7 Giving and Receiving Critique

 As Christians, we should all sign off on the need to be 'teachable'.  Reading through Proverbs this month I have been struck by how many proverbs exhort us to receive correction and not stiffen our necks.

In many seminary and church settings, there are lots of things in church life where review is vital if the church is to grow up in its service of Christ.

However, cultures do this in somewhat different ways and we must be willing to adjust the way we do things. Unless I am mistaken, there is a spectrum and people from the USA tend to be reluctant to critique publicly for fear that they will crush the spirits of the one being critiqued. Brits are more on the direct and confrontational end and perhaps the Dutch are further along that spectrum- but having not lived in Holland that may be only a stereotype.

I was made aware of my own expectations by listening to an interesting Dick Lucas interview. This grandfather of British evangelicalism is asked about the emergence of the Proclamation Trust and he explains that it had its origins in the early 1980s in a group of ministers getting together and critiquing each others' sermons. For one thing, the story of the Proclamation Trust -  a hugely influential evangelical organisation in the UK and beyond - is refreshing. It began not with Dick Lucas or anyone else 'telling everyone else how to preach rightly' but a collective discovery that pastors were routinely getting the text wrong by receiving correction from their peers.

Uncle Dick traces this approach back to the camps on which he was converted and became a leader - the 'Bash' camps that nurtured many British evangelical leaders.  E.J.H. Nash used to publicly review the talks given to the schoolboys and 'called a spade a spade', judging by Lucas' memories.  Clearly the approach exemplified by Bash was later deemed by the network of clergy connected with St Helen's Church to be a painful but necessary remedy for the weaknesses in our preaching.

As it happens, I was converted through the same schools ministry and gained a wonderful training in Christian ministry in that context, so I came to see critique of talks given in a group setting to be a healthy way to help believers grow in their skills as exegetes and preachers.

As for cultures that take a different approach, we should all bear with one another as we bring different expectations to the table in an international setting. But I would want us to distinguish between publicly confronting people for sin - which Matthew 18 tells us should be done privately - and reviewing public pronouncements. In some cases, surely a private word would be better- irritating or embarrassing habits in speech and body language, for example. But the one who steps up to issue a public declaration of what God's word means does have to be prepared to face public correction. The same goes for those who promulgate teaching in written forms- they do have to face a public correction if they lead people astray, or else their false teaching will spread unchecked.

But for the Brits and the Dutch and whoever else may be inclined to be 'brutally' honest: let's remember the Lord Jesus' example:

A bruised reed he will not break,
    and a smouldering wick he will not snuff out (Matthew 12:20 NIVUK)

Exploring Assyria: Opening our eyes to the drama of the OT

A Christian lady in my Mum’s village was interested in my presentation and asked for a bit of a reading-list to help people get to grips with the role of the Assyrians in the OT. So here goes:

If you find dates difficult, just remember your OT ABC!

The Israelites came into the Promised Land but God said if they worshipped false gods and did not respect human rights, eg by practising child sacrifice, they would suffer the same fate as the Canaanites whom they drove out of Palestine. So God sent 

SSYRIA: 10 of the 12 tribes sent off into exile (N Iraq) 722 BC

ABYLON: Judah and Benjamin sent off to Babylon (S Iraq) 587 BC

YRUS: The king of Persia allows the Jews to return and rebuild their temple (539 BC) 

The Assyrian Empire was a desperately cruel superpower. (Check what they boasted in: see panels in British Museum)  Nahum 3:19

However, I don’t think it’s fair to say that the Bible presents a caricature of the Assyrians.  Human beings are precious to God and therefore Assyria are characterised for their oppression and wickedness (Isaiah 14:25; Jonah 3:8) and their pride (Isaiah 10:12-14).

Interestingly, there is an acknowledgement in the OT of the genius of Sennacherib: he was an amazing statesman and water engineer as well as a warmongerer: see 2 Kings 18:32; 19:23-24).  This accords with the Sennacherib documented so well by Dr Stephanie Dalley from extra-biblical sources.

If I was to preach a sermon series on Assyria (in an Iraqi context where there is particular interest in Assyria), I suppose I might sketch it out as follows:

1. Assyria: Who were they? Only mentioned once in Psalms Psalm 83:8
1. Mentioned in the Table of Nations, Gen 10:22; considering Gen 12:3 they have a bright future as recipients of blessing through Abraham’s offspring 
2. But synonymous with pride (much to boast in: Is 10:18) and cruelty, and God promises to judge them
3. But hope held out for their salvation Ps 83:16
4. Mention Tatian the Assyrian, early Bible translator.  Assyrian Christianity was a remarkable movement spreading as far as China (C.Baumer’s book)
2. Isaiah 10: a key chapter about Assyria
1. Note 9:12- Arameans & Philistines fade from view as Assyria looms large…
2. 10:5 very famous description of Assyria as ‘the rod of my anger’
3. A spiritual feast: it teaches us that God is in control of the likes of Hitler and Daesh and uses them, mysteriously, to achieve his purposes
3. Jonah: sent to preach in capital of Assyria
1. Jonah 4:2  shows how much God loves even Nazis and the like
4. Nahum: this book is the twin of Jonah
1. Yes God is merciful to evil people, but his patience is not unlimited
2. Nahum preached c140 years after Jonah and by that stage they had returned to their cruel ways
3. God’s justice is something to rejoice in
5. Assyria has a special place in God’s plan: Isaiah 19:23-25
1. This text is an object lesson in interpretation of OT prophecy
2. Assyria no more important than Britain, Brazil or Burkina Faso, but an encouragement that the most cruel and idolatrous nations - Egypt and Assyria in this chapter - can be claimed by Christ for his kingdom 

Preachers' nonsense about the creation of the word 'Atonement'?

This was not created out of thin air, as is popularly believed, from the idea of 'at one ment'- being made at peace, 'at one with one another'.  Rather, a medieval Latin phrase already existed, adunamentum, which influenced the creation of the English word atonement.  When preachers say this word was created in the Reformation to mean 'at one ment', I have always raised my eyebrows and wondered if this is preachers being careless about fact.  But the reality is that although you could not 'create' a term like that today- the component parts have lost their meaning and the word atonement does not even sound out the crucial part 'one'.  But there was a word, now obsolete, 'to one' meaning to unite (I guess it was pronounced like 'to own').  ie "their marriage is on the rocks but I'll try to 'one' them".

Here's the authoritative note from Oxford Reference:

The word comes (in the early 16th century, denoting unity or reconciliation, especially between God and man), from at one + the suffix -ment, influenced by medieval Latin adunamentum ‘unity’, and earlier onement from an obsolete verb one ‘to unite’.

Psalm 91: does God promise Corona won't come near your tent?

Proverbs 30:6 says "Do not add to His words or He will reprove you, and you will be proved a liar."

The mainstream media has been recently exposing some religious people- effectively showing them to be liars, in line with that verse above.  The most shocking example that I've seen is the woman in her car leaving church in Ohio.  The CNN journalist speaks to her through the car window, questioning the wisdom of going to church during this pandemic... and she insists that 'I'm covered in Jesus' blood'.

Another lady interviewed actually marshals Psalm 91 in her defence.

But, very briefly, I want to note down why people like her are misusing Scripture to think they can act dangerously and then claim they're safe in God's shadow, or 'covered by the blood of Jesus'.

Yes, I believe true believers are 'safe'.  But to add to what God means by safety to include walking into danger, is to add to God's word and end up being proved a liar.  This is a terrible witness to the watching world.

1. Paul showed us how we should claim the promises of Psalm 91.  He had confidence that God would rescue him, and bring him safely to...where? His heavenly kingdom.  So, we actually don't know if we will be rescued from the sword or plague, but what we can count on is that God will bring us safely to our true resting-place.  More than that, Romans 8 trains us to view even the extreme hardships that God allows us to face as agents God uses for good in our lives.

2. Satan used Psalm 91 and tried to give Jesus a false assurance.  He said Jesus could jump off the temple and the angels would guide him safely to earth, quoting Psalm 91:12.

So, even today, Satan may actually use Scripture to tempt believers to think 'I can mingle with all these people, against governmental decrees, and I'll be kept safe from Corona'.

(Interestingly, this is not using the NT to abrogate the OT.  Even within Psalm 91, there is almost an elephant in the room. God promises long life at the end...but not eternal life.  So, death still looms (see Psalm 90 just before it).  So the Psalm itself is calling out for a deeper fulfilment, one that conquers not just sickness and warfare but death itself.  Christ provides that fulfilment: he carried our sicknesses and even the arrow that flies by day- think of the nails in his hands and feet and the spear in his side.  He is our true refuge)

5 Devote yourself to Exhortation

Today, I am meditating on what my commission is.  It's all about feeding weak and vulnerable lambs; precious lambs, because they have been bought by the precious blood of the Lamb of God.

I've pointed out that lambs need to be fed on God's word; through Scripture-rich singing, through public reading of Scripture and now to these next two words:

13 Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. (1 Tim 4:13 ESV)

The NIV that I was discipled with translated it as 'preaching and teaching'.  Perhaps because of that translation, I didn't give very much thought to this verse, since it was easy to see that preachers did both 'sermons' and 'adult Sunday-school classes'.  The former was presumably 'preaching'; the latter perhaps what Paul called teaching.

Both CSB and ESV translate the first word as 'exhortation'. It means encouragement, an act of appealing to people.  The Greek word is paraklesis.  The Holy Spirit is the ultimate paraklete (his title in the Greek of John 14:15-27): the divine Encourager, Exhorter, Appealer, Comforter.  And Christians, by the Spirit, carry out his ministry to one another.  Pastors are not the only ones who should encourage, but we should take the lead in exhorting one another.  Indeed, we get at least one weekly slot in which we are expected to exhort the people. 

I need to read more on this and maybe come back and revise this blog after some more reading.  But for now I want to concentrate on what it means to 'exhort' in our teaching.

I'm grateful that Paul uses two words, and not just exhorting on its own.  Preaching that merely appeals to people to give to the poor, to pray, to be better parents, is full of appeals but lacking in nutrients.  We need to be taught who we are in Christ - blood-bought, adopted children of God with a staggeringly beautiful inheritance to get excited about - before we can work through how such children should behave in their new adoptive family.

But we do need preachers who appeal to us.  There is the danger that good preaching is summed up as being 'expository' or 'expositional'.  No doubt that is an important point. We don't decide on the content of what we preach. We preach what God has spoken- we expound his words.  But that can lead to a sort of preaching in which we hide behind the passage, rather than let the passage appeal through us.

Lloyd-Jones in his famous Preaching and Preachers - I've listened to the recordings that gave rise to the book - criticises preaching that is merely a running commentary on a passage. I used to wonder if that was a bit harsh.  I have pasted his comments in the footnote: (1)  But I think Lloyd-Jones was right to criticise what can be a travesty (that word means a mere dressing-up) of expository preaching.

I said earlier we can 'hide behind the passage'.  The act of preaching demands from us courage not just intellect.

The reason I chose to write this post came from my own devotional reading of Romans.  I noticed how Paul interspersed his very theological letter with appeals, very often with an address: 'brothers and sisters'.  Have you noticed that when someone in the middle of a conversation with you uses your name, it adds an earnestness to their appeal.  Picture the scene: you're talking with one person over a cup of tea after church. "I've seen many pastors leave their ministries." he says. "Jerry, I encourage you to guard your personal devotional times fiercely".  Wow- using someone's name packs more of a punch.  Paul gives us that tone because of the way he addresses his readers: he 'eyeballs' them in so afar as you can in a letter.  I will close with a machine-gun burst of Paul's appeals in Romans: skim them and be encouraged (I mean that in the original sense of en-courage: be filled with courage by Paul's example!). Paul hasn't even visited Rome, but he doesn't just write a theological treatise.

Now I am speaking to you Gentiles... (11:13)

19 Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” 20 True enough; they were broken off because of unbelief, but you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but beware, 21 because if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either. (11:19-21)

I don’t want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you will not be conceited: (11:25)

Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship. (12:1)
So then, let us pursue what promotes peace and what builds up one another. (14:19)

7 Therefore accept one another, just as Christ also accepted you, to the glory of God. (15:7)

My brothers and sisters, I myself am convinced about you that you also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to instruct one another. 15 Nevertheless, I have written to remind you more boldly on some points because of the grace given me by God (15:14-15)

30 Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, through our Lord Jesus Christ and through the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in fervent prayers to God on my behalf. (15:30)

17 Now I urge you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who create divisions and obstacles contrary to the teaching that you learned. Avoid them (16:17)

--------------
As a Brit - we're a reserved and understated people - I used to find preachers who addressed their audience as 'dear friends', or 'brothers and sisters', rather intense and awkward. I've got more used to it now. Interestingly, Paul was not unfamiliar with timidity. In Corinthians 2:3 he says "I came to you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling."

May God strengthen those who feed the flock and fight off wolves that come near the flock, to keep urging their brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God.  May we preach like Paul who "night and day for three years...never stopped warning each one of you with tears". Acts 20

(1) To be fair, MLJ here is not arguing specifically for 'exhortation'; his beef is with those who preach sermons with no form to them.  But I would argue that the form a sermon should have is that it is an appeal to changed thinking and behaviour, with clear reasons given.
" A sermon should always be expository. But, immediately, that leads me to say something which I regard as very important indeed in this whole matter. A sermon is not a running commentary on, or a mere exposition of, the meaning of a verse or a passage or a paragraph.

I emphasise this because there are many today who have become interested in what they regard as expository preaching but who show very clearly that they do not know what is meant by expository preaching. They think that it just means making a series of comments, or a running commentary on a paragraph or a passage or a statement. They take a passage verse by verse; and they make their comments on the first, then they go on to the next verse, and do the same with that, then the next, and so on. When they have gone through the passage in this way they imagine they have preached a sermon. But they have not; all they have done is to make a series of comments on a passage." Quoted at https://nickcady.org/2018/10/04/what-is-expository-preaching-some-thoughts-from-martyn-lloyd-jones/

  

4 Devote yourself to the Public Reading of Scripture

Today, I feel the burden to minister to local people.  I must feed the lambs!  I must preach the word "in season and out of season". Preaching 'out of season' means using online communication to evangelise the lost and to strengthen the lambs, to help them grow to maturity.

So please bear with me if this post has typos or is sloppy in some ways. My aim is not to spend my hours preaching in English, but rather in Kurdish.

But English is my best language and I do most of my thinking in English.  The end result of blogging these thoughts - and I pray for this - will eb that I am more effective in training up KUrdish shepherds.

Today I am trying to sharpen my thinking and yours on what it means to 'feed Jesus' lambs'.  We have seen that it means providing spiritual food.  Much of it is done in song, not just in spoken word.  But today we look at the importance of reading out the Scriptures, not just preaching them.

1 Timothy 4:13 (ESV)

13 Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.

Shepherds of the church are not just meant to explain the Bible, they are to read it out.  And they are to 'give themselves' to this, to be 'devoted' to it.  All too often, the public reading of Scripture is given to people who are not gifted at public reading.  Or the task is assigned very late in the week, so they get no chance to practise.

Here's a tip: if you are preaching a apssage, do the reading yourself.  You can devote some of your preapration time to really conveying the meaning of the passage well in your reading.  It will often take three read-throughs.  First, you get used to the words. Second time, you understand the meaning a bit more. And on the third time you read it out loud, you know what meaning is coming up so you inject the right emotion into the reading too.  Public reading conveys interpretation.

Another suggestion: if you give the second reading to someone else, ask those who are reasonably gifted at public reading to send you a voice recording of the reading the day before the service.  Assuming that nearly everyone has a smartphone - here in Duhok they do - that's quite easy to do and it's part of the preparation.  "If anyone speaks, let it be as one who speaks God’s words" 1 Peter 4:11

Churches gnerally do not tolerate a guitarist making a hash of the songs because he hasn't pratised.  Let's be graciously intoerant of people reading out the Bible without practising!

Finally, another practical thought.  Let's say your church decides to teach Jeremiah- the longest book of the Bible.  We are used to the pattern that you have a short reading and then a long exposition.  But I want to challenge that tradition.  I think we neglect the longer books of the OT becuase we are too wedded to that system.  I think for a church/ home group to cover 52 chapters of Jeremiah, they could consider doing it like this:
-roughly 4 chapters each time, over 3 months
-the leader should practise his reading intensively, somewhat like an actor rehearses for Shakespeare's Hamlet [no, I'm not saying memorise the words completely, but actually I am saying you should memorise the words.  That's what good public reaading is! You have partially memorised the passage. You know what's coming next. You know when to sigh, you know when the speed up with anger and you can deliver the mother of all depression poems in chapter 20 with all the right mood swings] 
-deliver your reading with little chunks of exposition as you go, enough to bring out the meaning of Jeremiah's words.
-don't be pinned down by the tradition that exposition follows the reading.  It might be better to say: 'Now, friends. We're going to hear Jeremiah sinking into a deep pit. As I read, remmeber that this is fiulfilled in Jesus's dark dark hour. He walked through the valley of the shadow of death for you. He felt forsaken by his Father.  Take this reading in and hide it in your heart.  You will face dark days yourself.  Jer 20 will keep you bearing fruit in the wilderness years.  Here goes, I'll read it to you- prepare to be shocked by how desparate life can feel, even for true believers..."

For more on this topic,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vc-yskME0Y4&feature=emb_title
http://thebriefing.com.au/2011/03/devoted-to-the-public-reading-of-scripture/
https://www.amazon.com/Devote-Yourself-Public-Reading-Scripture/dp/0825442192
https://matthiasmedia.com/products/reading-the-bible-aloud-workbook

3 Shepherding heads and hearts

Today we look at an objection people have to preaching.  Some people find it boring.  They sometimes say, ok the church needs preaching, but sermons only engage the head, and what we need is for God to reach not just our heads but also our hearts.

Sometimes this works itself out in a church where a short slot is given to Bible-reading and the sermon and a very long period spent singing.  People will justify this by saying that 'worship' is very important.  We could usefully spend time correcting this notion that the sermon is separate from the 'worship', but for today I'd like to explore more of what our hearts really need.  Is it true that a sermon is for our heads and the singing is for our hearts?

Music has a huge power over our lives.  Imperialists have often used nationalistic anthems to inspire their people to go forth and conquer; they are duped into thinking of themselves as some sort of master race who have a license to oppress others in the name of progress.  But music can be harnessed for good in the life of the church.

God wants music to mould our hearts into a right approach to him, but as we look at the two twin passages in Ephesians and Colossians that command the church to sing we see that they do not conceive of singing as being an emotional engagement only.  Rather, the church's singing is actually a teaching ministry.

Ephesians 5:18-21
18 And don’t get drunk with wine, which leads to reckless living, but be filled by the Spirit: 19 speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making music with your heart to the Lord, 20 giving thanks always for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another in the fear of Christ.

Notice that in our Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs we 'speak to one another'.  Some people think of singing as being a time when we tell God how we are feeling.  That is not entirely misguided.  It is right to tell the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ that we adore him.  But we also speak to eachother.  Singing makes every member of the congregation into a preacher.

And in the parallel passage in Colossians, it is clear how much of an intellectual exercise singing should be:
Let the word of Christ dwell richly among you (not just the tune), in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another (Col 3:16)

To admonish means to warn.  When we sing to eachother we bring a stern message to one another.  We preach sermons across the church floor.  "O Church of Christ, arise and put your armour on". Clearly, we don't sing that modern hymn to God, but to one another.  We prepare eachother for battle.  It's going to be a hard fight against the Enemy of our souls.  But we have a glorious future to look forward to when the battle's done.

So, back to our theme tune: 'feed my lambs'.  A pastor feeds his lambs not just through sermons.  A large part of his teaching is done in song.

I recently expounded Psalm 100.  Only 2 Kurds were present in the gathering.  And I was deeply convicted that I should try to make a Kurdish song out of Psalm 100. That way it can ring out across villages and towns, in taxis and in olive groves.

If you are a pastor or leader in your local church, try to help your musicians to lead the people with songs that are rich in Scripture.  That is the good pasture that the lambs need.

2 But shepherds are also sheep...

My second meditation is an important qualification of the first one.

Yes, Jesus is raising up shepherds who will 'feed my lambs'. But we must realise that we too are sheep who need to be fed.

Jeremiah 15:16

"Your words were found, and I ate them.
Your words became a delight to me
and the joy of my heart,
for I bear your name,
Lord God of Armies."

There are two clear lessons I want us to learn from this verse:

Firstly, anyone who wants to teach God's word must be 'eating' God's words regularly and devotedly.
To 'eat' God's word is a kind of paradigm-busting thought.  We tend to think we receive God's word with our eyes, as we examine it carefully, or with our ears as we hear it read out, but here Jeremiah the prophet speaks of taking God's word into his stomach.  This means he tasted it - it made an impression on him experientially- and he digested it; he let the nutrients of God's words seep into every fibre of his being.

So, I must ask, do you have regular times of feeding on God's word?

I had the privilege of being pastored by Johnny Prime in London, and to this day he continues to pray for us regularly and offer advice to us. I grew to appreciate the way that he ministered to people. He used to say 'I read this in my quiet time this morning, and I wanted to share it with you'.

He was and is a shepherd who grazed daily on good pasture, and then in a very natural way, shared that good food with those he visited and spoke to on the phone.

Secondly, we must do that regular Bible reading with delight, not just out of duty.  

As with so much Hebrew poetry, the same truth is described in parellel ways: "Your words became a delight to me"

and - he emphasises the point in a slightly different way- "and the joy of my heart".

It's striking that maybe at first this wasn't his attitude to God's word.  "Your words became a delight". Many Christians, probably most of us, look at the contents of our Bibled and think "I know I ought to read Leviticus and Lamentations...but I'm not excited about it".  We get more excited about reading a novel, scrolling through social media or watching Netflix.  Let's resolve to read our Bibles with an expectation that God will delight us and make our hearts sing for joy.

And then our preaching will be a true overflow of hearts that love the Saviour for his kindness and trustworthiness.  This morning I read John chapter 1 and was excited afresh by the drama of Jesus coming from heaven to be the lamb that takes away the sin of the world and yet the chief priests and Pharisees coming to John to check him out.  It encouraged me that there will always be opposition but Jesus is worth marvelling at despite the world's rejection of him.

1 Feed My Lambs

When we start to explore the Bible's teaching that Christ is raising up people from among the believers to lead the churches, people will often feel inadequate.  How can I possibly lead God's people? I can't even get my own Christian life in order, so how can I lead others?

Well, the NT does say there are qualifications.  Questions mainly of lifestyle.  If you are a drunkard, or dishonest in handling money, or you are hot-tempered, then you are not yet ready to be an elder in the church.

But, having said that, God is not calling perfect people to be leaders in the church.  If that were so, there would be no leaders for the church!

No, we see clearly in John 21 that the one Jesus appointed as the leader of the apostles was himself a notorious failure.

All church leaders are failures. The leader of the leaders was himself a failure.  But they're forgiven failures. 

John 21:15-19
Notice that Jesus asks Peter basically the same question, but three times.  This was no doubt a way of rubbing salt into Peter's mental wounds.  He had denied Christ three times.  And so Jesus asks him three times, do you love me more than the other apostles do?  Peter had proudly proclaimed that he would never deny Jesus: “Lord, I’m ready to go with You both to prison and to death!” (Luke 22:33)
He felt he was the bravest, the most loyal.  But in the heat of the moment, when the likelihood of persecution and death loomed before him, he denied Christ.  Even before a servant-girl.

So, that's the first lesson.  We don't begin with technique: 'Bible-handling skills'.  We begin with our own frailty and self-love.  None of us is 'cut out' to be a preacher.  We all love ourselves too much to be qualified as shepherds of the flock.  But if we confess that we are fearful and easily deceived- indeed that we have often denied our master by our words and our living- then we can start to be people Christ can use in his service.

Secondly, our task is very simple.  True- the Bible is a complex book in some ways.  It will take every fibre of our intellect to grapple with it and be able to teach it to others.  But our commission is so simple it can be said in three words. "Feed my lambs"

Let's take them one by one.
i) 'Feed' - we feed Jesus's lambs by teaching his word.  Exercising hospitality will be part of our task, so serving rice and lentils may actually be something we regularly do.  It may keep some poorer members alive.  But we are supremely to feed people's souls.
Isaiah 55:2 tells us that the eating that really counts is listening to God's word: "Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and you will enjoy the choicest of foods."
JOb declared: "I have not departed from the commands of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my daily food." (Job 23:12)

'My' - If lead a Bible study or plant a church I am not gathering together 'my' flock.  They are Jesus' lambs.  Or take Instagram: it tells you exactly the number of people who have viewed and Liked your posts.  Hopefully some reading this have many social media followers and tweet, instagram and Facebook to the benefit of many.  But those 5k, 50k, 500k followers: don't be deceived.  These are 'my' lambs, Jesus says.  Likewise, don't be discouraged if God chooses to grow someone else's church more than yours.  They're Jesus' lambs.

'Lambs'.  A lamb is a baby sheep. Obviosuly.  But Jesus chose that word, even though normally the Bible speaks of a shepherd and his sheep.  Jesus wanted to give Peter a clear vision for teaching fragile, young believers.  Praise God- he caught that vision and ministered tenderly to the least and weakest.  "Like newborn infants," he wrote,  "desire the pure milk of the word, so that you may grow up into your salvation." (1 Peter 2:2).  In the way we prepare our messages, we should always consider the one with least BIble knowlegde, the one who can't find his way round the Bible, the one who can't read at all.  The one who is so vulnerable to scandalous sins like drunkenness and sleeping around.  Feed my lambs, Jesus says.  By all means push the mature to think deeply, but include plenty of plain statements and stories in simple language so that there is food there for the simplest lamb with the shortest attention span.  Three words for a lifetime's ministry.  FEED MY LAMBS.

Feed My Lambs- Introduction

Duhok, 31 March 2020

Dear Friends,
Lockdown has given me the opportunity to blog some biblical meditations about preaching and preachers. Like the apostle Paul in prison, I am prevented from seeing people face to face but I have more opportunity to write.

This opportunity comes at an exciting time. Here in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Kurdish people have been coming to faith in Jesus as the Good Shepherd, the Saviour, and I have been trying to train them to faithfully teach the Bible for themselves, rather than be dependent on Westerners to be their teachers.

I remember vividly how this training material came into being. A couple of Kurdish believers came over to visit us at Christmas time 2018 and, sitting down on doushaks, we looked together at a series of verses I had hastily chalked up on a Google doc. They came to my mind from all over the Bible. But they came to have a certain shape to them and so I now give them the title ‘Feed My Lambs’. This, I will argue, is the commission Christ has given to teachers in his church.

I hope to somehow make this material available to the Arabic and Kurdish speakers in the churches here in Kurdistan, but I will try first to write up my thoughts in English- any feedback you can provide might sharpen my thinking and so make it more of a blessing to the fledgling churches in Kurdistan.

Praise God: a movement has gathered momentum to train people in this region how to do expository preaching.  These are valuable skills and I was delighted to be able to attend the Simeon Trust workshops in Dubai.  However, we need not just skills in exegesis, but we need to understand the bigger picture of why we give ourselves to preaching.  And we need to be ourselves changed if we are to be fruitful preachers.  As is sometimes said, it's not so much about examining the Bible; we need to let the Bible examine us.

If the church in Iraq can in this way somehow be a blessing to sister churches in the West, that would be sweet. As I so often say, we must not believe the narrative that the BBC and many secularist media outlets put out that the church in Iraq is gradually dying. To the contrary, the living church in Iraq is growing and people who had not heard of Christ are now hearing his wondrous good news announced to them in their own languages.

She who is in Babylon, we might say, greets you (see 1 Pet 5:13).

Kindle or pdf?

Training People to Treasure Good Books

We are just coming to the end of our 3-year dictionary project.  Now comes the exciting development where we can use all the research we've done into the Kurdish language to produce quality Christian resources in Kurdish.

But we're on the horns of a dilemma, and I want us to act wisely here.

We will aim to print and sell hard copies of God's Big Picture, but in addition...

Should we make books available as free pdf downloads, or rather sell them on Kindle?

In the West, Christian publishers generally sell e-books, so you might think this is a no-brainer. After all, it is often said that what people don't pay for they don't value. I agree.

However, there are other players, notably HeartCry and 9Marks, who put out their Arabic materials as free pdfs online, as well as selling them.  I respect their ministries; they have good reasons for making pdfs easy as pie to send from one device to another.

However, many book pdfs do the rounds here in Kurdistan and they are not really treasured.  Consider these factors:

1. It's not easy to bookmark on a pdf where you're up to.  Pdfs are great for skimming and searching, but less good for reading from cover-to-cover.
2. They look cheap and worthless.  They often come without a nice cover.

We have an opportunity to sell God's Big Picture for about $3 as a Kindle book.  It might be the first ever Kurdish book on Kindle to be published in Kurmanji, Behdini and Sorani in one volume.

There are some arguments against the Kindle approach though:

1. Some say Kurds don't use Kindle.  I don't think this is a clinching argument. In any case, we're dealing with a tiny community who would read Christian books, and they could easily be persuaded to start using Kindle on a tablet or phone if they're not already used to reading English or German books for example on Kindle.
2. How would they pay? There are many Kurds in the West- so they can use a credit card.  But even within the Kurdistan Region, the Fastpay app is now available and allows people to buy online.
3. Translated books are not ideal.  It might be better not to make a big splash by recommending God's Big Picture to all Kurds as if this was the must-read for all Kurdish believers.  I have noticed that the same story that is so well told in GBP can be much more powerfully told in terms that actually relate God's kingdom purposes to the Kurdish people.  For example, Abraham travelled through Kurdish territory; Jews were exiled by the Assyrians to what we now call Kurdistan; those Jews heard the gospel at the Day of Pentecost, coming from Media, Mesopotamia etc.  So there is a case for regarding GBP as a useful training tool for Bible teachers among the Kurds, best instantly accessible as a pdf, alongside the Arabic which will be available as a pdf- not least in establishing the spiritual language that is needed to teach the Old Testament.  Furthermore, we are not the publishers.  Heartcry are the publishers and they will probably post the Arabic pdf on their website; so it could make sense to go along with their policy for other languages.
   
   Although God's Big Picture has sold well and been translated into about 30 languages, probably we shouldn't expect it to be the classic book that will grab the hearts of lots of Kurds.  Perhaps that book that we pray for- tailor-made for a Kurdish readership and taking into account the archaeology that is all around Duhok and Erbil- would take another 3 or 4 years to produce.  That will be the one to sell on KIndle and say Invest Your money in it: it's really worth owning and reading carefully!

The Shepherd Psalm, redacted by a Twenty-First Century editor in Babylon

A Psalm. A Lament.  To the tune of Please Do Not Destroy.

1 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall lack nothing.

2     He makes me lie down in green plastic,
he leads me beside quiet, stagnant waters,

(yea so quiet because behold, the genius water-proof plastic bag witholds the bubbling brook like the mighty walls of Nineveh)
3 

He refreshes my soul with all manner of good things:

Beautifully rusted tins and broken glass to tear my feet, grocery bags in a full rainbow of colours.
He guides me between the bright baths -discarded
    for their name’s sake (for why take the bath to Trash Collection when you can hurl it from the motorway?).
4 Even though I walk
    through the darkest valley,
I will fear no evil,
    for Mankind is with me;
their plastic spoon and their straw,
    they comfort me.

5 You prepare a table before me
    in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil (actually only the discarded bottle of sunflower oil);
    their landfill overflows.
6 Surely your garbage and litter will follow me
    all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the heap of these Litter LORDS
    forever- or until that wretched aluminium can ring-pull* cuts a hole in my stomach and leaves me floating and lifeless in those quiet, stagnant waters.

* In the US, called a pull-tab.  Curiously, Iraqi drinks cans roll back the years to the dangerous, removable sharp ring-pulls that were phased out in Britain circa 1990.