Timothy's Thoughts

D espite the claims of some people, there isn’t much people can do to guarantee that a book will be a bestseller. You can dump a bunch of money into it and that might produce more sales, but the sales may not be enough to recover the cost. But consider the book Heaven is for Real from Thomas Nelson, which has recently had a quick climb up the bestseller lists and compare it to The Shack , which had a similar climb a few months ago. They are so alike that we could almost classify them as a genre. Both books handle the unknown. The Shack paints a picture of God, while Heaven is for Real paints a picture of heaven. They are both written by Bible scholars. They both have an emotional draw that makes the general reader feel good about the topic. They both disregard the clear teaching of the Bible concerning the topics they discuss. If you scan the Google search results for these books, what you’ll find is a fairly even distribution between those readers who are impressed with the book ...

T he saying “Preach the gospel at all times; use words if necessary,” is often attributed to Giovanni Francesco di Bernardone (Francis of Assisi), though no one seems to be able to find any evidence that he actually said this. No matter who coined the saying, it grits the gourd of some folks. The saying itself sounds rather profound because of the irony built into it. When we hear someone talking about preaching the gospel, we immediately think of someone using the spoken word, since that is what preaching is, but then it turns it around to imply that words may not be necessary. In a way, that sounds good because it is very important that our actions reveal the love of God. We can also think of the sermons people preach and the lessons they teach, and we can see ways in which they might get the point across better if they would show us what they mean rather than just lecturing. The problem with this statement is that words are always necessary. What we do to show the love of God thro...

M oms are great. They come in all shapes and sizes. There are big moms, little moms, fat moms, and skinny moms. There are good moms and bad moms. There are gentle moms and mean moms. There are smart moms and dumb moms. There are pretty moms and ugly moms. But whatever they are, they are our moms and most of us are pretty happy with that. Moms are special. It’s an odd sort of thing that no matter how a mother might treat her children, there’s always that bond. Some children wish their mothers were better people. Some children don’t get along with their mother. Some children don’t see their mother for years, but she’s still their mother. I can only thank God that I don’t have a mother like that, but even if she were, I would love her. And then there are those mothers who came to motherhood in an odd sort of way. I suppose I have a fascination with mothers who adopt children. I wrote two books about mothers like that. ( Searching for Mom and Mother Not Wanted ) You kind of think that...

E arlier this week, I said that there is some confusion among Baptists concerning the tradition of dancing. Some have pointed to verses in the Bible (and rightly so) that tell us to praise the Lord with dance and have suggested that the tradition itself is wrong. God calls for dancing, so let’s dance, they say. Then there are those who don’t know why Baptists don’t dance, but that’s the way grandma taught it, so let’s keep those feet still. Then there are those who say that as long as we’re not dancing in the church building, it’s alright. You get the picture. It isn’t as clear as it was when everyone said that Baptists don’t dance. In the Bible, we find dancing that is appropriate and dancing that is inappropriate. (Ecclesiastes 3:4) That sounds simple enough, but how do we draw the line between the two? Psalm 149:3 and Psalm 150:4 appear to be talking about appropriate dancing in praise to God. When you look at the Second Baptist Houston video , it wouldn’t be hard to argue both wa...

Y esterday, we looked at tradition in meetings. In that situation, relying on tradition can be useful because it allows the meeting to run smoothly even when there are people involved who haven’t spent a lot of time planning for the meeting. This is especially important when the president is elected at the beginning of the meeting, as sometimes happens. But churches also have traditions. Once again, some traditions are good, while others make us wonder why we’re still doing them. I grew up in a small church. Like many churches, we would take up the offering just before the preaching service. That tradition was good in that we needed to take up the offering sometime and we might as well do it when people were expecting it. The church was small enough that they only needed one usher. He would carry the plate around to the various people, then he would place it on the table in front of the pulpit. Finally, he would cover it with a smaller offering plate we had. If he couldn’t find that,...

W hen I attended the BMAA annual meeting, the president of the association preached on the first night. The president’s message has become a tradition in recent years. There has always been an annual message. That is also traditional. But on the first night, one of the vice-presidents got up and did another traditional thing. He expressed the appreciation of the association for the sermon. It is traditional for someone to be asked to get up in front of the association after a sermon, shake the preacher’s hand and express gratitude for the sermon, usually summarizing the message as he does. There is also a tradition of someone getting up to introduce the speaker before the sermon. I’m not sure how these traditions got started, but they have become a part of nearly every church association I’ve been involved with. At the meeting, a group of us were sitting around discussing a few things and one of the things that came up was the level of planning of the worship services. Considering th...

T he idea that our Baptist predecessors might have been wrong in prohibiting dancing doesn’t bother me as much as how much it seems like people have such a disdain for tradition these days. I’ve heard of music directors who refuse to use any song in the church worship service that is older than ten years old. There are preachers who refuse to wear a suit and tie because they see it as steeped in tradition or they’re trying to impress “the young people” and yet, if you turn on the television, many of the actors on shows and the show hosts are wearing suits and ties. Some are even wearing vests with their suits. But I’m not trying to argue that every pastor should wear a suit and tie, just that not wearing one to break with tradition isn’t a great reason. What is tradition? The word itself might bring to mind the Thanksgiving turkey or opening gifts on Christmas morning or a bride wearing a white dress. But if we really think about it, tradition is society’s way of passing down a way o...