpful to me when during my later college years my love for reading really began to grow.

I never read without a pen in my hand. I read like I’m having a conversation with somebody…I ask the book questions, I note my agreement and disagreement, I scribble little ideas and such in the margins.

Does this help?

Justin

Personality Profile Prayer

I think the Myers Briggs Type Indicator can be a helpful tool. I’m sure many of you have taken the test. I took the test when I was 17 and again, just 1 year ago. Both times I came out as an ENFJ.

Recently I came across the following, a list of facetious prayers corresponding to each Myers-Briggs personality type. I thought this was fun. The prayer listed with my type is descriptive of me. How about you…does the prayer listed with your “type” describe your dealings with God?

ISTJ: Lord help me to relax about insignificant details beginning tomorrow at 11:41.23 am e.s.t.

ISTP: God help me to consider people’s feelings, even if most of them ARE hypersensitive.

ESTP: God help me to take responsibility for my own actions, even though they’re usually NOT my fault.

ESTJ: God, help me to not try to RUN everything. But, if You need some help, just ask.

ISFJ: Lord, help me to be more laid back and help me to do it EXACTLY right.

ISFP: Lord, help me to stand up for my rights (if you don’t mind my asking).

ESFP: God help me to take things more seriously, especially parties and dancing.

ESFJ: God give me patience, and I mean right NOW.

INFJ: Lord help me not be a perfectionist. (did I spell that correctly?)

INFP: God, help me to finish everything I sta

ENFP: God,help me to keep my mind on one th-Look a bird-ing at a time.

ENFJ: God help me to do only what I can and trust you for the rest. Do you mind putting that in writing?

INTJ: Lord keep me open to others’ ideas, WRONG though they may be.

INTP: Lord help me be less independent, but let me do it my way.

ENTP: Lord help me follow established procedures today. On second thought, I’ll settle for a few minutes.

ENTJ: Lord, help me slow downandnotrushthroughwatIdo.

J.I. Packer’s 1-Point Calvinism: God Saves Sinners

Scott Thomas writes a helpful post pointing to J.I. Packer’s explanation of one-point Calvinism. An excerpt:

For to Calvinism there is really only one point to be made…the point that God saves sinners.

“God – the Triune Jehovah, Father, Son and Spirit; three
Persons working together in sovereign wisdom, power and love to achieve
the salvation of a chosen people, the Father electing, the Son fulfilling the Father’s will by redeeming, the Spirit executing the purpose of Father and Son by renewing.

“Saves – does everything, first to last, that is involved
in bringing man from death in sin to life in glory: plans, achieves and
communicates redemption, calls and keeps, justifies, sanctifies,
glorifies.

“Sinners – men as God finds them, guilty, vile, helpless,
powerless, unable to lift a finger to do God’s will or better their
spiritual lot. God saves sinners – and the force of this confession may
not be weakened by disrupting the unity of the work of the Trinity, or
by dividing the achievement of salvation between God and man and making
the decisive part man’s own, or by soft-pedalling the sinner’s
inability so as to allow him to share the praise of his salvation with
his Saviour. This is the one point of Calvinistic soteriology which the
“five points” are concerned to establish and Arminianism in all its
forms to deny: namely, that sinners to not save themselves in any sense
at all, but that salvation, first and last, whole and entire, past,
present and future, is of the Lord, to whom be glory for ever; amen.”

Read the whole thing.

Training Your Children to Love God’s Word: 1 Key Practice

As parents, especially as dads, it’s important that we train our children to love God’s Word. Here’s the single greatest way I know how to do this:

Show your children every single week of their lives that YOU love God’s Word.

Chances are high that your children will gain a love and appetite for God’s Word if they grow up observing YOUR consistent and highly visible love, delight, hunger, passion, and desire for knowing and enjoying God through the Scriptures.

Start this practice early. Forge good habits now.

• When your son is one week old, hold him as you read your Bible.

• When your home is wild and noisy with two boys under the age of two, consider not escaping to a hidden corner of the home, but instead having your daily time in the Word somewhere within your kids’ line of sight.

• When your kids are too young to understand what you’re saying, still tell them what you’re discovering/learning, what you’re excited about, from your time in the Word.

Show your children every single week of their lives that YOU love God’s Word.

ESV Study Bible Has Arrived

A few minutes ago a large shipment of ESV Study Bibles arrived at my office. The finished product looks excellent. What a tremendous resources this is. I’m putting a free copy into the hands of each of my leaders and encouraging many to buy and make good use of this study Bible Warhorse.

Jesus and Yoga…Yes, No, Maybe So?

At church yesterday I spoke with a godly man/big-time distance runner about the knee pain I’ve developed due to the rapid increase in my running mileage. He invited me to try Bikram Yoga (ie., yoga in a 105 degree, 40% humidity room) with him, saying that his involvement with Bikram Yoga this past year has helped him with many running injuries.

So, yesterday afternoon, I gave it a shot. I’ve never sweat so much in my life. I’ve never put my body in positions like that before. I’ve never heard such loud breathing.

And, actually, my knee does feel a bit better today.

When I first heard of yoga as a teenager I swore off yoga as a Hindu practice at odds with Christianity.

When, a few years later, I first heard of a Christian practicing yoga, I concluded that he must be a heretic.

But, over the last several years, through some conversations and some study, I’ve begun to think that though yoga has some Hindu roots, it doesn’t have to be a practice at odds with the gospel, at odds with glorifying the God who gave us bodies and breathing. Yesterday’s yoga tryout testified to this.

And, I’m excited about this new mission field that lies before me: a room filled with 40 some people who, best I can surmise, are strangers to the good news of Jesus–the One whose body was twisted into the most painful position of all, the one who quit breathing, so that sinners could know the one true God.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. I’m going to continue to think through this issue myself. What do you think about Jesus and Yoga? Is Yoga something Christians should abstain from entirely, or is their room for thoughtful involvement with Yoga? Why or why not?

Matthew Henry, The Pleasantness of a Religious Life

This past month I slowly read through Matthew Henry’s little work, The Pleasantness of a Religious Life: A Puritan’s View of the Good Life. Despite the book’s terrible cover and terrible title, the content is top drawer. Writing towards the end of his life in the early 18th century, this book is Matthew Henry’s Desiring God, this is the pre-Desiring God–a book about glorifying God by enjoying God.

This book fed me. Do you have $6.99 to spare? Consider using it to buy this meal.

Just a few of many favorite quotes:

“Tradesman that take no pleasure in their business, will not stick to it long, no more will those that take no pleasure in their religion; nor will any thing carry us through the outward difficulties of it, but the inward delights of it…” p. 35

“If we make the yoke of Christ heavier than he has made it, we may thank ourselves that our drawing in it becomes unpleasant.” p. 156

“Christ had trouble, that we might have peace–pain, that we might have pleasure–sorrow, that we might have joy. He wore the crown of thorns, that he might crown us with roses, and that lasting joy might be on our heads. He put on the spirit of heaviness, that we might be arrayed with the garments of praise. The garden was the place of his agony, that it might be to us a garden of Eden…” pp. 77-78

“Prayer not only fetcheth in peace and pleasure, but it is itself a great privilege; and not only an honor, but a comfort, one of the greatest comforts of our lives, that we have a God to go to at all times, so that we need not fear coming unseasonably, or coming too often, and in all places…” p. 93

Manly Wisdom from a Vet to a Rookie

A few hours ago I brought my family of 4 home from the hospital. Taylor and I are simultaneously exhausted and having an absolute blast with our two boys. Watching our 23 month-old son, Cru, interact with his 2 day-old brother, Hudson, has been hilarious and touching.

While checking email this afternoon I came across a “keeper” email from a good friend and elder at my church, a veteran father charging this rookie father with wisdom for the days ahead/the rest of my life. I’m so thankful for having men like this in my life, men who will call me out as a husband and father and challenge my selfish bent.

I think many men would benefit from the wisdom/reminder in this email, so below I’ve copied the main body of the email. I’ve put one portion of the email in bold as it provides an application question that I hope, by God’s grace, to ask myself regularly.

…I am adding a prayer for your marriage, clearly more stress and pressure will be applied with two young ‘uns and all the great stuff you are involved in.

We talk about being “intentional” all the time, over the next year you are really going to have to be intentional in putting Taylor’s needs ahead of your own. She will be 24/7 putting the needs of two boys ahead of her wants, desires and needs…that’s the just the way it is in this stage with multiple kids….so she is going to desperately need someone to pamper her and put her first…prioritize her.

Guess what that is YOU :) I know this sounds kind of like a raw deal (I mean who is going to be pampering Justin?). But this is the Biblical model. Christ laid down his life so that He could present the church (bride) blameless. I think as men we have that same challenge, we need to be building into our wives by serving them, meeting their needs, putting them first in all things…that’s how we lead them to a deeper relationship with Jesus.

Fight the very human desire to want something for yourself. When those thoughts come try and transfer it to, “how can I take something off of Taylor’s plate today?”.

I know this may sound a bit brutal in lieu of all you have going on….but God made you strong for a purpose, He gave you an abundance of gifts for a purpose, and He has provided many friends to pray for you all for a purpose…