Empty from a White Friend

I am grateful for several kind texts, emails, and messages from white, evangelical friends who have expressed empathy, concern for me and my family, and outrage over racial injustice in the wake of the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd, and in the wake of the Central Park bird-watching act of racial hatred toward Christian Cooper. Empathy from non-African Americans plays an important role in progressing toward the dismantling of racial injustice in America.

Among the many communications I have received, in addition to the one in the picture above, here is an innocent one from a young adult friend that I have permission to share:

“Hey…. I don’t post or share much on social media about these dreadful injustices and I think it’s because my head and heart have a hard time processing the emotions that take over when I hear about them. But I want you to know that I think of you and Pam every time an article or a picture comes across my screen – whether it’s of [an] Ahmaud Arbery or George Floyd. It frustrates me [when I see] the reality that [you] live in because some racist, ignorant, and/or plain stupid [expletive deleted] believes in their mind that they are superior to Black people. I don’t understand how that policeman could just sit there like he did in the video. The look on his face the whole time truly disturbed me; it was the look of indifference. Unfortunately, many people show that same face when something like this happens. I am so sorry that you have to live with your head on a swivel. I am sorry that people show total indifference. I pray that the Lord would break the staunch hearts of those who are indifferent to acts of injustice, that they would mourn with those who mourn, that they would see God’s image in the person next to them—Black, Asian, Latino/a, or whoever, that pastors would step up and train their flocks to see injustice, and that the body of Christ would come around our [African American] brothers and sisters and ask them what can we do. I love you guys so much and I am weeping with you and praying with you.”

Thank you to every friend who has taken time to express empathy, and to show love toward me and my family after racial injustice tragedies. May your evangelical tribe increase, speak where other evangelical leaders should be speaking, and join the fight for racial justice in America in all other holy and righteous forms possible.

The Problem of Evil in Atheism (Groothuis)

via The Problem of Evil in Atheism (Groothuis)

This is good to repeat at this time:

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In chapter 25 of Christian Apologetics, Douglas Groothuis discusses the problem of evil from a Christian perspective.  In this chapter he gives five unsatisfactory answers to evil.  The first one is atheism.  I thought this was quite helpful:

Given the surfeit of evil, atheism advances itself as intellectually and morally superior to Christianity (and any religion).  Atheism is not burdened with attempts to explain evil in relation to God. Evil just exists in a godless world. The problem vanishes.

But it does not so vanish, for two main reasons.  First, in order to speak of the problem of evil, a person must believe that objective evil exists. To justify this claim, the person needs to adequately explain the existence and nature of evil.  In order for objective evil to exist, objective goodness must exist as well, and good must exist in a more fundamental way.  This is because evil is a corruption or twisting of the good.  Evil does not exist in and of itself….  Evil is the rust on the iron or the hole in the roof.  While a person or an event may be truly evil (the evil is not illusory), that evil could not have existed without an antecedent and original good.

This discussion harks back to our argument for God from the existence of morality, where we argued for the existence of objective moral goods.  These goods eliminate both relativism/nihilism and pantheistic monism, since neither can rationally support the existence of objective moral goodness.  Neither is objective moral goodness a brute fact in a godless world.  Objective moral goodness, therefore, is best explained by the character of a Creator God who made the universe good and gave us the capacity to recognize the good as such, even now in our fallen state. (…)

Douglas Groothuis, Christian Apologetics, p. 617-618.

Shane Lems
Hammond, WI, 54002

Three Books on Preaching to Encourage You While Sheltering in Place

So I can recommend three new and really good books on preaching for you to read while you are sheltering in place. I suspect your pastor will be very glad if you who are laypeople would read these books and draw closer into the daily and weekly aspects of the stewardship of the call to preach. Good, Christ-honoring, people-loving, exegetically and doctrinally sound, culturally sensitive, intellectually challenging, emotionally uplifting, Spirit-empowered preaching takes a wealth of prayer, loads of study, and great humility before Christ and his people. It is a community project too, for those in the pew have a responsibility to pray for the preacher to hear from God and to communicate accurately what God has said, to affirm the preaching, to be a faithful steward of the obedient responses to the sermon, to communicate the proclaimed word to the baptized and the unconverted, and to share all good things with the one who teaches. This participatory event  is at the center of the life of any local congregation and any maturing believer. Therefore it would be good and wise to know of what this task consists.

1 — The Whole Counsel of God: Why and How to Preach the Entire Bible (Crossway). “Written to make a case for the necessity of a long-term plan for preaching through the entire Bible instead of just through individual books, this is not just a book on how to preach, but also how to plan and prepare long-range preaching programs through the whole counsel of God.” https://www.crossway.org/books/the-whole-counsel-of-god-tpb/

2 — A Little Book for New Preachers: Why and How to Study Homiletics (IVP). “In this brief introduction to preaching, Matthew Kim helps to prepare those called to preach the Word. A seasoned preacher himself, Kim provides proven insight and guidance about the importance and history of preaching, the characteristics of faithful preaching, and the personal habits of a faithful preacher. With his help, both those training for ministry and those new to the pastoral task will be encouraged as they undertake their calling.” https://www.ivpress.com/a-little-book-for-new-preachers

3 — Say It! A Celebration of Expository Preaching in the African American Tradition (Moody). “The contributors in this volume give examples of African American Biblical exposition in every section of the Old Testament and New Testament. They also explain how to preach from narrative, poetical, prophetic, epistolary, and apocalyptic genres throughout the Scriptures.” (Even though you know the editor, get this book because of the giftedness of the contributors.) https://www.moodypublishers.com/books/current-issues/say-it/

Happy reading!

Consumed by Hate, Redeemed by Love, by Tom Tarrants

Tags

Social Justice

I am grateful for the publication of Consumed by Hate, Redeemed by Love by my friend Tom Tarrants, past Director of the C. S. Lewis Institute. My endorsement is below (although I think the publishers shortened the statement for the final publication):

Consumed by Hate, Redeemed by Love reveals how easily a political ideology can grow into a radical, extreme, life-taking worldview, all the while masquerading for some supposed form of a “Christian” faith. Yet, as Tarrant’s story shows, the hollowness of a racist, anti-semite, civilly-polarizing philosophy is no match for the even more radical, life-altering power of the truth of the authentic Christian gospel message. The admonitions contained within Tarrant’s autobiography have the potential to move believers around the world to repair many fissures of societies divided by race, creed, gender, and religion. This is a powerful story!

Christianity Today did a piece on Tom’s story. His story is for such a time as this. Get a copy.

Steady On: Hebrews Preaching Series Sermons

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Melchizedek

I am grateful for the opportunities to preach various messages from Hebrews in our church’s current sermon series, “Steady On:”

A Great Priest for Weak People — Hebrews 4:14-16

The Superior Priesthood for Times of Distress — Hebrews 5:1-10

Maturing Past Apostasy to Assurance — Hebrews 5:11-6:12

Prepare Me A Body — Hebrews 10:1-18

“Prepare Me a Body,” Bob Hurd

Getting to the Present of God Together — Hebrews 10:19-25

 

Why Study the Book of Ephesians?

Crossway Publishers kindly invited me to answer, “Why Study the Book of Ephesians?” for their Why Study series. My answer corresponds to the Crossway study guide.

Is God Ever Ashamed of My Depression?

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depression and the Christian

Moody’s Today in the Word allowed me to contribute to this month’s Q and A. I answer three questions, one of which is, “Is God ever ashamed of my depression?”

Is God ever ashamed of my depression?

To speak of the Lord Jesus being “ashamed” of you is to suggest that there might be something you are doing that is displeasing or embarrassing to God, or that you are not living up to God’s standard by intentional choice. Clinically speaking, depression comes about not so much by our choices, but by factors such as our genetics. Depression sometimes runs in families. Biochemistry, personality, and environmental factors also may contribute to depression. These are all things we do not choose.

The Bible gives us an example of a depressed individual. The writer of Psalm 88 begins the psalm confessing, “Day and night I cry out to you” (v. 1), and he ends the psalm saying, “Darkness is my closest friend” (v. 18). Throughout the psalm, he declares that he is “overwhelmed with troubles” (v. 3), “without strength” (v. 4), his “eyes are dim with grief” (v. 9), and he has “terrors” and “despair” (v. 15). Yet we can’t say that God disapproves of the state of the psalmist. Instead, the Lord had the words composed into a song and placed into the book of Psalms by the collaborative efforts of the Sons of Korah and Heman the Ezrahite, songwriters and leaders of music in ancient Israel (1 Chron. 25:1–6; Pss. 42, 44–49, 84–85).

When Israel sang this psalm in worship, they expressed the feelings of depression. The Lord brought these words for us as part of the inspired Word of God—as part of His speaking to us.

Read the rest here. Get a free subscription here.

Also: MA in Clinical Mental Health Counseling and MA in Counseling Psychology @ MTS-Chicago.

Election and Grace All Over Scripture

 

After preaching through Heb. 2:10-18 this past Sunday, a friend from our congregation said encouragingly, “You manage to see election in every passage.” In the message, I mentioned that “the offspring of Abraham” did not refer to ethnic Jewish believers only, but to those who are Abraham’s offspring by faith. The blessings in this passage come to the offspring of Abraham uniquely.

I replied to my friend by saying, “That’s because election is everywhere in Scripture. It is important to see election because election is about the grace of God. If we do not embrace election, we embrace doing salvation by our own work.” My friend agreed enthusiastically. 

I am grateful to Pastor Gerald Hiestand for providing me opportunities to stand in his stead at Calvary Memorial Church. I am grateful for a people who respond to the word in meekness.

The De-Condensation of Humanity

I found this interesting enough to re-blog:

via The De-Condensation of Humanity

Dr. Eric Mason, Sermon: “Seeing Through the Lens of the End” (Rev. 7:9-12)

Dr. Eric Mason’s Founder’s Week sermon, “Seeing Through the Lens of the End,” is powerful, bold, and poignant for this time in American society. He preaches the gospel of grace, and courageously applies it to the American Dilemma.

I hope Pastor Mason will gain other opportunities for evangelicals in every corner of the country to hear this message. I was blessed tremendously by this word.