Is there really a connection between godliness and reading?

Let me preface this post by saying that I love reading.  At the moment I have four books on the go ranging from Chris Wright's 'The Mission of God' (an excellent read), through  J I Packer's 'Knowing God', and Dever and Dunlop's 'The Compelling Community' to David Baldacci's 'Split Second'.  That's pretty normal, the heavy book I tend to take slowly, the others I skip through at a fair pace.  And I always have at least one fiction book on the go.  But here's what I want to challenge, the idea that there is a connection between godliness and reading and godliness and literacy.

Now books are tremendously helpful, they stimulate ideas, confront issues, spur us on to change but that doesn't mean that books are the only way to do that.  I can't help wondering sometimes if we pass someone a book, or recommend one to them to buy if we're stingy with our books, rather than challenge or encourage someone face to face.  I wonder sometimes if they are a cheap replacement for vulnerability, openness, and real relationship.  But I'll leave you with that thought because that's not what I have in my cross hairs in this post.

Here's my problem with conflating reading with godliness or a stimulus to godliness.  What about those who cannot read?  Or who have been put off reading by scarring school experience, or who have dyslexia or other reading barriers?  Are we saying they cannot be godly, or that it will be harder for them to be godly?  What about those who live in parts of the world where books are not readily available?

The advent of the printing press is an historically recent phenomenon, what of the early church and the church between then and the advent of the printing press?  Oral tradition mattered, teaching was passed on by word of mouth and remembered and relayed to others.  Who learnt that teaching so that they could pass it on to others.  I can't help thinking about the enormous benefit that would be to us, because sometimes the welter of new ideas that comes from reading book after book after book means we skip the benefit of properly chewing on and meditating on what we have read.  Anyway that's another
 digression.

Books are a tremendous gift to the church but they are not the barometer of someones godliness.    We need to think long and hard about how we teach truth to those with a non-literary lifestyle, to those for who a book is not an opportunity but a barrier.  Yes we need to address that barrier over time.  But how do we flex and become all things to all men, how do we become as a non-reader to reach the non-reader with the gospel.  How do we adapt our church services to be less reading required but still remain word centred?  How do we change home groups so that we grapple with the word whilst not making those who struggle with words feel awkward and incapable?

Being Men in Christ - Part 2 - Men in Christ and Family

In the New Testament when it explores what it means to be family in Christ the focus returns to Genesis 1-3.  Adam is placed in the garden to work and to guard it but there is something that is not good (18)"It is not good for the man to be alone."  I think we naturally assume that means his problem is loneliness - we project the problem of our age back onto Adam.  But Genesis 2 shows that the issue is to do, not with loneliness, but with the task God has given Adam; working and protecting the garden, mediating God's rule of his creation and when (18)God sees Adam is the only one, he is alone, and the task is vast, he needs help.  Creation needs lots of worshippers working, guarding and mediating God's rule.

God's answer to the problem also reveals that the problem isn't loneliness, God helps Adam to see his need that's why the animals come to him and Adam realises his need after he has named them and realises there is no helper suitable for him.  It is in that context God creates Eve as Adam's helper.  God does not make a companion - which would be the answer to loneliness, but God creates a helper - someone who will enable him to worship God by fulfilling their God given task together.  God creates Eve so together they can worship God as he intended and produce little worshippers to work, labour, guard and mediate God's rule as they worship him.

And Adam delights in Eve as God's answer.  Gen 2:23-24 is the first love song, as Adams sees God's answer he acknowledges she is perfect, together they will be able to worship God as they should.  We need this biblical view of marriage because marriage is about worshipping God, about serving God together.  It helps us value what God has made our partners to be, they are for our good.

In Ephesians 5:21-33 Paul picks up this picture and shows the believers how it is fleshed out for those who are in Christ, it doesn't overturn the created order rather it is redeemed.  Husband and wife now partner together to joyfully enable one another live life worshipping God.  The model for marriage is gracious, loving servant leadership.

This is so necessary when marriage sees the clash of two kingdoms, his and hers, with each others competing expectations and goals and norms.  In a marriage of two sinners in a sinful world grace and cross centred living is a must, in fact it is the only hope for marriage.

Being godly men - Part 2 - Men and Discipleship

How do you think of church? What image do you think of when you think of discipleship?

I think there are 2 helpful ways for men to think of discipleship and even church:



The first is thinking of church or discipleship as like a fight club where we spur one another on to tackle sin in our lives.


The second is that of a band of brothers where we each support and care for others.

I have a number of convictions about men and discipleship:

• Men need other men
• Men need challenge
• Men need investing in
• Men are different from women
• Men need courageous leaders
• Men need calling to kingdom greatness
• Men need mission

These are borne out of experience dealing with men, being one myself but also from studying Luke's gospel and seeing how Jesus disciples his followers:

In Luke 5v1-11 Jesus calls them to leave everything and be part of something in a team, then we see him invest time and energy in these guys during that time he; (8:25) Jesus directly challenges them, (9:51-ch19) invests in and trains them teaching them how and what to think and do. Jesus provides them with a living model of courageous leadership throughout, and (9:46-48) he does not rebuke them for seeking greatness but reinterprets greatness for them in kingdom terms. Finally (24:45-49) Jesus gives them a mission – witness to the world!

Earnest Shackleton posted this advert when recruiting men for polar expedition:

“Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages. Bitter cold. Long months of complete darkness. Constant danger. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success”

5000 men applied for 26 posts, men long for adventure for challenge and the gospel channels and reinterprets those desires.

So what?We need men to lead and to call their friends to come to faith in Jesus Christ. 3% of the time if a child comes to Christ the family follow, 17% of the time if a wife come to Christ the family follow, 93% of the time if the husband comes to Christ the family follow. Men must engage in evangelism of other men.

We need as men to engage in discipleship to be a band of brothers who labour together to fight sin, who support each other, who spur one another on.

We also need to explode the ‘Quiet Time’ myth - many men struggle with the idea of quiet times. They've heard people preach and call others to go into their room in secret and pray to God but they find it hard and therefore give up or struggle on feeling guilty. Now the point of Jesus teaching there is combating those who only pray in public and are therefore hypocrites. He is not laying out a model of how to pray. I say that because if he did he then doesn't keep it himself as we often see him withdraw up a mountain to pray. It is the idea of praying alone with God unseen that matters. As men it may be in the outdoors, it may be walking in the hills or through a wood when actually we can pray.

As men we need to be courageous and take risks for Christ and call others to do the same, in too many of our churches we dial down on challenge and call and focus on comfort. But the gospels are distinctly uncomfortable in the terms in which they describe discipleship, they are phenomenally challenging. We need to hear that call respond to it ourselves and call others to.

Lastly we need to remind ourselves we are saved by grace, called to a kingdom and given a mission.

Being gody men - part 1 - Men and family

From Genesis 1-3 we see a number of key things about manhood, womanhood, how we relate to each other, how we relate to God and about marriage.

So we see that God creates man and woman equal but different as Genesis 2 zooms in on Day 6 of creation, and we also see that he is placed in garden to work and guard but surprisingly, given chapter ones repeated assertion, that there is something not good (v18)“It is not good for the man to be alone.” One of our problems in this verse is the way we think of loneliness. The issue here isn’t loneliness as we think of it!

If the problem was loneliness. Then Eve was created as an antidote to loneliness, therefore marriage is about companionship. But that is not what Genesis 2 shows us, context is key to working out what is really happening. In the context of the chapter we see that God gave Adam a task; working and protecting the garden, mediating his rule to creation - partially to be accompanied by multiplying - and then (18)God looks and sees Adam is the only one, he is alone, and the task is vast.

Adam’s problem is not loneliness it is that he needs help, creation needs lots of worshippers working, guarding and mediating God’s rule. God’s answer to the problem reveals it isn’t loneliness. God helps Adam see his need that’s why the animals come to him and as he names them he discovers what God already knows; he is alone. And it is to an Adam who now knows his aloneness that God brings the answer. Eve, a woman, a helper.

God doesn’t create a companion but a helper. Someone to worship and work with him to fulfil the God given task. God creates Eve so they can worship God as he intended as they have children, work, labour, guard and mediate God’s rule to his world

This helps us see the Biblical pattern as laid down in Genesis 2, In Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood it is helpfully summarised like this: “In the partnership of 2 spiritually equal human beings, man and woman, the man bears the primary responsibility to lead the partnership in a God glorifying direction.”

We need a Biblical view of marriage. What should be upper most in our minds as we approach and think about marriage is Genesis 2. Will she help and support me as I worship God by leading the family and living life for his glory. If the answer to that is no then matter how attractive they are or how well you get on you ought not to marry that person. It must also inform our attitude to ourselves and marriage - loving self sacrificial headship. But we must also consider ourselves and ask am I willing and able to lead her in glorifying God.

In Ephesians 5 Paul lays out a pattern for marriage based on Christ and the church. He lays out a pattern of godly marriage, of headship and helper that is neither male dominance or female subservience. Fascinatingly in Paul's' teaching on men and women Genesis is foundational, as he describes Christian submission and Christian headship and stresses responsibilities of husband in light of the example of the cross.


His call in these verse is more challenging for the husbands. A believing and godly husband will treat his wife as Christ treats church; giving himself for her, he will not be harsh with her but will love her at cost to himself. In short Paul's model and call to husbands is loving servant leadership.

We need to recognise the challenge this poses as it is so very counter cultural, but it is a biblical mandate. The Bible calls us as men to lead our families in a godly way, to pattern ourselves on our saviour and love our wives self sacrificially. However we also need to recognise that we can only live like this by grace and the Spirit.

Being godly men

That was the title of the seminar I was doing over the weekend and a couple of people have asked me what I said, what we discussed and so on. I didn't do myself full notes and the slides I used in and of themselves don't make much sense, so I'm hoping to be able to blog some of what we looked at here in teh hope that it provokes conversation, thought and ultimately godliness.

From some of the conversations I had afterwards others thoughts and convictions have flowed so I'll include those too.

Questions for Father's Day

I've used these here before but with Father's Day on Sunday they are good things to be thinking about. In our churches we need to ask men great questions, not just give them easy answers, we need to address the questions that men are asking in our preaching, here are some suggested questions:

1. What does becoming a Christian mean for my masculinity?
2. What is Biblical manliness?
3. What does biblical holiness look like for men today?
4. What is success?
5. How do I deal with guilt feelings?
6. What is male sexuality? Is purity possible for the modern man?
7. How can we nurture family life?
8. What is Christian leadership? How is it developed?
9. What are the basic disciplines of the Christian man?
10. What ministry skills need to be developed? How? Will the church do it?
11. What is biblical business conduct?
12. What is integrity? How is it developed?
13. What does it mean to be married for God?

Men follow men. Its fascinating working through Luke 9 and 10 as Jesus teaches his disciples how many of these issues come up and are addressed again and again.

Don't waste your sexuality

Joshua Harris video 'Don't waste your sexuality. Worth watching, praying about and thinking on.

The gospel in the difficult workplace

Following on from looking at worship and how work fits with that a number of questions have presented themselves.

How should a Christian respond to the bad boss?

Is that response to be different when the boss is disrespectful to us than when he or she is disrespectful to colleagues?

How does worshipping God at work influence us when we are asked to do things which we find difficult ethically?

I'm hoping to get some time to look at these questions in coming week.

We live in a world that insists on rights, the battle is to ensure I and we are not absorbing the worlds standards as we think about our work, but rather to return to the Bible and see how God would have us behave in the workplace.

Teaching our Children to pray

One night a sleepy little boy knelt beside my bed
He smiled and looked into my eyes and this is what he said
Daddy, my daddy, you've taught me lots today
So daddy, my daddy, teach me how to pray.

You brought me home a brand new kite showed me how to fly
And there ain't no wonder kid who's dad can knock a ball so high
I'd like to thank God for you, but I don't know what to say
So daddy, my daddy, teach me how to pray.

I'd had to turn and leave his room, he began to cry
I didn't want my boy to know but so did I
His best pal forsaken him but what was there to say
For daddy, yes daddy, had forgotten how to pray.

(Daddy, my daddy, teach me how to pray.)...

Jim Reeves Teach me how to Pray