Murrell's Musings

A Quote on Preaching

2012-02-06T11:59:00.000-08:00

"When we preach the Word of God, we establish the Word of God over the mind and the soul, and thereby exalt the headship of Christ over His church. But to disregard Scripture is to disregard its Author, and doing that is nothing short of treachery."- John MacArthur

A warning for the Man of God

2012-01-27T18:26:00.000-08:00

"We must always remember that popular acclaim is not the same as spiritual effectiveness."- Bryan Chapell

The Feast of the Holy Innocents

2011-12-28T08:40:00.000-08:00

When Jesus came to earth He upped the stakes, so to speak. With His appearance there came a concomitant opposite reaction from the bowels of Hell. Like a preditor with a nose for weakness Satan always manages to target the weak. And who is weaker than a child? In a crazed effort to stop the hand of God Herod sent his soldiers to the area closest to where he thought they might find the young Jesus, and had them indescrimminantly slaughter innocent young boys. Such a deparate act only revealed what was at stake in the Incarnation. It is a vivid reminder that the stakes must be pretty high when Satan targets children. Salvation is costly.

The collect: Almighty God, You who have established praise out of the mouth of infants, and have made children by their deaths glorify You: Put to death all evil within us, and so strenthen us by Your grace, that by the purity of our lives and constancy of our faith, we may glorify Your holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Feast Day of St. John the Evangelist

2011-12-27T07:15:00.000-08:00

John was known as the Beloved disciple of the Lord. His writings, while simple in their Greek vocabulary, are extremely deep in their spiritual depth. He is a man I would have loved to have spent some time with.

The collect for the day: Merciful Lord, let the bright beams of Your light shine upon Your Church, we pray, so that, being enlightened by the teaching of Your blessed apostle and evangelist Saint John, it may walk in the light of Your truth, and come at the last to the light of everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Feast of St. Stephen, the Martyr

2011-12-26T06:37:00.000-08:00

Today is the Feast of St. Stephen the Deacon (see Acts 6 and 7), the first Martyr of the Christian period. Stephen is a wonderful example of what it means to be so committed to our Lord and His Gospel that nothing else truly matters.

Here follows a reading for the day by St. Fulgentius of Ruspe (born in 468):

Yesterday we celebrated the birth in time of our eternal King. Today we celebrate the triumphant suffering of His soldier. Yesterday our King, clothed in His robe of flesh, left His place in the Virgin's womb and graciously visited the world. Today His soldier leaves the tabernacle of his body and goes triumphantly to heaven.

Our King, despite His exalted majesty, came in humility for our sake; yet He did not come empty-handed. He gave of His bounty, yet without any loss to Himself. In a marvelous way He changed into wealth the poverty of His faithful followers while remaining in full possession of His own inexhaustible riches. And so the love that brought Christ from heaven to earth raised Stephen from earth ot heaven; shown first in the King, it later shone forth in His soldier. His love of God kept him from yielding to the ferocious mob; his love for his neighbor made him pray for those who were stoning him. Love inspired him to reprove those who erred, to make them amend; love led him to pray for those who stoned him, to save them from punishment.

Love, indeed, is the source of all good things; it is an impregnable defense, and the way that leads to heaven. He who walks in love can neither go astray nor be afraid: love guides him, protects him, and brings him to his journey's end.

My brothers, Christ made love the stairway that would enable all Christians to climb to heaven. Hold fast to it, therefore, in all sincerity, give one another practical proof of it, and by your progress in it, make your ascent together.

The collect for the day: "Grant, Lord Jesus Christ, that in all our sufferings here on earth, for the testimony of Your truth, we may look up steadfastly to heaven and by faith behold the glory that shall be revealed; and also grant that being filled with the Holy Spirit, we may learn to love and bless our persecutors, as Stephen Your first martyr prayed for his persecutors to You, blessed Jesus, who stand at the right hand of Godto sustain all those who suffer for You, our only Mediator and Advocate. Amen."

Those Amazing Young Aspiring Theologians and Their Blogs

2011-11-30T11:15:00.000-08:00

Recently, I was speaking with the head coach of a small college, let's call him Bill. Bill told me the story of a young man who applied for a position as an assistant coach at his (Bill's) school. The young man had wonderful credentials, but when Bill did a web search of his name and went on his Facebook site it was immediately apparent that this man was not someone Bill was interested in hiring to work for him. Bill didn't elaborate, but he made it clear that what he found on the young man's site revealed the young man to be a person of very little discernment.

The world of the internet has given us social networking and the blog. Places where anyone with an opinion, and a minimal ability to string together a few sentences can immediately become an expert. All he need do is open an account and just start typing. There is a problem with this as you can see from the aforementioned example. In my line of work, young wannabe pastors and church workers are encouraged to think deeply and to put their thoughts on paper. As an older man I would like to issue a word of caution to young seminarians- think twice before you decide to start blogging. Churches have become quite savvy about checking the internet and many things that you write today may keep you from being considered for a job tomorrow. In this day and age of theological experimentation (such as Open Theism), post-modernism, the Emergent Church, etc., it may not be wise to read a book by the latest, hippest, up and coming theologian and blog positively about someone who is challenging the historic understanding of, say, Hell. To do so, at such a young age, is to lock yourself in time with an idea that two years from now you may see the fallacy of your position.

When I was in college I was assigned the task of reading a book by a prominent Liberation Theologian, James Cone. Much to my chagrin I gave the book a positive review! I was not used to thinking from a biblical worldview and I thought Mr. Cone had tapped into something! It took me less than a year to realize how wrong I was in my assessment of Liberation Theology. I am glad I never posted that on a website.

So,young men, young women, young seminarians, be careful blogging at this stage of your career. You may inadvertently be closing doors that need not be closed. Give it time. Read, soak in this new world called theology, but wait until after you've been putting theology to work for a few years before you start airing your opinions. Just a thought.

Penn State and Joe Paterno

2011-11-10T05:38:00.000-08:00

Penn State's head football coach Joe Paterno was fired today. Ostensibly, because he did not handle an alleged abuse of young boys by former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky appropriately. It seems Paterno made an effort to tell a higher authority, the President of the college, but his loyalty appears to have been to the school, not the alleged victims, or justice. The board of trustees has done the right thing in firing Joe Pa.

The student body, in response to the firing has taken to rioting on campus. They appear to be more concerned about their need that their hero, Joe Pa, remain a hero in their eyes, and maybe continue to rewrite the record book, as opposed to the boys abused by Sandusky, who, it seems, may have been aided by Joe Pa's decision to not go beyond the college President with his report. We have become an extremely shallow culture when we are no longer willing to hold our heroes to high standards. It seems the more human they are the more we want them protected. Perhaps it is because no one wants to be held accountable for anything anymore.

Dear Penn State students, news flash, real heroes protect the weak and innocent, not institutions. Somewhere along the way to building his legacy Joe Pa forgot that.

2011-10-12T07:42:00.000-07:00

It’s Time to Leave the NIV Behind

All Bible translations are at the same time interpretations. That’s why you should own more than one translation. When I became a Christian in the mid-nineteen seventies almost everyone I knew was using a King James Version (KJV) of the Bible. I found it difficult, but I immersed myself in it, and soon I found that it wasn’t as difficult to understand as it initially seemed. Eventually, I was introduced to the old (as opposed to the updated) New American Standard Bible (NASB) and I found it to be a much more accessible translation. When I matriculated to a Christian college I was introduced to a new translation that was rapidly becoming the favorite of the evangelical world, the New International Version (NIV). Soon, the NIV, copyright 1984 (this is very important) became the translation of choice in the denomination I was a part of. It was readable, and it flowed with the modern language of the day. It was difficult for me to move from the NASB, a word for word translation to the NIV, a dynamic equivalent translation, but I went along with it, because men I respected assured us that this was an accurate translation. Over the years I have found the NIV (copyright 1984) to be helpful, but I have also become convinced that it is more accurate to refer to the NIV as a paraphrase, rather than a translation. My practice has been to never preach from the NIV without at least first checking it against two word for word translations, such as the NASB or KJV. So, why am I telling you this? Because recently, Zondervan has come out with a new, updated version of the NIV which is even more problematic that the original. It is not possible to address all my concerns in such a brief article, but one of the major problems with the new NIV (if you have an NIV with 2010 copyright you have a new NIV) is the way it deals with gender related issues. The translation make a major move in the direction of becoming gender-neutral. The result is a politically correct translation that moves us a step further from the original meaning of the text.

My recommendation to those of you who want to have a more accurate understanding of the Bible is that you stick with the New King James (NKJV), the NASB or begin moving to the English Standard Version (ESV). These are all word for word translations. St. Andrew’s has begun using the ESV on Sunday morning. In his book, The Word of God in English, Criteria for Excellence in Bible Translation, Dr. Leland Ryken, Professor of English at Wheaton College, builds a good case for a literal, word for word translation as opposed to a dynamic equivalent translation (which is what the NIV is). In particular, Ryken argues that the ESV is one of the best translations available. I highly recommend his book, or just go online and do a search for the new NIV. The info is out there.

If you would like to read John Piper’s brief article explaining why he has never used the NIV to preach from and why he has chosen to switch from the NASB to the ESV just go to this link: http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/articles/good-english-with-minimal-translation-why-bethlehem-uses-the-esv. Personally, with the advent of this updated release I think it’s time we moved to a more accurate and trustworthy translation. Looking to get a new Bible for Christmas? Check out the ESV Study Bible. We are, after all, talking about the Word of God, where accuracy matters.

Preists Need to Be Able to Think Biblically

2011-09-14T08:12:00.000-07:00

Anglican Bishop, Michael Ramsey in his book The Priest (1952) wrote the following about the role of the priest, “First, the priest is the teacher and preacher, and as such he is the man of theology. He is pledged to be a dedicated student of theology. His study need not be vast in extent but it will be deep in its integrity, not that he may be erudite, but in order that he may be simple. It is those whose studies are shallow who are confused and confusing. The Church’s hold upon the faith requires those in theology to be “learned,” concentrated, dedicated, and deep; by his service to the laity in this role he will be helping them be better witnesses. But this work will be a partnership; and the contrast be-tween teacher and taught melts away as the priest learns from the laity much about the contemporary world and about divine truth in its human context. Together, their several kinds of knowledge, will work out the meaning of the Word of God as it bears upon life’s problems and upon the various spheres of the Church’s witness.”

Those of us who are Pastors in general, and Anglicans in particular, would do well to heed Bishop Ramsey's words. Today, the need is greater than ever for Anglican Priests who will take seriously their calling to be "the priest and teacher" of their church, to be " a dedicated student of theology". The people of God are under constant assault by televangelist, want-a-be preachers and the post modern spirit of the age which assures them that if they "feel" that a text means something, it must be an appropriate interpretation and it must be from the Holy Spirit simply because that feel it in their heart.

The average man or woman in the pew of the average Anglican church has numerous Christian favorites that they listen to every week on TV, online or the radio, and many of them are better preachers and teachers than the average Anglican Priest because we (Anglican Priests)do not take seriously our calling to read and think deeply about the Scriptures. As a result, our people come to church because they love the liturgy and a desire to take Holy Eucharist weekly, but they do not expect to hear a word from God when we preach. They do not expect much of anything from our preaching. This ought not be the case!

Recently, a friend told me of his visit to an Anglican church on Pentecost Sunday. The text was the traditional text from Acts 2 on the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The sermon was 10 minutes long and the point of the message was that we Christians need to learn how to communicate better with each other! Really? Why do people attend churches like this? What's even sadder is that the person preaching was a Bishop!

If you're a priest push yourself to become a better preacher. Get some books on preaching and begin to learn what you did not learn in that liberal Episcopal seminary that did little more than establish your Anglican pedigree! Your people need you to be a competent expositor of the Word. When you stand before God He will hold you accountable for what you preached from the ambo. The preaching of the priest determines the direction of the church. Will we preach the Word, or will we settle for cute talks on spiritual topics? Those of you who attend such churches, when will you demand from your priest the same quality preaching that you listen to driving back and forth to work from men like R.C. Sproul, John MacArthur and others?

What's A Collect?

2011-08-18T09:34:00.000-07:00

I am, by the grace of God, first and foremost a Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ. But I am also, by choice, an Anglican. And as such, I am glad to be a part of this tribe and I enjoy learning about it and I enjoy sharing what I have learned

In this article, I want to talk about prayer. In particular, a form of prayer known as the Collect. A Collect is a short prayer, commonly used by Anglicans, Lutherans, Catholics and other liturgical churches in worship. “The origin of collecta, refers to the ‘collecting up’ of the petitions of individual members of the congregation into one prayer. It is a short prayer that asks for one thing only and is peculiar to the liturgies of the Western Churches, being unknown in the Churches of the East. It is also a literary form usually, but not always, consisting of five parts” (The Collects of Thomas Cranmer, by C. Frederick Barbee and Paul Zahl; (pg.x).

As a literary form, most Collects can be divided into five sections: (1) The address to God. There are some exceptions to this rule. (2) The descriptive clause about God. This tells us something about God and it relates to directly to the petition. (3) The petition. This is the actual need we are asking God to meet. (4) The reason for, or the desired outcome of the prayer. It is usually introduced with the word “that”. (5) The ending or pleading.

Allow me to demonstrate the form of a Collect with a familiar Collect to most of us, the Collect for Purity. The numbers correspond to the divisions give above.
(1)Almighty God, (2) to Whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from Whom no secrets are hidden: (3) cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of Your Holy Spirit, (4) that we may perfectly love You, and worthily magnify Your holy name; (5) through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Collects are a beautiful and time tested form of prayer. I would encourage you, as an act of devotion, to get alone and think about the greatest need in your life. Then "collect up your thoughts" and write a Collect to God with that need in mind. By way of example, I close with this prayer which is in the forefront of our church, a Collect for the next Sr. Pastor of St. Andrew's: (1) Almighty God, (2) Giver of all good gifts; (3) send to St. Andrew’s Church the shepherd of your own choosing, (4) that your church may continue to be equipped to advance the Gospel your kingdom in Little Rock and beyond, (5) through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Sam+

Churches Are Messed Up Places

2011-08-17T16:01:00.000-07:00

All of us have heard the often quoted response of the person who doesn’t attend church because it’s full of hypocrites. As Christians, we tend to hang our heads in dismay when we hear this truthful criticism of the Church because we too wish the Church (all churches) would do a better job at living up to the biblical ideals of what she is supposed to be. We long to be able to say (although we would never admit this), “We are a church where that is not the case, look at how much better we are than other local churches, then come join us.”

Why can’t we (or any other church) make such a boast? Because the very gospel that we have embraced as our means of salvation reminds us that while we are indeed saints (1 Cor. 1:2), saved by grace, we are also sinners. Redeemed sinners, right? Absolutely, but sinners none-the-less. Each of us is still battling with our own imperfections, fears, addictions and bondage.

St. Augustine of Hippo once said, “A church appearing to have no sin within its boundaries is likely to be a church that has forsaken its mission.” As we pursue the mission to reach out with the gospel and call people to become a part of the visible body of Christ by professing allegiance to Him, we should not be surprise to find among us those who are struggling with their own demons. Indeed, we should be honest enough to admit that they are not only among us, they are us. When I offer the Good News I am very aware that I reach out a dirty hand of hope.

The Church is a place filled with people with dirty hands that are constantly being cleansed by the blood of Christ (1 John 1:8-9). Our hands have been tainted by original sin and also by daily sins of omission (failing to do what we should have done) and sins of commission (doing that which we should not have done). And yet, when Christ transforms us He calls us holy ones, saints, and we become useful to Him. That is grace.

My church, St. Andrew’s is a community of God’s grace and healing. That is not simply who we are, it is also who we are seeking to become. That means that sometimes we may actually end up hurting people instead of facilitating healing. We are on a journey. We won’t always get it right. We are becoming who God says we are with the help of His Spirit. The Christian believes God’s grace has made him something that he could never have become on his own (“For by grace have you been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God…” Eph. 2:8-9), but He is also keenly aware that the work is far from being done (Phil. 1:6).

His Grace is Sufficient

2011-07-26T11:46:00.000-07:00

All of us have heard the often quoted response of the person who doesn’t attend church because it’s full of hypocrites. As Christians, we tend to hang our heads in dismay when we hear this truthful criticism of the Church because we too wish the Church (all churches) would do a better job at living up to the biblical ideals of what she is supposed to be. We long to be able to say (although we would never admit this), “We are a church where that is not the case, look at how much better we are than other local churches, then come join us.”

Why can’t we (or any other church) make such a boast? Because the very gospel that we have embraced as our means of salvation reminds us that while we are indeed saints (1 Cor. 1:2), saved by grace, we are also sinners. Redeemed sinners, right? Absolutely, but sinners none-the-less. Each of us is still battling with our own imperfections, fears, addictions and bondages.

St. Augustine of Hippo once said, “A church appearing to have no sin within its boundaries is likely to be a church that has forsaken its mission.” As we pursue the mission to reach out with the gospel and call people to become a part of the visible body of Christ by professing allegiance to Him, we should not be surprise to find among us those who are struggling with their own demons. Indeed, we should be honest enough to admit that they are not only among us, they are us. When I offer the Good News I am very aware that I reach out a dirty hand of hope.

The Church is a place filled with people with dirty hands that are constantly being cleansed by the blood of Christ (1 John 1:8-9). Our hands have been tainted by original sin and also by daily sins of omission (failing to do what we should have done) and sins of commission (doing that which we should not have done). And yet, when Christ transforms us He calls us holy ones, saints, and we become useful to Him. That is grace.

St. Andrew’s Church, the church I pastor, has as its motto, "We are a community of God’s grace and healing". That is not simply who we are, it is also who we are seeking to become. That means that sometimes we may actually end up hurting people instead of facilitating their healing. We are on a journey. We won’t always get it right. We are becoming who God says we are with the help of His Spirit. The Christian believes God’s grace has made him something that he could never have become on his own (“For by grace have you been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God…” Eph. 2:8-9), but he is also keenly aware that the work is far from being done (Phil. 1:6).

When you join a church you join a group of people in process. You join a group of people who want to be used by God to bring His grace and healing to others, but you also join a group of people who desperately need grace and healing shown to them. So, why is my church and the one you attend such a mess? Because you and I are not yet what we ought to be, but thanks be to God that we’re not what we used to be! God’s grace is sufficient for all of us, no matter what we have done.

A Quotable Quote

2011-07-20T12:46:00.000-07:00

“A church appearing to have no sin within its boundaries is likely to be a church that has forsaken its mission.” - St. Augustine

We need Heroes, and We Need to Become Heroes for Others

2011-07-16T09:04:00.000-07:00

I originally wrote this on St. Patrick’s Day. Since learning about him in seminary I have always been fascinated by him. He is one of many examples in Church history of what God can do with a person who is totally sold out to him. I have many heroes of the faith, men such as Charles Ryle, George Whitefield, and George Mueller. I am sure you could point to people you look up to as well, both living and dead. Some of my heroes are Christian, some are not. Needless to say, heroes should be chosen with the greatest of care. Your choice of heroes says a lot about you. My wife is a big fan of Susanna Wesley. She is the mother of John and Charles Wesley, the great evangelist and song writer of the 18th century, respectively.

I believe we struggling humans need heroes. We need to look to someone who can encourage and motivate us to greater things. We need to people in our lives who are worthy of emulating. At the same time we must realize that all heroes, no matter how wonderful, are flawed. Heroes will fail us. They will let us down. And yet, Paul very confidently told the church at Corinth, “Be imitators of me” (1 Corinthians 4:16, 11:1). In Philippians 3:17 he adds these words, “Brethren, join in following my example, and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us.” Each of us should strive, under the power of the Holy Spirit, to mature to the place where we can genuinely say a struggling follower of Christ, “Watch me. Follow my example.” That doesn’t have to come from a heart filled with pride. It could come from a servant who has learned to walk in Christ’s steps. As we grow in Christ we should expect to have people look up to us. That expectation should cause us all the more to humbly seek the Great Transformer, Jesus.

Preaching is Important

2011-07-08T14:04:00.000-07:00

Over the years I have grown to realize that many Christians no longer see the importance of the sermon. Talk to people about ways to shorten the service and the first thing that comes to mind is the sermon. For many, getting rid of the sermon is also a viable option. Churches are replacing the sermon with drama, video, music, healing services, group discussions, and on the list goes. Why is this the case? There are many reasons for this, but I would like to mention one in particular.

Good sound biblical preaching is hard to come by. I'm not talking about radio preachers like John MacArthur or Alister Begg or R.C. Sproul. I'm talking about local preaching. Too many preachers fail to put in the time to really prepare a good sermon for their people. And frankly, too many preachers are just not willing to work at becoming a good pulpiteer. To paraphrase a biblical text, "Many say they are called, but few can actually preach."

If a man says he is called to preach many churches accept this at face value and quickly give him a venue for his new found "calling" without any training. Training? Why would a man with a call need to waist valuable time training? Because what he is about to undertake should be entered into with the utmost gravity.

The true preacher is called to break open the word of God, explain it to God's people and apply it to their lives. Very few preachers today take seriously the gravity of their duty. And so, we see men of meager abilities mounting the sacred desk, jumping around, making a lot of noise and forcing the people of God to endure their unwillingness to take seriously their duty to equip themselves and master the much needed skill or preaching.

As long as preaching is seen as something that anyone can do people will see it as a discardable part of the Sunday morning worship service. J.C. Ryle had it right when he said,The importance of preaching is God’s chosen instrument for doing good to souls. By it sinners are converted, inquirers led on, and saints built up. A preaching ministry is absolutely essential to the health and prosperity of a visible church. The pulpit is the place where the chief victories of the Gospel have always been won, and no Church has ever done much for the advancement of true religion in which the pulpit has been neglected. Would we know whether a minister is a truly apostolic man? If he is, he will give the best of his attention to his sermons. He will labor and pray to make his preaching effective, and he will tell his congregation that he looks to preaching for the chief results on souls.

Preaching is important enough that those of us who are called to do it should become consumed with getting better and better. We should always be looking for ways to increase our skills like a master chef who is never satisfied with the last meal he served, even though he got rave reviews.

Praying Before One Preaches

2011-02-22T13:34:00.000-08:00

Almost every preacher opens with prayer before he preaches. Pay close attention and you will find that after a while this pre-sermon prayer begins sounding like the one he prayed last week, and the week before. We shouldn't be surprised by this. After all, one can only be so creative in asking God to bless His people through your preaching. I have always found this prayer to be somewhat awekward because I felt that somehow I was expected to make it an original prayer everytime. This changed after I became an Anglican.

Leading God's people in worship with the historic liturgy has made me realize the beauty of saying something well. And not long ago I descovered a wonderful pre-sermon prayer which I now pray regularly before my sermons. It is the second verse of the wonderful trinitarian hymn, 'Come, Thou Almighty King.' Verse two reads, 'Come, Thou Incarnate Word, gird on Thy mighty sword, our prayer attend. Come and Thy people bless, and give Thy Word success; Spirit of holiness, on us descend.' This is a full and sufficient prayer encompassing all that we want God to do for HIs people through our preaching. I close the prayer by praying Psalm 19:14, 'May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.'

I actually sing the prayer. I have found that people respond very positively to a sung prayer. Especially when the words are as powerfully meaningful as this hymn.

The Importance of Preaching in the Liturgy

2011-02-09T02:56:00.000-08:00

Preaching has fallen on hard times. I guess if the truth be told, preaching has never had an easy time of it. The modern listener would rather do almost anything than listen to a sermon. Recently, while having breakfast with a friend he told me that churches would be wise to turn off their wireless internet service during church because many people are now searching the internet during the sermon because they find most sermons boring.

Many churches have begun to feel the pressure to entertain their people or simply to keep them guessing regarding what will happen this week. So, they are falling prey to the temptation to minimize the place of preaching on Sunday mornings by replacing preaching with drama, videos, interactive chats on the platform (rather than a didactic monologue by an individual), and some churches are occasionally omitting the sermon all to together in favor of more novel types of services.

Is this a good thing? I do not believe so. Unlike twenty-first century Christians, the Bible gives the preaching of God's Word a place of utmost importance in the purposes of God and the life of His church. Paul exhorts his young disciple, Timothy, to 'Preach the Word' in 2 Timothy 4. Listen to the passion behind Paul's words in 2 Timothy 4:1-2, 'I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and kingdom: preach the Word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.'In Romans 10 he again stresses the importance of the medium (preaching) and the means (the preacher) to the process (method) ordained by God to bring people to Himself. 'How are they to call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard?' Here, the stress is on preaching. Paul continues, 'And how are they to hear without someone preaching?' Preaching is the medium (and the means, if you wish), the preacher is the means,but not just anyone may preach. Paul says, 'And how are they to preach unless they are sent?' In Paul's mind true preachers are called and sent by God Himself.

The primacy of good gospel preaching is rapidly diminishing. Sermons are regularly bumped for 'more important' things because we know people will not return to church a second time on Sunday, so the morning service must bear the weight of every creative idea one wishes to tryout on the people that he found on the internet that week.

Please hear me clearly, I am not against drama and even the tasteful use of video in the church's overall educational plan to equip its people. But I am very much against the growing view that the traditional sermon time is a time to experiment with the service. Someone has wisely said, 'God never said, "Experiment on my rats, but feed my sheep.'

What we need is more preachers who take their craft seriously. If God has called you to preach why not spend the time it takes learning how to be a better preacher. God's people deserve the best we can give them. And in His wisdom He has chosen preaching as His preferred way to communicate the gospel.

Bishop Ryle on Preaching

2010-11-03T15:41:00.000-07:00

Let us pray daily for all ministers that they may be true successors of Peter and his brethren, that they may preach the same full and free Gospel which they preached, and live the same holy lives which they lived. These are the only ministers who will ever prove successful fishermen. To some of them God may give more honor, and to others less. But all true and faithful preachers of the Gospel have a right to believe that their labor shall not prove in vain. They may often preach the Word with many tears, and see no result of their labor. But God’s word shall not return void. (Isaiah. 55:11.) The last day shall show that no work for God was ever thrown away. Every faithful fisherman shall find his Master’s words made good–”You shall catch men.”

~ J.C. Ryle

The Bible Equips God's People

2010-07-28T05:40:00.000-07:00

The Word of God is such a tremendous blessing that is seldom used by God's people. I know Christians who are into so called contemplative prayer which involves such practices as emptying themselves for the purpose of 'hearing from God'. These same Christians could not locate the book of Lamentations if you asked them. God has spoken in His Word and yet we are more interested in novelty and mysticism.

Hear the words of the venerable Anglican Bishop, J.C. Ryle:

We must to be diligent readers of our Bibles. The Word is the sword of the Spirit. We shall never fight a good fight, if we do not use it as our principal weapon. The Word is the lamp for our feet. We shall never keep the king’s highway to heaven, if we do not journey by its light. There is not enough Bible-reading among us. It is not sufficient to have the Book. We must actually read it, and pray over it ourselves. It will do us no good, if it only lies still in our houses. We must be actually familiar with its contents, and have its texts stored in our memories and minds. Knowledge of the Bible never comes by intuition. It can only be obtained by diligent, regular, daily, attentive, wakeful reading.

~ J.C. Ryle

At Heart We Still Believe in Salvation by Works

2010-07-27T15:45:00.000-07:00

Recently, I have said some things, unintentionally, to hurt people I care about. By God's grace, when my offenses were brought to my attention I confessed my sin and apologized. What surprises me is that occasionally when I hurt someone he or she is surprised that I am still as sinful as I am. Incidents like these remind me that we Christians really do not understand the power of the sin nature and our inability to, under our own power will our way to righteousness.

I love grace when it is directed at me. But I am appalled when someone requires it of me. 'O wretched man that I am'.

Christ's Standards Verses the World's

2010-06-29T06:21:00.000-07:00

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The standard of the world, and the standard of the Lord Jesus, are indeed widely different. They are more than different. They are flatly contradictory one to the other. Among the children of this world, he is thought the greatest man who has most land, most money, most servants, most rank, and most earthly power. Among the children of God, he is reckoned the greatest who does most to promote the spiritual and temporal happiness of his fellow-creatures. True greatness consists not in receiving, but in giving – not in selfish absorption of good things, but in imparting good to others – not in being served, but in serving – not in sitting still and being ministered to, but in going about and ministering to others.
~ J.C. Ryle

Rome-aphobia

2010-06-29T05:40:00.001-07:00

In a somewhat fundamentalist church I used to pastor I made significant changes in the liturgy the first year I was there. The leadership was open to change, as long as I could justify it from Scripture. Their openness to growth was very refreshing. One of the things I introduced into our liturgy was the ancient practice of the passing of the peace which (in one form or the other) is found in Catholic, Lutheran and Anglican worship. The leadership had no problem with the introduction of the the peace until I attempted to call it "the passing of the peace". Prior to this attempted change the church was used to a time in their liturgy (although they did not use that word!) referred to as "the meet and greet". When this time came in the worship service the leader would exhort the congregation to "say hello to your neighbor", and the people would joyfully greet those around them. The people loved this time. I thought it lack substance so I introduced the passing of the peace and they quickly embraced it, along with the other changes I had already made (Covenant renewal worship, praying the Lord's Prayer, the Apostle's Creed) But when I attempted to call it "the passing of the peace" one of the elders objected strenuously. He said the only place he had ever heard of a "passing of the peace" was in a Catholic church. I assured him that they did not have a monopoly on the phrase, but I decided not to push the point.

His only objection to using the term, "passing the peace", was that Roman Catholics used it. He and the rest of the elders were fine with "the peace" as long as I called it a "meet and greet".

Many protestants are like my friend from this church. They have Rome-aphobia. They fear doing anything that sounds like it may lend credence to Roman Catholicism. If Rome does it, it must be heretical. My concern was not with liturgical titles, but with actual worship, so I did not push the issue.

The Crucifixion: Keeping the Main Thing The Main Thing

2010-06-01T09:28:00.000-07:00

Bishop J.C. Ryle, understood the Gospel, including the importance of Jesus' death, so much better than the average so called evangelical Christian today. Ryle puts it succinctly, "The truth is, that our Lord would have us regard the crucifixion as the central truth of Christianity. Right views of His vicarious death, and the benefits resulting from it, lie at the very foundation of Bible-religion. Never let us forget this. On matters of church government, and the form of worship, men may differ from us, and yet reach heaven in safety. On the matter of Christ’s atoning death, as the way of peace, truth is only one. If we are wrong here, we are ruined forever."

Preaching the truth of the Gospel, which includes Christ's sacrificial, atoning death, should be the passion of every preacher who understands how to distinguish between primary, secondary and tertiary issues. Far too many pastors who value truth spend their lives fighting over issues that the Church has never been able to settle (such as polity, infra-lapsarianism verses supra-lapsarianism, Federal Vision, etc.). For these people every disagreement is an issue on which the purity of the Gospel hinges. On the other hand, some, like the ECUSA and PCUSA have no concept of what it means to value God's truth and they are willing to compromise on any doctrine, including the crucifixion of Christ. Just read anything written by the so called bishop John Spong.

Bishop Ryle knew what his calling to preach was about. It was about Christ, and Him crucified, and that was the heart of his message. May we never lose that no matter whether we fly under the banner of Anglican, Presbyterian, Baptist or nondenominational.

Be Careful of Rhetorical, Inaccurate Phrases When You Preach

2010-05-31T06:10:00.000-07:00

The Church is God's idea. It is not a new idea, but it continues to be a misunderstood idea. On Pentecost Sunday I heard what was, for the most part, a good sermon giving an overview of the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. What disturbed me about the sermon was the oft repeated phrase used by the speaker, "We need to stop doing Church and do Pentecost".

While I believe the speaker had the best of intentions (he is a man I highly respect!), I found myself cringing at the idea of 'doing church' as something negative. Granted, we should not be 'doing church' in the first place, we should be being church (because we are the Church), but he never said that. Pentecost was an event, the Church is the people of God. A people that exists because of God's actions, not the least of which was Pentecost. So, how can we pit Pentecost against the result of Pentecost, the Church?

I am convinced that the purpose of the sermon was to emphasize our need for the power of the Holy Spirit as opposed to the dead Pharisaical lifeless structure of many congregations across the world. The problem, as I see it, is that we preachers need to take care not to take a perfectly good biblical term and make it into something bad. We preachers need to be careful with our use of rhetorical phrases designed to emblazon ideas into the minds of their hearers. Especially if the phrase unintentionally conjures up bad theology.

A Real Man, by Jeremiah Murrell

2010-05-11T15:59:00.000-07:00

The following was written by my soon to be 20 year old son, Jeremiah. It is thought provoking, and I am proud to call him my son! Read and enjoy.

A wise woman once told me that a man is to protect not only himself and his own integrity and purity but also the integrity and purity of the woman. This same woman held me once and explained to a weeping young boy that "boys now are evil and they look for ways to take advantage of girls instead of protecting them".

Ever since I was a little boy I have been around girls. My closest sibling as a child was my older sister Arielle. We used to do lost of crazy stuff. She even used to have me wear tutus. Crazy I know. As I grew a little older, but yet still a small boy I played with my younger sisters. We did lots of fun stuff. We played barbies and dress up and sports of course. To this day they still remember the amazing girl voices I could pull off as a boy and brag excitedly at how awesome I was at it. My best friend as a boy was Amber Sartin, yes yet another girl. I was surrounded by them. When I learned that boys only seek to take advantage of girls my mind automatically ran back to those amazing memories of how much fun I had with those innocent girls, and my heart broke. I began to think about what it meant to be a man.

As I hit my high school years all I ever heard about was how awful guys are. All they ever want is sex. I began to see what that wise woman was talking about. All my guy friends and sports teammates ever talked about was how they were gonna "get some" from their girlfriends or how they haven't convinced their girls to"do it" with them yet. Is that what it meant to be a man? Having sex with girls? Repulsed by this definition of a man I began to study men in the church. Men who I believed to be real men. Not by the high school definition, but just by the simple fact that they commanded respect by how they acted. It was then when i really started to learn.
A real man is not someone who can get a lot of "action" from the ladies or walk into a bar full of criminals and come out the last man standing. A real man is someone who does not let things bother him. He does not argue about little things, or let little comments or jokes upset him. He listens when the time is right and he speaks when the time is right. He uplifts those around him. Inspires everyone who knows him to do better. He offers to open the door for people, not just women. He protects the integrity AND purity of a woman. He provides and plans. Not only does he do all those things but he also glorifies God in all that he does. If man is created to worship God then you cannot be a real man unless you worship God.

Sounds like the perfect man, right? Too often men fail the test of true manhood everyday! Girls WANT a man they can trust and rely on. Women are curious creatures who need to be constantly reassured. They test men to make sure they have a real man. That is why so many girls today are ashamed that they lost their virginity and wish that they never did it. Because in testing their boy to see if he is a man, they realized too late that their boy is a boy and he failed the test of manhood. We men need to instill in each other the core values of what it truly means to be a man. Protect at all costs from everything, including ourselves. If you truly want a woman to love you then deny her of her pleasures until you are married. In doing this she will love you more because she knows she is safe with you. Fathers guard your daughters well, and teach your boys to be men. Mothers teach your daughters what a real man is, so they know when they are dealing with a boy. I wrote this not because I am a real man, but because I am working to be a real man. To have the pride in knowing that I succeeded in the end. The journey to manhood is a constant battle. But when victory is mine, it will be the greatest victory of them all. For a real man thinks of himself last.

A wise woman once told me that a man is to protect not only himself and his own integrity and purity but also the integrity and purity of the woman. That woman was my mom. She worked hard to instill in me that fact of life. Now it is engraved on my heart as though it were written in stone. There is no difference between a gentleman and a man. So brothers, let us be men.

J.C. Ryle on Resting on God's Word!

2010-04-22T11:19:00.000-07:00

There must be a real heartfelt belief that God’s promises are sure and to be depended on – a real belief that what God says in the Bible is all true and that every doctrine contrary to this is false, whatever anyone may say. There must be a real belief that all God’s words are to be received, however hard and disagreeable to flesh and blood, and that His way is right and all others wrong. This there must be, or you will never come out from the world, take up the cross, follow Christ and be saved.
~ J.C. Ryle

It's a New Day!

2010-04-20T10:52:00.000-07:00

In the book, 'Polity', one of the contributors, Dr. Al Mohler, while discussing the cultural shifts that have taken place in the last century, and their negative impact on both western culture and the Church quotes James Twitchell, " 'Go and sin no more' has been replaced with 'Judge not lest ye be judged' "

Is Believing in Total Depravity 'Denying Ones Baptism'?

2010-04-19T07:47:00.001-07:00

I was at a gathering recently and the facilitator began reading a devotional based on the following prayer which is found in the 1662/1928 Books of Common Prayer. “Almighty and most merciful Father; We have erred, and strayed from Thy ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. We have offended against Thy holy laws. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; And we have done those things which we ought not to have done; And there is no health in us [emphasis mine]. But Thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us, miserable offenders. Spare Thou those, O God, who confess their faults. Restore Thou those who are penitent; According to Thy promises declared unto mankind in Christ Jesus our Lord. And grant, O most merciful Father, for His sake; That we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and sober life, To the glory of Thy holy Name. Amen.”

As a Calvinist, I have always found this prayer to be moving and in its sentiments biblical. But when the lay facilitator came to "...And there is no health in us", a venerable Anglican priest interrupted and gave a brief warning that this phrase could be wrongly interpreted to lend credence to that "dangerous" (his word) Calvinist doctrine known as Total Depravity. He told us that to accept Total Depravity as a biblical doctrine was to "deny ones baptism." My wife and I were, and still are, confused by his point. He was emphatic that there is good or health in each of us, now that we are baptized. I was not sure from what he said if he believed there was no health in the unbeliever. I believe he does.

The problem with this view are many. First, Total Depravity is a biblical doctrine, and to speak of it as dangerous is in itself dangerous. There are many Scriptures that bring this out, not the least of which is Romans 3:9-20. I fear that, like so many, my venerable friend has been fed a false understanding of the meaning of Total Depravity. Wayne Grudem, in his Systematic Theology puts it this way, "It is not that some parts of us are sinful and others are pure. Rather, every part of our being is affected by sin- our intellects, our emotions and desires, our hearts (the center of our desires and decision-making processes), our goals and motives, and even our physical bodies" (pg.497). Total Depravity means that every part of our lives have been contaminated by sin. Nothing more.

Second, the prayer that the priest warned us to be careful about is a prayer that was written to be prayed weekly by baptized believers. The author of the prayer more than likely was a Calvinist and he had no such concerns that praying it would cause the penitent one to deny his baptism.

Finally, I question the use of the phrase "deny ones baptism" in this context. It is my understanding that the only way to truly "deny ones baptism" is to live as though one was never baptized (i.e. as though one never committed his life to Christ, to live like a lost sinner, not believe that he is a sinner) in other words, to deny Christ and willingly live a lifestyle of sin.

The doctrine of Total Depravity looms over me as a moment by moment warning that I can never truly trust my own heart, for it is "deceitful above all things' (Jeremiah 17:9). It is this doctrine that drives me to my Savior like a legless man in need of someone to constantly carry him, or he will never move from where he is currently located.

The Power of the Preached Word to Convert

2010-04-19T07:37:00.000-07:00

J.C. Ryle understood the preachers total dependence on the power of the preached Word. If the Word is brought down to the level of reason and tradition we preachers have nothing to say! Nothing, that is, that is worth listening to. The good Bishop wrote, "The Bible applied to the heart by the Holy Spirit is the grand instrument by which souls are first converted to God. That mighty change is generally begun by some text or doctrine of the Word, brought home to a man’s conscience. In this way the Bible has worked moral miracles by the thousands. It has made drunkards become sober—immoral people become pure—thieves become honest and violent-tempered people become meek. It has wholly altered the course of men’s lives. It has caused their old things to pass away, and made all their ways new."
~ J.C. Ryle

Preaching at Frayser Baptist

2010-04-18T15:01:00.000-07:00

I preached today at an aging Baptist church. The congregation is made up of elderly saints. By modern standards they have no reason for being. They are not having a great impact on their community, although they have reached out to their troubled community with the Gospel with few results. But they are God's people and God has provided them with a loving shepherd, Brother Terry Wade, who loves them and faithfully nourishes them on the Word. It was an honor to minister in the pulpit of Frayser Baptist.
May the church never turn its back on the elderly of the 'least of these'.

Prayer for the Departed and Sola Scriptura

2010-04-17T03:36:00.000-07:00

When I left the Presbyterian Church in America I decided to pursue ordination in the Anglican Mission in America, a vibrant new denomination that is made up of new church plants and ex-Episcopal churches that have finally decided to act on the heresy that is being taught in the Episcopal church. I was attracted by the ancient liturgy. I now believe I made a mistake.

I first began to question my decision when I noticed we were praying for the dead during our worship. The 1979 Book of Common Prayer contains six Forms which may be used for the Prayers of the People. Several of them contain subtle 'tips of the hat' to the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox belief that (as a former Presbyterian turned Orthodox friend of mine put it) our prayers are able to effect God on behalf of those who have gone before.

Form I begins (BCP pg.383) by exhorting the congregation, "With all our heart and with all our mind, let us pray to the Lord, saying, 'Lord, have mercy.'" The leader then progresses his way through this litany with the people responding after every intercession with the phrase "Lord, have mercy". Until towards the end the leader prays, "For all who have died in the hope of the resurrection, and for all the departed (my emphasis), let us pray to the Lord." Note, first the prayer addresses professing believers, then it addresses it self to the concerns of 'all the departed.'

Form II (pg. 386) is even clearer in it's intent. In this Form the leader begins each new segment of the prayer with the phrase, "I ask your prayers for..." The list includes "God's people throughout the world", "the poor", "those who seek God," etc. Until, finally we come to, "I ask your prayers for the departed, especially pray for those who have died." At this point, the congregation may call out the names of departed loved ones.

Form III (pg.387) is much more subtle. It states, "Give to the departed eternal rest; Let light perpetual shine upon them." Here we should note that the phrase "the departed" is purposefully broad. This is followed immediately by, "We praise You for Your saints who have entered into Your joy." Nothing wrong with that prayer, but the former prayer is not rooted in scriptural teaching.

Form IV (pg. 389) contains this prayer, "We commend to Your mercy all who have died, that Your will for them may be fulfilled; and we pray that we may share with all Your saints in Your eternal kingdom." This prayer is subtle, but theologically confusing. The intercessor commends all the dead to God's mercy, implying that it is not possible for us to know whether someone went to be with the Lord, or not. The latter part of the prayer seems to undermine the assurance of the one praying as to whether he will make it into God's eternal kingdom himself.

Form V (pg.391) contains this prayer, "For all who have died in the communion of Your Church [it appears that this prayer is here to comfort those who may have some doubts about the eternal security of their loved ones], and those whose faith is known to You alone, that, with all the saints, they may have rest in that place where there is no pain or grief, but life eternal, we pray to You, O Lord."

Form VI (pg.393) reads, "We pray for all who have died, that they may have a place in Your eternal kingdom." This prayer has absolutely no biblical basis what so ever and is designed to give a since of false security to the faithful regarding their departed loved ones.

When I asked an Anglican priest about these prayers he told me that in the Anglican tradition Anglicans follow the 'three legged stool' of Scripture, Reason and Tradition. And this was a tradition which the Church has practiced for centuries. This is not Sola Scriptura and it is a dangerous way of doing theology.

Evangelical Anglicans need to recommit to the primacy of Scripture (these types of prayers are not present in the Prayer Books prior to 1979!). Reason and tradition are fine, as long as they are being examined through the lens of Holy Writ. They should not be placed on a par with the Word of God. In practice, modern evangelical Anglicans move back and forth between the three, depending on the topic at hand. This will eventually lead them back done the same road of a hermeneutic where 'each man does what is right in his own eyes'.

As a minister of the Gospel, I will have to give an account to the Lord for what I have taught (James 3:1). I can see no biblical grounds for asking God to intervene on behalf of the departed. "To the Law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this Word, they have no light of dawn (Isaiah 8:20)!"

Does 1 Corinthians 7:14 Imply Infant Baptism?

2010-04-16T16:45:00.000-07:00

When it comes to my faith, Christianity, the most important thing to me is wrestling with the text and coming away with the proper understanding of the text. I met Christ in a church with baptist leanings, but I have been a Presbyterian for years, and about a year and a half ago I became Anglican. But circumstances have led me to re-examine some of my beliefs, in particular infant baptism.

Does 1 Corinthians 7:14 naturally lead to the baptism of infants? I no longer think so.

I begin with this text, because it is the text that was used to convince me that it was appropriate to baptize my first child. In the NKJV the text reads, 'For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband; otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy.' I was told, and I came to believe, that since the children of believers were, in some sense, holy, they should receive the sign of the covenant, i.e. baptism. While I still believe that when a child has at least one Christian parent, that child is 'holy'; not in the sense of having saving faith, but in the sense of having a specially blessed position because of the fact that his parent is a believer, that child enters the world with a blessing that a child without a Christian parent does not. The child, because of his saved parent is, in some sense, sanctified or holy.

Charles Hodge, in his commentary on 1 Corinthians, points out that there are three uses of the word 'sanctified' or holy. First to 'cleanse'; second, to 'render morally pure'. Both of these he rules out as possible meanings for this context. The third meaning is, to 'consecrate, to regard as sacred'. The idea here is that the object or person, because of his relationship to God is holy. Note, only God can say that something or someone is holy in this way. Here, Paul tells us that God views those who are birthed into a home with at least one Christian parent as holy. Furthermore, Paul declares that not only is the child holy, but so is the spouse of the Christian. This argument was used by my first Presbyterian pastor as part of his explanation regarding why infants born into Christian homes should be baptized. But if we look closer we will find that the unbelieving spouse is also 'sanctified' because of his or her relationship to the Christian spouse. And yet, I have never heard anyone use this text to suggest that the unbelieving spouse be baptized against his or her will.

It seems to me that this line of reasoning proves too much.

J.C. Ryle on the Word of God

2010-04-13T12:10:00.000-07:00

Bishop JC Ryle has rapidly become a favorite of mine. This quote concerning God's Word is great. It seems to me though, that if one accepts it, one must believe question the texts preferred by most modern translations. 'Let us carefully hold fast the great doctrine of the plenary inspiration of every word of the Bible. Let us never allow that any writer of the Old or New Testament could make even the slightest verbal mistake or error, when, writing as he was “moved by the Holy Spirit.” (2 Peter 1:21.) Let it be a settled principle with us in reading the Bible, that when we cannot understand a passage, or reconcile it with some other passage, the fault is not in the Book, but in ourselves. The adoption of this principle will place our feet upon a rock. To give it up is to stand upon a quicksand, and to fill our minds with endless uncertainties and doubts.'
~ J.C. Ryle

Wait On the Lord

2010-04-05T06:45:00.000-07:00

Waiting is a act of faith. More than an act, it is a work of faith. Hard work. Holy Spirit inspired work. It is no wonder I dislike it so. And yet, in waiting is my salvation.

Should Christians Stay in Apostate Denominations?

2010-04-03T05:39:00.000-07:00

Recently, I heard of an evangelical congregation in a liberal denomination that voted to stay in their liberal denomination. They have no hope of turning the tide of their denomination, so why stay? Why do some Christians stay in denominations that reject God's Word? Why have we in America seen denomination after denomination fall to the forces of darkness (who prefer to call themselves 'liberals' or 'progressives')? I have been pondering this, and while I do not have all the answers I have come up with a few that I think may have some merit.

1. When one has been in an apostate denomination for a long time one begins to lose the ability to discern truth. Especially, if the pastor of your local church is an apostate him or herself. (If the pastor is a woman, even if she is evangelical, she has already made a decision to ignore a significant portion of Scripture regarding the limitation of the pastorate to men. This can only create confusion in the minds of the regarding how to apply the Bible in the twenty-first century.) Proverbs 14:7 says, "Leave the presence of a fool, or you will not discern words of knowledge." The longer one sits under the teaching of, for example, a resurrection denier (such as so-called Bishop John Spong) the duller ones senses become to biblical truth. It is a spiritual principle that cannot be denied.
2. Many stay because they begin to value the external over the reality. What I mean is that people begin to focus on things like, "My children were baptized here", "My father helped build this church", "This is my church and I will not let anybody run me off",etc. When good people begin to focus on these types of things it is akin to someone refusing to get off a sinking ship because his parents first met on that ship. A sane person would know that his parents would want him to get in the lifeboat and abandon that ship! But they stay, and by staying they may be sacrificing the faith of their own children. Surely, they cannot believe that the children will be able to parse the insanity coming from the pulpit or denominational headquarters.
3. Some stay because they are under the illusion that they (often, simply by their presence) can change the direction of the denomination. History says otherwise. I have only seen this done by the Southern Baptist in the 80's. The faithful in the Presbyterian Church USA have not been able to do it, nor have the faithful in the ECUSA. Both of these denominations have been captured by unbelievers who now control the denominational seminaries and the purse strings. The only reason the Southern Baptist were able to turn things around was because of the way their Convention is structured. This will never happen in ECUSA, the PCUSA or the United Methodist Church. Just look at who they are ordaining these days!
4. Many stay because they do not understand the damage that is being done to the Gospel by the heretics who have taken over their denominations and churches. To stay in a church that no longer believes that Jesus is God, that He rose from the dead, that He was born of a virgin, and so on, forces one to focus ones energies on taking back a lost institution rather than taking the Gospel to lost sinners. One advances Gods kingdom, the other is a major distraction that Satan loves to engage Christians in.

A Quote from J.C. Ryle on Preaching

2010-03-26T12:26:00.000-07:00

"A preaching ministry is absolutely essential to the health and prosperity of a visible church. The pulpit is the place where the chief victories of the Gospel have always been won, and no Church has ever done much for the advancement of true religion in which the pulpit has been neglected. Would we know whether a minister is a truly apostolical man?

If he is, he will give the best of his attention to his sermons. He will labor and pray to make his preaching effective, and he will tell his congregation that he looks to preaching for the chief results on souls. The minister who exalts the sacraments, or forms of the Church, above preaching, may be a zealous, earnest, conscientious, and respectable minister; but his zeal is not according to knowledge. He is not a follower of the apostles."

~ J.C. Ryle

The Worship Did Not Move Me

2010-03-24T05:43:00.000-07:00

For whom is worship? Is it primarily for the congregations benefit? If I am searching for a church to become a part of should I look for a place with "really good worship"? And what is "really good worship"? Is a new believer equipped to recognize "really good worship"?

I once heard Ron Kenoly, a well known worship leader, tell the story of a young man who came up to him after church and said, "The worship did not move me today. I did not get anything out of it." Kenoly's response was something like this, "That's okay, it wasn't for you."

Too many people attend Sunday worship looking to be entertained by the praise band, but they have no idea what it means to truly worship God in a way that is pleasing to Him. Worship is for the Father. We are able to offer it (and have it be accepted) because of what Jesus did on the cross. We are enabled to worship through the work of the Holy Spirit. Worship is not for the worshiper, in the sense that it should please him or her. Although, one would hope that a believer would find pleasure from knowing that he has done what God has required of him. Worship is for the worshiper in the sense that the worshiper will benefit from acknowledging God as God, by humbling himself and acknowledging his dependence on Him.

On the other hand, if a worship service is filled with innovations and oddities that have no basis in Scripture, one would hope such a service would move a true believer to find a church that understands biblical worship. Sadly, many churches do not.

Rejection and Church Job Hunting for the Man of God

2010-03-17T09:53:00.000-07:00

I have been looking for a ministry position for over a year now. The most painful part of looking for God's place for you is that in order to find where you belong you must send out a lot of resumes, and that means you are going to be rejected a lot!

Rejection is hard. Really hard. I confess that even after walking this earth for 51 years I still find rejection painful. And this may sound odd, but I find rejection by churches and para-church ministries even harder than secular rejections. Why? Because of the way they reject you.

When ministries and churches decide not to hire you they notify you by wrapping the notice in the spiritual veneer of "Holy Spirit led" language. Churches can't simply tell you they have chosen someone else they must let you know that "I have been to the mountain and God has told me and the search committee that you are not the right one for us!" Just tell me you have decided that you are not interested in me. I can handle that. But, why must you sound so sanctimonious in the process?

Then, to top it off many will close with some word of blessing, designed to assure you that they desire Gods best for you. Here is one I recently received, "After careful deliberation and prayer we have selected 3 candidates for a call back interview and you were not selected". (Mind you, I was assured in my initial interview that I would be called back because the interviewer was impressed with me. Apparently, not enough to keep his word. Ah, but I digress.)If you are reading this, and you are serving on one of these leadership teams, please consider just notifying people like me that you simply decided to go with someone else. We can handle that. What we have a hard time swallowing is the way that you say, so confidently, "we have discerned that God is leading us to someone else". When you say things like that, it translates, "We don't want you and God told us not to want you! So, there!"

I understand that you must make a choice, I just question the propriety of so confidently attributing your decision to a direct answer from God. The truth is, what happens in most of these situations isn't much different than drawing lots. A group of people examine a stack of resumes of people they know nothing about and attempt to make an informative choice. Let us call it what it is, and give us poor job seekers a break with the excessive pietism. Treat us the way you would want to be treated if you were in our shoes.

Preaching for a Decision

2010-03-07T15:21:00.000-08:00

I am a graduate of a seminary that majored on teaching men how to preach. There are many men standing in Americas pulpits who do not have a clue when it comes to preaching. Sermons are works of art. They require study, passion and application. The average person sitting in the pew does not know how to apply the sermon for himself.

Dr. Rayburn, the former President and and head of the homiletics department at Covenant Seminary used to tell us that we needed to preach for decisions. By that, he meant that we needed to make certain our congregation knew what we wanted them to do after hearing our sermon. He would say, "That's nice, but what do you want me to do?" I have heard sermons with good content but when the man reached the end he had no idea how to apply his own sermon. I have seen men preach evangelistic sermons and not know how to call the people to repentance.

We live in a day when great preaching is desperately needed. We need bold preachers who will spend time in Gods Word, organize their thoughts and mount the sacred desk with a full chested "THUS SAITH THE LORD"! That involves making accurate application to the people who have been placed in their charge. May God raise up more men like this in this generation.

Church Structure and the Spread of God's Word

2010-03-02T08:41:00.000-08:00

Acts 6 is often used as a proof text for the office of Deacon. However, there is something else about this text that we must not overlook. It stresses the priority of the minister to be at prayer and in the Word. It further highlights the unbreakable connection between these disciplines (prayer and study) and the growth of the church. Too often a pastor see's God bless his ministry with numerical growth and he responds by succombing to the administrative pressure this growth brings and shifts his focus from prayer and the Word to administrating. And as a result the church loses its focus on advancing the kingdom of God through the accurate teaching and preaching of the Word. It moves from growth mode to survival mode.

Acts 6:7 says, 'And the Word of God kept on spreading; and the number of disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith.' This growth, I believe, can be directly connected to verse 2, 'It is not desirable for us to neglect the Word of God in order to serve tables.' The Apostles knew that while this was not a trivial concern in the church, but a definite and real need that required the church's attention, it did not require their personal attention. They were not micro managers. At the same time, this situation did, however, require the attention of 'seven men full of the Spirit and wisdom'. Ministering in this way was sacred and holy and should not be handed over to just anyone. The men who were to be assigned this task needed to be men full of the Holy Spirit. The Apostles trusted the Spirit to reveal to the people His choice for the task. The Apostles in turn, confirmed that the choice of the people was indeed God's choice by going before God and seeking Him. The result was, 'after praying, they laid their hands on them.'

The continued growth of the church, I believe, can be directly attributed to the fact that the Apostles 'devoted [themselves] to prayer, and to the ministry of the Word'. Today's pastor must be alert to avoid having legitimate new duties foisted upon him when God begins to bless his ministry with growth. If he allows himself to be drawn away from the ministry of prayer and the Word he will cut off the life blood of the very thing that God blessed in the first place, i.e. his preaching. So, make sure that when you build structure into your growing congregation build in structure that will free the pastor to contunue to prioritize prayer and study.

He Gave His All

2010-02-26T13:39:00.000-08:00

God has called me to preach His word to the lost who are behind bars. I consider that a great honor with which He has entrusted me. I also teach a weekly Bible study at a prison in Arkansas. I have seen men who have committed some of the most repulsive acts known to humanity be completely changed by the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. One such man wrote this poem. He calls it 'I Gave You My Best'.

When I wake up He shows me the way.
When I give up, He says, 'I'm here to stay'.
When I get discouraged He says, 'I give you peace'.
When I get tired He says, 'I give you rest'.
When I do not understand He says, 'Knock, and it shall be opened.'
When I am afraid He says, 'I will comfort you'.
When I feel alone He says, 'I am with you always'.
When I feel like giving up He says, 'I will give you strength'.
When I doubt He says, 'I will give you hope'.
When I feel dead inside He says, 'I will give you life, life more abundantly'.
When I see all my bad He says, 'I gave you all I had.'

The man who shared this with me has truly come to understand that true Christianity is all about Jesus. He has given us all we need in Himself. This wonderful poem says that sometimes we need Him to speak a gentle word of assurance to us in the midst of whatever storm we may find ourselves in.

Wait Thou Only Upon God

2010-02-25T04:17:00.000-08:00

Andrew Murray is one of my favorite devotional writers. At the beginning of his book Waiting on God is this poem which I have found to be a tremendous encouragement.

'My soul, wait thou only upon God'.--Psalm 62:5 and 'A God...which worketh for him that waiteth for Him'.--Isa. 64:4 (RV)

Wait only upon God"; my soul, be still,
And let thy God unfold His perfect will,
Thou fain {gladly, willingly} would'st follow Him throughout this year,
Thou fain with listening heart His voice would'st hear,
Thou fain would'st be a passive instrument
Possessed by God, and ever Spirit-sent
Upon His service sweet--then be thou still,
For only thus can He in thee fulfill
His heart's desire. Oh, hinder not His hand
From fashioning the vessel He hath planned.
"Be silent unto God," and thou shalt know
The quiet, holy calm He doth bestow
On those who wait on Him; so shalt thou bear
His presence, and His life and light e'en where
The night is darkest, and thine earthly days
Shall show His love, and sound His glorious praise.
And He will work with hand infettered, free
His high and holy purposes through thee.
First on thee must that hand of power be turned,
Till in His love's strong fire thy dross is burned,
And thou come forth a vessel for thy Lord,
So frail and empty, yet, since He hath poured
Into thine emptiness His life, His love,
Henceforth through thee the power of God shall move
And He will work for thee. Stand still and see
The victories thy God will gain for thee;
So silent, yet so irresistible,
Thy God shall do the thing impossible.
Oh, question not henceforth what thou canst do;
Thou canst do nought. But He will carry through
The work where human energy had failed,
Where all thy best endeavors had availed
Thee nothing. Then, my soul, wait and be still;
Thy God shall work for thee His perfect will.
If thou wilt take no less, His best shall be
Thy portion now and through eternity.

Lent is a time to wait on the Lord and allow Him to work on you. I am waiting on Him at this point in my life seeking Him for the next step.

Ash Wednesday

2010-02-19T12:37:00.000-08:00

A week ago, Wednesday, I participated in my first Ash Wednesday service as an Anglican priest. I preached and administered the imposition of the ashes.

I have a deep affection for this season of the church year because it demands that I take notice of the places where I have allowed my life to get out of control. Every time I look in the mirror I am confronted with my out of control eating. God convicted me in early December that it was time to do something about it. From that time to now I have lost twenty pounds. I need to lose twenty more because I am a type two diabetic.

I have finally had to ask myself if I really believed Galatians 5:22, where the Apostle Paul says that one of the fruits of the Spirit is self-control. Think about it, if the Holy Spirit is living in me, as I claim He is, and as the Scriptures assure me He is, I should be able to gain and maintain victory in this area of my life. This I believe.

Liberals Continue to Be Amazed at the Humanity of Blacks

2010-01-28T13:56:00.000-08:00

The MSNBC news commentator Chris Matthews was so impressed with Mr. Obama last night that he "forgot he was black". Last year Vice President Biden was so impressed that he referred to then candidate Obama as "clean and articulate"! It amazes me how condescending Liberals in this country can be! And what's even more amazing is that they know that they are verbalizing this type of racial pap and get away with it because it is exactly what is going through the mind of the Liberal press. Matthews is a card carrying member of the Liberal press. The man makes no pretense of being objective on his show.

Left wing Americans like Matthews are used to three types of Black folks. (1). The poor Black ghetto class they helped to create with their socialist policies. They do not expect anything from this group. As long as they keep the benefits coming this group will support them. (2) The second type of Black is not really Black to the Left. That would be Conservative Blacks. According to the Left these are not true Black people. Black is not about pigmentation, it's about ideology. Therefore people like former Secretary of State Condi Rice, Thomas Sowell, Justice Clarence Thomas, Walter Williams and others like them, are not considered Black. Why? Because the Left says so.(3) The third type of Black with which the White Liberal is familiar is the somewhat articulate, but often incomprehensable, race profiteering types like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpeton. Liberals have been stuck with these guys for years and for years they have been their only examples of what it means to be Black and involved in politics. They have been embarrassed by Sharpeton and Jackson but they have been forced to tolerate them for the sake of group one.

Now along comes the President and he has introduced Chris Matthews, Vice President Biden and the Liberal press to a new breed of Negro. One who can articulate like Condi Rice, but who thinks like Al Sharpeton! This is what Matthews and his ilk have been waiting for! Clean, educated, thoroughbred Negros!

Matthews is a racist of the worse sort. He looks down his nose at all four of these groups of Blacks. In practice, he believes that group one is only a couple of chromosones higher than a chimp and they desperately need his and other Liberals help just to survive. While acknowlegding the existence of White Conservatives he and others like him declare that if you are a Black Conservative you are not truly Black. Who gave him that right?! The third group (the race profiteers) they tolerate and throw money at them hoping they will take their check and stay hidden until the next fabricated race crisis develops. And finally, people like the President force the Chris Matthew' of the world to show just how proud they are of their Negros.

Imagine, a Black Liberal who can actually speak and articulate the Liberal agenda just like a White Liberal! "Why, he was so good that I forgot he was Black." What Matthews meant was, "I had no idea a Black Liberal could do that."

Wake up Black Americans and pay attention to what these people really think of you. Stop selling yourselves!

Sam+

They That Wait vs. They That Worry

2010-01-28T12:13:00.000-08:00

The Bible urges us in many places to wait on the Lord (e.g. Psalm 37:7, 9 and 35). To "wait" is to "place one's hope in", to "trust in". This waiting is not a thumb twiddling type of waiting. It is an act of courageous faith. To "wait" is to defiantly look at your circumstances, but instead of locking in on them you decide to lock in on the Lord of your circumstances and wait on Him.

We are to make the LORD the object of our faith, of our waiting and stand our ground! "Waiting on the LORD" gives us a picture of one who is absolutely convinced of the certainty and trustworthiness of the One upon Whom he is waiting. Any moment now the One Whom we have been expecting will come over that horizon with our exact need in His hand!

Psalm 40:1- "I waited patiently for the LORD, and He inclined unto me, and heard my cry."

Psalm 130:5- "I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in His Word do I hope."

There is power in waiting. Not because there is anything magical about waiting itself, but because of the One upon Whom you are waiting. To wait for Him is to wait for power!

The flip side of waiting is worrying. There is no power in worry. Worry drains what little life one has. Worry draws you away from the object of your faith and focuses all your energy of the problem, and by so doing worry makes the problem your new object of faith. And as you stare into the face of your ever growing problem you become weaker and weaker. Jesus reminds us in Matthew 6:25-34 that worry is the epitome of counter productivity. And yet, we all find ourselves worrying when we should be waiting.

Stop. Take a deep breath. Get your bearings. Take a personal retreat if necessary. Then get alone with God and His Word and allow Him to remind you of who He is. When worry begins to take over my life I find that it is usually because I have allowed the pressures of this world to shrink my understanding of the Triune God.

Sam+

An Evening Prayer

2010-01-27T19:09:00.000-08:00

"Take from my mind, O God, its troubles, and from my soul its stain; and, even as my body resteth on this bed, so teach my spirit to repose upon Thy mercy, and find peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen." Prayers of the Christian Life, for Private and Public Worship, Published in 1952 by John Underwood Stephens

Wrestling with Inner Demons

2010-01-27T13:55:00.000-08:00

I am currently on a much needed personal retreat. The stress of being unemployed is subtle, but dangerous to yourself and everyone around you. This morning I realized just how far I had sunk into depression when I began lashing out at the very people who mean the most to me. Being unemployed is like constantly having your manhood questioned. What kind of man would allow his wife to go through the embarrassment of applying for food stamps? Be careful, for if you answer too quickly or too tritely you may reveal that you have no clue of which you speak.

I am grateful for stopgap measures that are in place to assist those of us who find ourselves "down on our luck", so to speak, but God has made us in His image and for His glory, and He has given each of us a vocation, a calling. I do not believe there is any real dignity in being taken care of by an impersonal government agency over a long period of time. Initially, there is gratitude. Later that turns into self hatred because of what you must go through to maintain the assistance. I cannot imagine my government handling my medical care. Ah, but I digress.

When you have been unemployed for a long time, as I have, you begin to developed a strong sense of purposelessness. Your life seems to lack direction. We are so connected to our vocations. Note, I did not say jobs, I said vocations. A job does not give that sense of purpose and direction that a vocation does. Jobs put food on the table, but vocation puts passion in the heart while at the same time putting food on the table. I am fortunate that I have a part time job and a few volunteer positions which give me an outlet. Still, one must pay one's bills.

Well meaning people often do not understand the difference between a vocation and a job. Even well meaning Christians. They speak lightly of "changing careers" or "getting retrained". There is nothing wrong with either of these, but if God has called you to preach the gospel you will not be content to get your teaching certification or to sell insurance. The Christian man or woman who teaches or sells insurance should be called to do so. The man who is called to preach must not be deterred from preaching. He may find it needful to "get a job" to care for his family, but he must never mistake his job as his calling.

I have briefly withdrawn from the daily frustration of hunting for work and seeking a call in order to remind myself of who I am. I am a servant. I am not God. I am His child, but He owes me nothing. In Christ, He has given all that I need. I needed to get alone and allow the Holy Spirit to massage that truth into my thick, self centered heart. What surprised me is how quickly He was able to do it.

While engaged in Morning Prayer (1928 BCP) I prayed my way through Psalm 78 and I was very gently reminded that I, just like Israel, have been blessed beyond my wildest dreams and "Yet [I] still sin against Him in the desert. And in [my] heart [I] put God to the test by asking food according to [my] desire" (Ps.78:17-18). Only my food has been the full time ministry. I had allowed myself to conclude that if God really loves me He will return me to full time ministry asap. It is my sincerest desire that God is not through with me when it comes to the full time pastorate, but the fact of the matter is, I have no control over what He does with me. And that has been the source of all my frustration.

I moved to Memphis to take the best paying position of my life, in (ironically) the poorest zip code in the State. Ten months later, I discovered that the most influential man in the church, who had been my biggest fan and had worked the hardest to get me to Memphis, had for several months, been meeting with powerful, wealthy men in the presbytery (long live Presbyterianism!) planning my demise. They did not like the direction I wanted to take the church in, so they did something about it. I now live with the stigma of a forced resignation hanging over me like a massive boulder ready to drop whenever a church expresses interest in me. It is my cross. I finally realize I must embrace it.

More than that, and this is the really hard part, I must forgive the man who orchestrated the events that has put my family on the brink of financial ruin.

For over a year I have convinced myself that I have forgiven this man. Today, I am certain that I have not. Tonight, at Evening Prayer, I will begin to pray for this man. I do not only want to forgive him judicially speaking, I want to be able to say his name and there be no sting of pain.

"Lord, I know You can do this! With You all things are possible!"

Sam+

The Role of the Book of Common Prayer in Teaching Christian Theology

2010-01-18T13:26:00.000-08:00

When most people think of liturgy they think of how worship is done. But liturgy is not only about how we worship, liturgy is a teacher as well. Liturgy teaches us about God as we worship. It presses upon us the nature and identity of the One we are worshipping. A good Liturgy recognizes the truth of the hymn writer’s words, “prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love” (The Hymnal, 682). This means we need to be told/taught the same truths over and over again. The liturgy does this. The Book of Common Prayer (BCP) does this.

“Probably more than any other contemporary religious group, [Anglicans] are people of a prayer book. Not only do we use the BCP for the conduct of our public services; it is the guide for our private prayer and the source of most of our theology” (Mitchell, 1). So begins the introduction of Leonel Mitchell’s book, Praying Shapes Believing. The title of Mitchell’s book is a contemporary interpretation of a Latin phrase familiar to almost all Anglicans, lex orandi-lex credendi, that is, prayer shapes (orders or informs) belief. Put another way, the content of our liturgy impacts our understanding of God.

It is the thesis of this paper that when we worship we are learning Christian theology. We are learning, through repetition, the truths which make up the Christian faith. I am not saying, however, that therefore all theology must originate in our worship, or that theology which originates, i.e. creeps in to sloppy liturgy deserves to be passed on as truth. That is an extreme view of lex orandi-lex credendi. According to Jeffrey Meyers, a Reformed Presbyterian, this is the Roman Catholic view. “For Roman Catholics, the slogan lex orandi- lex credendi enables them to appeal to past liturgical practice to justify a particular doctrinal development” (Meyers 110). The way the church prays should not dictate the churches theology. Anglican theologian, Peter Toon believed very firmly that lex orandi-lex credendi could and should be translated and understood not as a one way street, but in a reciprocal manner. “For those who are still authentic Anglicans…there is the still confidence of the truth of the tag, lex orandi-lex credendi understood in both ways- the law of praying is the law of believing, and, the law of believing is the law of praying. One without the other will not do: we confess both at one and the same time” (p. 11). To limit ones understanding of this commonly used phrase to “let the rule for prayer determine the rule for belief” (Toon, p.1), is to set ones self up to be launched down a theological slippery slope.

To be sure, The Holy Eucharist is not designed to teach with the amount of detail and precision present in a systematic theology. But the fact that liturgy informs and educates is not a light matter.

In an effort to prove my thesis, I will walk us through the main service of the BCP, Holy Eucharist and point out what is being taught.
1. To begin with, the liturgy teaches us, by its very structure, that God is approachable through prayer. This presupposition underlies the whole of not just the Holy Eucharist, but the BCP itself. It outlines a biblical method of approaching Him, gives us words with which to approach Him. We learn that God is holy, we are not (in and of ourselves). Therefore it is important that we approach Him in an acceptable way. That acceptable way is laid out for us in the BCP.
2. The liturgy teaches the primacy of Holy Scripture in the worship and life of the believer. In addition to the Scripture saturated prayers (e.g. the peace which comes from Ruth 2:4) throughout the liturgy there are three readings, and a responsive reading of a Psalm. The worshipper is exposed to four different passages of Holy Scripture! The fact that “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4; Luke 4:4) is modeled in Anglican worship.
3. The liturgy teaches the ecumenical boundaries of the Christian faith (p. 358). This is done in the Nicene Creed (and the Apostles Creed). After the sermon believers are asked to publically affirm in whom they have placed their trust. The Creed tells us the following about the God we worship:
a. He is one God in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
b. The Father is the Creator.
c. The Son has existed from eternity. He is as much God as the Father. Whatever “God-ness” is the Son has as much of it as the Father. They are equal in their “Godness”, i.e. they share the same substance and power (as does the Holy Spirit). The Son was involved in creation and is the cause of our redemption. He became a man through the Virgin birth, he died, rose on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures (here, the importance of the Scriptures to Christian faith being taught again!). The Son, having ascended, is now reigning with the Father, and He will come again to the earth, but this time He will come as judge and establish His kingdom.
d. The Holy Spirit is also God. He is the Gift of the Father and the Son to us, His people. He is, as the Father and the Son, to be worshipped. He has spoken through the Prophets (Scripture!).
e. We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. Even though we understand that there are many splinters within the Church the content of the Creeds teach us what determines whether a person is a Christian in his beliefs.
4. The liturgy teaches us how to focus our prayer. This is done through the Collects and Prayers of the People (p. 383). Here, we are taught how to address the Triune God, and what to ask of Him.
5. The liturgy teaches us why we need the Gospel, not only to begin relating to God, but to continue relating to Him through Christ. This is done through Confession of Sin (p. 360) and at appropriate times the Penitential Order (p. 351).
6. The liturgy teaches us that in Christ forgiveness is certain, if we come by faith (p. 360). We need only sincerely confess our sins and He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. This grace reestablishes the subjective peace that we have objectively between ourselves, God and our brothers (p. 351).
7. The liturgy teaches us that generosity to God’s causes is also worship (p. 361).
8. In Holy Communion we are reminded that God longs to feed us spiritually through the Body and Blood of Christ. And we are reminded that we are one, we need each other, even as we all need Christ.
9. In Holy Communion God feeds us with spiritual food of His Son. It reminds us that we need to be sustained by the Triune God.
10. We learn that we are taught that we are not disconnected. But when we worship we worship with angels, archangels and all the company of heaven (362).
11. In the Trisagion we learn more about the nature of God. He is holy, gracious, heaven and earth are filled with His glory (p. 362).
12. We again are reminded of the importance of His death, resurrection and His second coming. “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again” (363).
13. At the Table we pray to the Father, because of the work of the Son, through the power of the Holy Spirit (p. 362-363).
14. At the Table we are taught again how to pray (the Lord’s Prayer).
15. At the Table we bring a portion of the gifts God has given to us, we offer them back to Him, He sanctifies them and nourishes us spiritually with these same gifts! We find that our gifts to Him are really His gifts to us, the people of (who belong to and are cared for by) the Triune God!
16. At the Table we learn that the only proper response to such a gracious God is thanksgiving and service. “Eternal God, heavenly Father, You have graciously accepted us as living members of Your Son our Savior Jesus Christ, and You have fed us…Send us now…to love and serve You…through Christ our Lord. Amen” (p. 365).
17. In the liturgy the Father’s Gift of Jesus Christ, through the Holy Spirit is supreme. The liturgy teaches us that Jesus is God’s greatest gift. It reminds us over and over that nothing happens without Him. Note the recurring theme in the service of the Holy Eucharist: “Christ is risen” (p. 355), “through Christ our Lord (p. 355), “You alone are the Most High, Jesus” (p. 356), “Glory to You, Lord Christ” (p. 357), “Praise to You, Lord Christ” (p. 358), “We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ” (p. 358), “For the sake of Your Son Jesus Christ” (p. 360), “Through our Lord Jesus Christ” (p. 360), and on it goes!
18. The liturgy clearly teaches that salvation is found in none other but Jesus Christ. Imbedded in the liturgy is the gospel, the good news that God was in Christ Jesus reconciling the world to Himself.

The role of the BCP in teaching Christian theology is clear and indispensable. This is why many have struggled with what they perceive as inappropriate ‘tinkering’ with the historic liturgy. The future of the church is at stake! Tamper with lex orandi and you are empowered to change lex credendi for generations to come!
In a day and age when modern evangelicals are taking polls to find out what people want in worship the Anglican church would do well to stay the course with a robust, Trinitarian, Christ centered, gospel driven, grace saturated liturgy, in the tradition of the 1662 BCP.

Jeffrey Meyers asserts that most Christians really do not understand the importance of the Sunday morning worship service. He says, “I am convinced that Christian ministers and people must rediscover the foundational biblical and theological reasons for corporate worship” (Meyers 16).

Meyers believes that Christians view the church worship service in one of the following four ways:
1. Worship as Evangelism. These churches see the main purpose of the Sunday gathering as evangelism. They encourage their people to “bring a lost person to church” to hear the gospel. All their sermons close with an altar call for people to “come to Jesus.”
2. Worship as Technique. This category would include the so-called seeker sensitive churches. These churches are constantly taking the pulse of the culture, trying to get ahead of the latest trend in order to “make the gospel relevant.” They may substitute the sermon with a drama, musical or artistic endeavor if the latest data shows that people respond better to one of these media. They determine if they are being faithful to the gospel by their results (i.e. the numerical growth rate of the church)
3. Worship as Education. This type of church focuses on the sermon as the main source of spiritual growth. People in these churches come with their Bibles and notebooks in hand, ready to take notes.
4. Worship as Experience. These churches “emphasize the emotional or inner experience of the congregation in worship”(27). These churches want their people to leave church having felt something.

Meyers believes that if Christians are to truly worship biblically, we must gather to worship for the purpose of focusing on the Triune God and renewing our corporate covenant with Him. The Lord has promised to be our God and we in turn through Christ have come to be His people. The focus of the liturgy must be on the Triune God of Scripture. “Every conception and form of liturgy that focuses on man [as do all the above!] will eventually degenerate into intellectual or psychological manipulation”.

All liturgies teach its users about God. The question is, “what is being taught?”In the Prayer Books that are faithful to Thomas Cranmer’s biblical vision for worship we have a solid teacher of Christian theology.

Sam+
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Works Cited-
*The Hymnal 1982, Come Thou Fount f Every Blessing, #686
*Meyers, Jeffrey J. The Lord’s Service; the Grace of Covenant Renewal Worship. Canon Press, Moscow, ID. ©2003
*Mitchell, Leonel. Praying Shapes Belief a Theological Commentary on the Book of Common Prayer. 2nd Printing. Morehouse Publishing 1996
*Toon, Peter. “Lex Orandi or Lex Credendi”. The Machray Review.1992 http://prayerbook.ca/library/machray/issue2/machray2g.htm. Accessed on January 12, 2010

A Quote About Leadership

2010-01-15T03:08:00.000-08:00

"True leaders must be willing to suffer for the sake of objectives great enough to demand their wholehearted obedience."- Oswald Sanders in Spiritual Leadership

A Qoute Regarding The Minister

2010-01-06T07:24:00.000-08:00

The office of Word and Sacrament not only lends dignity and authority, but also makes exacting demands. It is not a man's gifts, his learning, his efficiency, or charm of his personality which makes him a minister, but the Gospel which he is called upon and ordained to preach. This makes him "minister" (servant), "bishop" (overseer), "pastor" (shepherd), "priest" (a Christ to his neighbor). This, which he is, he must constantly become.- Taken from Ministers Prayer Book, edited by John Doberstein

If more ministers viewed themselves in this light we would have some powerful churches. May God give us more men commited to the accurate preaching of the Gospel to which they have been called.

Sam+

Genesis and Galatians

2010-01-05T03:23:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I completed Genesis and Galatians in my daily Bible reading.

I am finding that some days it is difficult to stay on track, but the effort is worth it.

-Sam Murrell+

Completed Bible Reading Since Beginning Dr. Grant Horner's Approach

2010-01-02T07:49:00.000-08:00

Today I completed Matthew and Proverbs in my Bible reading program. Since beginning Dr. Grant Horner's Bible reading program back in early November I have I read the Gospels of John and Matthew, Joshua, 1 and 2 Corinthians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, James, 1 and 2 Peter, Acts, Jude, Habbakuk, 1, 2, and 3 John and Job.

I have missed a few days, but for the most part I have been consistent. The plan requires one to read 10 chapters a day from various sections of the Bible. Several of the books are read on a monthly basis (e.g. Acts and Proverbs). I am a slow reader, so it takes me (most mornings) about an hour and 15 minutes to do all the reading. I am really enjoying it!

Tithing Teaches Our Children Some Life long Lessons About God

2009-12-31T02:45:00.000-08:00

My wife and I have eleven children, five boys and six girls. Over the years we have used many family devotional methods in an effort to be obedient to our covenant obligations as Christian parents to "train up [our children] in the way [they] should go..." (Proverbs 22:6). Christian parents need to take seriously their responsibility to educate their children in the ways of the Lord. Many do not.

It is not an option for the Christian to treat his child as though he were a blank slate allowed to determine for himself what god he will serve. As the head of his home Joshua chose on behalf of his family (Joshua 24:14). The child of the Christian is God's property, that child is holy (1 Corinthians 7:14) and should be treated as such. The covenant child is a heritage, a gift, a stewardship from God (Psalm 127:3) and we do not get to train the child as we see fit. The child is to be trained according to God's standards.

God is sovereign and in charge of everything. We give lip service to this principle without truely comprehending its full implications. This is a difficult principle to teach to children, but a major teaching tool in our arsenal that God has given us to pass on this conceppt to our children is the tithe. The concept of God's Lordship
cannot be passed on to children unless we are seriously attempting to order our lives around it. And one of the areas in which we have the most difficult time acknowledging God's sovereignty is money and possessions.

One of the first things a child learns to say is 'mine'. Put any two children in a room, and fill it with the world's most wonderful toys and before long you will hear them arguing and screaming man's favorite four letter word- 'mine'. The tithe is designed to teach us there is no such thing as 'mine' for the follower of Christ. It teaches that all our possessions belong to the LORD. The tithe says nothing is truely ours, it is all His. When we give to God we are merely giving 'Thee but Thy own', as the hymn writer so elequently put it.

From an early age our children were taught to tithe. When we gave them an allowance they were told that 10% had to be given to God on Sunday. In fact, that was the main reason we gave them an allowance, we wanted them to learn the joy of freely giving back to God.

Several of my daughters babysit from time to time and the first thing they do with their money is take out 10% and set it aside for Sunday's offering. Next, they take out another 10% for their personal savings. Finally, from what is left, they pay their debts and spend as they please (within certain parentally prescribed limits). They do not even give it a second thought. It is what God expects and they actually look forward to giving on Sundays. It seems to mean more when it is an offering earned by them.

Does it last into adulthood? Do they continue to tithe once they are on their own? I honestly do not know. I have never asked. Of the seven who are college age or older I know, anecdotally, that at least three of them still tithe and see it as an act of worship to do so. I know this because it has come up in casual conversation.

If you are a Christian parent I would encourage you to teach your children at an early age that God is Lord over all of life. And there is no better place to model this truth than with your money and possessions.

Proverbs 26:17

2009-12-27T03:21:00.000-08:00

Last night I was watching the news before bed in an effort to catch up on what is going on in the world. The news is a sad reminder of man's inhumanity to man, of the truth of total depravity. Last night was no exception.

It is always a sad thing when someone dies, but it is especially tragic when someone dies trying to do good. While visiting family in South Carolina for the holidays a man from Memphis was shot when he noticed an argument taking place at the apartment complex where he was staying. He inserted himself into the fight in an effort to bring calm to the situation and someone pulled a gun and shot him in the chest. And just like that he is dead.

I was reminded of this incident this morning when I read Proverbs 26:17, "Like one who seizes a dog by the ears is a passer-by who who meddles in a quarrel not his own."

A Bowl Suggestion

2009-12-26T12:12:00.000-08:00

We are in the middle of college bowl season. There are more football bowl games than I care to keep up with. I can't imagine sitting down and trying to watch them all.
I do, however, have a suggestion for one more bowl game.

I think the two teams with the worse records should square off in the "Toilet Bowl" at the end of the year. It could be sponsored by "Sani-Flush" or "Charmin". The winner in this case, would actually be the loser. The loser would be named the worse team of that particular football season. It would be all about school pride. This way, there would be no doubt in anyone's mind which school fielded the worst team in a given year.

The first annual "Sani-Flush Toilet Bowl"...I like it.

Gambling Steals a Child's Christmas

2009-12-18T18:58:00.000-08:00

I wrote this when I was the Executive Director of Casino Watch, Inc. It is posted at ww.CasinoWatch.org

As the oldest of four children growing up in central Florida, I remember Christmas as a time of tremendous uncertainty. Most children have some uncertainty regarding Christmas because they wonder if they will get what they requested from jolly ole Saint Nick. My uncertainty, however, was associated with whether I would get anything for Christmas. No, I wasn’t such a bad child that I had no right to expect anything from the jolly old elf. And no, my uncertainty was not due to my step-father being unemployed. Actually, he had a pretty good job in the construction industry. My uncertainty came from the fact that my step-father loved to gamble.

He played cards, he rolled dice, he bet on the outcome of sporting events, he even bet on our German Shepherd in dog fights. Bills regularly went unpaid. There were weeks when he walked through the door on Friday evening having lost his whole paycheck between the time he got off work and the time he arrived home. Eventually, we were evicted from our home due to falling behind in payments. These were all part of the natural consequences of living with a gambler. His choices affected our family’s economic reality every day of the year. But somehow the way his gambling affected Christmas is what I remember most. Gambling is much more than harmless entertainment. Gambling, among other things, steals a child’s Christmas.

Christmas is a time for celebrating the birth of Jesus, but for children in our culture it has also become magical time. A time for dreaming the impossible. A time for hoping against hope. A time when a child dares to believe that his dreams could actually come true. Unfortunately, for many children across this great nation of ours, it has become a time of shattered dreams, and empty promises. Many of those shattered dreams and broken promises are directly related the plague of casino activity which sweeping our nation.

I have worked with children and hurting people since my final year in graduate school, 1985. I spent 8 years in the pastorate, two years in the field of education and I have another ten years experience in social services working with the homeless, abused children, counseling troubled youth, and providing outpatient therapy to adults with various addictions and mental health diagnoses. When I was asked to consider becoming the Executive Director of Casino Watch I leaped at the opportunity to focus my energies on stopping the spread of casinos. An industry which, by its own admission, “…doesn’t create anything… It offers entertainment and leisure…but it doesn’t create anything in the long run”. (The Luck Business , Robert Goodman, page 15. The quote is from a Casino Developer.) What casinos do create that does have a lasting affect on our communities are divorces, bankruptcies, depression, increase in criminal activity, increase in suicide attempts and an increase in youth gamblers, to name a few. Is this what you want in your community? I have seen, first hand, the devastation problem gambling can have on a family. The supposed economic benefits of casinos pale in comparison when placed along side the devastating social impact that these life sucking neon leeches have on a community. It’s the equivalent of social strip mining.

Before Honor Comes Humility

2009-12-17T04:35:00.000-08:00

Proverbs 15:33,"The fear of the LORD is the instruction for wisdom, and before honor comes humility."

True wisdom begins with understanding that YHWH is God and I am not. That is what it means to fear, or reverance Him. It means I have come to understand that even though I often do not understand what He is up to by His actions I accept that He knows best. By choosing to settle that question in my mind I am choosing the way of wisdom, biblical wisdom.

The second half of the proverb tells me that if I desire to be used greatly of God I can expect Him to first humble me. I am proud and boastful. I tend to hold up His gifts and declare to the world, "Look at me! How great I am!" That no true honor. That is me standing in my flesh, drawing attention away for God and His glory to me and my insecurities. But the truth is I cannot be used in the way He would like to use me until He prepares me, until He humbles me.

To humble me is to break me, mold me, shape me. It means dying to self. It means killing the old man. It means becoming more like Jesus.

This is not works righteousness. It is a Kingdom principle. The truly humble man or woman has learned what it means to completely trust the LORD. He has come to rely upon Him regardless of the circumstances. He has been broken, his weaknesses made plan unto himself by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, he joyfully and willingly embraces God and whatever God may have for Him. He dares not question His Master and Lord.

Sadly, I seem to be always in the process of learning more and more how to depend on God. I have yet to go throgh that one situation that finally and ultimately brings me to the place where God can now trust me. I am thankful that He has not given up on me.

Tiger Woods is a Sex Addict, But There Hope

2009-12-16T06:24:00.000-08:00

The hot item in the news cycle right now is the adulterous lifestyle of golfer and worldwide cultural icon Tiger Woods. Many have voiced their disappointment that Woods has fallen from the pedestal upon which he has been placed by us, his adoring fans. Some of us are shocked to find that he is not so adorable after all. Tiger, it seems, is human. Reluctantly, we have found that he is corrupt, immoral, degenerate, in short he is what Reformed theology has referred to as 'totally depraved'. Tiger Woods is a sinner in need of a Savior. Not because he got caught, but because he is a fallen human being, trapped in his sin. He has done what all of us do- he sinned. unfortunately for him, his sin, like Ted Haggard's, Jimmy Swaggart, and King David's (I Samuel 11-12) was very public.

Tiger Woods is a sex addict who desperately needs to get himself into treatment. Dr. Michael Herkov, at Psychcentral.com says, "Sexual addiction is best described as a progressive intimacy disorder characterized by compulsive sexual thoughts and acts. Like all addictions, its negative impact on the addict and on family members increases as the disorder progresses. Over time, the addict usually has to intensify the addictive behavior to achieve the same results."

Tiger Woods needs to begin where all twelve step programs begin, step one. Tiger needs to admit that he is an addict (traditional Christianity calls this bondage) and that he is powerless over his addiction, that his life is unmanageable and out of control. The longer he focuses on his image, his public persona, the longer he will remain in bondage. If he is to truly be healed he must begin here. Whether his marriage survives or not is secondary at this point. If it is to have any chance of surviving he must first work on the real issue here, not his marriage, but himself.

This is my prayer for Mr. Woods, "Father, open Tiger's eyes that he may see himself as he truly is, a sinner separated from You. Then show Him, through Your Word that he and others like him, are the reason You sent Your Son to live a sinless life and offer Himself as the perfect sacrifice for sin."

The Rev. Samuel Murrell

A Qoute Regarding The Goal of Preaching

2009-12-15T12:11:00.000-08:00

"The minister carries the offer of infinite and ineffable bessedness, but it is to men who have no taste for that species of felicity."

John Angell James quoted in An Earnest Ministry;the Want of the Times

Christmas Needs Some Gravitas

2009-12-15T11:37:00.000-08:00

What passes for Christmas music is heavy on sentiment and light on biblical content and theology. Most Christmas music is sappy, mindless, and in some cases borders on filthy (e.g. 'Santa baby, hurry down the chimney tonight'). I am really looking forward to a good old lessons and carols service at church this year. Christmas could use some gravitas!

Baptism: A Quote from P.T. Forsyth

2009-12-12T08:03:00.000-08:00

Baptism is not primarily an act of the parent or the child, but of the Church, and of Christ in the Church. It is our individalism that has done most to ruin the scarament of Baptism among us. We get a wrong answer because we do not ask the right question. We ask, "What good does Baptism do me or that child?" instead of, "what is the active witnss and service the Church renders to the active Word in Christ's Gospel in the Baptism of the young or old?"

-P.T. Forsyth, quoted in Worship as Pastoral Care, by William Willimon

Worship As Pastoral Care, by William Willimon; A Book Review

2009-12-12T07:54:00.000-08:00

William H. Willimon is a professor of practical theology at Duke University. I have read several of his books and so far none have disappointed me.

In this book, Willimon attempts to explore the role public worship plays in the spiritual formation of the average parishioner. As part of that exploration he forces the minister to question his preconceived ideas about worship, liturgy and various other services familiar to Christians. He examines the part these services play in helping the Christian transition from one stage of life to the next. Life is not static, and at every stage of life the Church is there to assist the baptized from their current stage to their new stage in life. When we are born the Church baptizes us, helping to identify us as not only members of the human race (important as that is), but chiefly as members of God’s family. When it is time to marry the Church is there to help us move from singleness to married life. When our spouse dies, again the Church is there to transition us into widowhood. Willimon’s concern is that we realize life is communal and the Church, gathered for worship, is there for us every step of the way. Indeed, the Church is God’s gift to His people to assist them through these times of transition.

The book begins by exploring Willimon’s underlying presupposition that public, corporate worship matters. Not only the gathering together of the people of God, but what we do once we are gathered also matters, i.e. liturgy matters. And in this gathering pastoral care takes place under the leadership of the pastor through the use of good liturgy.

Willimon contends that worship is a major concern for the pastor. And worship, if it is to be considered good worship, must be evaluated by three norms (borrowed from James White): theological, historical, and pastoral (21).

The theological norm is concerned with who God is. It is not okay to worship any God. For Willimon, the Christian must worship God as He has revealed Himself in the Bible, or one is worshipping some false god. “Christian worship”, he says, “rests on the assumption that it makes a difference how we speak and listen to God” (22).

The second norm is historical. “The historical norm affirms that the manner in which our forebears in the faith spoke to God and were spoken to by God is of relevance for us today” (23). When it comes to worship, the Christian is not free to forget history. We are not free to act as though God has chosen to start fresh with our generation. He notes this as one of the places where the Reformation went wrong. “The historical norm reminds us that one of the best ways to arrive where we want to be today in worship is to first know where the Church’s worship has been before” (24).

The third norm is the pastoral norm for worship. By this, Willimon means that worship has to be culturally relevant. It must “reflect the people who worship” (24). He is quick to add, however, that he does not believe the people are to be the primary focus or concern of worship. If that becomes the case we can no longer call it worship because it is no longer concerned with God. But because God is concerned with people (“God so loved the world that He gave…) liturgy may not ignore the people. These norms are inseparable.

For Willimon, worship is a primary means of pastoral care that is all too often overlooked by the pastor. He blames this on the trend on the past decades toward individual counseling and the marginalization of the importance of corporate worship. Pastors have been intimidated by one on one counseling and are in the habit of deferring to the “professionals”. Willimon believes this is a mistake. Not that pastors should spend more time in one on one sessions, they should not. But, says Willimon, “My thesis is a simple one…Worship is a major, if recently neglected, aspect of pastoral care. Worship can be enriched by a better awareness of the pastoral dimensions of so-called priestly acts” (47). Willimon wants to impress upon the minister and his people the importance of the worshipping community as a key context, maybe even the key context for pastoral prayer.

In chapter three he presses the point that worship, like all human behavior, has meaning (64), and if people are to fully benefit from worship they need to understand as much as possible of what is taking place in the liturgy. Not only that, but the pastor needs to be able to diagnose what is going on with the people in worship. The pastor should not take for granted that everyone in the congregation even has the same understanding of God. Some of them, due to a false understanding of God, says Willimon, may not even be worshipping the Triune God of Scripture.
Using Paul Pruyser’s seven diagnostic variables (the person’s awareness of the holy; the person’s view of divine providence; their faith commitments; their understanding of grace, repentance life together in community, and their understanding of vocation), he suggests a pastor can diagnose his people’s worship as well as the function and meaning of worship for individuals within the congregation. I do not have the space to examine each of these individually here, but suffice it to say I doubt if this can be done by a pastor with everyone in his congregation, even a small congregation. I can however see the benefit of a sermon series on each of these variables, and thereby challenging people to examine themselves in light of these variables.

In chapter four he next addresses how liturgy impacts the lives of congregants by either alienating them from or drawing them in to be nearer to God. He warns against tinkering with the liturgy for the sole purpose of making something happen, of moving the congregation toward a desired outcome. This, says Willimon, is a form of manipulation. Pastors are susceptible to misreading people’s behavior (another reason why I question his advice in the previous chapter on how to diagnose one’s parishioners). He uses the example of people choosing to stay away from church on the Sunday the Lord’s Supper is celebrated. The pastor may interpret this to mean they are not interested in the Supper, that they do not understand its importance. When in reality, it is precisely because they have such a high view of the Supper that they have chosen to stay away. They do not believe themselves to be worthy to partake. It is the pastors job to affirm that they are not worthy, but to show that because of Jesus they have unmitigated access.

In chapter five Willimon opens with this statement, “Liturgy functions as a means of helping us cope with life’s most difficult circumstances” (100). He then proceeds to display this in regards to death and the funeral, marriage and the wedding (chapter six). Each of these represents a point of critical transition in the life of the baptized, and at each point the community of the baptized is there to not only help one make the transition, but to actually transition with the person. The Church changes when a member dies, or marries, when a baby is born and the husband and wife change status to become parents. Liturgy is there to help the individual and the community to make this transition and reincorporate the person in their new status.
In chapters seven and eight, Willimon addresses the sacraments and their role in pastoral care. In my opinion he is at his best as a pastoral theologian when he is expounding the beauty and meaning of Baptism and the Eucharist.

The book closes with pastoral advice for pastors. Willimon makes the case that many pastors are not good worship leaders because they have an “inadequate understanding and experience of ordination” (197). This inadequate understanding is, at its root, a failure on the part of the minister to realize that he has been called and set apart to serve in his priestly capacity by the people he serves. Therefore, he must take seriously his role as the worship leader. He sets the tone and the people will follow because they have already recognized Gods hand on his life.

This book deserves to be read by every pastor or priest in the Christian tradition. Even though Willimon is a Methodist he has a broad enough understanding of the Church that, regardless of one’s tradition, one will benefit from this book.

A Quote Regarding The Call of the Preacher

2009-12-08T18:44:00.000-08:00

"Most men in the Christian ministry today, I solemnly believe, have been mistaken concerning their own divine vocation. I am saying, bluntly, that God has not called them. We know from their message that God has not called them because they are contradicting His own words. They have never understood the Gospel." -Geoffrey Thomas in Preaching: The Man, The Message, The Method

Holy E-Mail

2009-12-08T13:05:00.000-08:00

This joke was forwarded to me by a friend. It is cute. I hope you enjoy it.

One day God was looking down at earth and saw all of the rascally behavior
that was going on. So He called one of his angels and sent the angel to
earth for a time.

When he returned, he told God, 'Yes, it is bad on earth; 95% are misbehaving
and only 5% are not.

God thought for a moment and said, 'Maybe I had better send down a second
angel to get another opinion.'

So God called another angel and sent him to earth for a time.
When the angel returned he went to God and said, 'Yes, it's true..The earth
is in decline; 95% are misbehaving, but 5% are being good.'

God was not pleased. So He decided to e-mail the 5% who were good, because
he wanted to encourage them, and give them a little something to help them
keep going.

Do you know what the e-mail said? Okay, I was just wondering, because I didn't get one either.

A Review of Thomas Howard's "The Liturgy Explained"

2009-12-07T10:17:00.000-08:00

Dr. Thomas Howard is the brother of the well known evangelical Anglican Elizabeth Elliot. He now a practicing Roman Catholic, but he grew up in an evangelical home. Over the years his journey has led him to conclude that being evangelical is not enough (see his book, Evangelical is Not Enough). He was Anglican when he first wrote this particular booklet. This is its thirteenth printing, which attests to how well it has been received by western Anglicans and Episcopalians.

The Liturgy Explained, is a very helpful place to begin for anyone seeking to better understand what is taking place in the liturgy. Dr. Howard states up front that his “reflections are egregiously lay” (Howard 7). By that he means that the booklet is not intended to be a theological dissertation. It was written with the man in the pew in mind, regardless of how short or how long a period he may have been sitting in the pew. For the most part, I believe Dr. Howard succeeds at dealing with the concerns of the average person who might walk into an Anglican church and feel totally out of touch with the worship service.

Since Rite II of the 1979 Prayer Book (BCP) is the service that the average person who enters an Episcopal Church is likely to encounter Howard follows the major headings of that Rite.

In the introductory chapter Howard lays the ground work for the reader before he takes him on a grand tour of the liturgy. He addresses what he calls the three questions “which seem to present themselves when we come to the matter of liturgy” (Howard 9). They are: Why do we have ritual and ceremony? What is sacrament? And, what is the Eucharist? After giving brief, but precise answers to these questions he comments of the procession which may or may not be a part of the liturgy in any given Anglican church.

Having laid the foundation, Dr. Howard begins at the beginning, so to speak, with the Word of God. He walks the reader through the opening acclamation, the collect for purity, the Kyrie, the Gloria, and the Collect of the Day. Howard does a wonderful job of explaining each of these. Having come to this point in the liturgy, the worshipper is now ready to hear the Word of the Lord.

Dr. Howard explains the importance of the lessons and gives particular care to the Gospel reading and its place in the liturgy. He very carefully, and with great affection elaborates on the reading of the lessons, the responses to the readings by the people and the ceremony surrounding the reading of the Gospel.

Next, we move to the sermon. The sermon is an exposition of one or more of the lessons. It is followed by the corporate response of restating the Creed. It is appropriate to stand and affirm this we believe after having heard the Word read and preached. Dr. Howard next moves the reader into prayer. This includes the Prayers of the People and Confession of Sin. And having been made right with God we come to the Peace. Dr. Howard says, “The liturgy brings us to the point where, having prayed for all men, and having made our confession and received absolution, we proclaim together our citizenship in that joyful realm known as the Kingdom of Heaven…” (Howard 26).

The booklet then naturally moves to an overview of Holy Communion. This is a very special time in the service for the people of God. So special, that Dr. Howard reminds the reader that the early Church would dismiss the unbaptised at this point in the liturgy. He then takes the reader on a guided tour of Holy Communion beginning with the Offertory, moving to the Sanctus and Benedictus, the Prayer of Consecration, the Breaking of the Bread, Communion proper, the Agnus Dei, the Benediction and the Dismissal, explaining each with the utmost clarity.

In this booklet, Dr. Howard shows that nothing in the liturgy is superfluous. Every word, every action has meaning. And the more the worshipper understands the more he will be free to worship.

He closes the booklet with a section appropriately named, Why Do You Do That? This is a very good section that leaves one with the impression that he has had many opportunities to answer questions posed by liturgical novices.

My biggest complaint about Dr. Howards otherwise well written booklet has to do with the way he deals with the one issue that would prompt the most questions from the average western evangelical who is not familiar with the liturgy of the BCP, the prayers for the dead (Howard 24-25). Howard acknowledges that this practice “might arouse more questions than others” (24), but his answers are completely unsatisfactory. In essence, he ends up saying, “Why not pray for the dead?” There is no attempt at giving a biblical justification for the practice, nor is there an attempt made at informing the reading of the historical origin of the practice. I understand that to do so may have been a bigger task than he felt he could address and maintain his goal of producing an accessible manual for the liturgical novice, but it is a glaring oversight, speaking as one new to Anglicanism. This oversight needs to be addressed if the booklet is to serve any real usage beyond the Anglo-catholic segment of Anglicanism. Even though he states, “I have tried to steer as nonpartisan a course as possible through high and low church matters for the simple reason that we ought not to begin with questions that divide”, I contend that by failing to address this topic and the Invocation of the Saints (39) from a biblical perspective (or even from the perspective of tradition) he failed to take into consideration a critical concern for people whom Dr. Robert Webber refers to as evangelicals on the Canterbury trail.

I highly recommend this booklet for anyone looking to get a more devotional understanding of what is taking place in the liturgy. However, if you’re looking for an god explanation of why some Anglicans pray for the dead you will not find it here.

A Strange Thing Happened on the Way to the Fried Chicken

2009-12-03T18:10:00.000-08:00

Today, while visiting some old friends in Cape Girardeau, Mo., I had another racist, but harmless encounter with a well meaning white person that we blacks sometimes have in this country. I was never in any danger, but while it was happening I was asking God why He occasionally puts me through these.

My friends and I (my friends are Caucasian) were having lunch at Ryan's Buffet. They were already seated and eating because I arrived late. When I went to the food bar an elderly woman struck up a conversation with me while we waited for the fried chicken to be replenished. I was wearing my clerical collar so I think she assumed I was friendly. And she was right. I really am quite friendly. After greeting me she launched into a story from her childhood. I stood and smiled politely as she recounted the first time her mother attempted to drop her off and leave her in the care of a black person. She laughed as she recalled how afraid she was of black people as a child. Yep, you read it correctly. The whole point of the story was to tell me, a complete stranger, a black stranger, how afraid she was of black people as a young child.

I'm not quite certain why she thought I would be edified by this story. The only thing I can possibly think of is that maybe she was telling me this in the hopes that her mother was looking down from heaven with a big approving smile on her face saying, "That's my girl! Look at her! She's speaking with a real live black man! She has come so far."

I was not offended. It was somewhat of a surreal moment. You're probably wondering what I did, right? Well, when she finished her story I smiled and decided it was time for me to get some green beans. I could always come back for the fried chicken later, like after she got her food and returned to her seat.

Sermon or Homily?

2009-12-03T02:16:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving Day my family and I worshipped at a Presbyterian church pastored by an old friend. The bulletin said he was preaching a homily. I have always thought that a homily was a short sermon. To me that meant that if a sermon is 35 minutes in length a homily is probably going to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 to 15 minutes, give or take a minute. Well, my friend's homily was at least 30 minutes in length. Some homily, I thought. He needs to make certain he uses the correct terms in the bulletin next time! Or, so I thought. Until I decided to look up homily.

According to dictionary.com, one meaning of homily is, "A sermon, especially one intended to edify a congregation on a practical matter and not intended to be theological discourse." Hmmm... Nothing in there about length. It turns out that I have been operating under false assumptions all these years.

My friend's homily was very good and very edifying. I almost missed its point because I thought I was so smart.

Thanksgiving 2009

2009-12-02T13:36:00.000-08:00

This Thanksgiving we spent the day with family in St. Louis, Mo. For the first time one of our children hosted, not us. It was a little strange. I felt out of control.

We had nine of our eleven children present. My wife's father and one of her sisters was also able to make it. My two oldest children were not able to come. The food and hospitality was awesome! Elijah and Lauren were great hosts! The best part is that they do not care for collard greens, so we got to put them on ice and bring them back to Memphis, where I have been putting a "beat down on them"!

The day after Thanksgiving, my daughter in law, Kheyla, gave birth to her third child, our fifth grandchild! That day, the 27th, was also our youngest child's birthday.

Although I am currently out of work and struggling financially, it was easy to look around that table at family and realize what really matters in life. I am truly a rich man.

Another Good Article on Race

2009-12-02T13:27:00.001-08:00

I'm sure what's going on out there in the Christian world this week, but it seems there is a lot of good stuff being written about race this week from a truly Christian worldview.

The Christian understanding of God calls us to see all as equal in his love and grace. But American public secular education is all hung up, spending millions upon millions of dollars to try to find inequalities in academic achievement between races. Evaluations have shown basically that Asian Americans tend to score slightly higher than the Caucasian Americans, Caucasian Americans above Black Americans, and Black Americans somewhat higher than Hispanic Americans in overall academic achievement. But there are individuals from every race who excel, so why not focus here?

Education is not determined by outward influences such as the amount of money spent, the quality of facilities and learning materials, the appropriate methods and curriculums, the right regulations established, and the best trained teachers and administrators in themselves. What matters as well is the inner commitment and personal motivation of students who want to learn and are willing to responsibly seek the quest of knowledge. We don’t educate races, but we are to educate people.

The integration of public schools greatly helped Black American achievement to climb, but the gap still remains. With the great influx of Hispanics, both legal and illegal, the problem is only amplified. But just how much does comparing racial quotas in educational achievement really contribute to educational achievement? Each student is an individual, and we all differ. Placing students in racial categories is a fallacy that only tends to promote racial prejudice and the stereotyping it purports to be attacking!

The “No Child Left Behind” legislation instituted by President George W. Bush, and that seems to be accepted by President Barack Obama, can be said to be geared toward developing mediocrity. “One of the criticisms of “No Child Left Behind” is that it focuses on kids who are at the edge of proficiency,” said Ronald Ferguson, director of Harvard University’s Achievement Gap Initiative. “Kids who are too far below or too far above won’t help you make Adequate Yearly Progress” toward the law’s 2014 goal, Ferguson said.

Our culture is increasingly becoming a combination of many racial groups. The Census Bureau estimates in 2010 about thirty-two percent of the U.S. population will be of African, Asian, Native American, and Latino origin. Here is a dramatic increase in the number of ethnic minority students entering public education. Black Americans were once the basic minority, but the scene is changing with a multiplicity of other minority groups in school.

Many students are not ethnically just of one race. It is not just white, black, red, and yellow, as we once learned in school. It is an amalgamated culture racially, with many children of parents of different races. Thus, to have laws of reverse discrimination that seek to increase minority students’ achievement, is a fallacy, for what makes a minority student? Furthermore, to classify a person as a minority in no way means that he or she is behind in academic achievement. To spend all of this effort in public education to evaluate the racial achievement gaps and to balance out academic achievement between the races is a fallacy!

President Obama is classified black, yet he is fifty percent Caucasian. In fact, less than ten percent of Black Americans are of one hundred percent sub-Saharan African descent, as most are partially Caucasian or combinations of other racial groupings. Hispanics overall are a mixture of multiple races. Many persons classified as oriental are mixed with Caucasian, black, or other racial groups. Very few Native Americans are ethnically one hundred percent Native American. Why then do we continue to segregate students in the public schools by grouping them into racial classifications? Often, academic achievement is greatly influenced by the group in which one is classified.

A friend of mine who holds a master’s degree is black by contemporary categorization. When he first enrolled in college, he was to fill out the form that asked his race. The choices were white, black, oriental, Indian, and a number of other classifications. There was a spot for “other,” and he marked his race to be “other,” writing beside it that he was of the human race. His ancestry was Black and Native American, but he saw himself as a person. His choice caused quiet a stir, for “other” was unacceptable. He insisted on affirming his individuality—as racial classification was not adequate. Let people be people!

Galatians 3:26 & 28 speaking to the Christian community declares, “For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus…There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond or free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.” Christ is the key for affirming racial diversity and socio-economic unity. This goes to the heart of the matter, which is the human heart, the basic inner personage in each one. Here is what is basic to the freedom that was established in America—one nation under God. It is tested each day in each one, and in particularly in each of us who know Christ—the call to glorify God in all we do, “studying to [show ourselves] approved unto God, rightly dividing the word of truth” (II Timothy 2:15).

Public education is not Christian, but we need to follow the Christian example and do away with categorizing people by race. Let people be people. Setting racial quotas does not necessarily improve educational achievement, and it can be argued that it may actually be harmful. Doing away with categorization by race would be a good step toward improving American education!

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by Joe Renfro, Ed.D., Radio Evangelist, Retired Teacher and Pastor, Box 751, Lavonia, Georgia 30553, 706-356-4173, joerenfro@windstream.net

An Excellent Article on Race by Gary DeMar

2009-12-02T03:46:00.000-08:00

I find much that Gary DeMar has to say to be filled with sagacity. The article below on racism is an example of what I mean. It and other such sagacious writings can be found at www.americanvision.com

There’s a scene in the film Malcolm X when Malcolm Little (later to take the name Malcolm X, X standing for his unknown African heritage[1]) is in prison and is introduced to the philosophy of the “Honorable Elijah Muhammad” and the Nation of Islam (N.O.I.) by a fellow prisoner named John Elton Bembry. (Bembry is a composite character who does not appear in the book The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Malcolm’s family members introduced him the tenets of the N.O.I.) Malcolm was wasting his life outside of prison, and he was wasting his life in prison. Bembry saw something in Malcolm, but Malcolm was resistant to change and had no interest in the Nation of Islam until Bembry showed him a dictionary and the definitions of “black” and “white.” It was a strategic move that rattled the former street hustler.

The definition of “black,” as Bembry read from an edition of Webster’s Dictionary, is always negative: “destitute of light, devoid of color, enveloped in darkness, utterly dismal or gloomy, soiled with dirt, foul, sullen, hostile, forbidding, outrageously wicked.” White, on the other hand, is positive: “the color of pure snow, the opposite of black, free from spot or blemish, innocent, pure, without evil intent, harmless, square deal, honest.” Malcolm makes a connection: “This is written by White folks, right?” White is wrong, Black is right, just like the Nation of Islam teaches.[2]

Malcolm Little became Malcolm X and embraced the racist ideology of the (N.O.I.). To Malcolm, the White man is a “blue-eyed Devil.” This was the teaching of the Nation of Islam as articulated by its founder Wallace D. Fard Muhammad and his successor Elijah Muhammad. Race became Malcolm’s entry into the Black community, and he used it well to recruit fellow blacks. But after leaving the N.O.I., he began to change his view of White people. He began to see that not all Whites were devils. As his assassination at the hands of Black men proved, some Blacks are devils.

Malcolm’s break with the N.O.I. did not set well with the organization’s leadership. This included Elijah Muhammad and Louis X, better known as Louis Farrakhan. While in Mecca on a pilgrimage, Malcolm wrote the following to his assistants at the Harlem Mosque:

Never have I witnessed such sincere hospitality and the overwhelming spirit of true brotherhood as is practiced by people of all colors and races. . . . You may be shocked by these words coming from me. But on this pilgrimage, what I have seen, and experienced, has forced me to rearrange much of my thought-patterns previously held, and to toss aside some of my previous conclusions. . . .[3]
While Malcolm changed his views regarding race, it seems that there are people today who define everything by race. Farrakhan and Rev. Jeremiah Wright are extremist examples of keeping the issue of race front and center in American politics. There are others. But what’s most irritating is the way some people see race in everything and make a point of keeping the wound of racial conflict festering.

At the beginning of this article, I mentioned the dictionary scene in the film Malcolm X. The streetwise Malcolm naively accepts the illogical leap that the definitional meaning of black and its descriptive attributes are applicable to people with dark skin. A dictionary edited by Blacks would have to acknowledge that the definition of “black” is the absence of light. In fact, The Urban Dictionary offers these definitions:

1. A color widely defined as the absence of light.
2. The darkest shade possible
3. The opposite of white . . . best described on the Yin & Yang symbol.
Bembry was poisoning the well by continually stating that these are the White man’s definitions. He had a vested interest in making all aspects of White society and culture, even the standard definition of black, to mean anti-Black person. It’s a common tactic. You can easily win a debate by making an issue “racial.” Conversation over.

Joy Behar, who co-hosts on “The View,” couldn’t help turning “Black Friday” into a racial issue. Whoopi Goldberg opened the show with the declaration that “Today is Black Friday, all day long.” Behar offers this rejoinder: “Isn’t it a little racist to call it Black Friday? . . . [T]here’s a negative connotation to it? Or does it mean something else?” Goldberg, for once, had better sense: “No, it's like when you make all the money—you’re in the black.” Behar finally gets it: “So it’s positive?” Yes, Joy, it’s positive. Being “in the black” is better than being “in the red.” It won’t be too long before some Native Americans protest that a red should no longer be used to indicate a deficit.

Blacks are not helped by the continued claim that all problems for them are racial. Some are, but many aren’t. Black on Black crime is not the fault of White people. Sky-high out-of-wedlock births are not the fault of Whites. High dropout rates among Blacks are not the fault of Whites. The solution is not to cry “racism” and blame everything on Whites or hundreds of years of oppression. Blacks won’t find their problems solved by appealing to the State. Welfare programs have done a lot to keep Black families down by subsidizing family fragmentation and fostering multi-generational dependency. Black problems aren’t solved by naming streets after Martin Luther King, Jr. The same can be said for the King Holiday and Black History Month. These are liberal crumbs to appease the Black community, but have any of these actions helped Blacks? Guilt-ridden Whites vote for them, and anyone who does not will be labeled, you guessed it, a “racist.”

This is not to say that Blacks should imitate “White culture.” There is nothing inherently good in being White. Whites have similar pathologies. There is no inherently good Black culture. Black is not always beautiful, and, of course, the same can be said for white. There’s a great deal of good in both cultures.[4] Malcolm Little came to his senses in prison. He decided that he was not going to play the victim any longer. The dictionary that put him on the road to racial hatred also liberated him. He studied that dictionary until it became a part of him. But it wasn’t until he abandoned the line that it’s all the White man’s fault that he was truly free.

Some Blacks will say that I don’t know what it’s like growing up Black. There is no doubt about it; I don’t know what it’s like, and I never will. But my lack of Black perspective doesn’t change what is going on in some areas of the Black community. I can’t change what I’m not, but I am responsible to change what I am. There is no one to blame but me. The sooner I realized this, the sooner I took responsibility for my failings.
Endnotes:

[1] The “X” is not the Roman numeral 10. The “X” was a placeholder for a Black person’s unknown African name. His American surname was given to him by his slave master. Cassius Clay became Muhammad Ali, and Lew Alcindor became Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
[2] For a succinct study of the Nation of Islam history and philosophy, see Richard Abanes, Cults, New Religious Movements, and Your Family: A Guide to Ten Non-Christian Groups out to Convert Your Loved Ones (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1998), chap. 6.
[3] The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley (1965), 391.
[4] There had been a vibrant Black culture in America, even before the end of segregation. See Mark Cauvreau Judge, If It Ain’t Got that Swing: The Rebirth of Grown-Up Culture (Dallas, TX: Spence Publishing Co., 2000).

A Prayer of Frustration

2009-11-24T05:04:00.000-08:00

Today, despite my best efforts at saturating myself in Your word, I am frustrated with You and Your timing. Psalm 13:1-2 is as real as it has ever been. Where am I missing it? What am I doing wrong?

My prayer today mirrors Davids question: "How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day?"

Disappointment and Gloomy Weather: Bad Combination

2009-11-23T08:04:00.000-08:00

Disappointment is a part of life. We all experience it. Life has its fair share of joys, and seemingly more than its fair share of disappointments. There can be no success without disappointment. Keep that in front of you. Remind yourself of that truism everytime you fail to achieve the desired results.

This weekend I experienced a pretty significant disappointment in my life. At least, I think it was. I set myself up for it by allowing myself to lose objectivity. I did not remain emotionally aloof, and as a result I ended up being very disappointed. It does not matter what the disappointment was, after all, it is not the end of the world, but for me it was disheartening...no, that's not true. For me, it is disheartening.

Today however, I've noticed something else about disappointment. It seems to hit you harder when the sun hides behind clouds and avoids you. Just when you need the sun most he decides to sleep in, or worse, to take the whole day off. Disappointment is bad enough, but when it is compounded with a gloomy, overcast, drizzly day like today I find it almost paralyzing.

So Lord, I ask that You would be my sun and shield today (Psalm 84:11). I especially need You to be my sun. The quicker I sense some some light the better. Amen.

What is Christianity?

2009-11-20T14:56:00.000-08:00

"For what is Christianity but Christ living His resurrected life through the members of His Body, the Church?" - William Law

Discipling Our Children

2009-11-17T05:53:00.000-08:00

Deuteronomy 6:4-7 says, "Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up." This text teaches the believer several important things about discipling covenant children.

1. The spiritual training of covenant children (children born into Christian families) is primarily the responsibility of the parents. If this is true, and it is, this means that parents should take great care to make certain that whomever they place their child under for any type of training (especially school) intends to reinforce scriptural values and principles. Think about this, if you are sending your child to a school where your values are constantly being assaulted are you taking seriously the parental duty to train your child in the ways of God? If I am telling my child that God created the heavens and the earth and the so-called scientific expert at school is telling my child that all that we see in creation is due to evolution, and the same school system that sanctions this teaching will not even allow the topic of creation or intelligent design to be brought into the academic arena, am I being faithful to my duty as a parent to train my child "in the way he should go"? We are having children, baptizing them and then turning them over to a godless system to train them. In the coming days the support of Christian education and home schooling is going to be more important than ever to the survival of our children.

2. The content of that training is to be saturated with God's word. Too many Christian parents are ignorant of the Bible and it's core teachings about God, man and salvation. And as a result they are in no condition to obey this text. Just examine the average adult Sunday school classes and notice what percentage of the adults actually attend. It is sad, but there are adults who have been sitting in church for years who cannot tell you if a particular book of the Bible is in the OT or the NT. It's no wonder our children do not take our faith seriously. God has not called all Christians to be Bible scholars, but there are basic teachings that every Christian should be conversant with that far too many know little or nothing about. This is easily overcome!

3. The method of that training is to be all pervasive. The training is not limited to the classroom. The truth is, the classroom is one of the least effective venues for learning for most of us. The parent is to expose the child to the practical life changing word of God in every and all circumstances. The child learns how to apply the word of God. The child learns by watching the parent apply the word, and by and listening to the parent constantly and naturally explaining his/her choices and applications in life from the Scripture. What would happen if the children of Christian parents saw them daily wrestling with the word in an attempt to accurately apply it to their own lives?

My children know that I love football because I talk about it and I make it a priority to watch certain games during the season. They know that when the Superbowl rolls around dad is going to carve out the time to watch the game. But do they know that I have a passion for knowing the word of God and for making certain that our family lives by it no matter what? If they do not, why is that the case?

Every Christian parent has an obligation to pour themselves into their children and to do everything possible to make certain they grow up being instilled with the ways of God.

The Will of God

2009-11-16T14:56:00.000-08:00

"What is done in the will of God, the strength of God will not be witheld from it." - Andrew Murray in Absolute Surrender

Faith

2009-11-16T07:32:00.000-08:00

"The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith." - George Mueller

Whose Will?

2009-11-16T07:27:00.000-08:00

"In practice, the preference of God's will means setting aside and sacrificing or own will." - Thomas Merton

A Drug for Politicians!

2009-11-16T07:23:00.000-08:00

Professor Grant Horner's Bible Reading System

2009-11-14T14:13:00.000-08:00

I was recently introduced Professor Grant Horner's Bible Reading System at our AMiA Network meeting. I try to read through the Bible every year, but this is a very aggressive and unique method of reading through the Scripture. If you put Professor Grant's name in a search engine you can take a look at the specifics yourself.

It involves reading 10 chapters a day from 10 separate books of the Bible. Professor Horner has broken the Bible up into 10 sections and he has you reading a chapter from each list every day. Here is a sample of what you would cover if you followed this plan.

List 1 consists of the Gospels. By reading a chapter a day you finish the Gospels is 89 days. List 2 is the Pentateuch. A chapter a day gets you through this list in 187 days, and on it goes. When you complete the list you start over. A few of the lists contain only one book. Proverbs, Psalms and Acts, each have their own list.

I've only been doing it for a week, but I'm really enjoying it. Horner says you should be able to read each days 10 chapters in about 20 minutes. I'm not a fast reader and when it comes to the Scriptures I'm constantly stopping to enjoy the view. This morning it took me an hour and half to complete the reading. As a lover of God's Word I think I am going to enjoy this.

A Simple Misunderstanding About Xmas

2009-11-13T13:50:00.000-08:00

One of my adult daughters called me today. She was quite upset because she had sent out an email about Christmas and she used the abbreviation "Xmas" instead of spelling out "Christ". Immediately, she began receiving the obligatory, "Don't take Christ out of Christmas" responses from some of the people. What upset her was that she felt some of these people should have known better because they are involved in full time ministry.

Christians, check www.Snopes.com. Even this secular site recognizes the origin of the 'X' in Xmas. "The X is neither modern nor disrespectful." The site goes on to say, accurately, that "the usage is nearly as old as Christianity itself. And its origins lie in the fact that the first letter in the word Christ is 'chi', and the Greek 'chi' is represented by a symbol similar to the letter 'X' in the modern Roman alphabet. Hence, 'Xmas is a perfectly legitimate abbreviation for the word Christmas (just as 'Xian' is sometimes used as an abbreviation for 'Christian).

My daughter made two mistakes that many people make when they think about people in church leadership. First of all, she assumed that all pastors have received some type of formal training. Not true. I know of many churches that are pastored by people who are totally self taught. They throw up a church sign on a store front, proclaim their anointing and start preaching. Secondly, she assumed that American church leaders know church history. Again, not true. Even many solid evangelicals can only go back to the Reformation. They do not really consider the pre- reformation church to be truly Christian.

We talked about these things. She has calmed down. Her friends may still not understand, but that's okay.

Oh, by the way, Xmas will be here before you know it.

Motive Matters

2009-11-06T04:15:00.000-08:00

I am reading "Mother Teresa, a Simple Life". I have mixed feelings about the book. Some of the theology is way off base, but here's a quote of hers that is worth repeating: "Whatever I do, I for Jesus. Otherwise it is worthless, useless. So when I know I am doing it for Him, I can do it more lovingly, more compassionately towards the people who are suffering. It gives a lot of meaning to my life to know I am doing it for Him, and day after day this meaning increases."

Motive is important. What drives us to do what we do? What we do is important, but why we do it is equally as important. I have met too many Christians who minister from a place of self-centeredness. They serve, but if they are not immediately and publically recognized they become offended. In one church I pastored, a lady in the church did something kind for me and my family and when I failed to send her a thank you card the word came back to me that she was offended. As soon as we found out that she was offended by this oversight we sent her a thank you card, but it made me realize just how easy it is to offend some people who don't understand what it means to serve others. We serve to please Jesus, not to receive "warm fuzzies".

Lord, do I minister for the purpose of receiving "at-a-boys" from men? "Search me, O God, and know my heart..." Psalm 139:23

Little Rock Network Meeting

2009-11-06T03:57:00.000-08:00

Today is the last day of our Little Rock Network metting in Plano, TX. We've been meeting at Christ Church in Plano sitting under the teaching of Justyn Terry, the Dean and President of Trinity School of Ministry in the Pittsburg area.

The Rev. Dr. Terry has been teaching on Galatians and it has been wonderful! While Anglicans are not noted for their great preaching and teaching this is certainly not the case with Dr. Terry. The Lord used him to really open Paul's letter up to our group the past day or so.

This was my first meeting and I have been ministered to by the Holy Spirit through both the word and the sacrament. The fellowship has been rich as well.

How to Get the Most Out of the Bible

2009-11-02T15:17:00.000-08:00

The Bible is the word of God, and yet many who profess Christ find it dull, boring. E. Stanley Jones has some idas about how one should come to the Scriptures.

1. Come to the Bible expectantly.
2. Come surrendering to the truths there revealed.
3. Come expecting to use the truths there revealed.
4. Come unhurriedly.
5. Come to it even if nothing apparently comes from your coming.
- E. Stanley Jones

My Anglican Status

2009-10-30T09:23:00.000-07:00

As some of you know I have been going through the process of persuing holy orders in the Anglican Mission in America. It is a long and detailed process. Much more involved than my ordination into the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). Well, praise God, I've had a wonderful breakthrough! In 1998 I was ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop John Erbeldlng, currently of the Anglican Church in Georgia. At the time he was serving the United Anglican Church in south Florida, and at the request of the Rector I was working with, he agreed to ordain me as the Assistant Rector of a small church in Melbourne, FL., which eventually folded. The church was affiliated with the Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Churches.

When the church folded, I returned to ministry in the PCA, having spent 5 years prior to that in a nondenominational setting. Last year the Lord made it clear to us that we needed to be serving in an Anglican context, so we acted on that leading.

Initially, I was told, anecdotally, by someone in authority with AMiA, that my previous ordination would not be accepted by AMiA for reasons I will not mention (none having to do with me). Almost a year later, I have been assured that my previous ordination is indeed in order! That means that instead of requiring I be ordained, I need only be received by AMiA.

This Sunday, All Saints Day, I will be celebrating the Eucharist at Trinity in the Fields Anglican Church in Marion, AR., for the first time since 1998. I am looking forward to it!

10 Reasons for Believing Male Headship is in the Created Order

2009-10-06T06:12:00.000-07:00

One of the casualties of the sexual revolution of the sixties has been the biblical doctrine of male headship. The idea that God placed the man in the position of leadership in the marriage. This is a topic that only the most brave of preachers is willing to broach at this stage of the twenty first century. The cultural damage that is being perpetrated upon western civilization is mounting as we abandon this crucial doctrine.

Recently, I heard a recorded sermon by Bruce Ware, a professor at Southern Seminary in Louisville, KY., titled, "Ten Reasons for Believing Male Headship is in the Creation Mandate." Ware's position, and I think he is right, is that male headship isn't simply a religious truth (nothing is ever simply a religious truth!), but that it is God's design from creation. It was built into the very DNA of humanity from creation itself. With the advent of the fall however, men have abandoned their positions and women have rebelled against it.

Without going into great detail regarding his points, here are the ten reasons he gives. Think about them.
1. The order of creation. God created man first, 1 Timothy 2.
2. The means of the woman's creation. She was taken "out of man". 1 Cor.11:8ff
3. The woman's humanity as image of God is established in relationship to the fact that she comes from the man. 1Cor. 11:1ff; Genesis 5:3
4. The woman was created for the man's sake, or as Adam's helper. 1 Corinthians 11:9
5. Man, not the woman, was given God's moral commandment. The woman learned of God's expectations for humanity from the man (Genesis 2). The fact that the woman answered Satan shows that she had been taught God's expectations by the man. The man was given the responsibility to teach his wife.
6. Man named the woman, both before and after the entrance of sin. Before sin he called her "Woman", after sin he goes further and names her "Eve". To name something or someone indicates one has authority over the one named.
7. Satan approached the woman, not the man, thus usurping God's design for headship. Satan rejected God's authority and God's design by approaching the woman (1 Timothy 2:12-14).
8. Although the woman sinned first God comes to the man first, thus holding him responsible for the sin.
9. The curses on the man and the woman indicate the purposes for which the man and woman were created (1 Timothy 2:15; Genesis 3:14).
10. The Trinity's equality and distinction of persons is mirrored in the male female relationship.

It is my view, that within another generation, there will be so few denominations that hold to the doctrine of male headship that the traditional marriage (one man and one woman) will be in the minority and churches who only ordain men will be laughed at and ridiculed as irrelevant.

ECUSA Clergy Apologizes to Hindus for The Church Trying to Convert Hindus

2009-10-02T13:02:00.000-07:00

At the heart of the Christian message is the gospel of Jesus Christ. The truth that God so loved, that He gave. Among the very last instructions Jesus gave to the church is the Great Commission in Matthew 28, "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel." So, it seems odd that several Episcopal clergy have stepped forward and taken it upon themselves to apologize to Hindus for the history of Christians preaching the gospel to Hindus, and trying to convert them.

David Virtue reports,The BISHOP OF LOS ANGELES J. Jon Bruno formally apologized to Hindus and said that evangelizing them was unacceptable. The Hindu American Foundation acknowledged the efforts of Bishop Bruno along with the Rev. Canon Gwynne Guibord and the Rev. Karen MacQueen, for "electrifying Hindus last year after issuing a formal apology for centuries-old acts of religious discrimination including attempts to convert them."

The Hindu American Foundation honored Guibord and MacQueen the two Los Angeles area priests with its 2009 Mahatma Gandhi Award for the Advancement of Religious Pluralism at the foundation's sixth annual Capitol Hill banquet. www.virtueonline.com

I don't blame the Hindus for giving them an award, because their apology proves that the Hindus have successfully converted them! Hinduism believes there are many ways to God. And so, it seems do these ECUSA clergy woman. Every time I think I've just about seen and heard it all from liberal clergy they come up with something new.

What is particularly interesting to me as I watch ECUSA implode is that it continues to violate the very core of all that is Anglican even while claiming to be uniquely Anglican. Anglicans since the Reformation have held up the three legged stool of Scripture, Tradition and Reason as its unique contribution to protestantism. This decision by these bishops to apologize for trying to convert Hindus violates all three.

First, Scripture. The church has always believed that one of it's reasons for existing was to tell Hell bound people that Christ had come to redeem the lost and that lost, sinful people could be forgiven in Christ, and Him alone. The Bible is very clear about the contents of the gospel message and how that message is to be carried. The goal of all preaching is obedience.

Next, search tradition high and low and you will find the church holding to the exclusive, narrow truth that Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father but through Him!

Ah, but isn't it reasonable to expand our understanding with the times in order to bring Christianity into the 21st century? What is reasonable is that if you're going to invent your own religion, at least have the integrity to say it's something new and call it by a new name, because once you jettison the resurrection (as ECUSA has), and once you jettison sin (as ECUSA has) you are practicing something other than historic, biblical Christianity.

You Can't Do That in Michigan!

2009-09-26T13:06:00.000-07:00

In Michigan a woman is being threatened with jail or a $1000.00 for running a daycare without a license. The only problem is that she isn't running a day care. She allows a few friends to drop their children off at her home in the mornings for 20 to fortyfive minutes and charges them nothing. The bus stop just happens to be in front of her home and her friends need to get to work, so they drop their boys off with her. It's called neighbor helping neighbor, but Big Brother has issues with this type of behavior.

Her State Representative, Brian Calley, is responding to this the way most politicians respond to stupid laws, i.e. he's drafting legislation that would allow her to continue helping her friends (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2347699/posts). Someone should introduce a law placing a moritorium on introducing legislation in the United States for at least a year!

Sinning That Grace May Abound

2009-09-24T03:29:00.000-07:00

Recently, I had a rather brief, but fascinating conversation with a man I had never met. The meeting gave me some insight into the current crisis in the Episcopal Church.

We were scheduled to meet for something job related. I work for one company and he works for another. We happen to share a client, I was in the process of closing this client's file and I needed to staff the child with him. The gentleman noticed my crucifix and commented, "I like your cross. Are you Catholic?" I said,"No, I am Anglican". He then proceeded to tell me that he grew up in Episcopalian, and without taking a breath he said, "What I really liked about the church was that it accepted anybody, and you could go out and do whatever you wanted to do and come back on Sunday, repent, and everything was fine."

My associates understanding of grace had completely missed the mark. But it made me realize anew just how much we humans love grace but we despise law, we hate boundaries. The problem with this view of grace is that it isn't biblical. Once we separate grace from the law it becomes license. License to sin ignores the fact that God gives grace to avoid sin, as well as grace to atone for sin. That's what Romans six is all about.

The Life of the Preacher

2009-09-16T14:21:00.000-07:00

"The Life of the preacher must be the prologue of the sermon he would preach, the commentary on what he really teaches and the epilogue, the seal of the sermons he has preached. The preacher is not he who teaches for an hour on Sundays, but he teaches by deeds, for whole weeks, months, years, his whole life long, what he preaches on particular days in words." - Johann Michael Sailer

Liturgy is Life

2009-09-14T15:19:00.000-07:00

"Liturgy in Christian terms is what one does with one's life, before it means what one does in church."- Louis Weil

Praying Like You Mean It

2009-09-12T09:42:00.000-07:00

Many Christians fall into the habit of going through the motions when praying. God has a way of bringing meaning to our prayers through pressure. There is nothing like suffering to force one to one's knees, to remind one that God is real, that He is personal, that He cares about you. He is interested in you, as an individual.

David often found himself clinging to the end of his rope, desperate for God to intervene. Listen to these words,"Give ear to my words, O LORD, Consider my groanings. Heed the sound of my cry for help, my King and my God. For to Thee do I cry" (Psalm 5:1-2). In Psalm 10:1 he asks, "Why dost Thou stand afar off, O LORD?" In these and other Psalms, desperation brings David to the place where he is wondering if God is even paying attention! Ever been there? It's a hard place to endure, but having the proverbial carpet pulled out from under you will challenge your belief in your belief. Is God real? Do you really believe, not just IN Him, but do you believe HIM, i.e. His promises?

I have come to appreciate suffering, because it provides me with an opportunity to pray like I mean it. It provides me with an opportunity to say to God, "Okay, my world is crashing in all around me, show Yourself strong on my behalf, for Christ's sake!" Then, He acts powerfully, to accomplish what only He can, my redemption!

If you're suffering, pray like you mean it! And then, Stand back!

Social Justice and the Christian Supervisor

2009-09-12T08:52:00.000-07:00

How many Christian supervisors in the market place know what it means to be a Christian supervisor? In my experience most Christians really don't understand the concept of servant leadership. What does that mean? Does it mean the leader is to be the slave of those under him or her? I've never met a Christian who feels that way. Instead servant leadership (a biblical idea, to be sure) I've found it helpful to think in terms of a paraclete model of leadership.

It's not that Paraclete model is different than the servant model, it's that Paraclete is a more helpful term. Paraclete is the Greek word for counselor, one who comes along side, one who serves as an advocate. This is Jesus' role (1 John 2:1), and it is the Holy Spirit's role. To be a Paraclete is to speak for the one you're seeking to help. The Paraclete uses his power, his authority to represent the best interest of those under him. To bring it into the market place, he would never use fear as a means of motivating his people. You would never hear him say, "Do this or else!" So what does this approach look like?

This week I was listening to a talk radio program that was discussing the plight of the sanitation workers in Memphis. The workers told numerous stories of the oppression that is being poured out upon them by their supervisors, who seem to care more about their bonuses than their workers.

In one story, they told of men in their 70's who are still working as sanitation workers because they have no pension of which to speak! Think of it, a 70 year old men running behind a garbage truck for 8 hours a day! Men who have been working for the City of Memphis for 30 plus years! Men who, if they retired, would receive checks of less than a thousand dollars a month off which to live. They can't live off that, so they keep running behind a garbage truck. In another story, a sanitation workers foot was crushed by one of the tires of the garbage truck when the truck lunged unexpectedly. The man had to have a special bed brought into his home which the City attempted to repossess after several months! This, in an effort to cut costs. The City routinely, according to these workers, removes the a/c from it's new trucks in an effort to keep down fuel and maintenance costs. These cost cutting efforts end up in the pockets of supervisors as bonuses.

Living in Memphis, and knowing the South like I do, I would almost guarantee that many of the supervisors making the decisions to cut cost at the expense of these men and women are shouting the praises of Jesus on Sunday in some church somewhere. Assuming these people are sincere in their faith one has to wonder why this disconnect exists? The answer is a fragmented worldview.

Very few Christians really know how to integrate their faith with their life. They have been raised in a culture that allows, nay demands that one not bring his or her faith to bear on their career. When it comes to the workplace, Christians seem to believe that they must develop their own ethic in isolation, away from the influence of Scripture.

We need more Christians committed to coming along side the oppressed working poor. Don't assume that they are lazy if they're not meeting their productivity. Be a Paraclete and come along side the person, find out what's going on in their family. Identify the stressors in their life and find ways to encourage them and maybe temporarily lighten their load. Make a list of those you supervise and pray through that list weekly.

Supervisors are under shepherds. Your employees are your responsibility, not just a source of revenue. Find ways to bring Christ to bear in your behavior and your understanding of your calling. This is what will change our society.

A Sermon on Deuteronomy 4:1-14

2009-08-31T18:21:00.000-07:00

It is only because of the grace of God that man is even able to have a relationship with Him. Because of our broken condition we cannot approach Him lest He first approach us. He does this through the covenant of grace. The most powerful being in the universe condescends and comes to His rebellious creation and says, "I desire to be your God, and you will be my people.

I. THE SANCTIFYING REQUIREMENTS OF THE COVENANT OF GRACE
II. THE SOVEREIGN RESTRICTIONS OF THE COVENANT OF GRACE
III. THE SOBERING REMINDERS OF THE COVENANT OF GRACE
IV. THE SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP THAT IS THE COVENANT OF GRACE

Jared Murrell on Hebrews 4

2009-08-31T13:58:00.000-07:00

“Therefore”: I like that this chapter is opened with this statement. We are given a preceding exhortation to lift each other up and a warning against hardening our hearts, then are here given a reason. We saw in the previous chapter that the people of God shall have rest, but the unbeliever will not enter His rest, and we’re here warned that we should not fall short of it and be deprived of this blessing.

But it’s interesting that he uses the phrase “any one of you”. We overlook that part so often, or perhaps take it for granted. Too oft we are concerned with out own well-being that we forget to be concerned with others. But the author of Hebrews is concerned with the well-being of each of the saints, and desires that each would enter into the Lord’s rest.

Another interesting thing is that we are told to fear. Jesus frequently greeted His disciples by saying “fear not”, but here we are told to fear. But this is a different type of fear. This is a good fear: not one that shakes our confidence, rather a fear that keeps us vigilant and obedient, lest we become idle or indifferent. We are told elsewhere to work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12-13), and this is the kind of fear that a child has for his father. An affectionate desire to be pleasing to him and not to have his wrath turned upon us.

So after we are told to fear, we are exhorted in trusting the Word of the Lord, and then called to “draw near with boldness unto the thrown of grace”. Fear, be bold. It’s something we often have difficulty understanding. Boldness is not the same as arrogance. We are told to draw near to the thrown with boldness, a courage. Courage cannot be had without fear. It is not thought brave to do something unless the deed is first thought fearful. A man can do a deed with arrogance and be called brave, but this is not what is written of here. What is written of here is a boldness that comes from the promises of God. A repentant sinner will not be turned away (Jam. 4:8-10).

Humbly entering the presence of God, rightfully fearing His holiness, but taking courage in the promise of His grace, that is what the author of Hebrews is writing of here. There is nothing in me that qualifies me to enter into the presence of a Holy God, but the High Priest who has withstood all temptation without sin, stands on my behalf that I may enter and be cleansed. This is a boldness and a fear that is characteristic of the Christian

A Quote Regarding Worship

2009-08-12T03:15:00.000-07:00

"Liturgy is education. The question before us is not whether our people will learn when they worship. The question is what will they learn when we lead them in worship. We sometimes for forget that we are engaged in education everytime we lead the congregation in prayer or in the Lord's Supper or in any other ocassion of public worship." William Willimon in Worship As Pastoral Care

A Quote Regarding Worship

2009-07-26T05:40:00.000-07:00

"Our worship has to do with who God is, but it also has to do with who we are and who we wish to God we were." - Quoted by William H. Willimon in Worship As Pastoral Care

Archbishop Duncan's Tale of Two Cities

2009-07-22T08:50:00.000-07:00

An Open Letter to the Anglican Communion from Archbishop Duncan

22nd July, A.D. 2009
Feast of St. Mary Magdalene

Two Cities: One Choice
An Open Letter to the Anglican Communion

Dearest Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

There are times in the history of God’s people when the prevailing values and behaviors of those then in control of rival cities symbolizes a choice to be made by all of God’s people. For Anglicans such a moment has certainly arrived. The cities symbolizing the present choice are Bedford, Texas, and Anaheim, California. In the last month, the contrasting behaviors and values of the religious leaders who met in these two small cities made each a symbol of Anglicanism’s inescapable choice.

Jerusalem and Babylon come to mind as the Scriptural cities which are enduring symbols of choices to be made by God’s people, and of what can happen when God’s people make a choice for something other than God’s Way, God’s Truth, God’s Life, as set out in God’s Covenant, whether Old or New.

Charles Dickens contrasts London and Paris in the last quarter of the 18th Century in his Tale of Two Cities. Both cities are in crisis, but one operates from received values and behaviors, while the other attempts to re-make the world to its own revolutionary tastes.

St. Augustine of Hippo in his De Civitate Dei contrasts the City of God and the City of the World, explaining the fate of Rome in terms of the favor that comes from conforming to the behaviors and values of the Heavenly City as over against the Earthly City.

The Anglican Church in North America, whose leaders met at Bedford, Texas, from June 20th to June 25th, embraced the values and behaviors familiar to Christians in every age: daily repenting of human sin in disobeying the one Lord, embracing the need (both personal and corporate) of a divine Savior, and recommitting to the proclamation in word and deed of the gospel of transforming love. The unity at Bedford, despite very real differences, was palpable.

The Episcopal Church, whose leaders met at Anaheim, California, from July 8th to 17th, blessed the values and behaviors of a re-defined Christianity: enabling a revisionist anthropology, budgeting litigation rather than evangelism, and confusing received understandings of Scriptural truth, not least concerning the necessity of individual salvation in Christ Jesus. At Anaheim, there were those who valiantly stood against the revolutionary majority, and their pain and grief at what was happening was heartbreaking for all who saw it, not least for their brothers and sisters in the Anglican Church in North America.

The North American poet, Robert Frost, once wrote: “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the road less traveled by. That has made all the difference.” For Anglican Christians, for the Instruments of Unity (Communion), for interdependent Provinces, for ordinary believers, there is a choice to be made. The choice is between two religions, two roads, two cities, two sets of conflicting values and behaviors. In Deuteronomy, chapter 30, Moses sets the choice as between blessing and curse, life and death. For contemporary Anglicanism the present choice is this stark.

I write this humbly and as a sinner. I also write it as one whose hope is in Christ alone, and with deepest love for all for whom He died and rose again.

Faithfully and Obediently,

The Most Reverend Robert William Duncan, D.D.

Archbishop of the Anglican Church in North America
Anglican Bishop of Pittsburgh

Pride

2009-07-15T15:55:00.000-07:00

"Those who are proud are of little use to God."- Bishop John Rucyahana, in The Bishop of Rwanda; Finding Forgiveness Amidst a Pile of Bones

God's Providence

2009-07-15T04:25:00.000-07:00

Over the past few months I have wrestled with God's providence. I have not been pleased with what He has granted to me through His providence. I have not particularly cared for His choices for me. The wrestling is over...thank God. And, you guessed it, He won. I can't tell you how glad I am that He won!

In the classic devotional, The Imitation of Christ, Thomas A Kempis imagines a conversation between Christ and His disciple. "Christ: My child, permit Me to do with you what I will, for I know what is best for you... Disciple: Lord, Your providence is far better for me than any care I can take for myself...do with me as You please, for whatever You do with me can only be good."

Learning to rest in the sovereign, providential care of the God who does all things well, is part of the ongoing process of learning what it means to trust our loving Father.

Starting Over

2009-07-15T04:16:00.000-07:00

Recently, I deleted all of my entries to this blog. My reasons for doing so are deeply personal, and related to what I believe God was doing in my own heart. So, I won't go into detail, except to say that I am glad that God loves me so much that He is willing to do what it takes to transform me into the image of His dear Son.

Some of you have shared with me that you have enjoyed reading my blog. That has encourage me to not shut it down. It is my goal to keep it focused on things that will edify the Body of Christ and encourage us all to keep our eyes on the prize, i.e. Christ Jesus.