The Day He Died

When asked what God had taught him most deeply about life, George Mueller (1805-1898), pastor and philanthropist, explained:

“There was a day when I died, utterly died, died to George Mueller, his opinions, preferences, tastes and will, died to the world, its approval or censure, died to the approval or blame even of my brethren and friends, and since then I have studied only to show myself approved unto God.”

Quoted in A. T. Pierson, George Mueller of Bristol (London, 1899), page 367.

Just Preach Jesus

When I came out of seminary a few years ago, the new push towards "relevant," or "seeker-sensitive worship" was just beginning to gain steam. I remember being in preaching class with a lot of guys at Southwestern and that was the buzz. "You've got to exegete the culture around you before you exegete your sermon." And I have to confess that when I first started pastoring a few years later, this kind of thinking got inside my head. It's probably influenced more sermons I've preached than I care to admit.

But God's patience and extended time in the pressure cooker of local church ministry have a way of teaching you things that no conference or church growth seminar can. And over the years I began to realize that a steady, long-term commitment to passionate, in-your-face, biblical preaching produces more long-lasting fruit for the kingdom than any fancy church growth strategy ever did.

I love this recent quote from James MacDonald on his devotion to strong, biblical preaching:

I try not to spend any time in my message preparation thinking about what people want to hear or what questions the culture is asking. I just don’t spend any time on that at all. I have believed now for 21-plus years that if you try with all of your heart to say some things that God wants said—God has some things he wants said; that’s why he wrote a Book—God would get some people over here to hear it.

"I try not to spend any time in my message preparation thinking about what people want to hear or what questions the culture is asking." I had to laugh when I read that. Do you realize how many warehouses of paper have been used to print books and manuals that teach us how to do that exact thing? If you'd like to read the entire interview with James on preaching, you'll find it here.

And I say "Amen." God wrote a book. Let's read it, study it, memorize it, meditate on it, swim in it, and preach it with white-hot passion until the Savior returns. And trust God to get some people in the seats to hear it. I can't wait for Sunday to get here!

The New Tradition in Worship

If you hang around the local church long enough, you see trends come and go, especially when it comes to worship style. That's why the substance and the heartbeat of authentic worship has to be the proclamation and the celebration of the gospel, not creating a bigger and better musical experience every week. North Point put out a humorous video this week that illustrates how contemporary has become the new traditional.

"Sunday's Coming" Movie Trailer from North Point Media on Vimeo.

The Divine Architect

Thanks to Randy Alcorn for pointing me to this incredible excerpt from one of Spurgeon's sermons, "Laus Deo" (which is Latin for "Praise Be to God"). If you don't visit his blog it's well worth your time at www.randyalcorn.blogspot.com.

Meditate, dear friends, upon the whole range of God’s works in creation and providence. There was a period when God dwelt alone and creatures were not. In that time before all time, when there was no day but “The Ancient of Days,” when matter and created mind were alike unborn, and even space was not, God, the great I Am, was as perfect, glorious, and blessed as he is now. There was no sun, and yet Jehovah dwelt in light ineffable; there was no earth, and yet his throne stood fast and firm; there were no heavens, and yet his glory was unbounded. God inhabited eternity in the infinite majesty and happiness of his self-contained greatness.

If the Lord, thus abiding in awful solitude, should choose to create anything, the first thought and idea must come of him, for there was no other to think or suggest. All things must be of him in design. With whom can he take counsel? Who shall instruct him? There existed not another to come into the council-chamber, even if such an assistance could be supposable with the Most High.

In the beginning of his way before his works of old, eternal wisdom brought forth from its own mind the perfect plan of future creations, and every line and mark therein must clearly have been of the Lord alone. He ordained the pathway of every planet, and the abode of every fixed star. He poured forth the sweet influences of the Pleiades, and girt Orion with his bands. He appointed the bounds of the sea, and settled the course of the winds.

As to the earth, the Lord alone planned its foundations, and stretched his line upon it. He formed in his own mind the mould of all his creatures and found for them a dwelling and a service. He appointed the degree of strength with which he would endow each creature, settled its months of life, its hour of death, its coming and its going. Divine wisdom mapped this earth, its flowing rivers and foaming seas, the towering mountains, and the laughing valleys.

The divine Architect fixed the gates of the morning and the doors of the shadow of death. Nothing could have been suggested by any other, for there was no other to suggest. It was in his power to have made a universe very different from this, if he had so pleased; and that he has made it what it is, must have been merely because in his wisdom and prudence he saw fit to do so.

There cannot be any reason why he should not have created a world from which sin should have been for ever excluded; and that he suffered sin to enter into his creation must again be ascribed to his own infinite sovereignty. Had he not well known that he would be master over sin, and out of evil evolve the noblest display of his own glory, he had not permitted it to enter into the world: but, in sketching the whole history of the universe which he was about to create, he permitted even that black spot to defile his work, because he foreknew what songs of everlasting triumph would rise to himself when, in streams of his own blood, incarnate Deity should wash out the stain.

It cannot be doubted that whatever may be the whole drama of history in creation and providence, there is a high and mysterious sense in which it is all of God. The sin is not God’s, but the temporary permission of its existence formed part of the foreknown scheme, and to our faith the intervention of moral evil, and the purity of the divine character, do neither of them diminish the force of our belief that the whole scope of history is of God in the fullest sense.

My Prayer Today

One of my favorite preachers, James McDonald, shares this prayer today that he often prays for the start of every day. May it be ours also...

Ephesians 5:18, “Be filled with the Spirit.”

Lord, fill me with Your Spirit today. I can’t fix yesterday, and tomorrow seems a long way off.
Today, Lord: Cleanse my heart from the fleshly residue of yesterday’s fallen humanity.
Today, Lord: Scrub my thoughts and motives till they shine with singularity – wanting Your glory alone.
Today, Lord: Wash me and I will be whiter than snow, purposed afresh to follow Your footsteps.

Lord, fill me with Your Spirit today. The tasks ahead are too much. If I must go alone, I cannot go at all.
Today, Lord: I’m not smart enough to know what is best, and not strong enough to choose what is righteous.
Today, Lord: My wife, my family, my friends, my church . . . I am not sufficient for these things, and I know it.
Today, Lord: Or what unfolds in the hours ahead will fade into the abyss of worthless, wasted time.

Lord, fill me with Your Spirit right now. Come, make these 24 hours all You created them to be.
Now, Lord: You know how to ‘give good gifts’ and I am so thankful to be called Your child.
Now, Lord: By faith, I receive the Presence You’ve promised, and delight to know that Your Word is true.
Now, Lord: You are filling my life with peace and purpose and freeing my soul to sing.

Galatians 5:16, 22, “Walk then in the Spirit, and you will not fulfill the desires of your flesh. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and self control.”

I Want to be a Man of One Thing

"A zealous man in religion is pre-eminently a man of one thing. It is not enough to say that he is earnest, hearty, uncompromising, thorough-going, whole-hearted, fervent in spirit. He only sees one thing, he cares for one thing, he lives for one thing, he is swallowed up in one thing; and that one thing is to please God. Whether he lives, or whether he is rich, or whether he is poor--whether he pleases man, or whether he gives offense--whether he is thought wise, or whether he is thought foolish--whether he gets blame, or whether he gets praise--whether he gets honor, or whether he gets shame--for all that this zealous man cares nothing at all. He burns for one thing, and that one thing is to please God, and to advance God's glory. If he is consumed in the very burning, he cares not for it--he is content. He feels that, like a lamp, he is made to burn; and if consumed in burning, he has but done the work for which God appointed him. Such a one will always find a sphere for his zeal. If he cannot preach, work, and give money, he will cry, and sigh, and pray...If he cannot fight in the valley with Joshua, he will do the work of Moses, Aaron, and Hur, on the hill (Exodus 17:9-13). If he is cut off from working himself, he will give the Lord no rest till help is raised up from another quarter, and the work is done. This is what I mean when I speak of 'zeal' in religion." J. C. Ryle in Practical Relgion

Books I'm Reading Right Now

He Dwelt Among Us by A.W. Tozer

This is a collection of Tozer's teachings from the gospel of John. Great insight on the fourth gospel.

The Reason for God by Timothy Keller

Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, addresses the doubts that both skeptics and true believers have about God.

How to Reach Your Full Potential for God by Charles Stanley.

Stanley still provides the most practical teaching of any pastor in America. This is no exception.

Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore

A great story about faith, friendship, and forgiveness.