Notorious Noise Noted

THE TOZER QUOTE: “Christians have fallen into the habit of accepting the noisiest and most notorious among them as the best and the greatest. They too have learned to equate popularity with excellence, and in open defiance of the Sermon on the Mount they have given their approval, not to the meek, but to the self-assertive; not to the mourner, but to the self-assured; not to the pure in heart who see God, but to the publicity hunter who seeks headlines.” A. W. TOZER (1897-1963)

My Thoughts –

1. Noise and Notoriety is never a reliable mark of greatness. Some who are great in the godly sense may unwittingly create some noise and notoriety, but they are not great because of those results.

2. The idea of using noise and notoriety to determine who is “best” or “great” is a carnal, competitive, shallow exercise.

3. Popularity should never be our purpose, though it could become a result, to be quickly set aside. Continue reading “The Tozer Quote and My Notes” →

In Pursuit of Wisdom

Proverbs Podcasts 2020, #8

Warren E. Berkley

This is Podcasts #8 in this series, derived from the book of Proverbs. I have comments about chapter seven, which is another step the father takes in warning his son of sexual immorality.

Has this ever happened to you? You witness or know about a devastating moral crash. You gather your teenage sons around you, & describe what happened. Tell them how the temptation came to pass, describe the ruin that resulted and then tell them– BE ALERT; DON’T LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU.

That’s the essence of Proverbs chapter seven. “My son,” it begins. It ends like an ox going to the slaughter. The father pleads with his son, “don’t let this happen to you.”

What the Father saw out his window was not an innocent young man being forced to sin. No. The young man who went to the slaughter had no good moral sense, and he took the road to her house.

Likewise, the female in this affair was not forced. She was all that the word “seductress” means. “Dressed as a prostitute, wily of heart, her feet did not stay at home, she seizes him and kisses him, makes promises about the absence of her husband, then takes the young man home.

It is a moral crash. The father saw it and quickly told his sons about it, to illustrate the ruin; to become an occasion to remind them to be discreet and disciplined.

Some fathers may think it wise to never speak to their sons of such scandals. This father believes it wise to sit his boys down and tell them what he saw, using the scene to stress purity, discipline and wisdom.

I’ve said in an earlier podcasts, I believe parents should see this passage and consider the value of frank conversations with their children about this danger.

To that I will give you a couple of bonus statements. (1) If your child has a phone, take that phone from them without warning from time to time, and see what they’ve been doing with their phone. Get someone to help you dig into the depths of that device, behind hidden apps, to see what they’ve been doing, who they have been talking to. I would hope you will find nothing disturbing. But you are putting them on alert. You are reminding them of the danger.

(2) When you talk to your children about these things – don’t let it be just harsh warnings. Speak to them of the positive side of this. The beauty and purity of a marriage between two Christians. Locating sexual activity where God put it.

Marriage is honorable, and the bed undefiled. But fornicators and adulterers, God will judge. So it is written in Hebrews 13.

Thank You for listening.

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Nuggets from Proverbs

Some people

Here are a few nuggets of wisdom and personal observations from my studies in Proverbs. (You can access my online classes via YouTube at the link below).

√ Some parents need to up their conversation. There are repeated warnings of sexual temptation in chapters 5, 6 & 7. These warnings are repetitive, graphic and urgent. This is not a father sitting down with his son to talk about “the birds and the bees,” who is so uncomfortable it takes him 2 minutes to say, “son, don’t have sex before marriage.” No. This is an extended description of the levels of temptation, the fire of passion and emotion and the deadly snare of adultery. In chapter 7, a scene plays out and it is easy to imagine the father’s tone of urgency. DON’T DO THIS. What occurs to me is, parents are being trained to have these crucial conversations. And in our time, with all the access to this temptation, it has to be more than just “don’t do this.”

√ Some people are so lazy, they need to go to school. This particular school has ants on the faculty. Picture this lazy guy being taken into a classroom. He looks up at the lectern and there is an ant. The ant lectures him about hard work, team work, good results, initiative, responsibility and the value of taking care of yourself and your family. Now read Prov. 6:6-11. This is the biblical work ethic that is the opposite of the typical sense of entitlement we see in our time.

√ Some people move around in life from one con to another. There was a TV series back in the 70’s, THE ROCKFORD FILES. There was this guy Jim did time with, Angel Martin. Angel always had a deal going, and it was always introduced by “Hey Jimmy, I got this deal going…” This type is described in Proverbs 6: “…winks with his eyes, signals with his feet, points with his finger, with perverted heart devises evil, continually sowing discord; therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly; in a moment he will be broken beyond healing,” (Prov. 6:12-15). The Angel types are still around. They just use phones and computers to pitch their deals.

YouTube Channel, Proverbs

Click Here To View All Four Episodes

https://www.all-about-books.com/

All classes so far in Proverbs

Youtube audio with charts

Class #1 – Introduction: The Fear Of The Lord Is The Beginning

Class #2 – Prov. 1:8-19

Class #3 – Prov. 1:20-33

Class #4 – Prov. 2

Class #5 – Prov. 3:1-8

Class #6 – Prov. 3:9-12

Class #7 – Prov. 3:13-35

Class #8 – Prov. 4

Class #9 – Prov. 5

Class #10 – Prov. 6:1-19

Class #11 – Prov. 6:20-35

Conspiracy Theories & The Gospel:

Here’s The Difference

Warren E. Berkley

You will discover in this piece, I’m not a fan of common conspiracy theories. I don’t deny that there are conspiracies and plans that are real which are concealed. The devil is the chief conspirator. It would go against my belief in Biblical warnings to deny his schemes and his use of people and circumstances to perpetuate evil. I’m talking about the commonly circulated ideological rumors that are imaginative, impossible to substantiate and yet enjoy wide circulation.

I once took some notes on this subject. Continue reading “Conspiracy Theories & The Gospel” →

Preaching and Personality

Dee Bowman

Oratory is an important factor in the history of mankind. The contributions made by great speakers dot the pages of history. Ancient oratory reached its prime with speakers like Demosthenes, Aristotle, who were known for their eloquence. Modern times have produced great orators as well. Men like General Kitchener, who stirred his troops with emotion toward Flanders fields during World War I. Adolph Hitler—a man of meager talents and a poor education, but of extraordinary abilities to move people by oratory—induced his people to the brink of total immorality by his impassioned speeches in the 1930s. And it is said that Sir Winston Churchill once actually turned Parliament from one position to a totally opposite one by use of his unique oratorical skills.
The great orators of Jewish history—Noah, Moses, Joshua, Ezra, Daniel—admittedly guided by the Holy Spirit, but speaking in their own vernacular and in accordance with their own personalities, gave meaning to the will of God and caused people, by their grand speeches, to return to the old paths. While the preaching of the ancient Greeks lacked morality as the one ingredient to qualify it for greatness, God’s interjection of the same into the preaching of the Old Testament prophets by the Holy Spirit brought not only greatness but effectivity to their speeches.
Preaching is “the gospel in personality” says Dr. Broadus in his Preparation and Delivery of Sermons. That fact is illustrated in every New Testament preacher. The preaching of John the Baptist gives us some idea of what kind of person he was—fiery, unmovable. Barnabas is called “the son of encouragement,” telling us something about his personality as well as his preaching. Peter’s impetuousity is continually in evidence in his preaching and Paul’s dedication was not only common to his preaching, it was part of his personality. Apollos is referred to as “an eloquent man,” a fact which would have been so whether or not he ever preached the gospel. Preaching is a blend of the personality of the preacher with the message of the Savior.
Amos was a preacher with little emotion, one who “was not a prophet nor the son of one;” his call was for justice, not mercy; while Jeremiah, sometimes called “the weeping prophet,” had an obviously different disposition. Jonah is an example of arrogance coupled with superb oratorical skills (he converted a huge city-state). Luke’s gospel is a manifestation of his own deliberate and cultured personality and Paul’s concern in the book of 2 Corinthians shows us a side of him not seen in some of his other epistles. The books written by these men would lose some of their flavor, some of their appeal, if divorced from the personality of the writer.
It is somewhat of a paradox that the same message—unaltered, undisturbed by human innovation—is to be delivered in so many different personalities. What a disservice is done to the arrangement of God when we seek to make every man into a clone of what we have surmised in our imaginations to be the best preacher. What is the best preacher, anyhow? Is he timid or gregarious, loud or soft, verbose or concise? And who decides the matter?
God did not choose one man to write the Bible, nor did He choose only one kind of temperament to preach it. He put His gospel in personality. Certainly it is one gospel—complete, immutable—but we do it a great disservice when we try to make every man say its message in the same way, with the same emphases, the same inflections, and without respect to his own personality.
SOURCE VIA LOGOS SOFTWARE – Bowman, D. (1990). Front Lines: Preaching and Personality. Christianity Magazine, 7(4), 2.

I haven’t done this in a while. Here are some good links I recommend.

Everyman’s Bible Comments, T.D. Roberts

All About Books with Jay Taylor and Warren Berkley

Pressing On Magazine, Edited by Mark Roberts

MoyerPress, Doy Moyer

Focus Online