Nooma, Hell, Zim-Zum, Bell

“She has taught me more about what Jesus has for all of us, and what kind of life Jesus wants us to live, more than almost anybody in my life,” Bell said.

Stop ripping this guy with evangelical arrogance and get down on your knees and fervently pray to God for him.

Suffering Love – A Good Word From C. S. Lewis

I came across this quote while reading C. S. Lewis’ The Four Loves. It is powerful, direct and a necessary corrective to remember from time to time, because we are selfish creatures, prone to protect ourselves from anything that might hurt us.

To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket of coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket—safe, dark, motionless, airless—it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell.

A Helpful Article for Christ-Followers with Homosexual Friends

Sometimes the most loving thing to do is not the thing that on the surface looks most loving.

That sentence alone should pique your interest to read this helpful article that The Gospel Coalition posted last month. Take a read and comment here or there if you’d like.

Five Reasons the Oakland Athletics COULD Win the World Series

   This is a guest post from Andrew Gilmore’s brother Trevor, an Oakland Athletics fanatic. The picture below was captured by the San Francisco Chronicle. (Yes, that’s Trevor along with his best friend Colin.)

Excuse my modesty, which may be more accurately labeled as superstition for substituting the word combination “will win” with “could win” – it is playoff baseball, you understand. I do not want to be the one etching the name of my team into the Commissioner’s Trophy before they even step foot into October. This is written in optimism and not prognostication. Despite the odds set by the betting professionals and casinos there are currently ten teams that have a one in ten chance of winning the World Series. I am not here to tell you with a ten percent chance that my team is no doubt going to win the whole thing, but rather to tell you how they could make that happen.

1. The pitching staff.

Playoff baseball is all about pitching and defense. It becomes increasingly harder to push runs across the plate when October rolls around and when a team has the ability limit their opponent’s offense even more – well, it is usually a good thing. The A’s boast a pitching staff that ranks third in ERA overall and when the starting staff and bullpen are listed respectively. Not only are Jon Lester, Sonny Gray, Jeff Samardzija, and Jason Hammel/Scott Kazmir more than capable of throwing quality to stellar games, but the bullpen has shown the ability to shorten the game. Windows are small for opposing offenses and that increases the chances for a struggling A’s offense to score just enough and let the pitching take care of the rest.

2. Offensive explosions.

Yes, the A’s have been one of the worst offensive teams since the trade deadline, of that I am fully aware. But seemingly once a week the flood gates open and the A’s tend to post a number north of eight runs. Just look at their results and you will see what I mean. This team still has plenty of weapons without Yoenis Cespedes to post monster numbers…they just have to do it.

3. Sickness

This fan base is sick, this organization is sick, these players are sick. I am not using surfer slang to say they are sick, as in cool, but they are legitimately sick. Sick of losing playoff series. MLB Network mentioned tonight that Oakland is 0-6 in their last six winner-take-all games. Every curse comes to an end. If this team is sick enough of losing the most important games in a series they will scratch and claw until they attain victory.

4. Adversity

This team has faced adversity from the beginning of Spring Training. In spite of their hot start to the 2014 campaign there was much worry in Oakland. Two of their bright young starting pitchers Jarrod Parker and AJ Griffin caught the Tommy John surgery bug before the season even started. They made it through that thanks mostly in part to the unexpectedly stellar pitching of Jesse Chavez and Drew Pomeranz early in the season. Then they lost their most electrifying player Yoenis Cespedes in a much debated trade. And perhaps they have not made it through this one completely, as the offense has seemed to have a hard time meshing without his presence in the lineup. The truth is, though, that they have made it to where they needed to make it – to win a World Series, you first have to make the playoffs. Maybe it is not ideal to fly to Kansas City and have one shot, but at least they have that shot. So, perhaps it took all of the last two months to make it over that bump. They have successfully avoided the collapse that people were dooming them to and now have the same chance as the other nine teams remaining. Their resilience in overcoming adversity pitches the advantage in their favor when the rough spots of a playoff game inevitably arrive at their doorstep.

5. Because they are the best stinkin’ team in baseball!!

Maybe I am biased…slightly. I still believe in the team that played .600 ball for 4 months. That team is not dead, it just has lost its groove. Sometimes teams do not find their groove until the playoffs arrive – the San Francisco Giants of 2010 and 2012 are great examples of finding their stride at the right time. And yes, I believe the Oakland A’s will do precisely that. Two months ago nobody wanted to play the A’s and rightly so, they were scary! Having talked to Angel “fans” here in Southern California I could hear how much they hated learning that the A’s clinched a playoff spot. They are scared – and not of what they swept back in August, but they are scared of a sudden awakening of a team that has been dormant for too long.

You may notice that most of the above reasons are not so much tangible elements of the game of baseball. This team has everything it needs to succeed in terms of talent and ability, but it is the testing of its collective and individual character over 162 games that gives them every chance in the world to break a 25 year title drought. The A’s have the pitching to starve their opponent’s offense for a whole series and the bats to do the damage they did for the first half of the season. They just have to do it. Mark DeRosa of MLB Network said it perfectly, “If this team gets in…watch out.”

Walking With A Limp

I automatically love a book with an appropriately provocative title. So Walking With a Limp sucked me in just by seeing the cover!

But more importantly, in June 2012, I had the privilege of going to Israel with my pastor, Ron Johnson. We went on a tour composed of a mishmash of people from The Well Community Church and Hume Lake Christian Camps. Brad Bell is the founding pastor of The Well in Fresno and led the trip, along with Rich Ferreira, the Director of The Joshua Wilderness Institute.

Brad was a gracious leader, sharing insights and tips for leading a trip to Israel, which Ron and I did last year. On the trip, we got to see Brad’s heart for Jesus and his honesty. Several guys on the trip were there because Brad was pouring into them and gave them opportunities to teach at various locations.

So it was with excitement that I learned about the Anatomy of a Disciple curriculum that Brad and Dr. Rick Taylor were putting together at The Well. The following is an all-too-brief review of the book.

The book is very manageable at 156 pages and certainly meant to be, since the companion book, The Anatomy of a Disciple, weighs in at 314 pages. One of its very appealing marks is its very accessible, street-level language. Bell meant to be raw, honest and uncomplicated.

The title comes from the Genesis 32 story of the Old Testament patriarch Jacob wrestling with God, although he doesn’t know the identity of the wrestler until afterward. At the end of the match, God (or his angel) touches Jacob’s hip, essentially dislocating Jacob’s hip and giving him a limp for the rest of his life. Jacob is renamed Israel (“he strives with God”) and will forever be reminded of his encounter with God by walking with a limp. He will never be the same.

And that’s what Bell hopes will be the case for his readers as they read his book. Of course, like a good writer, Bell keeps the Jacob/Israel story for the end, revealing  it in ch. 13.

The layout of the book follows the Anatomy of the a Disciple (AoD) curriculum, consisting of “four concentric rings of authentic spiritual growth” that go from the heart on the inside, to the mind, the choices and the compassions on the outside. Bell contends in the bulk of the book that our hearts need to be Humbly Submitted; our minds must be Biblically Formed; our choices should be 1) Sacrificially Generous leading to compassions that Intentional Blessing; 2) Morally Discerning leading to compassions that are Culturally Engaged; and 3) Relationally Healthy leading to Inclusive Community.

This organization keeps the book on course and your mind following right along with it. I was helped by this to stay with Bell as he led me on a path similar to the recent skein of books including David Platt’s Radical, Francis Chan’s Crazy Love, and John Piper’s Don’t Waste Your Life. Bell’s differs in its spare simplicity, its California-sounding vernacular and its inevitable connection to the AoD curriculum.

More could be said, but I’ll end by encouraging you to get this book and read it with other people. There are good heart checks along the way and Bell reviews God’s gracious call on his life while a womanizing, drunk star athlete at Fresno State. You can totally relate to this author. He does not sound like an academic locked in an ivory tower far away from the members of his church. Rather, you understand this husband/father/pastor and his real human struggles.

Really, this is a quick read that the Holy Spirit might use to surgically show you the areas in your life that need work. You can buy it here and here.

June 6, 1944

Thirty years ago, President Ronald Reagan gave a speech at Pointe du Hoc, in Normandy, France to commemorate the 40th anniversary of what has become known simply as D-Day. His speech has been ranked as one of the Top 100 Speeches of the 20th Century by American Rhetoric, coming in at No. 58 (President Reagan has five other speeches in the top 100). I’m moved to tears every time I watch or listen to this speech. Years ago, I read Stephen Ambrose’s D-Day, and I cannot help but remember the anguish, sorrow, and pain felt by so many men on those beaches and their families back home in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and other allies. But D-Day is ultimately about the winning back of Europe from Hitler’s Nazi Germany and it speaks to almost unbelievable bravery, sacrifice and service. May we not merely rest on the so-called Greatest Generation’s victories, but may we learn from their courage and live lives of strength and conviction in our own day.

Spending and Being Spent

In 2 Corinthians, Paul undertakes the task of defending his ministry to the church he helped birth, against false teachers (whom Paul sarcastically calls “super-apostles” in 11:5 and 12:11) who denied Paul’s apostleship, leadership ability, speaking ability and loving care for this church. Outside of the so-called pastoral epistles (1 and 2 Timothy and Titus), it is certainly his most personal letter. In it are heart-rending pleas and Paul’s presentation of his resume, hesitantly proclaimed.
In chapter 12, following his explanation of magnificent and (literally) unrepeatable experiences in “the third heaven” and his famous “thorn in the flesh” in verses one through ten, Paul commences with a rebuke-argument-warning-love letter. And in it there is a phrase which has captured my heart and mind for several months now, especially since my graduation from seminary. Here is some very limited context: Here for the third time I am ready to come to you. And I will not be a burden, for I seek not what is yours but you. For children are not obligated to save up for their parents, but parents for their children. I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. If I love you more, am I to be loved less?

This phrase–spend and be spent–is both a convicting sword through my pastor’s heart and an encouragement to my pastor’s heart. I am convicted that I have not always (or sometimes often, God help me!) desired to spend and be spent for the souls that God has called me to lead and care for. Many times I’ve desired my own comfort over the blessed task of comforting others with my presence and the Word of God. Too often I avoid conflict or confrontation because I don’t want to be involved in someone else’s mess. Of course, this wrongly assumes that their mess should not be my mess. “If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together” (1 Cor 12:26).

I am encouraged because while vocational pastoral ministry is always difficult, I cannot compare my situation at Village Bible Church in Garden Grove, California to the mess at Corinth that Paul was dealing with. And yet, Paul loved these people. Dearly loved them. Loved them like a father. And so I’m encouraged because the same Spirit who lived in and empowered Paul for ministry is the same Spirit who lives in me and gives me power for my ministry! This is my calling and I long to perform it in a worthy way because he who called me is holy and faithful and true. I am not sufficient for the task but he is all-sufficient!

Therefore, in the power of the Spirit, and in light of the cross of Jesus, and for the glory of God, I long to echo Paul’s words and not only spend and be spent, but to gladly spend and be spent for the souls of those God has placed in my charge. I want to love them and seek their good all the days God gives me. This is my prayer. God give me the grace and strength to do it!

Two Ways to Live

Did you know that there are only Two Ways to Live?

And yes, there are apps for that!

One Youth Pastor’s Anxiety: Learning, Fear and Hope

I have been on staff at Village Bible Church for the past five and a half years, mainly working with our young people. The joy in watching teenagers grow into mature young adults and lovers of the Bible is a thrill I pray will never get old.

But as I was reading through 2 Timothy this morning, I was drawn to some of Paul’s words to young Timothy about the false teachers in Ephesus. He says that–among other things–these men are “always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy 3:7). This is especially terrifying to me because I believe in pushing our youth to be readers. I require a book to be read for our high schoolers to go to camp every summer. Am I just pushing them toward a never-ending cycle of fruitless learning of facts and concepts?

It also brings about a certain anxiety in me because I have loved reading and learning from an early age. The question looms: has all that learning done anything? Am I just accumulating knowledge, which Paul warns us is dangerous because certain knowledge merely “puffs up” (1 Cor 8:1)? It is popular to say things like, “It’s not about the destination, but the journey,” and other similar nice-sounding platitudes. However, don’t we really know deep down that statements like those actually aren’t true or helpful or hopeful? Sure, there are lessons–invaluable lessons–learned on the way, but isn’t the goal to get somewhere? Ultimately, in the Christian worldview, lessons learned in life don’t matter as much as arriving at the proper destination. So, have I arrived, am I arriving “at a knowledge of the truth”? I pray to God that I am and I know that there is hope that I will.

Why?

Because God’s word is not like any of my words. God’s word is inherently authoritative. When Luke penned Acts, he described the early church’s growth and the spread of the gospel as an increasing word. He doesn’t just say that the church got bigger, but rather that “the word of God increased” (Acts 6:7), “the word of God increased and multiplied” (Acts 12:24), “the word of the Lord was spreading” (Acts 13:49), “the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily” (Acts 19:20), and this word “is able to build you up and give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified” (Acts 20:32). So if I’m sharing and preaching and teaching the Bible, I can (should!) have confidence that God will honor the spread of his word, which is “living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12).

So we all ought to pursue learning for the purpose of arriving at the truth. God help us to do just that.

– Andrew Gilmore

Some 2013 Reading Highlights

Below you’ll see 11 of the 49 books that I read in 2013.These were particularly good reads and I’ll have some brief blurbs about them in the coming weeks. My goal in 2013 was to read 60 books so I fell significantly short of that goal. However, I know that Patrick easily exceeded his goal so perhaps we’ll be seeing some of his favorite reads of 2013! What were your favorite reads of 2013?

1. Lit! by Tony Reinke
2. Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor, by D. A. Carson
3. Jonathan Edwards: A Life, by George Marsden
4. Jerusalem: The Biography, by Simon Sebag Montefiore
5. The Man Christ Jesus, by Bruce Ware
6. Family Worship, by Donald Whitney
7. C. S. Lewis: A Life, by Alister McGrath
8. Judges, by Dale Ralph Davis
9. Fight, by Preston Sprinkle
10. Preach: Theology Meets Practice, by Mark Dever and Greg Gilbert
11. The Creedal Imperative, by Carl Trueman