Book Review- Shepherd Leader in the Home

Erik Raymond —  May 16, 2013 — Leave a comment

It has always interested me to watch a professional baseball team warm up on the field. As I look around I see the players in their prime doing things that young boys only can imagine. But there is someone else there if you look close enough. There are the coaches and the seasoned veterans standing nearby. Whether leaning on the batting cages or standing behind the pitcher in the bullpen these coaches are present. They are invaluable to the success of these young players. They teach and tweak. They remind and reshape. They reset fundamentals and they explain things in a nuanced, personal way. Talk to a ball player and they’ll tell you, “These guys are priceless!”

Christian men need the same type of help. Whether you are fouling the ball off your foot, doubling in the gap, or in a slump, you need a spiritual coach to come alongside of you. You (we) need someone to periodically remind us of the fundamentals and explain things in a fresh way. These relationships often come via the local church but they also come via the universal church in the form of writers. Tim Witmer has been one of those guys for me and our church. I don’t know Tim but he has had a profound impact on the shape and life of Emmaus Bible Church.

In his book Shepherd Leader Witmer lays out a biblical plan for pastoral ministry. In my view it is the first thing pastors and aspiring pastors need to read (my review here).

As a follow-up Witmer has written Shepherd Leader in the Home. This book is to help men (not exclusively elders) to be the leaders they are called to be in their homes. In our church about 20 of us have just finished reading and discussing this book together. The feedback I got from the guys was that it was tremendously practical. There was a simple application of biblical truth. Also, there was many memorable nuanced approaches to leading your family. Like the coach who tells stories Witmer opens up the curtain to let us into his world. It’s great.

The basic overlay is:

The Shepherd Knows his Family: In order to lead and love your family you need to know them. Get to work; learn who you love and lead.

The Shepherd Leads his Family: You have got to proactively (not passively) lead your wife and children.

The Shepherd Provides for his Family: Get to work, literally. We have to provide spiritually and materially.

The Shepherd Protects his Family: The leaders cherishes his wife and so he protects his marriage and his children. (This is a very practical and somewhat in your face chapter dealing with sin and temptation. Very good stuff.)

As I asked the guys this morning what they give it for a rating, the consensus was 4.5 / 5 stars. I’d have to agree.

You can purchase Shepherd Leader in the Home via Amazon or Westminster.

*Note: if you make purchases at Amazon, consider entering their site through this blog. It’s kind of like a tip that costs you nothing. (I get a small amount of $ for such Amazon purchases) Thanks!

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9Marks Workshop in Omaha

Erik Raymond —  May 15, 2013 — 1 Comment

As Christians we have the unique privilege and responsibility of testifying to God’s love for us in the gospel. We understand what this sounds like; it is the content of the gospel–all that Jesus has done for us. But what does it look like? How does the church uniquely communicate the love of God to the world and to one another?

This is an important question that Jonathan Leeman has endeavored to answer. Jonathan is the editorial director of 9Marks and the author of 4 books that shed light on this topic. Leeman contends that it is through church membership that the world knows who represents Jesus and it is through church discipline that the church protects the name of Jesus.

Jonathan will be teaching at a Saturday conference at Emmaus on the 29th of June. The event is open to all in our city and region who would like to attend.

Cost: $5 person and $10 family.

More information here

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Is Worshiping Yourself Strange? Yes and No.

Erik Raymond —  May 15, 2013 — 2 Comments

Very helpful quote here from Mike Cosper in his new and helpful book  Rhythms of Grace:

To our imaginations, it’s probably strange (at the least) or gross (at the worst) to envision anyone perpetually exalting himself. We live in a world full of bluster and bragging, where Nicki Minaj boasts “I’m the best,” LeBron James tattoos “Chosen 1” across his shoulders, and everyone from pastors to porn stars are self-celebrating on Twitter and Facebook. The idea that God would be associated with anything like that behavior is disconcerting.

But God’s own self-adoration is nothing like ours. Unlike our own self-congratulatory spirit, God’s view of himself is unmistaken and unexaggerated.

As hymn writer Fredrick Lehman said:

Could we with ink the ocean fill, And were the skies of parchment made, Were every stalk on earth a quill, And every man a scribe by trade, To write the love of God above, Would drain the ocean dry. Nor could the scroll contain the whole, Though stretched from sky to sky. God’s glory and perfection are inexhaustible. We can’t say enough about how glorious he truly is. The greatest gift he can give us is a revelation of himself. Exalting anything else would be cruel.

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Biblical Submission Operates Out of the Black

Erik Raymond —  May 14, 2013 — Leave a comment

Christians often start off at a significant disadvantage when we talk about a wife’s submission to her husband. Like Commodus’ fateful words to Quintos, after slashing Maximus: “Strap the armor, conceal the wounds” the Christian takes the cultural lacerations and then tries to go toe-to-toe with the common objections. This is always frustrating and often unproductive. Today biblical femininity, when acknowledged, is mocked. It is deemed repressive, antiquated, and unfulfilling.

My suggestion is to deconstruct things a little bit first before diving in too deep.

The widely popular, progressive worldview operates out of the red. There is a lack. In other words, you don’t have something and therefore you need to obtain it. The argument is that people, particularly women need to be liberated. There needs to be freedom. This is the talk of captivity. It’s bondage. The pursuit of self-discovery, progressiveness, and a redefinition of thinking is the cry for freedom, but it is not freedom. It is an acknowledgement of captivity. The striving is a striving for freedom.

Continue Reading…

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(Reconciling) Kindness and Justice

Erik Raymond —  May 13, 2013 — Leave a comment

As an unbeliever I always struggled between the apparent controversy of God’s kindness and his justice. How can God be both loving and just at the same time? How can he love justice and sinners or sinners and justice without compromising one or the other? It is because of this that I always enjoy watching these twin themes chase themselves around in culture and literature. In the classic Les Miserables Victor Hugo does just that with the law (Javert) and the kindness shown by Jean Val-Jean to Fantine. He can’t stand it.

Those who say, ‘That blackguard of a Javert!’ would be in the right. Mr. Mayor, I do not desire that you should treat me kindly; your kindness roused sufficient bad blood in me when it was directed to others. I want none of it for myself. The kindness which consists in upholding a woman of the town against a citizen, the police agent against the mayor, the man who is down against the man who is up in the world, is what I call false kindness. That is the sort of kindness which disorganizes society. Good God! it is very easy to be kind; the difficulty lies in being just. Come! if you had been what I thought you, I should not have been kind to you, not I! You would have seen! Mr. Mayor, I must treat myself as I would treat any other man. When I have subdued malefactors, when I have proceeded with vigor against rascals, I have often said to myself, ‘If you flinch, if I ever catch you in fault, you may rest at your ease!’ I have flinched, I have caught myself in a fault. So much the worse! Come, discharged, cashiered, expelled! That is well. I have arms. I will till the soil; it makes no difference to me. Mr. Mayor, the good of the service demands an example.

It is only in and through the gospel where God can be the just and the justifier (Rom. 3.26). These two truths are not at war but at peace. As Psalm 85 rejoices, “Steadfast love and faithfulness meet; righteousness and peace kiss each other. (Ps. 85.10)

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Marriage is Really About Companionship

Erik Raymond —  May 9, 2013 — Leave a comment

Sound words for marriages plagued by isolationism.

Marriage really is a human covenant of companionship. God wasn’t so much giving Adam a physical helper for the work in the garden as he was giving him a companion.

God knew that he had created a social being, and because of Adam’s social hardwiring, it was not good for him to live without the companionship of one made from him and made like him. You could argue that this is the most basic reason for marriage. God created a lifelong companion for Adam, and his relationship with Eve would exist on earth as a visible reminder of God’s love relationship with people and as the God-ordained means by which the earth would be populated as God designed.

So the character and quality of the friendship between a husband and wife always functions as an accurate measure of the health of their marriage. It is also an accurate barometer of trust. When trust is present between two people, their appreciation and affection will grow, and as these things grow, friendship flourishes. Tripp, What Did You Expect?

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Don’t Just Pray About It.

Erik Raymond —  May 8, 2013 — Leave a comment

There is something beautiful about the simplicity of kids. I remember after planting our first garden our little girls woke up early in the morning to run outside and see if anything had grown. After all, we had just put seeds in the ground 20 hours prior!

Their eager expectation is instructive.

In the 5th Psalm we read of a believer exercising highly developed prayer reflexes. He is crying out to God. His heart is overcome with weightiness. It is the type of thing that is first on his mind as he awakens in the morning (Ps. 5.1-2). The concern, burden, anxiety, and desperation of the soul continue to bubble up within him.

Continue Reading…

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