Christ-Centered Preaching by Bryan Chapell

I just finished reading this book on expository preaching by Bryan Chapell.  The majority of the book is on the nuts and bolts of preparing an expository sermon.  It's good, but not anything amazing.  I still think Wayne McDill's 12 Essential Skill for Great Preaching is the best book on the mechanics of preaching that I've read.  But there were 2 chapters in Chapell's book that were outstanding; they alone made the book worth buying.

In chapter 2 he describes what he calls the fallen condition focus (FCF) that exists in every text.  It is "the mutual human condition that contemporary believers share with those to or about whom the text was written that requires the grace of the passage for God's people to glorify and enjoy him."  The FCF is the purpose of the text and thus the purpose of an expository sermon.  Finding the FCF points the preacher to the reality that biblical solutions to our problems must be divine and not merely human.

Chapter 10 is the heart of his book.  "Christ-centered preaching rightly understood does not seek to discover where Christ is mentioned in every text but to disclose where every text stands in relation to Christ...Each text manifests God's grace in order to prepare and enable his people to embrace the hope provided by Christ."  As Jesus described on the road to Emmaus, all texts point to him; our preaching must reflect this reality.  It's the only way to ensure grace is the solution offerred for problems, not our works.  Chapell offers some very practical steps for helping to identify how a text stands in relation to Christ.

This redemptive approach to preaching has been very helpful in my lesson preparation time.  I think every preacher and teacher should read these 2 chapters.

Sense of Humor

My Old Testament professor has a dry sense of humor.   Here's two recent quiz questions (sans the correct answers):

1. In an attempt to kill David, more than once Saul:
• d. forced David to participate in a meeting of the Building and Grounds Committee
2. According to Hill and Walton (our textbook), the most important religious artifact in Israel was:
• d. the "Prayer of Jabez" coffee mug

Greek for Homeschoolers

Last fall I started teaching Greek to my son, Jacen.  I've been using Dr. Black's book, Learn to Read New Testament Greek, but in the last few weeks I've grown frustrated with it.  The book is written for seminary students, not 3rd graders.  It moves too quickly, and doesn't have enough homework and review.  I've had to re-write the lessons so Jacen can understand them, and I've had to add extra homework, not to mention my own quizzes and tests.  I'm practically writing my own Greek book, something I don't really have the time or skill to do. 

So Ann began looking around on the internet to see if she could find any help.  Turns out I'm not the first homeschooling parent with a seminary background who's trying to teach Greek to their kids.  We've found two sets of curriculum for this purpose that might work.  The Elementary Greek: Koine for Beginners series by Christine Gatchell looks to have the best textbook, while the Hey Andrew! workbooks by Karen Moh seem to have the best workbooks (more translating).  We're going to buy some of each and try them out.  Hopefully I'll be able to keep teaching Jacen without having to spend time writing my own material.

Family Ski Trip

For the past 3 years Jacen and I have taken a father-son ski trip to Snowshoe.  Since Emilee is now 5, we decided to make it a family trip and all go together.  We rented a cabin with some friends and skied together.  As we hoped, Emilee loved skiing.  Her ski school instructor said she was "fearless" and ready for the next level.  She has nice balance and can manage the bunny slopes pretty much on her own.  In his class this year Jacen learned to control his speed by carving; I was quite pleased with his progress this year.  He is quite capable of skiing any of the blues on the mountain.  Ann spent most of her time scrapbooking and taking a well-deserved break.  Overall, it was a great family vacation.

Marble Machine

We built a new marble machine tonight, one that reaches to the ceiling fan in our living room.

XBox 360

Well, I have a 360 now.  A good friend of our family gave us one.  Yep, gave.  Their 360 died, but since it was after the warranty, they bought another.  Then Microsoft extended the warranty, allowing them to get their 1st one fixed and leaving them with a spare.  Neat.  Pardon me while I go shoot some bad guys...

Game: First Impressions of Through the Desert

Through the Desert is a pleasant mix of Ticket to Ride, Go, and La Strada.  You score points by building camel caravans (with pastel camels, no less!) that connect to water holes and oases and surround territory on the board.  There's never enough time to do what you want before someone else squeezes you out.  The game has been enjoyed by everyone who has played it so far.  There's no element of chance in the game, so it probably appeals more to the hard core gamer than the casual gamer.

Rating: good game.

Photos: Fishing with Dad

Dad took me fishing while we were in VA for the Christmas holidays.  We went out past the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel to the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, some 17 miles out.  The striper were hitting the bait fish on the surface, and we caught several.  My biggest was this 37 inch, 18 pound striper caught on a shad lure.  Thanks for the fun, Dad!

Game: First Impressions of Hansa

Eric and Karen also bought us the board game Hansa.  It's a buying and selling sort of game set in the 15th century Baltic cities.  The primary challenge of the game never having enough resources to do everything I want to do.  The rules are not really that hard, but they are a bit difficult to pick up.  We spent our first game just getting used to the mechanics.  I don't think my 7 year old could pick up this game. 

The game itself is both fun and challenging, but it is short-term, since you can't do much to prepare for the future.  And you can't even plan your next turn, since the board will probably change as the other players move.

Rating:  good game.

Game: First Impressions of For Sale

Eric and Karen bought us the card game For Sale for Christmas.  It's both simple and short.  The game has 2 phases.  The first uses a bidding mechanism to buy houses; the second uses a bluffing mechanism to sell them.  The mechanics are simple enough that my 5 year old should be able to learn, but there's enough complexity to keep adults thinking.  It looks to be both a great game for the whole family and for introducing non-gamer friends to the genre of German games.

Game: Keesdrow Deluxe

A friend bought our family Keesdrow Deluxe as a Christmas present.  We sat down today as a family to play it.  It's essentially Scrabble meets Boogle.  If you like making works like Boogle on a board that looks like Scrabble, you'll like this game.

Testing Windows Live Writer (Beta)

Although I own my own domain, I blog using Blogger, which makes posting my blog entries very easy.  The default way to post is to log in at the Blogger website and use their web-based editor.  But web-based editors like this are usually short on features, not to mention inconvenient.  What I need is a blog editor that is its own Windows program.

For the last couple years I've used w.bloggar.  It's ok.  It works.  But it's quirky to say the least.  And probably 20% of the time it tells me it can't submit the post to my website.  I have no idea why.  Maybe it's not even w.bloggar's fault, but it sure is annoying.  So I've been on the lookout for a new editor.

Then I found Windows Live Writer.  It's a new blog editor from Microsoft.  Although designed to work with Live Spaces, it works with a variety of other blogs as well.  So I'm giving it a try.  So far so good. 

Now let's see if this baby can actually publish to my blog...

Studies in James

I continue to study and write my way through the book of James. I'm writing my own Sunday School curriculum for the book, and then I'm teaching from it. I've finished through chapter 3. Hmmm, 18 lessons to get through 3 chapters - that's not exactly your typical Sunday School quarterly. But then, that's the point. ;-)

Photo: Jacen and Halo 2

We had some friends over recently, a family with two girls (plus one more that tagged along). Somehow Jacen persuaded all three of them to play Halo 2 with him. Unbelievable. But even 1-on-3 he took them. That's my boy!

Challenges to truth

John MacArthur sums up the challenges to truth from the last 45 years:

• 60's & 70's - Inerrancy - The Bible has errors, said the liberals.


• 80's & 90's - Sufficiency - The Bible needs help, said the charismatics and the Christian psychologists


• late 90's & earlier 00's - Relevance - The Bible is not a priority, said the seeker-sensitivers.


• 00's - Perspicuity - The Bible is unclear so truth is unneeded, said the emergant churchers.

Read the entire article, then look for more articles on the Emerging Church on his website, Pulpit Magazine.