Some Helpful Books

Some books are best read straight through, in fairly decent-sized chunks, and without a great deal of starting and stopping … so that you can keep the train of thought, or the flow of the story, straight in your mind. Other books, however, while they can be read fairly quickly, can also serve you quite well by taking up regular residence on your nightstand, or beside your recliner, or wherever it is that you tend to go in the quiet moments … and by being dipped into and mulled over, here and there, in smaller or larger chunks, over the course of many months or years. And, with the reminder that the Bible must always be the first and foremost book in our lives, I encourage you to read the spiritually edifying variety of both sorts of books!

In the space below, allow me to recommend a handful of books that fall into the latter category – the kind you might keep nearby your bed, or beside your favorite chair, or wherever you do your reading … so as to dip into them at various times. Each of them would be of certain benefit to you.

The Valley of Vision. A collection of Puritan prayers (gathered under various topical headings) which, although not divinely inspired, will read something like a collection of psalms. Use them for meditation, and to prompt your own prayer life. Available in paperback or leather bound.

The Letters of Samuel Rutherford. Written in beautiful, poetic prose, Rutherford’s letters are devotionally warm, pastorally helpful, and will encourage you to want to know more of Rutherford’s Savior. Charles Spurgeon called these letters “the nearest thing to inspiration which can be found in all the writings of mere men.” You might begin with the abridged version.

Spurgeon’s sermons. Charles Spurgeon was called “the prince of preachers” for a reason! And generations have benefitted from the hundreds of his sermons that have been preserved. Warm, straightforward, and consistently making “a bee-line to the cross,” his sermons make for some of the best reading that any Christian could do. One readily available volume (of 28 sermons) is CH Spurgeon’s Forgotten Early Sermons.

Operation World. If you want to pray for the spread of the gospel among the nations, this book is a wonderful resource. Containing important information, statistics, and prayer requests for each nation of the earth, this book has the potential to draw out your mind and heart in pray for the fulfillment of the Great Commission.

May God grant you fruitful reading!

Godly Examples

Wednesday night, in our introduction to the book of 2 Timothy, we thought about the need for endurance; the call to keep going, putting one foot in front of the other, in the ministry that God has given each of us to do. And we said that one of the resources for such endurance is the power of godly examples. “You followed my … perseverance” Paul said to Timothy (3:10) – now keep following it (3:14)! And so we talked about finding examples of godly endurance which we might follow; and I mentioned, fairly briefly, that one source of such godly examples of endurance is to read the stories of the saints of old. With that suggestion in mind, then, here are a few such good reads (the first three of which are available on the PRBC Resource Rack ):

Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor: The Life and Reflections of Tom Carson, D.A. Carson. Here is one of the most heartening books I have ever read. It’s the re-telling, as the title indicates, of the life of an ordinary pastor – a Canadian man whose ministry was never great or glamorous, who actually faced a good bit of disappointment, who eventually had to become bi-vocational, but who just kept preaching and teaching, discipling and evangelizing, visiting and praying, year after year after year. And in the end (and indeed, beyond his own life) the fruit proved marvelous. Not least is that his son, who wrote the book (sprinkled throughout with his father’s own journal entries), is perhaps the foremost New Testament scholar of our time.

Filling up the Afflictions of Christ, John Piper. This is the story of three men – William Tyndale, Adoniram Judson, and John Paton who (like Paul in 2 Timothy) suffered greatly in order to disseminate the gospel among those in darkness. But they kept going! And Piper tells their stories, briefly and marvelously, in this little book! It make for a good three-Lord’s-Day’s afternoon readings. (Piper’s bios of these men can also be read or listened to online at desiringgod.org).

Captain Allen Gardiner of Patagonia, Jesse Page. Here’s the story of a man who was not a preacher (but a ship captain!), but who labored, and labored, and labored for the gospel in spite of much difficulty. His death will sadden you, but his perseverance will inspire you. And the fruit of it was tremendous!

Singing in the Fire, Faith Cook. Cook employs her excellent writing skills to tell 14 brief stories of men and women (and one little girl) who suffered in various ways, but who kept going with and for Christ, “singing in the fire.” These brief re-tellings would work wonderfully for two weeks of nightly reading!

God Took Me By the Hand, Jerry Bridges. I just came across this title in an excellent review, by Geoff Thomas, in The Banner of Truth Magazine. It is now on my reading list! In it, the late Jerry Bridges, one of the excellent soul-physicians of our time, tells the story of his hardscrabble beginnings, growing up with health issues and exceedingly poor … and how God ‘took him by the hand,’ called him to Himself, and blessed his work of Bible teaching over many long years of ministry. What made me want to read the book, though, is Bridges’ statement that, over the course of his ministry, he experienced 25 years of definite blessing, 15 years of pain, and 16 years that “were neither particularly painful nor blessed.” That intrigues me! I want to know how he kept going through the painful years … and, especially, how he kept putting one foot in front of the other through 16 years of the mundane! I suspect you’d be helped by finding out, too!

So then … Paul instructed Timothy to continue in “perseverance” …  “knowing from whom [he had] learned” it (2 Tim 3:10-14). And now you know a few more people from whom you can learn it, too.

"Much closer attention"

“We must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it.” (Hebrews 2:1)

A Christian, just like anyone else, can become distracted, drowsy, even bored. Sad to say, we can even slip into these ruts when it comes to our attention to the word of God. Some of our lapses, no doubt, are related to physical weaknesses (sometimes self-inflicted, sometimes not). Some distraction also has to do with the ever shortening attention spans that modern technology daily ingrains in us. And a good bit of our spiritual inattentiveness can have to do, alas, with the state of our souls. But we must fight against every sort of weakness and distraction that would keep us from really hearing the word of God, and thus drifting from it (Hebrews 2:1)! “We must pay much closer attention to what we have heard” and to what we are hearing! And so, in the lines below, allow me to make a few practical suggestions as to how we can do so (especially as it relates to hearing God’s word preached) – whether our weaknesses be physical, spiritual, or related to the modern lack of attention span.

1. Get adequate rest. Someone has said that a good Sunday begins on Saturday night. How true! It is very difficult to pay careful attention in the morning when you have stayed up too late the previous night. So know your body. Figure out how much sleep you need. And go to bed on Saturday night well in time to receive it! Your body will thank you on Sunday morning, and your soul will do so throughout all eternity!

2. Avoid being a distraction. We’ve all been there – coming to after about 20-30 seconds, and realizing we have lost track of what the preacher was talking about. Because our eyes were following someone who got up and took a bathroom break, or because of a child (maybe even the preachers’ kid!) being rambunctious, or because of someone nearby fidgeting with a cell phone, or nodding off. And of course, we could all stand to force ourselves to focus, even in spite of these things. But we can also do one another a favor by doing all we can to set ourselves up to be unobtrusive during the service. Some distractions are minor, of course. And others can’t be helped – there are bathroom emergencies, and surprises with the children, and other hiccups that can’t be avoided (and so don't feel guilty when they happen!). But if we can go to the bathroom before the service, and quickly take our children out when they begin to be a distraction (and sit near the back if we think they might be), and keep ourselves from fidgeting, and so on … we can, in many instances, avoid unnecessary distractions, and help those around us “pay much closer attention.”

3. Cultivate a lengthening attention span. One reason some of us may struggle to follow a sermon is not always because the preacher is too long, but because our attention spans are too short – not by nature, but by cultivation. We spend a lot of time watching TV, which breaks every 8 minutes; and maybe even more time staring at tablets and phones, whose screens we can flip, change, and refresh every few seconds (count me as guilty here, too). And so we often have more difficulty than our forebears following words (as opposed to pictures). It can be challenging for us to follow that which lasts more than a few minutes, and does not come with moving pictures.*  But if we are to hear the word of God, we must be able to give attention to an extended series of words! For “faith comes from hearing” (Romans 10:17). And thus we must cultivate longer attention spans … and the ability to hear and think and stay focused even without pictures! And so I charge you: turn off the television. Curtail your time on tablets and phones. And increase the time you spend in books (which use the same medium as the book) and in face-to-face conversation with real people. Learn to listen, and to focus on words in the day-to-day, and you’ll be helped to do it, with matters of the soul at stake, on the Lord’s Day.

4. Cultivate an anticipation for Sunday meeting. I wonder if some our distractedness in worship might have its root in a low view of the Lord’s Day itself. Are Sunday services merely one of many 2-3 hour time blocks that we look forward to in the week? Or is our time together around the word the centerpiece and fulcrum of the entire week’s rhythm? Is your weekly rhythm built around the Lord’s Day, or is the Lord’s Day just one piece of the puzzle? To put it simply: Is Sunday the most important day of the week to you? And are Sunday services the most vital event? Your answer will go a long way toward determining if you are really eager to be in the worship, and eager for the spiritual meal that will be served to you there. For if Sunday meeting is the high point of the week, attention will much more easily follow!

5. Pray for the preaching. If a survey was taken of your church, what would the percentage of people be who actually pray for the preacher and the preaching each and every week? More directly, what would you have to answer to such a question? Iain Murray has said that it is not only true that preachers make congregations, but also that the congregation makes the preacher in the way that they pray for and support his ministry of the word! And so, if you’re having trouble staying with the preacher on Sundays (and even if you are not!), pray for him and his preaching each and every week – for the Holy Spirit’s power in his heart, in his preparation, in the actual preaching moment, and in the hearts of his hearers! And, as you pray (and as God answers!), it will come about both that the preacher himself will do a better job, and that you (the hearer) will be more invested in (and thus more attentive to) what he is bringing forth out of God’s book!

“We must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it.” And these have been just a few practical ways in which we may go about it. May they prove a blessing to you.

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*Read Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death for more on this phenomenon. My observations on this subject are always indebted to Postman’s excellent analysis!

A Plea for the Place of Words

Expounding insights gleaned, largely, from Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death

With both feet, we as a society have crossed the cultural border from an epoch of words and into an era of pictures (both still and moving). I get it. For I, too, am a child of my culture in many ways. There are many evenings when, for instance, rather than read to my children, I’d much rather just sit down in front of a screen and watch something together. It’s just easier that way. Listening requires more mental effort than watching; reading necessitates even more effort; and reading aloud still more. Plus, I understand that watching something on a screen (which almost always involves listening, too) engages an additional sense in ways that are often truly engaging, and sometimes helpful.

Further, I realize that even still imagery captures the eye much more rapidly than words – which is why books have artwork on their covers, and why we are now attaching such to our online sermons, and why pictures on Facebook seem to always generate a great many more ‘likes’ than plain text. Sight seems to be the dominant sense of modern mankind. And there are surely ways in which we should (within reason) make use of that tendency.

I understand all these things, and do not decry pictures and film, as such. And yet I do believe that, in our cultural evolution from words to images, we are in the process of losing some things quite precious. Most modern Americans, I dare say, read very little. And what they do read is often quite brief (and sometimes inane). And, if they do not attend church, it may have been years since many of our neighbors ever sat and concentrated on someone speaking for 30-60 minutes solid (if they’ve ever done so). And these are great losses, it seems to me.

For one thing, the hard work of reading or listening (as opposed to watching) is good for the mind. Forcing yourself to concentrate on a 45 minute speech, or on several consecutive chapters of a book, is good for us. Watching a movie or TV show, on the other hand, is often inactive. Ideas are merely thrown at us, rather than us having to mine them out of carefully crafted words. And thus, watching often doesn’t have the capacity for sharpening our minds the way focusing on words does. And it’s a dangerous thing, it seems to me, that we are raising a generation of children who do not know how to concentrate. Much of this problem, I am convinced, is because they are being raised with constantly moving pictures rather than with words that make them think.

Further, the rapid replacement of words with pictures means that we, of necessity, cannot handle many topics with an appropriate level of depth and/or sophistication. Pictures (moving and still) work well with the telling of stories, and sometimes the conveying of feelings. But they don’t work so well with outlining theological doctrines, and worldview beliefs, and political positions, and so on. For these we need words … often in large quantities. And, in a culture that is no longer apt to consume words in large quantities, is it any surprise that most Americans get their theology, their worldview, and their politics from brief soundbites, rather than with significant depth of research, thought, and understanding?

Finally, the waning epoch of words in our land will be a disaster spiritually, I am afraid. Because God has given us His truth (even the part of it that is story) not in pictures, but in words. And in a culture that incessantly prefers pictures to words, where will that leave us in a generation or two? Not in a good place, I am afraid. The Bible will lie more and more neglected. And so will preaching and good Christian books. Because we want images more than words; media players more than monologues; infographics more than essays; performers more than prophets.

Prior to the Protestant Reformation, the Bible was kept locked in Latin, the tongue of the scholars (with translation into the common peoples’ languages forbidden). Meanwhile the church gave the people pictures (statues, relics, paintings, etc.) in place of words. And, while these visual media lacked ability to communicate the whole truth about God (as stated above), they were (and still are) quite proficient at serving as stand-ins for Him; at becoming idols, in other words. And, although not precisely in the same way, pictures often stand between men and God today, too … wooing us away from the written word, more rapidly exciting our affections, but unable to provide us the same level of food for thought or meat for the soul.

And so I am making a plea for the place of words in your life. I’m not suggesting you never watch a movie (we have some in our church library!), or that you never turn on the television, or that you close your Instagram account. But what I am saying is that you will be much the poorer – spiritually, mentally, and in terms of your understanding of the world – if you adopt film, and television, and YouTube, and social media imagery as your primary source of mental intake.

So ask yourself: When is the last time I read a book all the way through? Or, even more so, when is the last time I read a Christian book all the way through? And how many movies have I watched in that same span of time? And further, do I have the attention span to focus on more than just a few verses of the Bible at a time? God has chosen to communicate to us in words … but is my mental lifestyle conducive to receiving His truth in the way He has chosen to disseminate it?

***

For more on the cultural shift from words to pictures, see Neil Postman’s seminal work Amusing Ourselves to Death, to which I owe most of the thinking above.

More Reading Ideas for Those Who Aren’t (Yet) Big Readers

Last week I suggested that Christian reading is a habit worth your taking up … and that, even if you aren’t yet an avid reader, there is a way in. Particularly, I listed three Christian magazines that would start you with more bites-sized reading portions, and provide you both spiritual meat\ and stimulus to read further.

This week (although I think books and magazines will be more significant for you) I want to point those of you who are prone to read on your devices to some Christian blogs that will do the same. So have a look at my descriptions, and then add one or more of these sites to your blog feed, or subscribe by email, or bookmark them, or just check in on them periodically. You will be helped in your walk with the Lord.

challies.com. This is the blog of Christian blogger extraordinaire, Tim Challies. Monday through Saturday, he always posts an article that will help you think through some life or biblical issue in a Christian fashion. Each day he also posts a daily ‘A La Carte’ in which he links to other interesting articles from around the web … so that, not only does Challies post good content himself, but he will introduce you to other good content from around the web.

desiringgod.org/articles. Lots of great articles every week on subjects moral, theological, social, and so on … some by John Piper, others by other capable Christian writers.

albertmohler.com/articles. Albert Mohler is perhaps the leading Christian statesman of our day – and has a key eye, and a gifted pen, for voicing the Christian worldview as it relates to so many of the hot-button issues of our day – politics, ethics, societal crises, and so on. If you want to know how to think about the news Christianly, Mohler is your guy. His articles are less frequent and more lengthy than the other blogs I mention, but they will help you think deeply. You can also listen to his daily podcast The Briefing at albertmohler.com/the-briefing or subscribe in iTunes.

So again, just a few ideas to get you going. We all need stimulus to think biblically, and God has provided numerous good teachers in our day, whose work is more accessible than ever. Let’s take advantage!

Some Reading Ideas for Those Who Aren’t (Yet) Big Readers

One of my delights as a pastor is to see our little library log book filling up with names, and with good book titles which have been checked out by the names in question. We are blessed, in our land and language, not only with unprecedented access to the Bible, but also with unprecedented access to good Christian books intended to help us understand the Bible, apply it to our lives, and think Christianly. And so let me urge you, if you are not doing so already, to make use of your church library. 

But it occurred to me that, for those who aren’t (yet) big readers, that there are some other resources available that might get you going as well. And I want to list a few of them for you, this week and next. Today I mention three magazines that I think you will find stimulating. Next week we’ll look at some blogs. But first the magazines:

Table Talk. This monthly magazine, put out by Ligonier Ministries, is a treasure of brief and helpful articles … usually all centered around a central theme for the month. The magazine also contains a daily Bible reading plan, to help you stay on track in the word, too. And so, if you gave it a half an hour, a couple days a week, you could read through the magazine in a month, be introduced to some of the most able Bible teachers of our time, and be greatly encouraged in your faith, and in your reading habit. This would be my highest recommendation in the magazine category. $23/yr. Available in paper and digital formats. Order at ligonier.org/tabletalk.

Free Grace Broadcaster. This free, no frills quarterly magazine contains 8-10 articles from great Christian teachers of the past, and each issue is centered on a particular biblical theme – heaven, marriage, evangelism, etc. If you sought to read just an article a week, maybe on your Sunday afternoon, you’d read the whole magazine in less than the allotted quarter (and might find yourself wishing for more)! FREE. Available in paper and digital formats. Subscribe and/or download at chapellibrary.org/broadcaster.

Studies in the Scriptures. This magazine of biblical study articles (something like sermons/Bible studies on paper) was published monthly by a man called Arthur Pink for 31 years in the first half of the 20th century. In recent years, Chapel Library in Pensacola has made the magazine live again by reprinting the final 21 years of magazines, and making them available to modern readers. Order or download a few months’ worth, read an article or two a week, and you will find a good deal of biblical meat for your soul. FREE. Available in paper and digital formats. Download or order copies at chapellibrary.org/studies.

Just a few ideas of solid meat that is available to you, and that might get you started on a habit that will bless your soul for a lifetime – Christian reading.