my burg

Bible reading for Nov 18.  1 Chronicles 11-12. "All these, men of war, arrayed in battle order, came to Hebron with full intent to make David king over all Israel. Likewise, all the rest of Israel were of a single mind to make David king." (12:38)  HEROES. These chapters look back to 2 Sam 23 and the list of David's "mighty men" (Heb., ha-gibborim ). As postmodern as we may be, most of us still long for heroes, whether it be a political figure, athlete, soldier, scientist, or artist. It may only be imaginary, like Iron Man or Wonder Woman, but we still cheer for men and women of courage and strength who accomplish great things. King David attracted a wide assortment of people from various tribes (both within and outside of Israel) to be his inner guard or to serve as military commanders. They had various skills and abilities, for example, ambidexterity with weapons (12:2) or the gift of wisdom (12:32). Many of them had followed David in the wilderness while in e...

“Sound theology has its source in a founding drama with its revealed doctrines . Through the drama and the doctrine together the Spirit produces doxology – repentance and trust – and brings us into the unfolding story of God, no longer as spectators, but as disciples on pilgrimage to the everlasting city.”   ~ Michael Horton, Pilgrim Theology: Core Doctrines for Christian Disciples (Zondervan Academic, 2013)

According to a TIME magazine article in 2015 , "The average attention span for the notoriously ill-focused goldfish is nine seconds, but according  to a new study from Microsoft Corp., people now generally lose concentration after eight seconds, highlighting the affects of an increasingly  digitalized lifestyle on the brain."  The article goes on to cite a dubious upside to this: "On the positive side, the report says our ability to  multitask has drastically improved in the mobile age."   I fear, for myself and for others, that this also affects our study of God's word.  A brief passage, or a devotional moment (aka a "devo"), cannot replace more  prolonged meditation and application of God's word.  Psalm 1 tells us that the way to flourish and bear fruit in the Lord is to meditate on his Law "day and night", and to be rooted in the Scriptures like a tree near a life-giving stream of water. To do otherwise is to let our lives beco...

"Marriage and family can easily become just a respectable form of selfishness... If we marry mainly to meet our own needs, then our marriages will be just that: good-looking masks for selfishness. It is a short step from 'loving you' to 'loving me and wanting you.' It is too easy for Christians to think of marriage as a discipleship-free zone. So that outside of marriage we talk about sacrifice, taking up our cross, and so on. But inside marriage we just talk about how to communicate better, how to be more intimate, how to have better sex, how to be happy." ~ Christopher Ash, Married for God: Making Your Marriage the Best It Can Be (Crossway, 2016).

Have enjoyed reading Randy Pope's new book, Insourcing: Bringing Discipleship Back to the Local Church (Zondervan, 2013), part of their Leadership Network Innovation Series. This book, along with Rainer and Geiger's Simple Church , is calling the church back to the process of actually making disciples , rather than merely running programs, maintaining growth, and producing worship services.  Both books are reminiscent of Robert Coleman's classic, The Master Plan of Evangelism .  Randy Pope interviewed Ken Blanchard, who shared the diagram below.  In business it is important to follow this process in training new leaders: first, you tell them what to do (directives), then you coach them on how to do these (coaching), then back off a bit and be available for advice and encouragement (support), and finally to release them to do it on their own (delegation).  Blanchard said, never, never, never try to go from directives to delegation.  This produces disillusioned...