Read This! 04.25.19

Mike Leake

Giving Up the Stage

I really appreciate Eric sharing his story.

Every Sin Is A Small One: How to Safely Betray Christ

Very insightful.

Sovereign Grace Calls Outside Investigation “Impossible”

Yikes.

Reducing the Stumbling Block before THE Stumbling Block

Such a vital question.

How Google Is Influencing What You Click

I’m become more and more convinced that things like Google, Facebook, etc. and all their algorithms are fundamentally changing us in a concerning 1984 type of way. As one who creates content this is deeply concerning that a powerhouse can absolutely silence me if they choose. All because we aren’t taking responsibility for our own curation.

The Continuation of the Charismata

Dr. Schreiner was my favorite professor at SBTS. But I have to say Andrew Wilson is making a very reasonable argument as well.

Bringing Up Believers

Trillia Newbell reminds us that we can’t save our children.

6 Questions Guests Brings To Your Church Website

We are looking at a massive overhaul of our website, so I found this helpful.

This is old, but I’d never watched this until a friend introduced it to me the other night:

Three Tips For Strengthening Your Passion for Heaven

Mike Leake

I’ve been reading a bit of the biography of Josiah Henson (The Road to Dawn). It’s the type of book that will simultaneously make you angry and yet hopeful at the grace of God. It’s eye-opening for sure.

Henson was a former slave who was freed on the Underground Railroad before there was one. He was a pioneer and his story truly did spark the Civil War. One particular section was incredibly frustrating to read. The biographer spoke of the strategy of slave holders to keep the slaves ignorant so that they wouldn’t develop ornery things such as hope. And it worked. In one particular section we read of slaves (Henson among them) who refused to pursue their freedom because they were too brain-washed by their present situation to see a future.

The slave master’s tools are merely borrowed from our enemy and the principal slave master, Satan. The old serpent traffics in burying our noses in the now in order to blind us to living with our future in mind. We often stay in the pit of now because we cannot envision or trust in a better then. This might be a wisdom in a world without resurrection. But we believers have a far greater hope than this. We believe there is a then which causes our now to pale in comparison (both in it’s joys and its pains).

Three Tips

I’ve found the advice of Stephen Witmer to be helpful. In his book, Eternity Changes Everything, Witmer lists three tips for helping ourselves remember that then is better than now.

First, “we should stay alert for reminders of the flaws of this present world.” We have plenty of fodder in our news to drive us to our knees and cry ‘Marantha!’. Rather than causing us to grab our pitchforks or our keyboards the flaws of our present world should remind us first and foremost that this world is not our home. We might still be driven to action but it’ll be action which comes from another kingdom and not one fueled by the hellish desires of those who want to make this world their home.

Secondly, “we should allow God to use pain and inconvenience in our lives for the good purpose of redirecting us from this world to the next”. Witmer here quotes Calvin and reminds us that the trials in our life are meant to purge us of worldliness. Our trials in life are “never spiritually neutral”. They will either cause us to dig our claws into the things of this world or to view them rightly in light of eternity.

Lastly, “we should simply begin to live as though the new creation will come”. Here Witmer challenges us to do something this week that we wouldn’t do if we didn’t believe we were headed for a wonderful new creation. He suggests things like writing poems and helping neighbors. (There is also far more practical help on this point in Witmer’s book).

I think I’d add to Witmer’s list the cultivating of a relationship with Christ. When my wife and I were dating I absolutely hated when she had to go back home for the summers. The more I grew in my love for her the more restless I was to be back with her. It’s the same thing with Christ. Though we certainly are still in union and He has not left us as orphans there is still a groaning for the experience which awaits us in eternity. The more our love for Christ is fanned into flames the more we’ll have a healthy longing for the future.

Witmer’s book is a great read: Eternity Changes Everything.

So is The Road to Dawn.

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Photo source: here

Read This! 04.23.19

Mike Leake

5 Things That Masked the Death of a Church

Money, meetings, and missions giving aren’t necessarily signs of church health.

It’s Time To Break Free From the Algorithm-Driven Life

I totally agree.

5 Reasons to Resurrect the Hymns

There is so much value in hymns. Some of them (just as modern songs) I would be happy to see buried and gone. But there is such a rich history here and present help to be found in hymns.

A New Tool for Teaching Textual Criticism to English Speakers

This looks like an incredibly helpful resource.

What Should I Think About During the Lord’s Supper?

We know that it’s a time for meditation but we’re often not too incredibly sure what we ought to be thinking about.

Ten Dangers of Discernment

I think Tim does this better than about anybody. I really appreciate the insight of #3.

When a Group Leave the Church: Five Perspectives

I think that third one is often the hardest to remember. It’s kind of like the error of saying, “Where is everybody today?” It’s far better to acknowledge and celebrate those who are there.

Pastoral Concern about Evangelical Prophecy

This is a discussion that I’m watching with much interest.

3 Ways to Knock Easter Follow-Up Out of the Park

Helpful pointers here.

We know he didn’t but could Jesus have sinned?

What if We Battled Emotional Purity with the Weapons We Use For Sexual Purity?

Mike Leake

A dejected student comes to your office to talk about his most recent slip up. He feels awful that he and his girlfriend messed up once again. And he’s even more discouraged this time because he had really been praying about this camping trip. He knew it’d offer temptation, so he prayed, fasted, immersed himself in Scripture. But when he and his girlfriend went to sleep at night in the same tent…things happened.

“Why did God allow me to fall?”

You’re a bit shocked that he is shocked. “Of course you messed up,” you tell him. Then you go into a lengthy (and loving) discussion about not putting yourself in the path of temptation but running. You can be as prayed up as possible but if you put yourself into such situations you’re going to fall every time. The Christian life requires wisdom.

And yet the very same pastor giving this advice to the young man runs on about 5 hours of sleep, fuels himself with energy drinks and caffeine pills. He’s been praying about depression and anxiety and trying to get a handle on his fits of rage. But he keeps failing. His emotions feel so out of control. He doesn’t know why God isn’t giving him victory over these things.

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I’ve been reading a very helpful book called Untangling Emotions. I’m only about a third of the way through the book but it has spurred so much thought. I’ve always known that our bodies are complex and incredibly intertwined. I’ve known for quite some time that there is a relationship between my level of sleep and my battle with things like depression. But the authors put things in such a way that I saw my battle in the same light as that teenager trying to avoid sexual temptation whilst sleeping in a tent with his girlfriend.

Being tired or thirsty doesn’t make it okay to be snippy or rude, of course, but it’s helpful to recognize that too little sleep or water (or too many glasses of stronger drink) or a whole host of other physiological states and experiences will exert a steady pull on our emotions and thus become a source of trial and temptation in our lives. (Untangling Emotions, 63)

What if we viewed emotional purity in the same light that we viewed sexual purity? Garbage in, garbage out. Doesn’t that apply to our emotions as well? And isn’t something like anger and anxiety just as much of an issue as sexual indiscretion? (That’s not to minimize either but to maximize the importance of holistic holiness).

I understand, as well, that there are complexities here. Depression often creates a cycle where we physiological wreak havoc on ourselves. It’s a sick cycle. We know that we do better on 8 hours of sleep but our anxiety keeps us up until early morning. This is why our battle with things like anxiety cannot simply be tackled on a biological front. But it’s also why we probably can’t just pray it away.

Sexual purity requires wisdom coupled with a radical dedication to purity in this area. Prayer. Accountability. Radical Measures. Wisdom. All of those are needed. I don’t know why we would think emotional purity requires anything less.

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Photo source: here