I live in the central Missouri area. Recently a local councilwoman who is running for a seat in the state senate said that she "misspoke". That caught my attention.

Apparently, her husband was driving on New Year's Eve when he was stopped by the police. He was charged with driving while intoxicated, felony possession of a firearm while intoxicated, and failure to have proof of insurance. Whoops! That's not good.

A news-reporter from Columbia called to ask the councilwoman about this situation. The reporter specifically asked her if she was with her husband at the time of the citations. The councilwoman said she was not.

But, she lied. Excuse me, she "misspoke". The reporters found out that the police report said she was present. When they confronted her about it, she said she "misspoke". She said she was caught off guard by the reporter's phone call, that she just got off a plane (I'm still scratching my head as to how this is pertinent), and that she just "misspoke".

Come on, really?

What about Matthew 12:34 "For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks."

So consider this my plea. My plea to our congressmen and women. A plea to our coworkers. A plea to our bosses. A plea to our spouses. A plea to ourselves.

If you get caught with your hand in the cookie jar, or better yet, if you're just being a Christian and you are stepping up to own up to your sin, don't say stupid things like, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say that." "I'm sorry. I didn't mean anything by that." "I'm sorry you took it that way." "I'm sorry if I offended you."

STOP! STOP STOP STOP! Believe the Bible. You did not misspeak. It was not an accident. You did mean just what they heard you say.

Your evil words came from the evil in your heart. Repent! Ask for forgiveness. Say that you sinned and that you are in need of grace.

"I'm sorry. I sinned against you. Please forgive me."

What's the worst day of the week for pastors? Probably Monday. For the previous seven days we've poured ourselves into sermon preparation, pastoral visitation, counseling, evangelism, problem solving, prayer, etc. The Sunday climax (anti-climax?) has come and gone. We may have been discouraged by low attendances, limited or negative feedback, etc. Our mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual reserves are in the red. Yet we have to climb the mountain all over again. Monday “blues” can very quickly become Monday “blacks.”

I know that if you're reading this, you're probably not a pastor. But I want to share with you what Murphy went on to suggest to pastors. Every Monday as he heads into his study, he says that he preaches the following seven realities to himself. I was so strongly encouraged this morning on my way to study that I wanted to pass them along to you. Pastor or not, I imagine this will excite your heart today.

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1. Preparing Joys

Every time I enter my study I think, "What a privilege!" Many are stuck on frustrating freeways or down dangerous mines; others are at monotonous conveyor belts or life-threatening fires; still others work in the midst of cursing and swearing. Yet, here am I looking forward to my Bible, good books, and quiet hours spent in the study of God and His grace. I never enter my study without turning to God and saying, "Thank you. I do not deserve this."

2. Preaching Joys

Preaching can be frustrating and even frightening.  But it can also be so enjoyable and even exciting. How many times we see God work as we speak His Word. We see souls being sobered, saints being encouraged, the sad being uplifted, seekers becoming finders, and sinners becoming servants.  Sometimes we sense unique and (humanly) inexplicable help when expounding a difficult passage, or making a pointed application. “Where did that come from?” we sometimes wonder. It is the Lord.

3. Pastoring Joys

I love my study. Sometimes, I love it too much. Books are far less complicated than people. In my last congregation, I tried to visit every home or family once a year. That worked out about 3-4 visits a week. The sick, the elderly, and the bereaved added another 3-4 a week. Problems and counseling added maybe another 1-2 a week. So probably ten visits a week on average. That meant two afternoons and two evenings a week. If it was Florida, that would be easy. However, it was the Outer Hebrides: often raining, cold, wet and windy (and that was the summer). I have to admit, it sometimes took my wife to say, “Come on David, get out of the study and get visiting!” And though I sometimes went reluctantly, I almost always returned home encouraged and uplifted by the fellowship with God’s people, and from hearing what God was doing in their lives with His Word.

4. Provision Joys

No one enters pastoral ministry for money. In fact, there will be times when you are really tight financially, and you will wonder how you can get by. However, God will always supply your needs. He moves His people in remarkable ways to give exactly what you need. And even when you don’t “need” it, God’s people will often express their gratitude by loving gifts. How many times I came home from visiting in rural areas with fresh eggs, joints of lamb, wild salmon, etc. You can taste the love of God’s people in a special way in these special meals.

5. "Professional" Joys

No, "we are not professionals," but we are in a profession, "a vocation based upon specialized education." And what great colleagues we have in this vocation! Twenty years ago, I worked in the financial services industry. It was cut-throat competitive. Now it's my joy to have godly pastors and missionaries as my colleagues and co-laborers. Since coming to the USA I’ve been privileged to attend The Gospel Coalition Conference and the Desiring God Conference for Pastors. What a contrast to the financial conferences I used to attend! Of course, there are differences and disagreements between us, but our shared love of Christ and His grace is more powerful than what divides us.

6. Personal Joys

One of the greatest joys I had as a Pastor was to hear my wife and children being prayed for at every weekly prayer meeting. And I believe that was a reflection of the private prayers of my congregation. Yes, pastors and their families are special targets for Satan, but they are also given a special place on the Church’s prayers.

Pastors have to work long hours. However, it is often forgotten how much time they have with their wives and children. To have coffee-breaks with your wife, and often three mealtimes a day with your small children, what other calling will allow you to enjoy that!

7. Perpetual Joys

Pastoral joys will last forever. Christ’s good and faithful servants will enter into the joy of their Lord (Matt. 25:21). “They that be wise, shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever” (Dan. 12:3).

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You can check out his website here.

HT: Challies

One of the glorious effects of this book on my personal life has been a more consistent, systematic prayer for the members of Hickory Hill Baptist Church. Contemporaneous with the reading of this book was a conference I attended on "Shepherding Souls". I was reminded that, according to Acts 20:28, it is the Holy Spirit who appoints shepherds over sheep. The combined force of that reminder and Miller's fresh call to commune with the Father in prayer has impacted my soul.

Although I'm only a short way into this practice, I'm already seeing the effect. Among other things, I'm seeing that spending a specific time every morning praying for one particular sheep/sheep-family causes me to recognize on a deep level the sovereignty of God in that person's and/or family's life.

Every Sunday I hear updates: Joe is going in for knee surgery Thursday, Angie's uncle got another bad diagnosis, Bob's job announced more cuts coming in the next month or two. I hear all of those things and I feel a sense of empathy and identification, as shepherd and as friend.

But those life situations and updates are so easily divorced from God! But come Tuesday morning, as I spend however long praying for Bob, praying for his job, his boss, his family's income, for God's provision and intervention, well now things are different.

Because if prayer is anything, it is a recognition of God's absolute sovereignty (I love the quote, 'Everyone's a Calvinist on their knees'). Why prayer to God for Bob's job unless I acknowledge that God is sovereign over Bob's job, over Bob's boss, over Bob's boss' budget, etc. And so as I pray for Bob, in my mind and heart, I am bringing all of Bob's life under the sovereign hand of God.

Next Sunday now, when he comes to me and gives me his weekly update, I am postured now to think, feel, hear, and pray for him from the proper perspective of: God is good toward Bob, and God is in control of Bob's life/situation. This is good!

I am thankful to God for this turn of events in my life. The lack of prayer in my life has meant a decreased ability to shepherd well. May God continue to bring reformation into my heart and life.

"Imagine that your prayer is a poorly dressed beggar reeking of alcohol and body odor, stumbling toward the palace of the great king. You have become your prayer. As you shuffle toward the barred gate, the guards stiffen. Your smell has preceded you. You stammer out a message for the great king: 'I want to see the king.' Your words are barely intelligible, but you whisper one final word, 'Jesus. I come in the name of Jesus.'

"At the name of Jesus, as if by magic, the palace comes alive. The guards snap to attention, bowing low in front of you. Lights come on, and the door flies open. You are ushered into the palace and down a long hallway into the throne room of the great king, who comes running to you and wraps you in his arms."

- Paul Miller, A Praying Life, 135.

Although I don't embrace every single jot and tittle, nevertheless, I have benefited immensely. I have found my communion in prayer with my Father up by 500 percent. Seriously. It has affected me! Mainly he has caused me to move my focus from the task of "praying" to the object of my communion (the Heavenly Father).

Prayer has turned out, for me at least, to be a lot like joy. John Piper, in his recent biographical message on C.S. Lewis, talked about the nature of joy/desire. It is a strange thing. If you are in the middle of an experience of joy and delight, the second you take your focus off whatever is delighting you and you begin to think about your joy itself, you lose it! So if you want to experience joy in the Lord, it's not the joy you pursue, but rather the Lord.

Prayer has been just like that. I regularly feel a deep-seated guilt at my prayerlessness. I beat myself up (with the rod of the Law) for not praying as I know I ought. I will make a concerted effort to pray more, but as Law-motivation works every time, it soon fades as quickly as it came. (Check out Romans 7 for more on this.)

This is all wrong. It's wrong because prayer isn't about praying. And I can't believe I've made it that. I wonder how many times I've preached about people abstracting prayer and faith from their objects (i.e. God). It's a strange thing, isn't it? We speak about "faith" and "the power of faith". We talk about "prayer" and the "power of prayer". What does that mean? Faith and prayer are nothing! If something happens as a result of prayer, it's not because prayer is powerful. It's because the God you spoke to (which we call prayer) is an amazingly powerful, sovereign, merciful God. The power is in the God you asked, not in your task of praying.

I know that. But in my life, I have done the very thing I hate. I have abstracted prayer from God. I think to myself, "I should pray more." And, "You're a pastor and this is how little you pray?" And, "You should be ashamed of how little you pray." And, "Things would be different if you prayed more."

You see what I've done? I've divorced prayer from God. But what is prayer without God? I'll tell you what it is: it's paranoid schizophrenia. Apart from God, prayer is talking to nothingness. A belief that you are speaking to a being that is not there. Wouldn't we commit someone to Bellevue for such things?

Beloved, learn from my fleshly foolishness. Hickory Hill Baptist Church, I love you. I want you to be a people of prayer. But not because I care two licks about "prayer". I don't. Rather, it's because I care about the God we're praying to. (Just like I don't care about reading, I care about reading the Word, I don't care about praying, I care about praying to the Father.)

I am praying (and yes, I really mean it this time) that God would do a gracious work in our hearts collectively to spur us to pray. And I pray that we would be driven to our knees, not out of a deep guilt from prayerlessness, but rather out of a deep desire to know, honor, trust, depend on, and share life with our God who has drawn near to us in Jesus.

Today, not so. Parents, grandparents, teachers, and sociologists are encouraging young whippersnappers like me to wait, to experience life, to enjoy singleness, to grow into the man I'm going to be, to get me education, and then consider settling down and getting hitched. The social taboo has almost made a complete turnaround.

As someone who married young (at least relatively in today's society, I was 22 and my wife was 21) I really appreciated the latest opinion piece in the WSJ. David Lapp, the author, and his wife married at the exact same age as my wife and I. In his article, he takes the "marry late" advice head-on.

He tackles the four main reasons given for marrying later in life.

1) Financial. Don't get married young, wait and save up money and get yourself financially established.

What about the money? Social scientists use the term "marriage premium" to describe how, over time, married couples save and build more wealth than otherwise-similar singles or cohabiting couples. Part of the reason is simply that married couples have two incomes to pool and draw from. But as a group of leading family scholars notes in "Why Marriage Matters," a report published by the Institute for American Values, marriage itself appears to encourage thrifty behavior. It makes sense: Knowing that my spending and savings habits affect not just me but also my wife and future family, I'm more likely to set a budget, pack a lunch, and put some money in savings instead of buying that new iPhone. The upshot is that my wife and I are able to pay off our college debt more quickly than we could by ourselves.

2) More likely to get divorced the younger you get married (so says the culture)

While it's true that teenage marriages are a significant predictor of divorce, it turns out that marriages of people in their early to mid-20s are not nearly as much at risk. According to a 2002 report from the Centers for Disease Control, 48% of people who enter marriage when under age 18, and 40% of 18- and 19-year-olds, will eventually divorce. But only 29% of those who get married at age 20 to 24 will eventually divorce—very similar to the 24% of the 25-and-older cohort. In fact, Hispanics who marry between the ages of 20 and 24 actually have a greater likelihood of marital success (31% chance of divorce) than those who first marry at age 25 and older (36% chance of divorce).

3) You need to wait because you need to explore and experienec the world

It's a false dichotomy [staying single and having adventure versus getting married and having none]. Instead of trekking to Africa or exploring Rome alone, why not marry the person of your dreams and take him or her along? What about discovering, as the characters Carl and Ellie in Disney Pixar's "Up" do, the good of marital friendship? While they never fulfill their dream of traveling together to South America (their jug of nickels and dimes labeled "Paradise Falls" is shattered with every flat tire and emergency-room visit), they do experience the joy of life together: renovating their home as newlyweds, picnicking and cloud-gazing on lazy summer afternoons, dancing in their candlelit living room after 50 years of marriage.

As focused as we young adults are on self-development, what if the path to that development is actually learning to live with and love another person? We may be startled to find that the greatest adventure lies not in knowing oneself as much as in knowing and committing to another person.

4) Waiting will ensure that you pick the right spouse and you'll be happier in the longrun.

[A] recent study by family scholars at the University of Texas finds that people who wed between the ages of 22 and 25, and remained married to those spouses, went on to experience the happiest marriages. While the authors caution against suggesting that 22 to 25 is the optimal marrying age for everyone, their finding does suggest that "little or nothing is likely to be gained by deliberately delaying marriage beyond the mid twenties." ...

Did I get married too young? I may not have the freedom to globetrot at my own leisure or to carouse at a bar late into the night. But when I step into our 500-square-foot one-bedroom apartment, warmly lighted and smelling of fresh flowers and baked bread, I do have the freedom to kiss my beautiful wife and best friend—the woman I pledged to always love and cherish, and to raise a family with. I have no regrets.

I'm not sure from this article whether David Lapp is a Christian or not. But as a Christian who has recently been through the experience of courting, engagement, and marriage, I could certainly add other reasons why getting married younger is, at times, not only acceptable but even wise. We'll save that for another blog post.

The point here is not that everyone should get married at 21. I'm not the one to say. But what I am arguing for (in this post, from purely pragmatic reasons) that all of you readers who have discouraged people from getting married because they are young, haven't experienced the world, and need to wait to make sure they aren't marrying the wrong person, perhaps you have been led and/or have led astray.

Check out his complete article here.

Amazing grace,

how sweet the sound,

that saved a wretch like me.

I've just started a biography by Jonathan Aitken titled, John Newton: From Disgrace to Amazing Grace. I was addicted from the get to. If you enjoy Christian history/biography, I highly recommend checking this one out. (And for any Kindle/iPhone users out there, Amazon is offering the Kindle version for free right now. Just search for it in the Kindle app.)

I've been fairly familiar with Newton's story through his connections with other people I've read about: William Cowper, William Wilberforce, George Whitefield, etc. But thus far, it has been a delight to my soul to read his story.

He grew up with a ship captain for a father. It was natural that he himself soon gravitated toward the same industry. And despite his mother loving him with biblical truth for the first six years of his life (at which time she died), Newton grew up as a royal "wretch". He jumped headlong into the life of a degenerate sailor. He had no qualms disobeying his superiors, blaspheming, fighting, deserting his post, and raping slave women. Soon he would be a captain himself, and he would move on from trading vessels to running slave ships from the west coast of Africa to the West Indies. This entailed hunting down Africans, kidnapping them, enslaving them in the hold of the boat for horrendously long periods of time (where many of them would die of disease), and then transferring them across the Atlantic to be sold to the highest bidder into slavery.

By all accounts, John Newton was a lying, thieving, kidnapping, murdering, raping wretch.

And then, the Gospel began to take root. By the grace of God and through a series of providential deliverances, Newton found himself suddenly believing in the Word and slowly trusting in the grace of God in Jesus Christ. And he became a new man.

He was slowly self-educated, teaching himself Greek and Hebrew. He began reading voluminous theological works. He asked wise people good questions. And the next time you turn around, he is contemplating a call to the ministry. Extraordinary!

Newton would go on to be one of the most influential 18th century English pastors. His autobiography became an international best-seller. He is perhaps the reason William Wilberforce so courageously shut down the African slave-trade. And of course, he was a prolific hymn-writer, leaving us the single most recorded hymn "Amazing Grace".

One of the reasons I love this hymn is because I can resonate so deeply with the wretch, the lying, thieving, kidnapping, murdering, raping wretch. And I can therefore appreciate so marvelously the amazingness of that free, sovereign grace.

I would like to point out something that is patently obvious in the Biblical text if one is willing to read it: intermarriage with other nations and people groups was forbidden by God on theological grounds, not socio-political grounds. In other words, the Israelite nation was marked off as the adopted ones of God. They were a kingdom of priests to God. The other nations were in rebellion against that same God. To marry them is to join yourself to them. And thus, to marry them would be to join yourself (yoke yourself Paul says) to unbelief. That is why it was forbidden. Because more than likely, it would lead to spiritual apostasy (as it did on numerous occasions, most notably for King Solomon).

So once again, God forbade those marriages because they were between believers and unbelievers, regenerate and unregenerate. NOT because they were of different nationality, skin color, language, etc. In fact, if one of those people from the other nations became an adopted child of God (like say, Rahab the Harlot), they were free to marry. Is that not clear?

I was raised in a town with moderate hostility between black and white folks. There were many black students bussed into my school. I said my fair share of "black jokes" in my day. And so, when I became a Christian, much of that continued with me. I continued to softly oppose interracial marriages, mainly on pragmatic grounds. "It's hard on the children." "Society doesn't understand."

It wasn't until John Piper (and if you're keeping score, you'll notice that same refrain over and over in my spiritual life) preached on this subject that my assumptions were challenged.

I have included here a link to an excellent sermon by Piper on this very subject. Read it (or listen to it) and be challenged! Here is the outline of his argument:

1. All "races" have one ancestor in the image of God, and all humans are in God's image
2. The Bible forbids intermarriage between unbeliever and believer, but not between "races"
3. In Christ our oneness is profound and transforms racial and social differences from barries to blessings
4. Criticizing one interracial marriage was severely disciplined by God
5. Closing Implications
   1. Opposition to interracial marriage is one of the deepest roots of racial distance, disrespect, and hostility.
   2. Christ does not call us to a prudent life, but to a God-centered, Christ-exalting, justice-advancing, counter-cultural, risk-taking life of love and courage. Will it be harder to be married to another race, and will it be harder for the kids? Maybe. Maybe not. But since when is that the way a Christian thinks? Life is hard. And the more you love the harder it gets.
   3. Christians are people who move toward need and truth and justice, not toward comfort and security. Life is hard. But God is good. And Christ is strong to help.
   4. At Bethlehem [Piper's church] we will not underestimate the challenges of interracial marriage or transracial adoption (they go closely together). We will celebrate the beauty, and we will embrace the burden. Both will be good for us and good for the world and good for the glory of God.

2 Chronicles 25:9 "The LORD is able to give you much more than this."

No, I'm not changing sides. I haven't gone prosperity Gospel on all of you. I still wholeheartedly reject the Word of Faith, Name-it-and-claim-it, God wants you to be rich and safe and healthy and wealthy garbage of a theology. But, I also believe in the inspiration of 2 Chronicles.

Here's the situation in 2 Chronicles 25. Then king of Judah Amaziah, son of King Joash, wanted to go to battle with neighboring Seir. God was prospering him and the nation but he felt he needed still more troops to win the battle. He decided to ask their brothers to the north from the Northern Kingdom if they would be soldiers for hire (mercenaries I guess). He ended up hiring 100,000 men from the Northern Kingdom to help them fight at the steep price of 100 talents of silver, or about 7,500 pounds of silver. (Whew!)

As they were getting ready to set out for battle, a prophet came to King Amaziah and rebuked him. "Don't go to battle with all of these hired men." (At that time, the Northern Kingdom was very evil.) The prophet told the King that God didn't want him to use these northern brothers. But Amaziah was in a pickle. Number one, he felt like he needed the men. But number two, he just spent a boat load of money on them (actually more like a barge-load of silver). Wouldn't all of that money be wasted if he obeyed God?

And then the prophet's answer: "The LORD is able to give you much more than this."  Amaziah decided to listen to the prophet and he sent the men away before the battle.

Unfortunately, Amaziah didn't remain faithful to the LORD. The men he sent away caused a lot of trouble for his country as they passed back through on their way home, and Amaziah himself brought back idols and placed them throughout the land. His unfaithfulness eventually led to complete apostasy and a refusal to hear the Word of God. His own people eventually killed him in shame.

Here's the point: there are so many issues we are confronted with in the Word, but our flesh screams in our ears, "If we actually did that, think of the consequences. Think of what it would cost us. Think of what that would start, and what we'd have to give up or do without."

For instance, church membership. As I talk with people about biblical church membership and biblical church discipline, the response almost always begins with, "Yes, that would be nice if we could do that, BUT the problem is, so many people would be offended, and so and so would... and such and such would..." Consequences. Basically what we're saying is, It would cost us too much to obey God. The cost is too great.

But the prophet would say to us, "The LORD is able to give you much more than this." Is he not sovereign? Is he not completely in control? Does he not have every resource available in himself? Then how could obedience to such a God be too costly? The consequences are from him. The results are from him! It NEVER costs too much to obey God. And at the end of the day, we can turn that around and say, It will always cost more to disobey than to obey.

Afterall, in Mark 9, Jesus says, "If your hand/foot/eye causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands/feet/eyes to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire."

If obedience costs us a limb, it's nothing. It's nothing in contrast with the cost of disobedience.

Another blogger has met his post with its counterpart - "How to Improve Your Church in Three Weeks". For fun, go back and read Ortlund's post, then come back and read this one. Consider how much more difficult it is to strengthen your church than it is to ruin it.

Welcome one another as warmly as Jesus welcomed you.
Welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you… Romans 15:7
Greet one another with warm affection. Romans 16:16

Be as kind and tenderhearted to each other as God has been to you.
Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. Ephesians 4:32

Love one other.
Love one another with brotherly affection. Rom 12:10a, 1Thess4:9

Honor one another.
Outdo one another in showing honor. Romans 12:10b

Sing the Gospel to each other with thankful hearts.
…addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart… Eph 5:19
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Colossians 3:16

Go hard after peace, harmony, restoration, and unity.
Live in harmony with one another. Romans 12:16
Aim for restoration, comfort one another… 2 Corinthians 13:11a
Agree with one another, live in peace… 2 Corinthians 13:11b

Do not repay evil with evil.
See that no one repays anyone evil for evil… 1 Thessalonians 5:15a

Forgive each other, as the Lord has forgiven you.
…if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Colossians 3:13

Submit to one another, according to the order established by God.
...submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. Eph 5:21

Humbly, gently, patiently bear with one another.
…with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love… Ephesians 4:2; 3:13

Be considerate of weaker brothers.
Let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. Romans 14:13

Always seek to do good to one another.
…always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. 1Thess5:15b

Serve one another.
Through love serve one another. Galatians 5:13

Be humble.
Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. Galatians 5:26

Tell the truth.
Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices. Colossians 3:9

Encourage and build up one another.
Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. 1 Thessalonians 5:11, 4:18