I’m flip-flopping the blog schedule a tad this week. Enjoy this week’s Throwback Thursday – on Tuesday!
Originally published August 12, 2009
Thirty three per cent of clergy and thirty six per cent of laymen report having visited a sexually explicit web site. Christianity Today survey, August 2000
The divorce rate of born-again Christians (32%) is higher than that of atheists and agnostics (30%). Barna Research Group 20081
Twenty per cent of women who have abortions are born-again or Evangelical Christians. The Alan Guttmacher Institute, 1996
We rarely find substantial differences between the moral behavior of Christians and non-Christians. George Barna, Founder, Barna Research Group
You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men. Jesus, Matthew 5:13
Once upon a time, when I was a little girl, my parents took my sister and me to visit some of our elder relatives. For the evening meal, the lady of the house set a beautiful, formal table, complete with lovely crystal salt cellars at each place.
Having attended approximately zero formal dinners in my decade-long, casual dining existence, I had never seen a salt cellar. Since it happened to be sitting next to my goblet of unsweetened iced tea, I presumed it was my own personal sugar bowl.
I was puzzled as to why the spoon was so tiny, but forged ahead in an attempt to sweeten my tea with spoonful after spoonful…of salt. After one swig, I realized my mistake, but to maintain decorum, I did my best to eat my meal while taking an occasional small sip of the tea-flavored salt water. It was a long dinner.
I have never been so thirsty for a fresh drink of water before—or since—that moment.
We, the body of Christ, are supposed to be salt. Look around. How are we doing? By and large, instead of the church making the world thirsty for the Living Water, we have become so worldly ourselves that we are in danger of losing our savor altogether.
The Western church, the American church, the local church, maybe even your church—is in desperate need of revival. Not a revival meeting. Revival.
Revival is not a special event to win the lost. It is a time when God’s people, both individually and corporately, humble themselves, cry out to God in repentance and return to a fresh, empowered, obedient love relationship with Him.
Aren’t you tired of seeing statistics like the ones at the beginning of this article? Tired of the church having so little impact on a lost and dying world? Tired of simply going through the motions in your spiritual life and at church? Have you ever, as I have, taken a step back, looked at your walk and your worship, and said, “There’s got to be more to the Christian life than this”?
There is more. Much more. God desires that we have a full, exciting, vibrant, dynamic relationship with Him. But it’s going to cost us. It will cost our pride, our time, our repentance, our obedience, and our priority. It will require that we become dissatisfied and uncomfortable with the status quo of complacency.
I think we’re up for the challenge.
Turn away my eyes from looking at vanity, and revive me in Your ways. Psalm 119:37
1Take these statistics with a “grain of salt”. :0) Not everyone who claims to be a “born-again Christian” in a poll actually is one, the divorce stat has subsequently been proved false, etc. The idea is that the world has infiltrated the church, and the church has embraced the world, and therefore, the behavior of way too many professing Christians is worldly.
I’m out of pocket this week, so you get a catch up week!
Catch up on any lessons you might be behind on, go back and do any of the homework you may not have had time for, review your memory verses, or if you’re already caught up, you could even read ahead in Judges a little. It’s your week to use as you see fit. Happy studying!
“Can you recommend a book on how to submit to my husband?”
“What’s a good book on biblical womanhood?”
“I’m going through [difficult life circumstance]. Can you suggest a good book on how I can cope with that?”
I’ll bet if someone did a study to find out which demographic of people reads the most books, it would be Christians. Christians are readers – there’s no denying that – and that’s a good thing.
It always makes my heart smile when a reader asks if I can recommend a good (read: biblical, and by a doctrinally sound author) book on a particular area of sanctification or a life issue she’s struggling with. That tells me she wants to learn what the Bible says and obey it. And that is no small thing in evangelicalism today.
Hear me: Reading good, doctrinally sound books is a good thing.
But – just as with any other good thing – too much of a good thing isn’t the best thing. And letting a good thing veer out of its lane isn’t the best thing.
If you dedicate twelve hours every day to prayer, you’ll never get to the laundry, the bills, the cooking, and the cleaning. If the baby is running a fever and you exegete a chapter of the Bible instead of giving her some medicine or taking her to the doctor, you’re misapplying your Bible study time.
And, while it may not be quite as obvious, we can sometimes face the same challenge with good books.
In my experience there are two general dilemmas that motivate today’s Christian to seek out a good book.
The first is: “I don’t know what the Bible says about _____ topic. I need a book that will teach me so I can correctly understand what Scripture says about it.” For example, a few weeks ago in a Mailbag article, I answered a lady who wanted to know about the eternal destiny of unborn babies who die. Among other resources, I recommended John MacArthur’s book which explains the Scriptures and theology related to that topic.
The second dilemma is: “I know Scripture teaches that Christians are supposed to _____. How do I carry that out in my day to day life?” Or, “I have this difficult situation in my life. What specific things do I do to navigate or handle it in a godly way?” For example, “How do I submit to my husband?” or, the lady from the aforementioned Mailbag article might have asked, “What should walking through the grief of losing a child look like in my daily life?”
The first dilemma is easy and appropriate to plug a book into. The second? Not so much.
Why? Because in the second dilemma we’re asking good books to get out of their lane and perform a task they’re not suited to perform: sanctification. When you’re trying to drive a nail into a board, a hammer is the proper tool for the job, not a screwdriver. You can bang on the nail with the screwdriver, and you might even drive the nail into the wood a millimeter or two, but the bottom line is, you need a hammer. That doesn’t make hammers good and screwdrivers bad, it just means you use the appropriate tool for the job at hand.
And in cases of, “Where does the rubber of Scripture meet the road of my unique, individual life?” the right tool for the job at hand – the method God has prescribed in His Word – is not reaching for a book written by man, it’s God’s sanctifying work in your heart and life. And that’s a big pot of gumbo with a lot of different ingredients in it:
Studying your Bible
Prayer- for help, for wisdom, for guidance, for strength
Obedience to the Word
Faith, trust, and utter dependence on God
Getting good counsel from godly friends and loved ones, your pastor, or spiritually mature women in your church
And the final ingredient that goes into the pot? Action. Step out on faith in God and His Word to help you and guide you, and just do it. Try. Figure it out as you go.
If you want to learn how to ride a bicycle, you’re eventually going to have to stop reading books about bicycles and get on one and ride. Feel that balance and coordination of muscle movements in your own body. Learn by doing.
And, guess what? You’re going to fall down a few times. You’re going to try things that don’t work. You’re going to sin (and repent and be forgiven). And you’ll learn and grow from that. Falling is part of the learning and growing process of sanctification.
for the righteous falls seven times and rises again, Proverbs 24:16a
The steps of a man are established by the Lord, when he delights in his way; though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for the Lord upholds his hand. Psalm 37:23-24
I think we believe that success is in not falling. It’s not. It’s in getting back up and learning mastery of the skill.
The Bible never says we won’t fall. It says that when we do, God is holding our hand, and He’ll help us get back up.
But learning and growing and falling can be a messy, frustrating process that takes a long time. And what we want is a fast, streamlined formula that bypasses the mess and gives us guaranteed results. And, without even realizing it, we can fall into the mindset of thinking that the right book will be the magic bullet to solve our problem. We want a book to tell us what to do to keep from falling – and we think that’s mastery or success. But it isn’t. Mastery and success come from doing, from going through the process. We want a book to tell us how to get the right answer to our problem, but while the right answer is important, the growth, maturing, and mastery of going through the process is more important to our spiritual growth.
…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
Philippians 2:12b-13
And it’s not just that walking through the process of working out your own salvation with the Lord and His Word rather than reaching for a book is the way God has prescribed, it’s that God’s way is far superior to reaching for a book, because God’s way is divinely powered by the Holy Spirit.
When you pick up a book written by a human being, it can give you practical tips and good advice and maybe even point you to some passages of Scripture you should study. But the Bible doesn’t just tell us what to do and give us some good ideas, it is actually, literally transformative as we are reading it.
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
Hebrews 4:12
The Holy Spirit moves in and around and through His Word as you’re reading it to supernaturally work to conform your heart and mind to the image of Christ. That’s something you can’t get from any other book, no matter who wrote it or how doctrinally sound it is.
And one of the most amazing things about the Holy Spirit’s supernatural work through His Word is that it’s personal. Books, by definition, have to be “one size fits all” – generally applicable to a wide audience. They can’t tell you what submitting to your husband in your marriage in your life circumstances is going to look like at 10:17 a.m. next Tuesday. But Scripture can, as God uses it to sanctify you.
But there’s one other aspect of the knee jerk, “I need a book” mindset that we need to be really careful about.
If, every time there’s an issue in our lives, our reflex reaction is to get on social media and ask for book recommendations instead of turning to the Word, prayer, and godly counsel, is that not a subtle, functional denial of the sufficiency of Scripture?
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16-17
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us… 2 Peter 1:3a
When the Bible says it will make us complete, equipped for every good work and all things that pertain to life and godliness, that’s exactly what it means: Every. All. We do not need other books in order to handle life’s situations in a godly way. And every Believer who came along before Christian books were a thing is proof of that. Good books aren’t a bad thing, and they can be helpful, but the Bible says it is sufficient – all we need – for anything that comes our way.
But when we reach for a book before we reach for the Bible, aren’t we saying with our actions, “The Bible’s not enough. I need more. I need something better.”?
I can’t answer that for you and you can’t answer that for me, but it’s a good thing to ask ourselves and answer honestly before God.
Good, solid, doctrinally sound books aren’t the bad guy. They can be wonderfully helpful and encouraging. But let’s make sure we’re submitting to God’s prescribed methods of sanctification, esteeming and depending on God’s supernatural work in our hearts through His Word, and not accidentally eroding the sufficiency of Scripture.
Let’s be people of the Book, before we’re people of the books.
Have you ever had to look for a new church? Even with recommendations from godly friends, it can be hard to know which churches and pastors are doctrinally sound, and, of those doctrinally sound churches (because you certainly don’t want to go to one that isn’t doctrinally sound), which ones would be a good fit for your family.
There are lots of great articles out there with good, probing questions you should ask about the theology and doctrine of a church you’re considering. (I would recommend this one, this one, and this one. Also, make sure you understand these doctrinal issues and that the church you’re considering lines up with Scripture on these issues.) However, there are times when the answers to these types of questions don’t give you the whole picture of what is actually going on in a church on a day to day basis. In other words, sorry to say, a church can give you all the right answers on paper (or on their web site), but their practices don’t mirror those answers. Additionally, there are some non-doctrinal issues that are important to know about that questions about soteriology, baptism, biblical inerrancy, etc., won’t give you the answers to.
My husband and I are currently looking for a new church for our family. Since we are Southern Baptist and somewhat familiar with the handful of Southern Baptist churches we’re looking at, we already know the answers to the most important questions (the inspiration of Scripture, the divinity of Christ, the way of salvation, etc.) But I want to zoom in a little more on the finer points of belief and practices of these churches, so here are some questions I might ask the pastor of the church we would potentially join.
1. Which Christian authors have had the biggest impact onyour life, beliefs, and ministry?
When I ask this question (and look over the pastor’s shoulder at the titles on his bookshelf), I’m listening for the names of authors and pastors, living or dead, that I know are committed to sound biblical doctrine. If I hear a name like Joyce Meyer, TD Jakes, Andy Stanley, Steven Furtick, Perry Noble, Rick Warren, Beth Moore, or any Word of Faith or New Apostolic Reformation personality, I’m going back to ask more probing doctrinal questions. If I hear multiple names like those, I’m outta there.
2. Are you/this church complementarian or egalitarian?
Now you may not be familiar with those terms but any Christian pastor should be. It is a current issue in evangelicalism, and it’s part of his job to stay abreast of such things. I’m not looking for a pastor to be an expert on this topic, but he should be familiar with the terms and have a working understanding of the issues at play as well as the applicable Scriptures, and he should embrace and practice complementarianism as the biblical position.
Because I have been given the right “on paper” answer to this question in the past only to find out later that the church’s practices didn’t match up with its profession, I will probably ask the follow up question: “In what positions of leadership are women currently serving? Do any of them hold authority over men or instruct men in the Scriptures?” If I hear that women are (or would be allowed to in the future) teaching co-ed adult Sunday School classes, giving instruction during the worship service, serving on committees in which they hold biblically inappropriate authority over men, etc., that’s problematic.
3. Can you give me some examples, from any time during your career as a pastor, of church discipline issues that have arisen and how you have handled them?
I’m looking for three things here. First, what does this pastor think constitutes a church discipline issue? If he thinks it’s necessary to discipline a female church member for wearing pants instead of a skirt, that’s an issue, because he’s disciplining someone who’s not sinning. If he doesn’t think it’s necessary to discipline church members who are unmarried yet cohabiting, that’s an issue because he’s not disciplining people who are sinning. Church discipline should only be exercised over unrepentant sinful behavior.
Second, is he afraid to exercise church discipline? Generally speaking, someone who has been a pastor for many years and has never handled a church discipline issue is either woefully ignorant of the biblical requirement of a pastor to rebuke those in sin, or he is afraid to rock the boat because he might get fired. Both of these are huge red flags.
Third, how does he exercise church discipline? Does he follow the steps outlined in Matthew 18 and other Scriptures with a heart to see the church member repent and be reconciled to Christ and the church body? Is he harsh and condemning? Is he firm enough in his resolve to carry all the way through to disfellowshipping a church member if necessary?
4. How much oversight do you (or an associate pastor or elder)have over the women’s ministry at this church?
With this question, I’m trying to find out how much the pastor knows about what’s actually going on inside the women’s ministry (if they have one) and how much responsibility he takes to make sure all teaching and activities are in line with Scripture. Does he research and approve all teaching materials before a women’s Bible study commences? Does a women’s ministry director have complete autonomy over all materials and activities? Are all of the women in leadership positions in the women’s ministry godly and spiritually mature? Would any of the women’s ministry leadership raise a stink if someone showed them from Scripture that a Bible teacher whose materials they use or a women’s ministry activity they enjoy is unbiblical?
5. Does the music ministry at this church follow a minister of music model or a concert model?
There’s nothing wrong with Christian concerts per se, but my husband and I feel strongly (notice, I did not say “the Bible says”) that the worship service is not the place for one. We believe that a minister of music, preferably one who is ordained to the ministry, should lead and take responsibility for the church’s worship in a pastoral role. He should be trained in the Scriptures, preferably at seminary, in order to rightly handle and apply them to the music portion of the worship service and other music programs. He should also be trained in music theory and conducting so that he is able to lead in the practical aspects of music.
By contrast, we do not believe that making the music portion of the service like a concert, in which a band gets up and plays in a dark room with a laser light show and a smoke machine and the congregation can sing along if they want to, if they happen to know the songs, and if they are able to follow the ad libbing of the lead singer, is conducive to worship. We believe this tends to make the worship band into entertainers and the congregation into spectators, whereas the minister of music model fosters an atmosphere of “we’re all pulling together to do the work of worship as a unified body.”
This is not about contemporary music versus hymns, it is about one worship model versus another. It is our conviction (again, not a biblical mandate, but our strongly held conviction) after more than two decades in music ministry ourselves, that the minister of music model – regardless of the genre of worship music used – is the one most conducive to strong, biblical congregational worship. So this is something we’re going to want to know about, even though it is not necessarily a doctrinal issue.
Topical preaching is when the pastor selects a topic to preach on (parenting, money, etc.) and uses biblical passages that apply to that topic to form his sermon. Pastors who preach expositorily usually preach through a book of the Bible from beginning to end before moving on to the next book.
Both are valid forms of preaching as long as God’s word is rightly handled and applied. However, it has been my experience that pastors who preach exclusively topically have more of a tendency to lift Bible verses out of their context in order to make them fit the topic they’re preaching. This is usually not as much of an issue for pastors who preach expositorily because they are simply preaching the Word, verse by verse, in its context.
Additionally, expository preaching gives church members a better understanding of Scripture and how it fits together, and exposes them more thoroughly to a wider range of biblical truth than exclusively topical preaching does. Therefore, I am looking for a pastor whose preaching style leans mostly towards expository, but who isn’t afraid to preach topically if he believes the church needs instruction on a certain topic.
So, those are some of the questions I’m thinking about asking. What questions would you ask when considering a new church?
For more resources on finding a new church, or what to look for in a church, click the Searching for a new church? tab in the blue menu bar at the top of this page.
1. Go back to lesson 3 (link above) and review your answer to the first part of question 5, Israel’s pattern of sin and repentance in 2:16-23. How does today’s passage fit this pattern? How does today’s passage fit the theme verse of Judges (21:25), “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”?
2. Read 10:1-5. Notice again (as we saw in lesson 4, link above) the copious details God gives us about some judges, like Gideon, and the sparse details He gives us about other judges, like Tola and Jair. Why do you think there’s such a discrepancy? Is this an indicator that some judges were more important or more faithful than others? Why not? How might this help us understand, especially in light of today’s evangelical celebrity culture, that neither fame nor obscurity are a measure of a Christian’s faithfulness to the Lord or effectiveness in the work of Kingdom?
3. Read 10:6-16. Why does God consider idolatry such an egregious sin for His people? How is idolatry the opposite of glorifying God? How is idolatry harmful for those who practice it?
Compare 10:10 with 10:15-16. Did Israel put away their idols and worship God when they first cried out to Him? Compare this to the “godly grief” and “worldly grief” over sin in 2 Corinthians 7:8-11. Have you ever exhibited worldly grief over your sin instead of godly grief? What was the result?
What was the point God was making to Israel in 10:11-14? In today’s world, even many professing Christians would say that God was being harsh and unloving in what He said because of His tone and His words. Is this true? Explain why what God said to Israel in these verses was, in fact, loving. What did it lead Israel to do in 10:15-16?
4. Read 10:17-11:28. Explain in your own words what is going on here. (Use your cross-references for help.) Why did the king of the Ammonites say he was making war on Israel? (11:13) Did he have his facts straight? (11:14-23) How long ago had all of this taken place? (11:26)
Compare 11:24 with 10:11-14. Try to see this potential war and the battle for land through the eyes of both the Ammonites and the Israelites, who viewed their gods / their God as the commander in chief of their military – the one who led them into battle, gave them victory over the enemy, and gave the conquered land into their hands. What is the message of today’s passage about God’s supremacy over all other gods? His power compared to their power? How should this realization have caused Israel to remain faithful to God? How might this realization have converted some of the Ammonites and other pagans to faith in the one true God?
5. Read 11:29-40. Describe in your own words what is happening in this passage. The heading for this passage is “Jephthah’s Tragic Vow”. Why was his vow tragic? Does it seem from the text that it occurred to him that a family member might be first to come out?
Did God approve of human sacrifice? Did God approve of people breaking their vows to Him? How could Jephthah have handled this entire situation in a godly way instead of in the way he handled it?
The text of this passage supports the theory held by some theologians that Jephthah did not actually slay his daughter, but instead offered her as a “living sacrifice,” never to marry and have children, but to serve the Lord full time in the temple for the remainder of her life. Read these articles: Did Jephthah sacrifice his daughter to the Lord? and Jephthah’s Daughter and see what you think. Is the evidence stronger for Jephthah slaying his daughter or for dedicating her to serve in the temple?
If Jephthah slew his daughter, compare his sacrifice with Abraham’s near-sacrifice of Isaac. Were there any similarities between these two events? How were they different? Why do we consider Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac to be heroic, but Jephthah’s sacrifice of his daughter to be sinful and tragic? How does Abraham’s sacrifice point to Christ’s sacrifice for us, but Jephthah’s sacrifice was more akin to sacrificing children to false gods?
If Jephthah dedicated his daughter as a “living sacrifice” to serve full time in the temple, compare her service and her sacrifice to God’s call to Christians to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice.
6. Read 12:1-7. Shades of lesson 8 (link above)! Why is Ephraim always getting perturbed at not being called up to join in the battle du jour?
7. Think about some of the “shining knight” types of heroes and “happily ever after” victories outside the book of Judges, for example: Moses leading Israel out of slavery after the ten plagues, David defeating Goliath, Solomon building the temple, Elijah and the defeat of the prophets of Baal. Compare these to some of the “dark heroes” and “tarnished victories” we’ve seen (and will continue to see) in Judges so far. Deborah – a woman. Jael – the glory for the victory goes to a woman. Jephthah – the son of a prostitute (in a culture in which family pedigree was crucial). Jephthah’s sacrifice of his daughter and battle with his fellow Israelites after defeating the Ammonites. How does this add to the feeling of the heaviness, darkness, and pervasiveness of sin that permeates the book of Judges?
Homework
We’ve noted before that God always preserves a remnant of those who are faithful to Him. A least a few Israelites must have been faithful to the Lord during the time described in 10:6-16. How do you survive these times of crushing oppression – knowing you’re not guilty of the sin that brought it on – if you’re an Israelite who’s faithful to the Lord? Put yourself in that godly Israelite woman’s sandals, yet with access to today’s Scriptures. Which passages do you turn to for comfort and strength? Which of God’s attributes do you meditate on? How do you pray?
