Quotes

Little Darts & Hand Grenades

"...between...times of devotion, labor to be much in ejaculatory prayer. While your hands are busy with the world, let your hearts still talk with God; not in twenty sentences at a time, for such an interval might be inconsistent with your calling, but in broken sentences and interjections. It is always wrong to present one duty to God stained with the blood of another, and that we should do if we spoiled study or labor by running away to pray at all hours; but we may, without this, let short sentences go up to heaven, ay, and we may shoot upwards cries, and single words, such as an "Ah," an "Oh," an "O that;" or, without words we may pray in the upward glancing of the eye or the sigh of the heart. He who prays without ceasing uses many little darts and hand-grenades of godly desire, which he casts forth at every available interval. Sometimes he will blow the furnace of his desires to a great heat in regular prayer, and as a consequence at other times, the sparks will continue to rise up to heaven in the form of brief words, and looks, and desires."

From Charles Spurgeon's sermon "Pray Without Ceasing."

The Consequences of Eternity Amnesia

My current sermon series is about being an eternity junkie and seeking hard after forever, with eternity set in our hearts. We can't be satisfied in anything else. I'm preaching it because we need it, and because I need it. I need to grasp for and long after eternity. 

From Forever (or Amazon | Kindle) by Paul David Tripp (pg 24-26). For explanations of each point, check out the book. Here are Tripp's "consequences of eternity amnesia"...

  1. Living with unrealistic expectations
  2. Focusing too much on self
  3. Asking too much of people
  4. Being controlling or fearful
  5. Questioning the goodness of God
  6. Living more disappointed than thankful
  7. Lacking motivation and hope
  8. Living as if life doesn't have consequences

Aim for Specific Obedience in Specific Instances

Bridges holiness

In Jerry Bridges' beloved little book, The Pursuit of Holiness (Kindle), he describes in his chapter on the place of personal discipline three questions to ask as you read, study, or meditate on the Scriptures and then explains why being specific is so important.

  1. What does this passage teach concerning God's will for a holy life?
  2. How does my life measure up to that Scripture; specifically where and how do I fall short? (Be specific; don't generalize.)
  3. What definite steps of action do I need to take to obey?

The most important part of this process is the specific application of the Scripture to specific life situations. We are prone to vagueness at this point because commitment to specific actions makes us uncomfortable. But we must avoid general commitments to obedience and instead aim for specific obedience in specific instances. We deceive our souls when we grown in knowledge of the truth without specifically responding to it (James 1:22). 

The Pursuit of Holiness (1978) by Jerry Bridges, pg 104. Bold is mine.

Out of the Spiritual Ghetto

All gods people

As we meet today with our local churches, may we remember the redemptive mission God has called us to, and may we refuse to settle for the "spiritual ghetto" when the everyday places of this world need the Christian faith lived out everywhere. 

Steve

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"Being the body of Christ calls up another image, namely, that believers are called to be a kingdom of priests (1 Peter 2:9). They are called to redemptive mission in the world. They are called to be channels of God's blessing to a fallen and needy society. Findley Edge explains how this comes about.

There is...a basic difference in the priesthood of the Old Testament and the priesthood of the New Testament. In the Old Testament the priest offered the sacrifice. In the New Testament the priest is the sacrifice! He offers his life to God in behalf of the world which God is seeking to redeem.

This call to redemptive mission is to every believer and is a ministry which extends beyond the church building and into the marketplace. Churches must move their members out of the "spiritual ghetto" into stores, factories, offices, and homes. They must be trained and exhorted to practice their Christian faith wherever they happen to find themselves."

All God's People by David L. Smith, pg 413. Bold is mine. (Interested in the book, click the link and look at used prices. Get this one dirt cheap.)

Keller on Church: Four Fronts & Three Goals

Keller City Street

In Tim Keller's book, Center Church, he discusses four ministry fronts...

  1. Connecting People to God (through evangelism and worship)
  2. Connecting People to One Another (through community and discipleship)
  3. Connecting People to the City (through mercy and justice)
  4. Connecting People to the Culture (through the integration of faith and work)

Center Church, pg 293

In the same section Keller explains three goals of ministry and their comprehensive scope as taught by Edmund Clowney...

In his biblical-theological work on the church, Clowney speaks of the biblical "goals of ministry" as threefold: (1) we are called to minister and serve God through worship (Rom 15:8-16; 1 Pet 2:9); (2) we are to minister and serve one another through Christian nurture (Eph 4:12-26); and (3) we are to minister and serve the world through witness (Matt 28:18-20; Luke 24:28; Acts 5:32).

Center Church, pg 294

I reproduce these here simply because they are ringing in my ears as I rework some of the groundwork of my church. Keller does such an excellent job keeping things simple, and yet puts them in one of the great new books on the complexities of church and ministry in our day. This is Keller's great service to the church. If you don't have Center Church, get it (WTS | Amazon | Kindle).

If you have a nice, short list like some Keller gives to explain the church, I'd love to see some in the comments. Or feel free to blog about it and share a link here. 

Also, please check out my Tim Keller Resources page.

Spiritual Disciplines: Abstinence & Engagement

Willard Disciplines

In Dallas Willard's classic book, The Spirit of the Disciplines (Kindle), he gives two lists of "main disciplines." I find it helpful for me to review some of my favorite books on the disciplines when I need spiritual renewal. Not all books and teaching on the disciplines float my boat, but this one adds some interesting insight to disciplines I tend to ignore. I don't agree with everything he says in the book, but this is worth checking out. I'm reading through his explanation of each of the disciplines below.

Disciplines of Abstinence

  • Solitude
  • Silence
  • Fasting
  • Frugality
  • Chastity
  • Secrecy
  • Sacrifice

Disciplines of Engagement 

  • Study
  • Worship
  • Celebration
  • Service
  • Prayer
  • Fellowship
  • Confession
  • Submission

Dallas Willard in The Spirit of the Disciplines, p158. I have a 1988 copy and the one linked is newer. 

What are your thoughts on the disciplines? Helpful books? Unhelpful or helpful disciplines listed here or ignored here? Would love your feedback. Also feel free to engage with me on Twitter: @SteveKMcCoy.

No Discovery Disillusions Him About Me

Knowing god

What matters supremely, therefore, is not, in the last analysis, the fact that I know God, but the larger fact which underlies it--the fact that he knows me. I am graven on the palms of his hands. I am never out of his mind. All my knowledge of him depends on his sustained initiative in knowing me. I know him because he first knew me, and continues to know me. He knows me as a friend, one who loves me; and there is no moment when his eye is off me, or his attention distracted from me, and no moment, therefore, when his care falters.

This is momentous knowledge. There is unspeakable comfort--the sort of comfort that energizes, be it said, not enervates--in knowing that God is constantly taking knowledge of me in love and watching over me for my good. There is tremendous relief in knowing that his love to me is utterly realistic, based at every point on prior knowledge of the worst about me, so that no discovery now can disillusion him about me, in the way I am so often disillusioned about myself, and quench his determination to bless me.

J.I. Packer in Knowing God, pp 41-42.

Smile at the Storm

Though dark be my way, since He be my Guide,
'Tis mine to obey, tis His to provide
By prayer let me wrestle, and He will perform,
With Christ in the vessel I smile at the storm.

John Newton, Olney Hymns, from "Begone Unbelief" as quoted in Timothy Keller's Walking With God Through Pain And Suffering -- also find it as played by Indelible Grace, though the quote is slightly different

Wear Out Or Rust Out

Whitefield

George Whitefield, on this day, September 30, 1770, woke at 2am with an the beginning of breathing problems that he suffered from for some time and thought was asthma. He decided to take 2-3 days off of preaching to recover. Then soon after decided it would be better to preach that day. "A good pulpit sweat today may give me relief. I shall be better after preaching."

Richard Smith, his assistant, responded, "I wish you would not preach so often, sir."

Whitefield: "I would rather wear out than rust out."

He sat up in bed, praying. When finished, he went back to sleep for an hour and then awoke at 4am barely able to breathe. That morning George Whitefield died, fighting for each breath, until he met his Savior face to face.

Stephen King on God

King crop

Stephen King wrote one of my favorite books on writing called On Writing. His take on adverbs clearly has stuck with me. He has also written a popular book here or there. Terry Gross' interview of King on Fresh Air yesterday was really good, including a bunch of quotes worth checking out. Here's a great example. You should go listen to the whole thing.

I choose to believe it. ... I mean, there's no downside to that. If you say, 'Well, OK, I don't believe in God. There's no evidence of God,' then you're missing the stars in the sky and you're missing the sunrises and sunsets and you're missing the fact that bees pollinate all these crops and keep us alive and the way that everything seems to work together. Everything is sort of built in a way that to me suggests intelligent design. But, at the same time, there's a lot of things in life where you say to yourself, 'Well, if this is God's plan, it's very peculiar,' and you have to wonder about that guy's personality — the big guy's personality. And the thing is — I may have told you last time that I believe in God — what I'm saying now is I choose to believe in God, but I have serious doubts and I refuse to be pinned down to something that I said 10 or 12 years ago. I'm totally inconsistent.

Serving Without Sinking by John Hindley

Serving wo sinking

The Good Book Company has a growing list of solid books coming out lately. I want to recommend you check out a recent release: Serving Without Sinking by John Hindley. A blurb from the first chapter...

...this book isn't primarily about our service. It's mainly about Jesus Christ, and about His service. He said that He "did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mark 10 v 45). He meant it. He was taken, beaten, tried, mocked, nailed, hung, cursed, judged, killed. He served. He loved.

So Jesus does not want you to measure your life by your service of Him. He does not want your service to get in the way of your love for Him. He did not come to be served by you--He came to serve you.

If we grasp this, then we will be set free to enjoy His love. And then, oddly, we will also be free to serve Him longer, harder, braver, truer than we ever could otherwise. This is joy, and we'll only find it in Christ.

Here's the promo video from John. Go get Serving Without Sinking (Amazon).

Jonathan Edwards | Advice to Young Converts

Advice

I have a booklet that includes both Jonathan Edwards' Resolutions as well as his short Advice to Young Converts (see online & Amazon). Most of us think of Resolutions this time of year, but his Advice to Young Converts is a nice, quick read and reminder toward what the aim of our lives as disciples of Jesus should be. Here are a few of my favorite points. He explains his points further in the booklet and has a total of nineteen.

1. I would advise you to keep up as great a strife and earnestness in religion in all aspects of it, as you would do if you knew yourself to be in a state of nature and you were seeking conversion.

2. Don't slack off seeking, striving, and praying for the very same things that we exhort unconverted persons to strive for, and a degree of which you have had in conversion.

3. When you hear sermons, hear them for yourself...

6. Be always greatly humbled by your remaining sin, and never think that you lie low enough for it, but yet don't be at all discouraged or disheartened by it.

7. When you engage in the duty of prayer, come to the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, or attend any other duty of divine worship, come to Christ as Mary Magdalene did.

13. When you counsel and warn others, do it earnestly, affectionately, and thoroughly.

15. Under special difficulties, or when in great need of or great longings after any particular mercies for your self or others, set apart a day of secret fasting and prayer alone.

18. In all your course, walk with God and follow Christ as a little, poor, helpless child, taking hold of Christ's hand, keeping your eye on the mark of the wounds on his hands and side.

19. Pray much for the church of God and especially that he would carry on his glorious work that he has now begun. Be much in prayer for the ministers of Christ.

Pastors: What Should We Do About Fear?

9781433535826mPaul David Tripp in Dangerous Calling (Kindle version), which may be the best book of 2012 (certainly the most important book of 2012 for me and my wife), writes in chapter 9, "There are times when fear causes all of us to do things we should not do or keeps us from doing what we have been called to do. So it is vital to ask, What in the world should we do about fear? Let me suggest four things." I'll give you the list, but go read the book for Tripp's explanation of each...

  1. Humbly own your fears
  2. Confess those places where fear has produced bad decisions and wrong responses
  3. Pay attention to your meditation
  4. Preach the Gospel to yourself

John Piper to Young John Piper

Piper eyes

Mark Driscoll interviews John Piper on stereotypes, risks, & Jesus. This is the first question and the first part of Piper's response. Love this...

MARK DRISCOLL: WHAT WOULD JOHN PIPER TODAY TELL A YOUNG JOHN PIPER WHO IS GETTING READY TO ENTER INTO MINISTRY?

John Piper: I would quote to him V. Raymond Edman: “Don’t question in the dark what God showed you in the light.” Darkness comes. In the middle of it, the future looks blank. The temptation to quit is huge. Don’t. You are in good company. You are in the pit with King David. He waited. “I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction” (Ps. 40:1–2). God will do that for you. You will argue with yourself that there is no way forward. But with God, nothing is impossible. He has more ropes and ladders and tunnels out of pits than you can conceive. Wait. Pray without ceasing. Hope.

The Two Movements of the Gospel

Center Church Crop

The power of the gospel comes in two movements. It first says, “I am more sinful and flawed than I ever dared believe,” but then quickly follows with, “I am more accepted and loved than I ever dared hope.” The former outflanks antinomianism, while the latter staves off legalism. One of the greatest challenges is to be vigilant in both directions at once. Whenever we find ourselves fighting against one of these errors, it is extraordinarily easy to combat it by slipping into the other. Here’s a test: if you think one of these errors is much more dangerous than the other, you are probably partially participating in the one you fear less.

Tim Keller in Center Church, page 48 (Kindle)