Homeward Bound

When We Say Father is a short booklet where author Adrian Rodgers walks through the Lord's Prayer in a topical, almost devotional style. Each section is broken up and expounded on in simple layman's terms. Personal examples and short stories abound. Rodgers does not go into the exegetical, left brained particulars of the Lord's Prayer; quite the contrary, this is a quick and easy read that is directed towards the heart. A book any literate Christian can read! While there may be certain particulars that I may not agree with: for instance, Rodgers' insistence that God is a respecter of the human will, and will not draw anyone unless they freely choose him--the main thrust of this book is something I truly celebrate. Chapter 4 entitled "The Freedom of Forgiveness" was a great refresher of what it means to be forgiven from our own debt; and a stern warning against the epidemic of bitterness (often reflected in the church!). Cha...

One thing I have been thinking about recently is: "How do we proclaim the gospel truths to the unique problems of our day?" I was reading the introduction to John Stott's book entitled The Contemporary Christian (which was written in the pre-internet, pre-millennial world of 1992) and it summarized what I thought was an excellent approach to ministering in any age: "I believe we are called to the difficult and even painful task of 'double listening'. That is, we are to listen carefully (although of course with differing degrees of respect) both to the ancient Word and to the modern world, in order to relate the one to the other, with a combination of fidelity and sensitivity...It is, however, my firm conviction that, only if we can develop our capacity for double listening, will we avoid the opposite pitfalls of unfaithfulness and irrelevance, and be able to speak God's Word to God's world with effectiveness today." Because every age has i...