Friday, September 7, 2007

Another Picture of Christ and His Bride

I am flying to San Francisco shortly for the purpose of seeing a good friend of mine get married. It is amazing to me that he is about to embark upon another lifelong illustration before a watching world as to what it means for Christ to be the husband of the bride.

The illustration of Christ as our husband and his church as the beloved bride always intrigues me. Specifically, when Paul writes:

Ephesians 5:25 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her;
Then he goes on to say in the next few verses as to the purpose of this sacrificial love:

Ephesians 5:26-27 26 that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she should be holy and blameless.
The instrument that Christ uses to sanctify his bride is (get this...):

1) The washing of water with the Word (I take to be the Word of God).

The goal of washing his bride with the Word is to sanctify her so that she may be a glorious church without any spot, wrinkle or any such blemish -- but rather, that she would be holy and blameless.

What a awesome (and yet terrifying!) responsibility for husbands! Men, may we really seek to understand how to love our wives in a sacrificial way. If you ask, "Well, how do I do that?" Read a passage of Scripture that talks about the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ and that will be all the marital application you need. Observe how Jesus humbly, willingly, sacrificially and completely gave Himself up for His bride -- that is our application, Go, therefore, and do likewise!

To God be the glory in our marriages. May we be modern examples of the way God intended marriage to be in the beginning:

Mark 10:6-9 6 "But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. 7 "For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother, 8 and the two shall become one flesh; consequently they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9 "What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate."


Thursday, September 6, 2007

Tribute to Dr. D. James Kennedy

My exposure to Dr. Kennedy came when I was in high school attending Twin Oaks Presbyterian Church in St. Louis, Missouri. I was introduced to the Evangelism Exposition program which is a good – I believe – way to share the gospel to the non-believer on the streets. The goal of EE is to get a gospel presentation out in its entirety in just a few minutes, but yet with the illustrations, Scriptures, examples, and applications it can be as drawn out as one would like to make it.

I took the EE course while in high school and came across a handy way of remembering the five points of the gospel presentation – heaven, man, God, Christ and faith – on my hand using all five fingers. To this day, when I share the gospel, the EE gospel outline is more often than not the presentation that I’ll use – more or less. When I share my faith, I am immediately drawn to this EE method of sharing the gospel. Now I recognize that it is not all about the method and it is all about the message. At the same time, I am of the mind that the method can be combined with the message to make it more persuasive to the listener.

Along these lines, I was talking with Elizabeth recently about Jesus and his evangelism techniques. I wonder if there was more than one time when Jesus shared the gospel identically. It seems to me that he tailored his gospel presentation to the hearer, to the setting, to the geographical locale and the like. I find that Jesus shares the gospel differently with the disciples than he does with the rich young ruler. He shares the gospel differently with the Samaritan woman at the well than he does with the Pharisees in Jerusalem. What a fascinating study that would be to study the various methods that Jesus employed when bringing the gospel to the lost. I think we would be surprised at how much difference there is in his gospel presentations. Don’t get me wrong, it is still the same gospel with the same God and the same fallen condition innate in mankind and the same grace alone that saves but the method which with Jesus uses may vary from time to time.

Not only was he a great evangelist, but Dr. Kennedy was quite the pastor, the preacher and the scholar. Expressing this more colorfully, he was a man who on the front page of his church website has an open Bible with this phrase, “glorifying God by reaching the world for Christ.” Would it be that we all – as shepherds of God’s flock – have this phrase imprinted on the forefront of our minds as we labor for the Master.

I pray that some day I would be a pastor and shepherd with a desire for the glory of God to be manifest as Dr. Kennedy exemplified. May I have a heart for the lost as this man displayed. May I have a heart for the Scriptures as this man so clearly evidenced. I pray that I would be a man that longs for the reality of 1 John 3:2 just as Dr. Kennedy did, 1 John 3:2 2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is.

These were some of his last words before he died from his pulpit at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church,

“Now, I know that someday I am going to come to what some people will say is the
end of this life. They will probably put me in a box and roll me right down here
in front of the church, and some people will gather around, and a few people
will cry. But I have told them not to do that because I don’t want them to cry.
I want them to begin the service with the Doxology and end with the Hallelujah
chorus, because I am not going to be there, and I am not going to be dead. I
will be more alive than I have ever been in my life, and I will be looking down
upon you poor people who are still in the land of dying and have not yet joined
me in the land of the living. And I will be alive forevermore, in greater health
and vitality and joy than ever, ever, I or anyone has known before.”
May we all have this vision for the land of the living as Dr. Kennedy did. May we hunger for it and long for it with an increasing zeal day by day. To God be the glory.

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

The Importance of Writing

This semester my seminary schedule does not require me to do loads and loads of writing. Therefore, I'm making it my goal to spend quite a bit of time writing on my own. One of the goals I have on this "writing kick" is to spend 30 minutes every Friday to write an essay on a topic that I'm interested in. My goal in doing this is to learn to write better.

The Lord has so graciously given us the opportunity to write. May we use the skill of writing to the glory of God as we write articles, essays, letters and books to His ultimate glory. Writing is a means by which we can bring the message of redemption to a world that is lost and in such a desparate state of death. May we be men who are writers -- all to God's glory.

I find that there is no better way to become a better writer than simply to write. So, that's my challenge to all of us. Write! Proofread. Correct. Then write some more!

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Essay - Missional Marriage

A Missional Marriage

When I think of marriage, my heart is drawn to the biblical text of Ephesians 5:25 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her. On the other hand, when I think of marriage as our culture views marriage, I think of a chapter title from Terrence Real’s book, The New Rules of Marriage, entitled “Are you getting what you want from marriage?” or “How to give in order to get what you want.”

Now, these are two stark contrasts in looking at the issue of marriage. I want to propose an idea that has been perusing through my brain as of late. That is that marriage ought to be a missional marriage. Let me clarify by defining my terms. I am of the conviction that the husband and wife’s greatest responsibility is to be an emblem, an example, a type, a representation of the love that the Lord Jesus had for His church. It’s that simple. Simple? Really?

Jesus Christ had a mission. When he came to earth - as in our youth group, we have been studying the Gospel of Mark and I have been pounding it into their heads – Mark 10:45 45 "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many." This verse hits me for I note that Jesus Himself said that he came not to be served, and note, that if anyone had ever deserved to be served it would have been our Lord. But rather, he came to serve and to give his life – that means “to die” – as a ransom for many. Thus, Jesus’ mission while on this earth was to die. In a word, he was born to die. Jesus left his Father’s side in heaven (where he had been from all eternity past) and emptied himself by taking on human flesh (Phil 2:5ff) for the sole purpose of dying as a ransom for sins to purchase people that He has chosen for Himself from every tribe, tongue, people and nation.

Yes, Jesus had a mission. I argue that in marriage the same is true. Every marriage relationship has a mission. It is to be missional. Husbands are to love their wives just as Christ loved the church. How exactly did Christ love the church? By serving. By giving. By loving. By caring. By leading. By protecting. If husbands did this today, it would invariably be missional for this would be completely opposite of what people see in the average marriage today.

This, of course, presupposes that the husband and wife are still together in their marriage relationship. The marriage bond is to be for life. Period. Jesus Himself notes this (quoting Gen. 2:24) Matthew 19:5-6 'For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh '? 6 "Consequently they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate." So we find that what God has joined together, that is, the divinely ordained institution of marriage, then no man is to separate that. So if husbands and wives are not together – living together and even the mundane acts of doing “things” together, which is far-fetched in this culture – then how can we be this kind of example?

So we see that we as believers are to be missional. Jesus Christ said just before he ascended to the Father, Matthew 28:19-20 19 "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." We are to make disciples by going, baptizing and teaching. We can make disciples by going, in that the way we live our lives and, husbands, relate to our wives, is a way we can make disciples. I am a firm believer in that when people see and hear the truth – yes, absolute, genuine, biblical truth – they will flock to it – not flee from it.

It is startling to me that so many Christian marriages are on the brink of separation, divorce, anger, violence, hatred, abuse – you name it, it happens. How does this happen when husbands and wives are to love each other and serve one another and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ (Eph 5:21). This ought not to be. Perhaps this is from ill-teaching from contemporary pulpits; perhaps it is from lack of application upon hearing biblical preaching; perhaps it is from a subtle denial that anything is wrong; or perhaps it is from outright and flagrant refusal to love each other biblically.

Marriage is more serious than we could ever imagine. Let me say something radical. I believe that we – as born-again and redeemed believers – can never make too big a deal of marriage. We can never express the glory of it to our young people. Yet, with this strong attraction to marriage that we have, we must always set the biblical view in marriage up front and let people know that this is a “relationship of reverence,” a “solemn and serving sanction,” a “self-abasing and self-sacrificial bond.”

May we as husbands, endeavor to love our wives and serve them to the glory of God. May we be mssional in that we seek to love our wives as Christ loved the church in a sacrificial and supreme way before a watching and hurting post-modern culture that longs for, I believe, marriage the way God intended it to be.

Your pastor and friend,
Geoffrey R. Kirkland

Friday, August 31, 2007

Friday, August 31, 2007

From the seminary to the pew...

What a great reminder for us seminarians to remember that the average lay person will never find the time (which is debatable, but anyway...) to study theology in-depth. However, in this article, Collin Hansen speaks to this issue.

I think this is a very helpful read and one that everyone ought to read. I must put in my two-cents here. I am a firm believer that everyone ought - that's right, "ought" - to be studying theology - from the pastor/shepherd, to the average churchgoer. We must train our people to be students of Scripture. Everyone must be a Berean and test various teachings to see if they align with the Word of God (Acts 17:11). In order to do this, however, one must be very familiar with the Word of God. We can begin with the basic question, "Have you even read the whole Bible?" If not, then start today. Read a few chapters in the OT, and then a few in the NT, and you'll get through the whole Bible in one year. It's that simple. You must be disciplined and stay up-to-date on your reading, though.

In any case, let us read this article and take it to heart. Let us be students of the Word.
2 Timothy 2:15 15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth.
I don't believe this command is only for pastors and shepherds. I think they are *especially* to be characterized by diligent and laborious study, but that doesn't exclude everyone else in the church.

Read the article here and then go study!

Justification - This is the best!

Folks, if this doesn't encourage you, then I'm afraid you need some help spiritually...
"There is probably no passage in the Scriptures in which the doctrine of
justification is more concisely or clearly stated than in 2 Corinthians 5:21 [He
made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the
righteousness of God in Him. ]. Our sins were imputed to Christ, and his
righteousness is imputed to us. He bore our sins; we are clothed in his
righteousness...Chris bearing our sins did not make him morally a sinner...nor
does Christ's righteousness become subjectively ours, it is not the moral
quality of our souls...our sins were the judicial ground of the sufferings of
Christ, so that they were a satisfaction of justice; and his righteousness is
the judicial ground of our acceptance with God, so that our pardon is an act of
justice...It is not mere pardon, but justification alone, that gives us peace
with God!
(quoted by Charles Hodge in John Piper, Counted Righteous in Christ, 82-83).

Thursday, August 30, 2007

A Sad Case of Divorce

I tell you, reading this sad article reminded me of the tremendous treasure the Lord has given me in Elizabeth. Read this sad article on two pastors divorcing in Tampa, Florida.

They blame the divorce by saying that their lives are just going in two different directions.

It is worthwhile to read this WHOLE MSNBC article, to test and diagnose our own spiritual lives and then to get on the ground and pray that the Lord would be merciful to us in our marriages.

READ THE ARTICLE HERE.

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

My New Favorite Worship Song...

Mighty to Save
By: Hillsong

I invite you to go to this link to watch the LIVE version of the song. However, for you less charismatic in expressing your worship, you may want to watch this link. But my preference is the first video - imagine singing this song with thousands of believers in one giant auditorium. How awesome! Get excited ... heaven will be like this! Forever!

The only request I have is that you listen to the whole song and follow along with the lyrics which I have appended here:

When everyone needs compassion,
And love that never fails,
Let mercy fall on me
When everyone needs forgiveness,
Kindness of the Saviour
The Hope of the nation

(Chorus:)

Saviour, He can move the mountains,
My god is mighty to save,
He is mighty to save
Forever author of salvation,
He rose and conquered the grave
Jesus conquered the grave

So take me as you find me
All my fears and failures
Fill my life again
I give my life to follow
Everything that i believe in
Now i surrender (and i surrender)

(Chorusx2)

(Bridge:)
Shine a light in and
let the whole world see
Singing, for the glory of the risen king
Jesus, Shine a light and let the whole world see
Singing for the glory of the risen king

(Chorusx2)

Preaching To Please The Master

In Curtis C. Thomas's work, Practical Wisdom for Pastors, he gives this quote which I received elsewhere, but it greatly encouraged and challenged me this morning...
If we ever get to the point where our message is rounded off so that we avoid a particular passage, a needed subject, a pointed rebuke or biblical command for fear that we are going to offend and thereby run off a member, then we have begun to fear men rather than striving to please our Master. That’s a temptation into which Satan wants us to fall. He wants people leaving after our messages very comfortable, soothed, and feeling good about us. But sometimes, in order for us to be faithful, some people will leave the message not feeling very good about us. The truth should comfort the hurting but also unsettle the comfortable.
Blessings to you. I pray that we would all preach endeavoring to "comfort the hurting but also to unsettle the comfortable." And I think that we have more comfortable people in the pews today than ever before...

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Morning Meditation on the Absolute Truth

This morning, I am more convinced than ever that God's word is faithful, true, inerrant and understandable:

Psalm 119:105-111 105 Thy word is a lamp to my feet, And a light to my path. 106 I have sworn, and I will confirm it, That I will keep Thy righteous ordinances. 107 I am exceedingly afflicted; Revive me, O LORD, according to Thy word. 108 O accept the freewill offerings of my mouth, O LORD, And teach me Thine ordinances. 109 My life is continually in my hand, Yet I do not forget Thy law. 110 The wicked have laid a snare for me, Yet I have not gone astray from Thy precepts. 111 I have inherited Thy testimonies forever, For they are the joy of my heart.

Monday, August 27, 2007

Does the mode of baptism really matter?

According to Mike Gilbart-Smith yes! He posts a great blog here. I would like for us to read it and comment together. It is relating paedobaptism and credobaptism and he argues that those who adhere to these views have different concepts of what the church really is.

He notes that for a paedobaptist: A church is a community that includes believers and their children.

Then he notes that for a credobaptist: The church is a covenanted community of believers.

Boys Growing Up Without A Father

I have been thinking alot about the sad reality that so many boys in our culture are growing up without fathers. Al Mohler brought this reality to mind lately in some of his sermons. In any case, Dr. Mohler's blog is very insightful and sobering when we recognize the staggering statistics of boys that grow up in single-parent homes without a daddy. Read the article here.

Great New Testament Website

Dr. Decker, NT professor at Baptist Bible Seminary and the man whom I will, Lord willing, study under for the next few years, has a wonderful website for NT students. You can check it out and glean from his plethora of wisdom and knowledge. He has recently started a "Bulletin Blog" (instead of a "Bulletin Board"). This is one site that I'll be checking regularly...

Saturday, August 25, 2007

A Pastor's Desire

My desire is . . .

1. To exalt the grace of God.

2. To proclaim salvation alone through the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ.

3. To declare the sinfulness, helplessness, and hopelessness of man in a state of nature.

4. To describe, as far as I am able, the living experience of the saints of God in their trials, temptations, and sorrows--and in their consolations and blessings.

Find the source here.

Friday, August 24, 2007

Motivation To Preach...

A good man, Matt Weymeyer, posted these Biblical Motivations to Preach the Gospel and I so enjoyed pondering them I wanted to have them here for your enjoyment...

1. A Jealous Delight in God’s Glory (Acts 17:16-17)
2. A Heart of Compassion for Lost Souls (Matt 9:35-38)
3. A Sober Awareness of the Need for Evangelism (Rom 10:14-15)
4. A Profound Appreciation for the High Calling (2 Cor 5:18-20)
5. An Irrepressible Excitement about Your Own Salvation (Matt 9:27-31)
6. An Abiding Confidence in the Sovereignty of God (Acts 18:10)
7. A Simple Desire to Obey the Great Commission (Matt 28:18-20)

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Don't Get Involved With This

The Emerging Church is so diverse and even those who would see themselves "within" the Emerging Church don't agree on a lot of stuff. I want to post a few posters that were created to represent how the "Emergent's" think. They are entitled: Emerging Church Motivational Posters for you to see and then I will comment below each one. Though they have been created and fabricated to represent these people, I still take them as examples to show the seriousness of the error within this new "movement":

If our doctrine comes merely from the imagination as this poster advocates, then where is objective and authoritative truth fit in? If my doctrine is a mere fabrication of my imagination - regardless of what the Scriptures say, I have no objectivity to stand upon. Furthermore, this is doing severe damage to one's "biblical" convictions (if you can call it that) if their belief are based upon mere "imaginations." What about dogmatic truth?

2 Timothy 3:16-17 16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

Ezra the scribe used the Scriptures as the basis for his doctrine:

Ezra 7:10 10 For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the LORD and to practice it, and to teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel.


This seems as if this is the "motto" for the Emerging Church - if you will. They want to be relevant. They want to reach culture. Now, I must preface my statements by saying that there is nothing wrong with reaching culture - in fact, we MUST do this. See Al Mohler's blog for an excellent example of how to do this in a loving, gracious and biblical way. However, if we become SO relevant that we want people to be so comfortable and NEVER be offended - then I suggest that we have done disloyalty to the Word of God.

Let us never forget that the message of the cross is foolishness to those who do not believe. If everyone readily accepts our message, then I wonder if there is NOT something wrong with that message.

1 Corinthians 1:18 18 For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Remember after Stephen preached in Acts 7, his hearers were completely offended by the gospel:

Acts 7:52-54 52 "Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become; 53 you who received the law as ordained by angels, and yet did not keep it." 54 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the quick, and they began gnashing their teeth at him.


This is a wicked posterboard. It takes 1 Corinthians 10:31: "Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." The Westminster Confession says: "What is man's chief end? The answer is: "Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever."

That is definately NOT the message across in this posterboard. What kind of people will this kind of poster attract. Furthermore, What kind of "church" (if we, once again, can call it that) would have this kind of advertisement? If man's chief end is to glorify whatever is lowbrow and to enjoy it forever, that is certainly not a true Christian's heartbeat. If one truly desires to glorify whatever is low (which is the absolute opposite of God, who is the absolute highest Supreme Being), then that is idolatry and this kind of false "glorification of what is low" will lead someone straight to hell - forever.


This is, perhaps, one of the most harmful posters that could ever be published. The so-called "Hermeneutic of Humility" is held by the Emerging Church members and they say that they are SO humble in their interpretations of Scripture that they are unworthy or unqualified to say with absolute authority and dogmatic objectivity that this is what God's Word says.


My response to that is this. Then if you can't know for sure with absolute objectivity, then no one is really saved. If we cannot really interpret the Scriptures with authority and confidence, then who really knew if Jesus died on the cross - and furthermore, if He rose from the dead? If we are just too humble to interpret the Scriptures and we have to continue saying, "I think..." "I think..." "I think..." instead of "THUS SAITH THE LORD..." then we are doing severe injustice to the Word of God.

What do these Emergent's do with:

Titus 3:8 8 This is a trustworthy statement; and concerning these things I want you to speak confidently, so that those who have believed God may be careful to engage in good deeds. These things are good and profitable for men.


The idea of confidently here is to speak something "with absolute conviction so that no one can deter your view." I sure would NOT want to sit under a pastor (much less, even walk in a church) where a message (surely not the biblical one, at that) is preached saying, "We think that you can be saved because we think that Jesus died on the cross and we think that He rose from the dead and we think that you can have eternal life -- but no one can really be sure."


What kind of hope is that? That is surely not the biblical gospel.

Finally, this poster speaks of community. The first line is not just unbiblical, it is ANTIBIBLICAL. The fact that courtesy and confessions are optional? Do these people read the Bible?

Galatians 5:22-23 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Acts 4:32 32 And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul; and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own; but all things were common property to them.

Acts 2:42-44 42 And they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 And everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. 44 And all those who had believed were together, and had all things in common;

Need I say more regarding this one?

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

The Preacher's Ten Commandments

Sinclair Ferguson gives A Preacher's Decalogue over at Reformation21 online. It is very insightful and refreshing to read. Needless to say, as a preacher, it is very easy to overlook and even neglect some of these aspects in sermon preparation and in daily living.

May it be a great blessing and reminder to you as it was to me.


1. Know your Bible better. Often at the end of a Lord’s Day, or a Conference, the thought strikes me again: “If you only knew your Bible better you would have been a lot more help to the people.” I teach at a seminary whose founder stated that its goal was “to produce experts in the Bible.” Alas I was not educated in an institution that had anything remotely resembling that goal. The result? Life has been an ongoing “teach yourself while you play catch-up.” At the end of the day seminaries exist not to give authoritative line-by-line interpretations of the whole of Scripture but to provide tools to enable its graduates to do that. That is why, in many ways, it is the work we do, the conversations we have, the churches we attend, the preaching under which we sit, that make or break our ministries. This is not “do it yourself” but we ourselves need to do it.
As an observer as well as a practitioner of preaching, I am troubled and perplexed by hearing men with wonderful equipment, humanly speaking (ability to speak, charismatic personality and so on) who seem to be incapable of simply preaching the Scriptures. Somehow they have not first invaded and gripped them.
I must not be an illiterate. But I do need to be homo unius libri—a man of one Book. The widow of a dear friend once told me that her husband wore out his Bible during the last year of his life. “He devoured it like a novel” she said. Be a Bible devourer!
2. Be a man of prayer. I mean this with respect to preaching. Not only in the sense that I should pray before I begin my preparation, but in the sense that my preparation is itself a communion in prayer with God in and through his word. Whatever did the apostles mean by saying that they needed to devote themselves “to prayer and the ministry of the word”—and why that order?
My own feeling is that in the tradition of our pastoral textbooks we have over-individualized this. The apostles (one may surmise) really meant “we”—not “I, Peter” or “I, John” but “We, Peter, John, James, Thomas, Andrew . . . together.”
Is it a misreading of the situation to suspect that preachers hide the desperate need of prayer for the preaching, and their personal need? By contrast, reflect on Paul’s appeals. And remember Spurgeon’s bon mot when asked about the secret of his ministry: “My people pray for me.”
Reflecting on this reminds me of one moment in the middle of an address at a conference for pastors when the bubble above my head contained the words “You are making a complete and total hash of this,” but as my eyes then refocused on the men in front of me they seemed like thirsty souls drinking in cool refreshing water, and their eyes all seemed to be fixed on the water carrier I was holding! Then the above-the-head-bubble filled with other words: “I remember now, how I urged the congregation at home to pray for these brethren and for the ministry of the word. They have been praying.”
Alas for me if I don’t see the need for prayer or for encouraging and teaching my people to see its importance. I may do well (I have done well enough thus far, have I not?) . . . but not with eternal fruit.
3. Don’t Lose Sight of Christ. Me? Yes, me. This is an important principle in too many dimensions fully to expound here. One must suffice. Know, and therefore preach “Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2). That is a text far easier to preach as the first sermon in a ministry than it is to preach as the final sermon.
What do I mean? Perhaps the point can be put sharply, even provocatively in this way: Systematic Exposition did not die on the Cross for us; nor did Biblical Theology, nor even Systematic Theology or Hermeneutics, or whatever else we deem important as those who handle the exposition of Scripture. I have heard all of these in preaching . . . without a center in the person of the Lord Jesus.
Paradoxically not even the systematic preaching through one of the Gospels guarantees Christ-crucified centered preaching. Too often preaching on the Gospels takes what I whimsically think of as the “Find Waldo Approach.” The underlying question in the sermon is “Where are you to be found in this story?” (are you Martha or Mary, James and John, Peter, the grateful leper . . .?). The question “Where, Who and What is Jesus in this story? Tends to be marginalized.
The truth is it is far easier to preach about Mary, Martha, James, John, or Peter than it is about Christ. It is far easier to preach even about the darkness of sin and the human heart than to preach Christ. Plus my bookshelves are groaning with literature on Mary, Martha . . . the good life, the family life, the Spirit-filled life, the parenting life, the damaged self life . . . but most of us have only a few inches of shelf space on the person and work of Christ himself.
Am I absolutely at my best when talking about him, or about us?
4. Be deeply Trinitarian. Surely we are? At least in some of our churches not a Lord’s Day passes without the congregation confessing one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But as is commonly recognized Western Christianity has often had a special tendency to either an explicit or a pragmatic Unitarianism, be it of the Father (Liberalism, for all practical purposes), the Son (Evangelicalism, perhaps not least in its reactions against Liberalism), or the Spirit (Charismaticism with its reaction to both of the previous).
This is, doubtless, a caricature. But my concern here arises from a sense that Bible-believing preachers (as well as others) continue to think of the Trinity as the most speculative and therefore the least practical of all doctrines. After all, what can you “do” as a result of hearing preaching that emphasizes God as Trinity? Well, at least inwardly if not outwardly, fall down in prostrate worship that the God whose being is so ineffable, so incomprehensible to my mental math, seeks fellowship with us!
I sometimes wonder if it is failure here that has led to churches actually to believe it when they are told by “church analysts” and the like that “the thing your church does best is worship . . . small groups, well you need to work on that . . ..” Doesn’t that verge on blasphemy? (Verge on it? There is surely only One who can assess the quality of our worship. This approach confuses aesthetics with adoration).
John’s Gospel suggests to us that one of the deepest burdens on our Lord’s heart during his last hours with his disciples was to help them understand that God’s being as Trinity is the heart of what makes the gospel both possible and actual, and that it is knowing him as such that forms the very lifeblood of the life of faith (cf. John chapter 13-17). Read Paul with this in mind and it becomes obvious how profoundly woven into the warp and woof of his gospel his understanding of Father, Son and Holy Spirit is.
Our people need to know that, through the Spirit, their fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. Would they know that from my preaching?
5. Use your Imagination. Does this not contradict the immediately preceding observations that the truth of the Trinity should not be thought of as speculative metaphysics? No. Rather it is simply to state what the preaching masters of the centuries have either explicitly written, or at least by example, implied. All good preaching involves the use of the imagination. No great preacher has ever lacked imagination. Perhaps we might go so far as to say it is simply an exhortation to love the Lord our God with all of our . . . mind . . . and our neighbor as ourselves.
Scripture itself suggests that there are many different kinds of imagination—hence the different genre in which the word of God is expressed (poetry, historical narrative, dialogue, monologue, history, vision and so on). No two biblical authors had identical imaginations. It is doubtful if Ezekiel could have written Proverbs, for example!
What do we mean by “imagination”? Our dictionaries give a series of definitions. Common to them all seems to be the ability to “think outside of oneself,” “to be able to see or conceive the same thing in a different way.” In some definitions the ideas of the ability to contrive, exercising resourcefulness, the mind’s creative power, are among the nuanced meanings of the word.
Imagination in preaching means being able to understand the truth well enough to translate or transpose it into another kind of language or musical key in order to present the same truth in a way that enables others to see it, understand its significance, feel its power—to do so in a way that gets under the skin, breaks through the barriers, grips the mind, will and affections so that they not only understand the word used but feel their truth and power.
Luther did this by the sheer dramatic forcefulness of his speech. Whitefield did it by his use of dramatic expression (overdid it, in the view of some). Calvin—perhaps surprisingly—did it too by the extraordinarily earthed-in-Geneva-life language in which he expressed himself. So an overwhelming Luther-personality, a dramatic preacher with Whitefieldian gifts of story-telling and voice (didn’t David Garrick say he’d give anything to be able to say “Mesopotamia” the way George Whitefield did?), a deeply scholarly, retiring, reluctant preacher—all did it, albeit in very different ways. They saw and heard the word of God as it might enter the world of their hearers and convert and edify them.
What is the secret here? It is, surely, learning to preach the word to yourself, from its context into your context, to make concrete in the realities of our lives the truth that came historically to others’ lives. This is why the old masters used to speak about sermons going from their lips with power only when they had first come to their own hearts with power.
All of which leads us from the fifth commandment back to where we started. Only immersion in Scripture enables us to preach it this way. Therein lies the difference between preaching that is about the Bible and its message and preaching that seems to come right out of the Bible with a “thus says the Lord” ring of authenticity and authority.

Monday, August 20, 2007

Wedding Pictures

I give you the link to check out all the pictures you would ever want to see. Matt Floreen was our photographer and he has an excellent website. You can view our pictures HERE.

Have fun! :=)

Friday, August 17, 2007

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