The 12 Stones

Hi, nice to talk to you again. It's been too long.

I've learnt a lot from God since we last were together (always grateful to God for that). Can I share some?

1) In 1 Samuel 3 is the story of when God first spoke to Samuel the prophet (and Israel itself again, after God's previous long absence from speaking during the time of Eli the prophet). Samuel hears God, and then at the end of 1 Samuel 3 the narrative says,

And Samuel grew, and the LORD was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground (1 Samuel 3:19).

That last phrase - and let none of his words fall to the ground - God really hit me with that. I've been praying for that for myself, the ministry team here, and the Moore College mission team that's been at Mittagong this week. How awful that the words I speak could fall to the ground. May God keep them all off it.

2) The 12 stones - from Joshua 4:2-20 - placed by Joshua as a way of remembering God - ultimately that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the LORD is mighty, that you may fear the LORD your God forever (Joshua 4:24). Again, hit me between the eyes and made me take the picture above.

3) I've been entranced by the idea of Christian spiritual formation. What a horrible phrase. It's otherwise known as Christian spirituality or Christian formation. Again, these are all horrible names. Basically it's just the idea of daily Christian living. Living in Christ in his fullness and what that looks like.

So, I've been reading Henri Nouwen, Dallas Willard, Bruce Demarest, Eugene Peterson and Marva Dawn. May I strongly recommend any of these writers. Check them on Google books. I think it's what's been missing from my Christian life and education: simply what Christian living looks like and thinks like and acts like.

Jesus as KING as well as SAVIOUR is what I hope to pass on to others in my preaching and speaking. May God continue the transformation.

Preaching and the Positive Mind

My preaching is an evolving animal - it is still developing and forming. They say the first year of full-time ministry is a year of preaching experimentation for the young minister!

I have been inspired recently to preach positively - at least as much as the context of the bible passage I have on the day will allow.

Some reflections on this:

My first minister as a Christian, Richard Quadrio, said to us once to always preach grace, not guilt. Guilt, he said, is always a 'too easy' default.

Guilt doesn't achieve anything. Lots of sermons follow this route:

• This is what God says in this passage
• You should do this
• You are not doing it
• Try harder

Sure, God can work within this pattern of preaching. But this gives so little motivation for real change. Also, it tends to focus attention more on us than God.

People are motivated to do what God says when they hear how loving and how good God is, not just how bad we are. Guilt brings on bad feelings with no hope for change. Preaching grace brings hope and desire to change because God is so good.

I keep reading quotes such as this:

Preach with such life and awakening seriousness...and with such easy method and with such variety of wholesome matter that the people may never be weary of you. Pour out the rehearsal of the love and the benefits of God, open so to them the privileges of faith, the joys of hope, that they may never be hungry. (Swinnock, The Christian Man's Calling, 3:905)

One of my mentors, David Miles (a wonderful preacher and example of grace-filled preaching) recommended the book Preaching and the Positive Mind by P T Forsyth, which deals with this subject. I am about to read it. With the link you can read it with me!

With thanks to I Love a Sunny Day who wrote some of this post.

What is Good Preaching?

What is good preaching? What is good preaching?

If you listen to some people it's all about line by line preaching - leave the application for the people in the congregation to work out for themselves as God leads them by his Spirit. To me, this is more like teaching a course than preaching.

For others, it's all about the application of God's word rather than the explanation of it. This can prove to be dangerous as it can reveal more about the speaker's opinions than faithfully preaching what God is trying to tell us in his word (it is also lazy - not doing the hard work of praying/understanding/wrestling with the text).

I was reading something the other night on this preaching dilemma.

The author wrote that pastoral preaching should divide up something like this: half explanation of the Bible (ie expositional preaching) and half application. Otherwise, he wrote, you are actually teaching rather than pastorally preaching to your congregation...

I have heard all of the above, and probably been guilty of all of the above at some point. It's an interesting discussion.