by Staff | Jun 18, 2014 | Updates
We have just uploaded another small selection of books, with comments, to the
Books in Brief page. We recommend three books every three months to give you plenty of time to read any you might wish, but those in our current selection are all winners – so best start reading soon! Don’t forget we also have somewhat longer book reviews on our sister site:
LivingWithFaith.org
by R. Herbert | Jun 12, 2014 | Service, Updates, Warriors of the Way
The four men were clearly guilty of breaking and entering – yet God blessed their actions. The instance of forcibly breaking into a domestic dwelling was a fairly outrageous one which involved considerable structural damage to the dwelling place – a crime in almost every culture – yet God rewarded the temerity of the individuals concerned.
Mark tells the story: “A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people … gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven’” (Mark 2:2-5).
In this case the motives of the individuals concerned were clearly good ones. Breaking and entering usually constitutes a crime because it involves entry into a building for the purposes of committing an offence such as stealing. Here, the four men broke into a domestic dwelling not to take by force, but to ask for help and their actions certainly were rewarded.
There is also an interesting lesson in this small story that we often overlook. Mark tells us that “When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’” It was apparently the faith of those helping the sick man, rather than the faith of the man himself, that Jesus rewarded. The story prods us to ask ourselves a question in relation to these men of faith: To what extent do we go in seeking God’s help for others? While we may have true concern for the needs of others and may regularly take those needs to God on their behalf, just how dedicated and “extreme” are our efforts? Do they approach the dedication of the four men of Capernaum?
Another example of this kind of dedication is the “No one left behind” mantra of military units operating on battlefields or in hostile territory which has led to many examples of heroism where individuals and groups have gone to extraordinary lengths to help those unable to help themselves. It is a mantra that we might well apply in our Christian lives – the principle of “No brother or sister left behind on life’s battlefield.” It is perhaps only rarely that heroism may be involved, or “breaking and entering” on behalf of others who need help, but the principle applies if the need is present. It is, after all, a principle that God commends – we are told to strive to enter the Kingdom of God (Luke 13:24), and we must strive to help others in fulfilling their calling, too.
In the biblical example the four men guilty of breaking and entering in the city of Capernaum acted with amazing dedication, and many examples of the “No one left behind” mantra show the same. Such stories urge us to ask ourselves: “Would we go to such lengths to help someone in real need?” The answer is probably as close as the next need we see.
by R. Herbert | Jun 8, 2014 | Bible Study
“… It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God’” (Matthew 4:4).
It’s hard to imagine plants growing without water, infants growing without food, or Christians growing without the word of God, but a 2012 study conducted by LifeWay Research and featured in Christianity Today found that only about 20% of self-identifying Christians said they read the Bible daily. A more recent Christianity Today survey found approximately the same situation.
Considering the words of Jesus recorded in Matthew 4:4, the survey results are surprising; yet they were carefully carried out and agree with other recent surveys which have also found a low level of ”Bible engagement” among many Christians.
The LifeWay research surveyed almost 3,000 Protestant churchgoers and discovered that while some 90 percent “desire to please and honor” God in everything they did, only 19 percent actually read the Bible every day. This number was almost the same as the percentage of Christians who said they “rarely or never” read the Bible, leaving a full 60% of people who fell somewhere between the extremes of daily or rarely looking at God’s word. Of these, about 25% indicated they read the Bible a “few” times a week, 14% said they read the Bible “once a week” and another 22 % “once a month” or “a few times a month.”
Using the simple analogy of physical nutrition, as we find in Matthew 4:4, we would have to conclude that while about 20% of Christians are well nourished, the majority are actually malnourished and many are starving. While physical malnutrition and starvation are almost always beyond the control of the individual affected, it is clear that – for whatever reason – spiritual malnutrition and even starvation are normally self chosen.
We pray for those in various parts of the world who do not have the word of God readily available, but it is sad to think that we should perhaps also pray for the great number of those in our own society who do have the word available, but who skip spiritual meals, don’t eat for long stretches or even slowly starve. The Lifeway and Christianity Today surveys should be reminders of our ongoing need for spiritual nourishment.
by R. Herbert | Jun 6, 2014 | Forgiveness
In the post-modern world in which we live, saying that something is “bad” or “wrong” is becoming increasingly out of favor, and it is certainly not politically correct to utilize the concept of “sin.” Speaking of absolutes such as right and wrong can lead to being labeled as being insensitive, intolerant or worse.
This is interesting, as C. S. Lewis might have said, because if we admit to the existence of any absolutes at all – whether being alive, dead, pregnant, not pregnant, or whatever – there is no real reason to suppose that there cannot be moral absolutes, too. Just because we don’t want there to be any, or we think they are a bad idea, doesn’t mean there are no absolutes and there is no wrong, evil – or sin.
The Bible is clear that sin does exist and it defines it for us (1 John 3:4). But our modern world has rejected the authority of the Bible, and in many cases it has been successful in making the concept of sin effectively disappear. Sin no longer appears in most polite conversation, in “normal” newspaper articles or in any other area of the media unless it is in the context of discussing the beliefs of “religious extremists” (a term often applied to terrorists, and one with very useful anti-religious potential). So the world has been quite successful in making the concept of sin disappear, but what it has not been able to do is to make the results of sin vanish in the same way. The misery and heartache that can result from lying, stealing, adultery, oppression and many other sins are all too obvious.
Society tries to make sin disappear by trying to deny it and forget it. Those who understand the reality of sin know that the only way to make it disappear is to admit it and to forgive it. Whether we forgive others or we are ourselves forgiven, forgiveness and then a turning to what is “right” is the only way to make sin truly disappear. The world has created quite a “magic trick” in making sin appear to “disappear,” but the truth is, just as in a deceptive “smoke and mirrors” magic act, although you may not see or hear the concept much anymore, sin is still there – as its results show – even if the concept has been hidden in the magician’s hat.
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