Soulprint by Mark Batterson

I was recently asked by Multnomah Press to review Mark Batterson’s latest book, Soulprint. Here is my review:

This was the fourth book by Mark Batterson that I have read. Like the others, I found it a worthwhile read, filled with thought-provoking ideas and worthwhile illustrations. He speaks to the reader's heart and soul and helps you understand your walk with God.

I appreciated how Batterson grounded the material of his book on the life of a Biblical character, in this case King David. As an expository preacher, I have a strong sense that we need to ground Christian teaching in the words of Scripture and in an understanding of the people that we find in Scripture.

For this reviewer, however, I found that the grounding of Batterson's book in Scripture is also its weakness. Except in a couple of places, Batterson does not adequately "exegete" the life of David. His look at David's life mostly has the sense of illustrating his thesis, instead of guiding his thesis.

I did find Batterson's transparency about his own life and ministry were helpful tools in illustrating and clarifying his ideas. He does not, in my view, let his life get in the way of what he is "teaching," but does show how he has wrestled with his concepts in his own life before preaching and writing the ideas.

In the end, I think there are some things that could strengthen the book, but overall found it to be helpful and thought-provoking.

I was provided a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Joseph–Living With Integrity and Forgiveness

I spoke at Christian Workers’ Meeting at Southside Church of Christ in Milwaukee, WI on 2/15/2011 about Joseph. The following outline is an outline of my series of message on Joseph for those who attended the meeting.

If you would like Word documents of the sermons from the series, you can download the zip file that this link will take you to: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10269289/Joseph%20Sermons%20-%20Henes.zip.

LIVING WITH INTEGRITY AND FORGIVENESS

Genesis 37-50

A review of Joseph's life shows us how to live when when we face a variety of issues and circumstances in life.

I. LIVING WHEN YOU ARE HATED - Genesis 37

II. LIVING WHEN YOU ARE TEMPTED - Genesis 39:1-20

III. LIVING WHEN YOU ARE FORGOTTEN - Genesis 39:20-40:23

IV. LIVING WHEN YOU ARE REMEMBERED AND REWARDED - Genesis 41:1-57

V. LIVING WITH YOUR CONSCIENCE - Genesis 42:1-34

VI. LIVING WITH DIFFICULT DECISIONS - Genesis 42:35-43:15

VII. LIVING WITH GUILT -- AND EXPERIENCING GRACE - Genesis 43:15-34

VIII. LIVING A LIFE OF GRACE - Genesis 44:1-45:15

IX. LIVING AS A FAMILY - Genesis 45:16-46:30

X. WORKING WITH INTEGRITY - Genesis 46:31-47:31

XI. LIVING WITH INTEGRITY AND FORGIVENESS - Genesis 48:1-50:26

INTRODUCING PEOPLE TO THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD

Karl Vallentin, a Munich comedian, did a skit in which he walked on a stage where everything was dark except for a small area under a street lamp. He began to look for something on the ground. As he looked, a person playing a policeman came on stage and asked what he was doing. He told the policeman that he was trying to find a key, whereupon both of them continued the search. Finally the officer asked, "Are you sure you lost it here?" "Oh, no," said Vallentin as he pointed to a dark corner, "It was over there, but here is where the light is!"

That is the tragedy of many people’s lives. They are looking in the wrong place for help with their lives, and sometimes even in the church we have people who look for the light in the wrong place. For instance, we have a lot of teaching to do when Christians mix faith in Jesus with beliefs from other religions or when they distort the truth of the Gospel with claims that all religions are equal.

Then there are those who make no claims to follow Christ and are living in moral blindness. Certainly some of them have never heard of Christ in the way the Bible presents him to us. They have heard of the distortions of Christ that are talked about in our culture. Others reject Christ for any number of reasons.

With any of these people, we have to ask whether we are introducing people to the light of the world. Are we bringing people who wear the name Christian to an understanding of Jesus as the only light that brings hope to their lives? Are we sharing Christ with others as the only one that can answer the longings of their hearts?

I had these questions refocused for me recently as I studied John 9 which tells the story of Jesus healing a man born blind. The setting for the story actually begins in John 7 when Jesus goes to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish feasts. While at the feast, he makes the pronouncement in John 8:12 -- “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” He declares that the answer to the darkness in our lives, the only place to find those answers, is in him. Then he demonstrates the reality of this truth in John 9 by healing a man born blind.

The blind man has something of the same experience as Helen Keller who said once, “Gradually I got used to the silence and darkness that surrounded me and forgot that it had ever been different until she came—my teacher (Annie Sullivan)—who set my spirit free."

Jesus put mud on the eyes of the man, sent him to the Pool of Siloam, and told him to wash. When the man did so, he was able to see for the first time. Up until then, he had no doubt gotten used to the darkness. When people asked him how he could now see, all he could do was tell them what had happened to him. If we will point people to Jesus, they will have the same experience.

Just seeing the light, though, does not always end the matter when the light of the world – Jesus – enters a person’s life and changes him or her. There will be those who misunderstand. The Jewish leaders misunderstood this healing, carefully questioning the man twice about what had happened and questioning his parents in between. They sought to discredit Jesus, but all the man could say to them was, “I was blind but now I see…. If this man were not from God he could no nothing.” Then Jesus came to him again and offered him a choice – would he believe in Jesus, the light of the world, or not, and he chose to believe.

This is the clear choice we must present to people There will be plenty of people who will try to discredit a person whose life has been changed. There are plenty of people who will do whatever they can to discredit Jesus. We know the truth of the matter: people find light when they choose Christ. He makes all the difference in their lives. Our responsibility is to introduce them to the light of the world.

Following Jesus

Among those people who had an encounter with Jesus in the Gospels were those we call the Twelve Apostles or just the Twelve. We have met some of those individuals in my current sermon series “You Can Meet Jesus.” However, it is worth paying attention to them as a group and how their individual encounters with Jesus affected them as a group and drove them to carry out the mission of Jesus.

A post this week on his Internet site by Mel Lawrenz, minister-at-large of Elmbrook Church in Brookfield, WI, set me to thinking about this. He posted a column titled “Leadership — So What?” as an introduction to a year-long series of discussions by himself and others regarding spiritual leadership today. One comment about Lawrenz’s post and one sentence in the post itself particularly caught my attention in regard to how the Twelve encountered Christ.

First the comment: The comment said, “Spiritual leadership begins and ends with our ‘followership’. As leaders, we must first, and always, follow our Savior and Lord.” That is certainly what the Twelve did. They followed Christ first and sought to model him in how they served. In fact, the essence of Jesus’ “recruiting” them was to call them to follow him.

The term first appears in John 1:43 when Jesus said to Philip, “Follow me.” It appears again in Mark 1:16 when he encounters Simon and Andrew as they were fishing, and he said “Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” The phrase appears again in Matthew 9:9 when he called Matthew to follow him. In each case, when called, the Twelve followed Jesus.

We cannot avoid this call if we are going to be known as Christians. Jesus calls us to follow him before we lead or serve. We are to emulate his character and service by how we live.

If we are to follow Jesus, we should understand this comment by Lawrenz: “When we look at the first generation of Christian leaders, they definitely pursued the mission Jesus left them with power, authority, and truth.” That is, the first followers of Christ made it their priority to carry out the mission of Jesus. So, as their story progresses, the Gospels tell us how Jesus sent them out in pairs to minister as he did, and later he would send them out again as part of a group of seventy. Eventually, they would be the early leaders of the church.

Meeting Jesus, encountering Jesus as his early followers did, means we are to carry out his mission. As we continue meeting people in the Gospels for the next few weeks, but more importantly as you live your life, consider what you are doing to contribute to the mission of Jesus. Are you making it your priority to introduce people to Jesus? When you do that is when you really meet him.

Preaching and the Packers

 

Mel Lawrenz served as senior pastor of The Elmbrook Church in Brookfield for ten years, succeeding well-known pastor Stuart Briscoe. Lawrenz now serves as minister at large with The Elmbrook Church and leads The Brook Network which is an exchange of leadership ideas sponsored by that church.

This week, after the Packers won the NFC Championship (you did hear about that, didn’t you?), Lawrenz wrote a column on The Brook Network titled “Preaching and the Packers.” He told how he would sometimes break into a series of sermons to bring a special message because of something extraordinary happening in his community or the world. He did so in 1997 on the Sunday the Packers played in their first of two Super Bowls in the 1990’s and preached a sermon he titled “How To Have a Super Life.”

He based his sermon on a section of Hebrews 12:22-34 – “But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.”

I thought this basic summary of that sermon is worth considering as we prepare for this year’s Super Bowl, because having a “super life” with Christ far surpasses even the Packers playing in – and hopefully winning – the Super Bowl.

1. Belong to “the city of the living God.” There are Packer fans everywhere, but that does not compare with enjoying life as part of the children of God around the world.

2. Join with the “thousands of angels in joyful assembly.” A stadium full of cheering fans is exciting, but that does not compare with thousands of angels cheering for joy as they witness God’s great act of salvation; they cheer just by seeing us respond to God in faith.

3. Experience “the church of the firstborn whose names written in heaven.” Championships go down in the record books, but when we belong to Christ our names are recorded in the Book of Life for eternity.

4. Join with “the spirits of righteous men made perfect.” We admire people who strive for excellence, like talented athletes or anybody in any calling; but in Christ we are joined with the spirits of believers of past generations, heros of faith whose only claim to fame is that they knew enough to throw themselves on the mercy of God and were thus “made perfect.”

5. Get to know “Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant.” Star quarterbacks are wonderful to watch; but the certainty that we have to live a super life is that we have come to the head of all creation, Jesus. On the cross he looked like he was utterly defeated, but in that act of sacrifice he became the mediator of a new relationship between us and the living God.

Remember that in real life there are no scoreboards; you don’t know how many minutes remain in the game; and you don’t know when “the game” is up for you. In real life–in God’s world–sometimes what looks like defeat is victory and sometimes real losers look like they’ve won the game. The Super Bowl is great fun – especially when the Packers win it. But what is greater yet is to live a super life because of Christ. That’s something to cheer about.

Westwood Message–1/20/2011

The Million Pound Challenge

Hopefully you are aware, from last week’s Westwood Message, of the Million Pound Challenge, which is sponsored by The Princeton Club. It helps out the food pantries of Southern Wisconsin.

Last week, I included the following information about the Million Pound Challenger: Between now and May 31, for every pound of weight you lose, The Princeton Club and other corporate sponsors will purchase 10 pounds of food for the Second Harvest Foodbank of Southern Wisconsin – up to 1 million pounds of food. You can even select which local food pantry will receive your food – which means you can select Westwood’s Food Pantry.

There is also another way that you can support our Food Pantry through the Challenge: If you don’t need to lose weight, but would like to exercise, you can also participate. For every hour that you exercise, 10 pounds of food will be donated. You do not need to exercise at the Princeton Club, but can do so wherever you choose. You just need to report your exercise time on the web site. Everything is all done on the honor system. If you already exercise, this would be a great way to put your exercise to another use.

If interested in participating, you can sign up at www.princetonclub.net/mpc. You can also make financial contributions at the web site.

It Will Cost You to Meet Jesus

Jesus did not meet people just so he would know them and they would know him. Every time Jesus met a person, there was a purpose behind it. With that purpose, comes a cost. Jesus was not shy about discussing the cost of following him with those he encountered. The cost is the same for us as it was for the people Jesus met during this three-year ministry.

Jesus discusses the cost of meeting and following him in multiple places in the Gospels. One of those places is Matthew 8:18-22. The passage is the story of two would-be followers of Christ.

1. The first of the two immediately promises Jesus he will follow him anywhere, only to have Jesus explain to him the cost of following him. He was too quick to promise.

2. The second person told Jesus he needed to first go home to bury his father. Jesus told him he could not put off following him. He was too slow to perform.

The story of these two men appears in Matthew’s Gospel in a place you would not expect it. It comes in the middle of a section documenting the authority of Jesus over various kinds of sickness, nature, and demons. Matthew wants to show us that the same Jesus, who has authority over sickness, nature, and demons, also has authority over the lives of his disciples. Jesus determines what following him will involve, not us. Therefore, if you are going to follow Jesus, it must be on his terms rather than your own.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer called the failure to follow Jesus on his terms “cheap grace.” He said, “Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ living and incarnate.”

The contrast is “costly grace.” He said, “Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price, to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble; it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him. ...Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ.”

When Jesus meets us, he makes radical demands on our lives, places us under his unique authority, and establishes for us the priorities of true discipleship. As we continue to examine the lives of people who met Jesus and meet him again for ourselves, I hope we will also rediscover the cost of following Jesus.

Westwood Message–1/13/2011

January Is Sanctity of Human Life Month

All of January is Sanctity of Human Life Month, and Sanctity of Human Life Sunday is normally celebrated on the Sunday in January that falls closest to the day on which the Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton decisions were handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court on January 22, 1973. We will acknowledge the importance of life on January 23 by providing you with information about CareNet Pregnancy Center through a brochure in our bulletin and a video in our worship service.

One of the people involved with CareNet wrote the following thought. It is titled “The Next Step.”

We have all heard the story of the man who turned a deaf ear to the radio warnings to leave his home due bad weather, refused help from a boat and helicopter and then asked God why he didn’t save him when he got to heaven. And God replies, “I sent you a warning to get out and a helicopter and a boat; what more did you want?”

How often do we want to know the plan, see the expected results, be sure of the investment, but then like the man in the story, lack the faith to actually take the next step.

The next step is something Jesus recommended a very long time ago. “Come and you will see.” “Follow me.” These were the words Jesus spoke to the disciples as He called them. He didn’t sit them down and reveal what the next three years would hold. He knew they would be overwhelmed, possibly enough to turn around. He chose to keep it simple. “Follow me” was all He said. Take the next step…

By taking the next step the disciples experienced the wonder and amazement of seeing God at work before them. For me, joining the Care Net team was a similar experience. By taking the next step I have seen lives saved, hearts changed and been in awe of the work God does every day at Care Net,--all in three short months. I can’t begin to imagine what miracles I’ll be privileged to witness in the years to come just because I took the next step and responded to a church bulletin announcement. I wasn’t sure I didn’t know what the results would be. But I sent in the application anyway.

Don’t miss out on the glory God has to show you. Trust the signs He sends you and take the next step.

The Million Pound Challenge

Again this year, The Princeton Club is sponsoring the Million Pound Challenge to help out the food pantries of Southern Wisconsin. Between now and May 31, for every pound of weight you lose, The Princeton Club and other corporate sponsors will purchase 10 pounds of food for the Second Harvest Foodbank of Southern Wisconsin – up to 1 million pounds of food. You can even select which local food pantry will receive your food – which means you can select Westwood’s Food Pantry.

If interested in participating, you can sign up at www.princetonclub.net/mpc. You can also make financial contributions at the web site.

Believing the Right Things

As we examine some of the people who encountered Jesus in the Gospels over the next couple of months, there will, of course, be people who met Jesus that we will not meet. One of them is a man in John 5 who had been an invalid for thirty-eigh years. He met Jesus in Jerusalem at the Pool of Bethesda.

There was a legend about this pool that appears in some later manuscripts of John’s Gospel. The verses are likely not a part of John’s original Gospel, but they accurately describe the probable belief of the people of Jesus’ day about the pool. That belief was that an angel of the Lord would periodically come down and stir kup the waters. The first one into the pool after such a disturbance would be healed of whatever disease he or she had.

Actually the pool rippled periodically because of a subterranean spring, but the man who Jesus met in John 5 believed the legend. He told Jesus he had not been healed because there was no one to help him into the water when it was stirred. Thus someone always got in the water ahead of him.

All that changed on the day he met Jesus. Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walked.” The man was instantly cured. HJe picked up his mat and walked.

There are many teachings and legends that people believe in today. You can find a book or article on a wide variety of belief systems. We are told in any variety of ways to belief in ourselves, to belief in one another, to come together for the common good, and on and on it goes. While we are encouraged in these false belief systems, we are old that God can nothing for people, that he is only a crutch, that he should be left out of our daily experience.

The invalid in John 5 would find out that only Jesus could heal him; the legend he had accepted for so long was false. We need to learn his lesson. Only Jesus can can heal us. We gain eternal life only through him, not through any good that we do. We need to believe in the right things – that is we need to believe in the one and only Son of God – and encourage others to believe in him too.