Stephen W. Hiemstra's Blog, page 211

Mark 11:1-11—Palm Sunday 2

Palm Sunday Donkey

By Stephen W. Hiemstra

I beg you Lord, deliver us!  I beseech you Lord, prosper us! (Psalm 118:25 SWH)[1]

Hosanna (הוֹשִׁ֨יעָ֥ה נָּ֑א):  What is in a word?

Mark’s Palm Sunday

Mark’s account of Palm Sunday is amazingly simple:  The disciples hunt around for a donkey;  they have a small parade; some people start shouting;  they scope out the temple and go home.  No palms!  No Pharisees hanging around.  No prophecy.

Parade

Still, this is no ordinary parade.  France notes that nowhere else in the gospels do we read of Jesus riding .  The parade fulfills the prophecy:  Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey (Zechariah 9:9 ESV).

Hosanna

The whole story builds up to v. 9 and the shouting:  Hosanna!  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the lord (Mark 11:9).  Hosanna is a transliteration of a Hebrew phrase appearing only in Psalm 118:25 cited above.  The rest of the phrase is cited from the next verse (Psalm 118:26).  Beale and Carson  describe Psalm 118 as a “royal song of thanksgiving for military victory” regularly sung at Passover.  The truncation of Psalm 118:25 to exclude the second half of the sentence (I beseech you Lord, prosper us), underscores the military intentions of the Palm Sunday crowd.  The next verse makes this point very plain:  “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David”(Mark 11:10).

Who is really being blessed here?

The Greek in v. 9 admits a second translation:  “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.”

Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa once described herself as Christ’s donkey.  When we come humbly in the name of the Lord, in some sense we too become Christ’s donkey.  And we too are blessed.

[1] אָנָּ֣א יְ֭הוָה הוֹשִׁ֨יעָ֥ה נָּ֑א אָֽנָּ֥א יְ֜הוָ֗ה הַצְלִ֨יחָ֥ה נָּֽא (Psalm 118:25 WTT).

 R.T. France.  The New International Greek Testament Commentary:  The Gospel of Mark.  Grand Rapids:  Eerdmans.  P. 428.

 G.K. Beale and D.A. Carson [Editors].  2007.  Commentary on the NT Use of the OT.  Grand Rapids:  Baker Academic.   Pp. 206-207.

Mark 11:1-11—Palm Sunday
Also see:
A Roadmap of Simple Faith
Christian Spirituality 
Looking Back 
A Place for Authoritative Prayer 
Other ways to engage online:

Author site: http://www.StephenWHiemstra.net, Publisher site: http://www.T2Pneuma.com.

Newsletter: http://bit.ly/Lent-2018

The post Mark 11:1-11—Palm Sunday 2 appeared first on T2Pneuma.net.

Slave of Christ

Stephen W. Hiemstra, 2017

By Stephen W. Hiemstra

Sermon delivered in Spanish at El Shadai, Manassas, Virginia, March 22, 2018.

Prelude

Good evening. For those who do not know me, my name is Stephen W. Hiemstra. I am a volunteer pastor and Christian author. My wife, Maryam, and I live in Centreville, VA and we have three grown children.

Today we continue our study of collaborators of the Gospel. I will be discussing the question: In what sense are we slaves of Christ. (2X)

Prayer

Let’s pray.

Almighty Father,

We give praise that you created us in your image and love us as your children. We especially present in this time and this place. In the power of your Holy Spirit, bless our praise and work here in Georgetown South. In the precious name of Jesus, Amen.

Scripture

Today’s scripture less comes from the Book of Genesis 1:26-27. Here the word of the Lord:

Then God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. (Gen 1:26-27 ESV)

The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

Introduction

Allow me to begin with a bit of history from my own walk with the Lord.

My son, Reza, was born in August 1992 while I worked as a bank examiner with the Farm Credit Administration in McLean, Virginia. I normally traveled with the examination team four nights a week. For this reason and to facilitate breast feeding, my wife moved Reza’s crib into our bedroom

One Saturday night in October at 2 in the morning, Reza went into convulsions. As a ten-week old baby, it was not very obvious or very loud, but Maryam knew immediately that somethings was not right and we called 9-11 for emergency assistance. Reza was taken to Fair Oaks Hospital and then transferred to Fairfax Hospital. For the entire day, we did not know what had happened, but by Sunday evening they discovered that he had been born with only one kidney and that kidney’s duct had folded over on itself. He needed emergency surgery to correct the problem and was moved again to Georgetown University Hospital.

Alone with my son before terrifying surgery, I was stressed out and emotional. For the first time in my life, I began to negotiate with God for the life of my son. I prayed to God: do not take my son; take me. (2X)

Ten years later, my son was healthy and God reminded me of the promise in my prayer. At that point, I began to seek a seminary. When I say that I am a slave of Christ, I have both personal and biblical reasons. As someone bought and paid for with acts of grace and mercy, I am a slave of Christ. (2X)

Today’s Scripture

In the ancient world there were two types of kings. A local king, who ruled a small kingdom, and a king of kings who possessed a much larger kingdom. In effect, a king of kings had many kingdoms each established through conquest and delegated to his subordinates, who had local kingdoms.

In today’s text we see this same model of kings. Returning to the Garden of Eden, we see God creating us in his image and giving us dominion—

over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. (Gen 1:26-27 ESV)

In this passage, God was described as a King of kings, who established a new kingdom in creation for his subordinates, Adam and Eve.

So why do we care? (2X)

We care because since the beginning we were created as servants of God and as slaves totally dependent on our creator and king of kings, God. Since the beginning, we were slaves of God. (2X)

Servants and Slaves

From the beginning, we were not content to be servants or slaves of God. Immediately after creation, Adam and Eve want a promotion and following the suggestion of Satan eat “of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Gen 2:17 ESV). This act was directly against the will of God, constituted an alliance with Satan, and was an act of rebellion against the kingdom of God.

The title, slave of God, appears the first time in the Book of Joshua 1:1-2:

After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, the LORD said to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel.  (Jos. 1:1-2 ESV)

In these two verses, it reads in the Hebrew “slave of the Lord”, but most of the time it is translated in English and Spanish as servant of the Lord.

This same interpretative tension exists in the translation of Paul when he uses this same title in Romans 1:1:

“Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God” (Rom 1:1 ESV)

In this case as well, the original Greek reads slave of Christ, but in English and Spanish the translation reads servant of Christ. This translation is politically correct. But because we are bought and paid for with the blood of Christ, the better translation is slave of Christ, as the Greek says. We are slaves of Christ. (2X)

Servant or Slave?

The older folks here probably remember a hymn: Nothing but the Blood of Jesus, which makes the point found in Hebrews 9:13-14:

“For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.” (Heb 9:13-14 ESV)

We were bought and paid for with the death of Christ on the cross. Thus, we are slaves of Christ. (2X)

Application

In summary, we are slaves of Christ. But why is this important?

When our identities are in Christ before other things we have new priorities. First, life is much easier. We are not slaves of our spouses, families, work, or any other things that a hard life can take from us. We have liberty in Christ to live within God’s will and are not slaves of any other person.

For example, our marriages are still important, just not ultimately important. In fact, it is much easier to respect our spouses when they are our love and not our masters. The same is true of our kids, parents, and other people. We are equal under Christ and are responsible to love one another as we love ourselves, as the Apostle Paul taught (Eph 6:1-9). Love is more precious because it can never be obligatory.

There are at least three other reasons why we want to accept this title of slave of Christ.

First, the first commandment says: “You shall have no other gods before me.” (Exod 20:3 ESV) Note that it does not say no other gods, except for your love, your work, your favorite sports team, and other things.

Second, if we have something other than God as our first priority, bad things can happen. A workaholic without work, for example, is a good candidate for suicide, as we witness every day in this rich society.

Third, God loves us more than anyone else. It would be foolish to disrespect this love. We are slaves of Christ by the grace of God.

Prayer

Let’s pray.

Heavenly father,

Thank you for the forgiveness that Easter brought with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Thank you that in Christ we are slaves of your love and kings in your creation. In the power of your Holy Spirit, give us the strength to live in your truth this day and every day. In the precious name of Jesus. Amen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aGJw....

Slave of Christ
Also see:
Blackaby Expects Answers to Prayer 
Christian Spirituality 
Looking Back 
Other ways to engage online:

Author site: http://www.StephenWHiemstra.net, Publisher site: http://www.T2Pneuma.com.

Newsletter at: http://bit.ly/Lent-2018

The post Slave of Christ appeared first on T2Pneuma.net.

Esclavo de Cristo

Stephen W. Hiemstra, 2017

Por Stephen W. Hiemstra

Sermón compartó a la iglesia El Shadai, Manassas, Virginia, 22 de marzo, 2018.

Preludio

Buenos tardes. Para aquellos que no me conocen, me llama Stephen W. Hiemstra. Soy pastor voluntario y autor cristiano. Mi esposa, Maryam, y yo vivimos in Centreville, Virginia y tenemos tres hijos crecidos.

Hoy día continuamos nuestro estudio sobre colaboradores en el evangelio. Voy a discutir la pregunta: ¿En cual sentido somos esclavos de Cristo? (2X)

Oración

Vamos a orar.

Padre Todopoderoso,

Alabamos que creaste nos en tu imagen y ama nos como tus niños. Sea especialmente presente con nosotros en este tiempo y este lugar. En el poder de tu Espíritu Santo, bendice nuestra alabanza y trabajo aquí en tu pueblo Georgetown South. En el precioso nombre de Jesucristo, Amen.

Escritura

El texto de hoy viene del libro de Génesis 1:26-27. Escucha a la palabra de Dios

y dijo: «Hagamos al ser humano a nuestra imagen y semejanza. Que tenga dominio sobre los peces del mar, y sobre las aves del cielo; sobre los animales domésticos, sobre los animales salvajes, y sobre todos los reptiles que se arrastran por el suelo.» Y Dios creó al ser humano a su imagen; lo creó a imagen de Dios. Hombre y mujer los creó (Gen 1:26-27 NVI)

La palabra del Señor. Gracias a Dios.

Introducción

Permítanme a empezar con una historia importante en me propio camino con el señor.

Mi hijo, Reza, fue nacido en agosto de 1992 cuando yo trabajaba como examinar de bancos con la Administración de Crédito Agrícola en McLean, Virginia. Normalmente viajaba con el equipo de examinación por cuarto noches cada semana. Por esta razón y para facilitar la lactancia, mi esposa muevo la cuna de Reza en nuestra sala por la noche.

Una noche de sábado en octubre a las dos de la mañana, Reza entró en convulsiones. Como bebé de diez semanas, no fue muy obvio o muy ruidoso, pero Maryam supo inmediatamente que algo andaba mal y llamamos al 911 para servicios de emergencia. Reza fue al hospital de Fair Oaks y fue movido al hospital de Fairfax. Por un día completo, no supimos que paso, pero por la tarde de domingo aprendimos que él fue nacido con solamente un riñón y el conducto de este riñón fue bloqueado. Él necesitaría una operación de emergencia y fue movido otra vez, este tiempo al hospital del Universario de Georgetown.

A solas con mi hijo antes de cirugía aterradora, fui muy estresado y emocional. Para la prima vez en mi vida, empecé de negociar con Dios para la vida de mi hijo. Pide al senior: no toma mi hijo; tómame. (2X)

Diez años después, mi hijo fue saludable y Dios recuérdeme de la promesa en mi oración y empecé a buscar un seminario. Cuando yo digo que soy un esclavo de Cristo, tengo razones tanto personales como bíblico. Como alguien compró y pagó por las acciones de gracias y misericordia de Dios, soy esclavo de Cristo. (2X)

Escritura de Hoy

n el mundo primitivo hubo dos tipos de reyes. Un rey locale, quien tuvo un reino pequeño y un rey de reyes quien tenia un reino más grande. En efecto, un rey de reyes tenia muchos reinos todos establecido por conquista y delegado para sus subordinantes, quienes fueron reyes locales.

En nuestro texto de hoy vemos lo mismo modelo de reyes. Retórnanos al Jardín de Edén donde Dios nos creó en su imagen y darnos dominio—

«… sobre los peces del mar, y sobre las aves del cielo; sobre los animales domésticos, sobre los animales salvajes, y sobre todos los reptiles que se arrastran por el suelo.» (Gen 1:26-27)

En este pasaje, Dios fue describió como un rey de reyes, quien estableció un nuevo reino en la creación para sus subordinantes, Adán y Eva.

¿Por qué nos importa? (2X)

Porque desde hace el principio fuimos creado como sirvientes de Dios y como esclavos dependiente totalmente a nuestro creador y rey de reyes, Dios.

Desde hace el principio, fuimos esclavos de Dios. (2X)

Sirviente y Esclavo

Desde el principio, no fuimos contento a ser sirvientes o esclavos de Dios. Inmediatamente después la creación Adán y Eva querían

una promoción y siguiente la sugestión de Satán comieron la fruta del “árbol del conocimiento del bien y del mal” (Gen 2:17 NVI). Este acto fue directamente contra de la voluntad de Dios, constituyó una alianza con Satán, y fue un acto de rebelión contra el reino de Dios.

Este titulo, esclavo de Dios, aparece la primera vez en el libro de Joshua 1:1-2:

Después de la muerte de Moisés, siervo del SEÑOR, Dios le dijo a Josué hijo de Nun, asistente de Moisés: «Mi siervo Moisés ha muerto. Por eso tú y todo este pueblo deberán prepararse para cruzar el río Jordán y entrar a la tierra que les daré a ustedes los israelitas. (Jos 1:1-2 NVI)

En estos dos versículos, se dice en el hebreo “esclavo del Señor”, pero se traduce en español y ingles también como siervo del Senior.

La misma tensión existe en la traducción de Pablo cuando use de este titulo en Romanos 1:1:

Pablo, siervo de Cristo Jesús, llamado a ser apóstol, apartado para anunciar el evangelio de Dios, (Rom 1:1 NVI)

En este caso también, el griego original dice esclavo de Cristo, pero en español como en ingles la traducción dice sirviente de Cristo. Esta traducción es políticamente correcta. Pero por razón de fuimos compró y pagó por la sangre de Cristo, la traducción mejor es esclavo de Cristo como el griego dice. Somos esclavos de Cristo. (2X)

¿Sirviente o Esclavos?

Ancianos entre nosotros recuerdan un himno,[1] Solo de Jesús, La Sangre, que hace la punta de Hebreos 9:13-14:

La sangre de machos cabríos y de toros, y las cenizas de una novilla rociadas sobre personas impuras, las santifican de modo que quedan limpias por fuera. Si esto es así, ¡cuánto más la sangre de Cristo, quien por medio del Espíritu eterno se ofreció sin mancha a Dios, purificará nuestra conciencia de las obras que conducen a la muerte, a fin de que sirvamos al Dios viviente! (Heb 9:13-14 NVI)

Fuimos compró y pagó por la muerte de Cristo por la cruz. Entonces, somos esclavos de Cristo. (2X)

Aplicación

En fin, somos esclavos de Cristo. Pero ¿que significa es?

Cuando nuestra identidad es en Cristo ante otras cosas tenemos nuevas prioridades. Primero, la vida es más fácil. No somos esclavos de nuestras cónyuges, familias, trabajos, o cualquiera otra cosa que una dura vida pueda tomar de nosotros. Tenemos libertad en Cristo a vivir dentro la voluntad de Dios y no ser esclavos de cualquiera otra persona.

Por ejemplo, nuestro matrimonio es todavía importante, pero ni últimamente importante. De hecho, eso es mas fácil a respeto tu cónyuge, cuando ella es tu amor y no es “la Señora”. Lo mismo con tus hijos, padres, y otras personas. Somos igual bajo Cristo y responsables a amar el uno del otro como nos amamos a nosotros mismos, como el Apóstalo Pablo ensenó (Eph 6:1-9). El amor es precioso por razón que nunca es obligatorio.

Hay al menos de tres otras razones para que queremos aceptar este titulo de esclavos de Cristo.

Primero, el primer mandamiento lo dice: “No tengas otros dioses además de mí” (Exod 20:3 NVI). Notan que no dice no dioses, excusando tu amor, tu trabajo, tu deporte favorito, y otras cosas.

Segundo, si tenemos una cosa otra al Dios como nuestra primera prioridad, males cosas pueden pasar. Un trabajador obsesivo sin trabajo, por ejemplo, es un candidato numero uno para suicidio, como vemos cada día en esta rica sociedad.

Tercero, Dios ámanos más que cualquiera otra persona. (2X) Es una tontería no respetar este amor.

Somos esclavos de Cristo, gracias a Dios.

Oración

Oramos.

Padre nuestro en el cielo,

Gracias por tu perdón que viene por Pascua en la muerte y resurrección de Cristo. Gracias que en Cristo somos esclavos de tu amor y reyes en tu creación. En el poder de tu Espíritu Santo, danos el esfuerzo para vivir en tu realidad este día y cada día. En el preciso nombre de Jesucristo. Amen.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLU_u0Ss4Vc. http://www.himnos-cristianos.com/pdf/....

Esclavo de Cristo
Also see:
Blackaby Expects Answers to Prayer 
Christian Spirituality 
Looking Back 
Other ways to engage online:

Author site: http://www.StephenWHiemstra.net, Publisher site: http://www.T2Pneuma.com.

Newsletter at: http://bit.ly/Lent-2018

The post Esclavo de Cristo appeared first on T2Pneuma.net.

Book Reviews: Why Write Them? What Makes a Good One?

Stephen W. Hiemstra, 2017
Blurb

Join us for a talk on writing reviews by Dr. Stephen W. Hiemstra on Monday, March 19, 2010 at the Northern Virginia Christian Writers Fellowship.

Author, Stephen W. Hiemstra, started reviewing books for his dissertation in graduate school, recording notes in ten composition books. In the 1980s, he started publishing academic reviews for economics journals. More recently, he has blogged reviews weekly with about 250 posts outstanding.

Introduction

For those of you who do not know me, my name is Stephen W. Hiemstra. I am a volunteer pastor in Hispanic ministry and a Christian writer with a focus on Christian spirituality. My wife, Maryam, and I live in Centreville, Virginia and have three grown children.

How many of you write book reviews? If you write reviews, what kind of books do you review? If not, why not?

This evening I will talk about why I write reviews and what a good review looks like.

But first, let me explain what I mean by a book review.

Classifying Reviews

A review typically has two parts: a synopsis and an assessment. The synopsis introduces the author and outlines the contents and argument of the book. The assessment evaluates the book’s quality. An academic review focuses on the synopsis while a critique focuses on the assessment

Academic Reviews

I began writing reviews in graduate school working on my master’s thesis and doctoral dissertation. In those years (1970s and 1980s) before personal computers and the internet, finding books on a particular topic required a trip to the library where one needs to spend time with the card catalog, bibliographies, references in relevant books, and just wandering through the aisles checking out books shelved together. New titles might be reviewed in pertinent journals, but reviews on older books were harder to find. All of this library work proved tedious.

Many people used index cards to summarize the books they found and read. In my case, I completed ten composition books full of notes on readings before my dissertation was complete. I wrote the literature review and took quotes for my dissertation based primarily on these book notes. Even outside the academic world, many books string together synopses in their early chapters and may even devote entire chapters to examining the arguments of previous authors.

Academic reviews can focus on a single book or compare a number of titles on the same subject.

Critiques

Most online reviews are critiques that focus on offering an assessment, which frequently amounts to little more than a rating based on a zero to five-star rating. These critiques often offer a couple of sentences about what motivated the writer to rate the book. Some offer nothing more than the rating.

Why Write Reviews?

The history of my review writing shows two distinct periods: an academic period and a ministry period.

Academic Period

When I began writing and publishing reviews in the 1980s, I worked as an economist under pressure to publish, but often constrained by my employer from publishing.

Employers generally own the work that you do during the day. Research organizations may encourage publication but insist on editorial supervision of what gets released. Administrative organizations often discourage publication to maintain proprietary rights to the work, to limit time spent in editing and law suits using their own work against them, and to keep their professionals from finding work elsewhere.

As an economist, I chided under such publication restrictions knowing that “publish or perish” was not just an urban legend and discovered that my employers did not care if I wrote academic reviews and did not attempt to edit or restrict them. Academic journals always looked for good reviews and especially liked English reviews of foreign language books. These reviews allowed me to get credit for my literature reviews, to keep up my work in foreign languages, and offered an important networking opportunity—authors and publishers love independent reviews.

Ministry Period

Before I attended seminary and began blogging, I had a book ministry.

One way to undertake a book ministry is to give away good books.  In my office years ago, a colleague started a book drive where he encouraged employees to bring in old, unwanted books that would be set out for display. People could choose any book, pay what they thought it was worth, and the money raised was donated to charity. Most of the books donated were steamy romance and murder novels. I thought, why not throw in a few good Christian titles?

Another way to undertake a book ministry is to give people books that focus on the issues they are struggling with. My favorite wedding gift for many years, for example, has been Henry Cloud and John Townsend’s Boundaries, which encourages people to understand their life goals and to defend them appropriately in their daily lives. Another frequent gift for inactive, older friends and family was Chris Crowley and Henry S. Lodge’s Younger Next Year, which explains in detail why exercise will extend and enrich your life. After gifting a book, I would check up later to see what they thought of it.

Another variation on the book ministry theme is to give relatives the same book or inspirational DVD as a Christmas gift. The idea is to generate buzz in the family about a helpful topic and to move conversation away from the weather, sports highlights, and the latest tragedy on television. While this may be akin to mission impossible, inspirational DVDs accomplish the same objective. A modestly priced example is: The Star of Bethlehem (2009) by Frederick A. Larson and Stephen Vidano.

Over time, my book ministry evolved into blogging reviews of good books and writing books of my own. While I have reviewed a few newly published books, most books that I review are more than a couple years old. The reason is simple: I am trying to introduce readers to books that have changed my life in some way. Hopefully, my books and reviews will help readers learn from my experience.

What Makes a Good Review?

As may be obvious from my personal history, I write reviews heavily informed by the academic tradition. My editor once remarked that I do not so much write book reviews as book commentaries. Some of my reviews divide into multiple blog posts, in part, so that I can justify the weeks of work required to read and review scholarly books.

The surprising outcome of reviewing such scholarly texts is that such reviews are intensely popular with my blog’s readership—seminary students, pastors, and missionaries. The most popular review on my blog over the past several years has been a theological textbook on mission leadership written in 2014.

Format

A typical one-post review of a non-fiction book on my blog has these components:

A graphic based on book’s cover.
A paragraph outlining the motivation to read the book.
An introduction to the author and the book.
An outline of major concepts advanced in the book.
An in-depth discussion of at least one of those concepts.
An assessment of the book’s audience, readability, and contribution.

Memoirs are harder to summarize; hence, harder to review. Reviews of fiction book require a similar format, but instead of talking about concepts they need to discuss genre, major characters, and plot.

Synopsis

My reviews typically focus on summarizing the book reserving only a paragraph for the assessment. The summary of structure and points is normally detailed enough that the reader should be able to decide for themselves if the book is useful and meets the author’s own objectives. The synopsis is typically about eighty to ninety percent of the review, which typically runs between six hundred to twelve hundred words.

Assessment

My assessments are normally the final paragraph in my review. When I post reviews on Amazon.com or GoodReads.com, I almost always offer them five-star ratings because I buy my own books and prescreen them for a writing project that I am working on or an issue that I am struggling with personally. If I take time to read a book; it must normally be good.

My focus in the assessment offers context to my readers on the book’s audience, readability, and writing style. If for some reason I motor through a book that I do not like, I will talk about the limited audience, the challenge posed in reading, and any distinguishing style characteristics—I do not rate books unless I am forced to in posting online.

Closing Observations

Reviews provide a key selling point for authors and publishers. As an author, my Amazon.com ranking is positively enhanced by writing reviews and I have frequently corresponded with authors about these reviews, which provide an excellent networking opportunity. Posting reviews on Twitter allows me to tweet authors and publishers who frequently retweet the reviews and even put links to them online.

Outside of the networking benefits of writing reviews, reviews allow me to engage the books that I read at a deeper level and I often cite my review comments later in my publications. It is hard to be a nonfiction writer and not read extensively and dissect the books you read. Often my reading prompts my thinking process in fairly nonlinear ways, making me a better writer.

References

Cloud, Henry and John Townsend. 1992.  Boundaries:  When to Say YES; When to Say NO; To Take Control of Your Life. Grand Rapids:  Zondervan.

Crowley, Chris and Henry S. Lodge. 2007. Younger Next Year:  Live Strong, Fit, and Sexy Until You’re 80 and Beyond. New York:  Workman Publishing.

Plueddemann. James E. 2009.  Leading Across Cultures:  Effective Ministry and Mission in the Global Church.  Downers Grove:  IVP Academic.

Footnotes

Plueddemann Demystified Leadership Across Culture (https://wp.me/p8RkfV-oI).

 

Book Reviews: Why Write Them? What Makes a Good One?
Also see:
Books, Films, and Ministry
Other ways to engage online:

Author site: http://www.StephenWHiemstra.net, Publisher site: http://www.T2Pneuma.com.

Newsletter at: http://bit.ly/Lent-2018

The post Book Reviews: Why Write Them? What Makes a Good One? appeared first on T2Pneuma.net.

Prayer for Healing

Dried, Yellow Roses, Photo by Stephen W. Hiemstra

By Stephen W. Hiemstra

Holy Father, Great Physician, Spirit of Truth,

We praise you, Lord, for you are good

and your mercy extends to us even as we are ungrateful and undeserving.

We confess that your mercy is greater than ours

that we seldom practice forgiveness and are frequently in need of it.

Do not hold our sin against us nor let our iniquity bind us, for Jesus’ sake.

We give thanks for the gifts of family, friends in Christ, and the many blessings in this life.

Break the chains that bind our hearts and minds–

The pain, the curses passed through the generations, and the bad blood that has accumulated in a life of selfishness, envy, greed, and malice.

In our hour of need, may we turn to you, not for our own sake, but for the sake of those around us.

Cleanse our hearts, oh Lord, that our bodies might also be healed.

May the doctors be perplexed in our healing and the nurses shocked by our change of heart.

That your goodness and mercy would be obvious to all that see it.

In Jesus’ precious name, Amen.

Prayer for Healing
Also see:
Giving Thanks 
A Place for Authoritative Prayer 
Other ways to engage online:

Author site: http://www.StephenWHiemstra.net, Publisher site: http://www.T2Pneuma.com.

Newsletter at: http://bit.ly/Lent-2018

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More than Green Beer 2

Art by Stephen W. Hiemstra

“We put no obstacle in anyone’s way,

so that no fault may be found with our ministry…”

(2 Cor 6:3)

By Stephen W. Hiemstra

In the late fourth century, Celtic pirates kidnapped a sixteen year old boy named Patrick and sold him into slavery in the Irish wilderness where he worked for six years herding cattle. Forced to depend on God, Patrick learned to the Celtic language and to love and pray for the Celtic people. In response to a dream, he escaped his master and returned to England where he studied to become a priest. He was later commissioned as bishop and returned to Ireland as an evangelist.

Saint Patrick

Patrick and his colleagues planted so many churches in Ireland that they later turned their attention to the continent of Europe and began revitalizing the church on the continent (Hunter 2000, 13-25). When people say that Saint Patrick drove the snakes out of Ireland, it is not a clever tale but a biblical allusion:

The LORD God said to the serpent, Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. (Gen 3:14-15)

Christ himself was the offspring of the woman that Patrick introduced the Irish to. Patrick’s walk with the Lord, like that of Joseph (Gen 39), began with a life of hardship, but it also yielded a rich harvest.

The hardship of the Irish has a long history. In 1976 in graduate school at Cornell University, I had an Irish officemate whose wife was famous for her ability to play the harp. I loved to hear her play and would travel with him to see her perform whenever I could. When my officemate learned that my mother’s maiden name was Deacon, he informed me that we were not really Irish, but Scots, who the English resettled in Northern Ireland and who, together with the Irish, were encouraged in the second half of the nineteenth century to immigrate to the New World under difficult circumstances.[1]

The Deacon Family

The oldest Deacon that I ever knew was Richard Henry Deacon, my grandfather.[2] Grandpa Deacon, as we called him, was born in 1895 and as a young man helped settle the Canadian west. Later on he was sent to Europe in the first World War, but thankfully arrived too late to be sent into combat. He later returned to Guelph, Ontario where he managed the boiler at the University of Guelph.[3] In spite of his lack of education, he rescued textbooks from the boiler fires which he read on his own. He particularly enjoyed reading a good “murder book”, as he used to call them.

Grandpa Deacon was a live wire and a constant joker. He once told the story of visiting a graveyard only to find two men buried in the same grave—“the tombstone read: here lies a lawyer and an honest man.” He used to drink and smoked two packs of cigarettes a day until his doctor told him that his emphysema would kill him if he didn’t give it up. That day he quit smoking and he never smoked again. Still, the rest of his life he wheezed constantly and walked with a limp, having fallen off a ladder out repairing a roof.

Working with Tools and Making Them

Grandpa was always handy and he always came to visit and help us when Dad had a big home-improvement project, like finishing off a basement. Grandpa was also extremely pragmatic and he used to tell me that “if you don’t have a tool; make one”. When I was in grade school, for example, he built me a working cross-bow using only the scraps of wood and metal that we had lying around the house. At that point in my life, I did not appreciate how uniquely talented he was, but later in my career as a financial engineer when I was given undoable projects, having only “scraps” to work with, I followed his example and built my own tools. Like Grandpa, I learned to work with the tools at hand.

Living in Poverty

Grandpa was also fun to visit because he shared my youthful passion for fishing. When I visited, he early on took me fishing and later on took me to visit in-laws who lived on the farm, knowing my fascination with farming. On one such visit, I remember walking in on a family sitting down to lunch which featured soup bones—potatoes and turnips were also in ample supply, but the bones stood out to my youthful eyes.

The Deacons ate better than farm folks, in part, because grandpa had a regular paying job; he was an expert fisherman and hunter with a freezer full of his trappings; and he was an avid gardener who planted a large garden out back complete with fruit and nut trees. It also did not hurt having the corner store was just down the hill from the house at 123 Granger Street. Still, the threat of poverty was never far off, something I never forgot.

Grandpa died in 1980 following complications due to a prostate operation. At his funeral, when they lowered Richard Henry into the grave[4], was the only time I ever saw my mom cry. Later that day my aunt, Judy, took me aside and gave me Grandpa’s gold regimental ring, which Maryam wears to this day.

My Grandmother

My grandmother, Marietta Salter Deacon,[5] was a social butterfly and a devout Baptist who led my mother to get involved with mission work at a young age. When Marietta died from stomach cancer in 1941 and was buried in Wingham, my mother was left to take care of her younger siblings even while she was herself just a teenager. My own “mission work” with Hispanic day workers is a tribute, in part, to Marietta.

A Bit of Perspective

Having a bit of Irish in me once meant little more than green beer on Saint Patrick’s Day. However, the more I learned about Saint Patrick, who some credit with saving the Christian faith from fourth century decadence, the more I realized that I inherited more than just a full head of hair from the Deacon family.

References

Freeman, Philip. 2004. Saint Patrick of Ireland: A Biography. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Hunter III, George G. 2000. The Celtic Way of Evangelism: How Christianity can Reach the West…Again. Nashville: Abingdon Press.

Marx, Karl. 1887. Capital A Critique of Political Economy: Volume I Book One: The Process of Production of Capital. Edited by Frederick Engels;Translated by Samuel Moore and Edward Aveling. Moscow: Progress Publishers. Cited: 11 November 2016. Online: https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx....

[1] Details of the Irish story are treated at length in Marx’s Capital, Vol 1.

[2] Richard Henry Deacon (August 18, 1895–February 1, 1980). Richard was the son of Richard Deacon (July 4, 1845; Lanark County, Ontario) and Jane Chamney (1858-). Richard was also the grandson of Richard Deacon (Feb 1802- June 8, 1886; Kilkenny, Ireland; Church of England) and Sarah Jane Wellwood (September 1805-June 24,1890; Kilkenny, Irelandl; Church of England). Jane Chamney was the daughter of Richard Chamney (1826-1904; Wicklow County, Ireland) and Euphemia

Mason (1832-1881).

[3] Formerly, Ontario Agricultural College. Framed certificates state that Granpa Deacon was a Certified Stationary Engineer, Second Class dated 1943 and again in 1962 (framed one under the other). Apparently a Stationary Engineer holding this certificate was qualified to: (a) act as chief operating engineer in (i) a high pressure stationary steam-plant not exceeding 600 registered horse-power (ii) a low pressure stationary steam-plant, compressor or refrigeration plant of unlimited registered horse-power, (iii) any portable compressor plant, or (b) act as the shift engineer in any plant of unlimited registered horse-power.

[4] Grandpa was buried in a family plot in Woodlawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Guelph.

[5] Marietta Jean Salter Deacon (August 1905–January 7, 1947). Marietta was the daughter of Frances Jean Eastwood Cooper and William George Salter.

More than Green Beer
Also see:
A Roadmap of Simple Faith
Christian Spirituality 
Looking Back 
A Place for Authoritative Prayer 
Other ways to engage online:

Author site: http://www.StephenWHiemstra.net, Publisher site: http://www.T2Pneuma.com.

Newsletter: http://bit.ly/Lent-2018

The post More than Green Beer 2 appeared first on T2Pneuma.net.

Why Think About Faith?

By Stephen W. Hiemstra

We live at a time when discussions of faith focus on our emotions and relational response to God in Jesus Christ. A subtext in these discussion is what will God do for me, not as a member of a family, but as an individual? While emotions and our relationship with Jesus are clearly important, how can we trust someone intimately who we know little or nothing about?

The Therapeutic Gospel

The therapeutic gospel fosters this attitude by focusing heavily on God’s love and seeing the role of the pastor through the lens of a counselor. In this context, Sunday morning worship becomes a group therapy session helping parishioners to purge anxiety through upbeat, uptempo music and an uplifting and witty sermons (all within a one hour timeframe of course) that provide nice to know religious information devoid of prescriptive advice. The triumph of the therapeutic gospel has come at the expense of traditional moral teaching.

If you do not believe me, consider some recent observations by one pastor about the difference between churched and unchurched young people in his youth group. The churched kids knew “how to get drunk, have sex and smoke marijuana without their parents ever knowing about it.” Meanwhile, the unchurched kids were “mostly fatherless boys and girls, some of whom [were] gang members, all of them completely unfamiliar with the culture of the church.” and did not even try to hide their sinful activities. (Moore 2015, 70-71) These observations suggest that in the absence of moral guidance, we all gravitate towards hypocrisy.

The love promoted in the therapeutic gospel is motherly love (or grandfatherly love), not fatherly love. Mothers love their children unconditionally while a father’s love is conditioned on the need to learn discipline and prepare them for adulthood. Both types of love are needed, but motherly love in the absence of fatherly love does not prepare a child for the hard realities of adulthood. Adulthood provides independence, but only in the context of discipline and limitations. If you have never been denied anything growing up, how are you to learn to live within a budget or to deal with disappointment? Written large, the same problem faces our nation—how can our politicians ask for sacrifice when people think that their are entitled to free education, health care, and other public services?

Problems with the Therapeutic Gospel

Already in the 1930s, theologians, such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1995), warned about the problem of cheap grace—forgiveness without confession. Closer to home, Richard Niebuhr (1937, 193) warned of the development of: “A God without wrath [who] brought men [and women] without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.”

What we have in the therapeutic gospel is a kinder, gentler Jesus, but without the possibility of salvation because this Jesus did not die for our sins. This is because we don’t believe in sin, which precludes the need for forgiveness. We just need a bit of therapy from a good counselor—all we need is love, to quote John Lennon.

Clearly, the focus on emotions to the exclusion of theology leads us somewhere that we do not want to go.

The Cognitive Theory of Emotions

In his path-breaking work on emotions in the New Testament, Matthew Elliott (2006, 46-47) outlines a cognitive theory of emotions that “reason and emotion are interdependent.” The alternative is to argue that reason and emotion are independent of one another, a key assumption of the therapeutic gospel because emotions are believed to rule our lives. Elliott notes that the God of the Bible only gets angry on rare occasions and his anger (or wrath) is focused on examples of when people have disobeyed the covenant or expressed a hardness of the heart, as in the case of Pharaoh (Exod 4:21).

Significantly, the only example of Jesus being described as angry is in Mark 3:5 after the Pharisees displayed a hardness of the heart with respect to a man with a withered hand.[1] If God himself gets emotional about things that he believes are important, then clearly his emotions and reason are interrelated. By contrast, other gods in the ancient world would get angry spontaneously and did not limit their anger to matters of principle.

Perceptions, Learning, and Decision Making Introduced

If our emotions are to follow from things that we feel are important, then theology (our understanding of God), not emotions, should come first in our faith walk. How we perceive the world, how we learn, and how we make decisions remain more important than our emotional assessment of them.

[1] When we see Jesus clear the temple, he is shown angry, not described as such.

References

Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. 1995. The Cost of Discipleship (Orig. pub. 1937). New York: Simon and Schuster.

Elliott, Matthew A. 2006. Faithful Feelings: Rethinking Emotion in the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Kregel Academic and Professional.

Moore, Russell. 2015. Onward: Engaging the Culture without Losing the Gospel. Nashville: B & H Publishing Group.

Niebuhr, H. Richard. 1937. The Kingdom of God in America. New York: Harper Torchbooks.

 

Why Think About Faith?
Also see:
A Roadmap of Simple Faith
Christian Spirituality 
Looking Back 
A Place for Authoritative Prayer 
Other ways to engage online:

Author site: http://www.StephenWHiemstra.net, Publisher site: http://www.T2Pneuma.com.

Newsletter: http://bit.ly/Lent-2018

The post Why Think About Faith? appeared first on T2Pneuma.net.

Stanton Explains the Risk in Government Sponsored Enterprises

Thomas H. Stanton.[1] 1991. A State of Risk: Will Government-Sponsored Enterprises Be the Next Financial Crisis? New York: HarperBusiness.

Review by Stephen W. Hiemstra

There are few books more helpful in understanding the issues behind the current discussion of the future of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae than Thomas Stanton’s book: A State of Risk: Will Government-Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs) Be the Next Financial Crisis? The book is well researched and Tom writes from the perspective of one actively involved in the Congressional debate over reform and regulation of GSEs. This book is a classic in public administration and it deserves to be updated in view of the more recent history.

Historical Context

Shortly after this book was published in 1991, Congress authorized the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) to supervise Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae (The Enterprises). Later during the Great Recession in 2008, Congress merged OFHEO with the 12 Federal Housing Finance Banks to form the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). I joined OFHEO in 2004 and worked on safety and soundness issues pertaining to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae until retiring from federal service at yearend 2010.

Many of the issues that Stanton raised in 1991 continue to be unresolved concerns even as the Enterprises retain technically in conservatorship. The reason is fairly simple. The Enterprises and the Federal Reserve acquired many of the non-performing loans held on the books of private banks during the Great Recession so that the banking system could again be solvent and continue to lend. This action on part of the federal government averted the Great Recession becoming a more protracted depression, but it left the Enterprises defacto agencies of the federal government. The funds necessary to reconstitute the Enterprises as CGE were never allocated because the numbers involved were simply too big.

Organization of Book

The book is organized into these chapters:

1. Introduction: GSEs and Thrift Institutions.

2. The Hidden Costs and Public Benefits of GSEs.

3. How GSEs work.

4. Enterprises in the Marketplace.

5. The Politics of Enterprise Lending.

6. Enterprises as Private Financial Institutions.

7. The Implicit Federal Guarantee as a Source of Risk Exposure.

8. Supervising Enterprise Safety and Soundness.

9. Enterprise Accountability.

Appendices: Law, Cases, and Other Legal Sources on GSEs.

Assessment

“A GSE is a privately owned, federally chartered financial institution with nationwide scope and specialized lending powers that benefits from an implicit federal guarantee to enhance its ability to borrow money” (17). Stanton clarifies this definition with two insights: (1) “An enterprise raises money the way the federal government does but it lends that money as a private institution…” and (2) “An enterprise is a privately owned and controlled institution with a public purpose” (39). These insights sound simple, but in practice many analysts have trouble understanding the business function of the GSEs.

[1] http://thomas-stanton.com/

 

Stanton Explains the Risk in Government Sponsored Enterprises
Also see:
Stanton: Creating Constructive Dialogue is the Key Management Skill
Books, Films, and Ministry
Other ways to engage online:

Author site: http://www.StephenWHiemstra.net, Publisher site: http://www.T2Pneuma.com.

Newsletter at: http://bit.ly/Lent-2018

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Lenten Prayer 2018

The Crucifixion

By Stephen W. Hiemstra

Merciful Father,

Have mercy on me, oh Lord, while I observe Lent,

the forty days of preparation for Holy Week and Easter.

In the power of your Holy Spirit, open my eyes as I pray; unstop my ears; may my heart and mind reflect on your infinite mercy.

For mercy, defines who you are and enlivens your other attributes–

“merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.” (Exod. 34:6 ESV)

Because your are merciful, you offer us grace.

Because you are merciful, you are slow to anger.

Because you are merciful, you abound in steadfast love.

Because your are merciful, you display your faithfulness.

We especially see your mercy in the death and resurrection of your son and our savior, Jesus Christ.

Bless us now with the strength to abstain from sin and to reflect on Easter.

In Jesus’ precious name, Amen.

 

Lenten Prayer 2018
Also see:
Giving Thanks 
A Place for Authoritative Prayer 
Other ways to engage online:

Author site: http://www.StephenWHiemstra.net, Publisher site: http://www.T2Pneuma.com.

Newsletter at: http://bit.ly/Lent-2018

The post Lenten Prayer 2018 appeared first on T2Pneuma.net.

Faith in Our Learning and Decision Making

By Stephen W. Hiemstra

Faith is indispensable to how we perceive our world, what we consider good and bad, what we invest time and energy in learning more about, and how we make decisions, as I earlier discussed. In mathematical reasoning, faith provides the assumptions on which we base our analysis. When we take the discussion further to ask, why is it important to believe that God is a personal god—a trinity of three persons—we move beyond abstract assumptions and analysis to experience God’s love. God loves us enough to mentor us every moment of our lives, in good times and bad.

Our Rock

One of the most fundamental defenses of faith cited in the Bible arises in a parable told by Jesus:

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” (Matt 7:24-27)

Jesus might easily have addressed a room full of mathematicians because the order and stability of the created universe testifies to God’s existence and sovereignty.

Kurt Gödel, a Czech mathematician, who was born in 1906, educated in Vienna, and taught at Princeton University, is famous for his incompleteness theorem published in 1931. This theorem states that stability in any closed, logical system requires that at least one assumption be taken from outside that system. If creation is a closed, logical system (having only one set of physical laws suggests that it is) and exhibits stability, then it too must contain at least one external assumption. This is why computers cannot program themselves and why depressed people are advised to get out of the house and do something outside their normal routine—the same logic applies to any closed system.[1]

As creator, God, himself, fulfills the assumption of the incompleteness theorem (Smith 2001, 89) not only for us as individuals, but for the universe itself. Most eastern religions fail to grasp the significance of Genesis 1:1—“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” (Gen 1:1) How can there be an alternative path up the mountain to a Holy God who stands outside of time and space because he created them? Obviously, there is no other path up the mountain because as sinful people we are bound by time and space—we cannot approach a holy god. Humans have tried to build towers up to God since the Tower of Babel (Gen 11:1-6)

God must come down the mountain because we cannot go up it. As Christians, we believe that God came down to us in the person of Jesus Christ, a point reiterated on the Day of Pentecost with the giving of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, the human house really is built on a rock.

Our Mentor

In recent years, we have heard occasionally about an expression, WWJD, short for what would Jesus do? The Prophet Isaiah said this of the long anticipated Messiah:

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isa 9:6)

Who wouldn’t want a divine counselor? Jesus likewise described the work of the Holy Spirit as that of a counselor:

“And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.” (Luke 12:11-12)

If God himself, who is omnipresent and omniscient, is our counselor how can we fail?

What is most interesting about God’s willingness to mentor us is not just that we have the world’s most powerful person on our side—actually, an omnipresent, omniscient helicopter-parent would be most unbearable. What is interesting is that God mentored us from the beginning. In Genesis we read:

“Now out of the ground the LORD God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.” (Gen 2:19)

God could have just put Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden as slave-gardeners, but instead he gave them responsibilities and spent time with them like a loving parent, a theme reiterated in the story of Abraham. God blessed Abraham so that he could be a blessing to others (Gen 12:1-3).

Like Abraham, God mentors and blesses us so that we can mentor and bless those around us. To those for whom much is given, much is expected. Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross for our sins makes possible God’s forgiveness, but we are expected to forgive others (Matt 6:14-15). We are to model God’s love.

References

Smith, Houston. 2001. Why Religion Matters: The Fate of the Human Spirit in an Age of Disbelief. San Francisco: Harper.



[1] An example can be seen in economics as applied to price theory. The U.S. economy requires one price be set outside the economy (in the world market) to assure stability. In the nineteenth century, that price was gold, and the system was called the gold standard. Every price in the U.S. economy could be expressed in terms of how much gold it was worth, as the dollar functions that way. Economists refer to this principle as the fixed-point theorem.

Faith in Our Learning and Decision Making
Also see:
A Roadmap of Simple Faith
Christian Spirituality 
Looking Back 
A Place for Authoritative Prayer 
Other ways to engage online:

Author site: http://www.StephenWHiemstra.net, Publisher site: http://www.T2Pneuma.com.

Newsletter: http://bit.ly/Lent-2018

The post Faith in Our Learning and Decision Making appeared first on T2Pneuma.net.