The Rest Of God (Mark Buchanan)

I finished this book a while back... so long ago actually that I remember reading it last summer on the shores of the Welland Canal on a Sunday afternoon in July. Here I am 10 months later reflecting on it again and learning from what Mark Buchanan wrote even still.

In his book "The Rest Of God" he states his purpose as:

I want to convince you, in part, that setting apart an entire day, one out of seven, for feasting and resting and worship and play is a gift and not a burden, and neglecting the gift too long will make your soul, like soil never left fallow, hard and dry and spent. (pg 4)

Now no where in the New Testament does Jesus abolish the 10 Commandments. He comes to fulfill them. (Matthew 5:17). And in fact, many theologians believe "honoring the Sabbath day and keeping it holy" is something for us as believers today to continue to observe. Not legalistically. Not always on a Saturday (as the Jews) or a Sunday (as the early church), but at least one day a week.

Then Buchanan gives a definition. He says:

A good definition of Sabbath: imitating God so that we stop trying to be God. (pg 87)

I know that there have definitely been times in my life when I've tried to "be God", trying to control things and plan everything. So when I read this next part I was convicted...

We’ve not been still long enough, often enough, to know ourselves, our friends, our family. Our God. Indeed, the worst hallucination busyness conjures is the conviction that I am God. All depends on me. How will the right things happen at the right time if I’m not pushing and pulling and watching and worrying? (pg 61)

Well needless to say the world would continue to go around if you or I weren't here. And God doesn't need us. So really what's stopping us from resting?

Then as a good pastor and teacher Marc Buchanan makes an illustration to other aspects of life.

The root idea of Sabbath is simple as rain falling, basic as breathing. It’s that all living things – and many nonliving things too – thrive only by an ample measure of stillness. A bird flying, never nesting, is soon plummeting. Grass trampled, day after day, scalps down to the hard bone of earth. Fruit constantly inspected bruises, blights. This is true of other things as well: a saw used without relenting – its teeth never filed, its blade never cooled – grows dull and brittle; a motor never shut off gums with residue or fatigues from thinness of oil – it sputters, it stalls, it seizes. Even companionship languishes without seasons of apartness. (pg 60)

Finally he gives a couple pointers and ideas for what should be done and not done on our Sabbath's.

This day, we go in a direction we’re unaccustomed to, unfamiliar with, that the other six days have made to seem unnatural to us. We do this, this traveling in the opposite direction, maybe for no higher reason at first than that God told us to do it. (pg 115)

“To cease from that which is necessary”. This is Sabbath’s golden rule. Stop doing what you ought to do. There are six days to do what you ought. Six days to be caught in the web of economic and political and social necessity. And then one day to take wing. Sabbath is that one day.... Sabbath’s second golden rule, or the other half of the first golden rule is “to embrace that which gives life.” (pg 126-127)

I'm currently enjoying my day of rest and I hope you've had some time like this too :)

Just Walk Across The Room (Bill Hybels)

As I enjoy my last Sunday afternoon as a "non working" guy, I thought I'd post some thoughts and favourite quotes from two books I've finished reading.

This first one, "Just Walk Across The Room" was recommended to me by Lane Fusilier, my pastor at Philpott Church in Hamilton. As a church we're going to be launching "40 Days of Bearing Witness" in September 2008 and this will be one of the resources that is used in the small groups.

Overall, the book was pretty good. It kept my attention and I always wanted to read the next chapter. It's only about 200 pages long and I thought the last two chapters "Matthew's Deepest Desire" and "Open Doors" were the best.

Here's a sampling of some of Bill Hybel's thoughts:

One afternoon before I was to speak at our midweek service, I dropped into a local place to get a haircut. As I sat in my car outside of the shop, I said out loud, “God if you want anything to happen in there – if you want me to say a word for you or try to help meet someone’s need – then for the next twenty minutes or so, please know that my heart is ready. I’m completely available” (pg 38)

Errands are run with one eye on the clock and the other on the to-do list, with zero consideration given to the clerk standing at the checkout or the person refilling the prescription. (pg 62)

These two statements jumped out at me. I'm a busy, "go, go, go" type guy and I know I should stop more and pray asking God to give me a heart in tune with His, open to His Spirit's leading.

Next Hybel's writes:

I’ve developed deep concern for a dangerous trend that is alive and well in many evangelical churches. The longer a person attends church, the fewer evangelistic discussions they engage in with family members and friends. (pg 61)

I think I agree with him. Listen to this next one too... I like the last sentence of this quote the best.

I realize some of you believe that unless the plan of salvation gets explained, it’s been an unsuccessful conversation, spiritually speaking. And some of you probably put yourselves through an exhaustive self-deprecation routine unless you extend an invitation to your church each time God opens an evangelistic door. Still others might say that everything is A-OK on your evangelistic value meter as long as you give your personal testimony – all four volumes of it – at every opportunity. And I feel your pain! I can run myself through all these wringers with the best of them. But here’s the reality: the Holy Spirit will bust your nice neat evangelism formulas every time. (pg 41)

Praise God that He is in control and knows just what each person needs to hear.

On page 120, four common criticisms are outlined about things we as believers should avoid when sharing our faith. They are

(1) long windedness - be short and to the point (2) fuzziness - be clear and don't go down irrelevant rabbit trails (3) religionese - don't use Christian terms like "salvation" "washed in the blood of the Lamb" etc (4) superiority - don't act like you're perfect and have it all together

Like I said, the last two chapters were the best.

Read Luke 5:27-32 and imagine this:

Matthew sitting around one night with the disciples and then he mutters to himself, What if I throw a party? I mean, I know how to throw a party; my reputation proves it! What if I throw a party and I bring buddies from my old life and people from my new life to the same house, even stick them in the same room. And what if the people in my new life don’t just hang around with each other but instead disperse and walk across my living room, rubbing shoulders with my old friends and opening themselves up to the activity of the Holy Spirit?”

By now a few of the disciples overhear their friend, who is obviously deep in conversation... with himself. But Matthew is undeterred. “Yeah,” he continues, “what if my new friends are willing to step into the Zone of the Unknown, and what if some spiritual sparks get ignited, and what if a half dozen of my buddies wind up in the kingdom like I did, all because of one party? If that were to happen, it would be unbelievable!” (pg 194)

Back in the early days of Willow, we talked with such frequency about the “Matthew Party” story in Luke 5 that it became part of the fabric of our church culture... Willow folks would grab a few people from the office and a few people from church and host a backyard BBQ or a pool party or hang out shooting pool in someone’s basement (pg 196)

I'd never really read into those few verses in Luke 5 but it's true. Matthew basically hosted an outreach event in his house. Sweet idea eh? :)

One of the other stories I was impacted by was when Bill Hybels retold a story of an interaction he had with some of his non Christian friends on a random trip they had taken.

One of the guys pointed to a particular grave and said, “Hey, that guy’s probably in purgatory. Probably didn’t pay his penance, you know, and has been in limbo for the past 200 years! You’re the professional here, Hybels. Why don’t you explain all this purgatory stuff to us? I mean, what’s the deal with the whole penance thing? Just tell the rest of us what it’s all about?”

Call me crazy but it seemed like an open door to me. They all stared at me, nodding “Yeah, tell us!” they ribbed.

My mind whirred. I’ve got about 45 seconds to make something clear here. Where should I begin?

I live for moments like those! Why? Because I have absolutely no idea what’s going to come out of my mouth in response. But I trust that God’s going to direct some logical flow and make it all work out. Each time, I echo Paul’s words, “Oh, God, please make this clear!”

This probably isn’t what I said verbatim, but something like this rolled off my tongue as the four of us stood in a deserted graveyard on a windy morning in May: “Well, for starters, I’ve never done an in-depth study on purgatory or the whole penance plan. I’m far from being an expert on those things, but this much I know for sure: the Bible teaches that God is utterly heartbroken when anybody ends up anywhere but with him eternally in heave. And he sent Christ, his Son, to pay everybody’s penance so that we wouldn’t have to. When we ask him personally to pay our penance, Jesus joyfully agrees to do so, and that opens the door for that person to be in heaven with God forever.” (pg 213)

Not a bad answer eh? I wish I had the wisdom to give an answer like that. He answered truthfully but was still able to communicate the basics of the gospel. Later in the book he describes the three core ideas he makes sure he conveys.

I call them “irreducible ingredients”

1) God loves you

2) Christ chose to pay for you

3) The choice is now yours (pg 214)

These are pretty much 3 of the 4 spiritual laws. Law 1 = God loves you, Law 2 = All people are sinful and separated from God, Law 3 = Jesus Christ is God's only provision for our sin, Law 4 = We must each individually respond in faith. I prefer remember the 4 laws (especially since I was involved with Campus for Christ for 5 years...) but more importantly I also believe them to be more Biblical than these 3 "irreducible ingredients". Where does Hybels mention sin? Repentance is essential for salvation and needs to be addressed.

The final chapter looked at Colossians 4:2-6 and in it he made an interesting point about having our speech "seasoned with salt"

Let me come back to something Paul requested in Colossians 4:6 – the one about conversations with outsiders being seasoned with salt. I can remember several occasions when I’ve been in a sensitive conversation and have said something to the effect of, “You know, what we’re talking about here is the single most important thing you can be wrapping your brain around. This is your eternity, your forever, your everything! If we need to spend a few extra minutes to get this just right, let’s take the time. It’s that important!” Or sometimes I’ll say, “If you wake up in the middle of the night thinking about this stuff, pay attention. It’s worth losing a night’s sleep over your eternity!” These are “salty” comments. (pg 215)

May God continue to empower us to be His ambassadors in our communities and around the world!

It's a new day...

Well here I am, starting up my first blog. My old MSN My Space one died a few years ago and I'm hoping to just use this one as a way to publish my book reports and not spam my friends emails. I'll give it a try and see how it goes...