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Cultivating Martial Value for Spiritual War

By Robert D. Hasler — 4 months ago

Written by Robert D. Hasler |
Thursday, October 24, 2024
When we understand that spiritual warfare is more than a metaphor–that it is a fundamental feature of reality–it should cause us to rethink what values we want to cultivate within ourselves and in our communities. One such example is grit. Christians in a spiritual war need to be able to take a punch without losing the will to fight. Grit also encompasses the willingness to “rejoice in our sufferings” as Paul says in Romans 5:3. Gritty Christians rejoice in hardship because they know it’s the trials that produce and reveal true character and that God’s grace is sufficient when they fail.

Imagine you were tasked with preparing for an impending battle. What would be your strategy? What kind of soldiers would you want?
They’re important questions, but not the first question. Before ever considering how you would win or with whom, first you would have to answer this fundamental question, What kind of war am I fighting? How you answer that question informs your answer for everything else.
The first time that I taught The Gospel of Mark, I had my students take out a piece of paper and answer a single question: What is the Gospel?
This being a class of well-catechized teenagers from Reformed families, the answers were fairly predictable. Words like justification and atonement were ubiquitous. Each student had his or her own unique spin, but they all basically boiled down to a singular theme: Christ died on the cross to pay the penalty for my sins so I could have eternal life with him.
Their responses to my prompt were not terribly surprising. In fact, it is a common summary of the Gospel in most evangelical circles today. But, as I did with my class, let’s compare that definition against Jesus’s own words in the early verses of Mark’s Gospel:
“Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel’” (Mark 1:14-15).
Herman Ridderbos once said that the arrival of the kingdom of God is “the central theme of the whole New Testament revelation of God.” Why then does it so rarely get a passing mention in our Gospel presentations? In a word, our hermeneutics. It is so tempting to make our individual selves the central character of the Bible–as if all roads in Scripture culminate in my personal salvation by my personal Savior.
While the ordo salutis and one’s individual justification are important, reading the Bible through such an individualist lens blinds us from appreciating the kingdom of God as the essential biblical theme that it is. In short, it causes us to misunderstand the kind of battle we’re in, and the second-order effects are enormous.
For example, limiting our conception of the Gospel to the forensic declaration of individual justification produces Christians with values and characteristics to match. The “cage-stage Calvinist” comes to mind who is overly bookish, pedantic, and argumentative largely because his hermeneutic requires him to be.
But what if we understood our individual justification as one piece of a story bigger than ourselves? What if we understood it as one battle in a larger war? How might that change our character?
In his book Creation Regained, Al Wolters rightly expands our horizons to see the cosmic scope of the biblical story. From the Old Adam to the New Adam, the Bible describes an epic contest between two regimes, God and Satan, both of whom “lay claim to the whole of creation.”[1]
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The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit and a Pastor’s Ministry

By Andreas Kostenberger — 4 months ago

Unless we give the Holy Spirit his due in our teaching and preaching, we settle for an anemic picture of the Christian life and ministry. We must navigate the tension between exaggerating the Spirit’s independent operations and diminishing his importance. Let us gratefully appreciate the Spirit’s vital contribution and be diligent to teach our people what the Bible says about the Spirit so he can energize their individual lives and their relationships in the body of Christ.

The Holy Spirit has engendered a fair amount of controversy in Christian circles and continues to do so today. This is somewhat ironic, as the Holy Spirit doesn’t draw attention to himself. He is content to stay in the background as he witnesses to Christ, transforms our inner being, and empowers the mission of the church. Our natural tendency may be to shy away from controversy and to avoid the topic altogether. This would be a serious mistake, however, as the Holy Spirit is massively important. Just as there is no salvation without Jesus, there is no sanctification without the Holy Spirit. How does the doctrine of the Holy Spirit relate to a pastor’s ministry?
Why the Holy Spirit Matters
The Bible refers to the Spirit from beginning to end. The first reference to the Spirit is found in Genesis 1:2, which says that “the Spirit was hovering over the waters.” Later, God puts his Spirit on designated craftsmen and leaders to accomplish a given task. Such tasks include building the tabernacle or conveying his word to his people. Thus the Spirit comes on Bezalel and Oholiab, Gideon and Samson, Saul and David, and other leaders of God’s people.
The Holy Spirit in the Bible
The term “Holy Spirit” occurs in only two Old Testament passages. The first is Psalm 51:11, where David pleads with God not to take his Holy Spirit away from him after committing adultery with Bathsheba. The second is Isaiah 63:10–11, which says that the Israelites “rebelled and grieved the Holy Spirit” at the exodus. They did this even though God “put in the midst of them his Holy Spirit” and miraculously delivered them by parting the Red Sea. In addition, there are many other references to the Holy Spirit as “the Spirit of the LORD.” This shows his close connection with the covenant God of Israel.
However, it is only in the New Testament that the full and distinct personhood and deity of the Spirit come into full view. First, the Spirit conceives Jesus, the Messiah, in Mary’s womb. Later, he descends on Jesus at Jesus’ baptism and remains on him through his entire ministry. Then, at Pentecost, the Spirit is poured on all believers. From here on out, he comes to live in all believers to perform in them the work of regeneration, sanctification, and glorification. Paul’s letters are full of references to the work of the Spirit in believers’ lives (see esp. Romans 8, 1 Corinthians 12–14, and Galatians 5).
7 Truths to Teach about the Holy Spirit
It’s impossible in a short article such as this to do full justice to the person and work of the Holy Spirit. That said, here are seven truths every pastor should be careful to teach the people in his congregation.
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A La Carte (October 24)

By Tim Challies — 4 months ago

Good morning from Recife, Brazil. I am here to speak at a Reformed Theology Conference and am glad to be among friends—friend I made while traveling through this area last year for my Worship Round the World project.
Today’s Kindle deals include a few interesting books about the Christian life. Remember also that some of the best commentaries and theological resources you can get are on sale for Kindle for another few days.
Westminster Books has a deal on what they are calling their Advent Devotional of the Year. They have lots of other seasonal products on sale with it.
(Yesterday on the blog: Would It Be Better to Take a Pay Cut Than a Church Cut?)

I enjoyed reading Barnabas Piper’s list of reasons that he is thankful for his father. So many of us grow in gratitude for our parents as we get older and begin to understand them better.

J. Warner Wallace explains why we should expect eyewitnesses to disagree with one another at times. He writes, of course, to defend the veracity of the scriptures.

Tim does such a good job of helping others understand why videos like this one are misguided.

Douglas Groothuis explains how book endorsements work and how they should work. “Why buy a particular book? We answer that partly by finding who wants us to buy the book. We check the endorsement, which are found in one or more places—front cover, back cover, and opening pages. Some authors do not need endorsements, since they are industries in their own right … Lessor mortals court endorsements. But what should we make of this practice? What does it really mean?”

“During Violet’s last year, I visited her every Tuesday with my Bible in hand. She neither recognized me nor recalled any words I read to her. But whenever I sang ‘Amazing Grace,’ she joined in, warbling just as she had for so many years in the choir.” Kathryn Butler looks at research that tells why musical memory remains even when so much else has gone.

Ryan offers some useful counsel on preparing yourself to receive critique.

This man had encountered Jesus in a life-changing way. So Jesus told him to stay. Stay where you are, find your friends and neighbors, and tell them what the Lord has done for you.

A preacher’s life should be a commentary of his doctrine; his practice should be a counterpart of his sermons.
—Thomas Brooks

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Do You Delight in God?

By David Mathis — 4 months ago

Twenty-five years ago, I was a freshman at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina. I had grown up in the church. I made a profession of faith at age eight and was baptized. God had blessed me with a home church that loved the gospel and taught me that I could trust the Bible. However, looking back now, I can see that something was missing in my Christianity.

There was a deep struggle in my soul: I wanted to be happy, and I felt guilty for wanting it. My ache to be happy, I suspected, was more a liability than an asset. Living the Christian life, I assumed, was about my ability to put aside what I really wanted to do.

You too want to be happy. And you can’t escape it. All your life you’ve been trying to satisfy your deep-down longing for real joy by finding that perfect possession or perfect spouse, enjoying good food, knowing influential people, collecting reliable friends, traveling to scenic places, winning at sports (whether as a player or a fan), achieving success at school or work, and getting your hands on the latest gadgets. Our unsatisfied longings gnaw at us late at night as we scroll through social media and flip from channel to channel and let another episode autoplay.

Now, most of us aren’t endlessly miserable. Not yet. Not at nineteen or twenty. We find measures of satisfaction in the moment, but we don’t stay satisfied, not deep down. Did God make us this way? And if so, why did God hardwire us to ache for joy? Why this universal search for satisfaction?

Surprised by Joy

I remember as a college freshman, with my very duty-oriented faith, beginning to feel a kind of fascination with joy. As a kid, I had sung, “I got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart.” Joy, when mentioned in church, often came off so light and flippant. And yet that one fruit of the Spirit’s nine (Galatians 5:22–23) connected most with the deep longings for happiness I was just beginning to realize as a college freshman.

As I read more of the Bible, I was amazed by what I found about joy and delight. It was the Psalms in particular that awakened me to the possibility and promise of real joy — joy that is not icing on the cake of Christianity, but an essential ingredient in the batter. Three psalms specifically captured my attention.

Soul-Thirsts for God

First, Psalm 37:4: “Delight yourself in the Lord.” And not just this command, but then this promise: “and he will give you the desires of your heart.” You mean at root God isn’t suspicious or frustrated by my desires? He made my heart to desire, and means to satisfy, not squash, my deepest longings? And where will that happen?

Second, Psalm 16:11: “In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” Real joy comes not only from God as a gift from his hand, but in seeking his face. God himself — knowing him, enjoying him — that’s what he made your desires for. He made your restless human heart for real satisfaction — in him. He made your soul to thirst, and he meant for you not to deny your thirst but to satisfy it, in him.

Third, Psalm 63:1: “O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” This resonated deeply with me. I wanted this, and wanted to be more like this.

The Psalms had my attention. Again and again, they tapped into my soul, discouraged my sense of mere duty, and highlighted the central place of the heart — both in honesty about the many sorrows in this life, and in hopefully commanding me to “rejoice in the Lord” (Psalm 40:16; 64:10; 97:12; 104:34; 105:3; 118:24).

It was almost too good to be true to discover that my undeniable longing to be happy wasn’t just okay, but good, and that the God who made me actually wanted me to be as happy as humanly possible in him. For me to learn, and then begin to experience for myself, that God wasn’t the cosmic killjoy I had once assumed, but that he was committed, with all his sovereign energy and power, to do me good (Jeremiah 32:40–41) — it took weeks, even months, for such good news to land. I’m still not over it today.

And more good news was still to come.

All to the Glory of God

I knew from growing up that “the glory of God,” which often seemed like a throwaway Christianese phrase, was important. Turning pages in my Bible, I found it everywhere, like 1 Corinthians 10:31: “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”

God made the world, and made us, that he might be glorified. The Bible is very clear, and our own sense of justice resonates with the rightness of it, that God made us to glorify him. But that creates a crisis for many of us. Does God mean for me to pursue his glory or my joy? I want so badly to be happy, and the Bible commands, not condemns, my rejoicing in God. And I know I’m supposed to want him to be glorified in my life. Are his honor and my happiness two tandem pursuits in the Christian life? If so, how do we pursue both?

Then came the most remarkable discovery: our happiness in God glorifies God. My pursuit of the deepest and most durable joy, and God’s pursuit of his glory, are not two pursuits but one. Because, as John Piper champions in his book Desiring God, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.” God’s design to be glorified and my desires to be happy come together in one amazing pursuit: the pursuit of joy in God.

Do You Enjoy Him?

God is not honored when we pay tribute to our own iron will by saying to him in prayer or church, “I don’t even want to be here, but I’m here.” What honors him, what glorifies him, what makes him look good, is joy and satisfaction in him. God is most glorified when we say with the psalmist, “You are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you,” and “In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” We say, “Nothing makes me happier than to know you, Father, through your Son, Jesus, and to be here with you over your word, or in prayer, or in corporate worship. Jesus, you are my joy. You are my treasure. You are my delight. You satisfy my soul.” In those words, and in the heart behind them, God is glorified.

“Not only does God invite us to believe him, trust him, fear him, obey him, and worship him, but to enjoy him.”

What is the most important truth you’ve learned in college? I posed this question to myself in thinking about what I wanted to say to you this morning. Of the countless new facts and liberating discoveries I made in those all-important, trajectory-shaping college years, what has proved most life-changing? Here’s one way I would put it: For me, the single most important breakthrough in all my college learning was finding that God is not just the appropriate object of the verbs believe, trust, fear, obey, and worship, but also he is the most fitting, most satisfying, most worthy object of the verb enjoy.

Believe God, trust God, fear God, obey God, worship God, yes! But do you enjoy him? Not with the small enjoyment of chuckling at a clever commercial, but the large enjoyment of basking before an ocean. Not the thin enjoyment of humming along with a pop song, but the thick enjoyment of coming to the long-anticipated pinnacle of a symphony or a great novel. Not the shallow enjoyment of acquiring some new gadget, but the deep enjoyment of reconnecting and catching up with a longtime friend.

Not only does God invite us to believe him, trust him, fear him, obey him, and worship him, but to enjoy him. Psalm 34:8 says, “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!”

Learning to Fly

So, in light of that single greatest discovery in my college years, let me ask just briefly this morning what it means for the daily and weekly rhythms of the Christian life.

In other words, how do we get involved? What steps, humble as they may be, can we take? How do we position ourselves to receive the grace of God, to receive his joy? In his mercy, he has not kept it a secret how he provides ongoing grace and joy for the Christian life. I like to summarize it in three parts — three previews of what our focus will be tomorrow night.

1. Hear His Voice

Each new day introduces a fresh occasion to hear his voice in the Scriptures, not mainly as marching orders, but as a meal to feed our souls. Not just for soul nutrition, but for enjoyment. God wants our regular sitting down with his Book to be more like coming to dinner than going to the grocery store. Don’t try to store up truth for tomorrow or next week. Come to enjoy him today. Like the Israelites in the wilderness, when God gave them manna, simply gather a day’s portion and enjoy.

2. Have His Ear

Some call it prayer. When we enjoy God, prayer begins to be a way not just to ask God for things we would enjoy, but to enjoy God himself. In prayer, we respond to what God says to us in his word, and in doing so, we commune with him, both asking for more of him and experiencing him in prayer, in the moment, as our greatest enjoyment. The heart of prayer is not getting things from God, but getting God.

3. Belong to His Body

Finally, then, is belonging to his body. One vital manifestation of life in the church is corporate worship. When we pursue our joy in God, corporate worship becomes the stunning opportunity to gather together, not just with fellow believers, but with fellow enjoyers of God.

How might it change corporate worship for you — not just in church on Sunday morning, but also here in chapel — to look around and think, “These students and professors not only believe in the truth of Christianity but they enjoy the God of Christianity.” As we sing, we are enjoying Jesus together. As we pray, we are enjoying him together. As we hear his word read and his message preached, we are uniting our hearts together in the God who himself, in the person of his Son, became one of us, lived among us, suffered with us, died for us, rose triumphantly from the grave, and now sits in power — with all authority in heaven and on earth — at his Father’s right hand, and is bringing to pass, in his perfect patience and perfect timing, all his purposes in our world. For our everlasting joy. Together.

One Great Possession

Coming to enjoy God — not just believe him, trust him, worship him, and obey him, but enjoy him — has changed everything for me. It’s changed how I approach the Bible, how I approach prayer, and how I approach corporate worship and fellowship. But there’s still one last piece missing: What about love for others, especially when it’s costly? Will enjoying God move me toward others, or away from them? Will joy in God move me toward hard, painful, costly needs in this fallen, sin-sick world, or away from them?

My answer, which I can testify to in experience now for 25 years, is that finding joy in God liberates us to truly love others. I leave you with one amazing testimony: Hebrews 10:32–34. The situation is that some in this early church were put in prison for their faith, and others, instead of going into hiding, went public to visit them in prison. In doing so, they exposed themselves to the same persecution their brothers were receiving:

Recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.

So, these early Christians put themselves in harm’s way by coming forward to provide food and basic needs for their friends in prison, and they too were persecuted. Their possessions were plundered, whether by official decree or mob violence. And how did they receive it? Hebrews 10:34: “You joyfully accepted the plundering of your property. . .” What? How? Can you see yourself joyfully accepting the plundering of your possessions? Where did this come from?

The answer is in the last part of Hebrews 10:34: “. . . since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.” The word for “property” is the same word, in the plural, as the word for “possession.” Literally, “you joyfully accepted the plundering of your possessions [plural] because you knew you had a better and abiding possession [singular].” Because you had God as your heavenly treasure, you were able to accept the loss of your earthly treasures in the calling of love — and not just accept, but accept with joy. You joyfully accepted the loss of your finite, earthly, limited possessions because you had the infinite, heavenly, all-satisfying singular Possession, whose name is Jesus Christ.

So, do you enjoy God? When you enjoy God, you are finally free to surrender your small, private enjoyments (called sacrifice) for the greater enjoyment of meeting the needs of others (called love).

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Sing to Remember: God’s Gift of Musical Memory

By Kathryn Butler — 4 months ago

For five years, I cared for my friend Violet as her memories faded away. Dementia took hold, and the feisty Finnish woman who took pride in her nursing career, her spotless lawn, and her adoring German shepherd eventually forgot the people and home she loved. In her final months, she no longer recognized Bible verses that had buoyed her through so many storms.

But she still had “Amazing Grace.”

During Violet’s last year, I visited her every Tuesday with my Bible in hand. She neither recognized me nor recalled any words I read to her. But whenever I sang “Amazing Grace,” she joined in, warbling just as she had for so many years in the choir. In a season when the fog of dementia had otherwise clouded her vision of God’s grace, she reclaimed his promises through song: “I once was lost but now am found; was blind but now I see.”

Chorus of Commands

Throughout the Bible, praise, adoration, and thanksgiving move God’s people to sing. After God guides the Israelites safely across the Red Sea, Moses leads them in song (Exodus 15:1). When God protects David from Saul, David praises him with singing (2 Samuel 22:49–50).

This pattern repeats throughout the whole biblical story. When God blesses Hannah with a son, she sings in thanksgiving (1 Samuel 2:1–10). After Gabriel visits Mary to foretell Jesus’s birth, she rejoices with the Magnificat (Luke 1:46–55). Jesus himself sings a hymn (likely from Psalm 118) at the Last Supper (Matthew 26:30), and John foresees all the nations singing praises to the risen Lord in the new heavens and new earth (Revelation 5:9–12).

Paul encourages the church to “let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God” (Colossians 3:16). James writes, “Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise” (James 5:13). The Lord himself calls us to sing as we praise him. Consider Psalm 96:1–3:

Oh sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth!Sing to the Lord, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day.Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples!

Psalm 147 likewise begins, “Praise the Lord! For it is good to sing praises to our God; for it is pleasant, and a song of praise is fitting” (Psalm 147:1). And Psalm 100 joins the theme: “Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing!” (Psalm 100:1–2).

From beginning to end, singing and worship go hand in hand.

Reason to Sing

Why would God so fervently command us to unite our words with melody when we worship him? On the one hand, as God creates us in his image, we’re to rejoice in song just as he does. In Zephaniah 3:17, we read,

The Lord your God is in your midst, A mighty one who will save;He will rejoice over you with gladness; He will quiet you by his love;He will exult over you with loud singing.

Furthermore, when we lift our voices in song to the Lord, we direct our emotions heavenward, stirring up thankfulness in our hearts as befits the Almighty (Colossians 3:16). As Jonathan Edwards writes, “The duty of singing praises to God, seems to be appointed wholly to excite and express religious affections” (Religious Affections, 115).

“When we read a verse, it can flit away; when we sing it, we harbor God’s word in our heart.”

And yet, there’s another reason to worship with singing — a reason beautifully evident during my visits with Violet. In Deuteronomy 31:19–21, God commands Moses to teach the people a song recounting his deeds so that they and their offspring might remember. “When many evils and troubles have come upon them,” God says, “this song shall confront them as a witness (for it will live unforgotten in the mouths of their offspring)” (Deuteronomy 31:21).

When we sing God’s praises, we glorify him, obey him, and direct our hearts toward him. But also, remarkably, we remember words our inconstant, sin-stricken brains would otherwise so quickly forget.

Musical Memory

The history of God’s people is a story of forgetfulness and remembrance. In the wilderness, the Israelites forgot the wondrous deeds God had accomplished in Egypt and worshiped the work of their own hands (Exodus 32:1–10). In the book of Deuteronomy, Moses pleaded with the people to remember what God had done for them (Deuteronomy 4:9; 8:2, 11–20). Joshua built a memorial of twelve stones from the Jordan River so the following generations might know how God provided (Joshua 4:1–7). Finally, in the upper room, Jesus commanded his disciples to take the wine and the bread in remembrance of him, as we also must do (Luke 22:19; 1 Corinthians 11:23–29).

To follow Christ is to remember and proclaim what he has done (Acts 4:20). And the gift of song, in addition to stirring our hearts, aids our minds in remembering. When we read a verse, it can flit away; when we sing it, we harbor God’s word in our heart (Psalm 119:11).

The link between song and remembrance arises from how God designed our brains. While the act of forgetting may seem simple, we actually have several types of memory, all organized within separate areas of the nervous system. Declarative memory involves recall of events, concepts, words, meanings, and facts, and it originates in the temporal lobes and hippocampus. Studies show, however, that music involves complicated networks in the brain beyond this system.

Singing triggers our procedural memory — a complex network involving the cerebellum, motor cortex, and deeper brain structures. Procedural memory allows us to perform actions without explicitly focusing on them. Consider how rarely you think about how to ride a bike or drive a car after your first awkward days of learning. Such procedural memories are so robustly imprinted in our brains, that we can take up an action like playing the piano or knitting even if we’ve not done so in ages.

Musical processing also connects to emotional memory, centered in a region of the brain called the amygdala. The emotional memory system helps us to recall events with strong feelings attached to them. The link between music and emotional memory explains why certain songs transport us to a specific moment in time and evoke feelings we may not have recalled for years.

Thanks to the connection between music and these two memory systems, we can hardly erase catchy jingles from our heads, no matter how much they annoy us. Hearing a familiar song on the radio can instantly carry us to that first handhold with a spouse or to our birthday party in kindergarten. Most stunning of all, the link between these systems reveals why the command to “Sing to the Lord!” not only glorifies God but also blesses us abundantly. When we sing, we remember.

Melody When Memory Fails

The human brain’s stunning ability to recall music is a gift of mercy in Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s preferentially affects the temporal lobes and hippocampus, the regions of the brain responsible for declarative memory. As a result, memory for language, names, and events erodes away. Memory for recent events fades first, as these are less rigorously stored. Over time, however, even remote events can slip away.

“God has designed the very architecture of our brains to hide his word even when our memories fail.”

Memory for music, however, often remains intact in Alzheimer’s because it involves the procedural and emotional memory systems. The response to music is preserved even in advanced dementia, when patients can no longer reason, plan, or even speak. “I remember the first time I saw someone with Alzheimer’s remembering the Lord through music,” writes clinical psychologist Benjamin Mast in his book Second Forgetting: Remembering the Power of the Gospel During Alzheimer’s Disease. During his visit to a memory-care center, where “the full range of dementia was represented,” he writes,

When it came time for music, and especially the old hymns, things visibly changed. One woman who only wanted to leave finally sat down for a while to listen. A man who was always angry and agitated now had a contented look and tapped his foot to the music. Another man who was quite confused closed his tear-filled eyes and slowly raised his hands while quietly mouthing each word. God uses music to reach the seemingly unreachable. And he gives us this gift as a gracious resource to help us in drawing people back to him, to reengage their faith. (139)

By God’s grace, believers who can no longer remember the names of loved ones can still readily sing God’s praises. God has designed the very architecture of our brains to hide his word even when our memories fail. And he commands us to sing so that we might recall his life-giving word even when we’re prone to forget.

Sing to the Lord, my brothers and sisters. Make a joyful noise. And as you sing, even as other memories fade, remember his amazing grace — the breadth and length and height and depth of God’s love for you in Christ.

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A Daily Diet of Doctrine

By Tim Challies — 4 months ago

Daily Doctrine is not a groundbreaking work of systematic theology and is not intended to be. Rather, it is an introductory work that focuses on easing people into the subject. It introduces the discipline as a whole, describes the most important terms, and explains the key ideas. In that way, it provides a framework for Christian doctrine and then builds upon it over the course of a year.

I once participated in a panel discussion alongside a seminary professor. He had far more education than I did and far greater expertise in the subject matter. A few moments before we took to the platform together, the moderator went over some of the questions he would be asking us. I found it strangely comforting to see that professor pull out his iPad, dig up some old notes, and begin to skim through them. “I need to remind myself what I believe about that,” he told me.
The fact is, we are forgetful people and often need not just to learn what we believe but to re-learn it. There are exams we might pass at one stage in life but fail in another, not because our doctrine has changed or because we have apostatized, but because we have become forgetful. It’s not that we are ever likely to forget the fundamental doctrines of the faith like the inspiration of Scripture or the divinity of Jesus, but we can certainly grow hazy on some of the lesser matters and waver on some of the secondary issues.
A while back I realized I needed to brush up on some of these and began to organize a system of spaced repetition—a way to encounter these doctrines on a regular basis, thus reinforcing them and keeping them fresh in my mind. And it was right then that I learned about Kevin DeYoung’s Daily Doctrine: A One-Year Guide to Systematic Theology. In fact, an Advance Reading Copy showed up in the mail and I knew immediately it was what I was looking for.
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A Case For A Big, Central Pulpit

By Tony Felich — 4 months ago

As for the pulpit in particular- it is big, central, and strong, for a reason. It is meant to promote the preaching of God’s inspired, inerrant, sufficient, and authoritative Word as the central activity of the Church. The pulpit is bigger than the preacher. The pulpit requires the person who brings the Word to stand up and step into it. It demands the preacher consider the solemnity of the role he is exercising when preaching the Word, leading the congregation in prayer, or otherwise leading elements of the worship liturgy.

We had the opportunity to build a new sanctuary fifteen years ago and we opted for an Old School style complete with wooden pews, kneelers, choir in the back, digital pipe organ and a big central pulpit. This post is not trying to convince anyone they should do what we did, but rather to offer an explanation for those who wonder and even an encouragement for those who worship in older buildings that have a similar set up. The various features of our church architecture and layout are based on things we see as biblically important. Our building looks a certain way for a specific reason. Our choice of furnishings and the particular layout of the pulpit, baptismal, and communion table are purposeful.
It is not that other types of church buildings or layouts are unbiblical or wrong. For example, it seems the big, central, wooden pulpit is often rare in newer church buildings. Many modern churches opt for a large stage for a worship band and a portable stool or chair in front of a Plexiglas lectern for their casually dressed pastor to sit and teach or “talk with” his congregation. I do something similar on Sunday nights and in other teaching venues. Certainly, the Word of God can be taught or preached in different set ups. Jesus taught in various settings throughout his ministry, as did the Apostle Paul. The Bible doesn’t prescribe the arrangement of furniture in a church worship setting.
The pastor, sitting with small Plexiglas lectern on Sunday morning, definitely communicates casual, informal, personal interaction. It seems such a setup is intended to make the pastor come across as non-threatening, even a bit less authoritative. The pastor in that posture is about to have a conversation or fireside chat with his family and friends, it would seem. I suspect this approach might be a reaction to the yelling, pulpit-pounding, white-suit wearing, hanky in one hand, fire and brimstone preacher. The stool and lectern approach is meant to put people at ease as they listen to a “message” from the Bible. The pastor’s choice of casual dress while teaching or preaching Sunday morning tells the congregation- “Hey, I’m one of you! Let me tell you what I’ve learned this week.” I think much of the trend toward a casual set up for teaching and preaching Sunday morning has come from current generational pressure. Millennials and Gen Zs are characterized as being skeptical or dismissive of authority. The traditional big, central pulpit with the pastor wearing a suit or robe is a bit offsetting to a generation that doesn’t acknowledge levels of authority readily.
Let’s be honest-whatever your set up, something is being communicated. Our intention is to communicate importance and authority by the chancel arrangement we have. The most important activities of the church are signified by the furnishings we have the pulpit, the baptismal, and the communion table. The ministry of Christ’s church is the ministry of the Word and Sacrament. Our furnishings are meant to make a statement about the priorities of the church.
As for the pulpit in particular- it is big, central, and strong, for a reason. It is meant to promote the preaching of God’s inspired, inerrant, sufficient, and authoritative Word as the central activity of the Church. The pulpit is bigger than the preacher. The pulpit requires the person who brings the Word to stand up and step into it. It demands the preacher consider the solemnity of the role he is exercising when preaching the Word, leading the congregation in prayer, or otherwise leading elements of the worship liturgy. Yes, the big, central pulpit is meant to exude authority-the authority of the preached Word primarily. This authority is not based on the preacher, but on the Word that is preached. In our church, the pastors wear robes so the congregation’s attention is not on his clothes, but rather the role he is filling for that hour. Some will say, The robe distracts me…it reminds me of when I was Catholic.” Possibly. But I am guessing a good number might say, “Skinny jeans on Gen Xers, untucked shirts, and preachers in sneakers are distracting too”. The pulpit manned by a minister in a robe communicates reverence and authority. But this article is not really making a case for robe-wearing, so forgive the rabbit trail!
Back to the big central pulpit set up. Preaching is proclaiming the word of truth and exhorting the congregation to believe and obey. The pastor is commanded to “preach the Word” (2 Timothy 4:2) as part of his essential shepherding duties and the central pulpit arrangement can serve to encourage this practice. The central pulpit set up is a reminder to the pastor and the people about God’s authoritative Word. There is a sense in which pastors come and go, but the big, solid pulpit from which the Word is preached, will remain for generations. A preacher “filling the pulpit” is a great way to describe what a faithful pastor should be doing. He should know what the pulpit is meant for (preaching the Word) and do the task. In other words, many important messages can be relayed by architecture and setup.
To be clear, I would rather go to a church that has a modern set up with the stool and Plexiglass lectern where the pastor believes and preaches the Bible faithfully than a church with a traditionally arranged big, central pulpit, but the pastor does not believe or faithfully teach the Bible. The essential priority for a biblical, healthy church, is a right view and teaching of the Bible, which can be done with no pulpit at all. My purpose here is to offer explanation for a big central pulpit set up like ours and possibly provide some ideas to share with your church members if you have a similar arrangement.
Dr. Tony Felich is a Minister in the Presbyterian Church in America and serves as the Pastor of Redeemer PCA in Overland Park, Kansas.

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Would It Be Better to Take a Pay Cut Than a Church Cut?

By Tim Challies — 4 months ago

There are times when circumstances dictate that we move—that we move from one town to another, one province or state to another, or even one country or continent to another. There are other times when it is desire more than circumstance that causes us to uproot ourselves from one location and re-root ourselves in another.
It has long concerned me how many people move to a new house without giving substantial attention to a new church. They carry out an extensive job search and move only after signing on with a new company. They put great effort into choosing a town and selecting a house within it. They may visit nearby schools to ensure their children will continue to receive a good education. But they simply assume they’ll be able to find a church.
I often find myself thinking about the insight I learned from a recent book: That one of the most dangerous things a Christian can do is move. Why is it so dangerous? Because a move necessarily uproots that person or their family from their local church. And while they may intend to find a new church in their new location, they often do not. Sometimes they simply cannot find a good one and other times they break the habit of attending and never quite recover it. The key insight is that many people are “accidental deconstructionists” who abandon the faith through sloppiness or poor planning rather than conviction or malice.
I have seen this play out many times, often with former members of our church. While they were with us they appeared to be thriving and growing, joyfully attending services and faithfully serving other people. Then they announced they were moving for work or school or perhaps just for a change of scenery. We did our best to say farewell to them, pray for them, and bless them on their way.
Sometimes in our first follow-ups after the move we learned they were struggling to find a new church and in our later follow-ups we learned they had not found one at all. Soon they would stop replying to us altogether, perhaps in shame that they had now abandoned the local church and maybe even the Christian faith.
In other cases, they did not abandon the faith or even waver in it but had been forced to settle into churches that failed to properly honor the gospel or that worship in ways they disagreed with—churches that were from an entirely different tradition. While they were grateful to be able to gather with believers, they struggled with a church that denied much of what they held dear and sometimes even lamented having moved altogether.
Of course, there are circumstances in which a move is necessary—perhaps when you are in the military and are reassigned or if you are in a country that is not your own and the terms of your visa change. There are times we are forced to move involuntarily by life circumstances or divine providence. Yet far more often than not, I have seen people move for other reasons.
Might it be better to stay put and take a pay cut than to move and take a “church cut?” Wouldn’t it be better to be underemployed in a sound church than prosperous in a bad one?Share
And so I have often wondered: Might it be better to stay put and take a pay cut than to move and take a “church cut?” Wouldn’t it be better to be underemployed in a sound church than prosperous in a bad one? Wouldn’t it be better to have your kids in a slightly worse school system but in a dramatically better church? Wouldn’t it be better to forgo a bit of property size in order to have a faith that can grow and remain secure?
And if you do choose to move, let me plead with you to put more attention into your church than your job, neighborhood, home, or school. Let me plead with you to ensure—to be absolutely certain—that wherever you go, you and your family will be able to be members of a church that honors the Word, preaches truth, and faithfully worships the King. For nothing less than spiritual life and death are at stake.

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Saul Had an Extraordinary, Supernatural Conversion—and So Did You

By Nancy Guthrie — 4 months ago

Whether or not a person knows exactly when it happened, there is always a moment in the secret place of the soul when a person who is saved went from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive, separated from Christ to joined to Christ (Ephesians 2:1–7).

Molly Worthen’s Salvation
Recently I listened to a fascinating interview on Collin Hansen’s podcast, Gospelbound.1 It was a ninety-minute conversation with Molly Worthen, a journalist and tenured history professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Over many years, Molly has written as an outsider about evangelical Christians and, when doing so, has sometimes been accused of being “snarky” and having little sympathy for her subjects.2Then recently she was asked to write an article on J.D. Greear and the Summit Church.3 She began talking to people at the church, visiting the church, and sat down to interview J.D. Over time she felt herself increasingly drawn into the church and began an email correspondence with Greear to get her more personal questions about faith answered. She asked him for recommendations of books to read and began reading the books he recommended:
I found myself more than 51 percent persuaded that the Christian account of the resurrection is the best account we have. But I couldn’t believe that a person could be converted by reading a lot of books…I was praying for some sort of warm and fuzzy mystical intervention, and it didn’t happen. I just got to the point as a consistent pragmatist that I had to admit I had gotten over that line of the resurrection being the best explanation for the historical evidence, which meant I had to change my working hypothesis of the universe. That weekend I switched from praying, “God show yourself to me,” to “Jesus, you are my Lord and Savior.”4
“Is my conversion real?” she asks. “You don’t hear about a lot of people saved through reading a lot of footnotes…But I have this longing to read Scripture—especially the Gospels—that I never had before, and I think, ‘That is not me. That is new.’”5
Isn’t it interesting how God saves people? And whom God saves? And how he changes them? It’s often the people we least expect and in a way we would never expect. Some people hear the gospel and immediately take hold of it, while others spend a lot of time considering the claims of Christ and gradually come to faith. Some people have a profoundly emotional experience, while others feel very little. Some experience immediate deliverance from sinful impulses and patterns, while others spend a lifetime seeking to put certain sins to death. But there is one thing that is always the same. No matter who it happens to or how it comes about, salvation is always a supernatural work of God in which blind eyes are opened, giving a person the ability to see who Jesus is and the faith to trust him.
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When the Trees Fall

By Jon Hyatt — 4 months ago

We are vulnerable, frail creatures. A tree or two can upend our entire lives. But that doesn’t change the fact that the trees are still beautiful and good. We cannot afford to sequester ourselves off from pain, from danger, from the fear of loss and the anxiety of discomfort. We have to keep planting, keep building, keep growing, even though we know that we still live in a world where trees will fall.

I’m just now back into my study at the church building. My wife and kids are with her parents where power has been restored and I’m now able to put some thought toward what the role of our church in our community looks like in the days ahead. But first, I feel like it would be inappropriate not to process the thoughts that have swirled in my head since last Friday morning when the power went out.
I live in Greenwood, South Carolina. Our town was hit hard by Helene: 100% power outage, 100-year old trees down everywhere, homes destroyed. My neighborhood is on day eight with no power. My family and I were lucky: trees missed our house by a few feet, and no permanent damage was done to our home or to any of us. We’re blessed with a gas stove and easygoing children. Others weren’t as lucky on any front.
The Greek word apokalupsis, from which we get “apocalypse,” carries the idea of “unveiling” or “revealing.” The Southeast has had, in its own way, a miniature apocalypse. Hardship always brings truth to the surface. As a church, we’ve explored 1 Peter 1:6-7 and its implications over the past several months. The apostle begins declaring the beauty of the salvation in Jesus, and then states:
“In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
What has this storm revealed about the Christian faith? What should we remember long after we get the lines back up, the refrigerators restocked, and our AC running?
A disclaimer: none of the following is intended to paint a rosy picture of what life on the ground is like, especially for those who have lost their homes or for the entire communities in Western North Carolina that are just gone. These are my thoughts from an immensely blessed position, trying to carve out some space for hope and joy in the midst of what is for many a very dark time. Read accordingly.
Here are a few thoughts.
Our neighbors are always there.
Our community has jumped into action to serve one another over the past week. Christians have been leading the charge in clearing trees, prepping meals, and collecting materials for those who have lost everything. My neighbors and I have stood in our street and checked on each other daily. Information about needs and updates has spread rapidly.
It seems like our idea of who counts as “neighbor” quickly widens when the trees come down. Everyone checks on everyone else,
I can’t help but think: won’t it be terrible if we go back to pleasantries and polite distance after this? Our neighbors will still be there once we’re all back in our air-conditioned homes. And needs will still exist. They might not be as immediately obvious as “a tree is blocking my driveway,” but is it not worth thinking about how we can continue to serve, love, support, share, grieve with, and edify one another?
What are the weaknesses in our community that this storm has exposed? What can we do on the other side of this not only to get things back to how they were, but to make them better for all of us in the long run? The same neighbors will be there in the years to come. Will they still know that we love them? Will we work to show them that our love goes beyond just their immediate need to their ongoing wellbeing, and ultimately their eternal joy?
The crucial things are the simple things.
I’ve eaten a lot of rice and beans this week: kidney beans, black beans, you name it. I’ve gotten pretty good, if I say so myself, at seasoning and dressing them up a bit so they have some flavor. And to be honest, they’ve been quite tasty! Simple things can go a long way. I just talked about serving our neighbors. The thing that’s been interesting to me is how simple the work of service is. Provide a meal, move some branches, hear a sad story.
How much of our churches’ ministries have abandoned the simple and crucial things for the big and spectacular but ultimately shallow? How much of the Christian life have we made arcane and complex when the basic commands—pray, serve, obey—are actually remarkably straightforward? What if the unnerving lesson that we need to learn from Helene is that being a Christian, at its basic level, by the grace of Christ, is actually quite simple?
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