Book Review: Bonhoeffer on the Christian Life

Bonhoeffer on the Christian Life. Stephen J. Nichols. 2013. Crossway. 208 pages. [Source: Review Copy]

Bonhoeffer on the Christian Life is one of the books in the Theologians on the Christian Life series published by Crossway Books. While this book offers details on Dietrich Bonhoeffer's life, the focus is on his theology and his contributions to the Christian community as a preacher, professor, and writer. The book isn't  arranged chronologically. Things are arranged topically after the introductory chapter. Chapter titles include: "In Christ: Life from the Cross," "In Community: Life in the Church," "Word," "Prayer," "Confession," "Worldliness," "Freedom," and "Love." The book answers questions like how did Bonhoeffer see the church? what role did Bonhoeffer think the church should play in community? how important are disciplines in daily life? how did Bonhoeffer define grace?

The book is certainly informative and well-organized. It is a scholarly book, complete with plenty of footnotes. It gives readers a hint of Bonhoeffer in context with his times.

Quotes:

To understand Bonhoeffer, we must understand, on the one hand, the limits of oneself and, on the other hand, the utter absence of limits of God. Bonhoeffer saw himself as limited in his understanding, limited in his experience, limited in his resolve, limited in his strength. To trust in himself would be purely--and merely--sanctimony, the religion of Pharisees. But to trust in God would be altogether different. To understand Bonhoeffer, we must first and foremost understand living by faith. (21)

These three propositions--the holiness of God, the sinfulness of humanity, and the person and work of Christ--form the essence of the gospel. They also form the backbone of spirituality, since they leave room for only one thing, grace. (41)

Since we can't grasp grace, it grasps us. Grace grasps us at salvation and at every waking moment of our lives thereafter. (42)

"We are the church beneath the cross." (Bonhoeffer, Meditations on the Cross, 8)

His approach to reading the Bible may be summed up in these five ways: 1) we read the Bible directly--it is God's Word to us; 2) we read the Bible prayerfully and meditatively; 3) We read the Bible collectively; 4) we read the Bible submissively; 5) we read the Bible obediently. (93)

In the Word we find the gospel. In the Word we find comfort. In the Word we find challenge. In the Word we find the Word, the incarnate Logos. We find Christ and his call upon our lives. (97)

Prayer starts and ends with God. Praying rightly disciplines us to move our orientation away from self and toward God. (104)

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

Book Review: Erasing Hell

Erasing Hell: What God Said About Eternity, and the Things We Made Up. Francis Chan and Preston Sprinkle. 2011. David C. Cook. 208 pages. [Source: Library]

What does reading or studying the Bible reveal about eternal damnation or hell? In Erasing Hell, Chan examines the subject of hell. Chan's main goal is to focus on what the Bible has to say on the subject. Does it teach that hell is eternal, that unbelievers will be punished eternally? Does it teach that unbelievers will get a second chance after death? Does it teach that unbelievers are extinguished or annihilated? Chan, in the process, shows readers what Jews in the first century believed about hell, and what Jesus himself taught about hell.

He briefly explores the beliefs of various universalists (types of universalists, not individuals). He briefly explores the work of Rob Bell. (But only briefly. The focus of this one is not to examine Bell's book page by page, chapter by chapter, argument by argument.) The focus is not personal. It is not what do I personally believe; it is not what do the majority of people believe; it is not what I wish were true. Chan is reliant on the Word of God. He asserts that hell is real precisely because that is what the Bible reveals. He asserts that hell is eternal, that punishment is eternal, because that is precisely what the Bible tells us plainly. He asserts that heaven is for believers, and that those who reject Christ during their lives, are eternally lost, that there are no second chances. Why? Because the Bible assures us that this is so. The hope of second chances (or third or fourth or fifth chances) cannot be found in Scripture. That is why the gospel is so urgent.

Chan does not discuss the subject gleefully. It is not a laughing matter, a light matter. It is a sobering subject, and Chan treats it as such.

Favorite quotes:

Don't believe something just because you want to, and don't embrace an idea just because you've always believed it. Believe what is biblical. Test all your assumptions against the precious words God gave us in the Bible (15)

Nothing outside of God and His truth should be sacred to us. And so it is with hell. If hell is some primitive myth left over from conservative tradition, then let's set it on that dusty shelf next to other traditional beliefs that have no basis in Scripture. But if it is true, if the Bible does teach that there is a literal hell awaiting those who don't believe in Jesus, then this reality must change us. It should certainly purge our souls of all complacency. (16)

Refusing to teach a passage of Scripture is just as wrong as abusing it. (102)

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

Quoting A.B. Simpson #2

From Days of Heaven Upon Earth: A Year Book of Scripture Texts and Living Truths. A.B. Simpson. Originally Published 1897. 372 pages.

February 6
"Praying always for all saints" (Ephesians 6:18)
Stop praying so much for yourself; begin to ask unselfish things, and see if God won't give you faith. See how much easier it will be to believe for another than for your own petty self. Try the effect of praying for the world, for definite things, for difficult things, for glorious things, for things that will honor Christ and save mankind, and after you have received a few wonderful answers to prayer in this direction, see if you won't feel stronger to touch your own little burden with a Divine faith, and then go back again to the high place of unselfish prayer for others. Lord save us from our selfish prayers and give us the faith that worketh by love, and the heart of Christ for a perishing world.

February 8
"We are not sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves" (2 Corinthians 3:5)
The aim of the Old Testament, therefore, is ever to show man's failure; that of the New, to reveal Christ's sufficiency. He has all things for us, but we cannot receive them till we know that we have nothing. The very essence, therefore, of Christian perfection is the constant renunciation of our own perfection, and the continual acceptance of Christ's righteousness.

February 15
"Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus" (2 Timothy 2:1)
How to enjoy this day. This will never come by trying to be happy and yet we are responsible for the conditions of real joy.
1. Be right with God; for “Gladness is sown for the upright in heart.” “It is His joy that remains in us that makes our joy to be full.”
2. Forget yourself and live for others; for “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
3. When you cannot rejoice in feelings, circumstances and states, “rejoice in the Lord,” and “count it all joy, when ye fall into divers temptations.”
Finally, obey the Lord and be faithful to your trust; and again and again will His blessed Spirit whisper to your heart, “Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of thy Lord.”

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

My Year with Spurgeon: Week #26

We cannot force the Truth of God upon men, but we can make our own teaching clear and decided—and make our lives consistent therewith. Truth and holiness are the surest antidotes to error and unrighteousness. ~ Charles Spurgeon, "The Sunday School and the Scriptures"

Brothers and Sisters, to be prepared for the coming conflict, we have only to preach the Gospel and to live the Gospel—and also to take care that we teach the children the Word of the Lord! ~ Charles Spurgeon, "The Sunday School and the Scriptures"

Preach the Word in season and out of season—and teach the children. One of God's chief methods for preserving His fields from tares is to sow them early with wheat. ~ Charles Spurgeon, "The Sunday School and the Scriptures"

Babes receive impressions long before we are aware of the fact. During the first months of a child's life, it learns more than we imagine. ~ Charles Spurgeon, "The Sunday School and the Scriptures"

The Holy Scripture may be learned by children as soon as they are capable of understanding anything. There is an adaptation in the Bible for human beings of all ages and, therefore, it has a fitness for children. We make a mistake when we think that we must begin with something else and lead up to the Scriptures. The Bible is the book for the peep of day. Parts of it are above a child's mind, for they are above the comprehension of the most advanced among us. There are depths in it where leviathan may swim—but there are also brooks in which a lamb may wade. Wise teachers know how to lead their little ones into the green pastures beside the still waters. ~ Charles Spurgeon, "The Sunday School and the Scriptures"

The teachings of our childhood leave clean cut and sharp impressions upon the mind which remain after 70 years have passed. Let us see that such impressions are made for the highest ends. ~ Charles Spurgeon, "The Sunday School and The Scriptures"

Those who think that a woman detained at home by her little family is doing nothing, think the reverse of what is true! Scarcely can the godly mother quit her home for a place of worship, but dream not that she is lost to the work of the Church—far from it—she is doing the best possible service for her Lord! Mothers, the godly training of your offspring is your first and most pressing duty! Christian women, by teaching children the Holy Scriptures, are as much fulfilling their part for the Lord as Moses in judging Israel, or Solomon in building the Temple! ~ Charles Spurgeon, "The Sunday School and the Scriptures"

Let no Christian parents fall into the delusion that the Sunday school is intended to ease them of their personal duties. The first and most natural condition of things is for Christian parents to train up their own children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. ~ Charles Spurgeon, "The Sunday School and The Scriptures"

One of the first objects of the Sunday school should be to teach the children great reverence for these holy writings, these Inspired Scriptures. Especially is this feeling of reverence needed nowadays. This indifference to Scripture is the great curse of the Church at this hour! We can be tolerant of divergent opinions, so long as we perceive an honest intent to follow the Statute Book. But if it comes to this, that the Bible, itself, is of small authority to you, then we have no need of further parley—we are in different camps and the sooner we recognize this, the better for all parties concerned. If we are to have a Church of God at all in the land, Scripture must be regarded as holy and to be had in reverence. This Scripture was given by Holy Inspiration and is not the result of dim myths and dubious traditions! Neither has it drifted down to us by the survival of the fittest as one of the best of human books. It must be given to my children and accepted by ourselves as the Infallible Revelation of the Most Holy God! Lay much stress upon this—tell your children that the Word of the Lord is a pure Word, as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Let their esteem for the Book of God be carried to the highest point! ~ Charles Spurgeon, "The Sunday School and the Scriptures"

O dear teachers—and I speak here to myself, also—let our teaching be more and more Scriptural! Fret not if our classes forget what we say, but pray them to remember what the Lord says. May Divine Truths about sin, righteousness and judgement to come be written on their hearts! May revealed Truths of God concerning the love of God, the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit never be forgotten by them! May they know the virtue and necessity of the atoning blood of our Lord, the power of His Resurrection and the Glory of His Second Coming! May the Doctrines of Grace be engraved as with a pen of iron upon their minds and written as with the point of a diamond upon their hearts—never to be erased! Brothers and Sisters, if we can secure this, we have not lived in vain. The generation now ruling seems bent on departing from the eternal Truths of God, but we shall not despair if the Gospel is impressed upon the memory of the rising race. ~ Charles Spurgeon, "The Sunday School and the Scriptures"

Do all of you who are grown up, know the Scriptures? I fear that although knowledge in general increases, knowledge of the Scriptures is far too rare! If we were now to hold an examination, I am afraid that some of you would hardly shine in the lists at the end. ~ Charles Spurgeon, "The Sunday School and the Scriptures"

The opinion that children cannot receive the whole Truth of the Gospel is a great mistake, for their child-condition is a help rather than a hindrance! Older folk must become as little children before they can enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Do lay a good groundwork with the children. Let not Sunday school work be slurred, nor done in a slovenly manner. Let the children know the Holy Scripture! Let the Scriptures be consulted rather than any human book. ~ Charles Spurgeon, "The Sunday School and the Scriptures"

By faith, children become little disciples and, by faith, they go on to become more proficient. How are we to go on to wisdom? Not by quitting the way of faith, but by keeping to that same faith in Christ Jesus by which we began to learn. In the school of Grace, faith is the great faculty by which we make advances in wisdom. If by faith you have been able to say A, B and C, it must be by faith that you shall go on to say D, E and F, until you shall come to the end of the alphabet and be an expert in the Book of Wisdom. If by faith you can read in the spelling book of simple faith, by the same faith in Christ Jesus you must go on to read in the classics of full assurance and become a scribe well instructed in the things of the Kingdom of God. ~ Charles Spurgeon, "The Sunday School and the Scriptures"

So let us pray for our children, that they may constantly know and believe more and more, for the Scripture is able to make them wise unto salvation, but only through faith which is in Christ Jesus. Faith is the result to aim at. Faith in the appointed, anointed and exalted Savior. This is the anchor to which we would bring these little ships, for here they will abide in perfect safety! ~ Charles Spurgeon, "The Sunday School and the Scriptures"

O Teachers, pray for your dear children that God would give them faith in Christ Jesus so that the knowledge which you have given them may turn to wisdom! Go as far as you can go with the teaching, but always cry mightily unto the Lord that His Holy Spirit may work regeneration, create faith, impart wisdom and give salvation. ~ Charles Spurgeon, "The Sunday School and the Scriptures"

The Holy Scriptures must be made the means of your salvation through faith. Know the Bible, read the Bible, search the Bible—and yet the Bible, alone, will not save you! What did our Lord, Himself, say? "You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and they are they which testify of Me; and you will not come unto Me that you might have life." If you come not to Jesus, you will miss eternal life! Searching the Scriptures is able to make you wise unto salvation "through faith which is in Christ Jesus"—but not without that faith! Pray, you Sunday school teachers, that you may see this faith worked in the children whom you teach! What a blessed groundwork for faith, your teaching of the Holy Scriptures will be! But never mistake it for the building, itself, which is of faith alone! ~ Charles Spurgeon, "The Sunday School and the Scriptures"

In these days we are surrounded by unsettled minds, "ever learning, but never coming to a knowledge of the Truth of God." These are carried about by every wind of doctrine. What numbers of professors I have known who go into one place of worship and hear one form of doctrine and apparently approve it because the preacher is "a clever man!" They hear an opposite teaching and they are equally at home, because, again, it is "a clever man!" They join with a Church and you ask them, "Do you agree with the views of that community?" They neither know nor care what those views may be—one doctrine is as good as another to them. Their spiritual appetite can enjoy soap as well as butter! They can digest bricks as well as bread! These religious ostriches have a marvelous power of swallowing everything—but they have no spiritual discernment, no appreciation of the Truth of God. ~ Charles Spurgeon, "The Sunday School and the Scriptures"

How much I desire that each one of you may be a personal student of the Holy Scriptures! We need to know them for ourselves! Personally grasping them as a Revelation of God to himself, the godly man loves them, studies them, feels them, lives upon them and so knows them! ~ Charles Spurgeon, "The Sunday School and the Scriptures"

A sentence from the mouth of God will have more permanent power over a Christian man than the best composed of human statements! God's Word is living, powerful and has a power to enter the heart beyond that of any other word! The Words of the Bible strike and stick—they enter and abide. He that has been taught in Scripture, steeped in Scripture, saturated with Scripture—is conscious of its permeating influence and it gives him permanence of conviction. Like the crimson dye in cloth, the tint of Scripture is not to be gotten out of the soul when once fixed there! It is dyed ingrain—it enters into the very nature of the man! Bible Truths influence his thoughts, words and deeds—it is all-pervading—he begins to eat, drink and sleep Holy Scripture. The man's heart is fixed on God, fixed in the Truths of God and fixed in holy living. He will stand fast, however evil the days. Though all the rest should apostatize, this man cannot, for the Divine Word, through faith, has bound him to the Altar of the Lord and, in the Truth of God he must and will both live and die, come what may. ~ Charles Spurgeon, "The Sunday School and the Scriptures"

But one thing is settled in my heart, namely, that I will follow the Scripture wherever it leads me and that I will renounce the most cherished opinion rather than shape a text or alter a syllable of the Inspired Book. It is not mine to make God's Word consistent, but to believe that it is so! ~ Charles Spurgeon, "The Sunday School and the Scriptures"

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

July Goals

I have ambitious goals for the month of July. The Bible I'll be reading this month is the Reformation Study Bible. I plan on using my own Bible reading system. On Mondays, reading from the pentateuch, on Tuesdays, reading from the history books, on Wednesdays, reading from the wisdom books, on Thursdays, reading from the major prophets, on Fridays, reading from the minor prophets. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, reading from the gospels, on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays reading from the epistles--the rest of the NT essentially. Sundays are completely free for me to choose where I want to read. The books I'll be starting with: Genesis, Judges, Proverbs, Jeremiah, Hosea, Luke, and 1 Corinthians.

I also plan on listening and reading to sermons. Ideally, I'd listen to around ten, but I'd be happy with five!

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© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

July Booklist

Erasing Hell: What God Said about Eternity and the Things We Made Up. Francis Chan. 2011. David C. Cook. 208 pages.

Bonhoeffer on the Christian Life. Stephen J. Nichols. 2013. Crossway. 208 pages.

unChristian: What A New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity and Why It Matters. David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons. 2012. Baker. 256 pages.

Tell the Truth: The Whole Gospel Wholly by Grace Communicated Truthfully and Lovingly by Will Metzger. Intervarsity Press. 301 pages.

Chosen by God. R.C. Sproul. 216 pages.

Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart. J.D. Greear. 2013. B&H. 128 pages.

Stealing the Preacher by Karen Witemeyer. 2013. Bethany House. 352 pages.

Big Year for Lily. (The Adventures of Lily Lapp #3) Mary Ann Kinsinger and Suzanne Woods Fisher. Revell. 272 pages.

Invisible by Ginny L. Yttrup. 2013. B&H. 352 pages.

Love Takes Wing by Janette Oke. 1988. Bethany House. 240 pages.

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

Twenty Years of The Standard

In just a few months, The Standard, an album by Carman will celebrate its twentieth anniversary; it released in the fall of 1993. (The mp3 album, Amazon.) This is quite an album. I think I've listened to it hundreds of times. All happy-happy memories. If I had to pick just one Carman album, it would be this one. It is, in my opinion, his very best.

The songs:

Who's In the House
Now's The Time To Celebrate
Great God
Everybody Praise the Lord
The River
Marchin' and Movin'
Sunday School Rock
Holdin' On
Lord, I Love You
America Again

Each song--perhaps with the exception of "The River"--holds a memory for me. I'm not sure I could pick just one favorite song from the album, but, to narrow it down: "Great God," "Lord, I Love You," "Sunday School Rock," "Who's In the House," and "Now's The Time To Celebrate."

Raising the Standard Concert

From "Great God"

 God is a God of righteousness
God sits on the throne
God is strong in battle
God is God alone
God is wise and merciful
God is sovereign Lord
God is pure and holy
God reigns forevermore

From "Sunday School Rock"

 We'll start with the basics, a checklist for the saints
Love the Lord with all your heart and mind and soul and strength
To fear the Lord is wisdom, to serve the Lord divine
To really break it down just repeat these words of mine
Say,
Chorus
I love Jesus! (I love Jesus!)
Yes I do! (Yes I do!)
I love Jesus! (I love Jesus!)
How 'bout you? (How 'bout you?)
I love Jesus, yes I do
I love Jesus HOW 'BOUT YOU!

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible