Book: Exploring James

Today’s Review is presented by Kregel Academic. No influence is demanded or granted, only a book for a review.
Exploring the Epistle of James is a volume in the John Phillips Commentary Series. For clarity’s sake, it is written by John Phillips. Dr. Phillips was long a part of the Moody Network, helping teach others the Word of God. The entire series is available from Kregel.
James is written as a section-by-section commentary. There is an outline that breaks down the whole book, and then each segment is given individual attention through the remaining 200 pages. These comments focus more on the practical implications of the passage than the linguistic or cultural markers behind them, but the historical issues are not left out entirely.
Overall, James does not lean too heavily on digging back into the Greek language. Instead, the primary focus is drawing on the New King James translation that is used throughout the work. Phillips makes his commentary accessible in this manner, as anyone can use it.
Further, the outline of the book is straightforward. This runs counter to some attempts to make James more complicated, and instead develops linear thoughts from the text. This also becomes an easy borrow for teaching and preaching.
While the practical outlining of James makes Exploring James helpful, there are some shortcomings that drive the reader to need an additional James resource. First, there is very little discussion of the background issues of James. It is assumed that James was the brother of Jesus and the first author of a New Testament document. Further, the introduction makes several assertions which, while they are possible, are not certain. The serious student is advised to consult an additional resource to consider whether or not Phillips has filled in the blanks properly.
My largest concern is with the heavy assumption that Phillips makes in Exploring James regarding the legalism of James himself. While it is certainly plausible, it is not necessitated by the text and should at the least be treated in discussion rather than assumed.
One other question regarding Exploring James is the inclusion of an essay at the end as an appendix. The essay addresses some issues with Martin Luther, the Reformer. While Luther will long be connected to the Epistle of James due to his dislike for it, the essay does not address Luther’s opinion on James. Rather, it treats Luther and Zwingli’s clash over the nature of the Lord’s Supper. This is fascinating—but wholly unnecessary. It’s inclusion has no real bearing on the remainder of the text.
In all, I have only a few volumes on James on my shelf, but this will remain there as a helpful resource.

Free book from Kregel in exchange for the Review.

Everybody has work: Numbers 4

There is nothing worse for a society than an entire group of people with nothing to do. While that assertion can likely be argued by sociologists to be true or false, I think it is verifiable as an historical reality. Either the desire to do nothing corrupts a society into slavery and oppression, or the idle put their effort into devising ways to control society.

Even in microcosm, we see this to be true. Take a school and look at who becomes the troubled students: it is the ones who have nothing to do. Either because they are not expected to do more or whose learning styles do not match with the way things are presented, leading to them not be able to work within the system. Or it is the intelligent who get done and have nothing to do…

Or within a church: those who have nothing to do, no service to participate in, no freedom to do what they are best at—these folks either drift away or sit and get bored. This is why the organized worship services of many churches are not effective—idleness leads to boredom.

We come, then, to Numbers 4. Within Numbers 4 appear to be the mundane duties assigned to individual families within the Levites, giving their roles. Some were to carry this, some were to carry that. Others cover this material while another gathers that one.

In short, everyone has something to do. There is neither the exclusion of a family as too insignificant, nor the exaltation of a group as too important to do anything. Everyone needed something to do, and everyone had something to do.

What do we do with this?

First, we do not allow ourselves to think so highly of ourselves that we think we do not need to do anything. No one is too important to take out the trash or mow the lawn. Some may not have the ability, others the opportunity, but no one is above the work. Whatever you may good at, whatever your gifts and abilities may be, there are times that certain things just need done. Do it.

Second, we need to consider paying attention to the breakdown of tasks. It is possible, at times, to break down a major task, like moving the Tabernacle, into small units. By doing so, everyone can be involved. This keeps people connected to each other and focused on the task. This impacts especially strongly in churches: find ways for the work to be available to all. Part of our problem as Southern Baptists is that one group has this work, another that, but there is no unity of purpose.

Third, we need to be clear on expectations. The Gershonites had no doubts about their job. What about you? Do you know what you should do? Do you, if you lead, make it clear what you need others to do? Make it clear: this is what we need to do.

Clarity of need, clarity of purpose. These things help us know what we are doing. Division of labor? That’s as critical: this keeps us unified in doing.

Review: Abraham from @Logos

Today’s Review is actually for a curriculum produced by Logos Bible Software. I use Logos, and I like it, but the product family as a whole gets pricey. Which is why, though I recommend it as a resource for scholarship, I don’t suggest everyone needs it. But if you can afford it, it’s a great tool. They provided a free download of the complete curriculum in exchange for the review.

Many of us who grew up in church take the stories of the Bible for granted. We were born to Noah’s Ark storybooks and heard about Abraham from both the Egermeier’s Story Bible and the Beers’ Bible Story books. Then there were picture Bibles and children’s Bibles and….

You get the point. What we often miss is that our faith as Christians is not just a hereditary faith. It is a missionary faith. Which means that we bring people in who have not grown up knowing such things, and it is unfair to leave them at that disadvantage. Many times, we also miss this: teaching a child about Abraham, for example, leaves an impression but does always echo into adulthood like we might hope.

In all, it is good to go back and be reminded of the character and story of the Patriarchs, those early fathers of the Hebrew people. Alongside learning their stories, though, it is helpful to try and learn their land, their culture, and their world. It is a great benefit to grab hold Scripture as Truth while adding supplemental knowledge to help the Word come clearer to us.

Into that need slides, rather nicely, Logos’ curriculum on Abraham, titled Abraham: Following God’s Promise (link is to the main curriculum on Logos’ website). We have here an 8-session study in the life of Abraham. Logos has this bundled with videos for group introduction and with a leader’s guide for group discussion.

Let’s take the videos first. These are short, which is good. The goal here is not to learn from the video teacher but to facilitate discussion. The videos will also work as simple promotional spots to encourage attendance and participation in the study group. They are not overly flashy, which strengthens their usefulness.

Then the leader’s guide. A good leader’s guide makes it possible for nearly anyone to be able to lead the study by, at the least, providing references to look up and connect. The small group resources section of this guide does just that. It also provides the slides for Powerpoint or Keynote, as well as Logos’ system Proclaim. (No, there are no filmstrips/audio cassettes available. Sorry.)

Additionally, sermon outlines are provided, but I’ve never been good about preaching other people’s outlines. I would use the slides, though, and probably use the provided outlines as a guide for rewrite. There is nothing I see here that makes the material unusable, it’s just my personal preference against using another person’s sermon outline straight up.

Finally, the material. Each weekly session is structured in these parts: Setting the Stage; A Closer Look; Throughout the Bible; Beyond the Bible; Application; Further Reading. These provide:

• Setting the Stage: Background information on context and genre.
• A Closer Look: This is just the specifics of the passage itself. This includes some dips into Hebrew to explain finer points of the events.
• Throughout the Bible: Gives a look at where the ideas from the focal section are shown in other parts of Scripture, including the theological idea from all of the text.
• Beyond the Bible: Addresses references to this passage in non-Biblical but useful sources, such as Early Church Fathers or Jewish sources. These are valuable additions to the discussion.
• Application: This is the how-to section, and is that challenging mix of generic and specific that should draw out thoughts without closing off too many possibilities.
• Further Reading: Bibliography. I was surprised these were not Logos-linked.

Each section has a few questions with a place to type in answers, and these questions make good springboards for group discussion.

Is this curriculum good for you and your church to consider? Absolutely. It is text-centered and seeks to put a clear foundation on the life of Abraham. Those parts of his life that are filled-in via non-Scriptural sources are clearly delineated and allow for easy separation.

Further, the leader’s guide was easy to follow and I found the overall material worthwhile. The advantage of Logos-linking for Scripture references, words, and maps is obvious—one only needs to right-click and search for anything in the material that needs further explanation.

Some improvement could be found in accessing the slides if you do not have Proclaim. It was not too hard, and certainly not worth paying for Proclaim, but still a bit difficult. The only other drawback is the all-digital format. It’s helpful that the Logos website makes PDF and Word formats available, but I live in a semi-not-tech world out here, and if I told church members we’d be doing a digital book Bible study, I’d lose half the participants. So, I’d be using the old inkjet and making my own books, which end up not looking as good.

It’s not a real large problem, but it’s one for me.

I recommend this resource—I expect that the rest of the Patriarchs series up to the same quality and would gladly use it as well.

Sermon Wrap-Up from May 26

A couple of notes from Sunday:

1. No evening service. I knew we had several on the road due to Memorial Day weekend. I also knew we had some farmers who needed the down time, so we took the night off. Our purpose as a body is more than just structured services.

2. Your friendly neighborhood pastor-blogger forgot to clear space on the SD Card, so there’s an abrupt end on the sermon. Don’t tell me it’s better that way, alright?

Sermon Text was 2 Samuel 2, looking at David’s response to the people of Jabesh Gilead and the honor they paid Saul. This, in turn, builds into Memorial Day as an idea: Saul was not perfect, but he was used by God to accomplish several things. The first of which was the delivery of Jabesh from the hands of the marauder Nahash.

David commends the people for their honoring the memory of the one who was critical in their defense. He then challenges the people to move forward in obedience to God and do greater things.

Audio Link is here

Partial Video:

Natural Behavior: Romans 7

The most frequent excuse for our behavior is this: “It’s just natural!” Whether it is in the refrain of “Kids will be kids” or “I just couldn’t help myself,” typically we find our desire to cover up by blaming others just comes, well, naturally. The response is often that we should exercise more self-control, but Paul’s argument in Romans 7 is that self-control is useless, unless the self has changed.

Take a read through the passage. Sin is the owner and driver of human nature. Behavior that is ‘natural’ is not automatically good, and can in fact be quite bad. This can apply across the spectrum of human behavior—just because you like it and it comes naturally does not mean you should do it.

After all, I’ve yet to meet a gluten-allergic person who actually hated bread. Just ones for whom the ingredients were toxic but who had a love for it. Same with many other problem-raising behaviors: most of the time, it feels good. It’s the after-effect that kills us.

The difficult is that in the spiritual realm, it is not enough to reject the doing of sin by living according to the Law of God. Unlike learning to abstain from gluten or avoiding peanuts, or always carrying your Epi-Pen in case something slips past, we start off with the toxic effects. The Law only serves to demonstrate just how many ways we have this problem.

Seeing the Law as the source of the problem is like blaming cardiologists for congenital heart defects: it’s just the messenger, not the cause. Rather, we are born with the problem. It will, eventually, kill us. Some of us may exacerbate the difficulty by piling on issues, but it will get us all in the end.

The solution is not to act naturally. The solution is to change natures. This is where we are in Romans 7:4. Our old natures are not just to be controlled. Instead, they are to be put to death with Christ.

Then, by the settled work of Jesus at the Cross, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we are made alive to live based on what is His nature, not ours. We still struggle with falling into our habits, falling back into what was once natural.

We can see that when we learn new things—consider handwriting. Consider my handwriting. It’s awful. Why? Because I learned to write with a broken arm, and have only lately begun to try and retrain myself. I still handwrite with my elbow locked at 90 degrees. I look foolish, and it’s quite inconvenient.

It just became natural when I started writing that way. I don’t have to do that anymore, but I still often do. Why? Muscle memory, old habits, call it what you will…

But it’s not necessary. I have to change the nature of my writing. It is a process which I am working on, when I think about it. (Aside: I’m using a Journible to go through Psalms, and I’m seeing positive improvement. Hoping to be legible by Psalm 119.)

Likewise is the life of the Christian. We are not locked into the cast of sin any longer, and are free to move in obedience to God. Instead, though, we often fall back and obey the old hardened self. It’s not necessary, and quite the opposite of what God has created us to be.

You see, that’s the problem for us: what is natural prior to being made new in Christ is the dead opposite of what God created us to be. We are naturally bent toward self, but are made to be bent toward God. And self-control is not the answer. Christ control, through the Spirit and the Word, is.

Today’s Nerd Note: There’s an old legend regarding a Roman punishment that connects to Romans 7:24. Allegedly, the Romans would chain criminals to corpses in some form of “body of death” punishment.

There’s precious little to substantiate the idea, and much to mitigate against it. That the concept is even considered reflect poorly on many of us preachers and teachers: there is no reason to repeat or recycle things that are probably not true. Be cautious, and teach with truth.

Memorial Day 2013

Memorial Day is a day that we cannot overlook, but one that needs to stay in context. I think about my wedding anniversary when I think of special days. It is true that every December 19, I make an extra effort to recognize the patience and longsuffering of my wife, but I do not live the other 364 days as if I am not married.

Same with Memorial Day: we take a day to pause and remember the sacrifices of those who died to secure our freedom in the United States. We should not, however, act like these men and women did not sacrifice for the rest of our days as well. Please remember to stop and consider the lives given for your freedom today, and then live cognizant of the fact that our simple lives in this country were bought at a price.

I think of two images that haunt me especially during Memorial Day. The first is the picture of Arlington National Cemetery (and other National Cemeteries I’ve seen). The rows and rows of headstones, marking the loss of life in the name of freedom. The cost of war is never truly counted in dollars or materiel. It’s counted in those names.

The other comes from the end of episode 3 of the HBO series Band of Brothers. I can’t find a clear YouTube link to embed it, but as the men of the 101st Airborne are getting ready to ship out from England after D-Day to rebase into France. One of the unit’s NCOs goes to pick up his laundry, and the lady that has been doing laundry for the men of the unit asks him to help her with a few others…and the camera pans out to show the stacks of uniforms, each representing men who had died in the previous 30 days.

Mix that with the reality that the ladies in the laundry are likely alone in the countryside, either as widows or simply waiting to see if they will be.

It haunts me in my safety, in my security.

It is s terrible price to pay, and we must never forget it. To those of you who know Memorial Day because it reminds you of the sacrifice you have given in your sons and daughters, husbands and wives, we know this is hard. We do not know how hard, and we do not know how to say it. We are grateful in ways we can never express.

Book: Magnificent Malevolence

Today’s book is Magnificent Malevolence. I was provided a copy through the publishers in exchange for the review. No money changed hands, and Derek Wilson, author, did not send any cookies to bribe me. This had no effect on my opinion of the book.

Many years ago, C.S. Lewis did himself and the rest of the Christian literary world the great helpful disservice of writing a little book called The Screwtape Letters. This volume attempted to presented the ways in which Christians and Christianity were afflicted by the demonic enemies of God, and caused Lewis difficulties with people wanting a second volume, and caused many others difficulties with trying to match his work.

Fortunately, Derek Wilson’s Magnificent Malevolence does not attempt to hide from its debt to Jack and the infernal correspondence of Screwtape. Wilson acknowledges the connection on the front cover and again in the Introduction chapter of the book itself.

The literary format is quite simple. Wilson presents Magnificent Malevolence as the recovery of a first-source manuscript by the demon involved, in this case a diabolical fiend named Crumblewit. This leads to part of the fun of the book: the names assigned to the demons are quite quirky and entertaining. Blagender, Squimblebag, and Snagwort are some of those names. Good stuff.

The unifying plotline of Magnificent Malevolence is not any particular scheme of the “Lower Command” as much as it is the narrative of the work of Crumblewit. In this, rather than relating to specific temptations and phases of life for an individual, the work rather broadens out to address various occasions across recent church history. Various Christian happenings, from Charismatic movements to music style explosions are addressed, as well as the foundations of radio, TV, and the Internet.

It is here, though, that Magnificent Malevolence has its moments of stumbling. Wilson delves into some territory here where there were, and are, divisions among Christians over the right way to address issues such as worship style, environment, and even church organization processes. However, to read Crumblewit’s take, any division was from the efforts of Hell and anyone who questioned questionable ideas were being the tools of Hell. That is, for me, a touch too far.

Wilson does not tarry too long on any one issue, though, so if your views on the environment or political-economic systems differ from his, there remains much within Magnificent Malevolence to benefit you. Overall, this work stands well as a work of fiction to challenge the Christian to think.

In all, a good read for higher middle-school and up. Remember that this is a work of the author’s imagination, but it is a well-rounded work, and worth your time to read.

Again: free book in exchange for the review. The only demand is the due date, not the content.