One of the Saddest Verses in the Bible and A Heart of Baby Skin

Mike Leake

Exodus 6:9 is one of the saddest verses in the Bible.

“Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery”.

What Moses said to the people was that God was going to redeem them. God’s Word came to an enslaved people. He was promising liberation, redemption, adoption, and to be brought into a land that is their own. They had believed the promise once before but now everything has gotten worse for them instead of better. Now they cannot believe these good words.

Have you ever been there?

As I reflected on this passage I thought back to an old Keith Green song and a few words he said before singing:

On Monday night this week about midnight I wrote a letter to the Lord. I didn’t know where to mail it so I put it in my Bible. And I asked Him, “Lord, You gotta do something about my heart. You know a lot of time has gone by since I’ve met You, and it’s starting to harden up, You know, It’s kinda natural. I want to have baby skin, Lord. I want to have skin like a baby on my heart. It’s starting to get old and wrinkled, and calloused. It’s not because of anything I am doing, it’s because of a lot of things I am not doing. And I stayed up until about 2 in the morning writing this song…

After saying those words Green broke into a moving performance of O, Lord You’re Beautiful. I remember hearing this shortly after I became a believer and praying that prayer quite often. I started praying that the Lord would give me baby skin on my heart and that he would keep giving me baby skin.

Then I became a pastor…

Baby skin for a pastor is often seen as a deficit. It’s too tough to wear your heart on your sleeve. You take way too many shots and criticisms to pray for baby skin. And so I started praying for different things. I started praying for toughness. For strength. For the ability to lead.

And I think my heart gets a little harder and harder and old and wrinkled and calloused. I find myself going through the motions. My prayer becomes rote. My Bible study becomes less personal. I find myself in cruise control. And suddenly these great and grand truths which used to make me weep I’m now a bit calloused to. I believe them still. But I believe them as mere facts.

I still want the Lord to redeem me and to do work on my heart and to see some of those early dreams fulfilled, but I want to do it without the pain of “stinking to the Egyptians” (Exodus 5:20). I suppose I want to be redeemed in the way that I’ve set forth. And that’s a way that doesn’t require me having baby skin and tenderness and to walk through painful stuff with a fully alive heart. It’s easier to be a bit more leprous.

And then I read this by Mike Wilkerson and realize how desperately I need to believe the gospel enough to keep praying for baby skin.

“To hold our picture of redemption out to God and say, “Save me like this” doesn’t require nearly as much faith as saying, “I know you’re good. Save me like you want to.” (From Redemption)

So, Lord, give me baby skin on my heart.

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Photo source: here

Here is that Keith Green performance:

Read This 09.07.17

Mike Leake

Envy Never Hunts Our Hearts Alone

Man, I wish I had written this article. Just kidding. But it is phenomenal. Envy, really does come in a pack.

How to Pray When You Don’t Want to Pray

This was convicting to me. My prayer life needs such a boost.

My 7 Most Productive Habits

These are helpful.

4 Ways My Preaching Has Evolved

I enjoy reading articles like this from fellow preachers.

Yes, Leading Others to Sin Brings Greater Punishment

A Tom Schreiner article, you know the drill…

I Would Rather Die

This is a letter to a would-be adulterer.

40 Truths About the Fear of God

What a wonderfully helpful list.

When Should a Church Address a Current Event?

I probably err on the side of not mentioning them enough, and therefore not showing how the gospel applies.

Ever wonder why it’s called “going Dutch”?

You Can Disobey Dave Ramsey Without Sinning

Mike Leake

I want to say at the very beginning that I have no major beef with Dave Ramsey. In fact I think his program is helpful to many folks. For the most part I would say that following his financial advice will make you a better steward. And you could just as easily replace the name Dave Ramsey with any other Christian author or ministry leader and I would make the same point.

After studying centuries of church history, Richard Lovelace says this about most believers:

“below the surface of their lives [they] are guilt-ridden and insecure…[and] draw the assurance of their acceptance with God from their sincerity, their past experience of conversion, their recent religious performance or the relative infrequency of their conscious, willful disobedience.”

And I blame Dave Ramsey.

Okay, not really. But I’m making the point that our propensity towards making rules out of helpful suggestions leads us to being guilt-ridden and insecure.

I was listening to the radio the other day and heard a guy sounding very discouraged and overwhelmed by his inability to get his Ramsey’s suggested percentages into order. The guy clearly desired to be a good steward. And good stewardship was now defined for him as only spending 5-10% on monthly utilities and 25-35% on housing.

Now I believe that in most contexts it is good and wise stewardship to spend Dave Ramsey’s suggested percentages. Those are very helpful and I think most would greatly benefit from this. But the problem is whenever we make suggested percentages to become equivalent to God’s law. It is true that we are called by Scripture to be good stewards. But it is not true that Scripture defines good stewardship by Dave Ramsey’s percentages.

I saw this same thing in college when everyone was using Joshua Harris’ suggestions for dating/courtship. They were helpful (at least in part). But what happened is that we started measuring peoples fidelity to the Scriptures based upon their fidelity to the principles of Josh Harris. And that’s really no different than what the Pharisees were doing with the Law. We were taking the implications of biblical principles and turning them into biblical commands in themselves.

And this is why you have a ton of Christians as Richard Lovelace describes. We are guilt-ridden and insecure because we’re overwhelmed by “sin” that Christ did not die for. You see, Jesus didn’t die for sin that we made up. The Spirit doesn’t give us power to measure up to the rules we’ve invented. God will make you a better steward—and he might even use the suggestions of Dave Ramsey to do it—but he isn’t concerned with making sure we are obedient to Dave Ramsey.

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Photo source: here

Read This! 09.05.17

Mike Leake

Six Situations That AREN’T Signs Your Child Isn’t Saved

The double negative in there makes it a bit confusing. Here are six things that we sometimes might use to conclude our child isn’t saved. This article shows why that isn’t necessarily the case.

Six Traits of a Church Disrupter

Knowing these early warning signs can save you a ton of heartache.

To Faithful Pastors in Forgotten Places

Amen!

Precious Clarity on Human Sexuality

Check out the Nashville Statement and these words of recommendation from Piper.

A Necessary Change in My Preaching

I agree with the article I’m linking to below this one as well. The healthy balance is to be sensitive and hospitable to outsiders while fundamentally preaching to equip the sheep.

Why Pastor’s Should Preach to the Sheep

I agree.

God Made You a Writer

This was encouraging to me.

Bible Verses Prosperity Preachers Wish Didn’t Exist

I thought the answer was going to be “all of them”.

This is my friend Geoff’s dog: