Training Pastors Worldwide

I finished reading, Disruptive Witness: Speaking Truth in a Distracted Age, by Alan Nobel. He bounces many of his thoughts off of the Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor and does so with skill. He helped me organize my thinking about why this age is so difficult to awaken to the truths of the Gospel. The first half of Nobel’s book is excellent; however, his prescriptions for addressing the problems he defines, are less satisfying. Nonetheless, it was well worth the Kindle price! Here are some excerpts:

“I believe the convergence of two major trends in our own time calls for a new assessment of the barriers to faith. This assessment involves much more than how to overcome objections to faith, but also the extent to which the church in America has accommodated ideas and practices that make it difficult for us to bear witness. These two major trends are (1) the practice of continuous engagement in immediately gratifying activities that resist reflection and meditation, and (2) the growth of secularism, defined as a state in which theism is seen as one of many viable choices for human fullness and satisfaction, and in which the transcendent feels less and less plausible. One result of these trends is that, as evangelicals, when we speak of Christianity we cannot assume that our hearers understand the faith as anything other than another personal preference in an ocean of cultural preferences. In such a world, the work of witnessing and defending the faith must involve rethinking how we communicate. The electronic buzz of the twenty-first century combined with the proliferation of personal stories of meaning (what I call “micronarratives of justification,” as opposed to “metanarratives”) has helped create what we may call distracted, buffered selves. The Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor coined the term buffered self to refer to the way modern people imagine themselves to be insulated from forces outside their rational mind, particularly supernatural or transcendent forces.1 The buffered self is a particular result of living in the closed, physical universe (Taylor calls it the “immanent frame”), in which everything has a natural explanation. Nearly all contemporary Western people, including Christians, use this frame to interpret the world…

The modern person experiences a buffer between themselves and the world out there—including transcendent ideas and truths. The constant distraction of our culture shields us from the kind of deep, honest reflection needed to ask why we exist and what is true. The value of individual choice and the multiplication of micronarratives shield us from committing to a consistent and coherent worldview. This allows the modern person to debate religion and politics freely, without any anxiety about what is at stake—because very little is at stake…

We are addicted to novelty, and as with most addictions, it takes a toll on our bodies: we become mentally fatigued, “scrambled,” as Levitin describes it. In this way, the modern mind is often not prepared to engage in dialogue about personally challenging ideas, particularly ones with deep implications. The fatigued mind would rather categorize a conversation about God as another superficial distraction, requiring little cognitive attention, than a serious conversation that ought to cost us, at least cognitively. The shape of our engagement with ideas forms how we interpret and categorize these ideas. Both the kind of technology we use and the way we use it can lead us to mislabel information…

A lifestyle of distraction will shape the way we interpret and respond to questions about basic beliefs—how we conceive of human worth, what transcendent hopes we have, what we believe about goodness and beauty. The distracted age has three major effects on our ability to communicate about matters of faith and ultimate meaning: (1) it is easier to ignore contradictions and flaws in our basic beliefs, (2) we are less likely to devote time to introspection, and (3) conversations about faith can be easily perceived as just another exercise in superficial identity formation…

The Christian faith requires a belief in a risen and living Savior, one who lived in this immanent world and transcended it both on the cross and in his ascension. But for our neighbors, the experience of modern life is something like what Peter described in 2 Peter 3:4: “They will say, ‘Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation. ’” The world simply does not feel like a place where the supernatural intervenes. The cognitive barrier facing us is, How do we speak to people who feel that things are continuing as they have from the beginning? Who believe that the divine doesn’t interrupt our lives and there will be no second coming to interrupt this march of mechanical time. Our witness must work to disrupt the normative experience of life in a closed immanent frame.

How can we hold such a motley collection of perceptions and ideas together without great cognitive dissonance? To some extent, we can’t. And we don’t. Instead we continually jettison some ideas and adopt others, so there is rarely time for sustained, thorough reflection about what we believe to be true about the world. A shifting sand can never be measured for angle. To whatever extent that we hold these contrary beliefs without troubling dissonance, it is because we feel that there will always be dissonance. That ache in our stomach that we are wrong about something doesn’t really disappear, no matter what. Because even if we somehow found better, more consistent beliefs, we would always feel that external pressure to consider some other idea.

Noble, Alan. Disruptive Witness: Speaking Truth in a Distracted Age. InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition.

There are more than five, but these are good ones. I’m in the process of compiling a long list. John 8:31 will be on it!

https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/five-reasons-to-read-the-bible-tomorrow?

While I was reading Deuteronomy this morning I couldn’t help but notice all the references to joy: Deuteronomy 12:7, 8, 18; 28:47; 33:29. There are more references, but those are sufficient. The rest of the Bible is replete with joy verses and themes, here are a few: 2 Corinthians 1:24; Philippians 1:4, 18, 25; 2:2; 1 Thessalonians 5:16.

My teaching experience has been that whenever you try and define joy as happiness, the happiness squelchers parachute in and pour cold water on the parade. It seems like they don’t like Christian joy. May it never be! And may we dig down a little and figure out how we can have both.

I was raised with the definition of Christian joy as the inward feeling of goodness or contentment or something nice-like, when on the outside you could be fussy or unhappy or down in the dumps – you could even be generally depressed and still have “Christian joy”. Joy was something you always had even when it didn’t look like it. Hmmmm. That never sat quite right with me. We don’t have to ignore bad stuff and pretend that we are happy, but can’t we be happy and sorrowful at the same time? I think what should be true for the Christina is that we have such an overwhelming happiness in knowing God and the Savior and serving him, that the ups and downs of life do not permanently disable us, or even steal that overwhelming sense of hope and joy and happiness that comes from communion with God. Our happiness quotient is always informing our sorrowful equation. At the end of the day, as an overwhelming rule, we are happy people, we Christians.

Think about this: do you want a generally happy God, who also grieves over sin and disobedience, but knows the future and the past and has everything under His control? Or do you want God to be generally pretty downright seriously grumpy, but inwardly is really happy? I know the theological fine points of the argument are hard to sum up in two short sentences, but I hope you get the point. And don’t think we get to create God in our own image; however, there are some fairly difficult philosophical problems with a god who is Mr. Grump potato. And the Bible presents him as pleased! Read Psalm 135:8 and 115:3 – He does all that He pleases, always, and everything he does pleases him. Jesus is the perfect representation of his nature, and we are to work so that Christ is formed in us, Galatians 4:19. We need to be like him! We are required to be like him.

I understand the text in 2 Corinthians 6:10, “As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing” to mean that even though a kind of sorrow is there for all who live on a sinful planet, that over and above and through it all is the victory of Christ. Knowing God, knowing his forgiveness, knowing the sure hope of eternity with him. Knowing that all things work together fo good. All things, even the sorrowful for a time things. Everything will be made new. There will come a time when there is no sorrow at all, Revelation 7:15-17.

When a close friend or family member dies there is a sorrow that rushes in. I remember hearing of my father’s sudden death – sorrow flooded my soul. But there was a joy that, if I can venture to suggest, overwhelmed that sorrow. I have a Saviour. I am anxiously awaiting the time when all sorrow will cease and I can live in that truth now. All things, even death, work together for good. In this I rejoice.

The weather in Southern California has been fabulous lately. The vegetation is happy, my lawn is happy, the mountains are packed with snow, and the weeds are a-coming! But it’s a small price to pay for the wonder of weather, which is a parable for the omni-magnificence of our God.

If you live here, hopefully you’ve noticed the clouds: cumulous, cirrus, stratus and nimbus. I’m not sure about the last three types, but I know cumulous clouds when I see them, and they are majestic. God has given them to us to remind us and give us a picture of his power, his might, and his ability and willingness to answer prayer.

Here are some selected passages on God and his clouds. All references ESV.

Psalm 104:3b-4, “he makes the clouds his chariot; he rides on the wings of the wind; he makes his messengers winds, his minister a flaming fire.”

In this next Psalm, David cries to God and the picture of God’s response as he comes in the clouds is astounding, it should move all of us to pray. Pray for revival, pray for courage, pray for the unsaved, pray for your pastor, pray – pray – pray. And may he rend the heavens and come down, Isaiah 64:1.

Psalm 18:6-12, “In my distress I called upon the LORD; to my God I cried for help.From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears.

7 Then the earth reeled and rocked; the foundations also of the mountains trembled and quaked, because he was angry.

8 Smoke went up from his nostrils, and devouring fire from his mouth; glowing coals flamed forth from him.

9 He bowed the heavens and came down; thick darkness was under his feet.

10 He rode on a cherub and flew; he came swiftly on the wings of the wind.

11 He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him, thick clouds dark with water.

12 Out of the brightness before him hailstones and coals of fire broke through his clouds.

13 The LORD also thundered in the heavens, and the Most High uttered his voice, hailstones and coals of fire.

14 And he sent out his arrows and scattered them; he flashed forth lightnings and grouted them.

15 Then the channels of the sea were seen, and the foundations of the world were laid bare at your rebuke, O LORD, at the blast of the breath of your nostrils.

16 He sent from on high, he took me; he drew me out of many waters.

17 He rescued me from my strong enemy and from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me.”

You should read the rest of this song of exaltation and instruction. But for now let’s move on to this selection from Job,

Job 36:24-33, “Remember to extol his work, of which men have sung.

25 All mankind has looked on it; man beholds it from afar.

26 Behold, God is great, and we know him not; the number of his years is unsearchable.

27 For he draws up the drops of water; they distill his mist in rain,

28 which the skies pour down and drop on mankind abundantly.

29 Can anyone understand the spreading of the clouds, the thunderings of his pavilion?

30 Behold, he scatters his lightning about him and covers the roots of the sea.

31 For by these he judges peoples; he gives food in abundance.

32 He covers his hands with the lightning and commands it to strike the mark.

33 Its crashing declares his presence; the cattle also declare that he rises.”