Fri, Sep 3, 2010 1:21 PM
Anne Jackson, Permission to Speak Freely: Essays and Art on Fear, Confession, and Grace(Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010). $16.99, 224 pages.
In 2008, Anne Jackson posted the following question on her blog (FlowerDust.net): “What is one thing you feel you can’t say in church?” Her new book, Permission to Speak Freely,
provides answers to that question based largely on her own life
experience, but also on the replies to her blog post she received from
others. Her life experience provides the essays and their replies
provide the art that make up the book’s content.
Most people don’t feel they can speak freely in church because of
fear. Fear of judgment and rejection drives them to keep quiet about
their sins, hurts, and weaknesses. Fear prevents them from experiencing
the grace of God that forgives, heals, and empowers.
Jackson candidly narrates her story of finding grace after growing up
in and growing cold to God because of spiritually toxic churches. Hurt
by Christians, abused by a youth pastor, addicted to porn, Jackson ran
from God and from church, but God won her back. Rather than hiding her
struggles, Jackson began to share them with others, finding that they
struggled too. And with that confession came grace, friendship, and
change.
Many people, hurt by spiritually toxic churches, have left the church
behind entirely. Not Jackson. Nevertheless, this candid memoir
challenges the way many churches do business. They fear confession
because they want to avoid the messiness sin and addiction wreak on
people’s lives. But a church that is closed to confession cannot be open
to grace.
To find out how openness to grace may change your life and the lives
of others, read this book. Then give others permission to speak freely.
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Check out my video interview with Anne Jackson here:
Fri, Sep 3, 2010 9:12 AM
Jeremy Lott, William F. Buckley Jr.: Christian Encounters (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2010). $12.00, 166 pages.
William F. Buckley Jr. (1925-2008) made American conservatism what it is today. He founded its flagship publication (National Review),
organized its youth movement (Young Americans for Freedom), policed its
borders (rooting out Birchers, Randians and anti-Semites), argued its
intellectual superiority (Firing Line and his unsuccessful bid
for New York’s mayoralty), and promoted its presidential candidates
(Goldwater, unsuccessfully, and Reagan, successfully). He also made
mistakes (opposing the Civil Rights Act), adopted controversial
positions (legalizing marijuana), and shifted with the times (regarding
support for the War on Terror). Along the way, he somehow managed to
write dozens of books (memoirs, political essays, spy novels) and
squeeze in an exciting life (sailing the Atlantic twice, skiing in
Gstaad, playing harpsichord with a symphony). Oh, and he was a devout
Roman Catholic, although he sometimes had public disagreements with the
church about this or that aspect of its moral doctrine.
Jeremy Lott’s biography, William F. Buckley, is the most recent installment in the Christian Encounters
series published by Thomas Nelson. Other installments include St.
Patrick, St. Francis, John Bunyan, Isaac Newton, Jane Austen, and
Winston Churchill. Lott’s biography, like the series, is short and
well-written, although a tad pricey for a paperback. It is a good
starting point for those who seek a breezy introduction to the life of
American conservatism’s founder. The major downside of the biography is
that it touches on Buckley’s religious life ever so slightly, which is
strange for a book in a series called Christian Encounters.
Thu, Sep 2, 2010 4:39 PM
Here’s my interview with Anne Jackson, author of Permission to Speak Freely.
Tue, Aug 31, 2010 2:47 PM
Book Giveaway for Thursday, August 26, 2010
Contest Rules
- Eligibility: Contestants must be credentialed Assemblies of God ministers and subscribers to MinistryDirect.com. Subscription to MinistryDirect.com is free for all credentialed AG ministers. (If you have questions about your subscription, please email questions@ministrydirect.com.)
For some books, eligibility may be further limited, for example, to
senior pastors, youth pastors, children’s pastors, worship pastors,
etc.). Employees of the General Council are ineligible for this
contest.
- Entry and Winning:Eligible contestants must email George Paul Wood at gpwood@ag.org
before Thursday at 1:00 p.m. CDT. Their emails should include the
following information: (1) Name, (2) Contact info, and (3) order of
preference for books being given away that week. Books will be given
away in order of name drawn and highest book preference still
available.
- Promise and Promotion:Contestants who win a book promise to read and post of review of it on their MinistryDirect.com blog within 30 days of receiving it. MinistryDirect.com will promote the book reviews within MinistryDirect.com itself and also on Twitter and Facebook.
- Multiple Entries and Wins:Contestants may
enter the contest each week. Winning contestants are eligible to
re-enter the contest only after they have read and reviewed already won
books on their MinistryDirect.com blog.
Tue, Aug 31, 2010 12:49 PM
Mark 6:53-56 reads:
When
they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret and anchored there. As
soon as they got out of the boat, people recognized Jesus. They ran
throughout that whole region and carried the sick on mats to wherever
they heard he was. And wherever he went – into villages, towns or
countryside – they placed the sick in the marketplaces. They begged him
to let them touch even the edge of his cloak, and all who touched him
were healed. (NIV)
Have you ever gone in the opposite direction from where you intended?
That
appears to be the case here. Late the previous afternoon Jesus had sent
the disciples sailing to go ahead of him to Bethsaida. I’ve been by the
ruins of Bethsaida many times — it’s on the northeastern part of the
Lake of Galilee.
So,
if they were headed for Bethsaida, how did they end up at Gennesaret,
the fertile plain on the northwestern shore of the lake? Verse 48 gives
the clue: “the wind was against them.”
Sometimes
the winds of life take us to places we did not plan to go. But, that
does not mean we are out of God’s will. Getting blown to unintended
locations may be instead God’s pathway to open doors.
Consider
again the exhaustion of Jesus and the Twelve. One day earlier they had
listened to Jesus teach most of the day, and then served to control and
feed the crowd of 5,000 men along with women and children. Next, they
spent all night rowing in the face of a strong wind — getting nowhere.
Jesus himself had been up on a hillside praying through the night.
So, lots of work and prayer — and no sleep or rest.
Have
you ever had that experience? You deserved a break from what has
exhausted you, and just at the very moment you thought it was coming
something else intervened and you had to draw upon reserves of strength
physically, emotionally and spiritually that you did not know you had?
That’s
the case with the disciples of Jesus. With no sleep, they’re back
dealing with crowds that throng Jesus everywhere He goes. Doesn’t matter
where – in town, out of town, in the country, small places, bigger
places. Everyone is trying to get to Jesus!
The people don’t gather seeking the disciples; they come because of Jesus.
That’s
a lesson for the Church today. Do people recognize Jesus is present? Or
do they hear the Church sermonizing, lecturing, politicking —
encapsulated in its own programs and activities?
Our mission is to help people get to Jesus!
Look
at the contrast between the beginning of Mark 6 and the end. As we
entered the chapter, Jesus’ own hometown rejected Him. As we end the
chapter, people from everywhere are welcoming Him.
The
crowds thronging to Jesus show us that people respond when their needs
are met. Living in a day when there was no decent medical help, Jesus
presented their only option for a cure.
The
long and short of it is that when word gets out that the Church of
Jesus Christ meets the needs of people, they will flock in. People with
needs respond to Jesus. They may not always stay with Jesus once their
needs are met — but that does not prevent Jesus from helping them.
Would you join me in this prayer of response?
Lord
Jesus, You did not have smart advertising campaign to draw people. You
just went about doing good — using the power God had given You on behalf
of others. Help me to use the abilities You have given me to help
others also.
Mon, Aug 30, 2010 1:17 PM
If you haven't been watching Doug Clay's Monday Motivator videos, you've been missing out on some great spiritual insights. I love the concluding line of today's message: "A vertical perspective can help keep you from a horizontal panic attack.
Sun, Aug 29, 2010 9:01 PM
Over the past forty-two days, we have studied Jesus’ teaching on prayer in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6:5–15), focusing specifically on the six petitions of the Lord’s Prayer (verses 9–13). If we want to experience God through prayer, we must:
- make time and space for God (verses 5–9a),
- focus on God’s powerful love for us (verse 9b),
- prioritize God’s agenda for our lives (verse 10),
- ask God for whatever we need (verse 11),
- seek God’s forgiveness and send it to others (verse 12),
- and trust God in trying times (verse 13).
In this epilogue, I want to conclude our study with a brief note
about the traditional ending of the Lord’s Prayer: “for yours is the
kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”
Like most modern translations, the New International Version
(NIV)—which I have been using throughout this study—relegates the ending
to a footnote rather than including it in the main body of the text.
Why? Because the earliest and best manuscripts of Matthew’s Gospel do
not include the ending. Nor do any copies of Luke’s Gospel. It appears
that Jesus did not teach his disciples to pray, “for yours is the
kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.” The ending was added
sometime later in the early centuries of Christian history.
But should we continue to pray this ending even though it is merely
traditional? As far as I am concerned, “Yes” and for three reasons:
First, the sentiment the ending expresses is wholly biblical. Compare it with the various doxologies in Revelation—4:15; 5:12, 13; 7:12; 11:15, 16–18; 12:10; 19:1, 2—for
example. It says essentially what they say: God is the kind of God who
deserves to rule over the creation he made, he has the power to do so,
and he does so with such unfailing love and justice that he deserves all
the honor and praise we can give him.
Second, we should continue to pray the traditional ending because it is useful for worship.
Many Americans cannot summon up any sympathy for history and tradition.
We always look for what is “new and improved” rather than what is
“tried and true.” When it comes to ending a prayer, however, I doubt
that the traditional ending can be improved upon for its beauty or
truthfulness.
And third, we should continue to pray the traditional ending because, in the final analysis, God is what life is all about.
When we pray, our first request is that his name—that is, his
reputation, fame, and honor—be hallowed. Why not conclude the prayer by
exalting his kingdom, power, and glory? Too often, we live life as if
our concerns were all that mattered. The Bible teaches us, however, to
be ruthless God-centered, God-focused, and God-saturated. As John Stott
has written, “in the Lord’s Prayer, Christians are obsessed with God….
True Christian prayer is always a preoccupation with God and his glory.”
Only as we give our best attention to God’s concerns will we find our
own needs met (Matt. 6:33).
So let us pray to “our Father in heaven,” for his is “the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.”
Sat, Aug 28, 2010 6:27 PM
One of my father’s best sermons is entitled, “How to Be a Failure.” It goes something like this…
These days, we often hear messages about how to be a success. Rarely,
however, do we hear a straightforward message about how to be a
failure. And yet, the fear of failure drives people more than hope of
success, so perhaps we ought to pay attention to what makes for a
“successful” failure. The story of the feeding of the 5,000 (Luke 9:10–17) offers us three principles that, if followed, will help us fail every time.
The first principle is this: Look at the size of the task.
Often, we face tasks that are, from our vantage point, gargantuan in
size. Certainly the twelve apostles faced a seemingly impossible task
when Jesus said, “You give them something to eat.” The them in
this case meant 5,000 men. Adding in wives and children, the crowd
easily numbered between 10,000 and 15,000 people. If you want to be a
failure, you must always keep the size of the task first and foremost in
mind.
Second, look at how little you have. If you were asked to feed
15,000 people, what would you do? I suppose you would put together a
budget and find a caterer who could deliver the maximum amount of food
at a minimal cost. What if, however, you had neither money nor caterer?
Then, quite frankly, you would be one of the twelve apostles.
How much food do you need to feed 15,000 people? What restaurant can
supply that food on short order? How much is it going to cost? What do
you do if you do not have enough money? What do you do if there is no
restaurant in the first place? These are the kinds of questions the
apostles no doubt asked, and they are the questions asked by everyone
who wants to be a spiritual failure.
The third principle of failure is this: Leave God out of the picture.
From the disciples’ point of view, there simply was not enough food to
feed the crowd—only five loaves and two fish. From Jesus’ point of view,
this was more than enough. The difference between their two
perspectives was a difference of faith. Jesus did—and the disciples did
not—trust God to make up the difference between their huge need and
their meager resources to meet it.
The world in which we live is filled with many temptations and
trials. Indeed, it is a world at war, spiritually speaking, and we must
be appropriately armed. Often, we feel overwhelmed by our trying times
and too weak to fight the battle at hand. Do you want to be a failure?
Look at the size of the task. Look at how little you have. And leave God
out of the picture. If you want to succeed, however, start with God.
Through prayer, we bring our overwhelmed weakness to God and receive
power to live another day.
Fri, Aug 27, 2010 9:05 AM
In Ephesians 6:14–18,
Paul describes “the full armor of God”: “Stand firm then, with the belt
of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of
righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness
that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up
the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming
arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of
the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all
occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be
alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.”
Although drawn from the weapons of a first-century Roman soldier, the
armor Paul describes has modern counterparts. We might speak of the web
belt of truth, the body armor of righteousness, the combat boots of
peace, the Kevlar helmet of salvation, and the M-16 of the Spirit, for
example. However “the full armor of God” is described, notice three
things about it:
First, it is intellectual, moral, and spiritual in nature. Notice the key words: truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, word of God.
If the devil’s battle strategy consists of deception and distortion,
our defense must be based on discernment. We must know the truth and be
capable of acting upon it, in other words. Our knowledge of the truth
comes from the word of God, that is, the Bible. According to Hebrews 4:12:
“the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged
sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and
marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” But not just
anyone can use the Bible rightly. It takes a certain kind of character,
just as it takes a certain kind of training to fight with a sword or
properly shoot an M-16. The beginning point of that character is faith,
which leads to salvation and results in “righteousness, peace, and joy
in the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 14:17).
Second, the armor of God is primarily defensive in nature. It
protects us from “the flaming arrows of the evil one.” Only the
sword—the Bible—is an offensive weapon. When used properly, the Bible is
“able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus,”
and it is “useful for…training in righteousness, so that the man of God
may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16–17).
Third, God’s armor is best used in the context of a prayerful life.
“Pray in the Spirit on all occasions,” Paul writes, “with all kinds of
prayers and requests.” Soldiers can only win battles when they are in
constant contact with the general’s staff, which lays out the battle
plan, coordinates forces, allocates reserves, and leads the army to
victory. The same is true of Christians in their relationship to God.
We cannot even begin to win the spiritual war we are fighting without him.
Thu, Aug 26, 2010 3:43 PM
youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7unBt8fOx4I
In this vlog, I…
- review The Heresy of Orthodoxy
- mention my interviews of Roger Patterson (Leading from the Second Chair) and Tony Morgan (Killing Cockroaches)–I’ll post the video when it becomes available
- showcase a bunch of books I’ve received in the mail and can’t wait to read, including: The Complete Christian Guide to Understanding Homosexuality, Naked Surrender, The Good and Beautiful Community, The Holiness Manifesto, Thinking in Tongues, and Justified in the Spirit
- highlight Bill Otley’s MinistryDirect.com review of Christians at the Border
- encourage AG pastors to enter Rich Earl’s contest to win a copy of his new devotional book, The Shepherd’s Balm
- and giveaway Living in the Spirit kit, The Pentecostal Library for PC Study Bible, Good News about Injustice, Welcoming the Stranger, and The Social Justice Handbook
That’s a lot of talking for 10 minutes.
Enjoy!