8 Things Contentment Opposes

Jeremiah Burrough’s The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment is one of the most important and personally-impactful Puritan works I’ve ever read. Let me give you just a taste of what Burroughs has to say about contentment. Here he shares eight things that will be opposed by a true, biblical contentment.
  1. It is opposed to murmuring and repining at the hand of God, as the discontented Israelites often did. If we cannot bear this either in our children or servants, much less can God bear it in us. 
  2. To vexing and fretting, which is a degree beyond murmuring. 
  3. To tumultuousness of spirit, when the thoughts run distractingly and work in a confused manner, so that the affections are like the unruly multitude in the Acts, who did not know for what purpose they had come together. The Lord expects you to be silent under His rod, and, as was said in Acts 19:36, “Ye ought to be quiet and to do nothing rashly.”
  4. It is opposed to an unsettled and unstable spirit, whereby the heart is distracted from the present duty that God requires in our several relationships—towards God, others, and ourselves. We should prize duty more highly than to be distracted by every trivial occasion. 
  5. It is opposed to distracting, heart-consuming cares. A gracious heart so esteems its union with Christ and the work that God sets it about that it will not willingly suffer anything to come in to choke it or deaden it. A Christian is desirous that the Word of God should take such full possession as to divide between soul and spirit (Heb 4:12), but he would not allow the fear and noise of evil tidings to take such a hold in his soul as to make a division and struggling there, like the twins in Rebekah’s womb (Gen 25:22). 
  6. It is opposed to sinking discouragements. God would have us to depend on Him though we do not see how the thing may be brought about; otherwise, we do not show a quiet spirit. 
  7. It is opposed to sinful shiftings and shirkings to get relief and help. Thus do many, through the corruption of their hearts and the weakness of their faith, because they are not able to trust God and follow Him fully in all things and always. For this reason, the Lord often follows the saints with many sore temporal crosses as we see in the case of Jacob, though they obtain the mercy. It may be that your carnal heart thinks, “I do not care how I am delivered, if only I may be freed from it.” Your hearts are far from being quiet! 
  8. The last thing that quietness of spirit is the opposite of is desperate risings of the heart against God by way of rebellion. That is the most abominable. They find in their hearts something of a rising against God. Their thoughts begin to bubble, and their affections begin to move in rebellion against God Himself. This is especially the case with those, who besides their corruptions, have a large measure of melancholy. The devil works both upon the corruptions of their hearts and the melancholy disease of their bodies. 

Now Christian quietness is opposed to all these things. When affliction comes, whatever it is, you do not murmur or repine, you do not fret or vex yourself.  

Weekend A La Carte (5/19)

Discrimination Against Women - Mary Kassian provides an interesting perspective on the he-turned-she beauty pageant contestant who recently competed to be Miss Canada. If you expand the logic, it means that men turned women should also be able to compete against women in athletics.

Evangelize, Not Indoctrinate - “We get this idea we have authority over our children’s hearts. We demand right responses to theological questions. We put in biblical material and expect biblical results. We catechize them to perfection under the assumption if their answers are right so too are their hearts. In short we indoctrinate them.”

Cellphone Neglect - “Do your kids complain you are on your smartphone too much? Do you set a boundary on use when you’re at home?” This article from The Globe and Mail looks at some of the costs of neglecting family for the sake of connectivity.

Sermon Preparation - Ray Ortlund writes about sermon preparation, breaking it down into three aspects: the technical, the rhetorical and the personal.

J.I. Packer Interview - Carl Trueman has a nice, short interview with J.I. Packer.

When thou prayest, rather let thy heart be without words than thy words without a heart. —John Bunyan

How to Backslide in 9 Easy Steps

A few days ago I shared John Bunyan’s wisdom on why some who profess faith in Christ eventually backslide. Today I want to follow him a little bit farther. Having covered the why, I’ve now drawn from Pilgrim’s Progress instruction on the how. In each case I’ve given my short summary followed by Bunyan’s own words. Here is how to backslide in nine easy steps:

  1. Stop meditating on the gospel. “They draw off their thoughts, all that they may, from the remembrance of God, death, and judgment to come.”
  2. Neglect your devotions and stop battling sin. “Then they cast off by degrees private duties, as closet prayer, curbing their lusts, watching, sorrow for sin, and the like.”
  3. Isolate yourself from Christian fellowship. “Then they shun the company of lively and warm Christians.”
  4. Stop going to church. “After that, they grow cold to public duty, as hearing, reading, godly conference, and the like.”
  5. Determine that Christians are hypocrites because they continue to sin. “They then begin to pick holes, as we say, in the coats of some of the godly, and that devilishly, that they may have a seeming color to throw religion (for the sake of some infirmities they have espied in them) behind their backs.”
  6. Trade Christian community for distinctly unChristian company. “Then they begin to adhere to, and associate themselves with, carnal, loose, and wanton men.”
  7. Pursue rebellious conversation and fellowship. “Then they give way to carnal and wanton discourses in secret; and glad are they if they can see such things in any that are counted honest, that they may the more boldly do it through their example.”
  8. Allow yourself to enjoy some small, sinful pleasures. “After this they begin to play with little sins openly.”
  9. Admit what you are and prepare yourself for everlasting torment. “And then, being hardened, they show themselves as they are. Thus, being launched again into the gulf of misery, unless a miracle of grace prevent it, they everlastingly perish in their own deceivings.”

Free Stuff Fridays

Free Stuff Fridays
This week’s Free Stuff Fridays is sponsored by Peacemaker Ministries. They will be giving away five sets of the following five books from the “peacemaking line” at Baker Books:

Peacemaker

  • The Peacemaker, by Ken Sande - The foundational book on biblical peacemaking that lays out a gospel-centered and practical framework for Christians to use to resolve conflicts.
  • The Peacemaker Student Edition, by Ken Sande and Kevin Johnson - A short book based on the principles from The Peacemaker that is aimed at teens and youth workers.
  • The Peacemaking Pastor, by Alfred Poirier - Written by a pastor for pastors, this book explores the theology of reconciliation and the call for church leaders to be shepherd mediators.
  • Peacemaking Women, by Tara Barthel and Judy Dabler - With personal stories and advice that is firmly rooted in Scripture, this book looks at some of the relational struggles common to women and offers a guide to peace with God, peaceful relationships with others, and genuine peace within.
  • Redeeming Church Conflict, by Tara Barthel and David Edling - In this hope-filled and practical book, two church conflict resolution experts take you through the Acts 15 model of approaching conflict in order to provide a clear, godly way forward into redemptive reconciliation.

Redeeming Church ConflictThe last book on the list—Redeeming Church Conflicts—has just been released and is a great new resource for both church leaders and church members. Some books might tell you how to manage conflicts in the church or even give guidance on how to resolve them. But this book goes beyond that, walking through actually redeeming something as messy and painful as a church conflict. It’s written specifically to be a help during a time of crisis for a church, but it is also a good resource for churches recovering from conflict or for those that want to be proactive in looking ahead to the conflicts that will inevitably come. The publisher describes the book in this way:

Every church will experience conflicts. How a church handles these inevitable conflicts determines its future and the spiritual health of its members. If properly approached, church conflicts can be used for spiritual growth—both individually and corporately as the body of Christ. Redeeming church conflicts—making something glorious out of something awful—provides evidence to a watching world that the gospel is real and powerful.

In this purposeful and practical book, two church-conflict resolution experts take readers through the Acts 15 model of approaching conflict in order to help them understand the intricacies of their church conflict. The book provides a clear, godly way forward into redemptive reconciliation, regardless of how the people involved in the conflict respond or fail to respond.

The authors, David Edling and Tara Barthel, have put together a helpful website related to this book, and they actively blog and lead discussions there on topics related to conflict in the church. Watch the video below to get a sense of their heart and the content included in the book:

Giveaway Rules: You may only enter the draw once. Simply fill out your name and email address to enter the draw. As soon as the winners have been chosen, all names and addresses will be immediately and permanently erased. Winners will be notified by email. The giveaway closes Saturday at noon.

Note: If you are reading via RSS, you may need to visit my blog to see the form.

A La Carte (5/18)

Feed My Sheep - Feed My Sheep, a book that includes contributions from men like John MacArthur, R.C. Sproul and Sinclair Ferguson has been marked down to just $0.99 in the Kindle version. Why not also grab The Hidden Life of Prayer ($0.99) and read it along with me.

5 Ways to Improve Your Preaching - Here are five ways to immediately improve your preaching.

Best Books on Reading and Writing - Someone recently sent me this, a list of nine recommended books on reading and writing. The writer says it is “a collection of timeless texts bound to radically improve your relationship with the written word, from whichever side of the equation you approach it.”

Writing Tips from an Editor - Here are ten useful (and short) writing tips from a real-life editor.

Don’t Stop Speaking - John Knight links to a sad, sad article. “The title reveals exactly what it is about: I saw my son’s bleak future and knew I had to abort him.  Note: this article is very descriptive about what happened to her, including the abortion process. Please use care.”

The Church on the Arabian Peninsula - “The sheikh may threaten to destroy churches here, but Jesus, the Sheikh of sheikhs and Lord of lords, promised to build them, and he is doing just that. There are encouraging signs among English- and Arabic-speaking congregations in Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, and elsewhere. In view of the massive ministry needs and opportunities here, more followers of Jesus should move to Arabia to plant their lives, build solid churches, preach the gospel, and reach the nations.”

A circle cannot fill a triangle; no more can the whole world fill the heart of man. —Thomas Brooks

The Essential: Man

This is the fourth installment in a series on theological terms. You can see the previous posts on the terms theology, Trinity, and creation. Today the series moves to man.

Surprisingly, attempting to define man in simple terms is not an easy task. There are many things that could be included in the definition and a line has to be drawn somewhere. I’ve chosen to define man according the very first use of the term in the Bible.

In Genesis 1 we find at least four defining characteristics that teach us what man is:

1) As most English Bibles make clear in their footnotes, the term man in Hebrew (adam) is very closely related to the Hebrew word for earth or ground (adama). This is an intentional and ongoing reminder that God formed man “from the dust of the ground” (Genesis 2:7), which teaches us that man is an integrated, natural member of God’s created world.

2) Man is created “in the image of God” (Genesis 1:27); which means that, along with being a natural member of God’s creation, he is also a supernatural being. Having been made in the image of God, he carries the imprint of the supernatural Creator, the God who exists and operates in ways that exceed the natural order he has created. James 3:9 affirms that this divine image has not been removed even after man’s fall from his original state of sinlessness.

3) Man has dominion over creation. God makes this clear in his original mandate to man: “let them have dominion over [everything else I’ve created]” (Genesis 1:26). One of the main implications of being created in God’s image is that we share in his dominion over other created things. But note how our first point affects this: since we are also a member of creation, we serve ourselves best when we steward the rest of creation well.

4) Man is male and female. “In the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27). This verse teaches us that a central component of what God intended when he made man is that we would exist as two intentionally distinct sexes.

In summary, then, Genesis 1 teaches us that man is the one creature made male and female, from the earth, in the image of God, with dominion over the rest of creation.

Will You Read "The Hidden Life of Prayer" With Me?

Reading Classics Together
John Piper once said, “God brings books at their appointed times. The Hidden Life of Prayer arrived late but well-timed. This little jewel-strewn tapestry has done for me at 64 what Bounds’ Power Through Prayer did at 34. I could be ashamed that I need inspiration for the highest privilege. But I choose to be thankful.” For all the great classics we’ve read as part of the Reading Classics Together program, none of them have focused exclusively on prayer. For that reason, and based on its history and acclaim, we will turn next to The Hidden Life of Prayer.

It was back in 2007 that I had an idea that genuinely changed my life. I wanted to read some of the classics of the Christian faith, but I knew that without some measure of accountability I would never have the self-discipline to make it happen. I realized that this accountability could come by reading classics together in community. I decided to launch a reading program called Reading Classics Together. It was simple: We would choose a classic work and read it at a pace of one chapter per week until it was complete; along the way we would “gather” here at the blog for discussion.

The Hidden Life of PrayerIn the years since this program began we’ve read some amazing classics from years gone by and from the present time. These include titles like Holiness by J.C. Ryle, Overcoming Sin and Temptation by John Owen, The Religious Affections by Jonathan Edwards, The Holiness of God by R.C. Sproul, and, most recently, Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan. These books and others like them have benefited me immensely and I know the same is true of those who have read along with me. I am sure that The Hidden Life of Prayer will be a good fit in this program.

This classic was written by David McIntyre (sometimes spelled M’Intyre) who lived from 1859 to 1938. McIntyre was a Scottish preacher who succeeded Andrew Bonar as minister in Finnieston and later served as principal of the Bible Training Institute in Glasgow from 1913 to 1938. His book was first published in 1913. He describes the book’s purpose in his preface: “Books on secret prayer are without number; but it seems to me that there is still room for one in which an appeal may be taken, steadily, and from every point, to life—to the experience of God’s saints.”

One publisher’s introduction to the book says this: “Upon the foundation of biblical teaching, M’Intyre piles example after example of what has been helpful and effective in the prayer lives of many Christians, from Augustine to Spurgeon. The result is a handbook for prayer based both on Scripture and on the time-tested wisdom of God’s people through the centuries. Reading this book will, therefore, give you an abundance of counselors (Proverbs 11:14) to help you toward a victorious prayer life.” 

There are many ways you can get a copy of the book, some of which are free and some of which will require just a few dollars.

  • Westminster Books has kindly discounted a print edition to just $5.49. Click the link to take advantage.
  • The Kindle edition is available for just $0.99.
  • Chapel Library has the PDF for no charge.
  • Granted Ministries has a nice new edition that also includes The Prayer-Life of Our Lord, a sequel of sorts. The cost is just $7.50.
  • A Google search will turn up many online editions.

My plan is to begin discussing this book on May 31. That gives you two weeks to secure a copy and read the first chapter along with any introductory matter. Then you simply need to visit this site and we can discuss it together. We will read one chapter per week until it is complete. The chapters are short, but will require time and reflection in order to apply, so this seems like a good and manageable pace.

Will you read it with me? If so, get a copy of the book and visit the blog on May 31 so we can discuss it together. In the meantime, leave a comment to let me know that you’ll be reading along.

A La Carte (5/17)

Satan’s Desire for Mothers - I think Julian draws out some important points in this article, and especially so under his second heading, “Satan says mothering is too good for you. Gone are the days (seemingly) when mothering is bad and career is good. Now we have entered the days of ‘Super-Moms’, where mothering is not for the faint-of-heart.”

How We View the World - I appreciated this take on the different ways we are prone to see the world (and not only because it borrows its analogy from baseball). 

The Facebook-Free Baby - “When it comes to my son, who is 3 months old, I am doing away with privacy settings altogether—by abstaining. That means my wife and I won’t be posting photos or discussing him online publicly (more on that later). Like a kid born into a vegetarian or Amish family, that is just the way it will be.”

Family vs. Ministry - “God has a design for your family and ministry so that faithfulness in the family enhances faithfulness in the church, and faithfulness in the church enhances faithfulness in the family.” Of course if God has a plan, so too does Satan…

Hunger Games Is Flawed to the Core - I really enjoyed reading N.D. Wilson’s take on The Hunger Games. He points out Some of the book’s greatest moral flaws (Though I don’t think he is saying not to read it).

Plywood - If A La Carte is a collection of things I enjoyed yesterday, then it’s only right that I include this video tribute to plywood.

What We Believe About the Bible - A quick, simple reminder of what Christians believe to be true about the Bible.

None reverence the Lord more than they who know him best. —William Cowper

Dad = Titus

It was exactly two years ago that I was ordained to the ministry. Yesterday I went back and looked at the ordination vow I made. Even better, I went back and looked at the notes my son jotted down during the sermon that day. The text was Titus 2:15: “Declare these things; exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you.” Here is what he wrote:

Dad = Titus

Dad Needs To:

  • Speak the gospel to God’s people
  • Make people remember God
  • Preach the gospel to the pastors
  • Preach the gospel to mom
  • Preach the gospel to me and my sisters
  • Be a model in his life
  • Rebuke people if they do wrong
  • Have patience and love

And I guess that’s the ministry in a nutshell, isn’t it?

Love Covers a Multitude of Sins

In wisdom and love God does not leave his people to live this life alone, but rather calls us into community. One of the sad inevitabilities of living in community is that we will sin against one another. The invitation to Christian community is an invitation to be tested by other people’s sin and weakness.

There are many ways to react badly when sinned against by another Christian. Some of us tend to react with sulking and feeling sorry for ourselves. Some go big and blow up while others give in to the slow, brooding kind of anger. Some just walk away. There are as many ways to react badly to sin as there are ways to sin against one another. There are not nearly as many ways to react well to being sinned against. The Bible gives us two: lovingly overlook that sin or lovingly address that sin. The question is, when are we to overlook and when are we to address?

The well-known eighteenth chapter of Matthew provides a detailed roadmap for addressing sin, but before a person follows that route, he first needs to determine whether or not this is the kind of sin he can simply overlook. Overlooking a sin is held high in Scripture. Proverbs 19:11  says “Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense.” Proverbs 12:16 says that “the prudent ignores an insult” and on the other side of the cross, in 1 Peter 4:8, we are commanded, “Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.”

Love covers a multitude of sins, but love does not always cover a multitude of sins. There are situations in which the most loving action is to address a sin, to make known to the other person that you have been offended by his words or deeds, and to give him the opportunity to repent and seek forgiveness.

Here is how you can go about determining whether this is an offense you should overlook, or an offense you should address.

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