During our "shelter in place" times for this historic 2020 Coronavirus pandemic, many are rekindling their love for books.May I selfishly recommend Radically New. My wife, Dr. Rachelle Burleson, told me the other day, "Wade, your book Radically New changed my life." When she told me that, I thought she was just being a kind, supportive wife. I thought she believed her husband would be encouraged by her words. In other words, I discounted what she said.
She intuitively saw what I was thinking and said, "Listen, Wade. I'm not just saying that because you're my husband. I read Radically New and it opened up my eyes to the deep riches of God's grace in Christ Jesus in ways I never dreamed. I wish every follower of Jesus could read it."
That got my attention. When Dr. Burleson speaks about something she's learned, her husband listens.
Recently, a professional editor named Brenda Kay Coulter sent me an email saying similar things about Radically New and what the book meant to her. Brenda suggested some changes in formatting to make the E-book more pleasing to the reader's eye.
I took Brenda up on her editorial offer, and today we've released a "new and improved' formatted E-book of Radically New. It's the same content, just more pleasing to the eye.
You may buy the E-book on Amazon for $3.95, or you may "read it for free" if you are a member of the Amazon book club.
If you choose to read the book during COVID-19, please post a review and let me know what you think of it.
I've always scratched my head over the fact that my book Fraudulent Authority has far more reviews than Radically New.
Radically New can change your perspective on life.
All Fraudulent Authority does is change your perspective on your preacher!
I'll take the transformation of my "life" over the correction of my "preacher" any day!
Reviews for Radically New:
Pastor Burleson's book, Radically New should be read by all who claim to be New Covenant believers. We know that we are living in New Covenant times, but our thought patterns betray our Old Covenant understanding of God. The New Covenant is not a better version of the Old Covenant, it is radically different at its core, the person of God. I have a good understanding of the new covenant, but this book has challenged me to put that understanding into practice in my daily life. Some of the chapters were uncomfortable for me to read because they betrayed the fact that my living does not really reflect the way I speak. Do I really trust in Christ's righteousness "alone",or do I fall back into the mud of shame, in the hope that if I feel bad enough about myself, "I" will be able to change my behavior. Pastor Wade points out that this is bondage to something that has no power. And the real shocker is that self effort is not of faith and that of course is sin. Wow! This is an important book for every church member. It is a call to be what we are, forgiven, loved, and at rest. Thank you Pastor for reminding me that the true gospel is Jesus plus nothing! (Tim T)
From W.T. Standard:
With so many churches coming under fire due to abuse of power by the leaders of churches, this book is very much needed... This book should be mandatory reading for every Protestant church member, including Pastors. The key teaching of this book is that we are to be led of the Holy Spirit. A teaching that is sorely missing in most every church today. We have left out the Third Person of the Trinity. No wonder churches aren't growing, especially in Grace, and church attendance is on a downward spiral. This book will greatly encourage you to KNOW --- God is just waiting for His Church to turn back to the One He gave us to lead us into All Truth if we truly desire a Spiritual Awakening.From L.T.
Reassuring, brilliant, transforming, worth many, many re-reads.
Get your "shelter in place' copy today.
29 comments:
I just got it through Kindle Unlimited. I am excited to read it.
WADE,
Your book sounds good! Your statement: “When Dr. Burleson speaks about something she’s learned, her husband listens” reminded me of our pastor saying, “We’re going to put a sign up: Rex Ray said, husbands would be better off if they listened to their wives.
Amen! - Rex
Thank you, Dee!
Wade, there are more electronic books besides Kendal...Please see if you can reach a bigger audience by making it available on Nook.
Wade,
On the subject of books, I’ll mention one my brother wrote: “The Big Dipper---A Dream is Born”. It has 210 pages with 80 large pictures. Judy’s not the only one that said it would make a good movie. The dream started when a boy said, “Coach, if we had this building, we’d have a place to play in the winter.” (At the time there was a problem of kids doing drugs; many died.)
Most of the story is about how he with some high-school boys were the first to tackled a job of moving an abandoned World War II aircraft hangar 150 miles to Fairbanks, Alaska in the winter time. About six of them would get their school work done a week ahead and spend a week on the hanger.
Their first job was removing deep snow off the roof that was 55 feet high. Rotted plywood made many holes large enough to fall through but were hidden by snow.
Chapter 6 Disaster Strikes
Bible verse: “Though I walk through the valley of death…”
“Doug Benn’s screams ripped our hearts out! They ricocheted off the big hanger’s beams and escaped out onto the snowy tarmac to be lost in the Alaskan wilderness. Like a mighty wind, they were the most terrifying sounds I had ever heard.”
“Coach, Doug’s shoe is caught in a brace, he hanging by one leg!”
The poor kid is weeping, “Help me! I’m going to fall. Dear God, help me! Coach Ray, don’t leave me!”
Hez tells the strongest boy, Barney, to grab his ankles, and for the others to lower them down to Doug.
“Doug, here we come!”
He answers back in a quiet, controlled voice. “Hurry Coach, my foot is slipping out of my shoe! It’s slipping out of my shoe! You’ve got to hurry!”
“Give me one more foot, I can’t reach him!” When Doug’s foot slips out of his shoe, his scream is cut short as he feels my hand wrap around his ankle.
“Take us up, take us up, I’ve got him!”
Barney clears the roof and pulls me up as I’m holding Doug by one leg.
We all crumple down exhausted with zero energy without talking.
“Gibby was lying next to Doug who was sobbing quietly. Gibby said, “Doug, I love you big boy, but you’ve got to lose some weight.” That broke the spell and everyone started talking.
“Barney, bless your bones, I think you crushed my ankles!”
“Coach, all those millions of push-ups you made us do, paid off!”
Hez Dwain sent me 52 of these books. If anyone wants one, I’ll send it free.
Rex,
Great story! You should have been a preacher! Seriously, you know how to illustrate major points with funny, illustrative, and gripping stories! :)
Wade,
I was just telling what the book said. (Went to SWBTS to be a preacher. Set a record there: fastest drop-out they ever had; gave my money back.)
My brother was known as the Pied-Piper. His book has “Tales to make you smile” On page 158-160 is: “To Shoo Away a Moose”
“Hello Mr. Hez! I want to be one of your famous volunteers. Now you just tell me what to do, and by cracky, I’ll do it!” (The man was drunk.)
Hez was in the middle of the ice arena doing something. Without a fire sprinkler system, the city code required the hangar doors to be off. People and animals could enter.
“Take this hockey stick and scare that moose out.”
Instead of yelling at the moose, the drunk sneaked up and hit him between the ears. The moose lowered his antlers and charged. Both of them were slipping and sliding on the ice headed toward Hez. The drunk passed Hez but misjudged the distance to the hockey wall and crashed into it. Hez cleared the wall, and hit on his back to see the belly of the moose as it ran off in the woods.
The poor drunk’s head and nose was bleeding badly. “Mr. Hez, it ain’t no wonder to me why you don’t have any more volunteers, you’ve killed them all!”
I never saw him again.
Wade,
Now my brother could have made a good preacher as he could ‘produce words to ‘build-up’ or ‘tear-down faster than a machine-gun, but I guess he never got the calling.
My family was eating at a restaurant in Richardson, Texas. (When our oldest son gets in trouble, my wife would use his full name:) “Now listen here, JOE DAVID RAY…”
A teenager was walking by and heard her. He said, “Do you know a Hez Ray?”
“He’s my brother.”
“Best teacher I ever had!”
He loved to teach school, and was a ‘substitute teacher’ in his 70’s. Once, he met his ‘waterloo’ in the second grade. Page 161-163. A little girl named Annie, told him he was to teach them all about drugs, smoking, drinking, and sex.
“Are you guys doing all this bad stuff? How many of you had a beer with your Wheaties this morning? They yelled, “No way! You are so funny.”
(A computer was to give him the information to teach that day, but he didn’t know how to turn it on.) At this point, Annie, crawls up into my lap, puts her arm around my shoulder, and address the class in the softest, kindest voice I have ever heard, “Oh my, Oh my! What’s we going to do? Our nice teacher Mr. Ray is supposed to teach us something but he don’t knows nothing!”
I spoke immediately, Dear Annie, that was the best speech I ever heard. You did real good. I want you to remember that.
Annie found the password for the computer and the day was saved. At the end of the day, I had Annie stand at the door with me as the class dismissed with high fives all around. I picked her up and thanked her for saving the bacon. I told her we would never see each other again, but I’d never forget her speech that day. She went skipping down the hallway of her life, and she never knew a piece of my heart went with her. I don’t know where the Lord spends all His time, but I know yesterday He came by my second-grade class.
I have a standing joke that you are not really a Baptist unless your "must read" library consists, besides the Bible, of Radically New, Fraudulent Authority, The Axioms of Religion by E Y Mullins, and the Herschel Hobbs Bible Commentary. If you do not know what "priesthood of THE believer" means vs "priesthood of believers" or what "soul sufficiency" is you may be a wonderful Christian and might have gotten wet all over but despite what your church membership might be, you ain't a Baptist. Of course I also come from a time and place where a real one never said "BaPtist" but rather pronounced the word "BaBtist."
Spent Good Friday out in the woods in a grove of dogwood in bloom. Wonderful!
Peace!
Linda
Linda,
You made my Good Friday.
Thank you. I mean it.
Wade,
Not in my brother’s book is how he got our father, Dave, to leave Texas and be the night watchman to keep Indians from steeling the hangar’s lumber. They used the abandoned hangar so many years, they felt it was being stolen.
On the day the convoy of trucks were loaded and leaving for Fairbanks, The Indians started their revenge.
Since it was winter, everyone slept in bedrolls that were piled high on the hanger’s concrete floor. Indians set them on fire. Hez and Dave were on the road when they noticed the smoke. They ran to put the fire out, but when they got there, bullets started exploding. (The Indians had put bullets on the bedrolls.) The ‘firefighters’ took cover behind a low concrete wall. With bullets going in every direction, Dave started laughing.
“Why are you laughing?”
“It’s just like World War II.”
The fire burned so slow; it took a long time for the bullets to stop. During that time, Dave told Hez how after the war he had located a German doctor that had been missing three years in a prison camp. His family believed he was dead, but his five-year-old daughter, influenced him to look.
Hez wrote a 30-page story about it. (He lectured Hitler a lot, and chased a lot of rabbits.) My daughter and sister reduced the story to 10-pages, and I reduced it to 2-pages with the title, “When is My Daddy Coming Home?” by twins, Hez and Rex Ray. It has a picture of Dave holding his helmet and bible, and a picture of the little girl.
I’ve put it on your blog a long time ago. Through the years, I given away more than a thousand copies. Also, the story of “Were Angels Watching”. It’s about my cousin saving four people whose car had gone off an 80-foot cliff into a river. (It was on your blog also.)
You are quite welcome:)
linda
http://thewartburgwatch.com/2020/04/11/echurchwartburg-04-11-2020-wade-burleson-do-not-be-afraid/
I would also add to my list "The Doctrines Baptists Believe" BUT ONLY the version by Herschel Hobbs. The current one is NOT the same and IMHO NOT Baptist:)
Peace and Happy Resurrection Day to all!
linda
Wade,
The four Gospels tell something different about Easter that the others didn’t.
“Suddenly there was a great earthquake! For the angel of the Lord came down from heaven, rolled aside the stone, and sat on it…The guards shook with fear and fell into a dead faint…You must say, ‘Jesus’ disciples came during the night and stole his body…Their story spread widely among the Jews, and they still tell it today.”(Matthew 28:2-15 NLT)
“And he told them, “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone. Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved. But anyone who refuses to believe will be condemned.” (Mark 26:15-16 NLT)
“That same day two of Jesus followers were walking…Jesus…began walking with them…their eyes were open, and they recognized him…” (Luke 24:13-31 NLT)
“Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!” (John 20:27 NLT)
WORD
https://mwerickson.files.wordpress.com/2018/04/image-2-jesus-pantocrator.jpg?w=809
Christ is Risen, Alleluia!
Regards to everyone on this most sacred day for all Christian people.
REX RAY, your stories are brilliant. :)
Some food for thought about the coming trouble in the midst of our country, this:
"... the people who were put in the camps then were Communists. Who cared about them? We knew it, it was printed in the newspapers. Who raised their voice, maybe the Confessing Church? We thought: Communists, those opponents of religion, those enemies of Christians—"should I be my brother's keeper?"
Then they got rid of the sick, the so-called incurables. I remember a conversation I had with a person who claimed to be a Christian. He said: Perhaps it's right, these incurably sick people just cost the state money, they are just a burden to themselves and to others. Isn't it best for all concerned if they are taken out of the middle [of society]? Only then did the church as such take note.
Then we started talking, until our voices were again silenced in public........"
(Martin Niemoller, Lutheran Pastor)
my point is this:
WISCONSIN'S REALITY MATTERED, and hopefully in tomorrow 'decision', this will be honored in our nation, not because what happened to Wisconsin's people was legal, but because what happened to them was inhumane
On the morning of the Resurrection, hope returned to people. Hope is a good thing. We have reason to hope for good to come. Even if the darkness lingers, we have this hope.
Hello
I know that Jesus spoke about something that was radically very ancient but refreshed and made like new again.
But, we do not want something that is radically ancient. What we want is something that is Radically Brand New or younger in age.
I wonder if Wade has something very ancient in his household storehouse which He treasures.
I wonder if it is the love of God.
Shalom
Tom,
love is eternal
:)
CHRISTIANE,
We’ve been watching our church on ‘You-Tube’. For Easter, our pastor asked the congregation for videos of themselves saying "Happy Easter". He then would put them together for Easter service along with his message.
Our Fannin County Association Missionary, Darrel Hathcock, (retired missionary from Hungry) took a video of Judy and I saying, “Christ is risen”; He’s risen indeed”. In the back ground is a lighted ten-foot white cross with the top being 20 feet over the 40 foot slide.
CHRISTIANE,
I’ve forgotten if I’ve told this story or not.
When I was 15, there were a lot of us swimming in Red River. Our father had returned from being a chaplain in World War II. He stayed on the front the whole war and never lost in wrestling. His 210 pounds was solid muscle and he was strong as an ox. He was our hero.
I crossed the river where it was deep, narrow, and fast. I swam with the current and it was easy. Our father decided to join me but tried to swim upstream. The river got wide, and the current took him farther away.
I followed on the bank. We were about 200 yards from the others. I was admiring how he could swim so hard and long until he yelled, “HELP ME”. He was exhausted. No one could hear him but me. I ran upstream to where the current would take me to him. He thought I was running away. His pleading voice rang in my ears: “PLEASE HELP ME!”
The current carried me to him in a few seconds. He kept his hand on my shoulder. He could have sunk me like a bug, but he didn’t apply much pressure. I started angling downstream to the bank a hundred yards away. In a panic, he yelled, “GO TO THE BANK”! (It was only 50 feet upstream.) I yelled, “I AM!”
When we got to the bank, he laid on the sand a long time. Finally, he said. “I wouldn’t have made it without you.”
Linda, my master's thesis was on E.Y. Mullins. It's sad more people do not know this historical statesman in Baptist history.
Rileydogbarks--Agreed!!
linda
Hey REX RAY,
it sounds like your pastor got it right to protect his flock, thank God.
It also sounds like the virus is beginning to move into the rural states and that is heart-breaking, as many resources are not up to what may be needed in remote areas.
Your stories are keeping me going and make my day.
How are you and Judy getting along in this strange 'sheltering' new world of trying to keep safe from an invisible enemy, a virus we can't see that is highly contagious and is moving through the country as there are 'carriers' who don't show symptoms, but can infect others around them?
I hope you are well-stocked with supplies and have some food laid aside also in case your area is hard-hit. Here, we are not so much hard-hit as people responded by clearing all the grocery shelves and hoarding food and supplies. Panic-buying, I guess.
My husband says he saw a person in the store wearing a mask that looked a lot like a 'Depends', and I guess people are trying to make their own masks out of whatever they have on hand, so as to try to protect themselves. :)
Are you still able to get medical help if you need it? We are almost all doing conference calls and very little doctor's visits going on around here, so we have been impacted in that way.
Please pray for this to be over soon. So much has changed. It's not the same life we are so used to in this wealthy land where we are free and blessed.
You take care. Thanks for the stories. Always the BEST! :)
CHRISTIANE,
Another story:
Swimming is Sometimes Action to Prevent Drowning by Rex Ray
My twin brother, Hez, and I were 15 and weighed less than a hundred pounds. We lived near Red River. We decided to teach our two 13-year-old cousins to swim; Frank Jenkins and James Ray Hicks. James had two brothers that went with us. Claude Earl was in the Navy, and David was 32, but couldn’t swim.
Red River was high, so we found a creek and went upstream to find a shallow place. Hez was swimming about ten yards ahead of me. I was swimming under the others that were on a five-foot bank. At the bottom of the bank there was a three-foot ledge of dirt before it became deep water.
The two young ones were laughing and cutting up. Frank pushed James off the bank, but was grabbed and both fell close enough to sink me. Their heads were above water, but mine wasn’t. They let me go when I ran out of air and went to the bottom.
I remembered Uncle Don saying, “Don’t let anybody drown.” I had laughed but now I believed someone wasn’t going to live. I came up to see Claude helping his brother, but Frank grabbed and strangled him. Claude barely made it to the ledge.
James was fighting the water, but his head was under. I pulled his head up several times as I’d lose my grip on his short hair.
(Hez told Frank, “Don’t grab me and I’ll save you.” He was still talking when Frank sunk him. Strangled; Hez quit the rescuing business.)
While I was struggling with James, I saw Frank in the deep water and HALF HIS BODY WAS OUT OF THE WATER. I was dumfounded as I hadn’t seen what happened. Frank was yelling. “HELP, HELP, SOMEBODY SAVE DAVID!”
While holding on to Johnson grass, David reached out to help Frank. Instead of letting David pull him out, Frank yanked hard and the grass pulled loose. David climbed down Frank till he was standing on the bottom holding Frank’s feet on his shoulders. That’s when I saw Frank yelling. David passed out, after shoving Frank to the ledge.
I got James to the ledge and I thought everyone was OK. We were all coughing water except Frank. I don’t think he swallowed one drop.
Someone said, “Where’s David?” No one knew, but Frank pointed toward the creek and said, “He’s out there!”
By this time the water was still. In a moment, David floated to the top. His face was purple, but his nose never got above water. He sank out of sight. Hez and I found him about two feet under. As we were getting him to the ledge, he came to and said really slow, “Am I causing you any trouble.” That was the last swim lesson. (The sailor (93) and I are the only ones that haven’t met Jesus.)
Good Morning, REX RAY
that was 'an edge of my seat' story, wow
I was pushed into the deep end of a swimming pool as a small child and went down like a rock, then came up, went down again, and bobbed up like a cork, and went down for a third time, grabbing on to whomever and absolutely sure this was 'it' for me.
I learned. When my littles were very young, we joined a Jewish Community Center (they don't discriminate) in our neighborhood and my little ones were give swimming lessons while still very small indeed. So they had no experiences like mine to generate a fear of the water. It took me some years to overcome that first episode, but when I felt more confident came the day at the beach where we had gathered for a friend's birthday party (we were pre-teens) and we all went 'way out' not realizing that the skies were darkening and soon the tide would turn, and WHAM, did we dog-paddle for our lives for shore as the wave washed over our heads. YIKES, what a close call, or so I thought. But I guess a lot of folks have had experiences that made them fearful. As an adult, having learned from our father how to swim properly, we all found places to live near the sea or the beach or had access to pools, and some of us sailed, which was glorious. So the fear subsided.
Your story reminded me of my own trauma(s). I am very empathetic towards anyone who has had a terrible experience in the water. But now, life is kind, there is a pool company that comes to care for the pool in our old age, and the warm waters are healing and no longer will be dreaded. :) We open the pool in late May and I will be a regular visitor daily for some months . . . but still, when I walk around the deep end of that pool, I always make sure no one is just behind me ready to push me in. LOL
Great story, REX RAY Thanks.
How are you and Judy doing? Hope the 'virus' has not hit your area. Stay safe.
I hope your stores have enough supplies and food for you all. Times are worrisome.
Take care.
CHRISTIANE,
Judy said you wrote a really nice comment in asking how we’re doing. I thought you’re saying some guy was wearing a mask that looked like depends was hilarious. Around here there’s about one in 50 wearing a mask, and stores are doing business as usual.
However the VA in Bonham has changed. They wrote a letter and asked if I’d like to cancel my yearly ‘checkup’. When you go in, you’re met with a guy that asked a lot of questions and takes your temperature. Shocking is a policeman with a gun standing five feet away. If you don’t pass the ‘test’, I hope his job is not to shoot you. :)
In our county (Fannin) there are 5 cases and 0 deaths, but in Dallas County (74 Miles from here, there are 1,537 cases and 25 deaths.
P.S. Just read your swimming experience.
CHRISTIANE,
Yes, you’re first ‘swimming experience’ was bad. I’m glad you overcame that fear. (The two cousins we were going to teach to swim, never tried again.)
My first experience happened when I was very young. We were wading in a creek where the water was knee-deep. I stepped into a hole. When I hit bottom, I pushed up and got a breath. After repeating this process many times, I asked adults what took them so long before they got me out. They said, “We thought you might start swimming.”
I learned to dog-paddle a long time before my brother, Hez, and was a stronger swimmer. I told him I was going to swim to place that was very far. He said I’d drown. He kept calling, “Come back, come back!” If he’d stayed on the bank, I’d ignored him, but he was swimming after me. His calls got so garbled and choked, I thought he’d drown, so I went back. I realize now he saved my life.
Hey REX RAY,
some advice:
I'm seeing 'the supply chain' slow down in the grocery stores, as per my husband's shopping trips:
soooooo . . . my advice to you and Judy is to think ahead and make sure you have 'enough' on hand for a couple of months at least, paper products, cleaning products, groceries, any medications you take (very important)
we do not know what the future is going to bring and apparently there are some people who walk into hospital waiting rooms and are breathing on their own and their condition worsens within the hour and soon they can no longer breathe on their own and need a ventilator. Only 20% of those put on ventilators survive. The virus can be 'carried' by some who show almost no symptoms, and then it can be passed to someone who is decimated by it in a matter of a day. The news from my family is that they are not having symptoms, although one is quarantined.
This is very serious, the uncertainty and we are listening to our doctors and to my family who know how best to take precautions (spouse will 'listen' but then he goes shopping)
You and Judy take care. Be prepared in case the food supply chain really slows down, and stock up so you have 'enough' for a while. Then you won't need to go out when and if it gets really bad in your neck of the woods. Be safe. I told my brother about my husband seeing someone wearing a Depends for a 'mask' and my brother said 'that's better than nothing' :) It takes all kinds.
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