Insomniac's Reading & Play List

My eyes stay open through the watches of the night, that I may meditate on your promises. Psalm 119:148

When I have trouble sleeping, which is pretty often, here are some of the things I do to get me through the watches of the night: 

*Listen on my ipod to an oldie, but great Vineyard worship CD called Isn't He.  The CD is from the ole acoustic worship series. I am sure I've listened it now since the late 1990's (when it was just a cassette tape) thousands of times. 

*Read the Scriptures. Recently I am reading through a several hundred page commentary on Romans by N.T. Wright. (Great stuff but after an hour or two of reading it can make you pretty sleepy!)

*As the Psalm above states, "meditate on God's promises."  It's amazing how much the Spirit can speak to you out a passage that you have memorized and meditate on in your mind repeatedly over and over again. Some of my favorites are Psalm 1, 23, 34, and of course, the Lord's Prayer. 

sweet dreams.

The Sermon on the Mount

As I read, meditate, study the Sermon on the Mount, I have a new and growing appreciation for Jesus' teaching on what it means to live within the Kingdom of God (God's Rule and Reign). Certainly the Sermon reflects the values and ethics of the Kingdom. (By the way, even though Matthew puts it in a sermon format that can be spoken in 15 minutes, scholars agree that it was a compilation of Jesus' teaching).  It seems to me that anyone one who calls themselves a follower of Jesus Christ, must take the Sermon on the Mount seriously.  By that I mean,  a student of Jesus will read it often, meditate on it regularly and pray that by God's Spirit she might live it out daily and be the salt and light Jesus intends for us all to be.  

Random thought: "You write what you read" someone said. 

The Fruit of Discipleship

I received an email from a friend I hadn't spoken to in over 20 years. My friend expressed his appreciation for me and the time he served as my "intern" in student ministry back in the 80's.  This young man took a year off from college and from pursuing his law degree to be discipled and to assist us in discipling high school students. In an exchange of emails he wrote:

I am confident God used you to help introduce me to serving his children and I will always be thankful for the time you took to mentor me. By the way, I'm currently in a discipleship group at my church and have been for 3 years. God used the group leader, my pastor, to give me the courage to quit practicing law and start working with kids. I have also started a discipleship group with my high school guys. Isn't God incredible!!!

My email response to him was:

Awesome, brother! What a surprise to hear from you:) Thank you so much for taking the time to look me up and connect. Hearing from you brings back a lot of great memories and confirms my efforts over the years to "make disciples." My life verse is 2 Timothy 2:2 and hearing your story and what you're now doing encourages me in this regard. 

God's timing and sense of humor cracks me up.  I am in preparation this week to start a new series on discipleship this Sunday called Following the Jesus Way. Hearing from my friend has given me renewed commitment and passion for discipleship. 

Getting the Big Picture

The theological equivalent of supposing that the earth goes around the sun is the belief that the whole Christian truth is all about me and my salvation. I have read dozens of books and articles in the last few weeks on the topic of justification. Again and again the writers, from a variety of backgrounds, have assumed, taken it for granted, that the central question of all is, 'What must I do to be saved?'' or (Luther's way of putting it), ''How can I find a gracious God?' or, 'How can I enter a right relationship with God?''

Now do not misunderstand me. Hold the angry or fearful reaction. Salvation is hugely important. Of course it is! Knowing God for oneself, as opposed to merely knowing or thinking about him, is at the heart of Christian living. But we are not the centre of the universe. God is not circling around us. We are circling around him. 

God made humans for a purpose: not simply for themselves, not simply so that they could be in relationship with him, but that through them, as his image-bearers, he could bring his wise, glad, fruitful order to the world. And the closing scenes of scripture,  in the book of Revelation, are not about human beings going off to heaven to be in a close and intimate relationship with God, but about heaven coming to earth. The intimate relationship with God which is indeed promised and celebrated in that great scene of the New Jerusalem issues at once in an outflowing, a further healing creativity, the river of the water of life flowing out from the city, and the tree of life springing up, with leaves that are for the healing of the nations. We are in orbit around God and his purposes, not the other way around. (Justification: God's Plan & Paul's Vision by N.T. Wright)

Babies Dedicated, God's Good News, Children of the Taliban

Baby Dedication: It was a special time this past Easter Sunday celebrating and dedicating three precious children to the Lord.  Hannah's prayer in 1 Samuel 1:27 took on extra special meaning for me as I had the opportunity to dedicate our only grandchild, Cora Danielle.  Hannah presented Samuel in the Temple and said, "I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him.  So now, I give him to the LORD.  For his whole life he will be given over to the LORD."  And he (Samuel) worshipped the LORD there.

Presenting the Gospel: I found it exciting and deeply humbling to present God's Good News (Romans 1:1-8) to so many guests on Easter Sunday.  I was reminded of James Packer's thoughts about our dependence on the Spirit of God in any effort of evangelism: However clear and cogent we may be in presenting the gospel, we have no hope of convincing or converting anyone. Can you or I by our earnest talking break the power of Satan over a man's life? No. Can you or I give life to the spiritually dead? No. Can we hope to convince sinners of the truth of the gospel by patient explanation? No. Can we hope to move men to obey the gospel by any words of entreaty that we may utter? No. Our approach to evangelism is not realistic till we have faced this shattering fact, and let it make its proper impact on us."

Chilling Story about Children of the Taliban: Joyce and I saw this news story on PBS on Tuesday evening.  You can see it on pbs.org/frontlineworld.  So opposite to Jesus' radical approach and love for children. Imagine: children viewed as instruments of God (Allah) to kill others as suicide bombers. May God have mercy! 

  

Community and the Cross

Christianity is all about relationships: with God and with others...The true basis for all fellowship is when two or more persons kneel at the foot of the Christ's cross, trusting only in his mercy and love. At that point of reality, we come to see how our sins crucified Christ and how they wound his body, the church, today.

 

The cross is the heart of all fellowship, and it is only through the cross that fellowship is deepened and matured. This will involve the frequent and painful crucifixion of self in all its forms--self-seeking, self-centeredness, self-righteousness--and the willingness to remain vulnerable in open fellowship with other Christians. (Called and Committed by David Watson)

Transformational Discipleship

It is time to commit to going deep with God and to believe that depth of personal transformation will bring fulfillment of the Great Commission.  (Quote from The Complete Book of Discipleship by Bill Hull)

The Lord knows we've tried going superficial, shallow, syrupy, and seeker-sensitive and while it has draw a crowd in many places, it has not helped us fulfill the Great Commission of making disciples.  I might quickly add that this is not just my opinion, but an unfortunate reality that is born out by the facts.