Don’t Move the Fences (Part Two)

by Mike Avery, posted in All Articles, Christian Living

– Summer of 1996

Don’t Move the Fences (Part Two)

Looking around the world scene, we note a real sense of apprehension—a genuine uneasiness, a pronounced fear, and a bewildering confusion. The church has not been exempt from this menacing uneasiness. The church and world alike are suffering from the systematic rejection of values, morals and convictions long held by Christians in particular, and by western civilization in general.

When these restraining principles for life and practice are lost, then we lose the very “retaining walls” that keep the foundation of civilization from being washed away in an onslaught of secularism. I would suggest to you that we are experiencing erosion of these foundations in three very important areas in today’s Christian culture.

First, we have lost a sense of eternity. When men no longer feel that life has destiny, they soon cease to believe that life has meaning and value. A lost sense of eternity will redefine our existence. John Wesley, who spent countless days on horseback, sleeping her and there and preaching the gospel, was a man with a keen sense of eternity. He wrote in his journal after spending a delightful evening in a very palatial home, “I like a nice bed, a beautiful room, and lovely grounds; but I believe in eternity. Hence I will arise early and be on my way.”

When we lose a sense of eternity, we become materialistic. Materialistic causes us to view life through a totally different lens than God intended us to use. We begin to focus on what we wear, what we eat, what we live in, and how much we make. Like Lot we view the well-watered plains of Jordan as something desirable and drive out tent pegs deeply in this modern-day Sodom. Materialism quickly leads to secularism; and secularism will take us down a treacherous slope to hedonism, where we shamelessly “belly-up” to this world’s cafeteria of constant pleasure. Fun and folly become the norms of life.

Once a sense of eternity has slipped from our consciousness, we next lose a sense of morality. When a man’s moral compass can no longer point to absolute truth, his ability to discern right and wrong become impossible. With right and wrong disregarded, decency, propriety, and purity are no longer virtues to emulate, but something to mock. Issues of clean language, modest attire, and sexual purity become irrelevant matters of legalistic behavior that ought to have died sooner. In the words of Chesterton, “We insist on becoming completely unstrained but will only succeed in being completely unbuttoned.”

The last foundation we lose is a sense of accountability. When accountability goes, so does our conscience. With no conscience to guide, men suppress, subvert and ultimately scorn God’s truth. The cry of the pagan, “evil be thou my good,” becomes the philosophy of the man from skid row to Wall Street. Abortion, euthanasia, adultery, lying, and stealing are only methods to accomplish a desired end rather than sins that would damn a man to Hell.

Reader, be careful! Recklessly removing the ancient landmarks of our godly forefathers can result in a dangerous confusion of where the lines really lie in the land. Before you remove the fence, make sure you ask yourself why it was put there to start with. The cost of defiance and reckless destruction of God’s fundamental truths can be eternally devastating.

Don’t Move the Fences (Part One)

by Mike Avery, posted in All Articles, Christian Living

–May of 1996

Don’t Move the Fences (Part One)

Researchers tell us that groups of small children play with greater freedom and security when playing in an area with a well-defined perimeter like a fence.  If you remove the fence, the children become uneasy and fearful; and they cluster together in a central area as if danger were near.

Parents know that the most well-adjusted teenagers are those who live in well-structured homes with well-defined guidelines and limits on behavior.  History has proven as well that any unit of people—whether as small as a city or as large as a country—live with less stress and greater happiness when the laws and values that affect and control their behavior are clearly articulated and promptly enforced.

Looking around at the world scene, there is a real sense of apprehension—a genuine uneasiness, a pronounced fear, and a bewildering confusion which have all increased steadily as we have systematically rejected and cast aside values, morals and convictions long held by civilized people.

Unfortunately, the church has not been exempt from this menacing uneasiness.  Church leaders have betrayed their trust by casting aside as burdensome baggage the long-held convictions and traditions that have guided and aided God’s people for centuries.  They have suggested that they are only the useless fodder of the biblically illiterate.  They have tossed them aside without ever really examining why they were there to start with.  G.K. Chesterton said it pointedly, clearly, and almost prophetically: “Whenever you remove a fence, it is imperative that you find out why it was put there in the first place.”  Fences are being removed, and nobody is really asking the question why they were there to start with.  In our mad haste to accommodate uncontroverted worldlings seeking a self-centered hedonism rather than a Christ-centered holiness, we are casting off what the church has held dear for hundreds of years.  This so-called attempt to show our openness has instead only advertised to the world our decadence and has left the faithful feeling betrayed, confused and empty.

If confusion and betrayal were the only consequences of our present dilemma, we would still have sufficient reason to raise our voice.  However, they are only the firstfruits of our folly.  The more serious consequence is the destruction of some of the very foundational beliefs that keep the church anchored in God and obedient to Scripture.  Any time behavioral patterns change, theological positions (belief about God) must be altered to accommodate those changes.

In my next article I will share what I fear to be the most significant threats to the very foundations of the Church in this present world.

Bring Me the Books

by Mike Avery, posted in All Articles, Education

–February of 1996

Bring Me the Books

A minister and his family were visiting John Bunyan’s home in Bedford, England.  While walking through his house, now a museum, they were overwhelmed by the world-wide impact of his book The Pilgrim’s Progress.  Outside of the Bible, no book in history has been translated into so many languages and enjoyed such voluminous sales.  As he was leaving the house, he remarked to the woman at the ticket desk how thrilling it was that an ordinary tinker had told a story of salvation in such lucid and imaginary terms.  The woman looked up somewhat embarrassed and said, “I suppose it is a great book; I have never read it.”  And so it is that even one surrounded wall-to-wall by one of the best-selling books of all time could leave it unread.

The Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy from prison, “Bring me the books.”  Paul knew a book could break the mind out beyond the bounds of prison and bring freedom.  Everyone should know the joy of reading.  Every parent should make it a priority in encouraging his children to read.  At present, our family is reading the Bible through individually, and together we are reading through the Book of Virtues, as well as other books of personal interest and edification.  Books are important.  They are important to God; indeed they are so important that He gave us the “Book of all books.”  I am absolutely convinced that the books one reads help mold one’s life more purposely and eternally than we ever realize.  History will show not only what good books have done, but what bad books have done in either advancing or ruining not only individuals but nations.  It is easy to see what the writings of Voltaire and Karl Marx did to darken the minds and retard the progress of millions while creating a humanistic state.  Just what part evil literature has played in the present moral breakdown throughout the world will never be known until men are called forth to answer to a Holy God for their unholy deeds.  What we do not know is that thousands of young people had their first doubt about God and the Bible, and their first foray into sin, because of the influence of godless literature.

On the other hand, the reading of a good book can produce quite the opposite effect.  Many people are in the Church today because they were brought to Christ by the reading of a good book.  Thousands have witnessed the power of a lowly gospel tract to capture the mind and focus the attention on God and salvation.

I am convinced that it is the humiliation of the word in our time that has beggared us more than anything else.  When our society laid down its books (not only religious books, but good books of all sorts) and began to listen to the steady dribble of radio and television, our society experienced intellectual meltdown and moral decay.

I believe revival can be aided by the return to reading.  This includes not only reading the Word of God, but reading the writings of the early saints.  Biographical writings of men and women who have lived godly and noble lives, if read, can once again put the Christian life back in its lofty and noble place in the minds of another generation.

It is my conviction for reading and for books that produces such excitement in announcing the donation of the private library of Dr. H.E. Schmul to God’s Bible School.  These books and papers will be housed in a ministerial research center where our young “preacher-boys” can go and spend time perusing through one of the most outstanding holiness libraries anywhere in the holiness movement.  It is my hope that in placing this private library on our campus in a prominent place and making it available to our ministerial students, we here at God’s Bible School and College can have a part in the revival of reading good books, which I believe will have a part in the revival of the Church.

Bethlehem’s Cradle

by Mike Avery, posted in All Articles, Holiday

—December of 1996

Bethlehem’s Cradle—The World’s Hope!

One Christmas Eve over a century ago, an American Episcopal minister was riding horseback across the Judean hills in Palestine.  He stopped his horse at a hillside clearing near the very place where shepherds “watched their flocks by night” so long ago.  Reverently he surveyed his surroundings.  Above him flickered the same stars that looked down upon the new-born Christ-child centuries earlier; below him, sleeping in the darkness, were the narrow streets of the village of Bethlehem.

Though the air that night was cold, the heart of the notable preacher was warmed as he worshiped in his outdoor sanctuary.  The scene so transfixed itself upon his mind that upon returning to America, Rev. Phillips Brooks captured the panoramic wonder of that evening in the words of a poem which he later gave to his church organist, Lewis Redner, who set the verses to music.  You will recognize the familiar carol:

O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie!

            Above thy deep and dreamless sleep, the silent stars go by.

            Then Brooks penned this astounding, but time-honored evaluation:

            Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting Light,

            The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight!

What an incredible expression of optimism!  The hopes and fears of all the years find their fulfillment and resolution in the Baby of Bethlehem!  Born in obscurity under inauspicious circumstances, this Child would be hailed as the Saviour of the world; the Conqueror of death, hell, and the grave; the Prince of Peace and the King of Kings!  What an antidote for a restless and chaotic world!

As this article goes to press, our nation has just reelected a controversial President to another four-year term.  While his reelection may raise the prospect of hope in some circles, it incites great fear, even dread, in many among our ranks.  Some are counting on a Republican Congress to check the President’s administrative authority.  Others are skeptical about the resolve of Congress to do so.  Stir into the political casserole a few on-going foreign affairs, crises such as unrest in Israel and continued involvement in the Persian Gulf.  Flavor it with reports of increased drug use among teens and the murderous lyrics of gangster rap that pounds in the heads of America’s youth, and it’s enough to give a person emotional indigestion!

But above the noise, confusion and political turmoil of our world, as hope and fear continue to battle within the hearts of men, it is fitting that we conclude this year by quietly reflecting upon the coming of One who fulfills every hope and calms every fear!  While we are rightly concerned about political trends, and while we are responsible to do what we can to influence government, we simultaneously recognize that our hope is not ultimately in a political party.  Nor is our deepest trust in the latest peace treaty or some new bureaucratic social program.  The confidence of the Christian must remain today where it has always been—in the birth, life, death, resurrection and soon return of the Baby of Bethlehem; for therein, and only therein, is every hope fulfilled and every fear resolved!

The Necessity of Preaching

by Mike Avery, posted in All Articles, Ministry

—January of 1996

The Necessity of Preaching

Preaching is indispensable to Christianity.  To set aside preaching would be to close the mouth and sever the legs of the Christian religion.  Preaching has been central to the ministry of the Church historically, and especially so to those in the holiness tradition.  The holiness movement has produced and profited from some of the greatest expositors and pulpiteers of this century.  So why has the standard of preaching in the contemporary holiness church become so deplorable?  Why are our finest preacher boys finding their heroes among popular Calvinistic communicators?  Why are our parishioners turning to self-help counselors and psychologists rather than to faithful men of God for answers to life’s perplexing problems?

Much of the current uncertainty about preaching is due to a generation of preachers who have lost confidence in the Word of God.  Too often the contemporary preacher uses the Bible as a curiosity shop.  He peruses through it until some palatable proof text emerges as a snappy sound bite on which to tack his latest self-help lecture.  These pulpit vagabonds fail to see that Scripture is the omnipotence of God unleashed through the spoken word, and that it holds the answers to life’s most desperate needs.  When preached and responded to, it will radically change lives.

The art of preaching is further brought into scorn by preachers who have caved in to today’s culture.  Ours is a culture that demeans the personal disciplines necessary to become an effective preacher.  The ability to build bridges from the Word of God to contemporary life takes an unbelievable amount of hard work and study.  A man who snubs through study will be doomed to mediocrity and ambiguity.  Too many holiness pulpits lack a clear, definite, certain sound that is forged only on the anvil of study.  So many church-goers are like the small girl wearied by empty utterances.  She appealed, “Mother, pay the man, and let us go home.”

However, study alone isn’t the answer.  Scholarship that isn’t steeped in prayer will yield barrenness.  The preacher who allows day after day of prayerlessness to prevail in his heart need expect no grapes of Eschol to hang over the wall of his preaching on Sunday morning.

I have a major concern that today’s holiness pulpit suffers from a “lack of history.”  Eugene Sterner, in his book Vital Christianity, wisely comments, “Clocks are corrected by astronomy.  What good is a clock if it is not set by the stars?  Without a sense of eternity [and history] you don’t even know what time it is.”  The preacher who fails to understand his roots and properly appreciate his heritage is usually condemned to repeat its mistakes.  Some view their heritage as a bothersome bundle of historical baggage burdening them down.  They exaggerate the mistakes and eccentricities of yesterday’s pulpiteers in order to nullify the claims of their legacy, much like the adolescent craving freedom from restraint seeks to repudiate his father.

The effective preacher, without making the past a hitching post, does own his heritage, embraces it with gratitude, incorporates it into his identity, and utilizes it to the fullest in communicating eternal truth that rings with clarity.

Preaching is here to stay!  Men who join hands with God and preach with certainty will find that through their labors God will advance His kingdom.