2022 in the Books

I know these 'Books I've read this year' lists can come across as a literary flex. Or even worse, they can serve as a guilt trip for those who feel they haven't read enough. I hope this list is neither. I hope it serves as a recommended list for you if you're looking for something to read over Christmas or into the New year. The truth is, in a year when I finished writing and releasing Psalms for a Saturated Soul, I assumed I would not get much time to read beyond that. 

Happily, I was wrong, for two reasons. 

First, I co-lead a morning book club with about 20 men from ages 14 to 71. It may be my favorite time of the week. It forces me to keep reading myself and it's been a joy to see relationships and faith deepen as we've journeyed together. Second, while I prefer reading books in print, leaning freshly into Audible this year meant a good deal of travel was spent listening to books rather than podcasts. That was time well spent and some books, like Bono's 'Surrender,' are actually better in Audible because of the musical interludes.

Some books were hard work. Others I enjoyed so much I didn't went them to end. A couple of books on the list are as yet, unfinished, but still recommended. Here are a few lines on each one of them, in three categories.

A. Non-Fiction

1. The Gospel in Genesis by Dr. Martin-Lloyd Jones 

I returned to read this little gem of a transcript of sermons from the good doctor as we entered our Genesis series at church. While I would not include some of the heavy-lifting commentaries that have been required reading during the sermon series, this is an easy and insightful read with timeless truths and fascinating Welsh anecdotes. 

2. The Secular Creed  by Rebecca McClaughlin

McClaughlin is a British author and Christian apologist living in the USA. This work is a brief but insightful engagement with the secular creed through the lens of Scripture. She asserts that Christians tend to take a hammer to the secular creeds, 'Black Lives Matter, Love Is Love, Gay Rights Are Civil Rights, Women's Rights Are Human Rights, Transgender Women Are Women,' either hammering them into their lawn in full endorsement or breaking them up in pieces in complete rejection. Instead, she argues that if we engage them through Scripture, we can take a highlighter pen to the aspects that are Biblical, while critiquing the aspects that are not. Her writing is clear, concise and Biblical and the book equips  believers to engage thoughtfully with friends, family and neighbors. 

3.  Prayer by Timothy Keller

This is probably my 5th time reading this timeless classic with a group. Who knew that a book by a Presbyterian New Yorker would become my all time favorite book on prayer. Keller is one of my heroes, not just because he is so wise, but because he has lived faithfully for so long. His secret sauce is his prayer life.His chapters on the Jesus' intercession and the Spirit of adoption in prayer are mind blowing, as well as his summaries on Calvin and Luther's prayer lives. You will not regret praying through this book.

4. God's Treasured Possession by Terry Virgo

During a July month long break I read this journey through the life of Moses as a devotional. It was both refreshing and consoling. The author has become something of a father in the faith to me, so I could hear his voice through his writing. Like Keller, Virgo has a remarkable track-record of faithfulness and fruitfulness over almost fifty years of ministry. This matters more than ever to me against a backdrop of common failure among high profile Christian leaders. Terry's faithfulness to the Scriptures mixed with his  deeply personal relationship with the Spirit, yield a kind of insight into God's character that has the reader going, "I never saw that about God, but it was there all along, hidden in plain sight." A devotional gem.

5. Heaven and Nature Sing by Hannah Anderson

Anderson lives with her family in the Appalachian Mountains of Kentucky. Her husband is the pastor of a small town, rural church and she is an acclaimed author and speaker, particularly focussing on the intersection between nature and theology. This is a stunning Advent devotional, providing insights into the coming of Christ from the Scriptures and God's creation. My wife and I have read it together for a devotional this Advent. Not yet completed, but highly recommended. 

6. Psalms for the Saturated Soul by Alan Frow

This is cheeky, I know, but I did actually read this book with my book group this year, which was a most gratifying experience. I didn't realize how it would work in a group, but it was so warmly received that I am taking some time off to write a group work addendum to each chapter which will be re-released some time in February. I'm still surprised and grateful and at how God has used this little book to help people find emotional health from the Psalms.

B. Fiction

1. Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis 

We have just completed studying this series of letters as a book club and while some of the 1950's Oxford Don's language and context needs translation, it is brilliant satire written from the perspective of an uncle demon called Screwtape to his nephew, Wormwood, as they strategize to tempt and trap a new Christian.There is really no other work I know that gives such a profound glimpse behind the curtain into the dynamics of spiritual warfare in the Christian faith.

2. Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry 

This book is a sequel to Jayber Crow, the small-town barber from Port William, Kentucky, which first turned me on to Berry's remarkable writing. You have to read him slowly. Every page is a masterpiece on the young widow who lost her husband to the second World War. It is not what you would expect of a traditional novel - far less about the dramatic arc of a story-line and far more about a testament to the mysterious beauty and brutality of life. The characters are reflected upon in a way that is empathetic and prophetic -a most surprising gospel art-piece.

C. Autobiographies

1. As Many as the Stars in the Sky by Robert Glover

I stumbled across this inspiring autobiography because Robert's son, Josh, is part of our church. It is the story of a British social worker who senses a call from God to facilitate the adoption of one million Chinese orphans into families. In obedience, he moves with his whole family to Beijing and God begins to open doors of favor to those in authority in astonishing ways. While the book title comes from God's call to Abraham about his many descendants, Glover's story is more like Joseph - an outlandish dreamer with a common touch who is at home with the poor  and the powerful alike. The remarkable thing is that the vision has been accomplished and Care for the Children continues to grow in other nations. Beyond the beauty of adoption taking place on such a grand scale, the story is one of ordinary people being obedient and witnessing God's extraordinary hand on their obedience. Because of the book, we were able to have Robert come and share his story in person at our church and now it is a privilege to partner with his organization, Care for the Children. 

 2. I think therefore I Play by Andrea Pirlo 

I'm a fan of sports autobiographies, and this one about the Italian genius who brought such a magical quality to his soccer, was an absorbing read. Pirlo continued into coaching after his acclaimed playing career, and as I've followed him with Italian super-club Juventus, he will surely enjoy similar success in that realm. Pure, enjoyable escape for me. 

3. Greenlights - Matthew McConnughey

This book was better listened to than read, because its author, the charming,Texan rogue, is such a great actor. The man has jam-packed 5 lives into his fifty-plus years. He is an American icon with an insatiable thirst for adventure, risk and fun. His story-telling is superb and his love of Southern sayings is winsome. I would say that his story-telling is better than the conclusions he comes to about life. I was disappointed by two things in particular. First, his soft stance on promiscuity and drug abuse are irresponsible. Just because he has escaped its ravaging consequences to some degree does not do justice to the fact that countless others have not. Also, his syncretism is regrettable. He claims Christianity as his faith. He has a pastor and a local church. And yet he seems to believe as strongly in the power of luck and Voodoo magic as he does in Jesus. A sad window into our cultures' affinity for a create your own hybrid religion.

4. Everything Sad is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri

This was the most unique book I
read this year. I have enjoyed it so much that I am saving the last chapters for vacation reading. It is the true story of the author's family as they flee from Iran as religious refugees to the Oklahoma because of their Christian faith. It is written in the style of an adolescent - heart-breaking, hilarious, awkward and hopeful. It is both irreverent and deeply reverent all at once. A needed window into the plight of the Global persecuted church that is such a brilliant literary work that it has received multiple mainstream awards. 

5. Surrender by Bono 

As a life-long fan of the band U2, whose songs were the soundtrack of my 20's and 30's, I have gone through a decade of disenchantment with Bono. I have felt that his music has suffered from his philanthropy, and I've longed for the band either to pack it all in, or do the hard work to produce another album with great songs. But this book reveals a man who is both brilliant and self-aware with a deep Christian faith and a consuming drive to change the world for the better. Every rock star has an ego problem, and Bono is no expiation  but I respect the fact  that he has allowed God to use his fame and wealth for good. So, here's to one more great album!

Building with Redwood: a metaphor for Vision 2067

The Davies House was built in 1900 in downtown Fullerton, name after it's original owner, Mr. Davies, who was a well-known Welsh greengrocer in the burgeoning little city. In 1981 it was moved lock, stock and barrel on a flat-bed truck up onto a hill a few miles north of Fullerton in a leafy suburb overlooking Hillcrest Park by its new owners. We discovered her there for sale in 2011 and promptly fell in love with her wrap-around-porch. She was a fixer, for sure, but her bones were beautiful. The city recognized her dilapidated beauty by calling it a historic landmark property.

Part of our purchase of the house required a termite report. Little did we know, that the guy who did the termite report was none other than Matt Holmes. Matt and Adri would join our church four years later.  They would become dear friends of ours who would travel around the world with us doing ministry and Matt would become one of Southlands' elders. God must have been chuckling back then when I just saw Matt as the Termite Guy! Anyway, Termite Guy had a strange report for me back then. The 111 year old house had no termites, whereas the double garage, built in 1981, had plenty. "What's up with that?" I asked, mystified.  

Matt's response was poignant. "The old house was built with Redwood, so she's fine. The newer garage was built with Douglas fir. It's cheaper but far less resistant to termites. Thats why it's half the price."  Materials matter, you know. We're still thankful that Mr. Davies didn't cut corners, choosing instead to build with sturdy materials that would outlast him. 

This has become a metaphor for us in the way we are trying to lead Southlands. I believe one of the  wisest ways we can live and lead is to have a vision that will outlive us,  To build with materials that will outlast us. We want to build with God's enduring Word, Christ's eternal gospel and His indwelling Spirit. We want to hear Jesus and obey Him like the man in Jesus' parable who built his house on the rock that stood firm when the storms came. 

Materials matter. We don't want to cut corners and have future generations lament that we left them a termite-infested house. We must build with Redwood instead of Douglas fir. It seems to me that many church leaders in California are in survival mode. I understand that to some degree. There is such uncertainty around the future, such volatility in our culture. Many people are scanning the horizon for easier building conditions in other States. It results in building under the tyranny of the urgent  in a way that will cause the next generation to lament our decisions. We simply must come back to God's covenant to bless his people and make them a blessing from generation to generation.

This is where our Vision 2067 comes in. Southlands is 55 years old. By God's grace, she will be 100 in 2067, unless Jesus returns before that. She may have a different name by then and she will certainly have different leaders. But I believe  she will exist as a family of churches in many nations by then.  What would it take for us to build now, for Southlands to be faithful and fruitful in 45 years time? 

Vision 2067 aims to invest financially in church planting, in raising up the the next generation of leaders and in the Global persecuted Church. (both strengthening and being strengthened by them) Here is a short video shot on the Davies House porch with myself and Matt Holmes talking about  Vision 2067. 

We are so thankful for so many who have invested themselves and their finances into God's call on Southlands. We want to ask that you would prayerfully consider investing into our future together by clicking on the Southlands giving link with the Vision 2067 giving tab. 

Yours in grateful hope, 

Alan 

California Voting: a pastoral guide

 

It's mid-term election season in California. Every time elections roll around, whether state-wide or national, I am asked by someone in our church why we aren't telling people what and who to vote for. My response usually goes something like this. "My job as a pastor is not to tell you how to vote. It is to teach you to think Biblically about everything and then to vote accordingly." 

I stand by this statement. Over the last 12 years our church has by-and-large managed to avoid partisan politics by focussing on the gospel, teaching the whole counsel of God and celebrating diversity around disputable matters.  

But I also realize that this may be a cop out; a refusal to step in to the land-mine infested field that is partisan politics. You see, we live in a moment of fierce political polarization. Politics has become a religion for so many Americans.  Our political convictions are our creed and our political party is our tribe. We often feel more identified with our tribe than with other Christians who may vote differently from us. Therefore people are more willing to leave a church based on perceived political differences than they used to. All this means that there is a temptation for pastors to stay further away from politics than they should out of fear.

So, with that in mind, I offer some simple pastoral guidance around election time.

1. Vote faithfully

Vote faithfully, recognizing that living in a democracy is a privilege, citizenship is a responsibility and your vote does make a difference. Even if you feel like you are in the minority, your vote still has value. Voting can change history for good. Glenn Scrivener writes about the powerful combination of preaching and voting in Christian History in his book, The Air we Breathe.

 "Consider three social transformations in Christian history: the end of infanticide, gladiatorial games, and the slave trade. They’ve come through preaching and politics. It’s both—but in a particular way. On infanticide, Christians saved babies from exposure and raised them long before Valentinian I made laws that parents must raise their offspring and forbade the killing of an infant. Preaching and politics. On gladiatorial games, Christians didn’t only preach against blood sports. What reportedly moved Emperor Honorius was the martyrdom of Telemachus. The monk entered the arena to stop a duel, was stoned to death but his witness changed Honorius’s mind and Rome’s laws.On the slave trade, abolitionism was a religious movement first and last. Preaching won hearts but without the Imperial power to change the laws, and diplomatically spread abolitionism to Catholic and Muslim lands, the evil would have remained."

Preaching and voting are a powerful combination. 

2. VoteThoughtfully 

Voting Biblically does not mean we check our brains at the door. We need to discern between clear Biblical imperatives, more complex Biblical ethics, conscience and preference as we vote. The propositions facing us this week include abortion, gambling, arts in education, climate control and the selling of flavored tobacco. Not all propositions are created equal. They require thoughtfulness. For instance, there is really no clear Biblical text that can help us to decide whether schools should, or should not, have an arts program. As a musician who taught the arts, I am for it, but this is simply a preference of mine. While I believe it is socially and culturally beneficial for schools to have an arts program, it has no clear connection to the Biblical text. (Although you can find a Bible verse for anything if you try hard enough!) It's a matter of preference.

Then there are propositions that have a Biblical ethic but are more complex. For instance, the proposition about electric vehicles. Clearly, care for the environment is in God's commission to us in Genesis. I find it sad when Christians deny that the Bible speaks to creation care. However, one may accept this and dispute the degree to which climate change is taking place. Or one may not see electric cars as the best solution to our environmental issues. To say that to be Christian is to ignore the environment because it is a liberal agenda, is absurd. Equally, to say that to be Christian is to drive an electric car, is simply first world naïveté. (Sorry Elon) Creation care is clearly a Biblical ethic while its solution is disputable. It requires thoughtfulness.

Then there are those propositions that cut right to the heart of what the Bible says about God's image and morality. The Scriptures' clear and repeated teaching about the sanctity of life in the womb means we should do everything we can to protect the most vulnerable image bearers of God on the earth.  Even as we hold the tension of honoring the image of God in women, particularly mothers who were victims of abandonment or sexual abuse in their pregnancies,  we are not free to sanction violence against the most vulnerable image bearers - the unborn. Instead we are to give ourselves to the dignity of mothers who feel overwhelmed with their pregnancy through adoption, foster care and support of those who choose to raise their children. While this issue is politically volatile, it is not Biblically disputable.

3. Vote Unpredictably

If we are to vote both Biblically and thoughtfully we may find ourselves voting less predictably. Less tribally. Less on brand. These propositions in particular, allow us to vote in a way that may depart at times from one party line. So for instance, a Republican who would vote against late term abortion might feel compelled to vote for electric cars because of a biblical conviction about care for the environment. Unpredictable. Or, a Democrat who would typically vote to care for the environment, might also decide to vote against late term abortion because of Biblical conviction. Unpredictable. Perhaps both would vote against the selling of flavored tobacco to teens. How marvelously unpredictable. 

4. Vote Worshipfully 

Finally, Jesus words should ring in our ears as we vote. "Render to Ceasar what is Caesar's. Render to God what is God's." Remembering that only Jesus is King will help us to avoid deifying those politicians we vote for and demonizing those politicians we vote against. It will help us remember that no politician, party or policy is perfect, and sometimes we have to vote holding our noses, for the lesser of two evils. Refuse to give politicians or their parties the kind of allegiance that belong only to Jesus and His kingdom. Politicians are of some consequence, but they are not Sovereign. While some politicians and their policies are better than others, they and their policies are all flawed. As we vote worshipfully, we are able to treat those with whom we differ with dignity, instead of demonizing them. Our King told us to love our neighbors and our enemies, after all. 

John Wesley gave some wise advice to his congregation about how they should view those who vote differently from them on October 6th, 1774.

"I met those of our society who had votes in the ensuing election, and advised them

a. To vote, without fee or reward, for the person they judged most worthy

b. To speak no evil of the person they voted against, and

c. To take care their spirits were not sharpened against those that voted on the other side."

250 years later this is still good wisdom for us.  

By God's grace, voting faithfully, thoughtfully, unpredictably and worshipfully, it's possible!

The Overhanging Fruit of the Gospel : remembering the unforeseen benefits of the Good News.

I have a generous neighbor with a prolific orange tree, as one does in Orange County. Its branches hang over our fence, heavy with fruit in season. He has told us that they have more oranges than they can eat themselves and that we are welcome to pick as many as we can reach from our side of the fence. So, we enjoy the abundance of the overhanging fruit from a tree we did not plant or water. 

A kind neighbor, an irresistible metaphor. 

It's made me think about the unforeseen benefits of the gospel that we have enjoyed over the last twelve years leading at Southlands. 

Believe it or not, we've been at Southlands almost fifteen years, but three of those years as members of a leadership team led by Chris and Meryl Wienand. In their last couple of years of leading, God began a gospel re-awakening among our team. It's not that the gospel had been absent. It was that it had drifted out to the margins of our life together, displaced by other centers. We visited it every now and then when we gave an altar call or took sporadic communion, but the gospel was not where most of our traffic was found. A theologian from Kenya named Michael Eaton admonished us around this time about what had become central in our church. "You guys are experts at preaching your model of church, but you're novices at preaching the message of Christ," he said. We felt gut-punched. But the gut-punch became a gift. 

Convicted by the Holy Spirit that our model had become more central than our message, we resolved to make Jesus and his gospel the blazing center of our church. From then on, we began to say,  "If Southlands was a town, Main Street would be the gospel." Thankfully, this resolve was not just a catch phrase or a passing phase. I still believe we are called to preach the gospel as of first importance, and let everything else be shaped by that center. (1 Corinthians 15:1) We would not only preach the gospel to the lost. We would beat the good news into our own heads every day until it became the best news again, to paraphrase Martin Luther. As we did we began to experience new life again at the foot of the blood-stained cross and at the mouth of the empty tomb. We felt like we had been born again, again.

"But surely Jesus should be the center?" you may protest. Absolutely. I think most churches would say that Jesus is their center, but that can mean many different things to different people. It could mean Jesus and politics, Jesus and social justice, Jesus and miracles, even Jesus and morality.  I mean, all these were part of Jesus' ministry in some way, weren't they? But the apostle Paul told the church in Corinth that when he came to visit them  he resolved to know nothing among them except Christ and Him crucified. (1 Corinthians  2:2) In other words, nothing else really matters if we don't know Christ and Him crucified. This is the essence of gospel centrality. It seems almost too simple, doesn't it? But there is powerful beauty in its simplicity. Since then, the term Gospel-centered has risen to popularity and then began to go out of vogue, carrying some cultural and political baggage. But it's not a passing phase for us. 

 By God's grace these past twelve years, we have grown steadily and multiplied fairly rapidly because of the gospel. We've also baptized hundreds of new believers and are so thankful to God for every person who has come to find and follow Jesus. The ways in which we have seen the gospel transform people, marriages and families is breathtaking. The gospel is still the power of God to those who believe!  Still, gospel sowing and reaping can be painstaking work at times. Some seasons have felt like slim pickings. 

But in retrospect, keeping Jesus and His gospel central has produced some unforeseen fruit. By this, I mean it has produced some unexpected benefits there for the picking where we did not plant. A bit like plucking overhanging fruit from your neighbor's tree. 

Here are eight benefits that I never saw coming.

1. It's kept us from developing a Savior complex 

 I believe the finished work of the cross propels us towards the unfinished work of the kingdom. There will always be unfinished work to be done until our Savior returns. Sometimes longing for the Kingdom to come in a broken world can be heart-breaking because it often comes more slowly than we would like. The gospel has given us reason to rest in the midst of what is unfinished. We can rejoice  that Jesus' saving work, which is the most important work, is already finished! We've been redeemed and our names are written in heaven! We are not the saviors of the world. Jesus is.  This has given us buoyancy as we long for the Kingdom to come that has kept us from despair and striving.

2. It's protected us from the tyranny of novelty.  

The gospel has set us free from what C.S. Lewis called a horror of the same old thing. We live, work and play in California, a hive of creativity and new ideas, and while I enjoy many aspects of this innovative spirit, it comes with its own pressure to always be about the new thing.  I call this the tyranny of novelty. Essentially, the gospel has helped us to keep the gospel the main thing amidst a tyranny of novelty. Whether it's Hollywood-styled celebrity church, or Disney-styled theme park church, the temptation to build around novelty crouches at our door here. More subtly,  the novelty of faith deconstruction, fixation with politics and social justice, charismatic sensationalism  - all have their own allure.  While we have tried to learn from new ideas and movements that seem to have God's fingerprint on them,  keeping the gospel central has kept our people from getting whiplash because we haven't taken sharp turns down novel side roads that become cul-de-sacs. By-and-large, we've stayed on the Main Street of the gospel, learning to contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints' (Jude 3). We've become less concerned with novelty than we are with fidelity, and that's produced good fruit.

3. It's given us a category for suffering as we've pursued the power of the Spirit

 The gospel is the good news that God has justified us through Jesus' death and resurrection. This is stunning.  It is also the good news that God has reconciled us to Himself through His Son. Once exiled enemies, we are now welcomed into His presence as friends. Jesus gives us the Holy Spirit to help us live in the reality of God's presence. His gifts are a manifestation of God's desire to dwell among His people in power.  We are not cautiously charismatic. We've tried to obey God's command to pursue love and eagerly desire the gifts of the Spirit. (1 Cor 14:1) We've seen God do many miraculous things as we've pursued the Spirit's presence and power.  But the gospel has also given us a category for a sovereign God who sometimes mysteriously allows us to go through disappointment and even suffering.  The gospel teaches us that if such great good came to us through Christ's suffering, then God can also do great good in and through us when we suffer. We have found, to our delight, that one of the ways in which God has answered prayer is by giving us sufficient grace to suffer well for His glory rather than sulk because our supposed miracle was denied. It's been remarkable to see people persevere through trial and suffering with grace while trusting for the Spirit of God to break in with power at any moment. 

 4.  It's given us grounds for unity in a divisive age

This last decade has been the most divisive I've ever lived or led through.  I've watched heart-broken as disputes about race, politics, sexual ethics, viruses, masks, vaccines, end-time theology and conspiracy theories have divided the Church. I've watched believers become so zealous about their political ideology of choice that it becomes their new gospel and their preferred politician of choice becomes their pseudo-Savior. Thankfully, I've also had a front row seat to the gospel of reconciliation that has empowered people of different views on all of these disputable matters to engage with humility and civility, love one another in their differences and stand on the higher ground of gospel unity. I've watched our own leadership team apply the gospel to their differences with great relief, joy and a pinch of fatherly pride. The gospel has become our holy ground of agreement amidst disagreement. And this has provided a space for people of different cultures and convictions to feel at home with us. 

5. It's taught us a different way to lead. 

It's relatively easy to lead people with a carrot or a stick. The first way motivates through the promise of reward, while the second motivates through the fear of punishment. Each one of us has tendency to use either carrot or stick because it produces quick results, but doesn't produce healthy disciples. Of course, the Bible does talk about rewards for obedience and consequences for disobedience, but the gospel calls us to a deeper core motivation. Jesus said to his disciples, "If you love me you will obey my commands."(John 15: 1) The apostle Paul wrote to Philemon and said, "I could command you but I prefer to make my appeal out of love." When we motivate  people with the gospel we are saying that Christ's obedience has already given us a great reward and rescued us from punishment.  So when we obey, we do it out of love and gratitude towards Him.  "I urge you, in view  of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice." (Romans 12:1) This motivation has sometimes produced slower results but it has also produced far more secure disciples. 

6. It's shown us a better way to preach the Bible. 

The Gospel has given us a more cohesive way of preaching the Bible. Instead of preaching it as a book of morals and heroes to be emulated, we have found that Jesus is the Bible's One True Hero, to be trusted, emulated and adored.  In the words of Sally Lloyd-Jones, "Every page whispers His name." The storyline of the Bible is that God's good creation, corrupted by the sin of Adam, is being redeemed and restored by the Second Adam's saving work. All of the law and the prophets are fulfilled in Jesus, the Great Redeemer. We have learned to search, uncover and magnify Christ and His gospel story in all of Scripture and our people have developed an appetite for Christ-exalting preaching through Books of the Bible. Topical preaching is tolerated from time to time, but there is an appetite now for walking slowly through books of the Bible. I think we've become better preachers because of this, and our people have grown in their love for God's Word. Seeing them liberated from moralism and self-help theology as they learn to trust the Jesus of Scripture, has been thrilling.  

7. It's given us language to fight for family 

Amidst a cultural drift towards individualism, the gospel of adoption has given us language to express the communal essence of Christian faith and to fight for church as family.  Through Jesus being forsaken on the cross, Christians have been adopted by God the Father into a forever family of brothers and sisters. As we've continued to emphasize the priority of this diverse family purchased by Jesus' blood from every nation tribe and tongue, we've begun to see many who walked in isolation and independence, find the warmth and sanity of a local church family. The gospel has empowered us to repent when we have hurt a family member, forgive when we've been hurt and aim for reconciliation. It's given us tools to cut down offense and dig out roots of bitterness. 

8. It's helped us to become better local missionaries 

Finally, gospel centrality has protected our church from being an inward-looking family that exists for its own benefit. It has shaped us as a people living on mission.  In the midst of Californians generally disenchanted with their own State, we have asked what it means to live as sent ones here, like Jesus, becoming flesh and dwelling among the people where God has placed us. This has shaped a church that serves its city faithfully. It has meant that our global church planting vision has been better earthed in local  faithfulness. We are learning to make disciples of Jesus on our own zip code.

No, we are not in revival. Not yet. We still long to see a great harvest of souls in our day. We are laboring and praying with other churches in our region to that end. But by God's grace, we have harvested where we have not sown. This is not a humble brag about how faithful we've been. Our faith has been feeble at times. But God has been faithful where we have been feeble.  I am writing this as a reminder to avoid being forgetful about His gospel. God forbid that we boast in anything save in the Cross of Christ. 

Let's resolve to keep boasting in the Cross!  

A Legacy and a Liturgy in a Land of Famine.

Oasis in Ein-Gedi, Hadorom, Israel.

                                      

It was the summer of 2010 and I'd been asked to take the role of leading our team of elders.  I was full of hopes and dreams about the future but daunted by the financial situation I'd inherited. We were still emerging from a national recession, had an eight hundred thousand dollar lawyers' debt from a law suit we'd had to defend, plus we were down about twenty thousand dollars a month. The whole situation weighed on me heavily.  Out of the blue I received a phone call from a man called Mike Hanchett who was a friend of the church with a proven prophetic gift, asking if we could meet. Over coffee he said he felt God had given him a word for our church. It was profound in its simplicity. He quoted from Genesis 26:12.  "Isaac sowed in a land of famine and reaped a hundred fold." He reminded me that God enabled Isaac to open wells in a drought so that he could plant a crop and yield a harvest, and proceeded to tell me that God wanted us to sow our way out of financial famine through teaching and modeling generosity. 

At this stage we had been doing a good job of cost cutting. I thought we could save our way out of financial famine, but the idea of increasing our giving as a church seemed counter-intuitive. Still, Mike's prophetic word brought faith to me and consequently to our team, and that was exactly what we did, looking for ways to give beyond ourselves to the poor and to other churches. I figured that even if we didn't reap a hundred-fold, his counsel lined up with the words of Jesus that it is more blessed to give than to receive. (Acts 20:19) We continued to be thrifty, but rejected being stingy. I did a few weeks teaching through Genesis 26 on Biblical principles of generosity. Quite quickly, things began to change. 

 Within months we began meeting our monthly budget as a church. Within three years we had paid off our lawyers debt. Our elder team decided around this time to start putting our personal tithes into a church planting war chest instead of using them for the running of the church. Soon after that we were given a second church property and school which we now use to house Southlands Chino. God is faithful. Mike Hanchett's prophetic legacy lives on in our church. Sadly, Mike passed away recently after battling illness, but I wanted to let those who knew and loved him know that his faithful obedience was pivotal for our church. He also never asked me for a cent when his prophetic word came to pass. He was a not-for-profit prophet! A rare breed indeed. I honor both his prophetic accuracy and his prophetic integrity. 

Twelve years later recession threatens us again. Inflation is at a 40 year high, interest rates keep creeping up and it costs me $150 to fill up my truck. Crazy days! Many fear the threat of financial famine. Of course, we are all looking for ways to cut our spending,  and this is wise. But I want to exhort us again to consider God's counter-intuitive ways. He calls us to keep sowing in famine as we remember His faithfulness. He is the one who opened up wells in the desert for Isaac, so that he could sow and reap a hundredfold in famine. I don't buy into the prosperity gospel. But I do buy into the Biblical truth of sowing and reaping as we live in the abounding grace of God no matter the season.

The apostle Paul reminds us of this same principle : "The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work." 

God is able to make financial grace abound to us, not so that we can get rich,  but so that having sufficiently what we need, we may abound in every good work.  Good can make financial grace abound to us so that it can abound through us. In all things and at all times. Even in famine. Even when it takes $150 to fill up my truck!

 Of course, I write this as a pastor who lives on what my flock gives to the church, so I may be easily accused of having mixed motives for writing at this time. So be it. I do want our church to keep being able to meet budget. But hear me out, I also write this as a husband and a father, and owner of an Airbnb business, who is looking with you towards an uncertain future. I feel the anxieties that many of you feel. Still,  Jesus' teaching that our Father, who clothes the lillies and feeds the sparrows is able to feed and clothe us, because we are worth more to Him than sparrows, ring louder than my anxieties.  These truths anchor my soul in peace and in generosity and I want them to anchor your soul too.

Every time I send off our monthly tithe or give to some kingdom cause,  it is a faith declaration of three truths that Rynelle and I have lived out over almost 30 years. First, that God is our Provider. Second, that money is not our God. Third, that sowing into eternal things, even in the midst of our material needs, will reap an eternal reward that we will never regret in heaven. Tithing and giving makes no sense apart from the reality of these truths. But when done in faith, it is a sacred liturgy, one that we have seen God confirm abundantly even in this life.

So, to our dear Southlands family, thank you for your faithful generosity. You have been extraordinary. Let's keep it up. For some of us, let's step it up. And let us trust God together for a harvest as we sow in famine.

Making More of Church Gatherings

  

 Martin Luther once said, “History is like a drunk man falling off a horse into a ditch on one side, getting back up on it and falling off the other side into another ditch.” (credit Andrew Wilson) We are forever over-correcting and over-balancing, living in drunken reaction to the extremes. 

For instance, before the Reformation, the Church had fallen into a ditch of legalism, preaching a salvation through penance and piety. The Reformers, affirming the 5 Solas, got the Church back up on the horse of salvation by grace through faith alone and for that we are forever grateful. I am over-simplifying, but in the years that followed, the Church over-reacted and fell into the ditch of license. The Council of Trent convened in 1545 with the aim of getting the Church out of the ditch and back on the horse, by helping it to see that true saving faith is shown by good works. John Calvin emphatically stated, “It is therefore faith alone which justifies, and yet the faith which justifies is not alone.” In other words, stay on the horse!  The ditches of legalism and license are still there for us to avoid today, but in the West, our license presents itself especially through  individualism. We are not just law-breakers. We are a law unto ourselves. 

We dare not underestimate the role of individualism in our cultural moment of Church Deconstruction. Certainly, the hypocrisy of leaders whose moral failure was exposed rather than confessed, the horrific abuse of countless congregants covered up to preserve power, the megachurch pursuit of celebrity and wealth; these have all produced an understandable mistrust  towards leadership and the institution of the Church. The vital need of the hour is to distinguish between the church that man is building and the Church that Jesus is building, and to some degree, this will require deconstruction. But let's not be so naiive as to think that all deconstruction is done in good faith. Much of it is an expression of rampant individualism that resists the gospel's call to sacrifice for God's covenant family, that claims to love Jesus but scorns his Bride. If I can dismantle  God's household, nobody can call me to come to the table. Deconstruction too often seeks its own convenience. We've fallen off the horse and into the ditch again. 

The writer to the Hebrews has this in mind when he gives this exhortation. "Consider how we may spur one another on to love and good works, not neglecting the gathering of the believers as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching." Hebrews 10:25

Apparently, some Jewish believers, having been set free from the ritualistic legalism of temple sacrifice, and having realized that Jesus made a sacrifice once, for all and for all time, had climbed on to the horse of grace and fallen over into the ditch of neglecting gatherings altogether. It was not just that they took the odd Sunday off to go to the beach. They were in the habit of neglecting gatherings. Church gatherings were in their planner in pencil and everything else was in ink. If something better came along church gatherings were erased and replaced. Ring any bells?

What had they misunderstood about the gospel that caused this neglect?  The writer to the Hebrews argues that while the blood of Jesus gives each one of us confidence to enter into the presence of God at any time and in any place, that Jesus is a high priest over the house of God. (v 20) He is not just a high priest for us as individuals, but a high priest over God's house. And God's house is not a brick-and-mortar place in the New Testament but a gathered people. His presence is experienced among his people in ways that it is not experienced when I am by myself. There is an encouragement that is peculiar to worshipping Jesus in his house. There is a spurring on that is peculiar to gathering with Jesus' people in God's house. I can encounter the presence of God by myself on a mountain, but I won't be spurred on to love someone that's not like me, or to serve someone that can't serve me back. That only happens in the gatherings of God's house in its various shapes, sizes and places . 

It seems from this passage, even with our helter skelter schedules, that gathering with the believers does not get less important the busier our lives get. No, it would seem that as the Day of Christ's return approaches, discouragement from the world, the flesh and the devil will intensify, and so the need to find encouragement from other believers will increase. "...but encourage one another,  and all the more as you see the Day approaching! " All. The. More.

So this summer, enjoy a vacation, by all means. Don't fall into the ditch of legalism by thinking you can't be in God's presence on the beach or at the river. But stay on the horse of prioritizing the gathering of God's people. Put the gathering of believers in ink in your planner. Let other gatherings be in pencil, for the sake of your encouragement and the encouragement of your brothers and sisters. They need you more than you know!  

Below is a link to the full message I preached on  Making More of Church Gatherings. It's about  10 minutes longer than I normally preach, but there it is.  

Chapter 1: The Saturated Soul

Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? - Psalm 42:5a

Burn-out. Exhaustion. Workaholism. Those are a few symptoms of my generation一a generation that spent the 80’s and 90’s addicted to Prozac, donning power suits with shoulder pads, and launching multi-million dollar tech startups from their parents’ garages. Yuppie flu (a euphemism for chronic fatigue) infected us with pandemic-like potency. 

Naively, we wore burn-out a bit like a badge of honor. The cool kids lived at work and lived to work. Everybody was red-lining on reserve, burning the midnight oil, chasing the next deal. Business was booming. Revenue was up. But emotional and physical health was in the gutter.

Today, work-life balance is a treasured topic, and I’m grateful for that. I’m also encouraged that churches are reemphasizing a theology of sabbath, because of course, burn-out is still prevalent. But it’s not the hot topic it was 25 years ago. Today, our lives are not stretched thin as much as they’re weighed down. 

So Full, We’re Empty

Sometimes we’re thirsty because we’re too full of the wrong things. You can eat loads of salty popcorn until you’re stuffed, but all that sodium will make you unbearably thirsty. In the same way, our souls can be so intoxicated with things other than God that they need detoxing before we can drink from God’s river of life. This is what I call a saturated soul and I believe it is a cultural pandemic.

Our souls are saturated with nonstop news cycles that bombard us with calamities around the clock and around the globe. Our souls, designed by God to empathize with the hurting, are burdened beyond what they can bear. It’s little wonder we feel numb. The circuit breaker of our souls trips. We shut off to survive. Callousness isn’t our goal一it’s a survival tactic. 

Our souls are saturated with entertainment. Endless streaming services claw for our attention and wallets. When one episode ends, within seconds another starts automatically. Binging is touted as “taking a break,” but really it’s breaking us. The title of Neil Postman’s 1985 classic, Amusing Ourselves to Death, proved to be prophetic.

Our souls are saturated with online connectivity一a slew of mile-wide, inch-deep acquaintances replace the deep, embodied intimacy our souls crave. We try to be known using platforms that isolate us. Rather than friends around the table, looking each other in the eyes, we’re loners peering into the glow of screens.  

This world offers a feast of technology and information, but ironically, the more we gorge ourselves, the more hungry we become. Oversaturation promises satisfaction while slowly starving us. Could it be that we’ve fire-hosed our souls into an emotional drought?

I find this paradox at work in my own life in perplexing ways. God alone can satisfy the human soul, as Augustine writes: “Almighty God, You have made us for Yourself and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in You.” I have experienced such deep satisfaction and comfort from God’s presence in my soul. 

But sadly, like the well-known hymn, I’m prone to wander from the God I love. While my soul thirsts for the living water of Christ, I still stoop to drink from the bitter waters of Marah. C.S. Lewis sums up humanity’s disallegiance well: “Human history is the long and terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.” The Old Testament prophet Jeremiah warned Israel about the dangers of seeking life outside the Lord: 

For my people have committed two evils: 

      they have forsaken me, 

    the fountain of living waters, 

    and hewed out cisterns for themselves, 

      broken cisterns that can hold no water. (Jer 2:13)

I can be a real sucker for broken cisterns, how about you? Broken cisterns not only let precious water leak out, but they also let dirt in, which contaminates any water that’s been conserved. But these self-made cisterns leave us feeling overfed-yet-underfed, gorged yet grasping, filled but famished.

A Psalm for the Saturated Soul

In Psalm 42, we meet someone caught in this same dilemma一thirsty for God’s presence but oversaturated with the things of the world. In the first verse of the psalm, he expresses the dryness of his soul and his longing to be quenched by God’s presence:

As the deer pants for streams of water,

so my soul pants for you, my God.

My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.

Yet, despite his thirst the psalmist’s soul is also overflowing with turmoil. Verse four says: ‘These things I remember as I pour out my soul.” In order to drink in God’s presence, he must first pour out his soul. Psalm 42 is not a quick-fix formula for our thirsty souls. It points to a process of emptying, investigating, reconnecting and speaking to our souls in the hope of God’s promise to refresh us more fully than we ever dared dream. Like the psalmist, to fill our souls with God we must first empty our souls of all else. 

Too Full to Feel

One of the dynamics of the saturated soul is that we are too full to feel. Like a child scribbling too many colors on a page, the barrage of emotions in ourselves and others clash on the canvas of our souls, and the end product is the dull gray of numbness.

If you’re like me, you know the wretched feeling of wanting to feel, but being unable to. You sit listening to someone you love tell you an amazing story of answered prayer. You celebrate with them cerebrally, but not emotionally. You watch another devastating crisis on the news and you feel unable to empathize. Like the Rascal Flatts song, you “feel bad that you don’t feel bad,” or at least not as bad as you think you should feel. You know that it’s right to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep, but it feels forced. You listen to a powerful sermon or song, knowing you should embrace the wonder of it, but instead you feel indifferent. The guilt of not feeling is almost worse than the numbness itself.

We get so desperate to feel again, we’ll actually harm ourselves to revive our emotions. Pink Floyd’s 1979 hit, Comfortably Numb, describes fighting numbness with narcotics:

There is no pain, you are receding

A distant ship smoke on the horizon

I have become comfortably numb…

Just a little pinprick

There'll be no more, ah

But you may feel a little sick.

I have become comfortably numb.

Others fight numbness by self-injury. The Mayo Clinic explains the rationale of cutting or burning oneself: “People so badly want to feel something when they are otherwise dissociated and numb.” Feeling pain becomes better than feeling nothing. But mutilating your flesh doesn’t solve the problem in your soul. Like narcotics, they offer temporary relief, followed by painful emotions like guilt and shame. They push people into a life of secrecy and denial. No doubt, self-injury is one of the saddest symptoms of a saturated soul.

Freedom to Feel

Still others normalize numbness, as if it’s a virtue. We justify our stoicism with various mantras: “I’m too strong to feel,” or “I’m too grounded in Christ to let emotions push me around.” There’s certainly validity to emotional resilience, but many of us who grew up in the church were taught to ostracize our feelings in unhealthy ways. 

As a teenager, my father sat with me at the kitchen table and drew a picture of a steam train pulling some carriages. On the train he wrote the word “Bible” and on the carriages he wrote the words “feelings.” The message was: Let God’s Word lead and your feelings follow, not the other way around. It was wise counsel for an emotionally stormy young man, and thanks to my Dad, I’ve learned to ground my fickle feelings on the unshakable foundation of God’s Word. Emotions are a wicked master if we’re slaves to them.

But emotions are also a profound gift from God, and too often my pendulum swings toward emotional denial. I’m unduly suspicious of my feelings. I’m stoic where I should be soft-hearted. Honestly, really happy people tend to annoy me and really sad people tend to exhaust me. More concerningly, my stoicism distances me from Jesus himself, who scripture calls a “man of sorrows, acquainted with suffering” (Is 53:3), and also “a man anointed with joy above his fellows” (Heb 1:9). If Jesus sounds too emotional to me, something’s wrong.

Rather than check our emotions at the door, we’re to use them for God’s glory. It’s noteworthy that the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5 have an emotional dimension: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, self-control (Gal 5:22). The Spirit-filled person is an emotionally healthy person. The incarnation, in which Christ exercised the full range of human emotion, proves that we’re meant to feel. God’s love isn’t just his willpower, exercised impassionately through gritted teeth; it’s his affection and passion. 

Christ gives us freedom to feel fully, and wisdom to feel rightly. He teaches us to pull negative emotions out from under the rug, into the open, where we can process them in a safe environment of grace. In the next chapter, I’ll unpack how to do that, using Psalm 42 as our guide.

You can purchase Psalms for a Saturated Soul by clicking  here.

Psalms for a Saturated Soul: An Ancient Guide to Emotional Health

 

 

Introduction: A Perplexing Paradox

Maybe, like me, you’re a bundle of paradoxes. 

On one hand, I bear God’s image. I have a marvelous capacity to cultivate beauty, experience intimacy, invent solutions, make promises, show mercy, resist evil, build culture, and encounter wonder. On my best days, God’s glory is profoundly displayed in my life. Humans can be quite magnificent, really一just a little lower than the angels.

On the other hand, I have this inescapable sense that I don’t reflect God as I should. The mirror of my life gets smudged and tarnished. I have a dreadful capacity to corrupt beauty, shatter intimacy, create problems, break promises, exploit the vulnerable, be tempted by evil, destroy culture, and become jaded with wonder. Humans can be quite awful, really一just a little higher than the devils.

There is a fickle fragility in my soul. I flit back and forth between peace and anxiety, joy and sorrow, obedience and disobedience, forgiveness and bitterness. Like termites in a wooden boat, my inconsistencies gnaw holes in my soul一then as I frantically bail water to remain buoyant, discouragement gushes over me. Can you relate?

What do we do about the frustrating duality of our souls? Proposed solutions abound.

Moralism says effort is the solution. If we can be good enough一through religion or neighborliness or parenting or profession一our positive behavior will outweigh our bad behavior. But this places an oppressive burden to perform that’s easily squashed by our next messup (which is likely imminent). 

Mysticism says contemplation is the solution. But meditation isn’t medication, and sometimes silence makes our failures scream louder. Mindfulness plus good Karma minus bad Feng Shui does not equal zen.

Psychology says that healing from trauma inflicted by others is the solution. This is immensely important and can be instrumental in helping someone heal. Counseling  has certainly been of great help to me. But secular psychotherapy has no category for the biblical doctrine of sin, which scripture names as the greatest threat to human flourishing. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote:

"The most experienced psychologist or observer of human nature knows infinitely less of the human heart than the simplest Christian who lives beneath the Cross of Jesus. The greatest psychological insight, ability, and experience cannot grasp this one thing: what sin is. Worldly wisdom knows what distress and weakness and failure are, but it does not know the godlessness of man. And so it also does not know that man is destroyed only by his sin and can be healed only by forgiveness. Only the Christian knows this. In the presence of a psychiatrist I can only be a sick man; in the presence of a Christian brother I can dare to be a sinner."

Individualism posits “being yourself” as the solution, as Polonius advises Hamlet: “To thine own self be true.” If nothing else, this mantra exasperates our sense of duality. Much of the time, we’re unsure of who we are or who we want to be. In response, individualism sometimes celebrates the paradox within, blurring the lines between right and wrong. But impropriety leads to insecurity, leaving us with the burning question: To which self should I be true?

The Psalms: Formation not Formula 

Enter the Psalms一the hymnbook of God’s people. The psalms don’t offer simple formulas to solve the paradox of our souls. Instead, they employ the language of formation. They give us permission to be in flux, while simultaneously pointing us to the unchanging stability of our Creator. The Psalms let us rant and weep, sing and scream, laugh and lament一all with an eye to heaven, knowing that our help comes from the Lord (Ps. 121:1). As a trellis prods a vine sunward, so the Psalms turn our souls God-ward. In real life, confusion and confidence often go hand-in-hand, thus the Psalms speak powerfully to the intricate anatomy of our souls.

As you read the Psalms, it’s immediately obvious that God doesn’t want His people to pretend. The God of the Bible wants His people to be brutally honest with themselves and with Him. He’s not interested in platitudes or pseudo-peace. Religious charades might fool others, even ourselves at times, but God sees our souls as they truly are.

Souls of the Saints

In the modern world, we often think of the soul as the immaterial part of you that flies off to heaven when you die. But in biblical theology, your soul (hebrew: nephesh) is your whole person, including your will, mind, emotions, and body. Thus the Psalms speak directly to our souls, expressing the vast breadth of human experience, as Calvin notes:

"I have been wont to call this book not inappropriately, “An Anatomy of all Parts of the Soul;” for there is not an emotion of which any one can be conscious that is not here represented as in a mirror."

When reading the Psalms, we discover we’re not alone. We suddenly realize, with a sigh of relief, that the path we’re on is well-worn by the saints before us. Our bloodied knees don’t make us freaks; they merely signal we’re on the path of formation. Satan would have us believe that, because we struggle, we’re unworthy of Christian fellowship. The Psalms retort: No, these are the normal growing pains of a child of God. 

Walter Brueggemann says that when we read the Psalms, the experiences of the psalmist interacts with our own experience:

"The work of prayer is to bring these two realities together一the boldness of the Psalms and the extremities of our experience一to let them interact, play with each other, and illuminate each other."

In other words, we don’t just read the Psalms; they read us. They unlock the prayers, petitions, and laments of other faith sojourners, revealing the sacred solidarity of saints from every age. They have found God to be both present and good, even when their souls were disoriented or faint. They testify that indeed there is hope for you and I, because God is good and ever-present.

A Community of Souls 

The church is a community of souls, therefore it’s not only about individual health, but the collective health of the entire bride of Christ. The church I lead and the family of churches I am a part of are not as fluent as we should be in the language of the soul, and it has hurt us. We are fairly fluent in the language of Christology, ecclesiology and missiology. But there is a hesitancy around psychology and sociology because they can be so subjective. “Let’s stick to gospel truth,” we tend to say. But in protecting the gospel (which is right), we’ve neglected how it applies to soul care. After all, Christ is the great physician who gives rest to our souls (Matt 11:28).

The past year has provided a rude awakening about the consequences of neglecting communal soul health. In November 2021, I sat with six other leaders from our church network. There was a furrow-browed sobriety around the table that day. Two of our dear friends and leaders in our movement had just stepped down, in part, due to patterns of emotional and relational unhealth. Though relieved we had escaped the spectacular moral scandals so prevalent in the headlines these days, we were nonetheless heartbroken. How did we get here? 

We felt blindsided by a threat we didn’t know existed. Like the quiet-footed foxes ruining the vineyard in Song of Solomon, emotional unhealth had covertly crept into our leadership team. We didn’t notice until it was too late. We often do wolf-checks, but rarely fox-checks. Foxes seem less destructive than wolves, but left to their own devices, they’re just as deadly. Maybe we looked the other way because of the giftedness of these leaders. Fruitfulness can cover a multitude of foxes. Until it doesn’t. 

In the past ten years, we’ve seen the gospel advance in encouraging ways through our family of churches, yet we concluded around that table that Jesus was using this crisis to lead us away from hubris towards humility, away from a self-confident swagger towards a God-reliant limp. We resolved to self-audit our souls more seriously and to build a sturdier culture of accountability. With sage-like wisdom, my friend Rigby Wallace articulated our conviction: “In this next season together, the gospel must advance along two frontiers: to the outermost parts of our world and to the innermost parts of our souls.” 

The writing of this book was commissioned out of that conversation. This isn’t for church leaders only; it’s for anyone who longs for their soul to thrive, not merely survive (3 John 2). This book is for those who believe the gospel impacts all of life一the Savior who forgives sins is also the Good Shepherd who restores souls. This book is for those whose unstable emotions ache for the commanding calm of Jesus’ words and Spirit. This book is born out of some teaching I’ve done from the psalms, but more importantly, it’s a book born out of God’s work in me. Into my paradox, he continues to bring peace. 

May the gospel advance not only to the outermost parts of our world, but also to the innermost parts of our souls.  

You can purchase "Psalms for a Saturated Soul by clicking here.

Preaching to the Choir: rehearsing the wonder of the truths that form us.

 Sometimes, when we've been around church for a while, the simple truths that saved us can get dusty and cliche' for us. "You're preaching to the choir!" we may protest if we hear them again from a pastor, a parent or mentor. "I've already heard that a million times before! Tell me something I don't already know!"   

Because we are curious creatures with more access to new ideas than ever before, we can lose confidence in the truths we loved at first for fear that they are too simplistic to make sense of the complexity of life.  While curiosity and a willingness to wrestle with our faith are virtues, we make a dangerous assumption when we think that new ideas are necessarily true ideas. And in these days of turmoil and uncertainty, what is needed most is the tested truth of the gospel that anchors us in the tempest. 

What we get wrong in our post-truth age of relativism is this. Just because we get bored with the truth or doubt the truth does not make the truth untrue. The Scriptures tell us the same gospel that saved us is based on the historic fact of Jesus' resurrection from the dead and is still powerfully at work forming us. What we need then, is not necessarily new truth as much as a deeper grasp of old truth. We need to hear it again with new ears and a soft heart. The apostle Paul said it like this in his first letter to the Thessalonian church. "Our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction." We need the Holy Spirit to remind us of the power of the gospel again so that we believe and obey it's message with full conviction. 

My point is that sometimes the choir needs preaching to because it forgets! Sometimes the choir needs preaching to because it loses the wonder! Sometimes we need to rehearse the truths we first believed until they sing in our hearts again! 

Martin Luther was famously quoted as saying to his apprentices, "Teach the gospel as the central doctrine of Christianity. Beat it into people's heads every day!"

GK Chesterton, in his excellent book Orthodoxy, wrote about the child-like gift of repeating the same activities with wonder. He called it exulting in monotony. 

 “Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, "Do it again"; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again" to the sun; and every evening, "Do it again" to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.”

Join us this Sunday at Southlands Brea as we journey through Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians,  rehearsing the wonder of the truths that form us.