MENU

Author

On January 24, 2019 By In Podcast

KC Podcast Episode 47, On Reading Well; Conversation with Karen Prior

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 19:32 — 22.4MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | RSS

In this conversation of KC Podcast, Pastor Uri Brito speaks with Dr. Karen Prior. Dr. Prior is a Professor of English at Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA. She received her Ph.D at the State University of New York Buffalo.

She is a recipient of various awards, author of four books, published articles for various Christian and non-Christians organizations. Her most recent book “On reading well: finding the good life through great books” has received much praise and has ignited a renewed vigor for reading great books.

In this conversation, Dr. Prior speaks of the necessity of intentional reading in an age of distraction. She notes that not all reading is created equal. Reading modern self-help books or articles on the smartphone is a different kind of reading than reading great books. We further discuss the purpose of reading and the kinds of questions we ought to ask before our reading.

Hope you enjoy our conversation and don’t forget to leave a review of our show.

Resources:

Concerning distractions in an age of distraction, Dr. Prior recommends Maryann Wolf’s Reader, Come Home!

You can purchase Dr. Prior’s book: On Reading Well:
finding the good life through great books.

Read more

On January 15, 2019 By In Theology

John Owen on the Trinity

John Frame famously observed that “Theology is the application of Scripture.” Yet, theological discourse is often seen as the profession of the elite; an abstract conversation left to the academicians of Christian history. And even more so when we are speaking about the doctrine of the Trinity. The doctrine of the Trinity makes its appearance in those rare encounters with cultists, but it largely remains hidden from public eyes. We can speak of God generally, and we can even elaborate on the work of Christ or the Spirit as comforter, but to speak of the inner workings of the Godhead or the harmonious nature in which the Three Persons bring the world into existence, is another thing altogether. “Not practical.” “Too theological.” This lack of interest reaches its climax when discussing our union with God himself, Father, Son and Spirit.

Last year, I had the opportunity to teach a seminary class in Brazil on the Gospels. When we centered on our Lord Jesus’ high priestly prayer in John 17, we began to talk about the inner relationships of the blessed Trinity. I observed that understanding the Trinity is to understand the true God. One of my students replied, “Pastor, my people think studying the Trinity is irrelevant for his Christian walk.” My response was, “It is the only relevant issue in his Christian walk.”

In John Owen’s masterful Communion with God he notes:

“Our communion . . . with God consisteth in his communication of himself unto us, with our return unto him of that which he requireth and accepteth, flowing from that union which in Jesus Christ we have with him.”

For Owen, the relationship we have with God is not merely our attachment to one person of the Godhead, but with the Triune God through Jesus Christ. Owen later notes that this union also flows by the abiding power of the Holy Spirit. In fact, the Puritan Owen so marveled in our communion with God and God with us that he saw that motif everywhere. In fact, he was driven in his exegesis to use the Songs of Solomon as a template to explain our relationship. Our relationship with the Tri-unity is so personal and intimate that Owen lands on the exquisite Solomonic songs:

What shall I say? there is no end of his excellencies and desirableness;—”He is altogether lovely. This is our beloved, and this is our friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.” (Works, 2:77–78 )

Owen saw the mystical union between Christ and the Church, the conjugal love of Solomon’s songs, as expressions of our deep union with God himself. At some level, as Owen so eloquently expounds, we must grasp that conversations about the Trinity were never meant to be left in abstract theological volumes, but to reach the pew. To speak of God is to speak of the Trinity. Therefore, God’s people need to see the Trinity not just on Trinity Sunday in the Church Calendar, but in all dimensions of life. It is the only relevant issue in our Christian walk. Indeed in the Trinity, we move and live and have our being.

Read more

On January 12, 2019 By In Men, Podcast

Episode 45, The Pastor and his Diet

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 24:33 — 25.9MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | RSS

In this interview, Pastor Brito interviews Pastor Bill Smith. Bill shares his story from fat Eglon to a fit servant for his king. This may not be the most appetizing conversation to have, but one that pastors (and parishioners) need to have.

The pastoral profession produces portly pastors on their way to an early death. With emotional and physical demands placed on ministers on any given day, pastors are called to make their bodies a living sacrifice unto God for the sake of their congregations. I hope this episode will land in as many pastor’s smartphones as possible. They need to hear it. God cares about our bodies and it’s about time we begin caring for it.

Resource: Cultivating the Body by Bill Smith

Read more

On January 2, 2019 By In Podcast

Episode 44, Interview with Sye Ten Bruggencate

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 24:26 — 25.0MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | RSS

Pastor Uri Brito sits down with Canadian apologist, Sye Ten Bruggencate, to discuss how to do biblical apologetics. We delve a little into his applied apologetics in the streets and what led him to reconsider his methodology.

You can watch a host of Sye’s videos on proofthatexists.org.

Watch the film How to Answer a Fool.

Read more

On December 15, 2018 By In Scribblings

Long Well. Expect Well.

Do you want God to come? To put it in proper perspective, do you really want Christmas to come? Because if Christmas comes God is going to shake things in your life. He is going to open your wound again. He is going to show you your sins, secret and public. He is going to take you through a difficult journey. He is going to reorder your house. He is going to move things around with wild intensity. But I suggest that calling upon him is infinitely better. I suggest that the pain of tearing is infinitely better; His coming is infinitely better than His absence.

As the Prophet Isaiah says:
But now, O Lord, you are our Father;
we are the clay, and you are our potter;
we are all the work of your hand.

Advent is a time for preparing to affirm what Isaiah affirms. If you want a lesson in anthropology, here it is: “God is our Father, we are the clay. So, we pray: Come, Lord, because we have tried to make ourselves into something without you and every time we tried we failed. But if you come to us, you will make something beautiful; you will take those parts of us that are unclean and make clean; you will take your righteousness and make us whole; you will take our bodies and build your palace.
So in this final week of Advent, “Long well. Expect well.” Christmas is coming.

Read more

On December 6, 2018 By In Scribblings

Let’s Talk Church Calendar!

The Church Calendar is a tough sell in our evangelical culture. It’s not so much because of historical illiteracy; it’s mainly because of historical inconsistency or historical preferences. Most in our culture have a fondness for national and localized festivities. As I’ve said, it’s not a poor keeping of time; it’s a selected keeping of time. I want to argue that there is a time that supersedes civic time and that is the Church time.

Now, I am aware that once we begin this conversation, there will be all sorts of fears about celebrating days for saints, for angels, and other such things. But I am simply arguing for a celebration of the basic church calendar; the five evangelical feast daysa (Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension, and Pentecost). If most churches cherished and celebrated a general outline for the calendar, we could begin to see a greater harmonization of themes, topics, and vision for the church universal.

If some were to say, “Why can’t we sing Christmas carols whenever we want to; after all every Sunday is Christmas?” The answer is: “For the same reason you don’t sing Happy Birthday to your child whenever you want to. It’s true that every Sunday is Christmas, but every Sunday is also Easter and Pentecost and Trinity Sunday, etc.” You can do those things, but it takes away from the appointed observance of such a time. If some were to say: “Why am I bound to observe this church calendar?” Answer: “You are not bound to. Your church is not bound to; simply, history has shown its wisdom and its longevity has shown its importance.” There is a historical harmony established on these general feast days that all churches of all ages share. My simple point is that it would be good to begin thinking through these questions if you do not come from a background that celebrates the Christ-life throughout the year.

  1. I would gladly add the celebration of Advent in preparation for Christmas  (back)

Read more

On December 4, 2018 By In Scribblings

The Lauren Daigle Moment

Some time ago I praised Lauren Daigle for hitting some monumental accomplishments. She did, after all, outshine major non-Christian artists. At this stage, she has become a major national figure in the music industry all the while singing explicit and implicit Christian lyrics. She has performed before Ellen, Fallon and others. I find that opportunity exhilarating for a Christian artist. If someone has a gift to use for the kingdom, it should be used both in the smallest and largest platforms available. In that same post, I mentioned that she needed to be careful not to fall into the same immoral hysteria Christian artists fall into after tasting and seeing the goodness of the spotlight (Derek Webb, Jennifer Napp and many others).

Recently, Daigle was asked about whether homosexuality is a sin. I can only imagine the kinds of pressures she receives in her world to keep a certain “open-mind” about these kinds of issues. Once you leave the comfortableness of the south (she’s from Louisiana), you get bombarded with different worldviews, many of which are decidedly non-Christian.

She could have given a fairly astute answer that affirmed both the sinfulness of homosexuality and the hope of the Gospel to rescue all sinners. However, Daigle answered:

“I can’t honestly answer on that, in the sense of I have too many people that I love and they are homosexuals…I can’t say one way or the other, I’m not God. When people ask questions like that, I just say, ‘Read the Bible and find out for yourself. And when you find out let me know because I’m learning too.”

I don’t want to assume Daigle is now descending to unbelief. She will probably receive more questions like these in the future. And she will hopefully have an opportunity to answer them carefully. However, she did succumb to the politically correct answer on that issue. And if she continues to offer such answers, she will continue to make her millions and her music while parading these clearly inoffensive answers to celebrity publicists. As an optimist, I am still hoping that she upholds basic biblical principles on sexuality; and of course, if she does, she will lose a part of her audience, but she may gain an even greater one. If she wants to represent the true God in public, saying “I am not God” is insufficient. We all know you are not God, but the question is “Will you sing and speak what he has already said?”

Read more

On November 27, 2018 By In Worship

Pastoral Blues on Monday Morning.

Early in my pastoral work I often wondered why I was on such spiritual high on Sunday and somewhat depressed on Monday morning. I still ponder that question today. I would and still wake up without much enthusiasm. It was a fairly distinct feeling than the previous Sunday morning. Sunday gives me a rush. Perhaps it is due to the spiritual component that comes with a high liturgical service where kneeling and standing and singing and confessing do not allow the body to remain passive, motionless. Preaching is also a unique sensation. To this day, when I walk up to the pulpit, my heart still races. I am ready to address my congregation as if it were my first time. In my case, it’s almost the 500th time and still, every Sunday feels fresh and that same insecurity coupled with boyish eagerness still strikes at about 9:50 AM each Lord’s Day.

Sundays are full days for ministers. After the service is over there are the enlivening conversations consisting of life updates, sermon-follow ups, general back and forth about casual day-to-day issues, setting appointments to meet during the week, eating, and sometimes serious counseling issues and more. Every pastor knows that after the service, there is much more energy to be poured. As I say, it’s enlivening, but emotionally draining. The afternoons continue to feed off morning worship. Hospitality and friendships continue. The joy of following up with visitors, the remaining melodies of hymns and psalms are hummed throughout, family responsibilities and the entire Sunday is consumed. And there was evening and there was morning, day one.

When Monday arrives, most pastors I talk to find themselves unhappy, bewildered by the newness of the week as if they’ve never been at this stage of the week before. Some take the day off. I refuse to do so. There is something powerful about beginning things early in the week. At least two pastors I spoke with said they had a hard time getting out of bed on Monday mornings. They are not lazy people. In fact, these guys get up quite early during the week, but Mondays they generally cannot. So what’s the cause? It can’t be a rare phenomenon because it’s too common among people in my field. In fact, it’s not common in other professions.

One obvious explanation is that Mondays are days where exhaustion appears most frequently. This makes sense. On Sunday, pastors uphold a high degree of alertness and awareness, emotional stability, and outward energy before, during and after church and when Monday comes as surely as the sun, all that is spent. Jared Wilson observes:

On Monday mornings I enter my office and find that, like Sisyphus, the stone I spent the week previous pushing up the hill lay at the bottom again, ready for another go. Monday morning I must pastor. But what kind of must?

Sometimes it’s a half-hearted must; a weak and overwhelmed must. But shepherding must go on.

Sundays are the culmination of lots of things: the delivery of a sermon worked, meditated and prayed over all week, the administration of the sacraments which is anticipated throughout the week, the face to face interaction with all your people at once. It’s completion embodied and enjoyed. In sum, Sundays are Sabbath rests; days of pastoral repose; for the pastor, Sunday is the “very good” of creation. It is easier to see God’s hands at work. Mondays are the beginning of a new construction project. New beginnings are daunting, overwhelming and mentally challenging. As Jared Wilson so appropriately summarizes the pastoral vision for Monday:

My first thoughts on Monday mornings are to my fatigue and all I must do, but I must push them into thoughts of Christ, all he is and all he has done. There lies the vision that compels my will.

Let Christ shepherd us when we are weak. Let him compel us to work for the kingdom as he takes our burdens and gives us rest.

 

Read more

On October 1, 2018 By In Film

GOSNELL Movie REVIEW

A few weeks ago I joined around 150 folks to watch a special Preview of GOSNELL: The Trial of America’s Biggest Serial Killer.a The movie will be released nationwide on October 12th. Executive Producer, John Sullivan, was able to join us in Pensacola for the preview and offer some of his observations on the production of the famous 2013 trial of Kermit Gosnell.

Gosnell owned and operated abortion facilities in Pennsylvania for over three decades. He was convicted of illegal late-term abortions, unsafe working conditions, and the killing of three infants who survived the abortion procedure. There are more horrific details to the Gosnell story which the viewer can easily access online.

The movie has overcome a host of difficulties. Executive Director John Sullivan is quoted in Variety saying:

“I’ve been on hard films before, but this one was particularly difficult … Hollywood is afraid of this content. It’s a true story the media tried to ignore from the very beginning, so I wasn’t surprised to see Hollywood ignore us.”

The movie was difficult to watch. The producers found a delicate balance between preserving the emotional tension when discussing the topic of abortion and at the same time keeping the profoundly graphic nature of any abortion images hidden from the viewer. The conversations throughout the movie offered a glimpse into the nature of the Gosnell clinic, but more than that it offered a portrait of a man convinced that his murderous actions were legitimate services to his clients.

GOSNELL is a tragically needed movie. It was a reminder that evil can hide its face behind the closed doors of an innercity facility. It can hide its face masquerading as benevolent community services executed by a classical musician whose fingers ran easily across piano keys by day and instruments of death by night.

When October 12th comes, go watch GOSNELL. See for yourself the logical consequences of Roe v. Wade. See for yourself how America’s biggest serial killer was legitimized, protected and encouraged to continue to murder for decades. It’s time we wake up from our slumber. Human beings are being killed in the name of “women’s rights.” May GOSNELL cry loudly on October 12th and may it cause a nationwide earthquake in the conscience of our nation.

  1. Hosted by Emerald Coast Coalition for Life, especially board member Pastor Alan Stout  (back)

Read more

On September 4, 2018 By In Interviews, Podcast

KC Podcast: Episode 33, Proverbs for Young Men

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 14:59 — 24.6MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | RSS

In this interview, Pastor Uri Brito interviews Rev. Mark Horne on his ongoing project on the book of Proverbs. Horne observes that while Proverbs is for everyone, it has a particular application for the young men. Proverbs’ themes and purposes are generally overlooked because of the pietistic way it has been read and the failure to grasp Proverbs’ place in the wisdom literature. You will want to listen to this interview.

 

Read more