The Man Who Laid the Egg. Louise A. Vernon (Herald Press, 1977), pb. 118 pp.

We are currently in a series of Vernon biographies as you can see. In the basics this one delivers as the others. The reader (and listeners!) is introduced to some of the basics in the life and work of Erasmus. As literature one ought not expect too much.

The story is told from the perspective of Gerhard Koestler, a (fictional) young man coming of age in Germany in the early 1500’s. Gerhard, born to a noble family but orphaned, runs away when his uncle decides to force him into a monastery. Gerhard wants to go to the University to learn and especially to learn the sort of things which Erasmus encourages. Eventually he ends up in the household of Erasmus having opportunity to learn from and observe the great man.

This volume, I think, is more disjointed and harder to follow than the others. There is less natural flow and it is more difficult (for me and then more so for my younger listeners) to keep up with the various characters who appear rapidly and often. In some defense, it must be difficult to construct a biography like this with perhaps little information for constructing a narrative while trying to connect with a younger audience.

The picture of Erasmus which emerges is interesting. In general it is the picture given by J. I. Packer and others- a brilliant man who did much good but in the end was hampered by a certain constitutional weakness and timidity. The author seems to desire to provide a basically positive picture while also dealing with Erasmus’ evasiveness. We are currently reading Mrs. Vernon’s bio of Luther and it is my hunch that her sympathies (like mine) lie more with Luther than Erasmus. It was a bit confusing to my boys at times to figure out whether Erasmus was good or bad. Of course this arises from having only two clearly defined categories- a good starting point, which then has to be developed to handle the nuances of real life. In the end I think they were able to see the parts of Erasmus that we would admire and the parts that we would not. It is important for a parent to know, though, that this sort of clarification and evaluation is not given in the book. So you will need to be prepared to do this yourself.

Lastly, as I mentioned before it would be nice to have a brief note on who is historical and who is not. I was not sure if the printer, Froben, was historical or not though he was mentioned enough that I thought he probably was. Then one night during the time we were reading this book I found on ebay a 16th century copy of a book by Erasmus which stated that it was printed by Froben! That was a fun discovery.

I am currently deriving much benefit and pleasure (not mutually exclusive categories by any means!) from reading essays by C. S. Lewis collected in On Stories and Other Essays on Literature. I hope to write several things arising from reflections on this book. Here though I want to focus on a line from Lewis found in a transcript of a conversation held between him and two author friends. Along the way Lewis brought up the point that a certain person demanded “moral earnestness” but Lewis himself preferred “morality.” He explained:
“I’d sooner live among people who don’t cheat at cards than among people who are earnest about not cheating at cards.”
His response brought appropriate laughter. Indeed we know of situations where people substitute earnestness for something for actually doing that thing. What good is it to say you really care about being honest if in fact you are not honest.

This point, ready for many helpful applications, reminded me of a phenomenon I observed at the SBC. There was great earnestness about “expository preaching.” Quite often expository preaching was extolled and encouraged; and each time such statements were met with enthusiastic applause. However, we rarely if ever saw any example of expository preaching actually being done. I fear we are those who are earnest about expository preaching but not those who are actually doing it. I for one would certainly rather have a pastor who preaches expositionaly than one who was simply earnest about it.

Brothers, it will not do simply to extol expository preaching. We must actually do it. Taking up a certain verse, even verses in order though a book does not itself insure expositional preaching. We must approach a text asking what the text itself (as written by the author) intends to say and we must then apply that message to our people. We simply may not take texts to say what we desire to say- no matter how orthodox the statements we desire to make. Truly expositional preaching is rooted in the idea that in Scripture God speaks inerrantly. Thus, what matters is what the text itself says. Who cares what sort of creative thing you might be able to come up with! It is practical nonsense to extol inerrancy and then ignore what a passage says in context for what you want it to say. Inerrancy becomes irrelevant when the message is more dependent on the preacher’s ideas than the text itself- for the preacher himself is not inerrant! No, we must preach the text and not creative concoctions, dreams, rhetorical flourishes or anything else. Let us not merely be earnest about expository preaching but let us do it.

For more on true expositional preaching see especially this interview with Phillip Jensen, and these other articles from 9 Marks Ministries.

A number of people have asked me how our little girl, now 8 weeks old, is doing. She is doing quite well, and her brothers adore her. Our only problem with the boys is that they all want to always be holding, kissing, touching or helping her. They take much pride in calling themselves her “Mighty Protectors.” In fact this role of theirs was the main topic of conversation as they came to the hospital to see her for the first time. As we have talked over time about the role of men, I have emphasized to them that being a man entails protecting women and children.

Then, in our first day home I overheard Jonathan (our third, 6 yrs old) talking to Benjamin (our fourth, 4 yrs old) while they both peered over the crib at their new baby sister. Jonathan was instructing Benjamin, in his younger child voice, once more on their role as Abigail’s protectors. I listened in as he simply passed on the instruction he has heard. Then, though, Jonathan moved to his own application. He said, What this [being her protectors] means is this: If someone comes in the house to get her - I thought to myself, “We have not talked about this.” He continued, in his attempted baby voice, “If someone comes in the house to get her, this is what we do. We get a metal bat and we take care of them.” It was all simple matter-of-fact. I stifled my chuckle so they would not hear me, and I also thought, “Way to go!” While we had not addressed this specific scenario, he really understood that he was to do what he could to protect his baby sister (I had primarily envisioned protecting her from sharp objects, falls, etc.!).

Now, what does this have to do with the pastorate? Well, just as men in general today do not think often enough about our role as protectors, so also there is a lack of consideration of the pastor’s role as protector. But, this is certainly a key aspect of our role. Paul’s description of the pastor in Titus 1 closes with:

holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who
contradict. (v9)

The reason for this qualification is seen immediately in 1:10f. Pastors need to be the sort of men who can refute false teachers because false teachers are around and they will cause trouble unless they are dealt with. This is also in view when Paul exhorted the Ephesians elders:

“Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be on the alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears’ (Acts 20:28-31)

You cannot serve the church as pastor if you are unwilling to confront error for the good of the church. Those who cower at danger or try to say these issues are not their concern show themselves hirelings and cowards. The true shepherd is willing to give his life for his flock. Surely here we are to imitate the pattern of the Chief Shepherd who said:

I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and is not concerned about the sheep. (John 10:11-13)

The hireling mentality is too easily encouraged today. The hireling thinks more of his next move, of his reputation, his advancement. The shepherd loves his flock and is ready to die for them. This is not the creating of unnecessary conflict (as some take it). This is love in action, and can only really emerge as we establish close knit community where pastors are not CEO’s or simply hired guns but rather members of the community, the family, who have been called out for service. Brothers, let us protect the church.

I first saw Lamplighter books in a Vision Forum catalog a few years ago, and they really caught my attention. I have been pleased to locate Lamplighter’s complete catalog. They republish some books which I found in old copies in bookshops in Scotland but had not yet been able to find reprinted. Their motto alone was enough to catch me: “Building character – One Story at a Time.” EXACTLY! That is what I am attempting and I think that reading good stories is an excellent way of building character.

Their books are not cheap, but they are all nicely bound and printed, maintaining a classic look of age. I have not yet read one of their reprints (I have one in the queue!), but they do have a reprint of The Gold Thread which is one of our all time favorites (read my earlier post on this book here).

The catalog itself is nicely organized with listings by age and gender as well as other topics (rare collector’s series, etc.). If you are looking for books for your children this is certainly one catalog to have ready.

Blogger has been having all sorts of problems the last few days which is causing numerous problems for me in posting. Hopefully I will be able to access them consistently soon! When I catch Blogger working I will get things up but it looks to be difficult the next few days.

Blogger has been having all sorts of problems the last few days which is causing numerous problems for me in posting. Hopefully I will be able to access them consistently soon! When I catch Blogger working I will get things up but it looks to be difficult the next few days.

Here is an excerpt from Vance Havner (1901-1986), the prominent Baptist preacher. He is reflecting on Elijah’s confrontation with the prophets of Baal in 1 Kings 18. His words are at least as relevant to us today as they were then. So much of what people today call ‘succesful’ in ministry is simply the exertion of the flesh to impress the world with our show and numbers as Havner describes here.

We’re a little short on prophets. We need to rebuild the broken altar and put the sacrifice of a dedicated life thereupon. But before we can expect any fire from heaven, we must drench the altar. I’ve heard plenty of preaching about rebuilding the altar. I’ve heard sermons about presenting our body as living sacrifice. But the hardest lesson for anybody in Christian service to learn is that we cannot help God out in the slightest by warming up the altar in the energy of the flesh. We try to start a fire of our own and think that’ll help out God’s fire. It won’t do it. We’re ashamed to be laughed at by the world. We don’t dare face the Midianites with Gideon’s band, so we mob-o-lize.
We don’t mobilize, we mob-o-lize a multitude who know little and care less about spiritual warfare, who never have understood that the Bible is the Lord’s and the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. We’re afraid to face old Goliath today with sling and stone. We want to wear the latest equipment, and Saul’s armory is working overtime. We must be up-to-date and borrow all the technique of the world to do the work of God. But you can’t organize revivals as you do secular things, as the world puts on its drives and campaigns.
You can’t run a church as you would a business corporation. You can’t work up mere human enthusiasm to put over the work of the Lord. We all give lip service, of course, to the Holy Spirit: “Not by might nor power, but by my Spirit” (Zech. 4:6). We sing, “Kindle a flame of sacred love in these cold hearts of ours” (Isaac Watts, “Come Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove,” 1707). But actually we’re so wired up to our own devices that if the fire doesn’t fall from heaven, we can turn on a switch and produce some false fire of our own. And if there’s no sound of a mighty rushing wind, we’ve got the bellows all set to blow hot air instead. But God answers by fire, not by feelings, not by fame, not by finances. You can blow up quite a blaze today on Carmel. We can do it, yes. But people are not crying out today, “The LORD, he is the God” (1 Kings 18:39).

Vance Hanver, When God Breaks Through: Sermons on Revival, edited and complied by Dennis J. Hester (Grand Rapids, MI; Kregel Publications, 2003), 54-55; emphasis mine
(HT: Kairos Journal– registration required)

The following poem was written by William Cowper and published in the Olney Hymns. It captures well the desire fo parents and the church.

XXII. Prayer for Children (66-67)

Bestow, dear Lord, upon our youth,
The gift of saving grace;
And let the seed of sacred truth
Fall in a fruitful place.

Grace is a plant, where’er it grows,
Of pure and heavenly root;
But fairest in the youngest shows,
And yields the sweetest fruit.

Ye careless ones, O hear betimes
The voice of sovereign love!
Your youth is stain’d with many crimes,
But mercy reigns above.

True, you are young, but there’s a stone
Within the youngest breast;
Or half the crimes which you have done
Would rob you of your rest.

For you the public prayer is made;
Oh! join the public prayer!
For you the secret tear is shed:
Oh shed yourselves a tear!

We pray that you may early prove
The Spirit’s power to teach;
You cannot be too young to love
That Jesus whom we preach.

At the recent pastors’ luncheon in Memphis I mentioned previously, I had a number of good conversations. One was with a pastor who told me about a fairly recent conversation he had with Eric Alexander, the Scottish preacher regarded by many as one of the great preachers of our era. The man with whom I spoke expressed to Alexander his appreciation saying, “When I hear you preach I sense the real presence of God.” Alexander thanked him saying, “That is something for which I have prayed all my ministry.”
I thought that this was a humble way to receive such a compliment and a good encouragement to pray regularly for the Lord’s blessing on our preaching, for what the Puritans called “unction.” We must labor to understand the text and to express it well; but, then it all depends on the Lord’s blessing of our labors to take His word and apply it powerfully to the hearts and minds of men.

I recently spoke with someone who only half jokingly said, “We already have enough preachers.” I took issue with the statement, conceding that we do have many filling the office but not enough properly preaching the word and overseeing souls (indeed many not even considering that such oversight is their duty- for which they will answer to God! Heb 13:17)
Then a friend who is desperately searching (so far in vain) for a church in her area where they can find straightforward biblical exposition sent this quote to me.

“Let me leave this branch of my subject with an earnest request that all who pray will never forget to make supplications and prayers and intercession for the ministers of Christ, that there never may be wanting a due supply of them at home and in the mission field, that they may be kept sound in the faith and holy in their lives, and that they may take heed to themselves as well as to the doctrine (I Timothy 4:16).”
J.C. Ryle, “Holiness”

Fellow pastors, may we labor to be such preachers and do all we can to help and encourage the development of more such preachers.