Of Making Many Books There is No End

So many books, so little time. One of the challenges of pastoral ministry is being able to manage your study time properly. Whether it is for personal growth, sermon preparation, Sunday school, small groups or counseling, there always seems to be more books to read than there is time to read them. But what about others... not everyone is a pastor. True, but, as John Gerstner once wrote, everyone must be a theologian. Every Christian must be concerned about and engaged in the careful study of God's word and the truth that it reveals. But, you may ask, why should I care about theology?

A fair question! - but there is, I think, a convincing answer to it. The questioner clearly assumes that a study of the nature and character of God will be unpractical and irrelevant for life. In fact, however, it is the most practical project anyone can engage in. Knowing about God is crucially important for the living of our lives.

As it would be cruel to an Amazonian tribesman to fly him to London, put him down without explanation in Trafalgar Square and leave him, as one who knew nothing of English or England, to fend for himself, so we are cruel to ourselves if we try to live in this world without knowing about the God whose world it is and who runs it.

The world becomes a strange, mad, painful place, and life in it a disappointing and unpleasant business, for those who do not know about God. Disregard the study of God, and you sentence yourself to stumble and blunder through life blindfold, as it were, with no sense of direction and no understanding of what surrounds you. This way you can waste your life and lose your soul.

J.I. Packer, Knowing God, p.17

The challenge then is to be continually growing deeper in our understanding of who God is and what He has done for us. As Peter says, we are to, "grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" 2 Peter 3:18(ESV). In order to do this, we will need to spend quality time in the Word of God and in reading solid, God centered, Christ exalting, scripture saturated books. Which is why, incidentally, we are going through RC Sproul's "The Essential Truths of the Christian Faith" in our small groups and not books like "Your Best Life Now".

Now I realize that not everyone in our church has access to these kinds of resources. As such, I have recently added a search tool at the bottom of this page entitled "My Library". With it you will be able to search through the books that I have in my office and borrow whichever ones may be of interest to you. It will take me a bit of time to list them all but I hope and pray that this will be something you can use to grow in your faith.

Faith and Reason

I recently watched a show on PBS called "Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial" (you can watch it online at www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/id/) about one school board's decision to try and get creationism taught in their school's science class. It was amazing to me to see how this battle between science and religion, or faith vs. reason, continues to be played out with such hostility (and blatant biased... NOVA being a science show), in the media. Evolution is very much a polarizing theory, a dividing line, if you will, between two conflicting worldviews.

One of the arguments against allowing intelligent design/creationism to be taught is that it deals with issues of faith/religion, and these, they say, have no place in a science class. The problem with this kind of thinking is that it seems to overlook the obvious fact that evolution itself is a system of belief. In fact, one of the main spokesmen for evolution on that NOVA program, Dr. Kenneth Miller, freely admits this on the PBS website when he says that "We should care about evolution because it concerns who we are, where we came from, why we are the way we are, and maybe even where we're going." These words very much echo/affirm the comments of Christian author/philosopher Alvin Plantinga in a very well written article entitled "When Faith and Reason Clash: Evolution and the Bible"

So why all the furor? The answer is obvious: evolution has deep religious connections; deep connections with how we understand ourselves at the most fundamental level. Many evangelicals and fundamentalists see in it a threat to the faith; they don't want it taught to their children, at any rate as scientifically established fact, and they see acceptance of it as corroding proper acceptance of the Bible. On the other side, among the secularists, evolution functions as a myth, in a technical sense of that term: a shared way of understanding ourselves at the deep level of religion, a deep interpretation of ourselves to ourselves, a way of telling us why we are here, where we come from, and where we are going.

Again, as I talked about in last week's post, as Christians we need to develop/maintain a biblical worldview, one that transforms our perspective on life and why we are here. As such, what we believe about Genesis chapter one or the theory of evolution will have an impact on how we see ourselves and in turn how we live out our faith. As such, we do not have the liberty of separating our faith from reason or our religion from science. We need to engage our minds and remember that God has revealed His truth to us in His word. If there are any apparent contradictions/discrepancies between it and our reason/science we should ask ourselves which one has the final authority? Which one has been flawed by sin and which one is the inspired/inerrant Word of God? "Holy Scripture, being God's own Word, written by men prepared and superintended by His Spirit, is of infallible divine authority in all matters upon which it touches: it is to be believed, as God's instruction, in all that it affirms: obeyed, as God's command, in all that it requires; embraced, as God's pledge, in all that it promises." (from the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy)

Home Sweet Home

Last week's post was about the danger of idolatry. That we need to be careful to always put God first in our lives. Part of doing this involves seeing this world for what it is... a beautiful but temporary home. There are so many amazing things to see and experience in this world, but we should always remember that it is not our eternal home. Not only because of the fact that one day we will die, but also because creation itself is fading away. Scripture teaches us that the fall of man has affected the world as a whole and that there is the hope that "...creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay...". Rom 8:21 As such, we need to have a biblical perspective on this world. Here is how one old gospel bluegrass song express this...

This World Is Not My Home

This world is not my home I'm just-a-passing through My pleasure and my hopes are placed beyond the blue Many friends and kindred have gone on before And I can't feel at home in this world anymore Oh Lord you know I have no friend like you If heaven's not my home oh Lord what will I do Angels beckon me to heaven's open door And I can't feel at home in this world amymore Over in gloryland there'll be no dying there The saints all shouting victory and singing everywhere I hear the voice of them that's gone on before And I can't feel at home in this world anymore He's expecting me that's one thing I know I fixed it up with Jesus a long time ago He will take me through though I am weak and poor And I can't feel at home in this world anymore

I freely admit that it is a beautiful world in many respects. Its seas and rivers, its sunrises and sunsets, its mountains and valleys, its harvests and its forests, its fruits and its flowers, its days and its nights, all, all are beautiful in their way. Cold and unfeeling must be the heart which never finds a day in the year when it can admire anything in nature! But beautiful as the world is, there are many things in it to remind us that it is not home. It is an inn, a tent, a tabernacle, a lodging, a training school. But it is not home. - JC Ryle

As Christians we need to remember that we have the promise, in Christ, of an eternal hom and this needs to, this must be a part of our daily thinking and worldview. As Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:1, "For we know that if the tent, which is our earthly home, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." Does this truth, and this verse in particular, transform your perspective on life?

First Things First

Last week our family welcomed a new dog into our home. Her name is Chloe (pictured here) and she is a beautiful three year old golden retriever... very quite and affectionate. At first this seemed like a good idea, but now that she has been here for a week, I am beginning to have second thoughts. Not because of her behaviour or the amount of work that is involved in caring for her, but because she is taking attention away from me! My wife, in particular, is babying this dog, spending time rubbing her belly, walking her and buying her treats. Meanwhile I have been left to fend for myself, alone in an uncertain world, now having to make my own coffee and tea.

All kidding aside though, this does bring up an important point. We must be careful to keep things in perspective or in order. There are some people who do treat their pets like they are people. For others, it may be that they put their careers before their marriages or families. Whatever the case, the point is that we must guard against misplaced priorities in life. This is, of course, especially true when we take something in this world and make it more important than God. The bible calls this idolatry. Romans 1:22-23 (ESV) "Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles." The truth is that this kind of attitude/practice is very common and it touches at the very core of sin itself. As Tim Keller explains:

"Sin isn’t only doing bad things, it is more fundamentally making good things into ultimate things. Sin is building your life and meaning on anything, even a very good thing, more than on God. Whatever we build our life on will drive us and enslave us. Sin is primarily idolatry."

Having a dog is a good thing, as is having a good job and good health and children. The problem is when we take these things and put them first in our lives. As Christians we should always remember the first commandment ("You shall have no other gods before me.") and we must always strive to keep first things first. As Paul writes in 1 Cor. 15:3-4 (ESV) "For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures."