Link of the Week #8

Hello readers! I recently posted a passage from C.S. Lewis's classic book "The Screwtape Letters" on how Christians ought to view time. Shortly after that I listened to a wonderful sermon by the Rev. Charles R. Biggs on precisely the same subject. I hope you enjoy this week's link.

To listen to this week's link go here

Treasuring God’s Word

Recently I preached a sermon on Psalm 119:9-16 on the value of God’s Word in helping a young person keep his way pure. In that sermon I mentioned the advantage that a young person has who has been trained to hide or treasure God’s Word in his heart (Psalm 119:11). But so many families & churches have gotten away from memorizing & meditating on Scripture, thus leaving their young people susceptible to the Devil’s ploys, not unlike the times of the Reformation. During the time of the Reformation there was a terrible ignorance of the Scriptures and doctrines of the church. To help remedy this dilemma, the leaders of the Reformation used the catechisms to catechize people and strengthen their understanding of the Word of God. It can be argued that today, much like in the time of the Reformation, the church is terribly ignorant of the Scriptures. Tolerance, relativism, & postmodernism have seeped into the church and influenced the thinking of many Christians, tempting them to think & live unBiblically. How can such a pagan tide be turned and the church returned to a Christian world & life view? The Bible tells us that it is the Word of God along with the Holy Spirit that changes the heart of man (Rom. 10:17; 2 Tim. 3:16, 17; Heb. 4:12, 13; John 16:7, 8).

Catechizing may be a strange word to many today, but actually it has been a time-honored and effective practice throughout the history of the church. Catechism comes from a Greek word used in the Bible, katacheo, which simply means instructed or taught (Luke 1:4). Catechism is a method of instruction that uses a series of questions and answers to teach its participants the basic Christian doctrines; thus developing in the minds & lives of the participants a fundamental understanding of what the Bible teaches. Of course the questions & answers were not randomly selected by the authors of the catechism, but were taken from the Bible.

In returning to the practice of catechizing, Christians are filling their minds not only with the teaching of the Bible (through the catechism questions & answers), but also with the Word of God itself (by memorizing the proof text for each catechism question & answer). As Christians memorize the catechism & the corresponding Scriptures they fill their minds with the framework by which to think and approach life (a Christian worldview). When Christians begin to think Christianly, they begin to live Christianly. Like Psalm 119:105 says, Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path (NASB). But God's Word does not only guide a person in how to live, but also guards them from the false teaching and sin of the world. Psalm 119:11 says, Your Word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin again You (NASB). The catechism is not "the answer" or "the hope" for the church in her apathy today. However, it is a tool that God has used throughout church history to strengthen His church and cause her to stand firm!

If you are not familiar with the concept of catechizing or are not convinced of its validity for today then let me recommend J.I. Packer & Gary A. Parrett’s book, Grounded in the Gospel: Building Believers the Old-Fashioned Way. In this book they make the case for a recovery of significant catechesis as a nonnegotiable practice, urging evangelical churches to undertake this Biblical ministry for the sake of their spiritual health and vitality.

Once you decide to catechize your kids, let me suggest that you may want to get a copy of the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechism (with Proof Texts). This compact, yet readable version of the Confession & Catechism is not only useful for family worship time, but is also a good size to carry with you so that you can read & memorize it on your lunch break.

It is good to memorize the Westminster Shorter Catechism along with the Scripture verses, but memorization is not enough! It is important to understand and to meditate on what the answers to the Westminster Shorter Catechism mean. To aid you in this, our family has benefited from G.I. Williamson’s The Westminster Shorter Catechism: For Study Classes. This illustrated manual offers clear exposition of each of the 107 questions in the Shorter Catechism. Each lesson includes Scripture proofs, as well as questions for review or discussion. A valuable aid for group instruction or private study, this volume has been used successfully by homeschoolers, pastors, Sunday school teachers, and parents.

Another helpful resource is Starr Meade’s book Training Hearts, Teaching Minds. This is a book of daily devotional readings which…

• Aids memorization by devoting six days per question.

• Explains the catechism in simple language.

• Provides six different meditations on the main points of each question.

• Includes key Scripture readings.

• Takes just a few minutes each day, allowing time for discussion and review.

• Is useful in the home, church, or classroom.

To make things even easier, Starr Meade’s devotional is based on the Modern English translation of the Westminster Shorter Catechism. These resources are available at http://www.wtsbooks.com

So while it is true that in memorizing Scripture you could start almost anywhere (i.e. your kids Sunday School memory verses, the Roman’s Road, the Navigator’s Memory System, etc) I would recommend using the Westminster Shorter Catechism. The advantage, like I said before is that as Christians memorize the catechism & the corresponding Scriptures they fill their minds with the framework by which to think and approach life (a Christian worldview). I have to say that my family has greatly benefited from this discipline.

Our goal has been to memorize one question & answer of the Westminster Shorter CatechismWestminster Shorter Catechism memorized. If your children are younger you may choose to move at a slower pace. It may take you four, six or even eight years to memorize these great truths. Nonetheless you are still hiding God’s Word in your child’s heart. What a blessing! along with at least one verse each week. What a blessing to know that you are helping your child treasure up 52 verses a year. In just a little over two years you could have the entire

One last word; let me encourage you grandparents to memorize the Shorter Catechism with your grandchildren. Often parents get so caught up in the mundane tasks of raising their children that they are tempted to forget the important things such as hiding God’s Word in their children’s hearts. As grandparents, you have a special opportunity to help your kids hide God’s Word in the hearts of your grandkids.

One special way to do this is through music. Holly Dutton has taken the time to put all the questions & answers to the Westminster Shorter Catechism to music and put them on four CD’s (http://www.reformedmusic.com) . What a great gift to give to your grandchildren and to sing along with them!

In Christ,

Rick

The Curious Assumption...

The Screwtape Letters is a Christian apologetics novel written in epistolary style by C.S. Lewis, first published in book form in 1942. The story takes the form of a series of letters from a senior demon, Screwtape, to his nephew, a junior tempter named Wormwood, so as to advise him on methods of securing the damnation of a British man, known only as "the Patient". Here is a helpful quotation from "Screwtape" to his bungling nephew:

"Now you will have noticed that nothing throws him into a passion so easily as to find a tract of time which he reckoned on having at his own disposal unexpectedly taken from him. It is the unexpected visitor (when he looked forward to a quiet evening), or the friend's talkative wife (turning up when he looked forward to a tête-à-tête with the friend), which throw him out of gear. Now he is not yet so uncharitable or slothful that these small demands on his courtesy are in themselves too much for it. They anger him because he regards his time as his own and feels that it is being stolen. You must therefore zealously guard in his own mind the curious assumption "My time is my own." Let him have the feeling that he starts each day as the lawful possessor of twenty-four hours. Let him feel as a grievous tax that portion of his property which he has to make over to his employers, and as a generous donation that further portion which he allows to religious duties. But what he must never be permitted to doubt is that the total from which these deductions have been made was, in some mysterious sense, his own personal birthright.

You have here a delicate task. The assumption which you want him to go on making is so absurd that, if once it is questioned, even we cannot find a shred of argument in its defense. The man can neither make, nor retain, one moment of time; it all comes to him by pure gift; he might as well regard the sun and moon as his chattels. He is also, in theory, committed to a total service of the Enemy [God]; and if the Enemy appeared to him in bodily form and demanded that total service for even one day, he would not refuse. He would be greatly relieved if that one day involved nothing harder than listening to the conversation of a foolish woman; and he would be relieved almost to the pitch of disappointment if for one half-hour in that day the Enemy said, "Now you may go and amuse yourself." Now, if he thinks about his assumption for a moment, even he is bound to realize that he is actually in this situation every day. When I speak of preserving this assumption in his mind, therefore, the last thing I mean you to do is to furnish him with arguments in its defense. There aren't any. Your task is purely negative. Don't let his thoughts come anywhere near it. Wrap a darkness about it, and in the centre of that darkenss let his sense of ownership-in-Time lie silent, uninspected, and operative."
- C.S. Lewis The Screwtape Letters: Letter XXI pg. 96-97

Link of the Week #7

Hello readers! As those of you who interact with contemporary Presbyterian and Reformed thought will know, the topic of paedo-communion is gaining increasing attention as new converts to the Reformed faith wrestle with understanding the sacraments. There are many good resources out there that can help us understand this discussion and come to a biblical understanding, but one very helpful resource that we have found is the following lecture by Dr. Joey Pipa. Dr. Pipa is the president of Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Greenville, South Carolina. We hope you enjoy (and are edified by) this week's link!

You can find this week's link here

Devotion or Doctrine?

"For my own part I tend to find the doctrinal books often more helpful in devotion than the devotional books, and I rather suspect that the same experience may await many others. I believe that many who find that "nothing happens" when they sit down, or kneel down, to a book of devotion, would find that the heart sings unbidden while they are working their way through a tough bit of theology with a pipe in their teeth and a pencil in their hand."

- C.S. Lewis Introduction to "On the Incarnation" pg. 8