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Preaching for Fear

Fear of the Lord

I can’t remember where I first heard it, but someone once encouraged all preachers to ask three questions of their text in sermon preparation: 1) What do I want my church to know from this text?, 2) What do I want my church to do with this text?, and 3) What do I want my church to feel about this text?

Those questions have always seemed useful, especially when thinking through wisely and pointedly applying the text to your congregation. I remember early on in preaching when I asked those questions of every sermon I prepared. I no longer ask all three questions of every sermon I prepare, but I do almost always consider the issue of what my people should feel about the text.

I wonder what are the ordinary things you want your congregation to feel.

PREACHING FOR FEELINGS

With typical pointed passion John Piper sums up how the average church today would answer that question when he writes,

Laughter seems to have replaced repentance as the goal of many preachers. Laughter means people feel good. It means they like you, it means you have moved them. It means you have some measure of power. It seems to have all the marks of successful communication – if the depth of sin and the holiness of God and the danger of hell and need for broken hearts is left out of account.

Said another way, “Entertainment rather than an encounter with God seems to be the goal of most preachers today.” Brothers, we are not entertainers; we are heralds. And heralds aren’t to be court jesters for the congregation, they are ambassadors of the living, reigning King who calls all men to repentance and faith.

Now this doesn’t mean that congregations can’t laugh or find God’s word to be entertaining,1 but I do think it means that such feelings of amusement should never be our goal in heraldic preaching. Our message is too weighty to let such trivialities be our main concern. We don’t want them walking away with fleeting candy-like feelings, but we want their affections satisfied with the red meat of God’s word (Heb. 5:11-14).

Every text does have its unique feel we preach out of and preach unto, but let me highlight one “feeling” that ought to be a common aim in all our sermons: the fear of the Lord.

AIM FOR REVERENT AFFECTION

I was speaking with a couple church members last weekend who always have thoughtful and encouraging things to say after hearing God’s word. One of them said something I might never forget, “You know we were just talking and that sermon was so timely. As I was sitting during the examination time for the Lord’s Supper (we have communion every week following the sermon) I was trying to discern what it was I was feeling from our study of Job. As I was praying I realized it was the fear of the Lord.”

That will be hard to forget because it’s the only time to date anyone has told me the fear of God was their overriding emotion after on of my sermon. May it not be the last time.

During the drive back home I was meditating on this member’s response to God’s word. I couldn’t help but think to myself that alongside feelings like faith and repentance there isn’t a more worthy and all encompassing affection with which we should aim for in our preaching than fearing God. If a faithful encounter with God’s word is nothing less than an encounter with God Himself, what other feeling is more foundational than fear?

In his fantastic book The Joy of Fearing God Jerry Bridges says, “There was a time when committed Christians were known as God-fearing people. This was a badge of honor. But somewhere along the way we lost it. Now the idea of fearing God, if thought of at all, seems like a relic from the past.” Let us pastors pave the way in restoring “reverent affection” as a preeminent target with which we direct the arrows of God’s truth. Pray for a the Spirit to mold you into a God-fearing man and your church into a God-fearing people. Load your soul with meditations on the majesty and supremacy of God in all things so that you ascend to the sacred desk ready to declare the only King to which we must all bow (Phil. 2:6-11).

BEHOLD THE TERRIFYING BEAUTY

Another thing might be in order.

Let us recover the terrifying beauty of Hebrews 12:18-29. When the church gathers for worship it climbs to the throne room of heaven to worship along “innumerable angels in festal gathering,” to “the spirits of the righteous made perfect,” and “to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant.” This King speaks to us through His word and “we cannot refuse . . . Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.”

Aim for reverence and awe to be dominant responses to your preaching. With the Spirit’s help, compel them unto and draw them into a deeper fear of the Lord.

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  1. In its narrow dictionary definition: “To give attention or consideration to.” ↩
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Announce It With Agony

Job Podcast

Chapter 19 closed with Job singing out his “Hymn of the Redeemer” and warning his friends they will suffer God’s sword of judgment if they don’t turn from their wrongdoing. The time has now come for Zophar to erupt in anger once again and lecture his friend. Notice the key question he asks Job in 20:4-5,

4 Do you not know this from of old,
since man was placed on earth,
5 that the exulting of the wicked is short,
and the joy of the godless but for a moment?

Here then is Zophar’s law of life on earth: The joy of the wicked lasts but a moment. He says, “The wicked never persevere in prosperity, at some point – normally much sooner than later – everything will go bad for bad people.” And so what he does for the rest of chapter 20 is give Job three promises about the fate of the wicked.

ZOPHAR’S 3 PROMISES ABOUT THE WICKED’S FATE

The wicked will lose their status (20:6-11). Notice how Zophar illustratively makes this point in 20:6-7,

Though his height mount up to the heavens,
and his head reach to the clouds,
7 he will perish forever like his own dung;
those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’

Although the wicked are perched on high right now, they will soon be cast down and disappear. Their unrepentant wickedness will cause the wicked to “give back his wealth” (20:10) and youthful vigor to “lie down with him in the dust” (20:11).

The wicked will lose their satisfaction (20:12-19). The dominant image in this section is that of food that tastes good, but eventually turns out to be horrible. Just as the sweet fruit Adam and Eve ate in the Garden of Eden only brought death and destruction, so too will the wicked man eventually lose his satisfaction and delight in life. Look at what Zophar says about this in 20:15,

He swallows down riches and vomits them up again;
God casts them out of his belly.

The wicked will lose their safety (20:20-28). In this final part, as one commentator says, Zophar “becomes more blunt than ever.” He says that evil does not merely result in inevitable evil, it ultimately warrants the terrible wrath of God. Notice the end of 20:21-23,

. . . his prosperity will not endure.
22 In the fullness of his sufficiency he will be in distress;
the hand of everyone in misery will come against him.
23 To fill his belly to the full,
God will send his burning anger against him
and rain it upon him into his body.

Not only does burning anger rain down on the wicked, Zophar – like Bildad before him – wants Job to know that God pursues the wicked with inescapable punishment (cf. 20:24-25). Notice then how Zophar concludes it all in 20:29,

This is the wicked man’s portion from God,
the heritage decreed for him by God.

 “I’m warning you pious and pompous Job. God has decreed that a wicked man’s lot in life is to inevitably and invariably lose his status, satisfaction, and safety.”

Like his friends before him, Zophar comes close to the truth but falls just short. Where has he gone wrong? He has taken a wrong turn and is driving down a road named, “False Teaching.”

In the next chapter, Job declares God is just toward the wicked, but his justice often doesn’t make sense to us in this life. And that’s where Zophar goes wrong. He says the wicked eventually get all the punishment they deserve before death, but Job sees too many wicked people dying in peace. Therefore, God’s justice must ultimately fall on them in the life to come.1 The, “When?”, question of justice is echoed all throughout the Bible, particularly in the prophets. God’s people often complain that evildoers prosper while they suffer. And you know how God always answers that complaint, “Just wait. Their time of justice will come – at the end of all things. They prosper now, but will suffer forever. You suffer now, but will prosper forever.”

Zophar has a short perspective on God’s justice (“It all comes in this life!”), while Job takes the long – and right – perspective on God’s righteous judgement of the wicked.

WHERE ARE THE TEARS?

We should also not miss the lambasting and devastating Zophar is his portrayal of God’s wrath. I once heard a story of a church who needed a new preaching pastor that had invited several different candidates to preach. One pastor arrived and preached on Psalm 9:17 and the terrifying phrase, “The wicked shall be turned into hell.” When the elders met later in the day to evaluate the sermon the chairman quickly concluded he was not the man for the job. A few weeks later another candidate came to preach and took for his text Psalm 9:17. The chairman of the elders convened the evaluation meeting that afternoon by saying, “We have found our man.” The other elders were not a little surprised, but the chairman said, “When the second man emphasized that the lost will be turn into hell, he said it with tears in his eyes and concern in his voice. That first preacher seemed to gloat over the sinner’s death.”2 The great Robert Murray M’Cheyne was right when he said, ”The man who speaks of hell should do it with tears in his eyes.”

If we could go back to that ancient day, do you think we’d see any tears in Zophar’s eyes? I’d be shocked to seem them. He seems to gloat over the plight of Job and the promises of judgment coming his way. Just like Bildad last week, Zophar gives no application, instead concluding, “This is your portion Job, deal with it.” Oh what tears must often cover the truth we confess! We confess the Bible to be true, and it tells God is angry at sin and his judgment will rain down if sinners don’t turn from their unbelief.3 What will you do with such truth? Don’t go to the opposite extreme of Zophar and apologize for God’s wrath, but do announce it with appropriate agony.

This post is adapted from my recent sermon on Job 20-21, “Suffering with Zophar Again.”

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  1. Job will get here in 27:13-23. ↩
  2. Adapted from Lawson, 175. ↩
  3. Our church confession reads, “We believe that . . . at the last day Christ will . . . raise the dead from the grave to final retribution; that a solemn separation will then take place; that the wicked will be adjudged to endless punishment.” ↩
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Words In Season

The Winter of Suffering

When I began to study for our fall series on Job I did so with great trepidation. Who in our church would be met with unexpected suffering over the course of our study? Who would say the truth from Job arrive “just in time” for them during a season of pain and hardship?

I didn’t think those questions were unrealistic. God is sovereign over His powerful word. It is never accidental that a church hears the text it hears each week it gathers together. If, after much humble prayer and meditation, a new book of the Bible is selected for study, I take it to mean God wants those people to hear that book at that time. If you agree with that statement, then a mere cursory knowledge of Job would lead you to conclude – like me – that unusual suffering might be coming our way this fall.

And it has.

A STUDY FOR THE SEASON

I walked into this series knowing that several people were already suffering with cancer; many were dealing with familial and parenting pain; others were going through hardship in the workplace. The truth of Job has been like ballast in their lifeboat, giving weight and meaning as the struggle against the storms of suffering rushing over the deck.

Then came the news that a family in our church who was close to adopting a set of siblings, were actually going to have to watch the children return home to an environment in which no children should be raised. Our church had prayed for 18 months for God to provide children for this godly couple. The wife, upon finding out the children would likely be returned to their birth mom said, “It feels as though they’ve been given a death sentence.” The husband said, “If we weren’t studying the book of Job . . . I don’t know if we’d be making it.”

Job has been a sovereign word for their season of suffering.

A few weeks later I was on the phone with a church member talking about how we could pray for his family and he asked that God would open the womb. Their life was coming to the inevitable place of beginning to try to have children and there was some fear of not being able to conceive after trying for a few months. What elation we had together when just under a week I found out they were in fact pregnant! Two months go by and I receive an email from the husband saying his wife miscarried. Just a few days later I am preaching on Job 18-19 and asking the congregation as a whole, “Will you believe God is for you when your suffering makes no sense?”

God was speaking to them in their suffering.

WEEP WITH THE WEEPING

Then I received a text message this Tuesday informing me one of the women in our church had just gone into the doctor for a sonogram and it was discovered the baby might have anencephaly. Anencephaly is the absence of a major portion of the brain, skull, and scalp that occurs during embryonic development. Another test the next day confirmed the findings. Now these precious parents face the prospect of their child either dying in the womb or, more likely, giving birth to a baby that will inevitably die within a few hours of delivery.

I know afresh what it means to weep with those who are weeping.

The father of this young child texted me and said, “We are thankful for your teaching on Job. There was never any doubt that we’d need it, we just hoped it wouldn’t be so soon.”

Me too, brother. Me too.

God’s word has prepared them for this suffering.

HE IS DOING SOMETHING

I share all this to say something quite simple, “Trust in the sovereign sufficiency of God’s Word.” Oh, how it is useful and powerful! He has decreed to bring unimaginable glory to His name and good to His people through the preached word. The Spirit will use it as a mold to conform the church into Christ’s image.

I wish the uncommon suffering hadn’t come, but oh how thankful I am that the written word tethers us to the Incarnate Word.

Our hope is build on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness
We dare not trust the sweetest frame
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name

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Book to Look For: On the Church

Jared Wilson is a gifted writer. His books are always full of winsome wit and gospel goodness.

In April of next year his latest volume is scheduled to land and it sure seems pastors everywhere will want to read it. Here’s what Crossway has to say about The Prodigal Church.

THE PRODIGAL SPEAKS9781433544613

Pastors want to reach the lost with the good news of Jesus. However, we’ve too often assumed this requires loud music, flashy lights, and skinny jeans. In this gentle manifesto, Jared Wilson—a pastor who knows what it’s like to serve in a large attractional church—challenges pastors to reconsider their priorities when it comes to how they “do church” and reach people in their communities. Writing with the grace and kindness of a trusted friend, Wilson encourages pastors to reexamine the Bible’s teaching, not simply return to a traditional model for tradition’s sake. He then sets forth an alternative to both the attractional and the traditional models: an explicitly biblical approach that is gospel focused, grace based, and fruit oriented.

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A Hymn Worth Singing

We are currently preaching through the book of Job at IDC and I’ve thus been ravaging the hymnals for anything that speaks to suffering in the Christian life.

Just the other day I came across a hymn from the late 19th century, which I had forgotten about, entitled “Jesus I Come to Thee.” I first learned it over a decade ago at the Reformed University Fellowship located at Southern Methodist University. The lyrics are searching and the melody is memorable.

I think a better arrangement of the music can be had, but this Indelible Grace recording will nevertheless captures the usefulness of Sleeper’s song:

LYRICS

1. Out of my bondage, sorrow and night,
Jesus, I come; Jesus I come.
Into Thy freedom, gladness and light,
Jesus, I come to Thee.
Out of my sickness into Thy health,
Out of my wanting and into Thy wealth,
Out of my sin and into Thyself,
Jesus, I come to Thee.

2. Out of my shameful failure and loss,
Jesus, I come; Jesus, I come.
Into the glorious gain of Thy cross,
Jesus, I come to Thee.
Out of earth’s sorrows into Thy balm,
Out of life’s storms and into Thy calm,
Out of distress into jubilant psalm,
Jesus, I come to Thee.

3. Out of unrest and arrogant pride,
Jesus, I come; Jesus, I come.
Into Thy blessed will to abide,
Jesus, I come to Thee.
Out of myself to dwell in Thy love,
Out of despair into raptures above,
Upward forever on wings like a dove,
Jesus, I come to Thee.

4. Out of the fear and dread of the tomb,
Jesus, I come; Jesus, I come.
Into the joy and light of Thy home,
Jesus, I come to Thee.
Out of the depths of ruin untold,
Into the peace of Thy sheltering fold,
Ever Thy glorious face to behold,
Jesus, I come to Thee.

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Be Serious

Serious Joy

In The Courage to Be Protestant David wells wrote, “The conventional wisdom is that seriousness is the death knell of successful churches. In an age of entertainment, such as our age is in the West, we have to be funny, likeable, and light to succeed. So, seriousness must be banished.”

He’s right; the contemporary culture turns up its nose at seriousness, finding its stench to be less than pleasant.

But the Bible tells us a different story.

THE SMELL OF SERIOUSNESS

One of my best friends growing up was a guy named Cary Wicker. For thirteen straight years we played on the same soccer team, so we were around each other a fair amount of each week. I spent many days and nights at the Wicker home, and theirs was a home that had a distinct aroma. Looking back on it now, I’m pretty sure it was mostly due to the cigars that Mr. Wicker was known to enjoy throughout the week. Whatever it was, wherever Cary went he always carried the Wicker aroma around with him.

The summons of Christian ministry is one that has a distinct flavor. Theologically, it has Trinitarian smell: God’s glory in Christ as revealed by the Spirit. Practically, according to the the qualifications of 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1, it smells of the grace and knowledge of the Good Shepherd. Ministerially, it smells of serious joy in a Sovereign Savior.

Preach the Word. Shepherd the flock of God. Do the work of an evangelist. Train yourself for godliness. Set for the believers an example. Be ready in season and out of season. Fulfill your ministry.

These are commands, not considerations, for gospel ministry. Obedience in these matters requires a peculiar level of seriousness from a pastor who longs to be faithful. Our people need gravity, not levity to mark our ministry. A ministry of godly gravity anchored to Christ is one that even the storms of life cannot blow away. But lighthearted levity? The wind of the world will quench that flame with astounding ease.

THE SOUND OF SERIOUSNESS

The danger of talking about seriousness in a 21st century context is that the noun is viewed as a vice, not a virtue. To our culture, seriousness not only stinks, but it’s also scary. I’ve seen godly saints model sobriety in life and heard younger people turn it upside down by thinking “seriousness” is just a way older generations make “snobbery” more palatable. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, just consider what the average person thinks about classical music.

I find that most people today view classical music as a relic of high culture that’s inaccessible to modern tastes. The orchestration is too complex and tone too somber. What we really want in our music is a jingle to lift the the spirit, not a soaring score so rich it will take you dozens of listen before you will fully appreciate it.

So it is with seriousness. “Reverence is outdated,” cries the culture, “Casual familiarity is in.” Simplicity in tone stirs the soul, while weighty complexity stifles the heart. But is that really the case?

A LONG LINE OF SERIOUS MEN

If we could go back to the first century, I’m pretty sure we’d find the descriptor of “seriousness” to be most apt of our Lord’s apostles. They were men zealous for the things of God, humbled before the majesty of God, and satisfied in the life of God. But we dare not accuse them of having no joy! Too many doxologies flowed out from their hearts. We could then take a trip through church history and discover all the great saints of old still revered today are those whose lives embodied “serious joy.” I mean, would anyone dare tell Luther his zeal for reforming the church left him void of joy? His students who received the original “Tabletalk” would think you silly if you questioned the German’s joy. Would someone question Spurgeon’s gravity before God because he seemed so prone to jokes and humor? Ask any member of the Metropolitan Tabernacle and they’d look at you askew, for week in and week out he preached a serious Christ with serious passion.

Read about the lives of Augustine, Calvin, Owen, Edwards, Whitefield, M’Cheyne, and Lloyd-Jones and you’ll get the sense that God has blessed serious joy in peculiar ways.

ANOTHER PARADOX?

Paradoxes about in Scripture: the weakest are the strongest (2 Cor. 12:10); the last shall be first (Mark 10:31); the humble are exalted (Luke 14:11), you must lost your life to find it (Matt. 10:39); we die to live (2 Cor. 4:10). Although I don’t think “serious joy” is a biblical paradox, it sure seems to be a cultural paradox.

We are very good at erecting false dichotomies and I wonder if many of our church members would see seriousness and joyfulness as standing against one another. Well, pastor, go shatter than notion in your life and ministry. Show them the attractive weight of seriousness and the beautiful coloring of joyfulness.

Be “serious joy” on display.

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A Tombstone of Hope

Job Podcast

On a January day in Paris, in 1895 Alfred Dreyfus, a young Jewish artillery officer in the French army and devoted family man, wrongly convicted of selling military secrets days earlier in a rushed court-martial, was brought out to a military courtyard on the Champ-de-Mars publicly degraded before a gawking crowd. His insignia medals were stripped from him, his sword was broken over the knee of the degrader, and he was marched around the grounds in his ruined uniform to be jeered and spat at, while piteously declaring his innocence and his love of France.

In a similar manner we find Job, in chapter 18, summoned to his Bildad’s courtroom and wrongly convicted of “wickedness deserving of extreme suffering,” degraded as deserving of hell. All the while Job maintains his innocence, so even though Satan is using Bildad to tempt Job with hopelessness, we now want to see “Job’s Hopefulness” in chapter 19.

IS GOD AGAINST ME?

Look at Job’s immediate response to Bildad in 19:2,

“How long will you torment me
and break me in pieces with words?

Far from offering comfort, Job’s friends continue only to wound him with their wrong counsel (19:3). Job freely admits in 19:5-6, “Yes, Bildad, it seems as if God is treating me like an unrepentant enemy, but I’m not his enemy. This makes no sense.” In 19:8-11 Job piles up all these verbs to describe how God is attacking him. And look at how he summarizes it all in 19:12,

His troops come on together;
they have cast up their siege ramp against me
and encamp around my tent.

Job feels like God is a commander in chief who has sent untold forces to lay siege upon his soul, a soul Job likens to a “tent.” It’s a brilliant portrayal of Job’s fragility and weakness; Job is a mere tent in the middle of a massive sovereign onslaught. Now in 19:13-20 Job goes on to say that not only is God warring against him, but that his family and friends have left him all alone. Notice the anguish of 19:14,

My relatives have failed me,
my close friends have forgotten me.

Skip down to 19:19,

All my intimate friends abhor me,
and those whom I loved have turned against me.

The storm rages and Job just wants to taste some friendly mercy (19:21), but he can’t find any. And so in 19:22 he likens his friends to being dogs, predators not satisfied to merely feast on his weak body. They want to destroy him. It’s an astonishing storm of apparently senseless suffering is it not? It sounds like Job is utterly hopeless, it sounds like Job believes God is against him. The question thus is, “Will Job trust God is for him even though his suffering makes no sense?”

MY REDEEMER LIVES

Someone once said, “It’s only when the night is darkest that stars shine their brightest.” How true that is with Job. It’s amazing how the depth of Job’s dark night of suffering only serves to amplify the shining star of trust in God; Job is full of hope. Notice 19:23-24,

Oh that my words were written!
Oh that they were inscribed in a book!
Oh that with an iron pen and lead
they were engraved in the rock forever!

He longs for his story to be written (what a glorious irony that it in fact was) on a page or in a rock and vindicate him as a true believer and child of God, whatever his friends think of the matter.

Job it seems as though Job knows an engraving on a rock can fade and “so [he] now makes the wonderful jump from a yearning (‘Oh, that . . .’) to a faith-filled hope (‘I know . . .’).” Hear now one of the most amazing declarations of hope in all the Bible in 19:25-27,

For I know that my Redeemer lives,
and at the last he will stand upon the earth.
And after my skin has been thus destroyed,
yet in my flesh I shall see God,
whom I shall see for myself,
and my eyes shall behold, and not another.
My heart faints within me!

Oh, may God give us such faith. May hope in this Redeemer lead us to never fear when death is near. I want you to see three truths about the Redeemer in which Job hopes. First, Job hopes in a living Redeemer. This Redeemer literally “lives forever.” In the Old Testament a kinsman-redeemer was someone tied to you by covenant, usually a relative whose calling was to stand for you when you were wronged; he was your “Champion” and “Vindicator.”

Second, Job hopes in a defending Redeemer. The original Hebrews says this Redeemer will stand “upon the dust,” he will trample the dust that came to symbolize death and “stand” for His own. This verb stand refers to a witness standing in court to bear testimony.

Thirdly, Job hopes in a consuming Redeemer. To gaze upon the beauty of this Redeemer is all consuming; “his entire inner being was ready to burst with a holy passion to look upon God. At the conclusion of chapter 17 Job asked, “Where then is my hope?” His answer, “Here then, in this living, defending, and consuming Redeemer, is my hope.”

What will be your anchor of hope when senseless suffering comes? There is but only one anchor, this Redeemer Jesus Christ.

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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.

9780801026980mFor the Glory of God: Recovering a Biblical Theology of Worship by Daniel Block. I love to see scholars branch out and publish works outside their ordinary discipline. The church needs well-rounded scholars who can speak knowledgeably and winsomely to a whole host of issues. For the Glory of God finds Old Testament scholar Daniel Block employing his formidable exegetical skill on the topic of worship. I’ve always found Block to be a bit iconoclastic at times and that tendency is on display from the earliest pages of this book. He believes, and I’m inclined to agree, that too many of the standards works in the field of worship drive an unfortunate wedge between the two testaments’ instruction on worship. Block reveals greater unity across the canon on all kinds of worship matters. He defines true worship as “reverential human acts of submission and homage before the divine Sovereign in response to his gracious revelation of himself and in accord with his will.” With this definition in place he arranges his material topically, choosing to show how a given issue (such as the object of worship, the ordinances, music, and the proclamation of Scripture) develops across redemptive history. Every chapter is consumed with rigorous exegesis of the relevant texts, but practical application is never lacking as Block consistently offers logical and wise implications for worship in our day. For the Glory of God is one of my favorite reads of the year.

9781433541353mThe Hole in Our Holiness: Filling the Gap Between Gospel Passion and the Pursuit of Godliness by Kevin DeYoung. Of all the young and popular authors today, DeYoung is probably my favorite. His works are always full of wit, wisdom, and “ruthless Bible-centeredness” (to adjust Piper’s endorsement of this book). I think this is the fourth time I’ve read The Hole in Our Holiness in two years and I’m always challenged afresh in the pursuit of godliness. I love his attention to the breadth and diversity of motivations for holiness, his pastoral sensibility of treasuring a tender conscience, and his exhortation to extraordinary holiness through ordinary means. If you’ve yet to read this book, grab a copy, invite a friend to read it with you, and stir up one another to a joy-filled, purposeful striving after the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

TBBThe Baptized Body by Peter Leithart. Every month I meet with a group of pastors in our county for lunch and some “affectionately contentious fellowship.” One brother whom I particularly enjoy hanging out with is a voluminous reader and never ceases to suggest a title I “must read” on a given topic. A few months ago we were talking about baptism and he said, “You gotta read Peter Leithart and The Baptized Body.” Knowing my skepticism toward all things Federal Vision, he must have assumed I wasn’t going to buy a copy so he sent one in the mail. I thus felt duty-bound to read Leithart’s book-length answer to the question of, “Does baptism do anything to the baptized?” Leithart says, “Yes!” and I agree. We just disagree on what it actually does. Leithart goes father than I’m willing to go by saying the baptized are made partakers of all the benefits of Christ, even if they don’t truly believe in the Lord Jesus. Anyone familiar with Leithart and the Federal Vision hullabaloo of the last decade or so won’t find anything surprising here.

OSAn Officer and a Spy by Robert Harris. Have you heard of the Dreyfus Affair? If not, you are missing out on one of the more fascinating legal and political scandals that rocked the western world at the turn of the 20th century. In An Officer and a Spy the brilliant Robert Harris gives us a historically informed narrative of that most salacious of events. The book cover rightly captures the immense tension by saying, “A whistle-blower.  A witch hunt. A cover-up. Secret tribunals, out-of-control intelligence agencies, and government corruption. Welcome to 1890s Paris.” Alfred Dreyfus has been convicted of treason, sent off to prison on Devil’s Island, and publicly degraded from military rank. Harris focuses his retelling on Georges Picquart, the venerable investigator who lost his reputation and nearly his life in pursuit of the truth about Dreyfus. If you don’t know the history behind this story resist the temptation to look it up on Wikipedia, buy a copy of Harris’ novel, and find yourself enthralled.

9780230710160Edge of Eternity by Ken Follett. Edge of Eternity is the final entry in Follett’s smashingly successful “The Century Trilogy” and it’s also his most ambitious. At the risk of over-generalizing Fall of Giants dealt with World War I era and Winter of the World handled the World War II era. So what’s left for this final volume? The Cold War. While Edge of Eternity covers the swath of 1961-2008, more than 800 of the book’s nearly 1,100 pages are set between 1961 and ’68. Khrushchev, the Kennedys, Martin Luther King Jr., civil rights, and the Berlin Wall dominate the narrative with occasional forays into rock ‘n roll and the movement of free love. It’s all handled in typical Follett fashion: a unified tale told through the dual lenses of love and heartbreak. The sheer amount of time Follett covers ends up making the book more about breadth than depth, but Edge of Eternity is nevertheless a satisfying conclusion to a brilliant trilogy.

Click here to find other entries in the Recent Reads series.

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An Embarrassment of Riches

Continuing Education

Healthy pastors are growing pastors. And growing pastors are those regularly increasing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

What are you doing to grow in the knowledge of Christ?

The ordinary means of grace (word, prayer, sacrament) are the non-negotiables of growing in Christ. They are the spiritual waters for the soul, you can’t go very long with them and survive. And just like every person’s diet builds on the foundational need of water so too must a pastor’s spiritual feast include various and more occasional means.

I want to highlight just one item you might welcome to the table of your soul: the University of iTunes.

A HIDDEN GEM

Do you make use of iTunes U? When Apple revamped iTunes U in 2012 it was already reaching over 700 million downloads. A tech magazine said, “It has always been one of iTunes’ hidden gems, providing access to lectures, course material, presentations and more from top universities. Today, iTunes U is offering over 500,000 free lectures, videos, books and other content from institutions across 26 countries, says Apple.”

In recent years a few seminaries (particularly Covenant Theological Seminary, Westminster Theological Seminary, Reformed Theological Seminary, and Dallas Theological Seminary) have seized on this educational opportunity and are putting whole courses on iTunes U for free download. Pastors, church leaders, and interested lay members can now listen to gifted teachers and legendary professors without leaving their home and without emptying their bank account. These free courses are a treasure trove for pastors continuing their education and growth in biblical/theological/historical/practical knowledge. Make sure to check out everything offered from the seminaries above, but here a few courses you’d be silly to pass up:

mza_8187391329897104788.170x170-75The Reformation by Carl Trueman. There isn’t anyone from whom I rather learn church history than Carl Trueman. His wit, wisdom, and piercing conclusions make him one of the few professors we could rightly label “Maddeningly Brilliant.” Few eras of church history are as interesting and pivotal as the decades occupied with the Reformation. This course offers 33 lectures on everything from Luther, to Calvin, and on to the English Reformation.

mza_7953614672765780867.170x170-75Preaching Christ in a Postmodern World by Tim Keller and Ed Clowney. Before everything “gospel-centered” was popular in broader evangelicalism, Clowney and Keller embodied everything soon to become in-vogue. Originally taught as a Doctor of Ministry course, Dr. Keller and Dr. Clowney ask, “Is Jesus made visible in every sermon or only talked about?” By analyzing and deconstructing other models of preaching that either exhort on moral levels or attempt to evoke an emotional response, Dr.’s Keller and Clowney provide a model of preaching that is Christocentric. This model of preaching focuses on three aspects to guide the listener and preacher: First, how does this text tell me about Christ? Second, how does this text show that the listener’s life is poor without Christ. Third, how to lead the listener to worship and adore Christ.

mza_1891100271890704331.170x170-75The English Puritans by JI Packer. 20 or so hours of Packer riffing on the Puritans? What a gift! This course is an introduction to the English Puritans that includes an examination of historical context, theological contributions, cultural and community impact, and literary output of several prominent Puritan thinkers. Both informative and engaging, this course invites you to set aside the typical Puritan stereotypes and embrace the lives and legacies of some of the greatest minds and preachers in Church history.

mza_6338291738921363735.170x170-75Calvin’s Institutes by David Calhoun. Dr. Calhoun is too little remembered in many circles today. He is a master of his field and a consummate teacher. The Professor Emeritus of Church History at Covenant Seminary guides this course in the reading and analysis of Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion, emphasizing the Reformer’s method, material arrangement, and biblical-theological content.

d2_160Christian Apologetics by John Frame. This one is for all you who love defending the faith – which should be all of us. In this course John Frame, The Triperspectivalist himself, seeks to formulate the rational basis for believing in Christian theism, with responses to objections and critiques of competing worldviews. In the first part, the student examines what Scripture says about human knowledge, particularly the process by which a non-Christian comes to know Christ. In the second part, the primary focus is on the controversy over how to do apologetics, with attention given to differing apologetic schools. Finally, the third part discusses issues under debate between Christians and non-Christians, such as the existence of God, the truth of Scripture, the problem of evil, and the currents of modern and postmodern thought.

And just for grins . . .

tns.otwwgcqd.170x170-75The Civil War and Reconstruction Era, 1845-1877 by David Blight. If you’ve ever wanted to get a sense of education at Yale University, here you go. Blight is a master lecturer and, I think, will keep anyone interested in this most fascinating and important era in our nation’s history. This course explores the causes, course, and consequences of the American Civil War, from the 1840s to 1877. The primary goal of the course is to understand the multiple meanings of a transforming event in American history. Those meanings may be defined in many ways: national, sectional, racial, constitutional, individual, social, intellectual, or moral. Four broad themes are closely examined: the crisis of union and disunion in an expanding republic; slavery, race, and emancipation as national problem, personal experience, and social process; the experience of modern, total war for individuals and society; and the political and social challenges of Reconstruction.

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The Cemetery of Ministry

Cemeteries and Sanctification

“Resolved, to think much on all occasions of my own dying, and of the common circumstances which attend death.” – Edwards

It doesn’t take anyone long to notice I live a life of routine. The less charitable might call me predictable, while the more understanding call me disciplined. I’m sure the reality is somewhere in between.

For the majority of my pastoral ministry I’ve been in a more traditional church setting, replete with church buildings and offices. Those structures are great friends for habit and routine. It was easy to do the same thing, at the same time, in the same place. Those were the good ol’ days.

MOVING IS MY ENEMY

Since we started Imago Dei Church at the beginning of last year my grip on routine was dealt a mighty blow, as we have neither a church building nor office. For much of the last two years my daily routine was everything but routine. Where I was on a given day depending on any number of factors. Sometimes I would move to three or four locations in a given day based on what work I had on my plate. I imagine that those of you who love changes in scenery would think that workflow would be fun, but to me that constant movement is an elusive shadow that haunts my soul. Yes, it is that grave.

So it was to my profound joy and comfort that my parents purchased a townhome – now popularly known in our family as “The Townhouse” – in McKinney earlier this year (they live in Bryan, TX) and asked if I’d like to use it as an office when they weren’t around (which on average is about three weeks a month). “Let me think about it . . . uh, YES!”

Routine returned and productivity flourished.

A CHANGE OF SCENERY

The still silence of The Townhouse has allowed my mind to focus, but I’ve realized in recent weeks how my soul is feeling less energized. Maybe it’s because I’m not around a consistent conversational banter during the day or because the lonesome structure can easily amplify Lone Ranger feelings in ministry. Whatever the reason, I thought to myself this week, “I need to find another place where I can consistently go; a place that will fuel the soul.”

After thinking for a few minutes of options nearby the proverbial “Ding! Ding! Ding!” went off in my mind.

I needed to go to the cemetery.

TRUST AMIDST TOMBSTONES

Two things in this created world seem to have unique power to stir my soul: mountains and cemeteries. We don’t have any mountains in McKinney, but we do have cemeteries.

Walking amongst the tombstones always does something powerful. I am reminded of: my mortality, God’s gracious provision of life, the fleeting nature of time, the impact of faithful generations, and how much I long to do something with this vaporous moments that remain.

Pastoral ministry is a ministry of life and death. Our gilded age celebrates the life-giving nature of faithful ministry, but what of the death-demanding side of things? We must give ourselves over to death so our people might live. We must die to the flesh, the world, and the devil. We must prepare our people to die trusting in the kind arms of the Father.

Sitting under a tree at the cemetery reminds me of all these things. It helps me pray with perspective. It helps me read and write with purpose.

In short, it feeds my soul.

WHAT’S YOUR PLACE?

While not every pastor has my possibly morbid attachment to cemeteries, I’m sure every one of us has a particular place or setting that stirs the soul. What’s yours?

Know it, find it, and then use it to propel you to greater faithfulness in the ministry to which He’s called you.