Fun Stuff

Christian BookSellers Convention in Time for the Holidays



Still grieving over the Lakers' loss in the NBA finals, Philip Mackenzie receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, asking him to come to an abandoned sports bar in the Oregon wilderness to talk it over. What Phil doesn't realize is that God is about to reveal Himself in a familiar earthly form that will powerfully draw him to the Divine. What transpires is a dialogue that will wrestle with the timeless question, "Where is God when your favorite sport team stinks?" The answers Phil receives will astound and transform him as he finally understands who God is for the first time in his life: a really tall black guy with a heart of gold.

WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING ABOUT "THE SHAQ":
"This book does for our generation what John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress could never do for his: Fictionalize God as an NBA center. It's that stupid." --- John Piper, pastor and author

"With cameos by David Beckham and Peyton Manning as the other Persons of the Trinity, The Shaq is a theological slam dunk!" --- ESPN

"We already idolize sports figures in America, so why not idolize God, too?" --- Redbook

"Get this book and play some one-on-one with the coolest God ever!" --- Boy's Life

HT: The Sacred Sandwich

G. Mark Sumpter

Christmas is Coming

Honey, Where Did You Say We Boxed Up the Lights?

From the section called Your Shots photos submitted to National Geographic by the magazine’s readers.

Photographer, James Snyder wrote:

This is a Cuban tree frog on a tree in my backyard in southern Florida. How and why he ate this light is a mystery. It should be noted that at the time I was taking this photo, I thought this frog was dead having cooked himself from the inside. I’m happy to say I was wrong. After a few shots he adjusted his position. So after I was finished shooting him, I pulled the light out of his mouth and he was fine. Actually, I might be crazy but I don’t think he was very happy when I took his light away.

G. Mark Sumpter

Jerusalem Conference

These three guys, Sumpter, Jensen and Wagner, have just enjoyed the fellowship around the Word at the Jerusalem Conference. Faith Church hosts the 2-day conference annually in late October. Pastor Roger Wagner of Bayview OPC was the guest teacher. This year's conference grabbed onto the shirt tails of much of Protestantism to take part in the John Calvin 500th celebration. There were about 60 in attendance.

G. Mark Sumpter

Sermon Prep 24/7

The preaching mentor and author, Zack Eswine of Covenant Seminary, reminds pastors that everyday life sunrise to sunset, most often thought as the mundane of life, finds plenty of sermon fodder. Of late, my best sermon application points come from a Nazarene pastor friend. It's simple and timely conversation, and I am so grateful for his attentive countenance and perspectives. Recently, he spoke of his own life and the place of faithful leadership among God's people. He was spot on.

Eswine writes: Listening to life and gathering sound bites and snapshots of people and places deepens our wisdom. This is our calling. Biblical preaching makes a missional turn when preachers see nothing as more essential than their personal walk with God and see all of life as their sermon preparation.

I've mentioned to several that my work at the hospital slows me down. Quite literally, you walk slower around the halls, and into the rooms; and the conversation goes to a creep-crawl. The patients on whom I call are God's agents of change for my life. I turn my ears on. They preach texts and application at me every time.

Sermons Via Surgery. Hip and Thigh Hope. The Body Chemistry of Faith. Patients in the Pulpit.

Preparing for sermons happens all the time.

G. Mark Sumpter

The Place of Testimonies

A Note on Isaiah 53:5b

And by His stripes we are healed.

I value the hospital patients, on whom I call, who tell of the Lord's healing. No question, after their healing, they turn around and tell their story of healing to others. The same is true for overcomers who have experienced drug addiction, or those who conquer bitterness from unemployment, or those who taste the renewal and hope that comes after the pain of a divorce situation; and to be sure, there are dozens of other kinds of examples of trial and hardship.

There's something about the vantage point of our own wounds, afflictions and diseases where, after God's healing for us, it can flow to others. Through our own wounds, our own stripes, there's healing for others.

In this way, the Christian always stays under the cross of Christ Jesus.

G. Mark Sumpter

Lord's Supper October 18

Luke 18:15-17 for the Lord's Table

Jesus welcomed the children. He said: Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.

Babies and young children teach us many things. 1. It’s natural to be hungry. 2. It’s common to need rest. 3. It’s expected that they will communicate using cries, expressing frustrations and insecurities. 4. It’s to be expected that they will be bold around others, perhaps brash, adventuresome and uninhibited.

Whoever doe not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.

You are children….be who you are. Are you hungry? Come and eat. Need rest? Come to the Table for refreshment. Frustrated, facing trials—come to Christ, He is our Host, and He is here to minister with food and drink.

Who is admitted to the Lord’s Table? Those who have been baptized, those who are under the care of local elders or the care of a church’s leadership—that means that you and they have spoken together, and you have a credible testimony of faith that Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior. If so, come today, and receive nourishment. If you have not been baptized; if you are not under the care of local elders or local church leadership, and there’s no knowledge about your spiritual condition or interests, then wait; speak to an elder first before partaking today. Or maybe right now, you’re being a rebellious child. It is my solemn duty to warn the disobedient, the scandalous, and those who secretly live in unrepentant sin, not to approach the Table lest they partake unworthily, not discerning the Lord’s body, and so eat and drink condemnation to themselves.

You see, the Bible tells us to examine ourselves, so that we might partake of the Lord being the children he has made us to be. Jesus said: receive the kingdom, enter into it being a child.

G. Mark Sumpter

Bulimia Matter. 13

Church, Your Labor is Not in Vain

C.H. Spurgeon, 1834-1892, comment on Psalm 86:9

David was not a believer in the theory that the world will grow worse and worse, and that the dispensations will wind up with general darkness, and idolatry. Earth's sun is to go down amid tenfold night if some of our prophetic brethren are to be believed. Not so do we expect, but we look for a day when the dwellers in all lands shall learn righteousness, shall trust in the Savior, shall worship thee alone, O God, and shall glorify thy name. The modern notion has greatly dampened the zeal of the church for missions, and the sooner it is shown to be unscriptural the better for the cause of God. It neither consorts with prophecy, honors God, nor inspires the church with ardor. Far hence be it driven.

Just what the doctor ordered.

G. Mark Sumpter

The Communal Life of Savants

Together the Mind is Renewed

The church communes, shares and participates together as the heart, mind and body of Christ. As far as being the body of Christ, see Acts 9:4; for the mind of Christ, see Phil 2:5; for the heart of Christ, see Eph. 3:17.

We too readily take up the intellectual aspects of Christianity by comforting ourselves with lectures and sermons, along with CDs, blogs, textings and slogans.

Such things can be an individualistic effort. A sermon, a talk, a seminar; there, I've done my duty as teacher or listener.

Harry Blamires penned it well in his book, The Christian Mind, Christianity is emasculated of its intellectual relevance. It remains a vehicle of spiritual and moral guidance at the individual level perhaps; at the communal level it is little more than an expression of sentimentalized togetherness.

p. 16 from Servant Books, 1978

How can we bring intellectual force into our communal life? How can our communal life nurture sound theology?

We must pursue the intellectual faith, but we're to do so communally; and that takes vision and time. 1) Vision to see that our congregational acts of worship (e.g. recitations together, responses, readings, confessions, hymn-singing, gestures, hands raised, knees bent and more) give shape to understanding the faith. 2) It takes time--we must be patient with each other in gaining skills in recitations, for example; and it takes time to learn to sing, read and converse. It also takes time to practice well, and from the heart, bodily gestures as the communal people of God; this too helps us along in learning, acknowledgment and doctrinal maturity.

Isn't it rich, deep theology to read in Scripture of bodily gestures befitting the Lord's presence? When the church participates in such ways as the called-out, together people of God, she grows beyond sentimentality.

Worship must rid herself of sentimentalized togetherness and don the cadence and character of intellectual rigor and triumphal conquer.

G. Mark Sumpter

Fiction for the Rest of Us

Learning Truth from Fiction

A definition of non-fiction goes this way: “Written works intended to give facts, or true accounts of real things and events. Encyclopedias, how-to manuals and biographies are all considered non-fiction and so are kept in the non-fiction section of the library.”

Fiction: “Works telling the tales of imaginary people, places, situations or a combination of all of these.”

As people of the Book, as those concerned to delve into the subjects of reading and writing, we ponder these kinds of definitions in everyday conversation and so we ask: “What is the difference between fiction and nonfiction?”

We often hear nonfiction is true, and fiction—well, it’s false!

How can we develop an answer in the affirmative about fiction carrying the freight of truth? First, mark it well that we have a settled way in which we draw a conclusion about what can and cannot carry truth. Many assume that truth is solely a rational consideration, and so we're told, that fits the non-fiction type of writing. Sure enough, non-fiction with its rational facts is one way to convey truth. Second, consider the aims of fiction. Fiction, it should be remembered, uses the imaginary in order to develop truth. Although God's Book is NOT a fictional book, the Lord uses metaphors, examples, objects and illustrations in fiction-styled ways. He communicates with the use of themes and illustrations (i.e. think of the pattern or development of various themes relative to the Exodus story in the Bible). He develops His story line this way because we live in and through circumstances of history. We are made body and soul, with intellect, will, actions, attitudes, experiences and imagination.

As one writer put it, we “tend to exalt the intellect...We lust for knowledge and think that more [rational] information will solve all of our problems.” Such thinking invites us to conclude: non-fiction is true, fiction is not. But we must conclude otherwise, fiction conveys truth vividly, memorably and often forcefully.

G. Mark Sumpter

Mr. Zamboni

Sumpter Lore

At 5:00 AM every morning, five and six days a week, for a year, I drove this puppy. That was back when Tonya Harding skated as a six or seven year old. I prepped the ice for her workouts, when she was a little snotty nosed kid. But more important---much more important---I worked on the ice for the Rusty Blades league. These old timers were a boot-sized kick in the pants to watch them hustle up and down the sheet.

It takes a village of Rink Rats to make it all happen. I was Rink Rat at the Anchorage Sports Arena from 1972-1975. Good times, super cool times.

G. Mark Sumpter

And Then She Said, YES!

Eldership Guidance on Marriage Eligibility

On the matter of determining eligibility, an Eldership should suggest that parents or the oversight authority use a pattern similar to how a local church determines if a pastoral-candidate is a right fit for serving a local church. Just as a local church chooses a pastor of like-minded beliefs, so there should be like-mindedness between candidates for marriage. Matters like theological background and practical direction in life should be shared. In the OPC, we call pastors to serve local churches who hold to the same system of doctrine as the local church. Like-mindedness in faith and life is crucial, see Phil. 1:27; 2:2-3; and Eph. 4:3, etc.

G. Mark Sumpter

Mount Singletary

Head Down and Derriere Up--A Yank-ism, Sort Of

Over the last couple of days, when Mike Singletary, coach of the 49ers, welcomed Mr. Crabtree onto the team, there was the fanfare of white towels waving. But they were white towels for a basin and water.

The rookie will be gathering cones and shagging overthrown passes. Lombardi said that Fatigue makes cowards of us all. So does missing July through September all because a man believes he's worth more as a Freshman player.

G. Mark Sumpter