A Minister's Regrets

I was introduced to Geoff Thomas some years back at the Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary Conference that I attend each August. Thomas is a Welsh pastor who has served the congregation of Alfred Place Baptist Church for over fifty years.

The other day a friend shared with me a post that Thomas wrote in 2011 for Banner of Truth. In it, he drew from his considerable experience and shared what his greatest regrets have been in his half-century as a minister. He listed eight in all, and they were all convicting for this minister.

That said, the last one stood out above the rest. What a passionate, familiar, heart-felt expression of both regret and glorious gospel truth there is in these words:

I am sorry that my love for Jesus Christ is cool and shallow. ‘Weak is the effort of my heart and cold my warmest thought.’ It was true for Newton and it is true for us today. Sometimes I think, ‘Do I love him at all?’ Where is the affection, the glow, the delight and anticipation of meeting with him? M’Cheyne wrote in his diary, ‘Rose early to meet him whom my soul loves. Who would not rise early to meet such company?’ I wish that that reflected my own heart’s longing for the Saviour. I wish I could give myself to him anew each Sunday, thinking, ‘I am going to go where the Lord Jesus is.’ When I have nothing else to think about I wish my mind naturally gravitated to him. Here is someone who laid down his life for me. This is the one who delivered me from hell. Behold my Saviour who is taking me to glory for ever. Here is my beloved and here is my friend who is working all things together for my good. This dear Lord of mine is going to do an eternal makeover on my whole life. The Lord Jesus is my personal teacher and personal trainer and personal counsellor and personal bodyguard. He can protect me from the biggest devil in hell. Christ is so fascinating a personality, wise, caring, fresh, creative, stimulating, patient and so kind to me. It is my chief complaint, that my love is weak and faint. I who encourage others to love him am amazed that I can love him so little, but what is more amazing is the fact that I love him at all.

Jesus Outside the Lines

After much anticipation on my part, my copy (finally!) arrived. I can't wait to dig into this new book by my friend and former pastor, Scott Sauls.

Jesus Outside the Lines: A Way Forward for Those Who Are Tired of Taking Sides is advertised as being for those who are "weary of us against them," instead showing how "Jesus offers us a way forward-- away from harshness, caricatures, and stereotypes." Sounds like a book that Scott would be the perfect guy to write, and it sounds awfully good to me!

If it sounds good to you too, join me in checking out it out. Watch the video below and pick up your copy while they're still in stock so you don't have to wait like I did! Endorsements, a sample chapter, and study materials that go along with the book are also available here.

 

Jesus on Every Page

I am very much looking forward to reading Jesus on Every Page by David Murray. Sinclair Ferguson offers the following endorsement: "With deceptive ease Dr. David Murray brings his readers on to the Road to Emmaus for a few hours of conversation about Jesus and the Old Testament. With an enviable grace and simplicity he teaches us how to read the Old Testament as Christians."

And if you buy the book this month, Dr. Murray is offering a bundle of great resources along with it for free.

If you're still not sold, check out the video trailer below:

That's My King!

Friday I posted a clip from S.M. Lockridge entitled, It's Friday...But Sunday's Coming. Now that Easter Sunday is here, as we celebrate the resurrection of our King, it seemed appropriate to share another clip from Lockridge entitled, That's My King!

Happy Easter!

A Quick Thought About Righteous Anger

In Luke 19:45-48, we read of what is probably the paradigmatic example of righteous anger: Jesus driving the money changers out of the temple. In this passage, we often find for ourselves a pass to experience and express anger. After all, if Jesus did it, it can’t be wrong.

We ought to be very careful about such a line of thinking though. First of all, His anger was ignited not because He had been offended, but because His Father had. My otherwise righteous anger is far too often intertwined with my own self-interest. I am not just angry that a Holy God was sinned against; I am angry that I was sinned against. And even if I try my hardest, it is impossible for me to untangle these strands.

This leads me to a second point: There is indeed a lesson for us to be learned from this passage, where we read of the cleansing of the temple. I believe it is quite informative to consider verses 45-48 in light of verses 41-44. In those immediately preceding verses, we read the following:

And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.” 

It seems that before Jesus was angry at sin, he was grieved by it. And the same should be true of us. Make no mistake, there is a place for righteous anger. But for every ounce of righteous anger we express, let us first experience 100 pounds of humble sorrow. And for every time our blood boils, let us be sure our tears have first fallen.

Who is this Jesus?

Who is this Jesus whose birth we celebrate? He is the King! But he is no ordinary king.

I've shared this video of So Long Moses before. It's from Andrew Peterson's Behold the Lamb of God, and I think it does an amazing job of capturing how we are often looking for the wrong things in Christ. May it serve as a corrective to my heart and yours this Christmas, as we celebrate the birth of our King!

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom...Luther on the Accusations of Satan

"So when the devil throws your sins in your face and declares that you deserve death and hell, tell him this: 'I admit that I deserve death and hell, what of it? For I know One who suffered and made satisfaction on my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, Son of God, and where He is there I shall be also!'"

Martin Luther

Kings, Servants and the Yokes that Bind Them Together

In 1 Kings 12 we read about Rehoboam, who became king after his father Solomon died. When he ascended to the throne, the people came to him with a request.

“Your father made our yoke heavy. Now therefore lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke on us, and we will serve you.” (1 Kings 12:4)

Rehoboam realized that his fledgling kingship stood in the balance and knew that this was a moment that  would truly define his reign. He told them that he would answer their request in three days, and then wisely sought out the advice of the older men who had advised his father.

And they said to him, “If you will be a servant to this people today and serve them, and speak good words to them when you answer them, then they will be your servants forever.” (1 Kings 12:7)

Instead of acting on this advice though, Rehoboam also sought out the counsel of another group, and they advised him quite differently.

And the young men who had grown up with him said to him, “Thus shall you speak to this people who said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you lighten it for us,’ thus shall you say to them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father's thighs. And now, whereas my father laid on you a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.’”(1 Kings 12:10-11)

Rehoboam unwisely heeded this advice and as a result, the people rebelled and his kingdom was divided.
I suppose that a whole series of sermons could be preached from this passage and there are many applications that we could take from it.

This morning though, as I read about Rehoboam, the descendent of David and Solomon, I could not help but think of another King who like him, was also a descendent of David and Solomon. One who understood what it meant to have and exercise power. One who knew what it meant to be served by others. Even so, this King instructed his followers,

It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:26-28)

And to all those who longed for relief from the heavy yoke under which they were bound, he proclaimed,

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

May we always remember that he who had ALL power chose to become a servant, even to the point of dying on our behalf. And this he did in order that we might be freed from the burdensome yoke of sin and death. In response, may we be bound to him by his easy yoke, may we serve one another in his name, and may we be his servants forever!

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom...Bayer on Who We Perceive Jesus to Be

"Reviewing popular perspectives on Jesus is as important for us as it was for the first disciples. Who do we perceive as the Master to be? Do we domesticate Jesus merely as the 'Lord of the church,' the 'Lord of my personal prayers,' or the 'Lord of my family'? Or do we bow before him as the Lord of the universe, the Lord over political rulers and business leaders, the Lord over creation and his church, the Lord to whom we are to submit rather than merely asking him to bless what we do?"

Hans Bayer
A Theology of Mark:The Dynamic between Christology and Authentic Discipleship

(HT: Justin Sembler)

A Word for Preachers...Keller on Christ-like Preaching

"Jesus’s teaching consistently attracted the irreligious while offending the Bible-believing, religious people of his day. However, in the main, our churches today do not have this effect. The kind of outsiders Jesus attracted are not attracted to contemporary churches, even our most avant-garde ones. We tend to draw conservative, buttoned-down, moralistic people. The licentious and liberated or the broken and marginal avoid church. That can only mean one thing. If the preaching of our ministers and the practice of our parishioners do not have the same effect on people that Jesus had, then we must not be declaring the same message that Jesus did."

Tim Keller  
The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith

It's Not About Me!

As I’ve been studying the Scriptures lately, one of the themes I have seen cropping up time and again is the fact that life doesn’t revolve around me. Far too often, my first reaction to things is to ask, “How does this impact me?” And while it is a perfectly good (even necessary!) practice to look for ways to apply the Bible to our own lives, I would argue that we need to go much further than that in our application of God’s word.

Let me show you what I mean. Consider 1 Timothy 1:15-17…

15 The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. 16 But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. 17 To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

In verse 15, we see Paul urging Timothy to maintain humility, realizing that he has received mercy instead of what he deserved. To remember this truth on its own would be good, but it is altogether insufficient to simply end there. Verse 16 goes on to explain that this mercy was not intended to terminate on him, but was to be an example to others so that they might trust in Christ as well, and similarly experience his mercy. At this point, it might be tempting for us to think that this is where Paul is going with what he is saying, but then verse 17 reminds us that it’s not even those other believers who are, in the end, the focus of God’s work. What is most important is that all honor and glory would forever be God’s alone.

Last Sunday I preached from Mark 6:45-52, which (falling right on the heals of Jesus feeding over 5000 from just five loaves and two fish) tells the story of Jesus walking on water. As Jesus climbs into the boat, Mark informs us that the disciples were utterly astounded, “for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened” (v. 52). The reason they were astounded was not ultimately that Jesus had walked across the water nor that he had silenced the wind and the waves. As amazing as these things were, Mark suggests that if they had “understood about the loaves,” they would not have been so astounded at what Jesus had done.

The problem is that they (like the crowds) thought that what Jesus was doing in feeding the 5000+ was merely filling empty stomachs. Yet again though, Jesus intended for the glory of God to be made manifest. What he had actually done was display that the laws of nature do not govern him, but rather he governs them; he was showing them that he is God!

God is constantly at work meeting our needs. He does so with such frequency that quite often we don’t even notice it. When we do notice it though, let us remember that this is not all that he is doing. He is yet again drawing our attention to the fact “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:10-11).

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom...Pink on Looking to Jesus

"Man became a lost sinner by a look, for the first thing recorded of Eve in connection with the fall of our first parents is that 'The woman saw that the tree was good for food' (Gen. 3:6). In like manner, the lost sinner is saved by a look. The Christian life begins by looking: 'Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else' (Isa. 45:22). The Christian life continues by looking: 'let us run with patience the race which is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of faith' (Heb. 12:2). And at the end of the Christian life we are still to be looking for Christ: 'For our conversation (citizenship_ is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ' (Phil. 3:20). From first to last, the one thing required is looking at God's Son."

A.W. Pink
Exposition of the Gospel of John

Love Jesus More Than Your Theology

I recently entered the "Twittersphere."  By the way, if you'd like to follow me, you can click here. What I have found on Twitter is that I have been blessed by the many edifying tweets I read on a daily basis.  This morning one such tweet that came from Anthony Bradley read, "The idolatry of precision & certainty tempts Calvinists to assume they have no blindspots."

This led to a discussion with my senior pastor, Hal Polk, in which he made comment that I found quite helpful.  The essence of it was that we always need to remember that though their theological constructs might not be as good as ours, many Arminians are far better Christians than we are.

Certainly, my prayer is that I might always strive to know truth and to know it truly.  But may I always love Jesus far more than my theology.

Did Jesus Ever Get the Flu?

This is the season of joy and laughter and celebration, but for many it is also flu season.  Over at his blog today, Russell Moore considers the question of whether Jesus ever got the flu.  He concludes that he must have, as the very point of the incarnation is that Jesus became just like us.

It just doesn’t seem right to us to imagine Jesus feverish or vomiting. But that’s precisely the scandal. It didn’t seem right to many to imagine Jesus as really flesh and bone, filled with blood and intestines and urine. Somehow that seemed to detract from his deity. It surely didn’t seem right to many to imagine the only begotten of the Father twisting in pain on a crucifixion stake, screaming as he drowned in his own blood. This was humiliating, undignified. That’s just the point. Jesus joined us in our humiliation, in our indignity.

I hope you don’t get a stomach virus this year, or the flu or the fever or a cold. But, if you do, I hope you remember, just for a minute, in your discomfort that Jesus has passed through everything you’ll ever face. He might have been racked with nausea or chills or aches, just as you are. And then he faced far, far worse.

But, as you lie there, remember the gospel of incarnation and substitution, a gospel that comes, as the old song says, to make his blessings known “far as the curse is found.”

I encourage you to read his whole post here.