You know I love books. I’m crazy about them. I buy books I know I can’t read right away, and I start books I know I won’t be able to finish. At any given time, I in the middle of several books. I love the feel of a book, the gentle firm weight in the hands. I even love the smell of books. Strange but true.

Dr. Al Mohler blogged recently about the window that books provide into our souls. He quoted one Jay Parini, from The Chronicle of Higher Education:

What interests me about other people’s books is the nature of their collection. A personal library is an X-ray of the owner’s soul. It offers keys to a particular temperament, an intellectual disposition, a way of being in the world. Even how the books are arranged on the shelves deserves notice, even reflection.

What do your books say about you? More than a year ago, I asked: what books are on your bedside table? I’m still interested to learn what my peeps are reading. What’s current for you? Here’s what is on (or in) my bedside table:

• The Bible, English Standard Version. Currently in Daniel, Psalms, and 2 Thessalonians.
• A Guide To Prayer, by Isaac Watts. Because praying is a gift I want to grow in.
• Temptation and Sin, by John Owen. My men’s group is going through this.
• Spurgeon vs. Hyper-Calvinism, by Iain Murray. For a little historical perspective.
• The Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership, by Steve Sample.  Another take on leadership.
• Slave of Christ, by Murray Harris.  I haven’t actually started this, but it is in my bedside table.  I want to learn more about how we are “moveable property in the hands of God.”
• Persuasion, by Jane Austen. Nicole and I read to each other for fun. We finished Ivanhoe, so we’re trying a little Austen.
• Golf My Way, by Jack Nicklaus. Let’s be clear: I’ll never golf Nicklaus’s way, but it’s fun to learn from the master.
• Pilgrim’s Progress, by John Bunyan. To learn more about this Christian life.

So: what’s on your bedside table and why?

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“Is my marriage glorifying to God?”

It’s often been said that the best thing parents can do for their kids is love Christ passionately and have a great marriage.
Theologian Andreas Köstenberger points out that asking, “Do I have a good marriage?” might be the wrong question. Better: “Is my marriage glorifying God?” He elaborates:

Rather than viewing having a good marriage as an end in itself, or using a human, relative standard of comparing our marriages with those of others or with some ideal set up by some popular current book on the subject, the goal of a God-glorifying marriage grounds the relationship with our spouse where it ought to be grounded: in the eternal, sovereign plan of God.

So, “Is my marriage glorifying God?” Dr. Köstenberger offers three criteria for evaluation:

1. Both spouses are growing in Christ
2. Both spouses are bearing fruit
3. The marriage is between Spirit-filled disciples of Christ

In a marriage like this, the husband and wife are too busy growing in Christ and serving him in tandem, and with their family, than to ask, “Do we have a good marriage?” A good marriage they have, but not because having a good marriage is ultimately their aspiration, but because anything we do in life that seeks to bring honor and glory to God (including how we conduct our marriage) will result in blessing.

Does this seem like an unrealistic goal? The painful reality of sin may make this at times feel unobtainable. But Ephesians 5 teaches us that marriage is a profound mystery, representing the relationship between Christ and his church. So we can pray and grow with confidence that God is not reluctant to answer prayers for our marriages.

First step: objective evaluation. Ask your spouse how you’re both doing, especially in number 1 and 2. Then, get others involved. Caregroup is a great place to start. Remember that “anything we do in life that seeks to bring honor and glory to God will result in blessing.”

Categories: Thursday Thoughts For Parents, five15 blog
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Sovereign Grace Music has just announced the impending release of the latest CD: Savior: Celebrating the Mystery Of God Become Man.

This is Sovereign Grace Music’s first Christmas CD, and promises to be the most gospel-centered Christmas album you’ve ever heard, and you can listen to samples here. From their website:

Why do we celebrate Christmas?

In one sense, the answer is easy: We celebrate the coming of Jesus. But in another sense the answer is beyond our comprehension: The eternal God became a man. The infinite One took on human form. The Holy One came to live with sinners. The Savior came to bear our sins and bring us to God.

This astounding truth is the reason for our newest music CD: Savior: Celebrating the Mystery of God Become Man. Savior is a Christmas CD – but more than a Christmas CD. Each of the twelve new songs is a celebration of this amazing truth: The baby in a manger is God himself, the Savior who came to bear our sins and bring us close to the Father.

It’s already available for preorder.

Categories: Announcements, five15 blog
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Being from South Carolina as I am, two of my favorite foods–and staples of my childhood–are fried chicken and fried okra. I’ve heard that enterprising cooks have taken to creating deep-fried desserts by smothering Twinkies or Snickers or such with a big dose of batter, and frying it up in oil.

Theologian Russ Moore recently highlighted a Memphis news story reporting that the latest confectionary concoction is deep-fried Coke. Part funnel cake, part carbonated soda, it’s hard for me to guess how this is going to catch on in a diet-crazed society. Funny, either way.

Does this appeal to you? What’s the strangest dessert you’ve tried?

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Spurgeon’s understanding of Scripture is part of what made him such a success:

“The Bible is a wonderful book… You can use it for a lamp at night. You can use if for a screen by day. It is a universal Book; it is the book of books, and has furnished material for mountains of books; it is made of what I call bibline, or the essence of books… This one Book is enough to last a man throughout the whole of this life, however diligently he may study it.” Charles Spurgeon, quoted in Iain Murray, Spurgeon vs. Hyper-Calvinism, 13.

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Some Christians mistakenly think the Old Testament depicts God primarily as wrathful and angry, while the New Testament depicts God primarily as loving and and merciful. But this is a false dichotomy, an unnecessary and uninformed conclusion.

In For the Love of God, Volume 2, D. A. Carson (one of my favorite theologians), comments on one of my favorite psalms (Psalm 103) to prove this. Some excerpts:

One of the loveliest of the psalms is Psalm 103.

“The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.” (103:8) That truth is often expressed in the Old Testament… Yet that is not the imopression that many reader of the Old testament have of God. Someheow they think he runs on a short fuse, never ery far off from an outburst that can wipe out a nation or two.

Probably because they do not read the Old Testament very closely.

[God] delays judgment. On the first signs of genuine repentance, he turns from wrath, for the Lord is “slow to anger, abounding in love.”

It is almost as if God is looking for reasons to be as forbearing as possible.

In our guilt before a holy God, what we need most is to be forgiven all our sins (103:3), to have them removed far from us: “as far as the east is from the west (a distance without limit, unlike north to south), so far has he removed our transgressions from us” (103:12). With that assurance, all other blessings of any worth will one day be ours: without the forgiveness of sins, any other blessing we have received is worse than worthless: it may be deceptive.

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Think about this:

“G.K. Chesterton said that there is no such thing as a boring subject. There are only bored persons. Everything in God’s creation is intrinsically interesting, though we are so dull-minded that we often miss the wonder of it all.” - World Magazine, June 17, 2006, page 9.

What is the boring class for you? Geometry? Geology? Geography? If you really get Chesterton’s point, every subject will be transformed from wearisome to worship. This is what it means to live in a God-centered way. Because every subject is God’s subject, “everything in God’s creation is interesting.”

Dull-minded or God-minded: the choice is yours.

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GirlTalk On Kauflin On Teens And Music

Any post that begins thus gets my attention:

How can we as parents make wise decisions on music that really glorifies God when we really don’t have specific guidelines? Do we simply go by what makes us comfortable and uncomfortable? How can we make our children make wise decisions when it comes to music?

This question was posed to the GirlTalkers recently, and they responded with a post on Tuesday, quoting extensively from Bob Kauflin. I think this is timely for us, since my invitation to our teens to Submit A Song to the five15 playlist has generated 75 some entries. It is easy to talk about songs, albums, and artists, but not so easy to talk about discernment and godliness. I think these words can help.

Allow me to quote the GirlTalkers, quoting Bob Kauflin: (by the way, this is just enough to get you started. To learn more, listen to these two messages by Bob: God, Music, and Me, part 1 and part 2)

This is a great question, and one that millions of Christian parents should be asking. How do I teach my children to be discerning in their music choices?

Typically Christians take one of two positions on how we should relate to music. Either we label certain kinds of music as evil and avoid them completely, or we assume that music is simply a matter of personal taste and we are free to listen to anything. Both views free us from actually thinking through the biblical issues. Here are a few thoughts to help us guide our children (and ourselves!) through the process in a way that honors God.

First, if your children are drawn to a certain kind of music or artist, make sure that you have a good relationship with them already established. If your children feel your correction more than your encouragement, if you see them as problems rather than gifts, or if you want to deal with this in a 5 minute lecture, you’re going to have difficulty helping them discern the right path to follow. Strong, godly family relationships are one of the greatest helps in resisting the deceptive pull of the world.

Second, communicate to your children that you are training them to be discerning in every area, including their musical choices. Until you know they mistrust their heart in this area and are self-disclosing, you should be aware of everything they listen to. The Internet and Ipods have made that a little more difficult than it used to be, but that’s why trust and self-disclosure are so important. Sit down and read lyrics together. Listen to music as a family. Talk about what makes songs good or bad. Parents who have no idea what their children listen to may be allowing the world to shape their children’s hearts and minds.

Third, I’d want to be very sure that my children are able to discern the difference between certain kinds of music and the ungodly culture often associated with it. I don’t believe that any musical genre is evil in itself. Rap music is one example. Typically, it’s associated with violence, cursing, rebellion, and abuse of women, among other things. However, I have a good friend at Covenant Life Church, Curt Allen (aka Voice), who has been instrumental in helping me see how rap can be used to communicate biblical truths effectively. However, if my children aren’t exhibiting discernment in other areas, I wouldn’t introduce them to a style of music or an artist whose associations could lead them to embrace worldly values and attitudes. My goal would be to help them see that listening to music without discernment and godly intent reveals a heart willing to flirt with love for the world (1 John 2:15-17). Sadly, that caution applies to music that is produced by Christians as well as non-Christians. Music videos, advertising, liner notes, web sites should all be considered when thinking about whether or not it’s good to listen to a certain artist. All these reveal whether or not an artist is seeking to honor God not only in their music, but in the way they dress, speak, and act.

Fourth, I wouldn’t let a desire to listen to a particular artist or style of music dominate their thinking, schedule, time, or desires. That often reveals the presence of idolatry. If their exposure to a certain kind of music produces godly fruit they can continue listening to it. But if I saw their countenance, actions, dress, speech, or behavior being negatively influenced by the music they were listening to, or if their spiritual zeal waned, I’d make the music off limits and talk to them about what was going on in their heart. I’d stress that this isn’t simply a matter of preference, but helping them think about their world more biblically.

I know some very godly teens and adults who like music and artists that I don’t particularly enjoy. But they listen to it occasionally, enjoy other genres, and reject the arrogant, immoral culture that often accompanies the secular versions. If I wasn’t convinced that that was my child’s attitude, I’d be foolish to allow them to feed their desire for a certain musical style, even with Christian lyrics.

In the final analysis, the question isn’t whether my children should listen to rap or country or jazz or the Barlow Girls. Rather, it’s whether or not my children distrust their hearts and desire to make choices that honor the Savior who bought them with his own blood. If I’m leading them in those areas, musical choices are going to come much easier.

Categories: Thursday Thoughts For Parents, five15 blog
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Want to learn how to encourage and thank someone for their contribution to the church?

Read John Piper’s letter thanking J. I. Packer for his ministry on his 80th birthday.

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Saturday night, we had Part 2 of our Drivers Ed series. I called this ONE WAY: Proverbs on Wisdom and Folly, and preached from Proverbs 9:1-6 and 13-18. These verses show us that the choice between wisdom and folly is ultimately the choice between Christ and the world. Three points:

1. TWO HOSTESSES

Solomon uses the imagery of two women to personify wisdom and folly. Wisdom is living all of life wiht God in view, in submission to His Word, like he really exists. Folly is living for yourself, making decisions without regard to God, as though he doesn’t exist or doesn’t care. Ultimately, the choice between wisdom and folly is a choice between Christ and the world.

One notable difference between wisdom and folly that emerges from these verses is that wisdom takes work, while folly is usually the path of least resistance. No one drifts into wisdom.

2. TWO INVITATIONS

It’s amazing how similar the invitations in verses 4 and 16 are. But the two invitations are also very different. But the most important thing to see is that everything we do includes an invitation to follow the path of wisdom or the path of folly. And it turns out that wisdom offers a choice meal: like a steak and baked potato with everything, and a large side salad. Folly proves to be like cotton candy: briefly pleasing, but if it’s all you eat you end up with rotten teeth and a stomach ache.

3. TWO DESTINATIONS

Finally, we must see that these two invitations lead to very different destinations. A few years ago, Mark helped me think about the seriousness of sin in a very practical way by asking me: “Where would that sin take me if left unrestrained and unopposed?” The final destination of wisdom is life; the final destination of folly is death. Let us fight sin and find life in Christ Jesus.

“The wisdom of God has become personified in Christ who died on a cross: that this should be the climatic expression of God’s wisdom and power cannot be grasped by human wisdom.” E. J. Schnabel.

If you are interested in the comparison between Woman Wisdom and Woman Folly, you can dowload it: Pr 9 Wisdom & Folly Comparison.doc

Categories: Drivers Ed, five15 blog
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