Summer reading: Worship, Community and the Triune God of Grace -- about James Torrance

I'm cutting my losses here and skipping ahead to our next summer reading book. I have scads of notes on Andrew Murray's Absolute Surrender -- If time permits, I'll weave some thoughts in over the coming week or so. However now I'm moving ahead to James Torrance's Worship, Community, and the Triune God of Grace. First, a bit of a biographical context for this book:

The Torrance family may well be the closest thing that Presbyterians may have to royalty. Tom Torrance was a noted and respected theologian, teaching Dogmatics at the University of Edinburgh -- his brother James, the subject of this reflection, was professor of Theology at the University of Aberdeen. Meanwhile Ian Torrance is currently President of Princeton Theological Seminary.

James Torrance died in 2003. In his obituary, we discover that he was born in 1923, the son of a missionary couple who served in China. James and his five siblings were all ministers or married to ministers. After serving in World War II in the Royal Air Force, Torrance studied Philosophy and theology. He served in parish ministry near Dundee before returning to the academy in 1963 at Edinburgh, where he lectured on Christian Thought.

As to his character and influence on his students:

There can be little doubt that the buoyancy and vibrancy of Aberdeen’s Faculty of Divinity in the late 70s owed a vast amount to his inspiring teaching, and to his bold leadership as Dean. He travelled widely, especially to the United States, Canada, South Africa and Australia, teaching and preaching up to five times a day. As a result, students flocked to study with him from all over the world.

On retirement in 1989, with unstoppable energy he continued to travel widely, and encapsulated the heart his convictions in a remarkable book, Worship, Community, and the Triune God of Grace. In 2001 he was invited to deliver the prestigious Warfield Lectures at Princeton Seminary (soon to be published).

No-one could miss the secret of his inspiration: he lived and breathed what he believed. His life was marked by an open-hearted generosity born of his own conviction that he had been welcomed unconditionally by an open-hearted, generous God. Few who knew him will forget the extraordinary hospitality he and his wife, Mary, showed in their home.

Apparently, he was concerned with impressing upon his students that theology was not just a dry and dusty exercise, but a vital discipline of living.

Blogger Andy Goodliff (a British Baptist), gives us this list of major works. A quick perusal of the titles will tell you that this fellow dealt with pretty heady stuff.

Here's a reflection from Andrew Thompson as he wrestles with the concepts in Torrance's book. As I've scoured the web, I've found nothing but glowing reviews. However, it is worth remembering that this book is a collection of lectures given at a theological college -- Torrance assumes a familiarity with technical terms and theological dramatis personae that the average reader will not have. Lord willing, we'll unfold some of that as we go along.

Soli Deo Gloria
Russell

Bits and Pieces -- June 21 2007

It's been a while since I've done a Bits and Pieces -- but here they are for today:

Our Music Director Phil Bishop just plain humbles me. Here he's forthright about a sin that troubles him -- a careless word. A single phrase that was uncharitable toward another. O that I would be so troubled by my own glib tongue....

The Inimitable John Schroeder comments on this challenging article from the Out of Ur Blog -- small churches are more difficult -- and make a deeper impact on the lives of those who attend. John's killer comment:

It seems like "Christianity" has become nothing more than a label and we
spend enormous amounts of time, energy, and intellect deciding who gets to wear
the label. There are all sorts of different criteria - institutional affiliation
-- theology -- saying the sinner's prayer -- but I cannot help but think all of
these things fall short of the marks that Christ Himself would use to decide who
can bear His name. I am also struck by how very similar the marks we discuss are
to those that the "Pharisees and hypocrites" Christ so forcefully denounced
used. Just because they are not behavioral does not rob them of being
legalistic.We are stuck in an age where growth is considered the only reasonable
sign of health. I agree, but I'll take growth in Christ any day.

The Wall Street journal gives this interesting article on a new website called fora.tv

Fora.tv has arrangements with many lecture societies, think tanks and big book stores. Members include the Brookings Institution, the Asia Society, the Hoover Institution and more than a dozen others. When one of them sponsors a speech or panel discussion, a Fora.tv crew -- usually, one person and a digital camera -- shows up and records it.

Back at the office, the speech is uploaded to a computer and then annotated by "chapters," much like DVDs divide up feature films. The file is then put online. You can either watch the whole speech or jump to any chapter. Some even have transcripts that appear in synch with the video.

Fora has hundreds of videos on scores of topics, in the arts, current events, business, science and more. There's a session on feminism and other topics with Jane Fonda and Gloria Steinem; Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus discusses how microfinance can end poverty; and writer Ian Buruma talks about social tensions in modern Europe.

Brian Gruber, the founder of the site, says his goal is for Internet users to think of Fora.tv as the gathering place for those who want to experience for themselves a speech or panel discussion they may have read about in the paper.

Excelsior

Russell

Support our troops -- News from Chaplain Tim Fary

I know that the issue of the war is a matter of division of the house in the PCUSA. I don't intend to talk about the war. Rather, I'd like to remind us of the men and women God has raised up to minister to the troops we've sent to fight this war -- our military chaplains.

Three of my best friends from seminary have gone off to be military chaplains. One of them, Tim Fary, serves in the Army and is currently on his third deployment to Iraq. I dropped him a line a while back asking how we could encourage him. He told me he was working to build a DVD and video game library for the troops under his care (did I mention they're in the desert, with little stress relief?). So, the good people of Covenant-First started bringing me DVDs, and I'd box them and send them. I just put over 80 in the mail yesterday -- since March of this year, Covenant-First folks have donated somewhere around 150 DVDS to encourage our troops in the field.

I recently found out that Tim has been sharing some reflections over on Common Grounds Online. In this first post, he talks about his ministry to soldiers in the Detention Facility (yes, sometime soldiers go to the military equivalent of jail -- and he gets to minister to them, too)

One Sunday there was a new soldier there. He was in the first cell. He was young, good-looking, well groomed, and had great military bearing. He looked like the poster child for mid-western America. Every time I entered the tent he would call the tent to attention. He was always neat, always shaven, and punctuated all of his sentences with, “Sir.” I was very impressed with him, grew to like him, and finally gave in to the temptation to ask what are you in for? Then, as casually as you might say, “Shooting spitballs at the First Sergeant,” he looks me in the eye and says, “Murder, Sir.” I resisted the urge to react. I simply said, “Oh, I see.” I later learned that there was more than one count of murder, and that the Army held that it was premeditated and first degree.

The thing about that experience that has always struck me is how at peace the young man seemed to be with his sin. (I don’t know his heart.) When ever I think of him, I ask myself what sins have I called a truce with? What are the areas of my sanctification that I’ve waved the white flag, given up on, and made peace?

Bang. Zoom. Right at me, too. Nathan the prophet points at my heart and says "you are the man." Tim has that kind of ministry that can wrench right to the hearts of people. How about this post about a typical Lord's day round of worship services that he conducts:

Then for the last time that day, I don my Body Armor, my Kevlar Helmet,
grab my guitar and head for the Bradley that will take me back to where my day
started. Yesterday, I remember thinking to my self, “I remember when preaching
one civilian service wore me out, and those folk weren’t even
armed…”

Pastors here in the States -- our burden is easy and our yokes are light....

Pray for and tangibly work to encourage our military chaplains.

Soli Deo Gloria
Russell

Summer Reading: Absolute Surrender -- third chapter

Links to other posts in this series:
About Andrew Murray
Chapter 1

How do I know what God wants me to do?

I get this question all the time as a pastor. However, sometimes it’s hard to answer the question due to the life situation of the person asking. At times, the person asking has had an acquaintance relationship with Christ rather than a living relationship. Murray confronts this challenge head on in this chapter as he talks exposits Acts 13:1-14: the sending forth of Barnabas and Saul. Here are some key points:

1) God does indeed have plans. Murray reaffirms God’s sovereign design over creation; also he reaffirms that God keeps back the full intricacies of His plans.

Murray recalls to us the story of a Mission Institute that he was involved with. The principal of that mission institute delivered an address at the start of the year in which he said:

“Last year we gathered here to lay the foundation-stone, and what was there then to be seen? Nothing but rubbish, and stones, and bricks, and ruins of an old building that had been pulled down. There we laid the foundation-stone, and very few knew what the building was that was to rise. No one knew it perfectly in every detail except one man, the architect. In his mind it was all clear, and as the contractor and the mason and the carpenter came to their workd, they took their orders from him, and the humblest laborer had to be obedient to orders, and the structure rose, and this beautiful building has been completed. And just so, this building that we open today is but laying the foundation of a work, of which only God knows what is to become.” (92)

I’ve experienced this kind of awesome providence, as I retold in my sermon on Ruth 4 about God’s extraordinary providence through his long term-thinking.

2) God does give direction. Murray boldly asserts that for those who are willing to give themselves over completely to God, the Holy Spirit reveals God’s will.

“It is easy for those who are in right fellowship with Heaven, and who understand the art of waiting upon God. “How often we ask: ‘How can a person know the will of God?’ And people want, when they are in perplexity, to pray very earnestly that God should answer them at once. But God can only reveal his will to a heart that is humble and tender and empty. God can only reveal his will in perplexities and special difficulties to a heart that has learned to obey and honor him loyally in little things and in daily life.” (93-94)

I’m always cautious about such bold claims, for I’ve seen too many abuses: People who claim a “word from the Lord” who are actually baptizing the first impulse that they feel. Scripture gives us the story of Jephthah (Judges 11 and 12) who made a rash vow to God, and wound up sacrificing his daughter to keep the vow. The vow was a rash impulse in a fit of showy spirituality, and Jephthah wound up doing something terribly wrong and evil because of it.

I know from experience that not every impulse that seems God-honoring is from the Lord. A few years ago, I had a great ministry idea – hosting one of those remote broadcast seminars as an outreach to the business community. I sought wise counsel. I lined up all the players and got support from some media partners. All the resources were falling into place and I knew that God was blessing the effort – I kept praying for God’s blessing on the event. Two days before it was to occur, I received a call from the co-sponsor that there were only 5 reservations and we had to cancel the plug. I was so sure that I’d received a call from the Lord to do this outreach. However, I was being reminded by the Lord that not every impulse is of Him.

That’s why Murray talks about the disciplines of fasting and prayer: Waiting on the lord. Sitting on ideas for extended periods of time. I don’t like talking in terms of “words from the Lord” – I prefer to think in terms of sanctified intuition. That God will shape our capacity to discern right action – and he ordinarily shapes that capacity over a time of exercise of Christian discipleship: prayer, bible reading, spending time with wise Christians, humbly serving those in need, learning how to speak about Christ’s work. That’s what Murray means, I think by learning to obey and honor God “loyally in little things and in daily life” – Eugene Peterson calls it “A Long Obedience in the Same Direction” (a great book for devotional reading if you’ve never seen it). This makes sense – If God’s plans work out in the Long Term view, then we must take a long term view to spiritual discernment.

3) God expects us to start with him, rather than coming to him as an afterthought.
“A man may often have a measure of the power of the Spirit, but if there be not a large measure of the Spirit as the Spirit of grace and holiness, the defect will be manifest in his work. He may be made the means of conversion, but he will never help people on to a higher standard of spiritual life, and when he passes away, a great deal of his work may pass away too. But a man who is separated unto the Holy Ghost is a man who is given up to say ‘Father, let the Holy Ghost have full dominion over me, in my home, in my temper, in every word of my tongue, in every thought of my heart, in every feeling toward my fellow men; let the Holy Spirit have entire possession.’” (96)

These disciplines of life are to tune us to grow toward absolute obedience.

4) God’s mission for us requires ongoing fasting and prayer:

“We have the key that can unlock the dungeon of atheism and of heathendom. But, oh! We are far more occupied with our work than we are with prayer. We believe more in speaking to men than we believe in speaking to God. Learn from these men that the work which the Holy Ghost commands must call us to new fasting and prayer, to new separation from the spirit and the pleasures of the world, to new consecration to God and to his fellowship.” (98)

Again, I’m cautious about calls for greater separation and self-denial. History has shown time and again that periods of great spiritual intensity often degenerate into a kind of legalism in which the “new separation from…the world” becomes a dour soulless imposition upon the spiritually weak and immature. We must realize that while the separation is a general calling for Christians, the specific manifestations of that separation will be rooted in our situation and shaped by our current sanctification.

For instance. The puritans considered theater “worldly entertainment”. Good Christians didn’t partake of the theater because it was decadent. However today, theater is considered art and many Christians believe it to be redemptive (plays are, after all stories – and good stories are about sin and evil and redemption and goodness). Naturally, as we grow in Christian faith, however, our taste in theater will be shaped by our faith. There are plays I won't go see because it would be unhelpful to my spiritual growth. And there are times and seasons when I might lay down theatre because more pressing things are on my horizon, or I have more needful uses of our finances. Or perphaps indulgence in the theater is producing something sinful in my life.

And that’s ultimately the real challenge. Where is the dross in our lives? Every garden needs to be pruned back. Dead branches need to be taken away. Out of control growth needs to be clipped so that new growth can occur. Lawns need to be kept trim to keep out weeds and to stimulate new grass to develop. The same is true in our lives.

We have certain entertainments and enjoyments that, while not overtly sinful, are distracting. God may be calling us at this time in our lives to trim some of these things out. However, there are so many things in this world that have so many uses, that that trimming is necessarily personalized. I have trimmed cable TV out of my life for the past decade – it’s been good for me and the family. Other families might decide to trim the internet out of their lives. Where are the places where you can trim the fat. The little book Give it Up, while not a brilliant tome, does challenge each of us to consider the need to prune things away.

The point is to clear up the clutter so that we can hear more clearly as God speaks.


Questions for reflection:
1) Look back over your life – what are events that you’ve experienced that bore fruit many years later in unexpected ways?

2) Look at your present spiritual disciplines – what are you doing that helps train you to better discern God’s calling on your life?

3) Look ahead to future decisions, events, or activities. In what ways can you begin now to seek God’s guidance and will before you have to make a decision? In what ways will you maintain an openness to unexpected possibilities?

4) What kind of response do you expect from prayer? How much power do you believe prayer really has?

5) How often do you reflect on your life and what can be pruned from it to make way for greater growth? If you were to look at your present commitments, entertainments, possessions, and habits, are there things that could be pruned away to make room for something better?

SDG

Summer Reading: Absolute Surrender -- first chapter reflection and questions

The planners of the summer book clubs asked me to prepare some discussion questions that the leaders could use. However, I’m having a hard time putting those questions together. What I’m going to try to do in the next several posts this week (and there will likely be 2 or 3 posts a day) is to both interact with Murray’s Absolute Surrender and to raise some questions. I hope that if you’re reading the books you’ll come put lots of comments and questions in these posts. I hope that discussion group leaders can use some of this material as fodder for their groups. Other Eagle and Child readers are welcome to join in as well....

Previous Posts:
About Andrew Murray

Some Key points from this chapter:

1) God expects your surrender.
This is a hard point for most of us to take, but we are creatures. Jeremiah 18:5ff “The word of the Lord came to me: ‘O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done?’ declares the Lord. ‘Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.’” We are but the clay in the hands of the potter. Contrary to popular opinion, this doesn’t diminish our dignity. Rather it enhances it. God cares enough about his creatures to be actively involved in the shaping and direction of our lives and our purposes. When we resist and run from those purposes, why should we expect our prayers to be anything but ineffective?

2) God accomplishes your surrender.
Here is the crux of Calvinism – God at work within. When we were yet unable, we lay on our faces and cry out “God, work on me. “My God, I’m willing that you should make me willing.” Murray acknowledges that even the least flicker of weak desire to be God’s servant is a good sign – for even in our weakness, God works in us. Even in our despair of lack of progress, there is sign of God’s growth. “All these searchings and hungerings and longings that are in your heart, I tell you they are the drawings of the divine magnet, Christ Jesus.” (70)

3) God accepts your surrender.
Even if we’re unsure of the absoluteness, God accepts what we bring – and he’ll grow it. Remember the story of the father of the demon possessed boy who cried out “I believe, help my unbelief” (Mark 9:14ff) Murray tells us that “even while you are feeble, fighting, and trembling…” God is there working in your faith. Our faith may be a feeble thing, but we’re to take our eyes off of our faith and put our eyes on the faithful one.

4) God maintains your surrender.
Have we not had the “mountaintop experience” when we go to the retreat or we have the recommitment. But six months later we look back and marvel at how much we lost the fire. But Murray encourages us to trust that God will maintain our surrender “If God allows the sun to shine upon you moment by moment without intermission, will not God let his life shine upon you every moment?” Philippians 2:12ff “….work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”

5) God blesses you when you surrender.
“You must deny self once for all. Denying self must every moment be the power of your life, and then Christ will come in and take possession of you.” (74)
In Calvin’s Institutes, Book three, chapter seven he describes the sum of the Christian life as “denial of ourselves”. He explores this in relation to our self-denial toward God and our self-denial toward our fellow men. Chapter seven and eight are well worth a read for those who want to go deeper into the topic (indeed the whole Institutes is a great read ... but a little much for this summer)

Questions for Reflection
1) What are some practical ways to be mindful that we are creatures rather than masters?

2) Reflecting on your life, where have you felt the “divine magnet” drawing you closer to the living God?

3) Where in your life have you seen God sustaining your faith, even when you felt terribly weak?

4) In what areas of your life do you want to practice more self denial?

SDG

I get by with a little help from my friends...

The Eagle and Child has been blessed by friends in the blogosphere of late:

Just today, Stushie (from Heaven's Highway -- one of our Presbyterian Blogging pals) listed the Eagle and Child first out the door he took his friday blogochuting jump -- check out his past lists for blogochuting here -- but only if you have some time to share -- Stushie makes some great picks to great sites).

Last week, we had an Eagle and Child first. Liz Bowater (who posts WAY too infrequently) dropped by the house with a present. It seems that several years ago, she had been touring about in England -- Oxford in particular. Thus, she visited what has become the Mecca for CS Lewis fans: the Eagle and Child pub (known affectionately as "the Bird and Baby"). She was feeling a little touristy and .... yes.... she bought the t-shirt.

Said t-shirt languished unused in her drawer for years until she had an epiphany of sorts -- "Russ -- his weblog is named The Eagle and Child." And thus we have the official presentation memorialized here:

Thanks Stushie and Liz. You are kinder than I deserve.

Soli Deo Gloria

Russell

Blogging to Learn: Skepticism and Citation

Last night's post on Andrew Murray put me in mind of another topic that comes up in Blogging to Learn -- that of citation.

Yesterday, I that several different Christian websites had lifted identical language from some source about Andrew Murray's life. None of these sites offered any citation for some of the unique biographical details (appropriate citations such as "In a letter to his sister on Dec 4, 1875..." or "From his book Humility...." or "As biographer Ann E. Body states..."). This gets us into the twin problems of credibility and plagarism.

I'm well aware that the blogging genre is more freewheeling and geared toward rapid dissemination of thoughts, opinions and ideas. The genre itself seems to mitigate against such forms of citation. However if we're truly blogging to learn, we're more interested in what is true than what is rumored. And what is true often requires a little work.

Case in point... a few years ago, I received via email this nice little story about a chance encounter between Sir Winston Churchill's father and the father of Andrew Fleming, the man who discovered Penicillin. It was a lovely story, and I wanted to use it in a sermon, like this pastor did:

We live in a country where everything has to do with looking out for number one. Such an approach to life is self-defeating, it leaves us empty and unfulfilled. For none of us live in a vacuum. The way I look out for you in reality is the way I look out for myself. In is in giving that we get, in loosing that we find, in dying that we live. That’s Gospel. I need you and you need me and in being aware of that and honoring that we fulfill ourselves. His name was Fleming and he was a poor Scottish farmer. One day while working in his fields he heard a cry for help from a nearby bog. Dropping his tools he ran to the bog and found mired to his waist in black mud a terrified boy struggling desperately to free himself. The man named Fleming rescued that boy from what would have been a tragic death.The next day a carriage pulled up to Farmer Fleming’s sparse house. An elegantly dressed nobleman stepped out and introduced himself as the father of the boy who the farmer had saved. "I want to repay you," he said. "You saved my son’s life." "I can’t accept payment for what I did," farmer Fleming replied. At that moment the farmer’s son came to the door of the modest farmhouse. "Is that your son?" the nobleman asked. "Yes," the farmer replied. The nobleman said, "Let me take him and give him a good education. If he is anything like his father, he’ll grow up to be a man you can be proud of."

And so it happened. In time farmer Fleming’s son graduated from St. Mary’s Hospital Medical School in London and went on to discover the miracle drug Penicillin. You and I know him by the name Sir Alexander Fleming. Years afterward the nobleman’s son was stricken with pneumonia. What saved his life, penicillin. The name of the nobleman? Lord Randolph Churchill and the name of the son saved by penicillin- Sir Winston Churchill. Fleming, Churchill, two great names. Did the name make the man or did the man make the name? Of course it is the latter not the former and it happened because each looked to the interest of the other.

There was a problem, however. No citation. No credible source. I really liked the story Before using it in the sermon, I spent about an hour on the web looking for any kind of confirmation. Zero -- zip. According to the PBS website, Fleming worked hard and came into an inheiritance that allowed him to attend medical school. Though not available a few years ago, a number of websites have put up pages to dispel the myth of the Fleming Churchill connection. Indeed the Churchill Center has put up a well documented page about this story -- citing biographies and letters indicating that it just couldn't possibly be true.

To be credible, we must provide a trail for our stories -- we must back things up with a little evidence. Sometimes that's impossible. I have in my posession one email and one letter, both from missionaries that I correspond with (one in Europe, one in the US). Both tell stories of Muslim men that have approached them speaking of dreams in which they have encountered Jesus Christ. These Muslim men sought out the first Christians they could find to ask about Jesus. I can tell you these stories, but I can't provide the supporting documentation because my friends have asked that their identities be protected (in order to protect their ministries). On this one, you just have to trust me that I did indeed receive two such firsthand accounts.

You're much more likely to believe me if I've earned the credibility by demonstrating time and again that my sources are reliable -- that I take the extra effort to track things down and make sure there is some grounding in reality -- or that I openly say "I heard this story, but I don't know if its true."

Our credibility gets sapped when we lift word for word from some other source without acknowledgement (see this cautionary tale from the NY Times -- registration is required, but access is free -- about a preacher who was delivering another preacher's sermons word for word).

The flip side of establishing credibility is having a healthy skepticism. The web is something like a wild west of information. Any yahoo with access to a keyboard is able to post whatever scred he or she chooses. Reader beware. Sure, we can relax our guard a bit around trusted information sources -- people who have established our credibility time and again. But just because something pops up on a weblog, that doesn't mean it is the truth. Look for multiple sources. Use a little creativity in doing some digging. Brush off those old research skills from college. And then when you discover some facts ... blog it, and you will have been blogging to learn!

Excelsior
Russell

Summer Reading at Covenant-First: Andrew Murray's Absolute Surrender -- about Murray

This summer at Covenant-First Presbyterian, we're sponsoring a series of book clubs in which we'll read books recommended by Andrew Purves, our Homecoming Conference speaker. Throughout the summer, I'll be putting up posts interacting with the three books we'll be reading. The first book we tackle is Andrew Murray's Absolute Surrender.

So for today, a few preliminary words about Andrew Murray.

The Wikipedia article is quite sparse, but it does give us his dates (1828-1917) and his main geographic location (South Africa -- serving the Dutch Reformed Church). He and his wife had eight children, and the article notes the encouraged the South Africa Revival of 1860. The nice feature of this article is the extensive list of links to Murray's works. (he did write over 250 books and pamphlets)

The next source of information for me came from Charles Stanley's In Touch Ministries site. Here we find that Murray's preaching attracted large crowds. However, Murray was prone to illness, one bout even taking him away from preaching for two years! Even so, these health trials strengthened his faith, as the article tells us:

Murray'sdaug hter wrote of her father, "It was after the 'time of silence' [in sickness] when God came so near to father and he saw more clearly the meaning of a life of full surrender and simple faith. He began to show in all relationships that constant tenderness and unruffled lovingkindness and unselfish thought for others which increasingly characterized his life from that point. At the same time he lost nothing of his strength and determination."

We also learn that when revival came, Murray was very cautious, wanting to "test the spirits" to make sure that this exuberance was truly of God. Among his other accomplishments were the founding of the Huguenot Seminary in 1873 and service as the first president of the YMCA (though a cursory search of the web finds no indication from YMCA sources that this is true).

Then at the Glory of His Cross webpage (a charismatic ministry based in India) we find more information on the 1860 South Africa Revival. Interestingly, in the middle of this section, I found word for word, the biography of Murray that was on the In Touch website (a cautionary reminder that net writers need to do a much better job at citing their sources and providing appropriate links)

Christianity Today's brief article expands on Murray's concern for education (he was also involved in several other educational institutions) and his theological orientation. According to this article, Murray was considered something of a forerunner to Pentecostalism, but he struggled diligently to maintain his Reformed theology emphasizing God's sovereignty over all. Christianity Today named Murray one of 113 Christians "everyone should to know". The article also gives us more information about Murray's most famous work:

One of his most popular books, With Christ in the School of Prayer, takes New Testament teachings about prayer and illumines them in 31 "lessons" designed to help the reader move past shallow, ineffectual prayer into a fuller understanding of the work God has called them to do. According to Murray, the church does not realize that "God rules the world by the prayers of his saints, that prayer is the power by which Satan is conquered, that by prayer the church on earth has disposal of the powers of the heavenly world."

All these quotes and sites from just an hour or so perusing the web. However, a few observations are in order: 1) every group seems to want to claim Murray as part of their heritage -- reformed, pentecostals, anabaptists, universalists (yes, universalists), foursquare gospel folks. 2) there's lots of stories without much documentation -- with over 200 works, it makes sense that people forget where the stories come from, but it sure would help if they cited a book or sermon 3) Murray preached and taught about a level of spiritual intensity that eludes many of us today -- I suspect that Absolute Surrender will be challenging to all of us who read it this month. I hope Eagle and Child readers will join us here at Covenant-First in working through this book.

Soli Deo Gloria
Russell