This summer the Husted\u2019s will be moving. Therefore, the\nnecessary purging that accompanies packing has begun. And, as my wife reminded\nme, this task must also include my bookshelves. \nHowever, the task was small and quickly done, as years ago, on a previous\nmove, I had disposed of a number of books for a variety of reasons. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I commend to you two great resources that I reflected on\nwhile packing away my library. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
First, this article entitled Old Books, New Books, and Trends That Fade Away: Lessons Learned from\na Book Sale <\/em>by Luke Holmes, where he offers the following book-buying\nrecommendations:<\/p>\n\n\n\n – Beware of writing a man\u2019s legacy before his ministry is over. Second, a recent sermon by Pastor John MacArthur entitled Leaving the World to Reach the World<\/em>\nfrom Colossians 3:1-4 resonated with me, as I reflected on all the pragmatic\nministry books that had I purged in recent years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The\nchurch has been taken captive by a kind of pragmatism that it seems it cannot\nshake, and I think that pragmatism is dealt with in the simple statements that\nI just pointed out to you in verses 1 and 2: \u201cKeep seeking the things above,\nand set your mind on things above.\u201d Rather than doing that, rather than setting\nits mind on heaven, rather than seeking what is above, believers today, and\neven church leaders today, seem to be preoccupied with seeking things that are\nbelow. The actual purpose seems to be to best assess the world around us and do\nthe most we can to make some kind of superficial alterations in our economics\nor in our social structure or in our cultural definitions. The church seems to\nbe earthbound. And, of course, that would be satanic strategy, wouldn\u2019t it. If\nwe\u2019re called to heavenly things, then Satan would want to make sure we got\ntrapped in earthly things. And that has been the death of churches throughout\nchurch history. But it seems to be that even today, a kind of evangelical\npragmatism where we understand the mission, we even understand the message, but\nwe really are confused about the method\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Pragmatism\nbasically says we do what works, we do what attracts people, we give people\nwhat they want, we talk the way they like to talk, we play the way they like to\nplay, we act the way they like to act, we like the things that they like. And\nthe more common ground we can find with the world, the more effectively we\nbuild a bridge to them to give them the gospel. That\u2019s essentially what\npragmatism is. It seems to work, it draws a crowd, they like it; this has to be\nright. That\u2019s what pragmatism says\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Are\nwe supposed to find as many things as possible that are exactly what\nunconverted people want in a given culture and make sure we give them all of\nthose? And that is what builds the bridge. Well, in reality that is the\nopposite of what the Bible says. That is absolutely opposite what God has\ncalled us to by way of methodology.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n According\nto God\u2019s Word, we have to leave the world to reach the world. We have to leave\nthe world to reach the world.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This summer the Husted\u2019s will be moving. Therefore, the necessary purging that accompanies packing has begun. And, as my wife reminded me, this task must also include my bookshelves. However, the task was small and quickly done, as years ago, on a previous move, I had disposed of a number of books for a variety […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1229,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christian-living"],"acf":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/bookshelf-600x300.png","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/bookshelf-600x300.png","author_info":{"display_name":"Kent Husted","author_link":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/author\/khusted\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1228\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
– Beware of books that promise a quick fix.
– Beware the crashing waves of trends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n