It is Black Friday, as you know. While so many of you were enjoying family and Thanksgiving feasts (something Canadians already did well over a month ago) I was putting together my annual list of Black Friday deals that will appeal especially to Christians. You’ll find all sorts of deep discounts on books, gifts, and other good stuff. Give it a look here.

Godly Leaders Go First
This one takes a valuable principle and applies it to dads. “Godly leadership often involves being last. For years on end, I watched my dad be the last one at church as he chose to be the one to lock up the building and turn off the lights so others in the congregation could go directly home for lunch or beat the Methodists and Presbyterians to the buffet. I watched my parents provide what we needed as their children before even thinking about their own needs.”
Victim Blaming and the Rich Young Ruler
Dave writes about a victim of rape in his village in Cameroon. He reflects on the common tendency to blame the victim rather than the perpetrator.
Avoiding the comparison trap as we serve our Master
“On the Last Day, God is not going to mark on the normal distribution curve, comparing you to all other believers. No, God wants to know what you, with your unique set of circumstances, have done with what you have been given.”
Everyone Places Limits on Sex, Not Only Christians. Why?
Ryan van der Avoort points out that it’s not only Christians who place limits on sex, then explains why Christians insist on the limits they do.
Reflections On Later Life
Eunice Cawston writes poignantly about being a little bit later on in life.
4 Feasts We Eat Every Week at Church
“I walked through the doors of our church with my kids running ahead of me, excited to find their daddy (who is the pastor). It might have been hard to get there that morning, but it was worth it. Simply the presence of other believers encouraged my weary heart. They believed church matters, which helped me believe it too.”
Flashback: Unjust, Unkind, Unfair, Un-humble?
Is it unjust, unkind, unfair, un-humble to insist upon the exclusivity of Jesus Christ? No, it is unjust, unkind, unfair, un-humble not to, for in doing so we are simply describing reality. In doing so we are offering hope.

Life with God is not immunity from difficulties, but peace within difficulties. —C.S. Lewis

Here is something I have been considering over the past few days: Every one of us acknowledges there is a lamentable lack of unity among Christians today. Yet none of us seems to consider that we ourselves may be the cause of that disunity, or at least contribute to it. In our minds, it is always other people who fracture the peace and disrupt the harmony. But sometimes I wonder: Could I be one of the bad guys?

Unity

God created us as social beings. God, who is himself triune and who has enjoyed perfect and unbroken communion within the godhead, created us in his image as beings who are communal. Yet because of our fall into sin, what should only ever have brought joy now brings pain. Where we should be displaying the kind of unity that pleases and imitates God, we now display the kind of disunity that displeases and grieves him. Sadly, this is true even in the local church and even in the wider community of those who have been redeemed. In fact, sometimes it seems easier to see evidence of disunity than unity, of fighting than harmony.

Yet we cannot allow ourselves to be content with this sad situation. Rather, we must learn to exist in harmony and to genuinely love one another. This is true of the relationships between individual Christians, true of the local church, and true of the church across the globe. This kind of unity is the subject of Conrad Mbewe’s book Unity: Striving Side by Side for the Gospel. It is a simple and brief book, but one that is both important and badly needed.

Mbewe begins where any call to unity must begin—with “the simple fact that unity is something already secured for us by God. Strictly speaking, our role is not to become united but to remain united, not to attain but to maintain unity.” When Jesus died for his people, he died not only to reconcile them to God but also to reconcile them to one another. Whatever divisions may have stood between God’s people have been negated as legitimate causes of disunity—gender, racial, national, financial, tribal, and so on. Where God’s people had once been one nation, they are now one body called “the church” and “everyone comes in on the same terms—repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.”

This means that our goal as we consider unity is not so much to create unity or demand it of ourselves, but to acknowledge that it already exists and to simply live it out. We can do this boldly and confidently because we know Jesus longs for it and has prayed to the Father about it. Unity is dear to the heart of our Savior.

After explaining how unity is accomplished in Christ, Mbewe explains how unity is applied by the Spirit—how the Holy Spirit “takes what Jesus Christ has done for us and applies it to our hearts.” He unites us to the one body, he dwells within us, and he guides us into the truths that make us value unity and pursue it.

With those two indicatives of unity in the background, Mbewe turns to two imperatives—two specific ways Christians are to foster unity. First, he shows how it is to be jealously guarded by believers. We guard unity by understanding the gospel and knowing who rightly professes it and who does not. Once we have ascertained who is rightly professing the gospel, we carefully ensure we are not allowing secondary differences to drive us apart, even as we may need to value different doctrines or worship in different contexts. The second imperative is to evidence unity in gospel endeavors. These are ways that Christians can actively and proactively display their unity in either the local church or in ventures that involve multiple churches or traditions (e.g. book publishing, training institutions, and fighting social ills).

In all of this, Mbewe shows that the stakes are high. “Jesus is saying that when the gospel reaches societies and the church is born, onlookers will be amazed at how people from diverse backgrounds have genuine love for one another. They will notice that these people come from different tribes, ethnic groups, and nations, and yet they are united. They will notice that they gladly worship and work together for a common cause. They will have to admit that something extraordinary is happening. They will be forced to give the claims of Christ their attention. How else can they explain the unity among God’s people? Where does this love come from?”

This book made me ponder whether I am increasing the unity that is so meaningful to God or if I am hindering it. It also gave me specific ideas for fostering it—specific practices I can embrace, implement, and pursue. I am confident the book will do the same for you if you read it—something I highly recommend.

Though we would never wish for a scandal to take place and make its way into the headlines, and while we should always regret the circumstances that bring one about, a scandal does offer the opportunity for personal introspection. A wise man will heed its lessons, for it inevitably provides the context to consider whether sin is sneaking up on us as it has on someone else, to practice the biblical admonition “let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12).

In recent months the news around these parts has carried stories of a number of highly-publicized scandals, some of which involve professed Christians and some of which do not. And while none overlap my life or social circles in any significant way, I’ve still found myself pondering the public facts to consider what lessons I can draw from them.
The lesson that is most prominent in my mind is that you’re never too old to destroy your legacy—which is to say that you’re never beyond the temptation to sin. Some of these people had enjoyed many years of service in the public eye and had earned an upright reputation. And then, in the blink of an eye, they had to resign in disgrace. Some tried to express the hope that, because they had done so much good for so long a time, their legacy would not be entirely undermined. Yet, while they may have done much good, they will never outrun the context in which their careers came to so sudden a halt. The lesson is that we can never coast, we can never relax our vigilance against sin until we have safely landed in heaven.
Just behind that lesson is this: sin will often bring the most pain and harm to those we love the most (or are meant to love the most). It is almost unbearable to consider the cost to a wife in shame as news of her husband’s affair crisscrosses the world (and, of course, to a woman’s husband if the wife is the one who has transgressed). Every story will tell of a marriage that must now be in peril because of one spouse’s thoughtlessness, one person’s transgressions. That husband may have enjoyed his sin while it was taking place but his wife and family will know only pain, shame, and confusion. That pastor may have gained some enjoyment while committing his sinful deeds, but how he has resigned and his church is left rocked and hurting. So often the cost of our sin is disproportionately paid by the very people we are charged to love, protect, and care for.
Here’s another lesson: Some people stick around too long. They grow so accustomed to being in the public eye that they cannot tolerate the thought of obscurity, of being a former politician, a former athlete, or even a former pastor. Yet there comes a time when remaining in the public eye (or the pulpit or the conference circuit or …) may reflect idolatry more than necessity or service. That public prominence may have become a matter of identity so that the individual doesn’t know who he would be without the position and the acclaim that comes with it. And there is grave danger that comes to those who are in the public eye to work out their own identity rather than to serve others. Sometimes what’s best for a person, his family, and the people he has served is to step aside—to quit while he is ahead. (The people who most need to quit are probably the very ones who find the thought most unbearable!)
And then this: We are particularly vulnerable to temptation in the area in which we build our “brand.” One of the individuals caught up in a recent scandal branded himself as the consummate family man who loved and valued his wife and family. Yet he now leaves the public eye just hoping he will be able to regain their trust and confidence and salvage something of a relationship with them. Another was an advocate for justice who was found to have committed acts of great injustice. The area in which both of these people wished to present themselves as particularly strong was the very area in which they were particularly vulnerable (or even eager, perhaps) to temptation. And this makes me think of how many Christian “experts” in areas like marriage and family have eventually been unmasked as hypocrites in much the same way and how many advocates of the vulnerable have actually trodden so many underfoot. We easily deceive others and ourselves.
I also see how Satan may send counsellors to try to persuade those who have sinned that they should not allow that sin to drive them from the public eye—that they are so good at what they do or so crucial to their church or organization that they should fight to maintain their position. Sometimes a disgraced individual will initially follow conscience and attempt to do the right thing, only to heed poor counsel and withdraw an earlier resignation. Just when a person seems willing to make much of his sin, he may be encouraged to make little of it. Bad sin so often seems to be followed by bad counsel.
It is also worth reflecting on the fact that a man can be easily flattered. In a number of situations the person was caught up in a sexual scandal with someone quite a bit younger—sometimes in a context that was abusive and sometimes in a context that was consensual. I believe many older men would be able to testify that there can be something very validating about the attention of a younger woman, something very affirming about thinking he’s still got what it takes to attract and woo someone who is much his junior. Aging can certainly be humbling and discouraging, so a man who is wise will consider how he can face and endure it with grace—and not seek out or succumb to flattery.
The final lesson is that your sin will find you out. An old Puritan warned that Satan likes to dangle the bait while hiding the hook. Satan’s greatest trick is to let us think we can enjoy the pleasures of sin without paying its cost. And while we so often get away with it for a while, eventually the hook grabs hold and our sin gets exposed. And while we see this happen time and time again, we seldom seem to learn the lesson. When confronted by the opportunity to sin, we need to consider the cost to ourselves, our family, our church, our testimony, and our Savior. We need to assume that Satan does not just wish for us to sin, but to eventually make that sin every bit as public as was the case for those people we see in the headlines.
I will close out with J.I. Packer’s challenging, sobering words, penned when he was already old and already grappling with the challenges of aging: “Racers always try to keep something in reserve for a final sprint … My contention is that so far as our bodily health allows, we should aim to be found running the last lap of our Christian life, as we would say, flat out. The final sprint, so I urge, should be a sprint indeed.” Those who are in that final stretch must make it a sprint indeed—a sprint in which their godly character carries them safely and victoriously over the finish line. Meanwhile, those of us who are still approaching that final stretch must already be laying “aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely” so we can “run with endurance the race that is set before us”—and run to the very end without stumbling, without falling, without bringing disgrace to our name or reproach to the name of Christ.