PreachingNow

This Sunday is Mother's Day, so I thought you'd enjoy this list of things our mothers taught us:

My Mother taught me LOGIC: "If you fall off that swing and break your neck, you can't go to the store with me," as well as, "If everyone else jumped off a cliff would you do it too?"
My Mother taught me MEDICINE: "If you don't stop crossing your eyes, they're going to freeze that way."
My Mother taught me TO THINK AHEAD: "If you don't pass your spelling test, you'll never get a good job!"
My Mother taught me TO MEET A CHALLENGE: "What were you thinking? Answer me when I talk to you... Don't talk back to me!"
My Mother taught me HUMOR: "When that lawn mower cuts off your toes, don't come running to me."
My Mother taught me how to BECOME AN ADULT: "If you don't eat your vegetables, you'll never grow up.
My mother taught me about GENETICS: "You are just like your father!"
My mother taught me about my ROOTS: "Do you think you were born in a barn?"
My mother taught me about the WISDOM of AGE: "When you get to be my age, you will understand," or, "I will explain it all when you get older."
My mother taught me about ANTICIPATION: "Just wait until your father gets home."
My mother taught me about RECEIVING: "You are going to get it when I get you home."
My mother taught me RELIGION: "You better pray that will come out of the carpet."
My mother taught me about TIME TRAVEL: "If you don't straighten up, I'm going to knock you into the middle of next week!"
My mother taught me FORESIGHT: "Make sure you wear clean underwear, in case you're in an accident."
My mother taught me about the science of OSMOSIS: "Shut your mouth and eat your supper!"
My mother taught me about CONTORTIONISM: "Will you *look* at the dirt on the back of your neck!"
My mother taught me about STAMINA: "You'll sit there until all that spinach is finished."
My mother taught me about WEATHER: "It looks as if a tornado swept through your room."
My mother taught me about HYPOCRISY: "If I've told you once, I've told you a million times: Don't Exaggerate!"
My mother taught me THE CIRCLE OF LIFE: "I brought you into this world, and I can take you out."
My mother taught me about BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION: "Stop acting like your father!"
My mother taught me about ENVY: "There are millions of less fortunate children in this world who don't have wonderful parents like you do!"
And the all time favorite thing my mother taught me, JUSTICE: "One day you will have kids, and I hope they turn out just like you. Then you'll see what it's like! I can't wait!"

Thanks, Mom, for all the things you taught me!

Michael Duduit, Editor
michael@preaching.com
www.michaelduduit.com

Click here to visit "I Was Just Thinking" for insights and observations about faith and culture issues.

Preaching wins EPA award

In the interest of full disclosure (and because we love to toot our own horn on those rare occasions when the opportunity allows), allow us to report that Preaching magazine received the first place award in the "Christian Ministries" publication category in the annual Evangelical Press Association awards last week in Chicago.

Judge's comments included: "Kudos! Good writing — consistently. This is quality work. The editorial team has done a very good job."

Now we just wish we could have afforded to attend the convention and hear all that in person!

Men respond to images more than words

In his fascinating book Why Men Hate Going to Church (Nelson Books), David Murrow discusses a variety of ways in which today's worship is oriented toward the way women learn, not men. He explains that it's a problem rooted in the brain:

"The regions of a female's brain that are devoted to language are larger than their equivalent in the male. Girls outperform boys by huge margins on tests of verbal fluency. Studies reveal that women use more of their brains during speech, which makes them much better at expressing themselves verbally. Other studies show that a typical woman speaks 20,000 to 25,000 words a day, while a typical man speaks just 7,000 to 10,000. . . .

"Brain differences play out in the entertainment men and women choose. Women buy romance novels; men buy pornographic magazines. She's stimulated by words; he's stimulated by images. Women watch TV shows where people talk about their problems; men watch sports and crime shows where words are secondary to the action. . . .

"Yet today's church has become an almost entirely verbal experience. . . . Sermons put men in an impossible situation: they must remain alert as a flood of words rushes forth from the pastor's mouth. Men must not only comprehend those words but also, using the other side of the brain, respond emotionally to the pastor's appeal. Very few men are physiologically capable of this feat. Their brains are simply not wired this way. Men find sermons boring not so much because of their content but because of their format. . . . When the church returns to the visual, hands-on style favored by Jesus, men, young people and women will all respond." (Click here to learn more about Why Men Hate Going to Church.)

'Unction' is missing ingredient in much preaching

In his book Sound Biblical Preaching, Franklin L. Kirksey writes,

"Unquestionably, unction is a result of the preacher's private life of devotion and prayer. This is what makes the preacher powerful in the pulpit. The sense of urgency is born out of a personal relationship with the living Lord. The note of unction and urgency will be missing from the delivery of the message if the preacher fails to be dedicated, devoted, and prayerful.

"Without the active ministry of the Holy Spirit in the life of the preacher, there will never be the vital connection between the pulpit and the pew that is necessary to effectively communicate God's truth. This ministry on behalf of the preacher is called the anointing, which has been defined as a special touch for a specific task. It is essential for preaching to genuinely affect lives.

"As preachers of God's Holy Word, we must remember the words of George Atkins, 'All is vain unless the Spirit of the Holy One comes down!'" (Click here to learn more about the book Sound Biblical Preaching)

Sponsors needed for International Congress on Preaching

Planning is already underway for the third quinquennial (every 5th year) International Congress on Preaching, which will be held April 17-19, 2007, in Cambridge, England. The first two events were held in London (1997) and Edinburgh (2002), and the Cambridge Congress promises to be a strategic moment in calling the church to a renewed focus on proclaiming God's Word.

Because of the costs involved in sponsoring an international event, we need churches and organizations that will partner with us as sponsors. In 2002 we had churches which gave $12,000, $5,000, and as little as $500 to help make the Congress possible. For the 2007 Congress we need to raise at least $40,000 to help meet event costs, subsidize the registration for several hundred British pastors, and provide a limited number of scholarships for third-world pastors to participate. (Don't write to apply for these yet; they will be nominated by national church leaders.)

Would you and your church partner with us in this vital effort? Churches can contribute $5,000 a year between now and 2007, or $2,000, or $1,000, or even $500 a year, and make a substantial difference. Sponsoring churches and organizations will be recognized in Preaching magazine, conference promotional materials, and the Congress program; the senior pastor of each sponsoring church will receive a complimentary registration to ICOP 2007 in Cambridge.

To learn more or to make a sponsorship commitment, call us at 800-288-9673, or visit our website at www.preaching.com/icopsponsor. Thanks for prayerfully considering this opportunity to partner with us in impacting the globe with the proclamation of God's Word.

P.S. While you are marking your calendar for 2007, don't forget that the 16th annual National Conference on Preaching will be April 24-26, 2006, at Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Texas.

By the way, our theme next year is "Preaching Creatively." If you have ideas for topics/issues you'd love to see addressed in workshops (and that would make you more likely to attend), let us hear from you at feedback@preaching.com.

ILLUSTRATION: Eternity, Serious Issues

In a recent sermon called "Would a Loving God Send People to Hell?" John Ortberg began with this illustration:

"There's a book that came out several years ago that gives you instructions on what to do in the direst circumstances that you can imagine. It's called The Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook. . . . This Worst Case Handbook has sold millions of copies and it covers every kind of situation you can imagine:

How to Perform an Emergency Tracheotomy.
What to Do If You Run Into a Mountain Lion.
How to Respond If You Jump Out of a Plane and the Parachute Doesn't Open.

"Now it's written straight. It actually is advice from experts in their fields — the best advice on what to do in these types of situations. But nobody buys the book for the actual advice. It is sold in humor sections of bookstores as kind of a joke.

"I was reading this Handbook a couple of weeks ago, when I turned a page and came to a section that was called, "How to Survive a Tsunami."

"All of a sudden, it wasn't funny any more. It was so strange. I sat there reading, and all I could think of was how a few months ago how many lives might have been spared — how many hundreds of thousands of hearts might not be broken now if people had just known what is in this book. It is meant to be humorous, and it is until the scenario described actually happens. Then it's not funny. Then you'd give anything. It's life or death."

ILLUSTRATION: Sin, Holiness

On June 4, 1961, the reactor on K-19, a Soviet nuclear submarine, malfunctioned. Though the danger was great, Russian sailors donned what gear they had and worked in rotating shifts to try to repair the reactor. They succeeded and the sub was saved, but not without cost. Within days, eight of the sailors died from radiation poisoning, and within two years 14 more succumbed.

Sin is something like nuclear radiation: Without proper protection, it can be deadly. And often, the results of such infection are not seen until later. Living in this world is like living in the presence of a leaky nuclear reactor. Sin is everywhere around us — in the air, so to speak — and the potential for absorbing it is ever-present. We have to work at remaining holy, which means putting on proper protection: obedience to the Word, prayer, worship, study, and fellowship with others who are pursuing holiness (Ephesians 6:10-18). (Turning Point Daily Devotional, 4-25-05)

ILLUSTRATION: Mothers

In his book The Power Delusion, Tony Campolo says that too often women are made to feel that they should apologize for being mothers and housewives.

"When I was on the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania, there were gatherings from time to time to which faculty members brought their spouses. Inevitably, some woman lawyer or sociologist would confront my wife with the question, 'And what is it that you do, my dear?'

"My wife, who is one of the most brilliantly articulate individuals I know, had a great response: 'I am socializing two homo sapiens in the dominant values of the Judeo-Christian tradition in order that they might be instruments for the transformation of the social order into the teleologically-prescribed utopia inherent in the eschaton.'

"When she followed that with, 'And what is it that you do?' the other person's 'A lawyer' just wasn't that overpowering." (Click here to learn more about the book The Power Delusion)

ILLUSTRATION: Mothers, Sacrifice

The schoolteacher asked a boy this question: Suppose your mother baked a pie and there were six of you — your mother, your father and four children. What percentage of the pie would you get?

"One-fifth," replied the boy.

The teacher responded, "I'm afraid you don't know your fractions. "Remember, there are six of you."

"I know, said the boy, "but you don't know my mother. She would say she didn't want any pie so we could have more."

ILLUSTRATION: Mothers, Service

The dad was browsing through the wedding album with his curious four-year-old daughter. When he was finished, he asked if she had any questions. She pointed to a picture of the wedding party and asked, "Daddy, is that when mommy came to work for us?"

FROM THE MAY-JUNE ISSUE OF PREACHING . . .

In a sermon titled "When God Seems Absent," John Ortberg says, "The Bible tells us that winter came because someone once did something very, very bad. People have been paying for it ever since. I speak from experience. I lived for a decade in Chicago, which was founded when a group of people from New York said, 'The crime and the poverty are good, but we'd like it colder.'

"Regardless of what you may feel about the meteorological season, I want us to think about a kind of winter of the soul. Spiritual winter.

"You may be able to relocate to some part of the world where you can avoid cold weather, but there is no place you can move to escape spiritual winter. Theologian Martin E. Marty wrote a book of reflections about the terminal illness and loss of his beloved wife. He said one of the resources human beings need is what he calls "a wintry spirituality" for times when the warmth and joy is taken away from us and a sunny disposition is not enough to bring them back. We need a way of holding on to God when it feels as if God has let go of us.

"Winter may come when someone has lost a job or experienced vocational failure. They feel a deep sense of sadness, even shame. They are not sure, without this job, who they are anymore.

"Winter may arrive the day the word comes back from the doctor's lab that the test was positive. All the dreams you took for granted — that you will watch your kids grow up and get married, that you will grow old with your spouse and die when you're good and ready — suddenly torture you with the thought that you won't be there to see them fulfilled.

"Maybe winter comes when you feel as if you have failed as a parent. Or it arrives the day someone you loved with your whole heart has died. You prayed so hard, you hoped so much, you don't understand.

"Any of these events may chill the soul. Any of them may announce the onset of winter. But they are not its worst feature. The hardest part of winter is that God seems gone."

Every issue of Preaching contains insightful articles on preaching, plus great model sermons and practical resources. If you're not a current subscriber to Preaching magazine, click here (or call, toll free, 1-800-288-9673) to go begin your subscription!

Also in the May-June issue of Preaching: Ed Young,Jr., on "Communicating With Creativity," Bryan Chapell on "The Fallen-Condition Focus and the Purpose of the Sermon," a survey of video resources for preaching, and much more. Order your subscription today!

LINK OF THE WEEK

This Thursday (May 5) is the National Day of Prayer. The National Day of Prayer Task Force is promoting a Freedom Five initiative to challenge believers to pray five minutes daily for five "centers of power" in the nation: government, media, education, church, and families. To learn more go to

www.nationaldayofprayer.org

ILLUSTRATION: Parents

Melvin Newland tells the story about comedian Jerry Clower, whose son was the field goal kicker for his high school football team. One day his son had a chance to kick the goal that would give his team the lead and perhaps win the game, but the kick went wide of the goal.

A man about four rows from Jerry began heckling loudly. "Who is that kicker anyway? He couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with a football." He went on and on, ridiculing Jerry's son.

Clower said, "I took all of it I could, and then I made my way through the crowd, sat down next to that guy, looked him right in the eye, and said, 'You need to thank Jesus that you're still alive." The guy said, "What do you mean?" Clower answered, "That's my son you're ridiculing, and the only reason you're not dead right now is because I'm a Christian and Jesus won't let me kill you." (Sermon: "A Model for Mothers")

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ILLUSTRATION: Mothers (Quotations)

"The mother's heart is the child's schoolroom." (Henry Ward Beecher)

"If I cannot give my children a perfect mother I can at least given them more of the one they've got — and make that one more loving. I will be available, I will take time to listen, time to play, time to be home when they arrive from school, time to counsel and encourage." (Ruth Bell Graham)

"A suburban mother's role is to deliver children obstetrically once , and by car forever after." (Peter DeVries)

"Do not pray for easy lives; pray to be stronger men. Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers; pray for powers equal to your tasks. Then the doing of your work shall be no miracle, but you yourself shall be a miracle. Every day you shall wonder at yourself, at the richness of life which has come to you by the grace of God." (Phillips Brooks)

ILLUSTRATION: Mothers

Susannah Wesley was a faithful believer who was committed to raising children to serve Christ. Her two sons, John and Charles Wesley, have impacted the Christian world in a remarkable way. With so many children, Susannah spent time each day praying for her 19 children. In addition, she took each child aside for a full hour every week to discuss spiritual matters.

Here are her famous 16 rules of raising children:

1. Eating between meals not allowed.

2. As children they are to be in bed by 8 p.m.

3. They are required to take medicine without complaining.

4. Subdue self-will in a child, and those working together with God to save the child's soul.

5. To teach a child to pray as soon as he can speak.

6. Require all to be still during Family Worship.

7. Give them nothing that they cry for, and only that when asked for politely.

8. To prevent lying, punish no fault which is first confessed and repented of.

9. Never allow a sinful act to go unpunished.

10. Never punish a child twice for a single offense.

11. Comment and reward good behavior.

12. Any attempt to please, even if poorly performed, should be commended.

13. Preserve property rights, even in smallest matters.

14. Strictly observe all promises.

15. Require no daughter to work before she can read well.

16. Teach children to fear the rod.

Why God Made Mothers
by Erma Bombeck

By the time the Lord made mothers, he was into his sixth day of working overtime.

An Angel appeared and said "Why are you spending so much time on this one"?

And the Lord answered and said, "Have you seen the spec sheet on her? She has to be completely washable, but not plastic, have 200 movable parts, all replaceable, run on black coffee and leftovers, have a lap that can hold three children at one time and that disappears when she stands up, have a kiss that can cure anything from a scraped knee to a broken heart, and have six pairs of hands."

The Angel was astounded at the requirements for this one. "Six pairs of hands! No Way!"

The Lord replied, "Oh, it's not the hands that are the problem. It's the three pairs of eyes that mothers must have!"

"And that's just on the standard model?" the Angel asked.

The Lord nodded in agreement, "Yes, one pair of eyes are to see through the closed door as she asks her children what they are doing even though she already knows. Another pair in the back of her head are to see what she needs to know even though no one thinks she can. And the third pair are here in the front of her head. They are for looking at an errant child and saying that she understands and loves him or her without even saying a single word."

The Angel tried to stop the Lord. "This is too much work for one day. Wait until tomorrow to finish."

"But I can't!" The Lord protested, "I am so close to finishing this creation that is so close to my own heart. She already heals herself when she's sick and can feed a family of six on a pound of hamburger and can get a nine year old to stand in the shower. "

The Angel moved closer and touched the woman, "But you have made her so soft, Lord."

"She is soft," the Lord agreed, "but I have also made her tough. You have no idea what she can endure or accomplish."

"Will she be able to think?" asked the Angel.

The Lord replied, "Not only will she be able to think, she will be able to reason, and negotiate."

The Angel then noticed something and reached out and touched the woman's cheek. "Oops, it looks like you have a leak with this model. I told you that you were trying to put too much into this one."

"That's not a leak." The Lord objected. "That's a tear!"

"What's the tear for?" the Angel asked.

The Lord said, "The tear is her way of expressing her joy, her sorrow, her disappointment, her pain, her loneliness, her grief, and her pride."

The Angel was impressed. "You are a genius, Lord. You thought of everything; for mothers are truly amazing!"

And finally . . .

Don't mess with the girl scouts.

A Girl Scout troop in Waukesha, Wis., sold cookies to several people who then failed to pay. Now the troop is taking the deadbeats to small-claims court to make them pay up.

According to an April 29 Associated Press story, the amounts owed by two couples and three other women ranged from $301.42 to $1,485.68.

"We call many times before taking this step," Slowinski said. "We send them letters. When all else fails, this is our last resort." Previous letters seeking payment have suggested creation of a repayment plan.

My question is: who buys $1,500 worth of Girl Scout cookies? I like Samoas as much as the next guy, but please!

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