When to Enter a Quarrel?

Mike Leake

Earlier I vented a little about one frustration I have with the blogosphere: fires draw more traffic than Jesus. I mentioned Proverbs 26:17 and that it causes a small conundrum for me. Simply put, my conundrum is trying to figure out when to actually enter into a quarrel, and how to know if my motives are pure.

Before I give you this list one disclaimer. I am not, here, attempting to answer when should you intervene and speak truth and love into the life of someone in your circle of friends and family. My question is more concerned with entering into “debate” with those online that I may never meet this side of eternity.

These are 7 questions I try to answer before I engage in a “quarrel”:

1. How closely related is it to the gospel? I will be quicker to enter a discussion on the exclusivity of Christ than I would my view of the millennium.

2. Am I angry? You don’t stop a dogfight by getting on all fours and barking like the dogs. Pursuing peace and unity is really the reason to enter into a quarrel, I can’t do that very well if I am angry.

3. Am I more concerned with winning an argument than I am speaking truth in love? In other words am I going to make every reasonable attempt to understand the other persons point of view.

4. Do I have the time? These online discussions can be time consuming.

5. Am I approaching this humbly?

6. Am I trying to be Jesus? Am I trying to be the savior of somebody else?

7. Am I trying to defend God? He doesn’t need me to defend Him.

I may ask myself a few more questions, but the big picture is that I want to approach entering a quarrel with extreme caution. I want to constantly be checking my heart as I do so. I certainly want to make sure that my aim is unity, peace, and exalting Christ.

I certainly don’t want to engage in a quarrel for the sake of blog traffic.

Lord, make me humble. Help me to be wise. And above all help me to always be content in You. Amen!

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Kidney Stones and Hardness of Heart

Mike Leake

…the child of God has not total and final hardness of heart, but has a sensibleness of it, he feels and sees it.  Total hardness feels nothing, but a Christian that has hardness of heart, feels that he has it; as a man that has a stone in his bladder, feels and knows that he has a stone.  (Sibbes, The Tender Heart, 41-42)

I have never had a kidney stone.  But I can say with a pretty firm confidence that I do not want one.  This quote leads me to ask myself whether or not I grieve my occasional hardness of heart towards the Lord as I would grieve a kidney stone? 

Does an absence of strong affections for Jesus cause me pain like passing a kidney stone would?

Venting…But With A Point

Mike Leake

I am from a ridiculously small town.  Population 666.  Seriously. 

In said small town it is quite humorous what happens whenever there is a fire in town.  First of all the town whistle blows.  If I remember correctly over 4 blows of the sacred whistle lets us know that the fire is out of town.  Under 4 means that the traffic in town is about to pick up. 

One volunteer fireman on his way out to put out the fire will stop for a brief moment and write on a huge blackboard who the unlucky sap is that is experiencing an unwanted fire.  Knowing this ritual somewhere around 650 people, like lemmings, get in their vehicles (mostly big trucks with Old Dixie hanging from the back) and get the low down on the fire. 
Then about 200 of those 650 attempt to slyly drive out to wherever the fire is.  We (yeah, I confess I used to do this too), try to pretend that we are only going to the gas station…but everybody is in on the secret.  We are all curious about the fire. 

Sad thing is nobody had visited this poor sap UNTIL his house burns down.  Why is that? 

We like a good car crash.  That is why sober and adjusted people only watch NASCAR for the wrecks.  And non-Canadians only watch hockey for the fights.  Controversy, turmoil, fires, etc. creates traffic. 

The same thing is true in the world of blogging.  And that frustrates me to no end.  It frustrates me because every writer wants people to read what he/she writes.  Yeah, I love writing.  But I also want to write well and write in a way that honors Christ and makes Him the only boast of this generation. 

That is why it frustrates me whenever those that stir up controversy get massive traffic and meanwhile I plod along slowly, keep writing, and slowly gain traffic.  If this post would have Driscoll, Calvinism, SBC, Alcohol, or Homosexuality, or some sort of end times jargon in the title I guarantee it would have had a good amount of traffic.  But if it’s something about the excellencies of Jesus it will get a minimum amount of traffic.

And I could write about that stuff.  I do have opinions on many of these things.  Problem is I do not want to.  At the end of the day I want to stand before the Lord and be able to say that I wrote for His glory and not blog traffic.  Or at least I want to want that.

One thing that guides my writing and social media involvement is Proverbs 26:17, “Whoever meddles in a quarrel not his own is like one who takes a passing dog by the ears”.  I could enter into many of these quarrels but it would end up biting me in the end. 

But this causes a small conundrum for me…And I’ll share that one later…

7 Questions with Stephen Altrogge: Author of The Greener Grass Conspiracy

Mike Leake

Stephen Altrogge has written a helpful book on contentment entitled The Greener Grass Conspiracy.  (I plan on reviewing this book on Friday).  You will certainly want to buy a copy.  You also will want to check out Stephen’s blog, The Blazing Center. 

Stephen was nice enough to answer 7 questions about himself and his book:

1. I have to be honest, for awhile I was not interested in purchasing this book because I thought it had something to do with the global warming conspiracy. I’m not sure why. Just in case I am not the only one, how would you sum up for my readers the main message of your book?

The main message of this book is that God has loads of joy and contentment for us right where we are, and that we don’t always need to be on the search for something else to satisfy us.

2. Why this book on contentment?

Two reasons.  First, because I’m often a very discontented pig.  Several years ago I was going through a time when I just didn’t like the way my life was shaping up.  My schedule was frenetic, I was tired, and I hardly had any time to be with my family.  In the midst of all this I found myself grumbling and complaining, rather than going to God for joy and contentment.  These circumstances prompted me to go to the Bible and see what it had to say about contentment.  What I found there, particularly in Philippians 4, was transforming, and prompted me to start writing this book.  The second reason I wrote it is because every Christian battles against discontentment.  We all have an idea in our heads of what a perfect life would like, and when we don’t get that life, we battle discontentment.  I wrote this book in the hopes that it would help others find their contentment in Christ instead of circumstances.

3. I notice that you quote the Puritans quite often. What were some of the books that you drew most from in writing this book?

I drew primarily from “The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment” by Jeremiah Burroughs and “The Art of Divine Contentment” by Thomas Watson.  Everyone should read those books.  Seriously. No, I mean drop what you are doing and go purchase those books right now.    (To follow Stephen’s advice you can do so here and here).

4. I love your writing style. You are funny, engaging, and yet always bring your humor around to make a really solid point. I know most of this is probably simply God-given talent, but I am curious who are your greatest influences in writing?

Hmm, that’s tough.  Off the top of my head, I would say: John Piper, Dave Barry, with maybe a splash of Jon Acuff thrown in.  I read a ton so it’s hard for me to nail down all my influences.  Anne Lamott might be in there somewhere too.

5. I love this statement, “complaining sucks the joy out of life”. I tend to agree with this statement but I do wonder about the Psalms. Something tells me that their “complaining” is much different than what we typically engage in. What is the difference between the complaints of the Psalmist and our typical complaining? Is there a…I’m not sure how to phrase this…redemptive way of complaining?

Yeah I think you’re on to something.  I think that the posture of the heart makes all the difference when it comes to complaining.  We can complain in such a way that we are demanding something of God.  When I complain about having a cold, behind that complaint is the implicit demand that God owes me better health.  The Psalmists, however, voiced their complaints to God in a humble, trusting way.  Basically they would say, “God this is hard, I don’t like this, please help me, but ultimately I trust you.”  I think that we can tell God about our struggles in such a way that we are not demanding better treatment from him, but simply laying our burdens at his feet.

6. Many of my readers may not know that you also write music for Sovereign Grace Ministries. What are some of the most popular songs that you have written?

Let’s see.  I’ve written “The Birthday Song”, “The Alphabet Song”, and “Thriller”.  No, seriously, the one people might know the most is called “He Is Jesus”.  I also wrote on called “How Deep” that people seem to do a fair amount. 

7. You state in your book that your favorite Christian rock group is dcTalk. First question, related to this. Are you serious? Second question. “Rock” group, seriously?

You had to bring this up, didn’t you?  Yes, dcTalk is my favorite Christian rock group.  I liked other groups like Audio Adrenaline, Newsboys, and Pax 217, but in terms of pure creativity and songwriting, dcTalk is my favorite.  When they released “Jesus Freak” in 1995, that was a momentum shifting album for the entire Christian music industry.  And yes, they are a “Rock” group.  Now, granted, up until “Jesus Freak”, I would say that they were a rap group.  But “Jesus Freak” was most definitely a rock album. 

Thanks for the interview!!!!

Thank you Stephen for your time and your helpful responses.  And I’m really sorry about the dcTalk thing.  Not asking the question…just sorry that you haven’t been discontent enough to search out better music. 

I know Stephen encouraged you to buy those books by Burroughs and Watson, but you should also seriously consider buying Stephen’s book.  It is funny, engaging, and probably just as helpful as the two books he suggests buying. 

You can buy Stephen’s newest book here.