A Memoriam of Calvin Miller

Yet again, I found myself flirting with a possible doctoral program, this past week. Happening upon one prospect, Beeson Divinity School, I was saddened to learn that my favorite Christian author, Calvin Miller, has died. At the time of his passing on August 19, 2012, he was 75 years of age.

Pastoring churches in Nebraska for quite a few years, Calvin was born in Enid, Oklahoma on Aug. 28, 1936. He graduated from Enid High School. He earned a bachelor’s degree at OBU in 1958. He attended Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Missouri graduating with a master’s degree in 1961 and a doctorate in 1975. In 1959, he married Barbara Joyce Harman. They had a son and a daughter.

I would have to agree with Oklahoma Baptist’s David Whitlock who said a few days ago, “His writing and many books are a gift to Christendom. His teaching has multiplied by the thousands his ministry of outstanding creative preaching.”

Calvin Miller is one author who, out of them all, I would often look to see each week if he had a new publication on the shelves. There are a myriad of persons whom I’ve never met personally who’ve touched my life in ways too powerful for words. Calvin Miller tops that list! All of his books are on my shelf, including the ones that are now out of print and reside in virtual book obscurity for many.

His sermons, writings and quotes have touched me and blessed me throughout the years of my life and ministry. The writings of Calvin have always made my mind, heart and soul leap in ways too deep to explain in words. I remember at the age of 16, picking up a book in Corpus Christi at the local bookstore entitled, ‘If I Had Only One Sermon To Preach.’ Admittedly, I picked up the book after being intrigued by the sheer title itself. After purchasing this volume of work, one sermon touched me more than all. Interestingly, it was Calvin Miller, who had already become one of my favorites. How pleased I was to learn that Calvin Miller was apart of this unique publication of sermonic work. He didn’t disappoint! It was there I read his sermon, ‘Seeing Life’s Reversals as Glory’, out of Philippians 1:12-16.

Of my favorite books (though I love them all), I would have to select Into the Depths with God (c2000), That Elusive Thing called Joy (c1975) and The Art of Narrative Preaching. 

I would often hope and wish I had the opportunity to go and meet him, visit with him and spend time with him. However, that will not happen on this side. Be that as it may, his legacy will continue through his many writings, his pupils at Southwestern Seminary and Beeson; and the countless others we may never know.

Books...

I love books!

To those who know me personally, aren't surprised by this 'confession' or realization.  I have grown with the assumption that most preachers love books.  I would venture to say that for a minister or even a public speaker to hate reading, books, or thinking - are, in a real sense, committing occupational suicide. 

At last count, I had atleast 5,000 books in my library.  Many of my books are autobiographies/biographies; some are textbooks from Dallas Baptist University and Southwestern Seminary; there are quite a few sets of commentaries (I don't subscribe to the belief that commentaries are hazardous or poisonous); much of my library are books dealing with the languages, lexicography, morphology, textual criticism, figures of speech, interlinear works, etc.; then many of my books are from Christian thinkers and theologians.  Admittedly, some of my books are secular and many are from various leaders who don't frequent any given church.  However, their writings have been invaluable to me through the years.  I credit many preachers, namely my Father, and also Dr. R.L. Sanders (who pastored for years the Pleasant Mt. Gilead of Forth Worth, TX) for their cultivation in my of my love for older writers and old books. 

The writers I cherish most (among the writers of old) are:
- Vance Havner
- Harry Emerson Fosdick
- Robert G. Lee
- M.R. Dehaan
- Grechem Machen
- W.W. Melton
- Hershcel Hobbs
- George W. Truett
- Bernard Ramm
- W. Herschel Ford
- Samuel Shoemakker
- John Calvin
- Robert Lenski
- H.P. Liddon
- John R. Bisagno
- A.W. Pink
- C.H. Spurgeon
- Alexander MacLaren
- G. Campbell Morgan

Of course, while these writers are so rewarding and enriching, the writings of Calvin Miller, Charles R. Swindoll, John F. MacArthur, John R.W. Stott, Watchman Nee and Andy Stanley are also quite rewarding. 

As I write this blog, I have no real understanding where I intended for this blog to go; just simply communicating in writing one of my favorite pastimes - BOOKS!

C.H. Spurgeon & Prayer

Recently, I've begun reading the first volume of C.H. Spurgeon's Autobiography.  This 561 page monster is, no doubt, a mammoth exploit; but it has also served as a rewarding outpouring of  spiritual insight into the life of a preaching giant.  This 19th Century 'prince of preachers' had the ability to preach in a way that would literally impact the world of Christendom for years that would follow.  Furthermore, he was in his late teens and early twenties when a congregation of 500 grew to an astonishing number of 10,000 plus.  This fact alone is remarkable, in and of itself, when reading his messages.  While the content of his messages were full of pure exposition, honest reflection, unique illustrations and life-related applications - his sermons were all but watered down!  Something is to be said of any one messenger who can attract a crowd of over 10,000 people without utilizing superficial or material ploys that appeal to human senses and emotions.  I would have loved to have sat in once to hear this great preacher at the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London.  It is my hope to one day visit London, specifically to see the place where Spurgeon once preached, lived and the place of his conversion. 

In my reading and studying the life of Charles Haddon Spurgeon, I have seen a common thread woven through the fabric of this great preacher's life, preaching, pastorate and testimony - PRAYER.  It is said that, while Spurgeon preached to the huge crowds in the Metropolitan Tabernacle, at it's construction, the Tabernacle was designed to have beneath the pulpit, in the basement a prayer room.  To some, it has been said that Spurgeon affectionately referred to this basement room where 200 people would gather to pray as he preached as 'The Fire Room'.  How appropriate is this.  Prayer is FIRE!  Prayer is the believer's arsenal and ammunition.  Prayer, according to the late C.A.W. Clark is '...when the saints of God declare kinship with the sky'.  Spurgeon is noted to have said that '...God will not shut his storehouse until we shut our mouths'.  And it was the late Dr. Ernest Kinsley Bailey who said, 'nothing of eternal signifance can happen without prayer'. 

Honest moment - sometimes prayer can easily take backstage to many of the other deeming 'important matters' in our human world.  But....if we can ever expect divine, other-wordly intervention to show up in the human affairs of our little world (it's little to God), we must pray.  How can we as aliens and foreigners of this world win the battle if we aren't communicating with headquarters?  It becomes frivolous, impossible and difficult. 

I love singing.  But I have discovered that singing will do what singing will do.  God knows I love preaching.  But preaching will do what preaching will do.  Here is a wonderful reality...PRAYER will do what GOD can do! 

Spurgeon was an avid reader.  But one of his favorite books was 'Pilgrim's Progress'.  In fact, when courting his future wife, Sussanah, he asked if she would read this John Bunyan classic.  I like what John Bunyan says regarding prayer:

“Prayer will make a man cease from sin, or sin will entice a man to cease from prayer.”

 

 

I Thessalonians 5:17 informs us to 'prayer without ceasing'.  God tells us in Jeremiah 33:3 to '...call upon me; and I will hear you and answer you'.  Christ says in Matthew 7:7-8, 'Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.'

Let us never forget the power of prayer!

Positive Power of Words

I came across an interesting yet true story about the author of one of my favorite novels, Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Nathaniel Hawthorne came home heartbroken. He’d just been fired from his job in the custom house. His wife, rather than responding with anxiety, surprised him with joy. “Now you can write your book!”

He wasn’t so positive. “And what shall we live on while I’m writing it?”

To his amazement she opened a drawer and revealed a wad of money she’d saved out of her housekeeping budget. “I always knew you were a man of genius,” she told him. “I always knew you’d write a masterpiece.”

She believed in her husband. And because she did, he wrote. And because he wrote, every library in America has a copy of The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

The Hidden and prevailing lesson I carry away from Hawthorne's biography is that we have the power to change someone’s life simply by the words we speak and write. “Death and life are in the power of the tongue.” We often misinterpret these words, typically employing them for our own selfish promotions and proclivities. But behind these words of Solomon are a simple, yet profound truth and reality...there is power in words. All of my life I have loved and enjoyed paper, words, writings and books. My love for books is something that comes naturally: My father, my paternal grandfather, and my great-grandmother...just to name a few, are and/or were lovers of words and books. I look on with such nostalgia and internal joy as I see my sons cultivating a love for books and reading. I hope and pray this continues. Many of my teachers, professors and peers have encouraged me, through the years, to think about one day writing. My current chaplain supervisor has stressed his desire to see me 'move toward the possibility of publication'. I would almost agree were it not for my own tendency to be overly critical of myself, coupled with my tendency to procrastinate when I'm uncertain of the ambiguous. Many moons ago, one of my seminary professors encouraged me to become a 'blogger'. Little did I know the underlying challenges and discipline that are connected to a blog. I'm definitely sporadic, but love it when I make time to record and chronicle my thoughts. I hope to do better!

My hope and prayer, during this stage of my life, is to have FAITH to know that my WORDS are meaningful and significant; and have the power to change lives.

In borrowing a popular Max Lucado favorite of mine, an example of this form of faith was found on the wall of a concentration camp. On it a prisoner had carved the words:
I believe in the sun, even though it doesn’t shine.
I believe in love, even when it isn’t shown.
I believe in God, even when he doesn’t speak.