John Rogers on Bible Importance

Mike Leake

I am not 100% certain that I agree with what is being said here.  But I think the general principle and fervency of heart behind it is worth emulating.  In the 1620’s John Rogers spoke to some 500 souls about their neglect of Bible reading.  The story as told by John Howe (I am picking it up from J.I. Packer’s A Quest for Godliness):

He personates God to the people, telling them, “Well, I have trusted you so long with my Bible…it lies in such houses all covered with dust and cobwebs, you care not to listen to it.  Do you use my Bible so?  Well, you shall have my Bible no longer.”  And he takes up the bible from his cushion, and seemed as if he were going away with it and carrying it from them, but immediately turns again and personates the people to God, falls down on his knees, cries and pleads most earnestly.  “Lord, whatever thou dost to us, take not thy Bible from us; kill our children, burn our houses, destroy our goods, only spare us the Bible, take not away thy Bible”. And then he personates God again to the people: ‘Say you so?  Well I will try you a while longer, and here is my Bible for you, I will see how you will use it, whether you will love it more…observe it more…practice it more, and live more according to it.  (Packer, 47 emphasis mine)

Thoughts?

Hump Day Humor: Busted!

Mike Leake

I found this while doing sermon prep.  The original source is unknown but I found it here.

The drunk husband snuck up the stairs quietly. He looked in the bathroom mirror and bandaged the bumps and bruises he’d received in a fight earlier that night. He then proceeded to climb into bed, smiling at the thought that he’d pulled one over on his wife. 

When morning came, he opened his eyes and there stood his wife. “You were drunk last night weren’t you!” 

“No, honey.”

“Well, if you weren’t, then who put all the band-aids on the bathroom mirror?”

Repentance and Baptism Question

Mike Leake

I realize this question could lead to controversy.  But I really am curious as to why this is.  I do not know the answer although I am trying to figure it out.  Here is the question and it is mostly for my Lordship salvation believing Southern Baptist brothers and sisters. 
Why do we make certain that we make repentance part of what you must do to be saved but say that baptism is not necessary for salvation?  I ask this because of Acts 2:38.  Those hearing Peter’s sermon were cut to the heart and asked what they must do (which is probably asking what do we do to call on the name of the Lord as Joel prophesied).  Here is Peter’s response:
“Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” 
Why then do we (Southern Baptists) tell people that they must repent and believe but we do not say they must be baptized? 
Thoughts?

Monday’s Ministry Musing: The Importance of Being a Faithful Pastor to Your Little Church

Mike Leake

I’ve had to learn something the hard way again…imagine that!!!  The Lord is painfully showing me the need of being a faithful pastor to that which Jonathan Edwards called your little church: “Every Christian family ought to be as it were a little church.”  I cannot be a faithful pastor to my wife and son at “big” church until I am a faithful pastor to my wife and son at our own little church. 

I think many pastors struggle with this.  I know I do.  I work at the office preparing sermons, spending time in study, time in prayer, time planning, and time solving all the worlds problems (or at least thinking I can).  By the time I get home at night I am exhausted.  Home is supposed to be your haven.  The place where you go to “get away from work”.  The problem is that my “work” is Jesus. 

Yeah, yeah I understand that my time at my office should be far more devotional and if my time spent at “work” were more energized by the gospel that when I came home I would be overflowing with Jesus instead of trying to escape ministry.  I agree.  And that’s the problem.  This is why what W.H. Griffith Thomas said hit me like a ton of bricks:

“We cannot make up for failure in our devotional life by redoubling energy in service for Christ. Our work will never rise higher than our devotional life. As water never rises above its level, so what we do never rises above what we are. And in our preaching we shall never take people one hair’s breadth beyond our own spiritual attainment. We may point to higher things, we may ‘allure to brighter worlds,’ but when we ‘lead the way’ we shall only take them just as far as we ourselves have gone. We shall never take people beyond our own spiritual attainment.”

If I can be boldly honest right now I’m less concerned about spiritually leading my congregation.  I am far more concerned about being faithful leading my wife and son.  If who I am at home does not reflect what I am in the pulpit then it will cripple and badly skew my families view of Jesus, the power of the gospel, and the deep love of God. 

If I get 1 less A at seminary, read 5 less books this year, preach 10 less sermons, go to 20 less meetings but my presence at home is far more impacting then I count those things as nothing.  What good is it for a preacher to gain his whole congregation but lose his own family?  If the Lord chooses to never use me to impact another soul except my wife and child(ren) then I will have been faithful. 

May I be faithful to my little church.  May it be a church that is filled with love and self-sacrifice.  May it be a church that I am willing to die for…and even more so may it be that which I am willing to live for.  May I never forsake this sacred charge.