Need of Grace- Valley of Vision

Prayer from Valley of Vision: A collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions.

O Lord,

Thou knowest my great unfitness for service,

my present deadness,

my inability to do anything for thy glory,

my distressing coldness of heart.

I am weak, ignorant, unprofitable,

and loathe and abhor myself.

I am at a loss to know what thou wouldest

have me do,

for I feel amazingly deserted by thee,

and sense thy presence so little;

Thou makest me possess the sins of my youth,

and the dreadful sin of my nature,

so that I feel all sin,

I cannot think or act but every motion is sin.

Return again with showers of converting grace

to a poor gospel-abusing sinner.

Help my soul to breathe after holiness,

after a constant devotedness to thee,

after growth in grace more abundantly every day.

O Lord, I am lost in the pursuit of this blessedness,

And am ready to sink because I fall short

of my desire;

Help me to hold out a little longer,

until the happy hour of deliverance comes,

for I cannot lift my soul to thee

if thou of thy goodness bring me not nigh.

Help me to be diffident, watchful, tender,

lest I offend my blessed Friend

in thought and behaviour;

I confide in thee and lean upon thee,

and need thee at all times to assist and lead me.

O that all my distresses and apprehensions

might prove but Christ’s school

to make me fit for greater service

by teaching me the great lesson of humility.

Satan’s A-Game

I keep re-reading sections of J.D. Greear’s book Gospel: Recovering the Power that Made Christianity Revolutionary. Its loaded with great stuff, and I recommend it to everyone. It’s awesome.

This statement on how Satan tempts us is worth reflecting on. Greear looks at Satan’s attempt to tempt Jesus; coming and trying to get Jesus to think about not having food, even though He (Jesus) is the son of God, and in essence Satan asks, “what are you doing out here Jesus?” Greear then draws out some implications, which I commend to you.

Don't you think it's significant that Satan began his "A-game " by trying to get Jesus to take His eyes off the identity the Father had declared over him and to seek validation in another way? Satan's approach to us is the same. Satan's most effective weapon is to take our eyes off of what God has declared over us in the gospel.

 A lot of times when we think about spiritual warfare we think of it in terms of strange, paranormal phenomena – people levitating 6 feet above their beds, their eyes rolling in the back of their heads and foaming at the mouth, singing back-masked heavy metal music.... Does Satan do stuff like that? I wouldn't put it beneath him. But I'm pretty confident that it's not his main strategy. He attacks our identity in the Gospel. Satan's one direct shot at Jesus didn't include levitation or Ouija boards; nor did he show Jesus pornographic pictures out in the wilderness. He redirected Jesus mind away from God's declaration over Him.

He goes on to look at the fact that Satan’s lies always have the ring of truth to them, and then continues,

Our enemy for example, will points correctly point out our failures. Sometimes he helps us see how badly we're doing at being a Christian by showing as someone who is much better Christian than we are…. Other times he puffs us up with pride. Either strategy is effective, because in either case we take our focus off of Christ’s gift-righteousness and put it onto ourselves. And comparison with others leads us to two of Satan's favorite sins: pride and despair. Pride leads us leads to hardness of heart towards God and hatred of others. Despair leads us to depression, fear, and indulgence in the last of the flesh. This is the cycle he loves to have a sense. Both start with unbelief of the Gospel.

When Satan takes our eyes off of the declaration spoken over us at the Gospel, we lose the security and satisfaction we have in the love and approval of our heavenly Father. The gateway is then opened up for all that the gateway is then open for all the other temptations.

Some of you they will Kill

A person at the church sent this to me Sunday morning. "Some of you they will kill." Luke 21:16. "The victim was spreading Christianity to the Yemeni people. 

Sanaa, Yemen (CNN) -- Gunmen fatally shot an American teacher in the Yemeni province of Taiz on Sunday, two defense ministry officials said.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the terror network's affiliate in Yemen, claimed responsibility for the killing. In a text message sent to Yemeni media outlets, the group said the victim was spreading Christianity, calling him one of the biggest missionaries in the country.

But the International Training and Development Center said the victim, whom it identified as "Joel S.," was not a missionary. "He was an American development worker who had been working in Yemen with his wife and two children since 2010," when he began working for the education center, it said. "Unfortunately Joel S. has been accused of being a part of a proselytizing campaign, but the staff of ITDC, which consists of Muslims, Christians and other religions working together, has continually focused on human development, skill transfer and community development," the center said. "Joel S. was a very professional employee who highly respected the Islamic religion." Authorities have not said who killed the teacher. The head of security in the province, Mohamed Saidi, identified him as Joel Shrum.

The U.S. Embassy in the capital, Sanaa, said it had heard reports of an American death and was investigating. It did not confirm that an American had been killed. On Thursday, tribesmen demanding the release of prisoners kidnapped a female Swiss teacher in Hodeida on the Red Sea coast, officials said.

A couple of thoughts. First, I have no doubt that he was doing missionary work. You cant go to the Middle East as a missionary, at least not out in the open. You always go under some other avenue. Second. Of course the Agency says that, they would not want to damage the ability to work, and yes, maybe proclaim the gospel. 

But Third, while you weep for his family. But at the same time, rejoice, because, as so many saints before him (Act 5:42), He has been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. 

Some of you they will put to death. You will be hated by all for my name's sake (Luke 21:16-17). Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you (Matthew 5:11-13).

Passover Seder Encounter

Saturday, First Baptist will be hosting a  Passover Seder Encoutner. It should be awesome. I am looking forward to getting a better understanding of the Passover and the Gospel, as a result.

Here is a teaser for the Event from Nathan, the Rabbi who will be leading us. 

The scene for God's redemptive plan for our world is set when the Lord parts the Red Sea and Moses leads the Israelites into the promise land. For thousands of years the Jewish people have come together each year to remember God's salvific work in our world and in our lives. During the Passover Seder we enter into the Exodus experience and through taste, song and prayer remember the history of our salvation.

It was during this time, a small Passover Seder in Jerusalem, where Jesus sat with His disciples for His last meal before His impending death. And it was here that He took the third cup, the "Cup of Redemption" symbolizing the redemption of the Jewish people and infused it with new meaning— "This cup is the new covenant in my blood which is poured out for you." (Luke 22:20) Just as the blood of the slain lamb smeared on the doorposts of the ancient Israelite homes covered them from the death of the firstborn, so too the blood of the slain lamb, Jesus, covers us all from death and brings us into Jesus' resurrection and life.

Passover Encounter is a traditional Passover Seder that is specifically oriented toward the Christian Church. Passover is a celebrated memorial to the book of Exodus and God's faithfulness to the Jewish people. It is an opportunity for Christians to come alongside the Jewish people while entering deeply into the "Lord's Supper" and experience their own personal Exodus.

The night leaves people with a deeper appreciation and understanding for the Jewish people, renewed and encouraged faith as they see the powerful and historical background of our Faith in Jesus, and a deeper appreciation for the Church's own Easter and communion celebrations.

If you haven't already decided to come, I would encourage you to. It's not to late to sign up to come. I know some of you have already signed up, but for those of you who haven’t, you still can (we need a hard count by tomorrow). And as you sign up, remember to invite your friends! Also, remember that children are not only welcome, but will be encouraged to participate. This should be a lot of fun as we gather to share fellowship, and learn more about the Passover and the Gospel.  

If you have not signed up yet and are planning to come, please contact Linda Dougherty (lindad27581@ yahoo.com),  Debbie Ericson (ddericson@ comcast.net), or myself by Wednesday, so that we can know how much food to make. Also, I would like to encourage you to plan on helping out by making something. Most of these recipes are not hard to make. The food is different from what you might usually make, but the recipes aren’t hard. If you would like to make something, but are unsure about making something unfamiliar, I would encourage you to give it a whirl. Linda or Debbie can email you recipes if you would like to bring food or help out in any other way.

Hope to see you there First Baptist!

J.D. Greer on 5 Tests to Determine If You Church Is Truly Gospel Centered

In light of God's desire is to see gospel movements around the world, J.D. Greer, a Pastor, Blogger, and Author of  Gospel: Recovering the Power that Made Christianity Revolutionary put up a great article recently entitled 5 Tests to Determine If You Church Is Truly Gospel Centered. It's absolutely worth checking out. Also, since it was a talk before it became a Blog posting, here is the link to the full talk. Enjoy!

Acts 2:41–47 gives us 5 “tests” of gospel-centrality. If we are preaching the Spirit-anointed gospel, these 5 things will be the result in our churches, just as they were in the very first one:

1. Evangelistic effectiveness AND doctrinal depth (Acts 2:41-42, 47)

Acts 2:41 tells us that in one day 3,000 people were saved and baptized, and verse 47  reports that God added daily to their number those who were being saved. The first church grew in a hurry. At the same time, the people were “devoted to the teaching of the Apostles” and were possessed by a great sense of awe over God’s glory.

I often hear church depth place at odds with church width. The early church clearly did both. In reality, the one is impossible without the other. Churches that grow wide without growing deep are not creating “sustainable” width, only generating a little temporary excitement. Churches that don’t grow wide are probably not nearly as deep as they may think. Gospel depth almost always produces gospel fruitfulness (Mark 4:16-17). Understanding the gospel gives you a sense of people’s lostness. You understand the wrath of God against their sin, how imminent His judgment is, how great His grace is towards them. Understanding the gospel gives you humility, because you realize how lost you were before God saved you. Understanding the gospel gives you the faith to believe God for great things, because the gospel reveals how willing and able God is to save. You show me someone characterized by a sense of urgency, humility, love and the boldness that comes from great faith, and I’ll show you someone who will be an effective evangelist!

Healthy churches do both (Col 1:5-6). Certain churches within the gospel-centered movement are suprisingly unconcerned with, or ineffective at, evangelism.  They talk a lot about “mission” and “planting churches” but somehow that never translates into evangelism. Some wear smallness as a badge of honor. They love to critique everyone else’s evangelism, but do very little of their own. Charles Spurgeon—no theological lightweight—said, “I would sooner bring one sinner to Jesus Christ than unpack all the mysteries of the divine Word, for salvation is the thing we are to live for.”

A lot of the criticisms directed at rapidly-growing churches seem (to me) to be motivated by about 30% theological concern and 70% jealousy, fear and laziness. This is not to say that there is no validity to the theological concerns, just that those making them should pay attention to their motives. Our arrogance may keep us from receiving the grace God works even in the midst of theological shortcomings. We ought to be humbled by the zeal for souls present in movements that do not achieve, in our view, a full gospel-centrality. As D. L. Moody said to one Reformed critic of his, “It is clear you don’t like my way of doing evangelism. You raise some good points. Frankly, I sometimes do not like my way of doing evangelism. But I like my way of doing it better than your way of not doing it.”

2. Gospel-centered churches are characterized by the presence of God. (Acts 2:43)

This first church was full of the Spirit. There are a few things in that chapter that we will not likely experience in our congregations, but verse 43 gives you a classic description of the effect of the fullness of the Spirit—it says the people were “filled with awe.” D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones said (and I paraphrase), “The presence of God is a felt-sense of the attributes of God as revealed in the gospel.” Their sense of the “presence of God” was not the result of a musical crescendo or an emotive preacher. It came simply from the preaching of the gospel by ones who really believed it and felt its passions within their souls. Another of my favorite theologians, Jonathan Edwards, described his sense of the presence of God like this:

“Sometimes only mentioning the name of Christ or an attribute of God will cause my heart to burn within me. . . . Suddenly God appears glorious to me. When I enjoy this sweetness it seems to carry me outside of myself. I cannot bring myself even to take my eye from this Glorious Object.”

Note that this sort of experience is not at odds with doctrine, or even beyond doctrine, but flows out of good doctrine. It’s not less than doctrine, it is more. God’s beauty and majesty are not just to be perceived with the mind, they are to be felt in the soul.

Where this happens, there is the joy you see in Acts 2:46-47. It is hard for me to believe that a church can really “get” the gospel when its services are not characterized by joy. Yes, there are times for somberness and mourning and repentance in worship, but the predominant motif of biblical worship is joy. Multiple places in Scripture command us to clap our hands, shout with joy, and to sing and delight in God. They tell us that in God’s presence is “fullness of joy” (Psalm 16:11). So how can we claim to have gospel-centered churches if our services are not characterized by exuberant joy? 

3. Gospel-centered churches are characterized by fervent, faith-filled prayer (Acts 2:42)

The gospel produces a faith in the church that  makes bold requests of Jesus. You see that referred to here in Acts 2, and fleshed out later in Acts 4:24-31. They expected great things from God, and then attempted great things for God.

The early church was born from prayer. After Jesus ascended to heaven, Acts 1:14 reports that the disciples “were devoting themselves to prayer.” This went on for ten days before the arrival of the Spirit on Pentecost. These believers prayed for 10 days, Peter preached for 10 minutes, and 3,000 people were saved. Today we’re more likely to pray for 10 minutes, preach for 10 days, and see 3 people saved.

Acts shows us a profound connection between corporate prayer and our community getting a sense of the glory of God. When we pray, our eyes are opened to the glory of God. When our eyes are opened to His glory, we preach with boldness, passion and power (Acts 4:24-31). In Acts 7:55-56, we see Stephen lift his eyes to heaven in prayer, catch a glimpse of Jesus’ glory, and in awe begin to proclaim it to those around him. When this happens on a city-wide scale, what you get is a spiritual awakening. Tim Keller gives a glimpse of what this looks like:

In New York, in 1857, a man named Jeremiah Lanphier was hired to witness to a local neighborhood. He was frustrated by utter ineffectiveness, and so in desperation he turned to prayer. One day he invited people to pray with him—six people showed up. The following week, 20 people came. The next week, 40. Two months later, hundreds were gathering to pray. Soon the entire downtown area was filled with men and women praying. Evangelistic meetings sprang up all over the city, and in 9 months, 50,000 people came to Christ at a time when the population of NYC was 800,000. This was known as the great prayer revival of Manhattan.

I really want to see that happen in Raleigh-Durham. If you scaled the proportions, that would be like 100,000 people coming to Christ in a 9-month period!

4. Gospel-centered churches are characterized by empowered members. (Acts 8:1, 28:15)

A stubborn theme throughout the book of Acts is that God’s most effective vehicles are “regular” people. Consider these facts from Acts: Thirty-nine of the 40 miracles in the book of Acts occur outside the walls of the “church,” in the workplace. The longest sermon in Acts is by Stephen, a layman. That sermon led to the most significant spiritual moment in Acts, the conversion of Saul (Paul). Acts 8:1 notes that when persecution rose up against the church, the church was scattered around the world preaching the gospel. But note that Luke tells you this worldwide fulfillment of Acts 1:8 did not include the Apostles. These anonymous Christians were so effective in ministry that when Paul showed up in Rome to preach the gospel “where Christ had never been named,” he was greeted by “the brothers” (Acts 28:15). Early church historian Stephen Neill notes that the anonymity of the major gospel movements in the ancient world is breathtaking: “But in point of fact few, if any, of the great Churches were really founded by apostles. Nothing is more notable than the anonymity of these early missionaries… Luke does not turn aside to mention the name of a single one of those pioneers who laid the foundation. Peter and Paul may have organized the Church in Rome. They certainly did not found it…” (History of Christian Missions, 22)

This flows from the very nature of the gospel. The gospel is not about recognizing the gifted, but about gifting the unrecognized. Church leaders who understand that gospel won’t try to build their church around a handful of mega-talented superstars, but rather dedicate themselves to empowering and releasing the church for ministry (Eph 4:11-13). They become committed to raising up other leaders. They judge their success not so much by seating capacity but sending capacity.

5. Gospel-centered churches are characterized by extravagant generosity. (Acts 2:45)

The gospel is that Jesus “became poor for our sake so that through his poverty we might become rich” (2 Cor 8:9). When a church gets this, they become extravagantly generous toward others. The first Christians didn’t just give out of their excess. They voluntarily sold their stuff so that their were no needs among them. 

Eventually this sort of gospel generosity overflowed into the streets, but it started in the church. As the apostle Paul says in Galatians, “Let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith” (Galatians 6:10). Ultimately, the love that Christians show to one another is a profound statement to an unbelieving world. It is by our love for one another, Jesus said, that the world will know that we are His disciples (John 13:35; cf. 1 Peter 4:9). As Francis Schaeffer said, “the final apologetic that Jesus gives is the observable love of true Christians for true Christians.”

Evangelistic effectiveness and doctrinal depth; fervent, faith-filled prayer; a sense of the presence of God; empowered members and extravagant generosity are 5 things that the gospel produced in the early church. How present are they in your church? If one of these characteristics are missing, is it possible that we don’t understand the gospel as much as we claim to? These are the indelible marks of a gospel movement.

If these are missing from your church, the answer is not to “go and try harder.” We need to ask ourselves, “Why is the gospel I am preaching not producing these things?”

Soooo... how are we doing? What's your take? Looks to me like we've got a long road ahead.

The Painful Reality that is Abortion

Abortion is a heartbreaking evil. After witnessing the abortion of two of his children, one anonymous father writes:

My soul carries a new scar.  The pain is fresh and keen, and I know that while time might see the pain fade, I will never fully recover from what I've seen, and done.  For I have failed, intentionally and knowingly, in the first duty of a parent: protecting the lives of two of my children.

I pray to G-d every day to take those two innocents to Him, to welcome them, and I ask them every day for forgiveness. As I will every day for the rest of my life. I don't know what accommodation my wife will make mentally and spiritually. That is her business, and a burden her conscience must bear.

But let nobody fool you. It is not painless for the child, and anyone who says otherwise is a liar. Abortion is not an excision of a featureless bunch of cells; it is infanticide. We have revived the practice of child sacrifice to the new deities of casual sex and convenience. We rationalize the reality of murder by altering our perspective of the nascent life through euphemisms like "fetus" or descriptions of "a clump of cells"...just like the Nazis convinced themselves that the people screaming as they were shot or gassed were "Untermenchen," subhuman, and therefore guiltlessly exterminated. This is how every perpetrator of genocide has always rationalized his or her actions. By doing likewise, we condemn our own souls.

I wept in joy, a few years ago, when I saw my first child's heartbeat on the screen. And I weep in agony now at the memory of two of my children's heartbeats being stilled. "Save one, or save none" has been eclipsed by "Out, out, damned spot!" as I wonder how I can redeem myself.

If, by baring this scar for others to see, I can prevent an abortion, perhaps that will help to balance the scales for when I face G-d's justice and I finally meet those two children -- who I hope will forgive me for my failure.

Please read the whole article at The American Thinker.

Questions to ponder

The Deacons and I are working on the church mission and vision statement, and working to put together a reshaped mission and vision statement, as well as a process for discipleship (how does "connecting, growing, serving, sharing, changing" strike you). Bylaws and church governance comes as the next step.

In this process, I have been reading Going Deep: Becoming A Person of Influence, by Gordon MacDonald (He also wrote, Who Stole My Church: What to Do When the Church You Love Tries to Enter the 21st Century)

These questions stuck out to me, and I've been pondering them for some time now. They are questions I think every Christian should be pondering.

What are you learning?

Who are you teaching?

What are the Results?

So, What are you learning? Who are you teaching? What are the Results? Are you being a student of the word? Are you studying to show yourself approved? Who are you teaching? Are you only taking in, or are you pouring out? Knowledge is great. But what are you doing with it? Are you teaching others, and are you bearing fruit for the Kingdom of God?

The stars fall

As I was preparing to preach on Mark 13:24-27, I was struck by this thought. As intense as this storm is, the Return of Christ will be beyond our wildest imagination. Think 10 million times more crazy and intense than this.

 "But in those days, following that distress, " 'the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.' "At that time men will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens (Mar 13:24-27).

Zealeous

Zeal for your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me (Psalm 69:9).

One of the burning need that our church, and every church faces, is to have a zeal for God, and for His glory. Throughout the centuries, and certainly in ours, there is a tendency to go lukewarm, to be apathetic. To take it safe, and to go for the path of least resistance. But more than that, to treat our faith as something like a club membership, something we can take up, and put down, something that doesn't really redefine who we are, or what we are about. The call to follow Christ is a call not to club membership, but to cross-bearing, to responding to the gospel by living a life zealously for the glory of God.

So what is zeal? It’s not a very common word these days. The Great Anglican Bishop J.C. Ryle gives a great description of zeal in his book Practical Religion.

 Zeal in religion is a burning desire to please God, to do His will, and to advance His glory in the world in every possible way. It is a desire which is not natural to man. It is a desire which the Spirit puts in the heart of every believer when he is converted, however, a desire which some believers feel so much more strongly than others that they alone deserve to be called “zealous” men.

This desire is so strong, when it really reigns in a man, that it impels him to make any sacrifice–to go through any trouble–to deny himself to any amount–to suffer, to work, to labor, to toil, to spend himself and be spent, and even to die–if only he can please God and honor Christ.

A zealous man in religion is preeminently a man of one thing. It is not enough to say that he is earnest, strong, uncompromising, meticulous, wholehearted, fervent in spirit. He only sees one thing, he cares for one thing, he lives for one thing, he is swallowed up in one thing; and that one thing is to please God. Whether he lives, or whether he dies–whether he has health, or whether he has sickness–whether he is rich, or whether he is poor–whether he pleases man, or whether he gives offense–whether he is thought wise, or whether he is thought foolish–whether he gets blame, or whether he gets praise–whether he gets honor, or whether he gets shame–for all this the zealous man cares nothing at all. He burns for one thing, and that one thing is to please God and to advance Gods glory. If he is consumed in the very burning, he does not care–he is content. He feels that, like a lamp, he is made to burn; and if consumed in burning, he has but done the work for which God has appointed him.

Such a one will always find a sphere for his zeal. If he cannot preach, and work, and give money, he will cry, and sigh, and pray. Yes: if he is only a pauper, on a perpetual bed of sickness, he will make the activity of sin around him slow to a standstill, by continually interceding against it. If he cannot fight in the valley with Joshua, he will do the work of Moses, Aaron, and Hur, on the hill (Exodus 17:9-13). If he is cut off from working himself, he will give the Lord no rest till help is raised up from another quarter, and the work is done. This is what I mean when I speak of zeal in religion.

New England and the Need: Gospel Centered Churches

I was on the Resurgence recently, and I ran across an article by Jared Wilson, the pastor of a church in Middleton, VT, and a blogger at the Gospel Coalition. His article is entitled, Why New England is the New American Missional Frontier.

All of it was good, but one section grabbed hold of me. 

2. New England’s few existing churches are not gospel-wakened.

New Englanders have little desire for anything to do with Christianity or church, but even those who have it have little opportunity to explore it. While the landscape of New England is dotted with little church buildings, some quaint and some beautiful, more and more of these buildings now house liberal, practically Unitarian congregations, if they house church gatherings at all. And where churches are evangelical, the evangel has not yet captured the hearts of many congregations. As the cultural environment became more worldly, conservative churches became more insular, opting to self-protect in their religious “bunkers” instead of engaging their communities in gospel mission. The need for gospel-centered missional churches throughout New England is dire. The good news is that a movement is afoot already, but it needs more workers.
 

Read the article. it's worth it.... But don't stop there. While it was written by a Pastor, challenging Pastors and would be church planters, here's something every one of you can be doing. Pray! Pray like crazy. 

Pray that the Lord of the harvest sends out workers. Praying that God will be at work here in New England.

Pray that God will be building up Gospel centered, bible based churches that seeks to glorify God and build great communities (that's another way of saying Missional). 

Pray that God continues to Guide the leadership (especially the Deacons) as we seeks towards being to be a Gospel Centered Missional Church, and as as we seek to hone the mission of the church (the description of the church on Facebook is, "A Gospel centered, bible based church that seeks to glorify God and build a great community", and the working mission statement that is still under revision is First Baptist Church:  faithfully proclaiming the gospel to Medfield and beyond as we seek to glorify God and build a great community through gospel proclamation, personal conversion, deep disciple making, and faithful service to one another and the world around us).

Most of all, pray that ultimately, we will see revival in this place dotted by beautiful buildings but fewer and  fewer biblical, Gospel Centered churches.

Why do I feel sin more than ever?

 This week, someone texted me a question. “Rhetorical question, if Jesus died for my sin why do I worry about sin more than ever?” It’s a good question. If we believe Christ suffered and died and paid the penalty for our sin, why do I see them more and more? Why do I feel their weight more and more? There are two reasons that stood out to me.

First, the more you understand the cost your savior paid, the more it makes you grieve them more and more. You see the cost that Christ paid, and it moves you. Your sin caused that…in a way, I think it’s a tool God uses to remind you of the gospel. It makes you stare into the suffering of your Lord, and remember what he did on your behalf.

But second, God is also doing something in your life that causes you to see your sin. 

Scripture makes something clear. God doesn’t just save us and leave us. He begins to change us. 2^nd Corinthians states that “we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18). Romans says that “those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers (Romans 8:29)”

When God calls you, He practically hangs a construction sign in you’re the yard of your life. C.S. Lewis described it this way in Mere Christianity.

“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”

Here is the implication of the construction analogy. At the end of the day it comes down to this.  If you are being reshaped into the image of His son, if you are being turned into a castle for him to live in, and if you being remolded and reshaped to love what God loves, and hate what he hates, you will see and hate your sin more and more.

Listening to a Sermon: How should you prepare?

Justin Taylor put up something that I recently ran across entitled How to Listen to a Sermon. It's a compilation of resources for thinking about listening to a sermon. What caught my eye was his comment that

"If you’re a regular church attender (and therefore sermon-listener), it’s sometimes surprising to think we don’t have more teaching on how to listen to a sermon."

My immediate thought was that this is a real weak spot for the church at large. Pastors get a huge amount of training in exegesis and preaching, but how much training do we do for training people to listen to the preaching of God's Holy Word? 

This is an important issue to dig into. He has a great Thabiti Anyabwile comment that all but sang to me, because it affects how pastors preach:

Few things are more discouraging or dishonoring to [faithful pastors] than a congregation inattentive to the Word of God. Faithful men flourish at the fertile reception of the preached Word. They’re made all the more bold when their people give ear to the Lord’s voice and give evidence of being shaped by it. As church members, we can care for our pastors and teacher and help to prevent unnecessary discouragement and fatigue by cultivating the habit of expositional listening.

Here are the resources he provides to help prepare your hearts for listening to a sermon.

• Phil Ryken: So what is the right way to listen to a sermon?  With a soul that is prepared, a mind that is alert, a Bible that is open, a heart that is receptive, and a life that is ready to spring into action. Read the rest for an explanation of each point.

• Christopher Ash, Listen Up! A Practical Guide to Listening to Sermons
• John Piper, “Take Care How You Listen!” (sermon)
• Thabiti Anyabwile, “A Healthy Church Member Is an Expositional Listener” (ch. 1) in What Is a Healthy Church Member?

Teach Children the Bible Is Not About Them

Sally Lloyd Jones has a great new article. She is the author of the The Jesus Storybook Bible, which JJ (and many of the First Baptist Kids), have come to love. Check it out here.

Here are some excerpt.

When I go into churches and speak to children I ask them two questions: First, How many people here sometimes think you have to be good for God to love you? They tentatively raise their hands. I raise my hand along with them. And second, How many people here sometimes think that if you aren't good, God will stop loving you? They look around and again raise their hands. These are children in Sunday schools who know the Bible stories and probably all the right answers, and yet they have somehow missed the most important thing of all. They have missed what the Bible is all about.

They are children like I once was. As a child, even though I was a Christian, I grew up thinking the Bible was filled with rules you had to keep (or God wouldn't love you) and with heroes setting examples you had to follow (or God wouldn't love you). I tried to be good. I really did. I was quite good at being good. But however hard I tried, I couldn't keep the rules all the times so I knew God must not be pleased with me. And I certainly couldn't ever be as brave as Daniel. I remember being tormented by that Sunday school chorus "Dare to Be a Daniel" because, hard as I tried to imagine myself daring to be a Daniel, being thrown to lions and not minding . . . who was I kidding? I knew I'd be terrified out of my skull. How could God ever love me? I was sure he couldn't because I wasn't doing it right.

She has a great heartbreaking story of what happens when we make the story about us, and what we have to do.

One Sunday, not long ago, I was reading the story of "Daniel and the Scary Sleepover" from The Jesus Storybook Bible to some 6-year-olds during a Sunday school lesson. One little girl in particular was sitting so close to me she was almost in my lap. Her face was bright and eager as she listened to the story, utterly captivated. She could hardly keep on the ground and kept kneeling up to get closer to the story.

At the end of the story there were no other teachers around, and I panicked and went into automatic pilot and heard myself---to my horror---asking, "And so what can we learn from Daniel about how God wants us to live?" And as I said those words it was as if I had literally laid a huge load on that little girl. Like I broke some spell. She crumpled right in front of me, physically slumping and bowing her head. I will never forget it. It is a picture of what happens to a child when we turn a story into a moral lesson. When we drill a Bible story down into a moral lesson, we make it all about us. But the Bible isn't mainly about us, and what we are supposed to be doing---it's about God, and what he has done!

When we tie up the story in a nice neat little package, and answer all the questions, we leave no room for mystery. Or discovery. We leave no room for the child. No room for God. And that's why I wrote The Jesus Storybook Bible. So children could know what I didn't: That the Bible isn't mainly about me, and what I should be doing. It's about God and what he has done.

Her wrap-up makes me want to sing. It’s awesome. As awesome as the intro to the Jesus Storybook Bible.

That the Bible is most of all a story---the story of how God loves his children and comes to rescue them. That---in spite of everything, no matter what, whatever it cost him---God won't ever stop loving his children . . . with a wonderful, Never Stopping, Never Giving Up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love. That the Bible, in short, is a Story---not a Rule Book---and there is only one Hero in the Story.

I wrote The Jesus Storybook Bible so children could meet the Hero in its pages. And become part of His Magnificent Story. Because rules don't change you. But a Story---God's Story---can.

Wedding Sermon For My Sister

I have had several requests for the wedding sermon that I wrote for Rebecca's wedding. Here it is. 

Just a quick disclaimer. I make no claims of originality. Some of it is stuff that is original, some of it is lifted from  wedding sermon's I've heard or read, some of it (especially the quotes on marriage), is stuff I've come across in studying for a sermon on marriage that I did awhile back. The one source I will highlight is the Meaning of Marriage, I had Rebecca and Brenton read it for Premarital counseling, and would recommend it to every couple that is dating or married. I hope you find this helpful, while understanding it was written for a specific event.

The Scripture Passages that it is based on and were read before the sermon are Ephesians 5:22-33, and Colossians 3:12-17.

Brenton, Rebecca, today is one of the most important days of your life, and the most important day in your relationship. With these vows, you are making a commitment. To each other, to God, to all of your friends and family members, to the world at large. That you will love one another, honor one another, care for one another, seek the others good, do what’s best for one another, and find joy in their joy, as you live together in holy marriage, forsaking all others, as long as you both shall live.

Marriage is about a promise. In Marriage, two become one flesh. Becoming one flesh implies a covenant promise. Today you covenant, with God, and each other…to leave father and mother, and join together…and become one flesh.  This is not a contract… contracts are breakable…they are a commitment between you… and God… we see this from the beginning…When God brought Adam to Eve, he blessed marriage and declared, For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. Brenton, Rebecca, this is now your primary human relationship, the most important human relationship in your life No other person has a claim that supersedes the claims that you have on each other. Marriage involves a covenant promise before God, in which you transfer your primary allegiance from your parents and siblings, to each other. You leave you leave your father and mother, your brothers and sisters, and unite together, in relationship with God and each other, and begin to build a new household…a new life together…till death do your part….  Today you make a date with destiny, you’re committing to God, yourself, and each other that you will hold fast to the other…and that ten, 20, 50 years from now, with the Lords help, you  will be holding fast, till death do you part.

Marriage is about a promise…but... marriage is about creating a place where we can know true relationship…in Genesis, we’re told, God created man (humanity), in his own image. In the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. After creating Adam, Man, the LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." Matthew Henry noted that "Eve was not taken out of Adam's head to top him, neither out of his feet to be trampled on by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected by him, and near his heart to be loved by him." Then God brought the two together…The wonderful postscript that we see in scripture after God brought them together is…The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame. Marriage is designed to be a one flesh union, where you can be venerable, on every level. One of our deepest desires in friendship is to be accepted for who we are, understood for who we are, loved for who we are and known without shame, received and approved. We long to be able to be completely venerable and intimate in every area of life. And God designed us this way, and he ordained marriage to be a place where the longing is fulfilled. Where two lives, two hearts, two minds, two bodies, will become one flesh, and thereby complement each other, and build up each other, and seek each other’s good above their own... in true relationship.

But even more than that, ultimately, marriage is about something that is bigger than a covenant, as huge as covenant is, and it’s about something that’s bigger than our need for deep relationship and friendship and intimacy. Ultimately marriage is a divinely created picture of the gospel. In Ephesians 5, which Nathan read for us, we see something interesting…we see Paul recite God’s words on marriage in Genesis  2 “For this reason …” But then, what does Paul say? “This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.” What’s he mean by that? The word mystery shows up several times throughout his New Testament letters, and not once does it mean something incomprehensible or impossible to understand. Instead, Paul uses it to refer to a truth that God kept hidden for a time, but now has revealed. Now, Paul applies the term to marriage, and this he says, is a profound mystery, a mega-mystery…an extraordinarily great, wonderful, profound truth that can be understood only with the help of God’s Holy Spirit. And what is the secret? What is this mystery? He is taking about Christ and the church, referring back to what he said in verse 25, Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. IN short, the mystery is not simply the fact of marriage per se; it is the message that what husbands should do for their wives is what Christ did to bring us into union with himself.

And what did he do? He gave himself up for her. He died for her…marriage is a window into the gospel…as we see how the son of God, equal with God, gave up his glory, and took on our human nature…and then…Having lived the life we should have lived, perfectly, sinlessly, he humbled himself even more…by willing going to the cross…dying the death we should have died, in our place, for our sins, so that we could be united with him (Romans 6:5), and take in his nature (2peter 1:4). He gave up his glory and power and became a servant. He died to his own interests and looked to meet our needs instead (Romans 15:1-3). Jesus sacrificial death brought us into deep union with him if we turn to him in faith…that’s not just the key to understand marriage, but to living… This is why Paul can tie the original statement about marriage in genesis 2 to Jesus and the church… he saw that when God designed marriage, he already had Christ and the church in mind, and was giving us a picture through which we would be able to see the gospel (Editorial note-This point is lifted from The Meaning of Marriage)

Your marriage is therefore, a pointer to the gospel, it’s a picture of the gospel lived out, with the husband and wife each take a role, serving and being served… submitting and being submitted to…picturing the ultimate marriage. As Christians, you have the incredible privilege of knowing the ultimate purpose for your marriage. The purpose of marriage goes beyond personal fulfillment. It’s not about making you happy all the time. The biblical purpose of marriage is not us-centered. It's God's centered. Your marriage is meant to point to the truth that Christ gave his all for his bride the church, and that one day, he will return for his bride the church…C.J. Mahaney noted that…By the grace of God, your marriage is meant to be the best echo, the most faithful reflection of that relationship you can possibly be. It’s about being genuinely united in a strong, godly, intimate relationship that echoes the one between Christ and the Church.  

Allot of marriages struggle because they do not see their marriage as profound, mysterious or amazing. They only see themselves as two married people.  It is all too common to have a marriage centered on you, your spouse, your kids, your goals… how it makes you feel… marriage is a picture of the gospel…see this… and let it shape how you approach your marriage...

So, having said these things about the permanency and purpose of marriage…What should your marriage look like….What should be the things that define and shape your marriage, and this covenant that you now enter? Grace. The garments of grace. Your marriage must be clothed in the garments of grace. Today you stand here, in all the splendor of wedding garb…and it’s wonderful, and exciting and joyful.

And on a wedding day, our clothes are chosen carefully to reflect the importance of the day in your lives… But as important as these clothes are for one special day, they aren’t the clothes of everyday life; they are not the clothes that are needed to deal with the ups and downs, the struggles, and mountaintops, of marriage. For those “other” days, Paul gives us some guidance as to the garb that we should wear… clothes worn in response to Christ’s love, modeled on Christ’s love, and empowered by Christ’s love… Paul lays this out in Colossians…which Patty read for us…

First, be clothed in Christ…This passage begins and ends with your identity as people whose primary allegiance is to Christ. It calls you to remember first of all, whose you are and who you are to live for, who you are to glorify with your marriage. Think about the structure of the passage. The first thing Paul says is, as God’s chosen people. Later he says; forgive as the lord forgave you. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks -to God the Father through him. Your first love, the foundation of your life, the one that gives you hope, and joy, and confidence and assurance… the one that fills the hole at the center of your soul, must be Christ. You are to live as God’s people…as God's chosen people… People whose lives are built on and molded by the gospel; by the sacrificial, giving love that Christ showed us… Be clothed in Christ… individually, and in terms of the marriage. Make him the center…Ecclesiastes tells us, “Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken. (Ecc 4:12)”… If Christ is the center of your marriage… it will be strong…

So how do you make Christ the center? It’s all through this passage… we remind ourselves of the gospel… forgive as Christ forgave you… Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. The words of verse 16 point the way. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Get into the word, learn what it teaches. Learn what it shows you about God’s incredible love and mercy and grace. Be in worship together.  Find a church where you can plug in together and be fed on God’s word…and as you build your life on his word…it will reshape you and cause you to live for his glory together. Be clothed in Christ.

But second, in light of that… He says…put on Compassion. Literally, compassion means "a heart of pity." Compassion is an inner attitude you each have toward the other — a fullness of tender caring for and about the other’s vulnerabilities and strengths which will overflow into how you treat each other, in public & in private.

Moreover, he says, put on Kindness. On those days when you come home from a horrible day of training… and your CO was the devil himself… on those days that all you want is to be left alone… and your spouse says…honey…when that happens… and when you’re the snapped at one… show kindness, seek to their good as you deal with each others’ weaknesses and sore spots.

What else? Humility. This one’s essential. Pride will ruin a marriage faster than you can believe. Pride makes you selfish. It keeps you from owning up to your mistakes. It makes you say, I’m better than you… it makes you compete with each other… from here on out… you’re not competing with each other… your competing alongside each other… as you strive to accomplish all that God has for you together… you don’t need to say “I’m better”, I’m tougher… I’m stronger… who cares? Your working for the same ends… the glory of God through your marriage. Pride makes you strive against rather than alongside… Now, conversely, what does humility do? Humility recognizes the others equal status, recognizing that each has needs, plans, hopes, & values which are just as important as your own. It raises the other up, and values them over your own interest.

Brent… Paul nails us husbands on the chin when he lays out the level of humble love we should show. For you…this means that you are called to demonstrate the selfless humble care and sacrifice that Jesus shows toward the church in how you relate to Rebecca… And right now you may be saying, of course, she’s my wife, “just as Christ died for the church…I’d die for her. I’d do anything for her”. Great…but here’s the real question that you will face most days: are you sacrificing your comfort for her on a daily basis. Are you putting aside your wants to meet her needs on a daily basis? Or do you demand things be your way? Do you look for your wants and needs or do you seek to meet her needs and desires?  Show humble love to her… be totally committed to her wellbeing. Seek her good always. Seek to lead her to God, seek her best, even when you’re in a bad mood, or she’s being grouchy…. Rebecca, before you think, I’m off the hook, remember that you are called to demonstrate the respect, submission, and devotion the church shows toward Jesus in how you relate to Brenton…

 Rebecca, hear what I’m saying… Respect…nothing takes the wind out of a guys sails than feeling like he’s not respected in his own home…Guys are wired to want respect, show him the love and respect he needs Sub-mission- think about submission… at its root, submission is not… oppressed, but sub… below…the mission… your to be working in ways that support him and build him up… Devotion… steadfast, loyal commitment… to being by his side…. Care for him, when he’s wounded. Seek to build him up, and send him out, stronger, more equipped by your love.

Remember…in Ephesians, there’s something amazing to see there. Everything Paul tells us about marriage starts with mutual submission... he says, here is the starting point…Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. That’s a two way street… submit to one another… humility allows you to do that…it allows you to seek the others complete happiness…and here’s the thing… Have you ever noticed that in the best marriages, both partners are seeking the good of each other? Submitting their hopes and dreams and happiness to the will of the other, and finding joy in the happiness of the other. I’ve noticed this allot. I’ve noticed that when someone starts to fall for someone else, they start doing research...they learned each other’s likes and dislikes. What bothers each other, what really offends and outrages them? And you did this…But you didn’t just want to learn what really bothers each other, you learned what delights each other. You learned what Brenton really likes… the way he likes his meat cooked… the things he likes to do as he works out… and you learned what she likes…and doesn’t like… how she needs... needs that cup of coffee… You learn what really pleases each other… The big things… and the little things. And what we’re you doing?

Tracing an arc…what is this arc… the will of your beloved….and then, without being asked, you begin to conform yourself to the will of your beloved, and so, you give up some big things, and you do little things… To an outsider, it seems like your hampering your freedom. But you’re not… because you’ve put your happiness into their happiness. You’re only happy if they’re happy… and while its submission…it’s not exploitation, because the other person is doing this for you, if the other person is adjusting their life to the authority of the other, in love of the will of the beloved.  That’s a love relationship (Disclaimer-this illustration was stolen from a Keller sermon I heard awhile back).

Brenton, Rebecca, put the hopes, dreams, and desires of each other first. Invert your happiness into each other’s happiness… If you do this, if your love is active, not passive. If it’s expressive, not unemotional. If it’s full of effort...driven ultimately by the knowledge that this is what Christ did for you on the cross, you will find that your marriage is strong…

Do you both see it? Submit out of reverence…show humble love...humility…Furthermore… Paul says, clothe yourselves in Gentleness. Gentleness is the garment of self-controlled person. Badgering, Nagging, Berating, Harassing, Heckling, Hounding, Complaining, and even a lot of teasing – are not gentleness. When gentleness is absent, you both have to on a helmet of wariness & the body armor of fearfulness… your always on guard… And how can you be intimate, on any level, emotionally, spiritually or physically, with someone in armor? When you put on gentleness, the other can take off the self-defensive armor. And when that happens, trust can thrive & intimacy can reside.

This brings us to the next thing Paul says to clothe yourself and your marriage with. Patience. This one’s huge. You cannot expect perfection from each other. Each one of you is flawed, each one of you has weaknesses…you have the ability to mess up, and be stubborn, and drive each other crazy…marriage takes patience. But it also takes teamwork. Bearing one another’s burdens in love. Brent, that means helping Rebecca when she’s boiling over from over-scheduling… it means when she’s sick, and struggling from lack of sleep, you step in and pick up the slack… and for the two of you… it means intentionality as you deal with the separation of deployment… seek to meet each others emotional and spiritual needs, even from afar… and someday…when the day comes, teamwork means that both parents, parent... marriage takes the efforts of both, working for the good of the relationship, and the family.

But, that’s not the end… Paul tell us…there’s more needed. You need to be forgiving each other, as the Lord has forgiven you. There are some days, that the words that need to come out of your mouth are, I’m sorry... And when you’re the wronged one... you need to forgive. At that moment, when they say, I’m sorry, or even if they haven’t, you have one of two options. You can get your back up, you can push back, you can say, you did this, you can point and divide… or you can forgive.

But…what happens if you don’t? Or wont? It will ruin your marriage. What are the results of unforgiveness? Loss of communication…and therefore, loss of relationship. Communication is to a marriage is like fresh air to a body or oxygen to a flame - Without it your relationship will slowly suffocate. And there’s times that you’re so mad…. And you don’t want to forgive…but if you don’t it will cut the lines of communication… and that spells ruin…You need to be quick to forgive, resolve anger on the same day.  Paul, writing to the church in Ephesus, says "In your anger do not sin": Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. (4:26-27). Deal with it quickly. Even if it means 3 AM...Early in our marriage, I did something that really irritated Veronique. Now, I don’t even remember what it was. But what I remember is this. I had to finish a paper. Or something…and I came to bed in the early morning, and she was still up. She couldn’t sleep, and she didn’t let me sleep till the issue was resolved. And I’ll always remember it…now we can’t even remember what the issue was… Don’t let things fester… Deal with it them quickly.

Now, how much should we forgive? Allot. To the measure of the cross… We are to forgive, as the Lord forgave us.  These words are so crucial. This gives us a tangible understanding of what it means to forgive. Scripture makes clear… We needed forgiveness. We all rebelled. We put something on the throne of our lives, and worshiped it rather than God, and then found, oh wait, I’m enslaved by my choices… what I thought would free me, has enslaved me…

When that happened, Christ didn’t just sit in heaven and bark commands to us... At a personal cost that we can never fully understand, He laid aside His rights as God, took on human flesh and became obedient to death on the cross…He who knew no sin was made sin for us… the king of kings, the creator, was actually was made sin for us, paying the debt we could not pay…by enduring that terrible moment where God the father and the God the son had their relationship, the relationship that they had had from all eternity, torn apart…when God the father turned his back on his son as his son hung on the cross… it was infinitely painful, but he did it, so that we might receive amazing, unfathomable forgiveness…if we turn to him in faith, freeing us from the rebellion that traps us, and making his children, people who relate to him, and to each other, in a whole new way…as new forgiven people… in Christ…he died, so that in Christ we might be the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21)!

If this is your identity, if Christ is your foundation, if you build your marriage on him… if you model your forgiveness on his forgiveness…if you build your lives on him, and start with him as the center of your relationship, submitting to him, relying on him, looking to him, hoping in him, showing his forgiveness… your marriage will be strong…“The key to a marriage is simply re-enacting the gospel to each other, notes Tim Keller…You can talk about communication skills or other stuff, and they’re all good, but basically knowing how to forgive and knowing how to repent… If you both can forgive and repent, it doesn’t matter how different you are, you’ll be okay. Two Christians who are married can make it, no matter how incompatible… if you can repent and forgive".(Tim Keller, The Gospel Coalition National Conference, 2009)

This is quite a picture of forgiveness…and marriage…and yet Paul holds it up, and says “this is your model”… Forgive as the Lord forgave you…Brenton, Rebecca, forgive, in this manner.

And, over all these virtues, above all else, put one love. If compassion is marriage’s inner, garment, and if kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forbearance and forgiveness are its active-wear shirts and pants and skirts and socks, then love is the overcoat. "On top of all these things," Paul says, "put on love."  Love keeps a marriage warm. Love should cloth your marriage…Ultimately, you’ll never find a greater picture of love than the picture is found in the cross… Christ showed his love, by dying for the church….And he calls out through the pages of scripture, through the scripture that should dwell in your hearts richly, love one another…like this. Brenton, put on this love… love my sister like that, model this love…and I promise you, your marriage will go well. Love her like this, and she will trust you, respect you, honor you, cherish you, because she will know, you have her best interest at heart. May your marriage be marked by sacrificial giving love.

And… Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace… peace is more than the absence of war…biblically… peace, shalom, is a sense of blessedness. It’s the right ordering of the world. It’s the way things should be. Lets his peace that passes all understanding, that calmness, that contentment that comes from him, rule in your lives. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace… And be thankful. Be thankful in the good times, and in the bad. Be thankful that whatever you face, you have each other, and him. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Today I charge you, remember your vows, remember your promises. Remind yourself of them often, but more, remind yourself of whose you are to be, remind yourself of the gospel, and remind yourself of the garments of grace, the characteristics that should clothe your marriage.

Pastors

Joe McKeever of Crosswalk writes a blog that I read fairly regularly. This week, he had a post entitled "10 Things About Pastors You Need to Know". Here is the list. I also included some of the sections that really stood out to me. You can read the whole thing here.

10. Pastors are human and more like you than you could ever imagine.

In a panel discussion, several pastors' wives were talking about the uniqueness of their ministries. One lady, married to a well-known evangelist, said, "I tell my man, 'Don't get too uppidity for me. I have seen you without your pants on!" Some of her hearers were offended by the remark. I wasn't. I know the point she was making: He is a flawed, fallible human like the rest of us, and not some saintly somebody unacquainted with temptation and failings.

Here's a test you will benefit from: Find the journals of some "truly great" man or woman of God from a past generation, and read them. Notice the paradox: at the very time the world is acclaiming him/her for holiness and Christlikeness, they themselves are struggling with inner conflicts of one kind or the other. They appear to have a leg up on intimacy with the Lord to the rest of the world, but to themselves, they are babies in the faith barely able to walk spiritually and completely at the mercy of a benevolent God. Far from refuting their holiness, the journal affirms it. But not in the way most people expect. Friend, you do not want as a pastor someone who has never sinned, never messed up, and never known the mercies of God. If you get a preacher who is sinless, you may discover him to be harsh and mean-spirited toward the likes of you; you are a sinner in need of grace, whereas he meets God as an equal. As Paul said, I speak as a fool.

9. Pastors are called by God to this work, otherwise they never last.

...frustrations in the Lord's work abound. Almost daily, I receive a phone call or email from God's servants pouring out tales of misunderstanding, harassment, strong opposition, and even persecution. Frequently, the man of God will say to me, "If this was coming from the world, I'd expect it. But these are the Lord's people doing this. It doesn't make sense."

Pastors reading this are shaking their heads. They know. Their biggest headaches come not from the tavern owners or casino managers, not from politicians or bigshot business types, and not from drug pushers and drunks. The men and women who sit in the pews and on church committees and boards tend to be the source of most headaches and heartbreaks of pastors. Only one called by God and who knows he serves the Living God, only he will last. And some of them, honesty forces me to admit sadly, don't make it.

8. Pastors are the point men for whatever is taking place in the church.

They receive the blame, they get the credit. Their phone number is on speed dial for most leaders of the church, particularly the ones with a gripe...Once in a while, as happened last week, a pastor will tell me his church is a dream job, that his people are wonderful, and that this is everything he ever hoped for in a congregation. I rejoice with him. In my spirit, I think, "But wait till you start making changes."

7. Pastors live in a world of unfinished tasks.

6. Pastors learn to function with people angry at them or they do not survive in ministry.

I have walked to the pulpit to deliver a sermon the Sunday after nearly half my deacons tried to get me fired.

I have stood there preaching while leaders met in the foyer to figure how to send me on my way. I have preached the gospel of Jesus Christ to people sitting with arms folded across their chests and facial scowls signaling they wanted no part of anything I had to share.

And I did it well. In fact, I venture to say my preaching on those occasions was better than normal. There's something exalting about knowing you are serving the Lord Jesus Christ and it's actually costing you something. We in this land have it so easy. Most of our people are so sweet and supportive. It can do us good to experience what Paul called "the fellowship of Christ's sufferings" (Philippians 3:10).

5. Pastors are not sent to make the church happy.

I submit that the typical pew-dweller thinks that since our congregations vote on whether to call ("hire") a man as pastor, and since his continued employment is always conditional upon the support of the membership, his number one goal should be to make the people happy.

Big mistake. A common one, to be sure.

To be sure, there are preachers who live by that dictate, that they will always have job security if they placate all disgruntled members and never do anything to rock the boat. They are a blight on the ministry and make things worse for the faithful. The Lord's servant is not sent to make the congregation happy. You will not find one single verse or even part of one saying otherwise. Instead, he is sent to make the people holy and healthy.

Yesterday, as I write, the endodontist up the street performed a root canal on one of my molars. I sat in his chair for 90 minutes, completely uncomfortable the entire time. At the end, my jaw numb, I handed his receptionist my debit card and watched as she withdrew from my checking account over a thousand dollars. This professional man and his staff are not there to make me happy. If they were, they'd be giving me the money instead of taking it from me. Instead, they exist to make me healthy. If your pastor does not make people unhappy from time to time--if he does not push and probe and provoke you, if he does not disturb and unsettle you occasionally--he is not being obedient to the One who sent him.

4. Pastors are sent to make the Lord happy.

The Person, the Living God who sent Him. "To his own master he stands or falls" (Romans 14:4). Paul said, "Do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ" (Galatians 1:10).

Our single prayer ought to be the one Paul offered up just outside Damascus when he first encountered the Living Christ: "What will you have me to do?" (Acts 22:10) Now, common sense says that when we please the Lord, the people around us who love the Lord and want His will above all else will likewise rejoice. But we must not confuse the two and think the pleasure of the people is the barometer of anything.

3. Pastors tend to be loners; they shouldn't be.

2. Pastors are as varied as the sands on the shore. No two are alike.

1. Pastors live by prayer the way the earth depends on sunlight, the grass counts on the rain, the baby needs its mother.

Even the great apostle said, "Pray for me" (Romans 15:30-32; Ephesians 6:18-19; Colossians 4:2-3; I Thessalonians 5:25; Philemon 22. See also Hebrews 13:18.)

If Paul needed prayer, and he did, how much more you and I require that God's people intercede for us. So, why is it then, preacher, that we almost apologetically ask our people to pray for us? Remember this line and teach it to your people: "Poor preaching is God's judgment on a prayerless congregation."

Read the whole thing here. Interact with his article. which things grabbed your attention? Why?