Pastors suffer? // Needing Jesus // Your Sole Story Writer

Here's an outstanding panel discussion on handling suffering in the ministry.
Highlights:
13:00 - Ray Ortlund, Jr. on the Spirit helping us in our weakness
28:00 - Thick skin, soft heart...
34:00 - "The Lord is so faithful to straighten things out if we give Him time."
34:30 - Be okay with being misunderstood
40:00 - On 2 Timothy 2:24-26 - People don't get persuaded by contentious arguing.
Edwards: "The longer I live the more I respect gentleness."
Spurgeon: "Use hard arguments and soft words."
  Our public discourse today has soft arguments and hard words!


Augustine: "There is not one soul in the human family to whose salvation the one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, is not absolutely necessary" (Letters, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers 1, vol. 1, pg. 525).
Or as my wife might say, "All y'all need Jesus."


Paul Tripp, on God's sovereign writing of your story.  There are no competing script-writers of your life - it is ALL in His hands, so trust Him.

Covenant // Shopping // Glad Worship

What is a covenant in the Bible?
Third Millenium offers an excellent 90 second answer in this video.


2nd Vote tells me that Bath and Body Works, Amazon, Walmart, and Home Depot all use their profits to advocate for abortion, homosexuality, and other left-wing causes.  Pretty sure Target is on that list, too.  I'll save discussion of this conscience issue for another time.


On serving the Lord with gladness:
"The thing that [worship] must never be is sullen, or surly or sulky - that's what it never is.  Who needs that kind of worship?... The Lord does not want us coming into His courts as though a long face were some kind of moral disinfectant."
Douglas Wilson, sermon on Psalm 100, Nov 26, 2018,

Giving to the Poor // Psalms as Prayer // Out of wedlock birth rate

How and when should we help the poor and needy? 

Kevin DeYoung gives a helpful answer.

Does your prayer life need renewing?

Don Whitney explains how to "pray the text," something I strongly encourage you to try.


"According to the 1938 Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences, that year 11 percent of black children and 3 percent of white children were born to unwed mothers.  Today it's respectively 75 percent and 30 percent."
Walter Williams, African-American commentator, in Samaritan Ministries' August 2018 newsletter, pg 10.

Augustine quotes

I've come to the letters of Augustine in the Post-Nicene Fathers series.
Here are some favorite passages so far.


On conscience:
"There is nothing in all the dungeons of this world, nay, not even in hell itself, to surpass the dreadful doom of darkness to which a villain is consigned by remorse of conscience."  (pg 508)


On disagreeing with famous teachers:
"The reasonings of any men whatsoever, even though they be Catholics [orthodox in doctrine], and of high reputation, are not to be treated by us in the same way as the canonical Scriptures are treated.  We are at liberty, without doing any violence to the respect which these men deserve, to condemn and reject anything in their writings, if perchance we shall find that they have entertained opinions differing from that which others or we ourselves have, by the divine help, discovered to be the truth.  I deal thus with the writings of others, and I wish my intelligent readers to deal thus with mine."  He later mentions Ambrose, Jerome, Athansius and Gregory are examples he is talking about. (502)


Forced obedience isn't obedience:
"Who is found innocent in God's sight who is willing to do the sin which is forbidden if you only remove the punishment which is feared?... 
He then is an enemy to righteousness who refrains from sin only through fear of punishment....
Every one hates sin just in proportion as he loves righteousness; which he will be enabled to do not through the law putting him in fear by the letter of its prohibitions, but by the Spirit healing him by grace...
Let not the fear of punishment drive you to a life of righteousness; but let the pleasure found in righteousness and the love you bear to it draw you to practise it...." (496)


From the First Series, vol. 1

Preach to People // Lust // To a Church Losing Her Pastor

When preaching, study your people as well as the text.  Great short article.


Toby Sumpter has a unique take on lust as nothingness.


9 Marks offers important reminders for a church losing her pastor.

Quotes on Scripture and Joy

On Scripture - Augustine's letters
"Such is the depth of the Christian Scriptures, that even if I were attempting to study them and nothing else from early boyhood to decrepit old age, with the utmost leisure, the most unwearied zeal, and talents greater than I have, I would be still daily making progress in discovering their treasures."
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 1, page 474.


On Joy and Gratitude
"We don't get to pick what comes our way, but we do get to choose how we respond....  If you choose joy, there is literally no room for worry in your brain.  You've kicked it out!  So how do you choose joy?  By giving thanks.  By remembering all the good things that have happened, including the good things that have come out of the hard things.

"Cynicism will tempt you to think, 'That's shallow and fluffy.  I'm a realist, and life is hard.'

"Don't go there, okay?  Cynicism turns people into miserable curmudgeons.  Gratitude lifts our spirits and makes us a joy to be around.  It's contagious.  Plus, it's commanded in Scripture:

" 'Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.' (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)."

Susanne Maynes, Biblical counselor, quoted in Samaritan Ministries' Nov 2018 newsletter

Fallen Babylon

I'm preaching from Revelation 14 tomorrow on God's sovereignty.
Verse 8: "Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication."

Here are the words to the song in the video.

Hail the day so long expected,

Hail the year of full release.

Zion’s walls are now erected,

And her watchmen publish peace.

Through our Shiloh’s wide dominion,

Hear the trumpet loudly roar,

Babylon is fallen to rise no more.

Blow the trumpet in Mount Zion,

Christ shall come a second time;

Ruling with a rod of iron

All who now as foes combine.

Babel’s garments we’ve rejected,

And our fellowship is o’er,

Babylon is fallen to rise no more.

Destructive Culture War // Accepted apart from Obedience // Content in the Breaking

David Bahnsen mulls over how the culture war has changed after Kavanaugh.


Paul Tripp reminds us that being accepted by God and striving to obey Him are two very different things.


Toby Sumpter preaches an excellent sermon on contentment in the God who breaks and reshapes you.  It gets going at the 15 or 17 minute mark.

Lost in the Middle

Lost in the Middle: Mid-Life Crisis and the Grace of God by Paul David Tripp

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Paul Tripp is consistently on the mark in diagnosing the sinful condition of the heart, whatever stage of life or topic he addresses. Lost in the Middle does not disappoint. Tripp accurately describes the mid-life problem: a heart fixed on idols that have disappointed you leaves you dissatisfied with and disinterested in life if you don’t re-orient your heart away from the things you crave on earth and back to the Lord. We start excavating our past and are disappointed to find the career or relationship or identity we invested ourselves in for years has not satisfied as we had hoped.

Tripp takes a long time to say it, though. This is the only downside to the book. The stories are often useful for the reader to identify himself as “lost in the middle.” So I don’t begrudge the use or amount of stories. It’s an inherent part of the problem to not realize what is happening to you – that you are lost. So stories of real people suffering a mid-life crisis really help. But the book could have been much shorter and still gotten the point across, it seems. Still, the content of Tripp’s books involved necessary soul searching, which in turn requires slowing down and a meditative, ambling mood. So going over a theme a few times doesn’t hurt. “To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you” (Philippians 3:1).

Highly recommended reading for anyone aged about 35-45.
I give this book a rare 5 stars, because it was immensely helpful to me, personally.



View all my reviews

Trouble sleeping? // Re-Orienting Prayer // Trump

Paul Tripp takes a common symptom of deeper trouble - insomnia - and goes deeper toward repentance and faith in the Lord.

Ben Merkle gave a great talk on prayer a bit ago to a post-college audience.  This is well worth the time to listen.


Doug Wilson distinguishes between the PR on Trump and what he is actually getting done, all while many on the right cry about it.

Savoring Scripture // Tell God's Story

I've been listening to the Kirker's Read podcast, connected to this Bible reading challenge.

Two episodes really grabbed me:

1. Francis Foucachon, a French church planter and chef, talks about reading the Bible in the context of cooking and eating.

2. Nate Wilson urges us to know God's story in the Bible so you can place yourself in it rightly.  This leads to faith, self-sacrifice, courage, rejecting passive fatherhood, manipulative relationships, etc.

Too Much for You

1 Kings 19:1-8

And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, also how he had executed all the prophets with the sword. 2 Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time.” 3 And when he saw that, he arose and ran for his life, and went to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.

4 But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he prayed that he might die, and said, “It is enough! Now, LORD, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers!”

5 Then as he lay and slept under a broom tree, suddenly an angel touched him, and said to him, “Arise and eat.” 6 Then he looked, and there by his head was a cake baked on coals, and a jar of water. So he ate and drank, and lay down again. 7 And the angel of the LORD came back the second time, and touched him, and said, “Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you.” 8 So he arose, and ate and drank; and he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights as far as Horeb, the mountain of God.

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God sets this table of grace for us in the presence of our enemies.  Elijah had Jezebel to contend with.  We have plenty adversaries in the world, our flesh, and the devil to discourage us.  Elijah was discouraged to the point of asking God to take His life.  The journey is too much for you, the angel tells him.  God has designed our path such that we will need to rely on Him.  He teaches us plenty of lessons of working hard and self-discipline in life.  But He doesn’t want you learning to rely on those things to make it.  He gives us food and drink from Him, and we will die without it.  Jesus is the living bread come down from heaven to us.  He is living water – without Him you will die.  Come receive Jesus.  Let God feed you Jesus.  And go in the strength of that food further on your way, and to the mountain of God.

9/30/18

Give It Up

Exodus 32:1-8 - the Golden Calf

Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make us gods that shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”

2 And Aaron said to them, “Break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” 3 So all the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. 4 And he received the gold from their hand, and he fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made a molded calf.

Then they said, “This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!”

5 So when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow is a feast to the LORD.” 6 Then they rose early on the next day, offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.

7 And the LORD said to Moses, “Go, get down! For your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. 8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molded calf, and worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!’ ”

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It’s been said, when you have gov’t of the people, by the people and for the people, it can be hard to avoid having religion, of the people, by the people, for the people.  This is what Aaron dealt with and caved in to, in making a golden calf.  They didn’t want to wait for Moses any longer.  They wanted a god they could see and touch and use to indulge their sensual appetites.  When it says they rose up to play in verse 7, that isn’t innocent playground time, it means messing around sexually.

Aaron gave them what they wanted and slapped God’s name on the whole blasphemous charade.

We need to confess: we try to keep our sinful desires and indulge them, all while wanting to worship God and name His name.  We don’t fight back against our desires for other gods – we give in and try to have it both ways.  On Mount Carmel, Elijah told Israel: “How long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.”  And do you remember what the people said?  Nothing. 

I plead with you today, from the Word of God, give up your sin.  It will keep you from God.

Let us confess our sins to God.

9/30/18

Bitterness // Church Turf Wars // God's Goal in Your Suffering

Nancy Guthrie has an excellent article on bitterness in an old Tabletalk magazine.


Pursuing greater influence among leadership in the church isn't necessarily a bad thing.  Doing it by way of gossip and flattery among elders definitely is.  Check out St. Anne's Pub for some edifying conversation on this topic.  The interviews are especially good, and the "Elder Gossip" track at the end.


A video from Paul Tripp about his recent suffering, and what God was doing in it.  It's a little overly dramatic cinematography, perhaps, but what he is saying is so good.  "If this is what it takes for God to produce that in me [really relying on His grace], then this has been worth it."  I'd also commend Calvin's Institutes, book 3, chapter 8, "Bearing the Cross," on this topic.

Seminary // Preaching // Counseling

Crossway has a great article up about seminary: what it is designed for, and what it isn't meant to achieve.


Paul Tripp writes for preachers to pursue excellence out of an awe of God.  This can easily apply to any vocation.


Ed Welch offers up 5 short myths that Christians and pastors should stop believing about counseling.