I usually avoid men’s conferences and books written for men. So, when the men’s group I was in a few years ago selected The Silence of Adam by Larry Crabb as the book we would be in for a few months, I was skeptical. I was hoping for something with meat in it, not fluff. However, I was very pleasantly surprised, and recommend the book to you.

The passage of scripture that Crabb starts from is Genesis 3:11, which says, “She took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.” (NIV) Adam was right there in the garden with Eve while she was being tempted by the serpent, and he said nothing. Too often, we as men fail to respond to sin in our own lives or in the lives of those around us when we should speak with God’s voice (i.e. with Scripture and wisdom) in these situations.

Another point that Crabb makes that struck a chord with me is what he says about what he calls “recipe theology.” Recipe theology is expressed in “how-to” sermons that are primarily about what we do for God (e.g. a sermon series on how to be a better ___________) rather than what God does for us in Christ.

Here are some quotes from the book:

God’s Spirit is less interested in telling us how to get our lives together, and more concerned with stirring—in the middle of our ongoing difficulties—our passion for Christ.

We don’t believe the Bible provides a plan for making life work as we think it should. We think it offers a reason to keep on going even when life doesn’t work that way.

I am called to concern myself less with conformity than with integrity, less with fitting in and more with the visions of a dreamer.

Worshiping him, praying to him, eagerly looking for him throughout all the Scriptures, humbling ourselves before him in brokenness over our pride and our lukewarm devotion, waiting upon him to fill us with his Spirit, serving him with single-minded purpose and a passion that consumes all others; these are the old paths to which we must return.

The theological statements coming out of modern culture look more like recipes for living than declared truths about God.

When people try to handle their lives by merely working hard to do better, they either fail and live in defeat or succeed and become proud.

Men are called to pass on something important to future generations: not just a passing on of history but a passing on of the memory of God in our lives.

Sinful choices require that God be forgotten.

The root problem is the failure to believe that God is enough.

When I am silent, I live as an atheist.

Do I have the courage to do something with absolutely no guarantees other than that God’s ultimate purposes will be achieved?

Whenever you preach, make much of Christ!

I preached last Sunday, and that final quote was prominent in my thinking as I prepared my message. It would have been easy to talk only about our ministry in Romania, or how creation points to the Creator (my passage was Romans 1:18-20), but I have to make much of Christ or I am not really preaching.

Grace and Peace