Jul 2008
One country, two worlds
28/07/08 14:15 Filed in: African Life
Like most of the world in the twenty-first century, Zambia is a complex place where generalisations are inevitably inadequate. This is certainly the Third World (or 'Two-Thirds World' as more modern jargon would have it) and there is plenty of evidence of that. At the same time, the copper industry is experiencing a boom with record world copper prices pressing higher; as copper is the essential engine of the Zambian economy the country is doing quite well in relative terms. The mines are reprocessing old tailings using new processes, new mines are opening and copper smelters being built to process the metal. Roads to and within the Copperbelt are being improved. Along the main route to Lusaka, Chinese contractors are working as fast as Africa will allow to install fibre optic cables to improve the still poor communications to the mining area and allow high-speed internet access in the future. Towns like Chingola are doing well out of all this, and are centres of employment that provide a wealth that would otherwise be difficult to obtain in Zambia. The number of vehicles around town, the dress and appearance of the local people and the blossoming of satellite dishes on homes are all testimony to the good times.
No-one could reasonably expect that everyone would benefit, of course. Some people are not going to take part in this kind of economic growth, because it is hard to get a foot on even the first rung of the economic ladder. With unemployment over 90% that is especially true in Zambia. In the towns the poorer areas are visibly much poorer. From a Christian viewpoint, the churches in different areas reflect the economic difference. Chingola's Central Baptist Church, which has an excellent ministry in English only, is not a great building by any Western standard, but the pastor is quite well looked after (as he should be!) and on Sunday morning the grounds soon fill up with parked vehicles. The sermon is delivered in first-class English that uses a range of vocabulary that would stretch some British congregations. The Scripture exposition is high quality: the pastor has preached in the West and could easily hold down a pastorate anywhere in the world. Accountants, electricians, mine workers of various kinds make up most of the well-dressed congregation. These are people with standards and ambitions that would be recognised anywhere in Europe or North America, although they retain a wonderfully Zambian manner as well. A number of them will have earnings that easily exceed our budget as supported missionaries.
Not very far from central Chingola, there is a district of town called Chiwempala. People here are poor. The Chiwempala Baptist Union Church is well-filled, but there are just a couple of vehicles for all the congregation. This is a vernacular church - the local language is used because the far lower education standards mean that the 'official' language of English is not always well understood. People are not so well-clothed and certainly not so well fed as their central Chingola brothers. The offering is small by any standard not because the people are not faithful but because there is so little money. The pastor gets paid something, but has to be supported by gifts of food as well because the congregation cannot fully financially support him. The exposition of Scripture has to be tuned to African ears and understanding that is more traditional and less knowing of the ways of the developed world. There are not many Bibles, nowhere near enough hymn books. The people here face problems and temptations that are quite different from those that afflict the people of Central Baptist Church. There temptations are common to the human race, of course, but the battle is at a different level in this environment.
There is a third level in Zambia, the rural poor. Even just a few kilometres outside the towns there are mud and thatch huts with no electricity, piped water or waste disposal, children in ragged clothes and a wholly different view of life. These people retain traditional thinking. Unemployment is virtually 100% and living is subsistence level. Witchcraft and animism are dominant and affect even those who become Christians. Indeed, being a serious Christian in this environment is very hard. The tendency is to retain at least some traditional beliefs along with Christianity. English is very little used - in some areas not at all - and to quite a few people practically unknown. One Zambian in conversation referred to this way of life as 'out-country;' as one travels away from the towns and industrial areas, life becomes more and more traditional and less and less touched by the twenty-first century. Communications can be very poor. One might drive to Lusaka in five hours along decent roads. Going 'out-country' might take two days for a similar distance. The educational and medical facilities here are few. Zambians who have managed to get clear of this way of life are not likely want to go back. In one such area, Nabwalya, the first Zambian pastor has only recently gone to serve alongside missionaries. Zambian pastors who have studied at Bible college and attained good education consistently refuse to go to such areas because of the poverty and because most view the witchcraft as a serious and dangerous menace, to be avoided rather than fought. It is useless to compare all this with Europe or North America. Even the contrast with Lusaka is almost too painful.
The need for missionaries in Zambia is something that can be debated, at least when one considers the prosperous areas. African Christianity is alive and well, although grievously affected by the pedlars of the distorted gospel of the health and wealth movement. The exploitation of Africans by the charismatic/pentecostalist movement is also distressing. Africans are easily persuaded by systems that do not even bother to refer to the Bible for authentication, although in that respect they differ little from the adherents of Hillsong and similar movements in the West. You may be offended by the comparison, but it is true enough! Still, there are good churches in Zambia. The Baptist Union is committed to a real evangelical position that puts its namesake in the UK to shame. The number of people claiming to be adherents of the Christian faith in Zambia is over 75%. The President, Levy Mwanawassa, really is a committed believer.
Still, the problems are many. The kind of thinking that questions the need for missionaries in a place like Zambia, coupled with a decline in the support for missions across the Western world, is threatening to turn the real needs in Africa into a spiritual crisis. The myth that revival is sweeping thousands into the kingdom daily is being spread by churches that quite frankly would not know true biblical revival if it bit them in their collective leg! Zambia, like many other countries, needs its missionaries, and that means that giving by Western churches, both financially and in terms of people, has to continue. The spread of the gospel to the poor and needy depends on it. It is realistic to expect the better-off Zambians to do something to support the work, but there is no possibility of their being able to meet the needs unaided.
Maybe there needs to be rethinking on two levels in the West. The first is the most obvious: one message recently told of a church in a very small town in England planning a £2 million rebuild. Now, granted that the church in the UK needs decent facilities, but can that sort of expenditure be justified in the light of the poverty of so many who still need to hear the gospel?
The second level is closely related: does the Apostles Creed mean anything when it says "I believe in . . . . the catholic church, the communion of saints?" That is not intended to be a facetious question, but a reminder that the very essence of the Christian faith is that the Lord is gathering his church from every nation and tribe on earth into one people. Being British, or American or Zambian, is not the issue. When I take the Lord Jesus Christ by faith as my Saviour I no longer look to London, Washington or Lusaka as the place for me. I join Abraham in looking for a city whose builder and maker is God. My earthly loyalties are going to be very short-lived, and I am already called to consider my brothers and sisters in the light of eternity.
From its beginning in the New Testament, the people of the Christian faith knew they were called to consider others of the same faith and meet their needs, across regional and national borders. Paul unashamedly presented the needs of the church in Judah to the gentiles across the Roman world, collected what was given for them and put his own life at risk to deliver the gift. James puts the challenge in terms we can easily understand when he uses the illustration of a rich, well-dressed man visiting the church, at the same time as a poor man, badly dresses. He says that if we treat the rich man well while the poor man is kept down, we have become judges with evil thoughts who dishonour the poor (James 1:27 - 2:6). Africa's poor are not going to come in to most Western churches anytime soon, but it should not mean 'out of sight, out of mind.' They need the gospel, and the exploitation practised by the charismaniacs will not reach most of them. Africa's poor Christians may never be seen by most Westerners until we meet in glory, but they are our needy brothers now. Please pray, and please give.
No-one could reasonably expect that everyone would benefit, of course. Some people are not going to take part in this kind of economic growth, because it is hard to get a foot on even the first rung of the economic ladder. With unemployment over 90% that is especially true in Zambia. In the towns the poorer areas are visibly much poorer. From a Christian viewpoint, the churches in different areas reflect the economic difference. Chingola's Central Baptist Church, which has an excellent ministry in English only, is not a great building by any Western standard, but the pastor is quite well looked after (as he should be!) and on Sunday morning the grounds soon fill up with parked vehicles. The sermon is delivered in first-class English that uses a range of vocabulary that would stretch some British congregations. The Scripture exposition is high quality: the pastor has preached in the West and could easily hold down a pastorate anywhere in the world. Accountants, electricians, mine workers of various kinds make up most of the well-dressed congregation. These are people with standards and ambitions that would be recognised anywhere in Europe or North America, although they retain a wonderfully Zambian manner as well. A number of them will have earnings that easily exceed our budget as supported missionaries.
Not very far from central Chingola, there is a district of town called Chiwempala. People here are poor. The Chiwempala Baptist Union Church is well-filled, but there are just a couple of vehicles for all the congregation. This is a vernacular church - the local language is used because the far lower education standards mean that the 'official' language of English is not always well understood. People are not so well-clothed and certainly not so well fed as their central Chingola brothers. The offering is small by any standard not because the people are not faithful but because there is so little money. The pastor gets paid something, but has to be supported by gifts of food as well because the congregation cannot fully financially support him. The exposition of Scripture has to be tuned to African ears and understanding that is more traditional and less knowing of the ways of the developed world. There are not many Bibles, nowhere near enough hymn books. The people here face problems and temptations that are quite different from those that afflict the people of Central Baptist Church. There temptations are common to the human race, of course, but the battle is at a different level in this environment.
There is a third level in Zambia, the rural poor. Even just a few kilometres outside the towns there are mud and thatch huts with no electricity, piped water or waste disposal, children in ragged clothes and a wholly different view of life. These people retain traditional thinking. Unemployment is virtually 100% and living is subsistence level. Witchcraft and animism are dominant and affect even those who become Christians. Indeed, being a serious Christian in this environment is very hard. The tendency is to retain at least some traditional beliefs along with Christianity. English is very little used - in some areas not at all - and to quite a few people practically unknown. One Zambian in conversation referred to this way of life as 'out-country;' as one travels away from the towns and industrial areas, life becomes more and more traditional and less and less touched by the twenty-first century. Communications can be very poor. One might drive to Lusaka in five hours along decent roads. Going 'out-country' might take two days for a similar distance. The educational and medical facilities here are few. Zambians who have managed to get clear of this way of life are not likely want to go back. In one such area, Nabwalya, the first Zambian pastor has only recently gone to serve alongside missionaries. Zambian pastors who have studied at Bible college and attained good education consistently refuse to go to such areas because of the poverty and because most view the witchcraft as a serious and dangerous menace, to be avoided rather than fought. It is useless to compare all this with Europe or North America. Even the contrast with Lusaka is almost too painful.
The need for missionaries in Zambia is something that can be debated, at least when one considers the prosperous areas. African Christianity is alive and well, although grievously affected by the pedlars of the distorted gospel of the health and wealth movement. The exploitation of Africans by the charismatic/pentecostalist movement is also distressing. Africans are easily persuaded by systems that do not even bother to refer to the Bible for authentication, although in that respect they differ little from the adherents of Hillsong and similar movements in the West. You may be offended by the comparison, but it is true enough! Still, there are good churches in Zambia. The Baptist Union is committed to a real evangelical position that puts its namesake in the UK to shame. The number of people claiming to be adherents of the Christian faith in Zambia is over 75%. The President, Levy Mwanawassa, really is a committed believer.
Still, the problems are many. The kind of thinking that questions the need for missionaries in a place like Zambia, coupled with a decline in the support for missions across the Western world, is threatening to turn the real needs in Africa into a spiritual crisis. The myth that revival is sweeping thousands into the kingdom daily is being spread by churches that quite frankly would not know true biblical revival if it bit them in their collective leg! Zambia, like many other countries, needs its missionaries, and that means that giving by Western churches, both financially and in terms of people, has to continue. The spread of the gospel to the poor and needy depends on it. It is realistic to expect the better-off Zambians to do something to support the work, but there is no possibility of their being able to meet the needs unaided.
Maybe there needs to be rethinking on two levels in the West. The first is the most obvious: one message recently told of a church in a very small town in England planning a £2 million rebuild. Now, granted that the church in the UK needs decent facilities, but can that sort of expenditure be justified in the light of the poverty of so many who still need to hear the gospel?
The second level is closely related: does the Apostles Creed mean anything when it says "I believe in . . . . the catholic church, the communion of saints?" That is not intended to be a facetious question, but a reminder that the very essence of the Christian faith is that the Lord is gathering his church from every nation and tribe on earth into one people. Being British, or American or Zambian, is not the issue. When I take the Lord Jesus Christ by faith as my Saviour I no longer look to London, Washington or Lusaka as the place for me. I join Abraham in looking for a city whose builder and maker is God. My earthly loyalties are going to be very short-lived, and I am already called to consider my brothers and sisters in the light of eternity.
From its beginning in the New Testament, the people of the Christian faith knew they were called to consider others of the same faith and meet their needs, across regional and national borders. Paul unashamedly presented the needs of the church in Judah to the gentiles across the Roman world, collected what was given for them and put his own life at risk to deliver the gift. James puts the challenge in terms we can easily understand when he uses the illustration of a rich, well-dressed man visiting the church, at the same time as a poor man, badly dresses. He says that if we treat the rich man well while the poor man is kept down, we have become judges with evil thoughts who dishonour the poor (James 1:27 - 2:6). Africa's poor are not going to come in to most Western churches anytime soon, but it should not mean 'out of sight, out of mind.' They need the gospel, and the exploitation practised by the charismaniacs will not reach most of them. Africa's poor Christians may never be seen by most Westerners until we meet in glory, but they are our needy brothers now. Please pray, and please give.
What's wrong with preaching?
23/07/08 14:25 Filed in: Thinking Thoughts
It is really quite difficult to determine a suitable title for this piece. I don't want it to sound like I have all the answers, because I don't and never will have, and in any case there are many who might read this who are far better preachers than I. I don't want to indicate that preaching in our time is in a total mess, because there are very good preachers about, including men whose names do not feature on the conference agenda or 'best-known preachers' list. Last but not least, everything I say is a generalisation; there are always exceptions to be found somewhere!
Still, having said that, both at home in the UK and here in Zambia there are good men who know their doctrine who are not moving the hearts and minds of the people of God, unless one considers movement in the direction of sleep or disappointment to be desirable. Zambia is a several thousand miles from the UK geographically and in a different condition in several important respects (and in some of those respects, in a better condition!). But in the Reformed world at least there are several similarities that link Zambia and the UK; Reformed theology takes several variant forms and these transfer easily to Africa. The Reformed movement is growing in strength and influence among evangelicals. Reformed worship is certainly more conservative than most other evangelical streams.
The Baptist movement in Zambia is strong and largely evangelical, and Reformed Baptists are doing well here. There are very successful Reformed ministries in place in Lusaka and other large centres. It may be easier to hear Reformed ministry in a medium-sized Zambian town than it is in the UK. In terms of Bible translations, the NIV dominates in Zambia in a way it never has in the UK among the Reformed, but that is because it is easier to obtain than anything else and its English is accessible. Among pastors the ESV is increasingly known and appreciated - the Reformed Baptist pastor in Chingola preaches from it although his congregation mostly has the NIV. The KJV has little access in spite of the TBS sending out copies: its archaic English really is another language for most Zambians. The TBS will no doubt continue to publish how many copies of the KJV it sends to Zambia and other countries. What the statistics don't say is how many of those copies gather dust. All the TBS needs to do is publish something along the lines of the NKJV, using the translation principles they think are right, and they would be doing a much greater work.
But what about the preaching? In both Reformed and evangelical churches in Zambia, there is good preaching to be heard in the sense of exposition of the text and in the sense of application of the text to the hearers lives. What is noticeably lacking is a Christ-centred message. Gospel sermons are 'reserved' for evangelistic campaigns and special crusades. The Christ-centredness of the Reformers and their successors has somehow not transferred to Zambia. Congregations are getting a great deal of 'the patriarchs did this and so should you' (or not, depending on the patriarch and the incident!), a lot of careful exposition of the text in a direct sense, and not a lot of the glory and sweetness and saving grace of the One who ought to be at the heart of all preaching.
Sadly, that is the case in many UK churches. Having friends in different parts of the UK is a great advantage when you want to get a sense of how people perceive the ministry they are getting, and the simple fact is that we have a good number of 'sound,' doctrinally correct preachers who are not having the impact they should. There are dull and hard-hearted hearers, of course, but one does not have to go too far or even think too hard to realise that something is wrong. In this sense, Zambia and the UK are nearer than one might think.
Finding a solution is not easy, especially when quite a few people want to deny there is a problem! One thing we need is more people willing to pray for preachers in a serious way. It is well enough to identify the problem, and quite another to decide that the answer is to dispose of the present preacher and simply get another. The diagnosis may be right, but the cure is wrong. There needs to be a work of the Holy Spirit in the minds and hearts of both congregation and minister, and the whole issue needs to be handled with grace and a desire to honour the name of the Lord. Ministers can repent and congregations can learn to discern properly what they are listening to.
In the grace of God our age is not without men who can guide us in all of this. Professor Edward Donnelly in Ulster, Sinclair Ferguson, John Piper, Art Azurdia (at the Aberystwyth Conference this year, I think), Charles Mahaney and many others spring to mind. Strangely enough, the older writers are a great help too if only we will read them with open eyes.
Suppose you could ask Jonathan Edwards what the purpose of preaching is. What do you think he would answer? Try this from his 'Religious Affections:'
. . . . to promote those two affections in them [the congregation], which are spoken of in the text, love and joy: “Christ gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; that the body of Christ might be edified in love,”. Eph. iv. 11, 12, 16. The apostle, in instructing and counselling Timothy, concerning the work of the ministry, informs him, that the great end of that word which a minister is to preach, is love or charity. And God has appointed preaching as a means to promote in the saints joy: therefore ministers are called helpers of their joy.
'Helpers of their joy!' I wonder how often I have failed that as a test of the ministry I have delivered, or rather, I don't wonder. I know I have very often failed. But Edwards is himself a helper - he suggests the remedy. In 'Religious Affections' Edwards makes a careful case that true religion must move the heart as well as the mind. His concern is that some of the men of his day saw excess in the response people made to passionate preaching in times of true revival. He does not seek to excuse the preaching as being all correct, and he certainly is not defending excess. Where his concern finds focus is in the response to excess, which in his day was to reject any heart-moving and passionate ministry and to put in its place 'solid' doctrine presented in a way that addressed the mind but not the heart:
. . . of late, instead of esteeming and admiring all religious affections, without distinction, it is much more prevalent to reject and discard all without distinction. Herein appears the subtilty of Satan. While he saw that affections were much in vogue, knowing the greater part were not versed in such things, and had not had much experience of great religious affections, enabling them to judge well, and to distinguish between true and false; then he knew he could best play his game, by sowing tares amongst the wheat, and mingling false affections with the works of God’s Spirit. He knew this to be a likely way to delude and eternally ruin many souls, and greatly to wound religion in the saints, and entangle them in a dreadful wilderness, and by and by to bring all religion into disrepute.
Edwards doesn't mince his words, however, when he turns to the opposite error of discarding the affections:
We may hence learn how great their error is, who are for discarding all religious affections, as having nothing solid or substantial in them. There seems to be too much of a disposition this way prevailing at this time. . . . .
He who has no religious affection, is in a state of spiritual death, and is wholly destitute of the powerful, quickening, saving influences of the Spirit of God upon his heart. As there is no true religion where there is nothing else but affection, so there is no true religion where there is no religious affection.
Edwards case is mainly directed to ministers, and he is radically against 'sound and solid' preaching where the solidity is similar to that of suet pudding. He wants Christ-centred preaching, he wants the preacher's heart as well as his mind fully engaged and he wants the preaching to be such that it aims for the hearers hearts and minds, by the grace of God.
Edwards is not an easy read for many, but it seems to me it would be worth making the effort. Reformed teaching is without doubt the clearest expression of the intention of the word of God available in our day. An urgent need is that that teaching be always consciously Christ-centred, and it is the preachers duty to ensure that it is so. Only the preaching of the Lord Jesus Christ will really move hearts. Without hearts moved by what is being taught, a people addressed by preachers who are clear that a heart-moving ministry that brings love and joy to its hearers is vital, the Reformed teaching of our day in both Zambia and the UK will nevertheless be barren in a real and lasting sense. The message is far too valuable for us to even think of that being allowed to happen. More than that, the souls we have been given now and the people that we might reach ought to be precious to us in a very sense. Whatever pains a preaching ministry may involve, it is as nothing compared to the suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ to win the souls to whom the preaching should be directed.
Still, having said that, both at home in the UK and here in Zambia there are good men who know their doctrine who are not moving the hearts and minds of the people of God, unless one considers movement in the direction of sleep or disappointment to be desirable. Zambia is a several thousand miles from the UK geographically and in a different condition in several important respects (and in some of those respects, in a better condition!). But in the Reformed world at least there are several similarities that link Zambia and the UK; Reformed theology takes several variant forms and these transfer easily to Africa. The Reformed movement is growing in strength and influence among evangelicals. Reformed worship is certainly more conservative than most other evangelical streams.
The Baptist movement in Zambia is strong and largely evangelical, and Reformed Baptists are doing well here. There are very successful Reformed ministries in place in Lusaka and other large centres. It may be easier to hear Reformed ministry in a medium-sized Zambian town than it is in the UK. In terms of Bible translations, the NIV dominates in Zambia in a way it never has in the UK among the Reformed, but that is because it is easier to obtain than anything else and its English is accessible. Among pastors the ESV is increasingly known and appreciated - the Reformed Baptist pastor in Chingola preaches from it although his congregation mostly has the NIV. The KJV has little access in spite of the TBS sending out copies: its archaic English really is another language for most Zambians. The TBS will no doubt continue to publish how many copies of the KJV it sends to Zambia and other countries. What the statistics don't say is how many of those copies gather dust. All the TBS needs to do is publish something along the lines of the NKJV, using the translation principles they think are right, and they would be doing a much greater work.
But what about the preaching? In both Reformed and evangelical churches in Zambia, there is good preaching to be heard in the sense of exposition of the text and in the sense of application of the text to the hearers lives. What is noticeably lacking is a Christ-centred message. Gospel sermons are 'reserved' for evangelistic campaigns and special crusades. The Christ-centredness of the Reformers and their successors has somehow not transferred to Zambia. Congregations are getting a great deal of 'the patriarchs did this and so should you' (or not, depending on the patriarch and the incident!), a lot of careful exposition of the text in a direct sense, and not a lot of the glory and sweetness and saving grace of the One who ought to be at the heart of all preaching.
Sadly, that is the case in many UK churches. Having friends in different parts of the UK is a great advantage when you want to get a sense of how people perceive the ministry they are getting, and the simple fact is that we have a good number of 'sound,' doctrinally correct preachers who are not having the impact they should. There are dull and hard-hearted hearers, of course, but one does not have to go too far or even think too hard to realise that something is wrong. In this sense, Zambia and the UK are nearer than one might think.
Finding a solution is not easy, especially when quite a few people want to deny there is a problem! One thing we need is more people willing to pray for preachers in a serious way. It is well enough to identify the problem, and quite another to decide that the answer is to dispose of the present preacher and simply get another. The diagnosis may be right, but the cure is wrong. There needs to be a work of the Holy Spirit in the minds and hearts of both congregation and minister, and the whole issue needs to be handled with grace and a desire to honour the name of the Lord. Ministers can repent and congregations can learn to discern properly what they are listening to.
In the grace of God our age is not without men who can guide us in all of this. Professor Edward Donnelly in Ulster, Sinclair Ferguson, John Piper, Art Azurdia (at the Aberystwyth Conference this year, I think), Charles Mahaney and many others spring to mind. Strangely enough, the older writers are a great help too if only we will read them with open eyes.
Suppose you could ask Jonathan Edwards what the purpose of preaching is. What do you think he would answer? Try this from his 'Religious Affections:'
. . . . to promote those two affections in them [the congregation], which are spoken of in the text, love and joy: “Christ gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; that the body of Christ might be edified in love,”. Eph. iv. 11, 12, 16. The apostle, in instructing and counselling Timothy, concerning the work of the ministry, informs him, that the great end of that word which a minister is to preach, is love or charity. And God has appointed preaching as a means to promote in the saints joy: therefore ministers are called helpers of their joy.
'Helpers of their joy!' I wonder how often I have failed that as a test of the ministry I have delivered, or rather, I don't wonder. I know I have very often failed. But Edwards is himself a helper - he suggests the remedy. In 'Religious Affections' Edwards makes a careful case that true religion must move the heart as well as the mind. His concern is that some of the men of his day saw excess in the response people made to passionate preaching in times of true revival. He does not seek to excuse the preaching as being all correct, and he certainly is not defending excess. Where his concern finds focus is in the response to excess, which in his day was to reject any heart-moving and passionate ministry and to put in its place 'solid' doctrine presented in a way that addressed the mind but not the heart:
. . . of late, instead of esteeming and admiring all religious affections, without distinction, it is much more prevalent to reject and discard all without distinction. Herein appears the subtilty of Satan. While he saw that affections were much in vogue, knowing the greater part were not versed in such things, and had not had much experience of great religious affections, enabling them to judge well, and to distinguish between true and false; then he knew he could best play his game, by sowing tares amongst the wheat, and mingling false affections with the works of God’s Spirit. He knew this to be a likely way to delude and eternally ruin many souls, and greatly to wound religion in the saints, and entangle them in a dreadful wilderness, and by and by to bring all religion into disrepute.
Edwards doesn't mince his words, however, when he turns to the opposite error of discarding the affections:
We may hence learn how great their error is, who are for discarding all religious affections, as having nothing solid or substantial in them. There seems to be too much of a disposition this way prevailing at this time. . . . .
He who has no religious affection, is in a state of spiritual death, and is wholly destitute of the powerful, quickening, saving influences of the Spirit of God upon his heart. As there is no true religion where there is nothing else but affection, so there is no true religion where there is no religious affection.
Edwards case is mainly directed to ministers, and he is radically against 'sound and solid' preaching where the solidity is similar to that of suet pudding. He wants Christ-centred preaching, he wants the preacher's heart as well as his mind fully engaged and he wants the preaching to be such that it aims for the hearers hearts and minds, by the grace of God.
Edwards is not an easy read for many, but it seems to me it would be worth making the effort. Reformed teaching is without doubt the clearest expression of the intention of the word of God available in our day. An urgent need is that that teaching be always consciously Christ-centred, and it is the preachers duty to ensure that it is so. Only the preaching of the Lord Jesus Christ will really move hearts. Without hearts moved by what is being taught, a people addressed by preachers who are clear that a heart-moving ministry that brings love and joy to its hearers is vital, the Reformed teaching of our day in both Zambia and the UK will nevertheless be barren in a real and lasting sense. The message is far too valuable for us to even think of that being allowed to happen. More than that, the souls we have been given now and the people that we might reach ought to be precious to us in a very sense. Whatever pains a preaching ministry may involve, it is as nothing compared to the suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ to win the souls to whom the preaching should be directed.
Making more of less
08/07/08 14:14 Filed in: African Life
There is an aspect of living in Zambia that is a great help spiritually, at least to me, having grown up in a very materialistic culture. Here even the frustrations of South Africa are reduced, because rather than living with many Western luxuries but not all one simply has to face the fact that there are practically none. In Zambia there are many things that simply cannot be had because no-one in the country is selling them. My hobby of photography is constrained by the fact that what I have, I have; in addition there are no magazines to tempt me with their adverts for Nikon's latest and greatest. There is no ‘Apple Store’ anywhere to see the latest computer. I cannot get the books I would like because they must be ordered internationally, and the postage will cost as much (sometimes more) than the book. Even something as simple as batteries for my hearing-aid must be got in Lusaka, several hours away by road. So distractions from spiritual life that easily crowd in for so many are much fewer here, and there is more time for the things of God.
Recently I read in the morning some words from the Puritan prayers in the ‘Valley of Vision,’ where in a prayer speaking of Calvary were these words:
Christ was all anguish that I might be all joy,
cast off that I might be brought in,
trodden down as and enemy that I might be welcomed as a friend,
surrendered to hell’s worst that I might attain heaven’s best,
stripped that I might be clothed . . . .
[he] wept that all tears might be wiped from my eyes . . .
bore a thorny crown that I might have a glory-diadem . . .
closed his eyes in death that I might gaze on unclouded brightness.
Sometimes, to my shame, even here there are sufficient distractions that I easily allow what I read in the morning to slip away. But this day happened to be a holiday. In the evening, when I might have spent some time in entertainment, the fact that the power had already been off for five hours and would not return before I went to bed four hours later kept me to my book by the light of the oil lamp (godly George Herbert’s writings on the country pastor, just as relevant in twent-first century Zambia as in early seventeenth century England) and my thoughts, which kept returning to that morning prayer.
Well then, it is true that less can be more! Much as I miss Wales, friends and family, and many things, I would not have swapped that day for anything. And the next day, the prayer I read seemed to underline what I needed to learn:
May Thy dear Son preserve me from this present evil world,
so that its smiles never allure,
nor its frowns terrify,
nor its vices defile,
nor its errors delude me.
May I feel that I am a stranger and pilgrim on earth,
declaring plainly that I seek a country,
my title to it becoming daily more clear,
my meetness for it more perfect,
my foretastes of it more abundant;
and whatsoever I do may it be done in the Saviour’s name.
Recently I read in the morning some words from the Puritan prayers in the ‘Valley of Vision,’ where in a prayer speaking of Calvary were these words:
Christ was all anguish that I might be all joy,
cast off that I might be brought in,
trodden down as and enemy that I might be welcomed as a friend,
surrendered to hell’s worst that I might attain heaven’s best,
stripped that I might be clothed . . . .
[he] wept that all tears might be wiped from my eyes . . .
bore a thorny crown that I might have a glory-diadem . . .
closed his eyes in death that I might gaze on unclouded brightness.
Sometimes, to my shame, even here there are sufficient distractions that I easily allow what I read in the morning to slip away. But this day happened to be a holiday. In the evening, when I might have spent some time in entertainment, the fact that the power had already been off for five hours and would not return before I went to bed four hours later kept me to my book by the light of the oil lamp (godly George Herbert’s writings on the country pastor, just as relevant in twent-first century Zambia as in early seventeenth century England) and my thoughts, which kept returning to that morning prayer.
Well then, it is true that less can be more! Much as I miss Wales, friends and family, and many things, I would not have swapped that day for anything. And the next day, the prayer I read seemed to underline what I needed to learn:
May Thy dear Son preserve me from this present evil world,
so that its smiles never allure,
nor its frowns terrify,
nor its vices defile,
nor its errors delude me.
May I feel that I am a stranger and pilgrim on earth,
declaring plainly that I seek a country,
my title to it becoming daily more clear,
my meetness for it more perfect,
my foretastes of it more abundant;
and whatsoever I do may it be done in the Saviour’s name.
Real Freedom in Jesus
04/07/08 14:17 Filed in: Thinking Thoughts | Repost
This story was posted on the Desiring God website which is one you should visit if you do not already. It is one of the most moving accounts I have read in a long time. I am not ashamed that it brought tears to my eyes, I am ashamed that it needed this to make me realise how greatly the Lord has blessed me.
Real Freedom in Jesus
(Author: John Knight)
The 4th of July is a different sort of ‘Independence Day' for me. On July 4, 1995 my multiply-disabled son entered the world and my life came crashing down around me—and would soon include a deep and intense bitterness toward God.
I never denied that God existed or is powerful; I concluded he was mean and capricious. But it also began God's work of creating an affection for him and for the sufficiency of Jesus Christ. I am often astonished, when thinking back, that I am now able to praise God for his goodness in giving my son his autism and blindness.
None of this happened easily or by accident. I can point to five specific things that God brought to bear on my life:
1. Faithful pastoral leadership.
I can still remember Pastor Tom Steller, now leading The Bethlehem Institute, walking up my front steps with a note from Pastor John. And I remember sitting with and emailing Pastor David Michael.
These men, with great courage and biblical conviction, entered into dangerous territory. My attorney, a man trained in conflict, said that my intensity and bitterness frightened him. But my pastors never wavered from bringing a message of hope and absolute certainty in the sovereignty and goodness of God, even when I pushed them away.
2. Faithful people of Bethlehem Baptist Church.
Shortly after my son was born we dropped everything at church—our small group, volunteering, Sunday school class and attendance. One couple refused to let us go and loved us with a gracious, firm, consistent tenderness that made me want to understand how they could love someone like me, my wife or my son so completely.
3. A faithful father.
My own father was the first person in the world to understand and communicate my son's value and inherent worth as a creation of a good and loving God to me. Through 13 years, he has stood with me through much pain and sorrow—and joy.
4. A faithful wife.
My wife and I have not walked the same path; hers has been much harder than mine for many reasons. But by the grace of God we are together and I thank God every day for this woman whose spine is made of steel and who loves me and our four children.
5. The sovereignty of God as revealed in his word.
I remember a particularly heartbroken, bitter email I sent to Pastor John. He had every right to discipline me, but instead wrapped the words of the bible around my heart. God used those words from the bible, among many others, to create longings I didn't have, to start a dead heart beating, and to reveal, when I was incapable of seeing, the beauty, sufficiency, and majesty of Jesus Christ and his cross.
God has done it all, and it was his word that proved decisive.
Living with a boy, now a teenager no less, who will always be dependent on someone for all his needs is hard. I have a daily, often hourly, fight for joy in my salvation. Yet, through my oldest son's daily care, through my youngest son's premature birth, and now through my wife's ongoing battle with metastatic cancer, God is not just sustaining me, but revealing more of his goodness because he is sovereign over all these things, for his glory and my good.
So, on this Independence Day I am grateful to Jesus for my real freedom in him and for giving me my boy to help me see it: So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed (John 8:36).
Happy birthday, Paul.
Real Freedom in Jesus
(Author: John Knight)
The 4th of July is a different sort of ‘Independence Day' for me. On July 4, 1995 my multiply-disabled son entered the world and my life came crashing down around me—and would soon include a deep and intense bitterness toward God.
I never denied that God existed or is powerful; I concluded he was mean and capricious. But it also began God's work of creating an affection for him and for the sufficiency of Jesus Christ. I am often astonished, when thinking back, that I am now able to praise God for his goodness in giving my son his autism and blindness.
None of this happened easily or by accident. I can point to five specific things that God brought to bear on my life:
1. Faithful pastoral leadership.
I can still remember Pastor Tom Steller, now leading The Bethlehem Institute, walking up my front steps with a note from Pastor John. And I remember sitting with and emailing Pastor David Michael.
These men, with great courage and biblical conviction, entered into dangerous territory. My attorney, a man trained in conflict, said that my intensity and bitterness frightened him. But my pastors never wavered from bringing a message of hope and absolute certainty in the sovereignty and goodness of God, even when I pushed them away.
2. Faithful people of Bethlehem Baptist Church.
Shortly after my son was born we dropped everything at church—our small group, volunteering, Sunday school class and attendance. One couple refused to let us go and loved us with a gracious, firm, consistent tenderness that made me want to understand how they could love someone like me, my wife or my son so completely.
3. A faithful father.
My own father was the first person in the world to understand and communicate my son's value and inherent worth as a creation of a good and loving God to me. Through 13 years, he has stood with me through much pain and sorrow—and joy.
4. A faithful wife.
My wife and I have not walked the same path; hers has been much harder than mine for many reasons. But by the grace of God we are together and I thank God every day for this woman whose spine is made of steel and who loves me and our four children.
5. The sovereignty of God as revealed in his word.
I remember a particularly heartbroken, bitter email I sent to Pastor John. He had every right to discipline me, but instead wrapped the words of the bible around my heart. God used those words from the bible, among many others, to create longings I didn't have, to start a dead heart beating, and to reveal, when I was incapable of seeing, the beauty, sufficiency, and majesty of Jesus Christ and his cross.
God has done it all, and it was his word that proved decisive.
Living with a boy, now a teenager no less, who will always be dependent on someone for all his needs is hard. I have a daily, often hourly, fight for joy in my salvation. Yet, through my oldest son's daily care, through my youngest son's premature birth, and now through my wife's ongoing battle with metastatic cancer, God is not just sustaining me, but revealing more of his goodness because he is sovereign over all these things, for his glory and my good.
So, on this Independence Day I am grateful to Jesus for my real freedom in him and for giving me my boy to help me see it: So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed (John 8:36).
Happy birthday, Paul.