This week’s giveaway, sponsored by Spurgeon College, is a free copy of No Neutral Words by Sam Bierig, Dean of Spurgeon College.

The first 25 to complete the form below will receive a free copy of the book. Upon completion of the giveaway, the entrants will receive an email to confirm the location and mailing address.

No Neutral Words
The Pastor’s Investment and Stewardship of His Most Precious and Powerful Tool
By: Sam Bierig
What if I told you there’s a budget in your life and ministry other than your finances and time—one that you’re just as accountable for but are likely overlooking?
As a pastor and ministry leader, you no doubt conceptualize your ministry in terms of financial stewardship. You no doubt feel the weight of stewarding and maintaining your church’s financial budget. Further, we could even extend the pastor’s budget concept to also include a “time budget.” I trust you’re comfortable thinking in these terms. We’re all too aware of how easy time can be flitted away. We have no quarrel on the stewardship of either of these points. But what if we sought to steward our talk and our words just as closely as we do our money and time?
The aim of No Neutral Word is to convince you to consider your “word budget” and show you that every single word you speak is an eternal investment in your hearers for either life or death. The life-or-death investments spoken by you into others, pastor, is your move.

Enter Giveaway Here:
Giveaway rules: You may enter the giveaway one time. The recipients will be notified by email. The giveaway closes on Sunday, March 4th at midnight.

You can only imagine what Joseph’s family thought. You can only imagine what the townsfolk thought. You can only imagine what the religious leaders thought. You can only imagine the laughter and the mocking, the rumors and the gossip, the scolding and the censure. And maybe we should imagine it.

“Does he really expect us to believe that he wasn’t the one who got Mary pregnant?” “I’ve heard lots of excuses in my time, but never ‘I was overshadowed by the Holy Spirit.’” “I heard that it wasn’t her first time, either.” “I heard she got attacked when she was out drawing water.”
The fact is, those people would be no more likely to believe her explanation than we would be if someone fed it to us today. And those people would have been no less eager to propose some more likely explanations. Those people weren’t so different from us, though they may have lived at a very different time and in a very different context.
We can hardly blame Joseph for wanting to walk away—to walk away from the mocking, from the gossip, from the shame. We can hardly blame him for resolving to divorce her. We can hardly blame him for wanting to extricate himself from betrothal to a woman who was clearly no virgin. He, after all, was a just man and an innocent one. So at least he planned to do it quietly.
It took nothing less than divine intervention to get him to stay. “An angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit’” (Matthew 1:20). When Joseph awoke he remembered the dream, he accepted it as God’s own revelation, and he received it as God’s own instruction. He set aside all thought of divorce, he took Mary as his wife, and he raised her son as his own.
Imagine Mary’s joy, Mary’s relief, Mary’s sense of comfort and well-being when Joseph told her he loved her, he believed her, and he accepted her. Imagine Mary’s gratitude when Joseph stood beside her and said “My wife,” when he took that baby in his arms and said, “My son.” Imagine how his obedience impacted Mary, how his faith blessed his wife, how his love made all the difference.
We can be certain the gossip did not end the day Joseph declared, “I believe her.” We can be certain people were no more convinced by his dream than her visitation. The gossip did not turn to acceptance simply because he added his testimony to hers. Rather, I suspect it increased all the more. “I can’t believe he’s so naive.” “I guess he can’t come up with a better explanation than a dream.” “If this isn’t proof that he’s the one who got her pregnant I don’t know what is!”
But Joseph was a man of faith, a man who chose to believe God’s word and obey God’s direction, a man whose decision to accept Mary was also a decision to share her shame. But he knew that God had spoken, he knew what God had spoken, and nothing would dissuade him, nothing would compel him to reject what God had made abundantly clear.
And as I listened to this familiar passage during my morning devotions, a passage I’ve heard hundreds or even thousands of times, I found myself praying, “God, thank you for Joseph. And please give me the faith of Joseph. Give me the faith to listen attentively to your Word, give me the faith to believe it even when it cuts hard against my presuppositions, give me the faith to apply it even when it’s especially difficult. Let me be like Joseph. Give me a faith like his.”

This week’s Free Stuff Friday is sponsored by Reformation Fellowship. They are giving away two tickets to the Reformation Fellowship Conference in Atlanta (November 11–12), and 5 exclusive copies of Right with God, the new book from Michael Reeves.

This Fall, Michael Reeves – with Dane Ortlund, Philip Ryken, Jeff Norris, Gwenfair Adams, and Bradley Green – will be hosting the first Reformation Fellowship conference. Over two days, November 11–12, 2022, a new network of friends will be gathering at Perimeter Church, Atlanta, for teaching, fellowship, worship, and prayer. We would love you to join us there: you can book your place online now.
The theme of the conference will be The Gospel: Our Hope, Our Banner, for it is under the banner of the gospel that Christians find true unity and deep fellowship. At the heart of the gospel is God’s free justification of all those who simply trust in Christ, and at the conference, we will be launching a short, readable introduction to this life-changing doctrine from Michael Reeves called Right with God. It is the perfect book for anyone who does not yet know Christ, those struggling with assurance, or readers who need warm-hearted clarity to strengthen their faith.
“Lurking beneath the stresses and anxieties of modern life lie the age-old questions ‘Am I good enough?’ and ‘Have I done enough?’ They haunt some, drive others, and exhaust many into indifference or despair. In these pages—as readable as they are reliable—Michael Reeves exposes both the roots of our problem and the bankruptcy of our own answers to it. But then, simply and engagingly, he points us to the life-transforming resolution that is offered to us in the Christian gospel. Right with God is a short book with an eternity-long message.”

Sinclair B. Ferguson
Chancellor’s Professor of Systematic Theology, Reformed Theological Seminary;
Teaching Fellow, Ligonier Ministries
“A small key can open a massive door that leads to freedom. This small treatise by Dr. Reeves, a very able writer, holds the key of God’s promise to justify the ungodly as a free gift through faith in Christ alone. May God use it to bring many to spiritual freedom. Buy copies of this easy-to-read, highly recommended book and pass them on to the unsaved, to the saved who are struggling for assurance, and to established believers to shore up their convictions.”

Joel R. Beeke
President, Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, Grand Rapids, Michigan

Enter here
1 winner will receive two copies of Right with God by Michael Reeves and two free tickets to the Reformation Fellowship Conference in Atlanta, November 11–12. 4 winners will receive a copy of Right with God by Michael Reeves.
By entering, you consent to becoming a member of Reformation Fellowship and joining the Union mailing list. Winners will be notified by email. Tickets to the Reformation Fellowship conference will be issued by email and are subject to terms and conditions. Right with God is scheduled for release on October 1, 2022, and winners will receive their copy immediately upon publication. Entrants must be 18 years of age or over.