George Truett

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This is the day that … George Truett was born in 1867.

He entered the pastorate of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas, when it had 700 members – and concluded his pastorate in the same Church 47 years later with 7,800;  the largest Baptist Church at that time in the world.

“All evangelical preaching points to Christ,” he wrote.  “The primary work of the Church is to point people to Him Who saves” (Prince of the Pulpit, biography of G. Truett, by J. Burton, page 16).

He had been converted at the age of 19 and ordained to the ministry 11 years later. Interesting anecdotes of this pulpit giant abound.  He was out of his pulpit “40% of the time” each year.  He consulted none of his Church officers about “what or when he was to do anything”.  It is estimated that he preached 17,000 sermons, an average of one a day for 47 years.

And, oh yes, he shot the Dallas Chief of Police!  It was during a hunting trip together that Truett moved his gun from one shoulder to the other and the gun discharged.  Captain J.C. Arnold, his close friend, died a few days later.

For a while he determined to give up preaching.  But when he returned to the pulpit, we are told there was “a new tenderness, a new depth of sincerity and a new power.  The legend grew, however, that he never smiled again” (Tales of Baptist Daring, by B. Browne, page 133).

Dr Truett died on 7 July, 1944.

Psalm or Bucket? A Poem

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1Corinthians 14:26 describes Christians arriving at church with something to contribute. Everyone has a psalm, a doctrine, a message in tongues, a revelation or an interpretation of a message in tongues. Yet in today’s church many people stagger in with nothing to give, but keen to make a huge withdrawal. They need the music, atmosphere, message and program to meet their needs, rather than them contributing to others.

This poem speaks to that situation.

When you come please bring a psalm.
Have no bucket in your arm.

Bring a hymn and prophecy.
Let us set each other free.

Let us make a banquet feast
Open even to the least.

Bring along a grace to share.
All contribute to the fare.

But alas the well is dry.
“Give me, give me” is the cry.

People only come to get,
Complaining when no needs are met.

Burned-out leaders walk away.
It’s too hard to serve today.

Where are those who love to give?
Where’s the flow that makes men live?

So when you come please bring a psalm.
Have no bucket in your arm.

Bring a hymn and prophecy.
Let us set each other free.

Chris Field, April 18, 2008 

‘This Holy Estate’ – Real Marriage

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There is much fudgy thinking today and marriage is one of the areas where Christians can be as confused as anyone else. Considering that God invented marriage and it finds its greatest fulfilment as a representation of Christ and the Church (see Ephesians 5:32) Christians should be the first to have a good understanding of ‘Real Marriage’. My fourth son’s recent marriage brought to mind this subject yet again and my mind journeyed even further down some tracks it has trudged before. And I think I’m onto something that has fairly sweeping implications.

Before I get to my latest ‘rev’ on marriage I should let you know that my fourth son, Jonathan, married the lovely Katie Gunn a week ago. He, like his father and three of his brothers before him found a ‘treasure’ and made a ‘field’ out of her (which is a pretty lame pun on the man who found a treasure in a field and bought the field to have the treasure – it wasn’t any funnier when I said it at my own wedding over 30 years ago).

Now to the matter at hand. I have met many couples who have lined up with their personally created vows, ready to pledge their troth to one another, as if they are the architect of the relationship they are about to enter into. In the past few generations western culture has shifted from the idea that marriage is an historical reality which each new generation gets to enter into, to the notion that marriage is now malleable, able to be what the couple wants it to be. Since the 1970’s in particular, there have been notable examples of couples having a ‘tricky’ wedding – such as being wed underwater, while bunji-jumping, etc. This trend brought with it the notion that marriage is what ever the couple make it to be. The Australian government, under its previous Prime Minister, John Howard, sought to rein in this self-directed notion and to restore marriage as an institution which it expects its citizens to take seriously.

The idea that marriage is in the mind of the betrothed is strong, at least at a subliminal level. Couples want to have their dream wedding, with their choice of guests, their own vows and even their own idea of what the marriage will be. One couple told me they want a 50:50 marriage. We hear tell of the ‘open marriage’, the ‘trial marriage’ and other evidences that marriage is seen as adjustable, to suit the wishes of the couple.

Ah but here’s the rub ….. Marriage was not created by man. Marriage is not a social invention, nor a relationship of convenience, nor a reflection of past economic realities. Real Marriage, which is the only true marriage, is a ‘holy estate’ created by God. That is why the traditional western wedding ceremony starts with a description of what marriage is and then announces that “into this holy estate these two persons present come now to be joined” (quoted from the Book of Common Prayer 1928). However this modern wording is simply an updating of ancient lyrics. The wedding ceremony text recorded in the 1549 Prayer Book of King Edward VI states the same theme in ancient verbage and spelling: “Into the whiche holy estate these two presones present come noew to be ioyned.”

Western marriage has always been understood as something instituted by God, not by man. It is ‘This Holy Estate’ – a relationship which man is privileged to access, but which man has no power to dictate. The 1892 Anglican Prayer Book accounts for marriage as Holy Matrimony which is “an honourable estate, instituted of God in the time of man’s innocency, signifying unto us the mystical union that is betwixt Christ and his Church”. Because of the supreme quality and divine nature of This Holy Estate – Real Marriage, the Prayer Book goes on to warn that it “is not by any to he entered into unadvisedly or lightly ; but reverently, discreetly, advisedly, soberly, and in the fear of God.”

The eager young couple fronting up with their carefully re-worded vows and their desire for a wedding that has the stamp of their own individuality all over it, may well fail to realise the awesome significance of what they are about to do. Their notion of having some control over what the wedding is, may tempt them to think they have some control over what marriage. They may think they can excuse their own actions and thoughts, just as readily as they can modify their own wedding program. This is not so.

Whatever vows a couple come up with and whatever personal agreement they make in the form of their own wedding commitment – that couple has no power to alter, by one iota, what they are getting themsevles into. If, for instance, they agree to have an ‘open marriage’ where infidelity is allowed, God will ignore their arrangement and judge them based on what they did with what God created as a reflection of Christ and the Church. If the couple choose, as I know of some that have, that their marriage is not subject to the cultural mores of their family, and they will enter into a secret and peculiar arrangement of their own, including pre-marital sex, God will completely ignore their arrangement and judge them based on what they did with what God created as a reflection of Christ and the Church.

A godly wedding, such as Jonathan and Katie exemplified this past week, is a joy to all who see it. Marriage is a blessed relationship and I encourage all who have opportunity to enjoy it to do so in the fear of God. I am not down on marriage or young people. I am simply recognising one evidence of man’s tendency to become his own Lord and Master, where God does not give him leave to do so.

And, in closing, let me broaden the sweep of my brush. Most westerners live as if their own life were their ‘own’. They act as lords and masters of their own destiny. This is exactly the same disease that afflicts western marriage. The implications of what I am pointing out here sweep across all those places where we disband God’s reality and make up our own. Such behaviour is vile – yet ever so culturally acceptable, in the same way that tinkering with marriage is now seen as the expected thing. Hmmmmm… Methinks this goeth a long way – and methinks I will wax lyrical about it yet again in due course.

Psalm or Bucket? Do you Give or Take?

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Today’s church is beset by people who are keen to “get” and not so keen to “give”. This should be surprising considering Christ’s injunction that Christians are to be a giving people. We are to “give” and consequently things will be given to us (Luke 6:38). Jesus did not say, “IF you give”, but “When you give….” (Matthew 6:3). 

A self-serving attitude can often be seen in the way people approach church. When someone is looking for a new church home they are likely to be quite fussy about what they want and what suits them. This is especially so when a whole family has to be accommodated. Each family member will have their own idea of an ‘ideal’ church, and will measure each possible spiritual home against that wish-list. Then, when it comes to attending church people often come with a “meet my needs” mentality.

There is a popular idea that church is the place to be re-charged and restored. The imagery is almost that of the desperate Christians finally getting to church for their re-charge – where they can escape the pressures of everyday life and be recharged to face the pressures of tomorrow. Each Sunday is a chance for people to get enough of a charge to get them through to the mid-week meeting, and so on. 

The New Testament church had a different concept of church life. It was a place where people brought something of their own spiritual blessing to share with others. Paul described the situation in the church at Corinth as one where “everyone has a psalm, doctrine, message in tongues, revelation or interpretation” 1Corinthians 14:26). Today, however, people come to church empty handed. Rather than coming to make a contribution, with a generosity of spirit, they come to make a withdrawal. Instead of coming with a psalm or prophecy, they come with a bucket! 

I have written a poem about this modern approach to church life and I’ll share that will you in the next few days.   

Godly Seed & Introduced Seed

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In my parenting seminars I teach on the significance of ‘godly seed’. In recent posts on the Bible I have discussed the fact that the Bible is an indestructible seed and an introduced seed. I now want to put those thoughts together as a lesson for parents and all who work with young lives.

The Old Testament prophet Malachi gives us a key insight into the parenting role. In Malachi 2:15 we are told that the reason God created marriage is because God is seeking ‘godly seed’. I have discussed this before and it is covered in my books, but to refresh the point let me simply note that a seed is something that reproduces after its own kind. A ‘godly seed’, then, will create a new godly seed, which will create a new godly seed, and so on. Parents are to raise ‘godly’ children, not ‘good’ children. (see my posting of 9 Feb – Godly Seed with a Heart After God)

What makes this prescription difficult for many parents is that they are not ‘godly’. They may be Christian, but not have the experience of being raised as ‘godly seed’ and so be at a loss to know how to raise ‘godly’ children. This is where the other ‘seed’ comes into play.

The Bible is miraculous, divine seed, introduced to earth and enabling mortal beings to propagate eternal growth in their life. The Bible is an ‘indestructible seed’, so it produces a crop that is indestructible. What is born of God within us, by our faith in what the Bible teaches, is victorious, triumphant and glorious. This is the eternal seed which parents must apply to their natural seed, so the natural seed becomes godly seed.

Two steps in this process are worth suggesting, for those who would like some practical application of this. Seed needs to be planted and watered. Reading the Bible with your children and praying with them for God to give revelation and apply the Bible’s truth to your lives is a good start. Read, discuss and put your faith in what the Bible teaches.

The related step is to ‘touch your child’s palate’ with the Word of God. Since godly things are not going to seem as ‘tasty’ to humans as sensual and even evil things, it is important to create a taste for divine truth in your children. Reading and discussing the Bible together is the right starting place. Praying to God about the issues raised by your Bible reading is also good. Another way to prompt a taste for spiritual things in your child is to take them to a Bible believing church, especially where people enjoy a living faith in God, rather than a religious devotion to their doctrinal statements. When children befriend people who love God and love God’s word, have committed themselves to serving God – such as on the missionfield, or who are delighted to know and serve God, those children will get a taste for faith that is real.

If you don’t apply the special ‘introduced seed’ which God has brought to us from eternity, then you will not be able to transform your natural seed child into godly seed. And remember, the reason God gave you the privilege of marriage is because He expects and is looking for ‘godly seed’.