Recommended books for a pastor in his 20's

Recently I was asked to recommend some books for a pastor in his twenties to read. Most of these books can be purchased from a Christian bookstore or ordered from www.christianbook.com.

It's tragic that many Christian adults, including many current church leaders and even some pastors, are so immersed in popular culture and so undisciplined that they do not turn off the television and devote themselves to daily study of God’s Word and reading of Christian books centered on God’s Word. I hope this list might encourage you to go out and find some good books to read as you start the New Year.


This is the list of books I came up with:


The J. I. Packer Collection (Packer’s best) compiled by Alistair McGrath

Exegetical Fallacies by D. A. Carson

The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God by D. A. Carson

God is the Gospel by John Piper

Their God is Too Small: Open Theism and the Undermining of Confidence in God by Bruce Ware

Why We’re not Emergent: By Two Guys Who Should Be by Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck

Young, Restless and Reformed: A Guide to the New Calvinists by Collin Hansen

Doing Theology With Huck and Jim: Parables for Understanding Doctrine by Mark Shaw



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Undercover at Planned Parenthood

With Sanctity of Human Life Sunday coming up on January 24, 2010, I'll be doing some more blogs focusing on prolife topics. Before I get to today's blog and video—which you won't want to miss—the EPM staff asked me to include a short word about my book Why Pro-Life?:

Why Pro-Life? is perfect for churches celebrating Sanctity of Human Life Sunday. EPM is offering case quantities (50 books or more) of Why Pro-Life? to churches and prolife organizations for only $1.00 per copy! Click here to order from EPM, or to access free resources, including a PDF version of the book for you to preview.

Last year I blogged about Planned Parenthood and a video that showed their willingness to accept funds specifically to abort black children. Recently I watched another video that exposed more of what goes on behind the closed doors of Planned Parenthood clinics. The video is the first in Live Action's "Rosa Acuna Project," a multi-state undercover audit documenting Planned Parenthood's abortion counseling. The project was led by Lila Rose, a 21-year-old UCLA student and Live Action (www.liveaction.org) president.

Lila writes:

In the undercover video, when the two women ask a Planned Parenthood counselor if the pregnant woman's 10-week-old unborn child has a heartbeat, the counselor emphasizes "heart tones," and answers, "Heart beat is when the fetus is active in the uterus—can survive—which is about seventeen or eighteen weeks." On the contrary, embryologists agree that the heartbeat begins around 3 weeks. Wisconsin informed consent law requires that women receive medically accurate information before undergoing an abortion.

(Click here if you're unable to view the video.

What do you think of the video?


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Christmas Memories and Anticipating the Eternal Christmas to Come

As a child, my favorite part of waking up on Christmas morning was the first waking realization that it was Christmas, which was the best day of the year, even in our nonchristian family. My first move was to jump up and look out my bedroom window to see if it had snowed last night. Usually not, but several memorable times it did. After the snow-check, my brother Lance and I would run to our stockings hung by mom in the living room. I would open the contents slowly, including the ever-present Whitman's Samplers, stretching it out, not wanting it to end.

We got the big presents on Christmas Eve, but there was a special joy in the little treasures wrapped up in the stockings. I didn't understand then that these little gifts represented the greatest gift ever given—God's Son. Now, as an adult, a father and a grandfather, I feel those same childlike feelings, a warmth and anticipation. But what I feel now on Christmas that I didn't many years ago is anticipation for a New Earth, without sin and curse and suffering—a redeemed earth where I will live and work and play and worship and serve with Christian family and friends, and countless new friends besides.

I feel a spirit of adventure not just for the passing joys of Christmas, but for an eternal Christmas, a great story where—as C. S. Lewis put it at the end of the Chronicles of Narnia—every chapter will be better than the one before.

The prayer of my heart this Christmas is that people would understand that Jesus is the person they were made by and made for—that they would understand that He loved them enough to go to the cross for them and pay the price for their sins so that they could live forever with Him on the New Earth, the eternal Heaven.

There's a true story of a Christ-loving man who lay dying. His son asked, "Dad, how do you feel?"

His father replied: "Son, I feel like a little boy on Christmas Eve."

Christmas is coming. We live our lives between the first Christmas and the second . We look back to that first Christmas and the life of Jesus on the earth for some 33 years—but we look forward to the Christmas in which the resurrected Christ will return and we, his resurrected people, will live with him forever on the New Earth. And right when we think "It doesn't get any better than this"....it will!

Wishing you and your loved ones a blessed Christmas as you celebrate the Savior's birth.


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It's not just Tiger Woods whose sins will be found out

I appreciate Tim Challies and his blog, and I liked what he had to say a week ago about Tiger Woods. I recommend that you check it out.

Here's just a portion of what Tim said:

The lesson is, do not mask your sin behind a false front. Do not construct elaborate falsehoods to mask your sin and your shame. These false fronts cannot stand forever. And the shame and pain of the ruin of a life lived out behind false pretenses will be far worse than the shame and pain of just dealing with sin immediately and properly. The temptation to mask your sin is nearly as strong as the temptation to sin in the first place. But to mask it is just to compound sin upon sin. It is merely to delay the inevitable.

Sooner or later your sin will find you out. Just weeks before all of his sins were revealed and his life was laid bare, Tiger conducted an interview in which he insisted that family comes first in his life. “Family first and golf second. Always be like that?” asked the interviewer. “Always,” replied Woods. Yet even then he was in the midst of affairs. Even then he was telling bare-faced lies, thinking that he could get away with them.

The lesson is, you cannot hide your sin forever. Your sin is going to find you out. Your sin wants to find you out. I love how J.R.R. Tolkien displays this in The Lord of the Rings, how the ring puts the ringbearer under its spell but at the same time it wants nothing more than to captivate and expose and destroy him. Its beauty and desire is really a means to enslave and expose. And all sin is like this. It promises what it can never truly deliver. It offers the desires of the heart but delivers the most tragic and unexpected results.

Do not give yourself over to sin. Sin is a cruel, cruel master. Like that ring it will draw you in and like that ring it will chew you up and spit you out. And isn’t this what Satan loves? Wouldn’t he love to draw you into sin and then enjoy watching you suffer the downfall of that sin? Do not give yourself over to sin; inevitably you will find that it is impossible to hide it forever.


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Charles Spurgeon on Security

This devotional is from Charles Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening: Daily Readings. There’s hardly any man outside of Scripture itself who speaks to me like Spurgeon does. I highly recommend Morning and Evening as a daily dose of great theology. You can also sign up to receive them each day by email.

“Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.”
— 1 Thessalonians 5:24

Heaven is a place where we shall never sin; where we shall cease our constant watch against an indefatigable enemy, because there will be no tempter to ensnare our feet.

There the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest. Heaven is the “undefiled inheritance”; it is the land of perfect holiness, and therefore of complete security.

But do not the saints even on earth sometimes taste the joys of blissful security? The doctrine of God’s word is, that all who are in union with the Lamb are safe; that all the righteous shall hold on their way; that those who have committed their souls to the keeping of Christ shall find him a faithful and immutable preserver.

Sustained by such a doctrine we can enjoy security even on earth; not that high and glorious security which renders us free from every slip, but that holy security which arises from the sure promise of Jesus that none who believe in him shall ever perish, but shall be with him where he is.

Believer, let us often reflect with joy on the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, and honour the faithfulness of our God by a holy confidence in him.

May our God bring home to you a sense of your safety in Christ Jesus! May he assure you that your name is graven on his hand; and whisper in your ear the promise, “Fear not, I am with thee.” Look upon him, the great Surety of the covenant, as faithful and true, and, therefore, bound and engaged to present you, the weakest of the family, with all the chosen race, before the throne of God; and in such a sweet contemplation you will drink the juice of the spiced wine of the Lord’s pomegranate, and taste the dainty fruits of Paradise. You will have an antepast of the enjoyments which ravish the souls of the perfect saints above, if you can believe with unstaggering faith that “faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.”


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Dockers asks men to "Wear the Pants"

Last week I got an email about Dockers pants from The Rebelution (a site I highly recommend), which I've quoted in this blog. After you read it, check out the picture below, part of Dockers' new advertising campaign. I'd like to know, what do you think about the ad?

Dockers, the khaki brand of Levi Strauss & Co., is asking men to man up and wear the pants. In a world of advertising that constantly buffets men (and women) with distorted views of manhood and womanhood, the campaign seems like a breath of fresh air. Yes, they are trying to sell pants — but there are good ways to sell pants and bad ways to sell pants. This seems like a pretty good way.

In an interview with Brandweek, Jennifer Sey, Dockers’ vice president of global marketing, said that “sensitivity, chivalry, ambition and decisiveness” are the traits they wish to highlight. The new promos hopefully will “inspire today’s men to be men,” she told Brandweek. In today’s world that is pretty bold.

Check out the “man-ifesto” on their website. What do you think about Dockers’ vision of manhood? In what ways is it accurate? In what ways is it inaccurate? What really makes a man a man?

(To send a comment to Levi Strauss regarding the Dockers pants ad, you can call the “Voice of the Consumer" comment line at 415-501-7340.)


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Animals that make you smile or say wow

When revealing his greatness to Job, God shows pride in his creative works, and mentions many animals—including the lion, eagle, and ox. He takes special delight in horses, saying, "Do you give the horse his strength or clothe his neck with a flowing mane? Do you make him leap like a locust, striking terror with his proud snorting?" (Job 39:19-20) He also refers to one of his stranger creations, the ostrich: "The wings of the ostrich flap joyfully..." (Job 39:13)

Here are photos of some of the more bizarre looking animals God has made. Some make me smile, revealing God’s sense of humor and delight. Some just make me shake my head and wonder at His creativity.

And yes, I do credit God as the Creator of these animals. After reading dozens of books on the subject, I’m convinced that natural selection happens on a small scale, varying features of otherwise similar animals, but this is small scale microevolution, and this process is incapable of producing whole new types of animals. As we read in Genesis 1-2, God is the creator of animals and kinds of animals. And He has created them for his glory, and also to tell us something about himself. "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse" (Romans 1:20).

Angora Rabbit


Aye-aye

Blobfish

Proboscis monkey



Sucker-footed bat



White-faced Saki monkey


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Does God have emotions?

The Eternal Perspective Ministries staff asked me to include this in the beginning of today's blog:

Need help choosing books and audio books as Christmas presents? Beginning Friday, December 4, you can call our new toll-free number 1-877-376-4567 and talk to EPM staff who can walk you through the many titles we have available. (Customer service available Monday—Thursday 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Friday 8:30 a.m. to noon PST.)

Now to my blog:

Some time ago theologians formulated the doctrine of God’s impassibility. They argued that God was “without passions.” Their motive was to distinguish God from the mood swings and more erratic and unstable aspects of human emotions. Unfortunately, many Christians came to believe that God doesn’t have emotions.

It’s critical that we know the heart of God. He genuinely loves and cares about us. If we believe he has no emotions, then we will never feel his love for us, nor will we experience deep love for him.

An abundance of biblical passages show that God experiences a broad range of emotions. God commands us not to “grieve” the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:30). God is said to be “angry” (Deuteronomy 1:37), “moved by pity” (Judges 2:18, ESV), “pleased” (1 Kings 3:10), and “to rejoice over you with singing” (Zephaniah 3:17). Genesis 6:6 says, “So the LORD was sorry he had ever made them and put them on the earth. It broke his heart” (NLT).

Some explain these verses as ascribing human emotions to God so that we can relate to him better. But surely God wants us to relate to him as he really is, and passages that don’t describe him as he is would mislead us. God wants us to understand that he can genuinely grieve, his heart full of pain. Surely he didn’t choose these powerful words so we would respond, “Of course, God didn’t really feel moved—he has no emotions.”

Since God made us in his image, we should assume our emotions are reflective of his, even though ours are subject to sin while his are not. Consider a small sampling of verses illustrating God’s emotions:

Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. (Exodus 32:10)

As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him.
(Psalm 103:13)


“In a surge of anger I hid my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you,” says the LORD your Redeemer. (Isaiah 54:8)

As a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you. (Isaiah 62:5)

Nor does God limit his compassion to his children. He says, “I wail over Moab, for all Moab I cry out” (Jeremiah 48:31).

A passage about God’s goodness and compassion contains a remarkable statement: “In all their distress he too was distressed” (Isaiah 63:9). A form of the same word is used to describe God’s people’s distress as to depict God’s own. Yes, our distress can involve feelings which God doesn’t feel, such as helplessness and uncertainty. But clearly God intends us to see a similarity between our emotional distress and his.

The fact that the second member of the triune God suffered unimaginable torture on the cross should explode any notion that God lacks feelings. In the suffering of Jesus, God himself suffered. No one who grasps this truth can say, “God doesn’t understand my suffering.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in a Nazi prison camp, “Only the suffering God can help.”

(You can read more from the chapter "Evil and Suffering as Seen in Scripture’s Redemptive Story," in my new book If God Is Good.)



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A few thoughts about popular movies

Before I get to today's blog, in the past I’ve mentioned http://www.christianaudio.com/, and the free titles to download each month (this month, it’s The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky.) I’ve taken advantage of the sale below, good until December 4, and you may wish to. For instance, I downloaded the entire ESV audio Bible for $7.49 and a number of others. Here’s the info about the sale:

Twice per year (and only for a limited time), christianaudio offers all our titles and most other titles for the incredibly low price of $7.49, which is a huge savings of 30 to 70% off our already discounted digital prices!

Stock up on your favorite titles and bestselling authors, clean out your wish-list, and find Christmas gifts for everyone. Starting now until December 4th (at noon PST), most digital downloads on our site are only $7.49 each.

Now on to today's blog:

I know, we’re supposed to pretend that movies have no influence on us, or our children. That way we can be cool and go with the popular drift of culture and prove that not all Christians are uptight and moralistic.

But as a father who raised two wonderful and now grown daughters (30 and 28), here is why I wouldn’t have wanted them to see the Twilight movies as impressionable teenagers:
www.wired.com/underwire/2009/11/twilight-lessons-girls-learn/

On the other hand, Nanci and I really enjoyed "Blind Side." A recent World Magazine article quoted Sandra Bullock as saying of the Christian family the movie’s about, “I now have faith in those who say they represent a faith....I’ve finally met people that walk the walk."


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