Pray For Your Church: 31 Day Challenge—Day Twenty-Eight

Mike Leake

Day 28: That we would comfort as we have been comforted

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort. (2 Corinthians 1:3-7 ESV)

Maybe I’m alone in this, but I’ve felt way over my head at every stage in my life. I had not idea what I was doing when I went off to college. Same with marriage. Same with children. Same with being a youth pastor. Same with being a pastor. And when difficult times, filled with suffering or persecution hits, I fill as if I’m in way over my head. But every single time the Lord has seen me through. He has provided comfort when I needed comfort. On occasion one of the means he will use to comfort will be dear saints who have traveled the same road I’m now upon. They were comforted by the Lord as well and so they are equipped to comfort me in my present affliction. Likewise, I’m finding that the areas of great pain in my life are now some of the greatest places for ministry. Don’t waste your sorrow, but use it for the glory of God.

Father, you are the God of all comfort. When we are afflicted you are always there to comfort us in ways which we do not have words for. Help us, Lord, to not check out and live individual lives where we waste our sorrows. Use us to comfort those who are at present hurting. You’ve done so much on our behalf may we always be looking at those who are traveling along this same narrow road—and encourage them that through your strength and your comfort we’re going to make it.

Pray For Your Church: 31 Day Challenge—Day Twenty-Seven

Mike Leake 1 Comment

Day 27: That we would not be ashamed of the gospel

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” (Romans 1:16-17 ESV)

Surely a church wouldn’t be ashamed of the gospel…right?!?!? Yet, every time we depend upon something other than the gospel for the conversion of sinners we are subtly ashamed of the gospel. When we uncritically pursue relevance because we think that this will some how adorn the gospel we are communicating what we actually believe about the gospel—that it alone is not powerful enough to save. Likewise when we only share portions of the gospel to “hook them” and then try to slip the harder stuff in the backdoor we are betraying our lack of confidence in God’s ability to use His gospel to convert sinners. Let us not be ashamed of the gospel but boldly believe and live as if it truly is the power of God to save sinners.

Father, you are strong. You saved me when I was far from you and my heart was darkened and dead. There was nothing within me that would have found you appealing and yet through the power of your gospel you wooed me. You took my heart of stone and made it a heart of flesh. You did what you said you would do in Your Word. Help us to believe that you will do the same through us as we share your gospel. Keep our churches from being ashamed of the gospel—give us a holy confidence in Your ability to accomplish Your purposes.

REview of Do More Better By Tim Challies

Mike Leake 1 Comment

“I don’t consider myself busy.”

Those were the words of Tim Challies back in 2012. Ever since reading those words I’ve been intrigued by and glued to anything Tim writes on productivity tips. I say that because I know he likely accomplishes more than I do each day and I feel at times way too busy. So, I’ve come to the conclusion that either Tim is a robot, a clone, or he’s got a few secrets he’s employing that I’m clearly not.

Until I met him at T4G in 2014 I was leaning very heavily towards the first option—that Tim Challies is really just a robot. I still haven’t ruled out the second option, but after reading his new book, Do More Better, I’m strongly leaning towards accepting the fact that he’s a real person who has learned a few helpful things about productivity.

The book begins where it should, by outlining the purpose behind productivity. He does this with a little catechism on productivity. At the end his conclusion is that our purpose—and the reason we strive to be productive—is “to glorify God by doing good to others”. This is the reason we should strive to do more better. As Challies says, “God calls you to productivity, but he calls you to the right kind of productivity. He calls you to be productive for his sake, not your own.”

The system that Challies suggests is quite simple. Mercifully simple. That’s one of the things I appreciate about this book. I’ve read productivity books but they were so rigorous and had such a steep learning curve I found myself unable to implement them. Challies really gets at the heart of why we do productivity and then gives a relatively simple way to help us be more productive.

I’ll give you the reader’s digest version of his simple system, but you need to know that if you get the book you’ll find a ton of practical pointers along the way. Here it is in a nutshell: Root out (repent of) productivity thieves, write our all of your responsibilities, consider (write) your mission, now consider how your mission and responsibilities are related. Then you need to decide what to do with the responsibilities you have that do not fit into your mission statement—you can drop them, delegate them, or just do them. Once you’ve done this you need to find the right tools for task management, scheduling, and processing information. Then you master the tools and live it out and keep on living it out. That’s really it, in a nutshell. He also tacks on a helpful chapter on how to get control of your email account.

As I said earlier I’ve read several productivity books but most of them were, ironically, more time consuming than helpful. Tim gives several options for the tools to use to manage your time, schedule, and information. He also gives us a very helpful and simple principle: “A home for everything and like goes with like.” This is helpful because so often what robs my time are the things that I’m doing without purpose. Not everything has a place and so I end up wasting time or energy. Also, my lack of organizing information causes me to spend unnecessary time tracking down quotes and such.

I’ve downloaded the programs that Tim suggested and I’m going to give it a whirl. I pray that I can master these and that the learning curve isn’t too steep. But more than anything his definition or productivity has caused me to be more intentional. I’m realizing that this isn’t just a matter of accomplishing more for myself. This is a holiness issue. To not work hard at being a good steward of my time is a gospel issue. I need to do more better.

If you think you do as well, this is a great resource to get you going. You can get your copy of Do More Better, here.

Today in Blogworld 12.04.15

Mike Leake 1 Comment

Holiday at the Dictator’s Guesthouse

This is an interesting (but long) story about a man trying to get a Bible into North Korea.

3 Ways Gospel-Centered Preachers Forget to Preach the Gospel

I really appreciate this gentle reminder. I know in the past I’ve been guilty of preaching Jesus but not preaching the gospel—yep, it’s possible. I’ve found Mark Dever and Thabiti Anyabwile to be great models for this. Lord, help me to always preach the gospel.

7 Ways Christian History Benefits You

I love Christian history and I think you should too. Here are seven reasons why.

4 Ways to Become a Better Writer

I’m not very good at the fourth one.

This is about the funniest pregnancy announcement you’ll see: