Jesus said (to Pilate, in the morning hours before His crucifixion):
"I have been born for this, and for this I have come into the world--that I might testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice."
By God's sovereign grace, those predestined to be born of the truth ("I am...the Truth," Jesus said) shall be made capable of hearing HIS very voice in this world....
How needful then it is that those who would be messengers and communicators for the Lord's sake and in His name must be themselves carefully listening to His voice, and ensuring that their own spoken and written words are conveying what they have genuinely heard from the Lord.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
The Master Storyteller
For anyone who tells stories, the example of Jesus in his parables and stories is an artistic treasury. One person who recognized this is William Ellery Leonard, early in the twentieth century. Leonard wrote the following about Jesus as Story-teller:
‘With wonderful economy of effort he sets his characters before us as living men and women. His device is not to describe, but to show them doing or speaking, whether it be the Good Samaritan binding up the wayfarer’s wounds, or the shepherd coming home rejoicing with the lost sheep on his shoulder, or the woman sweeping her house, or the Unjust Steward with his account books, or the rich man begging Father Abraham to send Lazarus to dip a fingertip in water and cool his tongue. With the realistic exactness of one reporting an incident out of his own experience, he mentions now one, now another characteristic detail, such as only a poetic imagination would emphasize. With him it is not simply a grain of mustard seed, but a grain of mustard seed that a man took and cast into his garden, and it grew and became a tree and the birds of the heavens came and lodged in the branches thereof. Even in the brief mention of the woman making bread, he tells us she hid the leaven not simply in the meal, but in three measures of meal—and that makes the difference between a lay-figure and an actual housewife. It is just these apparently trivial touches that betray the born story-teller.
‘ Again, his people are always represented as occupied with something interesting, something in which they are themselves vitally interested—whether it be buying land to make sure of a treasure buried there, or hunting for a lost sheep, or building a house, or guiding the plow….’
Ellery emphasizes the “homeliness that runs through so much of his imagery,” and which would have quick appeal to the common folk who made up his audience:
‘Near to the folk also was his constant use of what our Latin grammar calls “direct discourse”…. He reports the householder, who went out at different hours of the day to hire more laborers into his vineyard, as in actual conversation in the market-place; he does not tell us the Prodigal said he would arise and go to his father, but he lets us overhear the Prodigal’s own spoken resolve.
‘Near to the folk, again, are his repetitions, like those familiar in Homer and in ballad poetry…: “Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord” in the parable of the Talents; and “I have sinned against heaven,” etc., of the Prodigal Son; and “I pray thee have me excused,” in the parable of the Invitations: each repeated with the simple directness of an old folk tale.…’
And on the remarkable conciseness in Christ’s stories:
‘The background is but lightly drawn, even in such a vivid scene as the Prodigal feeding the swine; or it is omitted altogether, where, however, the convincing reality of the actors suggests it so truly that we are surprised to find on rereading that our imaginations have supplied so much. Here again is seen the magic of the artist: it is not what his imagination does for us, so much as what it is able to make our imaginations do for ourselves.…
‘Hence the wearisome inanity of most efforts to fill in the parables by paraphrase.…
‘Moreover, his characters are [mostly] unnamed.… And in this way his stories, with all their simple realism, acquire something of that remoteness and mystery characteristic of fairy tales, which usually tell of what happened somewhere, once upon a time, to some certain prince or maiden or forest child whose names we shall never know.…
‘And Jesus, leaving the moral to take hold as it might, was loath to tag his parables with elucidations. He had too much literary taste: as artist he loved the eloquence of suppression, silence, stopping short. He had too much cleverness: he knew human nature too well; he knew the greater force of a point when the listener can catch it for himself.…’
And finally, on his heart appeal:
‘The character of his materials—the personages and incidents—and his manner of arranging and setting them forth offer beautiful evidence of Jesus’ power to play upon the human heart. So many-sided and elusive is his personality.… Indeed, Jesus’ power over the human heart is perhaps his power above all other powers as poet.…
‘But these stories exist not for themselves alone; like all great art, they have a meaning beyond themselves. Each exists for an idea.… They are a part of the glowing concreteness of a poet’s thinking.…
‘It seems indubitable that no other body of poetry so slight in quantity ever contained teachings of equal loftiness and equal scope.’
— from the 1909 work The Poet of Galilee by William Ellery Leonard, as reprinted in The Story of Jesus in the World’s Literature, edited by Edward Wagenknecht (New York: Creative Age Press, 1946), pp. 218-221.
‘With wonderful economy of effort he sets his characters before us as living men and women. His device is not to describe, but to show them doing or speaking, whether it be the Good Samaritan binding up the wayfarer’s wounds, or the shepherd coming home rejoicing with the lost sheep on his shoulder, or the woman sweeping her house, or the Unjust Steward with his account books, or the rich man begging Father Abraham to send Lazarus to dip a fingertip in water and cool his tongue. With the realistic exactness of one reporting an incident out of his own experience, he mentions now one, now another characteristic detail, such as only a poetic imagination would emphasize. With him it is not simply a grain of mustard seed, but a grain of mustard seed that a man took and cast into his garden, and it grew and became a tree and the birds of the heavens came and lodged in the branches thereof. Even in the brief mention of the woman making bread, he tells us she hid the leaven not simply in the meal, but in three measures of meal—and that makes the difference between a lay-figure and an actual housewife. It is just these apparently trivial touches that betray the born story-teller.
‘ Again, his people are always represented as occupied with something interesting, something in which they are themselves vitally interested—whether it be buying land to make sure of a treasure buried there, or hunting for a lost sheep, or building a house, or guiding the plow….’
Ellery emphasizes the “homeliness that runs through so much of his imagery,” and which would have quick appeal to the common folk who made up his audience:
‘Near to the folk also was his constant use of what our Latin grammar calls “direct discourse”…. He reports the householder, who went out at different hours of the day to hire more laborers into his vineyard, as in actual conversation in the market-place; he does not tell us the Prodigal said he would arise and go to his father, but he lets us overhear the Prodigal’s own spoken resolve.
‘Near to the folk, again, are his repetitions, like those familiar in Homer and in ballad poetry…: “Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord” in the parable of the Talents; and “I have sinned against heaven,” etc., of the Prodigal Son; and “I pray thee have me excused,” in the parable of the Invitations: each repeated with the simple directness of an old folk tale.…’
And on the remarkable conciseness in Christ’s stories:
‘The background is but lightly drawn, even in such a vivid scene as the Prodigal feeding the swine; or it is omitted altogether, where, however, the convincing reality of the actors suggests it so truly that we are surprised to find on rereading that our imaginations have supplied so much. Here again is seen the magic of the artist: it is not what his imagination does for us, so much as what it is able to make our imaginations do for ourselves.…
‘Hence the wearisome inanity of most efforts to fill in the parables by paraphrase.…
‘Moreover, his characters are [mostly] unnamed.… And in this way his stories, with all their simple realism, acquire something of that remoteness and mystery characteristic of fairy tales, which usually tell of what happened somewhere, once upon a time, to some certain prince or maiden or forest child whose names we shall never know.…
‘And Jesus, leaving the moral to take hold as it might, was loath to tag his parables with elucidations. He had too much literary taste: as artist he loved the eloquence of suppression, silence, stopping short. He had too much cleverness: he knew human nature too well; he knew the greater force of a point when the listener can catch it for himself.…’
And finally, on his heart appeal:
‘The character of his materials—the personages and incidents—and his manner of arranging and setting them forth offer beautiful evidence of Jesus’ power to play upon the human heart. So many-sided and elusive is his personality.… Indeed, Jesus’ power over the human heart is perhaps his power above all other powers as poet.…
‘But these stories exist not for themselves alone; like all great art, they have a meaning beyond themselves. Each exists for an idea.… They are a part of the glowing concreteness of a poet’s thinking.…
‘It seems indubitable that no other body of poetry so slight in quantity ever contained teachings of equal loftiness and equal scope.’
— from the 1909 work The Poet of Galilee by William Ellery Leonard, as reprinted in The Story of Jesus in the World’s Literature, edited by Edward Wagenknecht (New York: Creative Age Press, 1946), pp. 218-221.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
CBN-TV Airs Spot on "99 Ways to Entertain Your Family for Free"
It aired this week -- the CBN-TV spot built around an interview with me (as "Mack Thomas," my pen name) on my book 99 Ways to Entertain Your Family for Free . I'm very grateful to Paul Strand and his crew for putting this together.
Here's the link if you'd like to watch it--
http://www.cbn.com/media/player/index.aspx?s=/vod/PST138v2_WS
Here's the link if you'd like to watch it--
http://www.cbn.com/media/player/index.aspx?s=/vod/PST138v2_WS
Monday, August 24, 2009
A loving local church
Yesterday, Rebecca and I joined in the worship celebration with Christ Our Redeemer Church in Vancouver, Washington. We are very grateful for this church and their warmth and hospitality, their love for the Savior, and their gospel-centeredness and grace-centeredness. We are grateful for Pastor Dan Morse and also for the visiting speaker, Pastor Tony Walsh from Crossway Community Church in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada, who spoke on 1 Corinthians 13:4-7.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
CBN interview for "99 Ways..."
This afternoon, Paul Strand and his crew from CBN interviewed me for my book "99 Ways to Entertain Your Family for Free." Really enjoyed the time with Paul, his son Austin, and Dave the cameraman, who are on a work trip out here in Oregon. They'll let me know when it airs...and I'll let you know here.
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Loving Your Life, Losing Your Life
As I think of the words of Jesus in John 12:25 (ESV) -- "Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life" -- here's a favorite quote I came across recently (thank you, Brother JP!) ---- from Augustine:
"If you love your soul, there is danger that it may perish. Therefore you are not permitted to love it, since you do not want it to perish. But in not wanting it to perish, you love it."
(Sermon 368, I; PL 39:1652)
"If you love your soul, there is danger that it may perish. Therefore you are not permitted to love it, since you do not want it to perish. But in not wanting it to perish, you love it."
(Sermon 368, I; PL 39:1652)
Monday, July 13, 2009
A time to speak...
Behind our words... behind our warning, our explaining, our urging....
words of the Lord to His people:
'Get you up to a high mountain... lift up your voice with strength, O herald of good news; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities: “Behold your God!”'
'Him we poclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom...'
'Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom...'
'Pray for us that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ...'
'Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt...'
(from Isaiah 40:9; Colossians 1:29; 3:18; 4:3,6, ESV)
words of the Lord to His people:
'Get you up to a high mountain... lift up your voice with strength, O herald of good news; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities: “Behold your God!”'
'Him we poclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom...'
'Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom...'
'Pray for us that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ...'
'Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt...'
(from Isaiah 40:9; Colossians 1:29; 3:18; 4:3,6, ESV)
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
On Mark 1:35
Still darkened, Galilee's hills are graced
by their owner's feet in steady pace,
till he stops, and then his knees they know
for hours, until these two lights show:
the sun above in a new day's race;
the Son below with a new day's grace
to display his Father's word and will
to his brothers bound in darkness still.
(written in 1980)
by their owner's feet in steady pace,
till he stops, and then his knees they know
for hours, until these two lights show:
the sun above in a new day's race;
the Son below with a new day's grace
to display his Father's word and will
to his brothers bound in darkness still.
(written in 1980)
Monday, July 6, 2009
For the Few --- "A Real Man of Prayer"
Stirred and challenged by -- and asking God for -- this reality:
"What then is a real man of prayer? He is one who deliberately wills and steadily desires that his intercourse with God and other souls shall be controlled and actuated at every point by God Himself; one who has so far developed and educated his spiritual sense, that his supernatural environment is more real and solid to him than his natural environment. A man of prayer...is a child of God who is and knows himself to be in the deeps of his soul attached to God, and is wholly and entirely guided by the Creative Spirit in his prayer and his work. This is the only really apostolic life. Every Christian starts with a chance of it; but only a few develop it.... There is nothing that you can do for God or for the souls of men which exceeds in importance the achievement of this spiritual temper and attitude...." (From E. Underhill's "Concerning the Inner Life")
"What then is a real man of prayer? He is one who deliberately wills and steadily desires that his intercourse with God and other souls shall be controlled and actuated at every point by God Himself; one who has so far developed and educated his spiritual sense, that his supernatural environment is more real and solid to him than his natural environment. A man of prayer...is a child of God who is and knows himself to be in the deeps of his soul attached to God, and is wholly and entirely guided by the Creative Spirit in his prayer and his work. This is the only really apostolic life. Every Christian starts with a chance of it; but only a few develop it.... There is nothing that you can do for God or for the souls of men which exceeds in importance the achievement of this spiritual temper and attitude...." (From E. Underhill's "Concerning the Inner Life")
Monday, June 29, 2009
Front Cover -- "99 Ways to Entertain Your Family for Free!"
HERE'S THE COVER
of my new book from WaterBrook Press......
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
In Bookstores This Summer: "99 Ways to Entertain Your Family for Free!"
WaterBrook Press is now releasing a book that I wrote for them (authored under my pen name, Mack Thomas) called "99 Ways to Entertain Your Family for Free!"
It's one of six titles in a WaterBrook "99 Ways to...." series. All six are being simultaneously released (the other five are by other authors besides me). The books themselves are a bargain, with a cover price of only $5.99.
I'm indebted to my family and friends for many of the ideas that I put in the book. It was especially enjoyable remembering the many things my wife and I did with the kids for fun (and for free) when our five children were still young and at home.
I hope you'll purchase the book and enjoy trying out the ideas as much as I enjoyed writing about them.
It's one of six titles in a WaterBrook "99 Ways to...." series. All six are being simultaneously released (the other five are by other authors besides me). The books themselves are a bargain, with a cover price of only $5.99.
I'm indebted to my family and friends for many of the ideas that I put in the book. It was especially enjoyable remembering the many things my wife and I did with the kids for fun (and for free) when our five children were still young and at home.
I hope you'll purchase the book and enjoy trying out the ideas as much as I enjoyed writing about them.
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