Glenn Stanton:
“Christians divorce at roughly the same rate as the world!” It’s one of the most quoted stats by Christian leaders today. And it’s perhaps one of the most inaccurate.
Based on the best data available, the divorce rate among Christians is significantly lower than the general population.
I have learned in my own life and by watching others that asking people to give up their idols without filling up on the life of Jesus Christ may make them religious but it will also make them miserable (and miserable to be around). Instead, the gospel is calling us to fill up our hearts, our lives with a passionate love for Jesus Christ and this in turn will minimize the power of lesser pleasures (idols) in our lives.
How does this impact the way we teach, preach, and do discipleship? How does this change the way we counsel one another? How does this change the way we disciple our own children? Your thoughts?
Timothy Witmer from his book, Shepherd Leader:
What better way to multiply the personal ministry of the word than by equipping dads to pray and read the Scriptures with their families. Note that Baxter suggests that we “give them an example.” How many of our families would be well fed if we merely gave some simple suggestions to their shepherds?
“Get masters of families to do their duty, and they will not only spare you a great deal of labour, but will much further the success of your labours. If a captain can get the officers under him to do their duty, he may rule the soldiers with much less trouble, than if all lay upon his own shoulders. You are not like to see any general reformation, till you procure family reformation” (RichardBaxter, Reformed Pastor (1656; repr., Carslisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1997), 102).
In doing this you are not only multiplying the ministry of the Word among your people but helping fathers fulfill their God-given responsibilities. Undoubtedly, many elders will have to repent of their neglecting this duty themselves in order to proceed with a clear conscience. This is progress, too, and a great place to start!
(HT: Jared Kennedy)
Whether you’re a morning person or a night person, there’s something to be said about giving your eyes the habit of looking upward from the minute you wake up. As John Piper said, “it’s not about legalism, it’s about desperation!” Here’s one snippet of his message on Robert Murry McCheyne:
McCheyne’s scheduled disciplines aimed at fixing the habit in his heart of living in constant communion with Christ. He had formed the habit of rising early to read the Scriptures and pray, and he tried to maintain this to the end of his life. He loved to meet Jesus early. He journaled, “Rose early to seek God and found him whom my soul loveth. Who would not rise early to meet such company?” He wrote to a student, “Never see the face of man till you have seen his face who is our life, our all.” Or in another place, he said, “I cannot begin my work for I have not seen the face of God.”
Matt Perman gives a few key points from John Kotter’s classic article “What Leaders Really Do“:
Successful organizations don’t wait for leaders to come along. They actively seek out people with leadership potential and expose them to career experiences designed to develop that potential.
And:
Organizations that do a better-than-average job of developing leaders put an emphasis on creating challenging opportunities for relatively young employees. In many organizations, decentralization is the key.
In other words: Be intentional about identifying and developing leaders. And you need to do this with young people, rather than thinking that nobody can do anything significant until they’re 40.
One more point from the article:
Institutionalizing a leadership-centered culture is the ultimate act of leadership.
As I get ready to leave for the Desiring God Pastor’s Conference on Prayer, I’ll leave you with these quotes by Robert Murray M’Cheyne. John Piper will do a biographical message on his life on Tuesday afternoon. Should be good. Thanks again for your prayers. I’ll be back on Wednesday.
“A man is what he is on his knees before God, and nothing more.”
“For every look at self, take ten looks at Christ.”
“The greatest need of my people is my personal holiness.”
“Live near to God, and all things will appear little to you in comparison with eternal realities.”
Our top 5 greatest fears (adapted from Marcus Buckingham):
If we examine those five fears with the eyes of faith, we can see Jesus is the answer to them all:
Desiring God recently interviewed Paul Miller, author of A Praying Life, and asked him to describe the problem of cynicism in prayer, and what is his advice to those who are struggling with it?
Cynicism is my biggest struggle in prayer. It is a quiet, cold rationalism that dulls the soul and just kills your walk with God. It is hard to even identify or name our cynicism because it just feels like being realistic. It says things like, “What good does it [prayer] do?” or “It [the answer to prayer] would have happened anyway.”
I think we are particularly susceptible to cynicism in the Reformed world because we are an intellectual world. We are rightly concerned about our ideas being correct, but we don’t always pay attention to our heart being correct.
I think without a doubt that the principal cure for cynicism is to become a little child and learn to cry out for help—to realize that I am a lost coin, a lost sheep, and a lost son.
One other cure for cynicism is purity of life. Any time there is a miss between how we present ourselves as Christians and what we are really like when no one is watching, that opens up a door for cynicism. So a lifestyle of repentance and confession goes a long way to cure cynicism.
As we launch into this new year I was reminded of a quote from a movie I watched awhile back called, “Faith Like Potatoes.” This was the one line from the movie that stuck with me and challenged me greatly:
“We’re not doing things and asking God to bless it. We’re asking God what we should do, and then He provides. There is a difference.”
I like that. It reminds me to pray and live in a posture of complete surrender to an all sufficient, wise God.
“Infinite, and an infant. Eternal, and yet born of a woman. Almighty, and yet hanging on a woman’s breast. Supporting a universe, and yet needing to be carried in a mother’s arms. King of angels, and yet the reputed son of Joseph. Heir of all things, and yet the carpenter’s despised son. Oh, the wonder of Christmas.”
Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892)
(HT: A Voice Crying Out)
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