I was reading The Bruised Reed by Richard Sibbes with the “Reading Classics Together” group over at Tim Challies’ blog but I fell behind! So even though it’s a little bit late (okay, a few weeks late), here are my thoughts about the book.
This really just an excellent book. I can see why it is being printed 380 years after it was originally published. I know that many have recommended reading books by the “old dead theologians,” and I’m beginning to see just why that is, after recently finishing Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress and now Sibbes’ The Bruised Reed.
The book offers solid encouragement, describes the Christian walk and growth (or lack thereof) in some of the easiest to understand imagery I have encountered. It was as though it put all of these thoughts that I had been gathering over the past couple of years and describing them in a way that I could not put to words. I kept finding myself saying, “Yes! That’s exactly what I thought!” or “That makes so much more sense now!” (With the exclamation points).
I have used his descriptions of the bruised reed and smoking flax and Christ’s use of judgment in his government which reigns over individuals repeatedly over the past two months in my lessons at church and in conversation. I have underlined more of this book than probably any other I own, and I intend to reread it.

The chapters are:
1.The Reed and the Bruising
2. Christ Will Not Break the Bruised Reed
3. The Smoking Flax
4. Christ Will Not Quench the Smoking Flax
5. The Spirit of Mercy Should Move Us
6. Marks of the Smoking Flax
7. Help for the Weak
8. Duties and Discouragements
9. Believe Christ, Not Satan
10. Quench Not the Spirit
11. Christ’s Judgment and Victory
12. Christ’s Wise Government
13. Grace Shall Reign
14. Means to Make Grace Victorious
15. Christ’s Public Triumph
16. Through Conflict to Victory

Sibbes describes the Christian as a “bruised reed” and the presence of the Spirit within us as the “smoking flax,” taken from Isa 42:1-3: “A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth.”
He offers why we are bruised but not broken and why the smoking flax, though perhaps only a smoldering ember rather than a great flame, will never be quenched. He explains how Christ displays his knowledge leading to proper judgment by those he raises up to establish his government within them. He also describes hallmarks of a Christian as the bible describes, not as the modern American church describes. (Which I’ve written about in the past). He also illustrates the struggles that come with it and how to deal with those doubts and discouragements. Some of my favorite quotes about this:

“It takes much trouble to bring Christ into the heart, and to set up a tribunal for him to judge there. There is an army of lusts in mutiny against him. The utmost strength of most men’s endeavors and abilities is directed to keeping Christ from ruling in the soul.”

“…the desperate madness of men is laid open, that they would rather be under the guidance of their own lusts, and in consequence of Satan himself, to their endless destruction, than put their feet into Christ’s fetters and their necks under his yoke; though, indeed, Christ’s service is the only true liberty.”

“Since there is such comfort where there is little truth of grace, that it will be so victorious, let us often try what God has wrought in us, search our good as well as our ill, and be thankful to God for the least measure of grace, more than any outward thing. It will be of more use and comfort than all this world which passes away and comes to nothing… See a flame in a spark, a tree in a seed. See great things in little beginnings. Look not so much to the beginning as to the perfection, and so we shall be, in some degree, joyful in ourselves, and thankful to Christ.”

I also love his description of how Christ changes us and conforms us better to His image-how he does it, why we mess it up, and why it is important to know:

“…Christ brings about all that is good in the should through judgment, and that so sweetly that many, by a dangerous error, think that good which is in them and issues from them is from themselves, and not from the powerful work of grace. So it is in evil, where the devil so subtly leads us according to the stream of our own nature that men think that Satan had no hand in their sin; but here a mistake is with little peril, because we are evil of ourselves , and the devil only promotes ill he finds in us. … Now when he clearly reveals what is good in particular, we are attracted to it; and when he shows us convincingly what is evil we abhor it as freely as we embraced it before. From this we may know whether we work as we should or not.”

If you have the opportunity to read this, I highly recommend it. You can purchase it through Westminster Books  or Monergism Books.  Both sell it for under $5.
If you like you may read it online at monergism.com.

Someone gave this book to my wife a few months ago, and said that we just had to read it. He said that what we are describing in our own spiritual journey sounds a lot like what is in the book So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore by Wayne Jacobsen and Dave Coleman. My immediate reaction was, “But I do want to go to church- I really want to go to church.” I had apprehensions about the book for a couple of reasons besides the title. First it contains an advertisement for The Shack. Lots of red flags go up in my mind- The Shack was the most painful thing I’ve ever read.  Secondly, the pages of “What others are saying about” the book are just not very helpful.  They are random statements from people I have no idea if I can trust, and some I know I can’t trust just by what they say.  One stated “These writings are more than a book. They are a living two-edge sword, God revealing himself…” which is a sure sign of someone who doesn’t know the difference between scripture and a fictional story. Yet I trusted my friend and read the book.
So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore tells the fictional story of Jake, a burned out pastor who wants more out of his relationship with Christ. In the middle of some tough times a man named John, who just might be the actual apostle John (wink), enters Jake’s life and starts giving him some direction. The story follows snapshots of Jake’s life as he encounters John over the course of a few years and Jake follows his spiritual journey.

I have mixed feelings about the book. The dialog is a bit choppy and sometimes forced at times. The flow of the book isn’t difficult to follow, but doesn’t really flow well. It starts at the time of a crisis with his daughter, and implies that he is looking back at the events, but the crisis shows up in the middle rather than the end of the story.

Those minor issues aside, the book provides some very provocative thoughts about following Christ and why it can’t be done (or at least can’t be done very well) in the institutionalized church.  There is much they have to say that I had to fully agree with, but they took it to such an extreme that I can’t agree with a lot of what they have to say.  They simply take it too far.  The theme of the story is that serving Christ isn’t the same as serving the church, and serving the church actually hinders or entirely prevents the ability to truly follow Christ.  When we serve the church as an institution, it becomes a burden and ties us to the institution and restrains us from serving Christ as He leads us.   They use examples of Sunday School as rewarding those who follow the system rather than Christ, recurring broken relationships between those in the church fighting to keep their particular program in place or the facade of themselves looking good or the facade of the church looking as being a hindrance.  And I agree that all these things exist.  Yet the authors attack not just the problems that churches experience, but any kind of structure or organization of a church, even to the point of a church body actually meeting.

They picture the church as a free-floating, come-as-you-go spiritual journey with absolutely no structure, no accountability (the thought of being accountable to others they claim is unbiblical), and no set meeting.  The church to them would be a group of always changing relationships with no obligations to one another, except as they are led by the Spirit.

I don’t believe this is the biblical model of the church.  Yes, there is organization to the church.  No, it doesn’t need to have a staff of dozens to operate.  Might it?  Yes, but their argument is that when you get to a certain point you begin to defend the institution and programs rather than what Christ says you should do.  This may happen, but just because it might happen and sometimes does happen doesn’t mean that it will.  If God did not intend for us to gather, why would we be given instructions as to how to organize the church and defend doctrine?  Isn’t that the main focus of the letters to Timothy?  Why would Paul tell him to appoint overseers?

I think what the book does a good job of pointing out that in our endless committee meetings and programs we spend so much time and effort bogged down with sustaining them we lose sight of our first love.  What it fails to address with the institutionalized church is that it is often being run by those who have no idea what they are doing.  (Not usually the pastors, but many of the church members).  In this they are seeing a problem, but trying to fix it in the wrong way.  They touch on this issue,  as in this example during a conversation between Bryce, a friend of Jake, and John:

[Bryce says] “…The people whose spiritual maturity I respect most seem to gravitate away from helping us run this thing [the church].  I’ve been very disappointed that they won’t join our leadership teams.  It means we have people in leadership positions who don’t know God very well, but who have strong opinions about the way things should be.”

“That should tell you something.” [John responds]

“It tells me that maybe the ones I thought were mature aren’t, since they were so unwilling to serve us.”

“Okay, that’s one possibility, or maybe they wanted to invest their time serving people instead of attending an endless supply of committee meetings.”

The implication of the dialog is that whoever becomes mature leaves the “organization” of the church, as though becoming wiser in Christ will make them break free from the chains of oppression that the church places on people, to which I disagree.  And yet they make a good point-“there are people in leadership positions who don’t know God very well,” but come to the wrong conclusion that everything about the church and its organization and structure must be thrown out.

I think the problem they are overlooking is that our churches are filled with the unregenerated.  People who think they are Christians but are not.  I don’t think it is the fault of any “structure” but that we accept anybody with a pulse who says “I believe” as an active voting member of the church with no attempts made to explain doctrine or to discern if they are saved or help them discern if they really are Christians.  (Even demons are “believers.”)  Our church buildings are full of people such as this (and I will add that I was one of them for a long time).  The problem the authors are trying to address throws out the baby with the bath water in a sense.  The problem isn’t the church, the problem is what we call the church.

The longer I type the more I realize how deep this hole goes!  To wrap things up, these are the things I like about this book:

• It makes you consider how much time you are spending tied down to responsibilities (i.e. programs/church meetings) rather than following Christ.
• Because the main character is a pastor who struggles with keeping his job and appeasing the masses versus following what God says, it makes you look at what flaws may exist in our churches and the dangers to those pastors we highly regard.
• It truly makes you question if what you are doing is because it is comfortable, because you are trying to control your own life, or if you are really honestly allowing God to take over.
• It does a great job of pointing out that those who leave the church to join the house church movement, or to form a church of their own often fall back into the old problems of being tied to programs and meetings because they are focused on the church and have lost sight of Christ.  It is a great warning for those who are considering moving in that direction.
• It is entertaining and easy to read. (I read it in a day).

And what I don’t care for about the book:

• It simply goes too far in trying to abolish any sense of a church outside of “conversations” or friendships.  Those things are deeply important, but they aren’t the only things that are important.
• It attacks the problems seen in our church buildings today (which is good) but comes to the conclusion that churches should not exist in any (that’s A-N-Y) structure rather than seeking to correct why the problems exist.

Overall, do I recommend you read it?  It depends.  I recommend it to a mature Christian who isn’t going to be “tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine” (Eph 4:14).  It does help show flaws in the church that should be addressed, and really does help shed light on how God changes lives differently in everyone, even though we can’t see Him working until much later.  I recommend that a new believer not read it, because I fear it may be difficult to discern truth and simply be too confusing for them.  If someone who is just coming to Christ they could (at worst) look at it and actually forsake the assembling of the saints, which I fear would lead them further from Him.