New Church Building in Kenya

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My friend Phil Eyster has just returned from Kenya today. I posted a few days ago about part of his work there. In the photo gallery from his trip I noticed this photo of the first church building for a new church plant there.

It is good for us to be aware of the work of our brothers and sisters around the world for various reasons. It may remind us to keep focused on what really matters and not worry so much about our comforts.

If you are on Facebook you can keep up with the work of EPI here.

Tolkien Thoughts

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My older boys are beginning to read The Lord of the Rings for school so I am going to read along with them. Yes, it is true. I confess. I have never before read The Lord of the Rings. This could be held up to doubt the reality of my conversion, of course, but I am out to rectify this. 🙂

Reading the introductory matter has reminded me of the value for pastors of reading good literature (and value for others of course).

In this first quote Tolkien is making clear that World War II is not the backdrop for his trilogy in spite of the many who thought so. This misunderstanding is a good warning to us not to rest too firmly on supposed reconstructions of the background of biblical texts. A reconstruction might seem entirely plausible (such as Tolkien having WWII in mind in these books) but still be wholly wrong. C. S. Lewis makes the same point powerfully in his essay “Modern Theology and Biblical Criticism”. Tolkien writes:

“An author cannot of course remain wholly unaffected by his experience, but the way in which a story-germ uses the soil of experience are extremely complex, and attempts to define the process are at best guesses from evidence that is inadequate and ambiguous. It is also false, though naturally attractive, when the lives of an author and critic have overlapped, to suppose that the movements of thought or the events of time common to both were necessarily the most powerful influences.” (xxvi)

We must think through possible reconstructions and possibilities, but, when it comes to preaching and applying the Bible to people’s lives, we are engaged in too serious a business to rest on such guesses. We must stand on what is clear in the text.

Then, in this quote Tolkien is describing the setting of the Hobbits.

“… and there in that pleasant corner of the world they plied their well-ordered business of living, and they heeded less and less the world outside where dark things moved, until they came to think that peace and plenty were the rule in Middle-earth and the right of all sensible folk. They forgot or ignored what little they had ever known of the Guardians, and of the labours of those that made possible the long peace of the Shire. They were, in fact, sheltered, but they had ceased to remember it.” (6-7)

Reading this I can’t help but think of my own social setting where it is so easy to think that “peace and plenty” are “the right of all sensible folk” and where it is easy to forget all that has gone before to create the peaceful and prosperous society I know. Though Tolkien was not aiming at us, we do well to remember we are not “owed” peace and prosperity.

(Quotes taken from J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings. Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2004)

My Home Pastor Retires

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“Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith” (Heb 13:7)

This past Sunday, Bro. Ray Newcomb, pastor of First Baptist Church in Millington, TN for 33 years, announced his retirement. Here is the video:


My family moved to FBC Millington when I was in the sixth grade. I was a member there until I moved away for college, and my parents are still there. Bro. Ray baptized me and under his ministry I was called to preach.

I was privileged to grow up under Bro. Ray’s ministry where the absolute truthfulness of Scripture and the importance of evangelism were bedrock truths, emphasized and practiced. As I have gone along in life I have talked with so many people who were in churches where the Bible was undermined, where there was no attempt to preach the Bible, where they were not urged to read and study their Bibles, or where they were not taught to share their faith. This has made me thank God all the more for the many ways He has blessed me through Ray Newcomb and the strong foundation I received. He has continued to be a blessing and encouragement to me along the way.

I pray the Lord’s rich blessings on Bro. Ray in his continued ministry.

Update:
See B J Maxwell’s more complete observations. I heartily concur with with his comments, and as usual he says it better than I could!

Mission in Kenya

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My good friend Phil Eyster, of Eagle Projects International, is in Kenya preaching the gospel and providing theological training for local pastors. He has no internet access but with a cell signal he has been able to send out updates. It was amazing to me to receive a note and this photo from him just as he was about to preach the gospel in a poor open air market.
Here is one of his recent updates describing the gospel work in the area- encouraging and convicting!

I preached a message about the gospel being true, powerful, and simple. In Kenya there are some preachers who preach a message designed to make them rich and powerful. Since Pastor Daniel is not one of these preachers, his church is not wealthy or prominent. He proclaims the simple, powerful, true message of Christ and then demonstrates that message by caring for the poorest of the poor. Among other things, he feeds people and rescues street kids; two very difficult jobs.

Following church in Kisii, we drove for 45 minutes along a washboard dirt road lined with tea farms to the little town of Sombogo. Here we found one of the daughter churches meeting in a tin hut. There were 80 people crammed into the structure. Daniel actually spent two weeks on a mission here recently from the 22nd of December to the 4th of January. They held an open-air meeting every night at the crossroads of town and everyday followed up on people in their homes. This is how he spent his Christmas holiday.

Daniel is typical of the kind of person that God has given us to work with around the world – a man of integrity, honesty, diligence, excellence, and dedication. A man whose character was forged from the furnace of trials and God’s faithfulness. As a boy he had to defend his mother from his drunken father on a daily basis. He endured teachers who would beat him and send him away from class for not showing up with a notebook and pen. He would work odd jobs to earn a few shillings to purchase school supplies so he could get an education. Finally, as a young man after coming to Christ, he did not operate from a platform of bitterness, but instead was fueled by gratefulness to God for His salvation. Men like this are not easy to find, but when you do you know what a blessing it is to partner with them.

The rest of the day until 7pm was taken up visiting two more churches. I think I lost both kidneys somewhere along one of the dirt roads between churches. These churches were all started as a result of field evangelism. They meet wherever they can. Some meet in dirt-floor huts, and others out in fields under a canvas tarp. But in all cases, they are the only real Bible teaching churches available to the people.

All the updates can be seen at the epi site by clicking on “Kenya Blog.”

Psalm 27

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I saw this on Ray Ortlund’s blog, and appreciated it so much I had to cite the whole thing here. Good, helpful, powerful truth.

The Lord is my light and my salvation;whom shall I fear? Psalm 27:1

“One of the best ways to dispel doubts and fears is to summon to our aid the very strongest doctrines and highest truths of religion. Weak doctrines will not be a match for powerful temptations.

No confidence is so well placed as confidence in God, no joy is like that which he gives, no deliverances are so manifestly glorious as those he works, life is never so sweet as when felt to be the renewed gift of God.

Courage is both a duty of man and a gift of God. We should sharply reprove ourselves for all disheartening timidity. . . . We must be heroic, or we must perish.”

W. S. Plumer, The Psalms, page 359.

Keeping Holiday

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Keeping Holiday, Starr Meade
(Crossway, 2008), pb., 192 pp.
Ages 6+

I got a copy of this book several months ago but waited for Christmas to read it to my children. We enjoyed it. It is sort of a “Pilgrim’s Progress meets Christmas.”

In the story Holiday is a resort where many families come for vacation. The people who come to Holiday enjoy it very much. The main character, Dylan, has always enjoyed his family’s visits to Holiday. One year, however, he discovers that the Holiday he knows is only an image of the real Holiday which is greater, deeper and more wonderful. This leads him on a quest with his cousin, Clare, to find the real Holiday. Along the way he learns about the Founder of Holiday and the more he learns he begins to long to know this Founder even more than he longs to enjoy the blessings of Holiday.

Holiday in the book is easily recognizable as Christmas and the real Holiday is a relationship with Christ and ultimately heaven. The story is then a parable of the process of conversion as Dylan discovers the reality of Holiday and then begins searching for it (thus the comparison to Pilgrim’s Progress). Many good points are made along the way such as the difficulty of pursuing salvation, how others will seek to dissuade you, the fact that you can’t earn salvation, the depth of sin in our hearts (no better than others), our need for grace, and the reality that individuals experience this journey differently (though the gospel is constant, conversion experiences vary widely).

Human responsibility is affirmed while also holding up the sovereignty of God. As Dylan learns that only the Founder can authorize him to be a part of Holiday, he longs to find this Founder. Along the way he often expresses his desire to find the Founder only to be told, by various individuals:

You can’t find the Founder,
He finds you.
He’s not just the Founder,
He’s the Finder too!

This ditty is repeated often so that it becomes humorous, while affirming a key truth.

This is a fun story with a good message. It calls children to Christ without reducing conversion to artificial steps. It affirms our need of grace while also calling for response. We gladly recommend this book to you.

Free Study Bible for First 50 Registrants

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I have previously mentioned the upcoming Ryan Center Conference featuring Dr. Don Carson. Today the Conference Facebook group sent out the following message:

The first 50 people who sign up for our April 2009 Bible Conference will receive a free copy of Tyndale’s New Living Translation Study Bible on CD-ROM!

The disc includes the complete text/features of the study bible plus the complete text of the Cornerstone Biblical Commentary volume 11 (Matthew/Mark) and volume 14 (Romans/Galatians).

Also the complete Tyndale Concise Bible Commentary is included.

In addition to all this you will receive a sample hard copy of the Genesis section of the New Living Translation Study Bible as well.This offer, made possible by the generosity of Tyndale Publishers, is actually worth the entire price of admission to the conference!

To register paste this link into your browser: http://www.uu.edu/events/WordWithinTheWord/

(Winners will receive these items on the first day of the conference at the registration table.)

Gospel in the Hospital

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Since my boys are studying the War Between the States I have read a number of books on the subject this past Fall to supplement our discussions. I came across a book published in 1957 by Broadman Press titled, Chaplains in Gray, written by Charles Pitts. It was a fascinating look at the work of pastors and chaplains in the war.

In one place Pitts quoted at length from A Letter to the Chaplains in the Army by James O. Andrew, a Methodist Episcopal bishop from Georgia. This letter contains much good advice from an aged minister. The following excerpt is a good exhortation for all of us on the importance of ministering in times of sickness and death.

It may be that the circumstances which surround you may offer but few facilities for public preaching, but remember that the pulpit is not the only place where the faithful pastor will preach … in private, by the wayside, in the tent, in the hospitals by the bedside of the sick or wounded soldier; there especially is your place.

Be much with the sick, wounded, and dying … there, while life is ebbing out, when the past is painfully remembered, and the future looms up gloomily before the vision of the dying patriot, when he thinks of home and loved ones there, and feels that his earthly mission is almost ended, then preach Jesus to him, talk to him of the cross and pardon, and of heaven, and kneel beside him, and in the language of pleading, earnest faith, commend his departing spirit to the God who made him, and the exalted Redeemer who died for him, rose again, and ever liveth to intercede for him, and then, when the vital spark is extinct, give him Christian burial. (50-51)

Psalms in the ESVSB

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Reading the notes on the Psalms in The ESV Study Bible I was struck by the assumption of the Psalms being sung, both by Israel and the church today. Regularly the introductory note on a specific Psalms includes a comment that “the singing congregation” affirms a certain truth or “When the faithful sing this Psalm…” Of course they were sung by Israel, have been sung commonly in the history of the church and still are sung by many today. But, this fact seems to be often left out of “studying” the Psalms. I am delighted to see how these notes begin with the thought of how these Psalms are to be used in worship.

May these notes help us regain that perspective, particularly for those of us in traditions that have not commonly sung the Psalms.

A Christmas Carol

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A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
Ages 7+

This year for the first time we read A Christmas Carol together as a family as we approached Christmas. I was reminded again of what a great story it really is. When I first read it a few years ago I realized how much better the actual book is than any adaptations I had ever seen. The book has a strong Christian basis and reminds the reader that the “joy of the season” is rooted not in circumstances but in the gospel. There are poignant reminders of the importance of caring for others, for making the most of life and other key truths.

Two things make it difficult to include younger children though. First, some of the ghosts are intended to be frightful and they are at times. Dickens tells his story well, but probably beyond what many younger children are ready for. Second, the language and concepts are difficult at many places. This is due to the age of the book and to the fact that Dickens was not targeting young children. Various aspects of life which Dickens mentions are no longer common, and thus can be confusing. I found myself often rewording as I read and pausing to explain. My son who turned 9 while we read this book said he enjoyed the book though he did not understand all of it- even with my explanations.

In the end, I would recommend A Christmas Carol for family reading, especially for those with older children and with parents taking time to explain. Children will catch the main points and they will be introduced to a classic to which your family and the child individually can return often in years to come.

(My link above takes you to a listing of various editions. You can find very inexpensive editions.)