Ken Sande and Kevin Johnson. Resolving Everyday Conflict. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2011. 128 pp. $9.99.
In Resolving Everyday Conflict, Ken Sande and Kevin Johnson offer very biblical and very practical counsel for helping believers deal with life’s inevitable friction. Sande is well-known from his work with Peacemaker Ministries, and his skill is on display in this helpful little book.
Positives
Sande and Johnson make conflict resolution seem very simple. They helpfully call on readers to first focus on the glory of God and to repent of their own personal sin in the conflict before gently confronting others with the intent of restoration and reconciliation. In my own experience as a pastor, the first two major points, calling individuals to focus first on God’s glory and to act first to repent of their own sin before accusing others, are life-savers when it comes to bringing conflicts to resolution.
In the book, Sande also shares seven keys to an appropriate confession of sin. These seven principles, all beginning with the letter “A”, are themselves worth the price of the book. Without giving away the list, I found the call to avoid words such as “if”, “maybe”, and “but” when making a confession to be vital.
Negatives
My only negative here is that I would happily have read more. Readers might find themselves disappointed that this book does not delve into issues of the deeper hurts of life. But, as the title suggests, this book is intended to help us resolve everyday conflicts, not the kinds of crushing hurts that some might want to solve. For help in healing deeper wounds, looking at a bigger and more thorough work will be necessary—though this book could certainly be a help too.
Conclusion
I would eagerly recommend Resolving Everyday Conflict to any pastor, counselor, or everyday believer who wants a helpful system to apply to normal, human struggles. This book is easy-to-read, helpful, and practical.
Audio
I Listened to the excellent audio version of this book from ChristianAudio.com. Maurice England read the book in a very clear and engaging way. I received my audio copy for free as a part of the ChristianAudio reviewers program.
Can God? (2 Chronicles 36:22-23)
2 Chronicles 36:22-23 (ESV)
22 Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing: 23 “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, ‘The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the Lord his God be with him. Let him go up.’”
Before considering the words above, picture the context. For 70 years, your nation has been under the thumb of the Babylonian Empire. For 50 years, your temple has been nothing but a mound of rubble. For as far back as most of your people can remember, all that you have known is that you are under the rule of men who do not serve your God. You have no military strength to even consider freeing yourself from the hand of your oppressors. It appears hopeless.
What happens? God puts a thought in the mind of the latest king. Cyrus the Persian has come to power. Babylon has fallen. What does Cyrus decide to do? He decides to send back any of the Jews who want to go. He sends them to Jerusalem on a mission. He tells them to rebuild the temple of God, and he even offers to fund the project. In that one simple command, a lifetime’s impossibility falls away as God shows that he can use even the thoughts of pagan kings to accomplish his glorious will.
Here we sit. It is the 21st century. O how things look hopeless. Our nation is sliding further and further from God and toward immorality. Is it even possible that God could do something to change things? Can God rescue the US? Can God redeem post-Christian western Europe? Can God reach the Muslim nations and the Communist nations of this world? Can God reach over-comfortable, white-collar Americans? Can God reach the inner cities and the rural towns?
Look what God did through Cyrus. Of course God can change the world. He has the power to do anything he wants. God can set things right. In fact, he will do so. We need not despair. Instead, we need to trust him. We need to work to build his kingdom for the glory of Christ. We need to realize that God will never fail. No nation is beyond his reach. No kingdom is out of his ability to rescue. No person, no family, no state, no city is beyond God’s ability to bring under his control and use for his glory.
Be encouraged, Christians. God will not lose. He can save anybody. He can change anybody. He can put in place laws that will honor him. He can bring judgment when it most glorifies him. God is unstoppable. Let us trust him and confidently obey him for all of our days.
God Wins – A Review
Mark Galli. God Wins: Heaven, Hell, and Why the Good News Is Better than Love Wins. Tyndale House Publishers, 2011. 204 pp. $10.08.
Rob Bell’s Love Wins produced a firestorm in the Christian blogosphere. It is no surprise that a response book, or several response books, would be forthcoming. One of the first, God Wins, comes from the pen of Mark Galli, senior managing editor of Christianity Today. In his response to Bell’s controversial offering, Galli graciously attempts to correct the errors of the controversial, mega-church pastor.
Positives
Galli’s tone in this work is one of its most endearing qualities. Throughout God Wins, readers will encounter arguments that are not personal, not cruel, and not straw men. Galli finds himself thankful for the fact that Christians are thinking deeply about important issues, even though he disagrees with Bell’s conclusions. In a discussion of a topic that has generated a great deal of heat, the tone of Galli’s work is refreshing.
Generally, the theological positions that Galli presents are spot-on. He argues against the universalism present in Bell’s work (though Bell himself denies being a universalist, his conclusions are universalistic). Galli argues for a much higher view of the atonement than Bell, pointing out the importance of substitution and propitiation.
Negatives
It is simply difficult to read a response book to a book that you have not read. I have not chosen to read Love Wins, and thus cannot say whether Galli present’s Bell’s arguments fairly. My assumption, given Galli’s tone, is that he tries hard to present Bell fairly. Galli also makes it clear that he wants his book to be able to stand alone. However, it simply cannot stand on its own merits. God Wins is a popular-level, critical response, and that very genre of book limits its appeal.
Theologically, I find myself cringing occasionally as I hear Galli’s arguments. This is not to say that I agree with what Bell is credited as putting forth. Rather, I notice that Galli` is very open to views which I find inconsistent. For example, Galli declares that annihilationism is as plausible as an eternal hell; I disagree. Galli also declares at least twice that Scripture is silent on how God will deal with those who never hear the gospel. I would argue that Romans 1:18-20 and 10:13-ff are quite clear regarding this issue. So, though Galli is very solid on many issues, I cannot offer a blanket recommendation of his doctrinal positions.
Conclusion
Mark Galli has, with a very kind and gracious tone, put forth a work that is a fine first response to Rob Bell’s quite notorious book. There is much to recommend God Wins, but there are also weaknesses. Readers who are very interested in the controversy over Bell’s arguments will find Galli’s work helpful. Others who wish merely to study the issues of heaven, hell, and atonement should look elsewhere for more clear and thorough treatments of these important topics.
Audio
I listened to the fine recording of this book produced by ChristianAudio.com. As is always the case when dealing with Christian Audio, the quality of this audio book was excellent. I received a free audio copy of this work as part of the reviewers program in exchange for publishing an honest and thoughtful review.
Dangerous Success (Jeremiah 44:16-18 )
Jeremiah 44:16-18
16 “As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord, we will not listen to you. 17 But we will do everything that we have vowed, make offerings to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her, as we did, both we and our fathers, our kings and our officials, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, and prospered, and saw no disaster. 18 But since we left off making offerings to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything and have been consumed by the sword and by famine.”
How do you determine right and wrong? How do you determine the will of God? Is it by circumstances? Do you look at what parallels with success and assume it to always be the right thing?
In Jeremiah 44, we see a strange scene. The people of Judah have taken Jeremiah with them in their flight to Egypt. Even though God clearly commanded the people not to leave the land, they refused his commands and left for a place they felt was safer. While in Egypt, Jeremiah commanded the people to stop worshipping a false goddess, the “queen of heaven.” But, as we read above, the people did not listen.
What would cause people who should have been the people of God to worship a false goddess? The answer is success. When the people were doing exactly what the Lord commanded them not to do, their lives were easy. When they were obeying god to whatever level they ever actually obeyed the Lord, they found life to be hard. So, they concluded that the right thing, the smart thing, the good thing was to refuse to worship God and to instead keep up their worship of the false goddess.
While it is good not to be in the situation of those people who worshipped the goddess, it is also tempting today to follow the path of least resistance. It is easy to assume that success means that we are doing the right thing. Be careful. Often, for a time, doing what dishonors God will give a short-term success. Churches sometimes grow in numbers when they compromise. Parents who allow their children to dishonor God sometimes have less conflict with their kids. Sometimes it is easier in life not to tell the truth. But, if we are not careful, we will find ourselves like the people of Judah, led completely away from following God by apparent, short-term success.
The truth is, following God has always been hard. Jesus promised us persecution if we would truly stand for him. Sometimes it requires us to take the harder road, the less obviously successful road, in order to truly obey the commands of God and glorify him. By walking the harder path, we may indeed find that we honor God more and give him greater glory as we show that he and not worldly success is our desire.
Links of Interest 8/11/2011
Jared Wilson cites John Piper’s powerful advice on how to make your preaching interesting.
Wisdom for Life has some very helpful guidelines for thoughtful Christians to consider as they use social media like Facebook. HT: Challies
John Nielson has some spot-on things to say to parents and churches about the discipleship of young people.
Brad Andrews, guest posting at Vitamin Z, shares with us 30 ways to live missionally at your workplace.
Don’t Follow Your Heart (Jeremiah 17:9-10)
Jeremiah 17:9-10
9 The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately sick;
who can understand it?
10 “I the Lord search the heart
and test the mind,
to give every man according to his ways,
according to the fruit of his deeds.”
It’s funny what happens to a person as he grows older. I find myself watching little Disney movies with my children and catching the rhetoric and worldview behind the films. Don’t get me wrong, I still love the Lion King and all the rest, but there is something strange to seeing the worldview being espoused in so much of what entertains us.
One part of the worldview that is generally put forth in any movie is the counsel, “Just follow your heart.” Almost any child’s movie, at one point or another, tells the young one to do what his or her heart tells him or her to do. It seems like such safe, such wise advice. But, dear me, it is not.
Gods’ word reminds us that the heart of man is deceitful, desperately sick. No man knows his own heart. No woman grasps the sickness that lies therein. No child understands how his or her little heart has been darkened by the influence of sin. The fact is, the human heart is not trustworthy; it makes a terrible guide.
God knows our hearts. He can rightly judge us by both our actions and our hearts’ intents. However, this judgment does not help us. We do not even know how wicked our hearts are. We do not even recognize that, when we think we are doing things for good motives, our hearts convict us.
Christians, while God has made our old and dead hearts alive, we need to recognize that our hearts still often harbor sin. We need God’s word to speak truth into them. We cannot be guided by our hearts alone. We must be guided by God’s word. There is no sin and no darkness in the word of God. It is perfect and able to make us equipped for every good work. Do not follow your heart unless your heart is first following the clear revelation of God found in his holy word.
Links of Interest 8/9/2011
Bill Mounce takes a look at “missing verses” and offers a very simple and clear explanation as to why certain verses do not appear in modern translations of Scripture. HT: Challies
Chris Castaldo writes a helpful piece discussing why evangelicals and Catholics ought not date or marry. HT: Thabiti Anyabwile
Doug Wolter posting at Vitamin Z’s site challenges parents to remember to communicate the gospel with their children, even when correcting them.
John Piper uses C.S. Lewis to remind parents not to provoke children to wrath.
Links of Interest 8/8/2011
Jared Wilson gives us a very sweet answer to the question of whether or not God can make a rock so big he cannot lift it.
Tullian Tchividjian has some helpful things to say about Christian calling and whether or not we should all move to foreign lands. His point is that, though many are called to go, many are called to stay where they are and live out their Christianity.
The Word a Fire (Jeremiah 5:14)
Jeremiah 5:14
Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of hosts:
“Because you have spoken this word,
behold, I am making my words in your mouth a fire,
and this people wood, and the fire shall consume them.
As Jeremiah continued to tell the people the truth from God, the people continued to rebel. But God made it clear to Jeremiah that nobody will refuse the word of God without consequence. Oh, it may seem for a time like people get away with disobeying the commands of the Lord, but it will not last.
The imagery of verse 14 is terrifying. God tells Jeremiah that his words, the word of God, will be a fire to the people who will be kindled like wood. Just as we see in Revelation 11, where the two witnesses breathe out fire against the enemies of God, so here we see that the word of God, spoken by a servant of God, becomes the fire of the wrath of God against those who reject that word.
The word of God is a beautiful gift. It is amazingly kind of God to show us his word and allow us to know him and his ways through it. However, the word of God is also deadly. God giving us his word makes us even more accountable to obey it. As we hear the word, we have a choice: either we obey and are blessed or disobey and find ourselves in trouble with the Creator.
What will God’s word be to you? Will you hear God’s word, obey it, and find the blessing of being his child? Will you follow God’s word, run to Jesus for grace, and obey his commands for joy? Or will you be like a twig in the fire? Will you allow the word of God to pronounce your judgment because you refuse to humble yourself, repent of sin, run to Jesus, and obey the word of the Lord?
Saying Hard Things (Jeremiah 1:17)
Jeremiah 1:17 – But you, dress yourself for work; arise, and say to them everything that I command you. Do not be dismayed by them, lest I dismay you before them.
It’s hard to say things that people will not want to hear. That was going to be Jeremiah’s job. The people of Judah were not following the Lord. In fact, God was about to tell them that he was more angry with them than he was with the northern kingdom that he had allowed the Assyrians to overrun a century earlier.
When we have hard things to say, we have two choices. We can either choose to say the hard thing and upset the people to whom we speak, or we can choose to ignore what needs to be said. Often we choose the latter option, because we do not have to hear the voice of God expressing his disappointment.
This is why what we see here in Jeremiah is of such value. God lets Jeremiah know that, should he choose to ignore God’s command and keep the people happy, he would be in deep trouble. God tells Jeremiah not to be dismayed by the people so as not to speak the truth. If Jeremiah is too afraid of men, God will make Jeremiah even more afraid. God basically tells Jeremiah, “if you think they are scary, wait until you have to deal with me.”
Saying hard things to people is hard, but facing the discipline of the Lord is harder. God calls his servants to speak the truth of his word. If we refuse to speak the truth, we show that we fear people more than the Lord, that we are more willing to disappoint God than man. Let us learn to be bold. Yes, it is sometimes difficult and uncomfortable, but the alternative, dishonoring our Lord, is far worse. And, if we will honor God, he will fill our souls with the joy of seeing his glory.
Pastor Travis Peterson 