Nathan Miller

This week I began reading E.M. Bounds book on Prayer. I’m only a few pages in and it has already begun to challenge my faith and prayer life. I know that it’s going to become a favorite of mine! This morning I wanted to give you a quote I found of particular interest:

“It’s not the intellectually great that the church needs; nor is it men of wealth that the times demand. It is not people of great social influence that this day requires. Above everybody and everything else it is men of faith, men of mighty prayer, man and women after the fashion of the saints and heroes enumerated in Hebrews, who ‘obtained a good report through faith,’ that the church and the whole wide world humanity needs.” – E.M. Bounds

May I be a man mighty in faith and prayer! Lord help me!

For all of you who follow me on twitter, you probably saw this morning’s tweet. I asked what the best book(s) you’ve read over the last six months. Many of you responded to my tweet, and there are some great books on the list. Some I have read, and others I have not. Here they are!

• Lost and Found – Ed Stetzer
• Essential Church - Thom and Sam Rainer
• Leading with a Limp -Dan Allender
• High Stakes – Kathy Herman
• Liberating the Ministry from the Success Syndrome – R. Kent Hughes
• Crazy Love – Francis Chan
• High Call High Privilege - Gail MacDonald
• Building Your Leadership Resume – Johnny Hunt
• Voices Behind the Veil – Ergun Caner

If you have any other books you’d like to add to this list you can do so by leaving a comment.

As we continue this series of posts on reading, I want to return to the quote I left you with you last.

“It’s been said that five years from now, we will be the same people we are today except for the books we read, the people we meet, the places we go, and the risks we take.”

As I think about this statement, the reality of it is glaring back at me. Think about it in your own life! Where were you five years ago? How did you view the world? Have you changed any of your views in five years? The difference in my own life is staggering, and I have to give a lot of credit to the many authors who have influenced my life. I have literally read hundreds of books in the last five years. Remember this is coming from a guy who didn’t like to read in High School. If I can learn to love reading, so can you!

This brings me to my next point. It’s not just about reading, but about reading intelligently. Reading at its core is an exercise designed to make you think. This sounds obvious, but rather than processing the truth and validity of what they are reading, many people store it away only to regurgitate a pre-packaged viewpoint. I am guilty of this in the past, but when we read, we must make an intelligent assessment of the literature before us. I want to recommend a great book from which I will quote to make my point. The book is entitled How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading by Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren. It’s a classic book on reading comprehension and critical reading.

“The packaging of intellectual positions and views is one of the most active enterprises of some of the best minds of our day. The viewer of television, the listener to radio, the reader of magazines, is presented with a whole complex of elements-all the way from ingenious rhetoric to carefully selected data and statistics-to make it easy for him to ‘make up his own mind’ with the minimum of difficulty and effort. But the packaging is often done so effective that the viewer, listener, or reader does not make up his own mind at all. Instead, he inserts a packaged opinion into his mind, somewhat like inserting a cassette into a cassette player. He then pushes a button and ‘plays back’ the opinion whenever it seems appropriate to do so. He has performed acceptably without having to think. – How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading – page 4

This quote alone is worth the price of the book, but if you desire to learn to read intelligently as well as increase your reading comprehension get this book!

I write this post because more and more I see this very thing happening. Adler and Doren tried to warn us about it, but it continues. It extends beyond the scope of reading to TV and Radio as well. It’s easy to take the pre-packaged thoughts that are presented to us and repeat them. After all, we even sound intelligent when we do so. I am challenging think! Think about what you read, think about what you hear, and think about what you see. There are thousands of opposing opinions in the world, and they cannot all be right. Check the facts! Think and pray over what you read, and I promise that it will be an exercise you will not regret.

And with that, I will close for today. I promise the next post(s) will be practical in nature. I’ll talk about what to read, how to read, and maybe list some advantages of reading. Some of the information will be from Between the Times so check it out if you haven’t already.

I believe the title says it all. There is a lost art, and it’s called reading. In our ever growing tech savvy society we are growing less and less dependent on reading. Now, as you know, I am a tech nerd myself, and I’m always interested in the newest, coolest gadget. However, in our day of instant communication, where we have at our fingertips more information than generations before could find in a lifetime, we have laid aside the art of reading. I have heard it said that we are a sound bite generation. Watch the evening news and tell me if I’m wrong.

“Wait a minute,” you might say. “I do read!” Really! What? Are you reading magazines, journals, novels, fiction, non-fiction, theology, or a number of other categories? All those genres are good, but are you limiting your reading to just one?

I must confess that the idea for this post came from reading another blog entitled Between the Times. It’s a blog written by several of my former seminary professors at Southeastern. Dr. Bruce Ashford wrote a series of six blogs on Disciplined Reading. If you have the time, I encourage you to read them. I found them extremely helpful. Reading has been a personal struggle for me over the years. In my younger days, reading was not a priority for me. I missed out on so many great opportunities in my middle and high school days. However, in college, when I entered the Word of Bible Institute, I was forced to read, and read I did. At first it was difficult, but then I found that I enjoyed it. As I continued through my under-grad and graduate education that enjoyment turned into a love!

I want to spend the next few posts talking about what I learned from Between the Times, as well as some of personal thoughts or experiences. I will leave you with a quote that has stuck with me for quite some time. I have heard it quoted many times, and I’m not sure who the original author is but here’s the quote:

“It’s been said that five years from now, we will be the same people we are today except for the books we read, the people we meet, the places we go, and the risks we take.”

I just wanted to take a quick moment to comment on Dr. Johnny Hunt’s new book that will be coming out in a few weeks. It’s called Building Your Leadership Resume. This book is filled with over 30 years of ministry, leadership experience. However, the book is written in a manner that makes it applicable for the business man as well as the minister. If you are in leadership or desire to be this is a must read.

The book is 40 chapters long. Each chapter begins with a statement like “People are Underchallenged.” Then Pastor Johnny spends a few pages explaining that statement. He covers topics from Insecurity in leadership, to Assistants, to the wife of a leader. It is an easy read but challenging to your soul!

To give you an idea of the content, here are a few quotes:

• “The greatest way to know success is to help others succeed.” – pp. 220-221
• “We cannot challenge others to embrace a mission we don’t personally possess and embody.” – p. 6
• “Focused leaders put great emphasis on managing the following: their time, priorities, resources, budget, people, and influence.” – p. 18
• “Seeing the potential–believing in people–is a big part of successful leadership.” – p. 22
• “if you want to grow your ministry, grow yourself.” – p. 44
• “I have found growth to be the direct result of three things: discipline, time, and intentionality.” – p. 104
• “It’s been said that five years from now, we will be the same people we are today except for the books we read, the people we meet, the places we go, and the risks we take.” – p. 111
• “Success is not a business plan. But service is. When people know you’re there to serve them, they’ll come back.” – p. 121
• “I have learned and observed that if a leader doesn’t relate well with his staff, he won’t be able to relate well with his people.” – p. 126
• “We’re just all one decision away from doing something stupid.” – p. 161

Today I bought a new devotional from Charles Spurgeon called Look Unto Me. Pastor Johnny has been reading it and talking about it, so naturally it peaked my interest. After reading today’s installment, I know that it is going to be a great read.

The title of the book comes from Isaiah 45:22. “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.” This is the verse that Spurgeon heard preached at the age of 15 showing him the way to salvation.

Today’s reading is centered around Luke 22:48 where Judas is betraying Jesus in the garden. Before you jump on the band wagon of criticism, Spurgeon warns us about our actions. We betray our Lord every day with our actions. Spurgeon asks, “Do I live as carelessly and worldly as unbelievers while professing to be a follower of Jesus?” I have to confess that I have to answer yes to this question far more than I would like to admit. For those who are willing to admit their betrayal of their Lord, Spurgeon offers this wonderful prayer:

Then, dear Lord, keep me pure. Make me sincere and true and protect me from every false action. Never allow me to betray my Savior. Dear Jesus, I do love You, and although I often grieve You, my heart’s desire is to be faithful “to the point of death” (Matt. 26:38). O God, may You keep from being a smooth-talking hypocrite, simply professing Christ, but ultimately falling into “the firey lake” (Rev. 19:20) because I betray my Master “with a kiss.”

This is my prayer, and I pray that you would make it yours!

I recently finished reading the book Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome. This is a must read for anyone in ministry. In our society “success” is a word we hear often. Society measures it in status, salary, and influence. However, in the Kingdom of God things are different. As ministers of the Gospel, we can get caught up in that kind of thinking. Kent and Barbara Hughes discuss our idea of success versus God’s idea of success. Success in God’s eyes is faithfulness, serving, loving, believing, prayer, holiness, and attitude. Most importantly they link success in the Christian life to obedience. “In evaluating success, we must all understand that Scripture consistently links success to obedience — our obedience to God’s Word.” (p. 37)

Kent and Barbara end the book with two chapters that speak about how the pastor’s wife and the congregation can help the pastor have a healthy view of success in ministry. With many pastors climbing the “ladder of success” in the ministry. This book is a refreshingly healthy view of how we are to view success according to God’s standards. I hope you enjoy it as must as I did!