Beyond Belief

 

“By the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ I appeal to all of you, my friends, to agree in what you say, so that there will be no divisions among you. Be completely united, with only one thought and one purpose,” 1 Corinthians 1:9, Good News Translation.

Despite our diverse cultures, radically opposing beliefs, and personal preferences for how things are to be done, we are all to be One in Christ.

 

First, we believe:

Yes! God DOES mean what He says!

Yes! God the Father gave us Jesus the Son.

Yes, the Lord eradicates our wrongs and resuscitates us to a new life in Christ.

 

Then, we obey:

We find out what God wants.

We read the Bible. We talk to God and listen.

We invite God’s Holy Spirit to guide and empower us.

We use the ministry gifts and other resources we have been given to build up the Body of Christ.

 

Together, we do even more:

In Christ, we worship God and work with God’s Family.

We pray for discernment and wisdom, compassion and mercy.

We invite others into our ever-widening circle of God’s Love.

Together, we encircle the world with the good news of God’s Son.

We extend respect to all peoples, knowing we are all made in the image of God.

We focus on needs and goals we share, rather than our differences.

As God enables us, we make peace in the Name of Jesus.

                                   

©2021, Mary Harwell Sayler          

 

…

 

 

 

I Sing Better With Him Behind

 

Has your voice ever slid off-key for lack of breath or unfamiliarity with a hymn? As our vocal chords age, it’s harder for most of us to hold a note or stay consistently in tune.

When our extended family members come back to Florida for the winter and early spring, I look forward to Henry’s return. As soon as I see him, I eagerly point to the seat behind me where I can hear his pleasing voice. Not only that, but my own voice instantly improves!

Who do you need to have your back?

What voice do you hope to hear?

What key verses keep you in tune with God’s Will?

 

Prayer: Loving Father, help us to hear You well as You speak to us through Your Word. Help us to stay on key with Your truth and love. Help us to sing Your praises this and every day in Jesus’ Name.

 

©2021, Mary Sayler

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Soul Care in African American Practice

When Intervarsity Press kindly sent me a review copy of Soul Care in African American Practice by Spiritual Director Barbara Peacock, I joyfully read a paragraph in the Preface describing the author’s upbringing, which reflected my own nurturing home and the deeply held convictions that grew from that love. As Dr. Peacock said:

“I thank God for his faithfulness toward my siblings and me in that he blessed us with an environment of a loving, caring, and nurturing community, including our parents, grandparents, aunties, uncles, and cousins. Such a foundation in my Christian journey allows me to seek ways to love unconditionally. Consequently I emphatically embrace the theology of love. I believe that love covers all kinds of sin. I believe what the world needs more is love. And is love not the greatest commandment? This is the greatest call: to love.”

Indeed, the certainty that God is love sets every troubling thing into perspective and enables us to discern the responses God wants from us as we ask, “What is the loving thing to do?”

Sadly, many people from every culture and country lack the loving care and encouragement needed to be all they’re meant to be, but thankfully, our spiritual growth doesn’t rely on love received from the human race but from God’s grace. Often, the greater the obstacles, the greater God graces us with His powerful presence.

As Dr. Peacock points out in the introductory chapter “African American Spirituality”:

“While in chains, many slaves expressed great faith in God, the only one who could deliver them from such inhumane circumstances.”

Therefore,

“It was on those slave ships making the Middle Passage that we find the origins of African American spiritual direction and soul care.”

However, “Many make the assumption that all Africans first heard about Christ when they came to America. This is far from true.”

“In fact, the African church fathers contributed to the formative years of Christianity. St. Augustine of Hippo as well as Egyptian and North African scholars such as Clement, Origen, Tertullian, and Athanasius are widely recognized as fathers of the church.”

Later, slavery sorely challenged Christian beliefs, but stories of faith and spiritual hymns provided strength. As the author explains:

“The wording, the verbiage, and the tone of slave narratives and spiritual songs in the African American tradition tell the journey as a story. Such songs lifted the heart and affirmed hope for a better day. The central relational focus of the spirituals was God. He was and remains the hope, the deliverer, and friend.”

In the following chapters, Dr. Peacock focuses on African American leaders who “have been tenacious in pursuing a relationship with Yahweh.” One seemingly unlikely person was Dr. Frederick Douglass, better known as an abolitionist, reformer, and former slave, whose master’s wife read the Bible to him and helped him learn to read.

“From memory, he began to speak words he heard her say while they read together. The way they read the Bible together resembles the Latin reading process called lectio divina, a slow, thoughtful reading of the text with God’s presence in mind.”

After explaining this ancient spiritual practice, the author provides “Questions For Reflection” to help us engage more fully. That section, included in subsequent chapters, too, additionally provides spiritual direction in talking with God, hearing from God, visually reflecting on the Lord, and praying.

“As a result of learning to read the Bible, Douglass became a well-known intellectual in his community and beyond. Reading was the fundamental skill that prepared him to live a life that transformed not only himself but also others. For him reading was not merely glancing over a text but meditating on what he heard, which eventually equipped him to impact millions.”

The next chapter, “Spiritual Direction and Prayer,” highlights the soul care of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., whose “life of contemplative prayer made him an effective spiritual leader.” The author goes on to say:

“It would have been impossible for Dr. King to fulfill the mandate on his life without the assurance of God’s unconditional love for himself and all humanity…. Thus, as a leader, he was called by God to lead in a movement for freedom that was centered in love – that is, Christ-centered love. Such love is the kind Dr. King allowed the Spirit to form in him amid racial discord. With such love, he loved God and his people to the extent he was willing to die for what he believed.”

In the chapter “Meditation and Contemplation,” we learn of the “conscientious decision to speak silently for her civil rights” that Mrs. Rosa Parks made before getting on that Montgomery bus. Having been brought up in a Christian home, she spent much time seeking God and developing the soul care needed to equip her for the task at hand.

“During the civil rights movement, Mrs. Parks needed the supernatural peace of God as she led the people God called her to serve. She understood the cost of developing and nurturing God’s peace within her that would equip her as a spiritual leader. Because of her faithfulness, God graciously provided her peace in the midst of adversity. In order to maintain and abide in this peace, Mrs. Park’s challenge was to keep her mind fixed on God.”

Throughout this enlightening book, Dr. Barbara Peacock focuses on the practices of ten African American leaders, whose companionship with God enabled them to do the work to which they had been called. By tending their own souls through prayer, meditation on God’s Word, and reliance on the Holy Spirit, they could then provide spiritual direction to others.

In “Conclusion,” the author calls us to re-call:

“The journey of all people (regardless of color or ethnicity) began in Genesis. The inclusivity of the Spirit of God is seen in the divine entity of life and the breath that all humanity shares…. All creatures, whether black, white, brown, red, or yellow, are communicative beings designed for the glory of God. All peoples are created to worship and to be in holy communion with our Creator.”

May we all enter into this intimate relationship with the Lord and express God’s love to others in Jesus’ Name.

 

Mary Harwell Sayler, ©2020, poet-writer, and lifelong lover of God’s people and God’s Word

 

…

 

 

Misery and good company

A Christian in one of my social media groups just admitted to being dissatisfied with the Lord! While appreciating the gift of eternal life he’s been given, he feels his present life has mainly brought misery and suffering with no end in sight.

If we're honest, most of God's people have had similar feelings at one hard time or another. Perhaps we then discovered how the Bible offers many, many, many examples of complaints and laments!

With that certainty in mind, I looked up “Joy,” “Misery,” and “Suffering" on my "go-to" site, Bible Gateway.

Misery may be a warning.

When the Prophet Jeremiah realized the inevitability of war, his whole body experienced the misery of that knowledge, so he could not keep quiet about it! He had to speak and warn the people:

“My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain!
Oh the walls of my heart!
My heart is beating wildly;
I cannot keep silent,
for I hear the sound of the trumpet,
the alarm of war,” Jeremiah 4:19, English Standard Version (ESV.)

Misery might also be warning us to let go of old habits and grudges at war with our new nature in Christ.

Misery loves the company of Prophets.

In Jeremiah 20:18, the Prophet asked:

“Why did I come forth from the womb,
to see sorrow and pain,
to end my days in shame?”
New American Bible (Revised Edition), NABRE

Misery might come to sensitive people who not only “see” the sorrow and pain around them but feel it too.

Similarly, Micah 7 begins with these sad words as translated in the Common English Bible (CEB):

“I’m doomed!
I’ve become like one who,
even after the summer fruit has been gathered,
after the ripened fruits have been collected,
has no cluster of grapes to eat,
no ripe fig that I might desire.”

This ability to perceive the plights of others and readily empathize can be a mark of a prophet, then and now. If so, we can follow the example of the Prophet in Micah 7:7 as he resolves to get beyond the misery by trusting and focusing on the Lord.

“But me! I will keep watch for the Lord;
I will wait for the God of my salvation;
my God will hear me.”

Misery loves the company of prayer.

“Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective,” James 5:13-16, New International Version, NIV.

Misery eventually ends with joy to follow.

As James reminds us:

“Brothers and sisters, take the prophets who spoke in the Lord’s name as an example of suffering and patience. See, we count as blessed those who have endured. You have heard of Job’s endurance and have seen the outcome that the Lord brought about—the Lord is compassionate and merciful,” James 5:10-11, Christian Standard Bible (CSB.)

And, as my favorite Bible verse strongly declares:

“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose,” Romans 8:28, New American Standard Bible (NASB.)

Again and again, the Bible lets us know to expect suffering but encourages us to keep faith in God and the promises He gives in Christ Jesus - The One Who Suffered and died for us but then was raised from the dead!

“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed,” Romans 8:18-19, New International Version (NIV.)

Misery can draw us closer to God and one another as we recognize, believe in, and accept the Lord’s loving hand in our lives.

Let it be so! So be it. Amen.

Mary Harwell Sayler, ©2018

…

Joy to the world!

Oh, come! Let us celebrate
the birth of the Christ-Child
Who rejoices at our rebirth.

The Holy Infant Jesus –
dependent
on us for His care –
shows us
how we must
come to Him
like trusting children.

Hold Him on your lap
with love,
and let Him hug you,
heal you,
and hum a lullaby.

by Mary Harwell Sayler, ©2017, from the poetry book PRAISE!

The imperfect life of perfectionism

This morning I woke up thinking about the difference between perfectionism and Jesus’ appeal to us to be perfect. I suspected the thought meant God wanted me to write about these differences, but, to be sure, I prayed for a word of confirmation.

When I checked my email for the Daily Bible Verse from Bible Gateway, I did not see Matthew 5:48 as expected: “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect,” King James Version (KJV.) But….

Today’s verse came from Romans 12:2:

“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect,” New American Standard Bible (NASB)

Or to put it another way:

“Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect,” New American Bible (Revised Edition) (NABRE.)

As you can see, both translations say the same thing, just with slightly different choices of synonyms, and both emphasize a connection between discernment and the kind of perfection intended. In other words...

To be perfect means clearly knowing and acting on God’s will.

Contrast that understanding with definitions for perfectionism found in Word software:

Fastidiousness
Fussiness
Hairsplitting
Nitpicking

The “nicest” word in the list is “conscientiousness,” but then, that begs the question, “Of what or Whom are we constantly conscious or aware?” If ourselves, we’ll not only be apt to be nitpicking but self-absorbed and, oh, self-conscious!

Jesus’ call to perfection asks us to be God-conscious.

We’re to be so in-tune with God’s Word that scripture begins to transform our minds from the world’s ways to The Way of Christ. Then, we continue this transformation throughout our lives by choosing to renew our minds as we regularly read the Bible, pray, and worship the Lord in communion and church fellowship with others.

What joy! What grace we receive as we put aside our own need for personal acceptance and perfection and, instead, accept the wisdom, way, and will of our Most Perfect Lord.

by Mary Harwell Sayler, ©2017

…

Every Job A Parable

Pastor, author, and seminary teacher John Van Sloten investigates vocations in his insightful book Every Job A Parable: What Walmart Greeters, Nurses & Astronauts Tell Us About God. Published by NavPress, who kindly sent me a copy to review via the Tyndale Blog Network, this book speaks of our Creator God, Who works in and through us in all kinds of work.

As the author of this highly recommended book explains, “The first step may be submitting to the fact that creation really is filled with the thoughts of God, that you are meant to grasp those thoughts, that work is a place where that can happen, and that none of this can happen apart from God’s Spirit illumining your way.”

Equally important, “For this process to play out in an effective way, we need to be very familiar with the God of the Bible. Without a deep knowledge of the God of the Scriptures (the Old Testament and the New) we won’t be able to recognize his signature moves in creation.”

For example, “Sanitation workers image a God who cleans and maintains his creation. Their work points to a central tenet of our Christian faith: that God is a God who cleans up our lives (justifies us through the humble, selfless, servant-like work of Christ) and then keeps them clean (maintains and sanctifies us via the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit).”

In the parables, Jesus used everyday jobs to illustrate deep spiritual truths, for instance, in His stories involving vineyard workers, judges, and farmers, the latter of whom know “they need to submit to and trust an entire ecosystem of outside forces” – all of which remain under God's care-filled management.

Then “the deeper we enter into an awareness of God’s presence at work, the more we will know him as the providential source of all things. As we experience him through our creativity, rationality, sense of timing, physical skills, or entrepreneurialism, we will be reminded that all of these good gifts – just like the sun and the rain – come from (God’s) gracious hand.”

Mary Harwell Sayler, ©2017, poet-writer and reviewer


Every Job A Parable: What Walmart Greeters, Nurses & Astronauts Tell Us About God, paperback



...

Branching out in Christ

“I Am the Vine. You are My branches. If you remain in Me, and I in you, you’ll produce much fruit. But apart from Me, you can do nothing,” John 15:5.

As I read several of the many translations of John 15:5 on Bible Gateway, I noticed that the nouns remained the same: Vine, branches, fruit.

The verbs changed a bit, telling us to either abide or remain and then to produce or bear fruit. But, regardless of the synonyms chosen for a particular translation, the thought remains the same:

Jesus is the Vine.

We, however, are not leaves who leave Him, nor are we leaves that turn colors and fall, lifeless, to the ground, leaving a mess for someone else to rake up!

Jesus is the Vine.

We are the branches.

A healthy, well-attached branch grows, expands, and becomes fruitful, but a puny or broken branch that severs itself from the main vine accomplishes the same thing in every translation:

Nothing.

Without Jesus as the base, the core, the root of our lives, nothing we do will be effective in advancing the Kingdom of God.

Jesus is The Vine.

We are The Branches who need to stay ready to branch out! May our lives continue to abide in Christ, growing spiritually and remaining ever fruitful for Him.


Mary Harwell Sayler, ©2017

…

The New City Catechism Devotional

What do Christians truly believe and why? Do those beliefs differ as much as we suppose? The New City Catechism Devotional book, which Crossway kindly sent me to review, reminds us that we’re in agreement more often than we might think.

Edited by Collin Hansen, the book's Introduction by Timothy Keller laments the loss of catechesis in most churches, many of whom outline their beliefs in “statements of faith.” But is this enough? As the intro explains:

“Catechisms were written with at least three purposes. The first was to set forth a comprehensive exposition of the gospel – not only in order to explain clearly what the gospel is, but also to lay out the building blocks on which the gospel is based, such as the biblical doctrines of God, of human nature, of sin, and so forth. The second purpose was to do this exposition in such a way that the heresies, errors, and false beliefs of the time and culture were addressed and counteracted. The third and more pastoral purpose was to form a distinct people, a counterculture that reflected the likeness of Christ not only in individual character but also in the church’s communal life.”

In presenting a new catechism, “The New City Catechism is based on and adapted from Calvin’s Geneva Catechism, the Westminster Shorter and Larger catechisms, and especially the Heidelberg Catechism.”

This book differs, however, in that “The New City Catechism consists of fifty-two questions and answers, so the easiest way to use it is to memorize one question and answer each week of the year.”

Although you can do this alone, you’re encouraged to work with another Christian, your family, or a church group as you discuss the questions, quiz one another, and apply to your life these three areas of faith :

Part 1: God, Creation and Fall, Law (Questions 1-20)
Part 2. Christ, Redemption, Grace ( Questions 21-35)
Part 3: Spirit, Restoration, Growing in Grace (Questions 36-52)

In each section, pages begin with a question, relevant scripture, and commentary by contemporary and classic writers ranging from John Piper and Timothy Keller to Augustine, Luther, Calvin, and more with the back of the book providing brief bios on each.

Since I’m an ecumenical Christian who often thinks, “Can’t we all just get along?” the idea of this book greatly appealed to me. As I read the questions and answers, I saw that most Christians will likely agree with the responses to all but a very few.

For instance, Question 27 may leave some uncertain about their salvation, whereas Catholics, Orthodox Christians, and some Protestants will take issue with Question 43, “What are the sacraments or ordinances?” and Question 47, “What is the Lord’s Supper?”

I mention these differences in perspectives, not to point out what divides us, but to show how very few things do! The more we know this, the more apt we’ll be to show respect to other sincere Christians who have a different understanding than ours of what certain scriptures mean. The more we listen to each other, the more accepting we’ll be. The more accepting, the greater the strength and love in us becomes visible and winsome to the whole world.

Mary Harwell Sayler, © 2017, reviewer and poet-writer of the new book PRAISE!


The New City Catechism Devotional, hardback



…

The church: where we're going, why, and with whom

In the last post, we looked at “The church: where we’re coming from and where we’ve been” as individual and denominational parts of the Body of Christ. This time we’ll consider where we’re going, why, and with whom.

Fortunately, we don’t have to rely on our own assumptions and opinions. For the last couple of decades, the Barna Group has interviewed thousands of men and women with no church affiliation or ties. Editors George Barna and David Kinnaman then presented their findings in the book, Churchless: Understanding Today’s Unchurched and How to Connect with Them, published by Tyndale Momentum, an imprint of Tyndale House Publishers.

As a highly ecumenical Christian who has loved Christ and the church in all of its parts since my early childhood, I welcomed the complimentary review copy of Churchless from Tyndale Blog Network. For one thing, I cannot imagine a world without the church, but more importantly, I cannot imagine – nor do I want to! – a life without Christ.

When I was growing up almost everyone “went to church.” In recent years though, Christians have begun to see and say, “We ARE the church.” So, I’m wondering: Are people falling away from Christ or from us?

In requesting this review copy, I wanted to see how other people see Christ. I wanted to know why church doors are closing and why Christian fellowship isn’t being sought. I wanted to find out if statistics can help us to assess and address relevant issues in our churches and/or our writing lives. But mostly, I just wanted to know what we can do!

Although the book did not answer all of my questions, the editors immediately laid out a statement that, typographically, slows down our reading and summarizes the situation:

“If we perceive the gap
between ‘us’ and ‘them’
as W I D E and
essentially uncrossable,
we are less likely
to get close enough
to offer ourselves
in real relationships.”

To that summation, the editors later added, “We hear again and again, both from the unchurched and from local churches that are deeply engaged with the unchurched in their communities, that loving, genuine relationships are the only remaining currency readily exchanged between the churched and the churchless.”

Thinking of ourselves as poets, writers, publishers, or other communicators for Christ, we might ask:

With whom will I get up close and purposeful?

To whom will I offer my poems, books, or other manuscripts?

How might my writing help draw others to Christ and the church?

To find out what we’re up against, I appreciated the quick overview of stats at the beginning of the book that offered this information:

• The Minimally Churched (8%) Attend church infrequently and unpredictably

• The Actively Churched (49%) Attend church at least once a month

• The De-Churched (33%) Were once active in church but are no longer

• The Purely Unchurched (10%) Do not currently and have never attended a church

And so, right away, we find out that 57% of the 20,000+ American adults interviewed do go to church, while 43% do not or never have. To put those present statistics into perspective with the past, only 30% of the people were churchless in the 1990s.

In those earlier years, of course, the Internet did not provide social outlets that meet or, perhaps, mask our need for fellowship. Not only that, but the “digital shift” shifted “the expectation, especially among young people, that they can and should contribute, not just consume. Online technologies… enable any connected person to add his or her image, idea, or opinion to the digital mix. If you consider how most churches deliver content – appointing one person as the authority and encouraging everyone else to sit (consume) quietly while he or she speaks – it is easy to see how that delivery system may come into conflict with changing cultural expectations.”

That same digital connectedness, however, gives poets, writers, and other communicators for Christ direct, instantaneous access to people from the proverbial four corners of the earth!

Nevertheless, we have gaps to fill and negative views to overcome. For example:

“Of those who could identify one way Christians contribute to the common good, the unchurched appreciate their influence when it comes to serving the poor and disadvantaged (22 percent), bolstering morals and values (10 percent), and helping people believe in God (8 percent)./ Among those who had a complaint about Christians in society, the unchurched were least favorably disposed toward violence in the name of Christ (18 percent), the church’s stand against gay marriage (15 percent), sexual abuse scandals (13 percent), and being involved in politics (10 percent).”

With “one out of every five young adults… an exile who feels lost between church culture and the wider culture he or she feels called to inhabit and influence,” we can help by coming together as one Body ready to love, serve, forgive, and heal cultural differences, perhaps through communal outings or community concerts or concerted efforts to reach the underprivileged in our local areas.

We can help by forgiving one another and encouraging others to forgive.

We can help by counseling and educating people about the work of the church throughout history, for example, in establishing some of the finest universities in the world and establishing – throughout the world – orphanages, hospitals, and other missions that meet needs.

As Christians come together, our primary purpose is to worship and fellowship with God, which gives us fellowship, too, with one another. This connection makes us one in spirit and one part of the larger Body of Christ, where we then have the strength, power, and purpose – as a church – to educate, influence, and evangelize others in Jesus’ Name.


©2014, Mary Harwell Sayler, reviewer, is an ecumenical Christian poet, writer, and lifelong lover of Christ, the Bible, and the church in all its parts.


Churchless: Understanding Today’s Unchurched and How to Connect with Them, hardback



…

The church: where we’re coming from and where we’ve been

When we’re with good friends or family most of us can express ourselves without having to explain every little thing. Those who are close to us know us. They know where we’re coming from – most of the time anyway, and hopefully, we know too.

Jesus did. According to John 8:14, He said, “I know where I came from and where I'm going.”

Cultural backgrounds, family histories, and past experiences help to define who we are, where we came from, what we need, and where we’re going. Understanding those aspects of ourselves and those close to us can help to relieve anxiety, suspicions, and misunderstandings.

Similarly, the more we know about the Family of Christ, the more we recognize our ties to one Lord and one faith.

And, the more we know why other Christians believe as they do, the more we begin to appreciate their sincerity and respect their choices.

And, the more we embrace each part of the Body of Christ, the more effective the church becomes in forgiving, loving, and working together in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Such beliefs made me want to know the histories of various denominations, so I can better understand where they’re coming from and what we have in common – in our common union in Jesus Christ. This caused me to request a review copy of God Has Spoken: A History of Christian Theology, which Crossway kindly sent.

In this highly recommended, hefty volume, research professor Gerald Bray shows us how Christian doctrines came about and what struggles caused theological differences or new developments in how people thought. For such a book to accomplish its goals, heavy-duty research and fair-mindedness are a must.

In the Preface, for instance, Dr. Bray shows where he’s coming from by saying: “…very few people would now assert that what their particular church teaches is absolute truth to the exclusion of everything else.” Most Christians today would not welcome a history of the church “whose main purpose is to debunk or defend a particular denomination.”

That said, Dr. Bray also recognizes that “We all have our preferences, of course, but anyone who argues that only the Baptists, or only the Roman Catholics (or the Reformed, the Eastern Orthodox, the Lutherans, or whoever) are right while everyone else is wrong is now regarded as a propagandist, not as a historian – and is dismissed accordingly. At the present time it is universally agreed that the historian must rise above his own bias and be as fair as he can be to others, accepting that even disagreeable facts must be analyzed and explained in their context, even if he might privately wish that the past had been different.”

We now take many principles of faith for granted, but from the earliest days of the church onward, various issues or problems arose that had to be resolved. Each solution brought a new resolution or another step in theology, and then other concerns came to light.

As Dr. Bray says, “Just as a piece of cut glass reveals different aspects of the light according to how it is held, so the New Testament appears in a new light when looked at in response to the different theological questions that have been put to it.”

For example, in the early church, “Christians who prayed to God as their Father had to stress that he was the God of the Old Testament – the Creator and Redeemer are one.... After that was established, the identity of the Son was next on the theological agenda,” which meant expressing “this great mystery in a way that would affirm both the divinity and the humanity of the incarnate Son without compromising the integrity of either.”

Beliefs about the Holy Spirit, the sacraments, and a calling to the ministry needed to be considered too, whereas present-day concerns often center on “the suspicion that either there is no God at all, or that all religious beliefs point to the same transcendent deity.”

Simply reading the Preface of this book will give you an overview of the denominational histories and diverse theological developments in the churches, but, as you might expect, these 1260 pages have more to say! Fortunately, the scholarly author has a conversational style that retains reader interest. Or, the book can be used as a reference guide to church denominations, key figures in Christianity, and historical events.

To organize this wealth of material, Dr. Bray divided the book into eight sections as follows:

Part One
The Israelite Legacy

Part Two
The Person of the Father

Part Three
The Work of the Father

Part Four
The Person of the Son

Part Five
The Work of the Son

Part Six
The Person of the Holy Spirit

Part Seven
The Work of the Holy Spirit

Part Eight
One God in Three Persons

For example, Part One discusses “A Shared Inheritance” among Christians and Jews, while Part Six talks about “The Inspiration of Holy Scripture.”

Regarding the latter, the early Christian theologian Origen considered “the overall purpose of the Holy Spirit in inspiring the Scriptures in the first place. As he saw it, the Spirit had two principal aims in view. The first was to instruct believers in the deep things of God, which only he knows. The second was to help beginners in the faith, who need guidance and can be reached only when the deeper mysteries are expressed in the language and concepts of everyday life.”

For biblical examples of this, consider the settings for Jesus’ parables in a vineyard or field or dimly lit home. Or, consider how the resurrected Christ identified Himself with the individual needs of seven churches in Revelation, letting Christians in Laodicea know He is the “beginning of creation” and not a created being as some thought. Or how they needed Him to clothe them and anoint their eyes, even though the area was known for woolen cloth and eye salve!

Only a God-inspired word could be so relevant and alive – then and now – in Christian lives and churches. God does not change, but circumstances, times, and languages do, causing Christians throughout the centuries to pray about and express their beliefs, so one generation to the next can understand.

As Dr. Bray says in closing, “God the Father has spoken to us in the Word; God the Son calls for us to hear and respond to that Word, which is found only and fully in him; and God the Holy Spirit gives us the understanding and the will to accept that Word and allow it to transform our lives by uniting us to Christ, in whom we dwell in the heavenly places and have fellowship with all three persons of the Godhead.”

May this book help us to have fellowship with one another as we consider each part of the Body of Christ, joined in love, in Jesus’ Name.

©2014, Mary Harwell Sayler, reviewer, is an ecumenical Christian poet, writer, and lifelong lover of Christ, the Bible, and the church in all its parts.


God Has Spoken: A History of Christian Theology, hardback



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Timeless Bible questions to answer

As Christian poets, writers, pastors, and/or communicators for Christ, we often begin our articles, books, and sometimes poems by asking questions our readers might ask then thoroughly researching information to provide the solutions or answers needed. In The Jesus Code: 52 Scripture Questions Every Believer Should Answer published by Thomas Nelson and kindly sent to me for review by BookLookbloggers.com, prolific author O.S. Hawkins gleaned many, many questions from the Bible then narrowed them down to one a week for a year. Although I liked the idea of the book in general, two premises especially appealed to me:

1. Timely questions asked by the Lord and/or Bible people will most likely be timeless.

2. Each Bible-related question gives a theme and purpose for poets and writers to focus on, research well, and address in all genres of writing.

Both of those aspects make this evangelically-oriented book recommended for poets and writers, regardless of denominational preferences.

For example, the first timeless but troubling question began in the beginning and is still being asked today: “Has God Indeed Said…?” Or, to put it another way, “Does God really mean _______?” (fill in the blank.) So, if I were looking for a new topic to write about, I’d pray about it and ask God to bring to my attention specific scriptures people often question or water down or, in some way, say, “Well, God does not really mean that for us now.”

Another of the many questions the Bible asks is, “Where Can I Go from Your Spirit?” The answer, of course, is nowhere! God is everywhere, and as the text says, “What a wonder! God knows you… your e-mail address… your phone number… your worries… your hurts… your fears… your dreams. And He loves you.”

Thinking again about our potential readers and writing interests, we might ask ourselves, “Who most needs to hear this?” Would people in prison be glad to know God has not forgotten them? Would Christians weighted down by dark thoughts or chemical imbalances or financial woes be relieved to hear that, yes, God is with them? Or, if you’re into politics or social needs more than mental health or legal issues, the Bible question “Who Is My Neighbor?” will surely appeal to you.

If we look carefully into each page of the Bible, we could eventually locate these questions ourselves, but O. S. Hawkins has done this for us with pastoral guidance we can prayerfully translate into that poem, article, or book God has put on our minds and hearts to write.


© 2014 Mary Harwell Sayler - poet-author of Living in the Nature Poem and the Bible-based poetry book, Outside Eden -


The Jesus Code: 52 Scripture Questions Every Believer Should Answer, hardback, imitation leather




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Seeing ourselves as part of The Storytelling God

A year or two ago, I began translating the parables of Jesus into poems and prose poetry, so when I heard about The Storytelling God: Seeing the Glory of Jesus in His Parables, written by Jared C. Wilson, I requested a review copy, which Crossway kindly sent.

In the Introduction, the pastor-author immediately gave a fresh perspective by saying, “The word parable from the Greek means ‘to cast alongside,’ and like the seeds cast in one of the few parables for which Jesus offered an interpretation, the parables may land on rocky soil.”

Wow! Had you ever thought of Jesus’ stories in that way? I hadn’t. i.e., The Parable of the Sower is a parable on parables, illustrating how words work in our lives and in the lives of other people.

Inspired thoughts, spiritual insights, Biblical truths are cast (broadcast?) like seeds to land where they may among listeners and readers and, hopefully, to flourish and grow.

As Pastor Wilson explained, “The parables, then, serve this end: they proclaim, in their unique way, the gospel of the kingdom of God and Jesus as king of that kingdom.” Furthermore, “God is the greatest storyteller ever,” and “All good stories are but pale reflections and imitations of the great story of God’s glory brought to bear in the world…. The poetry, the history, the laws, the lists, the genealogies, the proverbs, and the prophecies together make up the mosaic of God’s vision for the universe with himself at its center.”

In our lives as Christian poets and writers, we are a circle, rotating around the world with our words in all genres, evolving into artistry and revolving around our One True Center: God. We are one with Christ and one with one another since the beginning of petroglyphs or stone tablets as we write from the same rock, the same central core.

“The rock to build on, then, is not the doing of Jesus’s words but the work of Jesus already done, namely his sacrificial death and glorious resurrection. The rock to build on is Jesus himself. When we really hear and do, we are showing that he is our foundation.”

We who have ears, let us hear what our storytelling God has to say to and through us in Jesus' Name.

© 2014 Mary Harwell Sayler - poet-author

The Storytelling God: Seeing the Glory of Jesus in His Parables, paperback



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