During this week of Prayer and fasting we are challenged to think about what is means to “deny ourselves” I found this anonymous poem which is uncomfortably relevant to the subject
Dying to Self
When you are forgotten, or neglected, or purposely
Set at naught, and you don’t sting and hurt with the insult or the oversight, but your heart is happy, being counted worthy to suffer for Christ
THAT IS DYING TO SELF
When your good is evil spoken of, when your wishes
Are crossed, your advice disregarded, your opinion ridiculed, and you refuse to let anger rise in your heart, or even defend yourself, but take it all in patient loving silence,
THAT IS DYING TO SELF
When you lovingly and patiently bear any disorder, any
Irregularity, any unpunctuality, or any annoyance; when you
Can stand face to face with waste, folly, extravagance, spiritual insensibility and endure it as Jesus endured it
THAT IS DYING TO SELF
When you are content with any food, any offering, any raiment, any climate, any society, any solitude, any interruption by the will of God,
THAT IS DYING TO SELF
When you never care to refer to yourself in conversation, or to record your own good works, or itch after commendation, when you can truly love to be unknown,
THAT IS DYING TO SELF
When you can see your brother prosper and have his need met
And can honestly rejoice with him in spirit and feel no envy or question God, while your own needs are far greater and in desperate circumstances,
THAT IS DYING TO SELF
When you can receive correction and reproof from one of less stature than yourself, and can humbly submit inwardly as well as outwardly, finding no rebelling or resentment rising up within your heart,
THAT IS DYING TO SELF
Are you dead yet?
As I sat at my desk recently I noticed once again the proliferation of books! Yes I do have a Kindle which helps but, no matter how hard I try, piles rise relentlessly from every surface in my vicinity. Most books have been opened but I could not honestly say I am “reading “them. As I pondered this I realized my reading habits in many ways fuel this phenomenon. In my mind I have the books around me in three categories.
First are those in the “dipping ” collection. These are volumes that have caught my attention for one reason or another (or perhaps come from the amazing IVP Book Club!). They have an interesting title that is relevant either to my devotional interests or some subject about which I am or might preach. So I have dipped! I have read the back cover to see who has endorsed the content and what qualifications or context the author writes from. I have also consulted the table of contents from which I have found I can learn so much more about the book than simply chapter headings. If a writer gives his chapters quirky or amusing titles their style will, in all likely hood, be very different than one whose titles are simply subject headings. The way in which chapters are ordered or collected also gives insight into how the author thinks about their subject. Often I will also read the introduction and occasionally the first pages of a couple of chapters. This done, most books take their place in one or other of the piles.
Then there is what I call the “dunking” books. Dunking is a more substantial immersion that just a dip! These volumes are ones that I have discovered whole chapters or sections that interest me. Sometimes a chapter will address a particular question I have been asked or challenge I am facing. Inevitably these volumes spend at least some time resting in one pile or another , maybe a smaller one or one closer to me but a pile nevertheless.
However none of these has reached the final stage of “devouring.” These are the books ( hopefully not more that a couple at any one time!) that have so captivated me that I have determined to read them systematically from cover to cover with yellow highlighter in hand. If my Kindle is in my hand, notes, marks and highlights are frequent and I am unable to resist the temptation to talk about the content to anyone who will listen.
Here are a few books that I have currently in some of these groups:
Dippers
“Whats a Christian to do with Harry Potter” Connie Neal “Found: God’s Will” John MacArthur “Creating a Missional Culture” JR Woodward, “Community is Messy” Heather Zempel, “Preaching for God’s Glory” Alistair Begg, “Center Church” Tim Keller
Dunkers
“Pursuing God’s Will Together” Ruth Haley-Barton “Doing Church as a Team” Wayne Corderio ” The Lamb Wins” Simon Ponsonby, ” Deep and Wide” Andy Stanley,
Devouring
“Organic Outreach for Churches” Kevin Harney “Living into the Life of Jesus” Klaus Issler
Then there is a final group of well thumbed books that I have devoured and have so helped me that I like to keep them close and refer to them often ( but I can’t think of an adjective beginning with “D” for them!). Here are a few:
“Jesus Driven Ministry” Ajith Fernando, “A Praying Life” and “Love Walked Among Us” Paul Miller, “Invitations from God “Adele Ahlberg-Calhoun
How about you? Do you have any particular reading habits? Do you have books that you might place in any of the above categories that you could recommend?
From the Zebra Bag 