Saturday Book Notes

I'm still reading Pacific Alamo: The Battle for Wake Island, and I'm beginning to think it's the best "battle book" I've ever read. Amazing.

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Last week at the library I picked up an old biography of Charlemagne by Harold Lamb. Lamb wrote what used to be called "boy's books," usually in the form of novel-like biographies of historical figures (Genghis Khan, Alexander the Great, Hannibal). I'm sure he's nearly forgotten now (or, shall we say, neglected), but his books are fun and exciting. His Wikipedia page is informative, and his "official" fan page is here.

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Finally, I'm still reading Darrell W. Johnson's Discipleship on the Edge, which is wonderful.  Johnson manages to treat the Book of Revelation as a discipleship tool rather than a mere collection of Christian arcana. His writing is clear, down to earth, insightful, and passionate.

Monday Whatnot

J. I. Packer on revival.

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Frank Viola on hungering for more of Jesus.

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Tullian Tchividjian on redemptive speech.

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A. W. Tozer on tinkering with our souls.

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Flannery O'Connor on religious fiction and the penetration of reality.

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John Piper on the three-fold gift of the gospel.

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Jeff Weddle on Two Types of Christianity.

I can never get enough of Alison Krause

Dailey and Vincent: On the Other Side

February

Well, I said I'd write a poem per month this year, and Nancy has recently reminded me of that promise.

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On the morning of the 19th
some crazy bird in an evergreen tree
was singing like winter didn't matter anymore,
singing like Spring is a state of mind,

singing like the ice was gone on the river
and the river was leaping over its bottom-stones
and sounding like a belled sheep
among the trees;

singing like its nest was built and its chicks hatched
and all day it was happy and busy
with living;

singing like tomorrow would simply be
a deeply satisfying intensification of all the freshness of today,
with even the blue sky bluer and higher and deeper

and just enough breeze
to make a flower-scented river of air

on which to leap
as always

in faith

and singing.

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By the way, the January poem is here. Almost all of my poems have something to do with birds!

By Christ Jesus

February's Scripture passage for month-long consideration is Romans 2:12-3:20. I read it every day. On the weekend I read the whole book of Romans. The point is to live with this "pinnacle epistle" (I think it was R. C. Sproul who called it that) for a whole year. Through thick and thin. And by the way, this past week has been pretty thick.

Anyway, the ESV heading for this section is (as you will see if you follow the link) "God's Judgement and the Law." The key verse of the passage (the coup de grace, if you will), comes at the very end, at 3:19,20:

Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

It occurred to me this morning that there's quite a bit about "judgement" in this passage. At 2:16 Paul says the judgement of God is "according to [his] gospel." In other words, it's good news.

It has taken me years to think of it that way. Furthermore, I don't know about you, but I'm really grateful that every mouth will be stopped. Can you just imagine that? A first in human history. Every mouth silent! And I'm particularly grateful, first of all, that my own mouth will be stopped. It will be so obvious, in that moment, that all my self-pardoning, my excuse making, my sublte prevaricating, back-filling, niggling qualifiers, and careful "re-interpretations" of the truth would be utterly useless. More, they would only prove my utter blindness to the glory before me, and the glory of His judgement of me (and the world) by Christ Jesus.

Let me say that last bit again: God is going to judge me, and you, and everyone, by Christ Jesus.

And Paul says, at the start of this passage, that this is good news.

Here's the thing. At this moment in my life, at this moment in my week, at this moment on Friday afternoon, I can't wait till every mouth . . . and especially my own . . . is silenced before the judgement seat of the Almighty, and in that universal hush we know profoundly, as never before, as the wounded Lamb smiles upon his many brothers and sisters, that we were indeed lost, but now are found!

Even so, come Lord Jesus.

"A multi-thousand year long rope"

Christian blogger Nate Spencer, who resides in Asheville, NC (aka, Crazytown), is also an accomplished musician, and will be going on tour soon, starting in Memphis and then skedaddling south and west. So I suppose he won't be blogging so much in the next month or so, but his most recent post was a doozy. He's talking about "the remembrance feast of communion." Here's a significant snip:

What Jesus is doing in Luke 22:4-20 is taking a multi-thousand year long rope, and tying it around his waist. Then he's taking the other end, tying a stone to it, and hurling that stone forward in time to the end of history, and he's saying to his church "grab ahold." If and when the church holds on to the rope, they are tugged around, shifted, influenced, by his movements. As he goes to the cross, those holding the rope feel the shivers and jerks in the rope as he is beaten relentlessly, dragged up a hill, and nailed to a piece of wood. They feel a series of slightly decreasing tensions and releases as he gasps for his final breaths. If they are holding tightly enough, and solemnly silent enough, they can hear him cry out that he is thirsty.


Have you ever watched someone die? I haven't, but I'm sure I would never be the same. And I'm sure this death, were I watching, would change me like no other. And by practicing the remembrance meal, that is what we do each time: together, we watch the Son of Man die. And each time we die with him. And then, on the third day as the mysterious Church Universal grieves what they have just seen, all of us throughout history will feel a gentle tug on the rope, first imperceptible. Then, unbelievably, we begin being dragged about, with forceful purpose and energy. He's alive, he's strong, and he's shoving the stone out of the way with his bare hands. Incredulous, the church feels the movement and intention of the Risen Glorified Christ as he exits the grave leaving death inside.

Monday Whatnot

Something to think about: I think one of the most spiritually dangerous practices today is encouraging people—in small groups or in front of the church or even in print—to talk about how God has transformed them.

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Narcissistic Personality Disorder, brilliantly deconstructed.

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From Tim Keller's newly re-launched church-planting website, Redeemer City to City, I pluck this Kelleresque gem:

The basic concepts of the gospel -- sin, guilt and accountability before God, the sacrifice of the cross, human nature, afterlife -- are becoming culturally strange in the west for the first time in 1500 years. As Lesslie Newbigin has written, it is time now to 'think like a missionary'--to formulate ways of communicating the gospel that both confront and engage our increasingly non-Christian western culture.

How do we make the gospel culturally accessible without compromising it? How can we communicate it and live it in a way that is comprehensible to people who lack the basic 'mental furniture' to even understand the essential truths of the Bible?

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Michael Spencer: If Christianity is not a dying word to dying men, it is not the message of the Bible that gives hope now.

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In the church I now attend the "worship leaders" are off to the side. I like it that way. It doesn't feel like a concert. I don't know that having the band in front it's really an encouragement to idolatry, but the "language" and practice of concerts begins to blend with and debase the language and practice of worship. Something very valuable is sliding away from us, that's what I think. Read Liam Kinnon on same. [HT]

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What she said.

Death has lost its dominion!

From Discipleship on the Edge: An Expository Journey through the Book of Revelation (p. 47-8):

"He laid his right hand on me, saying 'Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the Living One; and I was dead, and look! I am alive forever and ever, and I have the keys to death and Hades'"(Rev. 1:17-18). Literally Jesus says, "Stop being afraid." Why? Because Jesus Christ has walked into the gaping jaws of the greatest enemy there is. On the cross he let all the powers that threaten to undo us have their unrestrained way with him. He let death take him captive. And then he burst out of the prison and carried away the prison keys!

... Jesus Christ has stolen the weapon of fear. Fear is a powerful force. Fear can keep us from doing what is right; and it can make us do what we know is wrong. All fear is firmly rooted in the fear of death. The fear of criticism, the fear of rejection, the fear of financial loss, the fear of pain--they are all, at rock bottom, the fear of death.

Let the imagery grab you! "I have the keys of death!" No one else has them. "I am alive . . . and I have the keys!"

Is everybody really worthless? Some meandering thoughts.

It's February, so I've been reading the February passage in my Romans Reading Plan. The passage begins at 2:12 ("For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.") and ends with 3:20 ("For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.").

You can kind of see right away what Paul is up to here. He wants to lay the groundwork for what he is about to say by showing that, whether Jew or Gentile, all are in dire need of grace (although he hasn't used that word yet).

In between, he makes the point that "circumcision is a matter of the heart." It reminds me of Steven, in Acts 7:51, where he calls his murderous accusers, "uncircumcised in heart and ears." Saul was standing by and perhaps condoning the religious mob that lynched Stephen, but many years later he would write to the Philippians, "For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh." I like to think Stephen's accusation might have struck close to home for Saul that day.

Anyway, if circumcision means putting no confidence in the flesh, as Paul says, and if such misplaced confidence wells up from the deepest parts of us, then we are uncircumcised at heart. At heart, maybe we do put confidence in the flesh. On the surface, on the level of assertion, on the level of proposition, we say otherwise. But what of the heart?

Paul, in Romans 3, is about to say something quite awful.

“None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”

Not even one? Ever?

Paul is quoting from Psalm 14 here, but doing so rather selectively. Go back to that Psalm, and read the opening lines.

The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”
They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds,
there is none who does good.

Note: it is the fool who says all this, who has turned aside, etc. [By the way, my study Bible tells me that the three Hebrew words for fool always refer to "moral orientation."] For the Psalmist, it is the fool who ignores God, but meanwhile there is another group, as opposed to "the fool," whom God calls "my people." They're under siege, but God is their refuge (v.4,5). There are at least some, it seems, who "seek God."

So, come back to Romans 3. Paul is sounding quite a bit harsher and more sweeping than the Psalmist, and indeed I have heard preachers use verse 10 to declare that all humanity is nothing but a crawling mass of dung beetles. But is Paul really meaning to say that? I must hearken back to Romans 1, where Paul, addressing the Roman Christians, says they are called to be saints. And he says the purpose of the gospel is to bring about the obedience of faith in all the world. And even look forward to Romans 8, where he calls on people to walk by the Spirit, and yes, not by the flesh ("put no confidence in the flesh").

The point being, the gospel circumcises hearts. The gospel causes people to lose confidence in the flesh and gain confidence in God.

Bottom line, the circumcised heart is the heart of faith, whose confidence is in the Lord, who flee to his refuge, crying "Abba, Father," as one who knows the Father's response will be one of unalloyed love. If we know this, we can have peace in any storm. But if we do not have peace, is it because, at the heart level, we do not really believe these things?

Circumcise my heart, oh God.

Monday Whatnot

The Neglected Book Page. I love the concept. There is a great library of neglected books out there, some justly neglected, but some not. The Neglected Book Page is combing the shelves.

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Trevin Wax has advice for those who want to read more. His personal goal is 100 books per year! I'm not inclined to set numerical goals, but Trevin's advice is nonetheless interesting.

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I'd put David Fitch's Backyard Missionary on my blogroll, only Blogger can't detect a feed. Anyway his latest, Not a Franchise, is really interesting.

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Some great stuff at Sermon Jams. Listen.

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Speaking of books, you can pre-order Michael Spencer's Mere Churchianity: Finding Your Way Back to Jesus-shaped Spirituality, which is due out in September.

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Saturday Book List

Lately I've been keeping a list of books that I think I might want to read someday. Actually, it's about 7 different lists. There's one list for the Christian/Biblical studies/devotional type reading, another for general history, another for fiction, one specifically for WWII in the Pacific (a recently acquired fascination), one for geography, and one for sports. I'll probably add a couple more before I'm done!

So, whether I'm browsing Amazon or my local Borders (or, more likely, the shelves of my local library), reading reviews online, or noting the reading recommendations of bloggers like Trevin Wax or Semicolon (among many others), I've always got an eye for titles to add to my lists. So what follows is a brief selection of titles from what I'll call my Things of the Spirit reading list:

Holy Subversion, by Trevin Wax
Mere Churchianity, by Michael Spencer
Introducing Paul, by Michael S. Bird
The Mission of God, by Christopher J. H. Wright
The Open Secret, by Lesslie Newbigin
Exiles, by Michael Frost
The Forgotten Ways, by Alan Hirsch
The Gospel in Genesis, by Martin Lloyd-Jones
Fifty-Seven Words that Change the World, by Darrell W. Johnson
It is finished, by Darrell W. Johnson
The Message of Acts in the History of Redemption, by Dennis E. Johnson
Reversed Thunder, by Eugene Peterson
Tell It Slant, by Eugene Peterson

This list is only a beginning. Suggestions are of course welcome.

The Good News on Judgement Day

So this month I'm reading Romans 2:12-3:20.

In the last post in this series I asked myself, how can it possibly be good news that Christ will one day judge the secret thoughts of my heart? I was kind of hoping that the secret thoughts of my heart would be, well, forgotten. Now that would be good news! But Paul says it at 2:14 and 15:

For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, a according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.

Now this pure-hearted Gentile that Paul mentions here is a hypothetical case. In fact, he doesn't exist. Paul is making the point that circumcision is not the crucial thing when it comes to salvation. In fact, as he will say in a moment, everyone is sinful, and therefore all our talk of justice (on the day of judgement) is at best troubling and problematic.

But (here's where it gets tricky) even the hypothetical Gentile do-gooder has conflicting thoughts in his heart which either accuse or excuse him, and even these will be judged on that day. If even he has thoughts which accuse (and he keeps the law!), how is it good news that those thoughts will one day be judged by God in Christ?

A few thoughts: first, deeds matter, but deeds spring from the motivations of the heart. The heart matters too. True justice will not focus only on the tree, but also the root. There is no sin that is excused by the supposed good intentions harbored in the heart. And there is no outward law-keeping that is not undermined by the conflicting thoughts of the heart.

Second, the heart is a mess. Even the hypothetical Gentile has conflicting thoughts; some that accuse, some that excuse. But that fellow's measuring stick is probably crooked anyway. Note: the accusing and the excusing thoughts have their source in that same heart from which the sin itself sprung. In other words, it's untrustworthy. The bottom line is, whether his thoughts accuse or excuse is not really important. He is not the judge. To give you an infamous example, Adam and Eve judged that their own disobedience was small enough, insignificant enough, as to be covered up by a fig leaf. Surely God wouldn't notice....

Third, as Paul will state later, we all come into this world as children of Adam. Which is to say, like him, root and branch. Sorry to have to break the news....

But all this begs the original question. Paul says, and I wonder how it can be, that it's good news that God will judge our inmost thoughts "by Christ Jesus." And my question is, you call that good news?

I'm going to venture a guess at the answer to this question. I think the "good news" part of this statement hangs on the last three words of the passage. God will judge our hearts, Paul say, "by Christ Jesus."

This is where the mercy is. In Christ Jesus. God will look into our hearts, see what is there in all its inglorious reality, and look to Christ Jesus for the judgement. And Jesus will say, that sin also is one that I bore to the tree.

As I've mentioned before, I've been reading a book by Darrell W. Johnson called Discipleship on the Edge. On page 32 Johnson is summing up what it means to say that Jesus is the alpha and omega. The fact that Jesus is first and last says something very important about him. The fact that he is first (arche) means that he is the archetype of all creation. "Everything has its beginning in him and takes it shape from him."

And the fact that he is last (telos) means that he is victorious. He is the "inherent destiny" written into creation, the inevitable consummation, just as the telos of the acorn is the towering oak. The shape of eternity is Christ Jesus.

Here's Johnson:

The implications are staggering. For one thing, Jesus' claim finally explains the anguish of life. We were made to live his way; either we do, or life does not work. At the heart of so much of our anguish is choosing to go against him or his way. But Jesus' claim [that he is the first and last] gives tremendous hope. Jesus is going to have his way. We are going to become like him.

Christ Jesus bestrides history, but he also came into history, took on mortality, for the purpose of bringing about his vision for creation. That is, as Paul will soon say, so that he would be the first of many brothers.

For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

That my judgement is in his hands is good news indeed!

The February Reading

This month's passage in the Romans Reading Plan (henceforth, RRP) is Romans 2:12-3:20. This is just the sort of passage I tend to pass through quickly. I mean the passages in which Paul seems to address the Jews in his audience, to talk of circumcision, uncircumcision, etc. I'm just not the target audience, so I think. So I grab the gist of Paul's argument and hurriedly read on.

Well, the RRP won't let me do that of of course. I've got to stay here for the month, and my guess is that I'll be glad I did. Some preliminary thoughts after 4 readings.

At one end of this passage Paul is arguing, hypothetically, that when people keep the law, even though they are Gentiles, they will be saved. Paul had stated this proposition back at 2:7. He's expanding on it here.

At the other end of this passage, Paul draws on the prophets of old, who spoke for God, to make the point that, well, nobody keeps the law. "No, not one."

Those are the two key points. We learn something important about the law here, and we learn something important about ourselves. More about all this later.

Also, more later about about 2:14-16:

For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, a according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.

This passage prompts a question in me: in what way can it be "good news" (gospel) that God will judge the secrets of my heart?

Monday Whatnot

Driscoll on 10 Temptation Truths. Killer.

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I'm no science-geek, but I try to read a sciencey book every now and then, so this list will come in handy: Seed Magazine's top 10 science books of 2009.

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Punxsutawney will never be the same: PETA proposes robotic groundhog for Groundhog Day

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Tootin' my own horn: My best post last month was On the Long Road from Eden.

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This week's poem is by Hafiz, a 14th century Persian mystic:

Bring your cup near me,
For I am a Sweet Old Vagabond
With an Infinite Leaking Barrel
Of Light and Laughter and Truth
That the Beloved has tied to my back.

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For our musical selection this week, in my opinion the greatest rock & roll band ever: