Church of the Canyons College Retreat

My wife and I just returned from a most blessed retreat with a great college group from The Church of the Canyons in Canyon Country, California, under the most able and wise leadership of Jason and Steph Beals. We studied chapters from first part of The Darkness and the Glory. I had hesitated in doing this study for the retreat because I know this is "meat not milk,"and I was not sure how it would go. But I found them to be a spiritually mature group, most of whom hunger for the Word of God, so God indeed blessed His Word going forth. Elijah Vogel had even written an excellent Glory of God song based on material from the book. We hope to have it available on the website before long.

Along with what was mentioned in the previous paragraph, part of my hesitation with this topic for the retreat was that this was my first group where we did Glory of God sessions based on the book since it had been published. It is one thing to teach the material to people who do not have The Darkness and the Glory; it is another thing to attempt to teach others on matters related to the book when do have it. (Each member at the retreat received a copy).

So I came to the retreat not so much as a teacher but a learner. I prayed and still pray that God will teach me how to teach others the material He would have me do. It is a lifetime study and a lifetime prayer. The questions the students asked me and the interaction I had with them was superb. As mentioned in "The Writing of The Darkness and the Glory," I have had so few people so far to interact with about material in the book since it was only published in December of 2008. The college group sparked so many additional trails in Scripture that I want to track down and investigate. I kept coming up with additional chapters in my head that I could write as I interacted with them. Coming up with additional chapters was not my intent, it was just a blessed by-product our their stimulating comments and questions.

May God bless His Word going forth and may it be multiplied many times over. 

To God be the Glory. 

Glory Books Ministry 

The Writing of The Darkness and the Glory (Part 3)

March 24-28, 2005 Precepts Ministry International in Straubing, Germany.

In the Fall Semester of 2003, we gathered at the airport for my third Greece-Turkey study tour. The registrar for SEBTS, Sheldon Alexander, was at the airport dropping someone off for the trip. Although officially I was “seminary faculty,” I was assigned to the college (which I thoroughly enjoyed). Sheldon said, “Greg, we want you to teach the Book of Revelation at the seminary in the Spring Semester (2004).” I had taught other classes at the seminary, so it was not so unusual to do so, but with this request I really didn’t want to do this. The Book of Revelation is not the place to begin studying the Bible, which would be true for many in that class, but Sheldon was insistent that this was the class the school wanted, so I did not resist it.

So in the spring of 2004, we had a night class on the Book of Revelation. A few weeks into the class, a young man came up and introduced himself to me. His name was Philipp Meineke. At the time I knew nothing about him at all. I later found out he was from Germany, as was his mother, Gisela Meineke, who still lived there and helps with Precepts Ministry International. Phillip had sent his mother a pre-published copy of The Cup and the Glory, and she read it. So it was somehow determined that they should do a Bible conference in Germany, and that I would be invited to be the speaker. My daughter Lauren, who was 17 at that time, went with me as a most helpful assistant.

By God’s sovereign design, they scheduled this Bible conference for the week of Easter. It was a killer schedule (from a speaker’s perspective), beginning on the Thursday night and would finish on Monday morning with lots of sessions packed in. Since it was during Easter and beginning on the Thursday night before the cross, I did basically contents for the entire book. (Of course, when I speak before a group, I have to condense it and leave out much of what is written). But this assembly in Germany was the first group that I ever went through The Darkness and the Glory in its entirety. I told the primarily German group about the church in America and how I had left them hanging (and where I had left them), and they enjoyed a very hearty communal laugh.

It was a relatively small group for what one would consider a Bible conference, but numbers in and of themselves are not a good gauge for how God works. So many multiplied and continued blessings emerged from that conference. One of them was meeting my translator, Dr. Georg Huber. I left the conference with a new lifetime friend. He is a wonderful, humble, and extremely gifted servant of God. Ironically, Gisela Meineke, who had been so instrumental in putting together the Bible Conference missed it, because at the same time, her son Phillip was getting married in America. She made it in time for a few minutes of the final session.

Not only was this the first time that I had taught the material from The Darkness and the Glory from cover to cover, it was also one of the most discouraged groups as we started our studies. To this day I have never seen a group so low when we began our study that became one of the most joyful and worshipful ones once we got to the glory. Of course, I had no idea about how the conference was going until it was almost over. I knew that many of the ones who attended were isolated as Christians and some had no Christians they knew of within a 100-mile radius. Many came from virtually dead churches. It was easy to discern the discouragement and for some an almost like “why even bother” mentality. I hoped and thought the sessions were going well, but I wasn’t totally sure. Sometimes we would finish one, and they would just stare at me; not a word was spoken. A few times I thought, “Boy, they do not like this.” I found out later at the sharing time at the end of the conference that it was abject silence before God for many of them. One man I remember said (and with no theatrics): “It was all I could do to keep getting off my chair and falling on my face to worship God in the midst of the sessions.” I have had many times like that in my own studies, so I knew exactly of what he spoke. There were many such reports. God blessed His Word going forth that conference. It greatly made an impression on me, and to this day remains one of my all time favorite and “blessed remembrance” conferences.

In March 2006 The Cup and the Glory was published. In July 2006 we left our home in North Carolina and moved to the LA area. I began teaching at The Master’s Seminary in August 2006. The spring semester 2007 I taught my first prayer class and used the book as one of the textbooks for the class. In September 2007 John MacArthur read the first four chapters of The Darkness and the Glory. As noted, very few people had read this book, so I was most interested in John MacArthur’s in-put. In a very long story, he was wonderfully encouraging about the book. At this time the book was not yet scheduled to be published, but at least I considered it affirmation from God about how it was received.

Placerita Baptist Church, in Santa Clarita, CA, adjacent to The Master’s College, had been a church I had spoken at twice in the previous summer. It is one of my favorite places to go speak. In late November I received a call that informed me that their pastor Scott Ardavanis had become sick, and they asked if I could come and speak on Sunday, December 2, 2007. They asked me to do three sessions for the morning services (each one the same) and wanted the message to lead into the Lord’s Table. So in my allotted time, I did the core material from “His Cup—The Beginning.” It was the first time I had ever done that with a group, and it was wonderfully received by many who began to consider what was it that Jesus alone was able to do that we could not do. Doing this chapter followed by the Lord’s Table was always something I had wanted to do, especially at the beginning of the Christmas season. The church did not know at the time that this was a new chapter of a book and that they were the first people I had did it with. I took it as a blessed affirmation from the Lord of which this church knew nothing about at the time.

On May 20, 2008 I officially receive word that The Darkness and the Glory will be published in the fall. As far as I was concerned, “it wasn’t official until it was official” (that is, I had laid the book on the altar before God; our “amen” is in Him.) I had run ahead of God so many times in the past and was disappointed, I was finally learning (???) to wait on Him. The publisher, Rick Kress, wrote the following rather nonchalant email: “Greg, I can’t remember if I’ve gotten back to you or not. Kress would like to go ahead with the publication of “The Darkness and the Glory,” if you’re still up for it.”

The timing was right and perfect—as all of God’s timings truly are. The new chapter had been added, and now it was a different book than when it first came into being over ten years ago.

Glory Books Ministry 

The Writing of The Darkness and the Glory (Part 2)

So many differences exist between the writing of The Cup and the Glory and The Darkness and the Glory. One of the biggest differences was that I had already gone through the process of writing a book, so I had a much better idea of what I was doing. Another difference, as many of you know, The Cup and the Glory never started out to be a book; it turned into a book as I was completing it. However, I knew The Darkness and the Glory was a book before I wrote the first word, which to me anyway, makes it a “better book” in the sense of its flow and organization, plus we all learn more as we study—myself included.

By the time The Cup and the Glory came into print, I had interacted with thousands of people over a ten-year period from places where I spoke, emails, and other various means. This was the introductory study that I did with many groups and mission conferences. Since this was the place where I started my study on the Glory of God, I reasoned it was (and still is) a good place for others who want to study the Glory of God should start as well.

With The Darkness and the Glory, I did some sessions at a church in Wilmington, NC, but very few people read the entire book. After all, if publishers would not publish The Cup and the Glory, I reasoned that they would not want to do the second book (although I did submit it to a few publishers). Unlike The Cup and the Glory, where I gave it to people, “charged” them prayer, and told them to send it to someone they thought needed it (that was one way I heard from so many people who read it), other than using portions from it at a few appropriate places in my classes, for the most part The Darkness and the Glory sat in my office for about 10-11 years (although I had a lot of requests from students to read it who knew the book existed). John MacArthur was only about the twentieth person to read the book, reading it in later 2007-early 2008.By the way, in a much too long story, John MacArthur spoke in chapel at SEBTS on September 2-4, 2003. I was his chauffer to the airport on Thursday of that week. That is how I met him and first talked with him (other than shaking hands with him in a long receiving line many years previous to this).

I was on a sabbatical from Southeastern for the Spring Semester of 2005. I had a great deal of things I wanted to study and a couple of speaking engagements already planned. On February 25-27, 2005 I was asked to do four sessions on the material in the first few chapters of The Darkness and the Glory at The Master’s Church, in Burlington, N.C. with friends of mine, Pastor Rob Thurman and his wife Ashley. Before we began the sessions, I told the church that I would have to leave them hanging (because of the number of sessions they had asked me to do; I knew where we would end). The group said that was fine with them, but I really left them hanging, as we ended where chapter two “The View” concludes with “God the Father approaching God the Son.” Some of the people in the group even followed me to my car to ask me follow up questions as I was leaving.

It was during this weekend in Burlington, NC that Dr. Dick Mayhue from The Master’s Seminary had left a voice message on my answering machine. I returned his call on Saturday, and we set up a phone appointment for Monday. On February 28, 2005 Dick Mayhue extends an invitation from John MacArthur to me to be on faculty at The Master’s Seminary. My life became very complicated all of sudden. All my plans I had for my sabbatical abruptly changed. I really had not expected the invitation to be on faculty at The Master’s Seminary to ever come about (a very long story), so I was overwhelmingly stunned when they offered me the position; it is one of the highest honors and privileges of my life to be even asked to be a part of that faculty. I was so overwhelmed by this abrupt change in plans and pending decision that I could not concentrate on my other studies. I had my first extended sessions on The Darkness and the Glory coming up in about a month, and I could not concentrate on my much-needed preparation because of the burden of my wife and me wrestling through all that was involved in leaving where we lived in the small town of Wake Forest, NC and moving all the way across the United States to the Los Angeles, CA area.

Glory Books Ministry 

The Writing of The Darkness and the Glory (Part 1)

The Cup and the Glory was written in October–December 1996 but was not published until ten years later with me receiving my first copy on March 2, 2006. In May of 1997, I began teaching at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina and taught primarily at the College located on the same campus. It was during this time in May-June 1997 that I wrestled for weeks with the “two questions” found in the wager: why did Satan change his tactics from Matthew 16:22-23 (“Don’t go to the cross”) and Luke 22:3 (“Come to the cross”), and why was there darkness over the land when Jesus died? I am not exactly sure the number of weeks that I struggled with this because I did not note when I first began thinking it through. At the time I had no idea how important these questions would become.

Trying to solve this apparent contradiction consumed me almost every waking moment, the thoughts never completely leaving my mind. I would wake up; the questions were before me. I would watch TV with my family; the questions were before me. While waiting in the doctor’s office, they would still be with me. I was able to exercise now from the rheumatoid arthritis and had actually been able (much to my amazement and those around me) to start running again. One day I was so consumed with these two questions that I went on a run and sort of lost track of where I was because of the intense concentration. It took me a few minutes to figure out where I was and how to get back home.

I cannot remember the exact date, but in June 1997, on some Sunday morning at the church we attended, I don’t know the proper term to describe this, but “It finally dawned on me” is far too mild. I was sitting beside Betsy in church a few minutes before the service started. When I knew the answer, I inadvertently gasped out loud a couple of times, sort of like someone hyperventilating. Betsy looked at me to see if I was having a heart attack. I assured her I was fine, but she did not have any idea with what I had been wrestling through for these past few weeks.

In July 1997 I taught a summer school class on Samuel/Kings/Chronicles at the College at Southeastern, where I would officially become a faculty member a few weeks later in the fall. That class at SEBTS was by far the hardest class I ever taught in summer school because of the sheer volume of material within these books; we tried to cover 167 Bible chapters in three weeks. In that class was a slender, ex-military looking, single man, Kevin McAteer, who went on to graduate from both the College and The Master’s Seminary (years before I went as a faculty member). Over the years Kevin became a husband and father, and later a pastor, a trusted friend, and an extremely talented editor (I had no idea he was so superbly gifted for this until after The Cup and the Glory was already printed, or I would have used him as an editor for that book as well).

On the last weekend in July 1997, I drove my family to the final week of the work in Charlotte that I had done for a year with Mike and Brenda Sprott. (You can read more about this in “The Writing of The Cup and the Glory” in the study guide for that book). While on that trip Betsy and I took the kids to Tweetsie Railroad, an amusement park in the mountains of North Carolina, for a one-day vacation. Betsy read to me some as I drove to and from the trip out of the Old Testament books we were studying in class. It was actually a bad time to take the trip since we were in the middle of a very heavy load in the summer school class, but we had to say goodbye to our friends in Charlotte, and we thought that since we were fairly close to Tweetsie Railroad, that we would like for the kids to enjoy this.So in the midst of an exhaustive summer school class, with a three-hour trip to Charlotte and then another 2-3 hour drive to the amusement park, weeks away from beginning a faculty position at a new school, training a new Sheltie puppy named Cowboy, the doctor’s dissertation at Dallas Theological Seminary was not yet complete . . .

. . . since I had nothing better to do, I wrote the first four chapters of The Darkness and the Glory during this time. Of course, the four chapters would be tweaked and edited over the years, but I wrote basically the core (or “sketchpad”) for chapters 1-4 during this time. (The sketchpad consists of the framework of the book. In other words I know what I am going to write, the order of it, etc. It is sort of like a rough draft). It was another one of those periods where I could not sleep. I don’t exactly know how to describe it. I had every reason to be exhausted and yet I was fully awake—both mentally and physically. It reminded me of when I had written The Cup and the Glory the year before, so I did not fight this unexpected burst of writing. Looking back on this now over the years, I think God picked the absolute most impractical time for me—the absurdly worse time—to write these chapters so that when it eventually became a book and then later was published, I would know who got the glory. It made absolutely no sense on a human level to write it during this time, but that is when the book began.

From August-December 1997 I finished writing the sketchpad for the remainder of The Darkness and the Glory. During this time I also finished writing the dissertation and completed the Th.D. program at Dallas Theological Seminary in late November 1997, during my first semester at SEBTS. The last part of the sketchpad is writing and editing the chapters in an attempt to communicate accurately and hopefully in a readable fashion what I had learned in my Glory of God studies. But basically from 1997-2005, other than a few uses of small portions of the material at different times in the classroom or the pulpit, virtually nothing happened with the book as The Darkness and the Glory sat on a shelf in my home office for eight years.

Glory Books Ministry