Read This 06.28.18

Mike Leake

How Do I Overcome Crippling Self-Consciousness?

That’s a helpful question.

Dangers of Non-Christocentric Preaching: Moralistic Sermons

This is one of the dangers of preaching in a way that’s not centered on Christ.

Watching our Words in the Age of Outrage

Helpful questions here.

7 Intangibles Needing in Leading Church Revitalization

If these aren’t present it’s going to be much harder to see church revitalization happen.

When Comforting Turns Selfish

I’m continuously amazed at our ability for deception.

Salvation Bracelets in Africa? No, Thanks.

This is an intriguing piece.

On Professors and the Cult of Personality

I had never thought of this unique temptation to professors.

Mister Rogers Made Goodness Attractive. So Should We.

I’ve never really watched much Mister Rogers, but I appreciate this article.

Conflict has a tendency to lead to complacency in many churches:

About That Pastor’s Lesson to the Complaining Woman Using a Glass of Water

Mike Leake

Did you happen to see the illustration a few months back about the pastor who taught a valuable lesson to a complaining lady?

A lady came into the pastor and said that she was going to leave the church. When the pastor asked why she gave a list of issues involving many of the other members of the church. One lady was always gossiping, another was a hypocrite, the worship team wasn’t living consistent lives, and people were looking at their phones during the worship service.

In order to make a point the pastor tells the lady to walk around the church with a full glass of water without spilling a drop. When she returns without having spilled a drop the pastor moves in to make his point. He asks whether or not she had noticed any hypocrites, gossips, or people on their phone. And then he preaches his mini-sermon:

You were focused on the glass, to make sure you didn’t stumble and spill any water. It’s the same with our life. When we keep our eyes on Jesus, we don’t have time to see the mistakes of others. We will reach out a helping hand to them and concentrate on our own walk with the Lord.

There is much in this illustration which is helpful and I give a hearty “amen”. It is very much true that when we aren’t engaged in mission we are going to notice petty things. When we don’t believe in the power of the gospel and when our hearts are enthralled with something other than Jesus a critical and complaining spirit is one likely result (the other would be complete disengagement). So it is true that a lack of focus on Jesus will cause to not only notice but to focus upon inconsequential things and what other people are doing. 

However, if pressed too far this would actually move us away from following Jesus. What I mean is that part of being a follower of Jesus is being another set of eyes for our fellow followers of Jesus. The Spirit within you is going to be grieved by the lack of Jesus focus in the life of someone else.

So if someone in your congregation isn’t Jesus focused they are going to be noticing silly things like what people are wearing, carpet colors, etc. They’ll also be focused on protection and preservation instead of gospel ministry. They need to hear the glass of water illustration. But if you truly are following Jesus and focused on discipleship, evangelism, and other kingdom building issues then you are going to notice the person who is focused on carpet colors instead of missions—and rightly so.

So what do you do when you find yourself discouraged because of the lack of gospel focus in your community?

You make the Psalms your own. Or you read through Habakkuk and other of the Minor Prophets. They teach us the language of lament. The most profound grief is often not that which directly impacts us but the sorrow of seeing others miss out on the Lord’s feast because they’ve sold their birthright for a pot of stew. These Scriptural authors give us language to process these painful times.

You can also receive great help from saints in the past who have experience similar grief. One in particular that I often find encouragement in is John Newton. Newton’s letter On Controversy has been balm to my soul so many times. If you find yourself at odds with someone because of a lack of gospel-centrality (and that is always the core of our divisions—somebody has moved away from Christ, and often both parties) then Newton outlines a couple options.

First, if the person you are differing with is a fellow believer in Jesus then take heart and remember that the Lord loves him/her and bears with them just as He must bear with you. Know that someday you’ll be fully on the same page and fully submitted to the Lordship of Christ. Long for that day when you’ll be fully united, and act and minister and love accordingly.

Secondly, if the person is not a believer (and you should be slow to make that pronouncement) then such a one desires our compassion and not our anger. We must realize that even though they perhaps “ought to know better” they do not know what they do.

Our goal, regardless of if the person we are engaged with is a believer or not, is to strive with them in the truth of the gospel but to do so with such a meekness as we instruct those who oppose the gospel. Those are valuable lessons I’ve learned from Newton.

Conclusion:

Finally, the same gospel which has saved you and captivated your heart is able to save and captivate them as well. The means that God uses to bring gospel-transformation is…the gospel. So keep humbly, lovingly, and passionately proclaiming the gospel. And when you are overcome with grief know that you are in good company. Our Lord also grieved as he looked upon Jerusalem and longed to gather them as a mother hen gathers his chicks. Carry your lament here.

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Photo source: here

Read This 06.26.18

Mike Leake

10 Things You Should Know About Suffering

I would affirm these ten things.

What Is Discernment?

One of the biggest problems with “discernment blogging” is that real discernment suffers.

Fauxnerability in the Church

This needs to be considered.

Not Worrying ≠ Not Caring

Such a helpful distinction.

17 ‘Unbreakable’ Baseball Records

I remember when a few of these broke the previously unbreakable record.

8 Habits of the Excellent Bible Teacher

That sixth one is one of the most important and might shock some.

Inside the Binge Factory

I found this to be quite interesting.

We Are Not Meant To Be Awesome

Yes. We are meant to be awe-struck.

Tornadoes are cool….on YouTube:

A Frequently Used Argument That Doesn’t Make Logical Sense

Mike Leake

There is an argumentation I see quite frequently that I really don’t understand. I’ll give one concrete example of this argument, but my fear is that we’ll get side tracked about that issue and not the argumentation which I see pulled out frequently for several arguments.

Here is where I’m seeing this argument today. A pro-choice liberal is quite bothered by the treatment of children at the border—getting separated from parents and what not. So the pro-life conservative responds by saying, “Where is your outrage at the separating of children from their parents in the womb?”

Now if all the pro-life conservative is attempting to do is draw the pro-choice liberal into consistency and to argue for pro-life, then it’s a relatively decent argument. Calling for consistency in one’s belief is right out of the playbook of Francis Schaeffer. We press folks who have inconsistent worldviews into consistency.

But what I don’t get is how in the world this is an argument for separating children from their parents at the border. It’s actually shooting your pro-life stance in the foot. If you use this as a defense of what is happening at our borders, you are doing so from a non pro-life perspective. The same statement could be flipped. You are outraged at separating children from their parents in the womb, why aren’t you outraged at what is happening at the borders?

Again, I’m not attempting to get into a debate on immigration. I realize there are complexities here. I don’t believe you have to be inconsistently pro-life if you are arguing for better border control and less immigration. But I do believe the way in which we argue for such a thing might betray an inconsistent pro-life position. I’m writing this, though, because I’m really confused by these arguments that I keep seeing. It’s not a consistent argument. Think of it this way:

You aren’t outraged by A, but in order to be consistent with C you should be.
You are outraged by B, but in order to be consistent with C _______.

What goes in that blank?

Let’s say that C is something like, “God values human life”. So our argument is that you aren’t outraged by abortion (A), but in order to be consistent with the fact that God values human life (C), you should be. You are outraged by what is happening at the border, but in order to be consistent with the fact God values human life, you _______.

Do you see the problem? This is why I said at the beginning that if you want to make the argument that pro-choice liberals are being inconsistent in their outrage and that all you are saying is that they should be consistent and therefore pro-life, then that is a fine argument. It is logically consistent. But it’s not logically consistent to make a positive argument about immigration from the injustice of a separate argument concerning abortion.

And that’s what I see happening over and over again on both sides of the aisle. The problem is that we’ve lost consistency and we only argue from polarity. It would do us well to focus on truth, consistent unchanging truth, instead of teams.

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Photo source: here