reading

A Sabbatical Reading Review

In last week’s post, I shared a thank you to Wilkesboro Baptist Church for the opportunity to take a sabbatical. One of my primary activities during the several weeks away from the regular rhythms of work was reading. As followers of Jesus, we are always to be learning. One of my favorite passages comes from 2 Timothy 4:13 where Paul requests that Timothy bring books and parchments when he visits. Even while in prison during the final stages of his life, Paul was learning. I commend reading to you as a means of spiritual growth.

Reading is one of my hobbies and joys. Over the past several years, I’ve developed the practice of tracking my reading annually. Tracking anything functions as an accountability, and it lets me look back for review and reflection.

For me, books on theology, apologetics, ministry, and leadership get my mind going. I try not to read these at bedtime or I’m likely not to sleep. During the sabbatical I finished several books that I had started and read several other books that made an impression on me. You can find more suggested reading on my reading page. In this post, I’ll share some short reviews of several of the books I recently completed. Look for additional reviews in the weeks ahead.

What is Wrong with the World? by Tim Keller

I’ve been a fan of Tim Keller’s preaching and writing for a long time. His books on Preaching and Prayer have been helpful for my spiritual development. What is Wrong with the World? was compiled by Kathy Keller, after Tim’s death. It comes from sermons Keller preached on the doctrine of sin. This book expands the basic view of sin as breaking God’s law to the various ways that sin permeates and damages us.

Here’s a great quote from the book that I used this week in my sermon: “The real reason you keep having problems with these enslaving habits is because you don’t have an appetite for something better. I’m not talking about believing in God. I’m not talking even about obeying God. I’m talking about tasting God… The way to get out from under the enslaving habits—the secret to freedom from spiritual slavery—is to worship. You need deep, heartfelt worship. Worship that moves you to tears. Worship that fills you with joy. You have to sense the overwhelming greatness of who God is and what he has done for you.” (169-170).

The Pastor Theologian: Resurrecting an Ancient Vision by Gerald Heistand and Todd Wilson

I’ve had this book on my shelf for a while and just got around to reading it. Heistand and Wilson are pastors with a heart for doctrinal thinking and pastoral depth in writing. They argue that pastors should be theologians. For them, the pastor should make time for deep reading in theology and even for writing theologically. I was convicted by this book and inspired to finish one writing project and begin work on another.

Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport

Several years ago, I read Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport and was not disappointed by Deep Work. Our ability to concentrate intentionally has been drastically affected by the technologies that were supposed to make our lives simpler and easier. While our smartphones can simplify tasks and make communication easier, they can also suck attention and lead to wasted time. Newport suggests methods of scheduling and planning where distractions are removed and intentional work is done. His recommendations partially shaped how I organized my time for thinking, reading, and writing over the past several weeks.

The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer

Having read a couple of Comer’s books now, I believe his works serve as a helpful correction to some contemporary struggles in our walk with God. I’m grateful that as a writer, Comer doesn’t simply observe/describe problems, but he offers solutions. However, some of his solutions are not as helpful as I think they could be. (More on that in the highlight that follows: A Heart Aflame for God). Here are some quotes from The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry:

  • Dallas Willard, “There is nothing else. Hurry is the great enemy of spiritual life in our day. You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.” (19)
  • Corey ten Boom, “If the devil can’t make you sin, he’ll make you busy.” (20) 
  • Carl Jung, “Hurry is not of the devil; hurry is the devil.” (20) 
  • John Mark Comer, “Love is painfully time consuming…. Hurry and love are incompatible.” (23)
  • Non-Christian Mary Oliver, “Attention is the beginning of devotion.” (53) 
  • Walter Brueggemann, “People who keep sabbath live all seven days differently.” (150)
  • Wall street banker: “We must shift America from a needs to a desires culture… People must be trained to desire, to want new things, even before the old have been completely consumed. We must shape a new mentality. Man’s desires must overshadow his needs.” (182) 

Comer offers quotes, insights, and statistics that are meaningful. I find his insights on Sabbath and rest a helpful reminder for over busy people. In fact, I interacted with two other books on this sabbatical that directly addressed Sabbath: The Rest of God by Mark Buchanan and Subversive Sabbath by A. J. Swoboda. I would generally commend all three books to you with the following caveat. Attempts today to modernize a Sabbath practice can easily fall into traps of legalism which Swaboda and Buchanan both admit. Further, the language of Sabbath is confusing. Observing Sabbath is the Old Testament command found in the 10 Commandments in Exodus 20:8-11 and repeated in Deuteronomy 5:12-15. God modeled rest in Genesis 1 after six days of creation, and God commanded Sabbath to his people in the Old Testament. The Sabbath was one of the ways (along with circumcision and the Law) that made his people distinct from the idolatrous world around them. By Jesus’ day, Pharisees and others had added a great number of Sabbath day laws to make sure that one kept the Sabbath. Jesus corrected the Pharisees’ legalism and challenged their assumptions by healing on the Sabbath day and by his statement in Mark 2:27-28 : “And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

I think contemporary expressions of setting aside a day of rest and worship are important, and I’m generally thankful for Comer, Buchanan, and Swodoba. However to call the day we set aside to rest and worship a Sabbath day is to confuse Christian living with Jewish Law. Even if we practice rest and worship on Sundays, we are not practicing Sabbath. New Testament believers quickly adopted the first day of the week, Sunday, as the Lord’s day in remembrance of the resurrection. Another reminder about Sabbath practice for contemporary believers is that is is not reissued as a New Testament command. Remember, it was a day that the nation of Israel was to set apart for God. But many new believers in the early church were slaves or those who had no control over their weekly calendars so a Jewish Sabbath would have been largely impossible for them to keep. Even throughout history, Sabbath practitioners have had to make exceptions for those in war, working in hospitals, or emergency responders. Our own national history reflects that within the past generation, the general tendency of society to set aside a day (Sunday) as different has been largely ignored. Liquor laws that prevented the sell of alcohol on Sunday were a remnant of New Testament application of the Sabbath principle.

The principle of rest and worship is what I believe Christians should take away from the reminders in the books above. When we set aside a day for rest and worship and create a regular rhythm of giving one day a week devoted to God through Christ, we are embracing the intention of the Sabbath day. We do need rest, and we must worship. Ultimately, Jesus is our Sabbath (Hebrews 3-4). He fulfilled the Sabbath when he fulfilled the Law (Matthew 5:17), Jesus must be the focus of our day of rest and worship. Thus, gathering on Sundays for worship is the beginning of continuing a biblical pattern of rest, worship, and reset.

Naturally, we will have questions about setting apart a day for rest and worship. What should we do? What must we not do? Etc. Mark Buchanan offered great advice to those questions in his book The Rest of God when he said, “We should do what gives life on our day of rest/worship.”

A Heart Aflame for God: A Reformed Approach to Spiritual Formation by Matthew Bingham

Bingham offers an excellent response to spiritual formation from a Reformed perspective. Much writing on spiritual formation has found practices and ideas from a variety of doctrinal traditions. While evangelicals can certainly learn from formational practices from alternative denominational influences, we ought to be attentive to where those influences derive.

I appreciated A Heart Aflame for God as a Reformed explanation for spiritual formation. Bingham argues that spiritual formation should be Word-centered: including Bible reading and Scripture meditation as the foundation for Christian prayer. Spiritual practices, disciplines, and formational elements can be more than that, but Bingham’s focus is on biblical simplicity. Following are some quotes from the book that delineate Bingham’s arguments.

  • Archibald Alexander, “Those Christians, therefore, who are most diligent in attending upon the Word in public and private will be most likely to make progress in piety.” (72)
  • B.B. Warfield, “Life close to the Word of God is life close to God.” (72) 
  • Bingham, “Reformed spirituality is word-centered spirituality.” (75) 
  • John Flavel, “Keep the Word and the Word will keep you. It is the slipperiness of our hearts in reference to the Word that causes so many slips in our lives… We never lose our hearts till they have first lost the efficacious and powerful impressions of the Word.” (91)
  • Charles Hodge, “We cannot make progress in holiness unless we devote much time to the reading, and hearing, and meditating upon the word of God, which is the truth by which we are sanctified.” (109)
  • Thomas Watson, “Meditation is ‘serious thinking upon God.'” (135)
  • In reference to meditation and slowing down Bingham writes, “Life is getting faster. And while some might be inclined to dismiss this accelerating pace as neutral or even beneficial, there are good reasons to suspect that our habitual exposure to this hyper-paced world has serious consequences for our capacity to slow down and pay attention to things that really matter.” (145). This is why we need meditation on the Word.

In short, Bingham provides a helpful strategy of Bible, meditation, and prayer as the primary means of spiritual formation. I would commend Bingham’s book and Comer’s book together as a beneficial counterbalance.

In the weeks to come, I hope to post additional reviews of some other books. For those interested and willing, reading is a most excellent way to grow and to be challenged. Some of what we read ought to challenge our currently held notions. Some of what we read ought to reinforce our doctrines and convictions. If you are a reader, consider some of the books above as reading options for the coming year. Or look through the reading list here on my website. If you are not a reader, may I encourage you to start. Begin with God’s Word. Read it every day. After that, pick one book and finish it. You’ll be amazed at how reading can impact your thinking and even your spiritual life. It is also a way to combat the relentless pace of media, advertisements, and the distractions of today’s technological environment.

Let’s read to the glory of God.

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Covid-19: 9 Reasons I am Thankful a Year Later

It was a year ago when the Covid-19 lockdowns became real. On top of the pandemic, this past year was full of political division and difficulty. Words that could describe 2020: uncertainty, turmoil, division, isolation, distancing, death.

All of us have been affected by 2020. Some of us felt the struggles of isolation and depression. Some of us became sick (with Covid-19) or other illnesses. Some of us faced the very real challenges of grief and losing a loved one. For all of us 2020 was challenging. For many 2020 was difficult. For others 2020 was devastating.

If you are reading this, regardless of the difficulties you’ve had this past year, you have some things for which to be thankful.

We don’t have to be thankful for everything we’ve experienced, but we should remain thankful in what we’ve experienced. The apostle Paul penned the following words from prison to a church that needed reminding about being thankful.

4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:4-8 (emphasis mine)

In reflecting on this past year, here are some of things that I’m thankful for.

During this past year, God taught me to be more thankful for time. A friend of mine observed that it seemed March 2020 happened just yesterday and on another hand that it happened 10 years ago. I’m sure we can all relate to his sentiment. As I was reflecting on this, God reminded me that he created time, is outside of time, and is not bound by time. God gives us time as a gift to spend. 2020 was a year that reminded me the privileges of time with the Lord, time with family, and time with others.

During this past year, God taught me to be thankful for the difficult things. In Scripture, the people God used most often faced difficult circumstances in life. Noah spent more than 100 year building an ark. Abraham left his home. Joseph was sold as as slave and falsely sent to prison. Moses was a refugee in the wilderness. Job. David. Jesus. We could go on, but the biblical data is clear. God uses difficult circumstances to shape and mature us. The isolation, suffering, grief, uncertainty, and division of the past year have been challenging and at times devastating. But in the hands of the Master, these circumstances can also form us spiritually. I’m thankful for how God used the stresses, uncertainties, and difficulties of this past year to point me to him.

During this past year, God taught me to be more thankful for my family. For so many families, distance learning and the loss of extracurricular activities have been difficult. But my wife has been a hero playing the role of teacher, mom, wife, and director of a non-profit. Family life together figuring out school, work, and family day-by-day has been a challenge. But God gave me an exceptional wife who managed the details of this past year spectacularly. We put the boys back in school recently, and I’ll confess that I miss them at home during the day. The pandemic year spent at home together is a time we are certain to never forget.

During this past year, God taught me to be thankful for frontline workers. Here are some of my heroes from the past year: teachers, anybody working in the hospital, and all those working at grocery stores and in the transportation industry. I’m sure I’m leaving other frontline workers out, but for any of us who were able to isolate safely with resources, there are many people for whom we should be thankful. I’m grateful for the teachers who were forced to adapt from in-person to remote to in-person to modified. And next time you think about it, whisper a prayer of thanks for those in the hospital that dealt with the tragedies and deaths of this year. If you had food and necessities during your isolation remember that someone packed, shipped, stocked, delivered, or prepared it. It is easy to take our frontline workers for granted. Don’t. Be thankful for those who had to work when everyone else was told to stay home.

During this past year, God taught me to be thankful for my church family. God called me to be a pastor, and I love my calling. But this year has been uniquely disconcerting. Shutdowns, reopening, disinfecting, distancing, online worship are things they don’t teach you in seminary. But during this entire year, our church family at Wilkesboro Baptist has remained gracious and encouraging. Our church generously gave more than our budgeted needs, participated in online worship, continued serving community mission partners, and prayed for our church and staff. We’ve had no major arguments, frustrations, and fusses. I’m grateful for a church family that’s been supportive, generous, and involved during this challenging year.

During this past year, God taught me to be thankful for the little things. I never thought I would miss seeing people smile. But with everyone masking up, one has to look closely at the eyes to see a smile. I’m grateful for the waves, elbow bumps, and greetings that have replaced hugs and handshakes. I’m grateful for moments in the sunshine and the little things that God does to remind me of his presence. It is good for us to pause and be thankful for the little things in our daily experiences.

During this past year, God taught me to be thankful for good books. Someone once said that we are most shaped by the people we meet, the places we go, and the books we read. With limited opportunities to meet new people and travel during this pandemic, reading is one thing that I could do. This past year gave me the opportunity to finish Francis Schaeffer’s complete works, subscribe to audible.com membership to engage with books when I’m unable to sit down, and to read many other books. In addition to Schaeffer’s works, here are a few favorite reads from my pandemic year. Favorite philosophy/theology book: Pagans and Christians in the City, by Steven Smith. Favorite commentary: Jeremiah and Lamentations: From Sorrow to Hope (Preaching the Word Series), by Philip Graham Ryken. Favorite biography: Leonardo da Vinci, by Walter Isaacson. Favorite leadership book: Eat That Frog, Brian Tracy. A book that challenged me: Dopesick, by Beth Macy. Most inspiring book of this past year: The Hiding Place, Corrie Ten Boom.

During this past year, God taught me to be thankful for good friends. I needed my friends this past year. God gave me good pastor friends to help navigate the changing responsibilities of pastoring in a pandemic. God gave me friends who would just listen and friends who just needed me to listen. While in-person interaction with friends has been different during this year, contacts and conversations have been just as necessary. I’m thankful for those friends that have encouraged, inspired, and challenged me.

During this past year, God taught me to be thankful for his unchanging mission. There are many everyday circumstances that have changed during this pandemic. But “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). Our mission to lead our neighbors and the nations to follow Jesus is changeless. Since moving worship services online, we’ve had the opportunity to reach more people with the message of the gospel. God sent unbelievers to our church, and during the course of the year we saw some of them become Christ-followers. We continue to witness God at work in the lives of others. It is important to remember that while many things in our daily experience have changed, the most important things remain the same.

What are some of the things you are thankful for from this past year? What are some of the challenges you’ve overcome during this past year?

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