The Short, Giving Holiday

In most English Bibles the word ‘holiday’ only in the book of Esther (8:17, 9:19 and 9:22). Holiday here is a translation of the Hebrew ywm ṭwb, which literally means “good day” (hence the NIV a “day of joy”). The Bible tells us that Mordecai wrote to the Jews, encouraging them “to observe the days as days of feasting and joy and giving presents of food to one another and gifts to the poor”. So maybe that’s one type of holiday – and for many of us, Christmas Day will unknowingly follow this pattern of a day of joy. It will be a day when we remember the incredible way that the Lord rescued us, and we celebrate that with feasting and joy and the giving of presents to one another. Many will also invite others into their home, or donate gifts to charity at Christmas time.

The Family Holiday to Worship God

It wasn’t just the festival of Purim that the Israelites celebrated. The Old Testament is full of festivals (see Leviticus 23 for a partial list). They were a time when God was worshipped and his goodness remembered. They were focussed either on a specific occasion where God had rescued them (e.g. Passover), or on reminders of God’s continuing goodness (e.g. a harvest).

There were many ingredients to an Israelite festival. The Dictionary of Biblical Imagery lists the six important ones: a break from work, lavish abundance, ritual and sacrifice, community, holiday spirit, and a focus on God. These factors make the Old Testament feasts a very helpful model for Christian holidays, particularly when you remember that the Jews frequently had to travel long distances to participate, and that at least one feast (of Tabernacles) involved camping out for a week!

Participation in the festivals always took place in a group setting, usually centred around families. But families were not to celebrate in any isolated way, but were to celebrate together, even if this meant a long journey. When Joseph and Mary celebrated Passover when Jesus was twelve years old, they travelled there with so many of the family and friends it took them a whole day to realise that Jesus was no longer with them (Luke 2:41-52). That’s exactly the pattern set in Exodus 12, where God tells the Israelites to eat the Passover meal with their family, and “if any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbour”. Clearly the Bible wants us to share our holidays with others, not simply withdraw ourselves.

So do these festivals help us to understand how Christian should enjoy a holiday? Clearly, in the New Testament context, a lot has changed. But we ought to be able to take the biblical principles from the Old Testament. Of the six ingredients to an Israelite festival, four are largely unchanged by the transition to the New Testament (a break from work, community, holiday spirit and a focus on God). But the two others do change, if subtly (lavish abundance and ritual and sacrifice). Clearly, sacrifice and ritual are replaced with dependence on Jesus and freedom in Christ. Lavish abundance is also changed significantly, as the New Testament teaches us that the material blessings in the Old Testament were pointers to spiritual blessings in the new (“He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty”). The New Testament equivalent of “lavish abundance” therefore is an abundance of spiritual food and the presence of Christ.

The ‘Christian’ Holiday

If the Old Testament festivals do serve as a model for Christian holidays then our holidays ought to be times when we break from work, gather together with our families and God’s people, and focus on God’s daily provision and redemption, with an expectation of receiving abundant blessings from Christ.

Sadly, the temptation today is that we model our holidays on the exact opposite. Rather than gathering together, a holiday is a time to “get away”. Rather than focussing on God, we use our holidays to release ourselves from Christian obligations, and spend less time worshipping God on holiday than we do when we’re at home. And rather than focussing on spiritual blessings, we spend our time seeking enjoyment in the best that the world has to offer.

But unless we’re sure that the principles behind the Old Testament festivals have no part in the New Testament, surely Christian conferences and holidays should still have a significant part to play in our lives. They may be organised by your church, a local group of churches, or draw Christians from a range of Churches (such as the EMW’s Aberystwyth Conference, the Carey Family Conference, or New Word Alive). But what a wonderful opportunity to have a holiday full of spiritual blessing!

Even if we don’t go to a Christian conference, we can at least ensure we worship in a local church both on a Sunday and midweek. My wife and I have been amazed to visit churches where we know no-one, yet have enjoyed rich teaching, met many godly Christians and even frequently been invited to wonderful Sunday lunches – a real blessing if you’re self-catering!

A Busman’s holiday

A few years ago I was at a meeting for over a hundred volunteers who were going to be serving on EMW camps later that year. During a sermon, the preacher said that he had spoken to one family who weren’t going to go to camp that year, because they were going to Disney World instead. Without any trace of irony, he responded, “Disney World?! Disney World?! How can Disney World be better than Bala? There’s nowhere I’d rather be!”. He was absolutely right. Acts 20:35 reminds us that it is more blessed to give than to receive. So if it’s a blessing to receive at Christian conferences and festivals, how much more of a blessing to serve at one. Conferences are always in need of stewards, children’s workers, even administrative help. Camps are in need of cooks, officers and others. Beach Missions need team members of all sorts. There is no disguising that all are incredibly hard work, but all can be a time of wonderful spiritual refreshment. Why miss out on that opportunity?

What about rest?

If you’re anything like me, one of the reasons you go on holiday is to rest. You may be thinking that the holidays I’ve been describing don’t sound very restful. But I’m sure like me you’ve come back from apparently restful holidays feeling more tired than when you were at the beginning of the week! It is important that we do rest properly. But we must never forget that the human being is body and soul. If we rest our bodies whilst starving our souls, we will never feel rested. It is true that some Christians experience ‘burn-out’ through overwork. But usually the answer to burn-out is not a long holiday, but proper use of the weekly rest – the one day in seven which God has given us. Abusing that weekly gift, then over-compensating through long lazy holidays is not honouring to God.

With the daily pressures that most of us face, we simply wouldn’t have the energy to spend every week of every holiday in Christian service. If we tried, we’d probably end up nervous wrecks, or at least biting everyone’s heads off rather than exhibiting Christian grace! As everything else in life, Scripture calls us to exercise spiritual wisdom. So when booking your next holiday, rather than poring over the glossy brochures, or searching the web, why not spend the time reading the scriptures and praying: “Lord, what would you have me do?”.

What about tourism?

So far we’ve said nothing at all about tourism. What about the sites and attractions, museums and castles that many of us visit whilst we’re on holiday? Truthfully, I struggled to think of any reference in Scripture to activities like these. The best I could manage was 1 Kings 10 where the Queen of Sheba visits Jerusalem to see the temple and riches of the city, and Acts 17 Paul walks around Athens looking carefully at objects of worship.

Scripture’s silence on tourism doesn’t automatically make it wrong. But it does mean that we should tread carefully and look to learn from other biblical principles. One lesson is that both the Queen of Sheba and Paul were God-centred in their ‘tourism’. Psalm 48:12-14 (ESV) captures this wonderfully: “Walk about Zion, go around her, number her towers, consider well her ramparts, through her citadels, that you may tell the next generation that this is God, our God forever and ever.”

Many people visit places mentioned in the Bible and find that it brings to life lessons found in Scripture. Those on a tighter budget visit the British Museum (free entrance!) with one of several travel guides for the Christian published by Day One. Still others find a variety of places help them to reflect on God and on humanity in useful ways. The Imperial War Museum is a reminder of both the glory of man and the tragedy of the fall. The Louvre may you better understand both the human mind and the creativity of the Creator and those made in His image. A visit to Snowdonia may open your eyes once more to the glory of the creation. These ‘lessons’ are not just for adults, but children can also benefit from them, and from other attractions more aimed at their age. Wise parents will find ways of turning many situations into gospel lessons – even in an adventure park or swimming pool!

Whatever we choose to do on holiday, it should be God-centred. If you have three holidays a year, why not make one of them a visit to a Christian festival, another a week of service, and the third a God-centred trip to somewhere that will help you to think about and speak about God? Each one can be a time of spiritual and physical rest, where your family and the family of God are honoured and valued, and where your love for God and His people grows even stronger.

There are five steps that are important to me:

1. Divide: Firstly, I decide how many verses should I preach on by looking for divisions at the beginning and end of the passage. I’m looking for a natural unit in the passage that has plenty to say. With compact historical literature (like 2 Kings or Chronicles) it’s usually a story. With other narrative literature (e.g. the Pentateuch, or the Gospels) it’s usually a scene. With epistles its usually a large paragraph. With prophetic books its usually a complete oracle or sermon.
2. Dissect: Then I split up, or dissect the passage by determine the main point of the passage, and the sub-points which serve it. This is strongly related to the first step. If the ‘division’ I’ve chosen has more than one main point, it’s too long. But it must have a few sub-points that feed the main point. If it hasn’t, it’s too short.
3. Discover: Next I try to carefully exegete each point to discover the original meaning and principles. It means understanding both the meaning to the original hearers/readers, and the timeless principles that flow from it. When dealing with the Old Testament I look at the first step (the original meaning) purely from an Old Testament perspective, but the second step (the timeless principles) through a New Testament lens. There must be an inarguable link between these two steps. Every member of the congregation must be able to see how I got from (a) What the Bible said, to (b) What the Bible means. If they can’t, there’s no power in the message - it’s man’s words, not God’s Word.
4. Digest: Fourth, I think and pray through each principle to determine the application, to me, and try to digest the truth. If I haven’t taken this truth on board myself, I can’t preach it. This is where a lot of the prayer comes.
5. Disseminate: Finally, all of this needs to go in a form which can be passed on. In other words, the sermon can now be written. I pass this teaching on to my congregation, they need to apply it to themselves and be able to pass it on to others. This means short points made easy to understand and apply. To maximise the impact, the application needs to be focussed, not vague, but it also must apply to the whole congregation, not just one or two. I’ll want my sermon to have an introduction, a few points, and a conclusion. Within each point I’ll want teaching, illustration and application. The whole thing must be very tightly linked to the text of the Bible – if it’s not, it’s my words not God’s Word.

Let me show you how this works out in practice. As I’m typing this, I’m preparing a sermon on Amos 2. I’m not going to pretend this a perfect (or even a great) model sermon - after all, I’m writing this post as I’m preparing the message! It might turn out be dreadful! But I’ll take you through the process as I go. You’ll see the theory, even if the practice falls short of my hopes!

Divide

This is relatively straightforward for this passage. The structure of chapters 1 and 2 is very clear. 1:1-2:3 is judgement on the surrounding nations. 2:4-5 is judgement on Judah. And 2:6-13 is judgement on Israel (the focus of the rest of Amos). So the only question is what we do with 2:4-5 – does we put Judah with the surrounding nations, or with Israel?

In the end I decided to include it with Israel. That’s because the ‘crimes’ and ‘punishment’ for Judah are far more similar to those of Israel than those of the surrounding nations (they’re ‘religious’, rather than war-crimes).

So we start at 2:4. I wouldn’t want to finish at 2:5 because I feel the message of 2:6f is very similar to 2:4-5. I don’t want to repeat myself two weeks running. So it seems sensible to keep going until the end of the chapter. That’s certainly a natural unit, probably one oracle. I can already see some obvious sub-points, so it looks like I’ll be able to dissect it well enough – but if not, I can always come back to this stage again.

Dissect

In order to dissect a passage, I use a little tool in Logos Bible Software. It’s designed to help with sentence diagramming, but I find it very useful for helping me to visualise where passages like this might be broken up. Here’s a screenshot. You can click for a full-size version.

At this stage it looks as though there are four sections, though the first two could possibly be combined. Verse 12 (”But you made the Nazarites drink wine…”) doesn’t quite fit into the structure and could perhaps warrant a point of its own. If so, the point would be that the Israelites are responsible for their fall because they suppressed the truth.

My headings are pretty useless at this stage. They’ll go through at least two significant changes as the sermon evolves. For the time being I’m simply trying to sum up each section as simply as possible.

Having got this far, I now need to verify my earlier decision to divide the passage and select 2:4-16 as my text. Remember, I’m looking for just one main point, with a few sub-points that serve it. The main point is clear “God will judge his own people”, and the sub-points do indeed serve it. The first two points explain the reason for the judgement and outline the punishment. The third point justifies God by demonstrating the fairness of the judgement - God is exonerated, and the people blamed. The fourth point explains the detail of the punishment.

(Actually, in explaining this it seems my third point in the screenshot isn’t quite right. The point in the screenshot “God gave them strength” describes verses 6-11, but not verse 12. On the other hand, “God is vindicated, the people are guilty” describes verses six through to twelve. That’s much more satisfactory.)

Excellent! So far, so good… (it’s not always as smooth as this!). One final check before I move on. This structure is pretty important for the development of the sermon. If it’s wrong, the whole sermon could go off in the wrong direction. So, for the first time, I check the commentaries.

It’s not a promising start. Douglas Stuart groups 1:3-2:16 without any further division. That’s not much help. Alec Motyer groups 2:4-3:2. He sees three major divisions (2:4-5, 2:6-16 and 3:1-2). Then he further splits 2:6-16 into 6-8, 9-11, 12, 13-16. It’s not radically different to my outline, but sufficiently different to make me stop and think. But I’m not convinced 3:1-2 fits better with chapter 2 than it does with the rest of chapter 3. And I do think that verse 12 fits nicely with 9-11 as I explained above (note, for example, the Nazirites in both verses 11 and 12). So let’s get a second opinion. David Hubbard puts 2:4-5 with chapter 1, rather than chapter 2. I understand the reasons for this, but I still think that Judah fits better with Israel than with the pagan nations. He then divides 2:6-16 into 6-8, 9-12, 13-16, so that mirrors my structure, at least. Good. Finally I check Gary Smith. He groups 2:4-16, and subdivides 4-5, 6-8, 9-12, 13-16. That’s exactly the same! So, whether my structure is “right” could perhaps be debated, but I’m certainly confident that it’s at least helpful, and am quite happy to go forward with it. If it’s good enough for Gary Smith, it’s good enough for me. (I always thought he was the best commentator on Amos ).

I would usually use slightly more technical commentaries in addition to these, but Amos is not well-served by conservative critical commentaries (no NICOT, for example). I sometimes find non-conservative critical commentaries useful for fresh perspective if I’m particularly stuck, but I don’t waste my time with them unless I need to. I will also use older commentaries (particularly Calvin and Keil & Delitzsch), but older commentators rarely provide outlines or say too much about structure. So these four will do for now.

Discover

This is probably the longest process – discovering both the original meaning and the timeless principles in each section. I’m looking for one main truth within each section, and a small number of principles (ideally just one). With four points for this message, one truth and one principle for each point is already eight things for the congregation. Frankly, that’s enough.

Because it’s a long process, I won’t go into all the detail here. I rely heavily on Logos Bible Software for this process, but do use other commentaries that are not yet available in Logos. Logos gives you hundreds of resources that make this process quicker – you’ll get a feel for how I work by watching the screencast below (clicking on it opens a new window).

(If you’re a Logos user, and are interesting in seeing some of the settings that make this Workspace usable, there’s a second screencast that explains all that.) But several hours later, the end result is something like this:

• Verses 4-5
  • Original meaning: Judah is condemned for despising the law of God. The punishment will be the same as that of the pagan nations (fire).
  • Timeless principle: Not treating God as God, is just as great a sin as not treating men as men.
• Verses 6-8
  • Original meaning: Israel is condemned for hypocrisy and injustice. The nations were judged for sins against humanity. Judah is judged for sins against God. But Israel combines the two.
  • Timeless principle: Those who know the truth yet continue in sin, sin to a greater extent than even the pagans.
    1. The addition of blasphemy into the list of sins is a definite ’step-up’ from the sins of the pagan nations.
    2. The sins of the pagan nations is that they thought of themselves more highly than their brothers. The sin of Israel is compounded because they think of themselves more highly than God.
    3. An additional principle is that when people turn their backs on God, God’s people suffer (v6).
• Verses 9-12
  • Original meaning: God has done everything for the Israelites, but they have rejected him.
  • Timeless principles: Here there are definitely two principles that are both crucial. So I’ll break my rule and include both equally:
    1. God destroys our enemies (v9), guides and keeps us (v10), and reveals his will to us (v11).
    2. The first step on the road to sin is the rejection of God’s Word (v12).
• Verses 13-16
  • Original meaning: By withdrawing himself, God will both punish and demonstrate the Israelites unrecognised dependence on him.
  • Timeless principle: Without God, even the most hardened sinner is nothing.

It’s worth noting that there were a few slightly complex exegetical questions on the way. One is whether is the criticism of Judah (’they have despised the law of God’) materially different from Israel (’they sell the righteous for silver’), or are these two ways of saying the same thing? Then verses seven and eight are particularly hard to translate. And verse 13 could be translated “I am weighed down by you”, or “I will press you down”. But this was a relatively straightforward exegesis. That’s because I’m preaching on Amos, not Zechariah

The next stage is to check this exegesis against the commentaries. Other than quickly checking the outlines, I’ve not read the commentaries yet. That’s because taking a shortcut to discovering the meaning and principles is rarely satisfactory. You’ve got to do the spadework yourself. (Having said that, I have read a lot of background to Amos before embarking on this process. This includes sections of Old Testament surveys, introductory material in commentaries, and the appropriate sections of 2 Kings which speak of the period.)

But reading the commentaries is vital for two reasons: (1) To stop me making errors. And (2) To add colour and depth to my fairly rudimentary knowledge. In this case looking through the commentaries didn’t bring anything particularly revealing to light, but they did confirm I was on basically the right track, and they did provide lots of helpful parallels and background which will come in useful later.

Before we leave this section there’s two small tasks to complete. The first is to ask which doctrines are central to this text. As a preacher, I need to be a teacher, and bible passages often given an opportunity for some systematic teaching, if only for a few minutes. But a few minutes in every message quickly provide a pretty good grounding in systematic theology for the whole congregation. I usually start by doing a Logos search through my Systematic Theologies to see if they cite the verses I’m preaching on. Unfortunately, in this case, few do. But looking through the original meaning and timeless principles, it’s pretty clear that the main doctrines are hamartiology (I’ve been waiting eight years to use that word! – it means the doctrine of sin. I promise I won’t use it again ) and judgement. I’ll look to include a brief overview of at least one of these doctrines in my sermon.

The second is to see if the passage is quoted from or alluded to in the New Testament. I’ll use the indexes in my UBS4 Greek New Testament, and Carson and Beale’s Commentary on the New Testament use of the Old Testament. In this case neither search reveals anything of substance.

Digest

Next, I ensure that the message of the passage as got home to me. This is obviously a very personal process, so there’s not much I can write about it. But in essence it means praying the message home, and considering the application to me. It means examining my own heart and responding to the text – through praise, repentance, or often both! Here’s a flavour of the questions I asked myself for this passage:

• Am I in danger of God’s judgement? (2:4a)
• In what ways do I despise the law of God? (2:4b-5)
• Am I guilty of sinning against my brothers and sisters? (2:6-8)
• Do I blaspheme God through my subtle rejection of his law? (2:6-8, 12)
• Have I forgotten God’s great grace to me? (2:9-11)
• Do I believe (or act as though I believe) I can manage without God? (2:13-16)

This process has a major impact on the shape and approach of the sermon.

Disseminate

The final task is to actually write the sermon. The first thing I do is re-write my outline in a way which gives clear points for the congregation, and clear direction for me. The revised outline gets written in two stages. The first is just to write it in very short headings with an eye on the timeless principles. This turned out as:

• Rejecting the truth leads to certain judgement
• Rejecting the truth leads to sins against people
• Rejecting the truth leads to a rejection of God
• Rejecting the truth leads to total loss

You can see that the common theme has quite naturally become “rejecting the truth”. Earlier I said the main point of the passage is “God will judge his own people”. But that’s OK. Rejecting the truth is explicitly taught in sections one and three (2:4 and 2:12), and implicitly taught throughout the second section (2:6-8). Upon reflection we can see that the main point is actually “God will judge his own people if they reject the truth”. But I think it better to focus on the reasons for judgement rather than the fact of judgement. That’s because the reasons assume the fact, whilst the reverse isn’t true.

Having written this outline I then look to make it a little more memorable. I like alliteration (how did you guess?) so I make good use of Visual Thesaurus and the thesaurus in Microsoft Word. I also have an electronic edition of the New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary. This allows me (for example) to display a list of all verbs beginning with “di”. Very handy! the NSOED also allows searching by rhymes, which I also sometimes use. This particular outline is pretty memorable already, but the next version is even better, I think:

• Rejecting God’s truth brings retribution (4-5)
• Rejecting God’s truth brings ruthlessness (6-8)
• Rejecting God’s truth brings rejection (9-12)
• Rejecting God’s truth brings ruin (13-16)

“God’s truth” rather than “the truth”, helps keep the focus on God where it belongs. “Brings” is simply shorter than “leads to”. The other changes just create a memorable pattern and make the headings even shorter. I’m not quite happy with “ruthlessness”, I’d prefer “inhumanity”. But it’s good enough. (You always need to strike a balance between accuracy and memorability. I always err on the side of accuracy, and am happy that ruthlessness is an accurate description of 6-8.)  I like the double meaning of rejection in the third point: rejection brings rejection – it’s very biblical. Rejection of God words = Rejection of God = God’s rejection of us.

It’s worth comparing this with the very first outline I came up with, shown above:

• Judah punished for the rejection of the law (4-5)
• Israel punished for hypocritical sin (6-8)
• Israel reminded God gave them strength (9-12)
• God will therefore put them down (13-16)

That first outline was not wrong, but hopefully you can see the improvement! The important thing is that the first outline was merely descriptive, whereas the final outline gives much more thought to the principles and application. Comparing those two outlines illustrates the job a preacher – to get from one to the other.

So now we can finally get down to writing. I need to keep my sermons under 45 minutes otherwise they quickly get boring. So I aim for 40 minutes. I’ll reserve 5 minutes for an introduction and conclusion, which leaves me with 35 minutes for four points. Within each point I need teaching, illustration and application. I find this works best split roughtly 40/20/40, though don’t think for a minute that I actually stick to this as I’m writing! But I mention it because if you have four points, the teaching for each point is just 3½ minutes (approximately 450 words or four paragraphs). It’s very quickly filled. So I need to make sure my sermon is focussed on what really matters and I don’t get distracted by interesting asides. The teaching must state clearly what the Bible says. The illustrations must serve either the application or the teaching point, and the application must apply what has been taught, not just what I feel strongly about.

So, after a few more hours, the sermon is complete. The whole process (if I hadn’t been writing a blog post as I went along) would have taken about eight hours. That’s about right for me, but I know some work quicker, others slower. The finished version is available below. I’ll put up an audio recording as soon as I have it.

In the end, my points changed midway through the sermon. I wasn’t happy with “Rejecting God’s truth brings rejection” - the play on words might have been clever, but it wasn’t clear. In preaching, clarity is always more important than cleverness. I also wasn’t happy that in the earlier outline the first and fourth points described what God would do (bring retribution and ruin), and the second and third what they would do (be ruthless and reject God). This wasn’t clear from the outline. I’d also never been totally happy with “Rejecting God’s truth brings ruthlessness”, preferring ‘inhumanity’. So I started to look for words that would fit well with “inhumanity”. This is what I came up with:

• Rejecting God’s Word brings iniquity (4-5)
• Rejecting God’s Word brings inhumanity (6-8)
• Rejecting God’s Word brings infidelity (9-12)
• Rejecting God’s Word brings incapacity (13-16)

This is better again, I think. The application in the sermon developed in a way that I did not expect. The major points of application (one for each point of the sermon) were:

• The importance of evangelism: The stemmed very naturally over an assertion that the great iniquity of the Judaeans was that they didn’t treat God as God. One way we don’t treat God as God is our apparent happiness for him to be a secondary God who is only Lord over some, and our apparent refusal to obey the great commission.
• The importance of holiness: If rejecting God’s Word brings inhumanity, then a changed, holy life is a vital sign of genuine belief.
• The importance of biblical faithfulness: If rejecting God’s Word brings all this, we must re-double our efforts to remain biblically faithful.
• The danger of continued rebellion: If we are rejecting God’s Word, our lives are dependent on the patience of God. But His patience will not last forever.

I’ve not preached the sermon yet, but it’s as finished as I can make it. It certainly isn’t a model message (in particular it needs more illustration) but today, at least, it is the best I can do. Posting this has helped me to think how I can better prepare faithful, biblical expositions. I hope it does the same for others.

Every baby starts life as a little savage. He is completely selfish and self-centered. He wants what he wants when he wants it: his bottle, his mother’s attention, his playmate’s toys, his uncle’s watch, or whatever. Deny him these and he seethes with rage and aggressiveness which would be murderous were he not so helpless. He’s dirty, he has no morals, no knowledge, no developed skills. This means that all children, not just certain children but all children, are born delinquent. If permitted to continue in their self-centered world of infancy, given free rein to their impulsive actions to satisfy each want, every child would grow up a criminal, a thief, a killer, a rapist.

You might think that’s a strange quotation with which to start a post about children. But it’s here to help to us understand how much society has changed and how much we’ve lost our perspective. This particular quote is from the Minnesota Crime Commission, and was published in 1926. It’s virtually impossible to imagine any government agency saying anything similar today. But that excerpt accurately reflects what the Bible says about original sin and the responsibility of parents and society to love, teach and discipline.

When considering children, our society tends to lurch from one perspective to its complete opposite. Where children enter the national consciousness, it’s often to remind us that children need our protection (hence the current obsession with child protection and child advocacy). But the very next day, the claim might well be that because adults need to be protected from them (hence the middle-class hand-wringing over hoodies and ASBOs).

It is a tragedy that every year thousands of children are abused by adults. It’s also a tragedy that thousands of children feel that the rules of society do not apply to them, and that they can live their lives as they wish, with regard to others. But we mustn’t lose sight of the fact that both problems stem from a failure both to understand biblical principles, and to put them into practice.

When examining what the Scriptures say about children, we find that it is full of what we might call ‘common sense’. That shouldn’t surprise us. God designed humankind in a particular way. He then revealed that truth to us in the Bible, along with clear principles on how we should live in the light of His plan. So it should not be a surprise to find out that what the Bible says actually fits our own experience and it really works!

As Christians, we need to be clear in our thinking and consistent in our practice. We need to ensure that we really value children. Psalm 127:3 is well known: “Sons are a heritage from the Lord, children a reward from him.” Valuing our children means providing for them, caring for them and, of course, praying for them (Job 1:4-5). And crucially, valuing our children means valuing the family. How else are our children going to be cared for? How else will they know that they are loved, cherished and held accountable? How can we say to children that they are hugely significant, and at the same time behave as if fathers are unimportant? How can we talk about the importance of caring for and teaching children, whilst always pushing mothers out of the home and into paid employment? As Christians, we need to take the lead in demonstrating the importance of family relationships.

Of course, it is easy to point the finger at society, and forget that as Christians we do not always get things right with regard to children. We have sometimes been guilty of judgmental attitudes which have exacerbated the problem of family breakdown at just the time when people need our support the most. There are encouraging signs that those attitudes are changing - but there is still much more that could be done in reaching out into our communities to support those who want to bring up their children within a stable family, but are finding it almost impossible.

There is another corrective towards a wrong attitude towards children that is prominent in the Bible. It’s the simple truth that children are a reflection of their parents. I am sometimes told that I have inherited all my father’s bad points, and none of his good ones! Whether or not that is true, our parents are an enormous influence on us, both through what they show us, and also through what we fail to see in them. Speaking of the Israelites failure to worship God, 2 Kings 17:41 says, “To this day their children and grandchildren continue to do as their fathers did.” Proverbs 14:26 states the other side of the coin, “He who fears the Lord has a secure fortress, and for his children it will be a refuge.”

Of course that is not to remove the responsibility of children to behave in a godly way. Our society tends to excuse bad behaviour - “it’s the parents”, “it’s the schools”, “they have nothing to do”. All these things can contribute to delinquency, but they never excuse it. All but the smallest children know right from wrong - and even the very small are quite capable of deliberate naughtiness! Proverbs 20:11 says, “Even a child is known by his actions, by whether his conduct is pure and right.”

All this demonstrates the huge responsibility that we have for children - whether or not we have children of our own. It should remind us of the importance of Sunday Schools, Youth Groups and Summer Camps. Sometimes as Christians we can be guilty of seeing a changing society as an excuse to withdraw from work with children and young people, because we say it’s much harder than ever before. But I’m simply not convinced that is true. Working with children and young people has never been easy! So rather than withdrawing from children’s work, our churches ought to be redoubling our efforts. Society needs us more than ever.

But as we do so, we must understand two things. First, by focussing on children, we must focus on families. We often think of reaching parents through their children - but it is more biblical to think of reaching parents and their children. We need to give sustained thought and prayer to creating opportunities for whole families to come to church together, and be taught together. Second, we need to ensure that we are gospel centred. We can teach children (and perhaps even parents) Christian behaviour, but it won’t necessarily help their soul. We do not want to return to the situation of two generations ago, with millions of self-righteous religious pagans filling church buildings across the land. Our primary responsibility is to teach the gospel, and pray that the Holy Spirit would make it effective.

So what an encouragement to read what Jesus said of children in Matthew 11:25 and 18:2-5.

“I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.

Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me.

Articles in this series:

1. Wordpress sermon plug-in announced
2. SermonBrowser beta now available <-- This article

Several weeks ago I mentioned that I was developing a plug-in to allow you to upload sermons into your Wordpress blog. I’m delighted to say that the beta version of this plugin is now available for you to download.

As with all beta software, the normal caveats apply. The software isn’t fully tested, and may cause you problems. In particular, the database format may change between now and the release version, which could mean that any sermons you enter into the database would have to be re-entered later.

If you want to see what the plug-in would look like on your site, you can view it here on this test site. (The site has not yet been launched, and is still in beta itself!)

Installation instructions:

• Download the plugin, and unzip it. Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.
• Place the sermonbrowser folder in your wp-content/plugins folder.
• Activate the plugin from the plugins tab of your Wordpress admin.
• If you use a *nix server, make sure the permissions are set to 777 on the “files” folder, and on multi.php and single.php

Entering sermons into SermonBrowser

• In your WordPress admin, you’ll notice a new tab called Sermons. Click on it.
• You’ll see a series of sub-tabs come up. First of all, go to Options, and make sure that the upload directory is set correctly and no error message is displayed.
• If all is well, click on the New Sermon tab. You can enter all the information about your sermon:
  • Title: Self-explanatory
  • Preacher: Choose from the drop-down or create a new preacher.
  • Series: Similar to preacher.
  • Date: Click the calendar icon, or type the date in the format shown.
  • Service: Choose the service that matches the occasion, or create a new one. If you create a new service, you’ll be asked what time that service normally occurs.
  • Time: The time of day the service started. This is normally greyed out, and defaults to the usual time for that particular service. If you need to change it just for this sermon, click of the override button and enter the correct time. If you need to change the default for this particular service, see Manage, later.
  • Bible Passage: Here you can enter the Bible passage that was preached from. There are six fields to complete, the book, chapter and verse at the start of the passage, and the book chapter and verse at the end. So, for example, if you preached from James 4:1-12, you would enter James | 4 | 1 |James | 4 | 12. If you preached from more than one passage, click the add more link.
  • Files: If you have already uploaded the file, just choose it from the drop-down menu. Otherwise, click browse to upload it now. If you want to link more than one file to this sermon, click add more. You can add files of any type.
• When you’re done, click save.

Other admin functions

• If you need to edit or delete a sermon, you can find a list of them on the sermons sub-tab.
• On the Manage sub-tab, you can keep track of the series, services and preachers in your database. You can also change the default time of services from this page.
• On the uploads tab, you’ll see a list of all the files that have been uploaded so far, and you can rename and delete them, or upload an additional file. You can also upload files via FTP.
• The options page allows you to change the folder where files are stored, or uninstall the plugin. There is also a powerful templating facility to change the way sermons are displayed on your blog.

Displaying sermons on your blog

• To display sermons on your blog, simply add the phrase [sermons] on one of your WordPress pages. (It’s probably best to create a page just for this.
• If you have the 1 Pixel Out Audio Player plugin installed, then MP3 files can be played in your browser via a flash plug-in.

Advanced options

• The templating feature is a powerful tool when used well, and in conjuction with CSS (edit style.css in the sermonbrowser folder). Play around with this if the layout doesn’t look good on your website.
• At the moment, icons are only provided for MP3, Word, PDF and Powerpoint files. If you want to create your own icons for other filetypes, you can edit filetypes.php.

If something goes wrong

• Leave a comment here. I’ll do my best to help. Remember that it is a beta, though!

How you can help

• Let me know what you like, and what you don’t like.
• Let me know of any bugs you find.
• Give me suggestions about how it could be improved.

Articles in this series:

1. Wordpress sermon plug-in announced <-- This article
2. SermonBrowser beta now available

I’m currently in the process of developing a Wordpress sermon plug-in. I’m trying to make it so that churches with Wordpress enabled blogs can simply upload sermons to their website, where they can be searched, listened to, and downloaded. There is already one plugin that can do this (WpSermons), but that doesn’t have all the functionality I need, so I’m working with a coder to have one written from scratch.

My question is: what sort of functionality would you like from a Wordpress sermon plug-in? I can’t promise to include any suggestion you make, but it might well be possible if you make a suggestion this early in the coding process.

• Mission: Home or Away? (MP3 file) A wonderful sermon preached yesterday morning by Liam Goligher at Duke Street Baptist Church. He answers the question “Am I called?”, and gives a wonderful survey of all that is being done for gospel around the world - and all that still needs to be done.
• The New Testament on Divorce: A interesting insight into current debate sparked by David Instone-Brewer’s article in Christianity Today. John Piper then responded, followed by this response and follow-up by Andreas Kostenberger. Very roughly speaking, Instone-Brewer considers the NT to encourage grace after a necessary divorce, John Piper believes re-marriage is never right, and Kostenberger takes the middle-ground. Instone-Brewer follows up the debate with some clarification here.
• Thinking about Covenants: This post from Ben Witherington may stretch you, but is well worth chewing over.
• My King: I listened again to S M Lockridge’s “That’s My King” recently, which is still incredibly moving. A few years ago I made a video from his words for a couple of hundred people at a youth conference. This afternoon I found myself wondering how many times it had been watched or downloaded after I posted it on the web. I counted 48,623 from this website, 178,400 on YouTube, 75,451 on Google Video, and 13,620 on GodTube. That’s a total of 316,094 since I put the video up in January 2006, or 465 downloads every single day! If you’ve not yet had a listen, do so now.

Articles in this series:

1. Destined for persecution
2. Destined for persecution (part 2) <-- This article

Costly Grace

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German pastor who was banned from preaching by the Gestapo. But in 1937 he had written in his classic work The Cost of Discipleship:

Suffering, then, is the badge of true discipleship… Luther reckoned suffering among the marks of the true church, and one of the memoranda drawn up in preparation for the Augsburg Confession similarly defines the church as the community of those “who are persecuted and martyred for the Gospel’s sake.”… Discipleship means allegiance to the suffering Christ, and it is therefore not at all surprising that Christians should be called upon to suffer. In fact, it is a joy and a token of His grace.

It is perhaps not a surprise to discover that in 1945, after imprisonment in a series of concentration camps, he was hanged by the Nazis. Ten years later, the camp doctor wrote “In the almost fifty years that I worked as a doctor, I have hardly ever seen a man die so entirely submissive to the will of God.”

What can bring a man to see so clearly that suffering is an undeniable part of the Christian life? What separates our faith from his? John Piper has the answer:

We don’t have a wartime mentality and therefore our young men and women do not gather late at night in basement rooms and plot their strategies to detonate Satan’s bridgehead and liberate some of his captives. We don’t see ourselves as insurgents in the alien territory of sin planting explosives of righteousness and truth at every fortified wall; and so our eyes don’t meet with a flame of eternal friendship… and say without a word amid a thousand aliens: “You and I will die for this cause and join hands in the resurrection.” We don’t feel like a fifth column devoted with all our strength to sabotage the rule of Satan in this world; and therefore our life together is not intense but petty. There are no coded handshakes of joy, or secret passwords. And there are few tearful embraces and songs of thanks because a squad of witnesses has returned safely even bringing some liberated captives home.

How many of us have surrendered to Satan’s lie that the world is not really lost, and the battle is not really great? How many of us are living as if Christ’s sufferings was not of much worth? How many of us must plead guilty to Bonhoeffer’s accusation that we’ve cheapened grace?

Cheap grace is the mortal enemy of our church. Our struggle today is for costly grace… Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline. Communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ.

The Bible teaches us that we are called to share not just in Christ’s glory, but also in His sufferings (Romans 8:17). And suffering Christians are always pointed to Christ, both for explanation, and for encouragement.

If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you… If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. (John 15:18-20)

Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life. (Revelation 2:10)

It may be many years before Christians in this country face death for the sake of the gospel. Perhaps God will keep this nation from it until every one of us has passed into glory. Nevertheless, we must certainly be bold enough to face fundamentalist atheism and secular liberalism.

Yet does not God call us to be more than a witness for Him in the country of our birth? And therefore the challenge of Jesus’ words, to be faithful to the point of death, are not simply to encourage Christians in North Korea, in Pakistan or in Saudi Arabia. Why shouldn’t Westerners also be bold enough to face militant Islam, religious nationalism or military dictatorships?

Perhaps in our fear and trepidation, we need to be reminded that Christ’s suffering on our behalf is infinitely greater than ever our suffering on His behalf will be.

Jesus, and shall it ever be,
A mortal man, ashamed of Thee?
Ashamed of Thee, whom angels praise,
Whose glories shine through endless days?

Ashamed of Jesus! that dear Friend
On Whom my hopes of Heav’n depend!
No; when I blush, be this my shame,
That I no more revere His Name.

Ashamed of Jesus! yes, I may
When I’ve no guilt to wash away;
No tear to wipe, no good to crave,
No fears to quell, no soul to save.

Ashamed of Jesus! empty pride!
I’ll boast a Saviour crucified,
And O may this my portion be,
My Saviour not ashamed of me!

Articles in this series:

1. Destined for persecution <-- This article
2. Destined for persecution (part 2)

I need to lay my cards on the table right at the outset. As far as I know I have never been persecuted for being a Christian. Certainly there have been occasions where ‘friends’ have made fun of me. Undoubtedly there have been times when my Christian faith has caused me to be excluded from some activity or opportunity. But persecuted? Not yet.

And that, frankly, is quite remarkable. The Christian heritage that we have enjoyed in Britain for centuries has kept the vast majority of us shielded from the truth which most of the rest of the world knows all too well. The persecution of Christians is a normal state of affairs.

I say all this because there is an increasingly realisation that the privileges that we have enjoyed for so long are beginning to come to an end. Even in this country there have been recent occasions where Christians have lost their jobs simply for living out their Christian convictions. There have even been those arrested and prosecuted for doing what you and I believe the Bible commands us to do.

We know this because the Christian newspapers – and occasionally even secular ones – have reported those stories. So remember this: here, now, persecution makes the news. That’s worth repeating: here, now, persecution makes the news. But in most of history, in most parts of the world, persecution is a normal, everyday occurrence that is no more newsworthy than a minor parking accident or a mild illness.

The Church and the World

It is remarkable that most of us are indignant when a little opposition comes our way. We mutter about our civil liberties and our human rights. We talk about living in a Christian country, and claim that we shouldn’t be treated like this. But brothers and sisters in Christ, persecution is normal! Persecution is to be expected! It is lack of persecution that should shock us, not the reverse.

But if persecution is normal, why have the majority of us never really suffered persecution at all? Of course, it is partly down to the grace of God. We should be extremely thankful to God that the world around us is as tolerant as it currently is. But for many of us, it is probably also down to our weakness and failure to live up to the standards that the Bible sets for us.

American pastor Kent Hughes has said this:

By far the greatest reason there is so little persecution is that the church has become like the world. If you want to get along, the formula is simple. Approve of the world’s morals and ethics—at least outwardly. Live like the world lives. Laugh at its humor. Immerse yourself in its entertainment. Smile benignly when God is mocked. Act as if all religions converge on the same road. Don’t mention hell. Draw no moral judgments. Take no stand on the moral/political issues. Above all, do not share your faith. Follow this formula and it will be smooth sailing. But the fact is, the church must be persecuted or it is no church at all.

For years we’ve been shielded from the truth because the world has persuaded us – or perhaps we have persuaded ourselves – that there is not that much difference between a Christian and a non-Christian. And, while most of our neighbours and friends were relatively moral, believed in God, came to church at Christmas and admired some of the truths in the Bible, we allowed that myth to persist.

Yet the simple truth is that regardless of behaviour, there is a great gulf that separates the church from the world. There are differences between men and women, between young and old, between black and white, and between rich and poor. But there is no greater difference than that between the Christian and the non-Christian.

Respectable Sins

Now, as our nation moves ever further from its Christian heritage and Victorian morality, we’re starting to see the chasm between the church and the world. For several generations we have been allowed the luxury of quietly tolerating ‘respectable sins’. But under God, it appears that our nation is beginning to remove that sinful luxury from us. It seems as though God is reminding us that we have tolerated too much for too long. It seems as though God is saying that it’s time we took a stand.

And if, for God’s sake, we take a stand, we must do all that lies within us to avoid hypocrisy. It is easy to decry the sin in others, it is far harder to deal with the sin in ourselves. We should remember that our persecuted brothers and sisters all around the world are persecuted not because they condemn others, but because they live out the gospel themselves.

Biblically, taking a stand for the Gospel does not simply mean marching, waving banners and shouting slogans. It does not just mean writing to the newspaper or to your MP. But it does mean living holy lives. As Peter puts it (1 Peter 2:12), “Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.”

And just as importantly, it does mean preaching the gospel. Preaching the gospel will always expose sin. But it will never only expose sin. Preaching the gospel means not only bringing men down, but lifting Christ up.

It is this, perhaps, that will awaken us to the realities of persecution.

Both men (Peter and Greg) were describing their change of direction in ministry, and how they had been guided. See if you can spot the difference:

God gave me over fifty personal prophecies that made it clear I would be going there, mostly from men who knew nothing about what was afoot… the Lord had told me that this was ‘For the sake of my wider kingdom purposes in London and beyond.’… I remain officially outside of that movement [New Frontiers], in line with all God told me to do five years ago.

And now Peter Williams:

That job came to an end and I felt compelled to stay in Europe, yet the only job I could find was a temporary post in NT at the University of Aberdeen… I had four wonderful years teaching NT alongside great colleagues in Aberdeen and becoming a Senior Lecturer before sensing that I should apply for the position of Warden of Tyndale House. I would have been perfectly happy to stay in Aberdeen, but I took the offer of the post as guidance that I should accept.

Can you spot the difference? The words that both men use to describe what is essentially the same experience, are poles apart. The words used by Greg would grate severely on most non-charismatics, particularly unqualified phrases such as “the Lord told me” and “God told me”. This is really no different at all from saying “Thus said the Lord”, which (we are told) died out amongst reformed charismatics a generation ago.

Why can’t charismatics be more circumspect in their language? Why not say simply “I felt God was calling me”?

Wayne Grudem has said in his Systematic Theology

prophecies in the church today should be considered merely human words, not God’s words, and not equal to God’s words in authority… If someone really does think God is bringing something to mind which should be reported in the congregation, there is nothing wrong with saying, “I think the Lord is putting on my mind that…” or “It seems to me that the Lord is showing us…” or some similar expression. Of course that does not sound as “forceful” as “Thus says the Lord,” but if the message is really from God, the Holy Spirit will cause it to speak with great power to the hearts of those who need to hear.

Now Grudem is talking about congregational prophecies, whereas Haslam is talking about personal prophecies. Is there a difference? Are we justified is saying “The Lord told me” but not justified in saying “The Lord is telling us“.

Please, can the charismatics explain?

The distinction is important, and goes for churches as much as for theological colleges. Every Christian – not just those who will become our pastors – needs to be equipped to know not just what the Bible says, but how to find out what the Bible says. Sadly, few of our churches explicitly teach this skill, and most Christians are relying more and more on preachers and commentators to tell them what the Bible says, and losing the joy of discovering it for themselves.

Worse still, some evangelical churches appear to be preaching a new Catholicism. Just as medieval priests did not believe that the laity could be trusted to read the Bible on their own, so many evangelical churches give the impression that it’s just too risky to let the ‘ordinary Christian’ read the Bible without the help of more experienced Bible teachers in print or in person.

But it shouldn’t be like that! Every Christian – even the most recent convert or the least academically gifted – should be able to read and study the Bible for themselves. Of course, our own study must never take the place of listening to Bible-teachers. Personal interpretation and application must never take the place of congregational teaching. But when we combine both corporate and private study, when we both listen to teachers and teach ourselves, we will find that there is a greater richness and challenge in the word of God that ever we thought before.

Yet it’s vital that we do our best to read the Bible in a way that will genuinely profit, and not lead us astray. If we simply charge into Bible study, it’s quite possible for us to quickly get out of our depth, and end up in all sorts of mess. If we’re going to read the Bible well, we need help, and we need training.

If this training is not available in your church, then thankfully there are books that you can turn to instead. Below are some of the very best currently available:

Beginners

If you’re a relatively recent convert, you find reading or study difficult, or you’ve never read a book about studying the Bible before, then books in this section are for you.

Living by the Book: The art and science of reading the Bible
(Howard and William Hendricks, Moody Press)

[photopress:Living_by_the_Book.jpg,thumb,left]Howard Hendricks has been a professor at Dallas Theological Seminary since 1951, and pours all of his wisdom and experience of teaching Bible study into this book. That he does so in a way that is suitable for all Christians, and not just seminary students is a wonderful achievement. Like most of the books listed here, the principles are simple: observation, interpretation and application. Hendricks uses 48 short chapters that are sometimes just a few pages long. There’s also an optional workbook that allows you to immediately apply the principles being learned to a particular bible passage, which means you’re putting into practice the skills you’re learning. The workbook ends with a complete study of both Ruth and James, which then lets you see just how much you’ve learned by putting it into practice. The result is a wonderful introduction to studying the Bible.

How to Study Your Bible: The Lasting Rewards of the Inductive Method
(Kay Arthur, Harvest House)

[photopress:How_to_Study_Your_Bible.jpg,thumb,left] How to Study Your Bible is an introduction to methodical Bible-study that Kay Arthur and her organisation Precept Ministries have become famous for. What Arthur has done is to create a very strict method that she encourages you apply to every Bible text using a system of notation to mark the passage to ensure nothing is missed. Many people will find her method too prescriptive, but for those who prefer a rigid system to ensure they apply the principles correctly, How to Study Your Bible could be extremely helpful.

Search the Scriptures
(Alan Stibbs, IVP)

[photopress:Search_the_Scriptures.jpg,thumb,left]There are a million copies of Search the Scriptures in print and it’s not difficult to see why. It’s approach is quite different from the two books listed above, and it’s best used after you have read one of those books. It takes you through the entire Bible, splitting the Scriptures into over 1,000 passages, and for each passage (around 20-50 verses) asks two or three questions that are designed to ensure you’ve studied and understood the passage. Because using the book would take you through the whole Bible in three years, it’s a great gift to give a student before they leave for university. But anyone who wants to read through the whole Bible (and who wouldn’t?), but needs a light framework to help them on their way, would find this book a real help.

Intermediate

For those who already have a good grounding in Christian theology, know their Bibles well, and understand the basic principles of studying the Bible, then these books that will stretch them a little further. These books are probably best for people who have already read through the whole of the Bible at least once, and want to deepen their understanding.

How to read the Bible for all its worth
(Gordon Fee & Douglas Stuart, Zondervan)

[photopress:How_to_read_the_Bible.jpg,thumb,left]Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart’s book builds on some of the basic skills of observation, interpretation and application, by looking in more detail at the various genre found within the Bible: epistles, Old Testament narratives, gospels, prophets, etc. They suggest various difficulties that can surface when reading each genre, techniques that can help along the way, and provide many examples of each of these things in practice. It doesn’t demand quite the hands-on approach of earlier books, so more discipline is required from the reader to ensure that the skills learned are put into practice, but if you’re willing to do this, it’s a great help.

Grasping God’s Word: A hands-on approach to reading, interpreting and applying the Bible
(J Scott Duvall & J Daniel Hays, Zondervan)

[photopress:Grasping_God__s_Word.jpg,thumb,left]Grasping God’s Word is a large-format hardback that offers a thorough guide to studying the Bible. It’s designed to be used as a first year textbook in Bible colleges, but remember that most first-year Bible college students know little more than the ‘average’ serious Christian – that’s why they’re going to college after all! The book is in five parts. The first three parts deal with the basic tools of interpretation, understanding the context of biblical passages at various levels, and with application and meaning. The chapter on the role of the Holy Spirit in understanding the Bible is particularly helpful. The final two parts then deal with the various genre of both the Old and New Testaments. Every time a new concept is introduced it is accompanied by scriptural examples, and there’s even an optional workbook which contains exercises and questions to ensure that the lessons are really remembered. As a result It’s a good book to work through on your own, but even better in part of a small study group, or as a one-to-one with your pastor or elder. If you have the time and energy to devote at least an hour or two each week to serious Bible study, this book would be a wonderful aid.

Getting the Message: A plan for interpreting and applying the Bible
(Dan Doriani, Presbyterian & Reformed)

[photopress:Getting_the_Message.jpg,thumb,left]Doriani’s book is particularly aimed at those who have a responsibility to teach the Bible, but he’s at pains to point out that doesn’t mean only preachers. It’s a book therefore that could be particularly helpful for Sunday School teachers (particularly those teaching teenagers), leaders of ladies’ bible-study groups, CU Hall group leaders, and those engaged in one-to-one discipleship. The book’s great strength is its emphasis on applying and teaching the Word, and it’s Christ-centeredness. He unashamedly writes, “Every passage in the Bible presents Christ both as the remedy for human fallenness and is the end point of God’s plan of salvation”. There is a danger in Bible-study that knowledge can simply fill the head and not the heart, so if that is a temptation for you, or if you are involved in teaching others, then this book could be a particular blessing.

Advanced

The books in this section are for those who have an excellent grasp of the principles of Bible-study, who have read the Bible through several times, and have the time to devote a few hours each week to Bible study. Most of those whom that describes will be involved in teaching the Bible at some level, if not should be considering doing so. Like the previous section, these are books that would help preachers as well as other Christians, but they are not books about preaching.

The Word Became Fresh: How to preach from Old Testament narrative texts
(Dale Ralph Davis, Christian Focus)

[photopress:The_Word_became_fresh.jpg,thumb,left]If you’re not a preacher, don’t be put off by the subtitle. Ralph Davis has written this book “as an exercise in reading the Old Testament for fun and profit”. As he focuses on just one genre, he’s able to go into much more depth than any of the other books we’ve looked at so far. Davis doesn’t supply questions or exercises, but he does fill every page with examples from across the Old Testament. Thankfully, the examples come from both the ‘easy’ and ‘hard’ bits of the Bible, so there’s no ducking of the difficult questions. And although the book is more likely to fill your head with questions rather than answers, we should remember that’s exactly what is needed when we’re reading the Bible. Highly recommended.

Putting the truth to work: The theory and practice of Biblical Application
(Dan Doriani, Presbyterian and Reformed)

[photopress:Putting_the_truth_to_work.jpg,thumb,left]Like Doriani’s Getting the Message, this book is aimed at teachers of the Bible. Though it builds on the foundations of the other books reviewed here, it offers much more besides. Its particular strength is showing how biblical study both benefits from and contributes to theological understanding. For example, the book starts by showing the importance of a theological framework (by which Doriani means covenant theology), but also spends considerable time later showing how all biblical passages should lead to the forming of doctrinal understanding. Also particularly helpful is the emphasis on grace throughout, a whole chapter that focuses on the interpreter (his courage, character, and credibility), and the many examples (some of them fairly lengthy) that both illustrate and inform.