The study Bible industry is living and active. Rarely does a year go by without a publisher announcing work on or completing the publication of their study Bible.
One of the more recent entries is Reformation Heritage’s KJV Study Bible. Dr. Joel Beeke—the general editor—says,
One of the things we hope to be true about IDC is that we would be “a praying church.” We want our ordinary life together reflect that desire. One way we do that is by having different times of prayer throughout our gathered worship service. We also have a monthly prayer night where we invite the church body to spend a little over an hour praying for all manner of spiritual matters.
I thus often feel the pressing need to be creative in how I lead our church in prayer. By creative, I mean scouring Scripture for anything and everything applicable to our church’s prayer life. The Psalms and prayers of Paul are common companions. It only dawned on me last weekend that I’ve never (in the last 3.5 years) used the Beatitudes to guide us. So I got to work. I found a confession of sin framed around Jesus’ words in Matthew 5 and reworked it a bit. Then I put together a few supplications for each beatitudes Christ gave and we used them in for corporate prayer.
I’ve copied what we did below. I hope you might find it useful as you lead your congregation in prayer.
Leader: Our Lord Jesus, you offered us all your blessings when you announced, “Blessed are the poor in spirit”
Church: but we have been rich in pride.
Leader: “Blessed are those who mourn”
Church: but we have not known much sorrow for our sin.
Leader: “Blessed are the meek”
Church: but we are a stubborn people.
Leader: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness”
Church: but we are filled to the full with other things.
Leader: “Blessed are the merciful”
Church: but we are harsh and impatient.
Leader: “Blessed are the pure in heart”
Church: but we have impure hearts.
Leader: “Blessed are the peacemakers”
Church: but we have not sought reconciliation.
Leader: “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness”
Church: but our lives reflect the world.
Leader: “Blessed are you when people insult you because of me”
Church: but we have hardly made it known that we are yours.
Leader: Your Law is holy and your words are perfect; You alone are blessed.
Church: We plead with you to forgive our sins and give us the blessing of your righteousness.
For our Prayer Night, I simply added three suggested petitions for each beatitude. You can of course change/add/remove any and all of them. I mean for this to just be a catalyst for what you might do.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
– Pray for dependence on God’s power
– Pray for hope in heaven
– Pray for satisfaction in Christ alone
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”
– Pray for greater awareness of sin’s evil
– Pray for greater hatred of sin
– Pray for increased comfort from God and in the gospel
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”
– Pray for submission to God’s word
– Pray for humility towards others
– Pray for joy in our spiritual inheritance
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”
– Pray for souls that long for God
– Pray for lives that are hungrier for heaven
than for the world
– Pray for hearts eager to put on the
righteousness of Christ
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.”
– Pray for increasing compassion towards the hurting
– Pray to have mercy on the doubting
– Pray for joyful resting in Christ’s mercy
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
– Pray for the Spirit’s help in covenanting with our eyes to look on no impure thing
– Pray for homes marked by purity
– Pray for earnestness in seeing Jesus
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.”
– Pray for the church to maintain unity in the
bonds of peace
– Pray for wisdom to aid reconciliation
– Pray for delight in our spiritual adoption
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
– Pray for steadfastness in suffering
– Pray for the persecuted church
– Pray for unwavering allegiance to Jesus
“Blessed are you when others revile you . . . on my account.”
– Pray for courage in speaking of the gospel
– Pray for fear of man to decrease and fear
of God in increase
– Pray for perseverance in knowing our
ultimate reward lies in heaven
After several months spent swimming in the ocean of pastoral ministry and Ph.D. studies, I’ve feel as though I’m resurfacing with a few weeks off before another semester begins. I’m thus eager to haunt this here blog space once again with greater frequency.
One of the seminars I took this spring was “Theological Foundations of Spirituality” with Dr. Stephen Yuille. It was the first seminar I’ve had that allowed me to write a paper on Mr. M’Cheyne. I thus dove into my research with new earnestness, thinking, “Here’s a sanctioned excuse to work on the dissertation!” I first planned to do something on M’Cheyne’s theology of holiness. But the more I researched, the more I realized his idea of holiness is wrapped up in his understanding of Christ. It’s impossible to make sense of his almost-legendary personal holiness apart from his little-known Christology. So extensive is this correlation that what came out was a paper twice as long as it was supposed to be. The girth is good—I think. (It’s my hoped-for-but-yet-to-be-approved dissertation in seed form.)
One of the matters I try to advance in the paper is M’Cheyne’s view of the means of as “trysts”—secret meetings between lovers. It’s a delight to study M’Cheyne because he’s so immediately practical for ministry. To give you a taste of what I’m discovering, and to hopefully serve you as well, here’s a section from my recent work titled, “A Strangely Sweet and Precious Christ: Christological Spirituality in the Preaching of Robert Murray M’Cheyne.”
As mentioned above, M’Cheyne’s pursuit of personal holiness has marveled and humbled many a man. It is wrong however to see that pursuit as the centerpiece of his spirituality. Love to Christ was the pulsating power of his piety. In “The Love of Christ,” on 2 Corinthians 5:14, M’Cheyne not only expounds Christ’s love, but also what that love compels in His people’s life. According to M’Cheyne, God knows our desires for sin regularly outweigh our desires for holiness. Therefore, “He hath invented a way of drawing us to holiness. By showing us the love of his Son, he calleth forth our love.”[1] The love of Christ, according to M’Cheyne, “is the secret spring of all the holiness of the saints.” The reason for holiness and spirituality is crystal clear: “We are constrained to holiness by the love of Christ.”[2]
Most studies on M’Cheyne spirituality center on his diligent use of particular means of grace: Bible reading and prayer. What has not yet been pieced together is how M’Cheyne viewed the means of grace chiefly as vehicles of love. It is in and through these means that Christ’s love comes down, and the church’s love goes up. Nothing better illuminates this reality than how M’Cheyne preferred to talk about communion with Christ. For M’Cheyne, the means of grace are “trysts”—meetings between lovers. Consider the following excerpts from various sermons:
The importance of these selections for understanding M’Cheyne’s spirituality is simple: his pursuit of personal holiness was little more than the pursuit of the Christ he loved. Christ’s love was a glorious truth to be preached and enjoyed. Why then did M’Cheyne famously pray, “Lord, make me as holy as a pardoned sinner can be made?”[8] I would argue he did so because he saw holiness as the maturity of love; it is the highest experience of Christ’s love. “Communion with God; the delighting in Him; loving, adoring, admiring Him;” these are the ordinary desires of a heart redeemed by Christ’s love—these were the ordinary desires of Robert Murray M’Cheyne.[9]
To preach Christ was strangely sweet and precious, M’Cheyne wrote. So sweetly precious was the Savior to this young Scottish preacher that he could not help but let Christ saturate every sermon. He presented Christ’s fullness and freeness in all its glory. Few Christological rocks, if any, did he leave unturned in that theological garden named, “The Person and Work of Christ.” He did, however, sit most comfortably next to those boulders marked, “A Sure Christ,” “A Converting Christ,” “A Captivating Christ, and “A Judging Christ.” His Christology was winsome, romantic, and simple. Here was a Christ of love. Here was a Christ to love.
Alexander Smellie said in his biography of M’Cheyne, “I never knew one so instant in season and out of season, so impressed with the invisible realities, and so faithful in reproving sin and witness for Christ. . . . Love to Christ was the great secret of all his devotion and consistency.”[10] My study of M’Cheyne’s preaching ministry leads me to conclude with a hearty, “Amen.”
[1] M’Cheyne, From the Preacher’s Heart, 52. (emphasis original)
[2] Ibid., 53.
[3] Ibid., 232–33.
[4] M’Cheyne, The Passionate Preacher, 330. Cf. M’Cheyne, Sermons on Hebrews, 32-33.
[5] M’Cheyne, From the Preacher’s Heart, 234. cf., 103.
[6] M’Cheyne, The Passionate Preacher, 28.
[7] Ibid., 33.
[8] Bonar, Memoir and Remains of Robert Murray M’Cheyne, 160.
[9] M’Cheyne, New Testament Sermons, 41.
[10] Alexander Smellie, Robert Murray McCheyne (Fearn: Christian Focus, 1995), 172.
Books are some of the best friends a pastor can have. How to know which friends to spend time with is quite difficult, for as the inspired Preacher said, “Of making many books there is no end” (Ecclesiastes 12:12). Every so often I recommend three books for pastors on a given topic, hoping the suggestions can serve you in some way.
One of “The Faithful Few” (readers of this blog) mentioned I hadn’t yet put together a “3 Books . . .” post on the doctrine of Scripture. What an oversight! Here then are my terribly-too-late recommendations on bibliology.
The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible by B.B. Warfield. Here the Lion of Princeton roars with unusual vigor. This volume represents the mature teaching of Old Princeton’s doctrine of Scripture—a teaching which with everyone must now reckon. Greg Beale agrees when he says, “No one who is interested in this topic should leave this book unread.” Kevin DeYoung even calls The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible “perhaps the most important influential book written on the doctrine of Scripture in the past 150 years.” A harvest of truth awaits every prayerful and careful read.
Fundamentalism and the Word of God by J.I. Packer. First written in the British controversy over “Fundamentalism” in the 1950s, Packer’s message remains relevant half a century later. Packer has little time for scholarly assessments of Scripture that place man in authority over God’s word. Typically, the Anglican theological packs his volume with punch, insight, pith, and reverent exposition. One of my mentors told me, “If you only read one book on Scripture, read this one.” Tolle lege!
The Doctrine of the Word of God by John Frame. Yes, Frame’s final volume in his Theology of Lordship series weighs in at over 700 pages but don’t let that dissuade you. This book is comprehensive, winsome, and illuminating. I doubt any reader will agree with every facet of Frame’s presentation (I’ve always thought his discussion on teaching/preaching the word a bit odd), but on the essential points, Frame is spot on. Perhaps the highest praise you could give to DWG is how ordinary church members can feed on it—it is that clear. Packer calls DWG “magisterial” and “pastoral.”
Canon Revisited: Establishing the Origins and Authority of New Testament Books by Michael Kruger. Every pastor needs a rich understanding of canonicity and Kruger’s work is the best recent contribution.
Taking God at His Word: Why the Bible is Knowable, Necessary, and Enough, and What That Means for You and Me by Kevin DeYoung. When church members ask for an accessible work on Scripture DeYoung’s work is the one I recommend most often. It has yet to disappoint.
Last week I attended a doctoral seminar led by Dr. Stephen Yuille at The Institution on “Theological Foundations for Biblical Spirituality.” The seminar was full of lively discussion and hearty reflection.
One of the more sticky takeaways for me was when Dr. Yuille provided a list of eleven “Marks of Spirituality.” His explanation of each was brief and biblical. This list would be useful for elders as they pray and labor for maturity in their congregations.
“It is, perhaps, an overbold beginning, but I will venture to say that with its preaching Christianity stands or falls.” So began P.T. Forsyth when he delivered the Lyman Beecher lectures at Yale University in 1907. Trepidation may have constrained the Scottish theologian as he stood in the throes of New England modernity, but we can confidently acquit him from the charge of being “overbold.” He simply read his Bible well.
God’s word tells us the Christian life is, this side of heaven, is lived “by faith, not by sight.” In other places we are told, “Faith comes by hearing,” and “anything that does not proceed from faith is sin.” Because faith is central, we can boldly declare preaching to be central. For preaching is the ordinary means by which God awakens cold, crusty, and callous hearts to breathe in the grace of faith. Preaching is the chariot that carries Christ to sinners’ bosoms and breasts. It is the spiritual sword God uses to assault hell’s gates and ruin Satan’s strongholds. The Sun of Righteousness dawns upon the earth in His heralded word to harden clay hearts and melt icy souls. Preaching convicts, illuminates, rebukes, encourages, and enlivens the soul.
It is then, perhaps, my overbold beginning to say that with its preaching Christian spirituality stands or falls. There is a direct correlation between the substance of preaching and the promotion of spirituality. Our Lord Jesus proved this to be true when He asked the Father to sanctify His people in truth. Hearing God’s truth sanctifies God’s people. Preaching promotes piety. Do you want to know what a church believes theologically? Listen to her preachers. Do you want to know what a congregation confesses about spirituality? Sit in on the sermon.
Not only do Scripture and experience bear witness to the correlation between preaching and piety, church history does as well. Memorial plaques of mighty preachers line the hallowed halls of our faith. These were preachers who compelled particular visions of spirituality. In this hall we hear of Chrysostom’s zeal, Augustine’s understanding, Patrick’s earnestness, Bernard’s compassion, Calvin’s reformation, Edwards’ learnedness, Whitefield’s affection, M’Cheyne’s love, and Spurgeon’s power.
If my thesis is true—that there is clear link between a church’s preaching and piety—we pastors have here a reason for stop and stare at our spirituality. Not just our individual spirituality, but our corporate life as well. We should often ask (however painful it always is), “What marks our church’s life together? Where are we strong? Where are we struggling?” Honest examination is good for the soul. Honest evaluation is always needed. The point of this brief post is that how you answer those questions reveals much about your church’s pulpit ministry.
What kind of piety does your preaching promote?
Every once in a while, it seems, you read something and know you’ll never forget it. That happened to me this week.
Yesterday, I finished a doctoral seminar on Jonathan Edwards at The Institution. One of the required readings was Edwards’ sermon entitled, “The Excellency of Christ.” Dr. Nettles (who led the seminar) said this sermon “is the best thing written in the English language.” “Hyperbole!” you cry. “Possibly,” I reply. But I’m prepared to join Dr. Nettles’ cause. For outside of Holy Scripture, I’ve never read anything so soul-stunning and holy-affections-generating as this message. Here is Edwards’ heart for Christ written in ink. Here is doctrinal preaching at its finest. Here is biblical meditation at its zenith. Here is a fearfully deep reach into the unsearchable riches of our Savior.
Consider this paragraph taken from Edwards’ encouragement “to accept of Jesus, and close with him as your Savior”:
And here is not only infinite strength and infinite worthiness, but infinite condescension, and love and mercy, as great as power and dignity. If you are a poor, distressed sinner, whose heart is ready to sink for fear that God never will have mercy on you, you need not be afraid to go to Christ, for fear that he is either unable or unwilling to help you. Here is a strong foundation, and an inexhaustible treasure, to answer the necessities of your poor soul, and here is infinite grace and gentleness to invite and embolden a poor, unworthy, fearful soul to come to it. If Christ accepts of you, you need not fear but that you will be safe, for he is a strong Lion for your defense. And if you come, you need not fear but that you shall be accepted; for he is like a Lamb to all that come to him, and receives then with infinite grace and tenderness. It is true he has awful majesty, he is the great God, and infinitely high above you; but there is this to encourage and embolden the poor sinner, that Christ is man as well as God; he is a creature, as well as the Creator, and he is the most humble and lowly in heart of any creature in heaven or earth. This may well make the poor unworthy creature bold in coming to him. You need not hesitate one moment; but may run to him, and cast yourself upon him. You will certainly be graciously and meekly received by him. Though he is a lion, he will only be a lion to your enemies, but he will be a lamb to you. It could not have been conceived, had it not been so in the person of Christ, that there could have been so much in any Savior, that is inviting and tending to encourage sinners to trust in him. Whatever your circumstances are, you need not be afraid to come to such a Savior as this. Be you never so wicked a creature, here is worthiness enough; be you never so poor, and mean, and ignorant a creature, there is no danger of being despised, for though he be so much greater than you, he is also immensely more humble than you. Any one of you that is a father or mother, will not despise one of your own children that comes to you in distress: much less danger is there of Christ’s despising you, if you in your heart come to him.
Read the whole sermon here and let me know what you think.
Sometime during third grade our class had a writing contest. The contest was one of description. Our teacher made each student look at some object in the room and make it come alive on the page. The teacher then picked the best two submissions. The winners went to an all-expense paid “Future Writer’s Workshop.” The teacher—Mrs. Yoke, as I recall—happened to pick my paper and I promptly declared to my parents that I would be a writer when I grew up.
I still hope to grow up and be an author. I have a folder on my computer titled, “Books to Be Written.” Hundreds of thousands of words are in that folder. And not a single one has been published. Only the Lord knows if one will ever be published.
There are times when I pray for a bit of margin to slam out a book proposal or polish off that manuscript. I long to make good on that third-grade declaration of future occupation. It’s in those moments, however, that I often sense an inspired voice saying, “You already are a writer. Remember 2 Corinthians 3:1-3.” There the Untimely Apostle says, “Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or from you? You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all. And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.”
Oh, the comforts of Scripture! God calls every pastor to be a writer.
For the next two weeks, I’m at The Institution working on a couple of Ph.D. seminars. I will speak with professors who publish books as often as Messi puts the ball in the back of the net. I will be around other students who are under contract with a publisher or have just published a book. Literary ambition is palpable around these halls. I confess I often get caught up in it all.
So, think of this short post as nothing more than an exercise in personal reminding. God doesn’t hold his servants accountable to writing pages for reading. He holds us accountable to writing real books, but books you can’t read. The congregation’s life in Christ is the book we write. The families we shepherd are the chapters. The individuals we oversee are the paragraphs.
The pastor has three pens he must wield in this work: word, sacrament, and prayer. These ordinary means are how the pastor writes on hearts—they are our Spirit-wrought epistolary tools. We wield this spiritual quill and ink unto exhaustion. Here we agonize with all God’s energy that he powerfully works within us. Here we write.
Maybe you are like me—you hope to publish a book eventually. Or maybe that sounds as enjoyable to you as watching turtles race.
Whatever your literary ambition is, God’s word unites us all in this spiritual writing ministry. Every pastor must be a writer. We should say, “Every pastor is already a writer.“ The great question is, “What spiritual book are we writing?” Let us desire, with Paul, to say to our churches, “You are Christ’s letter.”
We write Christ.
“Pay careful attention to how you walk,” the Untimely Apostle said. The days are evil and few. Slippery slopes abound, so Christians must pay attention. When it comes to walking there is something comforting about an old path. The weeds have long been trampled out. The path itself was cut ages ago and has thus become nearly one with the earth.
Ah, yes. The glory of old paths.
Pastors must pay peculiar attention to their path. If they are faithful, they will usually lead from the front. The sheep trail behind hearing the shepherd’s voice, following with trust and care. Therefore, a wise pastor won’t choose a path marked, “Contemporary,” “Culturally Relevant,” or, “Fresh.” Such things—especially in our day—are about as sturdy as an egg’s resistance to a boulder. Faddish paths tend to leave egg on the face. Wise pastors will instead choose paths of pastoral practice well trod by great men of old.
Where can we find such paths? In the books of old.
I tend to read any new book on pastoral ministry that shows up from a reliable publisher. The modern books on pastoral ministry usually only serve to increase my pining for the old ones. Maybe I’m just a soul aged before my time. Or maybe there is something different about an old book. In fact, I’d argue there are three peculiar advantages to reading earlier works on pastoral ministry:
Let me thus suggest a few 19th–century books on pastoral ministry for pastors to read. I have a theory as to why the 1800s produced such excellent reflections on ministry, but I’ll leave that for another time. Four old, trustworthy, and proven paths for ministry are:
Words to Winners of Souls by Horatius Bonar. Bonar gets the first nod because he unleashes conviction aplenty in less than one hundred pages. This is a book you can—and probably should—reread every year.
The Christian Ministry by Charles Bridges. Simply the best book on pastoral ministry yet written. It comes in second only because of its length (400 pages) being off-putting to some today.
Princeton and Preaching: Archibald Alexander and the Christian Ministry by James Garretson. Oh, how I wish this one got more press! It’s far too underrated. Here’s your opportunity to sit in a seminary class on ministry with Alexander. It may be the most useful class you ever take.
Pastoral Theology by Thomas Murphy. Murphy’s work is essentially his rehashing of Archibald Alexander’s teaching. This work cuts to the quick and is astonishingly expansive. It’s also available for free online.
Lord willing, later tonight The Upper Room rides again at IDC. TUR is our somewhat regular men’s gathering. It’s our standard practice to sing, eat, and then throw some topic on the table for extended discussion and prayer. Tonight we plan to answer this question, “What Does God Require from His Men?”
Knowing that the question can be answered biblically from a variety of places in Sacred Scripture, tonight’s aim is to walk through Paul’s qualifications for elders in 1 Timothy 3. An elder is to be an example for the church (1 Pet. 5:3), and a mold pressed into the lives of his members, so they attain a similar shape of godliness (1 Tim. 4:12). Therefore, with confidence, we can answer the above question by saying, “Look at what God requires of His shepherds.”
One thing we will do tonight in small groups is try to give somewhat ordinary, everyday definitions to Paul’s requirements. Here’s my stab at the fourteen listed in 1 Timothy 3:2-7.
1) Above reproach: It would be surprising (even shocking!) to discover this man fell into sin. His reputation is one of exemplary character and pervasive holiness.
2) The husband of one wife: In thought, word, and deed he is satisfied with the wife of his youth—the marriage bed is kept pure.
3) Sober-minded: He is not given to fits of passion, but is steady in mind and spirit.
4) Self-controlled: He keeps his emotions constrained with love to Christ.
5) Respectable: His typical behavior is orderly and worthy of honor.
6) Hospitable: He consistently seeks to love any and all who are strangers to him.
7) Able to teach: He knows sound doctrine and loves to talk about it, defend it, and commend it.
8) Not a drunkard: Concerning the fruit of the vine, the Spirit controls him—as He does in everything else.
9) Not violent but gentle: He is unacquainted with temper tantrums, but is a best friend of those virtues named Patience and Kindness.
10) Not quarrelsome: He seeks not to complain or argue; he instead proves true the old maxim: “Meekness is not weakness.”
11) Not a lover of money: He is not a greedy mercenary always occupied with the cash money; his storehouses overflow with heavenly treasures.
12) He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive: His children rise and with loving reverence say, “That’s my Daddy. I follow him as he follows Christ.” The glad gravity of godliness—which the Great Apostle calls dignity—seasons all his parenting.
13) He must not be a recent convert: Christ has been his constant companion and chief delight for many years.
14) Well thought of by outsiders: Those outside the church judge him faithful in all things.
Get every new post delivered to your Inbox
Join other followers
