Monthly Archives: January 2014

It’s difficult for me to read any book on the glories of heaven without thinking about this song. When I wrote my thesis on the Puritan view of heaven I must have listened to this song well over a thousand times.

LYRICS:

This is not the end
This is not the end of this
We will open our eyes wide, wider

This is not our last
This is not our last breath
We will open our mouths wide, wider

And you know you’ll be alright
Oh and you know you’ll be alright

This is not the end
This is not the end of us
We will shine like the stars bright, brighter

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A Synonymn for Holy Living

boston

One of my endeavors for 2014 was to read Looking Unto Jesus, the magnum opus of Isaac Ambrose. I planned for slow, meditative reading, but LUJ was far too good to put down. Thus, the Ambrose endeavor is now complete.

Here then I stand on the precipice of 2014’s second month wondering if I should add another endeavor to the list. The next eleven months offer open vistas of opportunity, growth, and challenge. The small shouting voice in my soul proclaims, “Go big or go home!” So I endeavor to go big with Boston; Thomas Boston that is.

I endeavor to read the collected works of Thomas Boston in 2014.

Boston was one of the subjects of my thesis, This is Not the End: Puritans on the Glory of Heaven, and I found him to be unusually illuminating. But perhaps the greatest motivation for this endeavor is found in Andrew Thomson’s description of the man from Ettrick:

If Scotland had been searched during the earlier part of the eighteenth century, there was not a minister within its bounds who, alike in personal character, and in the discharge of his pastoral function, approached nearer the apostolic model than did this man of God. It is a fact that, even before he died, men and children had come to pronounce his name with reverence. It had become a synonym for holy living.

“A synonym for holy living,” now that is an endeavor worth much prayer and pursuit.

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“But One Word to Speak”

Looking Unto Jesus

I started this year with the aim of reading two pages per day from Isaac Ambrose’s Looking Unto Jesus. That pace would allow me to finish the work in just over eleven months. Well, I finished it in less than one.

It was just too good to put down.

Never before have I read such a warmth in meditation on the beauty of Christ. Looking unto Jesus (Heb. 12:2) has taken on a fresh fullness. A section of Ambrose’s conclusion is worthy of mention and prolonged meditation:

If I had but one word more to speak to the world, it should be this; Oh! let all our spirits be taken up with Christ, let us not busy ourselves too much with toys, or trifles, with ordinary and low things, but look to Jesus.

Surely Christ is enough to fill all our thoughts, desires, hopes, loves, joys, or whatever is within us, or without us; Christ alone comprehends all the circumference of our happiness; Christ is the pearl hid in the large field of God’s word;

Christ is the scope of all the scripture:

all things and persons in the old world were types of him;

all the prophets foretold him,

all God’s love runs through him,

all the gifts and graces of the Spirit flow from him,

the whole eye of God is upon him,

and all his designs both in heaven and earth meet in him.

Oh! how should all hearts be taken with this Christ? Christians! turn your eyes upon the Lord: “Look, and look again unto Jesus.” Why stand ye gazing on the toys of this world, when such a Christ is offered to you in the gospel?

If there be any heaven upon earth, thou wilt find it in the practice and exercise of this gospel duty, in “Looking unto Jesus.”

And all God’s people said, “Amen.”

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We Need Progressive Pastors

Progress in Ministry

“Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress.” – 1 Timothy 4:15

My favorite show in television history is Band of Brothers. One of the episodes depicts a counter attack that one member of Easy Company called, “The highlight of all E Company actions for the entire war.”

On the night of October 4-5, 1944 a solider in Easy Company was wounded in patrol, so a small counter attack mission was organized. By the next morning, Lieutenant Winters realized that his platoon of thirty-five men was virtually surrounded by two German companies of 300 men.  Lt. Winters goes out into the field to be alone and think things through; he decided he had no choice but to attack.  So he calls his officers and says, “Talbert, take the third squad to the right. Peacock, take the first squad to the left. I’ll take the second squad right up the middle.” Everyone got set, Winters told his men to fix bayonets. As the sun begins to rise a base of fire is laid down at his signal and off Winters goes.  Storming down in front of his men, he leads them on to an incredible rout of the surrounding Germans.

In 1 Timothy 4:15 Paul tells Timothy to minister in such a way that all will see his progress. This word “progress” (προκοπὴ) is a military term that speaks of an advancing force. Just like Lieutenant Winters bold advance led his men into battle, the pastor’s growth is to be out in front of the people and of the kind that beckons other to follow.

The church needs progressive pastors. Permit me some rather random musings on the issue.

A PASSION FOR PROGRESS

Paul doesn’t require perfection, but he does require progression. The areas in which a pastor must grow are legion and beyond the scope of what I want to emphasize in this post. If you want a potent and pithy detailing of areas in which a pastor ought to show progress see Spurgeon’s lecture “The Necessity of Ministerial Progress.” His motto is “Go Forward”: go forward in personal attainments, forward in gifts and graces, forward in fitness for the work, and forward in conformity to the image of Jesus.

If you need some apostolic inspiration and direction for Spirit-wrought progress I’d encourage meditation on these two verses:

  • Progress in Life: “Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness.” – 1 Timothy 6:11
  • Progress in Ministry: “Devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.” – 1 Timothy 4:13

But I want to meditate on a couple clear presuppositions Paul has in his progressive exhortation.

THE PATIENCE OF PROGRESS

Clearly, Paul assumes that Timothy will minister in such a way that the Ephesians can actually see and attest to progress. Churches that only see their pastor behind the pulpit at the weekly worship gathering can affirm some aspects of progress, but not many. How would they affirm progress in managing the home? What about those intangible, yet hard to discern areas of spiritual fruit? If the pastor’s people are to notice his progress in life and ministry, his ministry must be in the life of his people. Increasingly so.

A second presupposition on pastoral progress is built on the reality of fruit being time-tested. Spiritual fruit is quite indiscriminate and organic. One notices it most clearly in hindsight and that hindsight normally has a fair distance attached to it. The longest I have stayed in one church was five years and I felt it was only in year three that discernible fruit was visible. Progress in life and ministry takes time and if the church is to “see” our progress we must be with them for quite some time. Just how long can be debated, but it’s safe to say the length is longer than the average pastor’s tenure. What’s best is staying in one place for life; what progress one church ought to observe in decades of ministry!

This even raises a similar point about church membership: if a pastor’s visible progress is dependent on long ministry in the same place, the church’s ability to affirm that progress is dependent on members staying in the same place for a long period.

Pastors must be progressive in the semper reformanda sense of the term. This kind of progress will be patient, plodding, and public. “Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers” (1 Tim. 4:16).

If we are to be strong men, we must be conformed to our Lord. Oh, to be like Him! Blessed be that cross on which we shall suffer, if we suffer for being made like unto the Lord Jesus. If we obtain conformity to Christ, we shall have a wondrous unction upon our ministry, and without that, what is ministry worth? – Spurgeon

Lectures to My Students 216
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The Parable of Sleep

In Quest of Rest

I am currently in the midst of a rather grueling schedule of ministry, meetings, and post-graduate studies. There is simply not enough time in the day to do everything I would like to do.

And so my solution is to fight sleep. Which is always an ungratefully bad idea.

An old article from Piper captures the blessed struggle of sleep with characteristic aplomb:

Why did God design us to need sleep? We sleep a third of our lives. Just think of it: a third of our lives spent like dead men. Just think of everything being left undone that could be done had God not designed us to need sleep. There is surely no doubt that he could have created us with no need for sleep. And just think, everyone could devote himself to two careers, and not feel tired. Everyone could be a “full-time Christian worker” and still keep his job. There is so much of our Father’s business we could be about.

Why did God imagine sleep? He never sleeps! He thought the idea up out of nothing. He thought it up for his earthly creatures. Why! Psalm 127:2 says, “It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved in his sleep.” According to this text sleep is a gift of love, and the gift is often spurned by anxious toil. Peaceful sleep is the opposite of anxiety. God does not want his children to be anxious, but to trust him. Therefore I conclude that God made sleep as a continual reminder that we should not be anxious but should rest in him.

Sleep is a daily reminder from God that we are not God. “He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep” (Psalm 121:4). But Israel will. For we are not God. Once a day God sends us to bed like patients with a sickness. The sickness is a chronic tendency to think we are in control and that our work is indispensable. To cure us of this disease God turns us into helpless sacks of sand once a day. How humiliating to the self-made corporate executive that he has to give up all control and become as limp as a suckling infant every day.

Sleep is a parable that God is God and we are mere men. God handles the world quite nicely while a hemisphere sleeps. Sleep is like a broken record that comes around with the same message every day: Man is not sovereign. Man is not sovereign. Man is not sovereign. Don’t let the lesson be lost on you. God wants to be trusted as the great worker who never tires and never sleeps. He is not nearly so impressed with our late nights and early mornings as he is with the peaceful trust that casts all anxieties on him and sleeps.

So even though there is more I wanted to do this day, I head to bed . . . in quest of rest.

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What’s as Good as Christ’s Presence?

Word = Presence

The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way.

In John 4:46-54 Jesus heals an official’s son from a distance and reveals one of the sweetest realities about the power of His word: Christ’s word is as good as Christ’s presence.

Jesus merely said, “Go, your son will live,” and the cure was done. Good Bishop Ryle said, “Christ only commanded, and the deadly disease stood fast.” Do you feel the comfort from this truth? What value it gives to every promise that ever came from Christ. If you have laid hold of some word of Christ, you have set your feet on the solid rock. What Christ spoken, He is able to do. What He has undertaken, He will accomplish. You can trust in this Christ. Luther says it well, “Faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace, so sure and certain that a man could stake his life on it a thousand times.” Oh, see how faith in Christ’s word can be the source of faith for every circumstance you find yourself in . . .

  • If you are fearful. Remember Isaiah 43:2, “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you.”
  • If you are struggling with temptation. Remember 1 Corinthians 10:13, “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability . . . he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”
  • If you are fighting sin. Remember Micah 7:9, “He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.”
  • If you are without Christ. Remember Romans 10:9-13, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved . . . For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Faith receives and rests on the word of Christ; a word that is His powerful presence in our lives.

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Recent Reads

I love to read. By God’s grace I am a pretty fast reader; I usually read a couple books each week. I find it helpful to summarize my thoughts on each book and I offer those thoughts in the hope that you will be encouraged to either read or pass over the given title.

416+GhM92YL._SY344_PJlook-inside-v2,TopRight,1,0_SH20_BO1,204,203,200_Looking Unto Jesus: The Christ-Centered Piety of Seventeenth-Century Baptists by Stephen Yuille. Yuille is an underrated Puritan scholar from Canada who pastors a church down in Glen Rose, Texas. He has published several different works on the Puritans in the last few years and one recent effort is this slim volume Looking Unto Jesus. The book begins with a marvelous introduction where Yuille gives four reasons for why he keeps coming back to the Puritans: they are God-fearing, heaven-seeking, sin-hating, and Christ-exalting. The rest of the work is occupied with two lesser known Puritans, Thomas Wilcox and Vavasor Powell (“The Whitefield of Wales”). Chapter 1 is a reproduction of Wilcox’s A Guide to Eternal Glory and chapter 2 is Yuille’s commentary on the life and work of Wilcox. The patter repeats itself in chapters 3 and 4 with Powell’s Saving Faith Discovered in Three Heavenly Conferences. I found this approach to be novel and useful. For those familiar with the Puritans you could read the original offerings from Wilcox and Powell, and then scan Yuille’s commentary. But for those who find Puritan works daunting, Yuille’s commentary will be a sure guide through the old works. I’d love to see more Puritan titles reprinted in this format. Wilcox’s work is stimulating and Powell’s Conferences offers discriminatory gospel application at its finest.

416ffRhqpoL._SY344_PJlook-inside-v2,TopRight,1,0_SH20_BO1,204,203,200_Churchill by Paul Johnson. I read this not long after it came out in 2010 and had been meaning to reread it for some time. Johnson is a great historian and was a young teenager at the end of World War II, thus he is unique suitable to write a brief bio on The Last Lion. Churchill comes in at just over 180 pages, so those looking for in depth analysis of Winston’s life should consult other sources. But I don’t know of a better introduction to that most famous of 20th century leaders. Johnson offers five lessons from Churchill’s life in the epilogue and this section alone is worth the book’s weight in gold. Every leader would do well to consider Johnson’s analysis:

  1. “The first lesson is: always aim high. As a child Churchill received no positive encouragement from his father and little from his mother. He was aware of his failure at school. But he still aimed high.”
  2. “Lesson number two is: there is no substitute for hard work…Mistakes he constantly made, but there was never anything shoddy or idle about his work.”
  3. “Third, and in its way most important, Churchill never allowed mistakes, disaster–personal or national–accidents, illnesses, unpopularity, and criticism to get him down.”
  4. “Fourth, Churchill wasted an extraordinarily small amount of his time and emotional energy on the meannesses of life: recrimination, shifting the blame onto others, malice, revenge seeking, dirty tricks, spreading rumors, harboring grudges, waging vendettas…There is nothing more draining and exhausting than hatred. And malice is bad for the judgment.”
  5. “Finally, the absence of hatred left plenty of room for joy in Churchill’s life…He liked to share his joy, and give joy. It must never forgotten that Churchill was happy with people.”

51pi55MjDoL._SY344_PJlook-inside-v2,TopRight,1,0_SH20_BO1,204,203,200_Ballistic by Mark Greaney. The entire world is after Court Gentry, the popular protagonist in Greaney’s Gray Man series, yet the man is impossible to catch. I wondered after reading book two if Greaney hadn’t set “up a trajectory that tempts believability.” Ballistic, book three in the series, proved my fear worthwhile as it repeatedly tries to convince the reader that with Gentry, everything impossible is oh so possible. The action packed book moves is a rapid page turner, but Greaney needs something more than shoot ’em up, bang ’em up virtuosity to make the series compelling. I’ll move on to book four in the hope that Greaney himself can channel the Gray Man and do something unbelievable: offer up more than a one-dimensional thrill ride.

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“That Guy”

That Guy

Yesterday I reflected a bit on some soul-searching wisdom from DA Carson. He said, “If I have learned anything in 35 or 40 years of teaching, it is that students don’t learn everything I teach them. What they learn is what I am excited about, the kinds of things I emphasize again and again and again and again. That had better be the gospel.”

One question that always pops into my mind when reading those words is, “What am I known for?” I, like every pastor, probably fit some bill as “that guy,” but what “guy” am I? What guy do I hope to be?

I remember reading an interview with Matt Chandler and he was asked, “To what level do you reveal to your people the suffering and hardship you deal with as a pastor? Is there a point you can exploit suffering?” The first part of his answer was challenging:

One of the things I wanted to be careful about with my ministry was becoming “the cancer guy.” I wanted to be the “gospel guy.”

That answer made me ask, for the first time, “What “guy” am I?

THE “2 TIMOTHY 2:24-25 GUY”

For better or worse, I think about that question a lot. If my wife or my church was asked to identify a few markers of my ministry I have a good hunch how they would answer. And if my hunches were in fact prophetic, I would be ok with the characterization.

But the more and more I preach, pray, and pastor the more I am hopeful that two verses in Scripture would become abundantly true in my ministry: 2 Timothy 2:24-25.

“And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness.”

Exactly how these two verses could be codified into a “that guy” phrase, I don’t know. But I know this, I want to be that guy.

Of all things that are to be known this is most evident, that God is to be feared, to be reverenced, served, and worshiped; this is so the beginning of knowledge that those know nothing who do not know this. – Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Commentary Vol. 3:793.