Book Recommendation — Horse Soldiers — Doug Stanton

If you enjoy summer reading, you are in for some good recommendations here in the next several days. Stories about the war on terror are beginning to surface by various soldiers who have been actively involved in the battle in Iraq and Afghanistan. A new book that has just come out is entitled Horse Soldiers by Doug Stanton. It is a very, very interesting book about the role the Special Forces played in the very early days of the American attack on the Taliban in Afghanistan.

The Special Forces faced overwhelming odds in getting their high-tech equipment up and down the sides of the mountains on horseback. The word pictures that Stanton uses to describe the 6-foot, two-hundred pound plus warriors riding horses that were meant for 130 pounders, is almost hilarious. You will almost picture an adult trying to ride a three-year olds’ tricycle, knees to chin sort of thing. His account of the SF having to ride their horses on rain-soaked trails that had cavernous drop-offs of thousands of feet will make you consider the dangers they endured that were not combat related.

Finally, the description of the use of GPS to work with the jet bombers and missiles was quite intriguing. For those involved in ministry, you are going to find a number of illustrations to pull from these books and actively use them in sermons.

Encouragement = O2 for the Soul

The Powerful Pull of Perfection

If you have never known it, I pray that you will at some point find it or rather that it will find you. You must understand that the desire for perfection also has some ominous undercurrents because the demands it has are only embraced by a hearty few. It has collapsed many who could not withstand the gnawing, relentless passion that hunger for perfection created. But that noble few who believed it, sought it, pursued it, and disciplined themselves to it, perfection crowned them in the end.

Perfection presses and pushes to such an extent that it can cause great calamities of defeat and disappointment. But it is in those precious moments of calamity and disappointment that the great souls are born. It is bewildering and mysterious, to say the least, of how calamity and disappointment can crown the man who pursues perfection with all of his heart. The difference is that the great souls just keep on stretching toward that shining. They do so in spite of those who believe the worst of you and can never see you embracing the best.

Raymond Damadian is a name that few recognize and yet his story and his achievements changed the world. In the early 1970’s politicians started looking toward a problem that faced not just the American nation but the world at large. It was an ominous challenge called cancer. The money started flowing in the direction of companies involved in research that was searching for a cure. But Raymond Damadian was a man who had no funding, no support, but had an indomitable will to do something worthy of his calling in the field of medicine.

He gave himself to the task of finding a way to detect cancer in its earliest stages. He believed that one could see into the human body in a cross-sectional way (as one would slice a deli ham) with very fine detail. He believed that all of the internal organs could be seen in such a way. His real clincher was that it could be done without the use of x-rays. People laughed him out of town. It can’t be done, they said. Others mocked saying “You are a dreamer.” But he worked on deep into the long nights and would be back up again early in the mornings. Working on a shoe-string budget, he pushed himself and his students relentlessly to come up with a system that could do this.

He tinkered with magnetic fields because in his mind he thought that if a strong enough magnetic field was created it would make all the atoms in the body to line up like toy soldiers. He believed the atoms would respond and align themselves with the positive on one end and the negative on the other end. Through many flops and failures over time this is exactly what he did. He built a machine that created a magnetic force that would create data that could be fed into a computer to form an exact replica of what was inside the human body. The computer would take the data and form images that highly skilled radiologists could interpret and diagnose disease processes within the human body.

Because he was working basically as a solo inventor, he did not nearly have the resources that the huge corporations had in their coffers. Because he lacked financial backing, he had to resort to some unorthodox means to make money. So he ended up taking his invention to county and state fairs and would charge people to see the machine that would change the whole world of medicine. While you probably do not know Raymond Damadian, you do know about his machine called Magnetic Resonance Imaging or MRI. The MRI is one of the savviest tools that a physician has at his hands to make a diagnosis.

This is a great example of the pursuit of perfection. It is a pressing on despite the challenges, the hindrances, the ridicule, the weariness, and the set-backs. You do not become perfect simply because you want it but rather because you pursue it and never back away from the heights of the mountains that other think are un-scalable.

It takes remarkable courage to trudge on where no other person has ever been before. While most people applaud Dr. Damadian now, he had very, very few who were cheering him on during the times when he needed it the most. That is where the hunger for perfection or excellence keys into the equation. Every person that I have ever met who hungered for perfection or had a desire for excellence also had an accompanying passion for what they were doing. That passion fueled their dreams but it also drove them when they were weary and discouraged along the way. They simply trudged on regardless of what their critics told them or what their own mind told them. This is the reach for perfection. . . .

Matthew 5:48 KJV Be ye therefore perfect. . . .

Encouragement = O2 for the Soul

The Powerful Pull of Perfection

If you have never known it, I pray that you will at some point find it or rather that it will find you. You must understand that the desire for perfection also has some ominous undercurrents because the demands it has are only embraced by a hearty few. It has collapsed many who could not withstand the gnawing, relentless passion that hunger for perfection created. But that noble few who believed it, sought it, pursued it, and disciplined themselves to it, perfection crowned them in the end.

Perfection presses and pushes to such an extent that it can cause great calamities of defeat and disappointment. But it is in those precious moments of calamity and disappointment that the great souls are born. It is bewildering and mysterious, to say the least, of how calamity and disappointment can crown the man who pursues perfection with all of his heart. The difference is that the great souls just keep on stretching toward that shining. They do so in spite of those who believe the worst of you and can never see you embracing the best.

Raymond Damadian is a name that few recognize and yet his story and his achievements changed the world. In the early 1970’s politicians started looking toward a problem that faced not just the American nation but the world at large. It was an ominous challenge called cancer. The money started flowing in the direction of companies involved in research that was searching for a cure. But Raymond Damadian was a man who had no funding, no support, but had an indomitable will to do something worthy of his calling in the field of medicine.

He gave himself to the task of finding a way to detect cancer in its earliest stages. He believed that one could see into the human body in a cross-sectional way (as one would slice a deli ham) with very fine detail. He believed that all of the internal organs could be seen in such a way. His real clincher was that it could be done without the use of x-rays. People laughed him out of town. It can’t be done, they said. Others mocked saying “You are a dreamer.” But he worked on deep into the long nights and would be back up again early in the mornings. Working on a shoe-string budget, he pushed himself and his students relentlessly to come up with a system that could do this.

He tinkered with magnetic fields because in his mind he thought that if a strong enough magnetic field was created it would make all the atoms in the body to line up like toy soldiers. He believed the atoms would respond and align themselves with the positive on one end and the negative on the other end. Through many flops and failures over time this is exactly what he did. He built a machine that created a magnetic force that would create data that could be fed into a computer to form an exact replica of what was inside the human body. The computer would take the data and form images that highly skilled radiologists could interpret and diagnose disease processes within the human body.

Because he was working basically as a solo inventor, he did not nearly have the resources that the huge corporations had in their coffers. Because he lacked financial backing, he had to resort to some unorthodox means to make money. So he ended up taking his invention to county and state fairs and would charge people to see the machine that would change the whole world of medicine. While you probably do not know Raymond Damadian, you do know about his machine called Magnetic Resonance Imaging or MRI. The MRI is one of the savviest tools that a physician has at his hands to make a diagnosis.

This is a great example of the pursuit of perfection. It is a pressing on despite the challenges, the hindrances, the ridicule, the weariness, and the set-backs. You do not become perfect simply because you want it but rather because you pursue it and never back away from the heights of the mountains that other think are un-scalable.

It takes remarkable courage to trudge on where no other person has ever been before. While most people applaud Dr. Damadian now, he had very, very few who were cheering him on during the times when he needed it the most. That is where the hunger for perfection or excellence keys into the equation. Every person that I have ever met who hungered for perfection or had a desire for excellence also had an accompanying passion for what they were doing. That passion fueled their dreams but it also drove them when they were weary and discouraged along the way. They simply trudged on regardless of what their critics told them or what their own mind told them. This is the reach for perfection. . . .

Matthew 5:48 KJV Be ye therefore perfect. . . .

Encouragement = O2 for the Soul

Insufficiently Prepared? ? ? . . . . Probably Not. . .

Yesterday spelled out another important lesson for me as I was riding my bike. It is amazing how many little lessons of life a man can get on the road particularly if you mix it with a bit of Scripture. With the time change allowing me a little more daylight and the weather change allowing me a reprieve from the cold grips of winter, I have gotten back into getting in shape again. One of the drawbacks with bike riding is that during the short days of winter, the bike is relegated to hanging from its ceiling hook in the garage. During this time of inactivity, the bike and the rider generally begin to deteriorate. The changes with the bike are far more subtle than the changes in the rider. The rider reflects the inactivity with slowly increasing weight and rapidly decreasing lung capacity so that when the bike is finally engaged again it takes a bit for the weight to come off and the breath to return.

Although a little weight is starting to drop and the breath is coming back, I am still not in the shape that I was at the end of the summer a couple of years ago. But in time, I have all intentions of being back at that weight and shape that I was a few summers ago.

Yesterday around mile 17 or so, I was pressing along at a pretty good pace through some of the rural farmland around Wicksburg when things got incredibly exciting. I had just climbed a long, long hill of at least ½ a mile and had leveled off and was just getting my speed up to around 19-20 mph on a flat when a large surprise came bounding out of a yard. I was just past a nice brick house that had a long driveway but to my great dismay, the gate was open. A large (as in huge) Doberman Pinscher was running that driveway for all he was worth and just about 5 yards behind him was a German Shepherd that was only a bit smaller than the Doberman. Both of them were barking and yowling and sincerely thought they were about to chew on some part of my soft anatomy.

My heart-rate went through the roof and adrenaline began to pour from everywhere as suddenly the threat of these dogs gripped me. I begin to try and get my foot out of the clip-in pedals that I use but I could not get my foot loose. With bike wobbling all over the road because I was jerking my foot to get it dislodged, the Doberman is gaining on me in all of his hideousness. I determine that I am not going to get my foot out so I reach down and pull my water bottle from its holder and squeeze off a jet of green Gatorade in the direction of this huge beast. I am utterly amazed at the results! The Doberman puts on his brakes and screeches to a stop because apparently he is afraid of my little water bottle filled with Gatorade.

With my overactive imagination, I had already seen the outcome of the matter. I was going to go down because I couldn’t get my feet out of the clip-ins and two dogs were going to devour me while I twitched in the road. They were going to tear me from stem to stern and all sorts of blood, bone, muscle, and gristle would be for their taking. That was what happened in my mind all in a racing stretch of about 25-30 yards that they chased me. However, my little water-bottle, a .99 cent job from Walmart kept the beast at bay furthermore it kept him off of me for the day. Amazing how such a simple solution was at my fingertips and I was trying my best to figure out how to defend against something that was threatening me.

Far too often both in physical and spiritual life, we are prone to look for the huge and complicated solutions to help us with our dilemmas when in actuality all it takes is a .99 cent water-bottle. Far too often men are constantly looking over the proverbial fences at the greener grass on the other side. It is a myth that the greener grass is always on the other side of the fence.

What happens is that a whole lot of life gets lost because of our belief that we are insufficiently prepared to do what God has called us to do. I have to confess that on yesterday I thought of several solutions for me and the dog for our next go around. Pepper spray or mace or a few other things that could be added to my arsenal to help me when the fact is that on yesterday I had exactly what I needed to get the job done.

I encourage you to believe that you are exactly where God wants you to be. If you weren’t then God is big enough to move us to where He wants us to be and He can get you “there” if He needs to. Otherwise, let the joy of contentment bring great blessing to your life and start believing that you are sufficiently prepared by the grace of God to fulfill exactly His will.

• If you don’t have much to spend, then spend well what you have.
• If you don’t have many books, read what you have and master them.
• If you aren’t where you want to be spiritually, physically, and so forth, spend a day writing down some goals of where you would like to be this time next year.
• Learn the value of borrowing (and returning) resources that will make you a better man.
• Re-read your books, your sermons, your Bible studies and take notes from them there is still much to harvest from them as they grow.
• Re-pray your prayers, your visions, your dreams, your desires, and let faith rise in your heart.
• Don’t let what you may not have ruin what you do have! Look for opportunities to be great in the challenges of life be they miserable conditions, resistant people, or rocky roads.
• Study your soul for it is the most difficult study you will ever undertake.
• For those in ministry, look for the older men to convey wisdom and experience to you. Just listen to them. Look for the younger men so you may add something to their experience with God.
• Don’t let the interruptions frustrate you, take them and use them to help your soul to grow. Far too many allow a “stepping-stone” mentality cause them to miss out on the day because they are so focused on the journey.
• Look for ways to express appreciation, to accomplish great things, and outrun the dogs that will do their best to bring you down.

Go ride and don’t let the Doberman’s of life fill you with fear that you are not sufficiently prepared to do the will of God.

Encouragement = O2 for the Soul

Insufficiently Prepared? ? ? . . . . Probably Not. . .

Yesterday spelled out another important lesson for me as I was riding my bike. It is amazing how many little lessons of life a man can get on the road particularly if you mix it with a bit of Scripture. With the time change allowing me a little more daylight and the weather change allowing me a reprieve from the cold grips of winter, I have gotten back into getting in shape again. One of the drawbacks with bike riding is that during the short days of winter, the bike is relegated to hanging from its ceiling hook in the garage. During this time of inactivity, the bike and the rider generally begin to deteriorate. The changes with the bike are far more subtle than the changes in the rider. The rider reflects the inactivity with slowly increasing weight and rapidly decreasing lung capacity so that when the bike is finally engaged again it takes a bit for the weight to come off and the breath to return.

Although a little weight is starting to drop and the breath is coming back, I am still not in the shape that I was at the end of the summer a couple of years ago. But in time, I have all intentions of being back at that weight and shape that I was a few summers ago.

Yesterday around mile 17 or so, I was pressing along at a pretty good pace through some of the rural farmland around Wicksburg when things got incredibly exciting. I had just climbed a long, long hill of at least ½ a mile and had leveled off and was just getting my speed up to around 19-20 mph on a flat when a large surprise came bounding out of a yard. I was just past a nice brick house that had a long driveway but to my great dismay, the gate was open. A large (as in huge) Doberman Pinscher was running that driveway for all he was worth and just about 5 yards behind him was a German Shepherd that was only a bit smaller than the Doberman. Both of them were barking and yowling and sincerely thought they were about to chew on some part of my soft anatomy.

My heart-rate went through the roof and adrenaline began to pour from everywhere as suddenly the threat of these dogs gripped me. I begin to try and get my foot out of the clip-in pedals that I use but I could not get my foot loose. With bike wobbling all over the road because I was jerking my foot to get it dislodged, the Doberman is gaining on me in all of his hideousness. I determine that I am not going to get my foot out so I reach down and pull my water bottle from its holder and squeeze off a jet of green Gatorade in the direction of this huge beast. I am utterly amazed at the results! The Doberman puts on his brakes and screeches to a stop because apparently he is afraid of my little water bottle filled with Gatorade.

With my overactive imagination, I had already seen the outcome of the matter. I was going to go down because I couldn’t get my feet out of the clip-ins and two dogs were going to devour me while I twitched in the road. They were going to tear me from stem to stern and all sorts of blood, bone, muscle, and gristle would be for their taking. That was what happened in my mind all in a racing stretch of about 25-30 yards that they chased me. However, my little water-bottle, a .99 cent job from Walmart kept the beast at bay furthermore it kept him off of me for the day. Amazing how such a simple solution was at my fingertips and I was trying my best to figure out how to defend against something that was threatening me.

Far too often both in physical and spiritual life, we are prone to look for the huge and complicated solutions to help us with our dilemmas when in actuality all it takes is a .99 cent water-bottle. Far too often men are constantly looking over the proverbial fences at the greener grass on the other side. It is a myth that the greener grass is always on the other side of the fence.

What happens is that a whole lot of life gets lost because of our belief that we are insufficiently prepared to do what God has called us to do. I have to confess that on yesterday I thought of several solutions for me and the dog for our next go around. Pepper spray or mace or a few other things that could be added to my arsenal to help me when the fact is that on yesterday I had exactly what I needed to get the job done.

I encourage you to believe that you are exactly where God wants you to be. If you weren’t then God is big enough to move us to where He wants us to be and He can get you “there” if He needs to. Otherwise, let the joy of contentment bring great blessing to your life and start believing that you are sufficiently prepared by the grace of God to fulfill exactly His will.

• If you don’t have much to spend, then spend well what you have.
• If you don’t have many books, read what you have and master them.
• If you aren’t where you want to be spiritually, physically, and so forth, spend a day writing down some goals of where you would like to be this time next year.
• Learn the value of borrowing (and returning) resources that will make you a better man.
• Re-read your books, your sermons, your Bible studies and take notes from them there is still much to harvest from them as they grow.
• Re-pray your prayers, your visions, your dreams, your desires, and let faith rise in your heart.
• Don’t let what you may not have ruin what you do have! Look for opportunities to be great in the challenges of life be they miserable conditions, resistant people, or rocky roads.
• Study your soul for it is the most difficult study you will ever undertake.
• For those in ministry, look for the older men to convey wisdom and experience to you. Just listen to them. Look for the younger men so you may add something to their experience with God.
• Don’t let the interruptions frustrate you, take them and use them to help your soul to grow. Far too many allow a “stepping-stone” mentality cause them to miss out on the day because they are so focused on the journey.
• Look for ways to express appreciation, to accomplish great things, and outrun the dogs that will do their best to bring you down.

Go ride and don’t let the Doberman’s of life fill you with fear that you are not sufficiently prepared to do the will of God.

Encouragement = O2 for the Soul

Book Recommendation — Chaim Potok, The Chosen

One of the marks of a great book is for the author to be able to reach out to the world beyond the pages and pull the reader into the pages of the tale he is telling. Louis L’Amour is one such writer that has the ability to put the reader on a horse with him or in the middle of a range war with bad hombres. A. J. Cronin is another such writer who with books such as The Citadel and The Keys of the Kingdom forces the reader to live out the depth of emotions of his main characters.

Another author whom I was only recently connected with is Chaim Potok. Both Jason Calhoun and Ben Weeks were flabbergasted that I had never read any of his books. I was encouraged to begin with The Chosen which actually was written in 1967. The actual setting of the book is Brooklyn, New York in a very highly concentrated neighborhood of Jews. It is here that the worlds of Reuven Malter and Danny Saunders collide. Reuven’s father is a Jewish scholar who is encouraging the Zionist movement to find a homeland and form a nation. Danny’s father is a very revered Hasidic rabbi who has a powerful devotion to extreme conservatism among the Jews. Although the story surrounds the boys, you should read this book simply to acquaint yourself with the rigors and disciplined training that the Jewish rabbis go through to be set aside in their calling. I was both amazed and motivated by the disciplines of mind and spirit that I found Chaim Potok describing in his narrative.

The book starts off with a bang with Reuven experiencing a very serious (nearly fatal?) injury at the hands of Danny. (I don’t want to spoil the details so I will be vague with the storyline.) As the book tracks their immense feelings of agitation between the two, they ultimately become the closest of friends and it is through this friendship that Potok gives us the ability to see the best of both worlds.

The book also brings the reader to taste events of world history as they were unfolding in the late 1940’s. Roosevelt’s death, the Holocaust, and the development of the nation of Israel all serve as a backdrop to this intensely emotional story. If you are given to thinking, there will be times that you will find yourself putting the book down and contemplating the varying themes that develop in the characters of this story. This book explores areas like commitment, honor, valor, suffering, and the dilemmas that involve the heart and the mind.

In addition, if you are a minister who is involved in the ministry of the Word, I have a feeling that when you read this book that you will discover that very little discipline is in your life concerning study. These Jewish rabbis and scholars are so entirely given to study and prayer it is remarkable. One the remarkable scenes that I really found very interesting was when Danny went on the initial visit to Reb Saunders study and the description that Potok gives to this. I found a lot of motivation to seek a greater depth of life through disciplined study as a I read this book.

I am thinking that if you start with this work of Potok’s, you will invest your time in reading all this author has written.

Encouragement = O2 for the Soul

Book Recommendation — Chaim Potok, The Chosen

One of the marks of a great book is for the author to be able to reach out to the world beyond the pages and pull the reader into the pages of the tale he is telling. Louis L’Amour is one such writer that has the ability to put the reader on a horse with him or in the middle of a range war with bad hombres. A. J. Cronin is another such writer who with books such as The Citadel and The Keys of the Kingdom forces the reader to live out the depth of emotions of his main characters.

Another author whom I was only recently connected with is Chaim Potok. Both Jason Calhoun and Ben Weeks were flabbergasted that I had never read any of his books. I was encouraged to begin with The Chosen which actually was written in 1967. The actual setting of the book is Brooklyn, New York in a very highly concentrated neighborhood of Jews. It is here that the worlds of Reuven Malter and Danny Saunders collide. Reuven’s father is a Jewish scholar who is encouraging the Zionist movement to find a homeland and form a nation. Danny’s father is a very revered Hasidic rabbi who has a powerful devotion to extreme conservatism among the Jews. Although the story surrounds the boys, you should read this book simply to acquaint yourself with the rigors and disciplined training that the Jewish rabbis go through to be set aside in their calling. I was both amazed and motivated by the disciplines of mind and spirit that I found Chaim Potok describing in his narrative.

The book starts off with a bang with Reuven experiencing a very serious (nearly fatal?) injury at the hands of Danny. (I don’t want to spoil the details so I will be vague with the storyline.) As the book tracks their immense feelings of agitation between the two, they ultimately become the closest of friends and it is through this friendship that Potok gives us the ability to see the best of both worlds.

The book also brings the reader to taste events of world history as they were unfolding in the late 1940’s. Roosevelt’s death, the Holocaust, and the development of the nation of Israel all serve as a backdrop to this intensely emotional story. If you are given to thinking, there will be times that you will find yourself putting the book down and contemplating the varying themes that develop in the characters of this story. This book explores areas like commitment, honor, valor, suffering, and the dilemmas that involve the heart and the mind.

In addition, if you are a minister who is involved in the ministry of the Word, I have a feeling that when you read this book that you will discover that very little discipline is in your life concerning study. These Jewish rabbis and scholars are so entirely given to study and prayer it is remarkable. One the remarkable scenes that I really found very interesting was when Danny went on the initial visit to Reb Saunders study and the description that Potok gives to this. I found a lot of motivation to seek a greater depth of life through disciplined study as a I read this book.

I am thinking that if you start with this work of Potok’s, you will invest your time in reading all this author has written.

Encouragement = O2 for the Soul

The Discipline of Study — Rick Wyser

I met Brother Rick Wyser in May, 1992. He came and preached one of the last chapel services prior to my graduation from Texas Bible College. It was the first time I had ever heard him and still to this day I can remember the message that he preached. It was entitled “The Dullest Word in the Bible” which is duty. I briefly met him then but did not realize that in later years that I would become much more involved with him and his work.

Brother Wyser grew up Baptist but was converted to Pentecost sometime in the 1960’s. He was introduced to Pentecost through his wife’s sister who started attending the church in Alexandria, Louisiana pastored at the time by G. A. Mangun. It was not long before all of Sister Wanda Wyser’s family was in that church and Brother Wyser followed suit.

His educational background has included Texas Bible College, Northwestern, LSU-Alexandria, and a seminary in Andersonville, Georgia. While this was the foundation for Brother Wyser, you will discover that he has put a lot of energy into continuing to develop his ministry with a lot of discipline in study and writing.

The inside track that I had to Brother Wyser developed with a friend of mine who married a girl out of Brother Wyser’s church when he was pastoring in Addison, Illinois. This friend would send me cassette tapes of Brother Wyser and I would listen and find myself very motivated and intrigued by his abilities to preach consistently very solid messages. I received a series on Elijah, another one called “We Must Guard the Gates,” and a host of single messages that were a blessing to me. Finally, one day I decided to give Brother Wyser a call and speak with him. It was a good outing for me because it developed a friendship that has paid some very good dividends to me over the years. I was amazed that being a total stranger that Brother Wyser would talk to me as long as he did. However, I have discovered that if you get him into a conversation about preaching, you are in for a long, lengthy and extremely profitable discussion!

In his early ministry, he spent some time overseas creating some Bible schools in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. During that time he knew he would not be able to take very many resources with him so he settled for three: His Bible, G. Campbell Morgan’s Westminster Pulpit, and Alexander Whyte’s “Characters from the Old and New Testament.” During that time, a little over a year, he read all the way through Morgan’s work twice and developed a lot of seed thoughts by reading Whyte’s character studies. He still finds these two sources as very helpful background materials for his current preaching.

When I asked him about how messages came to him, he told me it was primarily through studying that things came to him. Various places like devotional books, varying articles from multiple sources, and old sermon books are very rich in assisting him. He always has a notebook that he will write down thoughts that he can develop into messages at a later point. He told me that it is very important to write down a single sentence that will crystallize what the message is conveying and then build supporting thoughts around that single sentence.

He actually learned how to build sermons from an old classic work by Charles Spurgeon. Spurgeon wrote “Lectures to My Students” (which I have read several times and highly recommend) which actually teaches one how to put together three messages at one time. Brother Wyser said he sort of accidentally found this book but after reading it, he applied the study method taught by Spurgeon to his own life of study and preparation.

Brother Wyser when he was pastoring would study for three messages at one time. He would work with gathering material for the message and as he worked it would grow. When all was finally compiled, he would then take it and divide it up into three distinct messages and add fitting illustrations that worked well with what he was preaching. He began with a rough outline and then honed it down to a finished outline and finally a manuscript of the actually preaching notes. He told me it was very important to make sure that you have good transition points in the message so that the whole thing does not become disjointed and unrelated to listening ears. He also told me that by working with three messages at once there is an ability to seek out and find illustrations that can really set up the sermon. One of the benefits of working with three sermons at once is that one will have one “hard” week of study followed by two “soft” weeks of study. For those who are pastors, you can relate very well to the importance of this idea because of the variability that comes with our schedules.

When he read the “Lectures” by Spurgeon, he told me that he started buying up the small collected volumes of Spurgeon’s sermons and reading them. Although he could not remember the names of the books, I am thinking it was those little paperback volumes published by Baker Books that would have titles like “Twelve Sermons on Decision,” “Twelve Sermons on the Tears of Christ,” and “Twelve Sermons on the Miracles” that were popular back in the seventies. A lot of these books are still available but you have to find on-line, used book outlets as they have become the primary sources to look to.

I asked him about some of the favorite sermons that he had preached over the years which was a little difficult for him to narrow down. He has somewhere around 2000 sermons that he has put together over the years. He has presently published 8 years worth of messages through Bible Preaching Resources which is available for purchase. I have been receiving his material for all eight years and have to say that there are some very good things in these volumes.

So with all of this wealth of material, he did pick out a few of his favorites:

The Dullest Word in the Bible—Duty
A series called “The Vital Virtues”—His favorite is a message on the vital virtue of steadfastness.
Here Lie the Bones—On influence.
A Personal God.
God’s Own Master—Love.
The Old Story—A message of his personal testimony.
Don’t Call It A List—From Romans 16, he preaches about the people who are named there and how important it was for their fellowship in the church to help it to continue on successfully. Every person in a church has significance that that fellowship is a reality and not just a bypassing thought of God.

In addition to his sermons, he has a number of Bible studies that are more geared toward series. He did the Elijah series that was a lengthy study (about a quarter) in Addison. Also, a series on Revelation and he worked through the book of Romans 2-3 times when he was in Addison. He also told me about a series of messages from the Song of Solomon that I found very interesting. It was entitled “The Divine Crescendo” and it focused on the escalating relationship that a saint has with God. He keyed in on “Set Me,” “Know Me,” “Hear Me,” and five other elements on the Song. This series is available through BPR. Another series came from the Beatitudes. He entitled it “Don’t Become a Victim” and worked through each one with a bent toward allowing your life to flourish for God despite what surroundings and circumstances that life will present.

When I asked him about authors, he was a very open about sharing those he had personally found to be useful.

R. G. Lee—Full of prose with good flowing thoughts. He purchased everything R.G. Lee wrote which was multiple sermon collections.

Joel Gregory—Very good with expository outlines that can help a preacher flesh out a message.

John Phillips—The “Exploring” series are also very good simply because of the way that Phillips works with his outlines.

Alan Redpath—The classic is “The Making of a Man of God” which is about the life of David. I personally think this book should be required reading for anyone who is going into the ministry. He also mentioned his volume on 1st Corinthians as being very good, entitled “The Royal Route to Heaven.” Redpath also has a series on faith that it is out of print.

G. H. Morrison—Everything he has written is beneficial. “The Wind on the Heath,” “Highways of the Heart,” “The Wings of the Morning,” and “The Weaving of the Glory.” AMG Publishers also has a number of Morrison’s works in hardbound editions that are worthy of your time.

Peter Marshall—The former chaplain to the Senate has some good devotional messages.

George Swann—Out of print but some very good sermons were written by this preacher.

Old Keswick Series—These will be extremely hard to come by but they have some excellent material in them. Most of these books are 75—100 years old.

Wilbur Chapman—An evangelist who has some very good material. A primary speaker at the Winona Lake conferences.

William Albert Munsey—Some very good sermons on eternity.

C.M. Ward—The Revivaltime series are very good if you can get them.

George D. Watson—An old Methodist writer. Available through Schmul Publishers which is reprinting a lot of the old holiness writings that are hardly available in our modern times. Brother Wyser said that Marvin Hicks put him on Watson’s trail years ago.

Arthur Pink—Good for Bible study but very strongly Calvinistic in his approach.

The Layman’s Bible Commentary.

S.D. Gordon—His “Quiet Talks” series are very good. On prayer, power, etc. Brother Wyser gleaned a lot of from Gordon in his early years of preaching to help him to put together sermons.

T. DeWitt Talmage—Very good devotional writer. Called the “American Spurgeon.”

A. W. Tozer—Very good series of sermons on the Holy Ghost.

Jack Schuller—Has a good book called Schuller’s Short Sermons. This will probably be extremely hard to find. Brother Wyser has a set of tapes of this preacher from many years ago that he enjoyed listening to. He thought this man came from an old style Methodist background.

One of the things that Brother Wyser has turned his focus toward in the last 10 years is to assist preachers to become better at their preaching. I have hosted several of his workshops here in Dothan. The first one was “The Six Should Be’s of Preaching” and we had 50+ attendees. The second one was about illustrations and we had 30+ men to attend. There have been several districts that have sponsored his preaching workshops which are a multi-day affair. In Dothan, we did a Thursday night, Friday night, and half-a-day on Saturday and it worked out very well.

The available seminars are:

The Six Should Be’s of Preaching.
So What? (An acronym that explores different areas of preaching.)
On Illustrations (This one is very intense but it gives multiple sources to find good illustrations.)
On Ethics—Encompasses the ethics of preparation for preaching.
Three Ways to Dispense Water—Working with preaching in three ways; topical, textual, and expository.
Expository Preaching

In addition a new development is the Life Catalyst series on the family, marriage, parenting, anger management, depression, self-destructive behavior, and other youth oriented services.

If you ever get the chance to meet Brother Wyser, I can promise you it will be a good investment of your time as he is very interested in helping men become better preachers.

The other posts related to this one are as follow:

The Discipline of Study.
Jeff Arnold.
Scott Graham.
Ben Weeks.
Jason Calhoun.
Doug White.
J. H. Osborne.
John Carroll.

Encouragement = O2 for the Soul

The Discipline of Study — Rick Wyser

I met Brother Rick Wyser in May, 1992. He came and preached one of the last chapel services prior to my graduation from Texas Bible College. It was the first time I had ever heard him and still to this day I can remember the message that he preached. It was entitled “The Dullest Word in the Bible” which is duty. I briefly met him then but did not realize that in later years that I would become much more involved with him and his work.

Brother Wyser grew up Baptist but was converted to Pentecost sometime in the 1960’s. He was introduced to Pentecost through his wife’s sister who started attending the church in Alexandria, Louisiana pastored at the time by G. A. Mangun. It was not long before all of Sister Wanda Wyser’s family was in that church and Brother Wyser followed suit.

His educational background has included Texas Bible College, Northwestern, LSU-Alexandria, and a seminary in Andersonville, Georgia. While this was the foundation for Brother Wyser, you will discover that he has put a lot of energy into continuing to develop his ministry with a lot of discipline in study and writing.

The inside track that I had to Brother Wyser developed with a friend of mine who married a girl out of Brother Wyser’s church when he was pastoring in Addison, Illinois. This friend would send me cassette tapes of Brother Wyser and I would listen and find myself very motivated and intrigued by his abilities to preach consistently very solid messages. I received a series on Elijah, another one called “We Must Guard the Gates,” and a host of single messages that were a blessing to me. Finally, one day I decided to give Brother Wyser a call and speak with him. It was a good outing for me because it developed a friendship that has paid some very good dividends to me over the years. I was amazed that being a total stranger that Brother Wyser would talk to me as long as he did. However, I have discovered that if you get him into a conversation about preaching, you are in for a long, lengthy and extremely profitable discussion!

In his early ministry, he spent some time overseas creating some Bible schools in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. During that time he knew he would not be able to take very many resources with him so he settled for three: His Bible, G. Campbell Morgan’s Westminster Pulpit, and Alexander Whyte’s “Characters from the Old and New Testament.” During that time, a little over a year, he read all the way through Morgan’s work twice and developed a lot of seed thoughts by reading Whyte’s character studies. He still finds these two sources as very helpful background materials for his current preaching.

When I asked him about how messages came to him, he told me it was primarily through studying that things came to him. Various places like devotional books, varying articles from multiple sources, and old sermon books are very rich in assisting him. He always has a notebook that he will write down thoughts that he can develop into messages at a later point. He told me that it is very important to write down a single sentence that will crystallize what the message is conveying and then build supporting thoughts around that single sentence.

He actually learned how to build sermons from an old classic work by Charles Spurgeon. Spurgeon wrote “Lectures to My Students” (which I have read several times and highly recommend) which actually teaches one how to put together three messages at one time. Brother Wyser said he sort of accidentally found this book but after reading it, he applied the study method taught by Spurgeon to his own life of study and preparation.

Brother Wyser when he was pastoring would study for three messages at one time. He would work with gathering material for the message and as he worked it would grow. When all was finally compiled, he would then take it and divide it up into three distinct messages and add fitting illustrations that worked well with what he was preaching. He began with a rough outline and then honed it down to a finished outline and finally a manuscript of the actually preaching notes. He told me it was very important to make sure that you have good transition points in the message so that the whole thing does not become disjointed and unrelated to listening ears. He also told me that by working with three messages at once there is an ability to seek out and find illustrations that can really set up the sermon. One of the benefits of working with three sermons at once is that one will have one “hard” week of study followed by two “soft” weeks of study. For those who are pastors, you can relate very well to the importance of this idea because of the variability that comes with our schedules.

When he read the “Lectures” by Spurgeon, he told me that he started buying up the small collected volumes of Spurgeon’s sermons and reading them. Although he could not remember the names of the books, I am thinking it was those little paperback volumes published by Baker Books that would have titles like “Twelve Sermons on Decision,” “Twelve Sermons on the Tears of Christ,” and “Twelve Sermons on the Miracles” that were popular back in the seventies. A lot of these books are still available but you have to find on-line, used book outlets as they have become the primary sources to look to.

I asked him about some of the favorite sermons that he had preached over the years which was a little difficult for him to narrow down. He has somewhere around 2000 sermons that he has put together over the years. He has presently published 8 years worth of messages through Bible Preaching Resources which is available for purchase. I have been receiving his material for all eight years and have to say that there are some very good things in these volumes.

So with all of this wealth of material, he did pick out a few of his favorites:

The Dullest Word in the Bible—Duty
A series called “The Vital Virtues”—His favorite is a message on the vital virtue of steadfastness.
Here Lie the Bones—On influence.
A Personal God.
God’s Own Master—Love.
The Old Story—A message of his personal testimony.
Don’t Call It A List—From Romans 16, he preaches about the people who are named there and how important it was for their fellowship in the church to help it to continue on successfully. Every person in a church has significance that that fellowship is a reality and not just a bypassing thought of God.

In addition to his sermons, he has a number of Bible studies that are more geared toward series. He did the Elijah series that was a lengthy study (about a quarter) in Addison. Also, a series on Revelation and he worked through the book of Romans 2-3 times when he was in Addison. He also told me about a series of messages from the Song of Solomon that I found very interesting. It was entitled “The Divine Crescendo” and it focused on the escalating relationship that a saint has with God. He keyed in on “Set Me,” “Know Me,” “Hear Me,” and five other elements on the Song. This series is available through BPR. Another series came from the Beatitudes. He entitled it “Don’t Become a Victim” and worked through each one with a bent toward allowing your life to flourish for God despite what surroundings and circumstances that life will present.

When I asked him about authors, he was a very open about sharing those he had personally found to be useful.

R. G. Lee—Full of prose with good flowing thoughts. He purchased everything R.G. Lee wrote which was multiple sermon collections.

Joel Gregory—Very good with expository outlines that can help a preacher flesh out a message.

John Phillips—The “Exploring” series are also very good simply because of the way that Phillips works with his outlines.

Alan Redpath—The classic is “The Making of a Man of God” which is about the life of David. I personally think this book should be required reading for anyone who is going into the ministry. He also mentioned his volume on 1st Corinthians as being very good, entitled “The Royal Route to Heaven.” Redpath also has a series on faith that it is out of print.

G. H. Morrison—Everything he has written is beneficial. “The Wind on the Heath,” “Highways of the Heart,” “The Wings of the Morning,” and “The Weaving of the Glory.” AMG Publishers also has a number of Morrison’s works in hardbound editions that are worthy of your time.

Peter Marshall—The former chaplain to the Senate has some good devotional messages.

George Swann—Out of print but some very good sermons were written by this preacher.

Old Keswick Series—These will be extremely hard to come by but they have some excellent material in them. Most of these books are 75—100 years old.

Wilbur Chapman—An evangelist who has some very good material. A primary speaker at the Winona Lake conferences.

William Albert Munsey—Some very good sermons on eternity.

C.M. Ward—The Revivaltime series are very good if you can get them.

George D. Watson—An old Methodist writer. Available through Schmul Publishers which is reprinting a lot of the old holiness writings that are hardly available in our modern times. Brother Wyser said that Marvin Hicks put him on Watson’s trail years ago.

Arthur Pink—Good for Bible study but very strongly Calvinistic in his approach.

The Layman’s Bible Commentary.

S.D. Gordon—His “Quiet Talks” series are very good. On prayer, power, etc. Brother Wyser gleaned a lot of from Gordon in his early years of preaching to help him to put together sermons.

T. DeWitt Talmage—Very good devotional writer. Called the “American Spurgeon.”

A. W. Tozer—Very good series of sermons on the Holy Ghost.

Jack Schuller—Has a good book called Schuller’s Short Sermons. This will probably be extremely hard to find. Brother Wyser has a set of tapes of this preacher from many years ago that he enjoyed listening to. He thought this man came from an old style Methodist background.

One of the things that Brother Wyser has turned his focus toward in the last 10 years is to assist preachers to become better at their preaching. I have hosted several of his workshops here in Dothan. The first one was “The Six Should Be’s of Preaching” and we had 50+ attendees. The second one was about illustrations and we had 30+ men to attend. There have been several districts that have sponsored his preaching workshops which are a multi-day affair. In Dothan, we did a Thursday night, Friday night, and half-a-day on Saturday and it worked out very well.

The available seminars are:

The Six Should Be’s of Preaching.
So What? (An acronym that explores different areas of preaching.)
On Illustrations (This one is very intense but it gives multiple sources to find good illustrations.)
On Ethics—Encompasses the ethics of preparation for preaching.
Three Ways to Dispense Water—Working with preaching in three ways; topical, textual, and expository.
Expository Preaching

In addition a new development is the Life Catalyst series on the family, marriage, parenting, anger management, depression, self-destructive behavior, and other youth oriented services.

If you ever get the chance to meet Brother Wyser, I can promise you it will be a good investment of your time as he is very interested in helping men become better preachers.

The other posts related to this one are as follow:

The Discipline of Study.
Jeff Arnold.
Scott Graham.
Ben Weeks.
Jason Calhoun.
Doug White.
J. H. Osborne.
John Carroll.

Encouragement = O2 for the Soul

A Tale of Three Kings

I was tired, weary, and defeated just to sum up a few of the massive dark feelings of the soul that night. To that point in my life, I am not sure that I had ever faced the dilemma quite like the one I was now staring down. My heart was dark and my feelings were very spiritually unhealthy to say the least. It would have been very easy to give in to defeat, pack up the tent and go in another direction with my life.

Looking back it was almost thirteen years ago on a late Wednesday night in October 1996. I had come from home from mid-week prayer and Bible study and it seemed as if the world of darkness was doing everything possible to choke the life out of me. What was so strange is that in January 1996, a very distinct directive from the Lord had told me that I would be on the current assignment for four more years. I expected a lot of great things but instead I was grappling with a storm that threatened to overpower me. A blinding and quite unforeseen trial had broadsided me and what little Christian character I had was being eroded by a lot of very carnal emotions to say the least.

I can still remember almost the exact time on that memorable Wednesday night as sometime around 10:35 or so. The house was finally quiet as Teresa and I had gotten the kids down for the night and she was in the back of the house and I was in my study in the front. I leaned back in my chair and propped my feet up on my desk and begin to encourage a dark and brooding stream of emotions. In retrospect and hopefully with an eye toward a little more spiritual maturity, I can see now that it was a shaping process of the soul that God was using to my own benefit. Spiritual growth is very necessary in all of our lives but most of the time it is very painful because it involves a pruning of the soul. But how that pruning is so conducive to greater fruitfulness!

Somehow my eyes flitted to the top of the bookshelf. Tucked in between all of the other inspirational books written by Gordon MacDonald, Charles Swindoll, Max Lucado, and a few others, I spied a little paperback that I had owned for at least 3 years. Numerous preachers had told me that I had to read Gene Edwards’ A Tale of Three Kings. I took half of their advice and bought it but never read it. In fact, as I think about it now, I can think of at least ten good men who told me that I needed to read this book. I didn’t ignore their advice it just wasn’t in God’s timing for me to read the book just yet. No doubt when I purchased the book, God knew there would come a time that I would need to read this book. I am of the opinion that this was one of the types of books that Paul encouraged Timothy to bring to him before winter (2 Tim. 4:13).

So at 10:35, I picked up that book and it mesmerized me until shortly after midnight. The impact of this little book (a little over 80 pages) has remained with me to this day. For those of you who have not read it, I won’t give you any details that will spoil it. For those who have read it before, you might want to pick it back up again! It is a tale for the ages because it exposes the fact that within every one of us is either a mad king who worships himself or there is a broken king who worships God. . . . . . and only the pain of trials can reveal what kind of man that we are. . . .

Encouragement = O2 for the Soul