72. How To Eat Your Bible

How To Eat Your Bible: A Simple Approach to Learning and Loving the Word of God. Nate Pickowicz. 2021. [January] Moody Publishers. 144 pages. [Source: Review copy]

First sentence from the introduction: I’m writing this book to myself. Well, actually, it’s for you, but I can’t help wondering whether you and I may have had a similar experience.

This short little book focuses on the Word of God. Why should Christians read the Bible? How often should Christians read the Bible? How should Christians approach Bible reading? What steps are necessary or important? (Namely prayer and actually doing it.) 

The reader Pickowicz has in mind is a reluctant reader who feels slightly bad about approaching the Word of God reluctantly and inconsistently. This reader is essentially unfamiliar with the Word of God and lacks desire to be fed by the Word of God. 

I believe his goal is to get that reluctant, inconsistent reader to get excited and prayerful about actually reading the Word of God and living by it. He encourages the reader often to pray, pray, pray, pray. Pray for God to place the desire within your heart. Pray for God to open your eyes, your heart, your mind. Pray for God to transform you through the reading of the Word. Pray for God to use your time in the Word beneficially. Pray against temptations that distract and negate. 

He specifically is encouraging readers to take a different approach to reading the Bible. Instead of encouraging readers to read through the Bible in a year or two or three in its entirety. He is encouraging his reluctant, inconsistent readers to approach Bible reading the John MacArthur way. That is to read each book of the New Testament through thirty times in a row. Shorter books get a month. Longer books are broken into sections and tackled over multiple months. (For example, three months for the book of Romans.) He deviates from MacArthur's advice to read through the Old Testament once each year. He instead feels that readers should commit to reading each book through fifteen times in a row. (Half of what he encourages for the New Testament.) Again shorter books are given their own time. But longer books are broken into segments. One clarification: MacArthur emphasizes 30 days--roughly a month. Pickowicz emphasizes thirty readings. So if you wanted to read Galatians once in the morning and once in the evening--one could finish it in fifteen days instead of thirty. It is the number of times through a book that matters to Pickowicz. 

So he's devised--loosely somewhat--a seven year Bible reading plan. 

My thoughts...I do have them! Let's see. I like the idea of including the Old Testament in this in-depth study. I myself have done this with Psalms. I read 30 days of book one of Psalms, 30 days of book two of Psalms, 30 days of book three of Psalms, 30 days of book four of Psalms, 30 days of book five of Psalms. It was incredible, wonderful, nourishing. I highly recommend it if you get the chance. There are other books I'd love to approach this way. (Though notably not Proverbs. But Isaiah 40-66 comes to mind!) 

But. I am not Pickowicz's envisioned reader. I am not reluctant to read the Bible. Nor am I reluctant to read in general. You don't have to really do much to get me to set aside time to read. Being completely honest, I am not inconsistent now. Though the me of twenty years ago was inconsistent--very. I was either all hot or all cold. 

I am slightly unsure how someone completely and totally new to the Bible--who doesn't really have an idea of the big picture or how the narrative fits together or how books relate to one another or a foundational grounding of key essential doctrines of the faith--would handle being thrown right into possibly one of the hardest ways (but most thorough and no-nonsense) to get to know the Bible. 30 days or 30 readings of the same book. He encourages reading the whole New Testament first. Is this perhaps disconnecting the New Testament from the Old Testament a little too much at the beginning of the program??? Maybe. Maybe not. I can't imagine reading Hebrews for 30 or 60 or even 90 days without ever having read the Old Testament. The New Testament is built on the Old. 

I love the idea of people actually reading the New Testament books that intensely and frequently. But I am leaning more towards MacArthur's the Old Testament needs to be being read throughout the year too. (Just like I would encourage readers who actually implement Picowicz's plan to read through the New Testament each year that they study the Old Testament books.) I can't imagine going four years without reading the New Testament!!! (Nor can I imagine going three years without reading the Old Testament.)

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

52. How To Pray in a Crisis

How to Pray in a Crisis. Daniel Dean Henderson. 2020. Moody Publishers. 128 pages. [Source: Review copy]


First sentence: If you are in a crisis of any kind right now, God has brought you to a divinely orchestrated crossroads. The higher path calls you to renewed trust and transformation. The lower one allures you to hide in the cocooned space of comfort, complacency, and self-protection.

How To Pray in a Crisis is a book encouraging believers to...you guessed it...pray during a crisis. But it isn't necessarily individual prayer he's urging and encouraging. He believes that you best learn to pray--in a crisis or out of a crisis--by praying in community. He is a big, big believer that prayer is something "caught" not "taught." Better to learn to pray by participating in group community prayer and watching older and wiser prayer warriors at work than by reading a book. (Odd that this advice should come in a book? Perhaps.)

He shares with readers a four step guide to renewed prayer.

STEP ONE DECIDE TO LET GOD BIRTH FRESH CONVICTION
STEP TWO DEVOTE YOURSELF TO A CONSISTENT EXPERIENCE OF PRAYING IN COMMUNITY
STEP THREE DEVELOP YOUR BIBLICAL, LIFEGIVING PRAYER COMPETENCY
STEP FOUR DETERMINE YOU’LL BECOME SPIRITUALLY CONTAGIOUS

I have slight issues with the phrasing of the first step, I must admit. I don't believe we "let God" do anything. God is God is God is God is God. We are not. God is not waiting around for permission to do anything. If the new birth is accomplished without letting us let God, then certainly letting God birth fresh conviction in us is a bit ridiculous. But aside from the phrasing, I didn't have any huge issues with the theology.

Prayerlessness is my declaration of independence from God. Conversely, prayerfulness is my declaration of desperate dependence on God.

I think that offers food for thought right there. I would imagine most people don't reckon the relationship between the two that bluntly. By not praying, I am declaring my independence from God.

I do agree that crisis offers OPPORTUNITY for great growth spiritually.

I do agree that an open Bible is a great place to start with any prayer.


© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

51. Pandemics, Plagues, and Natural Disasters

Pandemics, Plagues, and Natural Disasters. Erwin Lutzer. 2020. Moody publishers. 176 pages. [Source: Review copy]

First sentence: COVID-19, is the pandemic that changed everything. The “new normal” will not be the same as the “old normal.” For years to come we will talk about BC (Before COVID) and AC (After COVID). Normal might not be back.

Erwin Lutzer's newest book is current-event driven. Many, many, many things are going on in 2020. When this book was written, I believe the biggest issue was COVID 19--and to some degree some natural disasters (tornadoes, locusts, etc.). I do not believe the racial tensions had escalated with protests and looting.

Lutzer uses the Word of God AND the historical past to speak to this generation of believers. Lutzer shows readers that they are not the first generation to experience pandemics, plagues, and natural disasters. How believers choose to respond and do respond perhaps has changed a great deal. For sadly we live in a culture that would rather God be a caring bystander powerless to do anything but say, "there, there" while patting believers on the shoulder than a sovereign, providential God that allows pandemics, plagues, and natural disasters as part of His will.

In chapter one, Lutzer writes, "In the following pages I will discuss God’s relationship to pandemics, plagues, and natural disasters. I believe that realistic answers have to be given that will ground our faith in our sovereign Lord even in a time of fear and grief—or I should say especially in a time of fear and grief. Although God appears to be silent, I want to point out that He has actually spoken through the Scriptures, and furthermore, His promises are to be believed."

 God has a message for believers; it's not a new message, but an old one. "No special revelation from God here, just the Bible in one hand and a hurting world in another." He encourages believers to cling to hope AND to also offer comfort to those that are grieving and confused. Lutzer writes, "We must begin any discussion of tragedy by grieving for those who are in pain. Many of us are better at trying to explain the whys and wherefores of pandemics and disasters than we are weeping over them!"



© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

22. On Waiting Well

On Waiting Well: Moving from Endurance to Enjoyment When You're Waiting on God. Bradley Baurain. 2020. [July 2020] Moody. 176 pages. [Source: Review copy] [Christian living; Christian nonfiction; theology]

First sentence: Do you enjoy waiting as much as I do? I love to find a long line and a slow cashier for checking out at the grocery store. Doing so gives me an opportunity to contemplate my need for turkey jerky and to read the covers of fascinating magazines. I love to be put on hold when making a phone call—such great music! I love arriving for an eye appointment and being shown to a room, tastefully decorated with high-definition illustrations of cataract surgery, that has been specially designed for me to wait in. None of this is true, of course, which means you almost certainly do enjoy waiting as much as I do, that is to say, not at all. We find waiting in daily life to be boring, tiresome, and unfortunately inevitable.

If you have a pulse...then chances are you could benefit from reading Bradley Baurain's book on WAITING. The book tackles several different aspects of waiting--what he likes to call the "small w" and and "the big W." Examples of the "small w" would be actual waiting we do in our daily lives--waiting in traffic, waiting for an elevator, waiting in a check-out line, waiting for an appointment, waiting to get grades back, waiting for (medical) test results, waiting to get over a cold, waiting for a package to arrive, etc. Examples of "the big W" are typically more significant and often have a spiritual element to them. We may be annoyed by the first, but it's the second that gives us a greater opportunity to have faith, trust God, believe His promises, and lean hard on grace.

He also makes a distinction--or tries at any rate--between waiting on the Lord and waiting for the Lord. (I honestly tried to process this distinction. But I struggled. I believe both are seen in Scripture, used in Scripture in various translations.)

I loved it when he shared three MYTHS about waiting and follows up with three TRUTHS about waiting. (Chapters three and four!)

I also loved chapter six, "What Are We Waiting For?" he shares SEVEN answers that help clarify the "big W." Rescue. Promises. Salvation. Justice. Grace. Forgiveness. Christ's Return. He gives each one it's turn--and in doing so gives a good, solid foundation for HOPE.

Overall, I thought this was a book worth reading.

Quotes:
"By any name—attitude, orientation, choice, habit, discipline, virtue, or practice—learning to wait on the Lord is an essential, transformative, and rewarding dimension of spiritual formation. This perspective is countercultural and unexpected: waiting is positive. It is not merely a “dry season” or something we need to escape. Rightly conceived, spiritual waiting is a crucial, ongoing dimension of following Christ and loving God. It’s a vital part of our Christian pilgrimage."
"Waiting is a privilege, a pleasure, a step toward a deeper understanding of God and a richer experience of His boundless love for us."
"God cannot do His work without His and our waiting His time: let waiting be our work, as it is His. And if His waiting be nothing but goodness and graciousness, let ours be nothing but a rejoicing in that goodness, and a confident expectancy of that grace. And let every thought of waiting become to us simply the expression of unmingled and unutterable blessedness, because it brings us to a God who waits that He may make Himself known to us perfectly as the Gracious One."
"A fuller understanding of waiting can over time transform both our beliefs and our practices—and thus our experiences and our feelings about those experiences. It might also work in the other direction, that is, if we take a stand on what the Word says and act as though waiting on the Lord is important and fundamentally pleasurable, waiting will begin to feel pleasurable and thereby transform our beliefs. Whether the flow is from biblical beliefs to our actions, or from biblical actions to our beliefs, this is all likely to be a slow change."
"We cannot wait on the Lord and at the same time disobey His commandments, nor can we wait on the Lord and at the same time pridefully seek our own glory."
"As we’ve seen in the first two chapters, the Christian life is very much one of waiting for the Lord and waiting on the Lord. If we’re not doing one or both of these, we’re almost certainly not seeking God’s glory, and we’re probably also not thinking, speaking, or acting in faith. This is biblically true. But what is also often experientially true is that waiting can feel difficult and painful. Learning how to wait—which might be pursued as an attitude, orientation, choice, habit, discipline, virtue, or practice—as part of our spiritual maturing is sadly not a high priority for many of us in the church today."

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

18. 7 Feasts

7 Feasts: Finding Christ in the Sacred Celebrations of the Old Testament. Erin Davis. 2020. 304 pages. [Source: Review copy]

First sentence: I learned from my grandma to love puzzles.

7 Feasts is a Bible Study drawn from a study of Leviticus 23. Intimidated by Leviticus? Don't be. For while the study theoretically should be largely drawn from Leviticus--this particular chapter--Davis pulls in texts from the Old Testament and New Testament that shed some light on what is being studied. There is an introductory chapter about the importance of remembering and observing; included in this first week's study is the importance of handling Scripture rightly. Readers are taught six rules. (I'll quote them below). Then the subsequent seven chapters are about the seven feasts: The Passover, The Feast of Unleavened Bread, The Feast of Firstfruits, The Feast of Weeks, The Feast of Trumpets, The Day of Atonement, The Feast of Booths. Each week has five devotions or studies.

The six rules of handling Scripture rightly:

Rule #1: We let Scripture interpret Scripture. It is essential for us to interpret a passage in light of what the rest of Scripture says on the topic.

Rule #2: We pay close attention to context. Every word in the Bible is part of a verse. Every verse is part of a paragraph. Every paragraph is part of a book. Every book is part of the whole of Scripture. No verse of Scripture should be divorced from the verses around it. 

Rule #3: Pause to consider what type of book or passage you’re reading. Here are some broad categories that can be used to help us understand the context of most Scripture passages: 1) Epistles or Letters 2) Gospels 3) Parables 4) Eschatology 5) Apocalyptic 6) Law 7) Historical Narrative 8) Hebrew Poetry 9) Prophecy 10) Wisdom

Rule #4: Try to discern the writer’s intentions when he wrote the text. A passage cannot mean something to us today that it was never intended to mean to the original audience. The Bible is unique in its timelessness.

Rule #5: Keep it simple. The Bible is not a book of riddles to be solved. God is not a God of confusion, but of clarity (1 Cor. 14:33). He has not spoken in order to conceal, but to be understood and known (Isa. 48:6, Jer. 33:3). When we open God’s Word, it is the plain meaning of the text we are seeking to understand. 

Rule #6: Always take a God-centered approach. Avoid looking at Scripture primarily to better understand yourself or correct your actions. Ask yourself “What does this show me about God?” before you ask, “What does this tell me about me?” or “What should I do?” Right application of Scripture is only ever an outflow of right understanding of who God is.

These are rules that readers can take with them and use every time they read and study Scripture. These are also helpful rules when it comes to DISCERNING another person's preaching or teaching. If someone is telling you something is true that clearly violates one or more of these rules of how to interpret and understand Scripture--you can spot it.

The rules are definitely one of the most practical takeaways from reading the book.

The weekly studies. For better or worse. The studies keep thing very simple, very basic. The activities are definitely more about understanding the original context of the seven feasts and less on the actual details of the feasts and how specifically Christ is to be found. So if you come to this one specifically looking for Christ-types, Christ-symbols, talk of imagery, meaning, significance, etc., you might be disappointed. Or if you come seeking a geeky-guide to the actual feasts and how they were and how they are celebrated by Jews...you might be slightly disappointed.

That being said, what is here is of value and worth. The activities are more LOOK UP THESE SCRIPTURES, WRITE OUT THESE SCRIPTURES, WHAT IS BEING SAID, WHAT DOES THIS SAY ABOUT GOD, WHAT DOES THIS MEAN, etc. And the activities are not ridiculous me-centered activities. We don't get any of the absurd: WHAT DOES THIS VERSE MEAN TO YOU, WHAT DO YOU THINK THIS PASSAGE MIGHT MEAN, HOW DOES THIS MAKE YOU FEEL. The questions are solid enough that there's no wish-washiness.

The book definitely teaches about the doctrines of sin correctly. And the book is grounded in the gospel of truth and grace as laid out clearly in the Word of God.

There are definite application moments throughout the book.



© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

14. What If Jesus Was Serious?

What if Jesus Was Serious? A Visual Guide to the Teachings of Jesus We Love To Ignore. Skye Jethani. 2020. [June] Moody Publishers. 208 pages. [Source: Review copy] [Christian nonfiction; Christian living; theology; sermon on the mount]

First sentence: FOLLOWING JESUS HAS never been easy, but some believe it’s becoming even more difficult as Western cultures become increasingly post-Christian.

True or false: We live in a culture where we often pick and choose what texts to take seriously from the Bible.
True or false: We live in a culture where we often pick and choose which teachings of Christ himself to take seriously.
True or false: Every culture since Jesus' ministry has struggled with this--what to make of Jesus' teachings, his life, his work, his death and resurrection.

I can't answer the third question objectively. But the first two, sadly, are definitely true--in my opinion.

The premise of Skye Jethani's book, What If Jesus Was Serious, is simple: WHAT WOULD THE CHRISTIAN LIFE BE LIKE IF PEOPLE TOOK JESUS' SERMON ON THE MOUNT SERIOUSLY. If you don't find that a scary thought, perhaps you haven't read the Sermon on the Mount lately.

The book consists of nine parts:

• Who is Really Blessed? 
• Christians and Culture
• Inside Out Righteousness
• Love In Action
• A Prayer for Losers
• Freedom from Fear
• Judging, Asking, Blessing
• Good and Bad Fruit
• Be Smart

Each part has several chapters...each beginning with the refrain: If Jesus Was Serious...

• Then We Will Focus More On His Good News and Less on Religious To-Dos
• Then No One is Beyond God's Blessing
• Then Heaven Is Already Here
• Then We Will Make Room To Cry
• Then We Will Trust God More and Politics Less
• Then a Desire for Justice Should be Affirmed
• Then We Cannot Separate Our Relationship with God From Our Relationship With Others
• Then Our Image Isn't Everything
• Then Peace is Costly But Worth the Price

Those were just from part one, "Who Is Really Blessed?"

The book is methodically laid out, straight-forward, concise. The author assumes that Jesus MEANT or intended his words, his teachings to be taken seriously. And likewise assumes that some of these chapters might step on a few toes and challenge readers.

Each chapter has a visual illustration that goes with it. I am not a visual learner, so these didn't particular speak to me or resonate with me. But perhaps for some readers these illustrations will be thought-provoking and give the book a little something extra.

My favorite quote:

"EVERY CHRISTIAN HAS at least two Bibles. First, there is the actual Bible—all sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments. Then there is the Bible we read. This is what some call our functional Bible and it includes the sections we regularly engage and seek to apply to our lives. This functional Bible is different for each person, but it contains some familiar gospel stories and parables, some of Paul’s letters, and a handful of Psalms. He declared that He came not to abolish the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfill them. Fulfillment doesn’t mean to finish and throw away, but to bring to completion. In other words, Jesus identifies Himself as what the Old Testament has been pointing toward, and to understand Jesus we must see Him through the lens of the writings of the Law and the Prophets. Likewise, to understand the Law and the Prophets, we must read them through the lens of Jesus. He is the key to the whole Bible, and we need the whole Bible to engage Jesus."

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

9. Journey in Prayer

Journey in Prayer: 7 Days of Praying with Jesus. John Smed. Justine Hwang. Leah Yin. 2012/2020. [May] Moody Publishers. 160 pages. [Source: Review copy] [prayer; devotional; christian nonfiction]

First sentence: My journey in prayer begins in a monastery garden.

Journey in Prayer: 7 Days of Praying with Jesus is centered around the Lord's Prayer. Books about prayer abound. There are books that focus on the why, the how, the when, the where. Just about any aspect of praying--there's a book that covers that aspect exactly. Even so, I find Journey in Prayer to be hard to classify.

The Lord's Prayer is the jumping off place certainly. But it's more the spring to get you lifted up and going. It isn't grounded and rooted into learning more about The Lord's Prayer, not really. It's more like the Lord's Prayer is the stone you throw in the water, and these devotions, these studies are the ripples that follow. I wouldn't classify this one as saturated in Scripture so much as saturated in feelings, emotions, stories, illustrations, quotes.

The book has a lot of blank spaces for readers to write in. This is supposed to be an immersive, interactive journey. One can only gain by actually doing the exercises. Theoretically speaking of course.

If you are seeking out a book on prayer--in general--I'd go elsewhere. If you are seeking out a book on the Lord's Prayer specifically, I'd definitely go elsewhere. It perhaps is lacking a little in depth and substance, but has plenty of width. It's like a swimming pool that's only two feet deep. Depending on where YOU are in your faith journey, you may or may not benefit from reading it.





© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

Book Review: Billy Sunday, Baseball Preacher

Billy Sunday, Baseball Preacher. Fern Neal Stocker. 1985. Moody. 143 pages. [Source: Bought]

First sentence: "Ma, I want to go swimming!" said Willie one hot June day in 1873.

Premise/plot: This is a children's biography of Billy Sunday a baseball player turned evangelist. It reads almost as a novel--for better or worse. On the one hand, it's the size of a paperback novel, the chapters read quickly, and include plenty of dialogue. On the other hand, it does not include photographs, source notes, or a bibliography.

My thoughts: I found this one to be a quick and interesting read. Billy Sunday's life was not easy. His mother struggled to raise him and his brother after her husband's death. When she remarried her new husband did NOT want the children from her first marriage around. The boys were sent to their grandparents. When their grandmother died, it was decided that the boys must go to an orphanage. Their new mother had a baby and her new husband had abandoned her. At one point, the grandfather sent for one boy but not the other. Both came. But Billy knew he wasn't wanted. It became evident that he'd need to be independent and hardworking if he wanted anything out of life. He excelled at baseball...and that was his salvation, in a way. People were more willing to have him around and give him jobs after they saw him play. The book also focuses on his testimony: how he came to Christ and how he eventually decided to dedicate his life to the Lord as an evangelist.




© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

Book Review: The Bible In Pictures for Little Eyes

The Bible In Pictures for Little Eyes. Kenneth N. Taylor. 1956/1984. Moody Press. 190 pages. [Source: Bought]

First sentence (from the introduction): Even little children can understand great truths when told to them in simple words. And when pictures are added, doubly indelible impressions are made that can last forever.

First sentence:

When it is nighttime and the lights are out you know how dark everything gets. You can't see anything. That is how all the world once was. There were no pretty flowers; there were no trees or grass or birds. There were no children either. There was only darkness. God did not want everything to be all dark. He decided to make some people. People could not live in the darkness so God made a beautiful world full of light.
Questions: 1. Can you see anything at night when you go to bed and the lights are out?
2. Did God want everything to be all dark? 

This is a Bible story book intended for "little eyes." I'm supposing the intended use is for parents to share ONE picture and story per day during their family devotions. The stories are short--very, very short. These stories are shorter than almost any other that I've seen in bible story books through the years I've been reading. But is that a good thing?

The stories are from the Old Testament and the New Testament. Plenty of stories get skimmed over or skipped altogether.

Here's one of his stories about Jeremiah:

This man is Jeremiah. Can you say "Jeremiah"? He is one of God's friends. God has sent him to tell the people to be good. The people do not like Jeremiah to tell them this. They want to be bad so they have tied Jeremiah's hands together. They will put him in a room and lock the door so Jeremiah cannot get away. He must sit there all day. People go by laughing at him and making fun of him. Poor Jeremiah! But God is with him and God will punish the people who do this to His friend.
Questions:
1. What has happened to Jeremiah's hands?
2. Is Jeremiah God's friend?
3. Will God help Jeremiah?

I am curious about the pictures, the illustrations. No credit is given for the artwork. Did Kenneth Taylor use artwork that had already been made for his book? Did he start with finding pictures and then write stories to go with these pictures? OR did the stories come first? Why is there so much emphasis on the details of the pictures perhaps focusing on details that are from artists' imaginations rather than the Bible itself?



© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

Book Review: Christ's Call to Reform the Church

Christ's Call to Reform the Church. John F. MacArthur. 2018. Moody Publishers. 208 pages. [Source: Review copy]

First sentence (from the introduction): In the book of Revelation, Jesus wrote seven letters to cities in Asia Minor. He didn't write them to city hall; He wrote them to the church. Let that sink in moment.

First sentence from chapter one: Have you ever heard of a church that repented? Not individuals, but an entire church that collectively recognized its congregational transgressions and openly, genuinely repented, with biblical sorrow and brokenness? Sadly, you probably have not. For that matter, have you ever heard of a pastor who called his church to repent and threatened his congregation with divine judgment if they failed to do so? It's not likely. Pastors today seem to have a hard enough time calling individuals to repent, let alone calling the whole church to account for their corporate sins.

MacArthur's sermon text--if you will--is Revelation 2 and 3. In these seven letters to seven different churches, Jesus is calling for--in fact demanding--that the churches repent. Repentance hasn't grown in popularity through the centuries, but its need has not lessened either. What can believers--what can churches--learn from studying these letters? How are our churches like the ancient ones? Do we face the same struggles? the same temptations? the same judgement if we do not repent? Have we forgotten that the Bible was written with authority and should be read as such?

In the introduction, MacArthur points out that the church has never been commanded to go to war with the culture, or to legislate morality. He writes, "The will of God is not that we become so politicized that we turn our mission field into our enemy...It's futile to think the solution to our culture's moral bankruptcy is a legislative remedy. There is no law that can make fallen sinners righteous" (12).

In the first chapter, MacArthur introduces key topics that will be discussed throughout the book: worldliness, sin, compromise, tolerance, repentance, judgment. He examines what happens when churches compromise with the truth--with the revealed Word of God--and choose tolerance, peace, and unity instead. He briefly mentions the Reformation and Puritan movements before addressing contemporary issues facing the church. Did the ancient church have it easier? Or did they face the same temptations and struggles? Has Satan used the same tactics against the church since day one? Are our "new problems" really ancient ones?

In the second chapter, MacArthur takes a closer look at Revelation 1. Since the majority of the book is focusing on Revelation 2 and 3, this chapter is providing orientation and context for understanding and appreciating the book as a whole.

In chapters three through nine, MacArthur discusses the seven churches--Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea--and closely examines the Lord's messages to them. This is the heart of the book. Readers will learn more about these ancient churches and their problems. Readers will be reminded of the relevance of these urgent, passionate messages. Jesus is still calling his church to repent.

In the tenth and final chapter, MacArthur revisits the five solas of the Reformation and discusses the church's need to reform or return to reform. The Reformation should not be thought of "as over."

This was a great read.

Quotes:

• There have never been any Christian nations--just Christians. (9)
• Cultural change can't accelerate the kingdom's growth; nor can it hinder it. (10)
• Morality on its own is no solution; it damns just like immorality. (10)
• Churches that start down a path of worldliness, disobedience, and apostasy typically move even further from orthodoxy over time. They almost never recover their original soundness. Rarely are they broken over their collective sins against the Lord. Rarely do they turn aside from corruption, immorality, and false doctrine. Rarely do they cry out from the depths of their hearts for forgiveness, cleansing, and restoration. Most never even consider it, because they have become comfortable with their condition. (16)
• Filling the pews with comfortable, unaffected unbelievers is the fastest way to confuse and corrupt the work of the church. (25)
• Most people who go to church believe it is a safe place--perhaps the safest place--when it comes to threats of judgment from the Lord. It's almost like climbing aboard the ark; once you're safely inside, you're untouchable. But that's not true. Frankly, it's a foolish and dangerous notion. (35)
• Sinners--even redeemed sinners--are right to be terrified in the presence of a Holy God. There is always fear in a true vision of Christ, because we see His glory and He sees our sin. (51)
• Put simply, loving Christ is the defining characteristic of a Christian. And while the genuine believer will always love the Lord, the intensity of his love can fluctuate over time. The redeemed person's love for Christ must be carefully guarded and nurtured, or it will diminish with time. (56)
• Consider the chain reaction of forsaking your first love. Fading love for Christ is the forerunner of spiritual apathy. Apathy is the forerunner to loving something else. And love for something else means competing priorities with Christ, which in turn leads to compromise with the world and corruption, resulting ultimately in judgment. (67)
• In themselves, believers don't have the capacity to maintain or protect their faith. If we could lose our salvation, we certainly would. Instead, it's the Lord who holds us steadfast in faith. (83)
• Incredibly, many churches today proudly ignore the sin in their midst in the name of tolerance, unity, and love--proving only that they have no true understanding of what the Bible means when it talks about unity and love. Amazingly, ignoring sin and practicing tolerance has became a staple strategy for church growth. This directly defies the Lord's commands. (104)
• I don't understand how pastors and churches can be indifferent to sin when they see this unequivocal statement from the Head of the church: that He will put on a public display of His holy wrath if a church falls into corruption. He will make a spectacle of His judgment, such that other congregations see it and cringe. He will use the failure and the destruction of one church to purify others, and to display His holiness to His people. There is no excuse for tolerating sin or welcoming it as an evangelistic strategy. Doing so invites the wrath of heaven. (116)
• Error kills the church. False teaching and false doctrine confuse and corrupt the church, draining the life out of it. Sin kills the church. Little by little, sin tears away at the life of the church. It twists your character and warps your mind. Sins of omission and commission slowly suffocate the will of the church to maintain holiness and purity. Sinful leadership can quickly deal death blows to a church. Compromise with the world kills the church, too. Contrary to the current trend, there's no better way to introduce the killing power of sin into a church than with an influx of unbelievers. Accepting and putting those unbelievers into positions of leadership grips the church by the neck and strangles it. Ultimately, churches die for one reason: they tolerate sin, which includes the seminal sin of not taking Scripture seriously. (127)
• Despite its frequent misapplication, Revelation 3:20 is not a general statement about Christ's knocking on the hearts door of sinners, nor is it an accurate picture of His call to repent. The fact is, the door Christ refers to here was a specific door, not the metaphorical door of every human heart. This is a specific invitation to the church at Laodicea and others like it. Christ was not in that church, further proof that, unlike the church at Sardis, there were no believers in the Laodicean congregation at all. (173)
• The fact is the church isn't facing unique problems that demand clever new solutions. Satan's strategies have not changed, and "we are not ignorant of his schemes" (2 Cor 2:11). He assaults the church in the same ways he did in the first century. If anything, what has changed is the church's willingness to compromise with the world and accommodate false teaching. Rather than engaging a spiritual warfare against satanic lies and anti-Christian ideologies (2 Cor 10:4), too many churches have declared an unbiblical truce with the world and stopped fighting for God's truth altogether. (178)

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

Book Review: Cries from the Cross

Cries From the Cross: A Journey Into the Heart of Jesus. Erwin Lutzer. 2002. Moody. 170 pages. [Source: Bought]

First sentence: Were you there when they crucified my Lord? As a child I wondered what those words could possibly mean. Obviously, the author of the hymn intended that we answer yes to the question. And yet, what could be clearer than the fact that I was not there when they crucified my Lord? 

Cries from the Cross is a wonderful book--whether you are reading it for the first time or treating yourself to a reread. In this one, Lutzer is examining Jesus' words spoken from the cross. There is a chapter for each of Jesus' seven statements or 'cries.' There's also a preface, introduction, and epilogue that help set the book into context. 

Do you know what Jesus' seven cries from the cross were? Have you considered how they can speak into your life--how they relate to you personally? If you haven't--or even if you have--it's worth pondering (again). I know that 'pondering' or 'meditating' or 'reflecting' takes time and that the average person prioritizes just about everything else over silence or quiet--but at what costs to our souls? 

Here they are in the order in which he writes about them:

• A Cry for Pardon: "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." (Luke 23:34)
• A Cry of Assurance: "Today you will be with me in paradise." (Luke 23:43)
• A Cry of Compassion: "Dear woman, here is your son...Here is your mother." (John 19:26-27)
• A Cry of Anguish: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46)
• A Cry of Suffering: "I am thirsty." (John 19:28)
• A Cry of Victory: "It is finished." (John 19:30)
• A Cry of Submission: "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." (Luke 23:46)

Lutzer clearly and passionately shares the gospel message--that old, old story--that gospel message that when empowered by the Spirit--through the Spirit--can transform lives and take people out of darkness and into the light.

I love, love, love, love, LOVE this one. It is a thrilling read. This was my second or perhaps third time to read it.

Quotes:

To stand at the foot fo the cross is to witness the purpose for which God created the world. Here we see the attributes of God on display; and if we look carefully, we will see ourselves, with all of our needs, sins, and self-deceptions. Thankfully, it is at the cross that God chose to remove His wrath from those who would humbly trust Christ as their sin-bearer. (11)

The cross properly understood exalts no one whom it first does not humble; it gives life only to those whom it first "puts to death." The cross exposes the futility of our self-righteousness; it reminds us that we are sinners, incapable of bringing about our own reconciliation with God. Before the cross we can only stand with bowed heads and a broken spirit. (16)

Unless we see ourselves as deserving of the verdict that Pilate gave to Jesus, unless we see ourselves as worthy of hell, we will never understand the Cross. Someone has said that it is difficult for us to embrace the cross in a day when personal enjoyment is king. Contrary to popular belief, the central message of Christianity is not the Sermon on the Mount or Jesus' parables about love toward one's neighbor. The message that changed the first-century world was that human beings are guilty, helplessly guilty of sins for which they cannot atone. The cross shatters all pride and undercuts the ultimate value of self-effort. The cross stands as proof of God's great love but also reveals our own ugliness. (17)

The church can only live and breathe at the cross; without it, there is no life and no reason to exist. Properly proclaimed, it is "the power of God unto salvation." (19)

Jesus' suffering was terrible for the simple reason that our sin is terrible. (20)

No one can experience the eternal favor of God if they bypass the cross. (25)

Christ was forsaken that we might not be; He experienced hell that we might experience heaven. (28)

Forgiveness sounds like a marvelous idea until you are the one who has to do it. (33)

Words of forgiveness came from His lips when the nails were being driven into His body, when the pain was fiercest, when the jolts of anguish were the sharpest; He prayed as the cross was lowered into the hole with a thud. It was then, when His nerves were yet the most tender, when the pain was the most unfathomable, He who was the victim of history's greatest crime prayed for the criminals. He could forgive because He was about His Father's business. (36-7)

God never lowers His standard of justice to the level of our ignorance. Sins committed in ignorance are still sins. The guilt of those who crucified Jesus was real and objective regardless of how much they understood or did not understand. (41)

We have no idea of the greatness of our sin because we do not understand the greatness of our God. But we have fewer excuses today than ever; we have no reason to turn away from the savior who left us powerful witnesses to His authenticity. (42)

The prayer was not for those who did not want to be forgiven, but for those who would seek it. (45)

Are some sins "unpardonable"? The answer is no, for if the murder of the Son of God was "forgivable" for those who sought forgiveness, then all sins can be forgiven. (46)

There is no unpardonable sin for those who come to Christ for forgiveness. For those who refuse Him, all sins are unpardonable. (46)

He who needed no forgiveness died for those of us who are condemned without it. (47)

Although God forgives us because of Christ, it is neither His job nor His obligation to do so. He forgives us because of undeserved mercy toward us whose just punishment is hell. The cross is the bridge of redeeming love; on it, we walk across the chasm to God, who graciously provided forgiveness for those who believe. If we do not understand this, we do not understand the gospel. (47)

At His birth He was surrounded by beasts, and, now in His death, with criminals. Let no one say God has stayed aloof from the brokenness of our fallen world. He descended that we might ascend with Him to newness of life. (54)

Helplessness is not a curse if it draws us to the only One who can help us. Indeed, if we are not helpless, we cannot be saved. (56)

Jesus was numbered with the transgressors so that you and I could be numbered with the redeemed. Though personally sinless, He was counted as a transgressor by both God and man. He got what He didn't deserve, namely, our sin; and we got what we didn't deserve, namely, His righteousness. (66)

Warren Wiersbe points out that this man was not saved at his last opportunity, but at his first opportunity. (68)

The thief's forgiveness reminds us that there is more grace in God's heart than sin in our past. (69)

If we had been there, how close would we have stood to the cross? Nearby or at a comfortable distance? Would we have been intimidated by the mob, or would we have gladly let the angry rabble-rousers know that we were followers of the Man hanging on the middle cross? Would we stand nearby even if the cross cost us as much as it cost Christ? (82)

Christ did not die to make the Father loving, for He loved us from the foundation of the world. (89)

The first purpose of the cross was not for us, but for God. Yes, Jesus shed His blood for us, but it is even more true to say that He shed His blood for the Father. When the blood was sprinkled on the doorposts of the houses in Egypt, it was put there for the benefit of the families, but it was also put there for God. Jehovah said, "When I see the blood, I will pass over you" (Exodus 12:13). (100)

Let us remember that He was forsaken by God that we might be accepted by Him... Jesus went through darkness that we might have light. He was cursed that we might be blessed. He was condemned that we might be able to say, "Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1). He suffered hell for us so that we can enjoy heaven with Him. (103)

Either Jesus bears our sin, or we do. If the Father turned His face away from His beloved Son when He was regarded as a sinner, we can be sure that the Father will turn away from every sinner who stands before the Judgement Bar on his own merits. We are either saved by His rejection, or we must bear our own rejection for all of eternity. If those who are in hell should cry, "Why have You forsaken me?" heaven shall remain silent, for they receive the just recompense for their deeds. (103-4)

As Matthew Henry put it, "The torments of hell are represented by a violent thirst, in the complaint of the rich man who begged for a drop of water to cool his tongue. To that everlasting thirst we had all been condemned, if Christ had not suffered on the cross." Hell is heightened desires with decreased satisfaction. Hell is the inflamed desires of the body, with no possibility of a drink. Hell is remembering the Living Water we could have enjoyed on earth that would have taken us to heaven. Hell is a lake of fire, a place of endless, unquenchable thirst. Thankfully, Jesus suffered parched lips that we might be able to drink from the wells of salvation. He endured the thirst of hell, so that its fires might be quenched for us. Of those in heaven we read, "Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their Shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes" (Revelation 7:16-17). (115)

Jesus drank from the cup of death that we might be able to drink from the cup of life. (116)

If your spirit does not go into the hands of God for sakekeeping, it will go into the hands of God for judgment. (146)

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

Book Review: The Hand of God

The Hand of God. Alistair Begg. 1999/2018. Moody Publishers. 204 pages. [Source: Review copy] 

First sentence: “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” —Romans 8:28 Those who have been Christians for any length of time may find that the page in their Bible which contains this verse is a little worn, even smudged—and with good reason. The implications of God’s providence are staggering, because they impact every area and every moment of our lives. This truth is one that separates believers from unbelievers.

The Hand of God by Alistair Begg is a book about the Providence of God; specifically it is about the Providence of God as illustrated through the life of Joseph. The book is about Joseph--son of Jacob, son of Isaac, son of Abraham--but it is also about God's providence in general: how believers can draw comfort from the doctrine. Begg argues that studying the life of Joseph is like seeing the truth of Romans 8:28 lived out and "with skin on."

Joseph hadn’t read Romans 8:28. He didn’t have it hanging on the wall of his dungeon. But he understood the truth behind it, and even in the worst of human circumstances, he displayed patient endurance and quiet confidence.

The PROVIDENCE of God isn't a doctrine that gets much attention from the pulpit--perhaps because  preachers are afraid of being misunderstood. If it gets little attention from the pulpit, then it gets even less from ordinary believers. Dare I say it's considered tacky to talk about God's providence?! You mean it's God's will for me to lose my job? You mean it's God's will for me to have cancer? You mean it's God's will for me that I miscarried? You mean it's God's will that the tornado destroyed my house? These are the same people who have no trouble believing that it is God's will for you to get the job, to get married, to have a baby, to move to a better house, to always be healthy.

How did we arrive at the conclusion that following Christ is a walk in the park? Where did we get the idea that serving Christ is a guarantee against trial, pain, and persecution? We didn’t get it from Jesus. He guarantees just the opposite: “In this world you will have trouble” ( John 16:33).

I hope that Begg's study on Providence will persuade readers that this is an EXCELLENT, comforting, blessed doctrine.

Quotes:

We often ask God to remove the problem from us or remove us from the problem. But most of the time what God does with His children is change their attitudes toward the circumstances in which they find themselves.

Do you understand that you were made to bring Him glory? This means that every matter you deal with, every moment you spend, every move you make is an opportunity to bring glory and praise to God.

If you listen to the Word of God in a sermon with an angry heart, you will hear the pastor talking, but you will not hear the Word of God to your spirit.

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

Book Review: The Church in Babylon

The Church in Babylon: Heeding the Call to Be a Light in the Darkness. Erwin W. Lutzer. 2018. Moody Publishers. 208 pages. [Source: Review copy]

First sentence: The church in Babylon! Those four words plunge us into the heart of our present cultural context here in the West.

True or false: The church's values should be different from the world's values.
True or false: When traditional church values clash with contemporary cultural values, the church should change to keep in step with the times.
True or false: The Bible's message changes for each and every generation. Each generation is to keep what is relevant and speaks to them and throw out the rest.
True or false: The Bible has been misunderstood by every single generation except this one.
True or false: There is only one absolute truth, and that one fundamental, not-to-be-questioned truth is this: THERE ARE NO ABSOLUTE TRUTHS.
True or false: The greatest sin one can commit is to offend someone.

Erwin Lutzer is not the first or the last to write a strong message to the modern-day church. The Church in Babylon IS a strong message, no doubt about it. Subtlety was not what Lutzer was aiming at! It is a plea to the church--to the collective church, to individuals, to families--to be discerning: to love what is good, to hate what is evil. It urges believers to know the truth, speak the truth, teach the truth, stand up for the truth. The Word of God is to have authority over us, we are not to be ruled by ever-changing codes, values, morals of society, of culture. We are not to call good 'evil' and evil 'good'.

Chapters include: "Welcome to Babylon," "A Light to the City, a Heart for God," "Conflicts of Conscience," "When the State Becomes God," "The Church, Technology, and Purity," "Transgenderism, Sexuality, and the Church," "Islam, Immigration, and the Church," "Five False Gospels Within the Evangelical Church," "Taking the Cross Into the World," "Jesus at the Church Door," "The Church That Will Survive in Babylon."

The premise of the book in Lutzer's own words:

In brief, the purpose of this book is to answer three questions: First, what does faithfulness look like in a nation that has lost its way, a nation that appears to be under the judgment of God? Second, what are those issues that we, as a church, must confront in order to represent the God we worship? Or to put it differently, what instructions might Christ give us as we prepare ourselves for the darkness that is closing around us and the deeper darkness that’s on its way?  Finally, Jesus told five of the seven churches of Revelation to repent. Might that not be His message to us? What might He be asking us to repent of ? Where might we have lost our way?

Is The Church in Babylon offensive? Yes. It is potentially offensive. It embraces the idea--the notion--that the very nature of the gospel IS offensive. The gospel always has been and always will be offensive.

The message is that we are all--one and all, nobody excluded--sinners. We are sinners by nature; we are sinners through and through. There is not one person untainted by sin--sin from the inside. We are dead, blind, lost, enslaved. And the natural man loves it that way. Sin is what pleases the natural man. We freely and gleefully cling to sin--even as it kills us.

The message is that we are incapable, unable, unwilling to change. We need a Savior. We don't even know we need a Savior. Our greatest need is to be reconciled to God.

The message is that we can't save ourselves, that we can't contribute anything to our salvation. We are not saved by good works. We have no merit to contribute to our salvation. WE bring nothing but sin. We come as we are: broken, crushed, hopelessly helpless.

The message is that God is God and we are not. Jesus is LORD and SAVIOR. We are to surrender our wills to HIS WILL. We are to OBEY. We are to SUBMIT. We are to live as if we are not our own, but HIS. We are called to live and love sacrificially. We are called to live holy lives. We are called to be humble, to stay humble.

The message is that we are called to live in the Spirit, by the Spirit, with the Spirit. And the Spirit cannot tolerate sin. We are to hate sin as the Spirit hate sins.

The message is that we should cling to the truth--know it, love it, embrace it, proclaim it--and not worry about the world's approval.

Lutzer writes about modern-day culture, the contemporary church, and the glorious truths of the Word.

Quotes:

A church that has assimilated the world cannot be a vibrant witness to that world. To adopt prevailing cultural values hardly gives the world a reason to believe that we are a viable alternative to lives of brokenness, greed, and addiction.

We have to be a church that is, in some ways, repulsive to the world because of our authentic holiness and yet very attractive to the world because of our love and care.

If we are not distinct from the world, we will have nothing to say to the world.

Salvation is free, but as the seven churches of Revelation discovered, there is a cost to living authentic lives of holiness in a godless culture. We cannot take the resources Christ offers for granted but must diligently seek Him and His Word with prayerful wisdom.

The nature of evil is to plunge ahead, deliberately closing one’s eyes to the consequences.

We are called to be alive and represent Him at this hour of our history. We could have been born in a previous era, a future era, or not born at all. God has a reason for us living now. The God who calls is the God who provides. 

Young or old, married, single, or widowed, God has equipped us to live for Him in this hour. As we shall see, we are to live without fear and with joy at the privilege of representing Christ even at great personal cost.

There are risks involved when Christians live in a pagan culture without proper safeguards. The culture can devour us. And yet, I believe that the mandate found in Jesus’ prayer, “I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one,” (John 17:15) is still applicable today. 

We are called to expose the sins of the world, but to do so with redemption, in humility and compassion. And, yes, with courage. And tears.

We, as the church, will never be effective unless we see ourselves as sent by Christ into the world. He prayed, “As you [the Father] sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world” (John 17:18). We are pilgrims, out of step with the ever-changing culture—yet we are sent by Christ, the Head of the church.

Confidence in God’s unassailable sovereignty fuels worship. Only those who see God even in their defeats can offer Him praise at all times just as the psalmist wrote, “I will bless the LORD at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the Lord; let the humble hear and be glad. O, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together!” (Ps. 34:1–3).

We have to take a stand against the culture, but we must do it in a way that never loses sight of Jesus. We stand against the culture with a redemptive mindset. We have to take account of culture, to be aware of what is going on in our world, and to accept it as far as our conscience allows, but then we have to draw the line and say, “This far but no further.”

God knows the longitude and latitude of our little boat as we cross the tempestuous sea. He knows the strength of every board. He knows the trajectory of the wind and its speed. Let us never say there are so many disturbing trends in our society that we must simply blend in with the culture as best we can. Nor should we withdraw from our culture abandoning it to its well-deserved fate. Let us not divorce God from our predicament, but rather see God in it.

Satan’s one desire is to draw our souls away from God, then he substitutes pleasure, guilt, self-condemnation, and anger in God’s place.The devil wants us to continue to violate what we know to be right and so fills our minds with a list of rationalizations. Satan doesn’t respond to sweet reason, he doesn’t play by the rules, and he won’t go down without a fight. Churches need to help, guide, and encourage their people, and confront the enemy as necessary. There is nowhere to hide. This is not a war that can be won without prayer, earnest prayer, and intercessory prayer. And accountability.

The bottom line is that we must love God more than we love our sin. But this love cannot be manufactured; it cannot be turned on and off like a faucet. The love we have for God must be God-given, the result of conversion. And this love is nurtured through the Word of God and the fellowship of God’s people. It grows in response to what God has done for us.

There’s a story about a man who dreamt he was carrying a heavy cross on his shoulder. He was exhausted; he wished that his cross was lighter. In the dream he saw a woodsman with an axe, so he asked that a good part of his cross be chopped off. After that, the man happily resumed his journey, thankful that his cross was so much lighter. On his journey, he came to a chasm between two mountains. He wanted to continue but found that he couldn’t bridge the gap; if only his cross had been longer, he could have laid it down and used it as a bridge. But the cross was short—by just the length that had been chopped off. When the man awoke, he was glad this was only a dream. He now realized that only those who are willing to carry a heavy cross are able to scale the next mountain. Those who are constantly in search of a lighter cross will never go far in claiming territory for Christ. At some point, they will conclude that the price of obedience is too high. The obstacles too formidable.

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

Book Review: Made For His Pleasure

Made For His Pleasure: Ten Benchmarks of a Vital Faith. Alistair Begg. 1995/2018. Moody Publishers. 192 pages. [Source: Review copy]

First sentence: I remember the occasion vividly. The afternoon sun cast shadows over the small gathering of parents clustered at the center line of the high school soccer field...If I, an earthly father, can know such a sensation of pleasure in the well-being of my son, surely that gives an inkling of how our heavenly Father feels when we please Him. If we could only grasp and be grasped by this, our lives would be revolutionized.

The Christian faith has content and Alistair Begg reminds believers of ten benchmarks of the Christian faith in Made For His Pleasure. These doctrines if believed, if embraced, will transform how we live our lives. We are to live out our theology in other words.

How can we live lives that please God? That is the question Begg asks and answers in Made for His Pleasure. It should be noted that it is a question that can be answered. God has revealed in His Word how we can please him and how we should live. The problem is not that we have been left with the silence of God, left to wonder and puzzle out the answer for ourselves. The problem is that many of us--most of us, perhaps even all of us--understand all too well that the Bible has authority to speak over us. We don't want to relinquish that authority to another. We get uncomfortable with the idea of holiness, uncomfortable with the idea of living holy lives, of being pious. And what do we do with this discomfort? I fear most of us are like Scarlett O'Hara and put off until tomorrow thinking about anything that makes us uncomfortable or anxious.

I think there's also some misconception going on. We are not called to live holy lives on our own apart from the Spirit, apart from the grace of God, the strength of God. We are not called to power our own living. We are not called to independence but dependence. We are not called to be self-reliant but Spirit-reliant. If we are terrified at the idea of holy living, perhaps it's because we're trying to do it on our own. Or perhaps our PRIDE, our arrogance, our ego starts tripping us up. Or need to compete with others for God's attention. (A completely ridiculous idea when you think about it.)

Begg gives real answers and explores foundational doctrines of the faith.  He also shares some personal stories within each chapter.

I would recommend this one. It is a great read.

Spiritual Fitness in a Flabby Generation

One of the key reasons for the flabbiness of our spiritual lives is that a generation of Christians is growing up with little awareness of the necessity of dealing with sin. There are sins to be rejected. These are the things that “so easily entangle” us. We will not all be tripped up by the same things; the source of our temptations differs according to our personalities and circumstances. We must learn where our personal weaknesses lie—and once they are identified, we must be ruthless in dealing with them.

The power we need is the power that comes from the Lord, who works in our lives to enable us to do His good pleasure. Then we are responsible to work out what God by His Spirit is working.

We should not assume we are spiritually fit simply because we feel we are.

The Christian faith is like a muscle: the more we exercise it, the more we build it, but when we neglect it, it atrophies. It is in recognizing our weakness that we discover the strength that God provides. It is God who keeps us strong to the end.

Prayer That Is Larger Than Ourselves

How the devil loves to hear us talk about tomorrow!

Sacrifice: Wholehearted Commitment to God's Kingdom:

It is both dangerous and wrong to substitute personal preference for biblical principle, to place pleasing self above pleasing God. 

Relationships: A Marriage That Pleases God:

For those who are not married, the moments they share with friends, family members, neighbors, and coworkers provide ample opportunity to serve and demonstrate the joys of unwavering devotion to Christ. 

Vocation: Finding the Ideal Place to Serve God:

We need to view our daily round and common task as the realm in which we fulfill God’s call upon our lives and not rush to be done with these secular pursuits so that we might turn to spiritual activities.

Suffering: Pleasing God When the Wheels Fall Off:

The truth is that more spiritual progress is made through failure and tears than success and laughter. If we are to be honest, we have all faced, and continue to face, events in our lives which we assume will mar us—and yet, in God’s providence, we discover them to be incidents that make us more sensitive and faithful and useful. If this is true of individuals, it is equally true of church families.

We tend to run away from the things that make us. We should neither court suffering nor complain about it. Instead, we should see it as one of the means God chooses to employ to make us increasingly useful to the Master.

We need to remember this when talking with our friends who are in the eye of the storm. At that moment, our presence is more important than our pronouncements, and our silences more eloquent than our speech.

The Narrow Way: Never Did a Heedless Person Lead a Holy Life

To allow that everyone and everything is right is to destroy the notion of truth itself. This challenge is not unique to our time.

Twentieth-century British evangelist Alan Redpath used to talk to young people about the vital importance of what he called “blanket victory.” He was referring not to some strategy for overall success, but to the necessity of getting out of bed at a reasonable time in the morning to pursue the business of the day. If a young person could not get victory over his blankets, it was unlikely that he would be self-controlled in many other areas. 

Sow a thought, reap an action. Sow an action, reap a habit. Sow a habit, reap a character. Sow a character, reap a destiny.

Putting on the Garment of Humility:

We should not rely on only one good meal or two a week. Many of us, though, neglect the Scriptures on a daily basis. 

Evangelism: The Necessity of Bringing Others To Christ:

One doesn’t need to be a Christian to embrace an emphasis on the family and virtue, but only a Christian will be prepared to challenge the world with the claims of Jesus Christ. The unique danger at this point in history is that we will fail to “contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people” (Jude 3), but instead succeed in passing on to the coming generation an agenda and not a theology. Without the fixed building blocks of biblical theology, our flimsy constructions will fall flat.

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

Book Review: Discipleship

Discipleship: What It Truly Means to Be A Christian. A.W. Tozer. 2018. [May] Moody Publishers. 176 pages. [Source: Review copy]

First sentence: In the New Testament salvation and discipleship are so closely related as to be indivisible. They are not identical, but as with Siamese twins they are joined by a tie which can be severed only at the price of death. Yet they are being severed in evangelical circles today. In the working creed of the average Christian salvation is held to be immediate and automatic, while discipleship is thought to be something optional that the Christian may delay indefinitely or never accept at all.

Dare I say that Johnny Mac would approve this Tozer title?! Perhaps. (I think Todd Friel would as well.) The focus of this book is on the lordship question. Do people who profess faith in Christ as Savior, have to "accept" him as Lord as well and be obedient? Does being a Christian mean being a disciple and follower of Christ? Or does it just mean someone who prayed a prayer and walked up an aisle?

Tozer writes in part, "I believe we need to preach again a whole Christ to the world—a Christ who does not need our apologies, a Christ who will not be divided, a Christ who will either be Lord of all or who will not be Lord at all!" And later he writes, " I don’t think you can be a Christian without being a disciple. The idea that I can come to the Lord and by grace have all of my sins forgiven and have my name written in heaven, and have the carpenter go to work on a mansion in my Father’s house, and at the same time raise hell on my way to heaven is impossible and unscriptural. It cannot be found in the Bible."

Here's the table of contents for this one:

• Marks of Discipleship
• True and False Disciples
• "Accepting" Christ
• To All Who Received Him
• Obedience Is Not An Option 
• You Cannot Face Two Directions
• Crucified with Christ
• Take Up Your Cross
• Loving Righteousness, Hating Evil
• Be Holy
• The Importance of Deeds
• Preparing for Heaven
• Go and Tell

I loved this one. I crazy-loved it cover to cover. I loved each chapter more than the last--and I didn't even think that was possible. Tozer was a passionate preacher, a zealous believer who was on a mission for God to wake up Christians or "Christians." He writes, "If I could stir Christians around me to love God and hate sin, even to the point of being a bit of a nuisance, I would rejoice."

You cannot read him without thinking, reflecting, contemplating. His words are straight-forward, no apologies, challenges to all of us. I find his honesty compelling and refreshing. But above all I find Tozer relevant. Perhaps his real mission was to reach us--"the future"--fifty years after his ministry "ended." Why is Tozer relevant or more relevant than you might expect? Because what he taught--what he wrote--was tied so closely to the Bible, to the study and application of the Word of God. Because Tozer breathed the Bible--his words have relevance to us today. Every biblical preacher with a written legacy--emphasis on biblical--can be relevant no matter the generation gap.

Here's what he has to say about the Bible, "Every problem that touches us is answered in the Book—stay by the Word! I want to preach the Word, love the Word and make the Word the most important element in my Christian life. Read it much, read it often, brood over it, think over it, meditate over it—meditate on the Word of God day and night. When you are awake at night, think of a helpful verse. When you get up in the morning, no matter how you feel, think of a verse and make the Word of God the important element in your day. The Holy Ghost wrote the Word, and if you make much of the Word, He will make much of you. It is through the Word that He reveals Himself. Between those covers is a living Book. God wrote it and it is still vital and effective and alive. God is in this Book, the Holy Ghost is in this Book, and if you want to find Him, go into this Book."

Favorite quotes:

The notion that just anybody, at any time, regardless of conditions, can start from religious scratch, without the Spirit’s help, and believe savingly on Christ by a sudden decision of the will, is wholly contrary to the teachings of the Bible. What we tend to overlook is that the word “whosoever” never stands by itself. Always its meaning is modified by the word “believe” or “will” or “come.” According to the teachings of Christ no man will or can come and believe unless there has been done within him a prevenient work of God enabling him so to do.

In the sixth chapter of John our Lord makes some statements that gospel Christians seem afraid to talk about. The average one of us manages to live with them by the simple trick of ignoring them. They are such as these: (1) Only they come to Christ who have been given to Him by the Father (John 6:37). (2) No one can come of himself; he must first be drawn by the Father (John 6:44). (3) The ability to come to Christ is a gift of the Father (John 6:65). (4) Everyone given to the Son by the Father will come to Him (John 6:37).

Where a hungry heart is found we may be sure that God was there first. “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you” (John 15:16).

I have never considered it a very great compliment to the Christian church that we can generate enthusiasm on such short notice. The less there is in the kettle, the quicker it begins to boil. There are some who get converted on enthusiasm and backslide on principle! 

Long ago I came to the conclusion that if Jesus Christ is not controlling all of me, the chances are very good that He is not controlling any of me.  As for myself, I do not want to be a half disciple. I want my whole life—all of me—under the dominion of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was an old English preacher who used to say, “If Christ cannot be Lord of all, He will not be Lord at all!”

Have you ever heard of “chameleon” disciples? They can change color with the environment. There are even some preachers like that. They can talk the language of the crowd they happen to be with. If they are with liberal thinkers, behold, they begin to sound liberal. If they were with evangelicals, they sound evangelical. They are “adaptable,” they say. “We believe in adjustment.” They do not need adjustment; they need God! 

Now, the particular attitude revealed here about “accepting Christ” is wrong because it makes Christ stand hat-in-hand, somewhere outside the door, waiting on our human judgment. We know about His divine person, we know that He is the Lamb of God who suffered and died in our place. We know all about His credentials. Yet we let Him stand outside on the steps like some poor timid fellow who is hoping he can find a job. We look Him over, then read a few more devotional verses, and ask: “What do you think, Mabel? Do you think we ought to accept Him? I really wonder if we should accept Him.” And so, in this view, our poor Lord Christ stands hat-in-hand, shifting from one foot to another looking for a job, wondering whether He will be accepted. Meanwhile, there sits the proud Adamic sinner, rotten as the devil and filled with all manner of spiritual leprosy and cancer. But he is hesitating; he is judging whether or not he will accept Christ. The question ought not to be whether I will accept Him; the question ought to be whether He will accept me! But He does not make that a question. He has already told us that we do not have to worry or disturb our minds about that. “And him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37). He has promised to receive us, poor and sinful though we be. But the idea that we can make Him stand while we render the verdict of whether He is worthy of our acceptance is a frightful calumny—and we ought to get rid of it!

Strong’s concordance shows very definitely that the word accept is never used in the Bible in the sense of our accepting God or accepting Jesus as our Savior. It does seem strange that while we do not find its use anywhere in the Bible, the phrase, “Will you accept Christ?” or “Have you accepted Christ?” have become the catchwords throughout our soul-winning circles. The words accept and acceptance are used in the Scriptures in a number of ways, but never in connection with believing on Christ or receiving Christ for salvation or being saved.  

To accept Christ in anything like a saving relation is to have an attachment to the person of Christ that is revolutionary, complete, and exclusive.   

To accept the Lord means to accept His ways as our ways. We have taken His Word and His teachings as the guide in our lives. To accept Christ means that I accept His rejection as my rejection. When I accept Him I knowingly and willingly accept His cross as my cross. I accept His life as my life—back from the dead I come and up into a different kind of life. It means that I accept His future as my future. I am talking about the necessity of an exclusive attachment to His person—that is what it means to accept Christ. 

This is the situation of the people of God: the most intolerant book in all the wide world is the Bible, the inspired Word of God, and the most intolerant teacher that ever addressed Himself to an audience was the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. On the other hand, Jesus Christ demonstrated the vast difference between being charitable and being tolerant. Jesus Christ was so charitable that in His great heart He took in all the people in the world and was willing to die even for those who hated Him. But even with that kind of love and charity crowning His being, Jesus was so intolerant that He taught: “If you are not on my side, you are against me. If you do not believe that I am he, you shall die in your sins.” He did not leave any middle ground to accommodate the neutral who preach tolerance.

“Follow me” is an invitation and a challenge and a promise. The cross has been the end of a life and the beginning of a life. The life that ended there was a life of sin and slavery; the life that began there is a life of holiness and spiritual freedom.

We can always be sure of the most important of all positives: God is God and God is right. He is in control. Because He is God He will never change! I repeat: God is right—always. That statement is the basis of all we are thinking about God.  

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

Book Review: The Gospel for Muslims

The Gospel for Muslims: An Encouragement to Share Christ With Confidence. Thabiti M. Anyabwile. 2018. [January 2018] Moody. 176 pages. [Source: Review copy]

This book is written to remind Christians of an important, basic truth: "As a Christian, you already know everything you need to know to effectively share the good news of Jesus Christ with Muslim people. The same message that saves us—the gospel—is the message that will eternally save our Muslim neighbors and friends. In my experience, Christians know the gospel. They simply lack confidence in its power. This book is a call to place our confidence in the message that contains God’s power to save all who believe (Rom. 1:16). We don’t need new techniques for sharing the faith. We need confidence in the gospel in our evangelism to Muslims."

The book serves as a refresher course on the gospel--what it is. And it also serves as a refresher course on evangelism--how to share the gospel.

In part one, key gospel topics are covered: God, humanity, Jesus, repentance, and faith. These topics are presented from a Christian and a Muslim perspective. The goal isn't just to show the contrasts between two faiths, but to help readers better explain the gospel in ways that are meaningful.

In part two, the focus shifts from the gospel to evangelism. The book isn't a theoretical discussion of abstract ideas. It's an appeal to readers to get out there and to evangelize. The book seeks to be practical and helpful. Several chapters focus on hospitality and how important it is for families and churches to be hospitable.

I definitely enjoyed reading this one. I found it a great read. It takes an intimidating subject and makes it less intimidating perhaps. This one is PACKED with information. And it's passionately written.

Favorite quotes:

When we draw lines, we should do so with love because we’re representing a loving God we wish to make known.

Boldness is not what people do when they are unafraid; boldness is what people do in the face of fear.  Boldness comes, in part, when we fear the appropriate person—when we seek to love, revere, and stand in awe of God rather than men who may oppose us. 

When we make our case from the Scripture, we implicitly signal its trustworthiness and authority. Sometimes Christians fear that defending the Scriptures will offend their Muslim and other non-Christian acquaintances. But in my experience, Muslims respect Christians more deeply when we stand firm in our belief in the Scripture as the Word of God. They like to think of themselves as having an unwavering faith in the Quran. So a supposedly faithful Christian who does not honor the sacred Scriptures appears weak and untrustworthy to many Muslims. We gain ground in our evangelism simply by refusing to be embarrassed about the Scriptures and trusting that the Bible is the Word of God.

There are five reasons to address suffering and evangelism, especially as we present the gospel to Muslim friends. First, knowing the Bible’s teaching on suffering can prepare us to rejoice rather than be surprised when it comes. Some Christians feel fear thinking of suffering. Others are surprised God would let them suffer. They should not be surprised, says Peter (1 Peter 4:12). But imagine—we can rejoice at suffering.  Second, knowing the Bible’s teaching on suffering can help us shun the convenience and carnal pleasure that otherwise could dominate our lives. Though we wish to live at peace with all men, it’s not peace at all costs. We are not willing to gain peace at the cost of righteousness, integrity, justice, and loyalty to Christ. Third, by knowing the Bible’s teaching on suffering , we need not be afraid of Muslims when we share the gospel. Jesus repeatedly instructs His disciples in Matthew 10 not to be afraid (vv. 26, 28, and 31). If we let fear drive us, we will wish to avoid all hardship and will fail to tell others the good news of God’s love through Christ. Fourth, knowing the Bible’s teaching on suffering will help us prepare Muslim converts to endure suffering. Most Muslims awakened to faith in Christ will probably face immediate persecution. That’s the way it was in the New Testament world, and that’s the way it is in most of the Muslim world. Fifth, having a right theology of suffering will bring more intimate fellowship with Christ. If we think suffering is to be avoided at all costs, we will miss the unique communion with Jesus that comes only by sharing in His afflictions.

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible