Reading Habits for Growth

I feel that the reading of books is personally a powerful aspect of my commitment to spiritual growth (not to replace or compete with the primary Spiritual Disciplines of Bible-reading and Prayer). However, like everything else in the Christian life we must be intentional about what we are doing. Growth in Christ never happens by accident. Sometimes it looks really confusing, but the seeds were sown and harvested, now I am not denying the work of the Holy Spirit in our growth. Nor am I denying the sovereignty of God in our spiritual lives, rather as a wise man once said, "we should trust God and keep our powder dry." Trust in the sovereignty of God should empower us and encourage us to strive to grow spiritually.

I think that this means that we should have a reading plan. I have combined the advice of John Stott and Albert Mohler personally and at the end of the post I will share my personal reading plan, not to exalt myself but simply to give an example of an intentional reading plan. John Stott says that every pastor should read for an hour every day, thus underscoring the importance of reading. Albert Mohler says that the pastor (I also think that this advice is helpful for all Christians) should read broadly and consistently in different categories.

I think we need to be careful to read toward our needs. For example, I read three books at a time, I have discerned three needs that I need to be addressing perpetually. I think that we need to have our minds informed and challenged. So I try to always be reading what I call a brain book. I also need to have my heart inflamed toward Christ. I call this my heart book, I try to identify authors and theme's that feed my soul (Christian biographies have proved especially powerful), we all need this in a continual manner. My last book is a book to keep my imagination alive, I am always reading a book of fiction or history to keep the old imagination alive and well. This is very important for a pastor, to stave off dryness or an overly academic air sneaking into the pulpit. I think that we also need to read toward our unique ministry calling. So if you are a pastor, read a book about being a pastor, the same for youth ministry or prayer ministry.

To get a little narrower, we need to read in different categories for our minds. As a pastor I have identified several categories that I must be reading in at all times, it functions as a rotation for my brain book. My categories are Theology, Biblical Studies, Church History, Practical ministry, Philosophy/apologetics, and the puritans.

Now in conclusion I want to explain why I shared so much of my personal reading habits. It's not because I think that mine are exemplary, far from the truth. I am really convicted about the need to be intentional in our reading habits, which is why I wrote this weird post in the first place, but it is also the reason that I shared so much simply to give an example of an effort to be intentional. The second reason is that I want you all to share your reading plan and give me some counsel on how I can improve.

Along these lines give a listen to the Mahaney, Harris, and Purswell. http://www.sovereigngraceministries.org/Blog/post/Leadership-Interview-Podcast-1.aspx

Prayerlessness worse than adultery

I've been reading John Owen's treatise on the mortification of sin. Owen is incredibly comprehensive and Christ-centered. At one point he pondered why God does not immediately remove some besetting sin as soon as we implore Him. He answered with the following points.

First, our struggle with some particular sin is usually caused by a general failure to "watch" our relationship with God. A man's struggle with sexual lust may not be caused by television, movies or a scantily clad co-worker, but by a general neglect of prayer and the regular hearing of the word of God.

Second, the propensity to neglect our relationship with God should be more grievous to us than the frustration of any particular lust.

Third, quite to the contrary, we are often unaffected by the neglect of our relationship to God, while we come under terrible conviction for succumbing to particular lusts.

Finally, Owen suggested that for this reason God does not remove the besetting sin from us. Instead, he uses the conviction of this particular sin to awaken us to our poor general condition. This sin actually becomes the occasion for a renewal (even if brief) of our pursuit of that relationship, as we come to God, confessing our sin and weakness, praising His mercy and grace, and clinging to the Crucified as our only hope.

Indeed, God is working all things together for the good of those who love Him, who are the called according to His purpose. Once again I am reminded that I am a studied sinner and Christ is a steadfast Savior.

Senator Obama on biblical interpretation?

The Reverend Jeremiah Wright has stirred a lot of controversy with some of his inflammatory remarks about the good old U. S. A. When confronted with these statements by his former pastor and mentor, Senator Obama complained that these remarks were snippets of sermons taken out of the context of decades of preaching. So, the media was challenged to put them back in their contexts and listen to them again. They did, and everyone, including the senator, was appalled! They sounded even more hateful when heard in context.
Senator Obama, however, understood something that every student of Scripture should know, namely, that words must be understood in their particular context. This rule of hermeneutics (the principles of interpretation) was very important for a recent message I preached on Christ as our sanctification. The text was 1 Corinthians 1:30, "He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption" (ESV).
What does it mean that Christ is our sanctification? According to many theology books and in popular Christianese, sanctification is a process of becoming more holy or Christlike in our conduct, a process that will not be completed in this life. If we come to this text with this definition in mind, then we come away understanding that Christ is the source of our spiritual growth and maturity. There are passages of Scripture that teach this. But is this what Paul intends in 1 Corinthians 1:30? A great place to begin is to look at the near context of this verse. Just begin with chapter 1. In verse 2 the church of God that is in Corinth is called "those sanctified in Christ Jesus." The word sanctified is in the perfect tense, which in Greek denotes a state resulting from a completed action. In other words, the Corinthian believers were already sanctified and now enjoy a state of sanctification. This is further indicated by the very next phrase in verse 2, "called saints." "Saints" means "holy ones" or "the people who belong to God as a treasured possession" (see Exod. 19:5-6; Deut. 7:6).
With this understanding of sanctification, how might we understand Paul's statement in verse 30 that Christ is our sanctification? Perhaps, that Christ is the One whose sacrifice removes the offense that keeps us from God thereby giving us a new position in the presence of God. Out of this new position flows a life increasingly more consistent with a holy God (1 Cor. 6:9-11).
Paul's point is not about a gradual process, but about a new position. In Christ you are a treasured possession of God!!
If you are interested in the New Testament teaching on sanctification check out David Peterson's book, Possessed by God: A New Testament Theology of Sanctification and Holiness, IVP.
If you are interested in understanding words in context start with D. A. Carson's, Exegetical Fallacies (chapter 1).