When renewal begins

After Romans 12:2 and Luke 6:43-45 

When renewal begins,

the old is gutted or

torn down, replaced 

by the new and lasting.

Renewal can be painful,

a tearing out, not unlike

removing a hurting,

diseased, rotting tooth,

extracted for our good,

replaced for our renewal. 

Renewal is a process,

not a transformation

overnight. Renewal is

lifelong, dismantling

the old to establish

the new. And sometimes

progress can only be

seen and understood

at the end. In the meantime,

all creation groans.

 

Photograph by Marek Studzinski via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

Resurrection – poem by R.S. Thomas at Kingdom Poets (D.S. Martin).

 

Why Does John Mention That He Outran Peter to Jesus’ Tomb? – A.W. Workman at Entrusted to the Dirt.

 

Jesus Lives! – Anthony Esolen at Word & Song.

 

Easter Isn’t Over – Seth Lewis.

 

“A Cowboy’s Prayer,” poem by Badger Clark – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

What we bear

After Romans 12:2 and Luke 6:43-45 

We are known

by the fruit we bear,

and we all bear

fruit. A good, healthy

trees bears good, healthy

fruit; a bad tree, and 

an evil tree, do not.

Good comes from good,

evil comes from evil.

Our hearts are storehouses

of treasure, an abundance

of treasure. Good treasure

produces good; bad treasure

produces bad. Good treasure

comes from renewal, 

renewal of your heart,

renewal of your mind,

renewal of your soul,

not from the word but

from the Spirit. Renewal

becomes transformation

becomes production

of good.

 

Photograph by Mary Jane Duford via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

On Netflix and Narnia: Three Questions and a Convicting Scene – Ryanne Molinari.

 

Hymn for Advent: Or Christ’s Coming to Jerusalem in Triumph – poem by Jeremy Taylor at Kingdom Poets (D.S. Martin). 

 

Five Years After Gentle and Lowly, Evangelicals Still Need to Remember the Love of Jesus – Samuel D. James at Digital Liturgies.

 

“Children of the Heavenly King,” hymn by John Cennick – Anthony Esolen at Word & Song.

 

Learning to Listen: Engaging with Longer Prayers in Worship – Erik Raymond at The Gospel Coalition.

 

How we are to live

After Galatians 5:22-25 

Living in the Spirit

produces fruit, tangible

things we see, that are

expensive, that we know,

within us and within

the body. We see these

things:

love, joy, peace, patience,

kindness, goodness,

faithfulness, gentleness,

self-control. We have

left behind our old lives,

its passions and desires.

We are new creatures,

living in the Spirit,

keeping in step. We are

not citizens of this world;

we are strangers to it.

Our citizenship is someplace

else. We do not earn our way

to heaven; we are the vessels

through which the light

of heaven shines.

 

Photograph by Name Gravity via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

“To Keep a True Lent,” poem by Robert Herrick – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise – poem by Walter Chambers Smith at Kingdom Poets (D.S. Martin). 

 

“Annunciation,” poem by J.C. Scharl – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

If I Had Not Been Writing the Poem – poem by Rene Emerson at Rabbit Room Poetry.

Among the Seven Golden Lamps – poem by Cody Ilardo at Power & Glory.

Tell the children

After Psalms 78:1-8 

It’s not sufficient

to study and learn,

meditating and living.

Tell the children.

 

It’s not enough 

to tithe and give

of time and treasure.

Tell the children.

 

You must do more

than teach and preach

and serve and enourage.

Tell the children.

 

You must not only

store up the word

in your heart and mind.

Tell the children.

 

Photograph by Note Thanun via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

Saint Clare – sonnet by Malcolm Guite.

 

How we imagine the life of a pastor – Bill Grandi at Living in the Shadow.

 

Kyrie – poem by David Gascoyne at Kingdom Poets (D.S. Martin).

 

I do not know this year – poem by Esther Roth at From the Wildwoods.

 

“Lochinvar,” poem by Sir Walter Scott – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

“Habits of Grace” by David Mathis

He hasn’t written the definitive book on the spiritual disciplines, David Mathis writes in his introduction to Habits of Grace: Enjoying Jesus Through the Spiritual Disciplines; that was not his intention. Instead, he says, this book is an introduction, relatively brief, aimed at helping “Christians young and old simplify their approach to their various personal habits of grace.” 

That’s what he calls spiritual disciplines – habits of grace. And he describes three overarching principles or habits of grace: hearing God’s voice (his word); having God’s ear (prayer); and belonging to his body (fellowship). 

We’re not talking high-flown theology here. We are talking the basic stuff of the Christian life, habits and practices associated with Christianity since the time of Jesus.

Study. Prayer. Fellowship.

Mathis details each of the three habits with simple, accessible things you do, and can do. For example, for study, he explains why it’s important; how to read the Bible; how to meditate passages, themes, and ideas; the role of memorization; and how to do this for the long haul. For prayer, he explains the joy of this “gift;” how to pray; and the roles that fasting and keeping a journal can play. And for fellowship, taking the broad definition (it’s more than coffee and potlucks), he describes the fire of corporate worship, what we should listen for form the pulpit; the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper; and even the role of rebuke. 

It’s the simple bedrock of the Christian life.

Mathis has co-authored and co-edited several books with theologian and scholar John Piper, including Finish the Mission, With Calvin in the Theater of God, Cross, The Romantic Rationalist: C.S. Lewis, The Pastor as Scholar & The Scholar as Pastor, Thinking Loving Doing, and Acting the Miracle. He serves as executive editor of desiringGod.org, is a pastor at Cities Church, and is an adjunct professor at Bethlehem College & Seminary in Minneapolis, Minnesota. 

Habits of Grace is full of simplicity and full of wisdom. We don’t need advanced degrees to understand, experience, and practice God’s grace. What we do need is study, prayer, and fellowship.

Top photograph by Kirill Pershin via Unsplash. Used with permission.

"Surrender" by Michael Summers Jr.

Early on in this short but impactful book titled Surrender: A Christian’s Guide to Dependence, Michael Summers Jr. asks a question that applies far beyond the Christian readers he’s addressing. It’s a commonplace today for people to tell you to “follow your heart” or “follow your passion.” 

Summers asks, why is that such bad advice? 

“Simple,” he says. “My heart is not safe. If I follow my heart there is something inside that will only lead me (1) away from God’s purposes, (2) away from God’s pleasures, and (3) away from God’s wisdom.” 

In other words, our hearts are from being faithful guides. In fact, our hearts will lead us astray. It resonates with the well-known observation by G.K. Chesterton: “When men choose not to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in nothing, they then become capable of believing in anything.” 

Summers argues for dependence – another word at serious odds with our culture’s enshrinement of individual rights. But it’s a very specific kind of dependence – the dependence that comes from surrender to God. It’s a command that sounds throughout the Old Testament and one that Jesus spoke in startling simple words: “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” 

Michael Summers Jr.

He describes surrender as an art, but it is not our artwork. It is something that “God is at work in the heart of a believer to perfect over a lifetime,” a process of conviction, confession, grief, and repentance. (Even Christians who are quick to judge their fellow believers and their churches, and that’s all of us, forget that we are not perfected but instead are in process.) And it’s a process that is ongoing and never reaching its goal in this life. 

Summers received a degree in Pastoral Studies from Northland International University and leads student ministry at Countryside Church in Overland Park, Kansas. 

Surrender is an excellent introduction to what the process of the Christian life actually is. It’s never easy; it’s fraught with challenges, battles, and obstacles. But it is wonderfully fulfilling. 

Top photograph by Steve Halama via Unsplash. Used with permission.

“Secret Power” by Dwight Moody

One of best known pitfalls of Christian life, and especially evangelical Christian life, is the reliance upon self. The culture of evangelical Christianity often contributes to this reliance – the often intense focus on a personal relationship with God, the Christian self-help publishing industry and its “10 steps to his” and the “7 steps for that, and the American work ethic of self-reliance. 

While some measure of self is certainly involved and necessary, 19^thcentury evangelist Dwight Moodywould argue that there an older and far more effective source of success, one that has been with us since the founding of the church. In Secret Power: The Secret of Success in Christian Life and Work, he explains what that resource is – the Holy Spirit. Originally published in 1881, Secret Powerhas been updated and reissued as an e-book. 

Arguably the least understood of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit made its first appearance in the New Testament after Jesus’s ascension into heaven. He told his disciples to wait for the helper, and as recorded in the Book of Acts, the helper soon came, and rather dramatically, materializing as a great wind and tongues of fire above each the disciples, enabling them to speak in foreign languages (Acts 2).

In Secret Power, Moody says the Holy Spirit is the source of Christians’ power. He says the Spirit does three essential things: imparts power, inspires hope, and gives liberty. He describes how the Spirit comes, how it manifests itself within the life of a Christian, how it functions, and how it can be hindered. It’s a relatively short work but a plain, powerful one.

Dwight Moody

Dwight Moody (1837-1899) was an evangelist, publisher, educator, writer, church founder, and a number of other things. He founded the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Moody Press, and the Northfield and Mount Hermon schools in Massachusetts. He became an evangelist when he visited Britain in 1872, and his meetings were often attended by thousands of people. One notable event at the Royal Botanic Gardens drew a crowd of between 15,000 and 30,000 people.

Secret Poweris still a solid primer on the Holy Spirit and its work. It may not answer every question, but it provides a good basis of understanding and a platform for further study.

Related: My review of How to Study the Bible by Dwight Moody.

Top photograph by Frank McKenna viaUnsplash. Used with permission.

A letter without ink

After II Corinthians 3

A letter without ink

an email without pixels

a speech without voice

a blackboard without chalk

a book without text

a gallery without paintings

a symphony without music

a table of stone without chiseling

a letter, a result,

a pouring into that transforms

speaks, changes, sounds,

turns, plays,

a letter without ink

what you are:

a pouring into

that brings righteousness

what you are:

you are the letter

I am the letter

Photograph by Kelly Sikkema via Unsplash. Used with permission.