Monthly Archives: December 2013

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Planning to Read Deeply

Pastors and Reading

When asked about what Christians should be reading, Charles Spurgeon once replied:

As the apostle says to Timothy, so also he says to every-one, ‘Give yourself to reading.’ . . . He who will not use the thoughts of other men’s brains proves that he has no brains of his own . . . You need to read. Renounce as much as you will all light literature, but study as much as possible sound theological works, especially the Puritanic writers, and expositions of the Bible . . . the best way for you to spend your leisure is to be either reading or praying.

Pastors would do well to heed the Prince and read wisely, purposefully, widely, and deeply. Much can be said about each of those four adverbs, but my purpose in this post is to deal with the last: reading deeply.

Light reading is like dessert; it should be regularly enjoyed, but with the knowledge that it can’t sustain. Steer your soul’s course then toward deep reading of Scripture and deep reading of our faith’s weighty tomes: Calvin, Owen, and Bavinck.1 Few pastors will naturally gravitate toward these works, so it will take discipline and planning to reap the awaiting harvest.

But, I promise, should you have patience, the harvest will come quite easily.

A couple years ago I noticed that I would often start an old classic, only to flame out a few weeks in. I suspect that many pastors are like me in this regard. I so desperately wanted to open up the Institutes and read it cover to cover, but try as I might, it never happened. After some reflection I realized my inability to close with Calvin was because my view was too short-sighted. In other words, I opened him up at each sitting with little more on my mind than to read as many pages as possible, as quickly as possible. Such an approach is a recipe for discouragement and dropping out.

A better approach, I soon discovered, was to say, “How many pages would I need to read each day in order to finish the Institutes in one calendar year?” To my surprise, I only need to read four pages per day! I could do that . . . and I bet you could too.

READING DEEPLY IN 2014

We stand on the precipice of a new year, a few weeks away from when the resolutions will abound. Why not set a goal to read a few of the old, deep volumes in 2014? Looking around my study, here would be a few examples:

  • John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion (2 volumes) – 4 pages per day
  • Works of Jonathan Edwards (2 volumes, Banner edition) – 5 pages per day
  • Herman Bavinck’s Reformed Dogmatics (4 volumes) – 7 pages per day
  • Wilhelmus a Brackel’s The Christian’s Reasonable Service (4 volumes) – 7 pages per day
  • Works of John Flavel (6 volumes) – 10 pages per day

Just for grins, let’s throw in the good perspectivalist . . .

  • John Frame’s A Theology of Lordship (4 volumes) – 6.5 pages per day2

But, I know, each of these works can hit the bank account pretty hard. Why not consider some of the more substantial one volume works?

  • William Gurnall’s The Christian in Complete Armour (Banner edition) – 3 pages
  • Volume 6 of John Owen’s Collected Works (contains his famous works on sanctification) – 2 pages
  • Isaac Ambrose’s Looking Unto Jesus – 2 pages per day
  • The Letters of Samuel Rutherford – 2 pages per day
  • Louis Berkhof’s Systematic Theology – 2.5 pages per day
  • Beeke and Jones’ A Puritan Theology – 3 pages per day

If you are patient and disciplined, you can climb up theological summits in less than a year. So dive on end to the deep end, it will satisfy your soul in surprising ways. Tolle lege!

  1. I am reminded of Mark Dever’s statement, “The only palliative is to keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds, and this can be done only by reading old books.” ↩
  2. This doesn’t include the hundreds of pages of appendices. Be forewarned, should you attempt the conquer the good perspectivalist, you will be seeing triads everywhere by this time next year. ↩
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The King of Vengeance & Victory

Vengeance and Victory

The book of Haggai ends with a truth that is not only found in Haggai, but virtually every prophet in our sacred Scripture, and it’s this: The King of kings will come in vengeance and victory.1

Haggai 2:20-23 reads,

20 The word of the Lord came a second time to Haggai on the twenty-fourth day of the month, 21 “Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I am about to shake the heavens and the earth, 22 and to overthrow the throne of kingdoms. I am about to destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations, and overthrow the chariots and their riders. And the horses and their riders shall go down, every one by the sword of his brother. 23 On that day, declares the Lord of hosts, I will take you, O Zerubbabel my servant, the son of Shealtiel, declares the Lord, and make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you, declares the Lord of hosts.”

The prophet of old says a day is coming that will be marked by two things: 1) the shaking of kingdoms (2:21-22), and 2)  the setting of a king (2:23). The shaking of kingdoms is a promise of terrifying judgment. The setting of a king is a promise of comforting victory. Let me take these two realities in turn and squeeze out application from them.

First, the King of kings’ coming vengeance is terrifying. God uses words like shake, overthrow, and destroy to describe what this day will look like. His judgment of every kingdom that stands against His own is a terrifying judgment. Now, I realize that the terrifying judgment of God is not something that our culture wants to hear. But it is something that God wants us to hear. It is something that God may even want some of your friends or family members to hear.

Danish theologican Søren Kierkegaard once provided an answer to the question, “What happens to those who try to warn the present age?” He answered with a parable. On the opening night of a comedy production a fire breaks out backstage. A clown realized the danger and pushed through the curtains to alert the audience. They applauded. The clown repeated his warning more urgently. By now he was center stage, flailing his arms, his eyes wide in panic. The crowd went wild; whistles, cheers, and raucous laughter. Never had they seen such a routine! Kierkegaard’s point was that the human race thinks the warning of God’s judgment is just another happy joke.

Although some might consider me a clown, the judgment of God – revealed in Haggai 2 – is no happy joke. To what kingdom are you dedicating your life? If your days are devoted to the kingdoms of this world – power, pleasure, and prestige – you can be assured from Haggai 2 that God will overthrow them and judge you in the process. He will not suffer competition from another king or another kingdom. If you’re not a Christian, whether you realize it or not, you are going about your days building your own little kingdom and ruling as your own little king. You stand against God as a rival, and He will tolerate no rivals. There is a time coming where He will overthrow such rivals, but that time is not yet. His mercy and patience call out to you tonight to surrender your kingdom of sin, to understand that Jesus Christ, the King of Kings, took the punishment and wrath of God due to you for your little kingdom building experiment. The loving justice of God crucified His Son so that through faith in this King, you would be brought into God’s kingdom and know a joy and peace that cannot be described with words.  Which leads us then to our second reality.

Second, the King of kings’ coming victory is comforting. Zerubbabel represents a discouraged and despairing people. Neighboring nations pressed down on Judah, revolutions in government marked the known word, the few and feeble Jews wondered if they would be safe. How does God bring comfort? From His promise that a king is coming. Maybe you are suffering from pain or suffering that few people can understand. Maybe the enemies of sin and Satan press down on you so powerfully that obedience and faithfulness is so hard to grasp. Maybe the future is so bleak that you find little reason to hope in the days ahead. Through Haggai, God is calling you and calling us to see the comfort found in the coming of Jesus Christ, the King of kings. Calvin said, “We must remember this principle, that from the time when Christ once appeared, there is nothing left for the faithful, but with suspended minds ever to look forward to his second coming.” Lift up your head and look to when the King will come and bring everlasting comfort.

2,500 years ago, in the far reaches of the Persian Empire, God’s people lived in despair while the temple lay in ruins. So God raised up a mysterious man named Haggai to proclaim His word to His people. He called them to prioritize His presence in their lives by rebuilding the temple, be encouraged that His presence fuels covenant faithfulness, and remember that God fulfills His promises to a holy generation. And the under-girding reality behind all the commands, the stirring up, the encouragement and promises is the fact that our God reigns as sovereign over His people. In His sovereign plan he has decreed that a king is coming in vengeance and victory.

So, as God’s people, we join the old song with renewed expectancy and sing, “And Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight, The clouds be rolled back as a scroll, The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend; ‘Even so’—it is well with my soul.”

  1. This post is adapted from my sermon, “Restored by a King,” on Haggai 2:20-23. ↩
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10 Consolations for the Downcast Pastor

Pastor is Downcast

I love Charles Haddon Spurgeon. My soul resonates with the Prince of Preachers in unique ways when compared to other great men of old. One of these ways is in his battle with fits of melancholy.

The melancholy of depression first struck when Spurgeon was twenty four years old and he later wrote, “My spirits were sunken so low that I could weep by the hour like a child, and yet I knew not what I wept for.” The “causeless depression” was no random nuisance, for it proceeded to plague him for the rest of his life. And so it is out of special experience that he delivered a famous lecture entitled, “The Minister’s Fainting Fits.” Spurgeon introduced his topic by remarking how the causeless melancholy is almost universal in pastoral ministry. He says,

As it is recorded that David, in the heat of battle, waxed faint, so may it be written of all the servants of the Lord. Fits of depression come over the most of us. Usually cheerful as we may be, we must at intervals be cast down. The strong are not always vigorous, the wise not always ready, the brave not always courageous, and the joyous not always happy . . . It is not necessary by quotations from the biographies of eminent ministers to prove that seasons of fearful prostration have fallen to the lot of most, if not all of them.

And so he offers “consolatory” thoughts, in order “that younger men might not fancy that some strange thing had happened to them when they became for a season possessed by melancholy; and that sadder men might know that one upon whom the sun has shone right joyously did not always walk in the light.” His consolations have encouraged me on many a hard day or night in ministry. And so, in hopes they might encourage many young pastors fighting through a state of sadness, here are 10 of the choicest consolations from “The Minister’s Fainting Fits.”

10 Consolations for the Downcast Pastor

  1. “There maybe here and there men of iron, to whom wear and tear work no perceptible detriment, but surely the rust frets even these; and as for ordinary men, the Lord knows, and makes them to know, that they are but dust.”
  2. “Even under the economy of redemption it is most clear that we are to endure infirmities, otherwise there were no need of the promised Spirit to help us in them. It is of need be that we are sometimes in heaviness. Good men are promised tribulation in this world, and ministers may expect a larger share than others, that they may learn sympathy with the Lord’s suffering people, and so may be fitting shepherds of an ailing flock.”
  3. “How often, on Lord’s-day evenings, do we feel as if life were completely washed out of us! After pouring out our souls over our congregations, we feel like empty earthen pitchers which a child might break. Probably, if we were more like Paul, and watched for souls at a nobler rate, we should know more of what it is to be eaten up by the zeal of the Lord’s house. It is our duty and our privilege to exhaust our lives for Jesus.”
  4. “Our Sabbaths are our days of toil, and if we do not rest upon some other day we shall break down . . . Rest time is not waste time. It is economy to gather fresh strength.”
  5. “Causeless depression is not to he reasoned with, nor can David’s harp charm it away by sweet discoursings. As well fight with the mist as with this shapeless, undefinable, yet all-beclouding hopelessness.”
  6. “By all the castings down of his servants God is glorified, for they are led to magnify him when again he sets them on their feet, and even while prostrate in the dust their faith yields him praise. They speak all time more sweetly of his faithfulness, and are the more firmly established in his love.”
  7. “Glory be to God for the furnace, the hammer, and the file. Heaven shall be all the fuller of bliss because we have been filled with anguish here below, and earth shall be better tilled because of our training in the school of adversity.”
  8. “The lesson of wisdom is, be not dismayed by soul-trouble. Count it no strange thing, but a part of ordinary ministerial experience. Should the power of depression be more than ordinary, think not that all is over with your usefulness. Cast not away your confidence, for it hath great recompense of reward. Even if the enemy’s foot be on your neck, expect to rise amid overthrow him. Cast the burden of the present, along with the sin of the past and the fear of the future, upon the Lord, who forsaketh not his saints. Live by the day—ay, by the hour. Put no trust in frames and feelings. Care more for a grain of faith than a ton of excitement. Trust in God alone, and lean not on the reeds of human help.”
  9. “Be content to be nothing, for that is what you are. When your own emptiness is painfully forced upon your consciousness, chide yourself that you ever dreamed of being full, except in the Lord. Set small store by present rewards; be grateful for earnests by the way, but look for the recompensing joy hereafter. Continue, with double earnestness to serve your Lord when no visible result is before you. Any simpleton can follow the narrow path in the light: faith’s rare wisdom enables us to march on in the dark with infallible accuracy, since she places her hand in that of her Great Guide.”
  10. “Come fair or come foul, the pulpit is our watch-tower, and the ministry our warfare; be it ours, when we cannot see the face of our God, to trust under THE SHADOW OF HIS WINGS.”
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An Advent Hymn Worth Singing

“Come Thou Long Expected Jesus” arranged by Red Mountain Music

Come, Thou long-expected Jesus, born to set Thy people free;
from our fears and sins release us; let us find our rest in Thee.
Israel’s strength and consolation, hope of all the earth Thou art;
dear desire of every nation, joy of every longing heart.

Joy to those who long to see thee, Dayspring from on high, appear;
come, thou promised Rod of Jesse, of thy birth we long to hear!
O’er the hills the angels singing news, glad tidings of a birth;
“Go to him, your praises bringing; Christ the Lord has come to earth.”

Come to earth to taste our sadness, he whose glories knew no end;
by his life he brings us gladness, our Redeemer, Shepherd, Friend.
Leaving riches without number, born within a cattle stall;
this the everlasting wonder, Christ was born the Lord of all.

Born Thy people to deliver, born a child, and yet a King,
born to reign in us forever, now Thy gracious kingdom bring.
By Thine own eternal Spirit rule in all our hearts alone;
by Thine own sufficient merit, raise us to Thy glorious throne.