Charles

I had the privilege of making a comment and reading the manuscript in the beginning stages of this book. Here is what I said: “Same Lake, Different Boat is a heart-wrenching book by an author who has lived its message. It will equip you…to serve as instruments of healing and hope, to accept the reality of disability with joy and thanksgiving, and to appreciate the privilege of loving people with disabilities. Stephanie Hubach has given us a goldmine from a solidly biblical and theological perspective. This book is about ministry, caring, listening, coming alongside and helping. This book is priority reading for every leader in the church, as well as families of the disabled.”

Stephanie Hubach is the mother of two boys. The younger one, Timmy, was born with Down syndrome. She writes about how to have a biblical understanding of disability, how to deal with disability in the family, and the church’s role in ministering to those individuals and families with disabilities.

In a very transparent way, Same Lake, Different Boat opens up the Hubach family to share with us their laughter and tears, but more clearly shows the challenges and opportunities before us in knowing how to minister to the disabled and their families. Understanding and articulating a biblical view of disability are often difficult tasks. At the recent 2006 International Women in the Church Conference, Hubach led a seminar entitled “Those with Disabilities Help to Make us Whole.” That is what the book is all about. Hubach emphasizes what she calls the “common view of disability,” being abnormal in a normal world. Often things that deviate from the normal are viewed as abnormal. That’s not the way people with disabilities want to be seen.

She writes, “Disability is indeed a normal part of life as we know it. While unpredictable, it occurs with a degree of regularity. (For example, one in every 800 children is born with Down syndrome). It is to be expected. But the key to understanding this is the context, and the context is in the following four missing words: in an abnormal world. The biblical view of disability is that disability is a normal part of life in an abnormal world.”

Same Lake, Different Boat reminds us that not all people are comfortable or at ease with the disabled, especially those with “cognitive disabilities,” therefore do not know how to relate to someone with a disability. This book will help you and challenge you to think more biblically about this ministry. One paragraph summarizes the aim of the book:

“The next time you encounter a family touched by disability that is learning to live a new normal life, will you declare an emergency and ‘dial 9-1-1’ or will you see its struggles as extensions of your own? Will you ignore them in their challenges, or will you identify with the task before them? Remember: It’s all different, and it’s all the same. Families with a disabled family member face the same types of struggles as other families, but to a greater degree. May all families within the church be willing-in biblically boundaried ways-to engage each other by providing assistance, encouragement, and perspective.”

Same Lake, Different Boat will make serve as a call not to turn away from the disabled or families with disabled members. It will help you to see how to reach out and serve, as members of God’s covenant family, to those who not only need you but will bless your life in return.

Let me be upfront with you. When I received this book, I thought, another book by John Piper? Frankly, in some of the recent books, ideas were beginning to be seemingly repetitious. I appreciate Piper and his faithfulness to the Word. I particularly appreciate his four volumes dealing with some of the men of the church such as Jonathan Edwards, St. Augustine, John Calvin, John Newton, and J.Gresham Machen.

As I read the suggestions for how to read What Jesus Demands from the World, the introduction and aim, and the word to biblical scholars, I realized that this book is important. Reading through its pages quickly confirmed that to me. The title also intrigued me because often today there is an attempt to downplay or soft pedal what Piper calls the “demands of Christ.” Such a move often demeans the person of Jesus, waters down the Gospel, and does not reflect the whole counsel of God about the truth.

While it is true that we can focus too much on one aspect of the truth or we can fail to emphasize certain truths that finally distort the whole truth, we must not play fast and loose with the Word of God and the person and work of Christ.

What Jesus Demands from the World is unique and will have much impact on its readers. Piper wrote in the aim of the book that while it is easy to teach people to parrot all that Jesus commanded, his instruction was to teach people to observe all things that he has commanded, which is impossible, at least for man. Observing all things Christ has commanded is a result of teaching.

Piper wrote, “My aim has been to probe the meaning and the motivation of Jesus’ commands in connection with his person and work.” He further writes, “We should not be surprised, then, that Jesus’ final, climactic command is that we teach all nations to observe all that he commanded. This leads to his ultimate purpose. When obedience to his commands happens, what the world sees is the fruit of Jesus’ glorious work and the worth of his glorious person. In other words, they see the glory of God. This is why Jesus came and why his mission remains until he comes.” Piper concludes his explanation for this book, “The universal authority of Jesus produces a mission of teaching, not a mission of terror. His aim is God-glorifying obedience to all that he commanded. This kind of obedience that glorifies God is free and joyful, not constrained and cowering.”

From that aim, Piper started unapologetically with about 500 demands of Jesus and then for the purpose this book narrowed the list to fifty demands. Here is a sampling of the fifty demands included. 1. You must be born again. 2. You must repent. 3. You must come to me. 4. Believe in me. 5. Love me. 6. Listen to me. 7. Abide in me. 8. Take up your cross and follow me. 9. Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. 10. Rejoice and leap for joy. 11. Fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. I think you can get the picture of the other thirty-nine demands.

There are a series of demands on love your enemy that I would mention: Love your enemies, lead them to the truth; love your enemies, pray for those who abuse you; love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, give to the one who asks; love your enemies to show that you are children of God. Then he includes: Love your neighbor as yourself, for this is the law and the prophets; love your neighbor with the same commitment you have to your own well-being; love your neighbor as yourself and as Jesus loved us. Each one of those demands is clearly explained and their application leaves no room to disobey. If it is our duty to obey Christ, then we need to know what that entails.

With our emphasis on the Kingdom of God, I particularly appreciated Piper’s explanation of “strive to enter through the narrow door, for you are already in the kingdom’s power.” He makes very clear how a Christian has already entered the Kingdom but he is also to strive to enter, referring to the present experiences as well as the future promises regarding the Kingdom.

Each demand explained by Piper utilizes from three to five pages. Each demand is very readable, not too complicated, but a faithful setting forth. His commitment to biblical faithfulness is present on each and every page. How refreshing and practically challenging. I believe it is a must-read for every Christian, especially today. What Jesus Demands from the World is a goldmine of truth for personal or group studies or a good format for a preaching series, giving Piper the credit if you do.

Buy this book! Read it carefully and prayerfully! Teach it to your children as you pass its truth on to the next generation.

This book is the second in a projected series of commentaries on the books of the Bible. The first in the series was Galatians by Phil Ryken.

The objective of this commentary series is to provide pastors, teachers and other Christians a narrative commentary on the books of the Bible. The commentaries are and will continue to be doctrinally Reformed and concentrate on the unifying theme of redemptive history. Redemptive history is the theme and tapestry running throughout the entire canon of Scripture; however, that is not often the understanding of most Christians who tend to see the Bible as a collection of many different books from different authors at different moments in history setting forth a particular message.

Though Duguid may strain a bit at certain places to highlight the redemptive theme, you will see the redemptive tapestry unfold in Esther and Ruth. Esther is a story about God using Esther and her uncle Mordecai to thwart a plot to kill the Jews in the great empire of Ahasuerus. While one of the unusual characteristics of this book is that God is not mentioned, you have to see him working behind the scenes to fulfill his covenant promises to save his people despite their unworthiness.

Duguid has written in sermonic fashion that reflects good exegesis and will provide the reader with many insights into the meaning and significance of Esther. One point of interest is the meaning and ongoing reminder of why the Feast of Purim is established by Mordecai.

While the intent of this series is to present a commentary from a historical redemptive perspective, there is also some good moral application throughout the book. The same applies with part two, Duguid’s messages and commentary on Ruth.

While I admittedly have some question about his commentary on the opening historical situation that lead Elimelech and his family to leave Bethlehem for the land of Moab, I am intrigued by reasons and explanations offered.

This book, as well as the first on Galatians, are helpful tools to have. Commendable efforts are made in each chapter not only to open the text in its original setting, but also based on that understanding to move the reader to the application in our contemporary setting. For example, while explaining the establishment of the Feast of Purim, Duguid writes about festivals and celebrations today from a plus and minus perspective. Celebration is an important part of our life and tradition, but knowing what to celebrate or not is extremely important.

Another example of contemporary application is seeing Naomi, with her daughter-in-law Ruth, returning from Moab to Bethlehem, reminding us that Christ has not left us to return to him, alone. Christ comes to us to accompany us back to the Father’s house. Duguid is careful to show Ruth’s journey from Moab to Bethlehem, from a stranger and outcast to finding a place with Boaz and finally God himself.

This is volume six of a projected eighteen-volume set of commentaries written by capable scholars, using the New Living Translation text throughout the series. Volume six combines three Old Testament books, Job by August H. Konkel and Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs by Tremper Longman III.

This series attempts to “provide pastors and laypeople with up-to-date evangelical scholarship on the Old and New Testaments. It’s designed to equip pastors and Christian leaders with exegetical and theological knowledge to better understand and apply God’s Word by presenting the message of each passage as well as an overview of other issues surrounding the text.”

These three Old Testament books from the wisdom literature section will be useful for preaching and teaching. While it reflects good exegesis, the commentary does not take the reader into all the research that supports the results. For example, you will find good and useful information on the particular book’s background relating to authorship, date, audience, literary style, as well as major themes of the book. Each one of those topics has bearing on understanding, interpreting, and teaching the passages. Each book also contains a helpful and easily applicable outline of the book that can also readily help you recognize the book’s content.

Another example of the helpfulness of these commentaries is reflected in Konkel’s section, “theological concerns” from Job-the character of God, covenant, creation, evil, Satan, people, justice, and the Redeemer. All three of these OT books would be a challenge for today’s audience because they both reflect and remind us that this universe is full of mystery and incomprehensibility to the human mind. Often there are things that do not fit the normal pattern of behavior, even though there is an obvious moral order. Things happen that appear to be paradoxical and certainly not always predictable, but God is always the sovereign, be it in Job’s struggle to understand his plight or Qoholeth’s attempt to understand the difference between the earthly and heavenly perspective of things. Both Konkel and Longman have done good work that will benefit us in many ways. Each chapter and/or section has the NLT text in full, a brief but credible exegetical section, and then the commentary.

If the remaining volumes in this series support my conclusion about volume six, this will be a helpful and useful series.

The first of this duo, This Little Church Went to Market, is an easy read but extremely challenging and thought provoking, especially as it addresses some of the forces and ideologies that are changing the church today. Things such as: marketing, entertainment, and therapy (psychology). Gilley makes the point that is both interesting and telling that the three forces mentioned above are influencing the church in definite and intentional ways and none of the three are found in Scripture, at least as they relate to the church.

In the bookAn Essential Guide to Public Speaking in this review section, Schutlze talked about being a servant speaker and focusing on the neighbor audience with sensitivity to where they are and are coming from. Schultze is right for there are numerous scriptural references to show how people like Paul did just that, and while there are legitimate things that we can learn from the three forces, we cannot respond in a way that undermines the work and worship of the church. In a lecture by Ken Meyers of Mars Hill ministry, he said that the church hasn’t found a trend that it could use or incorporate in its ministry.

We do and must continue to live in a tension between how we do ministry in our churches. While we cannot play to audience, as though it is the centerpiece, we cannot simply assign the audience to some peripheral area either. We cannot hope to be successful in our mission if we simply do ministry as we have always done it for people living in a different time today than say fifty years ago, much less hundreds of years ago. While we cannot alter the truth, we must carefully, with much thought and prayer, research, study, and learn how to communicate the good news of the gospel to today’s world. Sadly, many who are attempting to do that, and while most are well meaning in their efforts, are actually changing the message, mostly by what they do or do not say, or how they communicate it. Though Marshall McLuhan was not writing in a Christian context, he was on target thirty years ago when he said that the medium can become the message. That’s what I call common grace truth. Maybe that’s why the church is actually loosing its effectiveness–because it has become so market-driven that its techniques and skills mimic those of the marketers in today’s world.

Gilley says, “if the church is the pillar and support of the truth and the children of God grow as the truth of God’s Word penetrates their hearts, what happens when the church no longer knows the truth? What happens if it has confused the infallible truth of God with philosophies and fads of the moment?” Those are legitimate questions that churches and church leaders must ask today. We are living in a biblically illiterate culture, and that includes both inside and outside the church. That’s the conclusion poll after poll, from Robert Wurthnow, to George Barna, to Christian Smith, to George Gallup, Jr.

I believe Gilley is correct when he writes that the church today has sold out to being market-driven, user-friendly, with a new paradigm. Then he asked, if that is true, then why have so many not recognized the transition? When people today talk about being into spirituality but not religion, most seem to say, good! The average churchgoer, much less the non-churchgoer, is not equipped to recognize the eastern influence on our western religious orientation. Putting the emphasis on “spirituality” or “religious experience” at the expense of knowing the truth and basing our experience on truth will take us in the wrong direction, and in fact, already is in many cases.

In and easy-to-read style, Gilley effectively communicates this concern. He demonstrates how the church may be building on the wrong foundation–a new paradigm that shifts the focus. When we take the marketing/consumer approach to church growth, we then have to be willing to change as the consumer changes and that produces serious consequences. How do we make our product appeal to the general populace? Some are saying we do it by not focusing on sin, hell, death, redemption, or even the atonement of Christ. They are not the essentials of the faith, so focus on the positives. But do we have that choice? Of course we do not make any one part of the whole counsel of God “the truth in isolation from the other parts,” but we can’t adopt the philosophy of one of America’s leading TV personalities who said that just because it’s in the Bible doesn’t mean that we have to preach and teach it.

Gilley understands what is happening and challenges us to think more seriously and biblically about the church. He challenges us not to be a church with the wrong message, building on the wrong foundation, focusing on the wrong needs, while misunderstanding worship. You will find some helpful evaluations of people such as Rick Warren and his Purpose Driven approach. This is an important, easy-read book.

The second title, This Little Church Stayed Home, is equally challenging and thought provoking. Here he gives an overview of the postmodern culture and its philosophy today and what it is doing to the church, outwardly and inwardly. He writes, “Yet despite all the claims of spiritual interest, despite the runaway numerical growth at the celebrated megachurches, despite frequent ‘sightings’ of revival and despite the rapid succession of fads (from Promise Keepers to the ‘Prayer of Jabez’ to ‘Forty Day of Purpose’ to ‘The Passion of Christ’) each promising to reform the church, the fact is that the church’s light is flickering.”

He quotes George Barna, whose book Revolution is evaluated by Gilley, stating that unchurched people are not just lazy or uniformed. They are wholly disinterested in the church. Therefore, many are saying, and Gilley deals insightfully and effectively with some of them in part four of this book on the emerging church, that we need a new church, not a reform of today’s church.

Barna is right in saying that the church cannot compete with the world’s system but it has been trying to do that for the past 50 or 60 years at least and moved into overdrive during the past 25 years. True says Gilley, we are living in changing times and postmodern philosophy has become that of today’s world, and the church is buying into more and more. The concern is not with absolute truth today, it is what’s good for me or us and what feels good for me. That’s what my spirituality is all about, me! The one place where people should expect to find the truth, after all the Bible calls it the ground and pillar of truth, the church, is not living up to its nature and purpose.

Gilley gives helpful analysis of the influence of what he calls postmodernity, or I would call postmodernism, on the church. This includes how more and more are buying into the postmodern philosophy as it’s related to truth and authority.

As I read this second book, I remember reading Os Guiness’s comments about our being so committed to making the church relevant that we are actually making it irrelevant because we are not emphasizing the things that make it relevant. I thought speaking the language of the age, which we must do to effectively communicate, can actually trivialize the truth we are trying to communicate if we are not careful in the process. There is that part of the Christian community today, a preferred term by the emerging church people over church, is that we are a movement in search of an experience but not the truth.

I challenge you pastors, church leaders and teachers, parents, and general membership of the church to read this book. Both are important but if you must choose between the two, read this book.

We are in a predicament today that we must recognize and respond to-that is, if we are in search of an experience or meaning to life and that experience is not based on our theology and if our theology is not based on Scripture and Scripture tells us about God, then how can we have a meaningful experience or find real meaning to life in a vacuum? That’s the kind of questions we need to deal with and Gilley will help us along in that process.