23 And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. 24 And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. 25 And they went and woke him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing.” 26 And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. 27 And the men marveled, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?”

You can listen to Sunday’s sermon below, or you can download it here.

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I came across a story today about a Chinese elementary school.  The same problem plagues our own country.  We should learn something from their example.

A Chinese elementary school is teaching its boys to be more masculine as it’s worried they are turning into sissies.

Qinlinglu Elementary School in Zhengzhou, Henan province, has launched an initiative called ‘Looking for a Real Man’ to encourage boys to act more like boys.

As part of this the youngsters are taught how to act more masculine and must take an oath swearing to act like ‘real men’, reports the Dahe Daily.

Wang Jianhua, who has been teaching at the school for 14 years, says he has noticed that boys have become “more and more girly”.

He said: “During class breaks their favorite game is elastic band skipping, which is a typical girl’s game.

This reminds me of Silly Bandz, which have been outlawed for boys in the Thompson household.

“And the boys are very fragile. If we just scold them a bit they will cry out loudly.”

Meet me at the ballpark this weekend.  I’ll show you example after example.

43 After the two days he departed for Galilee. 44 (For Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own hometown.) 45 So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast. For they too had gone to the feast.

46 So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill. 47 When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. 48 So Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” 49 The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” 50 Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. 51 As he was going down, his servants [3] met him and told him that his son was recovering. 52 So he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour [4] the fever left him.” 53 The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” And he himself believed, and all his household. 54 This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee.

You can listen to the last sermon in this series below, or you can download it here.

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Usually Fridays are reserved for book reviews, but since I haven’t had the time to blog lately due to my schedule, I decided to take a minute and alert you about a trendy new site that targets young girls.

The site is called My-Minx.  I had not heard about this site until reading the summer issue of Salvo magazine.  According to Salvo, My-Minx is a female tween Second Life with an even stronger emphasis on sex and even more enticing opportunities to spend real-life money.

Here is a further description of the site from Salvo.

After creating an avatar and outfitting her with items purchased from one of several virtual lingerie stores, young girls can pay for additional “pink pounds” (the currency of choice in this tawdry online world) on their cell phones  …  What they buy is more shocking still.  To raise their avatar’s level of happiness, girls are required to purchase plastic-surgery procedures.  Other options include successfully using contraception or foregoing contraception in favor of the morning-after pill.

My simple advice to all parents: don’t let your daughter anywhere near this site.

What is the main responsibility of a shepherd in a local church?

Here are a few thoughts from the New Testament, specifically from Paul to young Timothy:

1 Timothy 4:7, “Train yourself for godliness”

1 Timothy 4:11, “Command and teach these things”

1 Timothy 4:16, “Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers”

1 Timothy 6:11-12, “But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. 12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses”

1 Timothy 6:20, “O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you”

But according to a recent Op-Ed piece in The New York Times, American congregations are asking for something radically different than Paul.  G. Jeffrey MacDonald begins his article by writing, “THE American clergy is suffering from burnout, several new studies show. And part of the problem, as researchers have observed, is that pastors work too much. Many of them need vacations, it’s true. But there’s a more fundamental problem that no amount of rest and relaxation can help solve: congregational pressure to forsake one’s highest calling.”

He goes on to explain,

The pastoral vocation is to help people grow spiritually, resist their lowest impulses and adopt higher, more compassionate ways. But churchgoers increasingly want pastors to soothe and entertain them.

This reality puts the pastor in a bit of a pickle: stand on conviction or pursue job security?  It really does come down to these two options.

As a result, pastors are constantly forced to choose, as they work through congregants’ daily wish lists in their e-mail and voice mail, between paths of personal integrity and those that portend greater job security. As religion becomes a consumer experience, the clergy become more unhappy and unhealthy.

Although there are many repercussions for a Martin Luther, “Here I stand,” mentality, the consequences of tickling ears and filling sheep with cotton candy is eternally damning.

The result of such a stand can be a strong push back from the congregation.  The author of this article relates his own story as an example.

I have faced similar pressures myself. In the early 2000s, the advisory committee of my small congregation in Massachusetts told me to keep my sermons to 10 minutes, tell funny stories and leave people feeling great about themselves. The unspoken message in such instructions is clear: give us the comforting, amusing fare we want or we’ll get our spiritual leadership from someone else.

So what answer does MacDonald provide?

Clergy need parishioners who understand that the church exists, as it always has, to save souls by elevating people’s values and desires. They need churchgoers to ask for personal challenges, in areas like daily devotions and outreach ministries.

When such an ethic takes root, as it has in generations past, then pastors will cease to feel like the spiritual equivalents of concierges. They’ll again know joy in ministering among people who share their sense of purpose. They might even be on fire again for their calling, rather than on a path to premature burnout.

It is easy to say that I would never fall into this category of compromise.  I must, however, be honest.  There, but for the grace of God, go I.

27 Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” 28 So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” 30 They went out of the town and were coming to him.

31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. 35 Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. 36 Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”

39 Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”

Listen below or download sermon here.

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19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”

This is a guest post by Ross Bacon.

If you were to go to your local Christian bookstore today you would find dozens of books dealing with the subject of behavior change or modification.  Tim Chester is one of the most recent authors to tackle this issue.  However, he does so in a Christ-centered way in You Can Change.   He has his PhD from the University of Wales and is the author of other books such as Total Church and Delighting in the Trinity.  He is currently the co-director of The Porterbrook Network and director of the Northern Training Institute in the United Kingdom.

In You Can Change, Tim Chester approaches behavior transformation not from a moralistic or legalistic approach, but rather from a gospel-centered approach to change.  He starts at the beginning of redemptive history with creation, stating that man was created with the purpose of reflecting God’s glory in all things.  With the understanding that the original purpose has been tainted since Genesis 3, Chester continually points back to Christ as the only hope for lifelong change.

Throughout this book Chester is arguing that faith in Christ alone will lead to change.  He says, “We’re not changed by systems or rules.  We need a Redeemer to set us free, and we have a great Redeemer in Jesus.  This book points to Jesus and explains how faith in Jesus leads to change.”  At first read it could seem as though this is a far too simplistic approach to fleeing indwelling sin.  However, Chester says that this lifelong process of faith and repentance must be reinforced on two levels.

Faith and repentance must first of all be reinforced on a personal level.  Chester says this takes place in three ways.  First of all, we must replace the lies that lead to sin with the Biblical truths that lead to holiness.  Secondly, we must flee sinful or lustful desires in our hearts.  The third way this must take place is by putting specific strategies in place through spiritual disciplines.

The second level that this lifelong process must be reinforced is on a corporate level in a local church.  He argues that throughout Scripture change is a community project and says, “This requires so much more than attending church each Sunday.  We need to be sharing our lives together.”  He argues that the church must be a community of truth, repentance and grace not just a group of people who get together to say hello on Sunday mornings.

I have one main critique for Chester’s argument.  He relied too heavily upon quotes from other books especially in the first-half of the book.  In an effort to use other reliable sources to prove his point he did so to the point that it seemed that he was merely summarizing what others were saying rather than making his own case.  In one sense this is alright because he seems to take truths from other books and compile them in a more approachable manner.  However, in another sense it leaves you thinking that you could just go read another book to get the same argument.

Overall Chester argued his thesis in a clear, detailed manner.  The strength of his argument was in two areas.  First of all, in pleading his case for change so that no follower of Christ may read this book and think that it is not for them.  All must understand that they cannot do it on their own – they need to continually come to Christ in humility and not merely seek to imitate Him.  He states, “Trying to imitate Jesus on its own only leaves me feeling like a failure.  I can’t be like him.  I can’t match up.  I need sorting out.  I need rescuing.  I need forgiveness.”

The second strength in his argument was in stating the need for community in a lifelong change process.  Many books today will have much to say about repentance and change, but say little to nothing about the importance of the local church in this process.  Chester adequately proves the church’s importance as the body of Christ in that all members are important for one another’s holiness.  He says, “Your church is not a collection of random people.  Christ has specially selected each one to create a perfect fit.  You may have chosen other people for one reason or another.  But God placed these people in your life to help you change.”

I would recommend this book to any person who is a follower of Christ.  From the person who has struggled with a specific sin for years to the person who has just begun to follow Christ and doesn’t know where to start, this book would be a great read.  Chester lays out great theological truths throughout the first half of the book.  He then connects those truths to everyday life in a very detailed manner for the second half of the book.  This would be a great book to study in a small group setting to encourage the body of Christ to begin a lifelong journey of faith and repentance.

This is a guest post by Andy Miller.

Let me begin with a warning.  If you are looking for a book to make you feel comfortable, this is not the one for you.  If you are looking for an easy book that will provide you with simple steps for the Christian life, don’t read this book.  On second thought, do read the book.  Just don’t be surprised.  And predetermine to persevere through it no matter what.

In typical Puritan fashion, Thomas Watson doesn’t write to comfort lazy Christians, but rather he calls us to violence—a Christian warfare against the present evil age and for the Kingdom of Heaven.  In “Heaven Taken by Storm,” he warns against eternal assurance divorced from the perspective of our present journey. If we really long for heaven, then we will fight for it. In caring for our soul, we must take up spiritual arms against ourselves, Satan, and the world.

Watson knew plenty about fighting. He lived during the English Civil War of the 17th Century, in which various religious groups warred for political position in the country. Doctrinal debates were not confined to the academy. Rather, they were often the difference between riches and poverty, freedom and imprisonment, even life and death. Many practiced religion out of fear or dry responsibility.

In this work, Watson describes another type of violence, one of holy pursuit, in modern terms, spiritual warfare.   This warfare has cosmic and eternal implications.   According to Watson, “Our life is military. Christ is our Captain, the gospel is the banner, the graces are our spiritual artillery, and heaven is only taken in a forcible way.” This is not a “flesh and blood” type of battle, but instead one against sin with all its manifestation. This enemy is waging this war against us, and therefore, Watson calls us to fight. The stakes could not be higher.

Watson translates this warfare for everyday life. We must pray with urgency and God-centeredness. He says, “Prayer is a lifting up of the mind and soul to God, which cannot be done aright without offering violence to self.”  He also explains the need for spiritual disciplines, such as devotion to the Word, meditation, Lord’s Day observance, and holy conversation.

He also exhorts Christians to thorough self-examination.  Turning a blind eye to self is dangerous for the soul. If we care for our eternal situation, we must allow the Word to discern our hearts. Watson writes, “A good Christian begins, as it were, the Day of Judgment here in his own soul” (36). God has begun his final purifying work in our hearts.  He is preparing us for our glorious future.

Why then do we have such a difficult time with this violent work? Watson gives three reasons.

First, we often weigh ourselves with “presumptuous hopes.” We gauge spirituality and salvation through a self-made lens.

Second, we rest in the good opinions of others. Watson says, “Bystanders can but see the outward carriage; they cannot tell what evil is in the heart.  Fair streams may run on the top of a river, but vermin may lay at the bottom.”  I had to look up vermin too.  Here is the definition.  I’m thinking of using it in a sentence soon.

Third, we often listen to our hearts before Scripture.  “The heart will persuade that a slight tear is repentance; a lazy desire is faith.”  We must assess the condition of our souls from God’s objective truth.

In all of this holy violence, Watson helpfully reminds us that the work belongs to the Lord. We do not bring about grace by our own merit—which of course would not be grace.  Instead, we seek God’s grace through His prescribed means. “Though we do not have the power to save ourselves, yet we must pursue after salvation because God has made a promise of grace as well as to grace” (83).

We receive God’s salvation by grace through faith, but what is the manner in which we receive it?  That is the question at the heart of this book. We graciously receive the Kingdom of Heaven with holy violence.

I only have a few negative critiques of this work.  First, Watson flirts with Platonic thought, as though the physical world is inherently evil. He writes, “The body is an earthly prison where God has put the soul; we must not break prison, but stay till God by death lets us out” (5-6). The Bible, however, speaks positively of our physical bodies anticipating our glorified state in resurrection (1 Corinthians 15). The sin in us is the real problem. God is restoring the creation, not abandoning it. Therefore, we should seek the Kingdom of Heaven as a reality coming to earth.

Second, Watson should have more clearly articulated the church’s role in holy violence. It is easy to read his exhortations and miss the communal struggle we face together. Introspection becomes dangerous when isolated from the counsel of fellow fighters. God designs the church to help shine the light of Scripture on the individual’s soul. We must have private devotion, but we must also seek corporate encouragement in this holy violence.

Having said this, I still highly recommend this book as an honest assessment of sin and the human soul. We need introspection today. Our comfort and ease for the Gospel need questioning. Just as in Watson’s day, we are cold and falsely ambitious for the sake of Christ. We need to evaluate our love for Him. “Do we desire as much to look like Christ as to live with Christ? Is our desire constant? Is this spiritual pulse ever beating?” (80-81). If we don’t ask these questions, we might be comfortably headed toward destruction.