Blogging Theologically

Theology for real life

Doom and gloom, the end times, and the audiobook debate

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Reading Writers-Brian Dembowczyk Pa<a class=rt 2" width="1024" height="512" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.bloggingtheologically.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/RWS2-EpArt-1.jpg?w=1024 1024w, https://i1.wp.com/www.bloggingtheologically.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/RWS2-EpArt-1.jpg?resize=300%2C150 300w, https://i2.wp.com/www.bloggingtheologically.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/RWS2-EpArt-1.jpg?resize=768%2C384 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" />

Is this a time of good news for Christians? It’s easy to be doom and gloom when we look at the cultural landscape of America, but there is much good news to tell. Brian Dembowczyk, author of Gospel-Centered Kids Ministry, and I discuss this, reading about the end times, and whether or not audiobooks count as books in part two of the most explicitly Christian episode of Reading Writers ever.

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The books mentioned on this episode:

  • The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien
  • Quiet by Susan Cain
  • Progressive Covenentalism by Stephen Wellum and Brent Parker
  • Kingdom Come by Sam Storms
  • Right Behind by N.D. Wilson

Thanks for listening to this episode of Reading Writers. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a rating and review on iTunes. Your feedback really does help more people find the show.

If you want to really know yourself, start by knowing God

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Sunrise

Almost all the advice we’re given today starts with some version of being true to ourselves. We should know our personality types, our strengths, and our gifts. There’s nothing wrong with any of these things, of course. In fact, it’s quite helpful. But if it’s where we start, aside from subscribing to a self-help methodology, we’re missing out on the bigger picture.

One of the reformers described that bigger picture this way: “Man never attains to a true self-knowledge until he has previously contemplated the face of God, and come down after such contemplation to look into himself.”1 This is the right starting point. If we really want to know ourselves, it starts by knowing God. When our attention is focused on ourselves, we can easily become puffed up or vain. We might see our strengths, but we struggle to see our weaknesses. We only get half a picture, and a distorted one at that. Instead, we need to start with God, with his goodness, with his character, and his glory, because this helps us to get a better picture of ourselves. Know the One in whose image we have been made. Know God so we can know our need for him. Know God to know the character of the One who sacrificed all to meet our need.

This is what protects us from pride and folly. It’s what helps us to live as we were meant to. If you really want to know yourself, start with knowing God.

  1. John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion. ↵

Weekend reading (5/27)

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Weekend Reading

Terrorists Kill 28 Christians on Church Bus Trip to Popular Monastery

Jayson Casper:

Terrorists ambushed a Coptic church bus trip on Friday near Minya in Upper Egypt, killing at least 28 and injuring 23, including many children.

Egypt’s interior ministry reported that three 4×4 vehicles of 8 to 10 gunmen dressed in military uniforms opened fire on the vehicle, which was on its way to St. Samuel the Confessor Monastery in Samalout, 140 miles south of Cairo.

10 Surprising Realities of Mission in New England

Jared Wilson:

Although I moved in early 2015 to the Midwest, I left a big piece of my heart back in New England, the least-churched region of the nation, which, interestingly enough for a guy born and raised in the Bible Belt of the South, was the first place I really felt “at home.” I still hear regularly from folks interested in the future of church planting, revitalization, and gospel ministry in the New England states. Some have history with the region, some don’t. (I did not when I moved up to Vermont a little more than six years ago.) The following ten items are meant to help those praying and planning adjust their expectations in one respect or another.

Of course, some of these “realities” will seem as they if they go without saying to many, and none will be any surprise to native or long-time New Englanders. But I do think being advised against any ill-conceived preconception could be helpful to many. So, in no particular order.

If Everyone’s a Visionary, Why Do We All Sound So Alike?

Owen Strachan gets it.

The Benefits of Our Justification

David McLemore:

We need more than a vague awareness of the love of God for us in the past or the future. We need a present reality with God, moment by moment. We need to see the wonder of Christ’s blood forgiving us and transforming us right now. Every moment of the Christian’s life is a time of present standing in grace. The same power that saved us is the power by which we can live. We have the grace of Christ. Francis Schaeffer says that to understand this is to have the key to the Christian life.

Baptists Promoting and Supporting Patristic Theology

Brandon follows up on an article from earlier this week.

Google Knows Who You Really Are

Russell Moore:

Imagine if you had a truth serum that would force you to disclose who you really are and what you really think, fear, and value? In some ways, you already do: the digital search engine on your phones and devices. That’s the argument of a new book that I think ought to prompt us to think about what Christian witness should look like in the Google era.

Don’t miss out on getting the audio edition of The Passionate Preaching of Martyn Lloyd-Jones from Christian Audio. Also grab Spurgeon’s Talks to Farmers for 99¢.

When the h-word slipped

A favorite from the archives:

We’d always said we’d evaluate every year and every semester to determine the next step. Up until recently, we’d had concerns, but not anything that would have made us say “when.” Until we did. So over the last few weeks, we’ve been talking to friends, doing research, even having practice homeschool days when Abigail’s been home sick.

Through it all, Emily’s been approaching it from the “if we do this” perspective, something I appreciate. She’s been trying to be careful to not make a rash decision, or do something as a knee-jerk reaction to issues that have come up.

And then she let the h-word slip. And once that Genie’s out of the bottle, it’s really hard to put it back in.

Links I like (5/25)

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The Passage that Wrecked a Self-Righteous Church Kid

Kevin Halloran:

I never expected my first semester at a Christian college to thrill me and challenge me like it did. I enjoyed new freedom and new friendships. What I didn’t enjoy was my new identity crisis. Who was I and what was I about? The answers seemed to change daily. “Squeaky-clean church kid” didn’t mean as much in a sea of squeaky-clean church kids.

When Life is Uncertain

Courtney Reissig shares a personal update.

3 Ways We Hate Sin in Others More Than in Ourselves

Eric Geiger:

David missed the point of the illustration. Like David, in our blindness we can be angered by another’s sin but hardened to our own. We are often the same way. We can be exponentially more disgusted with the sin in other people’s lives than we are with our own. Our own sin can fail to anger us the way someone else’s sin does. Here are three common examples of this:

Legacy of Faith Library

This is lovely. Seriously.

3 Limits of Social Media as a Medium

Chris Martin:

What is social media doing to our ability to communicate with kindness, clarity and depth?

Should social media be seen as a redeemable form of communication, or is it a medium that is not meant to hold the weight of discourse?

Can heavy matters of faith even be discussed on social media, or is the platform too temporary and cheap for the eternal riches of the gospel?

Four Reasons to Bring Your Bible to Church

Mike Phay:

It took me a while as a pastor, in the early days of iPads and smartphones, to get used to people staring at their screens during the sermon. “How rude,” I thought. “Do they seriously think I can’t see them? These are adults, acting like teenagers!” Not being the regular preacher at the time, I was appalled at the ever-increasing number of faces that I would see lit by glowing screens each time I filled the pulpit.

It took me a while to realize that these folks weren’t rude. They were just reading their Bibles!

Five phrases Christians should never use again

A favorite from the archives:

We all have certain sayings that we regularly use. In my house, we often remind the kids, “You’ll get what you get and you won’t get upset,” particularly when it’s time for a snack. Another favorite: “We’re gonna have fun whether we like it or not.”

These are well and good, at least to a point—that is, only in as much as we ascribe no more value to them than their due. Christians are no different; we have short hand phrases that are sometimes helpful, but often not. In fact, many we treat as downright biblical, when they’re more likely to be found in 2 Hesitations. Here are five that I’d love to see never ever used again.

Links I like (5/23)

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What If I Don’t Feel Forgiven?

R.C. Sproul:

There is an important difference between guilt and guilt feelings. The distinction is between that which is objective and that which is subjective. Guilt is objective; it is determined by a real analysis of what a person has done with respect to law. When a person transgresses a law, that person incurs guilt. This is true in the ultimate sense with regard to the law of God. Whenever we break the law of God, we incur objective guilt. We may deny that the guilt is there. We may seek to excuse it or deal with it in other ways. Still, the reality is that we have the guilt.

Chris Cornell and the quest for joy

Adam Holland:

Man was created for the purpose of joy. But why is it that music, money and fame can never bring ultimate joy? Finite things will never fill the infinite hole that sin has left within a person’s heart. This quest will never find its resolve until its focus is centered upon Christ.  Saint Augustine once stated, “Our hearts will be restless, until they find their rest in thee.” The Christian narrative offers hope for those whose affections are placed upon Christ.

The Weight of Expectations Crushes the Things of the World

Michael Kelley:

This is what comes to mind when I read through the Book of Ecclesiastes. It’s a book in which the Teacher systematically examined every part of life under the sun. He held up pleasure, work, time, knowledge, and even wisdom itself, and with each one, found it wanting. That’s the recurrent refrain throughout the book after each aspect of life is examined – Meaningless! Vanity! Each and every time.

The Pastor Must Fall On His Sword Before He Wields It

Trevin Wax:

Pastors should not come to this book as if we are professional sword-fighters, putting on a show in front of an audience we hope to wow with our skills of how we can toss and juggle a sword and flip it around. That’s playing with a sword as part of a show, not wielding a sword as part of a battle.

The Dearth of Patristic Theology in Evangelicalism

Brandon Smith:

The “allegorical” readings of the Patristic Fathers, the Catholic flavor of the first thousand or so years of church history, etc. are not reasons to abandon pre-Reformation theology. And yet, so many evangelicals immediately bristle at this notion on the principle that we should care more about the five solae of the Reformation. These five truths recovered the gospel in many minds. I recently wrote a study on the five solae, so I understand this sentiment and greatly appreciate the correctives that came with it. The Reformation was an act of God—I truly believe that—but we should consider two things.

The One Who Treads the Waves

Allyson Todd:

Here’s a truth about me: waves scare me. There is no way to tame the waves of my ever-in-transition life and I am unable to control the tide. No movies about tsunamis, sea storms, or constant transition for this girl.

These waves were familiar to Job. He endured constant changes, and each one brought more sorrow than the next. His pain was beyond anything I could imagine. In Job 8, his “friend” Bildad explained all the reasons God would ease Job’s suffering.

Better to tell the truth than stories

A favorite from the archives:

A few months back, I started sharing a few stories of really foolish things I did when I was between 8 and 10 years old. Things like: jumping off a roof to see if a man (or, in this case, boy) could fly. Defying my mother and getting an ATM card for my bank account after she explicitly told me not to. Or finding all the Christmas presents during a sick day, opening and playing with them all, and then attempting to cover my tracks by “rewrapping”all the presents.

Y’know, the typical idiotic stuff you can expect an eight-year-old boy to do.

Why does the gospel story matter to how we teach?

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Reading Writers-Books on the Gospel

Why does it matter that we actually teach the Bible in the context of the gospel story? Maybe a better question is can we do this?  Does a “gospel-centered” approach distort the meaning of the Scriptures, or does it allow us to see what God intended more clearly?

Brian Dembowczyk, one of my teammates from The Gospel Project and author of Gospel-Centered Kids Ministry, discuss this and more in part one of the most explicitly Christian episode of Reading Writers ever.

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The books mentioned on this episode:

Thanks for listening to this episode of Reading Writers. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a rating and review on iTunes. Your feedback really does help more people find the show. For more reading recommendations, be sure to check out my monthly round-up of what I’ve read and the book reviews page. Look for part two soon!

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