Growing in Christ
books
My Canon of Theologians
23 months ago
A few years ago a friend and I were walking around a downtown area, and as we passed a used book shop, my friend suddenly stops, and proclaims “You have to have one of those!” What he’d seen was a display in the window with a t-shirt that had in big letters printed on it: “I Read Dead People.” That’s basically my reading habits, and my friends know it – I think it speaks primarily to their long-suffering and patience to continue to hang-out with me.
Along these lines, in an old post by Tony Reinke about the Sovereign Grace Ministries’ 2007 Leadership Conference, he caught my attention with an outline of Mark Dever’s seminar at that conference, Watch the Past: Living Lessons from Dead Theologians. (Note: Tony’s link is out of date. Follow this link for the message which is now free.) Refer to Tony’s post for the outline, but the basic premise is this: “He encouraged us to read on theological issues that are not a particular struggle at the time. Let the theologians talk about what they want to talk about.” Much like a Bible reading plan, this sort of system puts you in regular conversation with faithful men in the past to listen carefully to them without needing to rush. I’ve been thinking about what I want to read this year – being in February, I’m a bit behind – and so I thought this would help bring some gool’ol dead guy fun to the year, and hopefully for years to come.
The ‘canon of theologians’
January – Early church writings (1st-3rd centuries)
- Early Christian Writings: The Apostolic Fathers (Penguin) or
- The Apostolic Fathers in English ed. By Michael Holmes
I’ve missed January, so I’m not too concerned about catching up. I’ll swing around to this next year, or for bed-time reading in the future!
February – Augustine (354-430)
- The Confessions (Henry Chadwick edition, 352 pages).
When I was in college I majored in both English and Philosophy, with my English degree primarily focusing on Medieval Literature. My happy marriage between these two worlds was Augustine (and a riveting one-on-one Tolkien class I took that produced a paper on Augustine’s view of evil in The Lord of the Rings… but that’s a rabbit trial). One of my professors (the same of the Tolkien class) said to me once, “Read Augustine’s Confessions when you’re 30, and again when you’re 35, and when you’re 40. It’s a book that grows with you.” That left a deep impression upon me, and I’ve never forgotten it. I’m not 30 yet (a mere green sapling of 27) but I’ve been flirting with reading it this year anyways. Ergo, The month of love is the month of confessing.
March – Martin Luther (1483-1546)
- Bondage of the Will (328 pages), or:
- Here I Stand by Roland Bainton (441 pages)
I’m not sure which of these I’ll read for March, but I have Bondage of the Will already, so maybe I’ll stick with that. Dever highly praises Bainton’s biography of Luther, so we’ll see, but I’m sure my wife would prefer I follow the “read what you own” approach.
April – John Calvin (1509-1564)
- The Institutes of the Christian Religion (1059 pages)
I read Calvin’s Institutes (McNeill edition) my senior year of college on my own. No class assignment, but I felt I owed it to the label “Calvinist” that if I were going to claim to be one, I might as well read the man’s main book. Through those months that I slowly read through the Institutes Calvin was helping me construct a massive Biblical framework for seeing the glory of God. Calvin built the architecture of my mind piece by piece, with both Biblical devotion and pastoral care. I still remember sitting at my desk wondering my brains were smattered on the ceiling because my mind was being blown by what he was showing me in the Bible. When I finished it, I resolved that I would read it every five years. It’s been that time, so I think I’m going to read it this year in a month, with a different translation.
May – Richard Sibbes (1577-1635)
After Calvin’s Institutes, my next favorite book is Richard Sibbes’ The Bruised Reed. The volumes and volumes of grace that I’ve received from this short little book are inexhaustible. I’ve felt comforted in trial, lifted in despondency, and encouraged towards love for Christ. Having read Sibbes before, I recently bought his Works. Dever has been tweeting quotes from Volumes 6 and 7 lately, so maybe that’s where I’ll go. I’ve got a little bit, but I want to set into one of the volumes. (Side note: Dever has done loads of readings from the works of Sibbes at his church in the past. You can find the audio for these times here.)
June – John Owen (1616-1683)
- Works of Owen: Justification? Socinianism? Church?
What can I say about Owen? I named my first son after him. I’m not sure what I’ll read here – his works on Justification and Socinianism have relevance to controversies in the contemporary church that I feel Dr. Owen might have some helpful things to say. Or his works on the Church (dealing with controversies, etc.) might be helpful along the same lines. Not sure, we’ll decide when we get there.
July – Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758)
- Revival (160 pages)
A shorter book than the others, but one I’ve intended to read for a while. Revival is that one thing that ever Christian longs to see in their day. I pray for it, and desire to be stirred to pray for it more by reading of past revivals.
August – C.H. Spurgeon (1834-1892)
- Autobiography Volume 1 (562 pages)
- Autobiography Volume 2 (524 pages)
Dever comments that Spurgeon’s biography is an incredibly fun read and deeply edifying for pastoral ministry. Seems like a good order to me! I’ve read Spurgeon’s Lectures to my Students, and a few other things by or about him, but a full autobiography by him should be fun! We’ve been to Elephant and Castle, so I’m looking forward to learning the man a little more. This would be one of the few volumes I’ll need to buy.
September – B.B. Warfield (1851-1921)
- The Person and Work of Christ (589 pages) or
- Select Shorter Writings
Dever had high praise for Warfield, and I think I’ve tended to not pay as much attention to him as he deserves. I’ve probably been put off by his cessationism. Anyhow, the man was a magnificent gift to the church, and I have his Shorter Writings, which again, my wife would probably prefer me read before buying new books. That said, I’ve continually heard great praise for his work on Christ, which I’d love to read at some point. We’ll see.
October – Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981)
- Studies in the Sermon on the Mount (584 pages)
I’m currently reading, bit by bit, Lloyd-Jones’ Evangelistic Sermons before bed to grow in my understanding of preaching. I’ve read Lloyd-Jones before, and my wife’s a big fan. Our family claim to fame on this is that my wife’s Granddad had some sort of personal relationship with Lloyd-Jones. Most likely something in passing, but they knew each other – and I knew Granddad, which was cool in itself. Having not read this book before, and knowing how important it is, I think this will be a good one for October.
November – C.S. Lewis (1898-1963)
- Till We Have Faces (324 pages)
This is one of those Lewis books that I just don’t really have a reason for not having read before. I keep hearing people ogle about it, so I’ll read it for my 28th birthday. I have to say though, that I intend to read more Lewis this year anyways, so I might get into this before November. Need I confess?
December – Contemporary authors
To be honest, I can’t really settle on this category. Douglas Wilson has had a large impact on my lately – maybe I’ll read through his stuff in December. Maybe John Stott? I don’t know. Please forgive me for getting 11/12ths done, and being ok with it. Slothing off?…
Concluding Thoughts
This has been a helpful exercise for me to think through, and I hope by the grace of the Spirit, to stay with it. I intend to finish those books in the months allotted, and I think I will, but I believe in grace, so if I don’t finish – eh! Some of those authors are guys I’m regularly in (like Sibbes and Lewis), and I wish there were ways to get other guys in (like John Flavel or Hermen Bavinck), but alas, I guess I’ll just have to read them in the inbetweens. If you have any thoughts – or have written your own list – I’d be very interested to hear from you! Please feel free to comment, prod, pick, or pester about anything here.
My 9 & 3/4 Favorite Books of 2011
24 months ago
Books are, in a way, cheap passports to new and foreign lands. For the mere fee of a few green things, one is whisked away into the midst of an adventure, or set on the profits of another’s hard labor in the library. These lands can be as breathtaking as the morning sunrise over the Grand Canyon, and as peacefully beautiful as a baby sleeping. I love my passports. I love my books. I love reading.
Thus, I’ve compiled my small list of the few books I’ve read this year into my favorites. I can’t promise the latest and greatest in the publishing world, but I’ve put together what I’ve read. Without further ado, here are my 9 and 3/4 favorite books from this year:
9 3/4 - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
It had been several years since I’d read the Harry Potter series, and I had never read them in a single run. So I queued them up and listened through them back to back in a month, and The Deathly Hallows delivered as beautifully as ever. I won’t say much in case a non-reader stumbles upon this, but not merely is Book 7 my favorite, it’s a deeply beautiful book. It’s the stuff that epic literature was intended to be. Rowling is a masterful storyteller, with a profound sense of what she’s aiming at: The centrality of self-sacrificing love for the good of others. In sum, Jerram Barrs summarizes why I love this book.
9 - Collected Poems by Richard Wilbur
For father’s day my son got me two books, one of them was this collection of poetry by Richard Wilbur. It was a book that I read through the year – that’s kind of how poetry goes I guess – and it regularly dazzled me. I’m not a brilliant man, or even a sharp tool in the drawer, so some of his poems missed me. I blame that on me, not the poet. But when Wilbur did strike, he was shown to have an eagle’s eye for word choice and beauty. He has a way of drawing you into a moment and resting in the pleasure of it. At other times his word play is absolutely delightful. If you’re looking for a poet to help you learn to delight in the world around you, to pause more often and consider the glories of God’s spoken world, then pick up Wilbur and follow his tutoring. For a taste, this is one of my favorite poems by him: God’s Patient Stet.
8 - The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis
If there’s ever a man of the 20th century who saw the underbelly of his age, it was C.S. Lewis. This book has the obscure premise of critiquing a grammar book for children, and yet it is an explosively insightful and disastrous critique of the modern age. He pulls out the implications of denying universal values and how denying them changes the fundamentals in how we live. The book is very small, and yet much like the Minor Prophets, he sees right to the heart of evil in modern thinking, and pulls it into the light of day. Not merely did Lewis critique the modern world, but he helped me understand my own thinking and how the unbelief of modernism/postmodernism had infiltrated my thinking, and robbed me of joy. One of the more troubling aspects of this book is the many “predictions” of sorts that Lewis makes, and with the vantage point of a little time and history, looking back and seeing his startling accuracy.
7 - The Next Story: Life and Faith after the Digital Explosion by Tim Challies
I’m going to be posting a full review of this book soon, but suffice it to say that the tittle of the review will simply be: Hello fish, this is water. I started reading this book being concerned what my use of computers, cell phones, etc. communicated and taught our son. What I got was a sobering introduction to the air we breath. Challies has done a great service to “digital natives” like myself (people born after 1980) to help us understand not only the technology around us, but what that technologies shows us about our hearts. He helps us see how our hearts run to and then use contemporary technology, and what this exposes about our values and thinking. It truly was the sort of experience where I felt like a fish being introduced to water. Ohhh… so that’s! what’s been going on! As I said, a review forthcoming.
6 - The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distractions by Alan Jacobs
If Lewis helped me see how the modern age was influencing and stunting my joyful thinking, then Jacobs helped me see how my own presumptions had robbed my joyful reading. Jacobs is one of the most engaging and readable authors I’ve read, and he continually helps me think through life with sobriety, delight, and a little chuckle. This was another one of the gifts my son gave me for Father’s day, and I read is soon thereafter. Jacobs helped me learn to take pleasure in reading, and to make that my main goal of reading. The reality is, my reading habits and motives almost completely changed after reading this book. My guilt for “not reading enough of the right stuff” was exchanged with the pleasures of reading the delightful stuff. In many ways this book intersects some of the thinking of Lewis’s The Abolition of Man and Challies’ The Next Story.
5 - Practicing Affirmation by Sam Crabtree
I’ve reviewed this book here, so I wont say much else. What I will say is that this book has helped me to connect finding pleasure in God and delighting in his grace and activity in other people. He’s has a lasting, practical impact on how I approach my wife and friends (and strangers) with the desire to delight in God. If that’s something that interests you, check out my review for more, or just read the book.
4 - When People Are Big and God is Small by Ed Welch
I used to think that “fear of man” was something other people struggled with, primarily teenagers or overly ambitious business men. But I kept wondering why I felt anxious around friends or preoccupied with relational perceptions. All the illusions that I’m not a man pleasure shattered when I read When People Are Big and God is Small. This book has had a lasting impact on how I understand my deep sin pattern of loving the praise of man above all things. I crave the love of others deep down in my twisted heart, and fear their assessment of me. I may not tremble with anxiety about what others think, but I certainly posture like a peacock in my heart and attitude to get other’s approval. It’s the same thing. But that’s not all that’s going on – I’m dehumanizing other people to treat them like they should give me attention and serve me the love I desire. Ed Welch is a skilled physician in the Word and the human heart, and his skill is even clearer in how he guides us in finding the help and hope that the Gospel offers us. Jesus died to save crooked men like me! This book may not be the most scholarly book I’ve read this year, but it is one of the books that exegeted my heart and lead me to Christ. A lifelong skill and grace I need to grow in Christ.
3 - Tempted and Tried: Temptation and the Triumph of Chris by Russell Moore
I reviewed this book here. One of the lasting elements of this book was helping me understand the similarity between Jesus’ temptation by Satan, and my own temptations to sin. Satan offered the same reliefs to Jesus that he does to me: provision, protection, and an inheritance. But the nature of the temptation wasn’t merely the satisfaction of desires, but adoption and identity. In the temptations of Jesus, Satan was offering to adopt Jesus as his own son and be his father. It’s the same with you and me in our temptations. Dr. Moore has done a marvelous work in helping us make the theological and practical connections between the temptations Jesus faced and our own daily temptations. These fundamental and basic points in Moore’s work are regularly on my mind, almost daily, and have immensely helped me understand my own battle to kill sin.
2- Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
This is one of the most beautiful books I’ve ever read. The premise of the book is very simple: A father has a terminal diagnosis, and sits to write out his life’s reflections and final thoughts to his young son that he won’t be able to watch grow up. This novel is his letter to his son. Robinson has done a masterful job of drawing our eyes to delighting in the world around us. “This is an interesting planet. It deserves all the attention you can give it” (quote here). This work is filled with quiet, meditative, insightful, and powerful insights into God’s world. Don’t read it quickly, read it to savor. Having lately become a father, much of this book took on several layers of significance for me: as a Christian, as a son, as a father. One of the great things about this work is that Robinson has shown us what serious minded, joyful Calvinism can look like in literature without being simplistic, trite, or pedantic. That is, good’ol Calvinistic joy can look a lot like regular life, but with deeper joys and pleasures with Scripture’s glasses on.
1 - The Meaning of the Pentateuch by John Sailhamer
Rarely has a book been so stimulating and helpful on so many fronts. In one single book Sailhamer tackles hermeneutical issues, the history of biblical theology, issues in contemporary biblical theology, structure within the Pentateuch, redaction of the Old Testament, authorial intent, philosophy of language, the nature of revelation, and the meaning of the shame within the Pentateuch. I thoroughly enjoyed every one of these 600 pages. This might not be the book for every Christian to read, but I think everybody would at least benefit from reading the Introduction (free to download at WTSBooks). I’m not sure I agree with every conclusion Sailhamer leads us to in the end, but his thinking is thorough and provocative. His rigorous desire to uphold the inerrancy of Scripture and deriving all theological assertions from that reality is both clear and alluring. He pulls out several weaknesses that have snuck into contemporary formulations of the doctrine of scripture and revelation; namely, that it is the text of Scripture itself, not the history it describes that are innerrant revelation and we misplace our attention to exegete the history. Sailhamer did not merely help me get a deeper grasp on the issues surrounding the Biblical text, but he helped me stand in amazement at the picture God is telling us through the narrative of the Pentateuch and the rest of the Old Testament. He amazed me with God, and helped me mark the Biblical steps towards seeing Christ in the Pentateuch. He’s helped me to be a better Biblical thinker, and thereby, more intimately think the thoughts of God after him.
Honorable Mentions:
- The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet by David Mitchell - A masterful story that draws you in to the 18th century Japanese world and quietly plays a chess game of culture’s colliding. Marvelous book!
- The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton (free!) – I read this upon Alan Jacobs’ mention of it. I was deeply engrossed with it and have gone on to read more Chesterton this year. A thrilling story with quirky characters you can’t help but be enamored with. Very much in the C.S. Lewis vein of literature.
- 100 Cupboards by N.D. Wilson - These are really good young adult fiction books that are great for family reading. There are three in this series, and all three well worth the read.
There you have it. My favorite books of 2011. If you’ve got any favorite books that you’ve read this year, I’d love to hear what they were!
Review: Tempted and Tried by Russell Moore
18 months ago
It seems a little odd to me to try and make a bridge between us on the subject of temptation. If the news outlets are any indicator, Senators still face the temptations of infidelity, government heads still face the temptations to oppress and abuse power, mariages are still fraught with the temptations of adultery and financial anxieties, and on the whole, people continue to live in a fallen, broken world.
When it comes to understanding the nature of the temptations we face and how to find help and hope, there’s no better person to look to than Jesus. Jesus was tempted, and was tempted by none other than Satan himself, in the flesh. It’s this passage out of Matthew 4 about the temptation of Jesus that Russell Moore opens up for us in his book, Tempted and Tried: Temptations and the Triumph of Christ.
Maybe this seems like a strange angle to you in understanding your own temptations. How can Jesus, who was sinless, relate with someone like you and me? Deep down, maybe you whisper with me, “Isn’t learning from giving in to temptations and making mistakes just what it means to be human? So how can Jesus relate with that?”
Here is where Dr. Moore is helpful. In his book he plainly opens up the temptations Jesus faced in Matthew 4 and breaks them down so we see the full weight of what was at stake in each of Jesus’ temptations. At the root of every real temptation Jesus faced was a temptation I feel so desperately allured by every day. Have you ever just wanted to be provided for, protected, and given good things? If you’ve ever faced those desires, and the sinful temptations to get them apart from God, then you have an idea of the temptations Jesus faced.
But this is how Moore’s book is helpful. Jesus didn’t just come to endure the temptations we face on a daily, hourly basis, he came to conquer them. He came to be tempted and tried so that he could vindicate his people to new life. Where our father Adam failed, Jesus came to be faithful.
Ultimately, temptations are about identity – the call of where we’re going to find it, and who’s going to satisfy our cravings. But it’s not just about finding idenity, it’s about who that identity is in. Moore makes this brilliant insight into Jesus’ temptation, and implicitly, our own:
Satan was not just trying to temp Jesus; he was attempting to adopt Jesus. Satan, in all three temptations, is assuming the role of a father – first in provision, then in protection, and now in granting an inheritance. Satan didn’t just want to be Jesus’ lord, he wanted to be his father. (137)
At the root of temptations are the question: Who are you going to call your father? God or Satan. Bob Dylan once sand, “It might be the Devil, it might be the Lord, but your gonna have to serve somebody.” At the root of Jesus’ and our temptations are the question of who we’re going to serve and root our identity in. Moore is helps us see the real, raw, weighty nature of Jesus’ temptations, and how we are not only assailed by the same temptations, but how rooting one’s identity in Christ through repentance and faith, being a child of our Heavenly Father (rather than our satanic father) is key to walking in newness of life.
If you’re like me, this can all begin to feel a little… invasive. But that’s the point – you and me need the invasion of a Healer, one who can fix our brokenness. This is how Moore’s book is so deeply helpful. Moore is clear and articulate in opening up Scripture, and he aptly exemplifies the sympathy of Jesus for sinners like us in the pastoral, caring heart of Christ he takes in his posture towards us in how he applies Scripture. This book is profoundly practical and rich with good insights into how we live.
I think that on the spectrum of books about sin in the Christian life, Moore’s Tempted and Tried is one of the most accessible books on the subject. Obivously John Owen has written a great deal about sin and temptation, but even abridgments and updates of his work can be rough reading. Moore’s angle of engaging the Christian life through the life of Christ is immediately helpful. If you want to overcome sin with simply more of Jesus, then entering in through the temptations and triumph of Jesus is the place to begin.
In the end, my only critiques of the book is that the chapters are long and that I despise end-notes (the constant flipping to the end of the book!). But, eh… that’s small beans, and I need to get over myself.
If you want to know more about the temptations of Christ and his compassion for sinners like us, read this book. If you want to overcome sin and temptation, but know that such a goal must require Jesus to succeed, read this book. If you’re weary of being beat over the head with moralistic rules on how to overcome weaknesses, read this book. If you want a profound adoration and love for Christ to be the powerhouse in working through temptations and sin, read this book.
—–
If you’d like to read a few selections from Moore’s book, I’ve quoted him here, and Tim Challies has put two selections up here and here.
Title: Tempted and Tried: Temptation and the Triumph of Christ
Author: Russell D. Moore
Boards: paperback
Pages: 196
Volumes: 1
Dust jackets: n/a
Binding: sewn and glue
Topical index: yes
Scriptural index: yes
Publisher: Crossway
Year: 2011
Price USD: $13.99 / $10.04 at WTSBooks
ISBN: 978-1-4335-1580-4
This is an interesting planet
110 months ago
[I am reminded] of something I saw early one morning a few years ago, as I was walking up to the church. There was a young couple strolling along half a block ahead of me. The sun had come up brilliantly after a heavy rain, and the trees were glistening and very wet.
On some impulse, plain exuberance, I suppose, the fellow jumped up and caught hold of a branch, and a storm of luminous water came pouring down on the two of them, and they laughed and took off running, the girl sweeping water off her hair and her dress as if she were a little bit disgusted, but she wasn’t. It was a beautiful thing to see, like something from a myth. I don’t know why I thought of that now, except perhaps because it is easy to believe in such moments that water was made primarily for blessing, and only secondarily for growing vegetables or doing the wash. I wish I had paid more attention to it. My list of regrets may seem unusual, but who can know that they are, really. This is an interesting planet. It deserves all the attention you can give it.
–Marilynne Robinson, Gilead: A Novel (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2004), 27-8.
HT: Tolle Lege for the written quote.
Notes on John Owen’s “Indwelling Sin”
31 year ago
We’re in the heat of moving into our new house, so time for posting gospel thoughts has been a little lean lately. That said, I have been able to finish compiling my underlinings, notes, and thoughts from John Owen’s Indwelling Sin in Believers. So to that effect, let me give a little note here about the book and my notes.
Owen’s works are obviously hefty and dense, but oh so rich and full of help for me. Owen has had an indelible impact upon my soul, in how I understand myself, and more importantly, how I enjoy Jesus Christ. It is for this reason that I named my first son in honor of him. His work on Indwelling Sin has been massively helpful in how I understand how sin “works” in my soul; how it deceives, how it feigns and fights, how it manifests and sneaks. But more importantly, at brilliant moments when Owen is expositing the nature of sin, he ascends into displaying the glory of God’s grace to help poor and weak sinners like us.
Here’s one of the most insightful quotes from Owen’s Indwelling Sin that I found super helpful:
Fill your affections with the cross of Christ, that there may be no room for sin. The world once put him out of the house into a stable, when he came to save us; let him now turn the world out of doors, when he is come to sanctify us. (VI:251)
A note on my file
The structure and outline of these notes comes directly from Overcoming Sin and Temptation edited by Kelly M. Kapic and Justin Taylor. The quotations largely come from The Works of John Owen: Volume VI, and are cited from that edition. My personal comments will appear at the beginning of each quote in italics. Otherwise, all bulleted marks under the outline are quotations of John Owen.
So with no more ado, here is the file of my notes and quotes. All you need to do is right click and save. Enjoy!
Picture of Owen’s Works care of Tony Reinke.
Affirmation is the purpose of the universe
31 year ago
This month, Crossway Books is putting out Practicing Affirmation by Sam Crabtree. The moment I saw it, I immediately grabbed it up. I’m going to post my review of the book soon, but below are the passages that I found profoundly helpful from just the first two chapters of Practicing Affirmation. Encouraging others is an area I need major help in, and Crabtree has done a brilliant job in provoking my own thinking on this issue, and I hope he does for you as well.
God-centered affirmations points towards the echoes, shadows, and reality of a righteousness not intrinsic to the person being affirmed. (19)
God is a desire transformer. When he transforms our hearts, we don’t affirm others out of sheer obligation, but rather because we want to. We want them to enjoy refreshment from being affirmed that we enjoy when we are affirmed. God is the prime mover of all good affirming. (23)
Affirmation of a recognized quality in a human hints at real quality in God who stands behind it. (30)
Jesus is on a mission to receive praise (Matt. 19:28; Luke 4:15; John 8:54; 11:4; 12:23; 13-21-32; 17:1,5; Acts 3:13), even if he has to get it from rocks (Luke 19:40). And the Father is passionate for his son to receive praise – so passionate is the Father about such praise for his Son that his Son’s praiseworthiness reverberates from those who resemble him in character. Paul translates that chain reaction into a command: “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1). No glory is stolen from Christ when people imitate Paul this way. In fact, Christ’s glory is magnified and multiplied. (31)
…In the same way that Yellowstone Park is a reflection of common grace, unregenerate persons reflect graces not intrinsic to themselves. To affirm the beautify of their character is to draw attention to the undeserved grace taht God has bestowed upon them in the form of faint echoes of Jesus, even in the presence of as-of-yet unperfected flaws in those same individuals. In the providence of God, some unbelievers are actually better behaved than some believers. This behavior is God’s gift to them, not their intrinsically meritorious character. (32)
Ahh. Affirmation is like an invigorating sudsy shower after a long day of manual labor. It’s like a cool rain after a long, hot dry spell. It delivers a combination of relief, respite, hope, optimism, satisfaction, and energy. It’s life-giving. It blesses. (41)
It seems easier to practice affirmation early in relationships, and it can get harder later. Have you ever noticed in a restaurant that some couples are talkative and some are not? What happened? Generally, new relationships are still predominately affirming, but as relationships endure the years, they also endure a lot of correction. More specifically, affirmation didn’t keep up. Not enough affirmation was dished out compared with all the other messages in the relationship. A fire not stoked goes out. A refrigerator unplugged rots the eggs, which were perfectly good not too long ago. A garden not tended erupts with weeds, not vegetables. Affirmation is the fire-stoking, refrigerator-electrifying, garden-tending side of relationships. (44)
Picture human relationships as ships on water. The natural winds blow them towards the left of the continuum. Wise people give intentional proactive energy to putting relationships towards the right. (45)
Think this way: give so many affirmations as a pattern, a way of life, that you gain a reputation for it. You are known for your affirmations, not your criticisms, your corrections. (46)
A guy might be thinking, “This doesn’t come easy for me. I’m not good at it. It’s not natural for me.” But men who desire mercy from God get busy refreshing their wives. You can decide to affirm. God will help you. (47)
The drag that corrections have on a relationship is compounded by the fact that they already outweigh affirmations – they have greater impact individually. The sting of a rebuke outweighs the fresh whiff of a bouquet. A person sniffing the flowers when a bee stings quickly forgets the flowers even if the bouquet is very large. If a pattern of corrections is outweighing the affirmations, the sting stays with us, the corrections keep picking the scab. (47)
One signal that a person has tuned you out is when lightheartedness has gone out of the relationship…While loving relationships are not all about tomfoolery, people who can’t laugh together are probably very thirsty for more affirmation in the warp and woof of life together. (50-51)
Affirmations are deposits. Corrections are the checks you write against the balance in the account. (52)
Persons who are drained by depression may find a key here. One of the things a depressed person needs is mercy, and when the depressed person by faith opens his mouth and affirms others, mercy from the Lord is on the way. (54)
[P]eople are influence by those who praise them. (54)
Is it okay to bring God into our compliments? If you don’t think so, then you’re going to have a hard time with this book. Bringing God into compliments is the best way to give them. I do not mean bringing him in as an afterthought, but basing your compliments and affirmations on his character. (58)
Don’t you like to be appreciated for what you do? Then practice the Golden Rule, and appreciate others for what they do. Affirmation is what love does, doing unto others as would be desired if the shoe were on the other foot. Even God seeks affirmation, and gives it. His commending of others is in accord with the fact that God keeps his own rules, including the Golden Rule. (61)
There you have it. Now, if you just can’t wait to get the book, you can purchase it at Westminster Books for $9.52, or from Amazon for $9.67. See how nice a guy I am? Linking it for you and everything. If you’ve learned anything from this post, you should at least know that you must affirm my helpfulness. Now. Affirmation in the form of Double Stuffed Oreos is acceptable.
Agreeing with Atheists about god
21 year ago
I found it helpful, for example, when interacting with a self-proclaimed atheist to take this approach: “I can see that you’re an intelligent person. I’m inclined to think that you are interested in following the evidence wherever it goes, embracing reality, whatever it may be.” Notice that I affirmed his ability to think and gave him the benefit of the doubt that he has some measure of interest in the truth. “May I ask you to answer a question?”
Once granted permission to pose my question, I asked, “Would you be willing to descrie the god you are pretty sure you don’t believe in?” This question does several things. First, it affords me an opportunity to listen, which is both honoring to him and enlightening to me. Second, it elicits from him a clear articulation of just exactly what it is he denies, an exercise that helps me undersatnd his mental obstacles and helps him rethink his own objections as he spells them out. After all, if we are going to have differences, it will be helfup to know exactly (and not merely imagine) where they lie. Third, it – surprisingly, to him – revealed common ground. You see the puzzles and startled look on their faces when I say to self-professed atheists who know I am a God-fearing Christian, “I don’t believe in that god either.” We still have a difference, and we both know it. But at this point, he knows I treat him with respect as a thinking human being and that we actually have some thinking in common. We have something in common to build on. I don’t believe in that god either, but now we may want to talk about the kind of God I do believe in.
Practicing Affirmation: God-Centered Praise of Those Who Are Not God by Sam Crabtree, 21-22.
Review: Think by John Piper
31 year ago
As I’m sitting down to write this review, my friend has been snagged into a conversation with the local Existentialist about the meaning of life (we were supposed to be having coffee). It’s the sort of conversation where you go from “Hello” to “Now follow this syllogism” in about thirty minutes. He’s a well meaning guy, though he’s one of those guys who’s zero’d in on one or two philosophers because they scratched an itch that he had, while not really being tested to see if his own thinking is sound. But the irony strikes me as tangible: Here I am, writing a review about a book on thinking for the glory of God, and my friend (just 10 feet away!) is being challenged to understand an oddity in our day – a man who’s passionately confused yet devoted to trying to think.
This is, of course, a poignant example of 
why John Piper’s recent book, Think, is so desperately needed today. I’m afraid that many Christians do not know how to think like Jesus. We are called to “just follow Jesus”, “be like Jesus”, and ask “What would Jesus do?”, but hardly does anybody give thought to thinking like Jesus. John Piper fills the gap.
The basic message of the book is this: Piper contends that loving God with our minds means that “our thinking is wholly engaged to do all it can to awaken and express the heartfelt fulness of treasuring God above all things” (19). Piper’s means of making this point is by expositing Scripture. His main texts, as I read the book are Luke 10:21 (God has hidden these things from the wise and understanding), 1 Corinthians 1:20 (God has made foolish the wisdom of the world), 2 Corinthians 4:4-6 (God has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ) and Matthew 22:35-40 (You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind).
This may be easily passed by (who actually looks up all the Scripture references in books?), but to me it is one of the enduring qualities of this book. What is so refreshing about this means of building his book is that when we close the book, we’re built up in Scripture, understanding it better, and left leaning on God and his Book, not Piper and Think. This, my friends, is a sign of a faithful ministry.
This book will, I think, strike a cord with many people on many different levels. Piper works through the place of the mind and thinking in the Christian life, and then contrasts biblical thinking to intellectualism, anti-intellectualism, and relativism. Following the teaching of Jesus, he appeals to the Christian to be firmly fixed in the Bible, thinking good hard thoughts for the sake of stoking one’s affections with the glory of God and loving their fellow man.
Personally, this book was well timed and deeply helpful. It gives me hope to see that logic “is a furnace driving the engine of love” (54), not merely a cold, sterile tool for entertainment between the ears. That is, the mind isn’t merely the information hard-drive of the body that just stores information until you want to pull it up. No, thinking is about loving. However, for ”thinking to be loving, it must be more than thinking” (84). That is, the mind was made for working and serving something other than itself. ”[W]hile it is true that the mind and heart are mutually enlivening, it is also clear that the mind is mainly the servant of the heart. That is, the mind serves to know the truth that fuels the fires fo the heart” (36).
You mean to tell me that I don’t leave my brain at the door when I come to treasure Christ, but actually take it up as my chief tool in knowing and enjoying the glory of God? This. is. staggering. It is not my mind that needs to be repented of, but my shallow, selfish, and sinful thoughts that haven’t served my heart rightly as God intended.
There are great things in store for those who read this book. I think this may be one of Piper’s easiest primary books to read. Throughout the book he’s constantly explaining Scripture and helping us to see where his own thinking is going. Piper’s pastoral wisdom and care make this book not only accessible in content, but enlivening in application. I left the book wanting my thinking to be “wholly engaged to do all it can to awaken and express the heartfelt fulness of treasuring God above all things,” and I think you will too.
Title: Think
Author: John Piper
Boards: hardcover
Pages: 210
Volumes: 1
Dust jackets: yes
Binding: sewn
Topical index: yes (subjects and names)
Scriptural index: yes
Publisher: Crossway
Year: 2010
Price USD: $19.99 / $10.39 at WTS Books
ISBN: 978-1-4335-2071-6
I did receive this book free from Crossway Books for review, but the thoughts are unsolicited and completely my own.
Mark Dever on reading for comprehension
0Over at the Gospel Coalition website, they have a great little interview with Mark Dever about books, reading, and other annoyingly superlative questions. In the middle of it, he has some great advice on reading comprehension and how he tackles a book:
Any advice on how to read for comprehension?
This is the order I read nonfiction books:
- Table of contents;
- Prefatory material;
- Intro and conclusion;
- Chapter titles to figure out what the author is trying to do throughout the book;
- Rest of the book.
Helpful, concise thoughts on how to read with intention and not be enslaved to the form of a book. Here’s for reading better!
He also mentions high praise for C.H. Spurgeon’s Autobiography (Vol. 1 here) (Vol. 2 here). Note taken. Christmas list updated! (Well, not really – I’ve stopped asking for books as gifts… kinda lame really.)
Review: The Secret of Communion with God
2I think some times the Puritans get a bad wrap. Yea, they’re hard to read, and everybody thinks of witch burning when they think of them… But that’s kind of like associating the State of Alabama with The University of Alabama: Don’t lump all the good people in with the bad. (That’s right, in this case, Alabama is bad, very bad.)
In The Secret of Communion with God by Matthew Henry,
readers will see just how helpful, caring, and pastoral the Puritans are. Henry’s tone through the whole book is like a warm grandfather, eager to help his grandchild learn how to do the basic, important things in life (like count, or hit a ball). The subject of the book is prayer – an area that every Christian feels is weak in their lives. Henry, in biblical fashion, is not eager to condemn or damn people lacking much motion in their prayer lives. He follows the pattern of the Bible and holds up a picture of who God is, God’s mercy to us to enjoy him, and encourages us towards the discipline of prayer with excitement about the grace we’ll receive.
Summary
Matthew Henry starts his book on communion with God by defining prayer for us:
Prayer is lifting up the soul to God, and pouring out the heart before him; yet, as far as the expressing of the devout affections of the heart by words may be of use to fix the thoughts, and to excite and quicken the desires, it is good to draw near to God, not only with a pure heart, but with a humble voice; so we must “render the calves of our lips.” (13)
That is, prayer is lifting up the soul to God, using words to fix our attention and thoughts on God, while also using words to instruct our emotions and affections to enjoy God. Ultimately, prayer is good because we draw near to God. Through the book, Henry applies this to our souls through the course of the day.
The book consists of three simple parts: How to begin your day with God, How to keep your day with God, and How to end your day with God. Henry discusses the three parts of the day in simply applying a Psalm to our lives. For beginning the day he applies Psalm 5:3 – “O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch.” Here he opens up how to begin the day in one’s attitude towards God and expectations in reading his Word. The Christian has much to be grateful for in beginning their day, and much to ask God for grace in as they look towards the day ahead. If you’re needing help in seeing why you should begin your day in prayer, and how you should be praying to God, this section will be helpful for you.
In the middle of the day, Henry applies Psalm 25:5, “for you I wait all the day long.” Henry goes through here and applies “waiting on the Lord” in how to spend the day with God. He helps us to ask what we are boasting in through the day. Am I boasting in God in my attitude and approach to the day’s activities? Or am I boasting in myself? The Christian’s life is bound up in dependence on Jesus Christ, and Henry beckons the soul to rest in Jesus.
Finally, Henry closes the book by applying Psalm 4:8 to how we end our days, “In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.” Here we see how to think about the day behind us. To be repentant of the sins we’ve committed, thankful for the mercies we’ve received. The grace of God to give us peace in Christ through the Gospel is applied to our souls to help us join with David in knowing real peace as we lie down. Henry closes by drawing our attention to think on that final peace we will know in death, to draw sobriety from that, as well as joy for that day when we will see our Lord Jesus.
Reasons to like the book
As I read through the book, I felt instructed on how to think about daily prayer and how to make a discipline of the normal events of the day into moments where I express simply faith in Christ. Many books on prayer want to address specific issues about prayer – how to pray for certain things, how to understand theological issues in prayer, etc. Other books want to give only practical guides for prayer – how to’s and when’s – without giving any instruction. Henry’s little work gives you a whole vision of why you should pray during the day. The book feels like a parent helping their child see consolations in the heavens; Henry points to regular moments of our lives, stands us in them, and points us up to see how the glory of God relates to them.
One of the ways I want to use this book from here is to go through and make little short lists of his guidance of the types of things to be praying about for mental joggers. For example, when waking, Henry reminds us that we are dependent upon God, and lists out several areas that we see this: Our happiness depends on God; our guilt makes us dependent on mercy; our souls depend on God for life; our safety from enemies depends on God; our impending death makes us dependent upon God for every moment of life; we depend on Christ being members of his body, the Church; we depend on God for strength and wisdom in all of our relationships. That’s a helpful list to keep in mind when thinking about the day’s business ahead.
Personally, the most helpful chapter in the book – and I think the most needed for Western Christians – is his section on waiting upon God. American’s are not patient. The call and application to wait in prayer upon God is very helpful.
Favorite quotes
Here are my favorite (small) quotes from the book to wet your appetite.
We read of preaching the word out of season, but we do not read of praying out of season, for that is never out of seas: the throne of grace is always open, and humble supplicants are always welcome, and cannot come unseasonably. (11)
Wherever God finds a praying heart, he will be found a prayer-hearing God. (12)
What a shame is this to us, that God is more willing to be prayed to, and more ready to hear prayer, than we are to pray. (14)
If you love God, you cannot be to seek for something to say to him, something for your hearts to pour out before him, which his grace has already put there. (16)
Though we cannot by our prayers give him any information, yet we must by our prayers give him honour. It is true, nothing we can say can have any influence upon him, or move him to show us mercy, but it may have an influence upon ourselves, and help to put us into a frame fit to receive mercy. (19)
God’s word must be the guide of your desires, and the ground of your expectations in prayer; nor can you expect he should give a gracious ear to what you say to him, if you turn a deaf ear to what he saith to you. (20)
Prayer is heart’s-ease to a good Chrisitan. (26)
Whatever you do, begin with God. (27)
Aurora musis amica – “The morning is a friend to the muses” and if the morning be a friend to the muses, I am sure it is no less so to the graces. (28)
It is not enough to say your prayers, but you must pray your prayers (38-39)
When you have prayed, look upon yourselves as thereby engaged and encouraged, both to serve God and to trust in him; that the comfort and benefit of your morning devotions may not be as the morning cloud which passeth away, but as the morning light which shines more and more. (39)
To wait on God, is to live a life of desire toward him, delight in him, dependence on him, and devotedness to him. (44)
Desire is love in motion… delight is love at rest. (45)
Something or other the soul has that it values itself by, something or other that it reposes itself in; and what is it? God or the world? What is it that we pride ourselves in ? Which we make the matter of our boasting? (45)
To wait on God is to make his will our rule. (47)
And then it intimates this, that those, and those only, can expect to be taught of God, who are ready and willing to do as they are taught. (48)
Did we think more of death, we would converse more with God. (71)
O that, when I awake, I may be still with God, that the parenthesis of sleep, though long, may not break off the thread of my communion with God, but that as soon as I awake 1 may resume it. (99)
Conclusion
Ultimately, I think this is a really helpful book on prayer. I highly recommend it to anybody looking for a little puritan book to guide them in thinking about prayer, and stir their affection to be with God.
——
I was given this book for free by the publisher for reviewing.
