Great post from the IX Marks blog…

November 20, 2009

Learning to be Yourself as a Preacher: From One Still Trying to Do Just That

by Kevin DeYoung

When Phillips Brooks famously defined preaching as “the communication of truth through personality” I do believe he was talking about your own personality and not someone else’s.  It has taken me awhile, but I finally feel like I have learned to be myself in the pulpit.  Now whether this means my sermons are better or worse I can’t say.  But being myself means my preaching is more genuine, more comfortable, and more sustainable.  I know I have a lot to learn as a preacher, and I hope that ten years from now I’ll still get those awkward but true compliments–“your preaching has really improved over the years.” But at 32 I feel like I’m finally preaching the truth through my own personality.

Like most young preachers, and not a few old ones, I’ve struggled to find my “voice” as a preacher.  When I was in college I started devouring the Reformers and Puritans.  Everything I read seemed to be either hundreds of years old or was translated hundreds of years ago.  As a result, my writing (I wasn’t doing much preaching at the time) sounded like I was aiming for the “just translated from Latin” award.  My sentences were often elephantine.  The grammar was antiquated and there were simply too many words.  A very fine professor who affirmed me in many ways challenged me to write for my own century, not for the century of my heroes.  It was painful advice at the time.  I wasn’t quite sure I trusted him.  After all, wasn’t it a mark of piety to use words like “behoove” “calumny” and “obfuscate”?  Well, it wasn’t.  I need to be myself and not put on puritan-sounding airs.  (Incidentally, my cousin, and classmate during college, had a wonderful t-shirt at the time that read “Eschew Obfuscation.”  And he was the one with a girlfriend during all four years!  Go figure.)…..

Read the rest here…

Great article…

Whatever your thoughts are on Mark Driscoll, I think you’ll find the following article well written, fair, and clear.

http://assets.marshillchurch.org/media/Audio/ESV%20Statement%20Version%204%200_final.pdf

God’s mercy…

“(There was none who sold himself to do what was evil in the sight of the LORD like Ahab, whom Jezebel his wife incited. He acted very abominably in going after idols, as the Amorites had done, whom the LORD cast out before the people of Israel.)
And when Ahab heard those words, he tore his clothes and put sackcloth on his flesh and fasted and lay in sackcloth and went about dejectedly. And the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, “Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself before me, I will not bring the disaster in his days; but in his son’s days I will bring the disaster upon his house.””
(1 Kings 21.25–29 ESV)

Is there any greater juxtaposition of man’s evil and God’s mercy?  “There was none who sold himself to do what was evil in the sight of the Lord” is followed by “Because he has humbled himself before me, I will not bring the disaster in his days…”  Unbelievable.  More unbelievable, perhaps, is my heart crying out for this man’s punishment and my incredulity at his being spared – completely overlooking the mercy that is shown to me on an hourly basis…

separation…

unified body?

the hand is white and pristine

the foot is unclean

on my birthday…

I posted this on fb a while back but not surprisingly I’ve been going over it in my head all day today – this being my first ever birthday without a Dad…  He was a great man and it is hard to express just how much I miss him.

 

I must have been turning 7 or 8 (not exactly sure) and was anticipating a fantastic birthday. However, unknown to me, we were quite poor.  With both parents involved in the Christian school, we simply did not have much money and I was told by my Mom and Dad that they were not going to be able to buy me presents. I can still remember my disappointment at the news – I don’t think I was angry, just sad…  I can still remember that birthday (I think – but you know how time changes our memories) my Dad pulling into the driveway and unloading  multiple presents – including some wicked awesome walkie-talkies that had morse code buttons on them and a nerf soccer ball…  I could only think that they had been pulling my leg the whole time (and if you know my Dad you know this was entirely possible) and had intentionally thrown me off track to make the surprise bigger.

I wouldn’t learn until after my high school years how this event came to pass. My Dad, my loving, generous Dad not having any money because he worked for a school that paid him something like 12k a year (married w/three kids) pawned his wedding ring to buy some birthday presents for his only son.

Someone told me recently that, after many years (I think they told me it had been 14 years or something)  you can begin to have these kind of great memories minus the pain.  I must say, I am looking forward to that but in the meantime am “happy” for the pain which is commensurate with the loss…

16 years ago (October 2) I met my wife…

cool fall evening

life would never be the same

i was unaware

random haiku

who is ben hoffman

random inane blog poster

angry liberal

Some thoughts on President Obama…

Seem to be hearing a lot of people ringing the alarm bells in fear of our new president and I can’t help but wonder why.  If we are Christians, don’t we understand that “The king’s heart is like channels of water in the hand of the LORD…?”  The great, wicked king of Babylon wasn’t out from under the sovereign hand of our King and neither is our current president.  After reigning with pride and cruelty and his subsequent humbling in Daniel 4, Nebuchadnezzar gives this testimony: “Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, exalt and honor the King of heaven, for all His works are true and His ways just, and He is able to humble those who walk in pride.”  Has the King of Heaven lost His power?  Do we need to be afraid of the policies of our president?

But it’s not just enough to not be afraid of our President.  We, as Christians, also have a duty submit to our rulers whether we agree with them or not.  As I’ve told my kids (and myself) many times, the true test of submission is when we submit to an authority that is unfair or that we “don’t like” and when we cannot submit we have a duty to do so in a manner that honors the King.

So, instead of attacking President Obama let’s pray for Him.  Instead of being afraid of what He may or may not be doing, let’s thank God that He is sovereign and ordaining all events for His glory and our good.

a very important haiku, in place of a pages long rant…

soles covered, toes show

a great relapse in footwear

cover your bare hoofs

A haiku about florida (ya, that lowercase is on purpose…)

my monastery

florida is an armpit

self flagellation