epcbooks

Current Read: Animal Farm - George Orwell

2010-06-11T11:08:00.003-04:00

Current Audiobook: War and Peace

2010-06-11T11:02:00.000-04:00

Going for round 2 on this one.

War and Peace

2010-06-11T10:45:00.003-04:00

Loved this one on Audible.
One of my new all-time favorites. Tolstoy's reflections on divine providence, the will of the people, and the idea of "the great man" are told first through the story of two of the Rostov kids, and then through his direct reflections on the Napoleonic wars. His essay at the end of the book was very interesting to me, though I did not understand it all, but the story itself is brilliant. Definitely worth the effort of 1400+ pages.

Augustine's Confessions

2010-04-23T21:44:00.002-04:00

This classic was delightful. I have read the early sections before, up to the point of the great early church leader's conversion. That's all great, but what thrilled me this time was his discussion of memory and sin at the end of the book. It was very edifying and helpful. Communion with God in this life as we move toward the next is such an important theme for our careful consideration. Click here for Amazon.

The Moviegoer

2010-04-23T21:35:00.002-04:00

This 1960 novel by Walker Percy is intriguing and prophetic. Binx Bolling seems to live life through the movies. (How much more can we do that today, rushing through several seasons of a TV show with Netflix on-demand viewing in just a couple of weeks.) Much of this story is hard to follow because it is such an interesting portrayal of a confused mind caught in the grips of despair without any real self-awareness of that condition. The main character's life only comes together through an almost accidental commitment to a woman that seems more messed up than he is. An interesting twist...

God Still Loves the French

2009-08-29T19:17:00.003-04:00

I received this book from two different friends, one of whom is a missionary to France. The author, Marc Mailloux, tells his own stories about life in France, where he attended seminary and served the Lord for many years. He is an engaging story-teller, and I was surprised to find that the book sparked some thoughts about life in our ministerial context in Northern New England.

Heart of Darkness

2009-05-27T19:18:00.002-04:00

What a Conrad treat! I am listening to it again immediately, since I found so much spiritual benefit from it. We learn where the true heart of darkness really is. Even Marlow, who tells the story, found that he was longing to listen to the Voice, Kurtz, who set himself up like a god among the people. This impulse to be worshiped, and attraction to people that seem to have the Voice, leads men to drink the Kool-Aid too many times.

Nicholas Nickelby

2009-05-27T19:14:00.001-04:00

Delightful Dickens... Would love to talk to my grandfather, Christopher Spencer, about this book. He had an old set of Dickens volumes that I remember seeing in the corner of his living room in Cliffside Park, New Jersey. He and Grandma were born in Liverpool and came to America in the early 20th century. He was a proofreader for a newspaper in New Jersey, and a gentle loving man. He is missed. I hope to see him again in heaven.

Anyway, he was a quiet lover of Dickens...

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

2009-04-16T08:45:00.002-04:00

The holocaust told from the strange perspective of a ten-year old boy who is the son of the German Commandant at Auschwitz. Very moving. Thanks to Donna for letting us know about this one.

The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge

2009-04-16T08:37:00.003-04:00

What a great read! Thanks to Connie for loaning me this book. I had always been interested in him, trusting that there must be more to this man than all the jokes. I was fascinated by his life in rural Vermont, his education at Amherst College, and the pathway of providence that led him to the presidency. Also struck by his account that after the shocking death of his son from blood poisoning, the presidency lost all of its attraction to him.

Anna Karenina

2009-04-16T08:33:00.003-04:00

I found the account of the conversion of Levin very uplifting (See Part 8 - Chapters 10-14). There is something here of a faith that recognizes that a life dedicated to God is to be lived out in real living, if that makes any sense.

What is the What?

2009-01-12T17:01:00.002-05:00

I highly recommend this book, which is the story of one of the so-called "lost boys of Sudan." It shows us that there is no escaping brutality and misery in this current age. You cannot simply leave it behind in one country or another. This book provides an excellent illustration of the challenges that millions face in this world of depravity and sin. Here we also see the glimpses of grace and opportunities that point us toward God's plan for something beyond this world of sin and misery.

We need to pray for our brothers and sisters around the world who face troubles that are far beyond anything than we can imagine. I have come to the conclusion that there is no point in comparing trials. There is a sense in which I can never really understand the trial of another person. In fact, I can never really understand my own trials. Each significant loss is a horrible grief, but each loss can be embraced, and is part of the way that we are made to be people who are still standing, though we have faced trouble. That is something for which we can be thankful...

The Pontiff in Winter

2008-07-24T09:48:00.002-04:00

Interesting take on John Paul II from the perspective of a "progressive" Roman Catholic journalist. The book was written prior to the death of JP II, but very much anticipating the coming transition to a new pope. JP II was an amazing figure of the 20th century. He tried to combine the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas with phenomenology. The pope was a follower of the paranormal, and came to believe that he was the fulfillment of prophecy, particularly the secret third prophecy of Fatima.

A Distant Grief

2008-05-25T06:03:00.001-04:00

A Distant Grief

By F. Kefa Sempangi

(No notation) = Direct Quote, [P] = Paraphrase/Summary, and [Magee] = Magee Observations

[Magee] Introduction

Visited Uganda in 2007 – African Bible College – Spiritual Emphasis Week

Contents

Forward

Preface

1. The Fugitive Woman

2. Stitching: Save a Child

3. Are You Being Broken?

4. Take Us Too!

5. Jolly Joe is Here!

6. Thunder in the Fire

7. You Are Burning Us

8. I Need a Vono Bed

9. Give Us the Gun!

10. Human Sorrow, a Distant Grief?

11. We Are Going to Kill You

12. I Hear Their Screams

13. Return to Amsterdam

14. We No Longer Follow Kefa

15. Standing in the Holy of Holies

16. Only Four Days Ago

17. Our First Tomorrow

Editor’s Postscript

Teaching Notes

Forward

Richard Halverson

Preface

Author

1. The Fugitive Woman

1962 – Independence

1962-1971 President Milton Obote

Amin “the champion of liberty”

“Welcome home to the freedom country!”

[P] The author began teaching art history at Makerere and met an impoverished woman with three children he had seen in fund-raising posters. People had given, but she received nothing. At first he was angry, but later convicted.

2. Stitching: Save a Child

[P] Dutch foundation provided help for the foundation of a children’s home in Kampala

For every child we were able to accept, twenty were turned away.

Penina (author’s wife): “The humble poor know a deep secret. They give from themselves, not from their surplus. They give from the abundance of their hearts.”

There is a giving to serve others and there is a giving to serve oneself. There is a giving to promote and a giving to dominate. But without love there is only paternalism and self-importance. There is only the giving of surplus, not the giving of special treasures.

3. Are You Being Broken?

1877 – Alexander Mackay – Scottish Presbyterian missionary and trained engineer

October 9, 1885, the first blood of Christian martyrs was shed in Uganda. In less than a year King Mwanga, the Moslem king of Baganda, had killed more than 40 Ugandan believers. Many of those victims were Christian page boys of the Baganda court who had refused to participate in the rites of sodomy.

Every time I met Mondo he would greet me with the threefold challenge:

“Are you repenting?

“Are you walking in the light?

“Are you being broken?”

Together we determined to make Christ the beginning and the end of all our expectations.

“Brothers and sisters, I fear there is too much brokenness here. We are walking too much in the light. We must remember that the devil will not stand for this.” He was silent for a moment. Then he trembled, and he spoke these words, “It is a frightening thing to be a child of God.”

4. Take Us Too!

Okelo was the first of many children to come to the Kijomanyi Home as a result of brutal killings by Amin’s soldiers.

I became convinced that the regime of Idi Amin was not merely tyrannical but demonic.

God taught me my own expendability.

5. Jolly Joe is Here!

[P] The story of Joe Kiwanuka’s conversion

6. Thunder in the Fire

[P] Battle with false gods

7. You Are Burning Us

[P] More battle with false gods

8. I Need a Vono Bed

A religion is true if it works, if it meets all the needs of the people.

9. Give Us the Gun!

[P] The story of a gentle elder who learned to trust God through the horror of an attack by some of Amin’s Nubian assasins

10. Human Sorrow, a Distant Grief?

There is a boundary beyond which human beings cannot comprehend evil in the world. There is a boundary beyond which everything is a senseless chasm. It is here in the nightmare of utter chaos that human feeling dies. It is here where death and terror seem to have full dominion, that even the deepest of human sorrows becomes a distant grief.

11. We Are Going to Kill You

We have not come for a church service. We have come to hear the Word of God! Go rest yourself and come back to preach again!

I do not need to plead my own cause. I am a dead man already. My life is dead and hidden in Christ. It is your lives which are in danger, you are dead in your sins. I will pray to God that after you have killed me, He will spare you from eternal destruction.

In that moment, with death so near, it was not my sermon that gave me courage, or an idea from Scripture. It was Jesus Christ, the living Lord.

12. I Hear Their Screams

Every night I go to bed and I see the faces of the people I have killed – (converted Nubian assassin)

13. Return to Amsterdam

[P] Studies in Amsterdam – urged by friends not to return to Uganda, but went ahead anyway.

14. We No Longer Follow Kefa

[P] In hiding in Uganda but in grave danger

15. Standing in the Holy of Holies

[P] Escape from Uganda after being betrayed to the authorities by one of the elders

16. Only Four Days Ago

[P] Back in Holland after only four days. They were not safe in Kenya because of the Nubian assassins in that country who would capture targeted Uganda refugees and return them to prison and death in Uganda. Example: Jolly Joe – He was not safe in Kenya. The account of His grace-filled but brutal death with Amin himself involved is a story of demonic brutality and Christ-like grace. This is the confrontation of the cross.

17. Our First Tomorrow

[P] Life at Westminster in Philadelphia… the simple idea that tomorrow I will go shopping brought tears to the eyes of a family that had lived only with fear. Yet there was a distance from God that had to be addressed. It was a movement away from the life of a dependant child of God into the posture of a more detached debater examining theological controversies…. So much suffering. Yet God is not detached. He is with us and is working out good purposes.

Editor’s Postscript

[P] At the writing of this book Amin was still in power, and the foundation started from their apartment in Philadelphia was helping Ugandan refugees in Kenya

[Magee] Closing Thoughts:

1. There is an ugly power to evil that is so very shocking and jarring. Why would human beings do the things that they did in Uganda under Amin?

2. It is within such a setting that the power of redemption is also seen.

3. The Lord is not far away from us in our suffering.

4. This world cannot be the end of our story.

5. Our life is not just a forum for Christian debate in a self-justifying insistence to be right. Our pursuit of doctrine needs to be about God and about others, and not about us. I am struck by something I thought about when I was in Uganda: The church in the west needs African ministers who care not only about Western immorality, but also Western heresy. They need to do this not to prove that they are right, but as an act of love toward God and toward the church in the West.

6. There is a detachment in the life of prayer in our world of comfort that is its own demonic problem.

7. The confrontation of the cross in the Christian life under oppression – Demonic brutality and Christ-like grace.

The Micah Mandate

2008-04-25T13:45:00.001-04:00

The Micah Mandate

By George Grant

(No notation) = Direct Quote, [P] = Paraphrase, and [Magee] = Magee Observations

[Magee] Introduction

I am not a Theonomist or a fan of the reconstruction of American government according to Old Testament Law

Contents

Introduction: A Fractured World

Part One – An Imbalancing Act

1. From Pillar to Post

2. In, Out, or Of

Part Two – Justice: To Do Right

3. Legal Entanglements

4. Good News vs. Nice News

Part Three – Mercy: To Do Good

5. Living as if People Mattered

6. Oddities and Rarities

Part Four – Humility: To Do Well

7. Our Codependent Love

8. Just Do It

Part Five – The Right Balance

9. Having It All

10. Where the Action Is

Teaching Notes

Introduction: A Fractured World

Divided

[P] We need to be heavenly minded so that we will do earthly good.

The best that I can offer you is the tried and true, the old and familiar, the well-trod sod.

Part One – An Imbalancing Act

1. From Pillar to Post

FINDING BALANCE

Biblical balance… entails far more than a happy medium between virtue and vice… A well-rounded, wholehearted fully integrated life… It is the singular fruit of incarnational faith.

A SHORTHAND STATEMENT

Micah 6:8 ⁸ He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

A snapshot of Biblical balance

A COVENANT LAWSUIT

[P] Context of verse

JUSTICE

Justice and righteousness

MERCY

Mercy and authority

HUMILITY

The proper attitude toward the person of God Himself

TIPPING THE BALANCE

Thomas Chatterton

WE LIKE HE

2. In, Out, or Of

A good theology will invariably produce a good garden

WORLDLINESS

A worldview is simply a way of viewing the world.

A vision of life and faith that integrates justice, mercy, and humility before God will cover the whole spectrum of heaven and earth

BACK TO THE GARDEN

The spiritual revealed and made manifest in the physical

THE GREAT COMMISSION

A full-scale assault on the evil and privation of the dominions of darkness

BOTH/AND – NOT EITHER/OR

A BALANCED WORLDVIEW

Patrick Henry

MICAH’S WORLDVIEW

Part Two – Justice: To Do Right

3. Legal Entanglements

FAITH, HOPE, AND POLITICS

Smothering influence of partisan ideology everywhere

LEGALISM

Legalism abolishes the significance of the cross.

LAWLESSNESS

Like legalism, lawless disobedience is heresy.

THE PURPOSE OF THE WORD

There must be a basis for truth and justice… The Bible is that standard.

1. Reveals the moral standards of God’s sovereign rule.

2. Convicts us of sin and leads us to Christ

3. Testimony to the nations

4. Blueprint for living

[Magee] This seems more to be a discussion of the purpose of the Law, rather than a purpose of the Word, which may be revealing.

MANIPULATING GOD

[P] The pagan way of viewing God

STRANGE BEDFELLOWS

Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians

BETWIXT AND BETWEEN

Whitefield

TAKING THE OFFENSIVE

4. Good News vs. Nice News

TAKING OFFENSE

People can’t be ambivalent about Biblical justice.

PLURALISM

Now the assumed basis of American culture and life.

HELL ON EARTH

Rampant immorality has begun to significantly erode the stability of our cultural foundations.

LEGISLATING MORALITY

That’s what legislation is.

Good and bad matter.

HELLFIRE AND BRIMSTONE

Edwards – Sinners in the hands…

TRUTH, JUSTICE, AND THE AMERICAN WAY

Provokes us to an unflinching demonstration of justice – in both word and deed

Part Three – Mercy: To Do Good

5. Living as if People Mattered

SERVICE

Biblical service is a priestly function of mercy

DOING UNTO OTHERS

God cares for the needy. And His people are to do likewise.

Mercy goes far beyond mere politeness.

The balanced Christian life necessarily includes merciful service.

GOOD DEEDS

Titus 2:11-14 ¹¹ For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, ¹² training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, ¹³ waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, ¹⁴ who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

TO THE UTTERMOST

Most of the church’s greatest heroes are those who willingly gave the best of their lives to the less fortunate. Service was their hallmark. Mercy was their emblem.

Acts 6:7 And the word of God continued to increase…

A LIFE OF SERVICE

Washington’s submission to authority and especially His orderly resignation of his commission

GOOD SERVICE

Where there is mercy there is hope.

Jonathon Edwards: “That religion which God requires, and will accept, does not consist in weak, dull, lifeless wishes, raising us but a little above a state of indifference. God in His Word, greatly insists upon it, that we be in good earnest, fervent in spirit, and our hearts vigorously engaged in mercies.”

6. Oddities and Rarities

WINNERS AND LOSERS

There was a time when martyrdom was among the church’s highest callings and greatest honors… But no longer.

E. M. Bounds

PEER PRESSURE

The worldliness of the modern church

COMPROMISE

Daniel was a man of principle…. Daniel understood the nature of his opposition. Compromise would have been fruitless.

Joseph

David

Early Christians

STEADFASTNESS

The enemies of the gospel often mistake this single-minded dedication to the work at hand as a kind of prideful know-it-all aloofness. That many Christians today make the same mistake is a telling commentary on the modern evangelical mindset.

WORK

1. All honorable work is holy.

2. God calls each person to his or her gifts.

3. Work is intended for the benefit of the community.

4. The high ideals of the work ethic can only be attained through Christ’s restoration.

BEYOND THE WICKET GATE

Bunyan

DONE WITH

In the center of Bedford England… statue…

The Lord Magistrate of Bedford at Bunyan’s sentencing (1673): “At last we are done with this tinker and his cause. Never more will he plague us: for his name, locked away as surely as he, shall be forgotten, as surely as he.”

A world and life view rooted in the grace of the sovereign God and the uncompromised maturity of diligence in daily work.

Part Four – Humility: To Do Well

7. Our Codependent Love

Cotton Mather

KNOWING GOD

If we fail to come to a full and accurate knowledge of God… then we are not only like to miss God’s purpose and will for our lives, we are likely to make a mess of the world around us as well.

THE EARTH IS THE LORD’S

Nebuchadnezzar

THE CHRISTIAN LIFE

Nebuchadnezzar learned his lesson and changed his heart and his life. What about us?

FEAR OF GOD

Richard Baxter: “The proper knowledge and fear of God leads us but to two postures of the spiritual service of worship: corporately in yielding of our praise in the church, and individually in the yielding of our time in the world.”

The balanced Christian life always maintains this two-fold expression of holy knowledge and fear: putting a high priority on the centrality of the church and sanctifying whatever time God grants us.

THE CHURCH

1. The church renews the minds of fallen men through the teaching and preaching of the Bible.

2. The church readjusts men to genuine life through sacramental worship.

3. The church reforms the lifestyles of men through discipleship.

TIME

Our time is not our own.

[Magee] Important idea here of ordering our lives according to the patterns of the New Testament. This point is obscured by the author since He accepts the church seasons as normative without any persuasive biblical basis. I think that the answer from the Scriptures would be a full understanding of the week and the day that would form the appropriate rhythm for the Christian life.

Diligence

Patience

INFORMED BALANCE

C.S. Lewis: “It was through pride that the devil became the devil: pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind.”

While all the world runs from dependency and co-dependency, the knowledge of God beckons us to humbly welcome them both – the former as we fearfully acknowledge God’s sovereign rule and reign in the world and the latter as we yield to the gracious provisions of the church in space and time. Living the balanced Christian life demands both.

8. Just Do It

THE DISCIPLINE OF FASTING

[Magee] We used to fast until the dinner meal once per week in the years of the life of the church. I am not sure what happened to that practice. Perhaps next year as we start our walk through the Bible and our once a month gatherings we can resume the practice on a monthly basis.

THE DISCIPLINE OF PRAYER

Athanasius prayed five hours each day. Augustine once set aside eighteen months to do nothing but pray.

1. Not a means of self-promotion

2. Habitual

3. Hedged by God’s will

THE NEHEMIAH MODEL

HOW SHOULD WE THEN LIVE?

They fasted and prayed.

RIGHT WHERE HE WANTS US

Dependent

Part Five – The Right Balance

9. Having It All

The Micah Mandate is peculiarly the domain of the ordinary.

PRIESTLY SERVICE

Salt of the earth

PATRON SAINT

James Alexander Bryan (Brother Bryan) Birmingham, AL

10. Where the Action Is

The cure is simply the church adhering to its essential calling. It is found when the elect of God yield to their divine mandate in every aspect and in every detail of their lives.

A CULTURE WAR MAELSTROM

Augustine

TINY PUSHES

Titus 3:8-9 ⁸ The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people.

[Magee] Closing Thoughts:

1. The premise of this book is excellent (a look at Micah 6:8 as a snapshot of a biblical way of life). I am very distracted by the exegetical leaps that the author takes to move us in the direction of reconstructionism. I do not believe that the Great Commission sends us off to remake the civil magistrate according to Christian principles.

2. I do think we should give some hard thought to how we are living out these three ideas together: justice, mercy, and humility.

3. The three are interesting… Why are they given together? Justice and mercy make sense. One without the other will be an excess for a creature. To do both is quite a trick. We could easily begin to think too highly of ourselves for achieving such a great goal. Humility is the constant reminder of who we are, and requires us to define justice and mercy from the Word of God, in the presence of God, and by the power of the Spirit of God.

4. Our best bet to live according to Micah 6:8 is to have communion with God in a life of word-sacrament-prayer by the power of the Holy Spirit. A life of that kind of humility before God will surely be expressed in righteousness and mercy.

5. Another way of looking at the life for us is 2 John – with truth, love, and obedience.

6. Stay in the Bible all the time, and you will address all issues that should be addressed.

7. We need to be zealous for good works. Titus 2:11-14

The Myth of the Just Price

2008-04-01T20:26:00.002-04:00

The Myth of the Just Price

By Laurence M. Vance

(His dates: ?-?, http://www.mises.org/story/2918, Posted on 3/31/2008)

(No notation) = Direct Quote, [P] = Paraphrase, and [Magee] = Magee Observations

[Magee] Introduction

Recommended by Phillip Bresson

An enjoyable read, if you can maintain your cool, and keep a heavenly perspective… :-)

Contents

1. The Biblical Concept of Justness

2. The Just Price

3. Interventionism

4. The Biblical Case for Laissez-faire

5. Conclusion

Teaching Notes

Introduction

The concept of the just price is the basis of a great deal of erroneous economic thought that permeates our supposedly free market, capitalistic society.

Disguised with a euphemism – Medicare is not called socialized medicine…

Not only is any price agreed upon between a willing buyer and a willing seller the just price, that alone is what makes it the just price.

The Bible is our final authority in all matters.

1. The Biblical Concept of Justness

The expression just price is nowhere to be found in the Scriptures.

There is generally no mention of what the items were sold for.

The absence of fraud would be essential for the price of any commodity to be said to be just. But one will search the Scriptures in vain for any other concept of what constitutes a just price.

2. The Just Price

Thomas Aquinas. Born about 1225.

Discusses the concept of the just price in the section in his "Treatise on Prudence and Justice" called "Of Cheating, Which Is Committed in Buying and Selling."

Equated the just price, … with the common market price established by the "common estimation" of buyers and sellers.

Rothbard: "Unfortunately, in discussing the just price, St Thomas stored up great trouble for the future by being vague about what precisely the just price is supposed to be."

Aristotle… equal value in a commercial exchange… revived and employed "as a philosophical justification for the medieval doctrine of the just price." (Baldwin)

Two minority viewpoints

1. Just price was only that beyond labor and expenses that enabled the seller to maintain his social status

2. Just price was the cost of production plus compensation for labor and risk incurred. àMarx

Aquinas:… a number of principles:

* The merchant performs a valuable service

* The merchant can conduct business without sinning

* Buying and selling are to the advantage of both parties

* Misrepresenting the condition of goods in a sale is fraud

* Price is influenced by changes in supply and demand

* Price can vary according to location

* Price can vary according to time

* Price is a function of utility

* The just price is an estimate, and cannot be fixed with mathematical precision

* The just price is the current market price

* Price should represent the true value of goods

It is this last concept that sends Aquinas off course.

3. Interventionism

United States of America:… We see nothing but interventionism,

Mises: "a method for the transformation of capitalism into socialism by a series of successive steps." Here are some examples.

THE MINIMUM WAGE

Minimum-wage laws violate freedom of contract.

SUGAR PRICE SUPPORTS

Since 1894…

The gang of thieves in Congress who accept $2 to $3 million in bribes each congressional election from their sugar daddies in the sugar industry are costing American consumers hundreds of millions of dollars a year through higher prices on not just sugar, but anything made with sugar.

PRICE GOUGING

[Magee] – The kind of rhetoric we are regularly exposed to on oil prices makes me ill. If we would just let gas prices be what they should be and stop manipulating them, that would create proper incentives for the development of energy alternatives, and would help us enormously in terms of our foreign policy.

DUMPING

Antidumping laws are not designed to protect the public, they are designed to product domestic producers from foreign competition.

USURY

All of the fifty states regulate interest rates in the twenty-first century.

[Magee] some verses here…

^ESVExodus 22:25 "If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be like a moneylender to him, and you shall not exact interest from him.

^ESVDeuteronomy 23:19 "You shall not charge interest on loans to your brother, interest on money, interest on food, interest on anything that is lent for interest.

^ESVNehemiah 5:7 I took counsel with myself, and I brought charges against the nobles and the officials. I said to them, "You are exacting interest, each from his brother." And I held a great assembly against them

^ESVPsalm 15:1-5 Who shall dwell on your holy hill?... who does not put out his money at interest

^ESVProverbs 28:8 Whoever multiplies his wealth by interest and profit gathers it for him who is generous to the poor.

^ESVMatthew 25:27 Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest.

^ESVLuke 19:23 Why then did you not put my money in the bank, and at my coming I might have collected it with interest?']

[Magee] This is not easy to sort out. The last two citations are positive. The others are negative. There may be a difference between profiting from personal loans to someone in trouble, vs. business loans for capital. In any case, I don’t precisely know why this is condemned. It clearly has nothing to do with the specific rate. The condemnation, such as it exists, is for any lending at interest.

THE STATE

I have maintained that, in the absence of fraud — not in the absence of ignorance, laziness, greed, or stupidity — not only is any price agreed upon between a willing buyer and a willing seller the just price, that alone is what makes it the just price. A just price for an item does not exist independently of a transaction between buyer and seller. It is both impossible and immoral for any governmental body to institute, regulate, control, or recommend what is a just price. It is impossible because the state is not omniscient; it is immoral because the state has no authority to intervene in the market.

I will even grant that it might be immoral under certain circumstances to charge a particular price. But that doesn't mean that it should be illegal. Vices are not crimes. Saying that the just price is a moral imperative is one thing, but making it a legal device is something else that opens up the deadly can of worms of government intervention that can never be closed. The separation of market and state is just as important as separation of church and state.

4. The Biblical Case for Laissez-faire

[P] Same economic philosophy for Marx, Keynes, and many Christians!

Christian statists … can neither establish nor confirm their position from the New Testament without reading their conception of social justice back into the Bible, applying to the government admonitions given to individuals, and opaquely misreading the Scriptures through interventionist glasses.

WEALTH

But it is not riches per se that are disparaged in the Bible. Rather, it is trusting in riches, boasting in riches, coveting riches, or obtaining riches unlawfully.

The New Testament admonishes the rich, not to become poor, but to "be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate."

[Magee] communicate=share with others in need

There is no imperative or implication in the New Testament for the state or any individual to seek the redistribution of wealth.

POVERTY

The idea that individuals, let alone the state, should seek to eradicate poverty is never advanced in the Old or New Testaments.

THE MERCHANT

The Bible nowhere condemns mercantile activity as an action or a profession.

^ESVMatthew 20:13 But he replied to one of them, 'Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? ¹⁴ Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. ¹⁵ Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?'

EMPLOYMENT

^ESVEphesians 4:28 Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.

UNEMPLOYMENT

(Acts 2) This is charity, not communism, and as such was purely voluntary.

^ESVActs 5:4 While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God."

5. Conclusion

Laissez-faire is natural, moral, and biblical.

Both parties are better off after an exchange than they were before the exchange.

There is no such thing as market failure.

The only problem with the free market in the United States is that it is not free. Not only is government intervention the rule rather than the exception, even so-called defenders of the free market regularly call for more government oversight.

[Magee] Closing Thoughts:

1. I agree entirely both economically and morally.

2. This kind of stuff (foolish government intervention) is infuriating.

3. We have to be careful not to let such things distract us with anger – Part of living in a particular place and time is facing the economic/moral idiocy of that place and time.

4. Nonetheless, in our role as teachers, we do not want give in to any of this for a minute. To do so would be dishonest.

5. I don’t have a good answer to the biblical prohibitions of lending at interest. It does not appear to have anything to do with the specific rate charged. I think that it had something to do with the oppression of the poor by the powerful, and particularly something to do with duties of charity within the covenant community. A proper application in the New Testament era might be that within the church we should be giving to the poor rather than lending to them at interest.

6. This temptation to unhealthy anger on these topics is serious. Nothing we think about the foolishness of the state role in the economy can be allowed to overturn Romans 13. We cannot get caught up in nasty dialogue that encourages everyone to be enemies of the state. That would be against God’s Word. I don’t agree with what they are doing, and I will use my freedom and my vote accordingly, but I will show respect to governing authorities, even if things get much worse than they are today.

7. We are looking forward to a life beyond scarcity. In the new heavens and the new earth things will be quite different.

The Work of the Pastor

2008-03-31T21:00:00.001-04:00

The Work of the Pastor

By William Still

(His dates: ?-?, Addresses first given: 1964-1966, This book first published: 1984)

Rutherford House, 2001

Introduction (Magee)

Recommended by Scott Meadows

Read an article by the same – Word-based ministry

“The bulk of pastoral work is through the ministry of the Word. Only the residue of problems and difficulties remain to be dealt with thereafter.”

Contents

1. Feed My Sheep

2. The Pastor Outside the Pulpit

3. Complete and Contemporary

4. Commissioned by God

5. Walking the Tightrope

1. Feed My Sheep

THE PASTOR

Shepherd

Under-shepherd

The value of the sheep

Ultimate aim – sacrifice on God’s altar

THE PASTOR AS EVANGELIST

2 Timothy 4:1-5 ^ESVI 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 his kingdom: ² preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. ³ For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, ⁴ and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. ⁵ As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

Teaching and preaching

Evangelism that brings the whole counsel of God

TEACHER AND PREACHER

Teaching preaching and powerful prayer

^ESV1 Corinthians 14:24-25 But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all,²⁵ the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you.

Why do smart people insist that they can’t bring their unconverted friends to this kind of ministry?

FEED THE SHEEP!

The importance of teaching the nucleus of people that you have

You will not turn goats into sheep by pandering to their goatishness.

THE WORD OF GOD

Pastor, you need to be fed yourself.

Godly character – word needs to become flesh in you

A POOR DIET

Tell them to eat. Eat it whole. Stop playing with your food.

SPIRIT-INSPIRED

Holy Spirit as the One Teacher

We need the Spirit in our assemblies

Does the Word of God work for you? If not, what can you do for someone else?

BE SURE OF YOUR CALLING

Greatest difficulties may come from evangelistically-minded within church

PREACH THE WHOLE WORD

Preaches through books

Daily Bible reading notes written since 1947

SIDE EFFECTS!

On to other congregations

Fruitfulness into the world

THE BASICS OF EFFECTIVE MINISTRY

1. Pastor must really know Christ.

2. Pastor must know that God has called him to be an evangelist, pastor, and teacher of the Word.

3. Pastor needs to find his place of calling.

4. Begin to minister to the people at once.

^ESVHebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.¹³ And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

PRAYER

Set a time and announce that you will be glad to join with any that come.

EARLY FRUITS

Quiet persistence

Believing people will start to give more

This becomes a witness to the nominal

A nucleus will appear

The church will take form

Do not be afraid of upset. God is at work and is answering prayers.

FAILURE TO FEED THE FLOCK

Greatest failure is a failure to feed the flock the Word of God

DYING TO SERVE

Die every time you bring forth God’s living Word to the people.

Conflict! Cost! Crucifixion!

Our sufficiency is of God.

2. The Pastor Outside the Pulpit

START WITH THE WORD

All that many spiritually sick people need is a good, balanced diet and a disciplined spiritual routine.

PROBLEM PEOPLE

There are unfortunately those who want to attach themselves to the pastor for some reason, though they do not want the Word itself.

Healthy feeders need the pastor less and less.

You can only help people on the level that they want help.

Jesus allowed people to walk away.

Give people the help that they ask for, if you can, and let them go.

You cannot spend all your time with people who do not want the Word.

KNOW OUR LIMITATIONS

Some meddling ministers want to sort everyone out.

God is not so optimistic.

There are some who will die as mixed-up personalities, and they may be true believers.

Most people crack up because they try to do what God never intended them to do.

Ambition drives them on.

I am far more ready now to give up with difficult people than I used to be.

THE CONSULTANT PASTOR

If you are not interested in the problems of sincere ongoing Christians you ought not to be in the work of ministry at all.

Let the Word solve or settle all.

LISTENING

Let them talk. Don’t turn it into another sermon.

Ask all the questions first before giving an answer.

COMMON SENSE

So much of God’s will is just Christian common sense.

BUILDING A FELLOWSHIP

Learn how to live and worship together.

VISITING

Social visiting has to give way to the ministry of the Word, and to people in real need.

Don’t try to do too much or too little.

Count on the presence of the Holy Spirit in every visit.

Be what you are in Christ, no more, no less.

Christ has given you love for your people, you don’t have to show it off.

Take in the situation and don’t force yourself, your readings, your prayers on people.

ARTIFICIAL STRATEGEMS

Prayer, example, and precept in that order are the means of bringing up children and young folk in the faith.

Reality above all things

Tell them they have to come to church if they are serious, and that they to use their critical faculties, and ask if God is really here with these people, what is He saying, is He really speaking with me too…

The pastor is not a spiritual doctor. The Holy Spirit is the doctor.

3. Complete and Contemporary

1. Word of God is eternal and abides forever

2. Word of God is ever contemporary

MORE THAN ‘GOSPEL’

The whole Bible

We are not only forgiven. We are His.

Your people need the whole Bible. Be convinced of that.

THE WHOLE WORD

Get right to it and keep going – teaching and preaching through the Bible several times over the course of a ministry

Not a history lesson

[Magee – more and more convinced that my expositions should let the text unfold as it unfolds in all simplicity. This is faster to do and better for everyone than being too clever.]

You do have to let the New Testament help us to understand the Old.

1 Peter 1:10-12 ¹⁰ Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, ¹¹ inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. ¹² It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.

PREACHING TODAY’S WORD

Ever new – must be taught that way

Up to date

NOT SIXTEENTH CENTURY

Not here to Christianize the state

Our expectation is tribulation, our hope is toleration, not Christianization of the state

Submit to whatever system we happen to be under, not sponsor it or oppose it

Don’t be side-tracked – be the church

Gathering a hidden kingdom in an alien world – always missionary

The world is for the church, not the church for the world

NOT SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

Don’t be a dealer in antiques

The letter kills

Beware of preoccupation with your own sin

Don’t be a humbug

NOT EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

Class-meeting complex

NOT NINETEENTH CENTURY

Sabbath day above all else

Some in the evangelistic camp are not saved at all

Do they love American-style hymns or God?

I have found to my bitter cost, that if you take these (hymns) away (with their repetitive choruses which are to be sung with glazed eyes, moronic expression, and slightly swaying movement like primitive tribes people), they hate you like the devil… It is their god… must be smashed.

TWENTIETH CENTURY FROTH AND RIGIDITY

Just forgiveness and justification – hardly knew that there was a life of sanctification in the soul of the believer which needed to be nurtured by the Word

COMPLETE AND CONTEMPORARY

1. The whole Word

2. Saturated in the living, up to date, grace of God by His Spirit

For the servant of God:

1. Live in instant, tensile experience of the death/resurrection of Christ, and

2. Be dead to all but the mighty purpose of God.

4. Commissioned by God

A SHIFT IN EMPHASIS

Need to consider sanctification

Not only a matter of the truth – but the working balance of the truth

Focus since mid 19^th century has been bringing people to Christ and very little on building them up in Christ

OBSESSION WITH EVANGELISM

Evangelical church – a huge nursery

The danger: the who school of Christ will be come one vast kindergarten with overflowing classrooms

A MORE FRUITFUL WAY

Feed the lambs

If we do not feed them with the Word, there will be no harvest of Christian usefulness

All who respond to the Word will offer themselves to God.

Preach the word – 1. Some will grow and move forward, 2. Others will shrink back

FATTENING THE SHEEP

Fatten the sheep for the kill – sacrifice

Too many ministers find other things to do

REFUSING TO BE DEFLECTED

The ethical issue – You are paid to minister the Word to the flock – not all else

We must not leave the Word of God to serve tables – deacons

THE CHURCH AS A FAMILY

One of the most injurious practices – affinity groups

THE WORLD IS OUR PARISH

Not by the minister going everywhere, but by God thrusting out well fed Christians

THE CALL

Be absolutely sure that God has you there

Don’t be a minister if you can help it

THE RIGHT PLACE

If you are called of God, you are not your own, and you are certainly not your wife’s, nor your children’s, nor even your congregation’s.

Keep close to God.

DYING TO LIVE

Dead to sin (obvious) but also to self in all its various and subtle aspects

PRAYER

We must challenge our people to pray for the ministry.

5. Walking the Tightrope

FINDING THE BALANCE

In the world of real people, not of books, yet all that is worth saying to them is in books

Incarnational – One Person – Christ

Don’t cut ourselves off from others are thinking, saying, doing

Some knowledge of the pathway of sin in our time and place

NO FEAR OF GOD

Church is fairly and squarely to blame.

Look at men of courage and the word from the Bible, Noah, Samuel, Paul…

They knew God and His Word, and they knew by the Spirit of God what the Word was for that hour.

KNOWING YOUR BIBLE

How well do you know the sweep of the story of the Bible?

THE CHURCH IN THE WORLD

The importance of the Church – building up redeemed humanity for eternity

Might be a small congregation – don’t underestimate the world-wide impact

A GLORIOUS PROSPECT

God’s program for His kingdom vs. our misconception of that program

God pins His hope upon the remnant in every age who live in Messianic hope and power.

Lots of great saints are massing in heaven even now, and they will break out and vindicate the martyrs, and overrun and overflow the whole creation.

No point being saved to starve.

THE MIRACLE OF GRACE

Walking the tightrope of the Spirit of God

LOSING YOUR BALANCE

Academic, activist experiential,…

We are looking for truth that becomes known in character

KEEPING YOUR BALANCE

1. Know Christ

2 Peter 1:19 ¹⁹ And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts,

2. Be sure of your call

3. Wait for His will

4. Die to yourself

The Word will never come through someone living. You have to die to self.

5. Don’t go it alone

SUMMARY

Ever a remnant

Closing Thoughts (Magee):

1. A book to be read and considered by ministers

2. Above all a call to faithful ministry of the Word

3. Tota Scriptura

4. Bible notes for his congregation for so many years

5. Plenty of opposition

6. Death to self is the only way to go.

7. It has taken me 14 years or do to figure out what my ministry is about.

A Better Way

2008-03-28T10:52:00.000-04:00

A Better Way

By Michael Horton

(His dates: ?-living, This book first published: 2002)

Baker Books, 2003

Introduction (Magee)

A way of life for us at EPC

Contents

Introduction – A Glorious Theater

1. Setting the Stage

Part 1 – Faith Comes by Hearing – The Ministry of the Word

2. A Dramatic Script

3. Casting New Characters

4. How Preaching Works

5. Discovering the Plot

Part 2 – Signs and Seals of the Covenant – The Ministry of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper

6. Signed, Sealed, and Delivered

7. A Table in the Wilderness

Part 3 – Our Reasonable Service – Getting Involved in the Drama

8. Tasting the Powers of the Age to Come

9. What Should Our Service Look Like?

10. Is Style Neutral?

11. Taking a Break from the Buzz

12. Reaching the Lost Without Losing the Reached

Introduction – A Glorious Theater

Sayers – It is the neglect of dogma that makes for dullness

A better way than vagueness

Sermon as lecture – Worship as lecture +

Big self-help places

Few want to ask: What is worship anyway?

Rich Hurst: In 1970 there were 10 megachurches, today there are over 400

And yet overall church attendance is off 35%

Drama – One of the richest ways of reading the Bible

The drama of the redemptive message

The drama of the redemptive gathering

Acts 2:37-39

The drama of the Reformation – the change to a God-centered worship

Scottish minister PT Forsyth – Our safety is in the deep

1. Setting the Stage

The Covenant Renewal Ceremony

Genesis 15

What can it mean that our worship is a covenant renewal ceremony?

God’s Work and Our Response

Parties to the Covenant of Grace

Are we more fascinated by our response than God’s work?

Hebrews 10:19-25

More than Music

Praise

Is there more to music than we realize? Music and dogma… Music and self…

Our Jealous God

Book focuses on ordinary means by which God saves and keeps us – two: word and sacrament

Everything else is for our growth

Part 1 – Faith Comes by Hearing – The Ministry of the Word

2. A Dramatic Script

Life without a plot – a postmodern problem

God brings us into the story – through the faith that comes by hearing

The Logic of Grace: Way of Salvation and Way of Saving

Way of Salvation – Romans 1-8

Way of Saving – Romans 10

Our thirst for what we can see now (idolatry) – and faith, hope , and love

The minister’s talk or God’s talk through the minister that produces new people

God Has Already Made the Message Relevant

The weak things of God despised – the powerful things of the world sought after

Moving away from the Bible…

Moving away from the sacraments…

[Magee – Moving away from corporate prayer…]

3. Casting New Characters

Nowhere Man – Beatles

Recreating the world moment by moment and thereby losing all standards

The Scripted Self

Problem with living like the star of my own made-for-TV movie

Two grand narratives: 1. In Adam, 2. In Christ

1 Peter 1:17-19 ¹⁷ And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, ¹⁸ knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, ¹⁹ but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

Be careful not to reduce the drama to our own individual salvation.

The goal is not to have God and the church fit into our existing plot, but to get a new plot from God – God’s plot.

The Gospel According to Whom?

Wit, wisdom, autobiography…

“Practical” sermons that ignore the real drama in the text

He comes to dash our silly hopes and to expose our felt needs as trivial, in order to give us new ones that are far greater, and then to satisfy those beyond our wildest dreams.

4. How Preaching Works

Consider our theology of how salvation works and the import of this to our understanding of how preaching works..

One View “Excitements Sufficient to Induce Repentance”

First Great Awakening – Whitefield, Edwards – God blessing His means

Second Great Awakening – Finney “A revival is not a miracle.” – Man using means that make sense and therefore produce a desired effect.

Why is Preaching Effective?

The promise of God

The Spirit of God

The message of God

2 Corinthians 4:7 ⁷ But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.

Hebrews 4:12-13 ¹² For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. ¹³ And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

Word and Spirit

Ezekiel 37:1-6 – Prophesy to the bones

John 6:63 ⁶³ It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is of no avail. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.

Matthew 12:39 ³⁹ But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.”

Genuinely Practical Preaching

Justification and Sanctification by faith

Faith has content

Sanctification by law ineffective

Indicative-Imperative

Christian thinking and Christian living (Eph 1-3, 4-6)

Romans 1-11, 12-16

Romans 12:1-2 ^ESVRomans 12:1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. ² Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

[Magee – I think that I have spent two much time preaching to the skeptic or the seeker. I think expounding on the privileges of the recipient of grace will be more effective not only for believers, but also for skeptics and seekers. I should take seriously the composition of the assembly as a believing gathering of saints, with just a few others that consciously see themselves as outside of Christ.]

Avoiding Bad “Law” Preaching

Problem is really a bad understanding of the gospel that we are promoting

God the Preacher

Habakkuk 2:20 - 3:1 ²⁰ But the LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him."

5. Discovering the Plot

Luke 24:27 ²⁷ And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

The Scarlet Thread

Redemptive-historical method – All Scripture is about Christ

John 5:38-40 ³⁸ and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent. ³⁹ You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, ⁴⁰ yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.

The Central Character

How the New Testament Preaches the Old

Hosea 11:1 and Matthew 2:15

1 Corinthians 10:4

Acts throughout

The need for Systematic Theology to govern our interpretations of specific texts

[Magee – The danger of preaching your systematic theology rather than the text]

Redemptive Historical Interpretation

What is John 4:21-23 actually about?

Moralizing

Allegorizing – too subjective

Psychologizing

Pet issues

God’s point in God’s story

Suggestions for Christ-Centered Reading and Preaching

1. OT and NT

2. Consider stage of redemptive history in the passage

3. How do I find myself in Christ in this passage?

4. Read and hear the Bible with the church throughout history.

5. Read and hear prayerfully.

Part 2 – Signs and Seals of the Covenant – The Ministry of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper

6. Signed, Sealed, and Delivered

Historical importance of Word and sacrament

Pietism

American Revivalism

What do the Scriptures teach?

Baptism and the Bible

The Old Testament not only promised the Covenant of Grace – signs and seals

Circumcision

Sign: Somewhere between a symbol and the thing signified

Seal: Confidence, Relationship, Consecration

Genesis 15, 17, 22. Col 3:11, 2:11-14, 1:22

Malachi 3:1-3, John 1:17, 1:24-27, 29, 33

John 3

Acts 2

Titus 3:5-7

Galatians 3:27

Hebrews 10:29 – do not count the blood of the covenant a common thing

Practical Questions

Not all Israel is Israel

In defense of infant baptism

8 points

Water Is (or Should Be) Thicker than Blood

Are you baptized? Not – are you from my heritage group?

7. A Table in the Wilderness

Psalm 78:19 ¹⁹ They spoke against God, saying, "Can God spread a table in the wilderness?

Institution of Passover

Redemption from Egypt

Institution of the Lord’s Supper

The Cross

Fervent Desire of Christ

The Nature of the Supper

Various Views

The Role of the Holy Spirit

The Benefits of the Supper

1 Corinthians 10-11

Taking Advantage of God’s Provision

John 6

Psalm 34:8 taste and see

Part 3 – Our Reasonable Service – Getting Involved in the Drama

8. Tasting the Powers of the Age to Come

Hebrews 6 “enlightened”=baptism, “tasted the heavenly gift”=Lord’s Supper

Eschatology – the powers of the age to come… For what can I hope?

Two Ages

This age and the age to come

Before the ages (pre-history)

Between the exodus and the Promised Land – Already and not yet

Contrasting Eschatologies and Their Implications for Worship:

The Church and the Believer in the Kingdom of God

Over-realized Eschatology (ORE) – post (expecting more of the millennium)

Under-realized Eschatology (URE) – pre (expecting for the tribulation)

Word and Sacrament (WS)

Evangelism and Church Growth

ORE: Triumphalistic

URE: Pessimistic

The Christian Life

ORE: Higher life

URE: Antinomianism

Weekly Worship

ORE: Seeing is believing idolatries

URE: Forgetting about mediation between God and man

WS: He is not here. He is risen!

The Age of the Spirit

The Spirit descended at Pentecost to unite a new humanity around the common fact of redemption, uniting Jew and Gentile in Christ

Walk/live in the Spirit – not fulfilling the lusts of the flesh

[Magee: Eph 5 – filled with Spirit: worship, thanks, submission]

Tasting eternity by faith in worship

9. What Should Our Service Look Like?

Old Testament versus New Testament Worship

The torn curtain in the Temple – something is definitely different

Hebrews 12:18-24

Not all discontinuity

[Magee: See Old, Worship – OT, Inter-Test Synagogue, NT,…]

The Elements

The Invocation – Call to Worship from the Scriptures

God’s Greeting (The Votum) – declaring God’s goodwill to the assembly

The Reading of the Law – conviction of sin

The Confession and Absolution – public declaration that God has forgiven our sins

The Pastoral Prayer

The Preached Word

The Ministry of the Lord Supper

Thanksgiving and Offerings

The Benediction

Concluding Thoughts

Don’t presume that a biblically-based liturgy will be impossible to institute

Acts 2:41-42, 47

10. Is Style Neutral?

People of the book not people of the image

Style Matters

Gravitas – weightiness

Explicit rejection and trivialization

Style and the Character of God

Weighty God – weighty forms of worship

The Role of Tradition

Problem of ignoring tradition and embracing the culture (without recognizing it)

What about the Setting?

The pulpit, the table, and the font

Architectural prominence to Word and Sacrament

Theatre and entertainment message

Does the furniture and its placement indicate that this is God’s stage and not ours?

Music Matters

Traditional versus contemporary labels are not adequate

Organ only? Old hymns that are folksy?

Music and the Logic of Marketing

Age segmentation

Ken Meyers – Popular culture, because of its commercial sensibilities maintains a preference for the upbeat, the informal, the new and interesting.

MTV way of conveying an idea – thin plot – enticing images – Can this work for the Christian faith – plot intensive – image prohibitive

Not age of music but durability should be the issue – Can anyone imagine a given form being around 500 years later? If not, why would we use it?

Triumph of me-centered therapeutic forms.

High culture, folk, and pop

Delayed gratification of form (in literature and music) and emotional depth

Colossians 3:16 ¹⁶ Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

So Where Now?

No short cut to serious reflection, study, and prayer

Pep talk or sermon – Which is right for a covenant renewal meeting?

Pop jingle or received musical excellence – Which is right for a covenant renewal meeting

11. Taking a Break from the Buzz

No time for Sabbath? We keep on trying the latest spiritual diet plan.

The true, good, beautiful, versus The useful, preferred, stimulating

What’s All the Buzz About?

Not this theology versus that theology, but “Who needs any theology?”

A responsibility to viewers to do the relevant – how does this work in the church?

Reel Time

Stepping into the time that God has set aside for our fellowship with Him

Rest for the Weary

The Sabbath and the Week

Hebrews 4:1-10

Each Lord’s Day is a little Easter

The Very Good Day and the anticipated Very Best Day of Consummation Rest

Structuring Our Sabbath, or Being Structured by It

Because we are weak

Every day is the Lord’s day à No day is the Lord’s day

We Have Time

Heaven: a busy place – just no sin

Start with Sunday in the battle for time

“Home Schooling”: Recovering the Disciplined Art of Catechism

A “big picture” grasp of the whole Bible

Catechesis – an ancient method of learning

12. Reaching the Lost Without Losing the Reached

The problem of unchurching the churched rather than reaching the unchurched

Seekers or Tourists

See Europe in Ten Days

Belief without the commitment of relationship

When Relevance Becomes Irrelevant

Christ and Him crucified versus humanity and it improved

Start preaching to the baptized

Is what the preacher has to say more important and more interesting than what God has to say?

Adam Raccoon at Forever Falls – What you just heard was the gospel…

Practical denial of the sufficiency of Scripture in preaching

Fatalism or Reformation?

Give in to functional illiteracy or challenge cultural accomadation

Back to stained glass windows – just with technology

Is the audience sovereign?

“The data says” versus “Thus says the Lord”

And Now for Something Completely Different

Cutting-edge liturgies? – the unchurched can find better entertainment elsewhere

The centrality of the truth of redemption

The integration of the generations around classic Christian truths and forms

God’s kingdom does not fall and rise according to the demographics of a given generation.

A Few Ideas

1. Daily instruction of the youth

2. Word-centered innovation (example of question and answer box used by Rick Phillips – answering one question before every evening service)

3. Distinguish between covenant renewal ceremony and outreach

4. Radio

5. New attitudes toward the believing community – not beasts of burden for outreach, but precious treasure that God has entrusted to the church’s care

Reaching the Reached

No pain no gain

The importance of elders and deacons for the renewal of the church

The Theology of the Cross

Mark 10:35-45

Cross now, but glory later that comes from the cross

Some insist on glory now, and bring a different theology into the church

Exodus 15:1-2 ^ESVExodus 15:1 Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the LORD, saying, "I will sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea. ² The LORD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father's God, and I will exalt him.

Closing Thoughts (Magee):

1. Worship is a way of life to be lived

2. Far from minimizing the covenant renewal meeting, this is a fount of blessing flowing from Christ

3. Word, Sacrament, and Corporate Prayer

4. Let’s not be ignorant about consumer-oriented popular culture and the forms it produces, largely unsuitable for serving a weighty eternal God. Not everything we sing needs to be 500 years old, but it should be the sort of thing that people might sing for the next 500 years.

5. What is so bad with letting the worship and ministry of the church be driven by Christ speaking through the Scriptures.

6. Let’s remember that we are speaking to the baptized.

7. May we see God build us up in faith, hope, and love, as we truly seek to follow Him.

Heaven Taken by Storm

2008-03-27T10:00:00.000-04:00

Heaven Taken By Storm

By Thomas Watson

(His dates: c. 1620-1686, This book first printed: 1669)

Soli Deo Gloria, edited by Joel R. Beeke, 1992

Introduction (Magee)

The life of the Christian is a life of warfare.

How are we to fight this fight?

Contents

1. Taking the Kingdom of Heaven by Holy Violence

2. The Christian Offering Violence to Himself

3. Offering Violence by the Reading of the Word

4. Offering Violence by the Hearing of the Word

5. Offering Violence by Prayer

6. Offering Violence by Meditation

7. Offering Violence by Self-Examination

8. Offering Violence by Sanctifying the Lord’s Day

9. Offering Violence by Holy Conversation

10. The Christian Offering Violence to Satan

11. The Christian Offering Violence to the World

12. The Christian Offering Violence to Heaven –

13. Arrows of Reproof to Those Not Offering Violence

14. Examining Whether We Are Offering Violence

15. Objections Against Offering Violence

16. Motives for Exhorting All Christians to Offer Violence

17. Take Heed of Hindrances to Offering Violence

18. Directions on How to Promote Offering Violence

19. Conclusion: What Shall We Do?

Appendix 1: The Happiness of Drawing Near to God

Appendix 2: How We May Read the Scriptures With Most Spiritual Profit

1. Taking the Kingdom of Heaven by Holy Violence

^ESVMatthew 11:12 From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.

A difficult text

^BGTMatthew 11:12 avpo. de. tw/n h`merw/n VIwa,nnou tou/ baptistou/ e[wj a;rti h` basilei,a tw/n ouvranw/n bia,zetai kai. biastai. a`rpa,zousin auvth,nÅ

bia,zetai verb indicative present passive 3rd person singular

[UBS] bia,zomai see bia,zw

[UBS] bia,zw exercise force (if midd.) or suffer violence (if pass.) (Mt 11.12); enter by force (Lk 16.16)

biastai. noun nominative masculine plural common

[UBS] biasth,j, ou/ m violent or eager person

a`rpa,zousin verb indicative present active 3rd person plural

[UBS] a`rpa,zw (aor. pass. h`rpa,ghn, ptc. a`rpagei,j) take by force; take away, carry off; catch up (into heaven); perhaps attack (Jn 10.12)

^NIVMatthew 11:12 From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it.

Pratt’s notes in The Spirit of the Reformation Study Bible:

11:12 forcefully advancing. The Greek verb translated “forcefully advancing” can also mean “suffering violence,” but in other Greek literature it almost always takes the former meaning. Further, the parallel saying in Luke 16:16 uses “the kingdom of God is being preached,” which corresponds to “forcefully advancing.” On the other hand, in other Greek literature the noun translated “forceful men” always means “violent people” and has a negative connotation, as the verb “lay hold of” usually does. The best understanding of this verse is that the kingdom is pressing ahead with force even though violent men (e.g. Herod who had imprisoned John) are trying to overcome it by force. It is not the strong and forceful who obtain the kingdom but the weak and helpless who know their own weakness and thus depend on God (vv. 28-30).

Watson:

What is the kingdom of heaven? Glory… The earth is inherited by the meek. Heaven is inherited by the violent.

The combat: “suffereth violence”

The conquest: “the violent take it by force”

Men as magistrates

Punishing the guilty

Defending the innocent

Men as Christians

Though heaven is given us freely, we must contend for it.

What “violence” is not meant here

Ignorant zeal

Murder

What is meant – holy violence – boldness, courage, and even a willingness to die

For the truth

For our own salvation – 2 Peter 1:10 (make your calling and election sure)

What is implied in this holy violence?

1. resolution of will

2. vigor of affection, and

3. strength of endeavor

How many ways must a Christian offer violence?

1. to (against) himself,

2. to (against) Satan,

3. to (against) the world, and

4. to (toward) heaven.

2. The Christian Offering Violence to Himself

Offering violence through mortification of sin

^ESVGalatians 5:17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

Our Christian duty always

The Christian duty of everyone – even the best saints

Offering violence through provocation to duty

^ESVIsaiah 64:7 There is no one who calls upon your name, who rouses himself to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities.

Next seven chapters (3-9) are seven duties of Christianity following upon this idea of offering violence through provocation to duty…

3. Offering Violence by the Reading of the Word – testing all things according to the Scriptures

^ESVActs 17:11 Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.

4. Offering Violence by the Hearing of the Word – paying attention to the preaching of the Word

^ESVHebrews 12:25 See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven.

5. Offering Violence by Prayer – there must be a stirring up of the heart to prayer and in prayer

^ESVPsalm 34:6 This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him and saved him out of all his troubles.

6. Offering Violence by Meditation – a holy exercise of the mind whereby we bring the truths of God to remembrance

Meditate upon:

· The corruption of your nature

· The death and passion of Christ

· The evidences for heaven

· The uncertainty of all earthly comforts

· God’s severity against sin

· Eternal life

Where is the meditating Christian? Most people live in a hurry.

[Magee – Profitable spiritual discussions in a teaching setting are a beneficial method of corporate meditation.]

^ESVPsalm 119:15 I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways.

7. Offering Violence by Self-Examination – The rule by which the Christian must examine himself is the Word of God.

^ESV2 Corinthians 13:5 Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?- unless indeed you fail to meet the test!

8. Offering Violence by Sanctifying the Lord’s Day – Keeping the day of Resurrection devotion as a Christian duty

^ESVActs 20:7 On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, …

The matter of spiritual preparation – the example of William Still and the officers

9. Offering Violence by Holy Conversation – see above under Chapter 6

[Magee: Some general thoughts on the means of grace:

· The corporate preferred to the merely individual

· The Sacraments as means of offering holy violence

· The connection between the various means of grace

How can God’s Word be useful in prayer? Clowney: To pray according to God’s will means to make God’s word the guide for our prayers [Edmund Clowney, “Prayer, Theology of,” New Dictionary of Theology (Downers Grove, Ill.: IVP, 1988), 526-527.

How do the Sacraments inform our understanding of the Word, and the Word inform our understanding of the Sacraments?]

10. The Christian Offering Violence to Satan

^ESV1 Peter 5:8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

11. The Christian Offering Violence to the World

^ESV1 John 2:15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

12. The Christian Offering Violence to Heaven

[Magee – Chapters 2, 10, and 11 all teach about a violence that we offer against an enemy. Chapter 12 is different than these. Here we are fighting to gain something, like Israel fought to gain the Promised Land. We are not fighting against heaven, but God graciously calls us to fight against the flesh, the devil, and the lure of the world as we live this life on the road toward heaven.]

^ESVPhilippians 3:14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

13. Arrows of Reproof to Those Not Offering Violence

· Slothful Christian

· Formalist

· Violent people (in a bad sense)

14. Examining Whether We Are Offering Violence

· Do we strive with our hearts to get them into a holy frame?

· Do we set time apart to call ourselves to account?

· Do we use violence in prayer?

· Do we thirst for the living God?

· Are we skilled in self-denial?

· Are we lovers of God? (Do we love God more than we fear hell?)

· Do we keep our spiritual watch? (Do we watch against temptation?)

· Do we press after further degrees of sanctity?

· …

15. Objections Against Offering Violence

· But we have no powers to save ourselves – Yet let us do what we are able, and trust God to provide ability where we are lacking holy violence.

· But this is too hard – Yet it is a duty, and there is no disputing duty. Also there is a glory that awaits us that far outweighs the difficulty we face now.

· But this would force me to give up too many things I like – Choosing lesser delights in order to miss our chief delight in God is sin. Sin is not good for you.

· But this would make me miserable – This labor of duty will turn into a delight, even with both hard labor and tears. Trust God on this point.

· But I will look like a religious zealot to family and friends – Who are you more willing to offend, worldly men, or the God who sent His Son to die for You?

· But this would cost me dearly – Don’t you want your soul to be healthy? What profit will your lazy, worried soul be to you if you refuse God?

· But I just have no time for this – Are you so foolish that you have time for all the things that perish, and no time for what will remain forever? God had time for your salvation, and Jesus was not too busy to die for your sins.

16. Motives for Exhorting All Christians to Offer Violence

^ESV2 Samuel 23:16 Then the three mighty men broke through the camp of the Philistines and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem that was by the gate and carried and brought it to David. But he would not drink of it. He poured it out to the LORD

^ESVRomans 12:1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. ² Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

^ESVMatthew 11:12 From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.

Men will wade through blood for a kingdom…

^ESVMatthew 6:33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Philippians 2:12-13 ¹² Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, ¹³ for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

17. Take Heed of Hindrances to Offering Violence

· Unbelief

· Incorrect thinking about election

· Too much violence after the world

· Indulging any lust

· Despondency of spirit

· A lazy temperament

· Consulting with flesh and blood

· Listening to the voice of carnal friends

· Being content with a little bit of grace

· The idea that the way to heaven is easy

18. Directions on How to Promote Offering Violence

· Daily prayer

· Get under lively preaching

· Get your hearts filled with love of Christ and all that is Christ’s

· Be vigilant

· Keep your sacred vows

· Make going to heaven your business

· Have heaven continually in your eye

· Keep company with others who are offering violence for the kingdom

· Never stop seeking God in any Christian duty until you have the Holy Spirit

19. Conclusion: What Shall We Do? Keep alive this holy violence!

Psalm 105:1-4 ^ESVOh give thanks to the LORD; call upon his name; make known his deeds among the peoples! ² Sing to him, sing praises to him; tell of all his wondrous works! ³ Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice! ⁴ Seek the LORD and his strength; seek his presence continually!
Closing Thoughts (Magee):

1. Do you see the Christian life in the current age as one of warfare?

2. What is your strategy for victory in that warfare?

3. See the importance of the means of grace in fighting the good fight.

4. Your fighting needs to be tied into the fabric of your life.

a. How is your fighting tied into some duties that cannot be put off?

b. How is your fighting tied into some people that will expect you to fight with them?

c. How is your fighting teaching the young and the weak how to make progress in holy violence?

5. A model of Christian warfare that is passive, individualistic, and informal is hard to consider as truly seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

6. Holy violence is necessary among the leaders of the church. A church with leaders who are not committed to holy violence should not expect to somehow develop a congregation that will be committed to holy violence.

7. Every man needs to consider how God is calling Him to fight for the king?

a. Am I called to be an elder?

b. Am I called to be a deacon?

c. What does it mean to my life as a Christian that I promised to support the worship and work of the church to the best of my ability?