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BETHLEHEM, West Bank — The annual cleaning of one of Christianity’s holiest churches deteriorated into a brawl between rival clergy Wednesday, as dozens of monks feuding over sacred space at the Church of the Nativity battled one another with brooms until police intervened.

Wednesday’s fight erupted between Greek Orthodox and Armenian clergy, with both sides accusing the other of encroaching on parts of the church to which they lay claim.

Denver Post wire services

G. Mark Sumpter

Launching T-Shirts at Halftime

Formality in worship

PCA Pastor Jeff Meyers, while writing about the propriety and significance of calling-garb for the pastor, comments on formality in worship. He persuasively wows the reader; he reminds me of the T-Shirt Cannon guys at halftime. Good, fun stuff.

“Since for Americans there is often an in-built negative reaction to any mention of formality in worship, let us turn briefly to Hebrews 12 and Revelation 4-5. Hebrews 12:22-24 describes a New Covenant (contrasted with the Old Covenant worship of vss. 18-21) corporate, Lord’s Day worship service. When the church gathers on the Lord Day she enters into heaven (by faith) to worship God with all of the angelic host and departed saints. It is as if the roof of the church building is torn off when the pastor calls the people to worship. Notice that the worshipers are all organized around the throne of God. The worship service does not merely provide an opportunity for private devotional experiences. The church is a ‘city’ and a ‘joyous assembly’ or ‘festal array’ (v. 22). The word translated ‘festal assembly’ denotes an assembly of people gathered for a celebration or festival. Later, when we are privileged with the Apostle John in the book of Revelation to peek into heaven, how is the worship conducted? What kind of worship is modeled for us in heaven? There are all kinds of liturgical lessons to be learned here. I only wish to highlight one aspect: the heavenly service is liturgical and formal. According to Revelation 4-5, heavenly worship is a formal, coordinated activity. There are cooperative, formal responses by groups of worshipers. Everybody responds together with the same words. There are no individual displays of spirituality. Angels, elders, and creatures respond antiphonally with responses that must have been learned! They have been trained. There is a pre-arranged form to the worship. They have rehearsed this event, and they are dressed accordingly (Rev. 4:4). In other words, heavenly, Spirit-guided worship is liturgical and formal (1 Cor. 14:26-33).”

G. Mark Sumpter

Scoring Points for Traditional Hymnody

What’s great at Christmastime can be great 48 other Sundays

At the Christmas season, traditional hymnody—it’s words and musical genre—scores big. For about 30 calendar days, traditional, even some really old, hymnody rebounds in worship-life and society. People show that they actually like the old stuff.

Maybe this is one way to be more strategic in recruiting worshipers from within the contemporary side of the evangelical and reformed. It’s time to do a little CARPE DIEM. Here are some good vibes at Advent, musically speaking.

Generations Hold Hands: elementary age kids, very young children, 14 year olds, 25 year olds— goateed and lip piercings to-boot—stand next to 69 year olds, those still sporting wire frame bifocals, and they’ll work their way through five lines of #221 Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming. If you look close, they’re holding a hymn book too. They appear dialed in with gratitude. Carols bring about the pleasant wrapped-up gift of the church being the church—young, old, wide, narrow, rich, and poor. Knuckles and high fives.

Sweat on the Brow is No Biggie: At Christmas we don’t mind having to work at our singing. In our worship age, when we’re told about KISS—Keep It Simple Songwriter, at Advent we’re not afraid of fancy notes, awkward beats, and funny syllables. “The shepherds at those tidings re-joice-ED much in mind…” How odd. I wonder if Chris Tomlin uses re-joice-ED in contemporary expression? At Christmas, that doesn’t scare us, and that’s good. I still struggle with the line in O Come All Ye Faithful, the one, “very God, begotten, not created.” I have to work at this line every time we come to it. The timing with the syllables freaks me. But our willingness to work at freaky beats and syllables is good. We see that people don’t mind going over and over a tune to get it right. Maybe once Christmastime is over we can make use of our willingness to be patient and work on singing skills. If people are showing that they’re not afraid of elbow grease, let’s go for it. Whistle while you work—on more difficult traditional worship music.

Use the Principle of Reinforcement: If you go to the malls and over to the hospital, and turn on the radio, and attend the Christmas programs...and—even open a Hallmark Card, you’ll get reinforcement of traditional hymnody-like carols. The principle of reinforcement should cue us. Pastor, Worship Leader: do you want a shot at seeing your people grow in their singing? Discipleship centers on familiarity, recognition and re-play. Once again—here’s hope for traditional worship music. Finding ways for traditional hymns to be piped into ears and hearts is key. If God’s people hear it enough, they’ll grow to love it. Christmas proves this.

If only it was Christmastime every Sunday.

G. Mark Sumpter

Horton's Do Hard Things as Part of the Rebelution

Michael Horton Showing the Way in Youth Ministry

“The year I was twelve things began to change in my life—not all at once, but gradually. I had been involved in family devotions and Bible reading, but suddenly the Bible sprang to life for me. The book of Romans began to shatter many of my earlier notions about reality. Every time I read from Romans I found myself searching for a deeper understanding of God’s purpose and grace.

After playing baseball each afternoon, I would come home, and pick up Romans, and go through it again and again. What I found in Romans had me mesmerized, and I began to share my discoveries with anyone who would listen.

My parents were owners of a nursing home, so I had a ready-made congregation. I began conducting weekly services that lasted, with brief interruptions, for six years (up to my senior year in high school). People who were not even residents attended the services to hear about God’s effective grace.”

From Horton’s Mission Accomplished, pp. 13-14

Young people are the church of today, not merely the church of tomorrow.

G. Mark Sumpter

Getting the Gospel Right and Then Some

When the Church Goes Her Specious Way

From the late Vaclav Havel (written in 1978): “Ideology is a specious way of relating to the world. It offers human beings the illusion of an identity, of dignity, and of morality while making it easier for them to part with them. As the repository of something suprapersonal and objective, it enables people to deceive their conscience and conceal their true position and their inglorious modus vivendi, both from the world and from themselves. It is a very pragmatic but, at the same time, an apparently dignified way of legitimizing what is above, below, and on either side. It is directed toward people and toward God. It is a veil behind which human beings can hide their own fallen existence, their trivialization, and their adaptation to the status quo. It is an excuse that everyone can use, from the greengrocer, who conceals his fear of losing his job behind an alleged interest in the unification of the workers of the world, to the highest functionary, whose interest in staying in power can be cloaked in phrases about service to the working class. The primary excusatory function of ideology, therefore, is to provide people, both as victims and pillars of the post-totalitarian system, with the illusion that the system is in harmony with the human order and the order of the universe. . . ”

This quote, relayed by OPC Pastor Roger Wagner just after Havel’s recent death, stirs. Below, I do not discount the importance of a Christian’s understanding of Havel’s societal and political assessments—his fine assessments and comments I will add, but I pitch a point or two with respect to ideology as a specious way of relating to the church. The church, too, sports herself all things political. The traditionally reformed, confessional church must be aware of how she can situate herself in the grip of the deception per Havel's commentary.

Let’s do some work.

First, church history shows us that ideology is spelled g-n-o-s-t-i-c-i-s-m.

Preservation

The Security of the Believer

The door of Christian assurance and perseverance turns on the hinge of preservation. Preservation rises up out of a text like John 10:27-29, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand.”

Can you get anymore industrial strength of seat-belt security than the powerful and preserving work of the hands of the Son and the Father? Sit and spin, Christian. God holds fast His children where they will never perish. Never. In the 1970s Deep Purple sung of a threat:

Frank Zappa and the Mothers

Were at the best place around

    But some stupid with a flare gun

 Burned the place to the ground

But, uh-uh—the threat of a raging fire will the never happen to the “gambling house” of the Christian. No raging fire around the Lake Geneva of the life of the one who rests in God’s promises. Texts like John 10, conveyed by Calvin and Calvin’s Calvinism, teach security and comfort. No burning, no perishing of the Christian. Preservation.

The Christian’s perseverance turns on the hinge of preservation.

G. Mark Sumpter

Ever Had to Choose a Bible Study Guide?

Some Helps on How to Choose a Study Guide

Here’s my take; admittedly, I give focus to the guide’s content:

1. Each guide or help or commentary will have strengths and weaknesses.

2. Picking through the strengths and the weaknesses becomes a task.

3. It is work having to evaluate everything we read or hear. We wish we could relax about this.


4. It is a worthy goal to learn from brothers and sisters with whom we do not share every word and point of doctrine.

5. Maybe these are the top areas and questions to keep in mind (as I write these, I assume the author of the guide believes the Bible is the inerrant, inspired Word of God):

a) Does the Bible Study guide or commentary show a fairly consistent approach to appreciating the unity of the Old and New Testaments? Does it show that the New fulfills the Old? The New builds off of the Old?


b) Does this appreciation for the unity of the Bible give a focus to the person and work of Jesus Christ? Does it work with the themes of God’s redemption? These themes are: God is at the center glorifying Himself—Father to Son, Son to Father, Spirit to Father and Son—by His power, wisdom and love in and with His creation and all His creatures; That His covenant and Kingdom show His rule and grace; That His Word calls for faith and trust in Him through an appointed leader, a representative (mediator); That Christ is being presented more and more from Genesis moving into the New Testament as the One who is the fulfillment of promises, hope and joy as the believer’s Mediator; That we, as believers, are bound together in Christ with privileges and responsibilities—to worship and serve as the Church; That God is the Judge over all; That the Gospel triumphs over sin, death, hell and the devil. Themes. Does the study guide help you to see themes?


c) Is there a consistent message that Jesus Christ is the way of salvation for sinners? That faith alone in Christ alone has focus? Is the study material following the doctrines of God’s grace—T.U.L.I.P.?


d) Is there a consistent reminder that believers are to live out of their spiritual union—their spiritual oneness—with Christ? Do you read or hear, “Christian, be who you are in Christ…….obey God’s commandments motivated by and supplied by the grace of God in Jesus Christ—that He is your life and strength and confidence”?

e) Is there an appreciation for the church being central as the primary form and example of God’s way of i) ruling, ii) providing for, and iii) being involved in the world? We know He is Lord over all men and things. One important way that we learn of this is through His dealings with His church. When we approach things this way, we grow in our appreciation for the local church. This is what is meant when we say that the church provides cues for the world. When the church is showing proper, faithful leadership, then the world has an example to follow. When the church is providing for and caring for one another, the world learns about providing for and caring for others. The church is a model of God’s kingdom. The church’s centrality is upheld.

f) Ethical application issues in a study guide—where am I weak? Proud? Troubled? Rebellious? Poor example? Making gains? Where is the church weak? Proud? Troubled? Rebellious? A Poor example? Making gains? Etc.

Studies and commentaries will move in and out of these points. We, as teachers and leaders, should aim to see these things in a Bible passage. When we use a study guide keeping these points in mind, we’ll be seeing more of a well-rounded approach to opening and using God’s Word.

G. Mark Sumpter

The Sequence of Narrative and Song

Lessons Based on Lyrics

The sequence of narrative story and then lyrical poetry, the songs of the saints, should get our attention in the Bible. There’s Exodus 14, narrative; Exodus 15, lyrics; then, Judges 4, narrative; Judges 5, lyrics. You get the same in Luke 1-2; likely you have it at Philippians 1:12-2:4 and Philippians 2:5-11, and then with Revelation closing out the New Testament, there is the lyrical emphases of 5:12-13; 7:12; 11:17; 14:3; 15:3.

Do you see the tag-you’re-it sequence? First, story and then song; the singing provides the interpretation, commentary and explanation of the story. Do you want to learn theology? Then learn to sing the songs of the psalms, hymns and spiritual songs (Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16).

We have the tendency to see the narrative—and didactic—as the stopping place for theology. The Bible rightly points us to lyrics, poetry and figures in song to drive home the lessons of the story.

G. Mark Sumpter

Quick Take on When Sinners Say I Do

Boiling Water, Where's  the Tortellini


“Many marriage problems could move toward resolutions if husband and wife actually lived as if they were ‘sinners’ who said ‘I do.’ Sinners who are humble are growing more knowledgeable about their hearts.”

I skimmed a couple of the chapters; after reading the rest, I paused at many of them attempting to catch the author's message. I definitely say here's a solid piece to recommend to pastors, elders, counselors—most assuredly, to those preparing for marriage, for those married. The focus, patterned after the title, “When SINNERS,” aims at helping readers carry out necessary self-examination regarding one's own unquestioned contribution to messy relationships.

The vivid word pictures by Harvey color his illustrations.... “...couples can treat confrontation like a hand grenade--pop the pin, let it fly, and run for cover. But biblical reproof is not some kind of commando raid.” Here's another... [on the matter of an exchange when the husband interferes with his wife's plans already made; words like]: “Dear, could you... become his fingernails on the chalkboard of your [her] agenda for the day?” These are fun.

My biggest negative about the book circles around Harvey's bringing the reader’s knowledge of his sin to a boil. The pan is on the stove, the water is boiling—so very good; but I was waiting for the pasta to be added, and then the browning of the meat, the simmer of the butter and veggies, with the seasoning mix of the person and work of Jesus Christ, who is Lord and Savior. I wanted him to prepare a winsome, biblical dish with the doctrine of the sinner's union and communion with Jesus. We get the chapter on STUBBORN GRACE, Harvey's work on Titus 2:11-14; but where’s Being Raised in Him, Being a Sinner Seated w/ Christ and more. My concern is like what another author said about the absence of good, popularly written books on the doctrine of Christ's life, death and resurrection, something like..., “the professing church suffers from Ascension Deficit Disorder.” Harvey's positions, thesis and practical helps would look like a Major League MVP homerun champ if he knocked the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ, His fruit for the believer, out of the park. When Sinners Say I Do calls for counter-balance of When the Savior Said I Did.


—G. Mark Sumpter

Hooked on OneHundredTwelveOnics

Memory Helps for Essential Tutors

Mrs. Leigh Bortins of Classical Conversations stands in front of the camera and hammers the 112 Different Types of Sentence Classifications. The most poignant moment on the screen is when she used the illustration of a hitter standing at the plate and never veers away from the basic stance but does learn to use different sizes of bats or maybe swings the bat differently to move the ball around the field.

Check it out! Leigh standing left hip to the pitcher’s mound—just like Albert Puljois or Prince Fielder—and she motions with her left arm, bat-free, and she’s nailed the motion. Do you know why she nails the motion? She’s raised a bunch of snotty-nosed boys. Obviously, she’s watched her boys play ball. She motions with the left hand. Gentle moves, along with the shoulder-level sways, and she’s moving her hand and arm in one sweeping motion towards the pitcher.

Leigh hits homeruns in illustrations for children and parents, illustrations that show how students should vary their memory techniques, vary their order in memorizing the grammar of the 112 Classifications. She wants her listeners to vary things to bust out loose with solid mastery of it all. Great tips for tutors for those teaching Essentials of the English Language.


Great video, Leigh. I’m hooked on onehundredtwelveonics.


G. Mark Sumpter

Cultured

Abstractions Needful, But There’s More

I first started to learn something about being cultured, as we would call it, around the Sumpter dinner table; this is what I remember as a young kid.

My folks would talk about being cultured. They aimed very practically by speaking, for example, of the pleasure and blessing of the Japanese violin players who were downstairs in our home; these young men were housed with us, the members of a Japanese symphony orchestra. This happened in Anchorage maybe at some point back in 1969, maybe ’70. Cultured—it’s having an interest in classical music, even more, supporting it with your presence at performances. That meant going to the West High auditorium to listen to the rapid saw-work of the bow on the strings. It was OK. For my folks, it was culture.

Later my experience—again speaking practically with an example—involved eating at a dinner table. I’m thinking of remembering and heeding that flatware, fairly finely arranged spoke of being cultured. The forks set on the left, spoon and knife on the right, and so on. I was scared at the home of Dick Stites, my coming, future father-in-law. The forks were noticeably on the left. I thought—but when do I pick it up? Do I use my knife to help get the peas in place? As a high school boy, I was scared because my home resembled 60-70% of the time the dinner table in the movie Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. It was be a hog or get hogged—I was reared with three other big, knuckles-dragging-to-the-floor older brothers. We were nasty boys and squeaky fat.

So I was scared when I was invited to the Stites home. Likely, as I remember, it was not on the very first dinner with the Stites family, that I boo-booed a biggie by keeping the Pork Chops serving fork at my plate. Bad move and embarrassing—and not cultured. I showed irresponsibility around the table, an absence of table mindedness. My wife remembers. Yes, now a family joke; but I remember it as a want of art.

How does a kid growing up in this experience interpret the world around him? Fear it. Resist it. Resent it. Make fun of it. Harden myself against it. Decide that it’s for sissies.

The Gospel has grabbed me by the lapels the past 3-4 years. For some reason, God decided to give me a lesson in art, culture, life and liturgy in a most unusual way. Last month while at the Library of Congress at the Jefferson Building in Washington, D.C., I got a lecture from Shirley MacLain. Let me mention it here.

While doing my tourist thing, waiting my turn for a tour, a library assistant urged me to meander over to the exhibit of Gershwin and Hope—George and Bob, that is. Can you spell c-u-l-t-u-r-e? Spell a-r-t (music)?—expression, rhythm, syncopation, lyrics, meter, mannerisms, an audience and context.

It grabbed me—of all things!—while surveying the pictures of Bob Hope and his dotted history of entertainment. The survey of pictures and memorabilia turned to a theological discourse. It’s Shirley MacLaine’s remark: Politics that are void of the insight of art—its compassion, humor and laughter—are doomed to sterility and abstractions. (1972)

Substitute the words, The people that are void…

Substitute the words, The churches that are void…

Substitute the words, The families that are void…

MacLaine nailed me.

I have been given to abstractions—that is, there in abstractions, there is life, truth, help, hope and meaning. She got me to thinking, “I’ve been a Christian, a pastor, encompassed by the stranglehold of abstractions and it’s been a life of sterility.”

I’ll try to write more on this. But I have learned the Gospel is not about mere abstractions. Just look outside—God invites us to his art room: mountains, plains, rivers, rolling hills, hay fields, checker-board farmlands, ocean deeps—and the constellations, hosts and dancing of the shooting stars. He is the Artist. He is cultured.

Each Sunday, at my home church, we celebrate the Lord’s Supper. It’s dinner time. Flatware, words of welcome, a minster who serves, cup, bread, trays, persons to eat. The Gospel gets down to a shared meal. The abstractions of preaching become taste and see. I am so very thankful for holding, tasting, seeing, smelling, swallowing truth. The head alone can take only so much.

Teach me, Lord, teach me of the necessity of the artforms and culture. I want to be cultured.

G. Mark Sumpter

Week of Prayer at Faith OPC

Call a Sacred Assembly

The prayer times this week have been the most helpful for me, for me personally. The practice of purposeful, extended time in prayer has been really good. Hearing the others pray has been such a great ministry. It really has. I need to remember this when I am discouraged. Our people love the Lord, His word, His worship. The burdens about evangelism and really trying to reach people have come through a great deal. Some of their confessions and urgings and very open, frank praying have been a source of meditation and help. I've been greatly blessed.

Faith OPC has been gifted with a new location for her worship in our city of 30-35,000. We have set aside this week for prayer.

Abram moved his tent, and went and dwelt by the terebinth trees of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and built an altar there to the LORD.

G. Mark Sumpter

Encore

A Tilt-A-Whirl of Sorts

“All the towering materialism which dominates the modern mind rests ultimately upon one assumption; a false assumption. It is supposed that if a thing goes on repeating itself it is probably dead; a piece of clockwork. People feel that if the universe was personal it would vary; if the sun were alive it would dance. This is a fallacy even in relation to known fact. For the variation in human affairs is generally brought into them, not by life, but by death; by the dying down or breaking off of their strength or desire. A man varies his movements because of some slight element of failure or fatigue. He gets into an omnibus because he is tired of walking; or he walks because he is tired of sitting still. But if his life and joy were so gigantic that he never tired of going to Islington, he might go to Islington as regularly as the Thames goes to Sheerness. The very speed and ecstacy of his life would have the stillness of death. The sun rises every morning. I do not rise every morning; but the variation is due not to my activity, but to my inaction. Now, to put the matter in a popular phrase, it might be true that the sun rises regularly because he never gets tired of rising. His routine might be due, not to a lifelessness, but to a rush of life. The thing I mean can be seen, for instance, in children, when they find some game or joke that they specially enjoy. A child kicks his legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, “Do it again”; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, “Do it again” to the sun; and every evening, “Do it again” to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we. The repetition in Nature may not be a mere recurrence; it may be a theatrical ENCORE. Heaven may ENCORE the bird who laid an egg. If the human being conceives and brings forth a human child instead of bringing forth a fish, or a bat, or a griffin, the reason may not be that we are fixed in an animal fate without life or purpose. It may be that our little tragedy has touched the gods, that they admire it from their starry galleries, and that at the end of every human drama man is called again and again before the curtain. Repetition may go on for millions of years, by mere choice, and at any instant it may stop. Man may stand on the earth generation after generation, and yet each birth be his positively last appearance.” –G.K. Chesterton

G. Mark Sumpter  

Jesus and His Own Dependency in Prayer

Relationship is inescapable, we are known from birth

Over the past two-three years, I have been meditating on the inescapability of living in relationship to others. We are defined by others, not our own persons. We come forth from the womb known. We are born into relationships with our family. We are, from birth, received into the inheritance of the church, a community. From the beginning, we are inter-related and swimming in relational connections.

Paul E. Miller, below, writes of Jesus and His connectional, communional, Trinitarian relationship. He prays. He lives in communion with His Father.

Miller accents the practice of dependency, that Christ is dependent on His Father for all things. Miller also goes deeper (his words) on the subject of being and communion, a relationship living, thriving and inescapable.


The reality of Jesus Christ in communion with His Father shows the pattern of our living with Christ in the beloved of the Trinity; it is our reception of hiddeness in God in Christ. See Colossians 3:1-3. 


We read Miller on this:

You’d think if Jesus was the Son of God, he wouldn’t need to pray. Or at least he wouldn’t need a specific prayer time because he’d be in such a constant state of prayer. You’d expect him to have a direct line to his heavenly Father, like broadband to heaven. At the least, you’d think Jesus could do a better job of tuning out the noise of the world. But surprisingly, Jesus seemed to need time with God just as much as we do.

On the first day of his public ministry, Jesus is teaching in the Capernaum synagogue on the Sabbath (see Mark 1:21-39). While the audience marvels at his authority, a demon-possessed man cries out, “I know who you are—the Holy One of God.” Jesus rebukes the demon sharply and effortlessly casts it out. The crowd is stunned.

After the synagogue service, Jesus returns to Peter’s house for the Sabbath meal, only to discover that Peter’s mother-in-law is in bed with a fever. Jesus takes her by the hand and instantly heals her. She gets up and prepares lunch.

Word of the healing and the exorcism race through the seaside city of Capernaum. But the tradition of the elders doesn’t permit healing on the Sabbath unless it is life threatening, so the town waits until evening. Mark tells us that as soon as the sun went down, “the whole city was gathered together at the door.” It is easy to imagine the street in front of his house illuminated by the soft glow of hundreds of flickering of lamps. Jesus heals far into the night. That’s why he came—there aren’t supposed to be mute children, abandoned wives, or thoughtless bosses.

The next morning before sunrise, Jesus wakes up, makes his way out of town to a desolate place, and prays. He is gone long enough that the crowds gather again, prompting the disciples to go searching. When Peter finds him, he tells Jesus, “Everyone is looking for you.”

It’s a remarkable day—the evening and morning of the first day of a new creation. The new Adam rolls back the curse and cuts through evil. Demons and sickness flee the presence of Life. Aslan is on the move.

WHY JESUS NEEDED TO PRAY

Why does Jesus pray in the morning, in a desolate place where he can’t be interrupted? His life offer three cues. [I give one of the author’s cues here.]

Clue#1 His Identity

Whenever Jesus starts talking about his relationship with his heavenly Father, Jesus becomes childlike, very dependent. “The Son can do nothing of his own accord” (John 5:19). “I can nothing on my own” (John 5:30). “I can do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me” (John 8:28). “The Father who sent me has himself given me…what to say and what to speak (John 12:49). Only a child will say, “I only do what I see my Father doing.”

When Jesus tells us to become like little children, he isn’t telling us to do anything he isn’t already doing. Jesus is, without question, the most dependent human who ever lived. Because he can’t do life on his own, he prays. And he prays. And he prays. Luke tells us that Jesus “would withdraw to desolate places and pray” (5:16).

When Jesus tells us that “apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5), he is inviting us into the life of a living dependence on his heavenly Father. When Jesus tells us to believe, he isn’t asking us to work up some spiritual energy. He is telling us to realize that, like him, we don’t have the resources to do life. When you know that you (like Jesus) can’t do life on your own, then prayer makes complete sense.

But it goes even deeper than that. Jesus defines himself only in relationship with his heavenly Father. Adam and Eve began their quest for self-identity after the Fall. Only after they acted independently of God did they have a sense of a separate self. Because Jesus has no separate sense of self, he has no identity crisis, no angst. Consequently, he doesn’t try to “find himself.” He knows himself only in relationship with his Father. He can’t conceive of himself outside of that relationship.

Imagine asking Jesus how he’s doing. He’d say, “My Father and I are doing great. He has given me everything I need today.” You respond, “I’m glad your Father is doing well, but let’s just focus on you for a minute. Jesus, how are you doing?” Jesus would look at you strangely, as if you were speaking a foreign language. The question doesn’t make sense. He simply can’t the question “How are you doing?” without including his heavenly Father. That’s why contemplating the terror of the cross at Gethsemane was such an agony for Jesus. He had never experienced a moment when he wasn’t in communion with his Father. Jesus’ anguish is our normal.

His prayer life is an expression of his relationship with his Father. He wants to be alone with the person he loves.

Paul E. Miller A Praying Life ©2009 Nav Press, pp.43-45


G. Mark Sumpter

Presbytery is Next Week—Is This Our Game Face?

Warts, Criticism, Chewing Tobacco and Jalapeño Pepper-Fellowship


This entry is from the book, With Calvin in the Theater of God, see Mark Talbot’s chapter, “Bad Actors on a Broken Stage,” p. 60. The book is a 2010 publication from Crossway Books. Good Stuff.

…Calvin’s letters show that he took his faults very seriously…In fact, it was part of the Genevan pastors’ practice to take each other’s faults seriously.

...T. H. L. Parker highlights this in a passage describing Geneva’s Venerable Company of Pastors, which held a regular quarterly meeting “for mutual frank and loving self-criticism”:

“In the church, as Calvin conceived it, every man helped every other man. If in Christ Jesus all believers are united, then a private believer is a contradiction in terms. Not only are the blessings and the virtues given for the common good, but the faults and the weaknesses concern the other members of the body. There was to be no hypocrisy of pretending to be other than a sinner, no dissembling or cloaking of sins; but, just as God is completely honest with men, and men must be honest with God, so also believer with believer must be courageously honest and open. The quarterly meeting was a little day of judgement when, flattery and convention laid aside, each man saw himself through the eyes of his fellows and, if he were wise, harboured no resentment but knew the uniquely joyful release of voluntary humiliation.”


Dr. Talbot quotes from T.H.L. Parker’s biography of John Calvin, p. 115, Westminster/John Knox Press

G. Mark Sumpter

Why Johnny Can’t Pray

For without Me, you can do nothing. John 15:5

In short, Johnny cannot pray because he’s happy with his narrow prayers; he also refuses Sabbath rest.

“Through prayer Jesus received the Holy Spirit, with wisdom for teaching and the power to do miracles. Through prayer Jesus made disciples, choosing the twelve. Through prayer Jesus did the work of evangelism, calling people to trust Him as the Christ. Through prayer Jesus glorified God, and was glorified by Him. Through prayer He carried forward the missionary work of the gospel. Therefore, if we want to see God work powerfully to change people’s lives through our own teaching, discipleship, and missionary evangelism, we need to spend time with Him in prayer. We will accomplish as much or more by praying than by all our doing.” Slightly adapted....from Phil Ryken in Luke, (commentary), p. 568.

One deep, deep root of our prayerlessness revolves around a refusal to sabbath. The Sabbath mandate reminds us that we cannot be busy 24/7. God said for us to cease, to rest, to stop from the work. Accordingly, the presupposition that gets challenged every week concerns a theology of re-creation, re-newal, re-fuel, re-charge and to re-orient. Have we repented of a theology of works? Salvation is by grace through faith, not of works; it is not by being busy. Sumpter, do you hear this? Refuse to guilt yourself into prayer; refuse to busy yourself into approval and fruitfulness in the eyes of men. Rather, waste time; stop to linger; shut it down for leisure in prayer.

Otherwise you’re dead meat, dry in the bones, and you limp along with half-baked ministry.

Go waste some good time in prayer.

G. Mark Sumpter

Grammar in Preaching

Preaching Inquiry

While inside the man cave yesterday with fellow OPC pastor Brian Nicholson, we took to verbal transactions over the use of grammar or terms in preaching.

I was very heavy on the utilitarian and pragmatic. I asked, “I want to be pragmatic...terribly pragmatic...is it permissible to help grow the church—to attract new visitors—by use of biblical and reformed jargon, terms, code-words or grammar paving the way for worship to be visitor-friendly?”

Yes, visitor friendly. Whether non-Christian or professing believer—I am wondering will grammar attract? Does grammar connect?

To illustrate—a Josephine County resident reads the local paper and ponders words like born again, Savior, evangelical, Bible, truth, vows, Adam, Eve, Jesus, church, and the like. My son is a neighborhood paper boy; these words appear fairly frequently in the letters to the editor and maybe in one or two other places. Such words might be considered foreign. But are they altogether foreign? Is there an acquaintance with such grammar of the faith that is sufficient to connect?

Also, as another illustration, other Josephine County residents listen to Renewing Your Mind or hear an mp3 of Phil Ryken, Michael Horton or R.C., Jr. and thinks, “is there a congregation in my area that is a part of the same stream of faith and life—I’ve grown acquainted with this reformed jargon?”

Interestingly, a professing believer, whom I had never met, telephoned the other day, “What does it mean to be reformed?”

If the preacher uses the grammar of the Westminster secondary standards more often, and his congregation increasingly recognizes that grammar, will it pave the way for that same grammar-speak out in everyday discourse of life, and thereby prove to be another way of attracting visitors?

Does Christian terminology—the grammar of the faith—help or hinder preaching? Help or hinder with the goal of reaching out?


—Mark Sumpter

Baptized Children—Named Christian—Nurtured as Such

Children reared in the things of Jesus Christ, perspective on dramatic conversions

From the Directory for the Publick Worship of God, (Edinburgh, 1645)




“That the promise is made to believers and their seed; and that the seed and posterity of the faithful, born within the church, have, by their birth, interest in the covenant, and right to the seal of it, and to the outward privileges of the church, under the gospel, no less than the children of Abraham in the time of the Old Testament; the covenant of grace, for substance, being the same; and the grace of God, and the consolation of believers, more plentiful than before: That the Son of God admitted little children into his presence, embracing and blessing them, saying, For of such is the kingdom of God: That children, by baptism, are solemnly received into the bosom of the visible church, distinguished from the world, and them that are without, and united with believers; and that all who are baptized in the name of Christ, do renounce, and by their baptism are bound to fight against the devil, the world, and the flesh: That they are Christians, and federally holy before baptism, and therefore are they baptized: That the inward grace and virtue of baptism is not tied to that very moment of time wherein it is administered; and that the fruit and power thereof reacheth to the whole course of our life; and that outward baptism is not so necessary, that, through the want thereof, the infant is in danger of damnation, or the parents guilty, if they do not contemn or neglect the ordinance of Christ, when and where it may be had.”

I came across this commentary that fits well with the nurture of baptized covenant children:


“The possibility of gradual reform in no way displaces the need for conversion. Dramatic conversions do occur and are necessary for many individuals. The New Testament emphasis on conversion was shaped by the missionary outreach to Gentile adults who had experienced the hardening effects of sin and had to be called to repentance. A hardened adult cannot be simply nurtured into the faith; a radical casting off of the old life through repentance is needed. William James and many psychologists today speak of the importance of making a clean, dramatic break with a lifestyle and belief system that have become unbearable. For persons mired deeply in a life far removed from God, gradual reform is highly unlikely.


There is no biblical warrant for trying to convert the children of Christian parents in the same way that we attempt to convert adults. Yet Christian education of children must not adopt an insipid “Jesus wants me for a sunbeam” orientation that denies the reality of sin in human life and the demands of the gospel. Church-education programs for children should stress the nurturing of their faith through age-appropriate discipleship. Although he was unorthodox in his theology, Horace Bushnell was quite insightful when he said, ‘The child is to grow up a Christian, and never know himself as being otherwise.’ Thus children need not experience a datable conversion, but they must come to understand the joy of living in fellowship with God as well as the agony and aimlessness that they would have outside of Christ.


Of course, we must be wary of the notion that one can evolve into a Christian. The image of the new birth depicts radical change, a complete metamorphosis, but it need not be sudden change. Conception, pregnancy, and birth are a process which takes place over a period of time and includes numerous small crises. The nurturing of children is not a process of spiritual evolution but of guiding them through their spiritual birth. When they look back, they will know that they were spiritually born, though they may not be able to name a specific date of birth.”


From a chapter, ‘Theology of Christian Education,” by Jim Wilhoit, a faculty member at Wheaton College since 1981; his book Christian Education: The Search for Meaning has been edifying. This quote is from pp. 64-65.


G. Mark Sumpter

Homeschooling Continues to Get House in Order

Sanctification in Homeschool's Living Room

We’ve been waiting for more and more of the corporate sanctification for homeschoolers. We made more progess on getting a start this past week. It’s hard, but it’s great.

We’re still 1) walking through the questions about classical education models and applications for homeschooling, 2) walking through the unity and diversity questions of the local church and the varied callings of families and their application-of-choice—traditional classroom, public or Christian, and one-day co-ops or one or two-day class involvement with public school, Christian school or home-school. No question, we, the local church, with her elders, pastors and parents, have made progress the past 5-6 years on these matters. This has been the kindness of our God and Father.

We’ll keep walking through the doctrinal distinctives—and recently Answers In Genesis experienced this. I trust that there’ll be more to come.

It’s about time for us, as Homeschoolers, to learn how to home-school our own home. We’ve been learning the rules for engagement on the nature and calling of the family and the same for the local church, now she needs to learn how to fight and be good on other areas of doctrine and practice. Ken Sande’s work will help us. Maybe the folks at Monument Publishing need to provide helps on taking up the positions between Mr. Inns and Mr. Ham. Get the high school students grounded in the positions and turn us loose on learning and grappling to help with progress in our sanctification. It’s a good time to debate; it’s a good time to help contribute to our own house’s order.

We can look ahead for more growth in sanctification regarding positions in things like: Christians and filmmaking, Christians and Entrepreneurial Home-based endeavors, and Christians, Homeschoolers and their Role in Worship-leading in the Local Church.

Homeschoolers are learning to wade through positions on socialization and courtship and dating; let’s continue to get grounded in these other positions too.

G. Mark Sumpter

Loss of Connectional Influence

A point about family and church nurture

Both institutions—the family and the church—have suffered from the loss of multi-generational connectional life and thus, they have seen the diminished influence within their respective spheres for covenantal nurture.

For the household, on one hand, there is the Christian man who gives up too easily as he swims upstream against a family-unfriendly way of life in North America. Work outside the home fragments the family. The current against this man is strong. In this giving up, he abdicates his charge to oversee and direct the nurture of his children. This man has the inclination to turn to the professional specialists of the church who stand in his place regarding household training. This man’s view of the family is weak. On the other hand, there are men who are self-conscious about the biblical mandate regarding household nurture. These men, in the name of a zealous mission to maintain control of their family, have the tendency toward their own kind of isolationism. In a spirit of watchfulness, they can overly isolate their children from both the younger and older generations of the church. This man’s view of the local church is weak.

G. Mark Sumpter

Putting Away Indifference in Preaching

Gladness in preaching

One reason an essential element of love is the enjoyment of our work [in preaching] is that you can't consistently give what you don't have. If you don't give gladness, you don't give the gospel; you give legalism. A pastor who guts out his work in gladless obedience transmits that life to his people and the name of it is hypocrisy and legalistic bondage, not the freedom of those whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light.

Another reason is that a pastor who is not manifestly glad in God does not glorify God. He cannot make God look glorious if knowing and serving this God gives no gladness to his soul. A bored and unenthusiastic tour guide in the Alps contradicts and dishonors the majesty of the mountains.

John Piper, The Supremacy of God in Preaching p. 53

G. Mark Sumpter

How Young is too Young?

Nurture little ones in God's truth and life

Mike is a father who wonders “I have a two-year-old boy and another about to turn three, but most materials seem to be written for older kids. When should I start?”

It’s never too early! All you need is a book with good pictures. You can begin talking about the pictures, even with a one-year-old. Over time, you can explain more and more. Your children will begin to love those books and want to learn more.

First impressions are often the image that last a lifetime, so make them count.


Many good books are available, even reprints of old books. The New England Primer, used by the early Puritans in America, allows parents to teach serious biblical truths along with their ABCs. Newer books, geared for young ages, include the alphabet books A is for Adam and D is for Dinosaur (by Ken Ham).


Check out catechisms for children. Ask your pastor or church librarian. Depending on your denomination, check out the background and history about catechetical nurture HERE. At bedtime, ask simple questions:


Who made you? God made me.


What else did God make? God made all things.


Why did God make you and all things? For His own glory.


Who is God? God is the maker of all things.


Who made God? No one.


Was God ever not there? No.


Has God always been? Yes.


Will God always be (alive)? Yes.


Did God have a birthday? No.


Will God have a funeral? No.


Can you say this another way? Yes, God is eternal.


With very young children, repetition is key. Although they aren’t ready for long discourses, they’ll repeat to you simple phrases and sentences. That’s how God made them to respond at this age. As they mature, you can add additional explanations and move on to more extended questions and answers.


Of course, teaching time doesn’t always need to be formal. Wanda, mother of three-year-old Susan, takes advantage of every teachable moment: ‘When we’re pulling weeds, I mentioned that we wouldn’t have to do this if Adam hadn’t sinned. When our cats leave dead animals at the house, I talk about the bad news (why things die) and the good news that we can live forever in heaven, the good gift from God that we receive by faith in Jesus.’


Whatever method you choose, do teach. It’s never too early to begin with the truths of the Bible with the little ones entrusted to you!


Read below what OPC pastor Edd Cathey conveys at this one particular time of baptizing an infant—he provides excellent points about God’s early start with little ones:


"Since before he was born and received his name, little Graham has been in a developing relationship with [his parents] Megan and Behn. He heard their voices every day. When he was born, that relationship was intensified with hugs and kisses and touch and sight along with more words of love. He is learning to trust them through all these things. He is a person and his family members are persons- expanded recently to aunts, uncles, grandparents, and others. He is a person receiving communications of love from persons.


In Holy Baptism he is about to be embraced in an intense way by Another who loves him and calls him by name. The one God in three persons is speaking to Graham.

Just as he did not at first comprehend those earlier voices and touches completely, he does not fully comprehend the gracious Triune God who embraces him with covenant love. Nevertheless, God is calling his name and saying “Graham, you are mine, follow me, I am your Savior, I put my name on you.”

My son, Toby, offers great quotes about using the question and answer method, something that can be used with little ones:

“The word 'catechism' derives from the Greek word katecheo which is found in several places in Scripture. The most familiar is Luke 1:4, where Luke explains why he wrote his Gospel: 'that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed [catechichized].' Like many Greek words katecheo is put together from two words, in this case kata, meaning 'down toward,' and echeo, meaning 'to sound.' Katecheo is 'sound down.'"

From Donald Van Dyken, Rediscovering Catechism, 12-13


And again:


“We teach first the Bible and then the confessions, the Bible because it is God speaking to his people, and the confessions because they are the church speaking to God, answering his Word."


From Donald Van Dyken, Rediscovering Catechism, 56


Our Faith Presbyterian congregation has been using the children’s catechism and the Westminster Shorter Catechism in a memory program, see one HERE, and it’s been great for our young children, students and their families. The reinforcement, modeling and grounding in truth has been gold.

Ideas for this post are taken from Answers magazine, (April-May 2008), Great Commission Publications (the publishing arm of the OPC and PCA), the book, Rediscovering Catechism (from Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co.) and the Catechism for Little Persons (by Jim Dennison, an OPC minister and professor at Northwest Theological Seminary in Seattle).

G. Mark Sumpter