What pleases God? What delights his heart? And what displeases God? What grieves his heart?

If asked, I think most of us would assume that if we ever grieve the heart of God it will be through denying the gospel or committing a grave moral scandal. Or if we do so as a local church, it will be by compromising to the culture or apostatizing altogether.

As for what delights the heart of God, I think most of us would assume that if we ever delight the heart of God it will be through great acts—giving tremendous sums of money or dedicating our lives to a difficult mission. Or perhaps on the level of the local church, it will be by sparking revival or leading thousands to Christ.

In other words, we are prone to believe that God is both grieved and delighted by what is extra-ordinary—great deeds of sin or great acts of service. The reality, though, is that we serve a God who finds great meaning in what we count as small matters—a cup of water for a thirsty man, new clothes for a ragged child, a gentle visit to a lonely soul. God is not pleased only when we accomplish what we might count as great things for him and not grieved only when we commit what we might count as great sins. Rather, he is pleased when we accomplish what he counts as faithful things and grieved when we fail to accomplish them.

This means that God may be grieved by situations that seem to us to be very mundane. Ephesians 4:30 warns, “do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God.” As we zoom out to the surrounding verses to gain our context we see that God can be grieved by our words, and especially the words we exchange with other believers. He can be grieved by situations we encounter every day—the words we exchange in our homes, the conversations we engage in online. Together we can grieve the Spirit in the fellowship time we have after church on a Sunday or the small group time we have on a weekday evening. We must be vigilant in these very common contexts because every time we open our mouths to speak to one another we have the ability to grieve the Spirit.

God delights in a word that is well-spoken, a word that encourages, a word that builds up, a word that gives grace.Share

Yet surely if we can grieve the Spirit through our words, we can also delight him. God delights in a word that is well-spoken, a word that encourages, a word that builds up, a word that gives grace. It delights the Spirit when we allow life-giving words to flow out of our mouths to be a blessing to others.

There is so much evil we can do with our words. And there is so much good. There is so much grief we can cause when we speak; there is so much delight. For that reason, each of us ought to make it a habit—regularly, routinely, and prayerfully—to ponder this admonition: “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.”

Good morning. Grace and peace to you.

Today’s Kindle deals include some excellent books on how Christians are to read, preach, and/or interpret the Bible. There’s something there for everyone!

“Have you ever felt that you are not serving God to your full capacity? Perhaps you’re marking time at a job that does not use your full potential. Perhaps you just lost a relationship and thus your vision for the future. Perhaps you have an unforeseen illness that saps your vitality. Perhaps your life has devolved into the mundane aspects of caring for an infant or the elderly as your sleep is disrupted and your vision blurs, and your main goal for each day devolves into how you can arrange a nap.”

I’m sure this—trying to figure out how to forgive and move on—is a situation we have all experienced at one time or another. “We might find help from a few prayerful, deliberate steps: Steady your heart before God. Consider whether to overlook or address. Then resolve to wipe the record clean.”

This may prove an encouraging devotional for those who are struggling with depression.

“Coercion has no ability to change internal beliefs. It only has the ability to enforce an external behavior on the threat of force (punishment). This is exactly the same issue with the concept of laws. Laws cannot change internal belief at all. They can only enforce external behaviors. They also function to reveal the state of the person through the rules they prescribe.”

Andrew Dealy: “Awkward conversations have adorned the dinner table ever since Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. That being said, I am hard-pressed to think of a more awkward moment at a meal than this.”

I was recently a guest on the radio program Haven Today. We talked about church history and my Epic journey around the world. The program continued with clips over 5 days so we made some good progress!

While there are other books written for the victims of spiritual abuse, this one is written for the ones who may purposely or inadvertently find themselves perpetrating it.

It is one thing to profess God, another thing to resemble Him.
—Thomas Watson

Motives matter, even (or perhaps especially) when it comes to something as very good as studying the Bible. The best motive for reading the Bible is to be transformed by it. For this to happen, we must approach our reading and studying with both confidence and humility, asking God to transform us through his Word.

Many skeptics read the Bible for a very different purpose—so they can attack it or undermine it, so they can disprove it or mock it. They prove that great knowledge of the Bible may actually lead them farther from God, all because their motives have been wrong.

But even Christians can read the Bible for ignoble purposes, perhaps so they can content themselves that they have more knowledge of it than someone else, or perhaps so they can feel like they have crossed off that box on their daily list of tasks. Martyn Lloyd-Jones once said, “It is a good thing to be a student of the Word, but only in order to be a practiser and experiencer of the Word.” He reminds us that our efforts in the Word should always be leading toward wisdom, which is living a life that is fully pleasing to God. It is good to be a student of the Bible, but only if we are studying for the right reason—to practice and experience it in our daily lives.

I’m thankful to The Good Book Company for sponsoring the blog this week. They wanted to be certain you know about Alistair Begg’s new advent devotional Let Earth Receive Her King.

Today’s Kindle deals include at least a couple of interesting titles, plus whatever else I can dig up in the morning.

(Yesterday on the blog: The Spiritual Gift Inventory I Believe In)

This is an important word for pastors. “It is easy for me to focus on the difficult parts of pastoral ministry, the problems in the church, and the difficult church members. It takes an act of the Spirit and me yielding to the Spirit to have a reflex of gratitude. Problems are often in our faces as pastors, and we can be utterly blind at times to what we should be thankful for in our churches.”

Can a church require its members to tithe? John Piper provides a good answer.

“My friends might not say I’m a bad listener, but my colleagues can tell when my mind has wandered. And my family? They’d probably say my listening skills need work (mine are abysmal compared to my wife’s!). Maybe I’ve improved a little over the years, but slowing my mind down enough to give full attention is still something I have to work at.”

Steve Burchett lists ten mistakes we may make when preaching or teaching, each of which is easy enough to correct.

Are you interested in a small change that can help the Word really do its work in a church? Then this article is for you.

Benjamin Gladd: “According to a recent survey, roughly 73 percent of adults in the United States believe in heaven. Drilling down further, about 60 percent believe the afterlife entails a future free of suffering where we’ll have “perfectly healthy bodies.” But I suspect the majority have thought little about what they’ll doin these bodies for all eternity.”

I believe in the Bible as the Word of God, the divine scriptures, but also as a special object or artifact that will often outlast the one who owned it, who read it, who treasured it. 

To be right with God the judge is a great thing, but to be loved and cared for by God the Father is greater.
—J.I. Packer

This week’s Free Stuff Friday is sponsored by The Good Book Company. They are giving away a copy of Alistair Begg’s new advent devotional, Let Earth Receive Her King, to prepare your heart for Christmas, along with a $200 gift card for you to purchase Christmas gifts for everyone on your list. 

Here are some of their newest titles, which are great for Christmas gifting:

The Christmas Story Brick by Brick – This faithful rhyming retelling of the Christmas story will help Lego-loving children to engage with the Christmas story afresh, highlighting the surprise and excitement of who Jesus is and why he came. Fun rhymes make for a memorable and enjoyable read, while richly colored, glossy photographs of real brick builds will inspire kids to get creative! Includes designs for five builds you can make yourself either at home or as a craft activity in children’s groups. 

It’s Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas – In this engaging, thoughtful, and winsome book, Andrew Wilson takes us to the first Christmas to show that what can make our Christmases truly special is Jesus, the light of the world. Andrew Wilson explains how Jesus makes a difference to the darkness of this world—and how he can make a difference to our lives too. This short and warmly-written book is perfect for giving away to family, friends, and neighbors, as well as giving away at Christmas services and Christmas outreach events.

Here are a few of their most popular Christmas titles:

A Christmas Promise Storybook – This captivating retelling of the Christmas story shows how God kept his promise to send a king unlike any other: a new, rescuing forever king. With superb illustrations by Catalina Echeverri and faithful, Bible-centered story-telling by Alison Mitchell, this is a gift that both parents and children will love.

Is Christmas Unbelievable? – Many people assume that the story of the baby in the manger at Bethlehem is just another made-up fantasy for kids. In this concise book, respected apologist Rebecca McLaughlin outlines the evidence that Jesus was a real person, explaining the reliability of the Bible’s accounts of his life and why believing in a virgin birth is not as ridiculous as it might sound. This book shows that there is a rational basis for the belief that the world’s most famous story is fact, not fantasy—and how those events in history can infuse our lives today with meaning and joy.

Giveaway Rules: You may enter one time. When you enter, you permit The Good Book Company to send you marketing emails which you may unsubscribe from at any time. The winner will be notified via email. The giveaway closes on Friday, November 29.

In many churches, it is standard practice to have Christians take some kind of a spiritual gift inventory. Through a series of questions that probe an individual’s interests, passions, and successes, these tests claim to help people discover the ways the Holy Spirit has gifted them to better love and serve his people.

Much has been written about such inventories and many people have expressed a degree of skepticism about their usefulness or accuracy. I have long observed that these resources typically lead people to front-of-the-room service more than less visible forms and that they generally lead people to serve in ways that are within their comfort zone and consistent with their pre-existing desires.

Yet the great majority of Christian love and service happens outside the gaze of the congregation and many of the ways God calls us to serve him contradict our natural desires rather than harmonize with them. God is able and often eager to ask us to do things that are difficult and that push us well outside our natural capacities. Hence we find Moses the stuttering leader and Saul the shy king. We find a host of ministers and leaders who, if they remained consistent with their natural talents or desires would never set foot in a pulpit or dare to pastor a church. We find a host of Christians who serve in ways they never would have chosen had God not provided burden and opportunity.

Where you spot a need, consider meeting it. Where you spot a weakness, consider strengthening it. Where you spot an opportunity, consider taking it.Share

This is not to say that such inventories are useless or have no purpose. Yet it seems wise to treat them with some degree of caution, and willingly make ourselves available to God to serve in any capacity, whether we can identify special gifting or not. The reason is simple: it often seems that God gives the gift with the calling, rather than the calling with the gift.

With that in mind, here is one inventory that I would encourage you to consider. Instead of surveying yourself, survey your local church. Instead of assessing your own strengths, assess your church’s needs. Instead of focusing on the gifts God may have given you, focus on the gifts that God may want your church to have. Where you spot a need, consider meeting it. Where you spot a weakness, consider strengthening it. Where you spot an opportunity, consider taking it. You may just find that as you move forward, even with trepidation, God bestows the gifting.

May the Lord be with you and bless you on this fine day.

Westminster Books has a deal on a book for kids they’re describing as “Pilgrim’s Progress meets the Prodigal Son.” They’ve also published a new book, now available in EPUB format, that is on themes of identity and union with Christ.

Today’s Kindle deals include some excellent reader-friendly commentaries by Philip Eveson and a few other deals along with them.

Carl Trueman writes about the recent fall of Archbishop Welby. And while this is clearly an appropriate resignation, Trueman does make this point: “He has fallen for allegedly assisting in the covering-up of abuse. He should have fallen much earlier for covering up of orthodoxy. That he did not do so tells us all we need to know about the priorities of the church over which he so pointlessly presided for so many years.”

I only just saw this article from last month. It describes a church that decided to do a church-wide digital detox. What a neat idea.

These 24 readings will make December a month of celebrating the wonder of Christmas and the hope of Christ’s return. Find out more in Alistair Begg’s Let Earth Receive Her King. Get 25% off with code RECEIVE. (Sponsored)

Did Jesus in any way diminish his divine power in order to become human? This video explains a key doctrine.

Kevin DeYoung lists 10 different theories of the atonement. “Most of the models get something right, though some are much closer to the mark than others. We will look at ten models, concluding with penal substitution, which is at the heart of the atonement and the ‘theory’ that holds all the biblical insights of the other theories together.”

Jacob discusses the “Plimsoll line” he has instituted in his marriage to cope with the fact that he is an all-out extrovert while his wife is just the opposite.

What does Jesus mean when he tells his followers not to become “unsalty?” This article explains. “The world can be attractive. Society seems to live with no restraints and represses the guilt of sin. Then, all of life is about self, and forcing others to believe how you conduct life is ‘your truth,’ it is the world’s problem if you do not see things the way they do. Conformity to the world lessens your resolve and leads others to question whether you are a believer.”

We will eat, we will drink, we will feast, and our hearts will be at perfect peace. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

Prayer is no petty duty, put into a corner; no piecemeal performance made out of the fragments of time which have been snatched from business and other engagements of life; but it means that the best of our time, the heart of our time and strength must be given.
—E.M. Bounds