"For the Christian Who Is Afraid To Die" by Tim Challies

 There is little we can know scientifically about what happens after we die. There are no experiments we can carry out that offer conclusive evidence of what happens when the eyes close for the final time, when the heart at last stops beating. We know, of course, that the body will immediately begin to decline and decay, but what of the consciousness, what of the soul, what of that part of a person that makes him what he most truly is? It is that uncertainty that, for so many, leads to fear of death.

What we know of life after death we must know by faith. And what does the faithful heart believe about the experience of death? James Meikle beautifully tells us in these words.

Why so much complaint of death? It is true, death is the fruit of sin, for by sin, death came into the world. But it is also true, that death is the finisher of sin to the godly—for by death sin shall be cast out forever. Sin, conveyed to us in our conception, is so interwoven with the human frame, that the tie must be dissolved between the soul and body, before a full and final separation can take place between the soul and sin. Who then, would fear the furnace, which is only to consume the dross, that the gold may come forth without alloy? What candidate for heaven would be averse to lay down mortality—in order to take up immortality; to put off this corruptible body—in order to put on incorruption? to have his body sown in dishonor—in order to be raised in honor and glory; and to have the soul dislodged from his body—that sin might be dislodged from his soul?

Why, then, should I be displeased at such a glorious exchange? To lay down frail flesh, feeble nature, all my lusts and passions, all my occasions and temptations to sin, all my infirmities and imperfections—and to be clothed with perfect beauty and eternal glory—should rather transport than perplex me. Why tremble at the ghastly gloom, that shall beam into a boundless noon; or startle at the dark step that shall usher me into eternal day? If my separation for a few years from my friends, issues in uninterrupted communion with God, is not the change most happy? If my distant views, and dim glances of the land afar off, and the King in his beauty, pass away—that the nearest approaches, most steady views, and brightest visions, may eternally take place—am not I a gainer to the highest degree?

Then, Lord, take away the sting of death, and at your appointed time, through faith, I shall fly into death’s arms, not dismayed at his cold embrace—but burning with a heavenly desire to be forever with the Lord—which is far better than all the happiness of crowns and thrones below!

Are Paper Bibles Better? How Screens Shape Our Reading by David Mathis

 

It was a gift from my parents back in 2001. For weeks I had waited, and there it was under the tree on Christmas Eve, from Mom and Pop: a first-edition English Standard Version. My first new Bible after leaving home. It would be the first Bible that I would read from cover to cover — and keep reading. In fact, it’s still in daily use today, almost twenty years later. The pages are tattered and torn, for sure. Some old markings are helpful; others distracting. The cover came unattached at some point. My wife had it recovered for Father’s Day last year, and that has given it new life.

Many times along the way, I thought I was retiring it. With each passing month, the world was becoming more digital, and I suspected at times that sticking with paper might be backward. For seasons, I tried my hand at morning reading on a laptop, or an iPad. I had the longest run with a Kindle. The digital media offered quick clicks to study notes and commentaries, as well as the ability to copy and paste for other uses.

But mysteriously, the devices seemed to wear on me over time. Whether it was eyes or my brain or just the feel of paper, I felt like I was missing something with pixels. My soul didn’t seem quite as settled, quite as calm and at peace, when I looked at a screen. And I was far more easily distracted on those devices. Somehow or other, I kept making my way back to my old paper Bible.

Now perhaps I’m beginning to learn why.

Read the Bible Differently

I want to invite you, here at the outset of a new year, to join me in doing something countercultural: get a paper Bible and learn to read it differently from your phone and other screens, and make the words of God your rock in a world of multiplied words of sand. You don’t need an old tattered, torn, marked up, and re-covered Bible like mine. You might consider, though, whether paper might make a difference in your time alone with God. There is some research to consider, not just my experience.

I won’t pretend this invitation is for everyone. If you’re happy with your screen, and not falling into the pitfalls of digital distraction and shortened attention span, well and good. This is no new law. Just a missive from the margins of the digital world. No more than a gentle nudge.

Deep Reading Versus Shallow

It’s been ten years now since Nicholas Carr famously sounded the alarm in his book The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains. “Calm, focused, undistracted, the linear mind is being pushed aside by a new kind of mind that wants and needs to take in and dole out information in short, disjointed, often overlapping bursts — the faster, the better.” With each passing year, more voices raise questions and join the chorus.

Some today talk of our “bi-literate” brains. For now, we have learned to develop two kinds of reading, paired with particular media. One is more linear, slower, deeper, deliberate, logical, coherent, sustained, and on paper. The other: more nonlinear, fast, scattered, disjointed, and shallower, as we browse and scan, eyes jumping or darting around the page, digital.

Precious Milliseconds

According to Maryanne Wolf, director of the Center for Reading and Language Research at Tufts University, increased speed is not a simple net gain.

We need to understand the value of what we may be losing when we skim text so rapidly that we skip the precious milliseconds of deep reading processes. For it is within these moments — and these processes in our brains — that we might reach our own important insights and breakthroughs.

And if we would be naïve to take lightly the loss of these “precious milliseconds” in our other reading, how much more with the words of God? If any of our reading might reward more care, more patience, more diligence, more deliberateness, would it not be the intake of God’s own words in Scripture?

The issue is of particular significance for Christians, for Bible-readers, for “the People of the Book” that the church has been for centuries. Just last year, Karen Swallow Prior, professor of English at Southeastern Seminary, writing for Christians on how screens are changing the way we read Scripture, noted that “reading on digital devices does not create the same kind of brain circuits as deep reading” and warned of “the habit of superficial comprehension developed in digital reading.”

She concludes with a strong claim that may surprise many readers: “As a ‘People of the Book,’ Christians have a particular calling to preserve and promote the gift of deep reading from physical Bibles.”

Meditation, Not Medium

The main reality I want to commend here is meditation, if not medium — how you read, not whether it’s paper or pixels. The Bible is the kind of book, of all books, designed to be read slowly, deeply, thoughtfully, repeatedly.

Ancient texts, especially the biblical text, were not written like so much of our content is today — quickly, for quick publication, and for quick reading. Rather, as Alastair Roberts observes, “When books were rare and costly, texts tended to be much more dense with meaning, rewarding forms of attentive reading that are uncommon in our age.” The Bible is a book like that. Ancient. Slowly written, not rushed off to press. Carefully copied. Meant for slow, thoughtful, careful reading — and multiple readings. And here’s where I want to push against the grain today: I want to enjoy the rewards of “forms of attentive reading that are uncommon in our age.” Paper helps me.

I am not making a case for slow, paper reading only and no digital. The ship has sailed on digital. We can’t avoid it. We will read digital. And it is a tremendous gift. Almost certainly you are reading these very words digitally. That is all well and good. I don’t know that digital is ruining us. But if we lose the ability to read deeply, that would be a great loss.

And nowhere would that loss be felt more than in the pages of Scripture. In a world awash in digital, where it takes intentionality to keep your reading diversified between paper and plasma, and not have it all simply be on screens, there may be wisdom in not going fully paperless, especially when it comes to the words of God.

Slow Down, Read Deep

At the end of the day, of course, the issue isn’t the medium but meditation. Slow reading. Deep reading. Steeping your mind and heart in God’s words, rather than skimming. Slowing down enough to let the text truly speak to you, shape you, read you, wreck you, rather than browsing paragraphs for data to fit preconceived notions.

The Psalms frequently celebrate the kind of life formed and filled by meditating on God’s words day and night (Psalm 1:2; 63:6; 119:97). Such meditation happens by slowing down, fixing our eyes (Psalm 119:15) on God and his wondrous works (Psalm 119:27; 145:5), pondering him (Psalm 77:12; 143:5) in our hearts (Psalm 19:14; 49:3; 77:6).

If you’re honest, is that something you regularly experience when you are reading on a screen? Some do. And some of us seem to get help here from paper. For whatever enigmatic reasons, I have found my old paper Bible helps me slow down and read deeply.

So, again, I invite you to join me. But whether it’s paper or not, learn to read the Bible differently from your phone and other screens. These are the words of God. Slow down. Chew. Give yourself those “precious milliseconds,” and ask God to extend them into precious extra minutes of meditation as you pause to enjoy God himself in his word.

From the Shepherd's Heart...Praying for the Persecuted Church

 

There are an estimated 750,000 to 1.2 million Christians converts living in Iran today. Most, if not all, are converted from Islam having "seen the light." God is giving dreams of Jesus to these unconverted souls and they are coming to Christ. I do not understand how God is doing it, but He is and He doesn't have to explain it to me.

The Iranian government cannot stop the move of the Spirit and the gospel. Pray for these believers who are living under great persecution. Pray for them to preserve.

As I read about these followers of Christ, they are under attack from family members, sometimes even a spouse who has not come to Christ. These spouses will even restrict time and availability to their children afraid the follower of Christ will influence their children. Their employers can make it hard on them since most of the employers are Muslims (though in name only but must keep-up-the-appearance of following Islam). The court system is filled with Islamic followers who throw Christians into prison in harsh and inhuman conditions.

Then ask the question, Lord, why do we in America not have to suffer like these brothers-and-sisters? We believe the same gospel as they do and follow the same Christ. This is a question I have long asked myself. Some say, "We live in American with freedom of religion - that is why we don't suffer." But freedom of religion does not make Christianity easier - it might make us more blinded to the truth.

False religion in America can even be in the form of cultural Christianity. As a missionary in a Muslim country said to me one day while sitting at a red light in his Muslim country, "Every county has its cultural religion. Ours in America is Christianity."

The Lord said to me the other day, "We are all playing the game at some level or another." Ask God to reveal where we "are playing the game" of following Christ and repent. Don't be a luke-warm Christian. Others, even in the church, will scoff and ridicule because most of us only know a cultural Christianity that is acceptable and pleasant.

"Little Screens and Corporate Worship" by H.B. Charles, Jr.

 My local theater has a new “Silence Your Cell Phones” announcement.

It states that you came to the theater to enjoy what is on the big screen. And you should not allow the little screen on your cell phone to make you forget what you came to see on the big screen. This is not the time for selfies, text messages, or social media. It is time to drink a cola, eat a tub of popcorn, and enjoy the happenings on the big screen in front of you.

Movies are for entertainment. It may be a comedy, drama, horror, historical, adventure, fantasy, or action flick. But the goal is that you leave the theater entertained. Yet theaters feel what is happening on the screen is important enough to ask you to stay off your phones while the moving is playing.

Is this too much to ask when you go to church to publicly and corporately worship the Lord Jesus Christ?

Our cell phones and tablets constantly add useful functions. As a result, some do not feel the need to come to church with anything but an iPad. Their Bibles and journals for note-taking are on the tablet. And they don’t need an envelope anymore. They can give an offering through their cell phone.

The apps on our devices make life so much easier. But they make worship more difficult. Cells and tablets distract you from the truth, fellowship, and service that should characterize corporate worship.

Social media is a great way to connect with family and friends. We instinctively share with our friends and followers things that catch our interest throughout the day. And this instinct naturally continues when we are in corporate worship. As we are blessed in worship, we immediately share it on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram. If something silly happens in worship, we do the same.

Is this a good thing?

I am becoming increasingly convinced that when we start sharing or recording the moment we are no longer worshiping God.

Worship is our response to God’s intoxicating worthiness. Worship happens as we forget about ourselves and are consumed with the greatness of God. How do you stand in awe of God and share it on social media at the same time?

If a man is making love to his wife and stops to grab his phone to film it, he is no longer making love to his wife. He is making pornography. I am concerned that our devices are causing the pornification of corporate worship. Your need to commune with God in worship should not be undermined by the possibility that someone will benefit from seeing it later on social media.

The worship service is building you up. You don’t want to be selfish. So you grab your phone and capture the moment to share with your friends and followers later. But this selfless act is very selfish. Your concern for friends on social media totally ignores the friends you are sitting in worship with! Is your media use distracting others around you who are trying to meet God?

Movie theaters adopt cell phone policies to save money. People are staying away from theaters because cell phone use ruins the experience. Arguments and fights have broken out when someone is asked to turn off their phone. A person was actually shot and killed in a dispute that started over texting during the movie.

Corporate worship is not a public version of your prayer closet. It is a family dinner at a fine restaurant, not a fast-food meal on your couch in front of the TV. Worship etiquette should be practiced out of reverence for God and respect for your fellow worshipers.

Pastors must lead the way, teaching and modeling the gravity of worship. In corporate worship, we should point our congregations away from the ever-present technology that dominates so much of our lives. Many church members go all week without spending time in prayer and scripture. They have too many things distracting them. What makes you think those distractions can facilitate true worship on Sunday mornings?

True worship is to look up! How can you teach your people to reverence the transcendence of God when you are taking congregational selfies in the pulpit?

I admit that I am a young-old fogey who needs to get with the times. Technology is here to stay. And it will only grow more prevalent as time goes by. It is unrealistic to think these realities will have no bearing on corporate worship.

Where do you draw the line? At what point does the use of technology morph the worship service into something else? Is a movie theater more sacred than the house of worship?

Editor’s Note: This originally published at HBCharlesJr.com