'25 SUMMER READING LIST, #16 - "PRAY AND GO" BY THOM RAINER

I first read "Pray & Go, a 30-Day Journey: Your Invitation to Become a Great Commission Christian" by Thom Rainer in late '23. I read it again mid-'24. It may not be on my '25 list, but if not, it will be in '26. I found this a powerful challenge and want to keep this reminder before me.

Rainer gives a short lesson for 30 installments, followed by an assignment. It may be to read a Scripture, pray specifically, or to be a witness. It's designed to be either for an individual or for a church group; either way, the goal is to mobilize the Church.

One assignment that impacted me was on his first chapter about praying for your pastor, and he mentioned praying for the pastor's sermon preparation. I've been doing that ever since.

'25 SUMMER READING LIST, #13 - "LOVE YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR MIND" BY J.P. MORELAND

I was in a meeting with church leadership training, and the group leader shared the chapter of "Love Your God With All Your Mind: The Role of Reason in the Live of the Soul" that dealt with how this focus translated into the local church. That chapter hooked me, and I thus read this book. Twice.

But which of the editions did I read? Both. The second edition  (which is what the cover is for) adds material to the first chapter, and rewrites the third of four parts of the book. To be honest, while both editions are good, the original fit the purpose of the book, examining the role of the Christian mind in evangelism, apologetic reasoning, worship, and fellowship. The second edition instead gives a strategy on how to reason - again, useful, but I missed the deleted information.
 

BOOK REVIEW AND PERSONAL EVALUATION - "SPIRITUAL GIFTS - BIBLE STUDY BOOK: WHAT THEY ARE AND HOW TO USE THEM" BY DANIEL DARLING

This is not the first Daniel Darling book I've read - I also have read "The Dignity Revolution." So I was excited to see his take on one of my favorite subjects. After all, I've read Spiritual Gifts books and taken spiritual gift inventories from the charismatic to the cessationist views. In fact, I've taken two inventories in the past 12 months, including the one Darling suggests in this book.

Technically, this is more of a workbook. My Bible Study group just finished going through this. It is a 6 week study, consisting of five short studies for each chapter, followed by a discussion guide. Probably, neither cessationists nor Charismatics will be completely pleased, but Darling does an excellent job of presenting this without criticizing any of the contrasting views.

I highly recommend this study. 

Allow me to add some interaction I've had, especially connected to the two inventories. I took the one Darling recommends this evening (referred to as the Lifeway test), and I took a previous one coupled with a personality test during a Guide Retreat (and hereafter called the Guide test).
There were similarities between the two. Both dealt with the same 16 gifts; Lifeway gives 5 questions per gift, while Guide gives 8. Those questions really are statements and you are answer with a number between 1 and 5 concerning your agreement. In doing the Guide test, the group leader suggested we rate each statement either 1 or 5, and if it really is somewhere in between, give it a 2 or a 4, avoiding 3s. 

What's interesting is comparing the ratings. Some of it may be due to sticking to 1s and 5s on the Guide. Some of it is how the statements are worded, whether based on experience or interest. There's one case which showed bias: One of the questions to use on the gift of encouragement was, "I usually teach topically rather than verse by verse." Is that saying those who are gifted encouragers would not be expository teachesrs? Nonsense!

Some of the common threads: On both, I'm high on teaching, knowledge, and encouragement and low on leadership, administration,  and - to my disappointment, on helps and discernment. I wasn't surprised to see the Lifeway test reflect my typical low score on evangelism compared to the aberrant 40 of 40 score on the Guide test. What did surprise me was Guide having me high on "Apostleship" (pioneer church work) and Pastor (shepherding) than Lifeway did, and that Lifeway had me very high on giving and faith which most tests - including Guide - also had me low on.

One concluding thought - we need to remember that the gifts of the Spirit often have accompanying roles in the Christian life. Some have gifts of evangelism, giving, mercy, discernment, faith, and helps, but we're all called to be witnesses, generous, merciful, discerning, full of faith, and helpful to those in need. 

 

BOOK REVIEW - "MEG IS NOT ALONE" BY MEGAN HILL (ILLUSTRATED BY SAMARA HARDY)

No, I don't read a lot of children's books. I found this one by accident. I heard the author speak on a podcast about the role of the church and fellowship. So I looked up the book she had written and found this book on the same subject but to a different audience. I read it and loved it.

The plot is Meg is accidentally left at church by her parents. It was a scary experience, but several of the church members helped get a hold of Meg's mother and helped her feel comfortable and occupied until her father came to pick her up.

There's a note at the end of the book, pointing out that Megan Hill had that experience as a child... and as an adult. 

I also enjoyed illustrator Samara Hardy's artwork. That aided in the tone of the book.

I highly recommend this for children... and their parents as well.

 

BOOK REVIEW - "THE TITUS TEN BIBLE STUDY: FOUNDATIONS FOR GODLY MANHOOD" BY J. JOSH SMITH

 

The men's Bible study class I'm in at my church just finished going through "The Titus Ten Bible Study: Foundations for Godly Manhood". J. Josh Smith does an excellent job in covering ten sometimes overlap principles on being a godly man. Each of those points are taken from the pastoral epistle Titus. 

This review is concerning the workbook for the study. It is designed to have a group discussion, followed by five short personal Bible studies for that week. There is an access code where you can get to see Smith's video lectures.

I would describe this more as a topical study with Titus being a launching pad than a study of the book of Titus. The development of the study is laying "foundations for godly manhood," as opposed to going through the book. The ten studies are focused on the ten foundations and go through various Scriptures establishing his theme; Titus is included but not always the foundational point.

If you'd like a book for a men's study dealing with our role in the family, the church, and society, I highly recommend this book. 

CHRISTIANESE 101

 

I love salsa picante on my eggs. 

Okay, raise your hands if you correctly pictured a chunky tomato based sauce (possibly with the brand name Pace) with onions, cilantro, and jalapenos or other spicy pepper in it.

Now, a Spanish speaker would agree that salsa picante is an accurate picture of what I described. But so would Louisiana Hot Sauce, the topping for General Tso’s Chicken, cocktail sauce, or a spicy mustard. You see, in Spanish “salsa picante” simply means “spicy sauce”.

Sometimes Christians point out the problem of Christianese. However, we aren’t aware that many of the words we use have evolved to be more specialized than they originally were.
The New Testament was written in Koine Greek, meaning common Greek. The words which we translate as church, evangelize, baptize, Gospel, and apostle all come from a Greek vocabulary that a first century heathen would hear and have a concept of what it means.

Church (Greek word ekklesia) means a called out assembly. In a literal tense, it could refer to what we call church, and it could refer to the U.S. Congress. That doesn’t deny that God has a universal church, and that doesn’t deny that God speaks a lot about the local assembly. But we probably have some conceptions that are more tradition than Scripture about the church, such as it needing a building or that it meets on Sunday morning.

Many of you are aware that the word baptize is actually a transliteration of the Greek word baptizo, which means to immerse. You may have heard that because of that, baptism should be immersion as opposed to pouring or sprinkling. But we have a habit of automatically equating baptism with water immersion. Matthew 3:11 mentions three types of baptism (immersion), only one of which is water.

Some Christians believe that there are modern day apostles and others believe that there were only twelve or so that died off in the first century. However, both camps think of an apostle as a spiritually anointed person like Peter and Paul. The Greek word apostelo, transliterated apostle, means a sent out one, or as the Complete Jewish Bible translates it, emisary. A diplomat is an apostle. I personally believe that a church planter, especially in a pioneer mission field, can be called an apostle.

One last comment, and that deals with our translation to the Greek words phileo and agape. Both are translated in Scripture as “love.” But many Christians elevate agape as being more selfless, more sacrificial than phileo. One Bible College teacher pointed out that this distinction does not exist in Koine Greek literature. The difference between the two is that phileo is a relational love, one that can be completely selfless and sacrificial, but expects to be returned; agape is an unrequited love that has no expectation. 

Let me use a policeman as an example. He may sacrifice his life for his partner, but he expects the partmer to do the same if the situation was reversed. This is phileo. The policeman might also lay his life down for the mayor, but he would not expect the mayor to do the same. This is agape.

Yes, the Bible talks about God agape loving us and that we should agape love each other. Two points, though. First, Ephesians 5:25-31 deals with the husband being commanded to agape love his wife, yet in Titus 2:4 older women are trained to teach the younger women to phileo love their husbands. This makes more sense in light of relationships than to think a wife’s permitted to love her husband with a lesser love than the other way around.

Second, John 16:27 quotes Jesus saying that God phileo loved the disciples. We’re used to thinking of his love as agape per John 3:16. But I think it’s saying that God loves the world not expecting anything in return when Christ died on the cross. But God expects and desires those who believe to have a relationship with Him and to love Him in return.

P.S. Read John 21 in light of my comments on love. Three times Jesus asked Peter if he loved Him, and Peter answered three times “You know that I love you.” The first two times Jesus asked the question, He used the word agape. Each time Peter answered, and Jesus’ third question, used the word phileo. Many preachers say that Peter is saying his love for Christ is not at the level Jesus asked. But what if you take agape as meaning expecting nothing in return and phileo as expecting the love to be returned?

NOTE - This was written and originally posted as a Facebook note on October 11, 2015. 

 

SUNDAY PSALMS PART 38 OF 48 - PSALM 122:1

 

Christians United Church, Indianapolis

I was glad when they said to me,
"Let us go into the house of the Lord."
Psalm 122:1, New King James Version

Aren't you glad when people say to you, "Let's go to the house of the Lord?" If so, why not?

Yes, unfortunately there are churches who love hurting people while others love hurting people. Wheat and tares are gathered together in the same sanctuary, and it's often there that the tares become recognized. When that happens, it's understandable why they don't want to darken the door of the church. 

However, does our experience take precedence over the words of the author of Hebrews: "And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembly of yourselves together as is the manner of some, but exhort one another, and so much more as you see the day approaching." (Hebrews 10:24-25)? Because of the sin of others, are we granted permission of living in disobedience ourselves?

Is part of the problem that we're focusing on our own interests and ignoring the interests of others, contrary to Philippians 2:4? We're expecting others to love us, but are we loving each other? Maybe if we are treating each other as we should, they would be built up. Likewise, maybe we're called to stand up to those who are hurting others.

One thing to remember - the people we're either assembling with in church or avoiding by not assembling will be with us in heaven. Plus, they're all people Christ loves. And didn't Jesus say that if two or three are gathered together in His name, He's in the midst?

I don't know about you, but I'm glad when they say to me, "Let us go to the house of the Lord."

 
 

THE NIGHT WATCH, REMBRANDT HARMENSZOON VAN RIJN

 PART 1 OF A 17 PART SERIES ON FAVORITE ART AND ARTISTS

"The Night Watch" by Rembrandt

Is it any surprise that when they named a car after an artist, they called it a Rembrandt? Why not a Van Gogh or a Dali or a Picasso? 

I'm starting this series with probably the best known artist I'll be covering. Is Rembrandt (1606-1669) my favorite painter? Almost - he's my second favorite (I'll be dealing with my favorite later, of course). He did my favorite Resurrection painting, "The Risen Christ Appearing to Mary Magdalene"(see below).

My favorite Rembrandt is the one pictured above. I don't know why it's better known as "The Night Watch" rather than its proper title, "The Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq and Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburch Preparing to March Out." 

One reason I like it is the large scale of it. Several of the people stand out. In fact, though I've been lifelong non-military (like my Dad and Grandfather), I would like to hang around this group of people. Well, I'm not sure about the guy in the red with a sword - I'm not sure I'd like to get in an argument with him.

Why do I like this picture? After thinking about it, I've come to the conclusion that it's camaraderie. This group of people strike me as being a team. There is mutual loyalty between them.

Shouldn't the church be like that? We are facing spiritual warfare, but do we too often view ourselves as fighting our battle, rather that being united with our fellow believers with a common goal?  

Are you also a Rembrandt fan? If so, which paintings of his do you like? 

WHAT'S SO GOOD ABOUT FRIDAY?

 If I had a dime for every time I hear someone say "Happy Friday," or "Wish it was Friday" or, of course, the cliche TGIF.

On the other hand, I often hear my wife Becky and the Hungarian Bible wish each other "Happy Sunday." Is that any different?

To be honest, I find the "Happy Friday" mentality depressing. Of course, the people who say that are at my place of work, and so I don't get to see them on the weekend. But it still saddens me. Why?

First off, it gives the impression that one day of the week - or at least one workday - is worth living, and the rest of the time, not so much.

Second, there's a reflection that work is a curse. We need to remember that Biblically, work preceded the fall and the curse. Adam had a job - he was a gardner. He had a job before he had a wife (probably the one who started that pattern). 

Let's approach it a different way. What dreams do youngsters have? They want to be a musician or an actor or an athlete. Guess what? To be good at any of these, it takes work! Maybe it seems more glamorous than the usual 9-5 or what used to be my pattern, the graveyard shift, though those who make a living at those things might think the shine is a little fainter than it was when they were young. 

I have a friend who had his foot amputated. He shakes his head at those who can work and don't; he's unable to work and wishes he can. 

To me, life is too short to not enjoy each day, even if it is mundane and boring. Do you like any of the people you work with? Is there satisfaction in doing a good job at your place of employment? 

Now, I would feel differently if that person who wished me a Happy Friday had told me "Happy Thursday" the day before and is also known to say "Happy Wednesday," "Happy Tuesday," and the inconceivable "Happy Monday." 

After all, I enjoy Mondays! It is a new beginning, a chance to improve on the job I did the previous week. 

Now, does "Happy Sunday" differ? For me, it does. It is not primarily thankfulness for what is not being done but for what the person is doing. Particularly, when stated among Christians when they're going to church, when they're meeting with fellow believers, when they're studying God's Word and singing praises to Him.

WHO ARE WE ACCOUNTABLE TO? - A STUDY ON ROMANS 14 PART 7 OF 11

Rock Island State Park, Tennessee

Yesterday, I focused on Romans 14:4, and pointed out that other believers are accountable to God, not us, so we're not to act as their judge. Today, the focus is on Romans 14:7-12, and the fact that everybody is accountable to God. Verses 7-9 point out that we don't live for ourselves but to God, because we are God's. The next three verses remind us that we all will appear before God and give account of our lives (see also 1 Corinthians 3:9-17; 2 Corinthians 5:10; 1 Peter 1:17).

How often do we see ourselves as belonging to the Lord? We call Sundays the Lord's Day, but is the focus of the day the three hours in the morning when we assemble together to worship or on the three hours to six hours in the afternoon when the NFL takes over the TV? 

Even with church, do we REALLY see ourselves as the Lord's? Let's look at the music. Some people want a nice contemporary worship time, resembling the music they listen to at home. Others want a more traditional worship that they're more comfortable with. But are we more concerned with the accompaniment or with the words coming out of our mouth and especially if they reflect what's in our mind and heart?

Now, let's move to the sermon. Which of these two thoughts are more frequent while the Pastor is preaching:

1. I needed to hear that. God needs to work with me on that area so I'm pleasing Him more.
2. Is (fill in somebody else's name) here this morning? I hope so: he/she really needs to hear this message.

Too often we're focused on the shortcomings of others when we really need to instead turn our eyes inward and realize we are going to give account of ourselves before God. We're too worried about specks in others' eyes to see the planks in our own. 

Do you realize you are here solely for God's glory? Are you aware you will someday stand before Him?

THANKS TO MY BETA READERS, AND WHAT'S NEXT WITH MY WRITING?

 

I'd like to start today's blog by thanking my Beta Readers: Mary Allen, Kacy Barnett-Gramckow, Heidi Glick, Twyla Jackson, and Joanne Sher. They have read my novel that I've been working on since '07, and provided excellent feedback.

Did I mention that I started writing "An Apologetic For Murder" since 2007? It has been an adventure. 

It started no later than 1995, actually, when I had a concept of a group of six friends working together to solve a murder. I called them the Menagerie: each one had an animal nickname. 

In 2007, I was wanting to write a book promoting apologetics. Of course, as a lay-person with no name recognition, would anybody consider reading a book by little old me? And then, I remembered some friends who were in apologetics/anti-cult ministry mention that they got death threats. 

So the Menagerie found a home - they attended an apologetics conference to find out who was trying to kill an apologist. I also thought of having an innocent bystander - if a hit-man could be called an innocent bystander - intercept a bullet meant for one of the apologists. 

Immediately, there were a lot of characters to develop. There was the six in the Menagerie. Then, there were the apologists, of which there were five (patterned after the book Five Views On Apologetics? Not intentionally but it did have an influence). Add to that seven suspects. Which one did it?

No, I'm not answering the above question, though my Beta Readers know. However, I was half way through writing the novel until it hit me who hired the hit-man and whose bullet said hit-man intervened. 

The novel was finished in 2008. The next year, after looking into some venues for publishing, a self-publishing company agreed to publish it. The following year, that company went belly-up in a way that it ended up on the front page of the local paper and was covered by all the local newsstations on TV. 

Around that time, I read The Complete Idiot's Guide to Writing Christian Fiction by Ron Benrey.  I had previously read other literature on writing, includint two books on writing Christian fiction. Benrey was the first one to advise getting an agent, and also encouraged going to writing conferences and joining the ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers).

So I took his advice and joined, became part of a couple critique groups, and started on my first re-write of the novel. Originally, it had six "main characters." In writing the novel, though, those six characters fell into roles. Two got a lot of "screen time", two were important more for their roles (e.g. the policeman of the group), and two (who happened to be the married couple of the group) were basically supporting characters. So I set to work focusing on the two main characters.

Shortly after, I did a third rewrite, more major than the second. I figured out who the actual sleuth of the group was. So I did something I never thought I'd do, and rewrote the story as a first person narrative. 

Around 2014, the fire faded. During that time I made some half hearted starts, and in 2019 I got serious to rework the novel and seek publication. That's also when I lined up the beta readers.

I did have two concerns with my novel, both of which affected marketability and both were confirmed by the comments of the beta readers. The first was if there were too many characters. The consensus was that the story called for a lot of characters, but yes, I did have a lot of them. The second was if it was too deep theologically for the average fiction reader (and relatedly, not enough action to maintain interest). This concern was legitimate.

Soooo... where do I go from here?  Basically I have two options.

One is to give up on this story. I have two other story ideas (different genres from each other and from my above novel). I also have other talents that are laying dormant such as songwriting, ceramics, and drawing. Add to that an interest in refugee ministry.

The other is to do a third rewrite, and this one will be more major than the other two. The previous ones maintained the same characters, the same plot, the same victim, the same killer. If I rewrite, I will be trimming the characters which will then alter the plot. After all, the seven suspects had motives to kill one of the five apologists, but they weren't after the same apologist. I might get rid of an apologist while wanting to keep the person who wanted to kill him.

If I do start from scratch as I'm proposing, or if I decide to write a new novel, I'll be working with a couple of books. The first is The Chunky Method by Allie Pleiter, to help me in following the two rules of writing illustrated above. The second is Soul Types, which looks at the impact of the Myers-Briggs Types on spirituality.

Should you feel led to pray as I think this over, it would be appreciated.

BOOK REVIEW: THE BENEDICT OPTION BY ROD DREHER

 

I first read this book the better part of two years ago. Immediately I re-read it so I could write a review on it. Why? because I thought this was a book that needed to be read. And I've just read it a third time.

This is one of the rare books that I want to recommend others to read so I can sit down and discuss it with them. I don't agree with everything author Rod Dreher proposes. But this is an important book that I want to learn how to work it into my life. Some who disagreed with this book point out it's more Orthodox/Catholic than Evangelical, but I don't consider that a problem. Rather, it is a call to stand against the real and common enemy. 

Dreher sees five historic events from the past seven centuries as being not causes but influences to the current time, culminating with the sexual revolution. He sees the solution as one more influenced by Benedict's monasticism than the typical political activism we see today. It is not that Dreher recommends withdrawing from society, but it is more on Christians unifying into strong communities in a society that marginalizes us. He deals with important issues like politics - he feels the emphasis should be local, but the major national emphasis should be on religious liberty - education, church life, community, sexuality, and not being dependent on technology.

I showed this book and another with a similar theme to one of my best friends. That friend said by looking at the back cover he could tell the other author was mad at the church and that he didn't need to read that. Not true about this one - my friend said that he thought it was worthy of reading.  

Allow me to look at this book from an apologetics persepective. I believe this strongly recommends defending the faith through orthopraxy. You are probably more familiar with the word "orthodoxy" which means "right thinking;" "orthopraxy" refers to "right living." A lot of times our priorities and worldview as Christians is too much like the world. Dreher's approach is encouraging the church to be the church, to be the alternative to society's mess.