 |  | SOULWORK Are We Transformed Yet? Why the spiritually mature don't talk about how God has made them spiritually mature. |
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Are We Transformed Yet?
Any article by Mark Galli is worth reading. I wished I have thought of the title first.
Interview with Rob Bell on Preaching
This is a good interview on preaching. Rob Bells also touches on good pastoring and preventing burnt out in pastors. We will all do well to heel his advice.
PREACHING
Tying the Clouds Together
Rob Bell's metaphors and references make his listeners stretch, but his wisdom for preachers is down to earth.
He once planted a church by teaching through Leviticus. He can use a rabbit carved from a bar of soap to illustrate the nature of suffering. Google his name and the term "Sex God" will appear among the top entries.
| Finish this article |
PREACHINGTying the Clouds Together
Rob Bell's metaphors and references make his listeners stretch, but his wisdom for preachers is down to earth.
He once planted a church by teaching through Leviticus. He can use a rabbit carved from a bar of soap to illustrate the nature of suffering. Google his name and the term "Sex God" will appear among the top entries.
| Finish this article |
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Thomas Merton's Prayer
MY LORD GOD, I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.
Reformed Perspectives Magazine Volume 12, Number 06
Reformed Perspectives Magazine Volume 12, Number 06 (February 7 to February 13 , 2010), is now available. The following articles are featured in this issue:
The Doctrine of the Word of God
Scripture’s Authority, its Content and its Purpose
By: John M. Frame
Webpage PDF Word
Night of the Talking Dead
Apologetics Dialogue
By: Donald Dewitt
Webpage PDF Word
The Pleasure of God in Justifying the Wicked
An Article
By: Matt Perman
Webpage PDF Word
An Earnest Ministry the Need of the Times
An Article
By: John Angell James
Webpage PDF Word
Joy in Heaven Over Repenting Sinners
An Article
By: Edward Payson
Webpage PDF Word
The Necessity of Word & Spirit in Conversion
An Article
By: John Calvin
Webpage PDF Word
ERASMUS’ SCEPTICISM, Part V
By: Martin Luther
Webpage PDF Word
Gordon MacDonald on Missionalism
Pastor and author Gordon MacDonald warns of the dangers of missionalism to committed Christian leaders. It's missionalism, not missional.
Dangers of Missionalism
Dangers of Missionalism
Even the best causes can become cold, prideful, and all-consuming.
I've added a new word to my vocabulary: missionalism. In fact I may have coined the word. All I know is that my spell-checker never heard of it before.Missionalism defined: the belief that the worth of one's life is determined by the achievement of a grand objective. Key word: worth.
I don't know how long the word missional has been in use. I only began to hear it in the last few years as in "we're a missional church." Is missional really that different from being purpose-driven? I like both terms, but I know lots of churches (including ones I pastored) that were acting missional and purpose-driven long before the two words became popular. I remember thinking one day that missional sounds a bit Catholic, and purpose-driven sounds more Evangelical Protestant.
But missionalism is something else. It's a leader's disease. Like a common cold that begins with a small cough, missionalism catches on in a leader's life and seems at first so inconsequential. But let this disease catch hold and you are likely to have bodies strewn all over the place, the leader's and some of the leader's followers.
and then he highlights the lure of missionalism
Missionalism—the passionate need to keep things growing and growing so that one proves his/her worth—can catch hold from various sources. For some of us, it came early in life when we discovered that we got a lot of love when we went forward to dedicate our lives to Christian service.
We were awash with the call to a kind of heroism. If I heard it once, I heard it a thousand times, "The world has yet to see what God can do through a person totally committed to Jesus Christ." It was an inspiring statement, and it conjured dreams of whole nations converted to Christ through preaching. How many times I knelt at altars and begged God for a fervency, an overcoming of the power of the Holy Spirit, a sense of abandonment that would make me willing to take up the cross to follow him. I wanted to be that one person.
read more
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Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Introverts for Jesus
I am an extreme introvert so I find such books interesting.
 Illustration by Amanda Duffy | | BOOK REVIEW Introverts for Jesus, Unite! How to get along with the extroverts who populate the Western church. |
Counterfeit Medications
Counterfeit drugs is one of my greatest concern when I started practising medicine. How can I be sure that the drugs I prescribed is the real stuff and not sugar water?
This is an interesting article from The Scientist that shares my concern.
The article is written by
read more
This is an interesting article from The Scientist that shares my concern.
The article is written by
The Counterfeiter
The story of how one of pharma’s biggest enemies was nabbed in Houston, Texas
Stone / Getty Images
On May 25, 2007, Kevin Xu logged into his Gmail account and found a startling message from a man who could have been his biggest client.
From an office suite on the 28th floor of the Plaza Royale in Beijing, the baby-faced businessman had gone from selling shark cartilage and penicillin to Chinese hospitals and clinics to cashing in on the high-profit margins of the European and—he hoped—US pharmaceutical markets. Xu kept a list of 29 brand-name drugs he could deliver at cut-rate prices, from the baldness remedy Propecia to lifesavers like the antileukemia drug Gleevec. If it wasn’t on the list, Xu boasted that he could find a way to get it.
read more
Sitting in Seats of Mockers
Psalm 1:1 “Blessed is the man, who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers” (NIV).
The first verse of the first Psalm is an interesting sentence. The action words of walk, stand and sit indicates a sort of progression. This will parallel with wicked, sinners, mockers. Often we are able to identify the wicked and sinners readily, sometimes too readily. But mockers? Other bible translation offers scornful (NKJV), and scoffers (NRSV) as an alternative to mockers.
Many of us, as part of our job, have to identify problems in order to correct them. We develop a ‘problem’ sensor in our eyes, noses, and minds. This critical attitude is something necessary if we want to improve the quality of our work and our lives.
Unfortunately, all of us have a tendency to expand the definition of problems to include anything that does not correspond to our way of thinking. Somewhere along the way we become critical of the way others do things, especially if the way they do it is different from the way we would want to or normally do things. Then our tongues became involved and we start to criticize what we perceive is ‘wrong.’ There is nothing wrong with criticism as long as it is warranted and constructive. It is however a thin line between a critic and a mocker.
It is so easy to cross the line from a critic to a mocker, scorner or scoffer. It is so easy to criticize anything without knowing all the facts. There are so many things wrong with the world that there is never a lack of subject to criticize, or to mock. Mocking is criticism from a superior attitude with the aim to derogate or belittle. We look at all the wrongs in our country, our workplace, our churches, and our family and we offer our opinions on how to make things right. Our opinions are often unwarranted, non-constructive and often with a little flavour of ‘speculation’ thrown in to make it sound wise and good. It feels good doing it and sometimes we actually believe it ourselves as being true. We have to be careful that we are not sitting in the seats of mockers.
Mocking, scorning and scoffing are attitudes of the heart. And these attitudes are rooted in wickedness and sinfulness. These attitudes are fueled by our insecurity, jealousy, anger, and fear. We use our mocking, scorning and scoffing to put down others so that we feel more superior. We tear down others so that others can see how superior or better we are. Unfortunately mocking, scorning and scoffing poison our souls, and warp our spiritual formation. It will lead to disdain and bitterness.
Let us guard our hearts from the temptation of mocking, scorning and scoffing because we want to keep our hearts clean as it is the wellspring of life (Proverbs 4:23).
Kýrie, eléison.
picture source
Monday, February 1, 2010
J.I.Packer Unpacked
Timothy George attempts to interpret the great 'theologizer.'
J. I. Packer and Evangelical Future: The Impact of His Life and Thought
by Timothy George, Editor
Baker Academic, October 2009
253 pp., $15.99
When historians look back on the life of J. I. Packer, this volume may serve as a useful starting point. An accomplished group of contributors, including Timothy George, Alister McGrath, Chuck Colson, Mark Dever, and the late Richard John Neuhaus, come together in its pages to reflect on Packer's legacy. Their conclusion: the Anglican scholar should be seen fundamentally as a "theologizer," a "latter-day catechist," a Reformed prophet standing in the tradition of Irenaeus, Augustine, Calvin, Baxter, and Owen.
read more
J.I.Packer is one of my favourite Puritan and Reformed theologian and I look forward to reading this book.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Bee Lay, You will be Missed
Attended a wake last night for a dear sister in Christ who was called to glory on Saturday. The emotional tributes by her children and friends are a stirring reminder of letting Jesus shine through our lives. This is her legacy and I believe this living legacy are more significant than any number of properties and companies. She taught us to invest in people who are eternal rather than temporal things. We gonna miss you, Bee Lay.
ONE DAY AT A TIME
Cristy Lane
Also recorded by:
The Alexander Brothers; Judy Collins; Phil Coulter; Floyd Cramer;
Carlene Davis; Florida Boys; Tennessee Ernie Ford; Foster & Allen;
Bill Gaither; Don Gibson; Arthur Greenslade; Lee Greenwood;
George Hamilton IV; Sharon Hardman.
I'm only human, I'm just a woman.
Help me believe in what I could be
And all that I am.
Show me the stairway, I have to climb.
Lord for my sake, teach me to take
One day at a time.
Chorus:
One day at a time sweet Jesus
That's all I'm asking from you.
Just give me the strength
To do everyday what I have to do.
Yesterday's gone sweet Jesus
And tomorrow may never be mine.
Lord help me today, show me the way
One day at a time.
Do you remember, when you walked among men?
Well Jesus you know if you're looking below
It's worse now, than then.
Cheating and stealing, violence and crime
So for my sake, teach me to take
One day at a time.
(Chorus)
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Reformed Perspectives Magazine Volume 12, Number 05
Reformed Perspectives Magazine Volume 12, Number 05 (January 31 to February 6, 2010), is now available. The following articles are featured in this issue:
The Doctrine of the Word of God
The Content of Scripture
By: John M. Frame
Webpage PDF Word
The Greatness and Miserableness of Man
An Article
By: Herman Bavinck
Webpage PDF Word
Inability
An Article
By: A. A. Hodge
Webpage PDF Word
The Authority & Power of the Word upon the Heart
An Article
By: J. C. Philpot
Webpage PDF Word
The Iniquity of the Fathers visited Upon Their Children
An Article
By: Edward Payson
Webpage PDF Word
Selected from the Writings of Martin Luther
An Article
By: Martin Luther
ERASMUS’ SCEPTICISM, Part IV
By: Martin Luther
Webpage PDF Word
Henri Nouwen on Unceasing Prayer
From Unceasing Thinking to Unceasing Prayer
Our minds are always active. We analyze, reflect, daydream, or dream. There is not a moment during the day or night when we are not thinking. You might say our thinking is "unceasing." Sometimes we wish that we could stop thinking for a while; that would save us from many worries, guilt feelings, and fears. Our ability to think is our greatest gift, but it is also the source of our greatest pain. Do we have to become victims of our unceasing thoughts? No, we can convert our unceasing thinking into unceasing prayer by making our inner monologue into a continuing dialogue with our God, who is the source of all love.
Let's break out of our isolation and realize that Someone who dwells in the center of our beings wants to listen with love to all that occupies and preoccupies our minds.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Paul Long's Keep in Step
My blogger friend Pastor Paul Long is back with another installment of his lectio divina with my book. Paul's meditation and 'ramblings' are always insightful and interesting reading. His blog is Paul Long Ramblings. Paul has generously allowed me to repost his post here.
How expensive is your church?
How heavy is your burden?
Shout to the world
The silence in the noise
Omission and Commission
A Burning Bush
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Keep in step (spiritual formation on the run).
It's been a while since I last posted a reflection from Alex's "Spiritual Formation on the Run" ...
For this post I have chosen Chapter 25: Keep in Step.
First, the chapter in blue italics, and followed by my reflections and of course ramblings :-) Please be forewarned about the ramblings! :-)
Look at a herd of sheep. You may be able to get them to move together in one direction, which farmers in
An emperor of
Teamwork is working together - whether you are feeding each other, or marching together in drill, or doing a project together in school. We need each other. To succeed in any enterprise, we must work as a team.
Even Jesus Christ had a team. His team was made up of 12 men called disciples. He told them, "Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age" (Matthew 28:19).
I remember that I first read the chopsticks story many years ago in Readers Digest (a filler humorous (?) story of a dream). In this version, it was a story about heaven and hell. It was about how the situation in both realms were the same. There was plenty of food but in hell people were selfish, so everyone was miserable and starving. No one was willing to feed the other. In heaven, because people were selfless and caring, everyone was well fed because each would feed the other.
As I reflected afresh on contents of this chapter, and the chopstick story (both versions), a very "unspiritual" thought came to my mind. "What if I were to feed the other person, but when it came to my turn, he refuses to feed me?" It was a hypothetical question of course but the mere fact that I though of that question made me realize how sinful my heart still is. (Although I did try "arguing" with myself that I was just being "realistic" as I have been taken advantage of way too often when I am nice to others.)
It has been an interesting "lectio divina" exercise for me. Upon deeper reflection, I then felt that if I were ever in such a situation, I would do the right thing and not think so selfishly. That was a relief. But then later upon even more further reflection, I thought that I would probably want to come to an agreement first with the "other party" so that it would be clear that "I will first feed you, but I am doing this with the understanding that you will then also feed me." Oops ... my selfishness and insecurity wells up again! :-(
*sigh* Jeremiah 17: 9 comes to mind! "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?"
Yes, I know some of you might be asking, "Isn't this chapter / meditation about teamwork?" I haven't forgotten ... this is just one of my rambling tangents. I will get to the teamwork part later ... or eventually ... :-)
Anyway ... it was back and forth and back and forth as I tried to examine closer my motives and attitudes, and entered into the old debate of whether human beings are born essentially good or essentially evil. Then it got more complicated as I revisited the problem of many Christians not living the way they know they should ... should not a good tree bear good fruit? And even back to 1990 to my B.Th thesis topic that was part of my wrestling with the then "LORDSHIP SALVATION DEBATE".
Crazy really as earlier this week I watched an episode of FRASIER that I taped. (The sitcom with the psychiatrist brothers, Frasier and Niles Crane) and one of the debates they had (weaved into the storyline) was over their conflicting beliefs. For fans, Frasier held that people are essentially good, while Niles thought otherwise...
Then I had a conversation a couple of days ago during a pastoral visit to a church member in which we discussed (among many other things) a problem she faced where after years of trying to be nice in her approach to getting a solution about a defective service (which has been causing her so much inconvenience and money), she has had to go to court to rectify the problem. Fast disappearing are the days of a person's word being his or her bond. Then it made me think of the few courses I took on Law. Isn't a verbal agreement / contract still considered a binding contract? I think so but then I guess the problem is not the verbal contract but proving that there was such a verbal contract and how one interprets the contract.
So many questions, so many turns. Though in the end all these thoughts gave me a bit of comfort in that I do have a good reputation of being a man of my word. Not sure if I have a final conclusion to my messy thoughts but Romans 7:18-25 sure helps!
18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do-- this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. 21 So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God's law; 23 but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?
25 Thanks be to God-- through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
Now back to the teamwork part ...
I think about teamwork very often. Stuff like how the many parts of that make up the body of Christ should function, the spiritual gifts Christians have been etc. And I do agree wholeheartedly that to succeed in any enterprise, we must work as a team.
And I like the chopstick story as it made me think of what I think is an oft neglected aspect team work - that of "taking turns to feed and be fed".
Anyway ... as I reflected on aspects of team work, I realised that some of the best experiences has been when other team members cheerfully cover for a team member who is temporarily unable to function due to illness, needing a break etc. It means a lot of extra work for the rest but when the unwell team member gets better and returns, he / she is even more energized and the contribution is amazing. I have noticed that this happens often and in the long run it results in greater team work and stronger relationships. Many examples come to mind.
For example, on our last short term mission trip, one of our members was not well for the first two days. We covered for her and made her rest. We were down one key person and we had to do more work but when she recovered, it was almost as if she was doing the work of two.
Last year, a key ministry person asked for time off (one year) from some of the areas he was doing so well in. It was tough to let him take time off especially since we lost a number of key ministry leaders and active people due to migration. His year off meant a key ministry area would suffer. But some of us felt it was the right thing for him to take time off. This year he is back, re-energized and taking on bigger roles and doing such a greater job!
There are so many more stories like those above! It made me realize too that my "policy" of allowing or even asking people to take time off from ministry and taking over for them temporarily has been the right thing to do.
This year a few people have stepped up to spearhead some ministry projects that I helped start and so have normally taken charge of. They are taking these projects to a new level by their own initiative and it is exciting. And so now the "chopsticks" are in their hands and I am getting some much needed food (and rest) in those areas.... and allowing me to spend more time in other needful areas.
Feed others and you will be fed by them! :-)
Other Paul's reflections
Why the Hulk should be red not greenHow expensive is your church?
How heavy is your burden?
Shout to the world
The silence in the noise
Omission and Commission
A Burning Bush
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Preaching is Soul on Display
From Leadership Journal online, a wonderful article by Gordon MacDonald about preaching and spiritual friends.
Soul on Display
Soul on Display
Eventually your preaching turns you inside out.
He's not well known today, but in his time—the 14th century—John Tauler was the premier preacher in all of Europe. Each time he stood in the pulpit at the Strasburg Cathedral, large crowds gathered anticipating a great sermon. Rarely were they disappointed.
Tauler was described as "a learned and eloquent man [with] a loving and tender heart. He spoke from his heart, not from his head only." Who wouldn't be pleased to be described that way?
Nevertheless, there must have been a time when something—not easily discerned by a crowd—was lacking in the popular preacher. Humility, perhaps? Perhaps there was too much Tauler and too little Jesus in his preaching.
The only person who cared to speak into Tauler's life was a mysterious Christian layman known as Nicholas of Basle who, many years later, would be burned to death in Vienna as a heretic. Apparently Nicholas and Tauler often visited.
readmore
James Sire's Naming an Elephant
James W. Sire (2004) Naming the Elephant: Worldview as a Concept, Downers Grove, IL: IVP AcademicJames Sire, Christian author and philosopher in this interesting book shares an interesting view of worldview. Aptly titled as naming the elephant, it goes back to the familiar story of three blind men and their perception of an elephant. How will they name the parts of the elephant they felt without knowing the whole animal?
The history of this book goes back to 1976 when Sire published The Universe Next Door where he describes seven types of worldviews. He defines a worldview as
A worldview is a set of presuppositions (assumptions which may be true, partially true or entirely false) which we hold (consciously or subconsciously or inconsistently) about the basic makeup of our world.
When I first read the book then, I find his definition very cognitive and cerebral. Very chim-lah.
28 years later in this book, Sire offers us his hopefully definitive definition
A worldview is a commitment, a fundamental orientation of the heart, that can be expressed as a story or in a set of presuppositions (assumptions which may be true, partially true or entirely false) which we hold (consciously or subconsciously or inconsistently) about the basic constitution of reality, and that provides the foundation on which we live and move and have our being. (p.122)
I like his new definition better. Sire acknowledges here that knowing is not just a learning a set of presuppositions but also there are other ways of knowing such a learning through the heart by a story. The constructed reality in which we live in is not just cognitive or cerebral but also involves living out our understanding and commitment to it.
In other words, building a worldview is learning , assimilation and commitment to live out the reality that we build. There is a lot of similarities between worldviews and spiritual formation. Spiritual formation also involves learning, assimilating what we learn to build a reality to guide us to live it out in the real world.
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